Author Topic: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids (Read 92327 times)

tomos · « **Reply #25 on:** November 26, 2013, 05:47 PM »

It's really nice to play with a trackpad btw (except my trackpad is a disaster but that's nothing to do with the game)

tomos · « **Reply #26 on:** November 27, 2013, 07:01 PM »

It's really nice to play with a trackpad btw (except my trackpad is a disaster but that's nothing to do with the game)
-tomos (November 26, 2013, 05:47 PM)

okay, it's not just my trackpad - sometimes, the mouse cursor is clearly moving around the screen, but the ship isn't doing anything. Maybe it the 'click' button. Or maybe it's the site simply not responding.

EDIT// seems to be a problem with the site beíng too busy - got kicked out of a game for the second time in half an hour.

Deozaan · « **Reply #27 on:** November 30, 2013, 11:14 PM »

What do you mean you got kicked out of a game? Once it loads in your browser, it should continue to play in your browser. It doesn't require an active internet connection to keep playing, and it doesn't send data back and forth across the net. The high score table is just a local high score table stored on your PC.

So if you're getting "kicked out" then that makes me think the WebPlayer (Unity browser plugin) is crashing or there's something else going wrong with your computer/browser or something.

tomos · « **Reply #28 on:** December 01, 2013, 05:53 AM »

^ it didnt happen since deo - I changed my trackpad settings - I think it was to do with a certain are triggering the context menu and *possibly* a bug with the escape key triggering an option for the context menu.
If you click any of the two options on the context menu - it simply kicks you out of the game - you cant bet back to it. Not ideal, but shouldnt normally be a problem.

EDIT//
Okay, it just happened again - in spite of context menu activation being disabled in the trackpad :-(
But it could well still be the trackpad. I think it and it's driver were designed to drive people slowly but surely insane...

Deozaan · « **Reply #29 on:** December 01, 2013, 02:33 PM »

it simply kicks you out of the game - you cant bet back to it. Not ideal, but shouldnt normally be a problem.
-tomos (December 01, 2013, 05:53 AM)

What does it mean to be kicked out of the game? Does it take you to another page? Does the game stop loading? Does the plugin just go all white/black?

Here's the latest test build, with changes below:

Changes:
1. No more asteroids colliding with each other.
2. Larger asteroids have less mass than before, so they should get pushed around by forces more easily. (this should help keep them from being where you spawn when you spawn there)
3. Different looking asteroids.
4. Bullets move faster.

tomos · « **Reply #30 on:** December 01, 2013, 02:54 PM »

What does it mean to be kicked out of the game? Does it take you to another page? Does the game stop loading? Does the plugin just go all white/black?
-Deozaan (December 01, 2013, 02:33 PM)

on the trigger game page:

start a game
right-click with mouse
select either "setup" or "about" - you will be sent to a new page
Game over....

I suspect this happening arbitrarily is still to do with my ~~wonderfully designed and lovingly crafted~~ [dodgy] trackpad.

EDIT:
here's a screenshot -

NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

I pressed escape to get away from the context menu which appeared out of no where and was blocking my view - the game stopped but the menu stayed. (I just went back to the tab and it's gone now, but it did disrupt the game and caused me to die).

tomos · « **Reply #31 on:** December 01, 2013, 03:03 PM »

Here's the latest test build, with changes below:
http://goo.gl/76xqb6
-Deozaan (December 01, 2013, 02:33 PM)

only played it once, but all round improved

Deozaan · « **Reply #32 on:** December 01, 2013, 03:44 PM »

on the trigger game page:

start a game
right-click with mouse
select either "setup" or "about" - you will be sent to a new page
Game over....
-tomos (December 01, 2013, 02:54 PM)

Aha! I've disabled the context menu. That should no longer be a problem for you.

tomos · « **Reply #33 on:** December 03, 2013, 05:30 PM »

Yes, enjoying new version

Naturally, I blame my trackpad for not having broken the 50,000 mark

tomos · « **Reply #34 on:** December 08, 2013, 04:49 AM »

hi deo,
I see via your blog that you have an Asteroid Destroyer for download on itch.io
Is that an earlier version?

