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Program Announcements / Blast Em 2D Game

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Kamakazi
14
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2009
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 10th Feb 2011 17:29 Edited at: 5th Jun 2011 18:48
Blast Em is an arcade-style, brick-shooting, color-matching game. The player controls a paddle that is holding a brick of a single color. The player's objective is to place the brick with other bricks in the playfield to create a match of three bricks. If a match is successful, then the matching bricks are removed from the playfield. If it doesn't create a match, it joins the other bricks in the playfield. The player is then given another brick of a random color.

The player has a set number of matches per round that must be completed. While the player is completing matches, the bricks in the playfield have a mind of their own...and will start to fall at the player's paddle. Should any brick touch the paddle, then the game will be over and a final score given.

A bonus is given between rounds. However, there is a penalty for the blocks left in the field. I have been asked why a penalty and the only reason I call it a penalty is because, at the time, I couldn't think of another way to word it.

Blast Em is a game where the player will need to use skill and speed to reach as high of a score as possible while keeping bricks from reaching the paddle. Think you have what it takes?

Revisions:
Due to an unexpected hard drive crash, the original source code has went missing. However, I managed to find tucked away a version before I attempted to add an Expert mode that was causing all the black screen issues. This version is complete and working.

Where To Get It:
The game has its own home now and can be downloaded here:

http://kamakazi20012.aisites.com/JustPushPlay/index.html
Quel
15
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Joined: 13th Mar 2009
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Posted: 10th Feb 2011 23:06
My score is 30040.

A nice little game, seemed easy at the beginning, and i was like "whaddahell...", but fortunately it quickly became an enjoyable almost 'action' kinda fun! Even if there is nothing on the screen but some colored blocks

Nice job! I wish if there were more, at least like this. People are still here that's not the problem, but almost nobody has anything to show off, not counting the 1% with big projects with questionable release dates...
Quel
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Posted: 10th Feb 2011 23:44
he-he... above 30.000 seems to be the turning point when it gets to become a nightmare basically

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Kamakazi
14
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2009
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 11th Feb 2011 01:04
Geee...I've created a monster! The highest I can get is 25,055.

@Quel...thanks for the comments.
Quel
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Posted: 11th Feb 2011 01:30
I just hope i'm not / won't be your only fan

Just tell me if you had enough of me. I had the opportunity to get an other ~5000, but it's so late here i made many very stupid placements so i failed when there was only 3-4 to go. I'm not sure, i couldn't concentrate on what's written there

For a technical aspect, a little level starting sequence, you know the classic 3-2-1-go kinda thing would have been nice, even during the day i sometimes found myself "oh, so it's started already!..."

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Kamakazi
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2009
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 11th Feb 2011 03:12
Post all you want Quel. Not bothering me any and I'm glad you are enjoying the game.
Kamakazi
14
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2009
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 11th Feb 2011 05:54
@Quel...your wish is my command LOL. Not really. But here is a patch that adds a short delay before the game starts. It's not the 3..2..1..countdown but works. I also noticed that the game was not registering horizontal matches across the top of the playfield. This is has been corrected. Anyway...here's the patch. Enjoy...and thanks for playing the game.

Patch Instructions: Simply install it over the original EXE.

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Quel
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Posted: 11th Feb 2011 10:40
Yess, i knew i could do better with a fresh head!

Tomorrow morning i give it a go again, now with the patch.

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Quel
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Posted: 11th Feb 2011 13:43
The game when quiting from a high level game, has an interesting effect, everything looks a bit thightened horizontaly i guess because of the blocks getting smaller in the game. At least looking at my desktop.

My new score.

More gameplay improvements that i would recommend: the game shouldn't only check for 3 blocks, there were occaisons for 4 or even 5 of the same color next to each other, but it only deleted 3... which looked real odd...

Also, a combo system would make it more fun, would ass a bit more strategic way to it. Like when the player makes a lot of 2's, and then fill them up in a hurry one by one, that would give much more bonus.

And i don't know if it's a bug but i can't really realise how the points are calculated. Sometimes it's fine, says i get 3000 bonus, but there is 750 penalty -> total 2250. But sometimes the final score just went crazy with no appearent reason.

And overall, could you give a small explanation on how exactly the penalty factor is calculated? Time taken, or blocks misplaced?

