new game design

[lild227]

Hey guys,

This is actually my first post here so hi to many of you.

I've been building a game similar to the old snes game, Yoshi's cookie. It's going along well from my end but i want to make sure that it works on other stations as well.

The controls are simple, move the cursor around with your arrow keys and hold the space key in conjuction with the arrows to shift the rows or columns. The object is to get the a row or column of the same color so they clear out.

Any advice, criticism, complements, suggestions, etc. are welcome. Thanks in advance

http://www.socialinept.com/games/esg.html

[philfrei]

LOL, I was trying to move the rows/cols with the shift key, not the space key. Duh.

OK, it runs well, responds quickly. I have Windows, XP Home. My JVM should be current. Using IE8. It loaded quickly. No problems there.

I'm not sure what to do. OK, I move the dots around and make rows/columns. Not difficult at all. Now what? When a row/column is made, they vanish and new dots fill in, the score goes up. Meanwhile, the time decrements past zero and into negative numbers. No end in sight. Is there a goal?

I'm not familiar with the original game.

Ah--as you make rows/columns, your time is incremented. I see. So, the goal is to stay positive, then? See how many points you get before hitting zero time?

Also runs in Safari for me. The screen looks better in Safari than IE8. In IE8 there is a bit of discontinuity with the lines and boxes around the Scriptfont "Home". Firefox 3.6.13 is also fine in appearance and function.

[lild227]

Thanks for testing it!

This is basically the first game that i've ever tried to complete so I'm just figuring out some things through experimentation.

I still need to complete the implemention of the actual game statuses (starting the game, game over screen, level changes, etc.)

Right now, it's basically score as many points as you can before the timer runs out. After i get this coding down, I'll put more time into designing actual game concepts.

As far as the webpage itself goes, it's not a major concern of mine yet. I do personally hate IE with a passion but having a multiplatform app presented through a non-compliant webpage can't be a good idea

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

[philfrei]

Cool. I'm in a similar position. I have a basic puzzle working, but am stalled while hoping to "finish up." I think this is a common problem. Too busy to work on it, but not too busy to check out questions on the Forums, that's where I'm at. My 'in progress' is at http://www.java-gaming.org/topics/hexara-work-in-progress/23676/view.html, also a showcase thread.

One thing I'm thinking, is to use another game as a model. It is called "Entanglement" but I don't think it is java. http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/light They do things like use Google for sign on, and YouTube for instructions video. Maybe they tie into Google for the high score functionality as well. Seems like these might be useful shortcuts. I don't know. Haven't decided yet.

I also like the way the 4K entry "Trains" lists puzzles, and may borrow aspects of that design, but that isn't exactly relevant for your game. Looking forward to seeing the progress! Best wishes.