Snakes Alive!
Community Forums/Showcase/Snakes Alive!
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| [EDIT] OK, you can now download an early WIP of this to get a better idea of how things look/play. :) http://big10p.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/snakes_alive.zip CONTROLS: Keyboard Left arrow - turn anticlockwise. right arrow - turn clockwise. space - hold to speed up. Mouse LMB - turn anticlockwise. RMB - turn clockwise. space - hold to speed up. Joypad (analog gives better control!) left - turn anticlockwise. right - turn clockwise. button A - hold to speed up. As this is a WIP, please note: There's no sound. Ignore the weird particle effects - I was experimenting. :P I'm just really interested in whether you think this is going to be worth continuing working on. Cheers. ;) ---- Original Post ------------------- This was the game I was working on before getting sidetracked into making Juicy Fonts. Now that's finished, I'm not sure whether to bother going back to this or not. My main worry is graphics quality not being up to much, as it's pure 2D:   Obviously, it's based on the classic 'Snake' game, but I wanted to update it a bit by having 360 degree movement, different game modes (snake racing?) etc. I originally thought that casual gamers might go for this one. Not sure now. :) I'm not even sure whether the game mechanic works, TBH, mainly because the 360 degree movement has significantly changed the dynamic of the game, compared to the original Snake. It is fun and kind of compelling just guiding the snake around, though. This is still at a very early WIP stage, so I guess it's a good time to ask my question: Develop it or ditch it? :P |
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| Looks nice! If the gameplay is how you've said- its like the TRON demo in B3D. This would be fun to play but I doubt it would sell without a ton of extra work on top- some finishing touches. The question is- Are you cabable of doing better immediately? I believe you are- So go to it :D |
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| Looks like fun to me. I'd say it was worth persuing. |
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| Looks nice! If the gameplay is how you've said- its like the TRON demo in B3D. lol. Yeah, I guess it is a bit like Tron, in some ways. :P However, the 'snake racing' idea I had was just for a sub/mini game, or separate game mode. The 'main' game would be much the same as the original 'snake' i.e. eat stuff and stay alive as long as possible. I wan't to add other elements/twists, though.Hmm. that Tron demo even looks better than mine, in some ways, which pretty much sums up my concerns over the graphics. Maybe 2D just doesn't cut it anymore? This would be fun to play but I doubt it would sell without a ton of extra work on top- some finishing touches. The question is- Are you cabable of doing better immediately? Thanks. Yeah, it obviously needs a load more polishing. If you're asking if I'm capapble of doing better graphics, I'm not sure, TBH. Again, it comes down to the limitations of 2D, mainly.I believe you are- So go to it :D Looks like fun to me. Cheers. We'll see. :)I'd say it was worth persuing. Thanks for the input, guys. ;) |
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| It's not that it's 2d that the graphics aren't high quality. You can make it look better in 2D if you want to. |
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| It's not that it's 2d that the graphics aren't high quality. You can make it look better in 2D if you want to. lol. So, you're saying I suck at 2D graphics, then? :PSeriously though, I've done the stone wall about as good as I can (considering the sections have to tile); the snake is made up of segments, which I'm not sure how I can improve greatly; the grass is fairly plain, so as not to make things look too confusing; I added the shadows to try and improve the appearance of depth... how can I make things look better? Ideas welcome! :) I've yet to add any HUD elements atc., of course. |
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| Nice! |
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| No. As I look to your shots the only thing I don't like it's that all the graphics are cartoonish and the grass it's realystic. Overall it looks good. It will not score hight for graphics but it have style. Edit: And get rid of the fake shodow or make shadow for the snake. Looks like the snake it's flying. |
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| Personally, I like the graphics. Looks way better than anything I've ever done! I love the grass and the walls and I think they work nicely together. The snake I'm not so fond of... Consider giving the snake segments a more isometric look by creating images of cylinders (rather than spheres) for a selection of angles (like the rollercoaster cars in Rollercoaster Tycoon - maybe multiples of 15 or 30 degrees.) Draw them in back-to-front (y axis) order and I think you'll be able to pull off a rather nice effect! As to whether you should develop it or ditch it? Unless you come up with a novel gameplay concept, I doubt I'll play it for more than one sitting - I've played my fill of snake/tron games; however, kids might find this highly engaging! |
