Grow - V0.3

[dockthepod]

I've released grow v0.3.

This version adds scoring saving as well as an indicator for best split time.

I've also re-worked the scoring to give a much higher bonus for long split times.

Enjoy!

Download here:

grow v0.3 (link fixed)

[cut]

=====================================
|  grow							 |
|								   |
|		by josh mattoon			|
=====================================

welcome to grow.

grow is a simple game.  you maneuver 
a line through a  tunnel,   avoiding
the   walls.   to   earn points, you 
split your  line in two.  the longer
you stay split,  the more points you
get.  the wider you split  yourself,
the more points you get.  if one  of
your segments should crash  when you 
are split, that segment dies and you
forfeit  the  points  you might have 
earned.  the game  is over  when you 
have no more segments.

 -----------------------------------
| controls						  |
| --------------------------------- |
| move					 (up/down)|
| split						  (b)|
| reset					  (start)|
| quit					  (select)|
 -----------------------------------

i hope you  enjoy  playing, and  stay   
tuned for more updates.

v0.3

changed scoring
added score saving
added split timer

v0.2 

turned into game
added scoring
added splash screen

v0.1

initial release for game contest
wasn't a game, just an idea

[/cut]

 

[OrR]

Nice, I'll have to check this out! I liked the concept, let's see how you turned it into a game. B)

 

[jegHegy]

I don't own a GP2X, just popping by to say those screenshots look classy. Good job.

 

[dockthepod]

So I've showed this to a few people around the office today. They had a hard time with the controls.

Things to keep in mind:

Your line has "mass" so it take a bit of pushing to get it to change direction. Once you are going in that direction, it doesn't straighten back out. This is on purpose to add to the challenge.

Splitting is where the points are. It's also pretty tough to do (at first). One thing to try is to sort of tap the b button just enough to stay split. If you stay split for a long while, you'll get more points. I think I'll change the scoring in a future version to give a higher bonus for this. For now, you just get 20 x num seconds split. Maybe I'll make it exponential.

The other thing that I should mention is that the walls are somewhat boring at this point. I plan on making them much more unpredictable in the future.

Please let me know if you have problems or if you have any ideas to make the game better. It's pretty basic at this point, but I rather enjoy it.

 

[deadlychicken22]

I LOVE the game. You can check your e-mail for some of my ideas, but here they are again, in different words.

Add an Adventure mode with concrete levels, a game that you can complete:
-More complex obstacles (forcing player to split to get around them)
-items? (maybe not a good idea as it takes away the simplistic nature of the gameplay)
-different backgrounds/graphics for levels
-story? (I always like a good story, it seems very few gp2x games have any story )

Good job! I loved this game the first time I played it. The controls are great, they give you the feeling that what you are controlling is actually physically there, rather than simply an image you are manipulating.

EDIT:
I'm not sure about the scoring system. For the arcade mode of extraterrestres I used a somewhat complicated (with little reason behind it) equation which changed exponentially. However, I found that when you start to get good at the game this was somewhat unbalanced. I never came up with a good solution.

 

[dockthepod]

I'm not sure a story would make much sense in this case and I like keeping it abstract

However, the other ideas are good and are similar to what I've got planned.

 

[deadlychicken22]

I'm not sure a story would make much sense in this case and I like keeping it abstract

However, the other ideas are good and are similar to what I've got planned.

Yeah, I know a story wouldn't really fit this type of game (hence the "?"). Good to hear you have similar plans.

 

[gaterooze]

Great to see this progress - love it.

 

[Guyfawkes]

What a difference a score system makes! I don't think I have seen a game like this before so if its original then you have a very cool game to expand on.

deadlychicken22's ideas are good but it could potentially spoil the simplicity of the game as he also said, you could always make a different game mode with these features so the player has a choice. I would definitely go with different colour tunnels after a certain score is reached to show progression.

 

[dockthepod]

Okay, so the score bug wasn't actually a bug, it was just my SD being weird. I had scoring disabled in the v0.2 release so I'll get a new one up soon with that enabled and also a new feature.

 

[starpause]

i like the idea of the game being very abstract. i also like the idea of power-ups, but perhaps not in the traditional sense.

i have the idea that there would be three channels RGB and different size pills, if you got the pill it would increase that color proportionately to the size of the pill. the colors could wrap when the values got to high, or the color pills could have + and - on them to know if you were going to adjust the color of the walls to be more or less a color.

this system rewards the user for playing longer and it's not as arbitrary as simply changing the wall color every so-many-points.

to make it replay-able, perhaps random colors could be selected for the walls and worm, so that the worm was always the invert of the start color of the wall. background always black, foreground color (font) could be something constant as well.

besides pills for color, i think the game could also really use pills for growing your worm a bit wider. this powerup brings the question of how do you get pills? do you spread the worm around them? or do you crash the worm into them? i like the idea of crashing into the pills, it would allow you to grow the worm, and it makes you navigate both of your worms when they're spread out!

anyway, great release, and it's safe to say GROW has earned it's place next to spout on my SD. if only spout stored highscore like grow does

edit: it's also fun that you can replace the current font with one of your own, i'm using a more techno ttf, heh

 

[dockthepod]

bump - grow v0.3 released but I can't edit the title.

edit: My current high score is 22,394 and best split time is 21.30s. Can anyone best me?

edit2: now 54,386 and 27.23s

 

[deadlychicken22]

Looks good, I'll try it out tomorrow. I doubt I'll beat your high score...

 

[starpause]

great on the new version!

one request: could the seconds counter start ticking whenever you split, rather than recording the top split? i think it would be more satisfying to see those numbers spinning!

my top isn't close in either catagory h34r:

 

[dockthepod]

Hah, new split record - 35.23s.

Yeah, I think seeing the numbers spin up would be cool. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[halo9]

Looking very good! Thanks.