Deozaan · « **Reply #35 on:** December 08, 2013, 08:06 PM »

Asteroid Destroyer is a game I made last year while trying to re-make simple games for the purpose of improving my coding skills. I posted about it here. It seemed finished enough and high enough quality to put on itch.io. While I was fixing it up and preparing it for that purpose I realized that I wanted to take it in a different enough direction that it warranted calling it by another name entirely. And thus Blasteroids was born.

skwire · « **Reply #36 on:** December 27, 2013, 02:16 PM »

I just tried this and think it's really well done. I love the smooth graphics and explosions. I also like the fact that there's an extra challenge because the explosions can hide an oncoming asteroid fragment. Really nicely done, Deo.

Deozaan · « **Reply #37 on:** December 27, 2013, 07:17 PM »

Thank you.

I've been making some other improvements, but will likely hold out on making any updated public builds until the final release. But a few of the more notable improvements are:

Asteroids now appear to wrap around the world more smoothly, rather than suddenly teleporting to the other side.
Fixed a significant performance problem that greatly affected the frame rate on lower end devices when spawning asteroids.

tomos · « **Reply #38 on:** December 28, 2013, 03:10 AM »

I just tried this and think it's really well done. I love the smooth graphics and explosions. I also like the fact that there's an extra challenge because the explosions can hide an oncoming asteroid fragment. Really nicely done, Deo.
-skwire (December 27, 2013, 02:16 PM)

+1 to all this - I've really enjoyed playing this game

Deozaan · « **Reply #39 on:** December 31, 2013, 05:51 PM »

I've just updated the original post with the final NANY release.

I couldn't attach the files to the forum because they are too large, so they are hosted on the game's itch.io page.

Deozaan · « **Reply #40 on:** January 01, 2014, 09:06 AM »

And I made a video showing off the game.

(Also added it to the original post.)

tomos · « **Reply #41 on:** January 01, 2014, 12:13 PM »

Hah, I need a cry-my-eyes-out emoticon = a very nice vídeo Deo, and a very nice score to boot

I keep blaming my trackpad for not reaching 50K, but tbh I'm usually below the 20K mark :-)

One mistake I keep making is moving the mouse too far from the ship - then when I need to do big turn I dont get there in time...
(Looking forward to playing the download version btw - but it'll have to wait a bit as I have a banjaxed wrist at the moment.)

Deozaan · « **Reply #42 on:** January 01, 2014, 06:09 PM »

My score in the video is crazy high because of a ... feature ... that works better than I intended.

The points you earn for destroying each asteroid is based on the size of the asteroid, the current level, and how many lives you have. If you play perfectly (meaning you don't get killed) you'll have just over 7,000 points at the beginning of level 7. But here's where the part where the feature works too well comes in: You're awarded an extra life every 10,000 points. So once you get to about level 10, if you manage to have 5 lives or so, suddenly you're getting 10,000 points every several seconds, granting your more lives, which gives you a larger score, which in return gets you more lives, which gets you an even larger score, etc., and before you know it you've got more lives than you could ever lose unintentionally.

In the video, I actually had close to 30 lives and intentionally just sat there to lose them all before starting that last level. I was just gaining them too fast by that point. On level 15 with 30 lives, each small asteroid would give me 1,800 points. That's an extra life every 6 small asteroids. And there was no lack of small asteroids at that point.

So yeah, I threw in that extra life feature at the last minute and didn't properly test it out. Or I just didn't play as well in my tests and I died too quickly. Either way, that needs to change.

