Recent posts by saybox on Kongregate

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#32] Voting finished! [imp2]

I rushed this a little, I meant to post the other day but got caught up in other stuff. Justin Bieber fanboyism or something, probably.

I ignored the existing votes and went through the games like usual for this… if I end up too late to affect the outcome by the time I post, then at least I’ve added feedback for them all too!

FEEDBACK

Theifer O’Greedy: some good ideas, but from what I played the weight mechanic was underused and didn’t feel especially effective. I didn’t liek the level design much.

Long Name About Demons: I liked the idea behind this, but it was a little tricky to get into, not enough was explained or simplified. I found I could use my opponents sigils, I don’t know if that was inentino or not. Gameplay was too slow and froze when a board icon went missing entirely. I didn’t really know how to play effectively, eg whether certain icons were better to clear than others and so on. Polish it it a ton more!

Mr Collector: didn’t really have any sort of challenge, or any point, as far as I could tell. A nice start but not enough of it was there to really judge it as a game in its own right. Also, I didn’t like Mr Typewriter Text at the start. THe controls were clunky, as others mentioned.

Cat Burglar: Nice concept. The level I played was a bit too simple, and I felt the character needed to move a bit quicker. A bigger array of stuff to do would be cool. Play the Sega Master System version of Home Alone and take some ideas from that!

The Collector: Nice work on the physics, decent graphics, and variety of weapons. Less good was the dash control (it stops you being able to inch forward for a good sniper shot, for example). Most of the weapons seemed pointless because you picked up a more powerful one before any enemies showed up. THe sudden billion enemies after the empty opening area is a pretty harsh difficulty curve.

Collectron: if this was longer and had some challenge to it, I’d have voted for it. As it is, it’s too short and too simple. But good work on what’s there so far, my only other suggestion is to make the screen follow the direction the character takes whne you move to anew area.

BodyBagger: first round was interesting, though the catching felt slightly awkward. After that it didn’t have enough variety to keep me playing. I’d have preferred to make a monster with 500 hands, but that may have been techincally a little difficult!

Hunting Sim: Not really a sim as such. Decent start but needed more to be a real competitor this time around.

Photo Collection: Neat game, like playing as Peter Parker when he’s not being a super hero. Sort of. It needed mouse look really, but other than tht I enjoyed it. Lol at the duck flying backwards.

Klecter: optimal strategy is to kite enemies for as long as possible, then fire one orb at them to eliminate them all and get a huge combo of orbs. Enemies that didn’t group would have prevented this, and therefore been more challenging. also, I found the movement a bit too imprecise.

Forest of Death: Dislike: unskippable cutscenes, especially where nothing really happens. The enemies soak up way too mcuh damage, and since I didn’t read the instructions, I didn’t know how to install the car parts. Still, it was a nice start and with more work on the gameplay itself I think this could have been quite a fun game.

Surviving in the Wild: the guy in this game must be so fat, that’s probably why the heli crashed, he weighed it down! He eats so much and is still hungry! The idea and the theme made me smile – I was expecting a typical ’find berries to survive another day type thing – but the restrictions from how quickly he gets hungry kind of spoiled it.

VOTES

1. Photo Collection
2. The Collector

Special Mention: Collectron.

Topic: Kongregate / Noticed a new bar above game

I like this thread, because I remember how much RAGE three was when the original horizontal bar was removed.

Topic: Game Programming / Where is the API?

There is no download for the API, you just connect to it.

AS2 connection: http://developers.kongregate.com/docs/api-overview/as2-api
AS3 connection: http://developers.kongregate.com/docs/api-overview/as3-api

Topic: Game Programming / expecting rightbrace

Yeah, okay, now take a look at the replies you conveniently didn’t quote….. “it’s pretty obvious”, “can’t you do a little research”, “the fault is the OP’s”, “Gosh, don’t people clean up their code anymore”, “these are really basic things”, “you haven’t grasped the basic concept”, “you’re not hiding your ignorance”.

It’s not really a surprise the OP removes his posts when you talk to him like that, it’s embarrassing to have everyone tell you stuff like that.

