next »

[TheLifemakers]

New game currently in development by Lifemakers Studio

What do you get if you crossbreed air hockey, curling, pool, sumo wrestling... and even checkers? That's right: Battle of the Pucks!

An exciting little game with a very simple goal: propel your pucks so they ram your opponent's pucks out of the field! And whenever you score (drive off their puck(s) but don't lose any of your own), you get to push again! GO GO GO!

(Why checkers, you might ask? Because there exists a version of this game where you don't move from field to field but finger-flick your pieces across the board to knock off enemy's army.)



Despite the game's simplicity—and addictiveness!—it takes time to master the skill of propelling your pucks with the exact required force and direction. More than that, it takes strategy and foresight to not only score but create positions that are of maximum difficulty for your opponent. In the Battle of the Pucks, you can play against a human or a computer—and the computer's level of skill ranges from comically hapless to deviously agile!

Levels of the game will vary by the initial position of pieces. The further you go, the more difficult would be to knock off your opponent's pucks without losing your own pieces.



This GIF shows one round of the game, at the simplest of levels, where two computer opponents face off—one a little more capable than the other. The Greens start and get quite far along but critically misfire at some point—and the lone remaining Orange warrior takes revenge and brings its side to victory!

Written in Java in LibGDX, a release for Android is planned for now.

[TheLifemakers]

Here is our animated intro screen.

[TheLifemakers]

Our 7-year-old is also working on making new levels for the game!



The resulting position:



You can also see our new score boards there.

[TheLifemakers]

A snippet of gameplay with the first seven boards in Battle of the Pucks. Feedback will be highly appreciated. Please contact if you want to be a tester!

[RbdJellyfish]

Cool concept. It seems like it's really easy for one person to sweep an entire round, though, which makes it look very one-sided. Have you considered alternatives to the current rule of someone getting another turn when they don't mess up?

[TheLifemakers]

Cool concept. It seems like it's really easy for one person to sweep an entire round, though, which makes it look very one-sided. Have you considered alternatives to the current rule of someone getting another turn when they don't mess up?

Yes, we played around it a lot to make chances for both players more equal. As of now we have the following rules:

- with human vs. computer, humans always move first to give them a better chance to win.

- with two humans (or two computers) competing, each board (level) is run twice so that each player has a chance to move first and win that round. It was not shown in the video as we didn't want to repeat the same level layout twice to make the video more interesting.

Besides, in more complex levels, it's almost impossible to not lose your pucks (and your turn) at some point. Like here:

[TheLifemakers]

The best Christmas gift Not to be outdone by her younger sister, our 18-year-old began to develop new levels for Battle of the Pucks as well, already with catchy names!

[TheLifemakers]

We've added a drop-down menu to Battle of the Pucks screen for settings, rating and viewing your own records.

[TheLifemakers]

As you ascend in your gameplay mastery, you will unlock advanced levels where the playing board can be non-rectangular and even non-convex! Here's a sampling of how the gameplay on such boards looks like. Watch in awe how two AIs are battling each other at their full strength... but still making errors, of course, because there may no longer exist a straightforward winning strategy for some of these boards, so the outcome often depends on chance.

[TheLifemakers]

We are getting very close to releasing the first version of Battle of the Pucks! Some of the latest additions to   its UI:

1. A photo background (a starry night for now) slides together with each move. In the future, we are planning to add different backgrounds for different levels of the game.

2. Pucks of different sizes (and therefore weights) have variable friction and require you to adjust your flicks accordingly.



3. The program adds tips for new players (visible during the first few rounds only) and funny comments the computer makes when you play against it (or when you just watch two AIs battling).



4. By pressing the Restart button you now can choose to play from the square one at any time. Restarting one type of game (for example, human vs. computer) won't affect your current positions in other games (human vs. human or computer vs. computer).



5. If you win a round in Battle of the Pucks without losing your turn or any of your pucks, you will be awarded a star!



6. Your best moves are recorded and can be played again right at the spot or later on, when you review your personal records.



7. The program calculates each move's strength to let you know how sophisticated (wise, artful, risky) your move was. So even with the same score, your total strength will grow along with your expertise in the game.

8. At any time, you can check your current standings in Battle of the Pucks, as well as replay your three best moves so far.



9. New levels (each level up opens ten new boards to play) will become available after you reach a certain degree of mastery. This affects all three versions of the game (playing against another human or computer, or just watching two AI battling) at the same time.



The remaining things to do:

1) Adjusting the smartness of game's AI for the best user experience - will require lots of testing from players of different strengths

2) Adding sound effects

3) Adding an Info screen and more game options (choosing custom colors and smartness levels)

[TheLifemakers]

Battle of the Pucks is almost ready for release! Here is our latest gameplay video. Anyone interested in getting an apk file to test-play is welcome, just send us a PM!

[TheLifemakers]

The game has been released at Google Play!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lifemakers.battle_of_the_pucks

[TheLifemakers]

We've released version 2 of Battle of the Pucks!

- Two new levels (10 boards each), with many old boards updated or regrouped for a more logical gameplay progression. Total levels in this version: 7, total boards: 70!



- Start a new game from ANY unlocked level, not just level 1! A level-choice screen lists all locked and unlocked levels so you can track your progress.



- Added new, updated existing color schemes: brighter & more vivid colors!



- Android Immersive mode: Play full screen without the Android buttons taking space!

- Nicer animations and new visual effects!

- Fixed display on large-aspect-ratio devices such as Samsung Galaxy S8

- Fixed several bugs, including "black screen" after restart

Thanks to all our testers! Your detailed reviews and ideas have been invaluable.

What to expect in version 3: OBSTACLES! Barriers, borders, walls, pegs... insanely challenging and insanely addictive. Watch for announcements!

[turnipinrut]

Hey guys

The game looks fantastic, but i have a technical issue when i try it on my Nexus 5X. see the screen shot here: http://imgur.com/a/L26Iw

Seems like a scaling issue.

[TheLifemakers]

The game looks fantastic, but i have a technical issue when i try it on my Nexus 5X. see the screen shot here: http://imgur.com/a/L26Iw

Thanks so much for reporting this! It turns out the problem is with Android version - with version 7.1 (but not 7) we could see the bug in emulator. It seems to be caused by the immersive mode, so for now we just disabled it on that version of Android until we can properly figure out what's wrong   Right now we did a quick fix and released version 2.1 of our game - please check Play Store and download when you'll see 2.1 appear there. Will really appreciate if you could confirm that this fix works for you!

Thanks again!

[turnipinrut]

Yes working now, thanks!!!   

[TheLifemakers]

We've released version 3 of Battle of the Pucks!

- OBSTACLES! Barriers, borders, walls, pegs... think pinball. The new Level 8 (ten new boards!) introduces a new element into the game: see if you can hit the exact walls at exact angles to sweep away the enemy pucks. Insanely challenging and insanely addictive!

- New colors and new sounds!

- Fixed an immersive-mode bug on Android 7.1.

New video (for Level 8 with obstacles):

[TheLifemakers]

A funny review for our game by Daikon Media. From now on, I'll never be able to think about our multicolored game pieces in Battle of the Pucks other than as fancy condoms!