Glider Drop by tomhunt
A very quick game I did up today that combines elements of Conway's Life and Tetris.
There's only one kind of block in this version, and that's the glider.
Keep as many blocks on the board you can alive.
There's not much to it as I only made it just today. There's no sound effects or other blocks or gameplays twists in this version... just what it says on the tin.
[EDIT] Known bug on Mac version: if you have Spaces installed, using the Ctrl key to rotate might accidentally cause you to switch desktops. Will fix this in a post-compo build. For now, just use RShift to rotate on Mac to avoid this.
[POST COMPO]
I noticed that when I play other people's games, they play mine, and a lot of the feedback I've been getting seemed like low-hanging fruits, so I spent a few hours this weekend making an improved version. Feel free to give this one a try after you've played and rated the jam version.
Windows: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/GDrop-Windows.zip
Mac: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/GDrop-Mac.app.zip
Linux 32-bit: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/gdrop-linux-32.tar.gz
Linux 64-bit: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/gdrop-linux-64.tar.gz
- Changed the control setup to position the point where the blocks are falling to at the mouse position, so long as that's on the board. This allows for much more precise control than with the keyboard
- Eliminated counter-clockwise rotation, as it didn't seem to be adding much on top of clockwise rotation, and..
- Replaced that with a tetris-style quick-drop mechanic
- Mapped both the rotate and quick drop actions to the mouse right and left buttons, respectively. So everything is on the mouse.
- Slowed down the pace of the auto drop
- Added a stable square-block configuration, because sometimes you just want to put a block of live squares in the middle of the board
- Made the drop shadow translucent
Thank you all for all of your feedback!
There's only one kind of block in this version, and that's the glider.
Keep as many blocks on the board you can alive.
There's not much to it as I only made it just today. There's no sound effects or other blocks or gameplays twists in this version... just what it says on the tin.
[EDIT] Known bug on Mac version: if you have Spaces installed, using the Ctrl key to rotate might accidentally cause you to switch desktops. Will fix this in a post-compo build. For now, just use RShift to rotate on Mac to avoid this.
[POST COMPO]
I noticed that when I play other people's games, they play mine, and a lot of the feedback I've been getting seemed like low-hanging fruits, so I spent a few hours this weekend making an improved version. Feel free to give this one a try after you've played and rated the jam version.
Windows: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/GDrop-Windows.zip
Mac: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/GDrop-Mac.app.zip
Linux 32-bit: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/gdrop-linux-32.tar.gz
Linux 64-bit: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19025642/LD24/post-compo/gdrop-linux-64.tar.gz
- Changed the control setup to position the point where the blocks are falling to at the mouse position, so long as that's on the board. This allows for much more precise control than with the keyboard
- Eliminated counter-clockwise rotation, as it didn't seem to be adding much on top of clockwise rotation, and..
- Replaced that with a tetris-style quick-drop mechanic
- Mapped both the rotate and quick drop actions to the mouse right and left buttons, respectively. So everything is on the mouse.
- Slowed down the pace of the auto drop
- Added a stable square-block configuration, because sometimes you just want to put a block of live squares in the middle of the board
- Made the drop shadow translucent
Thank you all for all of your feedback!
Ratings
| Coolness | 73% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 2.50 | 228 |
| Audio(Jam) | 1.00 | 228 |
| Fun(Jam) | 2.20 | 224 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 2.59 | 200 |
| Humor(Jam) | 1.24 | 223 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.35 | 50 |
| Mood(Jam) | 1.76 | 237 |
| Theme(Jam) | 2.58 | 157 |
I can't really see the evolution theme here.
Anyway, takes on Conway's Game of Life are always interesting, and this one is no exception. I had fun to watch all these glider evolves, as usual
A tutorial is needed.
Since a lot of the feedback was around the crappy keyboard controls, I did away with those entirely, and replaced them with a mouse-centric setup in the post-compo version for faster and more precise control. I also start the blocks higher up and have them move down a bit slower. Balancing this out is a manual quick-drop mechanic mapped to the left mouse button.
@solkar - I haven't test this at all on 10.7, so thanks for bringing that up. I'll have to look into that further.
While it will going to take me some time to learn some strategy on reproducing the red blocks, I'm hoping for tutorials to teach me the basics in the future.
gratz
The controls are a bit confusing but it's fun to play :).
Btw nice concept and I like how you used the red and blue together like a pro. :D
My highscore is 93.
Hard to control and to plan the moves.
Good idea and job!