Also, when someone asks me how to fix something, I don’t interpret it as them asking me to do the work for them, I tell them how to fix it. It’s your own choice if you decide it means they want you to write their code… it may just be that he doesn’t understand what some of the programming jargon means. Sumgato’s post (the only one offering some explanation) doesn’t explain why it’s incorrect, or how to fix it; of course he’s going to ask how if he still doesn’t understand. Maybe he just didn’t know what was meant by ‘arguments’… it might be basic, but that doesn’t mean he magically understands the term if nobody ever mentioned it before.

And yes, I would happily help if I spoke AS3. Instead, I read the AS3 beginner threads to pick some of it up myself. You can sometimes find me offering lengthy AS2 explanations in threads, since that’s a language I somewhat know.

Topic: Game Programming / expecting rightbrace

Originally posted by Ace_Blue:
But you can’t keep on asking people to do your basic debugging for you. Especially since you are visibly not learning anything from us giving you the answers.

And please stop defacing your own posts after you get your answers. You’re not hiding your ignorance, you’re just making the thread harder to follow for new readers.

Of course, if anyone that replied had taken the time to explain what was wrong, and why, he might have the chance to understand it for himself instead of having to come back every time there’s a new problem. Instead, there’s a few blocks of code with no real explanation, a few people complaining about how he “should” format his code, and a few people going on about how “obvious” or “easy” the problem is.

You guys always wonder why people in this board don’t like learning AS3, and voila, here’s why, any time someone comes along that’s trying to learn it, you’d rather be condescending about what they don’t know, than help them learn anything new.

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#32] Entries and Discussion

Originally posted by UnknownGuardian:

Theme:
TBA

Every GiTD to date, I’m sat here hoping that that will turn out to be the actual theme :D

Topic: Game Programming / Payment

No, just wait til they issue the next round of payments. Also, you need to have at least $25 pending in order for it to be paid.

Topic: Game Programming / File autosaves after save it [SOLVED]

When you close the game, flush() is called automatically. So when you put stuff temporarily in a SharedObject file (which you do), it will be saved when the game is closed.

It doesn’t do that on the first load because you don’t create the variables in the SO to save to until the player is killed by the spikes.

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Winners Announced!

Congrats Stickman! Are you gonna keep working on the game?

Topic: Game Programming / AS2 HitTest with multiple movieclips

Originally posted by DowntownVL:something like _root.Ground.attachMovie(“Ground”,“Ground” ?

Yeah, pretty much that. You need an empty Ground MC already on the stage (either created dynamically or drawn on the stage) to spawn the others in, that may be what you’re missing?

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

Originally posted by Solsund:

somewhere along the way you lost your path and ended up making something else.

I see it more as noticing a stream and a forest off to the side of the path, and wandering off to go for a swim and pick some flowers :D

I won’t quote all your other feedback, but thanks for all of it! The jumping thing is unintentional, I’m not sure what causes it. The orange is easier to get if you jump left from the left hand spring, rather than trying to hop around off platforms, btw.

I like the idea for the invisible platforms, if I can figure out how to code it.

There’s no ending cuz I didn’t finish the game, I probably should have at least added another achievement, buuuuut yeah.

Originally posted by lavaflame2:
Wait, so I could have started making a game that had to do with elements, but then decided to change it gradually every update until it had almost nothing to do with elements at all?

It depends on your goal, really. If you want people to vote for you and to win the contest, then no, don’t do that. As you can see, people won’t vote for a game they don’t think fits the theme, regardless of how you got from the theme to the finished game.

On the other hand, if you’re more like me, and the game itself is a more important goal than the contest voting, then sure, nobody is stopping you.

Topic: Game Programming / AS2 HitTest with multiple movieclips

It’s just a little change to the line where you spawn them.

Here’s what you have at the moment:

var platform = _root.attachMovie("Ground", "Ground" + _root.getNextHighestDepth(), _root.getNextHighestDepth());

Since you want to attach the MC inside theground MC, see if you can figure it out from here :D

Topic: Game Programming / AS2 HitTest with multiple movieclips

I think you have two options.

• Spawn the new blocks inside the ground MC, and keep hitTesting against ground. It will hitTest against everything in the ground MC.
• loop through the platform array and hitTest everything inside it.