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| Thanks, Mustang. :) Haramanai: I am going for a cartoonish look. I did a colour reduction on the grass to try and make it more cartoonish - I could try to reduce it some more, I s'pose. I actually thought it looked OK. :/ Without the shadow, the whole screen looks REALLY flat and unimpressive. I didn't think the snake needed a shadow because it's right on the ground (can't get lower than a snake's belly, they say) and isn't really high enough to cast a significant one. It would also be a pain to do. Anyone else think the snake looks like it's flying? octothorpe: The snake I'm not so fond of... Yes, the snakes don't look too impressive in the screenies, I admit. However, in motion I think they look alot better. It's quite mesmerizing watching the snake's markings moving around. :)Consider giving the snake segments a more isometric look by creating images of cylinders (rather than spheres) for a selection of angles (like the rollercoaster cars in Rollercoaster Tycoon - maybe multiples of 15 or 30 degrees.) Draw them in back-to-front (y axis) order and I think you'll be able to pull off a rather nice effect! I actually think I tried the idea of using cylinders instead of spheres. This was easy to try as I already have to rotate each segment according to the way they're 'facing', in order to get the highlight positioned in the correct place. There was alot of extra work and graphics just to get that effect. As I remember (been months since I've touched this code), cylinders didn't look as nice to me. I can't really remember - maybe I'll give it another go. There may also be collision detection problems with using cylinders as I can imagine it be possible to turn very close to the wall and have a cylinder segment 'catch' the wall, as it curves around (if you see what I mean). As to whether you should develop it or ditch it? Unless you come up with a novel gameplay concept, I doubt I'll play it for more than one sitting - I've played my fill of snake/tron games; however, kids might find this highly engaging! Sure. I mainly had kids and casual gamers in mind. The fact that I overheard two mate's girlfriends talking about their new mobile/cell phones and moaning that they couldn't play Snake anymore, made me think I might be on to a good thing. I really don't know though, TBH. :) |
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| I demand a demo. |
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| lol. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, Noel. :P Either way, I'll try and hack a demo together so that people can see what it looks like in action. That would make more sense. :) |
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| Looks fun ..... demo immediately! |
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| Demo or life... *points a green plushy stick at him. :) |
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| OK, a simple demo of this is up for download. See top post. |
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| after playing the demo, I think you have the beginings of a great little game. The snakes are fantastic. Too bad it's not in BMax, it would then be easy to spice it up and add real shadows... |
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| Thats an idea- It shouldnt take too long to convert to BMAX and then you could have a cross-platform little shareware game or something :D |
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| Agreed BMX would be nice! And the controls of the snake should be tweakened a bit. The snake seems to be drunk? |
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| I guess porting to Bmax would make the most sense. Unfortunately, that would require me to buy and learn it first. :P Also, does Bmax do pixel perfect collisions on scaled/rotated sprites? And the controls of the snake should be tweakened a bit. Grisu, do you have an analog controller plugged in? If the stick doesn't rest exactly centred, it may cause the snake to be constantly turning slightly. Is that what you mean?The snake seems to be drunk? I should really clip the values read from the analog stick but haven't done this yet. :) |
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| I'm still liking it after playing the demo. Think the snake is great with its tongue and eyes adding "character". As for extras to add, how about some sort of multi level items like bridge sections you can go under/over, holes to go down and reappear over the other side (primative teleport if you like). Then of course there are the more obvious power ups, speed up, slow down. How about one that allows you to bite through your body to get shorter again LOL ;-) |
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| I'm still liking it after playing the demo. Ta. Yeah, my original idea was to have a selection of cartoony 'snake characters' with different characteristics/abilities - size, speed, turn rate, growth rate etc. I was thinking about giving them different names, too, like Puff Addy, Rain Boa, Biggy Mamba, Crazy Cobra... you get the idea. :PThink the snake is great with its tongue and eyes adding "character". As for extras to add, how about some sort of multi level items like bridge sections you can go under/over, holes to go down and reappear over the other side (primative teleport if you like). We're obviously on the same wavelength as I've already been considering these. ;) The teleport holes (called wormholes? geddit? :P ) would actually be pretty simple to implement, due to the way I'm handling the snake object, in-code. Then of course there are the more obvious power ups, speed up, slow down. How about one that allows you to bite through your body to get shorter again LOL ;-) Well, you can already speed up in the demo, but there's not much point to this, at the moment. I added this because I was thinking about having bombs (like those in Bomberman) being thrown into the arena, instead of fruit. The bombs would have a countdown to exploding, so the snake would have to get to it and eat it, before it goes off. Then, you could speed up to get to the bomb if time is short. :)I was also thinking of having a set number of bombs thrown into each level (or, maybe the snake has to reach a certain length) before a wormhole appears to take you to the next level. Not sure. I've got quite a few ideas floating around at the moment. Cheers. |
