G.I.F.T.

As I promise, I'm going write something about my new game: G.I.F.T. actually new version of the ice cube game. In G.I.F.T. we are controlling a kid and helping him to get his gift. Base mechanics remained same. We are controlling him by sliding on the surface. I've uploaded the game on kongreate and newgrounds. (Kongregate link - Newgrounds link to play the game.)

Here is how I converted an old game to a new one.

First, I started with changing the character. I wanted it to be a kid. And I started to draw something. First, I thought the kid as a stickman figure. But I didn't like that and I changed my idea. Then I applied some colors and I got this result:

This was my first attempt to draw something for my game.

Than I started to make tiles. In my mind, there was winter atmosphere for the game. For that reason, I made snowy tiles. And I used gradient effect for the background image. This is the tileset that I've made:

And a snowball which is an obstacle:

I know that they're not so good. But making them was so fun for me. Also, using them in a game was a great experience.

I also made some jumping sounds. It can be hardly noticed because its volume is low. That's because I recorded them by using a cheap microphone.

Now, some technical stuff:

I made all the levels as a different class which derives from FlxState. I chose this way because reseting was too easy. Just a line of code which is FlxG.resetState(). But I couldn't put a loop music to the game, because when it resets the game, it also resets the music. For that reason, maybe this decision wasn't that useful. I think whole game must be in just one state to fix this problem. Reseting can be done with setting all variables' values to thier first values. Another bad thing is that I wrote almost same things for the all of the levels. In the ice cube project, I wrote a Level class and derived all levels from this class. I think this way is better and more object-oriented.

I hope you have fun while playing G.I.F.T. and please rate and leave comments.

Ice Cube Has Gone

From the beginning, I didn't like the idea of ice cube game. But I liked the base mechanics of it. For that reason, instead of making new game I wanted to change and enhance it. I've been working on it for more than a week. The game has changed entirely. I think it's better than the previous idea.

I will give more information about the new idea soon. For now, I'm putting an image which reflects the game directly.

JURUMP - My first game

Yes, Jurump is my first game. Me and Efe Alaçamlı made it together. Click here to read his blog post about Jurump. (Link for the game is below this post.)

We made this game in fall, 2011 for the course called Introduction to Computer Games. This is the course which I meet game programming and love it. Obviously, this was my favourite course, I always looked forward to this course whole week. Other than those, another thing that I remember is how excited and enthusiastic I was. I hope these never ends.

Let's talk about the game now. It's side scrolling 2D platform game. We are trying to save Ali, who is the main character, from alien invasion. He is on the roof of the buildings during this escape. He shouldn't fall into the gaps between buildings and hit aliens. Also, there are four bonuses he can take. These are super jump, temporary protection, speed up and whistle. The goal of the game is finishing the levels faster.

We programmed this game in Java and used Slick2D library. This was a good and rough experience. I remember that we had trouble coding jumping. Because we wanted to simulate gravity in a right way. The character was shaking when he touches the ground. But we did some value changing and solved the problem.

And finally this game came out:

We made this "How to play" screen but some people didn't go there and they never used the bonuses. 

Click here to download the game. Java gives security warning, click no to play. 

An internship ends

It's been two weeks since the internship ended. But I can have a chance to write something at that moment. I've been busy with writing report and other stuff. In this post I will write about internship and the game that I made in this period.

Little information about game: It's a 2D platform game. The character is an ice cube. We're trying to get him to the north pole to make him live free there.

In my previous post I wrote

I'm having trouble designing the levels and making these levels hard.

As I wrote, I really tried to make the levels hard but when I watch people playing my game, those levels were VERY VERY HARD. They could finish the levels and proceed the game. I designed the difficulty of levels for my ability which was totally wrong. Because, while I was making the game, I played it a lot and I got used to controls and eveything. I understand that I missed a very important point which was playtesting. I should have done more playtesting. Maybe, the levels were not going to be that hard. I will put the game here, but I need to do some arrangements.

The game has lots of missing things. It's not fully completed (like my other game-ish things). But this time, there is a little bit much. Maybe I tried to complete some of them. But I really don't like to deal with a project after its deadline has passed. I rather want to make new things.

An image from third level

There are three weeks for college to start. Until that time, I want to find a game idea that I satisfied. Also I need to think something for my senior-year project.

See you soon.