(as expected - strobe-fx doesn’t look that sweet on screenshots)
my current record
(the debug msg in the upper left will disappear in the next (final?) version)
Btw the frame icon is picked randomly
Rules:
There is only one rule to connect two identical tiles: if you try to draw an horizontal and vertical line through the free space between them, there must not be more than two corners in the line, i.e. if you have to turn more than twice to arrive in front of the other tile, you can’t select it. Of course, if two tiles are side to side, you can remove them immediately.
Forgot to mention, that the instruction screen is still missing - the highscores (best times) are shown instead.
Edit… oh and I forgot the keys:
F1-F4 = zoomfactor
r = restart
F5-F7 = sample test
F9 = showfps on/off
F10 = fps capping on/off
F12 = showtime on/off (showfps has to be turned off, because they are overlapping)
[/quote]
Still broken. However, I didn’t notice it attempt to re-download a new version, so if you’ve updated it recently, maybe JWS is just being pants again. I suggest you output a “version xxx.xx” at startup - IMHO every app should always do this because it prevents so many problems so easily </voice of bitter experience> :).
Anyway, I got hte following output on the JWS console. As ever, I just got a grey window, that I could zoom in and out. All the other keys had no effect.
Java Web Start 1.4.2 Console, started Sun Sep 14 15:43:04 GMT 2003
Java 2 Runtime Environment: Version 1.4.2 by Sun Microsystems Inc.
init
run game loop
wActivated
wOpened
wDeactivated
Quite fun, but it would be nice if it didn’t keep deselecting all the time. It shouldn’t do anything if you “miss” a tile. Deselect should be RMB or something similar - “cancel” in UI’s is usually a separate butotn / key / command.
[quote]I tried again immediately afterwards, and this time JWS decided to update the app. It worked!
[/quote] phew! ;D
[quote]I played a single game, but then r for restart didn’t work, so had to quit - I only got as far as the screen showing my total time.
[/quote]
Yea… that’s a little glitch in the flow. I’d forgot it since my times are usually good enough :>
If you needed too much time you can’t enter your name… and the flow is broken at this place. However pressing esc once will bring you back to the menu
Well… I’m really glad that it finally works ;D
Now I need only a “yes it works” from a mac guy (or gal)
Yea… I thought about it for awhile, but punishing bad aim isn’t always a bad thing. Maybe another sample for a deselecting-click would help a bit?
Also RMB for deselecting would be somewhat strange since the select/deselect isnt implemented that way usually (in mahjongg games at least). Most games deselect if you select another tile, but that wouldn’t work that well in my game (because it’s ment to be played much faster).
Rewarding accuracy is usually a good thing
Do you have an old ball-mouse? If so, what’s it’s sampling rate? (move the mouse in circles)
Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head here - it is only because this is a SPEED game that this constitutes a UI bug - if it weren’t a speedgame, then the select/deselect would be OK. But the standard paradigm in speed-related things is “different buttons/actions for select / deselect” (for good reasons…mainly to do with ability to rapidly undo what you’ve just done, with high degree of accuracy).
In a fast-paced game, you shouldn’t break with the standard paradigms without very good reasons. It annoys your players :).
No, I have graphics tablet. And woe betide any poor soul who has a laptop…
Indeed. But if that’s an aim of your game then you’re probably doing it the wrong way. You should be providing a “hit percentage” on the high score screen, or something like that.
In general (i.e. don’t take this as being aimed particularly at YOUR game), making your control system rubbish is usually a bad thing. If your reason is only “it makes it harder” then you need to go back and re-think what a computer game is, and what makes a good game-design.
For instance, look at Diablo2. That has a major bug whereby the picking-algorithm will ALWAYS prioritize monsters over everything else. Even town-portals (the primary means of entering or leaving a battle). This means that when you play on the hard levels, with hundreds of monsters on screen, you frequently end up standing next to a town-portal, slowly waiting for your character to die (and for all his weapons, skills, etc to be lost).
As the player, you cannot do anything - your mouse cursor keeps deciding “attack monster” when you want “step through that nice big town portal that I’m right next to”.
It completely ruins the game at high levels. It’s stupid, it completely removes the sense of immersion in the game. It’s basic UI-design: “never make a UI that sucks; even if you think it’s excusable, it isn’t”.
…but doesn’t work so well on linux. I expect it’s WM-dependent, but the titlebar of the JWS window is managed by my WM (currently setup to use an Aqua skin - along with each of my skinnable apps, like Mozilla). So I don’t see no frameicon :(.
Oh well. I can take some consolation in finally beating the default high score - 41,329 ms. Hah. Try that with a tablet ;D.
:). My best so far is 38 point something. But I’m getting serious wrist-pain so I think it’s wisest to stop there :)…
I did wonder if you could add some higher-order gameplay element, e.g. a time-bonus depending on how far apart the two blocks were. At the moment, you just go for what’s closest together, and it gets boring quite quickly, so if there were some incentive to go for more complex/tricky combinations…
You are - right now - the second best player (out of roughly 30). I’m still the fastest… but it had taken me much longer to get under 40
Actually I thought about adding a “I think you have enough” screen after 30 minutes of straight playing, because I felt really dizzy after playing the first version for awhile - the strobe fx were way too heavy… therefore I cut em off a bit (it’s ok the way it is right now isn’t it? :)).
[quote]gg.
beats minesweeper… now that gives me an idea. why not make an option for diferent field sizes, small medium and large each with their own hi scores
[/quote]
It isn’t meant to be a full blown game… just a little tiny sweet polished cute game, wich offers about 1 minute of gameplay… 1 minute wich always fits into a commercial break… working break… or simply each time you have a minute to waste.
It’s like the “Kung Fu Master” of puzzle games ;D
(Kung Fu Master for GameBoy offered about 5 minutes of gameplay. It’s one of the games I’ve played most - just because these 5minutes always fit somewere in between :))
Maybe I’ll add other gametypes/features in the future (after I’ve done my first real game)… but for now I’ll just polish it off… and make it absolutly slick and shiny.
- I only got as far as the screen showing my total time.
