First Solo Game Release
Community Forums/Showcase/First Solo Game Release
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High Voltage, my first solo project, is now available for download on blitzcoder. Previosly I'd only released a 3 level demo - this is the complete game.      It's loosely based on the classic Qix arcade game. Use your ship to carve out sections of the play field and complete the needed fill percentage to go on to the next level/round. Avoid the roaming storms and the wandering sparks and dont sit too long while drawing or risk being chased by the fuse. Collect various tokens to repair your ship's damaged circuits to re-activate their abilities and ultimately attract the attention of the enemy AI. Arrow keys to move Left Alt key to carve slowly(double points) F1 for help Esc to quit I'm sorry for the large download - most of it is from sound and music. It's roughly 7.5 meg. Love to hear feedback on the game and how it plays. |
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| It looks funny. I like the Idea. Maybe it still needs some design concept work. |
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| I'm a bit dissapointed on the responce to my release. I know its a large zip, but still, only 9 dl's so far with 293 reads. With that many reads I'd at least hope for some kind of commenting. I respect the work you do jfk (hoverboard, image modeler, hoverboard chamionship) and I don't intend any disrespect to ya, but your post came when there were only 4 downloads to HV and 3 of them were from me from testing the download link. I just got the impression that you hadnt actually played the game. Huge apologies if i'm wrong - I'd certainly not want to knock the ONLY guy who downloaded and played it! Maybe its just me. It has only been 2 days since I released it - but other newer releases have already surpassed it in DL. I just thought i'd get more public feedback with it being a complete game. Huge lack of responce carries a bit of a sting. |
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| It looks a little bland. You want instant sex appeal? Replace the Green and grey areas in it with images. A greyscale for the grey areas and a full-color one for the green bits. Or something. Just IMHO. :o> |
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| I guess I got sidetracked, I actually meant to answer jfk's concept comment. High Voltage has been completed for over a year. My family and I would get together and play it on occassion shooting for the highscore (which is me at 3,337,000). I'd recently thought about doing a remake and tying in the game elements into a smoother storyline. Plus I've learned quite a bit since my initial writing of it. Off the top of my head, one problem is that the game uses the graphics3d call and the only 3d graphics it uses is the screenfade from the initial loading of the game. I wrote the game for us to play here at home. One of the problems of the game was that my original computer's gfx card mauled the colors so the game would only work on a few different computers. Frankly, the demo release I put out last year should have had the same problems, but no one complained?? Anyway, I added a color sampling routine so that all the colors would be read correctly for each machine and the game would run propperly. The game's original concept was to mix in the Qix gameplay with the "Hacker" storyline - ie. you are an agent who must infiltrate a computer system to destroy the evil AI that threatens the world. Each "round" is actually a stolen block of data that the people who you work for are trying to get back. In order to reclaim it you must "free up" a minimum percentage of the data (your playing field) so that they (the people you work for) have enough information to work with to crack the data blocks secrurity encryption. When I would explain this storyline to the people who played the game here their eyes would glaze over, so I decided NOT to add it into the game as it didnt really effect game play, merely set the background - which most people dont bother with anyway. Recently I'd been rethinking the project and had made some changes in the concept and thought i'd rewrite the entire game - but in such a way as to work in the storyline as part of the game. I made it publically available to see what people thought about it and if it would be worth pursuing the game and focusing on a second version. Some of the planned changes would be : o Multiple screen goals (sometimes you're trying to clear a % of the screen, others "capture" specific portions, others simply to survive for a specific period of time, etc) o Wider variety of enemies (data worms, bit jumpers, binary walkers, etc) o HUGE circuit board incorperating over 20 programs that can be activated by collecting parts (DEFRAG, LOCK, BACKUP, ENCODE, COPY, etc) o Losing the electronic parts aspect, and changing to "code snippets" type of thing - in this way the player is collecting various portions of a program to build his secondary programs. I hope that's what you meant by concept? if you have any suggestions then I'd be happy to put those on a list as well. |
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| Flameduck : Yah, I actually tried adding in some textures before - but my FPS dropped dramatically - went from an average of 30 or 40 fps down to 11 or 15. I'm sure it was merely a matter of my own inexperience in that area. The "sexier" i made it the slower i got. I chose to go with something that ran decent on my 600 mhz computer. Most definatly I'd want to polish it up and make the look of it more catchy if I were working to market it - but being a public freebie I was shooting more for smoothest/fastest gameplay. |
