[TFJEWELED] TFjeweled

[OTPiccolo]

Hi.

I've spent some time already in the chat, but this is my first post on the forum. So first I want to say hello to all. The games here on this site have inspired to create a game of my own and today, I want to present it to you. It is based on the changematch-game, that I also liked very much. Before someone wonders, that there is already version two planed, I started this game before elite posted his comment on the forum.

So, for anyone unfamiliar with the first changematch, you have to clear a board by matching at least three pieces of the same kind in a row or column. You battle against some opponents, that you try to transform, before they to the same with you.

The game is customizable. Every scenario uses its own xml-file, that designs the board, describes the transformations and the events that happen. So, currently, I have four scenario ready to play. They demonstrates what the game is actual capable of. Those scenarios are also used to show willing people to create their own scenario and hopefully share it with the community. You can also skin the pieces, to look different.

The game itself is written in java. To run it, you need version 1.6. Although it is in java, every platform needs it own executable jar file, because I use a platform dependent library. If you are on a 64bit machine, you might need the second DL link (if you also have the 64bit JVM installed), but you should at first test the first link.

Version 1.4.0
Win:

de.otpiccolo.tfjeweled.1.4.0.win32.zip

Win (64bit JVM):

de.otpiccolo.tfjeweled.1.4.0.win32_64.zip

(I decided to pull down the linux and mac versions, as there only seems to be problems with them and they don't really work.)

All my scenarios are directly in the zip-file. They can be separately found at some of my posts in this thread. A list of available scenarios can be found in this thread, as can be skins for the game: http://tfgamessite.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1585&start=0

[babblingfaces]

It's not working for me. The program opens up fine, but nothing loads on it.

[babblingfaces]

Oh wait, it worked, trying it now.

[windsongbard]

Hi OTPiccolo, this looks like you have a good game. I haven't tried to customize anything yet but it's a great idea. At any rate I just dropped by to see if you knew that you were orange. Should really get that taken care of. Probably too many carrots. At any rate you can now post your games directly on the site if you wish. I look forward to see what else you can do with this.

The Windsong Bard

[Pelinel]

It's an interesting new take on a match-3!

I did find it a bit disconcerting that the game timer began immediately, right after several paragraphs of text were placed in a box so small I had to scroll it around. Perhaps there should be a 'Begin!' button to give the player time to read? Also, please either make the box bigger or adjust its size on a window resize if you can. I tried making my window larger, but that just gave me more blank space between the board and the text box.

I notice that you are keeping to the 'strict' movement rules - every move has to make a match. In combination with the preset clock, this definitely adds to the difficulty. An inconvenient corner tile may cost you dearly. I was able to clear all three of the sample boards within the time limits on my first try, though it was fairly close on the third. Of course, not knowing what the time limit really was added a bit to the tension. Is the fastest animation speed an advantage in getting more plays within the time limit? I admit, I didn't try adjusting it during my game.

I noticed that most of the descriptions were written with the assumption that their line of transformation was the only one happening at the moment. Since the board-clearing progress starts out fast and slows later, it usually sounded like an enemy was mostly neutralized long before the main character was being hit with the later steps of the 'bad' change.

I saw that you implemented unmovable tiles, as well as 'sticky' tiles that don't clear on the first match. I like both of those mechanics. The screen flipping, on the other hand, was basically a large time penalty. If you flipped the selection coordinates as well as the display, it wouldn't be quite as bad, but having to either memorize the positions before the flip or rotate it 180 degrees in my head was not happening for me. I ended up just selecting the tile I could see I wanted to move, then clicking wherever the outline actually appeared. I was also rather surprised to find that your axis of rotation was the perpendicular to the screen - most games that have a flip like that keep the axis on a horizontal line so that everything stays in the same column, just flipped top to bottom.

After the game, I had fun looking through the xml file to see the rest of the 'bad' changes. You've definitely got an easier way to customize levels than I had. I look forward to seeing the rest of the capabilities of your engine!

[jaimehlers]

Only thing I'd suggest is trying to make this into an applet rather than using web start. Web start is useful, but applets can be run by almost anyone (whereas I've had people completely unable to run a web start jar no matter what they tried).

[Cubist]

Mac user here -- Aluminum G4 15" Powerbook running under MacOS X 10.4.11. The Mac-flavored .jar file did not work for me, yielding the following error messages in the Console:

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: de/otpiccolo/bejeweled/BejeweledMain (Unsupported major.minor version 50.0)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:539)
   at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:123)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:251)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:55)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:194)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:187)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:289)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:235)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:302)
   at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
   at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:219)
   at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.jarinjarloader.JarRsrcLoader.main(JarRsrcLoader.java:54)

edited to add: I've got VirtualPC emulation on my G4, so after trying the Mac-flavored .jar file, I also downloaded the Windows-flavored .jar file. Good news: The Windows version works for me! So I have some coments that might be useful...
The "narrative" which accompanies the game: The between-levels text should be easy to read. But it needs to scroll, and that modal "You won!" dialogue box gets in the way of scrolling -- not good. I suggest putting the between-levels text into that dialogue box, so that the player can easily rerad it and scroll and so forth. As for the "Your spell hits him!" commentary that occurs during each level, that can stay as it is.
The "upside-down board" trick: Nasty, this. It does make sense for that level, however... There are a number of other things you could do to screw around with the player's controls; for instance, you could do a right/left mirror-reflection of the board, or have the board stay where it is and have the player's cursor inverted or mirror-reversed or whatever.
Strict tile-matching: I agree that this is an annoyance. But if you only use it on certain levels, as a deliberate enhancement to the game's difficulty on those levels (just like the upside-down thing), it would be more acceptible.

[elite]

I think our games are going to be different enough that there's room in the world for both of them.

I found the strict tile movements in this one made clearing the bottom corners of large levels an entirely luck-based affair. That adds difficulty, but not a good kind. I played three times, and every time on the third level I ended up with an absolutely impossible arrangement at one of the bottom corners. There were no matches for me to make within four or more tiles of the corners, and making any progress at all was just about impossible. Very frustrating, and I probably won't be returning to this game because of it. Not sure what can be done about that while retaining the strict tile movements though.

[OTPiccolo]

Thanks for all the input so far.

I'll address some points made:

• Currently, there is no beginning button, because the way it is handling the events it would first display nothing, and after you click on begin, it would produce the wall-of-text. So sadly, there would be no improvement. A similar point is with the "you won" box. If it wouldn't be there, it would load the next level directly after you clicked the on the last tile to swap. It is basicly there to delay the loading of the next level. Two limitations, I try to remove in the next installment.
• The flip-board would be kind of useless, if it would also flip your inputs, in my oppinion. But yes, I know that it can be annyoing.
• Damn, I wanted to make the text box change it's size, but forgot to do it. Will definitly come.
• As for the strict movement, my game can handle both, the strict and non-strict movements. The first scenario was to test a strict movement and time based game play. The second will be with non-strict movements and turn based, so that you have don't have to worry about time. At first, I had the non-strict movement for this scenario, but I noticed it defeated the point of the clock, because you could flip really fast any tiles you liked to the right position.

[mjrenrutxx]

I have to admit the flip screen is extremely tough. but If i recall one of the biggest complaints people had about the original was that it was too easy. Though I haven't beaten the third stage yet, i'm looking forward to actually doing so as a matter of pride.