Gem popper

[JSM]

I feel that I have to post something. So here is the start of a match-3 game, very popular on the smart phones. just click on groups of 3 or more similar colored tiles to make them go away. i guess there will be a 60 second time limit later on so you have to pop as many tiles as possible. the naalaa source code of what i have done so far, not much as i started an hour ago, is included.

Download the latest version from: http://www.naalaa.com/temp/gem_popper.zip

[JSM]

for once i did find some useful graphics at opengameart, but atleast i did the background myself. updated last attachment with new version. when there are no possible pops a bomb appears somewhere on the screen to scramble the board.

[JSM]

marcus made me a tune for the game http://www.naalaa.com/temp/piano.mp3

[cvirus]

Love this games.

[kevin]

Great game.....I think it is good to see the game develop from its beginnings, so would you consider new downloads at each stage rather than overwriting the attachment each time - for me it is a good exercise to see how a game develops when an experienced coder writes it? Just a suggestion, as I try to keep each version anyway but I'm not always quick enough!......Can we look forward to a scoring system in it?

[JSM]

Great game.....I think it is good to see the game develop from its beginnings, so would you consider new downloads at each stage rather than overwriting the attachment each time - for me it is a good exercise to see how a game develops when an experienced coder writes it? Just a suggestion, as I try to keep each version anyway but I'm not always quick enough!......Can we look forward to a scoring system in it?

glad someone finds it interesting I added a scoring system. for the first 3 gems you get 100 points, for the fourth you get 150, then 200, 250 and so on. diamonds are introduced when half the time has passed and they are worth twice as many points. there is now a time limit of 60 seconds. the source code of the previous version is also included in the updated attachment in the first post.

i think you should get bonus points for fast popping too.

[kevin]

Many thanks JSM.....I've just downloaded it and this is looking more and more polished.....I look forward to studying the source (particularly to see how the rising score is implemented when the gems are popped - very nice)

I think the idea of including the older source code is even better than creating separate attachments...thank you for doing that - it will make it easy to see how the program has evolved when anyone reads this in the future.........

[JSM]

Thanks Kevin! I have added a title screen and highscores. i admit i have mimiced marcus' Jewel Crusher, but i did not rip any of the code.

[kevin]

Top game thanks....incredible how quickly you have developed this....

One thing....is the attachment at the top the most up to date? It doesn't have the MP3 file and from what I can see the music lines in the code need un-remarking....lines 75, 176, 177, 183 & 220 - runs fine with sound then......

Great to see the code so well remarked by the way - a great help when trying to follow the code - thank you....

[JSM]

Top game thanks....incredible how quickly you have developed this....

One thing....is the attachment at the top the most up to date? It doesn't have the MP3 file and from what I can see the music lines in the code need un-remarking....lines 75, 176, 177, 183 & 220 - runs fine with sound then......

i first zipped it with music and music commands included. but the file got a little large, because I only have the music as mp3 at the moment, so i removed that for later.

once the game mechanics are done all that is left is "curiosa" and that is when i usually get sick of working on a game. but i really need to make some games for my web page so i will finish this one. things that are left to do are rewards for popping fast, sound effects, an explosion for the bombs and maybe a "Get Ready!" text before the game starts. with the highscores it should make a decent online game.

[kevin]

Great - I'll look forward to seeing the games........I'm getting "Not found" on the 2 games pages on your website at the moment - I assume they're not set up yet?

I think finishing any game project is very hard...it's much more fun to do the initial stages.....

[JSM]

sorry, that web page is not active at the moment. from start it was to focus on writing games in c and c++ using a limited version of NaaLaa's software rendering engine that Marcus gave me the rights to distribute. but then things changed and we began playing with writing just extensions in DLL form for NaaLaa. this option is much more fun as you can then still do all the actual game coding in NaaLaa instead of c. I hope I can use the page for online casual and retro games written in NaaLaa instead as all extension stuff will be put on naalaa.com when time is ready.

working on any games yourself?

[kevin]

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the extensions..... it sounds as though it will push NaaLaa forward a lot.....good to think that NaaLaa will retain the possibility of being used for more simple games though, so that beginners are not driven away from it....I think the extensions can be thought of as an option for more complicated games, but not obligatory? Hope this is correct?

Personally, I'm still really experimenting with NaaLaa, just trying to get small things working better each week - sprite movements, collisions and so on. I know there are specific libraries for these, which I have used, and will use more in the future, but for now I prefer to try to replicate the results without using the libraries, so that I can learn more. So no complete games yet, but they will come in time.

[JSM]

I updated the game with some point bonuses for fast popping and you can now download it from a link to naalaa.com rather than as an attachment requiring login to this forum. my own host does not like big files ... cheap solution

for your own sake it is always better to write every line of code yourself so i understand you do not want to use, let us say, the Tilemap library for writing platform/rpg games. The Tilemap library was written IN NaaLaa. But the purpose with the extension system is that completely new features (like network gaming, physics and anything that is not supported by NaaLaa directly and that would be IMPOSSIBLE to implement in NaaLaa) can be added without Marcus having to add it to the core of NaaLaa.

ed: I will replace the highest combo bonus, "Fuck yeah!" with something else later on ...