Hi, I thought i would post a quick look at a game i have been working on. Its a puzzle game with skill elements kind of a cross between Marble Madness, SpinDizzy Worlds and Archer Maclean’s Mercury. Obviously it has my own twist, but you would see elements from all of these in there, the timer and marble from Marble Madness, the level and platforms are reminiscent of SpinDizzy Worlds and some elements of puzzles are reminiscent of Archer Maclean’s Mercury.
When its complete it will be a lot more polished and will have 80 level spanning 4 worlds containing different puzzle elements.
Here is a link to the Web Player - only the one level so far, and this is not going to be in the final version.
Controls with mouse, left clock to pull the ball, right click to pan the camera around, scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Escape to Pause the Game, and Enter on the numeric keypad to Resume the Game.
Looks interesting. It’s hard to tell without playing it, but from the video it looks like I’d like the ball to be faster. Of course, faster, slicker ball means larger levels, but I assume you’ll want some larger levels anyway.
Looks good. Keep us posted and it would be great to get a webplayer, to try it out.
Its inertia based, so the longer you travel in one direction the faster you get, and then it becomes harder to move in another direction, opposing forces and all that. so bigger levels will mean faster ball. along with help from areas which cause you to be pushed at great speed in a direction, so that is all covered. once i have polished up the first few levels and got everything just right, I will do a webplayer demo.
Right here are some pics, just to keep things updated.
I have made the ball move faster and now feels better when controlling it, the longer you go in any direction the faster you roll, which means when changing direction you have to be careful because there is inertia dragging you.
I created a few things, teleporters for when you start/finish a level. Will be using iTween to create a good teleportation effect. Also I have created a Forcefield Generator, which has to be shut down via various coloured buttons, to lowered the forcefields to enter new section.
As you can see in this next pic, i have a starting teleporter, the colour changers are what I am working on next, here they are basic, I am going to create a model for a device you roll into and it sprays you a different colour.
The transparent blocks can only be passed over if you are not the same colour as the block, otherwise you fall through it. as shown.
Here i am passing over it because i have changed from yellow to white.
Well thats it so far, still got a hell of a lot more devices and puzzle pieces to make, like blowers, magnets and such, so i’ll plod on with it, but its taking shape.
Like it a lot so far. It could already be pretty good with these elements, but the ones you mentioned sound great and if you have more of those it’s even better. I think level design will be one of the most important things and the progression in difficulty.
Yeah, level design will be the most important part, this is why i am focusing on getting all the elements created and working first, then all i have to do is drop in the elements i need as i need them without having to think about scripting when it comes to level design. This will then allow me the freedom to purely focus on the difficulty arc and puzzle intricacies.
Right, I have been working on scripting the devices i have so far, and still need to create and script a whole lot more. So its early days at the moment.
I thought i would get a simple level out for you to try and beat. Yes I have actually completed this in the web player.
Getting hang of the ball is a learning curve, but once you do it it becomes a lot easier. There are a few things about the interface. I wanted to keep everything ball centric so that your focus never has to leave the ball, as distraction can cause you to lose valuable seconds or die.
The controls are mouse driven, Left mouse while pointer is above a surface will drag the ball in this direction, gravity is pulling down, and sometimes turning the ball will get better results that trying to cause the ball to stop and roll in the opposite direction
Right mouse button changes camera angle, and scroll wheel zooms in and out. in the web player you have to select full screen for this to work. Well it did with me anyway.
Any feedback at this stage would be great. what are your thoughts on the controls/UI, i am trying to keep things central to the ball so there are no distractions.
How did you achieve real time reflections for the marble? I’ve been wanting to do that with some of the objects in my game but I haven’t been able to find anything on that subject.
Right, just a quick update. I have been busy creating some funky devices to make the levels a lot more interesting and have written the code for pausing the game. It seem that every time i think i getting closer to actually start creating level, there seems to be more concepts or additions that crop up, so its on with sorting those out.
When i am at a stage to show more i will update the web player and post some more pics, but for now i am mainly coding to get things how i want them.
Just thought i would keep you posted on the progression of this game.
I have implemented the pause function and the pause menu which ties in nicely with the UI concept surrounding this game.
I wanted all the controls to be centric to the ball so that your focus in never taken away from it. Your time is tied to it so that you don’t have to look to the top corner, and all controls are mouse driven.
Left Mouse button is used for controls, Right Mouse Button is used for camera panning and Right clicking on the ball brings up the Pause Menu, and the scroll wheel zooms in and out.
Not that you can see it here but the menu is pretty big on the screen, and the options are Resume, Restart, Quit, and Menu.
So a straight forward pause menu in place, and is not intrusive yet actually really easy to access at any point in the game.
Now created some more gadgets to increase the difficulty, a devices that rotates and sucks you up if you get under it, and spits you out either off the level or into another area of the map.
Created more puzzle gadgets which will i will have a model for some time soon, which include Shrink Rays and Normaliser Rays. Which add more diversity to the puzzle levels as you will only be able to access certain parts of a level if shrunk, and can only interact with certain things if at normal size. Material changers, which can change your ball. There are three balls you can change between.
A heavy metal marble, which is hard to control due to its weight, it requires more drag and is subject to being fried by electrical zapper pads, but is the only ball heavy enough to activate pressure switches. High pressure fans called blowers can not affect the marble.
A medium weight rubber bouncy ball, which is of average control and can bounce to new platforms when on bounce pads, can activate all switches apart from coloured switches and pressure switches; and can pass across electrical zapper platforms. Blowers can blow the ruber ball, but not give much lift and can push the ball but can be fought against.
A light weight fabric material ball, can access colour changers and activate colour switches, but is too light to affect any other type of switch, and can easily be blown by blowers.
Oh and there are now pipes to go whizzing through.
Woah, I was wondering about how you’ll make the marble visible in the pipes sections
Brilliant idea - very techy looking.
What kinda strikes me is the overall color scheme. The pipes are very harsh and contrasty colored and the metal is dark black/grey colored. It all kinda clashes. I think if you rethink some of the color choices this might shine and sparkle a lot more !
Great progress so far !
Yeah, the colours and textures have not been decided on yet. I find the metal to be a bit dull and boring, so i am working on making things a bit brighter.
Yeh I think it’s all due the background you chose.
Dark background so naturally the game area needs to be brighter in order to stand out.
Or brighter background and the dark can stay.
Think I’d prefer the brighter colors for the game area ^^
Keep us updated !
Yeah, i am getting some textures together which will brighten things up. The effect is better, and the devices i add will have bright coloured pads, so i need to pull away from the dull greys.
