Author Topic: I made a Flash game... (Read 5287 times)

Pale · « **on:** March 27, 2009, 10:18:19 AM »

So over the past couple months in my spare time at work and at home I threw together this silly Star Formation game.

Discover Magazine "published" it on their site. Check it out if you want. =P

http://discovermagazine.com/interactive/star-formation-game/

Morari · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2009, 11:06:35 AM »

I like it! It's a very creative concept and requires a surprising amount of strategy as you get further in. Good job.

oohhboy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2009, 11:30:26 AM »

Cute little time waster. I don't suppose those guys with 5 figure scores cheated to hell and back?

You can't turn the entire cloud into an implosion device.

One serious question though. It appears that the clouds themselves don't have any gravity and work totally off your shockwaves. That true right?

Black holes for the sequel would be a nice twist if you ever made one.

Pale · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2009, 11:33:57 AM »

Thanks for the kind words... yeah there is no other gravity in it... explosions cause shockwaves which moves the cloud.

I don't know how those guys got those high scores. I don't think they cheated though as far as I can tell.

There's a lot more I'd like to do with this if I ever had the chance... maybe I will some day.

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2009, 01:04:36 PM »

Holy crap, that's pretty cool man! When I get home I'm definitely going to play some more.

ShyGuy · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2009, 01:32:08 PM »

Dang, that's impressive. Get this stuff on Wiiware!

Spinnzilla · « **Reply #6 on:** March 27, 2009, 01:41:11 PM »

damn, this is cool. I like it.

NWR_DrewMG · « **Reply #7 on:** March 27, 2009, 02:09:03 PM »

Very cool, Pale. Nice job. I bought myself a Flash for Dummies book a few years ago, but never got around to figuring out how it works.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #8 on:** March 27, 2009, 05:45:33 PM »

All I could do was 8-9k points in the first level (nearly impossible to score in the others with their exploding stars). Just line the cloud's perimeter with as many explosions as you can in order to make it collapse into one point, then wait as your chain racks up, repeat until you're happy with your score.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #9 on:** April 01, 2009, 12:27:02 AM »

This is a fun game and a great concept. I think the penalty for using more seeds is too small, but other than that it is a nice game and it is strategic in many ways.

I would love to have triggered Seeds so you can place them and plan an attack better.

Stratos · « **Reply #10 on:** April 01, 2009, 02:04:27 AM »

It's really nice. Much better than anything I ever pulled off. I like how smoothly the dust clouds move and flow.

Pale · « **Reply #11 on:** April 01, 2009, 02:28:22 PM »

It was actually pretty challenging to get that effect. Obviously I wanted to make an elaborate particle system but Flash just can't push that many particles.

What I ended up doing was making a system of invisible particles, the number of which was relatively small, around 300 I believe. I then made a grid structure over the entire screen and each square in the grid gets filled in with a color, the alpha is relative to the number of invisible particles currently in that spot. The higher number of particles the more solid the color.

Finally I just dropped a flash blur filter over top of the entire thing, added a fade effect so that the transitions between alpha values were less abrupt, and the result is what you see.

ShyGuy · « **Reply #12 on:** April 01, 2009, 02:56:50 PM »

I think you could take this concept, add some more twists outside the realm of science and make a full blown game out of it.

Kairon · « **Reply #13 on:** April 01, 2009, 11:07:07 PM »

DSiWare, WiiWare, iPhone... this could go places!

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #14 on:** April 03, 2009, 01:55:55 PM »

DSi Ware or Iphone would be the best. Touching would create a very nice experience

ShyGuy · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2009, 04:53:03 PM »

we need to start a petition to bring Star Formation to DSiWare.

Pale · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2009, 10:48:33 PM »

I am working on opening up a developer connection with Nintendo at work right now. Problem is I have to find the time and money to invest in the port... which is difficult given we are kicking off another new project on Monday.

Stratos · « **Reply #17 on:** April 04, 2009, 01:50:07 AM »

Quote from: Pale on April 03, 2009, 10:48:33 PM

I am working on opening up a developer connection with Nintendo at work right now. Problem is I have to find the time and money to invest in the port... which is difficult given we are kicking off another new project on Monday.

When I finished the game I noticed that you weren't the only person involved with it. Is this your team? Are you part of a programming company? That is rather interesting. Would love to hear more about it so long as you don't risk losing your job or break NDA's in the process.

Pale · « **Reply #18 on:** April 04, 2009, 02:18:13 PM »

Yeah this was done through my job at Second Ave.

Basically Adam Frank (the author that wrote the article for Discover Magazine) and Andrew Frueh (one of my good friends and former coworkers) came up with the base concept. I then took their manuscript and started coding it, working with Andrew on some issues that came up and some game balancing ideas. Then Nick, a coworker of mine at Second Ave did the art.

Pale · « **Reply #19 on:** April 04, 2009, 02:20:01 PM »

Oh, and you can see us at http://secondavesoftware.com.

We make mostly educational interactives and multimedia pieces but we want to move towards serious games and then possibly even entertainment games.

The project we are kicking off on Monday is another astronomy based serious game. I'll give you all more info when I can.

Stratos · « **Reply #20 on:** April 04, 2009, 02:35:30 PM »

That's all pretty cool. It will be interesting to see if you are able to expand into entertainment software.

So it's mostly educational media, but do you do any edutainment learning games at all or is that another step you guys may take?

Pale · « **Reply #21 on:** April 04, 2009, 04:37:14 PM »

Our normal clients tend to be scared of the word "game". We've worked game-like elements into a lot of our projects, but the star formation thing we did on the side is the most game-like thing we've ever done.

That said, the project we start on Monday is a definite edu-game.

Stratos · « **Reply #22 on:** April 04, 2009, 05:55:37 PM »

You should revive the Super Solver Series games. I don't think The Learning Company uses the IP for anything now. I played those all the time when I was young, especially for the short time my Mom taught me.

So are your normal clients school teachers looking for classroom material? It will be interesting to see how this 'Nintendo school' thing turns out because it may be something you could capitalize on down the road.

News:

Author Topic: I made a Flash game... (Read 5287 times)