Concept:

Help the atom on each level recover its lost electrons! You only have 60 seconds total to collect all 100 missing electrons from the different levels.

The screenshot above shows 4 of the 20 available levels.  10 levels are picked at random each time you play.  The entire game only lasts 60 seconds (as per the contest rules.)

I created the background textures by cropping and filtering some lovely watercolor textures made by Hillary Luetkemeyer.  The artist released them for use and remix under a CC Attribution license.

Feel free to leave any feedback below in the comments.

Play Power Vacuum

This is a little demo I made this morning as a way to get a viewport concept working for the latest game I am developing.  I’ve done a few viewport type projects in other languages but had not implemented one in Flash AS3 yet.

This demo creates 300 random balls and sets them in motion inside the world.  The world’s dimensions are four times larger than the viewport above.

You can click in the window above and use the arrow keys to move the viewport around the world.  The source files for this tutorial are available at the end of the article.

BACKGROUND

I needed to be able to have world coordinates for my latest game along with a viewport which follows the player.  All the objects in the world must move according to various physics and be able to be mapped into the current viewport for display purposes.  After hacking around for a while unsuccessfully last night on the game code I realized this morning that it would just be better to start fresh on a little proof of concept demo until I had it all working.

I thought I’d share some of the concepts in case it could help someone else as well as get any code or design feedback from anyone who may have implemented these in a different or more efficient way.  I can already think of a ton of improvements my rudimentary solution could use but I’ll add them as necessary.

BASIC DOCUMENT CLASS VARS AND CONSTANTS:

// Viewport related constants:
private static const VIEWPORT_WIDTH:Number = 350;
private static const VIEWPORT_HEIGHT:Number = 300;
private static const VIEW_STEP:int = 25;

// World related constants:
public static const WORLD_WIDTH:Number = 1400;
public static const WORLD_HEIGHT:Number = 1200;

// Current viewport coords:
private var viewportX:Number;
private var viewportY:Number;

INITIAL SETUP OF VIEWPORT AND CREATING CIRCLES WITHIN WORLD:

This snippet is occurring inside an init() function that is called from the document class constructor. This is all one time setup.

// set view port coords to middle of world:
viewportX = WORLD_WIDTH / 2;
viewportY = WORLD_HEIGHT / 2;

// create a bunch of random circles scattered across the world:
circles = new Array();
for (var i:int = 0; i < NUM_CIRCLES; i++) {
var circle:Circle = new Circle();

// grab random x that falls within world space:
var wX:Number = GameUtils.randRange(0 + (circle.width / 2), WORLD_WIDTH - (circle.width / 2));

// grab random y that falls within world space:
var wY:Number = GameUtils.randRange(0 + (circle.height / 2), WORLD_HEIGHT - (circle.height / 2));

// set the coordinates for our circle:
circle.placeInWorld(wX, wY);

// add our circle to the display list:
addChild(circle);

// push our circle onto our array of circles:
circles.push(circle);

SNIPPET OF HANDLING KEYBOARD INPUT TO MOVE THE VIEWPORT:

This snippet is occurring inside a keyDown listener function which listens for the user hitting the arrow keys.  Each time the keys are hit it moves the viewport in the appropriate direction while performing range checking with the world borders.

if (e.keyCode == 38) {            // UP
 viewportY -= VIEW_STEP;
 if (viewportY < 0) { viewportY = 0; }
}

MAIN PROGRAM LOOP:

This is a simple enterFrame listener that loops through all the active circles and calls their update method. After the update method we alter the coordinates of the parent display object (in this case the instance of our viewport) inversely with the viewport coordinates. This allows Flash to automatically handle updating all the positions of the circles which are children of our viewport instance. Thanks to draknek for this elegant suggestion!

private function enterFrameListener(e:Event):void {
	for (var i:int = 0; i < circles.length; i++) {
		circles[i].update();
	}

	// pan the viewport
	x = -viewportX;
	y = -viewportY;
}

CIRCLE CLASS VARS:

Here are the variables that define my circle class.  This class is pretty basic and nothing too special has to happen here with regards to the viewport. The class will have to perform range checking with the borders of the world.

// Velocity:
private var velX:Number;
private var velY:Number;

CIRCLE UPDATE METHOD:

Here is a snippet from the update method that gives the basic idea of how to adjust the coords while range checking against the larger world borders.

// Adjust the x coord by current x velocity:
x += velX;

// Perform boundary checking with world borders and adjust
// position and velocity direction accordingly:
if (x < (width / 2)) {
	x = (width / 2);
	velX = -velX;
} else if (x > ViewPort.WORLD_WIDTH - (width / 2)) {
	x = ViewPort.WORLD_WIDTH - (width / 2);
	velX = -velX;
}

So that is my concept of one way to do a basic viewport in AS3.  I am happy to get any feedback on this code and the way I solved this problem.  I know there are many ways to implement these things but this is what I am going to run with for now as it seems to be working pretty good!

