Fonts and Difficulty Levels

 Space Squid  3 Responses »
Apr 182009
 

Yes that’s right, the latest build 37 has some exciting new additions:

  • Level 30 is now the official end of the game! Now that’s a solid goal you can strive for.
  • I made some timing changes for the earlier levels; namely, 7 seconds per star instead of 8.
  • Over level 20 you start losing total time, culminating in the Level 30 battle where you only have 4 seconds per star.
  • After stage 15 on any level, you will have an additional obstacle drop.
  • At a few levels > 20 you will also get additional obstacle drops, culminating in a whopping 5 obstacles per star on level 30.
  • The stars now max out at 20 no matter what level you are on (so level 30 has 20 stars still).
  • I switched in some fonts that are – I know, I know – unreadable at this time. Going to work on fixing that up, but it’s a placeholder for now.
I guess this means the game is really shaping up, except there’s no excitement or spice in the first 15 levels. I guess I’ll see if there’s something I can put in around levels 8 and 12 to spice it up a bit.
Posted by Andy Moore at 5:03 pm  

Boost and Noise

 Space Squid  4 Responses »
Apr 182009
 

After playing for a few days (with the help of my beta testers), I quickly found out that nobody could beat anything past level 19 – that is, if you could ever defeat level 17. See the high scores here.

Here I was hoping someone would make it near the 30s somewhere…
I’ve decided to change the difficulty curve to aid this problem – and so we have Build 36 of Space Squid:
  • Instead of a minimum 5 seconds per star, I’ve increased the value to 8 seconds per star. This should allow entry into the 20+ to 30+ levels.
  • The 10-second-per-star bonus that degraded down to level 20 now extends to level 30, further making the 20s easier. Expect the hardest levels to be the late 20s to early 30s.
  • To aid in those epic jumps to the high stars in levels 16+, there is now a boost button! The boost goes *very* quickly but is refilled slightly with each star capture. If your boost meter is full you get a small amount of bonus points (500) for getting each star.
  • I’ve integrated my sound and music code, but haven’t populated it with any data other than me saying “bonk” if you hit something hard. Sorry if that’s really annoying, I’ll have real clips in shortly.
  • Added the most frequently requested features: Star Remaining count.
Of course, all of these changes have pretty much made the old high score tables worthless. The new scores will all be much much bigger. :)
Posted by Andy Moore at 12:38 am  

Update to the Space Squid Himself

 Space Squid  1 Response »
Apr 172009
 

Lil’ Squiddy got an upgrade today! Build 35, or play it at Space-Squid.com(and try to beat my high scores! I’m dominating the tables!)

Now his cute eyes and mouth are clearly visible, and I added some meat to his arms and tentacles! properly made graphics, ahhh…
I suppose the most exciting part, though, is his Mantle is now anatomically correct and he looks (slightly?) less phalic. Good news for everyone. :)
A few other minor changes – objects now fall in from off the top of the screen from varying heights, so that the water hitting speed can be greater (or slower); you don’t actually have to click the green arrow after typing your name; changed next level to spacebar; the minimum time for star pickups has increased from 4 to 5 seconds (which hits at level 20+), and other itty bitty updates.
It was such a small update this time around I didn’t feel like it warranted it’s own blog post and updated build number, but I’ve recently listed the game on FlashGameLicense.com and they require I keep the game as up to date as possible during the build period. *Shrug* Hopefully we can make each other some money!
Posted by Andy Moore at 1:31 am  

Cute Factor 7

 Space Squid  No Responses »
Apr 162009
 

A minor update to Build 34 is now up.

  • Cuter beachball (now a Space Jellyfish!)
  • Non-angry Space Urchin
  • Happier looking Space Star
  • Heavier rocks (now they are hard to push and they will guaranteed take off some limbs if you get under them)
  • Space Jellyfish is lighter
  • Gravity has been adjusted down from 8.8 m/s^2 to 8.0 m/s^2. This makes level 17+ possible without cheating.
  • Some graphical changes in the menus and other places
I also found out that my flash player was breaking my site in FireFox for some reason, so I just put in a text link on space-squid.com.
Posted by Andy Moore at 7:09 pm  

Not-annoying High Scores

 Space Squid  3 Responses »
Apr 162009
 

I had some pretty horrible bugs in the last build. You couldn’t have a name with “R” in it was a big one.

This build lets you type your name once at the beginning of the game (optionally) and it will automatically submit your scores while you play. Officially Build 33 – play it on my (ugly malformatted) site or directly, full screen.
If you head to my site, though, there is a quickly hacked together high score list. Now you can compete. :)
Posted by Andy Moore at 4:14 pm  

Build 32: First hint of High Scores

 Space Squid  No Responses »
Apr 162009
 

Build 32 is up on my new Space-Squid.com site!

