Entry 2018: Deadly Balls

PuzZLeR · July 29, 2018

...coming soon...

Rev · August 3, 2018

Interesting name....

PuzZLeR · August 31, 2018

Long ago, trapped in a video game was a great disc war. People were happy to slit each other.

One day, some nasty hot dogs invaded - and turned it into a sausage-fest!

And over the next few decades, things continued to change - no more discs that slit. It's now all about balls! As well, the hot dogs have brought along some of their other nasty thugs.

Balls, balls, balls!

They attack you. They richochet. They sting. They kill.

Watch as our hero, or villain/troll/joker, and his pet bowling ball, is summoned, and zapped in, to this place.

Why? Because.

He doesn't care. He just wants to bowl down this sausage party!

EDIT: Just to upload instructions.

Deadly Balls HB 0.400 Beta.rom

Deadly Balls HB 0.400 Beta Instructions Brief.txt

Edited August 31, 2018 by PuzZLeR

PuzZLeR · August 31, 2018

Hello Friends,

Blame it on Dave Warhol for Deadly Dogs! Mixing Deadly Discs with Burger Time was a Deadly Mix! And this is just a continuation of the abomination.

As I've mentioned in another post, I am not ready, but still post a ROM. The game still has some bugs, and is currently only one level. However, any feedback would be appreciated. I do believe this one has potential in the future to be a legitimate homebrew.

Thanks!

Interesting name....

Ha ha. Now you know why. ;-)

+DZ-Jay · August 31, 2018

Wow! This game is difficult!!! :lol:

You have a few hours so, here are a few suggestions: :grin:

The title screen music is harrowing (which sets the mood) and just a tad discordant (which seems random). You may want to tighten it a little.
The player sprite moves a little slower than some of the enemies. This seems unfair if there are no obstacles to protect him, and he has to wait for his "ball" to make a complete round trip. He should run a little faster than them.
I should be able to see how many hits I've taken or how many I can still take before dying.
The controls need a little tweaking: sometimes I hit the disc to turn, press the action button immediately, and it shoots in the previous direction.
I don't understand some mechanics: Sometimes I get "Game Over" even without being hit. It may be that the collision detection is off. Consider the following scene. I had not being hit, and the game is over right before the collision.

The rules about the gates seem a little complicated, you may wish to revise them.
There should be a way to go back to the "Title" screen or restart the game after dying.

Other than that, I find it intriguing. Not bad! :thumbsup:

Now, back to work!! :grin:

-dZ.

PuzZLeR · August 31, 2018

Hi DZ-Jay! Thanks for playing, and thanks for your feedback! You're an awesome reviewer. Pretty much all of what you say has merit, and I knew it with a game that has only one level. I totally ran out of time! :mad:

Wow! This game is difficult!!!

Ha ha. Sorry about that. Tried a mix in one level.

The title screen music is harrowing (which sets the mood) and just a tad discordant (which seems random). You may want to tighten it a little.

It was meant to be "Tron-like" and needs cinema to justify it. Hopefully you liked the game play tune.

The player sprite moves a little slower than some of the enemies. This seems unfair if there are no obstacles to protect him, and he has to wait for his "ball" to make a complete round trip. He should run a little faster than them.

I should be able to see how many hits I've taken or how many I can still take before dying.

I should've also included in the instructions that (just like Deadly Discs - my beloved inspiration for this game!) hits slow down your walking and shooting speed, which is what may have happened to you. Currently, you have 4 hits, 2 seconds or a green gate warp to recover one. But I surely can do something about this to make it more player-friendly. Thanks!

The controls need a little tweaking: sometimes I hit the disc to turn, press the action button immediately, and it shoots in the previous direction.

Yes, and it's to make the bounce physics work, and ran out of time to smooth this. But, if you run a little bit in one direction you should have the desired next shooting direction. (Didn't want to use the keypad for this. I liked what the arcade game Frenzy did instead.)

Also, when your ball is in flight, and you press one of the action buttons, your ball is supposed to happily return to you (again, similar to a feature in Deadly Discs), which may also cause some confusion here too.

What is also causing a bug in this is the fact that I've implemented some buffers that make sure you don't run into your thrown ball as you're walking, or it doesn't come back too fast which confuses other aspects of the game. I'm not sure what I can do about this in a few hours, but will look into it.

I don't understand some mechanics: Sometimes I get "Game Over" even without being hit. It may be that the collision detection is off. Consider the following scene. I had not being hit, and the game is over right before the collision.

I'm using bounding boxes for collision detection, and it's a tad too enemy-friendly, and I agree with you. Again, sorry you got nailed there.

The rules about the gates seem a little complicated, you may wish to revise them.

The (side) gates start out red. When an enemy comes out of them, they turn yellow. (Like the blue in Deadly Discs, but I chose yellow.) When you touch a yellow gate, it turns green. When you have two matching green gates, you can warp though.

The corner gates are green from the start. This is because I ran out of time to implement a red-yellow-green scheme here yet. Hey, I may have time for this!

There should be a way to go back to the "Title" screen or restart the game after dying.

A dandy request!

Other than that, I find it intriguing. Not bad!

Hey, thanks! I'm not saying this to influence the judges, but this game was meant to be for that teenager that just wants to smash things. Really! Those that have tried it have been totally been immersed in the action and are asking me to add more and more, and that is my Real Audience no matter what happens in this contest.

No, back to work!!

-dZ.

Yes Sir! Thanks again!

PuzZLeR · August 31, 2018

Hello Friends,

I did submit after all!

This is now v.450.

Updated the game a bit, and the instructions, mostly as per DZ-Jay. (Thanks again.)

You can now get hit 6 times, not 4, making the game a bit easier. But you still slow down, your movement and ball speed, when you're down to 2, and you'll know this as a warning when flashing red. (But you can recover from all hits, described in the instructions).

Tighter collision detection of enemy weapon hitting you. It will have to be closer to you now.

On GAME OVER you don't have to hard-reset to play again. A restart feature is there now, as well as a high score.

One level, and very much a WIP is all I had time for. I've been ordered by friends and family to do more - so look for updates in the future!

Attached is the ROM, Source, constants file and latest instructions.

Enjoy!

Deadly Balls HB 0.450 Beta Source.bas

Deadly Balls HB 0.450 Beta Instructions Brief.txt

Deadly Balls HB 0.450 Beta.rom

constants.bas