Pop-A-Holic Beta Download

Community Forums/Showcase/Pop-A-Holic Beta Download

Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#1]
This game was originally written by a friend of mine who is helping me out with Glimmer Games. I agreed to shine it up a bit, add some GUI stuff, profiles, high scores, tutorials, menus, change a few graphics and a 3d character to replace the sprites and this is the result.
It's another variation on the "Match Three Items™" theme. The tutorial mode explains the game as well as I could, so go right for that.

It's likely to be a bit rough here and there and there are a few features missing. There's no level editor included in the beta either. I'm basically after performance problems and bugs, but other feedback is welcome of course. I've implemented a slightly unusual custom timing system too, so if anything goes cuckoo with that, let me know.

Puzzle games are sooooo not my thing ( playing or writing them ) so I've had a really hard time figuring out if this is a decent game or not. Hopefully the feedback will help me figure that out. I think the levels, particularly the early ones need some tweaking. I think some of the early levels ( 5-10 ) could do with being a bit faster. Other than that, I don't really know.

Controls : Left and Right cursors move the girl. Down cursor catches a balloon and Up cursor throws balloons in hand.

Download : http://www.glimmergames.com/downloads/pop_a_holic_beta1.exe

Screen:




scribbla(Posted 2005) [#2]
i love this sort of stuff, and the 3d character very nice touch, i like the run anim, the fact you can collect more than one makes it more interesting,
controls nice, no problems, look forward to seeing the other characters/profiles

me thinks my kids will like this


xlsior(Posted 2005) [#3]
I think it looks very polished -- not bad!

Couple of remarks:

1) After creating a profile, it's not very intuitive that you need to select it first before you can go into the graphics options and such. Especially since you can't just click on a profile to select it, but actually have to press the 'select' button at the bottom of the screen to activate your already high-lighted choice.

2) A full-screen mode is missing... The problem with windowed mode is that there tend to be a lot of other distractions around the edges of the window, or if you pick a large window it may not fit properly (taskbar, etc.)

3) The biggest issue with the gameplay itself appears to be speed -- while things are running very smooth, I find myself waiting for the main sprite to finally make her way over to where I want her to be, which takes some of the 'immersion' away. You may want to consider bumping up the movement speed a bit, or making it user customizable. (Personally I would prefer it if the sprite at the bottom of the screen would move at about twice the speed it currently does)


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#4]
i love this sort of stuff, and the 3d character very nice touch, i like the run anim, the fact you can collect more than one makes it more interesting,
controls nice, no problems, look forward to seeing the other characters/profiles

me thinks my kids will like this


Thanks. That's good to hear.

1) After creating a profile, it's not very intuitive that you need to select it first before you can go into the graphics options and such. Especially since you can't just click on a profile to select it, but actually have to press the 'select' button at the bottom of the screen to activate your already high-lighted choice.


Agreed. The profiles are irritating, but I'm not 100% sure what to do with them yet. The reason you have to use the select button is that clicking twice on the profile lets you edit the name ( someone is bound to misspell their name. )

2) A full-screen mode is missing... The problem with windowed mode is that there tend to be a lot of other distractions around the edges of the window, or if you pick a large window it may not fit properly (taskbar, etc.)


You're right. Fullscreen is definitely required.

3) The biggest issue with the gameplay itself appears to be speed -- while things are running very smooth, I find myself waiting for the main sprite to finally make her way over to where I want her to be, which takes some of the 'immersion' away. You may want to consider bumping up the movement speed a bit, or making it user customizable. (Personally I would prefer it if the sprite at the bottom of the screen would move at about twice the speed it currently does)


I think user customizable would just result in everyone picking the highest speed to make the game easier. I'll see if I can make it a bit faster though.