Ball & Cup by ohsqueezy

[raw]
made by ohsqueezy for LD26 (JAM)
Charge up! Send the ball!

Based on Balero, a cup and ball on a string game sometimes given as a party favor, my entry is like shuffleboard with a moving target. Charge your shot and time it to stop inside the target. If successful, your accuracy is measured, and the next level begins. If unsuccessful, the game restarts.

Keys:

LEFT - **charge**, next level
F11 - fullscreen
ESC - close

I ran out of time before I could add a high score list, sound and an ending. The current version resets to the beginning after level 30, so if that happens, you win!

Thank you Hegemege for making a windows version!

Notes:

- The distance between ball and cup in the game world varies between levels. Smaller balls are farther away and need more charge.
- The fruit measure accuracy and are based on a color gradient from red to green. Greener fruits are closer to the center of the cup.

Ratings

Coolness 85% 2
Overall(Jam) 2.88 367
Audio(Jam) 1.63 449
Fun(Jam) 2.96 252
Graphics(Jam) 2.50 453
Humor(Jam) 2.31 228
Innovation(Jam) 2.94 278
Mood(Jam) 2.38 443
Theme(Jam) 3.98 55

Feedback

Crowbeak
30. Apr 2013 路 03:43 UTC
If you had JUST code for your source, with like a .py file to start the game, this would be playable on Mac, I think.
馃帳 ohsqueezy
30. Apr 2013 路 04:10 UTC
I don't have a way to test myself, but you could try running "python ball-cup" in the root of the package in terminal on Mac. The launch file is pure Python, just without the extension in the file name.
Hegemege
30. Apr 2013 路 12:10 UTC
Really solid game, runs well on both my Windows and Ubuntu machines, much nicer to play on a 11" netbook than 21" monitor :P

Also worth noting I used the A key to charge, found it out just randomly.

I ran the game by renaming the ball-cup file to ball-cup.py in Windows and running that from cmd. On ubuntu I just chmod u+x'd the ball-cup file and ran it.

Funny game, but greatly punishing if you fail.
CherryNukaCola
01. May 2013 路 03:59 UTC
Really dig this, can get into quite a zen state of mind waiting for the right momment. I also really liked how you'd get a little strip of colour during very streak of doing well. Thanks!
馃帳 ohsqueezy
01. May 2013 路 13:25 UTC
Hegemege: I thought about how it would be unfair if somebody played this as an arcade game and immediately died without another chance, so I'm going to try adding 3 lives and see if it makes a better experience. It'll be interesting to see how concentration changes from from life 1 to 3.

CherryNukaCola: yay! :D I wanted to save the strips each time to make a high scores table. The color is based on how close you are to the center, so you can judge your performance by how red or green it is.
Jiddo
01. May 2013 路 13:56 UTC
This game is rather interesting for being so simple. It is kind of difficult to predict tho since the ball behaves quite differently (and randomly) on each new level. I couldn't figure out any good way of applying skill to the game except for just playing it over and over again, which eventually got boring.

What's with the seemingly random fruit names "awarded" to you after each level btw?

I ran this on Linux, and it worked well. The only weird thing is that it displayed a copy of the game on each of my three monitors. Was this intentional?

Great work!
lorancou
01. May 2013 路 17:43 UTC
Simple and nice, congratz! I just wish the level number was printed somewhere, I miss a feeling of progression...
Fnkee
01. May 2013 路 17:51 UTC
This stuff is really innovative! The learning curve is great, and I love the way the rules (and the fruit-thingy) aren't explained, but you have to figure them out by yourself. Would love to see som scoreboards on this.
馃帳 ohsqueezy
02. May 2013 路 06:39 UTC
Jiddo: The ball's behavior is based on its size. The smaller it is, the slower it seems because it's farther from the target, as if the camera zoomed out, moving the ball backward. The fruit is based on a color gradient from red to green (apple to honeydew). The closer to the target, the greener the fruit reward. I will think of how to convey this!

lorancou: +1 for level numbers. I was thinking that myself yesterday. The level number is the length of the color strip but it's hard to tell what it is specifically. Either a scoreboard would clarify or a ghost strip of your current high score behind the current score.

