Post by Adam Schmelzle on Oct 11, 2006 20:24:02 GMT -5
Alrighty, here goes...
The basic game for "Attack Paddle" is complete. It's the kind of game where you hit bricks with a ball, while moving the paddle at the bottom of the screen. Think Arkanoid / breakout / DX-Ball etc...
My problem, is not that anything is wrong with the game, but that I want it to be different. I have levels that are multiple screens high, but found that when the ball goes above the screen, it's actually pretty boring, because you have no control while it bounces around 2 screens away from your paddle. I think having large levels is a really cool idea, but I need something to keep things interesting. I have the paddle moving up the screen automatically as you destroy the lower blocks, but the bottom blocks are often left un-destroyed, while the ball bounces around the top of the game area.
I wanted to avoid the whole bad-things-falling system that is present in EVERY other ball-brick-and-paddle game, but with the larger levels, it seems like a necessity. I personally don't like having to dodge the stupid "paddle-shrink", and "fast-ball" icons that fall down, but that seems to be just about the only thing that adds dificulty to these sorts of games. I tried having special bricks that cause bad things to happen right away, but that sucked too.
The only other thing that I have thought of, has been a running timer for the level. I havn't tried it out yet, but that way all you need to worry about is extending the timer, and wouldn't need "evil" icons falling at your paddle. Anyone have any thoughts on this idea? Maybe starting with 30 seconds to finish a level, and every time you destroy a brick you get +1 sec? Maybe each type of brick adds a different amount of time?
I am going to have a "garage", and a "factory" in the main menu. The "garage" will be where you customize your paddle, by changing the way the ball bounces off it, the way the ball spins, and the speed/accelleration/decelleration of the paddle. The "factory" will be where you can use all the material collected from destroyed bricks to "build" things, like extra balls, paddle extensions, higher starting levels, and some other stuff.
I have been away on a sort of mini vacation, visiting my syster during her wedding for the last week and a half, so I haven't gotten any work done since the end of September.
Just in case anybody is wondering, the game runs at a MUCH higher framerate than Attack Chopper. It surprises me how well this game runs on every phone I try. Everybody should be getting at LEAST double, or tripple the framerate that Attack Chopper runs at. On my Samsung A920, I get a solid 60fps, and on my Nokia 6585, I get a good steady 17fps. If anybody hasn't realized this, all my games adjust dynamically to each phone, and run at the maximum possible framerate for each device.
Of yeah, and this game has better graphics than all the other crappy brick games out there on mobile phones. Hell, I even think it looks better than most PC brick breacking games. Maybe I'll post some screenshots...
The basic game for "Attack Paddle" is complete. It's the kind of game where you hit bricks with a ball, while moving the paddle at the bottom of the screen. Think Arkanoid / breakout / DX-Ball etc...
My problem, is not that anything is wrong with the game, but that I want it to be different. I have levels that are multiple screens high, but found that when the ball goes above the screen, it's actually pretty boring, because you have no control while it bounces around 2 screens away from your paddle. I think having large levels is a really cool idea, but I need something to keep things interesting. I have the paddle moving up the screen automatically as you destroy the lower blocks, but the bottom blocks are often left un-destroyed, while the ball bounces around the top of the game area.
I wanted to avoid the whole bad-things-falling system that is present in EVERY other ball-brick-and-paddle game, but with the larger levels, it seems like a necessity. I personally don't like having to dodge the stupid "paddle-shrink", and "fast-ball" icons that fall down, but that seems to be just about the only thing that adds dificulty to these sorts of games. I tried having special bricks that cause bad things to happen right away, but that sucked too.
The only other thing that I have thought of, has been a running timer for the level. I havn't tried it out yet, but that way all you need to worry about is extending the timer, and wouldn't need "evil" icons falling at your paddle. Anyone have any thoughts on this idea? Maybe starting with 30 seconds to finish a level, and every time you destroy a brick you get +1 sec? Maybe each type of brick adds a different amount of time?
I am going to have a "garage", and a "factory" in the main menu. The "garage" will be where you customize your paddle, by changing the way the ball bounces off it, the way the ball spins, and the speed/accelleration/decelleration of the paddle. The "factory" will be where you can use all the material collected from destroyed bricks to "build" things, like extra balls, paddle extensions, higher starting levels, and some other stuff.
I have been away on a sort of mini vacation, visiting my syster during her wedding for the last week and a half, so I haven't gotten any work done since the end of September.
Just in case anybody is wondering, the game runs at a MUCH higher framerate than Attack Chopper. It surprises me how well this game runs on every phone I try. Everybody should be getting at LEAST double, or tripple the framerate that Attack Chopper runs at. On my Samsung A920, I get a solid 60fps, and on my Nokia 6585, I get a good steady 17fps. If anybody hasn't realized this, all my games adjust dynamically to each phone, and run at the maximum possible framerate for each device.
Of yeah, and this game has better graphics than all the other crappy brick games out there on mobile phones. Hell, I even think it looks better than most PC brick breacking games. Maybe I'll post some screenshots...
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
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| Level 6 | Level 7 |
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