Tilt 4k

Contests 4K Game Competition - 2005
#21

phew finished it ;D

That was pretty tough :slight_smile:

Level 6 was also quite hard (at the end only 1 second left).

#22

Great I like the new level! However I didn’t notice antialiasing on the board or on the text or on the ball/coins :slight_smile:

I think mouse support would make it more like the original wooden/plastic versions of this kinda game because the steadiness of your hand would come back into play :slight_smile:

Do that, add 40 more levels, crazy graphics and a GameLizard loader there and you’re ready to go :wink:

#23

Honest, toggle it on with ‘a’ and tilt the board, the lines look way smoother… the coins and ball also get smoothed only its very subtle…

Mouse is only out cause the game is for the 4k contest. Although I suppose I could remove keyboard support and just have mouse.

I think this one stops at the 4k contest tho… :wink:

Kev

#24

ahh I forgot it was a toggle :wink:

#25

Great stuff! I wish I could code out something fun and useful regardless how large it is. :wink:

I’m not sure I like the anti-aliasing, the way I thought I would. The black ball looks much nicer as do the circles. The lines look a little worse to me for some reason. I think its because the antialising makes them look fatter, since the colors are so high contrast maybe? Any way of AA’ing the balls, but leaving the lines undone?

How about a shadow for the ball? I’d go for more ‘glitz’ at this point, rather than levels. You can just improove the difficulty of the levels, since the app you have already prooves its point by being so good. Now just put more polish on it to keep the other 4k demos in check. :wink:

Dr. A>

PS - You have different jnlp links for GB. The website one doesn’t match the one you posted at the top of this thread. GB also didn’t run on the mac. :frowning: It complained about not finding an 800x600 mode. I tried to manually switch my resolution, but it didn’t help. :frowning:

#26

I’d like to see a mouse only version. The analog mouse controls is much more challenging.

I’d also like to see the game continue after the last level. Continue with level 1, but make it more difficult. Less time to finish, make the ball go faster, or flip/rotate the level. You could also repeat all the previous levels before you get to the next. Like this (numbers represent level): 12123123412345123456 etc. The player will be motivated to see the next level, and you’ll increase the time it takes to finish the game.

I don’t see the need to toggle between antialising or easy mode. Decide on one or the other and use the extra space to add levels or gameplay. And I rather see gameplay added than nicer gfx.

I really love the game, btw :slight_smile:

#27

Ok, I’ll take a look tonight. I agree that anti-alias and easy mode shouldn’t be toggled… I take them out.

Mouse only - probably the best control system? Remove keyboard all together. Move mouse to start… Could even make the controls analogue!

I really like the idea of flipping the board over to get a new level… I’ll see what I can do with that. You might see a 33 level version soon with flipped boards :slight_smile:

Damn, I thought I’d finished. :slight_smile:

Kev

#28

As for the control system (Mouse), I suggest you have a look at Neverball: http://icculus.org/neverball/ damn funny game and great MOUSE & Keyboard Control.

#29

Thanks for the tip :slight_smile:

The mouse control version is now available although I’ve put it at a different location since its a very different game and I’m not sure which is best…

Webstart: http://www.cokeandcode.com/4k/tilt/tilt4k-mouse.jnlp

Jar: http://www.cokeandcode.com/4k/tilt/tilt4k-mouse.jar
Run with:

java -cp tilt4k-mouse.jar G

I can only get as far as level 4 now! I dare someone to complete it! Easy mode has gone, antialiasing is now default (text, pieces, ball and board).

I’m not sure its valid making a game harder by changing the control system… let me know what you think and if its how you’d expected…

I’d also be interested on how well java.awt.Robot works on different platforms.

Thanks all!

Kev

#30

[quote]I can only get as far as level 4 now! I dare someone to complete it! Easy mode has gone, antialiasing is now default (text, pieces, ball and board).
[/quote]
Haven’t tried the new version yet, but the previous ones anti-aliased mode caused the framerate to drop from (something smooth) to (just jerky enough to annoy you but still playable) on a 1ghz machine (linux) - and it looked damned ugly on a high res monitor.

#31

Totally unplayable now that it has always-on AA - frame rate is circa 5 (or less) FPS.

Also, I’ve discovered you have the KG “signature” feature: cheap (broken) collisioin detect that doesn’t use swept volumes :). Because… at this low a frame rate even on the starting board you go flying off the edge in one leap (ball moves circa 200 pixels per frame) ;D.

I don’t know whether it’s playable with mouse because the frame rate ruins it regardless.

Also, I would appreciate having a window title bar?

Also, “escape” doesn’t quit - I thought it used to? - is this because you “compeltely” removed the keyboard stuff ::slight_smile:

#32

You know I wondered about that but since no one mentioned it I assumed all was fine… note taken…

AntiAliasing has been removed, saved me over 120bytes too!

  • What next!?

Kev

#33

Crikey, you’re quick! Yep, KG special, simple cheap collision detection. Its the only way! You know its true!

Area sweeping is just far too much like hard work. If the frame rate is so low you need it the game isn’t playable anyway :slight_smile: As you well know everything in games is tradeoffs between speed and acuracy. The collision detection isn’t broken if the frame rate is the target. The only think that is broken is that the game doesn’t give when it doesn’t reach framerate.

Although, with my spare bytes I might go and implement it, just for a laugh :slight_smile:

And yes, keyboard removed altogether since it saves so many bytes… since you’re now playing with the mouse, use it on the window X. :slight_smile:

If you really campaign I might try and squeese escape back in.

Kev

#34

died on level 6 :wink: Very cool change!

#35

Wow! You made it to level 6! I can’t get past 4!

Sob sob…

Kev

#36

Mouse control is pretty hard to use. It’s basically like playing wipEout with a mouse. The recentering (joypad, joystick, steering wheel) is missing… that’s basically what it makes hard to control, because you need to memorize the original position of the mouse.

You could for example add the delta to the angle each frame and also recenter the board a bit each frame. That means that you would need to move the mouse all the time in one direction if you want to keep it tilted… if you stop it recenters and you need only to roll a bit back in order to stop the movement of the ball alltogether.

That should make things easier. Hamster Ball for example uses similar control mechanics and it works pretty well there.

#37

Thanks for the tip, I’ll try that out in a mo. Just implemented a sweeping collision system just to uncheapen my reputation!

Incidently, reading closer above, is there no title bar showing up on linux?

Kev

#38

I like the mouse controls. But some of the levels are too hard now. It’s important to have some walls that you can rest on. Level 1 and 2 is to easy. Add some holes and remove some of the walls. Don’t think you need resentering. The challange is to balansing of the ball.

Level 1 to 5 I can do in my sleep. On level 6 I collected all the coins, but didn’t get all the way back :’(

edit: Finally got to level 11 using the mouse

#39

Right, level redesigning tomorrow night then… just uploaded a new version… mostly blah^3 inspired… thanks for the tips

  1. Sweeping collision detection (only really active at low frame rate). Its not an area sweep but a stepped.

  2. Escape key exits again…

  3. Funky new board look… check it and see for yourself :slight_smile:

The jar is now on the 4096 bytes mark. Hopefully level redesign won’t topple me over. Shouldn’t really but I guess you never know.

Thanks to the players so far… for me, mouse is now the definitive version… its way trickier and far more fun… now if I could only get back level 4.

The level designer source is available if anyone feels like designing a level or two :slight_smile:

Thanks again folks,

Kev

#40

I can’t get passed level 3 :frowning: