TOTB3 Lump Apps "Scallops"
LumpApps
Member Posts: 2,880
It took me a while to get started and wasn't sure if I was going to enter but here I go 
I had an idea itching in my head since I heard the theme Sea.
I was to busy with other things but yesterday I started prototyping.
So my plan is as follow:
1 prototyping gameplay and scoring
2 make art and animations
3 build interface
4 ehm did I miss anything?
Name of the game: Scallops
Concept:
A beach, waves rolling in.
A crab, thats you, lets name him Craps
Shells lying all over the beach.
A row of holes on the bottom of the screen.
Craps the Crab has to pick up shells and put them in the holes.
When he is hit by a wave he dies (or loses a life).
Hm, too simple?
Think again.
The shells have different shapes and colors.
You have to match shells and make rows of 3 or more in higher levels.
When you make a row the holes are empty again.
When Craps take to much time to empty the holes again the waves start coming in faster and lower.
This means you have to get to the shells faster because the waves roll over the shells.
So it is kind of like jewels and a bit of... Tetris perhaps?
I'm thinking about all sorts of power ups but more on that later.
What I have so far:
Craps that moves to a position you point at. You just have to hit the screen once, he remembers where you pointed and walks to that position.
Shells that I can put on the screen and get a random number (will be random images later).
Craps walks to and picks up the shells when you point at them. He then gets the number of the shell and the shell disappears. (Again the number Craps get will become an image of Craps carrying the shell.
When you then point at a hole he walks over and drops the shell. The hole now gets the number of the shell. I have 15 holes on the bottom of the screen.
I have waves rolling in. When Craps hits the wave he destroys. (will be lose life later)
Its all just boxes now but it works fine.
Next is getting the row detecting system to work. So 3 shells in a row is a set, then delete row etc.
A lot of text for now, I will post pics or movie of the prototype later.
I will not have much time this week but next week I will try and get some work done.
Hopefully I have a more or less working game at the end of the contest.
Cheers,
Ludwig
I had an idea itching in my head since I heard the theme Sea.
I was to busy with other things but yesterday I started prototyping.
So my plan is as follow:
1 prototyping gameplay and scoring
2 make art and animations
3 build interface
4 ehm did I miss anything?
Name of the game: Scallops
Concept:
A beach, waves rolling in.
A crab, thats you, lets name him Craps
Shells lying all over the beach.
A row of holes on the bottom of the screen.
Craps the Crab has to pick up shells and put them in the holes.
When he is hit by a wave he dies (or loses a life).
Hm, too simple?
Think again.
The shells have different shapes and colors.
You have to match shells and make rows of 3 or more in higher levels.
When you make a row the holes are empty again.
When Craps take to much time to empty the holes again the waves start coming in faster and lower.
This means you have to get to the shells faster because the waves roll over the shells.
So it is kind of like jewels and a bit of... Tetris perhaps?
I'm thinking about all sorts of power ups but more on that later.
What I have so far:
Craps that moves to a position you point at. You just have to hit the screen once, he remembers where you pointed and walks to that position.
Shells that I can put on the screen and get a random number (will be random images later).
Craps walks to and picks up the shells when you point at them. He then gets the number of the shell and the shell disappears. (Again the number Craps get will become an image of Craps carrying the shell.
When you then point at a hole he walks over and drops the shell. The hole now gets the number of the shell. I have 15 holes on the bottom of the screen.
I have waves rolling in. When Craps hits the wave he destroys. (will be lose life later)
Its all just boxes now but it works fine.
Next is getting the row detecting system to work. So 3 shells in a row is a set, then delete row etc.
A lot of text for now, I will post pics or movie of the prototype later.
I will not have much time this week but next week I will try and get some work done.
Hopefully I have a more or less working game at the end of the contest.
Cheers,
Ludwig
Comments
Here is a video of the 1st prototype (build in day 1).
(Frame rate is bad because I used a crappy screen capture app)
Lump Apps and My Assets
good luck and keep up the great work.
kipper
- Jeff
I guess that is what you meant? Took me a lot of thinking (6 hours+). I ended up with some extra attributes and 3 extra rules.
