some time ago i wanted to learn how to create a canvas games, so i started with http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/canvas/notearsgame/ and took it from there. now it's a little bit osmosis and asteroids, and it's unfinished and MIT. so please take it, fork it or just read the source. hope it's useful (and/or fun) for someone.
Just one comment, from what I've noticed(haven't checked the code to make sure), the size of spawned bubbles is a random function biased by your current size. While I think that's a good idea in general I think they should be overall smaller.
Right now, when you get to a certain size it just spawns 4~5 giant bubbles that fill almost all the screen and make it impossible to move without dying.
Like a simple, HTML5 Osmos. Not sure how Asteroids comes in. When you pass a certain threshold, the bubbles get suddenly & aggressively larger; is it actually possible to win?
It appears that the yellow killer bubble circumference is proportional to your size, its takeoff vector is the same as your own, and its velocity is a slight multiple of your own.
Osmos also has a lot of different and interesting mechanics. For one thing, propelling yourself requires you to eject mass in the opposite direct, which also makes you smaller. There's also antimatter bubbles that you don't want to absorb, a gravity (orbit) mechanic, green "living" bubbles which compete with you for resources, etc.
I spent the first minute clicking around with the mouse until the attempt upon the arrow keys and finaly after the spacebar the asteriod aspect kicked in and a sence ahaaaa.
I shall play some more later, though the blobing of the asteroids/blobs could perhaps also merge colour palletes as well and in that also provide some subliminal education. Maybe even volumetricaly factor in the colour merging.
I might also add that it can be more fun to learn how to play the game than just reading a manual, so in that I like it even more.
Oh and the source, that there is how I'll learn coffeescript, thank you.
In Osmos (a similar game) the coloring of the bubbles makes it much easier to distinguish which bubbles are edible and which are dangerous. I think the this rendition could be improved by getting new colors, and maybe saving red for dangerous things, and not the player :)
Looks like the trick is to use the yellow killer bubbles to control the aggressive bubbles before they eat everything & get too big to navigate around.
I understand why this appeals to the HN crowd: it's a metaphor - the goal of the game is not to be the biggest around, but to survive the longest. Sometimes that means cutting loose and starting again - and just waiting for the biggest of the big to fall!
To improve the endgame, I would introduce power-ups, like a pill that when 'swallowed' temporarily turns player's balloon into a triangle that could puncture large balloons into many small ones. Multiplayer with larger field and obstacles could be fun too.
The game is fun but is there any way to change the "units" of the change direction keys? Right now they seem to add up, i.e. two up strokes means speed increases by two points, but a more conventional manner would be better IMO. i.e. one up arrow moves ball in up direction. Like driving cars in games.
Something needs to be done about the end game. Currently skill doesn't make a difference. It relies on the perfect storm of you absorbing a chain of increasingly large bubbles. In 6 attempts this didn't happen as I was surrounded by huge bubbles. 4 times I was reduced to like 4 pixels and had to work my way back up again.
Perhaps a bigger playing area. Make it full screen? Then have more bubbles of varying sizes. This would make it more difficult to get bigger and make the game longer as a result.
It would also be cool if a specific color bounced bubbles off it and couldn't be absorbed. The faster you go into it the faster you bounce off. This would make it a bit more difficult to navigate.
I think the ball needs a speed limit. I couldn't tell if there was one. I just held the up and left arrows at the same time and just kept holding. It felt like it would've went on forever had I not x'd out.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 94.4 ms ] threadRight now, when you get to a certain size it just spawns 4~5 giant bubbles that fill almost all the screen and make it impossible to move without dying.
I see why you say it's a little bit of Asteroids, now. That sure puzzled me before.
I shall play some more later, though the blobing of the asteroids/blobs could perhaps also merge colour palletes as well and in that also provide some subliminal education. Maybe even volumetricaly factor in the colour merging.
I might also add that it can be more fun to learn how to play the game than just reading a manual, so in that I like it even more.
Oh and the source, that there is how I'll learn coffeescript, thank you.
In Osmos (a similar game) the coloring of the bubbles makes it much easier to distinguish which bubbles are edible and which are dangerous. I think the this rendition could be improved by getting new colors, and maybe saving red for dangerous things, and not the player :)
Perhaps a bigger playing area. Make it full screen? Then have more bubbles of varying sizes. This would make it more difficult to get bigger and make the game longer as a result.
It would also be cool if a specific color bounced bubbles off it and couldn't be absorbed. The faster you go into it the faster you bounce off. This would make it a bit more difficult to navigate.
Not that there's any affordance for it, so something still has to be done with the game. But the title says "unfinished", so I think we're good :)