It is better to think in terms of objectives, rather than game mechanics straight away. Mechanics should be how objectives are completed. Mechanics are how you play the game, but objectives are why you should play in the first place.
The concept sounds like it will boil down to a game of economics and business management, of which I know nothing about.
Many engines/frameworks do have rules about how they turn a spritesheet into animation frames. Often they require the frames to be in sequence horizontally and with a fixed dimension for all frames. Each different action that a character can do would need its own strip of frames. Then the list of frames being used just changes depending on what the character is doing.
I think that good tools should allow developers the added functionality of being able to define what areas of an image they want to use explicitly, useful in your case of creating a character using different parts.
Good question. Your understanding of the problem is correct. Unfortunately I can't think of an elegant solution. It usually boils down to an oversight by the artist, not understanding the process that programmers use to make assets "do stuff".
Ideally, artists making these kind of assets with variable dimensions should pack all of the individual parts using a texture packer, which can store the dimensions and positions of each frame.
I didn't see that the Z key was to select before the intructions disappeared. I pressed P to pause but couldn't resume the game until I pressed almost every key to figure out what select was. My first thought was that pressing P again would close the options panel, or Esc, or Enter to select. Bit awkward.
On the intrustions, the 'M' to toggle music looks like a H. It's missing the dip in the middle.
I also found a weird bug with the hunter. The first one appears, I ran towards it, I died, then another hunter comes running in, leaving a trail.
I think your approach is flawed. You should typically have all of your mechanics and core gameplay stuff figured out and working before gathering final assets. It's good to have an idea of what you want the end product to look like, but don't base a game just on some sprites that you found/made. The visuals should complement and enchance the gameplay, not the other way around.
For your criteria of easy to use and learn, to make simple games with minimal programming, GameMaker is what I would recommend. I used it for some stuff in school and am somewhat experienced with it. You can buy different modules that give you more platform export options.
I use Phaser, which is a Javascript game framework for HTML5. Works on anything that has a modern browser, but does require programming knowledge. If you are wanting to get more into the game development scene, being able to program to a decent standard is a must, but as far as just making a few little games for friends/family, GameMaker suits your needs.
Way better unit balance. There is no longer one unit that is far superior to all others. I did tests where I played the Arena map on easy and only used a one unit type each game. All unit types apart from Ice Mage were able to stop all enemies from reaching the other side.
The bats are much more managable now.
Clear, simple, useful UI. Everything is just the right size, not too small that I can't see what it is/what text says, not so big that it is intrusive.
Nice addition of the '+10' thing that pops up when an enemy is killed to show how much money they are worth.
The unit range circles are somewhat useful, but I'm not sure if they are accurate. Is the unit range based on pixel distance to enemies, or grid spaces?
I'm still not convinced that upgrading units is worthwhile, unless there is a unit that is in a particularly effective location. This is more of a core design problem IMO. Footman, Archer and Spearman are all about the same mechanic, deal direct damage to the enemy, but this means that one is bound to be statistically better than the rest, and that is something that you can't really solve by adjusting values to try and balance them. I think each unit type would more purpose if they had something that differentiates them from the others, like the Ice Mage has the unique ability to slow enemies, or the Long Bowman does more damage to bats, things like that that set each unit type apart and give them their own roles on the field, otherwise you have multiple untis tyring to be the best at the same thing. My recommendation would be instead of upgrades just increasing base stats for a unit, allow them to unlock another ability, like a poison arrow upgrade for Archers that damages enemies over time, or a 'frenzy' ability for Footman to temporarily increase their attack speed.
Bugs:
The game crashes when loading again after each victory/defeat. (Would be better if the game didn't have to reload after each round.) Chrome console:
The sound effects keep playing when the game ends, like the noise of when an enemy gets past the right side and damages you, or when a unit attacks. It seems like the defeat screen is just layed over the game that is still running behind it?
I like how the enemies find their way around stuff.
Some notes:
I find the Footman is only useful for blocking paths/redirecting enemies.
