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[jonkk]

Hello all,

Wanted to drop off this game in the hopes that some of you might play and like it. It was originally intended for the JayIsGames Casual Game Design competition, where the theme was "Ball Physics". But I got tied up in school so I didn't finish it in time. But eventually I did finish it, and here it is.



It's an arcade platform-ish type game, where the object is to jump up and bounce on a sequence of blocks without touching the ground. The game currently includes 20 levels and a highscore, based on how fast and flawlessly you make it through those levels.

It's a flash game, and it's available right here. Hope you enjoy it.

Any comments are, of course, welcome!

EDIT: The moving block glitch has been fixed, or so I hope.  Let me know if it happens again.

[Xander]

Uwaah... I didn't even make the Highscore board. It's a nice enough game, though it's a little weird to only have sound play when you clear a stage (although oddly satisfying), and for a casual audience it's certainly charming. Obviously there aren't a lot of levels yet, but as a beginners set that first 20 are okay. I think the next step would be to do some advanced stages, only one or two of the last set required much thought to get through.

I do like the idea, and it's great not to be overly punished for mistakes, letting to player get straight back to trying again is something I really wish more games would employ (No, I don't want to watch the cut-scene/skip dialogue/beat-that-boss-AGAIN!). It's just for my personal tastes I do like a little more of a challenge, but then that said it was originally intended for a casual game competition so I guess that's more my own problem really. That said I did enjoy myself, and I may try and tear that scoreboard apart later!

[handCraftedRadio]

Pretty fun game. The only thing that I didn't like was how i lost the bounce after failing to hit all the blocks and landing on the ground. It was like I was bouncing really high and then all of a sudden I couldn't bounce any more when I hit the ground. It didn't feel right to me and made me pretty frustrated. Other than that it was really fun. I would love to see more levels and maybe some different kinds of blocks.

[moshboy]

Not bad at all. The game mechanics worked well and it had a decent feel to it, although there is a hell of a lot more room for some really devious level designs.

[jonkk]

Thanks for the comments!

I thought about doing more levels, as well as more block types.  But the thought scares me, as the code has gotten quite out of hands due to me trying to make it as fast as I can (when it was meant for the competition)  So I'm just going to stick with these levels for now, and move on to my next project.

But hey, I really like the gameplay concept, so there's nothing stopping me from making a bigger, better "Rigby 2 - Don't Be A Square!" in the future.

About losing your bounce after failing to bounce on all the blocks.  I did it mostly to avoid the player starting to bounce uncontrollably between some low blocks.  Maybe you're right, it is quite annoying.  I'll see if it works without that little punishment..

Again, thanks for the constructive and positive comments!  They're very much appreciated.

[Guert]

Hello there!
I played your game a bit, passed 10-15 levels, and here are a few comments...

The firts thing that annoys me in the game is the lack of control over the ball. The arrow controls are fine in my book but the fact that you have to hold down the spacebar to jump is weak, in my opinion. Why? Because the player never knows if the avatara will jump or simply bounce off. I finished all the levels I played without ever lifting my finger off the spacebar. Basicaly, all I did was press left or right and it worked. And sometime's I bounced off higher. I think the game would benefit alot from more control over the ball. This way, you could create more complexe sinc ethe player will be able to control exactly the height of the ball.

An alternative for the jumping mechanism could be based on bouncing off. The more you bounce, the higher you go. This could bring an interesting twist to the gameplay, in my opinion.

Another thing that irritated me was the fact that you cnanot bounce off walls. Since those walls are restraining the player from exiting the game area, might as well use them.   

The game could benefit from more variety but I believe this is linked with the lack of control over the ball. Want it or not, creating levels when the only thing the player can do is to make the ball go left or right is pretty hard and it's bound to become redundant. 

In all cases, the game is fun and features cool graphics. Simple and attractive. The game has a nice childish vibe enforced by minimal punishment which makes the whole experience simple, fun and relaxed.

Good job!
Later!