Another Webgame I'll probaly never finish

[Spriggan]

well here's what I've been working on this weekend.  You might remeber that I was makeing a breakout/arachnoid style of game a few months ago but ran into a snag.  There were to many calaculations per frames (flash can handle about 120, I had 400+   ).  So I finaly got off my butt and switched it to a tile based world.  That way I only have to test for reactions in the square where the ball is.

What I posted has two parts: Start and Create Game.  The actual game play dosen't work yet (I haven't finished the code), but you can goto the create game section and play around.  Just click around the screen to change the tile.  The level can't be saved in this version (it only works when ran from the Flash compiler).  But hey it's fun anyway.

http://www.timewastersguide.com/VG/NickelCade/index.php

[Spriggan]

ok just a quick update.  The program now loads levels correctly.  So you can click on the start button to load a generic level.  The paddle also moves.  I'll be addin the ball in soon as well as makeing the bricks disaper.

note: if you want to see the new version you'll need to clear IE's catch.

[Spriggan]

ok new version.  Now the ball will bounce off your paddle and the walls!  I haven't added the brick hit tests yet but am working on the code.  Once I get that done all that's left is the astethics of the game.

[Spriggan]

Sweet things are rolling along quite well.  All right now blocks dissaper!  Except the silver ones which are indestructable.  I've also dubbled the paddle's speed.  There is an ovbious problem with the ball hitting the bricks.  Right now it checks from the center of the ball.  Also there's no code telling the ball which direction it hit the brick from.  So it allwayse ends up going down after hitting a brick.
Fixing the brick/ball hittest is easy, I just have to code in an actual hittest function.  Right now it's just checking what grid cell it's in.  As for the direction...well I've got some ideas, but it's going to be some creative programming  

Also I've up'd the frame rate to 24 for a smoother animation of the ball.

[Spriggan]

Ok I've cleaned up the hittest just a bit.  I haven't done wha I want yet so there's still plenty of problems.  

Todays big update is there are now multiple levels (only 5 so far) as well as a score.  The placing of the score at the bottom is only temperay.  I'm going to design a place to the left that will have info and such.  You get 100 ponts for each brick and 500 for clearing a level.  You loose 20 points each time you miss the ball with your paddle.  I haven't implicated multiple balls yet so this is what you get.  And yes levels 4 and 5 are almost identical.

[Spriggan]

Umm I've noticed that sometimes the game will freeze for a few seconds then work again.  This might be my crappy PC so if anyone else has this problem let me know.  When it's loading a new level is different.  The pause is flash clearing the level then loading the new one.

[EUOL]

I don't have the freezing problem, though I did have trouble figuring out how to get the thing to start.  Eventually, it loaded a level and stuff started bouncing around.  I was pretty impressed.  The only thing was the paddle motion--it was really hard to control, and really slow.  When I hit the arrow key, it paused for a second before sliding over.

Anyway, the core of it works, so that's a very good sign.

[Entsuropi]

I'm just waiting for Spriggan to write a flash program that can do my reviews for me. They take loads of time to do - 10 minutes for 2 paragraphs of my Werewolf:tA review is waaay to long for my liking - thats time i can be eating something

[Spriggan]

OK when you click start it takes a second or two to load.  I've got a "Loading" screen but it's not showing for some reason.  I've asked somepeople at the flash site I goto to look at my codeing and see if they can figure anything out.  For me it only freezes after the first level is completed.

[EUOL]

Cool.  Are you going to make it so you die when you miss the ball?  Or is the game going to be completly point-driven.

[Spriggan]

No you're going to have X number of balls.  It's just easier to check things with out haveing to worry about staying alive.

[EUOL]

That's what I assumed.

[Spriggan]

OK after ignoreing this for a few weeks and makeing fun of Fell   I went and tried to fix a few things.

hopefully the paddle wont slow down now, I changes the function call peramiters so it calls it every frame (which is how flash times things).  Also I changed the level load function so it won't eat up us much memory.  Let me know any problems you have with freezeing and slowdown.

If the changes work then I can add the improved collision detection.

Also I changed the second level a bit.  It was too much of  a pain with the unbreakable bricks.

[Spriggan]

Part of the improved collision detection has been implemented.  It's more accurate in telling where the ball hits and changes directions correctly.  So if the ball is moveing down and hits a brick it'll bounce up.  It also can check left/right direction.  The only thing I've got left too add is frame independent collision.  This is complicated to explain if you've never used Flash.  You'll notice that sometimes the ball will move through a brick, that's because of  frame dependent collision.