PDA

View Full Version : Matric final project: BallRoller!



Squid
12-05-2008, 08:11 PM
This is my major project for matric this year. I would appreciate it if you would take a look at it and tell me what you think.

http://clip2net.com/clip/m0/1210615721-clip-76kb.jpg

DOWNLOAD (60mb) (http://www.squidcor.co.za/BallRollerSetup.exe)

Thanks, feedback is much appreciated.

Cloud_Ratha
12-05-2008, 08:16 PM
You can make games for matric projects these days?

Flip rad... i had to do an insanely complex stock control program for my parents bar just to crack the "As" :D

60Mb of DL will have to wait till the end of the month, you should put up some more screenies in the mean time :D

Bonezmann
12-05-2008, 08:51 PM
I agree, thats 1 bleach ep

Higushi
12-05-2008, 09:29 PM
Well... seeing as I pay 1c (from 2am til 8am) a MB here at stellenbosch, I'll download it. :)

Higushi
13-05-2008, 01:06 PM
OK, so I played it. :D

It's a nifty little game this. I like the graphics and the way the maze looks. The only issue I have with this game, and its quite a big one for me, is the controls... they were rather irritating. Maybe its just me, but I found it almost impossible to control the ball exactly the way I wanted in tilt mode and it wasn't pleasant to play in normal mode because of the camera control.

I recommend placing an "invert mouse" option in the options screen, and for tilt-mode perhaps you should not let the user control the camera at all since it confuses the hell out of me when I don't know which way is up, perhaps just zoom out the camera a nice distance and keep it there, it must stay level so its easier to see which way I'm tilting the world - I suppose you could give the user control of the zoom, but the tilting of the camera messes with my mind and the tilting of the world...

Also, you should probably reset the tilt of the maze to level when the ball position is reset to the start (from falling off the world), sometimes I start and the ball just flys away again (because my tilt is in a crazy position).

For some reason when I exit the maze, in both modes, the game menu screen is a shade of gray with no buttons or anything. It happend once that it was normal, so it might just be my computer messing around.

Glitches: Sometimes the ball (seemingly randomly) shoots up into the air and lands somewhere else in the maze (which was actually quite cool once since I landed right by the end! :) ) and sometimes the ball just randomly falls through the floor or shoots through a box to the other side...

Otherwise, good going man. I rate you'll be getting an easy distinction for this one (heh, while all the others bring in their little hangman games ;) )

*Your music files are WAY too big...
*Clumsy Birthmark - HAHAHAHahaha!! I dig your random maze and name generation. :D

Squid
13-05-2008, 03:11 PM
OK, so I played it. :D

It's a nifty little game this. I like the graphics and the way the maze looks. The only issue I have with this game, and its quite a big one for me, is the controls... they were rather irritating. Maybe its just me, but I found it almost impossible to control the ball exactly the way I wanted in tilt mode and it wasn't pleasant to play in normal mode because of the camera control.

I find the push control method rather easy to use myself. The tilt method is just there because that's the way these things (Those mazes you hold and tilt) work IRL.



I recommend placing an "invert mouse" option in the options screen, and for tilt-mode perhaps you should not let the user control the camera at all since it confuses the hell out of me when I don't know which way is up, perhaps just zoom out the camera a nice distance and keep it there, it must stay level so its easier to see which way I'm tilting the world - I suppose you could give the user control of the zoom, but the tilting of the camera messes with my mind and the tilting of the world...


Orientating yourself in tilt world has always been a problem. Push is actually the way it's meant to be used. :P The bean of light that marks the finish is actually always pointing up to help you work out your orientation. All I can suggest is turning down the sensitivity, zooming out and keeping your perspective square to the maze. Protip: You can jump the walls and fly straight to the finish if you are good with tilt mode.


Also, you should probably reset the tilt of the maze to level when the ball position is reset to the start (from falling off the world), sometimes I start and the ball just flys away again (because my tilt is in a crazy position).

That's a bug, damn, I meant to fix that.


For some reason when I exit the maze, in both modes, the game menu screen is a shade of gray with no buttons or anything. It happend once that it was normal, so it might just be my computer messing around.

Hrm, I'm quite sure that this can be fixed with a simple frame.Validate() Do the forms fix themselves when you resize them?


Glitches: Sometimes the ball (seemingly randomly) shoots up into the air and lands somewhere else in the maze (which was actually quite cool once since I landed right by the end! :) ) and sometimes the ball just randomly falls through the floor or shoots through a box to the other side...

