Putty Puzzle

[steveyO]

Sorry, didnt work for me either (applet version, havent tried WebStart yet).. Running Windows 2000

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Exception in thread "Thread-9" java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.newdawn.slick.AngelCodeFont.<init>(Ljava/lang/String;Lorg/newdawn/slick/Image;Z)V    at org.newdawn.putty.Images.init(Images.java:24)    at org.newdawn.putty.Putty.initStatesList(Putty.java:71)    at org.newdawn.slick.state.StateBasedGame.init(StateBasedGame.java:148)    at org.newdawn.slick.AppletGameContainer$Container.initApplet(AppletGameContainer.java:207)    at org.newdawn.slick.AppletGameContainer$ContainerPanel.initGL(AppletGameContainer.java:164)    at org.newdawn.slick.AppletGameContainer$ContainerPanel.start(AppletGameContainer.java:148)    at org.newdawn.slick.AppletGameContainer$1.run(AppletGameContainer.java:68)

Steve

[kevglass]

Should be fixed on applet now, however I won't be keeping the applet up to date much longer. Webstart ftw atm.

Kev

[kevglass]

Theres a new version of the applet using a different renderer here:

http://www.cokeandcode.com/demos/putty3/applet2/putty.html

MIght be more reliable on windows. Looks like it's a pretty slow on linux. Yet to test on OSX. Was fun doing the conversion tho

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Riven]

Vista x64, Opera 9.27, JRE 1.6.0_05

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java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.newdawn.putty.PuttyApplet    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:369)    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(AppletClassLoader.java:433)    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)    at com.opera.AppletPanel.runLoaderThread(AppletPanel.java:358)    at com.opera.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:332)    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Caused by: java.io.IOException: HTTP Connection failed.    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.readClassFile(AppletClassLoader.java:378)    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.access$100(AppletClassLoader.java:34)    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader$4.run(AppletClassLoader.java:360)    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)    at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:358)    ... 6 more

Works fine in IE and FF!

[Riven]

_{I can't edit my post, hence this new reply}


Could you try a regular jar (not .jar.pack.gz) for opera?
Just to see whether it has any different result.

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var pre = gamebox.innerHTML='<applet code="org.newdawn.putty.PuttyApplet" archive="'; var post = '" width="640" height="480"/>'; if(navigator.useragent.indexOf("Opera") != -1)    gamebox.innerHTML = pre+"./puttyapplet.jar"+post; else    gamebox.innerHTML = pre+"./puttyapplet.jar.pack.gz"+post;

[kevglass]

Cheers for that, should be updated.

Kev

[Riven]

Works!

[Orangy Tang]

Works on my home machine in Opera now.  Transitions are nice too.

[Eli Delventhal]

Works very well in OS X. One suggestion, however.

Don't save your stuff in a .putty folder. For OS X users, that means I can't actually see the folder. I don't know if that's your intention or not, but it makes it very hard to share levels, no? Instead, you should save it to:

System.getProperty("user.home") + "/Documents/putty"

Games often keep their information in the documents folder on OS X. You can also use the Application Support folder, which is specifically for save files and the like.

System.getProperty("user.home") + "/Library/Application Support/putty"

If you leave it as is, you're going to need a super user to be able to share their levels. The only way to see files that begin with a "." is with the Terminal (bash command line), or an external program like File Buddy. It's funny, by the way, because in searching for .putty I discovered that MootoX has its own little folder there as well. Sneaky! 


Anyway, all that aside, I agree about the learning curve being too steep, but once I got it I had a lot of fun. I recommend mentioning what each block does in the level editor (with a tooltip). Speaking of the level editor, I made a really difficult and fun level, you should take a look-see:

http://www.mediafire.com/?j50tjj1i119

The level is called "Confuddled." Let me know if you can meet the challenge.

[kevglass]

Good comments. In reply, the file is considered hidden with a . infront on linux system. You don't need to be super user on OSX to see these files, just need to know they're there. It's consistant on all platforms this way. Twas the same with mootox, people are sharing levels without difficulty once they're told where there are. However, a lot of unix (osx included) uses complain if you don't hide away files like this. I've used this method with the past 10 or so games because it causes least complaints

Either way, I think the eventual solution would to be allowing of saving editor game files anywhere, just my file chooser isn't quite up to the job yet

I'll try the level as this evening, nice one

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[kevglass]

Actually, out of interest, which version were you trying on OSX?

I'd really be interested to know what the new applet (java2D) performs like on there.

http://www.cokeandcode.com/demos/putty3/applet2/putty.html

Kev

[Riven]

Just saying the LWJGL version consistently crashes Opera instantly.

[kevglass]

Riven, could you try kappa's applet for a mo?

http://kappa.javaunlimited.net/betashot5/

Just see if the latest version of the lwjgl applet stuff fixes the issue. If so, I'll upgrade.

