Blastemroids for Android

[JSM]

I spent this morning on rewriting the controls, to work with a touch screen, of one of Marcus's first NaaLaa games, Blastemroids. It's soon available on Google Play (uploaded it just now).

Desktop: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eow.blastemroids

Android device: market://details?id=com.eow.blastemroids

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD0ob53C9mE

[kevin]

Works well on my phone thanks........Still not sure on the concept of playing these types of games on a small screen with just touch controls (my fat thumbs obscure the screen!), but that is a general comment, and not directed at Blastemroids.....will be an interesting experiment to play around with control systems on Android to implement ones that suit me better so I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.....

[JSM]

I can only agree with you, kevin. Shootemup, platform games and other pree-touch screen classic genres are really hard to create comfortable controls for. You can always have a virtual d-pad and buttons, but buttons that you can't FEEL are so icky.  I tried with a single touch thing here, but I didn't test it for many minutes

[bolbo]

The same suggestion i told you about in thr breakout thread  also the sprites look awful in my 7'' tablet
Look at the user interface suggestion i made in the world of spectrum forums for a zx spectrum emulator for android (yes i'm an speccy head  )   
This is the post :
www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=757765&postcount=77

[JSM]

Thanks for the response bolbo. I'll try virtual button controls soon, problem being that i haven't added multi-touch functionality in naalaa yet (but it will work as mousebutton(0 .. n)).

About the sprites. The virtual resolution of the game is 320x240, and i turned of texture filtering to keep the retro feel. Were there other issues than this, like wierd artefacts? If so, please send a screenshot. I've tested the game on  a 7 inch tablet, but it has the same resolution as my phone, 480x800.

[bolbo]

another free game that I like its controls is  Brunera's Hummingbird :
http://www.bruneras.com/games_hbird.php
i drew in that ui sketch the same controls on both sides of the screen so you can press a control with any thumb and without covering the sight of the game, if you press right you can press up/down/fire with your left thumb and all the way around when using the other thumb.
My tablet is 7'' in size, 16:9, 800x480px. This is an in-game screenshot :
http://1drv.ms/ON8rxs

[JSM]

Hummingbirds seem to remind about certain late levels in Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES), therefor I need to give it a shot

The sprites are "supposed" to look like that, since the virtual resolution is fixed. Next time I'll use the device's aspect ratio.

Thanks for the comments and tips!

[Mr SQL]

Cool looking game! I got a red box warning this topic is old but I just saw the Blastemroids video clip so it's new to me

Blastemroids reminds me of Galaga, all that's missing is an enemy tractor beam to double up your ships with! I like the starfield effects too