EDIT: Thank you to Draknek (see comments below) for an elegant refinement to my code that allowed me to no longer have to track world coordinates on the child objects. Now I can just let Flash handle updating all the positions for me by moving the parent display object instead of manually doing that.

Download the v0.2 source files and fla for this tutorial

I have just completed a new Flash game called Worderfall this month with my good friend and fellow game designer Jeremy P. Bushnell.  This time around it is a word game that utilizes an extremely large database of valid English words.

The concept is a fairly simple one.  You have three minutes to create as many high scoring words as you can.  The game increases pace with each minute that passes.  There are a ton of game statistics that are tracked as well for those who would like to improve their scores or at least measure their progress.

Here is a game play video which explains how to play:

Here is a game play screenshot:

I welcome your feedback and thoughts positive or negative.  Thanks for giving it a try!

My idea on the theme was that you play as the cavern.  You have to use your natural defenses like stalactites and steam vents to eliminate the creatures that have come to call you home.  In this version you are mainly facing off against bats and cavemen though in an expansion I hope to add in many time periods of history of various cavern dwellers and users.

Here is a scene from level 5.  There are currently only 5 levels in the game.  You have limited amount of time on each level to try and destroy as many creatures as you can.  There is a nice combo system and random bonus creatures that will help you go for some big points.  There is also a completion bonus with extra rewards for perfect completion.  To encourage some friendly competition I tied in MochiMedia’s excellent global leaderboard system and even wrote up a simple leaderboard tutorial ahead of the competition in case any other LD15 participants who used Flash wanted to give it a go.

Once again Ludum Dare was an absolute blast!  There was record turn out like last time and 144 games were submitted in total!  You can view the current game list here.  My LD15 dev blog can be viewed here too.

I used the Flash CS4 IDE to develop this game in Actionscript 3.0. I also used SFXR to generate the sound effects and composed the menu and level music in Reason.  You can even view a timelapse of my games 36 hours of creation compressed into 3 minutes!  Congrats to all the participants of Ludum Dare 15!

Click here to give Angry Caverns a try in your browser!

PLAY:

Play Blinkout

DESCRIPTION:
How good is your visual memory under pressure? You’ll have to use both your agility and good resource strategy to navigate your spaceship through an increasingly hostile dimension. How far can you get?

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Move ship with ARROWS
• Illuminate levels with the SPACEBAR (costs energy)
• Find the key and go to the gate
• Regain energy by picking up charges
• There are 8 levels that will repeat for 6 rounds. The charges are persistent across all rounds, so don’t use all of them the first time around…

MORE INFO:

I hope you’ll find Blinkout to be a fairly original game. The game is designed to challenge the player on quite a few levels and we believe that if players spend a little time with it they will find an interesting experience as the game mechanics change over the 6 rounds of 8 repeating level mazes.

The player will have to use their visual memory as most of the game is played in complete darkness. Illumination of the levels comes through collecting energy charges along the way. The catch is that these charges are persistent across all the rounds so a charge collected earlier will no longer be available when encountered again. Charges picked up later are worth more energy so the player will be able to manage their resources accordingly to make it to the harder rounds. In these later rounds the player is faced with greater energy costs for hitting a maze wall as well as greater costs for illuminating the level. The level time limit reduces and the movement speed increases. We realize this game is quite challenging and will likely intimidate at first as using visual memory, keyboard agility, and resource management together may prove to be a new experience for many players.

I worked on Blinkout with my good friend and fellow game designer Jeremy P. Bushnell. It marks my first collaboration and the experience was quite enjoyable. Jeremy took lead on the art direction and level design for the game while I took lead on the programming side of things. We worked equally on the game design and iterations of all the facets through kicking ideas and changes back and forth.  We were also very happy to get the game sponsored by King.com and they have been great to work with.

We hope you enjoy the game!

Spent the past three days cooking up this fun little robot-themed chain reaction game.  I’ve wanted to do a chain reaction game for quite some time and I really wanted to do a side perspective version that explored some fun and quick game play mechanics.  I spent a week or two mulling ideas over in my head before beginning development.  I’m rather happy how this turned out all things considered.

Play it here.

Description:

How good are you with your tongue? Got a bad case of scurvy?

See if you can handle the Orange Frenzy!

Orange You Glad features 20 levels of citrus madness. 10 special power effects and 25 unique and humorous items to avoid. Can you lick enough oranges on each level to advance to the next? It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Play Orange You Glad

Background:

This is my second Flash game and first ActionScript 3.0 game.  This is also my first foray into Flash sponsorship and licensing.  I am quite excited that after putting this game on Flash Game License as well as emailing marketing materials to over 50 sponsors I was able to secure both a primary sponsorship from Flasharcade Gamessite as well as a non-exclusive license from Big Fish Games.

