The first beta release of my bomberman inspired game is out. I decided to call it robombs...that was the first internal working title for it, because i wanted to use robots as player models first. I'm not doing this anymore, but i decided to keep the name anyway.
(http://jpct.de/robombs/robombs.jpg)
Here's a webstart version: http://jpct.de/robombs/robombs.jnlp (http://jpct.de/robombs/robombs.jnlp)
Its main focus is multiplayer. It has a single player mode, but the bots are quite dumb...no real challenge at all. Anyway...after clicking into the main title screen (which looks still bad...), a server browser comes up which shows all active servers in the LAN and lets you start a new one. You may also click on "single player" to start a single player game instead. A single player game is nothing more than a multiplayer game with 5 bots, all levels and no human opponents. You can easily set it up yourself this way. The button is just a short cut.
Wow, this is REALLY fun! Awesome work!
very nice ;D it works ok on my box.. it was also nice to see my name on splash screen ;D
maybe you may wish to publish the game api some people can write bots ? just a suggestion..
Quote from: raft on September 22, 2008, 12:28:12 AM
maybe you may wish to publish the game api some people can write bots ? just a suggestion..
That's not a suggestion, that's a kind way of saying that they are quite dumb ATM... ;D However, i'll release the sources once i consider it to be stable/complete enough.
Nice game, glad to see you finally got it finally out. I was just going to ask about the sources, wouldn't mind seeing how you did a few things :)
Oops. When I press "Single Player" it hangs on my box (tried it few times...).
Maybe your firewall blocks it? Any exceptions visible (you may have to enable the Java console for webstart to see them)?
Quote from: EgonOlsen on September 22, 2008, 09:02:22 AM
Quote from: raft on September 22, 2008, 12:28:12 AM
maybe you may wish to publish the game api some people can write bots ? just a suggestion..
That's not a suggestion, that's a kind way of saying that they are quite dumb ATM... ;D However, i'll release the sources once i consider it to be stable/complete enough.
ehm ::) that way game will be much interesting though ;)
I can't seem to download it on my phone modem. Keep losing connection and it doesn't seem to cache.
Maybe a webstart problem...i'll add an addional non-webstart download later. Maybe that will work better on your modem.
Ok, i've added a zipped version here: http://jpct.de/download/robombs_beta.zip (http://jpct.de/download/robombs_beta.zip)
It contains everything to run it on Windows. If you are or Linux or Mac, you've to replace LWJGL's native parts with the ones for your OS. Remember to use LWJGL 2.0rc1 or rc2. 1.1.4 or lower won't work with this release.
Pretty fun. I don't really understand the game, but it was kind of fun setting bombs and running away before they blew up.
Quote from: fireside on September 23, 2008, 11:27:01 PM
Pretty fun. I don't really understand the game, but it was kind of fun setting bombs and running away before they blew up.
It's basically Bomberman...all you do is plant bombs and try to avoid the bombs of others...well, and your own ones too. It's great fun in multiplayer.
Anybody has some nice ideas for level blue prints? The idea is to recycle maps/levels from other games and "convert" them into the Robombs style. I'm currently abusing:
- Bomberman (DOH!)
- Counter Strike
- Pac Man
- Command and Conquer 3
- Pool of Radiance
- Arkanoid
- Call of Duty 4
- Paradroid (of course...)
- The Bard's Tale
I guess this alone qualifies me as a gaming nerd... ;D
I've updated the game and added some minor changes:
- Added an "add all" button to add all maps at once
- Added two new levels and one new texture set
- Added numpad controls for those who prefer it that way
- Added taunts (keys 1-0)
- Fixed the shadows being too bright in dark areas
- Improved garbage avoidance somewhat
I've uploaded a video to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pxRaq5YVeY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pxRaq5YVeY)
I'm not sure, why exactly i did that...i guess it's an experiment of some kind... ;D
Cool 8)
Now you can show it to people without them needing to play it first. Some people (like me) will only play a random game if has plenty of info on it (like a video).
You will also get traffic from youtube.
This is so fun! So easy but absolute fun!
Cool clone :)
I especially like footballing bombs ;D, adds a nice twist to the game.
One thing that would be a nice addition is a 2 player split screen.
2 player mode would be really cool.
An updated version (still here: jpct.de/robombs/robombs.jnlp (http://jpct.de/robombs/robombs.jnlp)) with some changes:
Game play changes
- Kicking a bomb now lets you jump backwards...like a recoil
- In addition to WASD and CRSR, the Numpad can be used too now
- Two new levels (based on Paradroid and The Bard's Tale)
Corrected issues
- In some cases, starting a single player game resulted in an infinite loop. This is fixed now.
- Corrected some minor sound flaws (wrong positions of some sounds).
- An unavailable server port now stops the single player game from being started.
