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Game Development Showcase
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| KingMe! Granite Edition |
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| Developer | modemancer |
| Genre | Strategy |
| Platform | Windows |
| Downloads | 378 |
About:
Icon-based strategy board game based on Checkers, but with a few rules twists. A nice, waste-a-bit-of-time diversion game.
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Please offer only constructive criticism. The intent of the GD Showcase is to help the developer create the best game they possibly can. Show them you support their efforts when posting.
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 |   Michael Tanczos Staff
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Posted - 8/16/2004 11:22:22 PM | Nice game. The install went smoothly but it seemed a little buggy. Normally in checkers if you can jump a piece, you must jump a piece. Also, if I ever jumped any checkers on the 7th rank to obtain a king.. those checkers weren't removed. This was especially evident on double jumps. Oddly enough though, I was able to move again after obtaining a king.. which isn't like normal checkers.
Oh, and graphically there was a lot of bright blue aliasing on the edges of each of the checker sprites. You may want to adjust your sprite rendering function to either eliminate these or automatically anti-alias the sprites with the background.
Other than that, it seemed well executed. With a little polish this could be a very playable game. I enjoyed the animations and the background music while playing was very appropriate.
Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing your future entries!
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Michael Tanczos
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 | TANSTAAFL Moderator - Isometric Land
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Posted - 8/17/2004 11:42:32 PM | Okay, here I go.
So here we have a game of checkers, which is fine. The rules are well known, and the game is a perfect place for budding developers to practice their craft. Personally, I have never made a checkers game, as my traditional game of choice is Reversi/Othello.
First, I don't think you fully have the rules of checkers implemented. In checkers, capture, if possible, is compulsory, and there were several times that I moved a piece into harm's way only to not have it be captured. If you are making a checkers game, the player expects the rules of checkers to be adhered to.
Second, and this will see a bit harsh: you are not an artist. Tanczos said this as well, but he wasn't as blunt about it. The art used in the game was not thematically sound. You cannot simply take a group of textures, stitch them together, and expect them to look good. The art currently in place is what we normally term "programmer art", and that's fine for during development. Now, there is nothing wrong with not being an artist. *I'm* certainly no artist, which is why you see me make games like JetLag. I've gotten better over these many years, which is why ChemHex looks passable, but I still can't hold a candle to a real artist. You're a programmer, and apparently a halfway decent one. So find a friend to do your art, or spend the time to learn to fake art, or make games that don't need to be graphically complex.
Third, was your installer homemade? If so, STOP IT! You're spending time on the wrong thing. Nobody cares how cool your installer is. Go here, download Inno Setup, spend an hour(more like half an hour, actually) learning to use it, and use it from now on. Do you want to make games or do you want to make really cool installers?
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 | modemancer
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Posted - 8/18/2004 9:20:07 AM | Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen. I appreciate bluntness, especially when suggestions for improvement are provided with the criticism.
It's very true I'm no artist. I use Poser, Bryce, and Paint Shop Pro to help me muddle my way through graphics. While the game appearance is still a bit rough, the end result is much better than the few alternatives I currently have at hand.
Also, while Checkers inspired KingMe!, I intentionlly varied the rules in order to implement certain game features (the player Defend option, for example). For Checkers enthusiasts, however, a Checkers-rules version of the game is being written into the next version.
Oh, and I didn't write the installer. I was looking for a freeware installer program and found the EZInstall package at the Soft9000 website. I agree it's unnecessarily showy, but it gets the job done.
Thanks again, and I'd appreciate any further observations
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| ManaStone
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Posted - 9/1/2004 4:32:17 PM | I only have 2 problems with the game.
1) As mentioned earlier, the rules are a little off.
2) The computer moves too fast. Sometimes it's hard to tell what it did.
It might be a waste of time, but I thought your installer was pretty neat. I also thought your graphics were done well(aside from the blue outlining) With that being said, I thought it was an interesting project.
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| chaosgame
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Posted - 12/1/2004 10:48:30 PM | go to:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592003508/ref=pd_ser_asin_3/102-5540125-3632139?v=glance&s=books
i looked at the book at barnes and noble. its a really good book and it makes all of the good game graphics sound simple
i think that the graphics are fine except the yellow blends in with the background too muck, try red.
good luck!
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