Halloween Minigame

[Jindo]

A nice idea just hit me so I'm going to attempt over the coming week to create this game, I will hopefully be finishing Vertigo soon after.

Right now, the basic idea is endurance - survive in your nightmare-infested garden for as long as possible, several difficulties and a range of obstructions and enemies to make it interesting.

Game: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6950409/h2010/Halloween2010.html

Will be updating this thread with progress as I go.

EDIT: Already divided something by 0...

 

[Jindo]

Progress somewhat:

Current Enemies/Obstructions:

• Pumpkin Shrubberies
• Zombies
• "The Pukat"
• Lava Geysers

Current Features:

• Screen-wrap
• 3 Difficulties
• Bronze-Platinum times for each difficulty.
• Health regenerates every X seconds (difficulty-dependant)
• Dynamic spawning algorithm makes not-dying tougher as you progress.

Enemy Characteristics:

• Pumpkins spit things at you.
• The Pukat floats in the air and discharges green liquids. These liquids turn zombies in to goos.
• Zombies must be under a pukat or pushed off screen to be killed.
• The jack-o-lanterns spawn as a collective shrubbery, the longer you survive the larger the shrubbery is.
• Pumpkins change when hit by the Pukat.
• Zombies act as a meat shield for jack-o-lanterns: your bullets can't go through a zombie.

Planned Features:

• Ghosts?
• Trees/Walls that spawn in similar fashion the shrubbery. You can walk through them but they will block your bullets, forcing you to change position in order to hit certain targets.

 

[PureOwnage]

You plan on releasing it on Kongregate or something?
It would be nice.

 

[Jindo]

Yep, here's a link to what I've got so far:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6950409/h2010/Halloween2010.html

 

[PureOwnage]

1. Jumping in the air feels "slippery". It's not as responsive as I would think it would be for a dodging game.
2. It's kinda annoying how the bullets (human bullets) only penetrate the bottom most row. Gets annoying to keep on jumping and trying to survive at the same time.
3. Hit detection for humans. It can skim the top or touch the sides a bit. You have to be hit almost directly in the center to get hurt.

 

[Jindo]

1. Jumping in the air feels "slippery". It's not as responsive as I would think it would be for a dodging game.

It was originally as easy to turn in mid-air as it was on ground, but a couple of players (who were adamant that the physics be realistic despite the inclusion of floating jackolanterns) insisted that it must be difficult to turn in the air.

I will adjust this later because you're right D:

2. It's kinda annoying how the bullets (human bullets) only penetrate the bottom most row. Gets annoying to keep on jumping and trying to survive at the same time.

Not too sure about this, the bullets don't 'penetrate' anything except for entities which can't be shot at.

3. Hit detection for humans. It can skim the top or touch the sides a bit. You have to be hit almost directly in the center to get hurt.

Will work on this too!

Thanks for testing!

 

[sqrage]

Hmm, it's really hard. lol

Takes a lot of luck to hit pumpkins above the floor as stated.

 

[Prometheus]

Not too sure about this, the bullets don't 'penetrate' anything except for entities which can't be shot at.

What I think he means is that you can only easily shoot the bottom row of pumpkins. Imo you should implement aiming.

 

[seph ir oth]

Too many bullets by the pumpkins results in super lag. Do you use the HitTest function for collision, or did you make your own collision detection?

 

[Jindo]

Too many bullets by the pumpkins results in super lag. Do you use the HitTest function for collision, or did you make your own collision detection?

hitTestPoint for collision. And I've done what I can do reduce lag (mainly only allowing pumpkins to fire 1 bullet at a time and reducing particle effects where excessive)

What I think he means is that you can only easily shoot the bottom row of pumpkins. Imo you should implement aiming.

Updated:

• Bullets (aka. rocks) are now flung rather than shot. (They have an arch path rather than a linear direction)
• Crouching added.
• throwing animation added
• D: face added to player
• game now saves times, medals and pumpkins killed.

Still tweaking the bullet throwing where I can to make it easier to kill, will eventually be adding a target practice room. May also be adding aiming with mouse depending on how testing goes.

 

[PureOwnage]

I like the addition of "throwing" but that means that you have to be all the way back to kill enemies in the bottom row. Mouse aiming would be nice.

Needs power-ups and upgrades (I understand it's in alpha so don't rush yourself). DAMN YOU COLUMN OF PUMPKINS!

 

[Jindo]

I like the addition of "throwing" but that means that you have to be all the way back to kill enemies in the bottom row. Mouse aiming would be nice.

One pro tip I forgot to mention: crouching (with down) causes you to throw close-range rocks.

I will probably look in to aiming though!

Needs power-ups and upgrades (I understand it's in alpha so don't rush yourself). DAMN YOU COLUMN OF PUMPKINS!

Will be working on that along with everything else ;D!

 

[PureOwnage]

Ahh thanks!
You should add that pro-tip in.

 

[Prometheus]

You can move while crouched.

 

[Jindo]

Yes, I haven't added an animation for crouch walking yet.

 

[Prometheus]

Ah, I wasn't sure if it was intentional.

 

[Jindo]

That's fine, it's always good to confirm these things incase it was a bug I missed

 

[Prometheus]

Perhaps slow down rate of fire, up enemy life or increase number of enemies, and add in mouse aiming? I find the whole arc thing a bit annoying in the sense I have to position myself in an exact position to hit an enemy. Maybe add a cross-hair where you're currently aiming?

 

[Jindo]

Yeah I'm not really feeling the arch thing.

More enemies is definitely something I want to avoid due to difficulty and due to lag when the screen is overloaded with enemies (and particles produced by them)

I'll probably try mouse aiming+shooting next (with a crosshair as you suggested)

 

[Prometheus]

When you run through the side of the map, you stop shooting. Also, mobs can spawn above where you can throw right now.