Slick Forums

Hi folks!

Finally I got a project to show ye all, been a Slick user for a long time now but never got me thumb out to get a project into a reasonable play state until now.
This Webstart version is a rough alpha though, not to sure that It'll run that good at all, but it finally worked for me and I sure need some coaching to get this project further down the road, so I hope you guys can be patient with me here hehe.

Anyway, Cthulhu Breaker is a fairly straight going Breakout clone, I got a lot of powerupz planed and a couple of more brick types (including a moving brick system).

The game is pretty buggy at this stage, and me bein' more of an gfx artist than a programmer could surely get some tips on some of the problems that will occur while playing this game.

Don't mind the editor, it's pretty un-userfriendly at the moment, I hope to polish it up some till the next release, but right now I just feel like getting this game out for some feedback and general help from the community!

Here's the Webstart: Cthulhu Breaker

And here's screens:

Hi!

Iä, Iä, the game is nice and well working, as far as I can tell! I'm missing the keyboard, though:)

Well done!
Any chance to see the code sooner or later?:)

ciao!

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Carotinho

Hey there Carotinho!

I'll put keyboard and joypad support into the TODO list for the next release then! Got a controller bug to resolve as well.

Glad that it worked pretty well for ya! But I do know that the game is pretty buggy at this stage, I will happily share the source when the code is a bit more cleaned up, will go through it all with some comments and do some refactoring soon.

Heres a small list with things I will do for the next release anyhow:

- Fix a level reset button in the Pause menu (you enter that one through the ESC button) Good thing to have in this early stage incase of bugs makin' the level incompletable.

- Fix the pad movement bug (it flickers when moving mouse in Y space) Add Keyboard and Joypad support.

- Fix bricksize so that theres 1px padding for all bricktypes.

- Fix "Ball getting stuck in walls" Bug.

- Make a public release version without the "Editor" button in the menu.

- Make a "Thanx for playin'" message in the end of the 10th level and then reset Playerstats.

- Add simple Array of sounds (Brick hit, Pad Hit, Wall hit exc.)

Hi!



If you didn't tell me, I wouldn't have noticed it. But it's definitely there.



This didn't occur to me. But it looks like a case of a too long delta time when linearly interpolating position of an object, or not?



If you don't already know, I suggest sfxr:
http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html
which is a small synth useful for making simple videogame sounds.

And don't be shy with your code, nobody will come and say "oh what a bad coder you are":) Instead, everybody could learn from you (me, for example)

Ftaghn!

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Carotinho

Hey Carotinho!

I've just uploaded a new version of the game, still no sound but many obvious problems have been solved!
I've changed the movement system so that the pad flicker is gone, and I've added both keyboard and joypad support, when using keyboard the launchkey is Enter and when using Joypad the button 1.
The whole thing goes to ashes when you try out more than one controller in the same session, but I've got a option function planed for the next iteration so that you choose your controllertype before entering the game!

About the Wall problem I think I've solved that to, I think this occured when I got more than one collision in one pass (like first you hit the wall and change the direction of the ball to get of that surface, but right after you have a brick collision to handle that resets the ball direction, and poff you're stuck.) I guess I'll get reports on this if the problem still exist.

That soundapp seems like a sweet tool for on the run sound creation! Got a sweet sound to it so thats totally something I'll use in the future! Thanx for the tip!

Another change in this new version is that I've resized the bricks so that the padding is 1px as mentioned above, I think I've got some problems resolved by doing this, no more ball stuck in invincible bricks, but shit can happen hehe.

hehe I am shy of my coding indeed, but I'm not afraid to show it of in the future, but right now theres a lot of trash in there, and it's not really nicely formated, but I'll fix that up soon! If you are interested in some particular code thingies don't be afraid to PM me and I'll send you the bits you want to look at!

Glad for ya input! More updates to come!

Iä Iä Cthulhu F'taghn!

Hi,
works fine but the cursor on my win XP is dirty. I suppose it is a PNG image and there are probably some pixels in the image around the cursor that are almost transparent. They have very small opacity but windows XP (if I am correct) can't handle partial transparency in PNG cursor. So all these pixels that are almost invisible in image viewer are fully visible in case of cursor.

I would send a screenshot but the cursor is not grabbed using print screen.

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Jattra

Hey jattra!
Great to hear that the game works fine at least hehe! I've noticed the cursor problem as well, being a XP user to, maybe a TIFF cursor would solve the problem? Have to check it out!

The next version of the game is in full progress! Have made a new brick collision system that works more natural and started adding sound and soundtrack to the game! Next up is to make a "Options" menu where you can change sound/music volume, choose controller types and such.

I'll give ye guys a hollar when the next iteration is up n' running

The easest way to fix it should be to erase all pixels besides the cursor even it could be dificult to find them because they are almost invisible

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Jattra

How do you erase pixels?

I am talking about image editor. If You examine Your image closely, You should be able to find those messy pixels.

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Jattra

Iteration 2 of Cthulhu Breaker has just been uploaded and is workin' smooth on my machine at least!

Here's some features of I2:

- 11 Power Ups in the game, you start I2 with 10 bullets in yer cannon.

- Sound and Music added, need to polish some on the sounds, but It's more of an experience with some background groove!

- 10 new levels specially made for I2!

- 2 new Brick types (large round indestructible, Large Rectangular Quad hit).

- Some bricks are on the move!

- Options menu

- Light magneto pull Hold down Right Mouse button and watch them balls attract towards yer bat!

For Iteration 3 I will concentrate more on polish, making break animations for the brick, fixing up a better soundbank and just a lot of cleanin up!

yeah, so strange to see breakout with Cthulhu theme

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

cool

Thanx Aster 'n Gornova81 for testing the 2:d iteration out, I've put the project a bit on hold for a while though, might release a I2.5 version though hearing many people having trouble with sticking balls on moving invulnerable bricks :/

very cool game. nice and polished.

you should post this in the showcase section on JGO too, folk there usually like nice complete java games like this and this will likely make it into the featured section.