Toy Blocks

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

Had a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, so I decided to down tools on current projects and just write something simple and fun. Here’s the Toy Blocks:

http://slick.cokeandcode.com/images/blocks3.png

It’s a block stacking game for kids, but can be quite fun just to toy with. Select a pattern, stack the blocks to match the target - get a 100% match and try another. It’s not terriblely exciting for you big brained people, but for the child like minds it could be enjyable.

It uses the new release of Phys2D and Slick for the graphics.

Webstart Here

Some other suggestions for game ideas so far have been 2D Jenga, Reverse Tetris and the big brother smash um up game (which I can vaguely remember from my childhood ;))

Controls are scrolled across the bottom of the screen but essentially you drag blocks around with the left mouse button (LMB). Rotating is achieved by holding both buttons and moving the mouse.

Let me know if it doesn’t run, system etc.

Kev

#2

I think it’s great ;D

#3

Very nice!

#4

Apart from the dragged items behaving physically incorrect, it’s quite challenging - as long as you aim to make extremely unstable towers :slight_smile:

#5

Worked perfectly, quite mellow too. My little 5yr old kid would love this, may show him tomorrow (already a big fan of martian madness + gravity battle). Gd stuff!

#6

NICE!!! :slight_smile: Great game, of course for kids.

#7

Really cool, played through all the levels (last one took a while). Small suggestion though, could you make the edges of the screen not allow a block to pass through them and disappear?

#8

What he said. Very nice other than that minor niggle though.

I also thought the interface could do with more physicality as well - be able to fling the blocks around, rather than just have them drop from where you let go of the mouse button. This might make it more tricky for the young 'uns though.

It reminds me a lot of a mini game that you can unlock on Wario Ware for the Wii - you move and tilt the remote left and right to catch and stack a cascade of blocks falling from the top of the screen. If a block slips from the small pallet you control, you fail the level and have to restart. It takes a steady hand and careful planning. I’m not sure that it could be translated fully to single-axis mouse control, but it might be worth a shot.

#9

Makes sense, I’ll try it.

I actually tried this originally, but as you say it made it too tricky to place things (especially for kiddies) imo.

Thanks for the comments!

Kev

#10

One thought about that “Match” part! Kids are not used to the “percentage” concept (showing the completion), maybe a different approach would be better there… for instance showing the icons of the shapes, and when they’re placed in the right place highlight them and/or place a check marker besides them. Or perhapse a simple bar.

#11

One “bug” found.

You can push objects “off-screen” with other objects. It actually happened accidently to me, and I wasn’t able to complete my building :’(

edit: sorry, saw that someone else commented about that.

#12

Noted in both cases. As a workround you can always press R to reset the game.

I’m trying to determine how I can prevent blocks getting pushed off the sides without adding walls that will mae the whole thing feel more constrained.

Kev

#13

More round-things, please :).

Putting stuff on top of the semi-circle, and watching it rock away without damping is quite nice.

Suggestion for a new game mode - Balancing. Make it so that only one piece is allowed to touch the ground. Like the Flash “balance” game where you are hanging items off a child’s mobile/coat-hanger thing, and every time you manage to get it to balance, it adds another item and/or extra hook points.

#14

…and I’ve got a challenge going here in the office: can you balance a triangle point-down on top of the semi-circle?

Meta-gaming is so much fun…

#15

bug: (from colleague) if you put items on top of each other, to pre-build, then lift the bottom item, they lift correctly, but when you translate the bottom item left/right, the items on top have zero friction and the bottom item slides out from under them.

You may not want to allow pre-building of sections, BUT the zero-friction does look very odd right now…

#16

you could wrap the world, so if it gets pushed off the left it appears on the right.

#17

Then you have 2 objects with 2 different ways the physics work, depending on other items near the two sides. You can work around that by copying the whole world to both sides, but when there are a lot of connected items, you’d have to copy the world infinite times, because items can get connected to their other selves.

#18

Updated it some - better or worse - who knows :slight_smile:

  • Added the ability to throw blocks around a bit
  • Added walls on the sides, albeit just off screen
  • Added a mode selection screen
  • Moved free play to it’s own mode
  • Added balance mode - needs refinement, Kappa suggests have a small block at the bottom on which you must place blocks.
  • Some other fiddly bits, tried to catch the few cases where blocks can get stuck in mid movement.

Kev

#19

They guy has high thoughts of you Kev ;D

Anyway, what I meant to say was that I saw a cool physics based game with a twist just now and thought I share the link here, since it has many similarities with Toy Blocks.
http://www.experimentalgameplay.com/game.php?g=456
It is unfortunately not java, but I could maybe inspire someone to morph Toy Blocks. Well worth the download. Only shame is that it has so few levels.

#20

great game! :slight_smile:

remark: you can’t turn off music with “m” key while in menu
bug: when you turn off music and then turn it back on, it is much louder
remark: Kev, you said you added walls, but I can still throw stuff off screen (played free mode only)
remark: there is no uninstall icon in start menu, you have to go to add/remove programs (winXP)