My spore-inspired flash game

[thelochness07]

EDIT: the newest versions can be found at: www.freewebs.com/thelochflash


for my very first post i shall introduce forum-goers here to me and my in development game based on the microbial stage of spore. please take note that this is not an aproximation or emulation of spore, this is my own take on the idea behind the microbial phase so no complaining that it doesnt look like spore : http://www.deviantart.com/view/40770913/

and to those that belong to deviantArt as i do, please feel free to leave a comment or a +fav!

as of now it is just a basic beta version. just some food a worm and an editor. im constantly (well, as much as my schedule allows) in developement and i update every week or so with whatever new expansions ive tacked on (next ideas: spikes, some type of engine to allow for enemies that are neither too hard or too weak).

im 17 and fairly energetic when it comes to programming and getting updates posted.
im always open to suggestions as long as they are written in moderately good english.

dont get me wrong, im not going to be a prick and tear you a new one for missing a comma, but i really dislike it when people dont ever use periods.

that last bit was probably unnecessary but at the same time i feel it doesnt get said enough.

and... im done. enjoy !

[shadowlord18]

welcome to the furom. I should point out that this most likly belong in creation corner. all so how many points do you need to by flagla and jets becuse i was not able to buy these bits. all so you must realise that for some of us english is not your first languge or we simply can't spell very well. (I personly come under the second catagory)

[Manna]

It looks good. Nice work and welcome! You'll notice in spore general they're currently looking for flash programmers to work on another spore game. Maybe you'd be willing to lend a hand?

[thelochness07]

shadowlord18 you are definately not who i was talking about, my apologies if you thought so. you used periods all the way through your post and divied up ideas into seperate sentances, that is all i really care about. i realize that many people dont speak english as thier first language and i dont seek to criticize them. my real problem stems from native speakers that dont use punctuation because i find that it can get extremely hard to understand a post that should consist of 5 sentances when really its just one long one.

my apologies for posting in the wrong section. is it possible to move a thread? or will i need to re-make it?

manna, i scanned through the topic i believe you are speaking of and i think that the amount of work still needed to be put into the game is comparable to the work still required in my game. perhaps once i get my game farthur along and more steady on its feet i'll check back to the other game, but not for a while.

thank you both for your welcomes, i hope i can bring good news of an update to this topic soon.

[shadowlord18]

yeah thats ok then. you will have to ask one of the mods to move the thread if they see fit. i was just hoping you realised that tis is international forum as such it might become an issue for other members.

[thelochness07]

i also forgot to mention: inorder to buy a specific item you need to select where you want it to go (by clicking on a joint in the worms avatar) then adjust it using the arrows. you'll know that a specific joint is selected when you can see numbers in the flagella and jet feilds. my bad for not pointing that out .

[shadowlord18]

may i sugest that you add a help button to instruct first time players.

[Xenomorph]

its a funny game, good work   
my creature became too small by accident and could´nt move anymore 

[Leng]

Nice coding btw;)

Still there appear to be some balance issues with regard to shooters vs flagella.  A creature with a lot of flagella tends to get extremely clumsy and will generally circle one bit of food trying to get to it.  I tried to compensate for this by having a creature with mixed flagella and shooters, but it's still not as good as an all-shooter creature which can just dart right to the food.

edit: Actually no, you just have to exercise some restraint.  Flagella based designs are good early on when there aren't so many of them.  Later on, a good design involves several pairs (NOT 1 or 3) of flagella at the very front, with a long stabilizing tail.

Most successful design so far:

Length 22, 3 pairs of flagella at front, 4 groups of 3 jets immediately behind them, remainder blank.

[Celdur]

in the beginning its soooooo slow X_X

[shadowlord18]

it is alot of fun.

[Pixxel]

hm.. really fun game, great work , but cant you add so when you got around 15+ length points or somthing, you should be able to add eyes and mouth pieces and spikes like you said. 
when you got around 20+ length points the screen should zoom out a little everytime you added a point because it got really hard to eat the dots because the worm was to big for the screen it only spinned around in circles

[thelochness07]

i do plan on adding spikes (i was actually visualizing implementations today in calc ) and as for the world expansion, i think that i will have it zoom out a tiny bit at some point, but i think it'll be alot easier even at such large body lengths to just have the world scroll a bit. perhaps if you get too far away from the center the view will shift acordingly.

in reference to balancing issues as brought up by Leng, ive been puzzled by this for some time. i want each locomotive limb to hold substance and to not just be an aestetic touch, but i also dont want problems where it gets near impossible to control or too sluggish to be interesting. any thoughts?

[Leng]

I went with my flagella-jetter-tail design and got it up to about 40 body length, and then turned it into an all-tentacle monster.  I plop it down and WHAM, it flies right off the screen, never to return.

Ways to improve flagella:

1. The ones on the farther back body segments should stop being so destabilizing.  They need to get the head wherever it's going.  As it is they make their own body segment move forward, and throw the head off balance.
2. They need to be the same relative length regardless of age.  Maybe you could even set the length in evolution.
3. I made mine in pairs for a reason.  The center flagella made the creature bob back and forth, missing the food.
4. There should be a definite top speed for a creature, instead of automatically being faster the farther away the mouse is.  Maybe it could travel at top speed, and only slow down (and importantly, use more controlled motions) if the mouse is within, say, 50 or 60 pixels, to get the food carefully.

[Tylui]

Perhaps, like RPGs and such, the more jetters and flagella you have, the less increase to speed it gives you, that way you won't be able to fly across the entire screen with just 12 jetters; and you won't be able to buy so many flagella that it flips in circles forever.  Perhaps another way around this is make it cost more per bodypart that you buy (IE: First flagella: 1! Second: 2! Third!: 3! Add a jetter after those: 4! And so on...  Not exactly those prices, but yeah...)

Oh, and I agree with Leng about the closer-the-mouse-the-slower-the-worm... It's sorta annoying that you KNOW he can go faster, he just won't, cuz he's too close... haha.  50 or 60 pixels should be fine, to quote Leng again.

Also I'd like to add this:  Great worK!  I really enjoyed it, regardless of the rest of my post!