[What is it?]

What is it?
WebLiero is an online-multiplayer homage to the 1998 DOS game Liero.
Liero is a pixelated 2D arena shooter which plays a bit like Worms (if it were realtime) and Quake 3 Arena (if it were 2D).
The game is a classic among fans of split screen retro games and WebLiero tries to recreate its magic while adding online multiplayer capabilities.

Gameplay video




How to play
Go to https://www.webliero.com
Pick a nickname and a color
Join a room near your location or make a new room.

Controls
These are the default controls but you can change them in the game settings menu.

Move with the left and right arrow keys.
Aim with up and down arrow keys.
Shoot with D
Jump with S
Hold A to see your current weapon.
Change weapons with the arrow keys while holding A.
Shoot the ninja rope by jumping (S Key) while holding A.

About WebLiero development history
You could say that this project has been 15 years in development, and is also probably 15 years too late

In the distant past (about 15 years ago) I worked on another online multiplayer Liero clone called Gusanos.
This was my first video game project and, while it was well receieved by other fans of Liero at the time, the netcode was pretty bad.

Later on after much studying I polished my netcode skills and made an unrelated Flash game called HaxBall, which became quite popular.

In 2011 I started working on a Flash Liero clone that was using the same engine I made to power HaxBall, unfortunately I took too long to finish it and then Flash started showing signs that its days were counted so I cancelled the project.

I instead focused on remaking my engine for HTML5 in an effort to save HaxBall from its certain demise. I released the HTML5 version of HaxBall in 2017.

Using this new HTML5 engine I've now finally completed a multiplayer online Liero clone with netcode that I can be proud of.


Some final words
I'm not expecting this game to become as popular as HaxBall did, but to me, making a proper multiplayer online Liero clone has always felt like unfinished business and now I can finally be happy that I've achieved this long-time goal of mine.

It would be great however if this clone were to give Liero a new life.

Online multiplayer liero clone in flash

Sick! What're you using for networking?

Same as HaxBall, I'm using rtmfp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time_Media_Flow_Protocol)

Online multiplayer liero clone in flash

I just solved level 27 with 2 fewer moves than you thought were needed :D

Nice game

I really like this, it reminds me of a game I used to play a long time ago called Tapan Kaikki.
Unfortunately the game runs quite slow on this computer, so I gave up playing after I reached the first computer terminal.

Random feedback:
- When I picked up the first note in the first level it was unclear how to close it and return to the game, also random white pixels would appear (is that a bug?).
- I suggest that when the flashlight is turned on you render a small light centered on your own player, I found the flashlight as it is right now a bit disorienting/confusing.
- The first enemies encountered get too close to you when attacking which makes it confusing, I often lost sight of them to later find that they were actually right on top of me.

I'm really excited for this flash feature, it will really change the face of flash games.

For those of you who like HaXe, here's a molehill tutorial:
http://haxe.org/doc/advanced/flash3d

The HaXe author implemented a shader language of his own, much nicer than working with assembly and strings

I must appologize to Netsu and Oddball for not replying here to their feedback on time . I thought the thread had died and I forgot to enable e-mail notification.

So here goes the delayed reply:

Just posting to say I'm still enjoying this game and I like the way it's progressing. I do have a few suggestions though. You should show the games win conditions during the game, and maybe have the clock count down instead of up. Add the ability to change who's hosting the game, it's frustrating if you've found a good group to play with and the host has to leave. You should consider rounding the corners of the pitch, similar to an ice hockey rink, to prevent those corner pileups. When a player leaves during game their circle should disappear. Also, being able to add new players whilst in a game, instead of having to restart, would be good, but not sure how that would be handled. Anyway just a few thoughts I had. Keep up the good work.

