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[PaulMorel]

Also, it keeps playing even after I close the game's tab in Fx.

Fixed.

Sorry, I hadn't tested it in a tab!

[Shambrook]

4.8k's from the final checkpoint in stage three.

I'm pretty sure I'm hooked dude.

[PaulMorel]

4.8k's from the final checkpoint in stage three.

I'm pretty sure I'm hooked dude.

heh.

The only problem is that the number of checkpoints in each stage varies every time you play it.

I've only gotten to the end with the colonists like twice.

[13_11]

In my humble opinion, PaulMorel, i like the game exactly as it is: simple, geometrical, Asteroidish, musicful - which is definitely the best part of this whole thing. Nice idea of making overlays sounds.

Maybe, maybe (now i got this thought) you could make another special tang for moving / standby mode with the ship. You know, some weak droning-buzzing sound. Just a thought.

[dustin]

I get a strange broken applet thing when I view your page which is really too bad as I would love to play this and use java to write my games as well!

[PaulMorel]

Thank you 13_11.  I don't think I have time to do anything else, so it will probably just stay as it is ... but we will see

I get a strange broken applet thing when I view your page which is really too bad as I would love to play this and use java to write my games as well!

Update java here: http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

You may also need to update your browser, if you are using an ancient one.

That page is the reason why I chose to use java for this game.  I love all platforms.

*cue troll mentioning some esoteric platform that has no JVM*

[dustin]

hm... well I'm on osx and I write quite a bit of java so I was pretty sure I had the newest java installed already.  Even so I reinstalled java 6 (that's the newest right they didn't sneak one past me?  Anyway I'm using firefox version 2.0.0.4 I so the browser is pretty new as well.  Still when I load the page at the bottom it says...

Applet ProceduralShooter notloaded

and there's just an x where it should be

[Hideous]

There's 2.0.0.14 or something now.

[PaulMorel]

Dustin, all I can really tell you is that the problem is probably on your end.  I'm using no external libraries, or optional java libraries, or any such nonsense.  It's all core java classes.

Here's the mac page for updating java.  It should have the info you need:
http://developer.apple.com/java/

Of course, the other possibility is that you are getting a cached version of the applet that was bad (although I don't recall uploading one, and I have the meta set to no-cache).  If you haven't closed all instances of your browser in a long time, you may want to do that.

[PaulMorel]

I just wanted to mark my game as FINISHED, since I will be out of town this weekend.

It isn't perfect, and it certainly doesn't use all of the ideas that I wanted to get in there, but for my first game in 8 years, I think I did OK.

It's a java browser game, and it can be played here:
http://www.thisisnotalabel.com/lastcolonists/

Forgive the slight load time on the first level.

[Melly]

Certainly interesting. The game starts lagging when I get the bouncy powerup and there are tons of bullets on screen, and when I got that one and the backwards powerup together the lag was so much that when they ended the game sped up to catch up and my colonists were hit in a split second with no chance of me defending them.

I really like the procedural music based on the enemies popping up, very Rez-like.

Overall interesting effort, fun for a while.

[moi]

Wow this is really great congratulation man, this is very nice to play.
Gameplay is very good, although I didn't understand the purpose of the colonist ship, it should be integrated in the gameplay, even in easy mode.
I think maybe the playing area could be a little bigger (to make the game more relaxed than it is now), also this could be a very good "relaxing" game if oonly you could make the levels last longer, maybe even include an option with infinite play (morphing songs maybe?) and less difficulty, some people like this kind of games for mental massage.
Once again I don't know how new the concept is (my historical game knowledge stops with the 16 bit consoles) but I think you could flesh out the game, polish it, put it on  a nice page and try to gather ad revenue from it before someone steals the idea.
 

[PaulMorel]

Thanks for the nice comments moi.

All of your suggestions are right on.  I would like to do more with the idea, but I would need to enlist a graphics programmer.

Would any graphics programmer/artist out there be interested in making a full version of this game?  I would gladly do it in any cross-platform language/environment; I only chose java because it is easy to work in for a 1-man team.

I am a highly motivated musician/programmer, and I think that I could do a full version of this game, with different styles of music on different planets, and a basic mission structure, in less than 2 months, if I could find a decent graphics programmer/artist.

[Alex May]

I very much enjoyed this game and think that you are very close to having something brilliant here. Hope you can get it going into a full project; I think you should!

[zradick]

Cool!  I like the music and the general style of the game.  I did have the whole thing kind of freeze up for a few seconds when the music re-started, which caused me to fail to move or shoot and thereby get squished by 'roids (Asteroids, not the other kind), but in general I liked it.
Cheers!
--Zack