Deozaan · « **Reply #43 on:** January 06, 2014, 11:40 PM »

I just updated the game to fix that feature, and put in a couple other bugfixes/niceties:

1.140106.0 NANY

Quitting while in-game now takes you back to the main menu.
Death explosions no longer affect bullets.
Extra life awarded for ever increasing score amounts.

tomos · « **Reply #44 on:** January 11, 2014, 12:54 PM »

It's a lot harder now to break the 10k mark. (But I done it - eventually...)
Slowly starting to get more aware of where the mouse is - move it out to aim accurately, back in so as I can rotate more easily.

I have had the experience a couple of times lately where the brand new ship gets killed before I can even start - i.e. the 'repulse' effect doesnt work - this is hard when it's your last ~~man~~ ship

- could that be because I dont have the mouse button fully pressed (dont think so but I'm not sure).
-
It happens when the asteroids are too close to the new ship when it first appears, there is then no replulse effect -- ship dead before it can even get going.

tomos · « **Reply #45 on:** January 11, 2014, 12:58 PM »

On another note - I'm curious how the scoring works:
one time I got to level #9 with only 6.5k points - my highest score is over 12k - but only at level #8 (?)

Deozaan · « **Reply #46 on:** January 11, 2014, 01:26 PM »

It's a lot harder now to break the 10k mark. (But I done it - eventually...)
-tomos (January 11, 2014, 12:54 PM)

If you play perfectly (without dying) I believe that you should clear 10k points on Level 7.

I have had the experience a couple of times lately where the brand new ship gets killed before I can even start - i.e. the 'repulse' effect doesnt work - this is hard when it's your last ~~man~~ ship - could that be because I dont have the mouse button fully pressed (dont think so but I'm not sure).
-tomos (January 11, 2014, 12:54 PM)

This is an intended feature of the game. It's a bit unfun to experience as a player, but it adds a little bit of "luck" factor in there. The "repulse effect" (as you call it) greatly reduces the chance of this happening, but it does still happen sometimes.

It happens when the asteroids are too close to the new ship when it first appears, there is then no replulse effect -- ship dead before it can even get going.
-tomos (January 11, 2014, 12:54 PM)

It should be noted that the repulse effect still happens (and you'll probably notice the asteroid start to spin wildly due to it), it's just that due to the proximity of the asteroid, it's not able to effectively push it away and the ship respawns in the same location that the asteroid is currently occupying.

On another note - I'm curious how the scoring works:
one time I got to level #9 with only 6.5k points - my highest score is over 12k - but only at level #8 (?)
-tomos (January 11, 2014, 12:58 PM)

Points are awarded based on three factors:

1. What size of an asteroid is destroyed.
2. What level you're on.
3. How many extra lives you have.

The reasons for this are:

1. The smaller asteroids are harder to hit, so they give more points than the larger ones.
2. The further you progress in the game, the more you're rewarded.
3. The better you play the game (i.e. the less you die), the more you're rewarded.

So in your case where you got to level 9 with only 6.5k, you probably died a couple of times in the first few levels, greatly reducing your score. When you got over 12k on level 8, you probably played a nearly perfect (no deaths) game up until level 7 or 8.

I think I've mentioned it before in this thread, but if you play a perfect game, you should reach just over 7k points when you start level 7.

tomos · « **Reply #47 on:** January 11, 2014, 01:41 PM »

Thanks for that Deo

Deozaan · « **Reply #48 on:** January 16, 2014, 09:46 PM »

As I've been working on the Android port for this game, I realized that somewhere along the way I accidentally removed the part that made smaller asteroids harder, which affected the number of points you got for them.

So now that I've fixed that, you'll find it is a lot easier to get higher scores on earlier levels (the highest score you could have after clearing level 1 used to be 78, now it's 258), but the overall difficulty may have been increased a bit.

Scores

Without dying, at the beginning of each level I had the following score:

Level 1: 0
Level 2: 258
Level 3: 1290
Level 4: 3612
Level 5: 7740
Level 6: 15585

tomos · « **Reply #49 on:** January 17, 2014, 04:13 AM »

^ ah, so there's hope for me then ;-)