Posted by SneechMeister on Apr 26, 2010 in
Past and Future,
Rules of the Game After a rather long break things are moving slowly again. I was hoping to get a new beta release out before blogging anything more but things are really moving slower than expected. The reason is I’m trying to keep everything neat and well designed, so new features fit in cleanly and fewer bugs crop up. It should also make future networking (internet, wifi or bluetooth play) easier to implement.
The latest feature to be added was the Bombs. In one frantic coding session I added the basic bombs feature and it worked well. You now buy some bombs in the shop, but the bombs are inactive when the match starts. You see an icon for each bomb at the bottom of the screen. At any time you can activate a bomb by tapping the icon (desktop version will use a button or keystroke.) You then see a visual representation of the bomb on the front of your snake (currently a chrome looking head.) From that point on, the bomb works similarly to original Sneech; you just ram into an opponent. Bomb damage is restricted to a radius (currently a 12×12 square), and a maximum of 16 segments damage in total. That’s all flexible, so things will change. Damage is not restricted to the victim you hit, so anyone else inside the blast will take a hit also (up to 16 segments each.) The segments destroyed are all inside the blast zone, so if you ram a long opponent in the middle of his body, you will blast a large hole and you’ll drive right through. The head of the opponent is never affected, unless he was small enough to be completely destroyed.
2 futher ideas….
Maybe you can activate/prime more than 1 bomb at a time. Then you would ram an opponent once, and then chase after him for a second collision. Of course, a double power bomb would be cool but would spoil some of the fun.
I don’t like the idea of players activating the bomb a second before ramming an opponent. So, I thought it might take 5-10 seconds for the bomb to prime and reach full capacity. That way, other players get a visual warning that a bomb is activated and can take action.
So, most of this has been done already. I then realised I needed to teach the CPU players to buy bombs, decide when to activate them, and then use them. This was not as easy as it sounds (teaching cpu player it’s ok to collide with opponents in certain cases etc.), but its mostly done now.
The rest of the work is really just finding the right audio and visual effects, the right bomb icons, and fine tuning the cpu ai. Its not far off though!
One reason for this blog post is (other than to get feedback on the above ideas) I’m only finding the time once a week to work on the game (usually Sunday’s) so the rest of the week I can still gather and refine ideas. I’ll try and do some more midweek also.
Posted by SneechMeister on Aug 14, 2009 in
Rules of the Game I’ve not done much with Sneech over the past week. I did go 3 weeks where I was working full time (60+ hours a week!) Now, I’m back to a day or two a week for a short while. Part of the reason was my iPhone game BoXiKoN got featured on iTunes, and sales shot up, and money started flowing, and I got a bit lost in the excitement!! I took some time out to make the most of the exposure while it was there. Now things have settled a little, but I realise I need to manage my development time a little better.
The other reason for the slow-down is actually good news… I’ve almost completed all of the features that are copied direct from the Amiga version. There are some more obscure things left to copy over, but most of the work left to do is redesign, and new features. This means I have to put some real thought into how things will work! This is a good stage to reach, but it’s taking a bit of time to adjust as new design is always tougher.
I’ll give you an example of a design change, and welcome any feedback.
The way Bombs worked in the original game was: you bought some Bombs, and then they got used up when you collided with other players. Most Bomb & Deflect action happened in the first minute or two (except for Bombs that people picked up.) Back then, we used joysticks where 4 directions and a button were all we had. With all the different weapons and power-ups, it was just not possible to work it any other way. Now, I’m thinking of doing things differently. I’m thinking of having an on-screen display (a Bomb icon), showing you how many bombs you have. Bombs would be activated at the start of the game, and activated whenever you decide to use one. Activation could be a tap (on iPhone), or a keyboard, or extra button on a usb controller. I can’t see much fault in this idea so far…
Extra design decisions follow: I thought it could be fun to actually see a black ‘Bomb’ icon on the head of your snake, or perhaps some kind of glow or other visual clue that you’re armed and dangerous! This could add a new level of excitement to the game because victims know exactly what’s coming, there’s no surprise. I think knowing you’re being chased by a bomb, is better than a surprise. Especially when the victim knows he has a deflector!! 
Perhaps the Bomb takes 5 seconds to ‘initialize’ , making a locking sound, so everyone knows you’re loading up a bomb for use. Perhaps once a bomb is initialized, there’s no way back? Too much activating/deactivating would get boring.
Well, you can see that even a simple feature can take quite bit of thought, to get things just right.
As soon as I implement this new Bomb feature (and some other things), I will look towards releasing the game as Beta on the website for iPhone, PC and Mac. That could be 2 weeks away, but I think the move to open beta, and feedback is important at this stage.
Any feedback on this would be appreciated.
Posted by SneechMeister on Jul 22, 2009 in
Rules of the Game 
Today Sneech reached a milestone, as I added the Random Factor! I’ve added the “Bonus Awards” screens where Speed & Size bonuses, Kill & Damage Bonuses, and the Random Factor is awarded. I have the general presentation, and sound almost the same as the original. (New Alpha due on Friday!)
So, I now have the game keeping track of kills, and damage. It’s been fun trying to figure out how it all worked, and I’m sure there are subtle differences. I’ve not been able to look through the original source code, because it’s just too complicated!
The way it works now is: Kill Points are shown at the beginning of a game as before. The points are based on how well each player is going in the league, plus some random factor. When a player dies, the Kill and Damage points are calculated, and awarded to those who deserve it. First of all, the Kill points are given to the player who made the kill, usually the one in close proximity at the point of death, or someone who inflicted damage very recently. However, if two players are equally suspect, the points are shared 50/50.
Next, the Damage points… The Damage points are a “runners-up” prize only, so anyone awarded the Kill points are excluded from the Damage award. Now… every time you crash into another player, the game keeps track of the number of impacts (and severity e.g. Bombs/Deflects.) When you come to an untimely death, the game calculates who inflicted the most damage to you while you were alive. If one player caused a significant amount of damage, that player is awarded 50% of the Kill Points. If the kill points were previously shared between two players (50% each), the Damage points are reduced to 33%.
Lets say victim Mr.Red has 100 Kill Points on his head… Mr.Green causes a great deal of damage to Mr.Red but Mr.Chrome makes the final Kill. The points will be: 100 points to Mr.Chrome, and 50 Points to Mr.Green. In another example, victim Mr.Red has 100 points on his head… Mr.Chrome causes a good deal of damage, but Mr.Green and Mr.Blue jointly make the final kill, the points are awarded as: Mr.Green and Mr.Blue get 50 Points each, and Mr.Chrome gets 33 points.
Of course, if a player survives the whole game and escapes through the exit door, no Kill points or Damage points are awarded to anyone, no matter how much damage has been given!
