Based on the feedback I’ve received on the game thus far I thought I’d toss out some tips and tricks for playing the various games that make up Berathen Jam!
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Micro Game # 1 – El’s Quest
This is a homage to the first game I ever made, not counting the stuff I made in Game Maker when I was first learning programming. This is probably the easiest game due to the random number of blocks that can appear in random locations. One to three blocks can appear to try and crush you. A simple press of the arrow keys can save you life and move you onto to the next challenge!
Micro Game # 2 – Berathen Blast
This is an homage to the third game I ever made. It was my first project using Flixel and I loved how easy it was to use rather then straight AS3. This one can be a bit tricky and requires careful placement. The objective is to shoot all of the green balls on the screen, but you only have time to shoot about 2, maybe 3, shots before time runs out. The trick is to use the explosions from the green balls to hit each other. If you place yourself carefully you’ll be able to take out up to three targets in one shot!
Micro Game # 3 – Sword Rush
I originally intended for this micro game to be a stealth game where you had to hide between the trees to avoid detection from unhappy soldiers. I noticed though that making it to the goal in time by itself was more then enough challenge in 3 to four seconds so I decided to leave out the guards. The main problem with this game is that if you’re not careful you can snag yourself on the trees. Though do note that your bounding box is actually smaller then your sprite and you can fit through a lot of tight squeezes. Your bounding box is closer to your feet then your head so remember that as you rush through the forest to claim your prize!
Micro Game # 4 – Mega Tripudio
I originally intended for this game to be a very short platformer where you jumped across a few blocks and collected a star in the same vein as a Mario game, but I found placing the graphics was taking me waaaay too much time so I decided to go for something even simpler. That’s what created this ‘wait for the gauge to fill’ game. I’ve found the flag pole to be a poor indication of when the player should jump and that confused a lot of people. So for my lucky readers… Jump only when the flag on the right side is red. Thats when you have enough strength to break the box.
Though there is a second variant to this micro game where ‘Break?’ appears instead of ‘Break!’ When this happens there are spikes on the bottom of the box. All you need to do is not jump and you will survive the encounter. Good luck!
Micro Game # 5 – Berathen Star
This is an homage to the second game I ever made. It was for the most part the exact same thing as El’s Quest. Only in this game the player can move up and down alongside left and right. This allows for more interesting enemy placement and I also decided to make the game as colorful as possible. The enemies in this micro game show up in three different formations. But if you carefully move slightly up or down you’ll be able to move pass your enemies unscathed.
Micro Game # 6 – From Darkness
This game is an homage to an unfinished game made by my co-programmer at Berathen Games. Like the original game I intended to have the blocks occasionally glow green. Stepping on a green block is instant death. However given the small time frame available I found that the time needed to properly position your jumps was just not there. However this game can still be a bit of a doozy. The player character is a really heavy guy, as in he falls pretty fast. To counter balance this I suggest jumping, before moving to make it easier to reach the next platform. Give this game a few tries and you should have a good feel for the jumps.
Micro Game # 7 – Infernal Consecrators
I played a lot of arcade games as a kid and one of them had you collecting a bunch of junk and growing bigger, granting you the ability to absorb things that previously would of destroyed you. Remembering that old game I decided to throw this together. It’s not initally clear, unfortunately, from some players perspective what is safe and what isn’t. When you start the game you can eat all the tiny evil red things. After eating two of them you will grow in size and be able to eat even bigger things. Reaching giant size is how you win this minigame.
This game has three variants and the hardest one is when only five creatures spawn. For this challenge I highly suggest dodging between the two big guys and eating the two little ones behind them. Then move backwards and eat the two behind you. You’ll be pretty pushed for time if you try to eat the big guy that spawns by himself to the right first.
Micro Game # 8 – Berathen Bomber
I am a huge fan of Bomberman games so I absolutely had to toss something together to show that adoration. I wasn’t able to make as many variants to this micro game as I would of liked to this one due to the time restaints so you only have to look out for the same threats. The bombs are going to explode and you need to move out of the way. The bombs explode in the shape of a ‘+’ reaching all the way up and to the left (where you are). You can either make your way to the bottom right of the screen for maximum safety or you can be a daredevil and hide in between near the exploding bombs. If your low enough on the screen then the bombs high to the right can’t hit you and vice cersa. Good luck!
Micro Game # 9 – Divine Space
This game is a throwback to something I made in Game Maker a few years ago. In that full game you have to switch between color modes in order to dodge specifically colored shots, but I found that to be a bit too intensive for this minigame. Instead I decided to go for a simple ‘shoot the target’ minigame. Unlike the Berathen Blast game the thing you need to shoot moves randomly left to right. If you don’t aim carefully you can waste a shot missing. I’ve looked at the code about 100 times over and over again and his movements should be 50% random in either direction. But I’ve found from countless playing sessions that the ship seems to always start the round moving to the left. If you move just slightly to the right and fire off a shot you should nail him no problem.
If you miss that first shot then it gets abit more difficult because at any point he can randomly move to the right, but there is always a small pause before a direction change. Your best bet on hitting him is going for him the very second he changes direction.
Micro Game # 10 – Street Instinct
This one is based off the many fighting games I’ve played over the years. The objective of this micro game is to defeat your opponent with a special move. I was gonna allow you to use a ‘super special move’, but time just didn’t allow for it. Anyways follow the controls at the bottom of the screen to the letter an you should be fine. When the game tells you to input FIERCE any of the action buttons will do. Space, X, or Z. Though for those of you who are mashing directions, you can only use your special move when you’re in the projectile (right-direction) stance.
Feel free to switch between stances after you’ve won the battle though. I do it all the time because I think it’s cool.
Micro Game # 11 – Hackin Pipes
This is one of my favorite games here and I’d love to make this into a full game one day. Or maybe a bigger mini-game inside another game. I wantedto add more variants to the game, but again time is always my enemy. The objective in this one is to connect the pipes on the left side of the screen with the pipes on the right side of the screen. If you carefully watch the pipes that scroll through the middle you should be able to see which pipes make the connection. Then all you have to do is press a action key to stop the flow.
Also if you pay attention closely you’ll notice the pipes have different colors along them. Certain colors show what they match up with, but other pipes heavily show off a certain color to throw off the fact that they don’t connect at other parts. Use these colors to your advantage to know which pipes to ignore!
Thanks for taking the time to read about my micro games! I had a lot of fun making them all!
Please play, rate, and leave a comment about what you think of it here.
