nitrogenfingers, on 07 September 2017 - 04:15 AM, said:
I had a quick play with this. There's definitely potential for something really fun here, but a few things I'd suggest:
- The ability to change your facing without moving. A second button could do this without overloading the scheme I think.
- A smaller playfield. Right now it's just too easy to miss unless you're quite close
- More dodgeballs on the field. I'm not sure what a good ratio would be but I think it should be reasonably difficult to move around when all are in motion.
- Tweak catching. I found it really challenging to catch the ball- either the game is moving too fast or the window to catch is just too small. Some visual indication of when/where that window is would be really good as well.
As a later deliverable one idea that came to me is to have playfields with obstacles that reflect the dodgeballs in different directions- you could use slashes or teletext characters to bounce the balls 90 degrees. Particularly if these obstacles could be moved, that could lead to some interesting gameplay.
Another layer might be having multiple players- either you move them all at once with the same directions or cycle between them. That could really raise the stakes of the game, make it like spinning plates.
Also I noticed some flicker when I played it. It looks like you're redrawing the game each cycle- you can probably trim this down as there aren't many visual elements on the screen- like only draw a player when an appropriate key event is fired etc.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I have thought about a few of these - but I'm not sure how you would have the second button work (to rotate your character). Press it and use the arrow keys to point in a direction? That would be fairly easy, a 'while-button-down-don't-move-when-you-press-arrow-key'.
Smaller playfield would definitely be more interesting, but it wouldn't really make use of the screen unless I made some kind of scoreboard or screen that displays more information or something to fill it up.
More dodgeballs is in the works, definitely. I was thinking it would be more difficult for players if it was basically a moving minefield - make it more interesting. So maybe a 2:1 ball:player ratio?
Catching is indeed difficult. Just remember to press the catch button BEFORE it reaches your player, then release the catch button RIGHT AFTER you catch it. Any harder than that makes it very hard, and any easier makes it almost cheating.
In regards to moveable playing fields - I am definitely interested in that. I had actually made it so you could pickup basically anything at the start, but made it so it only registered you trying to pickup a ball - but I'll definitely look into picking up blocks and redirecting pads. I was also thinking about making it a split playing field, having the Blue team stick to the left and the Red to the right.
The flicker is due to me making a quick, working version of the program. If you look at the code it is quite messy, as Bomb Bloke has also pointed out. How would you draw it? You still have to draw the players after you clear the screen (needs to be cleared otherwise old player positions will be showing).
Bomb Bloke, on 06 September 2017 - 03:35 PM, said:
Do you intend to add an AI player? The basic routines feel like they should be pretty simple - move towards a ball, attempt to catch it, move to the same row/col as the opponent, throw, repeat with other ball...
It's a good idea, but probably closer to the bottom of the list right now. Sorry
Bit harder and the actual gameplay of the game is a bit more pressing.
EDIT: What do you guys think about a name-change?
Dodj? I can't actually do any of this right now but I'll definitely try get to it over the next few days.
EDIT2: (Ideas keep poppin') What if there was a build mode before the game starts? You can place 5 blocks (redirecting, teleporting - teleports the ball as it goes in one block and comes out the other, maybe going into a redirecting block back to the other side to confuse the other team - and maybe some others) around your side of the field (or over the whole field) to make some crazy pinball-like combos. The mode would last about 30s to a minute, then the game starts.
Edited by Dave-ee Jones, 07 September 2017 - 05:49 AM.