Right now I'm doing changes to the in game UI which will allow me to implement/fix two of the issues you mentioned ( Being able to see the match settings while a match is on progress and being able to add players to a team without interrupting the match ).
I agree that changing the host when the previous one leaves would be useful, but it is pretty hard to do from a technical standpoint.
Rounded corners are now in ofcourse

I second that idea, and I must also say I am most impressed, I rechecked the game recently and it had over 3000 players online and like 15 fansites with ladders, championships and whatnot >:0
You are officially no longer the guy who made Gusanos, you became the guy who made Haxball, and that's a huge improvement, congrats

I'm impressed too ;o. HaxBall has become more popular than what I had dreamed of, now I've learnt how exhausting it can be to have a popular project going on.

I've just played a game with friends from one of the soccer forums i visit and it was fun as hell 

Thanks!

What are you using to make this game? Game maker?

The new levels are looking great! Do you plan to release right at the deadline or before it? I can hardly wait to try it :D

The game looks awesome! It's my favourite from all the entries I've seen so far :D
Keep it up!

Things that have not:
-double clicking a room should also join
-is there anything that can be done with the pings? we sometimes had pings of over a 1000 even when all of us including the host were sitting next to each other
-the admin should be able to kick players out
-the ability to resize the chat tab with your mouse would be great, especially on 1024x600 displays

Double click: definitely.
Ping: The only thing you can do about it is finding a more stable connection. I guarantee that the game runs fine in 5v5 games if your connection is good.
Admin kick: definitely.
Chat resize: I'll think about it.

One minor addition you could make
- Sort rooms by number, name of the host, country, ping (clicking on seperated text)

Yes, right now the game sorts by distance, to encourage people to join rooms near their location.


Today the game reached 200 simultaneous players. I'm in awe
It is now officially depleting my bank account, since I surpassed the app engine free quota I guess I'll have to put ads in there to pay for the bandwidth.

Haxball updated! Game stopping and all other admin features can only be used by the host now!

I'd like to point out that I'm totally blown away by the reception to the game, I was not expecting it and its the reason why I released it in such an incomplete state. So, my apologizes to those who might have gotten frustrated trying to play in a constantly interrupted 10 player public game

Is there a possibility of a "reconnection" feature? Like when you return to a game you left, you get control of the empty circle you left behind.

Yes, it is a bit complex to make, but I definitely want something like this.

Also, perhaps have auto team organization? Waiting for players to pick a team is slightly annoying.

This might also be good, I'll give it some thought.

now feel free to ignore these thoughts- I can understand if you want to stick to the simplicity you have going, it's really nice- I'm interested in your thoughts about some mini-stamina system? I imagine you've already had a think about it

basically just a 'sprint' with recharging energy (charging faster when you stand still)- I wonder how that would affect the game?
it could be interesting, because it might encourage a little more tactical play- if you hang back from the action and wait for an oportunity to grab the ball and sprint up the pitch with it, while the ones who have been fighting over the ball are more tired out.

Encouraging players to pick their moment and conserve energy might lead to more of a passing game, rather than 'everyone crowd around the ball' which seemed to happen a bit when I played (although I think we were all new to the game so maybe thats part of it). The speed at which energy is spent and recharged could dictate how 'serious' a feature this is- fast usage with fast recharge probably would have smaller effect, whereas fast usage with slow recharge would probably have a bigger tactical effect. Also the recharge rate standing vs moving would have a big impact.

anyway, just rambling- fun game!

When I first started making haxball I thought about this feature, and was planning on adding it. But then when the game got to be so playable and fun with just the kick button I became lazy and stopped experimenting. To tell the truth, the gameplay is the part of the game I have tweaked the least. And now that the game is released I'll probably be busy making much needed non-gameplay related features.

But once I get a time of relax I'll probably go back to making experiments with gameplay, and this feature will probably get tested. It will probably end up being a match setting option, something like an "Enable experimental gameplay" checkbox.

Right now there's an admin system in place, only admins can stop games and move players around. However, I made it so that everyone who joins has admin rights .
I did this because it would have been easier for me to showcase the game to newcomers, I'll make it so that only the host is an admin today (hopefully).

