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[michael]

Dec 14

[download!]

its so close to being done! i just have two filler tracks that are waiting to be replaced. ive made a handful of changes and i wanted to see what people thought before i submit it.

additions/changes:
- adjusted intro. there was a lot of good feeback and i tried to do the best i could with the amount of time i had. its still not an animation that i am fully satisfied with. but i hope its an improvement.
- i added an attractor mode that activates when you idle at the start screen
- computer AI!!! (huge props to andy0_0black, this man delivers!) also a human/AI toggle screen before the game starts
- colors are more bold
- two new types of balls: superballs (100 points) and teams balls, which requires all players to reflect the ball in the right succession to give each player 100 points upon completion.
- point indicators to show you how much point you get(or lose) when you collect a ball
- intensity of the game increases over time in various graphically ways and also in game speed.
- a win/credit screen

*note: colors in this screen are not the actual colors. its kind of a long story.

PS if someone could record a video of the game that would be so amazing!




ok, new update!

[updated download!]

- fixed controls of vertical players
- implemented group score
- implemented player score ratio meter, to show what percentage of the score each player is contributed
- implemented rank system (may be wonky)

its starting to get slow for me (in windows in mac, so..), how is it for you guys? if anyone gets a chance to play this in a group, it would be really helpful to know how long it takes to get to a group score of 10,000 because thats the new, unimplemented winning scenario (ive taken out the old individual winnings.



some of the things i still need to do:
-better loading image
-start menu
-intro/cutscene
-winning/credits
-fix the rotating sun

anything else?
the solarcade
so i decided that i want to make a solar powered arcade cabinet, and to go along with it, a collection of solar themed games. this mini game was the simplest of my ideas, and the only one i could figure out how to make with my dragndrop proficiency in gamemaker. so this is a demo of the mini game tentatively called: power up! its my 4th gamemaker project and the only one ive completed. id love some feedback before i find myself a lovely programmer to make sweet code and have gamebabies with.

the game
so its pretty simple, there are four players and each player slides along the wall trying to capture balls of light being emitted from the sun. there are three types of balls: normal ones (10 points) who, upon bouncing thrice, turn into charged balls (20 points) who, upon bouncing whunce, turn into balls of petrol (-10 points) who then burst after bouncing twince. currently there is no winning, the score goes up indefinitely.

the controls
purple: a, s
blue: f, g
green: j, i
red: up, down


so ya, thats about it, there are still things i want to implement, what do you think? the colors, the sounds, the gameplay? id like to add some ways in which the players can interact, or thwart each other, to make it more competitive.

the sounds were made in sfxr and the music was made by my friend heath (siamey)

thanks!

[agj]

Really cute! I can't properly test it because I don't have three willing persons to play it with, but I enjoy its aesthetics, it looks really polished. It's a nice concept, the solar-powered arcade.

[KennEH!]

Really cool music. Definitely taking this to class for all my buds to enjoy.

[michael]

thanks agj! that is the downside to 4 player games.

Really cool music. Definitely taking this to class for all my buds to enjoy.

Really cool music. Definitely taking this to class for all my buds to enjoy.

hopefully i'll be getting him to make more music for this and for the rest of my solarcade games

[GregWS]

Looks good, I'll have to try it when I've got some people around!

Given the environmental undertone, I thought I'd let you know that YoYo Games is running their "Save the Planet" competition right now, so if you honed this game and made a few others for that solar arcade (you could set up the Game Maker game like the Cactus Arcade), you could enter the competition.  They seem to be all about casual arcady games, so you might have a shot.  Obviously if you don't know how to implement some of these ideas then that makes it a lot harder, but there's a lot of GM experts around here, and we're all happy to help out!

[michael]

spiffy! that would be a great way to help fund my cabinet! this is like some disney movie plot. i think i'll polish this game up, and make two more short games. i'll definitely be needing some help. the current thing im working on for this game is a ranking system. i think i could figure out whos in 1st place, but it gets more complicated with 2nd and third. what would be a good way to determine ranks?

thanks for letting me know about the competition architekt!

would 3 games bundled into one, like cactus arcade, be acceptable for the competition?

