PyWeek 29 challenge: “The butterfly effect”
Posted by dowski on 2020/03/29 19:26
That's a wrap for us! Our game was basically made in two days and it shows. We (me and my 14 year-old) had so much fun doing it it doesn't matter though!
My son did more of the coding this time than in PyWeek 28, and it was cool to see him getting more comfortable with Python. The source code for our game is a big hack job though (we're both complicit in that), but it gets the job done.
BadWing - What a Week!
Posted by kfields on 2020/03/29 17:16
It's been a great week. The game turned out pretty well, I just wish it could have been more original. I think I'm more creative in the software department than the game department. I can live with that. :)
And then there's the fact the game has only two identical levels that barely contain anything! The time I had set aside for content creation was eaten up by the desire to create a complete game and bug fixing. I had a whole set of issues when it came time to load the next level.
But overall it's been a pretty amazing week! I learned soooooooooooooooo much!!!
I look forward to playing all the games that were created for the competition. They look pretty far out!
Posted by gcewing on 2020/03/29 06:22
I started writing this on Thursday, which was the first day of the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand. Life is strange here at the moment, but the silver lining is that it's given me more time to work on my PyWeek entry!
I didn't get much time for adding content, but I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. I managed to get all the essential elements I wanted into it. Like the life of a butterfly, it's short but sweet.
Posted by Cosmologicon on 2020/03/29 02:06
Please let me know if you run into any issues!
Posted by DR0ID on 2020/03/29 01:19
https://bitbucket.org/dr0id/pw-_/src/master/
Magnetic Pictures - Done - very late here but I'm happy with my result
Posted by DR0ID on 2020/03/29 01:14
I will upload tomorrow.
Posted by encukou on 2020/03/29 00:54
Writing takes a lot of time I'd rather spend coding, so I'm writing a “diary” entry only now, when the coding is over.
(I recommend you play the game before reading this.)
The original idea for this game was a butterfly breeding simulator: you'd cross two butterflies, get a bunch of eggs, then hatch the best ones into caterpillars and let them feed and grow, eventually becoming butterflies.
While feeding, caterpillars could power up and gain special abilities to be passed to their offspring: the ability to swim, break rocks, pause time. The objects would have *effects* on the *butterflies* (ha!), which would be then passed to new *caterpillars*.
The breeding stuff didn't get off the ground. There's a bunch of unused code to cross two butterflies with differently colored wings. But ultimately, all I had time for is single-colored ones. You now get eggs for free, and all of the caterpillars are the same when they hatch.
The almost-unused code is the only reason the game requires Numpy. I hope that's not a barrier for enjoying it.
But, what the game does have is caterpillar feeding! It is, of course, based on well-known Snake games: the caterpillar is long and it grows as it feeds. I've taught Snake at Python beginners' workshops, so I'm glad for a chance to polish a game like this.
I'm quite satisfied with the simple colorful graphics and quirky retro mechanics (that are entirely not true to biology!)
I spent way too much time on little animations. They're my favorite part of making a game. I hope you enjoy them!
(And yes, some big animations are rough around the edges. Priorities, priorities.)
There were originally to be 9 levels, arranged 3×3 like a numeric keyboard: you'd start in the middle and unlock gradually more difficult ones near the edges (using 🔑 keys close to the edges). Out of the nine, I got 6 somewhat done. After renumbering, you start at #2 – that might be somewhat surprising, but at least the keys are still close to what they open.
I'm somewhat happy with the tutorial level (#2). I wanted it to introduce the mechanics of all the game elements. It doesn't do a good job with the red mushroom – originally the ability to eat these for effects was supposed to be hereditary (only for descendants of caterpillars that cocooned a boulder), and was to be explained there. But otherwise, a curious player should have no trouble figuring things out.
Level #1 (maze) tests patience and reflexes. I remember fondly games that required this, but I guess we're used to more interesting things now.
Level #3 (grass and boulders) could be much tighter; there's a lot of moving left and right to achieve the goals. The key carousel is nothing more than a gimmick
Designing level #4 (island hopping) was fun at first, then it grew frustrating as time pressure increased. I don't think I had enough time to test the puzzle thoroughly. Hope it's fun to figure out anyway!
Level #5 (crossing the water) turns out to be a simpler variation on #4. That means it can serve as a preview for #5!
And level #6 is just complete filler. Sorry. If I didn't have a 2×3 level select screen, I'd leave it out.
Could I do 3-5 new levels if I had one more week? Probably. It would need some more mechanics, though. I thought about tunnels (teleports), but I haven't figured out how to combine that with cocooning. Launchers (which skip 1 tile) are already somewhat quirky in the edge cases.
If I was to finish the breeding, it would open up the possibility for more powerful items, e.g. cocooning a diamond would grant you a recessive gene with the power of the corresponding mushroom permanently. That would make existing levels way easier, so it would present new design challenges.
But, if I had that time, I'd rather make a library to make cute animations robust and easy.
Even more likely, I'll program something completely different – something serious and not related to games; something that would either help others or get me money.
Caterpillar Effect's code cuts all the corners to save my time in the short run. It's not architected; it's full of code smells that would bite me if I were ever start to extending it. Which I won't – the week is over.
But I'll definitely return to game jamming! See you at some future PyWeek!
Posted by coen on 2020/03/29 00:14
Final coding done at 23:59.
Lots more that could be done, but very pleased with the results
Tomorrow: create README, remove a few unused assets, push to GitHub, try to create Windows and Linux executables
puggu - Super fun
Posted by pillitoka on 2020/03/28 23:55
First ever pyweek. Had a great time making the game. Learnt many things. Finished in time. Enjoy playing it.
👑🦠 - Don't worry, Be happy! Just write sth at the end :)
Posted by xmzhang1 on 2020/03/28 23:22
Coding is hard, it need a lot of practice, especially for designing a game :)
I still remeber the old saying, pygame would release the 2.0 version in 2020, well, it is 2020 now :)
Some old guys still here, just like NPC :) yeah, your daddy is always your daddy.
Just hope everyone have a nice weekend, for me, I would spend the whole day playing with my two awesome sons :)
life is short, u need python, I need family ;)