CandyJam Game - Sandwitch Joe Saga

[Connors]

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.

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. 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!

[Gan]

That looks really epic. Like an actual game.

[Connors]

I know it's got a title screen and random generated scenery and everything!

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.

[WarHampster]

If you're using Processing/ Java, why not just embed the applet on your website?

[Connors]

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)

[Connors]

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...

[Circuit]

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?

[Connors]

Alright, I'll PM you the link, thanks!

[Circuit]

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.

[Connors]

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.

[WarHampster]

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

[Connors]

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.

[Gan]

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.

[WarHampster]

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.

[Connors]

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!