@Jeffrey: The waves are in fact 2 bars and an actor that changes height and angle behind it (you can see the greyisch actor behind the 2 bars. The idea is that the bars will be 'the wave heads' with an animated, (uhm... English?) white foam on it and the actors behind them will get a stretched image with transparency. The stretching is going to simulate something like in a real wave, like a harmonica so to speak.
Thanks for the great replies guys, this gets me going
Bedtime now
Lump Apps and My Assets
Naming your main character Crap, er Craps... is this humor? Or did something get lost in translation?
I got the row system working. So now it detects 2, 3 or 5 in a row and I can give points accordingly.
so
when you get the shells in a row of three: xxx I can give for example 25 points,
when you get the shells in a row of four: xxxx I can give for example 50 points,
when you get the shells in row of five: xxxxx I van give 100 points.
Took me a while to figure it out but what I am doing is having the slots look at their neighbors. When they are the same I have them ad 1 to a attribute named rowcounting. When there are four in a row, 2 of the slots detect neigbours with the same shells so it ads a 2 to the rowcounting attribute. When there are five in a row 3 slots detect neigbours so it ads a 3 to the row countingattribute.
I then have a rule which looks at the rowcounting attribute and takes that number and multiplies it with 25 (could be any number, its the value I gave to the rows). It stores this number in the score attribute and then sets the rowcounting attribute to zero. The last is necessary because else the counted rows would just grow and grow and the score would too.
Hope that makes sence.
Another thing have is a number that increases speed and the floodline of the waves. So when time passes and no rows are made the speed of the waves is increasing and the waves come in lower. I need to tweak this for good gameplay but it works. It uses a y=x^2 like equation so the speed increases and the floodline grows exponentially.
When shelves are picked up they will now stay of the board. The number of shelves on the beach stays the same. It takes a while for them to reappear. When they reappear I will make an animation so it looks like they come out of the sand (hope that makes sence).
I am working on a system that counts the number for each shell type so when there are no possibilities anymore something happens, like a game over or perhaps next level (not sure if running out of shells is a good or a bad thing
When I have 2 shells of a type on the beach and 1 in a slot there is still a row to make. I haven't got it to work that it sees the shell in the slot so it only counts the 2 on the beach and says your out of shells. I have to figure this out, but it is easy because the slot knows which number it has so I just have to add that to the attribute that counts shells on the beach.
@circletime, no it didn't get lost in translation
@kipper that could be nice but I guess it would be to frustrating. I was thinking about adding a maze like thing if I have the time. Craps now only picks up shells you point at but I can have it pick up any shell it hits too which would give a lot of frustration because you have to walk around each shell to get the right one. I might add that as a bonus level. If time is on my site
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Things to do today:
- level system: Scraps needs reach a goal of shells taken. Taken means having slotted and rowed.
- system for when there are no matches possible (done)
- system for when every slot is filled and there are no matching shells (similar to above but different
- blockades: in higher levels I want blockades so you have to walk around them
things to do later this week:
- enemies: killing scraps or stealing shells (this one is going to be fun)
- friends: giving you power ups like speed
- a world (beach) system 10 (?) levels is one beach.
- special shells (?)
- high scores
- achievements
- menu's
- All the artwork
omg this list is long
Lump Apps and My Assets
I have been working on my project late again yesterday.
I got a lot done yesterday but will have to debug lots more.
I found the framerate is to low but I know where it is coming from and hope this will be an easy fix.
- level system: Scraps needs reach a goal of shells taken. Taken means having slotted and rowed. DONE
- system for when there are no matches possible DONE
- system for when every slot is filled and there are no matching shells (similar to above but different
- blockades: in higher levels I want blockades so you have to walk around them DONE
To do:
- enemies: killing scraps or stealing shells (this one is going to be fun) (Partly Done)
- friends: giving you power ups like speed (partly done)
- a world (beach) system 10 (?) levels is one beach.
- special shells (?)
- high scores
- achievements
- menu's
- All the artwork
- Almost forgot: Music and effects.
Lets see what I can get done today. I'll try and post a video at the end of the day or tomorrow morning.
Cheers!
