Area Break
Community Forums/Showcase/Area Break
| ||
| Hi togehter ! I create this time a break out clone with the name " Area Break". So at the moment i have an Alpha-Demo online. You can play the first 5 level. Since 2 days i have an Editor to build the next levels. The full version have 100 levels. I wish yor a bit fun with the alpha version. Regards Blitzblaster Here we are: http://www.blitzblaster.de/areabreak_alpha2.zip  |
| ||
| Not Found The requested URL /areabreak_alpha.zip was not found on this server. |
| ||
| sorry GfK, i forgot the 2 at the end. |
| ||
| I didn't really play the game much as it runs far too fast. However... 1. The font-end is inconsistent. On the title screen I can press SPACE or LEFT MOUSE to continue to the front-end. Once there I can press only ENTER to select an option. If I choose High Scores then I can only press SPACE to get back to the main options screen. 2. The background on the game screen (as in your screenshot above) is very distracting. You need to dull it down a bit to make the foreground/important stuff more prominent. But first and foremost you need to introduce some sort of timing to control the frame rate. |
| ||
| hmm, ok the keys i a bit crazy. I change it in the next version. But the framerate is at my computer "90 FPS", and i have an Athlon 1,8 GHz CPU and a ATI 9700pro. I play it on a Laptop with an CPU PIII 500 MHz, with a small GPU from ATI (64 MB). The gameplay was ok. I have a friend, this GPU and the monitor a bit crazy. When i change the monitor Hz higher, than he can play this game a bit faster. Hmm and the gfx, i like this style. And friends too. Hmm is the background to dull ? |
| ||
| Hey this isn't bad. I always want to made a bat n ball game. I've been playing Bricks of Egypt a lot recently. Did you make the music? It plays at an OK speed on mine, quite fast but smooth. If you haven't put any timing code in (delta time or fixed rate logic) then you should REALLY consider it as GfK says. You need an explosion noise + anim for when you loose a life as there was nothing, it just skipped straight onto playing with the next life. Oh and I agree that level one background is a tiny bit too bright. I know they were quite bright on Arkanoid too, but the PC can do better with more shades etc. nice one anyway. |
| ||
| ok delta time is not yet at the moment. I can handle this in the next version. And yes, the music is by myselfe. Look at the url :) The brackground is to bright ? All of them or the first one only ? |
| ||
| The brackground is to bright ? All of them or the first one only ? I don't know. I didn't get past the first level as the game is running impossibly fast on my PC. |
| ||
| GfK, what a kind of CPU do you have ? |
| ||
| Athlon XP3000+ @ 2.16GHz |
| ||
| can you check the fps in my game with fraps ? This was interesting for me. |
| ||
| Yep. In-game = ~160fps Front-end = ~800fps o.O |
| ||
| Sounds like VSync is off on GfKs machine (in the driver) and as the game has no timing it's rendering at full speed (maybe, although those speeds aren't that fast) The first background was to bright, didn't look at the second one for long, but I think it was OK. |
| ||
| ui GfK, ~ 800 fps, really ??? o.O hmm..... |
| ||
| Yep Vsync is off. You need to add some code to limit the number of frames per second. |
| ||
| ok i must see, that i can handle this |
| ||
| there's plenty of delta time examples of the forum. But it will mean finding *every* movement or counter increment/decrement in your code and multiplying it by a floating point Delta value. That's why it's best to do this stuff at the start. Good luck. |
| ||
| @ Grey Alien. I code is right now. My own code :) @ GfK: Here please control you fps right now. I belive you can play it better now :) The alpha version 2 is offline ! Whats new: - framerate is by 90 FPS The new alpha demo is here: http://www.blitzblaster.de/areabreak_alpha3.zip |
| ||
| 90 fps is a bit much, try locking it at 30 or 60 |
| ||
| Yep 90fps is a bit over the top. I always code stuff to run at 30fps. Less time spent drawing means more time for other stuff. |
| ||
| my logic runs at 200fps and the draw is at whatever to card can do (vsync can be on or off). |
| ||
| hm 30 or 60 FPS are to slow. I play it with 60 fps, and i think it is to slow. 90 fps is better. At 30 fps, you can sleep with the gameplay :) drink tea or coffe and play at the same time this game. Sorry 30 is very slow. |
| ||
| It only appears slow because you've programmed it to run at 90fps. If you limit it to 30fps and adapt your game logic accordingly, you'll barely notice the difference. |
| ||
| yes, i must change the speed. For example speed = speed +1. When is change it to 30 fps, then i must write speed = speed +3 or 4 or whatever. But i must change many kind of this into game. For what ? When i set it to 90 FPS, then i have the right speed. Hmm... |
| ||
| On the Amiga, to handle the case where the ball is travelling at 6 pixels per frame I had the main loop go around 6 times (to check collisions with bricks etc) before updating the screen. I didn't have to worry about multitasking though ;) Similar situation here. If you lock the game at 60fps (please, 30 is far too low for an action game involving small sprites) then implementing delta time isn't as easy as adding extra units to the ball's coordinates because you'll end up getting the ball stuck in a brick, or not reacting correctly to corner collisions. You'll need to loop through the collision checking + movement updating loop extra times before updating the display instead. |
