Project: Fireflies
| Project Started: |
4th September, 2008 |
Last Update: |
26th September, 2008 |
| Project Owner: |
 Xhunterko |
Project Members: |
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| Project Type: |
puzzle |
Project Progress: |
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| Project Overview |
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Come on, almost everyone's seen, or knows what to do with fireflies. With summer winding down here, those bright little bugs will soon dissapear with it. This game will try to recreate the feeling of running around bare foot trying to snag the little bugs.
Gameplay
This will be simple at first. The player controls a mouse controlled jar that they use to sweep around the level. As they progress, the game gets more difficult. A time will be included. Sometimes you'll only need to catch a specific color bug. Sometimes you'll need to catch a certain amount before times up. Or you might find that if you catch the wrong color you'll accidently release the ones you've already caught! With over twelve levels, you'll ask yourself as to whether or not i can run out of options.
Screensaver
Don't want to catch them? That's fine. This screen saver lets you watch as they zip about your desktop with or without a background.
WIKI
To learn a bit more about the real thing. If your interested, then you can click the link here. This article does a good job I think.
(No, its not mine.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly
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1st Impression
By: Jon C-B
On: 4th Sep 08, 02:10:38
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Sinewave and Fireflies
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Posted 26th Sep 08, by Xhunterko
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Hello all! A note on game play.
Okay, so, I'm trying to make a puzzle game called firefly. In which, the player controlls a jar using the mouse to catch the bugs around a forest like environment. So, naturally, the bugs move around in a sinewave like movement.
I have a fairly good understanding of how that works (tinkered with an example a while back), but I want to make it to switch between x and y movements smoothly. Allow me to explain with a picture aid.
In this figure, the basic movment pattern for the bugs is number 1. This is very easy to pull off, and they can appear from anywhere on the sides, and go either left or right.
The second movent is when the bugs start climbing up and down the tree. Again, the up and down isn't hard. Its going from the horizontal movent to the vertical movent that I find difficult. Then, in movent number 3, they switch to horizontal again. And in movent number 4, back to vertical movent. Then, under certain conditions, the pattern is reversed and the bug continues along the screen, or finds a new tree.
It gets further complicated in movents 5 and 6. This is because two fireflies are present. In movent 5, they are swirling around one another. In movent 6, they go down the tree, and part ways. One of them however, bounces on the ground and leaves pockets of glow worms.
Heads Up Display
The icons are fairly simple to understand. To the right, is the large vial (will be smaller in actual game). This is a level progress bar. Once you have the bar filled, you move on to the next level. To the top right is the score tracker. I'm not certain yet as to the severity of discipline I want for doing poorly, but I don't want to be too harsh.
To the top left is the season bar. As far as I know, fireflies do not appear in the winter. And only in small numbers in the early fall. Yet seasons play a role in appearance, and number of fireflies as well. In the summer, it can rain, causing the bugs to scatter.
In the spring, they move quicker, and are more likely to form pairs. In the fall, fireflies will move slower, and tend to stay below the bar. They will also light up slower in the fall as well.
Hopefully, I'll be able to find a balance between the seasons. It doesn't have to be always randomness.
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details details
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Posted 14th Sep 08, by Xhunterko
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Some people on the forums are wondering, why am i trying to put so much of it in my graphics. Well, the answer is simple. This is a puzzle game. Since your not seeing pretty explosions blowing things up, I want to be as good as possible. Also, this is a natural environment your playing in.
I just can't skimp out and try to hide something or cut out something. So, its very important that I try to have good graphics then, say, well, something that looks like this. Let me explain the interface a bit.
To the right, will be a score meter to fill with fireflies. In the top right, there is an actual score counter. In the center, there's going to be a timer of some sort. In the top left will be a progress bar showing you what season your playing in. I might add that in the moc up later.
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A tree update
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Posted 13th Sep 08, by Xhunterko
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While they may or may not be used in terms of the gameplay mechanics, the trees themselves are still a very important part of the game. I was lucky enough to find a tutorial on the internet (finally). And came up with this. What I'm mainly talking about is the trunk of course. I think the method is okay. And I'm almost ready to add some highlights to the tree because of it. I just think that using a different palette would help.
Maybe change the texture a bit as well. And yes, it has too much, what do you use again? Oh, that's right, contrast. Icky bright contrast making it hard to look at. I feel like giving a tip here concerning Graphics Gale. (Wonderful program. Google it, download it, use it.) I was able to do most of the shading via the color replace tool. Simply select the the color you want to draw. Switch colors, then select the one you want to replace. Then switch again. Very handy little feature.
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