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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / [WIP] Square

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Battoad
AGK Developer
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Posted: 17th Jan 2015 13:37
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Having spent many years reluctant to depart from DBPro, I eventually decided to give AGK2 a go, even though I have owned it since its release.
A few years ago I made a game up for a DBPro competition, but even though it did fairly well, I never got round to developing it further or finishing it - that game was called "Squares".
As I would like to "convert" my earlier projects from DBPro to AppGameKit,
I thought it would be an easy place for me to start so here is a video of my work so far, now simply called "Square"

Objective: remove all coloured small squares.
How: Slide any row or column and if they are not already touching the border, they will slide 1 position in the direction you sent them. Manoeuvre squares so that 4 of the same colour occupy the centre 4x4 square area. This will remove those 4 squares and may letter 2 of the remaining squares so that you can eventually spell out the word "SQUARE". Manoeuvre those in to a separate area, top middle, also marked "S Q U A R E" and this will help remove further squares.



Hope you like.

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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 20th Jan 2015 11:40
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Looking good so far.
I got confused on which way the row was sliding at first.
Was wondering about the blanks, if they could be filled by pushing others in maybe.
I have been hashing out something similar to this, but using all lettered tiles.
Checking for valid words is a limitation for me, so I am supplying a predefined list of words to use rather than any word in the dictionary.
I see you limited it to one word, which is a good way to start.

My only worry here, is that there may be too many squares in your grid to port to phones, but I guess you can have fewer squares for that version and keep the bigger one for tablets and PCs.
I am trying to limit mine to an 8x8 grid, but I am still scratching ideas out on paper and have nothing done in working code yet.

Well on your way here, so keep at it.


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Battoad
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Posted: 20th Jan 2015 13:03
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Hi Conjured Entertainment, many thanks for your comments and feedback, really appreciated.
When using a tablet its easier to see the direction of movement as it ties in with the direction you slide your finger. The mouse pointer movement in the video doesn't really help you see it.

Filling in the blanks is a good consideration but as it is I like the restraints of movement due to the outside border. I think at this stage sliding squares to remove blanks may make it too easy, however if I am able to do that I will also try to bring the outside border in as well to keep up some degree of difficulty.

As another "level" I would also like to restrict some of the outer columns/rows from even having the ability to move with finger movement, again increasing difficulty.

I am currently working on an 8x8 version as a starter level so thank you for ideas there.
You do make lots of mistakes playing it on a phone as squares are a little too small, unless you have a stylus.

Your idea using all lettered tiles seams pretty complicated so I wish you well and looking forward to seeing it when you are able to post something.

Hope to post some improvements in a not too distant time.

Thanks again.

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baxslash
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Posted: 20th Jan 2015 14:06
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Good to see you here Juney. This looks like a fun game. Are you planning on releasing it or just using it as an experiment?


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Battoad
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Posted: 20th Jan 2015 14:38
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Hi baxslash, nice to hear from you.
Thanks for your comments.

I would love to get it released but it still needs quite a bit of work.
Thanks to the better AGK2 ide, it is pretty simple to both broadcast and export for Android, so I will attempt to release once I get a few levels of difficulty programmed in.

Outside of the forum I have had some good feedback and ideas on how to develop it further so I would like to initially release it as a freebie and depending on how big, successful and involved it becomes I may consider a new paying release but that is a long way off at this stage, if at all.

In the meantime any areas of concern, or otherwise is always appreciated since a forums worth of talented opinion is priceless.

Cheers.

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Battoad
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Posted: 28th Jan 2015 17:55
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I've been playing about adding a few levels to make the game a little easier and quicker so start with.
I have reduced the number of squares and colours for levels 1-3, as suggested by Conjured Entertainment, with level 4 remaining relatively unchanged size wise. I have also been able to increase the individual square size to help.
The option for lettered squares does not appear until level 3, shown later in this video.



It works fine on both pc and 7" android tablet but will check on other devices before long.
I still have lots to do but am getting a little closer to a possible release.
Hope you like, but as before, any comments or suggestions, always appreciated.

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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 28th Jan 2015 18:37 Edited at: 28th Jan 2015 19:26
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Looking pretty good to me. (the buttons are a bit hard to read though)
Now everyone will probably say change it back but I like how the bigger squares for the starting levels turned out.

Sweet!


Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V1 Tier 1
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Battoad
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Posted: 29th Jan 2015 15:04
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Quote: "the buttons are a bit hard to read though"

Thanks for feedback Conjured Entertainment, good or bad its appreciated.
It is the video quality that is making the button script difficult to read as on my 7" tablet the text is impressively clear.
However the poorer video quality does not give a good impression of my game so I have both increased the size of button and made the text bold so it should show up better in the next video clip, thanks.
Relating to an earlier point you made, I am still looking at options to get rid of any blank spaces, possibly as part of level changes, thanks again for that feedback.
Forum feedback appears to be quite rare so I must make the most of what comes back, cheers.