| ||
| For example speed = speed +1. When is change it to 30 fps, then i must write speed = speed +3 or 4 or whatever. Thats why you should use delta timing instead, that way no matter what fps the game is drawing/running at the movements are adjusted so the game logic stays the same and the game appears to move the same speed for everyone ;) |
| ||
| yes of cause....i understand what you mean joncom2000 |
| ||
| You need high FPS (or logic at least via fixed rate logic like I use) to make sure that collisions are good when ball moves quickly. |
| ||
| I always code stuff to run at 30fps. Less time spent drawing means more time for other stuff. And things run really smoothly? You mean you limit drawing and run a high logic speed? |
| ||
| Depends on the type of game. Most circumstances you can run the logic at 30fps too. Unless you need really accurate collisions and stuff like Grey Alien said. |
| ||
| yeah, think about the Amiga, most games ran at 25FPS (PAL) or 30FPS (NTSC) unless they were really neat an managed double that i.e. 50/60FPS (I tried to make all my stuff run at 50FPS as it just looks smoother). |
| ||
| ok, now lets talk about easy, medium and hard. So right now what do you think about this at the moment ? I think is it medium and you ? |
| ||
| Today i found a bug and kill them (collision with the helpbar). And new is a display, to show the best player with name and score. The gameplay is a bit better, because i change`d the fps from 90 to 60 and delta time is into the game right now. When i found in the next time one or tow bugs, than comes the next version. I think it comes the first beta version at the end of june. |
| ||
| Today i have a new Beta Demo online. You can change into option menu the background sound and the fx sound. I heard, that the soundbuffer is to small and can`t change it. I have a bit problems with the soundquality from the fx. I have all sounds in one channel, to handle all fx sounds with an same volume. You can download it at: http://www.blitzblaster.de/AreaBreak_Beta2.zip Regards Blitzblaster |
| ||
| Typically, you should limit the logic to 30-60 cycles per second and use tweening or delta time so the graphics can run at full speed. Some players pay big bucks for their graphics card/cpu...why not let them enjoy the smoothness. |
| ||
| what do you mean ? |
| ||
| Blitzblaster, Hey nice music dude! I just listened to some of the tracks on your web site and thought they were very good indeed - very professional! IPete2. |
| ||
| Thank you very much IPete2 for the nice words. Bye the way, a new small update is online. Beta 2a. The ufo object and the satelite is with an explode anim. http://www.blitzblaster.de/AreaBreak_Beta2a.zip Regards Blitzblaster |
| ||
| Hi together ! A new update is online. The unbreakable stone has a light anim. When the laser is aktiv and shoot a stone, than comes an particle explosion. The buy option is deaktiv at the moment. An info screen is new, but it is in german. The english screen comes soon. Have fun with the new beta. Edit: The new version has an error. I play`d the version on an other PC, and i came a MaV. I think all user have this problem. Isn`t it ? An update comes in the evening. http://www.blitzblaster.de/AreaBreak_Beta2c.zip Regards Blitzblaster |
| ||
| Hi @ all! Here comes an update from Area Break v1.5. What`s new? -you can select 3 stonesets in the option menu - graphics effects and sfx are new - you can select the info screen between german or english now, when you press "e" for english.  http://www.blitzblaster.de/AreaBreakDemoversion.exe Have fun with the new update! Regards Blitzblaster |
| ||
| You are still working on this? How about writing a tutorial on how to keep the motivation? ;) I'm off to try it out. EDIT: Ok, I tried it. * It would really help if the installer wasn't in german. * The mouse cursor was visible the whole time. * The gameplay suffered from a lot of jitter. * I'm suddenly unable to resume the game. Every time I press P, it quickly pauses the game again. Other than that, it seemed fine. Nice work. Now write that keep-motivation-up-after-a-year-tutorial! ;) EDIT again: The "Start->Programs->Area Break 1.5 Demo" folder was empty? I had to uninstall the game from the "add/remove applications" |
| ||
| So i think the update 1.5 is the last update. When i create a new break out, then this game is only in 3D. The motivation is, i like casual games more than high end games. And at the 3.7. i change my hobby to my job. The greatest game comming soon. Times Battle. Look at my homepage for more details. :) Regards Blitzblaster |
| ||
| "Times Battle" looks sweet. |
| ||
| Ok, i see. When you press p for pauses then hit o ther key to play again, not p :) The installer has an error, i change it in the next time. When you play in windows mode, you have allways a mouse courser. And the motivation up after year tut is......fun fun fun with causal games :) And thanks for the nice words for Times Battle. Edit: The installer is now in two languages. English and German. And the installer has an deinstall function now. |
   |