Quidditch

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#1

Just in time for the new Harry Potter movie, I’ve been working on a Quidditch game. I’m pretty pleased with the results, but I’d love some feedback!

I’m especially curious to hear advice on how I’m deploying everything, how I’m handling the fullscreen stuff, and how to improve the framerate on slower computers. But if nothing else, hopefully it will provide a few minutes of entertainment.

http://www.kevinworkman.com/code/Quidditch/screenshot1.png

Play here: Quidditch

Here are some direct links:
Applet
Web Start
Jar

http://www.kevinworkman.com/code/Quidditch/screenshot2.png

Thanks again for your time!

Edit- You can also play it on Game Jolt, if that’s your thing.

#2

I’m glad you put jar file. I’m not fan of Harry Potter so what is different between those balls?

#3

Thanks. I try to give as many options as possible, I know different people prefer different deployment strategies. I’m still not convinced I’m presenting it the best way though. Not to mention I need to pretty up my HTML and CSS.

As for the balls, hopefully the “How to Play” in-game tutorial covers it, but here are the basics:

The red ball is called the Quaffle. You want to get it through your opponent’s goal, and prevent it from going into your goal. You can catch the Quaffle (just run into it) and throw it while flying (/? for player 1, E for player 2), or you can hit it towards the goal with your beater bat (.> for player 1, R for player 2).

The black balls are called Bludgers, and you are stunned (and drop the quaffle) when they hit you- you can’t catch them. You want to hit them away from you and towards your opponent with your beater bat (.> for player 1, R for player 2).

The yellow ball is called the Snitch. You get 50 points for catching it, and the game ends. You can also hit it with your beater bat (in case you were down by 60 points and wanted to catch up before letting the game end).

So, to make it even simpler:
Red = good. Get it through the goal, don’t let it in yours.
Black = bad. Hit them towards your opponent.
Yellow = very good. Catch it for 50 points and the game ends.

Hope that helps!

#4

Game worked good on my Mac in both window and fullscreen.

I started with the “How to Play” link. I went through the steps but at the “Press P to pause and return to main menu” I could not figure out how to get back to the main menu.

I also got confused because the red ball was behind the goal and I couldn’t go and pick it up.

I realize now the mechanics driving the above behavior but it was confusing at first.

Fun game and I wish I could try it multiplayer with someone!

Thanks for sharing.

#5

Awesome game! Played it for a long time :slight_smile:

By the way, in Harry Potter, if you catch the snitch you get 150 points not 50 :wink:

#6

Awesome, I’m glad it worked on a mac, since I don’t have one to test my stuff on and I’ve heard about issues in the past (although I think that might have been a case of the person not knowing how to get Java to work on his own mac).

To exit to the main menu, you just press space while the game is paused. It should say that (in big white letters in the sky), does it not?

And just in case the behavior of the red ball (Quaffle) confuses anyone else, I’ll explain- when a goal is made, the Quaffle drops to the ground behind the goal, so that the player who was just scored against can pick it up. This also gives the player who just scored a chance to get in position to guard his/her own goal. In the tutorial, if you want to retrieve the Quaffle, you can control player 2 with WASD, E, and R.

Thanks! There is a two player option (which you probably saw), I’d be curious about how that plays out since I haven’t played against another human yet either.

#7

That’s pretty much my best case scenario. You might have just made my day.

Hahaha, I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to call me out on that one. I figured since it’s one-on-one, making the snitch worth 150 points would pretty much make the rest of the game pointless (or way too long), so I made it worth only 50. That’s still pretty high in some games.

I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to play it.

#8

I’ve added a feature that lets you change the quality from the pause menu. That should vastly improve the framerate, even on slower computers. Hooray! Give it a try if you feel like it.

#9

Good job. My only complaint is you can tell the difference between your player and the opponent. When it gets crazy I sometimes follow the computer player because he just happens to be doing what I am trying to do, then al of a sudden it seems like the controls aren’t working.

#10

I would like to be able to re-map the keys - Nothing for except movement works for player1 on my danish keyboard :confused:

#11

That’s really valid; it happens to me too. I’ve updated it so that it now fills in player 2’s head instead of leaving it open- it’s not much, but hopefully it will help. I’m really reaching my artistic limits here, heh.

#12

Wow, I never really thought about that. Getting feedback from just a few people has really opened my eyes to what I was missing, and I’ve learned some pretty important lessons for my next games. Thanks again.

I’ve updated it to include the ability to redefine the keys. There’s another button on the main menu (in the lower left hand corner) that will walk you through the process of changing the keys.

Let me know if that works, as I only have American keyboards to test it with.

#13

Good job man this game is fun, I find myself coming back to it every now and then!

Just one suggestion though, the snitch seems to follow a pretty predictable pattern, maybe it could choose a random path and fly through it quickly making it a bit more difficult, because currently you can just ignore the quaffle all together, but either way, good job!

#14

Thanks! It feels awesome to know that people are getting some entertainment out of it. I appreciate your time!

[quote=“Swattkidd7,post:13,topic:36951”]
Yeah, the Snitch follows the same path every time. I thought about doing something else, but I didn’t want the game to go on forever and become boring. I probably made the games a little too short instead, but you can always prolong the game by beating the Snitch away instead of catching it. Thanks for the feedback, I’ll probably do something a little more intricate if I ever make a new version.

#15

Hmmm let me guess, you use Timer for your loop?

#16

I actually don’t, but why do you ask?

#17

Well, the game run very slowly on PIII PC on <10fps 8)

#18

Have you tried adjusting the quality from the pause menu?

#19

Just tried it now again, and I could have a proper play. Nice game - worked smoothly! :smiley:
I felt the graphics were a little bit distracting because of noise, but hey - You’re a programmer, not an artist :wink:

Cheers.

#20

Thanks! Yeah, I pretty much reached my artistic limit there, hopefully I can find a pixel artist to help with version 2.