I don’t know which one is “best”, but I prefer the first one.

Topic: Kongregate / the community of this site is terrible

Most large communities have positive and negative aspects. Some mainly have negatives. There aren’t any with only positives. Kongregate viewed as a whole doesn’t have a very nice community, but within the sub-groups, such as individual chatrooms, there are plenty of places, and people, that are much nicer. you can saythe same about any large website.

Topic: Game Programming / AS2 HitTest with multiple movieclips

Put pre tags around your code, not <html> ones :)

It looks like you’re spawning ground1, ground2, ground3, etc, but hitTesting against ground. I may be reading your code wrong through the formatting mixup, though.

Topic: Game Design / Copyright infringment

Nope. you’re fine with something like that.

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

Originally posted by dragon_of_celts:

It’s been a while since I’ve played AU. Would you mind reminding me what some of those significant differences are?

The original AU has no game if you take the achievements away, whereas my game still has a goal and progression, even if it’s much shorter than I’d hoped to make it.

AU2 and 3 are regular platform gamers that happen to have a lot of achievements, and I don’t think there’s any possible way to argue that nobody else should be allowed to do that.

Originally posted by I_love_you_lots:Moreover, I found the little blue elephant difficult to control, and the frequency of the achievements were annoying.

What made him hard to control?

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

Originally posted by dragon_of_celts:

You kind of undo your own point at the end, there. And if he had, in fact, put his game out with UFOs instead of water drops, you can bet that people would’ve mentioned it. You didn’t even skin yours to fit the theme.

You say “didn’t even” as if my game was completely lacking in effort, which isn’t the case. You’re right in your implied point that it would have taken no real effort at all to switch the graphics before submitting it to the contest, but it’s not like that would really have brought it any closer to the theme. Perhaps if you base theme criteria solely on graphics, but it’s not like a block of ice jumping around collecting flames would be meaningful take on classical elements IMO.

Originally posted by dragon_of_celts:

You’re comparing specific differences (the [specific achievement] goals have changed) to general differences (combining gems for effects, shooting/avoidng enemies).

If I took out the achievements bar at the side, and changed the character to a fox, would you say I’d cloned William and Sly? Because the game has pretty significant differences from AU if you take the achievements system away – and I don’t think JTMB has the monopoly on putting lots of achievements in a game, either.

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

Reviews!

Douse

The lag and the bugs are a big problem in this game. The physics-enabled shooting is an interesting idea, but the gameplay needs more to it, because it’s also pretty easy until the lag makes your browser explode. Also, flying off the bottom of the screen doesn’t end the game, so you can just sit there forever, or at least until the game crashes.

The heart looks like a powerup, but collecting it also ends the game, which doesn’t make much sense. Powerups for weapons, ship speed, etc would also be nice.

I also think scaling difficulty would work a lot better once there was a little more variation in the gameplay.

Wizard Elemental Tower Defense

The short version of this is that I really liked using the gem crafting system to find out what weapon possibilies there were, but the actual TD gameplay, and the lack of balance, stopped me from spending as much time on it as I’d have liked to.

Starting out, I just played the TD with the default weapons. Like others mentioned, you can just sselect the fire one and hold space, and nothing willget past you. But you do get exp, so you get to select a few new gems. Without an upgrade system midgame, I found myself intentionally letting enemies through so I could end the level with my exp.

Once you do have enough exp to get a few new gems and try out different combinations, that’s pretty fun. but fire remains thre msot effective, and the elemental effects dont’ seem to trigger often enough to make it worthwhile using them instad of a higher damage output. I didn’t play long enough to see all the possible options but the system certainly has potential.

I also felt levels were too long, and like others said, it’s because you don’t get to upgrade or change anything as you’re playing the level.

Having said all that, obviously for a game made in ten days, it’s a pretty solid start to what could be a really good game with some balancing and some polish. Like you said, the basis for everything is there, and I hope you keep improving it now!

