View Full Version : The N-Puzzle?? How boring!
Even though the site itself is not finished, the game and pretty much all coming along is working as far as I know so I thought it's time to get some critics from you guys! (and yes some free testing! ;))
http://n-puzzle.aswebcreations.com/
I made that as an experiment, I have no plans for it. The score displaying will come later. The only goal was to learn more about database/server side script/Flash communication, implementation and development as I made a more serious engine for a more serious type of game so everything I've done for the N-Puzzle will be useful for that later.
So the game itself is a clone of the N-Puzzle but you can play pictures of course. You can register and upload your pictures (up to 20) and then play them, when finished (in a week or two) the site will give you links that you can send to friends so they can play your pictures and more. My favorite level is the insane one because, well, it's insane! and you also have a magic move possible!
Still working on the html formatting so please don't kill me on that!
kkbbcute
03-24-2009, 09:12 AM
Okay, you are obviously a programmer and not much of a designer, are you?
First off, the home page that you provided gives a strange feel, with the bright blue serif fonts (Times New Roman) together with the deep yellow color and the bright green rectangles you chose for your buttons, which was a contrasting sans serif font type as well. Try to keep consistentcy for your text and color.
Moving on to color management. Your color palette doesn't seem to be very well thought out, with random splattering of gradients when you first start up the game and that use of drop shadows and beveling of the buttons which somehhow just seems to contrast with the sharp edges of the rectangles, giving the site a last generation look.
Apart from that, the game runs fine, so game on! :)
Thx, I'll keep all you said in mind for maybe future changes!
kkbbcute
03-24-2009, 02:37 PM
Oh, remember to swap the images in your background for some other image later, as some of those images are the Windows Default and I think are copyrighted by Microsoft.
Oh, remember to swap the images in your background for some other image later, as some of those images are the Windows Default and I think are copyrighted by Microsoft.
Is it really a problem since it's just a free game and there's no advertising?
cjx3711
03-24-2009, 03:17 PM
The tweens also look kinda corny. It looks random and unprofessional. Of course, that will appeal to youngsters.
The tweens also look kinda corny. It looks random and unprofessional. Of course, that will appeal to youngsters.
Haaaa, I like them!
kkbbcute
03-24-2009, 03:56 PM
Well yeah, unless you ask for MS's permission by emailing them or something.
Well yeah, unless you ask for MS's permission by emailing them or something.
I'll put other pics then, too bad I liked those.
kkbbcute
03-24-2009, 04:09 PM
I think MS will be kind enough if you explain nicely enough, anyway there are tons of royalty free and cheap images out there that you can use. I'm sure you'll find some you like!
Something brok. Errors I got when I tried to play it:
VerifyError: Error #1033: Cpool entry 192 is wrong type.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable alert is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable amzing is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable ready_screen is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable titlescreen is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable buttonchoice is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable preloader is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable MainTimeline is not defined.
Something brok. Errors I got when I tried to play it:
VerifyError: Error #1033: Cpool entry 192 is wrong type.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable alert is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable amzing is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable ready_screen is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable titlescreen is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable buttonchoice is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable preloader is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable MainTimeline is not defined.
Thx I'll look into that! Anything special you did before it happened?
That's a nasty one, it pretty much means that Flash player encountered a bug for some reasons. I could report the bug but I would need to be able to recreate the conditions for the bug.
kkbbcute
03-28-2009, 01:38 PM
Strange, I never encountered it. It could be system specific.
Kimchee
03-28-2009, 02:57 PM
Check your Private Messages :)
That's right, already a good amount of registered people for this silly game. People like being able to use their own pictures and they find the game interesting especially because of the magic move, there's some N-Puzzle crazy out there and the insane level gets a lot of attention just because, well, it's insane! It's free so game on!
To be honest, the N-Puzzle is a double final project for my database and server side programming classes. It's all fun!
Thx I'll look into that! Anything special you did before it happened? I just clicked on "Play." I have player 9, does your game require 10?
kkbbcute
03-31-2009, 08:02 AM
Technically, if the FP is of aan older version, your browser would prompt you to perform an update first.
If you use a non-standard embedding method, the prompting for update often won't appear.
kkbbcute
04-04-2009, 03:53 AM
You just said it, its only when you embed it in a non-standard format that the prompt won't appear. Just follow the standards;)
Obviously I did it that way on purpose! ;)
kkbbcute
04-04-2009, 08:26 AM
Obviously I did it that way on purpose! ;)
Why? I see no benefit.