Aubrey was saying my logo didn’t look professional so I photoshopped the hell out of it:

Nobody, except… nobody, can complain when there is a lens flare.
The only real change in this version is between levels you get a dialogue for entering your name. You can hit “r” to bypass it or you can just use the default Squiddie name. This is a working high-score submitter!
I don’t quite have the high-score VIEWER setup yet, but it’ll be coming shortly and I need some data in the database first. :) Play your hearts out and save your scores!
I’ll be working on some interface niceities (remembering your name, etc) in the near future, and cleaning up the screen a bit. Again this build is just to get some scores into the database!
Posted by Andy Moore at 12:08 pm  

Space-Squid.com is Alive!

 Space Squid  No Responses »
Apr 162009
 

I’m going to keep blogging here, but the official website is now registered! As soon as your local DNS cache gets cleared at your ISP all the links will unbreak for you. :)

The advantage to having it on my site is now you just have to click the main page and get the latest version. Of course my site is very ugly right now – but at least it’s in place.

No update yet today – I’m working on high score tables. Almost done,  I promise :)
Posted by Andy Moore at 8:48 am  

What Aught to be 30

 Space Squid  No Responses »
Apr 152009
 

This is the build I wanted to release as the big number 30.

In this update …
  • Stars are now StarFish (still outer space because it has the word star in it)
  • Mr. Grumpy is now a Space Urchin
  • Mr. Grumpy is no longer nailed down and is neutrally buoyant
  • New beachball object that floats
  • New stone object that sinks
  • Increased water friction to slow you down
  • Doubled your top speed to speed you back up again
  • Increased gravity to help reduce those rediculously-long airtimes :) Speed increase means you’ll get the same height though.
  • Made objects drop from a higher altitude as to impede your midair stunts (and to dodge falling rocks)
  • Removed most damage (stretching your joints really really far still results in a snap – you’ll probably only see this if you wrap a leg around a Space Urchin and yank it off).
  • Tweaked the timer a bit
I have to do some resizing of some of the graphics (some look stretched) and redo the main menu still, but a step forward in the fun department, I think!
Posted by Andy Moore at 9:45 pm  

The Big Three-O

 Space Squid  4 Responses »
Apr 152009
 

Here it is, Build 30!

Unfortunately I don’t have a huge update for this nice, big round number – just some minor gameplay changes.
  • Score is back! You get points for moving in general;
  • Plus 1000 points anytime you pick up a star with your feet;
  • Plus 1000 points for every second remaining on the clock when you finish the level.
  • Speaking of the clock, it’s now level-based not stage-based. You get a set number of seconds to collect all the stars.
  • You get a base alotment of 5 seconds per star to beat the level with starting at level 20.
  • Before level 20 you get around 15 seconds per star and it slowly dwindles down as you move through the levels.
I’m not really a big fan of the points system, but it adds a level of replayability that the game otherwise lacks. Even finding out the best possible score on Level 1 is pretty fun!
I’ll be looking to make a high score table in the near future. That’ll add some excitement too.
What level can you get to? Do you think the later levels should allow more than 5 seconds per star? It gets fairly stressful after a while.
Posted by Andy Moore at 4:10 pm  

No Really, The Squid is in Space

 Space Squid  3 Responses »
Apr 142009
 

This update fixes a few things:

  • The stars weren’t ramping up properly. They will now be underwater guaranteed for the first level or two, then will slowly creep up. Full screen stars start at level 20. Thanks to Aubrey for helping me out with the formula for that one.
  • Sometimes stars would overlap Mr. Grumpy. Fixed!
  • I played with some of the physics numbers a bit (gravity and a few others).
  • Your damage-taken bits now have a density and will float to the surface of the water. I think there might be some sort of gameplay to be had there but I’m not sure just what yet.
  • Because it was looking like it wasn’t exactly space, I went ahead and made damn sure you know it’s space. Background image in place!
One of the neat things about my random level generator is that any changes in the math completely change the outcome for the levels. Each build is like a whole new set. Exciting!
My stats:
- First try, no restarts: 9.8
- Hardest underwater sequence: Level 13
- First death by damage: 16.10 (lost most limbs around 16.8)
- First death by timeout: 16.13 (lost a lot of blood here too)
- Most Heartbreaking Leap: 17.9. Mr Grumpy ruins me here.
- Closest to the wire: 18.19 (very hurt, 1 second left on the clock, trying to make a medium jump in close quarters… stressful!)
- High Score (with restarts): 19.12
Posted by Andy Moore at 5:39 pm  
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