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| does Bmax do pixel perfect collisions on scaled/rotated sprites? yes, it has a unique collision syustem- you draw it once to screen and use the collide command to draw it to a collision layer When you want to check for collision, you can check for collision with any of the 32 layers, pixel perfect :) |
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| OK, thanks Cygnus. So, to do a collision check between two sprites, I actually have to draw them not once, but twice (blitz 2D collisions can be done without actually drawing anything)? That sounds like it may be a tad slow, given how many segments my snakes can be made up of, when really long. |
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| Yay Big10p, I missed this post. I'll play it alter. I recognise those fruit ;-) |
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| Alien, I only use keyboard... :) |
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| I recognise those fruit ;-) hehe they do get around a bit. Just using them as placeholders at the mo until I implement my bomb idea. That's if I decide to develop this anymore at all. :) Alien, I only use keyboard... :) Did you mean me, Grisu? :P You may be using the keyboard but if you have an analog stick plugged in, that can still affect the game.If you don't have a joypad plugged in, can you explain a bit better how the snake behaves when you say it seems drunk? Without any keys or mouse buttons pressed, it should just move in a straight line. Ta. |
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| Even at this early stage I can tell this'll be fun to play. I like attention to detail on the snake .. tongue is a nice touch! Personally I think you should practice what you preach and finish it ;) |
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| Touché! :P |
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| Hey this is cool! Looking forward to some wacky music and sound effects. I like the fruit although I guess it should really be eating small creatures and insects :-) The graphics have a cool look and the dark areas are great with just the eyes! The particle effects are interesting but look a bit funny as it they are dithered? Maybe they shouldn't be dithered? Keep this one going! |
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| Cheers Grey. :) Like I say, the fruit are just placeholders at the mo. I thought about having bugs instead but I quite like my idea about using bombs. I know it doesn't make much sense having a snake eat bombs but it is a cartoon/comedy type game so maybe I can get away with it. :P The particles are just an experiment - adding the particles was the last thing I worked on and I was just playing around with them. Some of them are dithered because I was trying to get a semi-transparent smoke/cloud particle but it's obviously not as good as having proper blended particles. I think I might continue working on this title, even if it's just to polish it into a small freebie game. Can't seem to make my mind up on this one. :/ |
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| Freebie games are good for your portfolio and the experience of completing a game, although I gather you did this on the Net Yaroze? |
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| Yep, I did one freebie game for the Yaroze. Selling games for that system wasn't even an option. :) |
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| Nice wip there, as others have mentioned, I find the grass a bit jarring as it doesnt contrast too well with the rest of the graphics. Quite like the 360 degree rotational control there, adds a bit more depth as you can then "slither" to your objectives to prevent a huge line of snake possibly getting in your way on the way to the next apple. Love the little tongue animation btw. |
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| Nice wip there, as others have mentioned, I find the grass a bit jarring as it doesnt contrast too well with the rest of the graphics. Well, some have said they don't like it, and some have said they do. :) I think it's OK, myself. I did quite a bit of experimentation to try and get the grass looking right and this was the best I came up with. It's pretty difficult making a decent grass tile that looks enough like grass but isn't too overpowering, and doesn't look like a carpet when tiled.At least no one has said the walls look like a giraffe, which is one comment I got at my end. :P |
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| If you're going bugs not fruit. How about ones that fly in and land for a certain time before flying off again. Or ones that have to be approached from behind, so they dont see you coming, otherwise they'll fly/run off ??? Oh and the walls look like a giraffe ........... I'll get my coat. |
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| I like the style big10p, african animals or not. Played it for too long this PM when i should be working. Certainly worth finishing it, brought back excellent retro gaming memories of broken kempston joysticks, etc. A looping musical score that increases the tension as your snake gets longer would be ace. Seem to remember once seeing a snake game (in 2D) that had pseudo 3D levels, where you could fall through a hole in an upper level onto a lower one - not sure it added much to the gameplay though. Overall - enjoyed it - nice style - finish it!! Mark |
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| This would be an awesome freeware game. It's a lot of fun, but the controls took a bit of getting used to, and I'm an avid gamer. I doubt a casual gamer would make it past that initial little barrier. |