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Quel
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Posted: 11th Feb 2011 13:45
ha-ha.. ops...

meant: "would add a bit"

wouw...
Kamakazi
14
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Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 11th Feb 2011 14:36
Hi Quel...

First of all...how in the world did you manage to get that high of a score??? I can't even reach 30,000 points LOL. You have really put the game through its paces. Now...on to your quotes.

Quote: "The game when quiting from a high level game, has an interesting effect, everything looks a bit thightened horizontaly i guess because of the blocks getting smaller in the game. At least looking at my desktop."


Hmmm...interesting effect? The blocks stay the same size throughout the game. The game doesn't contain any programming to change the size of the blocks. If you can get me a screenshot of this effect...I'd like to see it in case I need to correct a programming error.

Quote: "the game shouldn't only check for 3 blocks, there were occaisons for 4 or even 5 of the same color next to each other, but it only deleted 3... which looked real odd..."


Yea, I agree that the limit of 3 blocks does look odd. Original designs included 4 and 5 block matches. However, with the project being a college assignment, there wasn't enough time to write the code in for the other matches...and correct any bugs that came from doing so. Just adding the horizontal effect caused a few issues. I chose to leave it with just a limit of 3 for two reasons: 1) it does add a little extra challenge and 2) it works without causing problems. In a future revision the plans to add the extra matches are still on.

Quote: "Also, a combo system would make it more fun, would ass a bit more strategic way to it. Like when the player makes a lot of 2's, and then fill them up in a hurry one by one, that would give much more bonus."


The game is trying to stay an original design. If I did that, it would be too much like a lot of other games. I have, however, thought about giving a special block for making a set number of matches that would remove surrounding blocks 3x3 wide regardless of colors. I'm also looking into having blocks move up should a horizontal match create a gap.

Quote: "And i don't know if it's a bug but i can't really realise how the points are calculated. Sometimes it's fine, says i get 3000 bonus, but there is 750 penalty -> total 2250. But sometimes the final score just went crazy with no appearent reason."


The bonus system is a little different than bonus systems found in other games. What you see is the total possible bonus points for the round. The penalty points are based on the blocks left in the level which is added up by each individual block's point value. The Penalty points are subtracted from the round bonus and the results are given to the player's score. Again, if you can provide a screenshot of the final score going crazy it would help me track down any bugs hiding in the game.

This system may sound foolish, but it does help to balance out the points among players. While it is impossible to get a full bonus (at least, I can't seem to do it), it will also give more points the better a round is played.

This is my first programming efforts with DarkBASIC so I'm still learning new stuff as I go. I tried to keep the old ways Atari created games with this project. Simply put, it's only supposed to be played to see how many points can be received. The game's thread has turned into a high score post of sorts...and you are the only one with the highest score so far.
Quel
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Posted: 11th Feb 2011 16:44
Wha-ha-hat? You say it isn't a deliberately added difficulty? Well then it is a nice accidental feature There were parts, when the playing field had almost doubled columns number than originally. Maybe you haven't experienced it because it tend to start coming above ~20.000.

(I forgot to say for that "tightening effect" thing: it does a kind of an optical illusion, it doesn't do anything to the computer. In case you may worried about that.)

The game has a real clever, original way to it, i don't think some nice additions would harm it in any way... (the combo idea for example)

If you ask me it beats the hell out of puyo-puyo (Google it if you don't know about it, it is an almost as old as tetris kinda idea, which is practically based on combos)

You can't imagine how i would adore my thread becoming a hiscore board for my game when i get there to publish... most of them just simply become dead unless it is about some real spectacular stuff, so you can feel moderately happy even now. Maybe this much of my presence drove away a couple of people, i'm gonna be quiet a bit from now.

I just wanna say: this is the first Atari style game that won my attention, and kinda got me addicted. The last one was tetris when i was 5... I'm 23 now. Very cool choices of music too
Kamakazi
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Joined: 3rd Nov 2009
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 15th Feb 2011 22:03
UPDATE: Blast Em has a few new additions. There are now two game modes: Normal and Expert. Expert is almost double the size of the Normal mode. And, hopefully, I got the Match System improved to allow for some matches beyond three bricks. In some cases, it is possible to get six, but I'll leave that up to the player's to figure out. Keep in mind one thing...it will allow either a vertical or horizontal match more than it will allowing both in a single move. Hope that this will help improve the physics of the game.

Click on the link in the top post of this thread to download the game.

