Hi, folks!

This is just a prototype, not a complete game, so please forgive the crude graphics, etc.

http://www.dishmoth.com/BunnyGolf.html

I'd appreciate any suggestions as to how you think the game should develop from here.

To play, just grab a bunny's tail using the mouse.  Pull back, take aim, and... release!

There aren't any formal rules to the game, but two players taking alternate turns seems to work pretty well.  For one player, pick a bunny and imagine you're playing golf (it's about par 3 for each hole).

Cheers,
Simon

Plays very well.

I agree with Kova about the shoot next to wall. Could be considered a feature, but I think it would be nicer if you can shoot max power next to wall as well. AI and human opponent via lan/web would be a really big plus. On-line leaderboard would probably also be fun. Tail could be a bit bigger, to make it easier to grab it. Gfx is quite ok for this type of game.

Greets,
J

Indeed. Very fun to play this game. You should definately add some highscore system,
real levels and so on.

One graphical enhancement could be to make the players sprite bigger / to zoom it when
you got over a darker green area ( which should represent the heightness I think ).

Anyway - really looking forward to see your game evolving. Well done !!!

Thats good fun.

How about adding contours to the holes? It would be a reasonably "serious" addition and it'd add quite a bit of variety of shots if you could deliberately use the slopes to your advantage.

You could just shoot the bunny towards the wall and he'll bounce off. The collisions are fairly (if not entirely) elastic.

Edit: Nvm. Just got stuck near a wall and it's still quite hard to get out of that position. Cool game though.

First time I played it I didn't know that you can move both the rabbits and I was trying to hit the "motionless" rabbit with the other one so that I move it in the hole    . When close to a wall you can send the rabbit towards the wall and it will r bounce back.Great Game !

Update:

I've tweaked the game mechanics a bit so that getting stuck near a wall should be less of an issue.  (Among other things: the tail can extend a little way into the wall when you pull it back, and the dark grass is a bit less sticky during launch.)  Do tell me if you don't think these changes go far enough.

Also - more excitingly - the game is now wired for sound!  This is my first attempt at messing with Java Sound, so please tell me if there are any problems with it (except for the sound effects being rubbish, of course  ).

Cheers,
Simon

Hmm, yes, I can certainly make the hand less fussy when it's grabbing a tail.  I'll have to see what else I can do to make it clearer what's going on.  Maybe the game needs a very basic tutorial at the start to explain the tail-grabbing procedure?

Thanks for the comments!
Simon

Looking pretty good so far. I'm looking forward to the finished version.

What did you use to create front page menu? I'm at a point with my current project where I want to create something that looks pretty similar.

Nice game. I just got one of my colleagues hooked while we wait for a meeting

Well, I'm impressed at your hole-in-one, even if the game isn't.   

Actually, I thought I'd changed the levels so that holes-in-one are impossible - but apparently not.  They probably should be impossible in two-player mode, but you're right that they need some kind of acknowledgement in one-player mode.

Cheers,
Simon

Update: new, improved grass.

I'd heard of Mini Golf and Crazy Golf...  but Midget Golf sounded like the product of a cruel and twisted mind until Wikipedia told me that it was just another name for the same thing.

Yes, you're right.  It's Bunny Mini/Crazy/Midget Golf without the novelty obstacles (at least for now).

Simon

The varying levels of grass really adds depth to the game, but the friction needs to be calibrated a bit. It removes the skill part and makes your progression much more based on the luck of where you are placed since you only regain a small amount of lives after each stage and some placements will require more moves than others.

EDIT: still addictive, but more from the frustration value

Hi, keldon.  Thanks for the comments!

Pretty much every update to the game has reduced the friction of the rough grass.  The friction needs to be reasonably high though for the rough grass to act as barrier -- but new players always seem surprised by how rough it is.  Playing Tip: AVOID THE ROUGH GRASS!  Maybe if I replaced the rough grass with pools of magma people would get the idea.   


Yes, that's the way the (one-player) game has ended up.  The levels have been carefully designed so that you can always get in the hole in two shots (or moves, or hops), and your number of lives doesn't reduce provided that you don't take more than two shots per hole.  Run out of lives and the game ends, of course.

I thought at first about giving the game the same rules as golf, with a final score compared with par after nine or eighteen holes...  but I suspect that a lot of people would lose interest before completing that number of holes.   

I'm all ears if anyone has better suggestions for how the game should be played!

Simon