What are your system specs? I'm quite sure this is a result of the physics thread not being able to complete loops fast enough to keep up with the ball. This dosen't happen on fast PCs as far as I know.


Otherwise, good going man. I rate you'll be getting an easy distinction for this one (heh, while all the others bring in their little hangman games ;) )

Actually, at least half my class ARE doing hangman. That's the project that was recommended by our teacher :P



*Your music files are WAY too big...

Yeah, I know. I was just to lazy to find out how to import mp3s and such so I used the default OpenAL WaveData. .wavs are massive.



*Clumsy Birthmark - HAHAHAHahaha!! I dig your random maze and name generation. :D

Yeah as you can see this is more an exercise in programming than the game I would have liked to have made. The names were a programming addition that worked out quite nicely :D

Gazza_N
13-05-2008, 03:17 PM
I really want to play this, but like the others I'm being pwn'd by the file size. Any way you could remove the music and shrink it down a little?

Cloud_Ratha
13-05-2008, 03:33 PM
I really want to play this, but like the others I'm being pwn'd by the file size. Any way you could remove the music and shrink it down a little?

Yeah awesome idea... like possible just a taster without the unnecessary stuff...

Higushi
13-05-2008, 05:24 PM
I find the push control method rather easy to use myself. The tilt method is just there because that's the way these things (Those mazes you hold and tilt) work IRL.

The only real problem I had with the push control was the mouse control of the camera. Maybe its just the way I'm used to playing these types of games (could be all the hours I've been playing GTA:SA lately, using the mouse to move the camera). I think a simple "invert mouse" option would fix my gripes.



Hrm, I'm quite sure that this can be fixed with a simple frame.Validate() Do the forms fix themselves when you resize them?

No, but I can tell you that I see the buttons for a few seconds before they dissappear.



What are your system specs? I'm quite sure this is a result of the physics thread not being able to complete loops fast enough to keep up with the ball. This dosen't happen on fast PCs as far as I know.

Well, I'm using a radeon 9250 128MB. You guys used to have one I think. AMD Athlon 1.18GHz and 256MB RAM (need to do something about that soon). So I'm guessing its my PC that causes those glitches.



Actually, at least half my class ARE doing hangman. That's the project that was recommended by our teacher :P

Haha, thats funny. I did a science testing program, and I used it for the Science expo and my matric final project - killing two birds with one stone! :)

Squid
13-05-2008, 05:35 PM
I really want to play this, but like the others I'm being pwn'd by the file size. Any way you could remove the music and shrink it down a little?

I'll see if I can compile a CapLite? version. There will probably be no music and java will most likely be required to run it.

Karuji
13-05-2008, 08:10 PM
Ok love the game crits

Invert y axis would be really helpful for normal mode

Ball feels unresponsive

Training level perhaps?

More game popping random messages at you (feel more interactive)

Different music, i just find it really annoying

And tilt mode is awesome finished a level in 46 seconds :D

Squid
15-05-2008, 06:08 PM
There we go. An untested and probably slightly unreliable CapLite™ version.

DOWNLOAD (17.5mb) (http://www.squidcor.co.za/BallRollerLiteSetup.exe)

SCUD
16-05-2008, 04:22 PM
Jeez, im in matric and i have absolutely no clue on how to program a game. My class still does complete amateur level programming e.g. Library databases etc :\

Chippit
16-05-2008, 04:46 PM
Jeez, im in matric and i have absolutely no clue on how to program a game. My class still does complete amateur level programming e.g. Library databases etc :\
No formal education system in the country will teach you how. My second year classmates wouldn't be able to do it either. Most wouldn't even consider it possible.

Gazza_N
16-05-2008, 04:55 PM
That said, it's never too late to learn. ;)

Chippit
16-05-2008, 04:56 PM
Agreed.

Squid
16-05-2008, 05:12 PM
The rest of my class are all doing simple database programs. I was just passionate enough about game development to put the effort into learning.

dislekcia
16-05-2008, 05:12 PM
No formal education system in the country will teach you how. My second year classmates wouldn't be able to do it either. Most wouldn't even consider it possible.

Considers opening D's school for pwning noobs and coding games.

You'd be teaching XNA and TF2. Keen? Gazza's our mecha-expert.

-D

Chippit
16-05-2008, 06:47 PM
Considers opening D's school for pwning noobs and coding games.

