Cuestick Gladiator by Gjarble

[raw]
made by Gjarble for LD31 (COMPO)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Your character is the blue circle.
- Use the arrow keys to move around.
- Click, hold, and release to fire a cueball. Note that the cueball is fired in the opposite direction of the mouse.
- The longer you hold the mouse button before releasing, the faster your cueball will go.
- Your objective is to use your cueballs to knock the red balls into the pockets (the black holes at each corner) like you would in billiards/snooker/whatever.
- If you get hit too many times by the red balls OR by your own cueballs, you'll die!
- Make your shots count- the cueballs never slow down and can never be pocketed, so the more shots you make, the more cueballs you'll have to dodge!

NOTES:
Please play the native version if you can- the Flash version has performance issues. I might be able to prepare a Linux version later during the voting period.

As usual, I have a long feature wishlist that I didn't have time to implement. Among the most important things on that list:
- An in-game reset button, so you don't have to restart the app every time you die
- In-game instructions
- Visual feedback to let the player know when they've been hit/damaged by the ball (example: the player icon could flash red)
- Visual feedback while the player is charging the cueball (example: a particle effect growing more intense as the charge approaches maximum)
- A level design that doesn't as easily allow the balls to randomly pocket themselves without player intervention (this was better than the one other design I tested)
- A mechanic that would allow the bumpers to swap places as they are struck by balls (this was part of the original design, and would make the game a lot more dynamic)
- Representational graphics (an actual humanoid character, wood texture, etc.)
- Any sound effects or music whatsoever
- A more thoroughly-tested/balanced difficulty

Any suggestions for how best to accomplish these, or other things that might be higher priorities, are always welcome.

Feedback

SpartanIceCream
10. Dec 2014 路 00:11 UTC
Interesting concept. Could use a little polish.
kill0u
10. Dec 2014 路 17:57 UTC
I guess you forgot "Game over/win screen" :P Fun when you figure out what's going on ;)
kill0u
10. Dec 2014 路 17:57 UTC
in your feature wishlist*
playvue
11. Dec 2014 路 16:32 UTC
Great concept. Prob not quite there yet, though. Good job!
馃帳 Gjarble
16. Dec 2014 路 01:36 UTC
Sorry that it's taken a week, not 24 hours (life and bugs got in the way), but a Windows version is now up!

@kill0u: Ah, yes, I did! Thanks for reminding me.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments so far!
Benjamin
26. Dec 2014 路 21:59 UTC
I like the fact that you have to deal with the white ball you produce. Appart of that the game need some extra work especially on a death effet + gameover sequence. The lack of health bar made me think I was dying for no reason.