Misadventures of MADS sample game

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#1

Well, we got a sample game/proof of concept up so feel free to check it out. Any feedback would be appreciated but some background first.

It’s based on the book The Misadventures of MADS: Somewhere in Time. The book is aimed at 5th graders and so is the game so it may seem a little simple to such a sophisticated audience here on the Java Games Forum.

The game is all Java and requires 1.4 or better. This version is mostly Chapter 18 source code form David Brackeen’s excellent book Developing Games in Java. For more info visit http://www.brackeen.com/javagamebook. All his source code is there. I highly recommend the book. We’ll probably put the source code up soon but we want to work out any kinks first. Then we’ll get started on the full game.

There is a web start version and a single jar. You can find them both at http://www.themisadventuresofmads.com/sampleGame.html.

You can send feedback to samplegamefeedback@themisadventuresofmads.com.

So I’m very curious to hear how it runs for others. It’s only been tested on Mac OS X, Win2k, Winxp. But not with Java 1.5 so I’ll be interested in any 1.5 feedback.

Thanks.

#2

It ran totally smooth on Win XP! When I died, the whole screen flickered like mad. I hit Q to quit, and it didn’t disappear until I clicked the mouse.

#3

On Mac OS X 10.3.5 Java 1.4.2_05

When the game was over and I hit Esc to exit I was left sitting at a black screen. I had to hold Command-Option-Esc to get the desktop back.

Otherwise it played fine.

#4

Re: Mac

Oh yeah. I need to fix the instructions to say use command/apple-q to quit on Mac. Which is very sloppy seeing as I developed it on Mac.

All credit about how smooth it runs goes to Brackeen. It’s his rendering/game play engine. We supplied the graphics and level layouts. The only programming I did in this version was adding finite number of lives, scoring, time display, play again screen and option and the specialty gadget hoverdisc. Oh yeah and the sinking in water kills you effect.

#5

[quote]It ran totally smooth on Win XP! When I died, the whole screen flickered like mad. I hit Q to quit, and it didn’t disappear until I clicked the mouse.
[/quote]
Malohkan

The screen flickering is interesting though. I’ll have to look into that. What JRE are you using?

Thanks.

#6

1.4.2_05

#7

Nice smooth animation!
The only thing I noticed was it seemed after a while of playing, the jump button was a bit laggy (had to hold it down for a second for the game to respond). Basically I was holding right on the keyboard and had to hold space bar for a second before it would jump

#8

[quote]Nice smooth animation!
The only thing I noticed was it seemed after a while of playing, the jump button was a bit laggy (had to hold it down for a second for the game to respond).
[/quote]
Interesting. I hadn’t seen that before.

What OS, JRE and how much ram?

Thanks.

#9

WinXP
JRE 1.5
1GB RAM

I’ll try it again and see if I can be more specific about how it happened

#10

Looks good. Those who know me know I write a ‘perscription of things’. :slight_smile: So here’s what I saw in the 5 minutes I played around with it.

  • I was able to hover when I got a coin for some reason. The car just floated after getting it.

  • The music is the same from Brackeen’s book. Might want to change that.

  • Controls were solid.

  • My game flashed like crazy when I died as well.

  • Maybe animate the walking of the dinosaurs.

  • It would be cool if you had an alpha effect on the cars cockpit, so you could see the background through it.

  • WinXP, java1.5.0-rc, 2.3Ghz, GeForce4MX

HTH -
Dr. A>

#11

Yes it helps greatly, thanks.

The coin is actually a “hoverdisc”. It’s one of the professor’s gadgets. Originally instead of the vehicle you moved the professor around and he would grab the hoverdisc so he could hover. It lasts for 5 seconds which i count down in the upper left. we’ll probably go back to using the professor instead of the vehicle on this level. and use the vehicle (it’s called the Scorpium from scorpion-titanium) on another level.

Although we are coming up with our own music that was one of the problems I had. Whenever I dropped in new music it worked the first time and then knocked out my sound. So I’m still working on that. The sounds are also Brackeen’s but I believe he offers them up royalty/license free. But we do plan to provide our own.

Better animations are also coming and a lot more different graphics.

The flickering seems to be a 1.5 thing since the two people that mentioned it were both on 1.5 and XP. My tests on XP and W2k were both with 1.4 and I didn’t see flickering. Guess I’ll need to load up 1.5 on my w2k test box.