Lump Apps and My Assets
Looking forward to that video later.
kipper
I am trying to use my "excellent" planning skills to get things done... Pfff
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I have been working on the app for over 15 hours yesterday and got a lot done.
Had some problems with possible bugs in GS of which I posted in another thread but I have found ways to work around it.
So, video time!
In this video you see me first collect some shells in a row of three.
Then I use the temporary buttons on the right (will be triggers in the game levels) to call an enemy.
First the bottom one.
This is Camille le Coureur, he is French and loves his escargots.
He runs from left to right and will pick up all the shells (not happening at this moment, will do that later). Ypu can try to catch him to stop him from feasting from the shells.
Second button.
Meet Willy Whirly
This mini tornado is a real bugger. He doesn't do much until you point out a shell.
He then rushes to it and tries to snatch it before you can reach it.
Top Button.
This is a friend.
His name is Nova (some say his last name is Star) catch him and all the enemies on screen will be drawn into a black hole. Watch him pushing Camille and the Whirly family to a beach in some parallel universe.
Middle button: enemy.
Jelly Fish, he comes surfing in on the waves. When you touch him he stings you and you will be paralyzed for about 4 seconds.
Second button from top (not engaged in video): friend
Hyper Star (there is that name again, I wonder if he is family of nova
He comes surfing in like Jelly Fish
Pick him up and you will get hyper speed for 10 seconds.
Rush the shells to the slots before you run out of caffeine.
Today I will finish of this level so I can make more and start building menus and draw yes finaly draw some art!
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Good luck mate and I shall be watching you!
kipper
Then ad art and sound and get awesome +
Thanks Kipper!
oh and for a Dutch curse: Verd*mme!
But we mostly use sh*t in an instance like this.
Lump Apps and My Assets
cheers kipper
I am a more visual kind of people too but because of that I know I tend to get distracted by the visual. So I am being hard on myself for doing a block proto type first but then the drawing is more fun in the end.
I saw your artwork, I love the slapping fish animation. I can almost smell the fish
Cheers!
Lump Apps and My Assets
kipper
Gooooodmorning. I slept about 5 hours and have been working long last night.
I got to bed at 5.00hrs.
So yesterday was another 15+ hrs. Luckily I have am going to Luxembourg for a holiday next week, no I am not going fishing
Anfin, I got the engine working better. some interpolate 'timers' didn't work so I added some normal timers. I will have to see if I can get this better after the contest but for now its fine. I need time for other stuff.
Lets have a look at my todo list:
level system: Scraps needs reach a goal of shells taken. Taken means having slotted and rowed. DONE
- system for when there are no matches possible DONE
- system for when every slot is filled and there are no matching shells (similar to above but different
- blockades: in higher levels I want blockades so you have to walk around them DONE
- enemies: killing scraps or stealing shells (this one is going to be fun) (Done)
- friends: giving you power ups like speed (done)
To do:
- a world (beach) system 10 (?) levels is one beach.
- special shells (skip this, maybe in an update)
- high scores
- achievements
- menu's
- All the artwork (Partly done)
- Almost forgot: Music and effects.
I made a raster image so I can align my shells.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchbug/5914480205/
A sketch of scraps:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchbug/5915053170/
And the video of the day.
I have drawn all the art (by hand) and got 6 shell types colored and als made Willy Whirl but found he is to small so I will double the size of all enemies.
There are some minor things going wrong but most solutions are one mouse click away.
Lump Apps and My Assets
Good luck and may you be struck down by tulpenwoede!!!!
kipper
Can I offer you some coffee, I have the strong Italian one.
Gotta Run!
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kipper
Working on the menus now and I have to do some sound recording... in the middle of the night
I'm strong on caffeine.
How are you going?
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It was Scallops but working on the menu's I cam up with.... drum roll please: Shell Ops
Lump Apps and My Assets
If you look in the sound/music sub forum you will see how i'm going... apart from that I am shaking devices like a maracas to get the movement settings right. on the upside I did manage to licence for free a really nice peice of music which fits the mood (not bagpipes).
Good luck and shoot low- their riding shetlands!
kipper
edit- post here if you want a tester at 5 in the morning, I shall be awake and might need a similar service.
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Whaaaaah, rush!!!
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