RedditAbout lexaloffle
Entries
Ludum Dare 26 | Ludum Dare 25 | Ludum Dare 15 | |
lexaloffle's Trophies
 The "Ludum Dare Entry in SOWN" Award Awarded by PoV on January 27, 2010 |  Cat Stack Fever Medallion Awarded by Hamumu on August 23, 2008 |  kitten genius award Awarded by matrin on August 12, 2008 |
Ratings
| Ove | Fun | Inn | The | Pol | Gra | Aud | Hum | Tec | Eff | Foo | Jou | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 4.15 | 4.00 | 4.04 | 4.62 | 3.73 | 4.27 | 3.38 | 3.25 | 3.58 | 3.88 | - | 3.78 |
Papper says ...
Really neat game, hope you work some more on it after the compo.
Wiering says ...
Very nice game, not easy though, it took me a long time to get to the end. What I don't like is that it has places in the levels where you can get stuck (can't jump high enough and have to press Esc).
sol_hsa says ...
Nice game, excellent graphics, but feels like it lacks little something that would keep me playing.. I think this would be a real blast with better levels. And no, didn't pass level 2.
SteelGolem says ...
hahah cool fireworks! i couldn't get past level 3 though MAN ITS HARD
Endurion says ...
Very nice idea, well executed :)
It crashed on exit for me though.
Sophie Houlden says ...
I love this, the character is awesome, the particles are pretty and the whole concept is a big bag of fun. I totally want more :D
Hamumu says ...
Awesome game that could easily become a real product, the action to Chocolate Castle's thinking. I wish the rockets didn't live as long as they do. I'm glad I retried a million times until I finally passed the evil 2nd level, because the levels after it really open up the gameplay with their "running from an exploding building" style. The 3rd level was a real experience.
The play control was excellent too.
Note to other players: R restarts the level, and you may end up needing it.
midwinter says ...
this was pretty fun to play... i just wish i had more life! (or that there was some way to recover it?)
fydo says ...
Wow, I really really like this game! :D
Awesome job!!
You should have mentioned in the controls summary at the start of the game that you can restart the level using 'R'. Also, did you mean to leave that secret level skip in the final code? ;)
Also, fullscreen by default is a no-no, imo.
BenW says ...
Really fun but its a pain when you have to redo all the levels to get back to the one you were on.
Samiljan says ...
Needs happy music for completeness :)
I beat the game on the third try, so good difficulty.
DrPetter says ...
Very cute. I think my brother and I spent nearly an hour trying to beat that level where you start out with four crates above and in front of you, in a tight space. We intended to set them off with a quick match before jumping down into the tunnel beneath, but each and every time we messed it up somehow and left them intact. Must have played through the first few levels a dozen times by now to retry that one.
It would have been more original/interesting if you put in that hiding feature you mentioned earlier (as a quick/short panic move?), but I guess the current scheme works ok with the present levels.
The main concern I have is that there's no music. Even a simple little loop would have reduced the very empty atmosphere in those moments where all the fireworks have been set off and you're just waiting for them to die out. I could have put on some mp3's I guess, but that would be cheating ;)
Also maybe a few "fweeeee" and crackle sounds that are set off now and again mid-flight to keep the firework chaos tangible. I totally identify with the whole "no time!" thing though, as I too rushed most of the content in the last hour and minutes. It's so annoying when you waste many hours early on doing nothing, and then you discover some stupid mistake or missing feature minutes after submitting your final entry at the deadline. Next compo I should set a fictional deadline 1-2 hours before the real one.
Graphics-wise I guess the backgrounds could have used another tile or two for variation, but overall they're very good.
Jay says ...
He heh he he he... fire.
allefant says ...
I love platformers, so was a bit biased for this, resulting in high scores in general. But after starting the 10th time at the beginning, I ran out of time to to try more often. Might get back to this one later and raise the fun rating above average then. The fireworks idea is great in any case - to solve the start-at-beginning problem, I can see two ways:
1. Add some health vials or shops or re-spawn spots or continues to make it easier, so you have a chance to finish at first try.