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| What I said was only a first Impression. That is exactly what most people do. Your Storyline and Gameplay can be decent like hell, as long as the Graphics are not real polished, the attention will be low. If you have a Speed-Problem with more GFX then you should Speed-optimize your code. I tink there are many things you can make faster. Because I know blitz can fill the Screen many times with Images at good Framerates even on slow computers like my old 260 MHz Laptop. Don't expect too much feedback here. It seems these days people are a bit lazy. |
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| Rick I am downloading your game to check it out - but on the downloads issue - I have a 56K modem. I will be using a download manager to get your file, and I have an "unlimited" account - but it is still a hassle to down big files if you don't have broadband. I don't blame people who will not do it, cos it ties everything up while the download is in progress, which is like 30 - 50 minutes depending on the state of the net... Anything over 1 Mb is "big" if you on 56K :) cheers |
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| Rick: well I got the download and I have been playing your game Rick and it is a lot of fun. I have not finished it, but I have done a few levels, so I can only comment on what I have seen. 1: plays perfectly on my system and everything works, and the sound effects are very enjoyable. 2: the gameplay was quite fun I thought, and I have played plenty of Qix in the back room of Papa Luigi's, which was the nearest we had in my town to an "arcade" back then. 3: Rick, I only say this out of respecting the effort you put in, which looks like plenty, I can tell, but the graphics I thought were a little patchy. I liked the look of the main screen, but it is slightly differnt in "feel" from the opening screen, and the "popup" between rounds is different again. All the little graphics, that you have to collect, the "HUD" at the top, they all look great, and the eyeball thing that makes the little sparks, great, but the popup, with that cheesy bevel is, umm... looks a little amateurish, especially as other parts are so good. I think its called "stylistic continuity", anyway, thats one criticism :) *EDIT* and between levels, the thin blue line to surround the bottom area, its only visible at the top and left side, that doesn't look right? I will finish, I want to encounter the evil one at the end, so, many thanks for providing the download, and best wishes. |
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| Hey keyboard, Thanks for a great comprehensive feedback! I knew that the large download would be an issue with alot of people. Sounds/music really are the majority of it. I'd considered stripping sound and music out of the game and offering those as an extra download, but I really only wanted to make the game available publically "as is" because I had so much fun with it personally with friends and family. My decision to release it now is more motivated in seeing how people react to it to determine if I really want to pursue further development of it. When i started on HV I really didnt have a set direction of design in mind. It was my first project in BB and I was learning as I went along. I started out with an idea of Qix, and as I implented each feature I would think up other things to plug in. As I would add more to the game I would cobble together a graphic for it. This is most likely why there is no overall graphics theme with each element of the game. You described some of the gfx as "Patchy" and that is quite accurate. Many things where simply put in place to fill a role and complete a section of the game to get the full thing running. I had plans to revamp everything once I was done, but I ended up getting distracted from the project for one reason or another. The thin blue line...if i recall what you are describing correctly...that is a bug that i always forget to get at that occurs because the between round screen isnt properly aligned. Thank you for your observations and input! It goes a long way with me to hear that people enjoy playing High Voltage. |
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| Rick: You are quite welcome - the interface is very important, and that often seems to get neglected for the engineroom. I have not finished your game yet, and I will post again when I do. By the way, speaking of interfaces, have you seen the LCARS stuff? I have only just discovered it, and it is really fun. If you are not familiar, pump "LCARS" or "LCARS INTERFACE" into google and check a few of the hits. There is an interface :) |
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| can you put it on an alternate host... bc is down right now |