[GregWS]

Well, it would basically be like a mini game collection, and there's tons of commercial mini-game collections, so I don't see why it wouldn't be alright.  You may have to put all the mini games into one Game Maker file though, instead of the Cactus arcade method.

[KennEH!]

Report captain! Game was enjoyed thoroughly and laughs were had. Lasted for abot ten minutes before operation was apprehended by the Nazi leader, Teach.

[michael]

awesome!!

how was it with 4 people? does the sun shoot out enough balls, or should it be shooting out more? also, do you know how long games lasted? thanks for trying i out, im glad yall enjoyed it! hopefully i'll get a menu system and a better ending soon.

[laserghost]

Great art and music! I enjoyed how chaotic the sound fx got with all the sun spots flying everywhere. It's really fun and cheerful! I like the idea of the more valuable spots turning into bad black spots, it has a good risk/reward effect to it.

I guess my only suggestion would be to use up and down for the guys on the sides, instead of left and right.

[michael]

thanks! sfxr is such a great program! im glad that the chaos was an enjoyable experience. when i first started the game, the ball bounced once as a normal then 3 times as a charged before turning black, but this way is much more intuitive.

i agree that the side guys are tricky, i'll change that

[michael]

ok, new update!

[updated download!]

- fixed controls of vertical players
- implemented group score
- implemented player score ratio meter, to show what percentage of the score each player is contributed
- implemented rank system (may be wonky)

its starting to get slow for me (in windows in mac, so..), how is it for you guys? if anyone gets a chance to play this in a group, it would be really helpful to know how long it takes to get to a group score of 10,000 because thats the new, unimplemented winning scenario (ive taken out the old individual winnings.



some of the things i still need to do:
-better loading image
-start menu
-intro/cutscene
-winning/credits
-fix the rotating sun

anything else?

[michael]

basic titlescreen implemented! does it run smoothly?

updated [download!]

[Cymon]

Fix yer download link.

Yeah, it works okay here, Tho I still express my earlier concern about contrast. And being an arcade machine you need to implement an attract mode with instructions.

[michael]

oof, thanks, i need to remember to test them.

i tried my computer outside and it was (whodathunk!?) very washed, so im making the colors stronger



i forgot about attract mode! i also need to get AI (anyone want to help ) for the times when we dont have 3 friends over.

[Cymon]

oof, thanks, i need to remember to test them.

i tried my computer outside and it was (whodathunk!?) very washed, so im making the colors stronger

Bettar.

i forgot about attract mode! i also need to get AI (anyone want to help ) for the times when we dont have 3 friends over.

Considering I was getting beat by players who weren't moving there for a while if AI were just random spazing I can't see that anyone would notice for a while.

[michael]

lol. im gonna try and snag some help at the gmc forums for AI. but if all else fails, then random movement wouldnt be so bad

[KennEH!]

lol. im gonna try and snag some help at the gmc forums for AI. but if all else fails, then random movement wouldnt be so bad

Leveled or basic. Probably a dumb question, but I must know.

[michael]

i dont know the difference between leveled and basic AI. pretty much, go towards good balls, way from bad balls, and prefer the charged balls. so some 'closest balls' detection and a priority system. and movement. and then add stupidity to make them more human.

[michael]

[download!]

its so close to being done! i just have two filler tracks that are waiting to be replaced. ive made a handful of changes and i wanted to see what people thought before i submit it.

additions/changes:
- adjusted intro. there was a lot of good feeback and i tried to do the best i could with the amount of time i had. its still not an animation that i am fully satisfied with. but i hope its an improvement.
- i added an attractor mode that activates when you idle at the start screen
- computer AI!!! (huge props to andy0_0black, this man delivers!) also a human/AI toggle screen before the game starts
- colors are more bold
- two new types of balls: superballs (100 points) and teams balls, which requires all players to reflect the ball in the right succession to give each player 100 points upon completion.
- point indicators to show you how much point you get(or lose) when you collect a ball
- intensity of the game increases over time in various graphically ways and also in game speed.
- a win/credit screen

*note: colors in this screen are not the actual colors. its kind of a long story.

PS if someone could record a video of the game that would be so amazing!