Game Maker's Garage Forum

Game Creation => Other Languages & Tools => Topic started by: Connors on January 28, 2014, 01:58:31 PM

Title: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on January 28, 2014, 01:58:31 PM
Welp, I gotta say I was kind of at a standstill with my platform game engine for a while there... But this CandyJam thing has inspired me to try to do something quickly and to finally make some upgrades to my code. :D

I wanted to add something fun like enemies such as giant gummy-bears to keep this thing interesting but I felt like fighting and a magical Candy World didn't fit together real well. Eventually I decided on adding a mechanic where you can bounce on the gummy bears' heads, and it looks like that will be enough to add quite a bit to the game so far. 8) I also prompted me to finally figure out how collision detection should work for entities in the world so I'll be working off that soon enough.

Stay tuned for more updates!
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Gan on January 28, 2014, 02:19:05 PM
That looks really epic. Like an actual game.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on January 28, 2014, 04:23:11 PM
I know it's got a title screen and random generated scenery and everything! :o

I need to figure out how to package it for download. Processing can save a .app (still requires Java 7) but that had problems after I tried to make a .zip, and I tried to make a disk image but it was... problematic. So any help is appreciated.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: WarHampster on January 28, 2014, 06:21:15 PM
If you're using Processing/ Java, why not just embed the applet on your website?
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on January 29, 2014, 01:47:29 PM
I still need to learn how to embed it properly, I've never done this before.

For now, I've uploaded the Windows version of the game so far:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43wLWbwHpj6alFwTzVhTzhZUlE/edit?usp=sharing

(Requires Java 7) ;)
Title: Mac version now available! - CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on January 30, 2014, 07:58:44 PM
I figured out how to upload it for mac!
Holy crap the download has it's own fancy page now. :L

http://connorses.itch.io/escape-from-candy-world

I can't compile for Linux without a computer running Linux though, perhaps if I ask real nice on the Processing forum someone can do it for me...
Title: Re: Mac version now available! - CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Circuit on January 31, 2014, 02:38:41 PM
I can't compile for Linux without a computer running Linux though, perhaps if I ask real nice on the Processing forum someone can do it for me...

Hey, I'm running Debian Linux, and I have Processing.  Want me to do it for you?
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on January 31, 2014, 03:44:22 PM
Alright, I'll PM you the link, thanks!
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Circuit on February 01, 2014, 12:28:57 PM
You're welcome!  Check your PMs.

I like the bouncing mechanic, but some of the levels are really hard!  I can't get past the level where Joe has to bounce off of several gums in a row while avoiding spikes.  Too much challenge: timing, movement precision, jump key pressure, etc.  Maybe you should tweak that one a little bit.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on February 01, 2014, 01:37:57 PM
Ohhh man well I'm glad you got to the last one, some people have found the game too hard in general, but I do plan to tweak the game a lot. There's a few spots that could be made more forgiving. After I touch this one up I'm either going to try and make it into a longer, more complete game or I'm going to use what I learned to make another new game.

I might take up Gan's suggestion of porting my engine to Dart.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: WarHampster on February 01, 2014, 05:18:46 PM
I'm going to make a game for CandyJam tonight :)

Protip: no one downloads jam games. If you want people to play it, it needs to run in the browser. I say this after making several Jam games that no one played :'(

If you're using the Processing IDE just do export - applet. That will give you a standard Java applet that you can embed in HTML. This might be the easiest way to do it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4272666/embedding-java-applet-into-html-file
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on February 01, 2014, 10:01:33 PM
Yeah that's what I wanted to do WarHamster, and I appreciate the help, everyone, but I did a little research, and it seems Processing 2.0 will no longer export to an applet. I would have to convert to Processing.js (which compiles the same code but to JavaScript) which means I couldn't use any of my current libraries. That includes the file i/o since levels are saved as .txt files, and also my sound and music.

I'm actually getting a bit tired of these limitations and if I don't figure it out soon I may switch to something new. Processing is still way useful for experimenting but it kind of feels like using 'training wheels'. If I could even just put the same Java code together without Processing I could probably embed it, but I'm not so sure.

Kind of puts a damper on my enthusiasm for doing more work on the game.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Gan on February 02, 2014, 12:54:48 PM
I was thinking of making a fun maze game in dart but hey Connors if you got time we could Skype and get your game quickly coded to Dart.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: WarHampster on February 02, 2014, 09:42:36 PM
That's weird, Connors - maybe just an arbitrary limitation of the PDE? I use Processing as a Java library (http://processing.org/tutorials/eclipse/) and running as an applet definitely works.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on February 02, 2014, 10:00:31 PM
Well, Dart is really cool
http://gamemakersgarage.com/SandwichJoeSaga/sandwitchjoesaga.html

I think I can get it up on the official game jam site but for now, here it is!
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Gan on February 03, 2014, 12:21:34 AM
Hah! I beat it.
Title: Re: CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga
Post by: Connors on February 03, 2014, 09:33:58 AM
Awesome! And thanks again for all the help Gan.

The new version has a higher framerate, silky smooth, loads pretty quick, works in HTML5... It was worth the trouble. And I learned a lot about Dart.