Potentially corrected issues (i couldn't really reproduce them, so i tried to fix them by wild guessing...):
- In a mulitplayer game with bots, it could happen that a player spawns close to a bot. This shouldn't happen any more.
- In a mulitplayer game, the server sometimes didn't recognize a client clicking "ready". This should be fixed now.
- At least on one system (Linux), the start frame had a size of 5*5 pixel instead of the correct one. I hope that this is fixed now.
Quote from: zammbi on October 05, 2008, 10:09:58 PM
2 player mode would be really cool.
Yes, but it's unlikely to happen... :'(
I like the football thing, but it seems like it doesn't work all the time. Sometimes he just walks around a bomb and sometimes he kicks it.
Quote from: fireside on October 10, 2008, 01:56:47 AM
I like the football thing, but it seems like it doesn't work all the time. Sometimes he just walks around a bomb and sometimes he kicks it.
You have to have the football icon (i.e. collected a red diamond) and you have to face the bomb when running into it (it doesn't work if you run into it from the side or from behind). I've never seen it failing and we've played for hours in multi player sessions, so i guess that one of these preconditions wasn't met in your case.
Oh, I didn't read the directions or anything. I'm sure it's because I didn't notice that football icon.
The game now has a website: http://jpct.de/robombs.game (http://jpct.de/robombs.game)
Nice site, full of helpful info.
Cool site.
yeap cool site :)
Thank you. It's using Wordpress....i was too lazy to build it on my own this time... ;)
Robombs has a phone-home-function in the latest version (since yesterday evening) that is activated if the user agrees to it at startup. It transmits some hardware/software configuration details and an ingame screenshot to my server once and sleeps for the rest of its life afterwards. Since yesterday and after doing a little promotion on some websites, quite a lot of data has arrived already...at least more than i expected. I thought i would share it, because it's a nice insight on what people actually use as hardware:
ATI (MOBILITY) X200: *
ATI (MOBILITY) X300: ****
ATI (MOBILITY) X600: **********
ATI (MOBILITY) X700: ***
ATI 7500: ***
ATI 9000: *
ATI 9200: ****
ATI 9550/1050: ***
ATI 9600 PRO/XT: **********
ATI 9700 PRO: **
ATI 9800 PRO/SE: ****
ATI HD 2400 XT: ****
ATI HD 2600 PRO/XT: **********************
ATI HD 3200 Graphics: *
ATI HD 3600 Series: **
ATI HD 3850: **
ATI HD 4800 Series: **
ATI Radeon Xpress: ************************
ATI Rage 128 PRO: *
ATI X1100: *
ATI X1200/X1250: *****
ATI X1300/X1350: ***
ATI X1550: *
ATI X1600 Series: ************
ATI X1900 Series: *********************
ATI X2300 HD: **
ATI X800 XL: ***
DRI Radeon: *
DRI Radeon/R200: ******
DRI Radeon/R300: *******
GeForce 5200: ********************
GeForce 5500: ***
GeForce 6100/6150SE: *********************
GeForce 6200(M)/6200SE: ***********************
GeForce 6600: ********
GeForce 6800 (GT): **
GeForce 7000/7025/7050: *********
GeForce 7100/7150: *****
GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS:************************
GeForce 7400: ***
GeForce 7600 GT/GS: ***************************
GeForce 7800 GT: *
GeForce 7900 GS: ******
GeForce 7950 GX2: *
GeForce 8200: *
GeForce 8300: *
GeForce 8400(M) G: ***********
GeForce 8500 GT: **********
GeForce 8600(M) GT/GS: ***********************************************************
GeForce 8700(M): *
GeForce 8800 GT/GTS/GTX:*******************
GeForce 9200(M): *
GeForce 9500(M): **
GeForce2 MX: ********
GeForce3: **
GeForce4 MX 420/440: **********
GeForce4 Ti 4200: **
Intel 845G: *****
Intel 855GM: ******
Intel 865GM: *************
Intel 915GM: *****************************
Intel 945GM: **************************************************************************************
Intel 950 GMA: ************
Intel 965/963 GMA: *******************************
Intel Bear Lake B: *********
Intel Broadwater-G: *********
Intel Brookdale-G: *********
Intel G33: *
Intel GMA X3100: *************
Intel Integrated: *
Intel Springdale-G: *
Mesa GLX: *****
NVidia Quadro FX 370: *******
NVidia Quadro NVS 110M: **
NVidia Quadro NVS 140M: ******
NVidia Quadro NVS 210S: *
NVidia Quadro NVS 290: *
NVidia RIVA TNT2: *
S3 Graphics-K8M800: ****
S3 Graphics-KM400: ***
S3 ProSavage: ****
S3G UniChrome Pro IGP: **********************
SiS Mirage 3 Graphics: ***
SiS-661: *
SiS-741: *
CPUs:
1: *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
2: *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
3: *
4: ********************
8: **
Edit: Updated with the data collected in eleven days.
