This is a bit goofy. I made this little animation on PlayCrafter - it's not even a game. It was just a way to kill a couple hours while waiting for my wife to finish her telework last week. It had struck me that the lightbulb pieces on playcrafter looked a little bit like boxing gloves, but I couldn't think up an actual game to use that for, so I just did a short "animation". I certainly wasn't expecting it to get over 200 plays in a weekend - in fact, I nearly didn't publish it.
Showing posts with label playcrafter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label playcrafter. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Shorter Version of Glass Nebula
The Glass Nebula, my first PlayCrafter Game, had a few flaws. It was kinda long, and difficult, which would be okay if it wasn't monotonous. Despite having been around for a month, and several of my other games getting rave reviews, Glass Nebula had only 2 names on the high score list, one of them being mine. It was 21-levels long, and pretty tough. Late last week, I decided to fix that. I kept the original the way it was, but made a copy. For the copy, I trimmed it down to 8 levels.
Previously, there'd be three similar levels followed by a bonus level. It went in clusters like that, and the 2nd and third level of each cluster were kinda redundant. The new version features only the best level (not necessarily the most challenging) of each cluster and just a couple of the bonus levels. It's much shorter, plays faster, and isn't quite so repetitive. It's only been up for a weekend, but it's already got three people on the high score list, half as many plays as the other version got in it's first month, and someone out there clicked the "I like this" button. I'm thinking my edits were a good idea.
Mathilde, if you're reading this, thanks for the feedback that provoked me to edit and improve the game!
Here's the new and improved Glass Nebula (Short Version)
P.S.: I also made Big Bad Fly and SWAT vs Kaiju both a little easier than they had been. The final levels on those had been really tough, and only myself and one or two members of the PlayCrafter staff had beaten them before I made the minor edits that reduced the difficulty.
On Big Bad Fly, I added some health packs to the later levels where the rocket launchers get so dangerous. In some cases the health packs replace crumble blocks in the building walls, but I also added a few to formerly "dead" airspace that the player was unlikely to spend much time in previously.
On SWAT vs Kaiju I tweaked the final boss. He's takes a little less damage to destroy, and his second weakspot is possible to shoot with missiles now, whereas before you had to "trick" him into belching nuclear fireballs into his own weakspot. It also says "King of Monsters" in big letters, so you know you're on the final fight. Hopefully more people will get to the epilogue now.
Previously, there'd be three similar levels followed by a bonus level. It went in clusters like that, and the 2nd and third level of each cluster were kinda redundant. The new version features only the best level (not necessarily the most challenging) of each cluster and just a couple of the bonus levels. It's much shorter, plays faster, and isn't quite so repetitive. It's only been up for a weekend, but it's already got three people on the high score list, half as many plays as the other version got in it's first month, and someone out there clicked the "I like this" button. I'm thinking my edits were a good idea.
Mathilde, if you're reading this, thanks for the feedback that provoked me to edit and improve the game!
Here's the new and improved Glass Nebula (Short Version)
P.S.: I also made Big Bad Fly and SWAT vs Kaiju both a little easier than they had been. The final levels on those had been really tough, and only myself and one or two members of the PlayCrafter staff had beaten them before I made the minor edits that reduced the difficulty.
On Big Bad Fly, I added some health packs to the later levels where the rocket launchers get so dangerous. In some cases the health packs replace crumble blocks in the building walls, but I also added a few to formerly "dead" airspace that the player was unlikely to spend much time in previously.
On SWAT vs Kaiju I tweaked the final boss. He's takes a little less damage to destroy, and his second weakspot is possible to shoot with missiles now, whereas before you had to "trick" him into belching nuclear fireballs into his own weakspot. It also says "King of Monsters" in big letters, so you know you're on the final fight. Hopefully more people will get to the epilogue now.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
More PlayCrafter good news!
Turns out my game "Big Bad Fly" won the latest contest at PlayCrafter! It's now one of the featured games that shows up all big at the top of the mainpage. I'm on cloud nine!
Update: I realized I didn't really say what the contest was. It was for the best game made in the 2-week period between Dec 25th and Jan 9th. All the games made during that time were automatically entered. The prize is getting my game at the top of their main page - it's not like I won money or a trip to Hawaii or anything lavish. It still makes me pretty happy, though.
Update: I realized I didn't really say what the contest was. It was for the best game made in the 2-week period between Dec 25th and Jan 9th. All the games made during that time were automatically entered. The prize is getting my game at the top of their main page - it's not like I won money or a trip to Hawaii or anything lavish. It still makes me pretty happy, though.