That's complicated, I did a study case of potential player for this game (requirement for my programming class) and it did show that a likely user would not be from the technical fields and as such there's a good chance they would refuse and not trust an automatic download but instead if they cannot play the game for some reason they might contact the site directly to help them. This happened already three times but anyway I need to follow through my study case for now.
kkbbcute
04-05-2009, 04:45 AM
That's complicated, I did a study case of potential player for this game (requirement for my programming class) and it did show that a likely user would not be from the technical fields and as such there's a good chance they would refuse and not trust an automatic download but instead if they cannot play the game for some reason they might contact the site directly to help them. This happened already three times but anyway I need to follow through my study case for now.
All my friends with completely no background in these sort of stuff at all happily download stuff from the web and ended up getting 10 Trojan horses in their computer in 1 week, and they haven't learn't for the past 5 years.:p
I forced my two teachers to update to FP10 with this trick that's quite a success! My database teacher would never, ever, ever. ever download anything from the web, I won't be surprised if she still was on FP2 or 3!
kkbbcute
04-05-2009, 05:38 AM
Told you so, most people find it okay to download stuff from the web, especially in this day and age;)
On a side note, I think your database teacher is suffering from paranoia (just kidding!)
That's complicated, I did a study case of potential player for this game (requirement for my programming class) and it did show that a likely user would not be from the technical fields and as such there's a good chance they would refuse and not trust an automatic download but instead if they cannot play the game for some reason they might contact the site directly to help them.
I thought when you said, "Of course I did that on purpose," you were joking, and now I'm not sure.
That seems like very tortured logic. Is your primary goal to get the contact info of people who don't like downloading plugins, rather than to get people to use your website?
I forced my two teachers to update to FP10 with this trick that's quite a success! My database teacher would never, ever, ever. ever download anything from the web, I won't be surprised if she still was on FP2 or 3!
Ah, so your primary goal is to get the three people who contacted you to upgrade their player, and if you must drive away anyone who would have upgraded to player 10 if they only knew that was the problem, then so be it?
http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html
And what powerful techniques are you using that you can't make a sliding puzzle that runs in player 9, exactly?
I don't see why you are so mad at me. That's a school final project for two classes and I'll get a A+ for that I assure you. As I said I got to stick to my study case for now with which btw I learned a lot about people who NEVER allow any automatic download. There's more than just allow automatic FP update guys, doing so scares some people away for good, as a Flash developer that's something you want to consider. I do.
I'm not angry, I just don't understand your logic.
Let me get my grades then I'll change it! ;)
kkbbcute
04-07-2009, 09:18 AM
Life's not all about grades, I don't get stellar grades (some people get 99% for every subject!) but I enjoy what I'm doing.
Same thing here, just because you get a good grade doesn't mean that you shouldn't strive to improve any compatibility issues.;)
some people get 99% for every subject!That's me! :p
kkbbcute
04-07-2009, 02:23 PM
You have no idea what we are studying man, it's like:
Describe the differences between an alpha and beta glucose and the differences in functionality.
Anyway, back on topic, FP9 is still a large user base.
Fine! I'll see with my teachers if I can change it now.;)
I'm not grading you, and I don't go to your school, so I don't care whether you change your assignment.
I was just trying to understand what train of thought you were following here.
1) My audience is mostly non-technical.
2) ????
3) Therefore, if they have the wrong version of Flash, there should be no explanation as to why the game doesn't work.
I'm not grading you, and I don't go to your school, so I don't care whether you change your assignment.
I was just trying to understand what train of thought you were following here.
1) My audience is mostly non-technical.
2) ????
3) Therefore, if they have the wrong version of Flash, there should be no explanation as to why the game doesn't work.
All right I got it! :(
kkbbcute
04-08-2009, 06:02 AM
Erms, Point 3 makes no technical and logical sense.
Erms, Point 3 makes no technical and logical sense.
I got it! (crying ...)
kkbbcute
04-08-2009, 02:30 PM
Maybe you would like to tell us what you got, because I still don't get a thing. :p
Suddenly I discovered the need in this forum for a crying emoticon!
(still crying ....)
kkbbcute
04-09-2009, 09:52 AM
Haha, you're quite right actually:p Anyway, let's not go off topic.
The N-Puzzle is completely re looked now (I love it! :)) thx to my buddy and very talented artist Seron Fuller (http://www.cashkernelonline.com/) <- (I made his website)
maybe some sounds will be added later.
Close to 50 registered players now which is quite unexpected for a simple class project.
A simple version will be published soon so people will be able to add this game to their site as Kimchee wanted.