2. Or add a score and bonus objects and more variety to the levels to increase replayability when you die in a later level.
SethR says ...
I gave a lot of 5's on this one. Excellent game.
But for crissake, next LD, please think about a "Continue" button!
gimblll says ...
Has a nice look to it. Needs a little more depth to the gameplay, the light and run mechanics are a bit too simple to keep me entertained. Good idea though and solid technically.
mjau says ...
Fun game. It can be really exciting jumping around avoiding fireworks when it's all around you, but it gets very frustrating to have to start over from level 1 whenever you die! I lost count of how many times I played through level 1 and died on level 2, and then finally, FINALLY got it, it felt like a real achievement to get to level 3. I figured I'd instantly die, but I got through that somehow (fun chase!), and instantly died on level 4 in stead. Then I instantly died on level 4 a few more times after playing the others again and finally quit in frustration to go write this =)
So. A continue feature would have been great, maybe have less hearts to start with to even it out. Barring that, some sort of short invulnerable phase when rockets hit you. Doesn't have to be long, just something to prevent you from losing all your hearts at once. On the other hand the game does have that "just one more time" appeal as it is.. So frustrating though.
Also, rockets need timeouts! I repeatedly spent several minutes waiting for the last rocket on the Nth playthrough of level 1 to stop circling in the middle of the room without hitting anything and just go explode already.
The graphics is great. Very cute =)
TenjouUtena says ...
Great game. Gets just the right level of difficulty. It is one of the 'chain reaction via. explosion' games, but tons of fun.
Deepflame says ...
Funny game, very hard though with life not recovering. All it takes is one bad arrow and it's game over. :)
mwest says ...
Very cool! Got frustrated by being stuck on level 3, but discovered the cheat keys ;-)
Could be great with some more work, hope you create that level pack and tweak the gameplay a bit to make it even better (mainly those homing rockets living too long).
philhassey says ...
Cool game :) My main complaint is that the instructions didn't tell you that pressing a number jumped you to a level .. but I figured that out eventually!
It'd be nice if the game zoomed out during explosions so you could watch em while you ran away :)
Really cool fireworks effects. Level 3 = lots of fun :)
I want more levels and additive blending effects :)
Oh, and after I quit it gave me some kind of "report this error to M$" dialog.
greencow says ...
game feels solid, nice firework effects and sprites
Archive for the ‘LD #10 – Chain Reaction – 2007’ Category
Mr. Splode Post Mortem
ok, so maybe I’m a bit late to the party, but here’s a quick post mortem for my ld10 entry. I had limited internet access for this one, and missed being able to hang out on IRC and see what everyone was up to as things progressed, but it’s been great reading the blog posts retrospectively.
:: Design
The compo started at 4pm Saturday for me (New Zealand). I got home around 6pm, completely not intending to enter, but when I saw the theme was chain reactions I caved. I spent most of Saturday evening thinking about game ideas. The main contenders were:
- a 2 player board game with tiles which keep changing colour until the board reaches a stable state.
- a dominos bowling game with many many pins standing all over the place.
- a platform game with lots of crates full of fireworks.
The last one was by far the easiest to visualise, and to know that somehow it would turn out to be fun without oo much messing around. And when I saw that Dr. Petter didn’t have platformers covered for once, it was a no-brainer. :p
:: Tools
This is my 4th entry, and I’ve used the same tools each time:
sdl, sdl-mixer, bcc55, mspaint, gimp. Also this time, sfxr.
:: Implementation
The first step is always to get a black screen which responds to keypresses. I hate that part. I cheated a little this time, by copying snippets of code out of a past entry (sprout) to get the sdl initialisation and keypress code working. Knowing I did this is a tiny lead weight which my soul will carry forever.