SWAT vs Kaiju (and other Playcrafter news)
My latest game on Playcrafter is "SWAT vs Kaiju"
In the game you play a police helicopter, battling against various big ugly monsters of the sort you'd expect to see in a Godzilla movie. Each has a weak point you must shoot to destroy them - random body shots typically accomplishes nothing. They wave their claws at you, spit atomic fireballs, etc. It's kinda short, and not that great of a game, but it was fun making the custom graphics and setting monsters loose on downtown Seattle. It's worth taking a peek at and blowing up few levels just so you can see my monster designs. The two-headed spider-lizard is pretty neat.
The "Attack Choppa" player piece is incredibly hard to build good games for on playcrafter. This was my third attempt, the other two games were so bad I never even published them.
The problem is lack of enemies. There's only one flying bad guy on playcrafter's default piece set - the UFO. It flies randomly. It's aim is horrible, with short range and a bullet that's hard to see. If you put more than one on the level, they'll probably kill each other before getting in range to kill you. Other enemies behave in completely non-airborne ways. Most are land-bound, so they're no threat to the Choppa. Those that are a threat generally out-gun the choppa, so level design becomes very trying. Unless you supply custom graphics, most bad guys seem out of scale with the choppa - such as spear-carrying giants that are bigger than the helicopter. Those that are essentially in-scale are top-view enemies, where the choppa is side-view. And then there's little oddities like the choppa can't turn around, only shoots forward, and is so wide you can't make a good maze for it. As I said, it's a really tough piece to build for, and I know because I tried three times and failed miserably twice.
In hindsight, I should have made simpler monsters in SWAT vs Kaiju, and put some work into making custom city and population pieces. Killing the monsters is rather formulaic and unexciting once you figure out a couple of simple tricks. On most levels, you can stay pretty much out of harm's way and take pot-shots at your leisure. Someday, perhaps I'll make a sequel where you have to kill the monsters before they collapse buildings and kill innocent civilians. That'd be more exciting, and thus make for a better game.
In other PlayCrafter news, they just trimmed down the Staff Picks list. It was well over 500 (I think it was over 900, but don't quote me on that), and is now down to just 140. So, at least 75% of the previous picks were purged. I'm assuming this means they've raised the bar on what it takes to get picked. Three of my four previous games made the list before, and all three are still on the list post-purge. My work makes up 2.14% of the list. Needless to say, I'm feelin' pretty good about that. It's a nice little ego boost. Thanks, PlayCrafter!
In the game you play a police helicopter, battling against various big ugly monsters of the sort you'd expect to see in a Godzilla movie. Each has a weak point you must shoot to destroy them - random body shots typically accomplishes nothing. They wave their claws at you, spit atomic fireballs, etc. It's kinda short, and not that great of a game, but it was fun making the custom graphics and setting monsters loose on downtown Seattle. It's worth taking a peek at and blowing up few levels just so you can see my monster designs. The two-headed spider-lizard is pretty neat.
The "Attack Choppa" player piece is incredibly hard to build good games for on playcrafter. This was my third attempt, the other two games were so bad I never even published them.
The problem is lack of enemies. There's only one flying bad guy on playcrafter's default piece set - the UFO. It flies randomly. It's aim is horrible, with short range and a bullet that's hard to see. If you put more than one on the level, they'll probably kill each other before getting in range to kill you. Other enemies behave in completely non-airborne ways. Most are land-bound, so they're no threat to the Choppa. Those that are a threat generally out-gun the choppa, so level design becomes very trying. Unless you supply custom graphics, most bad guys seem out of scale with the choppa - such as spear-carrying giants that are bigger than the helicopter. Those that are essentially in-scale are top-view enemies, where the choppa is side-view. And then there's little oddities like the choppa can't turn around, only shoots forward, and is so wide you can't make a good maze for it. As I said, it's a really tough piece to build for, and I know because I tried three times and failed miserably twice.
In hindsight, I should have made simpler monsters in SWAT vs Kaiju, and put some work into making custom city and population pieces. Killing the monsters is rather formulaic and unexciting once you figure out a couple of simple tricks. On most levels, you can stay pretty much out of harm's way and take pot-shots at your leisure. Someday, perhaps I'll make a sequel where you have to kill the monsters before they collapse buildings and kill innocent civilians. That'd be more exciting, and thus make for a better game.