Archer is the best unit. It is by far the most cost effective.
25 waves is too much IMO. The toughness of the enemies ramps up to fast. I'm more a fan of shorter games/play-sessions where I can do some stuff, finish it and can leave the game feeling good about myself, instead of giving up out of frustration or boredom of contantly losing. A difficulty setting might be useful.
The bats are so annoying. I think the way they move directly towards the other side is a bad idea. It invalidates the whole part of the game about making routes for enemies to follow and maximising damage output.
It isn't clear what upgrading units does. I don't do it as it is very expensive relative to the initital purchase cost, when I could just buy a new unit and use it to make the path for the enemies longer. Is upgrading 1 unit really going to be better than buying an extra unit instead?
The score seems a bit pointless too. It is just a little number counting away in the corner, but doesn't add anything to the playing experience, especially as there are no highscores to beat.
No sound!
Pretty good though. Kept me playing for about 20 mins, which is more than a lot of other games can claim to have done.
The last post was 2 years ago dude...
It is better to think in terms of objectives, rather than game mechanics straight away. Mechanics should be how objectives are completed. Mechanics are how you play the game, but objectives are why you should play in the first place.
The concept sounds like it will boil down to a game of economics and business management, of which I know nothing about.
Many engines/frameworks do have rules about how they turn a spritesheet into animation frames. Often they require the frames to be in sequence horizontally and with a fixed dimension for all frames. Each different action that a character can do would need its own strip of frames. Then the list of frames being used just changes depending on what the character is doing.
I think that good tools should allow developers the added functionality of being able to define what areas of an image they want to use explicitly, useful in your case of creating a character using different parts.
Good question. Your understanding of the problem is correct. Unfortunately I can't think of an elegant solution. It usually boils down to an oversight by the artist, not understanding the process that programmers use to make assets "do stuff".
Ideally, artists making these kind of assets with variable dimensions should pack all of the individual parts using a texture packer, which can store the dimensions and positions of each frame.
I have always found the search tool to be near useless. I just use Google instead, putting opengameart in the search query.
I didn't see that the Z key was to select before the intructions disappeared. I pressed P to pause but couldn't resume the game until I pressed almost every key to figure out what select was. My first thought was that pressing P again would close the options panel, or Esc, or Enter to select. Bit awkward.
On the intrustions, the 'M' to toggle music looks like a H. It's missing the dip in the middle.
I also found a weird bug with the hunter. The first one appears, I ran towards it, I died, then another hunter comes running in, leaving a trail.
I think your approach is flawed. You should typically have all of your mechanics and core gameplay stuff figured out and working before gathering final assets. It's good to have an idea of what you want the end product to look like, but don't base a game just on some sprites that you found/made. The visuals should complement and enchance the gameplay, not the other way around.
For your criteria of easy to use and learn, to make simple games with minimal programming, GameMaker is what I would recommend. I used it for some stuff in school and am somewhat experienced with it. You can buy different modules that give you more platform export options.
I use Phaser, which is a Javascript game framework for HTML5. Works on anything that has a modern browser, but does require programming knowledge. If you are wanting to get more into the game development scene, being able to program to a decent standard is a must, but as far as just making a few little games for friends/family, GameMaker suits your needs.
Great improvement.
Some more notes:
Bugs:
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'obj' of undefined
d.extend.load @ game.bundle.js:4
(anonymous function) @ game.bundle.js:1
d.extend.enterScene @ game.bundle.js:4
d.extend.scene @ game.bundle.js:4
(anonymous function) @ game.bundle.js:1
p.fn.p.trigger @ game.bundle.js:3
d.extend.mouseDispatch @ game.bundle.js:3
d.extend.addEvent.e @ game.bundle.js:3
It's amazing how much character and vibrance you can get into such a small area for each one. Were these created for any particular project?
Pretty tough.
I like how the enemies find their way around stuff.
Some notes:
Pretty good though. Kept me playing for about 20 mins, which is more than a lot of other games can claim to have done.
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