Uploaded a silent update (no new version number for that) with some minor changes:
- Bots should no longer spawn inside of or close to human players in some cases
- Improved the bots AI slightly (but very slightly)
- Improved shadow rendering especially on ATI R200 and R300 chip sets
Updated the game to 1.00. It includes some minor fixes and improves internet play. I've also released the sources. Get all the stuff here: http://jpct.de/robombs.game/download/ (http://jpct.de/robombs.game/download/)
So, internet code and lan code are pretty much the same then? I don't think I could do it with my phone modem on the internet, but I might be able to use the code for a turn based game.
Quote from: fireside on December 17, 2008, 05:20:14 PM
So, internet code and lan code are pretty much the same then? I don't think I could do it with my phone modem on the internet, but I might be able to use the code for a turn based game.
They are exactly the same, but i'm using a different, less bandwidth intense transfer mode for internet. However, i'm not claiming that it's the best net code there is...i know that it isn't, but i think it's "good enough(tm)". However, a phone modem will be a bit too slow for it. For a turn based approach, it should work just fine. But maybe a simple protocol based on servlets and http will do fine too and will cause less trouble with firewalls and routing.
Yeah, I plan to experiment with http first. I have unlimited bandwidth on my site so if it worked, that would be pretty cool. There are some text type php games that use that method and they handle quite a few players.
A new version (1.01) is out with some minor fixes for obscure video cards and three new maps. As usual, get it here: http://jpct.de/robombs.game (http://jpct.de/robombs.game)
FYI: After almost 10 months since the initial release, Robombs had around 60000 downloads until now.
No, it's not dead...i've started to add some small graphical enhancements like
- sky box
- higher detailed bomb geometry
- improved particle effects
- bigger explosions
- phong shading on the players
- normal mapping on crates and bombs
I've also experimented with reflective floors on some levels, but it didn't look good for this kind of game IMHO.
As much as i like development for Android, it's nice to be back on a platform where you can simply add stuff without thinking too much about the resources.
(http://www.jpct.net/img/proj/robombs/robombs_xl.jpg)
will be this also for android? :)
No! It's too demanding (all client-server-based even when playing a single player game) and nobody (including me) ever came up with a usable control schema for bomberman like games on touch devices IMHO.
I say, controls is no problem :)
Show me! I've never seen third or first person controls on phones that didn't suck. At least if you are used to mouse-keyboard controls. Might be different if you are used to game pads, because then its just trading one pain for the other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i89lP6cjChc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiipXT7Qbk8
I tried those kind of controls on the iPhone once...i don't like them. I mean...it's the best you can do for a touch screen based device and it's impressive and all, but it still sucks. I'm constantly fighting the controls instead of fighting the enemies. As you can see in the second video, the cross-hair locks onto enemies if you come close. Simply because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hit anything. In addition, these controls work only for relatively slow paced games. It's impossible to play a fast paced game that way IMHO...and Robombs' gameplay is based on speed.
For first and third person games, there's only one way to own: Mouse and keyboard! Virtual joysticks and game pads are just not made for this task IMHO. But that's just me...millions of people are playing GTA 4 with a game pad...something that i consider to be impossible or at least very very painful.
I love a lot of these (http://www.gameloft.com/android-hd-games/) game for android... control method is only on habit, I ever turn off aim assist, because I dont like it... currently I am working on FPS game for android :)...
It's realy good, but I found same little bad things(I thought).
1. I think you turn to slow if you move the mouse.
2. The skull spwan to often. I can't entre rooms becaus they in all doors
All the other things are greate.
mfg
Empire
Sorry my English is very bad.
You can adjust mouse sensivity in the options dialog by clicking on 'show options' in the startup window. Items, including skulls, don't spawn. Their distribution is fixed in a level. Those skulls blocking the passages are doing so by design. Afterall, skulls are not always bad. You have 40% chance of getting a speedup when collecting them.
Would it be possible to strip out all the graphical menus at the start of the game to leave a command line version of the server?
Egon, what tool did you use to wrap game and JRE into a windows installer? would you suggest it?
It's not only an installer, it's a native compiler and installer: http://www.excelsior-usa.com/jet.html (http://www.excelsior-usa.com/jet.html)
I bought a license during a charity campaign where they sold it for $10. There's a free version too IRRC, i just don't know the limitations.
And yes, i recommend it. Java has a pretty bad reputation these days amoung end users, so it's best to hide it as much as possible...
quite a discount, the minimum price is $1.200 at the moment :D
I'm on linux at the moment, so I can only inspect executable zip version. did you also use Ahead-Of-Time compiler on installer version, does it make any significant difference?
Yes, the installer for Windows is using JET. Performance is on par with the JVM. Some things are faster, some are slower. In the end, the differences are neglectable.