Semicontrol

[bgordebak]

A simple puzzle game where you try to put the disc on the right in the red square by moving the disc on the left. Green squares reverses the movement relationship.

This game is a prototype. If enough people like it, I might develop it into a better and longer game.

Edit: itch.io now has an android apk for the game.

Edit 2: The game also has a DOS version on Ludum Dare

Edit 3: Added music and sound to the game. Also there's a menu screen now.

Edit 4: Added a finish screen. Now we need to implement more levels.

Edit 5: Four new levels. There are 22 levels right now, I don't know if I should make more of them.

Edit 6: Added screen scaling for fullscreen and normal modes. It looks better now, I think.

Edit 7: Shortened the code a bit.

Controls:
Movement: Arrow keys (On Android, swipe to the desired direction and release)
Fullscreen: F11
Refresh level: F5
Return to menu/Quit: Escape
Start game: Space
Music on/off: M
Sound on/off: F

The game is also on itch.io

[easy82]

Wow, this is very good! Where did you get the idea from? You should definately make a mobile game from this.

[bgordebak]

Hey, thanks! I guess I'll work on it more.

[steVeRoll]

Amazing! The puzzles are original and really make you think! You should totally work on this!

[bgordebak]

Thank you very much! It's decided then!

[Ref]

Interesting game.
Unfortunately, once you get through all the levels, there is no incentive to play again.
Suggestions:
- randomly select a limited number of levels on every play. That way you get some old levels and some new ones.
- add a scoring system based on time.

Regarding your code:
You could make it easier to add levels if you map files didn't require calculating the starting ball positions.
You already have a way to locate the exit and reversing square.
Your map file could look like:

Code: Select all

#################
# 1     #2   R  #
#       #     # #
# #######     # #
# #######     # #
# #######     # #
# #######     # #
# #######     #X#
#################

Also noticed that your code had some dead lines and some redundant code.
Could reduce your code by more that half and still be quire readable (see below) but HAY! it works.
Best

[bgordebak]

Thanks a lot Ref! Just so you know, your simplified code doesn't run with my LÖVE. It freezes on start. EDIT: I managed to run it after extracting, I don't know why the .love file doesn't run. But you missed some points while simplifying code. Some of those lines weren't redundant. If you get on a green box, the movement was supposed to be reversed. You completely removed that mechanic. EDIT: Sorry, you didn't remove it, but you reversed the player's actions too. See, they had a reason to be. EDIT: I could've made a lot of the repeated code into some functions, but making it this way was faster, and I did it in a very short time, like two hours.

I might have unnecessary code lines in there, yeah, sorry about that. I will try to remove them. This game was a prototype, and I made it very quickly.

The game has only 22 levels right now. I thought about adding a lot more levels, but I didn't want to repeat the levels already in there very much. So I decided to add more levels if I have different mechanics. After level 22, I might introduce a new kind of square to achieve that.

About the simplified map, yeah I realized that, and used that approach on the android version (it was a little different since it had code for portrait and landscape orientations). Unfortunately, I was too lazy to implement it in the desktop version. I will do it though.

EDIT: And yeah, a scoring system based on time is a good idea. But I still need more levels (Maybe a lot more).

EDIT: I shortened the code by making the movement code into a function. But I couldn't find any dead code.

[Ref]

... but you reversed the player's actions too

Ops! One line of code to correct.
Just playing around with your code, not a criticism.
Glad to see you continuing to enhance you fun game.
Don't know why you were unable to run my script. Works for me so I must have overlooked some file.
Best

[bgordebak]

Just playing around with your code, not a criticism.

You can criticize if you want. No problem. And thanks for trying my game and giving valuable feedback. I intend to work on this game more in the near future if time permits.