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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 29th Jan 2015 16:23
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My feedback may sound negative at times, but that is not my intention.
The intent is to help you improve the game if I can with a suggestion.
My suggestions are based on my opinions, so they are not to be weighted heavily.
It is hard to find ways to improve on praise, so feedback that may sound negative is not necessarily so.
So(again in my opinion), negative feedback is the best if it is constructive and offers you ideas for improving your game.

Cheers, and best of luck


Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V1 Tier 1
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Battoad
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Posted: 29th Jan 2015 17:25
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Hi Conjured Entertainment, I think I may have mis-led you somewhere, My apologies.
I am not criticising any comment you have made, in fact the opposite, good or bad they are very welcome.
I used the word "bad" inappropriately because as you say any comment where a project can be improved is probably more relevant and important than all good comments, lets face it, its highly unlikely we can get a project 100% first time without any opinion.

So once again, my apologies if my earlier post caused any offence. Its very clear that you are trying to help lots of us making our projects work.

Thank you and hope to hear from you again.

All the best
(you deserve 2)

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David Gervais
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Posted: 29th Jan 2015 18:09
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This game looks interesting, and well done.

I'd like to point you to an old thread of mine..

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=208087&b=41

all the 'square' tiles I posted there are free to use for both commercial and non-commercial projects.

I mention these tiles not because I think yours are bad, quite the contrary, I think you did an excellent job, and that you might get further inspiration from the tiles I posted.

Keep up the great work!!

Cheers!

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Battoad
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Posted: 29th Jan 2015 18:36
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Hi David, thanks for your link. Your graphics are unbelievably good, my graphic skills are wanting, certainly a weak point for my projects, but I do try.
I will have a closer look at some of yours to see if I can improve my project look.
Thank you

Cheers.

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David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2015 00:06
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If you need me to make any variations of those old tiles of mine, let me know, it's easy to make them, I have some templates.

And like I said, your tiles look fine, I just pointed you to my old tiles to give you a source for variety.

Cheers!

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Battoad
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Posted: 30th Jan 2015 11:52
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Quote: "If you need me to make any variations of those old tiles of mine"

Wow , thank you.
My head is in a spin at the moment because of all your tile variations. Originally I was thinking that I need plain coloured tiles because of the lettering on the tiles as you proceed. But thanks to Conjured Entertainment suggesting the possibility of making the squares larger for certain applications, which ultimately reduced the number of squares in my latest early levels, and now your tile variations, this has led me possibly away from plain tiles in some levels to tiles similar in a way to candy crush, using images and colour.
It means re-writing various parts to accommodate a change to imagery but nothing too complicated thankfully.

I am currently transforming the overall image at the moment using some of the top tiles from your sheet "--gamebits1" and will post some screen shots as soon as ready for opinions. I am also adding scroll bars for music and sfx levels which I now have working.

Thank you for your help and opinions, very grateful.

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Battoad
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Posted: 31st Jan 2015 19:30
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Thanks to David Gervais I have used one of his game tile styles to hopefully improve the aesthetics of my game.
I eventually decided to use his tile style as an overall theme which I hope you think helps it.
Screenshot attached;



If you think it does improve the looks, please let me know as I hope to expand my project further using some additional different themes.

Many thanks David for your support.

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 31st Jan 2015 22:34
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Hey that looks really good! My only suggestion would be to maybe flip the backdrop image so the blue and green lines are on the left side. They make your gui look a bit cluttered and hard to read.

http://jmoondog.weebly.com/
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David Gervais
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Posted: 1st Feb 2015 01:31
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I like how you took tiles and managed to turn them into GUI elements. very nice and creative use of the tiles. Good Job!

I agree with JLMoondog, x-flip the background, it will have the desired effect of having an accent under the play field, and make the right side less cluttered.

Again, you're welcome and it's nice to see my tiles used in a creative way.

Cheers!

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Battoad
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Posted: 1st Feb 2015 13:08 Edited at: 1st Feb 2015 13:29
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JLMoondog
Quote: "maybe flip the backdrop image "


Good call - thank you, it makes an improvement, one I probably wouldn't of thought of.


David Gervais -
Quote: "I like how you took tiles and managed to turn them into GUI elements"


Wow, that from the master. Thank you again.


I am currently animating the inner 4x4 square border to help make it stand out more and after that considering using some different tiles from David Gervais collection to add additional themes, the next one being "fruit" themed. My early trials on this were a little disappointing but hopefully I will get there.

I will post some more images when I can.

Cheers for your help.

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