Interesting game concept, though:
1, If you added double buffering and possibly active rendering you could get rid of the annoying flickering.
2, The best strategy seems to kill all the balloons except one in the corner and just let it keep expanding until it takes up the entire screen and other ballons can't spawn.
Browser Game: Is it Entertaining Enough?
Author
Thanks for the post Kaze!
I always forget that flickering can be a problem as I've never noticed any on my Mac for some reason. I double buffered the applet, but like I said I can't see any difference, so is the flickering under control now?
Also, yes monopolizing the screen with one balloon could pose a problem. What if instead of popping if they get too big, there could be a maximum radius for them? Say, 1/3 or 1/4 of the screen size?
I always forget that flickering can be a problem as I've never noticed any on my Mac for some reason. I double buffered the applet, but like I said I can't see any difference, so is the flickering under control now?
Also, yes monopolizing the screen with one balloon could pose a problem. What if instead of popping if they get too big, there could be a maximum radius for them? Say, 1/3 or 1/4 of the screen size?
Author
I did some work on the presentation of the game and added a nice "sky" background and strings from the balloons toward the ground. Here's what it looks like now:
And again, a link to the game: http://www.heroesofearth.net/Balloons
[Edited by - Droopy on September 23, 2008 2:01:27 PM]
And again, a link to the game: http://www.heroesofearth.net/Balloons
[Edited by - Droopy on September 23, 2008 2:01:27 PM]
Hi,
I just had a play (works fine for me using Firefox and didn't notice any flickering).
The tubing idea sounds like it's got some potential but I'm not sure about it's current implementation. I found that using it actually made life more difficult than just clicking to reduce a problem balloon's size, as I'd be forced to take my attention away from other balloons for a second or so. It just doesn't strike me as a very useful tool, so I'd be tempted not to use it at all as you can make plenty of points by just managing the size of balloons individually.
However, if you were to give a point score incentive for using the feature I'd find myself looking for ways to include it in my game-plan. Perhaps the score you gain could be relative to the amount of air transferred, causing a player to put themselves into situations where they're turning one dangerously big balloon and one tiny one into two more difficult to monitor medium sized balloons. All this would be happening while paying less attention to the rest of the play area.
The choice would be to either leave things as they are and just regulate the balloon sizes, slowly increasing your points, or increase the risk of losing but also the rate of point gain. It opens up the available strategies a little.
Anyway, it looks like you're on the way to making quite an addictive little game there, keep it up!
I just had a play (works fine for me using Firefox and didn't notice any flickering).
The tubing idea sounds like it's got some potential but I'm not sure about it's current implementation. I found that using it actually made life more difficult than just clicking to reduce a problem balloon's size, as I'd be forced to take my attention away from other balloons for a second or so. It just doesn't strike me as a very useful tool, so I'd be tempted not to use it at all as you can make plenty of points by just managing the size of balloons individually.
However, if you were to give a point score incentive for using the feature I'd find myself looking for ways to include it in my game-plan. Perhaps the score you gain could be relative to the amount of air transferred, causing a player to put themselves into situations where they're turning one dangerously big balloon and one tiny one into two more difficult to monitor medium sized balloons. All this would be happening while paying less attention to the rest of the play area.
The choice would be to either leave things as they are and just regulate the balloon sizes, slowly increasing your points, or increase the risk of losing but also the rate of point gain. It opens up the available strategies a little.
Anyway, it looks like you're on the way to making quite an addictive little game there, keep it up!
Put happy faces on those balloons! Or some other type of pictures. It would make it comical!
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Yes, limit the sizes of the balloons so you won't be able to use that as a gamebreaker. I would say a lot smaller than 1/4 of the screen, probably as wide (diameter-wise) as three of your fingers.
You know what, the monopolizing problem is probably not due to the unlimited sizes of your balloons, it's probably because you're only spawning new balloons one after the other - if you were to spawn a cluster of them at once, then you wouldn't be able to monopolize with a single balloon in the first place, as then players wouldn't be able to suppress all of those balloons at the same time.