Fnkee: yay! and ME TOO I thought because of how simple the game is it would be easy to add every feature in time but alas this was not the case. Scoreboards are first on my to-do list!
GetFun
02. May 2013 路 17:19 UTC
Lemon!
Joshua Douglass-Molloy
02. May 2013 路 18:34 UTC
I'm not quite sure, which is the best fruit?
Frosnite
02. May 2013 路 18:38 UTC
Game was very buggy for me and didn't respond to any button I pushed :(.
馃帳 ohsqueezy
02. May 2013 路 19:05 UTC
Joshua: Honeydew! (redder is farther, greener is closer)

Frosnite: :( Windows exe or source?
Frozen Fractal
04. May 2013 路 10:15 UTC
This is surprisingly fun for such a simple game. I love the use of fruits for... scores? levels? Either way, "plum" just sounds as disappointing as it is.
dzebna
04. May 2013 路 12:09 UTC
I like the concept, would be better with a high-score table, because it'd keep people playing.
GranaDa
05. May 2013 路 12:32 UTC
The ball charge looks a bit imprecise. Sometimes it goes far other (with the same impulse) it goes no more that "10px" ahead. Nice idea.
馃帳 ohsqueezy
05. May 2013 路 13:52 UTC
GranaDa: Charge is based on the size of the ball. Sorry it's not apparent!
avidgamerNino
05. May 2013 路 20:02 UTC
I liked the concept. The charge mechanic worked well. I think it would of been cool to have the box moving faster, to give the player more of a challenge, but it was challenging! Maybe add on a few obstacles like moving circles to go through. I didn't get too far, so I don't know if you added something like that. The theme is pretty minimal like it's suppose to be. I could see this being a fun app.
Cybearg
05. May 2013 路 21:17 UTC
Very neat idea. I really liked it! I'm a bit puzzled by the odd decision to rate based on the color of fruits, though.

While the game is neat and addictive, I kind of wish the idea had been used in more of a puzzle game. I'm sure that some cool mechanics could have been introduces to expand the concept in later levels to add more variation and challenge. Maybe something to consider?

Still, great job!
TheSheep
06. May 2013 路 19:37 UTC
I like the use of fruit names.
dremelofdeath
07. May 2013 路 11:03 UTC
Doesn't get much simpler than Ball & Cup! I loved the fruit names, very simple game and easy to pick up.
free_napalm
07. May 2013 路 17:13 UTC
Very minimalist concept.
[-BipolarDesign+]
08. May 2013 路 14:49 UTC
Strangely addicting, I really wanted to see all the messages, but could never get a "perfect shot." I'm assuming Potato is the best score, yes? ;P
Beerman
09. May 2013 路 06:25 UTC
The fruit/colour based scoring is a stroke of genius. The game is surprisingly compulsive - would make a great mobile game with the addition of some sounds.
Monxcleyr Productions
12. May 2013 路 11:57 UTC
Fun and simple game. I really liked the use of fruits as a scoring system. That said, there could be a little more feedback and context. It wasn't entirely clear what 'level' I was on, and I never had a chance to try and better my score as I'd move onto the next despite how I performed. More variation in speed and distance would do a great deal as well. Great job though, I could see this being a lot of fun with only some minor additions and changes (and sound)!
Misael.K
13. May 2013 路 02:11 UTC
For being just two black blocks on screen, there's a lot of creativity with the fruits and secondary colors used. Nice job.
Game is a bit hard, though. As you mentioned before, adding lives would be great. I'd also add more redundant controls (besides "A" and "Left", use spacebar, mouse click, etc).
kibertoad
15. May 2013 路 18:56 UTC
I'd like to see a finished version of this.
cardboard
16. May 2013 路 03:37 UTC
Very interesting. I think adding sound effects would have helped to make it more immersive, but the lack of them definitely doesn't take away from how addicting it is.
QXD-me
18. May 2013 路 22:14 UTC
Non of the buttons seemed to do anything for me (tried both 'a' and 'left' as well as mashing the keyboard). I was using the .exe on windows 7 64bit.
馃帳 ohsqueezy
20. May 2013 路 12:53 UTC
QXD-me: I don't know what's up with that! Maybe something to do with 64-bit. I'll see if I can fix it in an updated version