In other PlayCrafter news, they just trimmed down the Staff Picks list. It was well over 500 (I think it was over 900, but don't quote me on that), and is now down to just 140. So, at least 75% of the previous picks were purged. I'm assuming this means they've raised the bar on what it takes to get picked. Three of my four previous games made the list before, and all three are still on the list post-purge. My work makes up 2.14% of the list. Needless to say, I'm feelin' pretty good about that. It's a nice little ego boost. Thanks, PlayCrafter!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Apparently, I'm Addicted
There's other things I was supposed to do today, but instead I made yet another game on PlayCrafter. That makes four, for those who are keeping track at home.
(Two of which, by the way, are now on the Staff Pick list and have lots of peoples names on their scoreboards. That makes me happy.)
In my latest game, you're the Big Bad Fly blowing down the houses of the 3 Little Pinks. What, that's not how you remember the story?
(Two of which, by the way, are now on the Staff Pick list and have lots of peoples names on their scoreboards. That makes me happy.)
In my latest game, you're the Big Bad Fly blowing down the houses of the 3 Little Pinks. What, that's not how you remember the story?
Monday, January 5, 2009
It's Like Pinball
I made another flash game at PlayCrafter (this is my third). It's a much shorter, simpler game than the other two. Basically, I just tried to create a pinball game within the constraints of what tools Playcrafter has. It's a bit sneakier (and more involved) than it looks at first blush - you can do a lot more to affect your score than the first two levels might lead you to believe.
As with my other PlayCrafter games: if you enjoy it, please click on the ads, since I could eventually accumulate some revenue from it. Thank you!
As with my other PlayCrafter games: if you enjoy it, please click on the ads, since I could eventually accumulate some revenue from it. Thank you!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hibernation Infestation
I made another flash game via playcrafter. It's a cute little time waste, kinda like the other one in that regards. This one's not as girly - you blow stuff up. :) You're the computer of a spaceship, that's become infested by alien bugs. You have to use your automated defense systems to get rid of all the bugs. Don't let that description fool you, though - it's more of a thinker, not an action game.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Lookie what I made...
I made this little flash game...
My game doesn't make a lot of sense, and over all it's a tiny bit ...girly, I suppose, what with the non-violent, female main character, and a color palette that sometimes dips into pastels. But, it was fun to make (and hopefully you'll find it fun to play).
It's a dexterity / "skill" game, with some minor puzzle and timing elements. The main character has a little too much inertia, on purpose, to make it tricky flying around obstacles. She also lacks any sort of weaponry, so you have to rely on timing and manuevers instead of just killing everything in site.
PlayCrafter is a very cool site that gives you online tools for building games, which is how I was able to make that. PlayCrafter is pretty much a WYSIWYG Flash game creator. It's still in it's Alpha stage, so there's limitations on what types of games you can build with it, but it's expanding. If I had wanted to spend more time and energy, I could have uploaded my own graphics and customized things a lot more. It was kinda fun, so I might make another game with it later.
PlayCrafter is a free site, and a fun way to kill time (though, since it's new and populated by mostly first-time designers, most of the games aren't terribly polished just yet). The creators of games get 10% of the ad revenue generated by their games, so if you like the game, embed it somewhere, and/or click on the ads, okay? :) Thanks!
My game doesn't make a lot of sense, and over all it's a tiny bit ...girly, I suppose, what with the non-violent, female main character, and a color palette that sometimes dips into pastels. But, it was fun to make (and hopefully you'll find it fun to play).
It's a dexterity / "skill" game, with some minor puzzle and timing elements. The main character has a little too much inertia, on purpose, to make it tricky flying around obstacles. She also lacks any sort of weaponry, so you have to rely on timing and manuevers instead of just killing everything in site.
PlayCrafter is a very cool site that gives you online tools for building games, which is how I was able to make that. PlayCrafter is pretty much a WYSIWYG Flash game creator. It's still in it's Alpha stage, so there's limitations on what types of games you can build with it, but it's expanding. If I had wanted to spend more time and energy, I could have uploaded my own graphics and customized things a lot more. It was kinda fun, so I might make another game with it later.
PlayCrafter is a free site, and a fun way to kill time (though, since it's new and populated by mostly first-time designers, most of the games aren't terribly polished just yet). The creators of games get 10% of the ad revenue generated by their games, so if you like the game, embed it somewhere, and/or click on the ads, okay? :) Thanks!
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