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| RicK: not finished your game, but as I play it more it is more enjoyable, especially as I have figured out the powerups and stuff, so I can survive longer. I am NOT the one to have the FAINTEST IDEA of whether a game is commercial, or would be liked by others, except that if I like a game, usually my friends do to, so, for what thats worth... AND I am a fan of 2D and retro games, so I am a sympathetic auidence. I do not know why you don't give the story - it is a good story, and makes sense of the game. Peoples eyes will glaze over if they have no interest in computers, but most people who play a game are a *bit* interested, and it reminds me of "Chips Challenge", where the player had to solve puzzles to access and collect various chips for the Mainframe (or something...) So, here is what I want - don't take me too serious :) - sit back and take a look at the good bits, which is MOST of the game, except for some dodgy graphics. And the thing is, its not really that any of the graphics are so bad, they just do not add up to a *whole* that "says something" about your game, and how cute and great it is. Anyway, look at the good bits, CHUCK THE REST in a brutal fashion, then work on synthesizing a consistent interface in the uniform style of the parts you like. I like the top of the main playing screen. The menu screen is fine, but its very busy and has too many text styles, and it is not the same style as the play screen. The opening screen is differnt again, and I don't think it is so good anyway. The play area, which is the grey rectangle, is a little dull, but that might fall into line if you workshop the overall look... ? and the player sprite is, I think, a bit weak, it could be sexier, as they say... All the little doo-dads, the chips and transistors, are perfect, I love them, and the fuse that follows you is ok, and the ones around the outside. The "storm", though, I have got used to it, but I do not think it is professional looking for a commercial game ( not saying that's your intention ), it is a bit "down home" and not consistent with the much classier graphics at the top... Well, that is the worst of it, Rick, I hope you don't mind me saying these things in a not-very-diplomatic way, cos I would love to see a "sharper" looking version... and... Data packers will not stop a determined critic, so SERIOUSLY have a look at file optimisation, especially on the music files. I am not the sound file whiz, but the "access granted" WAV went from 239K to 19K as an MP3, and the "title.png" went from 102K down to 35K with no loss. At that rate, your 12Mb download would shrink to 2Mb. all the best :) |
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| I'm glad you liked it. Yes, I do have plans on improving the game and have some ideas already jotted down. Working the game up with an ongoing storyline is one thing i'm considering as well. I'm a real beginner on optimization. I was quite happy just to get a working game :P however, i do intend to look further into finding ways of making files smaller and realizing which formats work best for space savings. Above all I want the game to run as smooth and as fast possible. Especially in higher levels where alot of things are going on. I've learned some techniques (like pre-generating sin/cos values) that I hope will go a long way in optimizing code and allow me to do even more in game play and sexy background imagry/sounds. SSS : I'm lookin into creating my own webspace to host files and have my own online space. I'll post a link here when i get setup. -Rick |
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| Sorry that I took so long SSS, seems I've gotten my webspace up just in time to match BC's ;) ... anyway, i've now got my own page set up and look forward to adding more to it. http://public.w3site.us/ |
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| downloading it as i speak |
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| i think your game is pretty nifty. pretty addictive too. About the garphics being better, the only thing that would do is make it even better. me likes a lot!!! only got 510,000 tho. lost my speed power up :( |
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| i really like the game alot, very addicting, however i have one suggestion, i would have it so when the player dies he only loses one power up and not all of them because this makes it really anoying when you die with full spead etc.. and then have nothing :'( but i really enjoyed it |
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| The reason for the total loss of power ups on death was because it was entirely too easy to keep going in the way higher levels. So I comprimised and created a "copy" powerup. Look for the special grey boards. When you pick those up it will "record" all the components that you have. If you die and then later pick up another special grey board then it will compare the components you currently have with what you originally have and add in any components you are missing. If you have new components that you didnt have when you last "recorded" then it will add those to the recording (while still replacing other components you might not have now but had then). If you didnt realize it, you can build the special power ups thru the components....I dont recall exactly, but I think the first power up is composed of 4 IC chips and 3 Resisters (might be slightly different) so if you pick up those items when they are special (have the green box around them) then you get the special power up without having had to pick it up. Soon as I get the chance I'm planning on reworing this game. I've posted some notes on my site in the forums about projected improvements. Thanks for playing and I'm really glad you guys are enjoying it! :) |
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