Next up was running around a test map. I love this part. It doesn’t take much to get a guy running around 2d blocky landscape, but it’s instantly satisfying to start leaping around and exploring the limits of the world. I spent a lot of time tweaking the physics until it had a good feel to it.
The whole time I was doing this, I was imagining how the fireworks might work. I knew how the sparklers and rockets would be, and they took very little time to draw and code. The roman candles I wasn’t so sure about, and I ended up spending 5x as much time on them. Writing code and drawing gfx doesn’t seem to be the bottleneck — it’s just deciding exactly how things should look and behave.
I had just moved back from overseas when I did this compo, and in the midst of daylight savings confusion and lack of internet connectivity, thought I was finishing at 3pm instead of 4. I realised my mistake quite close to finishing, and was very happy to have the extra hour. I didn’t leave enough time for the vital task of designing maps, but was still able to try out what I imagined to be the defining moment of the game – being chased down a corridor of exploding crates.
I did the sound in about 5 minutes with sfxr. I would formally like to donate my audio points to Dr. Petter for that one. I just grabbed the first 5 randomised explosion sounds that came out.
:: What Went Right
- Not using placeholder graphics. They have a weird way of finding their way into the finished game.
- Being familiar with the tools. I could concentrate on designing stuff rather than fighting with technical issues.
- Making sure of the design before getting deep into implementation. I didn’t end up spending much time reworking code or graphics.
:: What Went Wrong
- Bad time distribution. Even 30 more minutes working on level design would have improved the game a lot.
- Not budgeting time for details. Little things like a nice txt file to go with the game, windowed mode support, hardly take any time but would have been worthwhile.
:: The Fucha
The problem with making 48h games is that I alway want to spend more time brushing up my entry and re-releasing it. Splode is no exception — I’m thinking to make a nicer 10-level arcadey version with online scores and recording at some stage. I’ll post here when it happens.
ftp — help?
Hmnn.. my ftp server is down ): Anyone keep to upload it somewhere for me? jwwhite at gmail dot com.
Sweet timezone confusion
ok, so coding fireworks is a lot of fun and I spent way too much time on it. Now I just have an hour to finish designing the map, and come up with some sound and a title screen. Fek, there’s no way.
But wait! What’s this.. the comp finishes at 4pm NZT, not 3pm. SWEET, SUCCULENT TIMEZONE CONFUSION.
Crates!
A real in-game screenshot this time. The game should rate highly on the crate index. Each colour tag indicates a different type of fireworks.
Yikes.. 5 hours left. To do: fireworks, collisions, level design, audio. For sound, I’m going to jump on the sfxr bandwagon with everyone else. That program is so kick-ass.. I’ve been considering adding lasers just so I can make sounds for them.
First Screenie
Actually, just a mock-up. I want the main character to be quite small so that he can duck and dive around projectiles while he’s being chased by waves of exploding fireworks boxes For this purpose, he should probably have double jump, and a bit of jump-time thrust. Why not. Will probably ditch the idea of having a separate button to go into defensive mode – better just to design the levels with little holes to hide in.
Mr. Splode and the Fireworks Factory
Hey ho. I’m on a very limited (and flakey) dial-up connection this time around, so I will be working on stuff that compresses well.
I had a hard time getting away from the obvious chain reaction ideas.. and ended up settling on one of them. Explosions. Whatever this game is going to be, I know that the chain reactions have to be big, chaotic, pretty, long-winded affairs for them to be satisfying. From this premise, I arrived at the concept of a fireworks factory.
For once, I could start off by drawing a run cycle. Just like the good ol’ days.
The story: There is this abandonded fireworks factory, see. It’s full of fireworks in storage, and noone knows how to dispose of them safely. It’s time to call in Mr. Splode.
Mr. Splode has a special fire-proof cloak that he can hide under. Most of the game consists of throwing matches into large stacks of boxes full of fireworks, and taking cover.