I'm also working on a player limit feature right now, the game isnt planned for 15 people in the same room

Oh man, I just woke up and there were 5 rooms from all over the world. :D

Despite all the gameplay and fun this game provides, I find it too hard on the eyes, I don't think dull colors mix well with black/white flickering of the dudes. Slanted pitch stripes make me somewhat dizzy, too. Cmon man, after months and months of constant unspoiled feedback it's time to give back!:P GIMME MOAR FRIENDLY COLOR SCHEME.

Seriously, don't you all find the color scheme a little off?

This is something I'd like more feedback about, does anybody else feel their eyes are being punished by the game?

Imho you can improve it in two aspects. The first one is that it's a bit difficult to determine your player immediately, you'd better highlight it. The second one isn't so important, but it could add depth: after the scores you could launch a replay, so people can view actions and live again emotions.

I definitely agree about highlighting the local player, it will be implemented soon. About the replay, I also think this would be nice, but it is also quite complex to make. I'll probably give it some thought in the future, but it wont be done soon.

Hey Basara, you might remember me for making a walljumping Gusanos mod named Jumpy
Only had time to watch the gameplay video for now, but I'll try the game itself later if I have some more time, looks very polished.

I do! It feels nice to have someone know who I am too. Hope you'll like it when you try it. Rumors say that Gliptic and I may be making a multiplayer liero clone using this in the future.

I guess nice additions to it would be adding who scored the goal and who passed it, or if it was an own goal. And maybe showing those stats at the end of the game.

I definitely want to implement this, it will be done somewhen in the future. It will probably display the last two people to touch the ball before the goal was scored.


I'm glad that those of you who tried it have liked it, and wait for further feedback and players! :D

[What is it?]

What is it?
Haxball is a realtime multiplayer ball game, A mix between football and air-hockey best played in 2v2 or 3v3 matches. It uses the new peer to peer capabilities of the flash player to create direct connections between the players. I think that it's probably one of the first games to make proper use of this feature.

Screenshots
2v2match
Prematch menu

Gameplay Video




How to play
1 - Go to http://www.haxball.com ( flash player 10 or newer required )
2 - Login with any nickname you want.
3 - Join a room near your location or make a new room.
4 - Once you are in the prematch lobby configure the teams and press the start button when everyone is ready.

Controls:
Move with the keyboard arrows.
Kick the ball with X.
Press tab to chat.

Tips and Troubleshooting:
- There is a ping display at the bottom right. "Ping: avg / max", the lower this two values are the better. If max is too different of avg then you are victim of lag spikes ( see next point ). This is not shown for the room host, since his ping is always 0.

- The netplay is quite sensitive to unstable connections, high packetloss will result in things teleporting ( prediction failure ). So I recommend closing applications like BitTorrent clients and such.

- Flash uses nat hole punching in order to establish the p2p connections, this however can fail once in a while depending on the network topology, router quality and firewall configurations. When this happens the connection will time out while trying to join a room.

- Because the game requires deterministic FPU operations, if you run this game on an old cpu that doesnt have SSE2 capabilities you will desynchronize, the game will tell you and other players about it, Desynchronized players are marked with a red nickname.


Please read: A personal appeal from Haxball Developer Basro:
I've been working on this for a few months and it has just reached a presentable and playable form. I'm now quite desperate for feedback and players . The game is still pretty much a work in progress so give me feedback about anything you like or don't like, I promise it will make a difference.

Edit: You can chat with me (and maybe other haxball players if people join) on the IRC channel #haxball @ irc.freenode.net

Sorry for the delay!

When you make a single player game, by the time you are done you'll not be able to play it without knowing all about it. Which means you are making the game solely for other people to play, but not yourself.

I like to make multiplayer games because I'm selfish. I make games because I want to play them.

I wonder if konjak took inspiration from this :o

( found it on this page which was posted on reddit: http://vacations.com/50-photos-from-air-travels-glory-years? )

All shading was manually painted on the texture:


The way I did the texturing isnt very practical though, I just draw parts of the model in an image, then assign it manually for each face.