You'd be teaching XNA and TF2. Keen? Gazza's our mecha-expert.

-D
I'll be there faster than you can say Ultimate Quest 2.


The rest of my class are all doing simple database programs. I was just passionate enough about game development to put the effort into learning.
I think I used ND2 for my Std. 9 project. Unfortunately, our Matric project had stringent guidelines (plus an incredibly narrowminded teacher) that made submitting a game for that one impossible. :(

Cloud_Ratha
16-05-2008, 07:10 PM
I have a friend who, for his matric project, made a rts game... The code was actual above the teacher so he couldn understand it, let alone play the game. Therefore fail :(

SCUD
16-05-2008, 10:15 PM
If i did want to learn how to start programming games, which language should i focus on?

Thaumaturge
16-05-2008, 10:59 PM
Well, what languages do you know at the moment? Depending on what you're using, it might be a good idea to remain where you are.

However, if you're interested more in creating games than programming, then I'd suggest that you look at a game creation tool, such as Game Maker.

[edit] And here I'm forgetting to comment on anything else! ^^;

Squid, I like your game - aside from some physics issues (I've gone some distance through walls on occasion :P), and repeating Nostrick's suggestions of resetting the tilt in world-tilt mode and providing a mouse inversion option, it seems to work well, and looks cool. Well done. ^_^

I did once experience the "grey game menu" glitch, I think, but it doesn't seem to happen all the time.

Heh, this is rather better than the game that I made for my Matric project. ^_^


I have a friend who, for his matric project, made a rts game... The code was actual above the teacher so he couldn understand it, let alone play the game. Therefore fail

Did he really fail? I'm inclined to think that he has earned credit, not a fail... Did he appeal the decision? If not, it sounds to me as though it might be a good idea for him that he do so. :/

SCUD
17-05-2008, 12:17 AM
Sorry to derail this Squid! Ill make another thread :P

Fengol
17-05-2008, 07:42 AM
Considers opening D's school for pwning noobs and coding games.

You'd be teaching XNA and TF2. Keen? Gazza's our mecha-expert.

-D

oo! oo! I wanna be a member of that faculty! I'll give Dungeon Crawling 101 and Epic Hero after classes

@Squid: I'd also like to have Invert Mouse in Push Ball Control. I think you should also edit your help or controls and make the controls of the game more prominent, I was looking for how to play the game and the controls schema is unobtrusive and in the middle of the page. Make them bold and at the top. Lastly, I think you could make the ball a little faster; once you understand the game and it's nuances it's painstakingly slow

Squid
17-05-2008, 10:02 AM
Considers opening D's school for pwning noobs and coding games.

I'll teach spying, rock climbing and coffee recipes.


I'd also like to have Invert Mouse in Push Ball Control. I think you should also edit your help or controls and make the controls of the game more prominent, I was looking for how to play the game and the controls schema is unobtrusive and in the middle of the page. Make them bold and at the top. Lastly, I think you could make the ball a little faster; once you understand the game and it's nuances it's painstakingly slow

Okay, invert mouse seems to be a popular idea.

As for the controls, I think I might just add something that explains them when you start a maze.

Protip: Turning sensitivity up makes the ball go faster :P

Gazza_N
17-05-2008, 12:38 PM
Epic collision detection problems on my side, much like Nostrick described. 2.4 GHz Athlon XP with 768MB RAM. Rendered the game pretty much unplayable, unfortunately.

EDIT: Aaaargh! I didn't mention what I liked! Bad Gazza! >.<

Procedural maze and name generation - WIN! Choice of control schemes to customize experience - WIN (although the tilt reset has already been mentioned)! 3D graphics - WIN! I think that you have something ossum going here, collision problems aside. Hell, it's better than anything I could do in Matric. >.>

Squid
24-05-2008, 08:46 PM
Epic collision detection problems on my side, much like Nostrick described. 2.4 GHz Athlon XP with 768MB RAM. Rendered the game pretty much unplayable, unfortunately.

EDIT: Aaaargh! I didn't mention what I liked! Bad Gazza! >.<

Procedural maze and name generation - WIN! Choice of control schemes to customize experience - WIN (although the tilt reset has already been mentioned)! 3D graphics - WIN! I think that you have something ossum going here, collision problems aside. Hell, it's better than anything I could do in Matric. >.>

Hrm, I'm interested. I shall investigate this PC at the DevLan.