Thanks.

#12

I played this on my home laptop and discovered a few more things. :slight_smile:

WinXP, Java 1.4.2, 1.xGhz, ATI Mobility

  • The flickering appears to be from redrawing the beginning of the level and the screen area you died in back to back. I fell in the water on the 1st level and when it showed the game over icon, I could see the start of the level and the area where the water was.

  • When you grab the hover icon at the end of lvl 2, it screws things up at the start of the next level, because you don’t clear the hover flag. Instead of the car just falling like its supposed to, it stays above the visual part of the screen, until the effect wears off. :slight_smile:

  • I really like the gray transport at the ends of the level. Maybe you could add a ‘secret’ one that takes you somehwere else. You could even make it spin the other direction as a subtle clue as to which transport you found.

  • The transport controls? which show up when you first start the game should use a transparent background instead of the white.

Ideas -

  • Put some flashing lights on the transport to jazz it up.

  • Look into using ogg for your music

  • Maybe don’t make the 25pts coins flash so fast. They hurt my eyes. :slight_smile:

  • Add different valued coins

  • Add HiScores and names with saving

  • Keep up the great work!

HTH,
Dr. A>

#13

[quote]Nice smooth animation!
The only thing I noticed was it seemed after a while of playing, the jump button was a bit laggy (had to hold it down for a second for the game to respond). Basically I was holding right on the keyboard and had to hold space bar for a second before it would jump
[/quote]
I can’t seem to consistently reproduce the laggy jumping, although I’m still seeing it.

Also, the screen gets all mad crazy flickering when I die and it asks me if I want to start a new game.

Overall I like it, right now it reminds me of an old school platformer.

#14

[quote]I played this on my home laptop and discovered a few more things. :slight_smile:

WinXP, Java 1.4.2, 1.xGhz, ATI Mobility

  • The flickering appears to be from redrawing the beginning of the level and the screen area you died in back to back. I fell in the water on the 1st level and when it showed the game over icon, I could see the start of the level and the area where the water was.
    [/quote]
    Ah I see that now on my w2k laptop. Should be able to fix that.

Thanks and we’re definitely working on stuff along all the lines of your excellent comments.

darkgem: glad you’re enjoying it. I should throw in a couple more maps just for kicks since they’re easy to do. Or maybe make an override folder so people could drop in their own maps.

#15

Ok I think I fixed this. I also slowed down the flashing on the coins.

Looks like high score display is coming next.:o

Thanks.

#16

Lots of updates so I’d love to hear some more feedback.

-High Scores saved and displayed
-Bonus for fast time
-Bonus for getting all creatures, coins
-Better Main Menu
-Another Level (for three total)
-New Music
-Display of running creature, coin total (toggled on and off with ‘c’ key)
-A couple small map changes

Thanks.

http://www.themisadventuresofmads.com/sampleGame.html

#17

OK. I fixed a bug that wouldn’t let the game exit properly using the escape key on Windows.

Also fixed a bug where the coin/creature totals weren’t getting reset.

Still getting a weird flash on start up though. trying to sort that out now. Other than that seems fine on Win2K and OS X.

#18

Hey! ;D

I played it on 800Mhz CPU, 256 RAM, win 2000, nVidia MX 440.

Nice game. Ran totally smooth. I see u used some of the sounds that Brackeen used in his source code. That guy is the coolest guy ever. :slight_smile:

Excellent game, although seen as I have Brackeens book, I can see all the mods, but I REALLY liked all the differant mods that you put in. How about some metal music instead of the childrens “bong bong bong”. Kidding. :slight_smile:

My 2 cents: Excellent game, nicely polished ;D

Good Luck :wink:

Hauk

#19

Thanks. I loved brackeen’s book.

Now that I’m pretty happy with the preview I’m working on the real game with more mods and more gadgets from the book. We’re hoping to have a demo in a couple months.

#20

Are you going to start using the 3D engine in the game at any chance? I don’t have time to study at the moment cos I’m caught up in other things but it looks promising. Next summer I’m gonna learn all that stuff in the book before my computer applications course begins!

Finally I’ll be in College!!

Oh yeah I played the game again today, i.e it ups the replay value :wink:

Hauk