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[BinaryMind]

Here's a game I worked on in between classes this passed semester of school. The title kind of speaks for itself, you climb the building and get a high score. It takes about 15 seconds to play. Play it here.

Hold arrow keys to move, spacebar to boost, and p to pause.
 

Balance issues are all I'm really looking for here. Also, if anyone has a Linux, Mac, or Unix machine it would be greatly appreciated if this was tested on one of those. It should work on Linux, but I no longer have access to a machine to make sure. Also, post high scores!

Java was the programming language I used in one of my previous classes so I went with that. Please don't kill me.

[muku]

Uh... where's the link?

[BinaryMind]

  It's up now!

[muku]

The movement is extremely wonky... when you press a direction key, the guy first moves a little bit in that direction, then stops, then starts moving again. Evading crates is basically impossible with that kind of delay. So I found the best strategy was generally holding up and hoping that nothing would cross my path

[Landshark RAWR]

tho movement looks as is its relying on key press repetition, instead of adding a velocity to the climber, other than that it would be fine

[BinaryMind]

Thanks for the feedback!

@muku - I was worried people would do that so I had it a random block appear in the middle if people try and go down the middle and not move at all. Try going up from the sides. But yeah, I only let the player tap the arrow keys because it's hard to tell you have to hold in the arrow keys to move. The best controls were to just hold the button in.

@LandsharkRAWR - That's very helpful that you noticed that. Is that because of the player animation? As you can tell, I suck at art and will probably not have the time to fix that, but it helps for later projects.

I should have added the controls, but there is also a boost with spacebar to make things a little easier in case you guys didn't notice.

[BinaryMind]

I've made an alternate, much easier version that uses key repetition controls.  Even when I delete the code for the hold method though, the problem is still there and it's really easy to cheat by holding up. I remember this, but I never figured out how to fix it. Still, I am wondering to those who played earlier if this version is better (minus the cheat of course).

[muku]

The only difference in that version I can spot is that the guy moves faster. The awkward pause between keypress and response is still there.

By the way, if just holding up is an easy way to beat your game, I think you should redesign it so that this no longer works instead of crippling the control scheme. Put some obstacles in the middle, or encourage the player to pick up some objects which lie off the center.

[BinaryMind]

I did spend a lot of time testing the controls and it came down to move on with what I have or quit all together.

I may hopefully will find the time to fix the controls and implement the stationary obstacles you mention. I wish I would have thought about that idea earlier. Thanks again for all your feedback muku!

[Matt Thorson]

Also a tip for posting screenshots: Save them in PNG format rather than JPG. JPGs look really bad.

[BinaryMind]

You're right. I noticed that, but I thought it was just because I made the screen shot smaller. I will fix this right away.

I have decided I will also fix the controls when I have the spare time.

[BinaryMind]

So I finally got to fixing the controls. I'm not sure if that delay problem in moving was fixed however, as it never occurs on my computer (slowdown?).

Direct Link

I didn't add stationary objects as they looked pretty ugly and odd just plucked in there. Earlier in development that would have been excellent

[Stoney]

Just tested it on Mac OS X and it works fine with one little flaw: The buttons in the main menu are not green, just the usual Mac OS X buttons with blue font on them.

Is it intentional that I have to press the key every time I want to move the character? Wouldn't it be better if the character would move if the key is being held down?

The game itself is pretty easy once I figured out I had boost available.  

[BinaryMind]

The key repetition is exactly what I fixed with the controls. Holding down the button is easier yes, but as a few other people who gave feedback noticed, it looks kind of odd and urges most people to blindly go straight down the middle.

I kind of noticed boost seems a little too much I think I'm going to slightly modify the speed of the movement and the boost.

Good to know it works on Mac, thanks for all the feedback! :D

Edit: Boost is now slightly smaller.