Free play mode doesn’t have walls, part of what makes it free play mode.
Kev
Running the WebStart link, the app crashed, so I enabled the Java Console. Turns out it was crashing due to not finding OpenAL. This made sense, since I had not yet installed the OpenAL libs on this Linux machine. However, I think it would be useful if you could add an initialization step to Slick so that it gives some kind of useful error message if OpenAL is not found, rather than having the program just crash with a stack trace.
Did it crash with a stack trace or a naitve error? If it was a stack, could you post it?
Kev
Such a fun game Kev - good work!
I jumped right in without reading the instructions and completed the first 2 balance levels before realising you could rotate the blocks!!
Took a while to get the blue rectangles standing ‘on end’ just by dropping them onto other objects!
It was crashing prior to installing OpenAL. Let’s see if I can uninstall OpenAL to replicate the problem… hm not easily or without rebooting. I’ll reboot the machine in several hours and try again, then edit this post.
– edit –
Sorry, as silly as this sounds, I cannot seem to figure out how to uninstall openal. I removed libopenal, but your program still starts up. I’ll let you know if I can make it crash, but frankly, crashing your program is less fun than playing it, so I won’t be spending a lot of effort there. If anyone else claims crashing on mandriva, tell them “urpmi openal” should do the trick.
This game is pure genius!
I now have the perfect excuse to play with blocks again without needing kids ;D
hey kev, i really liked this. such a simple idea, and a brilliant one. i have a gameplay suggestions: i found, hands down, that the best mode was freeplay. but of course that gets a little old. i was thinking this could be a great internet game a la Line Rider. i really enjoyed balancing beams on blocks, then dropping something on it to launch a projectile – which hit’s another beam. i’m imagining kind of a rube goldberg machine challenge, where i can set up, and let it run. the challenge would be to top, other player’s machines for internet fame and glory. lol. i laugh, but look at the creativity and following Line Rider has…
This was a short term project for me (over a weekend). It over ran as you can imagine, but I wasn’t really intending to take it any further. It’s more just a demo of Slick and Phys2d working together. Kinda kooky fun but I couldn’t really think of any where to take the gameplay. I’m working on a more generic physics game at the moment which might be a bit more long lasting.
Thanks for the feedback so far, it’s much appreciated. Really good to understand what people do and don’t find enticing.
Kev
I like it.
So, okay, it’s a short-term project, but if you were to add stuff to it, here’s my two cents:
- A gameplay mode to see how high you can build a tower!
- Allow a larger play area, by scrolling left and right.
- The only thing I didn’t find intuitive was rotating the blocks, although I’m not sure how else it could be implemented. Maybe grabbing an edge of a block, and spinning (like Free Transform mode in Photoshop)
Heh, actually, did you ever consider submitting this to the experimental gameplay project? I think outside people are allowed to do that right?