SpiderTrap

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#1

Hi all,
SpiderTrap is a little maze game I made using Slick.
As usual it took too long but after nearly ten months of rare spare time it’s done.

Webstart: SpiderTrap Webstart

Dev blog: SpiderTrap Dev blog

Short introduction:
Those scientists messed it up again, as usual! The dangerous spiders escaped and it’s up to you and your cleaning bots to trap those spiders.
But beware:

* active spiders can wake up stunned spiders,
* computer shields only last two minutes,
* spiders destroy unshielded computers,
* after two more minutes all computers explode,
* there are more unknown obstacles...

Keyboard controls

* Keys 1 to 8 activate the robots 1 to 8
* Cursor keys control the active robot
* P pauses the game
* F2 toggles full screen or windowed mode
* Esc leaves the game or the title screen

Ingame screenshot:

http://www.haaks.net/images/SpiderTrap/ZapFinal.png

Any feedback is highly appreciated!

Cheers,
Tommy

#2

Gratz!

No problem under Windows. Got a JNLP error on Mac.

Maybe make the first level brain-dead simple. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Keep it simple, maybe for the first level you just need 1 robot, and the spider doesn’t leave eggs until level 2.

#3

Thanks for testing, brackeen.
Would you mind PM’ing or posting the JNLP error? Maybe with Kevin Glass’ help I can fix the problem - looks like a Slick configuration issue.

The idea with the brain dead first level is a good one. I think that’s the general “I played my own game too often and know how to play it” problem. Thanks for reminding me :wink:

#4

Ooof! Very hard!

It’s a nice game idea though, sort of a real time puzzle. I can’t help but think that the basic concept could be made into something quite fantastic by allowing you to drag the robots directly with the mouse at full speed instead of having to select a robot for control and then manually moving it with the cursor keys. Just a thought.

I don’t suppose you’d care to make the first few levels a trifle easier? Perhaps the fact that spiders can wake up stunned spiders is just making it too hard full stop.

Cas :slight_smile:

#5

I’m dumb. I don’t understand what to do in this game… ???

#6

Tap “1”, to launch a bot from its hole. Position said bot somewhere near spider, maybe trap it to kill it. Tap “2” to launch second bot if one bot won’t be able to trap it, manouevre second bot to attempt to trap spider. Swap between bot control with “1” and “2” keys. Use “3” to launch another bot. And so on.

Bloody hard.

Cas :slight_smile:

#7

Says the man who created “Alien Flux” and “Ultratron” ;D

But you properly described the gameplay - thanks :wink:

I’ll make some easier levels for an easy start. The “egg dropping” is already configurable, just need to make it a setting of the levels. Same is possible for waking up stunned spiders. Maybe I’ll also add some short intro messages like “Press ‘1’ to activate first robot” or “Trap spiders with your robots” to get new players started.

Thanks for testing. And Cas, your idea about mouse control is tempting…

Tommy

#8

It’d fundamentally change the gameplay from “very hard” to “casual fun”… with a lick o’ paint and polish could even be a seller…

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

A seller? I didn’t think this far - it was just to get started with Slick and Java as a game dev environment…

The idea is loosely based on some old Speccy game from 1984 (the game was a type-it-in listing in some german computer magazine named “Happy Computer”). The remake idea sat in my head for a few years now and needed to get out ;D

Don’t know if I have the nerves and patience to polish it up enough to even consider selling it. But your motivating feedback makes me start to think about it…

Thanks,
Tommy

#10

You can sell nearly anything if it’s fun and polished. People will pay $20 for something that took 2 months to make, or $20 for something that took 20 man-years. Biggest piece of wisdom I’ve ever discovered, that. I reckon that a tweak of the mechanic might make this real-time puzzler quite accessible to a larger audience. I wouldn’t expect massive sales or getting rich but… it’s an amazing feeling having your game out there and someone buying it. Especially if you happen to be on the bog or asleep at the time 8)

Cas :slight_smile:

#11

Due to the feedback I received I created a version 1.1 of SpiderTrap :slight_smile:

What did I change?

  • I added 4 tutorial levels with explaining messages what to do,
  • now it is configurable for each laboratory if spiders can drop eggs and if active spiders can wake up stunned spiders,
  • the time until a spider drops an egg is increased (random between 30-40 seconds),
  • some levels were simplified,
  • a special Webstart file for certain MacOS configurations was added,
  • adding the icon on your desktop was fixed.

You might need to refresh your webstart cache to get the newest version (“javaws -uninstall SpiderTrap” or “javaws -uninstall”).

Webstart
Webstart for Macs if above one does not work
SpiderTrap Development blog

Have fun,
Tommy

#12

Interesting game, although he runs pretty slow in comparison with the level size :slight_smile:

#13

That is a pretty cool game. I had some fun playing it.

A little more polish would make it even better. Simple things would help, like having an option to turn off the tutorial-text, and having the game remember the options next time you start the game. :slight_smile:

-R

#14

Hmm am I missing something or is there no way to skip levels previously completed? I quit somewhere around level 4 (not including tutorials) because I was getting stuck and wanted to start over, but found myself stuck back at tutorial stage 1 (which I really didn’t feel like completing again).

Pretty cool game though, and fairly well polished for freeware too.

#15

Thanks for the feedback!

Seems like I will create another version with some improved option handling (saving/loading settings and skipping tutorial levels)…I’ll need such a OptionHandler class anyway - for the next game ;D

To nva225: Do you just want to skip tutorial levels or did you think of saving the game (current level, score, energy) and restart from last started level?

Cheers,
Tommy

#16

Well a while after I posted that I replayed and kinda realized the game mechanic you were going for (marathon session to complete as many levels as you could), so perhaps the ability to skip through all levels previously completed would be detrimental to the game as it is now.

But, I can definitely say, allow someone to skip the tutorial levels, whether or not they’ve completed them on that computer before. Especially since 2 of them are just “run in a really long spiral until you trap the spider at the end”.

#17

Maybe the ability to be able to just point to a particular position and have the player move towards that. That way you could better control multiple players with ease!!!

#18

That would, similar to Cas’ suggestions, clearly move the game from “hardcore” or “difficult” to casual. And it would imply to add pathfinding, mouse handling, maybe even map scrolling via mouse (to point to positions that are currently not visible on the screen).

I think for a freeware version I keep it the way it is now. But who knows, maybe I can’t resist and add it in a few weeks ::slight_smile:

But I will surely add the options stuff to save settings and skip the tutorial levels. And I think I will also save last level, score and energy so that you can resume a game if you 'ESC’aped out of it.

Thanks again for playing,
Tommy