Idea: XLogical in Flash

So, once upon a time (well, in 2003) there was an open-source game called XLogical for linux (apparently a clone of some extremely old arcade game). I loved playing it in 2003, but it apparently hasn’t been updated since then, and the version of SDL it uses is no longer available for current versions of unix. Fortunately, there is a working Windows version, but it occurred to me that it would be perfect as a flash game, and for some bizarre reason, no one appears to have made one yet.

It’s a relatively simple idea with a lot of possibility for variation. Basically, the game shoots colored balls out along the trench at the top of the screen, one at a time. There are a number of spinners connected to the trench, other spinners, or other trenches connected to other spinners. Each spinner can be rotated and holds four balls. When the spinners are filled up with four of the same colored balls, the balls disappear and you get points. If you get the wrong ball, you can expel it into a trench by clicking it, if the spinner is oriented correctly. The goal is to fill up every spinner on the level at least once within a certain time limit. There are all kinds of gimmicks in the later levels – teleporters, rules that spinners have to have a certain configuration of balls in order to fill (rather than four the same color) or only a certain color, roadblocks that one certain colors of ball can get through, painters that paint all balls that pass them a certain color, etc.

Since I am devoid of artistic creativity, I was wondering: If I made a game engine in AS3, would someone else (or multiple people) be willing to do graphics/sounds/level design?

What language is it in? C++?

Originally posted by UnknownGuardian:

What language is it in? C++?

Originally posted by faiuwle:

Since I am devoid of artistic creativity, I was wondering: If I made a game engine in AS3, would someone else (or multiple people) be willing to do graphics/sounds/level design?

Read the post more carefully next time, champ :)

Read my question more carefully champ.

I asked what language was the original game in.

Originally posted by UnknownGuardian:

Read my question more carefully champ.

I asked what language was the original game in.

not specific enough :D

IIRC, XLogical was made in C/C++ with SDL. I don’t know about the original original game, which was for Amiga.

In any case, it’s not simply going to be translating the code in AS3, since I’ve found that writing games for flash is rather different than writing games in C++, and it’s not like there’s a lot of hidden functionality that can’t be inferred just from playing the game. As far as graphics and sounds go, all the graphics used in XLogical are included as bmp files in the download, though I thought it would be better to design something slightly more original for the flash version.

For the programming, just keep the same methods in the same classes, and keep it structred very similar.

Mostly, the thing is that I don’t want to read through someone else’s code, and I’ve done enough programming that I can see how to achieve the same effect, anyway.

I think I would be interested in joining. I don’t quite understand how the game works, but as long as you’re the programmer, that’s ok, lol. I think it might be nice if the game were in a sort of “Neon” format, with the balls perhaps being white and simply having an array of different glow color options. The other objects could be the same. The background could be black, for optimal visibility, maybe? These are all just ideas. I have no real opinion, lol.
Well, tell me what you think!

Thanks, Electron Games

Ok, so I was just looking over the above post, and I realized that it contained no proof of myself as a reasonably adequate artist/animator. SO…(drumroll please) here’s a little sample of my work. Click here.
So there you go. The electricity is the “work” part, the little top-down dude was still a work in progress when I made that.

Well, the graphics would probably be pretty simple (unless you wanted to make something more complicated, that is!) so as long as you’re reasonably competent it should be fine. Neon/glow stuff sounds neat – could you take a screenshot from the game (or one of the ones posted on the XLogical site) and show me how (roughly) you’d want to make it look? I’m not going to be able to focus on this until maybe this weekend, though, due to school and such.

Hey! I’m actually a lot busier that I thought I would be. Really sorry, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to help with this. :(

No problem – I’ve been busy too. :P I’ll keep this open, but if at some point you become less busy and still want to help, drop me a whisper.

Ok, I will. Thanks for understanding!!