FYI: My wife and I will be losing our internet for a short while due to conflicts of interest with our current service provider. We expect to be back online after the first of April and we will see everyone then. We hope that you enjoy the game! TTFN
Design Runner
13
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Joined: 16th Oct 2010
Location: In my own little world.
Posted: 21st Feb 2011 03:02
Well, your game has been tested on Intel graphics. Guess what??? It failed. The game just comes up with an all black screen, and one time it started playing music. No error message. I hope this helps somehow.

"If you can't handle me at my worst, you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best"
Kamakazi
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Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 21st Feb 2011 21:42
Thanks Design Runner for the information. I was trying to show it to our neighbor who has a new eMachine with nVidia graphics built-in and it did the same thing. The game is working, but for some reason, the Title Screen wasn't being displayed. The game is set to run in 1024 x 600, 16-bit colors. I noticed, however, that my friends display didn't support this resolution. I may have to resort back to keeping the game at 800 x 600 resolution. If anyone else who has tried to play this game has experienced this, would you please let me know? Thanks.
Drillfoot
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Joined: 7th Aug 2010
Location: United States
Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 03:57
almost hit 6 thousand on my first go. Was quite entertaining. As simple as it is.. I would like to see this made over as an app for phones. I think that's where games of this type really shine! But you did a good job here..For me, the title screen didn't display either. But I pressed space bar and the game loaded up.

rem allow user create game with one click
rem create graphics, sound, scripts, models, with one click
rem slap user in face if game choice is mmo
Kamakazi
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Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 8th Mar 2011 01:45
Thanks for the feedback Drillfoot. I'm working on a fix. I am also fixing to allow the game to have random backgrounds. Figured I could use images I created from a past college course.

As for the reason behind the game's Title not showing...it's been confirmed. The 1024 x 600 screen resolution is the culprit. I'm going to have to knock the game back down to a single game mode. The EXPERT mode used the additional screen resolution to expand the playfield and allow for more bricks to be placed.

I have future plans to port the game as soon as the AppGameKit comes out...and my first target will be Apple simply because three of their devices use the same OS.

I am seriously considering adding a feature to where the player can play against the computer. It's not solid yet, but I'm working on it. I will be posting a fixed version of the game to it's website home shortly. Thank you to all who have played the game and provided feedback.
Daygamer
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Joined: 16th Mar 2010
Location: United States
Posted: 26th May 2011 18:29
I got 28,058. Great game, Kamakazi It's really fun. I'm planning on playing it again. Maybe I'll challenge my brother to a duel!

yrotate when you can spin?
God Bless!
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
20
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 26th May 2011 20:20
I suggest you make some changes to the website. It took me too long to figure out where to download the game at.

I couldn't play the game. Intro music played but all I saw was a blank screen on Win7. I may try later on XP. I've noticed that Win7 seems to be extremely picky with resolutions, even when I know they're supported.

Kamakazi
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Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 4th Jun 2011 00:47
@ Daygamer,

Thanks for trying the game. Looks like you didn't have issues with the screen resolution (I hope).

@ Phaelax,

It's odd that I got feedback on the web site. It was put together in a hurry and using a WYSIWYG application. The college course I am taking now has introduced HTML and CSS hand coding. I'm not allowed to use Dreamweaver. One of the course's requirements is to work on a project each week for 5.5 weeks; and I have chosen to redesign the web site. I just uploaded the new design. I'm still learning CSS so if there are any browser issues, please give me time to figure it out. As of right now, I have not linked the games to the website for downloading. I am planning on adding that very soon.

Another downfall...my computer hard drive recently crashed causing me to lose a lot of my game source codes. And my backups are not where they were supposed to be. I may have to completely rewrite Blast Em again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will find the source code.

Thanks again to everyone who is playing and enjoying the game!
Stormwire
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Posted: 4th Jun 2011 03:45
Link not working.
Kamakazi
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Location: Moberly, Missouri
Posted: 4th Jun 2011 08:22
Opps...thanks for noticing that Stormwire. Here's the new link:

http://kamakazi20012.aisites.com/JustPushPlay/games.html
leo877
16
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Joined: 6th Mar 2008
Location: san antonio, tx
Posted: 17th Jun 2011 12:40
@Kamakazi.
cool game. i check out you website and saw your other game:
BOMBARDMENT. i couldnt download. also sound like you a simpsons fan. were the dodgeball.


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