I worked on this game during the month of March and the beginning of April.  It was a little slow going because I was under heavy learning curve from both ActionScript 3.0 and the Flash CS4 IDE.  This project was a great learning experience from both a technical and business aspect.

The game received a few different bids for primary sponsorship on Flash Game License and it only took about two weeks total from posting time till I accepted a favorable bid and delivered the sponsored SWF file.  Both Flasharcade Gamessite and Big Fish Games have been great to work with and I am quite happy with both deals.

My primary sponsorship allows my to sell non-exclusive site-locked licenses and keep my MochiAds which is one of the prime reasons that type of sponsorship model was promoted by Flash Game License.

I am very excited to see how my second game does out there in the wild.  It has been almost 6 weeks since I started this project and it is definitely a test of patience controlling your enthusiasm as you wait for the day you can release your game.

You can play YoTowlr here in your browser

In the two hours leading up to the beginning of Ludum Dare 14 I decided to do a towlr compo warm-up to get the coding juices flowing ahead of the big theme announcement.  I posted my intention in the LD IRC channel and a few other developers signed on as well for the friendly towlr warm-up.

One of the themes on the list for voting for LD14 was Recursion (specifically, Yo Dawg!) which by a weird glitch had actually made it into the 5th and final round of LD14 theme voting.  No one thought this theme would make it that far yet alone have a chance at winning.  It was with that in mind that I decided to do a towlr game on the recursive yo dawg meme which had been already making the rounds on the LD blog.

I had actually not encountered the yo dawg phenomenon yet by some miraculous aligning of the internet planets.  Members of the LD community were happy to fill me in through with some very informative links.

For those of you not familiar with what the heck a towlr is well that is hard to explain as well as they are better experienced.  It was something that came from a previous Ludum Dare entry by PoV and since has gotten legs of its own.  Here is a snippet from the Towlr Media Group’s website:

Towlr are puzzles. Contrary to conventional design wisdom, the towlr games come without instruction and without explanation. Your job is to discover their secret, and score deliciousness. Yes, every Towlr game can be completed.

Towlr are complete audio/visual experiences. They should be played with sound at a reasonable level, and computer monitors turned on.

Towlr may frustrate you. This is normal.

I instantly fell in love with the bizarre and frustrating experience that was towlr.  So, when looking for something to warm up on ahead of LD14 I felt it was only natural that I combine Yo Dawg with Towlr and thus YoTowlr was born!

Here is level 4 from a new Flash game I am making with my good friend and fellow game designer Jeremy P. Bushnell. It marks the first collaboration Hybrid Mind Studios has done and I’m very excited about co-designing this game with Jeremy.

We’ve been working hard on this during the month of April.  I did an initial prototype in about 3 hours which I sent out to my play tester email list and initial response was very good.  Since then Jeremy has been working on creating 10 great levels, art assets, sounds, ambient loops, title and inter-level screens.  I have been programming the game engine and integrating all the levels and assets and coding in some nice animations for the different collectibles and units in the game.  We’ve both been playing the heck out of it too and working together to tune the game mechanics.

That’s all I’m gonna say about this new game for now but we plan to do another play tester release this weekend.  Probably on Sunday or Monday at the latest.  After that we will likely make any changes based on feedback and we’ll be posting it for developer review up on Flash Game License before finally opening it up to sponsor bidding.  You want to set the best first impression you can and make the best use of the sponsor’s valuable time when you are trying to monetize your Flash games!

I spent the weekend competing in the tri-annual Ludum Dare 48 hour game competition.  This was the 14th competition the site has hosted and there was a record turn-out!  121 games where created and submitted in a 48  hour period.  The theme was Advancing Wall of Doom. This theme was picked by the community through a system of voting during the week leading up to the competition.  Once the theme was announced on Friday night participants had 48 hours to create an entire game from scratch.  All content had to be produced by the participant during the competition.  The event ran from Friday night on April 17th through Sunday night on April 19th, 2009.

Fleedom is the game I managed to finish as my entry.  It is a Flash game so you can play it in your browser here. I’m fairly happy with how it turned out think it is a great base prototype for further improving into a really great game.  I will continue to work on it and turn this prototype into a finished Flash game.  I won’t know the final results for two weeks on how it did but the competition is so much fun that the results aren’t really the point.  I have participated now in about 5 or 6 of these 48 hr Ludum Dare competitions and I am the most happy with this game than any of my past ones.  I actually enjoy playing this one a lot so that is a good sign indeed. Creating a game in under 48 hours can teach you a lot about game design.

One of the last Ludum Dare contests I entered was a smaller version called a “Mini” Ludum Dare.  These happen in the 9 off-months that aren’t hosting a normal Ludum Dare.  They are hosted by veterans of the LD community and can have customized house-rules depending on the host.  A prototype I created for the theme Cryptozoology eventually became my first published Flash game TurnStyle.  So, I hope to take Fleedom Flies into a similar published future.