Kev

[kevglass]

Link should have been:

http://kappa.javaunlimited.net/betashot5/betashot.html

Kev

[Riven]

That applet works... (there is hope!)

[Riven]

_{Again, I cannot modify my post, sorry for the double reply}

And now your (probably unmodified) LWJGL putty version now also works... Yesterday it crashed Opera 3 times in a row.

[kevglass]

Na, modified it (and I can't modify posts either, crap)

Kev

[Eli Delventhal]

Actually, out of interest, which version were you trying on OSX?

I'd really be interested to know what the new applet (java2D) performs like on there.

http://www.cokeandcode.com/demos/putty3/applet2/putty.html

Kev

This works just fine running in Safari with OS X. If you want I can try with other browsers (I have Firefox, Opera, IE, Shiira, and Camino all installed) as well. Sometimes it slows down or locks up a bit, and it had a very long load (60 seconds or so), but it functioned just fine.

Hm, I was going to say something else but I can't remember.  Well, anyway, give a go at my level, somebody.

[kevglass]

Cheers.

I tried your level for 15 minutes, still haven't solved!

Kev

[Eli Delventhal]

Cool. Do you want me to check those other browsers?

[kevglass]

Sure, that'd be great

Tbh, I'm still umming and arring about the worth applets generally. It's nice to be web embedded but still a lot of mucking about to squeeze performance of any sort out - and of course massive inconsistence between performance on different platforms. LWJGL Applet super performance everywhere and easy (for me at least), has a great configurable loader now but theres still that certificate to accept (though notably it doesn't seem to be stopping anyone ). Webstart - still cert but nice and reliable now, unfortunately nobody outside of us lot understand it so probably only good for testing. Standalone EXE - looking like the best option for most the stuff I do (maybe not this?). Easy, no certs, understandable by end users, can cut the VM to tiny distribution, guarantees java. Just the lack of casual nature - though I guess click download, double click exe is pretty easy going.

Kev

[kevglass]

Yay, finally done your level! Had to get my wife to help tho

Kev

[Eli Delventhal]

  Congrats on finishing my level, I'm glad it was actually difficult.

As for the method of distributing applications:
I personally think Webstart is not bad at all, especially if you use a shortcut in your JNLP to create an application for users to click on once they've downloaded it. That's pretty similar, overall, to downloading an EXE. On my own site, however, I typically have both a Webstart and a downloadable JAR, which can be double clicked as well, of course. Then some games call for one solution or the other (as you mentioned already). But, I never bother with applets, because I personally hate them when they're used for games. The egregiously long load times for most games really turns me off. If you're browsing stuff on the internet, you're not expecting to wait. I remember playing one applet that locked up my browser for around 10 minutes, then the game was nothing but a tech demo. Stuff like that has me steering clear away.

[Eli Delventhal]

And I just found a bug, this one involving Undo. It appears you can't undo past letting a block go in a goal - it will continue to go in, no matter how many times you undo.

In fact, I thought the undo functionality could be greatly increased if you made it a slider bar. That way you drag it to the left for each undo, or back to the right for each redo. That makes it significantly faster and more intuitive.

[Eli Delventhal]

Apologies on the triple post.

I made another level called "Yellow Herring."

It's probably on the level of being obscenely difficult. Not only is gigantic, complex, and confusing to navigate, but the whole level has a sort of BS trick to it. 

http://www.mediafire.com/?yprwbomz1nj

Hint: Think about the name of the level.

[kevglass]

Would it be ok if I included your levels in the game. I'm going to be doing another release in the next few days. If anyone else has any levels I'd love to consider them too

Kev

[TheAnalogKid]

Hi Kev,

I tried your game a couple of weeks ago and I want to say that it's quite cool! Good concept! I didn't have time to play it for more then 10 minutes though.

Keep up! 

[Eli Delventhal]

Would it be ok if I included your levels in the game. I'm going to be doing another release in the next few days. If anyone else has any levels I'd love to consider them too

Kev

Yeah, I'd love to see my levels in the game. Good stuff!

If I make more, want me to just reply to this thread again?

[kevglass]

It's late, and I'm tired. 2.30am and for better or worse I've just put up the new version of Putty Puzzle. It has:

- 18 Levels - 6 of which are optionally tutorials (frank will help you out if you ask).
- Instructions Page
- Lots of bug fixes
- Some usability fixes
- A few new level features
- Undo during the level
- Undo, restart and quit visible options

No apologies for bugs and/or typos. I've still got a lot of work to do. Thanks to the people who contributed levels.

Putty Puzzle as Java Web Start
Putty Puzzle as LWJGL Applet
Putty Puzzle as a Java 2D Applet

Feedback as always appreciated. This seems to be going somewhere which is a refreshing change

Kev

PS. If anyone's interested it actually got some coverage elsewhere.

[Eli Delventhal]

Looks great! I took a brief look at all the levels, seem very fun. More in-depth reply later.