Multiplexity: Crashblock

[jasonf]

I did a bit more work last night on the Metal arena.
I mentioned before that I plan to add various types of arena and blocks.

Wood,
Metal,
Rock,
Ice


What I've got looks OK, I need to work on the metal blocks a bit more though, they look much too plain.

Also, the level feels cold in comparison to the wooden level. This is a good thing I think as it gives a very different feel to the game, which means that it's worthwhile changing the scenery.

Depending on the performance aspects, I might add my procedural fire effect in the background.. and some particles (the arena is set in a steel foundry for the metal level)

For the ice arena, I'll be re-using my snow component from Guns Reloaded.. I might even use the water component too for the rock level. I'll have to see.

There'll be a new demo soon for people to give feedback.

[Traveler]

I've played your latest release for a bit and I must say it's becoming really quite nice. I do find it hard to play at times. For instance when I become trapped on one side and need blocks on the other.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with this bug, but at one time I was able to climb inside a wall, call the crain and drop blocks on me, without getting killed. After that I wasn't able to move anymore.
Here's a picture of that moment.

It also shows my problem. Suppose I'm at the far right side. I can't climb/jump to the left, but I do need blocks there, otherwise I can't create rows. How do I do that?

[jasonf]

Thanks for checking this out for me Traveller I really appreciate all your comments.

Yeah, I've seen that bug too.. It's really annoying but quite infrequent so it's difficult to pin down and kill the source of it. I think it's if I call a block while it's falling, I don't die, but get stuck.. something like that.

I'll put code in to prevent that and also I think I'll have to put some belt&braces code in for the time being to ensure that you're never stuck inside a block, it'll move you up to the next available block vertically.
There is a bug where if you're doing something on a falling block (when you've completed a line).. calling again I believe, you get stuck.

As for the gameplay aspects,

For situations where you're trapped, as you show in that screenshot, currently without using bombs it's impossible to get out of that scenario.

Part of this is deliberate, the player should have to think about their next move and how it will affect them, will they become trapped?

There's wall climbing, but without a way to jump off the wall at the moment, it's useless. I need to think about wether wall climbing and jumping off is a good idea or not. (It's certainly a lot more animation to do... tricky animation too ) will it unbalance the game?

I've had situations where I've gotten myself stuck, then found a way out of it using a combination of bombs and blocks, I'd blow a hole in the wall with a couple of bombs and make enough room for a block which I can climb on.. I felt a great sensation of accomplishment when I got out of that scenario by planning and luck.

But without any bombs, it's a pain.. or with bombs but not enough space to get out of the blast... pain again.

I have a couple of options as far as I can tell.

1, Add an additional jump & grab move, so the player would climb onto a block and jump & grab the block above them to the left or right and then start to climb. (Yet more animation and additional states to debug) This would only help in certain circumstances.

X <--- Jump up and grab this block and climb 
 P <-- Player
 P
 X
 X
 X

2, Add a forfeit life option so that the player appears at the top of the map again as if they'd died.

I don't want to add Mario or Sonic style jumping around though, the whole point was to try to make the animations as realistic as possible..

..also, I have to be very careful about the options I add to get out of one situation as they could unbalance the gameplay in other areas.

A friend of mine suggested tunnelling, it would help in this scenario, but people would just tunnel away the blocks they didn't want to fit with the next block, taking away part of the gameplay.


So far, my favourite idea is the forfeit life idea.. this will push the players towards playing the tetris game properly and thinking about their moves a bit more before they make them. It's also the least work for me

[WILL]

One of the toughest things I've noticed about playing this game was that you can't just slide your falling blocks nicely under another piece if you get an awkward order of pieces like you can in Tetris proper.

If there was some way to circumvent that situation it would make the gameplay a lot less difficult to win.

[Traveler]

Maybe something like this could work?

[jasonf]

I have to say, I'm liking this idea.. having a platform at the top of the arena to stand on so the player can jump.. the player can only jump over a single square though..

So how about, the crane picks you up and gently takes you to the other side of the arena, you press down to drop off the chain as it passes over the place where you want to fall..

The climb to the top takes a while so it's a sort of punishment for not organising the blocks correctly. Using the crane or jumping from the top adds to the platform genre.

I'd still need a forfeit life option for being completely trapped

Love the diagram too :-)

[jasonf]

I've done a fair amount of work today, after having a nice break over the last couple of days digging a big hole for some concrete..

I've built 2 new levels, The Metal level and the Stone level.

Screenies for everyone..








































and now, I'm off to bed.

Comments welcome.

[Traveler]

Looking great!

[Huehnerschaender]

I only can second this No more comments...

[jasonf]

Phew, I managed to quash a few really nasty bugs yesterday (hopefully I haven't introduced any new ones) I spent a long time playing the game to see how it plays, I've also been getting other people to play it while I'm there so I can see what people enjoy or struggle with. A few balancing issues have come out of this process, which I'm happy with but they're quite the opposite to what I was expecting..

1, There are too many extra lives and timeouts appearing in the game, these needs to be reduced as they make the game much too easy.

2, The chain doesn't seem to snap soon enough even on higher levels, again making the game too easy.

So I need to find that magic point to make the game difficult enough to be challenging but still remain fun. If it's too hard, people will give up. If it's too easy, people will get bored.

I'll fix those gameplay balancing issues and upload another demo, this demo should include the new levels and should pretty much resemble the final article, then it's just tidy up a few of the graphics and submit.

I was going to include other features like monsters and dangling from the crane to get to the other side of the arena, but I don't think I'll have time to implement them and still get the balance right.

I might add a high score table afterall as the wife pointed out, What's the point in collecting score then?... she's right, there's currently no point.. I could solve this problem by only throwing out extra lives when the score reaches a milestone, even then it's up to the player to collect their reward.

I could add a sliding scale, extra lives possible when the score reaches 1000, 2000,5000,10000,20000,30000,40000 the same for Timeouts although more frequently for them.

I don't want to make too many changes though at this stage now as it could affect the balance of the whole game, but it does need some attention in this area.

There will be 16 levels in the game
1-4 Woodland
5-8 Metal
9-12 Stone
13-16 Ice

After the 16th level, the game will end.