I'll add the automatic FP10 download for people without the right FP version later on. I can't compile for FP9 since my puzzle piece classes use Vector storage and I don't want to rewrite the whole thing.
Quite happy with all that I have to say. Now I'm looking at doing the same for the other puzzle engine I made which this time makes puzzle (curved pieces) out of pictures, that might interest a few people too.
kkbbcute
04-10-2009, 05:37 AM
If you ask me, the unprofessional home page still spoils the effect of the nicer re-looked game. Seriously, even if you want to stick with your current background (with the sample pics from microsoft that aren't supposed to be there), you should at least consider adding some rollover effect to the buttons or something. Also, I just find that bright green arrows with yellow words aren't exactly my sort of thing, but that's more personal.
It's gonna be changed too!
kkbbcute
04-10-2009, 05:52 AM
The background or the buttons? Or both?
Background and buttons! So is he good my buddy Seron? I think he is!
kkbbcute
04-10-2009, 05:55 AM
Oh, good then, I was thinking you were going to leave it the way it was :p
Someone asked me how I slice dynamically the pictures for this game so here is the function I use to do that:
function slice_bitmap():void{
//preloader shows while I slice
if(!contains(_preloader)){
_preloader = new preloader();
_preloader.gotoAndStop(3);
_preloader.filters = [new DropShadowFilter()];
addChild(_preloader);
_preloader.x = -300;
_preloader.y = stage.stageHeight/2;
TweenMax.to(_preloader, 2,{x:stage.stageWidth/2, ease:Strong.easeOut});
}
bitmap_array = new Array();//used to store the slices
puzzle_width = current_bitmap.width;
puzzle_height = current_bitmap.height;
var square_width:Number = current_bitmap.width/number_of_horizontal_squares;
//calculate the slice width
var square_height:Number = current_bitmap.height/number_of_vertical_squares;
//calculate the slice height
var number_of_squares:Number = number_of_horizontal_squares*number_of_vertical_sq uares;
//matrix operations
var moveDraw:Matrix = new Matrix();
moveDraw.ty=0;
moveDraw.tx=0;
var Xpos:Number = 0;
var Ypos:Number = 0;
//slice in a loop
for(var i:Number = 0; i<number_of_squares; i++){
var bitmap:BitmapData = new BitmapData(square_width, square_height);
bitmap.draw(current_bitmap,moveDraw);
var bitmap_holder:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bitmap);
Xpos += square_width
moveDraw.tx-=square_width;
if(Xpos >= current_bitmap.width){
Xpos = 0;
moveDraw.tx = 0;
moveDraw.ty -= square_height;
Ypos += square_height;
}
//store the slices
bitmap_array.push(bitmap_holder);
}
//done so get rid of the preloader
TweenMax.to(_preloader, 2,{x:stage.stageWidth*2, ease:Strong.easeOut});
start_play_basic();//starts the game
}
I made a puzzle before I knew much about bitmaps in Flash, where it would generate 16 instances of the image and apply a square mask to each one. I think your method is more efficient.
New look for the N-Puzzle and new look/features for the aswebcreations.com website as well. Check it out and let me know what you think.
PS: The Beer Calculator is finally up! Check it out at BYO.com and maybe start to create your own beers!
kkbbcute
06-04-2009, 06:39 AM
Cool, the background art and all is nice, but one thing, all your buttons vibrate, is that due to some listener going screwy, which happened to me before, or wasd that an intended effect?
yes it's intended, designer request! ;) But I like it anyway. So what's your best score?
kkbbcute
06-05-2009, 04:14 AM
Don't ask :p I screwed up even before finishing one on the hardest difficulty, the changing colors of the tiles gives me seizures (joking). Will give it a good playthrough when I have more time.
new look/features for the aswebcreations.com website
Just curious why you decided to move away from your Flash version and to a blog format? I mean I know there are numerous reasons and differences/advantages between various technologies, was just was surprised to see the switch.
Thx for asking! I changed to save a lot of time. I can add new articles/features in no time, modify content, add new content/pages and so on. I figured I have too much stuff to show/add and a Flash website would not be the best to handle that+A wordpress website is SEO friendly. I could write of course a Flash website handling all that with a CMS but I have no time to do that, I couldn't even finish the one I had before. I still have a lot of stuff to add but with the CMS it's very easy and takes no time. Thx WordPress!
PS: I looked into Joomla and Drupal too but Wordpress was really the way to go for me. The way they made their framework is more to my taste, I was able to modify/use the framework after 5 minutes reading their docs, very sweet!
Yeah that's all understandable, I figured, was just curious.
You should post in this thread now :p
http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?t=208793
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