Hi all ! I'm back once again to present you my latest game, an Arkanoid-like game, called Blocus What is worth noting in this game and that you can't get from the screenshots / vid : - An endless game with a constantly increasing difficulty - The paddle is divided in three part (left, that send the ball to the left, middle and right). When a ball hits the paddle, it becomes warmer. If you can get it warm enough, the paddle will shoot very powerful projectiles. - You can upgrade your paddle (It improves the projectiles) - When you clear a column, the ball becomes more powerful and quicker - The particles will collided with the paddle or the walls I hope you'll enjoy it Smiley
Hello !
So, a new paddle is added to Blocus.
Frankly, I'm in love ! :D
I had great fun making it, I love the smoke and I love how the shots looks ! <3 It's also a new skin, I've used free texture and I'm quite happy with the result
I'll have to have the other two paddles at least at level 5 to unlock it.
- Yet a new interface - More diamonds - Better performance - Better collision - The ball is easier to see in the lights off mode
How do u upgrade the paddle for blocus ive done it before but cant find it now?! Lol
When you complete a level of lose in the endless mode you'll be offer the possibility to upgrade your paddle :)
A little insight on how the game is made :)
Well that's in Java, using libGDX, and as you can see it uses a huge number of particles :D.
I've used simple tricks to make them performant (I don't use the one included in libGDX, I wanted more flexibility) and to make the game more "alive" :
- One class per particles. That's tedious, but it allows me to make them as light as possible
- Almost everything happens only one frame out of two. One out of four or once per second when it's possible.
- You can see that it is very colorful, and every color evolve over time. Well that's all just based on 7 arrays of roughly 40 float, the only thing that evolve for the particles, blocs, paddle or balls is the current index.
- Some indexes are actually floats, for the blocs mainly, that allows me to make them evolve on a sinusoidal curve (I hope that's the right word, English isn't my native language).
- More broadly, I've tried to make everything as smooth as possible. Another example is when a ball hit something it grows, and then shrinks quickly cause it's sized is multiplied by 0.95f. Same logic is applied for the screenshake, the particles, the blur shader, the mini blocs that forms a full bloc... everything
- The number of particles adapt in real time to the fps. It's really simple : On one hand, particles are often generated each frame, so less frames mean less particles. On the other hand I generate a number of particles proportional to the number of fps. Sometimes with a minimum if that's a key element like the balls.
- The physic of the particles is about as simple as possible, but it works quite well : The only collide with the paddle and with three walls. I don't even bother to test the exact collision point, the center is enough, they are either too quick or too small for it to be noticeable anyway.
Funny detail, beside the background and the tutorial button, the game uses only 1 1x1 texture and 1 32x32 textures (a circle)