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

Originally posted by Solsund:

The first one is that the game is just Achievement Unlocked. It has a blue elephant that jumps, collects coins and moves around and gets achievements for doing various tasks. It’s so uncanny I was actually surprised he wasn’t pooping pastries. At one point when playing it I turned to my wife to tell her that the game was just a copy of Achievement Unlocked and the little Elephant said “WTF is Achievement Unlocked?”.

The second part lost the game any chance at getting votes. There is only one single reference to the theme of “Elements” in the course of the game and that is that the elephant claims he is an “Element”.

Both those comments bother me a little bit, not because of how you voted so much as the fact that you’re judging my game on separate criteria to the other two.

It’s true that my entry didn’t end up with a strong link to the theme, but I explained where it started from and how iterations on the design gradually made it more abstract than the original plan. However, it still fits the GiTD rules of making a game, in ten days, based on some theme word given.

I would say that Douse ended up with an equally weak link to the theme, because the only connection is that the enemies are water drops. But because it’s a strict graphical interpretation of the theme word, it’s not something you even mentioned in your feedback. Reskin the water drops to UFOs and it can enter an alien themed GiTD. On the same note, a quick graphical update to my game could have a block of ice sliding around, putting out fires instead of collecting items, and suddenly it fits the theme perfectly, at least graphically. But it doesn’t fit the game so well to do that.

The similarities to other games also don’t just apply to mine, and it’s definitely not just a copy of AU, even if it shares many of the same concepts. The blue elephant was a funny coincidence (the first free elephant image I found that was usable happened to be that blue one), so I kept it. The goals and setting are different where difference is possible (caps lock is a pretty universal key).

Meanwhile, I’ve heard of other TD games where you combine gems to have different effects for your tower, and the idea of shooting / avoiding enemies coming towards you in an infinite cycle isn’t exactly unheard of.

So I feel like you’re judging my game on a different basis to the other two, for which you gave gameplay feedback, constructive criticism about bugs, and suggestions for improvement.

For readability I’ll post my own reviews for other games in a second post :P

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Winners Announced!

1: Stickman
2: Douse

I preferred having reviews in the same thread, incidentally. It would also have avoided the voting confusion that may or may not have existed, or still exist in the earlier posts.

Topic: Game Programming / GiTD [#31] Game Reviewing and Critiquing

OKAY HERE IS MY ENTRY

I have to admit that it’s a very abstract interpretation of the theme, and it got more abstrat the more I worked on the game. Consider it the element of surprise, if you like. I started with the idea of an elephant who’s a bit confused and thinks he’s an element, but as I worked on the game more, I focused msot of my time on stuff that was nothing really to do with either that, or elements in general.

But, i’m still entering the game even though I know not everyone will understsnd the conection to the theme. After all, the original basis for the game was still the GiTD theme, and I made it according to the GiTD time and rules. So here’s the link: http://www.fastswf.com/xofUwFk

It’s not finished, but you can get every achievement :P I’m looking forward to suggestion and feedback on it!

Art is mostly clipart.

Topic: Kongregate / Room mods are flawed but it's not their fault.

When you say ‘modless’ I read ‘noodles’.

Anyway. I don’t like the room mod system in the first place, because IMO the lack of modcall options has just made it harder to find a mod when a room needs one. I’m not too interested in the stuff about ‘rooms having their own atmosphere’ because I’ve rarely found that that actually means anything other than ‘some users in this room get special treatment’.

I don’t agree with your points about the wrong people being promoted under the new system, though, mostly because I think people were already nominating their friends. That’s always been the case in most of the rooms I’ve spent time in. It’s extremely unlikely that a mod would nominate someone for promotion that they disliked, under either system, so logically you’d expect mods to nominate their friends.

Finally, I think sometimes the users that other members think would make great mods of a room aren’t necessarily actually the best choices anyway. A non-mod who’s always in chat telling people not to spam, or to stop with the caps lock, or to use proper grammar when they chat will make an AWFUL moderator in most cases, because when they already expect to be able to control people in that manner as a non mod, they’ll be alot worse when they have the power to back up their warnings.

Topic: Kongregate / Kreds Data

What sort of information are you looking for?

Topic: Kongregate / Kreds question

I’m still hoping Kong will be kind and allow tipped Kreds to be put towards K+ purchases instead.