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| I like the grass and I'm an expert ;-) |
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| If you're going bugs not fruit. How about ones that fly in and land for a certain time before flying off again. Or ones that have to be approached from behind, so they dont see you coming, otherwise they'll fly/run off ??? I'm still keen to try out my bomb idea, instead of the fruit, but bugs are definately worth considering too. I quite like the idea of having bugs fly in and out, though - maybe I could have bonus/powerup bugs. :) A looping musical score that increases the tension as your snake gets longer would be ace. That's a nice idea. TBH I'm not a sound/music person so I haven't even thought about music/SFX yet. I tend to try and put that stuff off until last because I know it's going to be a pain for me to do. :P Seem to remember once seeing a snake game (in 2D) that had pseudo 3D levels, where you could fall through a hole in an upper level onto a lower one - not sure it added much to the gameplay though. Yeah, I think that would probably over complicate things. Just having simple tunnels and bridges would probably spice things up a bit, though. This would be an awesome freeware game. It's a lot of fun, but the controls took a bit of getting used to, and I'm an avid gamer. I doubt a casual gamer would make it past that initial little barrier. The controls are a bit of a problem, due to the 360 degree movement, but I couldn't think of a better way. Any ideas? I found I got used to the controls fairly quickly and only press left instead of right (etc.) very ocassionally, and usually only when I make a 'panic' move. I like the grass and I'm an expert ;-) So does snakey, that's why he's got the munchies! :OThanks for the feedback so far. ;) |
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| i liked the controls. Needs some sounds ASAP. Why bombs, seems a bit weird, You could place bombs that you have to avoid? |
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| Or bombs that you can use in your favour e.g. push them around as a timer counts down to blow away walls to make short cuts ??? Push bomb into position then get away before it blows sort of thing. |
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| Like I say, I want to use bombs so that I can have a countdown timer on them before they blow - game over. This will add an extra panic to get to the bomb in time, and also make use of the speedup feature, to reach it in time. :) |
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| Ah, I see. |
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| aaagh! too many posts, nice looking wormy game though :] |
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| Yep got a chance for shareware success - quite addictive. However, the grass is too realistic with a cartoon-like theme, you'll have to get some catchy music, the levels could be more inventive and the shadows are awful - real shadows or nothing here. |
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| To get proper blended shadows, I'd have to convert this to 2D-in-3D, or use Bmax. Doing realtime software blending is not an option, currently - it'd be way too slow. Are the shadows really that bad? I still can't make my mind how best to proceed with this game. :/ |
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| Yes you'd have to convert this program to a language that supports 2d in 3d like Bmax or PureBASIC - or just take them out altogether. Perhaps you could use one of the 2d in 3d libraries for Blitz3d. Well yes the shadows just seem odd when you pass through them - especially pillars of doom. Why don't you change the angle to 45 degrees and use a 3d program (if you have one) to produce the graphics? I do like the snake though. |
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| Have you tried faking real-time shadows by alternating the black pixels you use for the shading? |
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| Taking out the shadows completely isn't an option. The game looks really plain without them, plus I want to have tunnels, like in the Black Bell level. Have you tried faking real-time shadows by alternating the black pixels you use for the shading? I considered doing this but, TBH, it'd be a real pain to do and if the FPS ever dropped, it'd look pretty bad. |
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| Taking out the shadows completely isn't an option. The game looks really plain without them Yes I know - that's whay I suggested angling the view slightly so you actually see more than just the top of the pillars. |
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| That would simply introduce different problems, Steve. For example, a tall pillar/wall would mean the snake would disappear when moving behind it. I'm going to do some experimentation with 3D and see if I can come up with something I prefer. |
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| try rendering the shadows every odd frame..if the game is running at a high fps..you will only notice a slight flicker + you will get 50% alpha on the shadows...its not perfect, but its worth a try... your best bet is to implement this in bmax ;) |
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| I haven't got bmax but my experiment with doing a mesh snake in Blitz3D is looking quite promising. I've also realized that I can probably get the snake to be affected by the level lightmap - shadow problem solved! :) Doing this in true 3D also means implementing tunnels and bridges will be much easier (I realized there'd be a problem doing this in the 2D version). Anyway, it's early days with the 3D experiment. I just have to see how it goes. |
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