[Edited by - Tangireon on October 1, 2008 4:19:34 PM]
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Quote:Original post by Droopy
Also, yes monopolizing the screen with one balloon could pose a problem. What if instead of popping if they get too big, there could be a maximum radius for them? Say, 1/3 or 1/4 of the screen size?
Yes, limit the sizes of the balloons so you won't be able to use that as a gamebreaker. I would say a lot smaller than 1/4 of the screen, probably as wide (diameter-wise) as three of your fingers.
You know what, the monopolizing problem is probably not due to the unlimited sizes of your balloons, it's probably because you're only spawning new balloons one after the other - if you were to spawn a cluster of them at once, then you wouldn't be able to monopolize with a single balloon in the first place, as then players wouldn't be able to suppress all of those balloons at the same time.
[Edited by - Tangireon on October 1, 2008 4:19:34 PM]
Author
Thanks guys! I liked the faces idea, so I drew up some expressions for the balloons, getting more and more distressed as they get bigger. I also set up the scoring system so that transferring air from one balloon to another greatly increases your score.
Something else I did was to start balloons at with a small radius instead of 0, to make it harder to get rid of each balloon as soon as they spawn. I also capped the balloons at a radius of 100 pixels and gave them a slight "bobbing" motion to make the scene look a little more interesting when the maximum radius is reached and it also makes it harder to just keep the cursor in the center of a balloon and click repeatedly.
Something else I did was to start balloons at with a small radius instead of 0, to make it harder to get rid of each balloon as soon as they spawn. I also capped the balloons at a radius of 100 pixels and gave them a slight "bobbing" motion to make the scene look a little more interesting when the maximum radius is reached and it also makes it harder to just keep the cursor in the center of a balloon and click repeatedly.
Quote:Original post by Droopy
...so I drew up some expressions for the balloons, getting more and more distressed as they get bigger
LOL oh lord. That's cute, really really cute. I love it.
Maybe you could also buy special instruments once you get enough points on your score, like a needle (disposable 1-time use) to pop the balloons or a scissor (also one-time use) to cut the lines of the rope so to free up some space.
Quote:Original post by Droopy
Maybe this ability combined with your concept (with your permission, of course) would expand the playability substantially.
Well you could try it out, I'm just throwing out some things you could do to vary the game (freely, without any attachments). The pre-connected tubes that I mentioned in that post could probably have a bunch of flags hanging along its length, like this:
[Edited by - Tangireon on October 1, 2008 11:35:24 PM]
Author
One more update before I head off to bed.....
I liked the idea of special tools and i worked in a toolbar on the left (show and hide with the 't' key) of a hand (the regular effect), a pair of scissors, and a needle. These will be added to eventually but for now they become available to use when the score reaches a certain limit.
The scissors cause the balloon to float up out of the screen, potentially hitting other ones on its way, and the needle simply removes the balloon.
Hopefully if I feel motivated enough the player will be able to spend their points to buy these things for one-time use, I'll add animation for the explosions and fly-away balloons, and maybe even a 'pop' sound effect.
Thanks again for the feedback and support!
I liked the idea of special tools and i worked in a toolbar on the left (show and hide with the 't' key) of a hand (the regular effect), a pair of scissors, and a needle. These will be added to eventually but for now they become available to use when the score reaches a certain limit.
The scissors cause the balloon to float up out of the screen, potentially hitting other ones on its way, and the needle simply removes the balloon.
Hopefully if I feel motivated enough the player will be able to spend their points to buy these things for one-time use, I'll add animation for the explosions and fly-away balloons, and maybe even a 'pop' sound effect.
Thanks again for the feedback and support!
I played it and it worked great for me, until a balloon popped when the game just ended, I think. I think its pretty good for a very simple web game. As suggested above, a needle which instantly destroys a balloon might add a little variety (right click to pop?). You could also vary the rate at which the balloons inflate (if it isn't already).
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