I started this pyweek by looking at some artwork and generating potential ideas. I'm looking to stick with something super simple while learning something new.

I ended up with a ball, which requires little animation effects (extra work!) and may be the basis for a decent game. I've got some physics that seem to work, gravity, bouncing, and a bouncing sound.

My biggest issue now is extending the world. In the first game I created (evolution_of_evil), I made a single screen that could not move. It was a very simple world, with a few levels. The second game our team created (Nightmarotony), we used bigger worlds but the scrolling behavior was one central character being followed by a camera. It was not too difficult to implement.

This time, I would like to flip to new screens after reaching a certain place on the screen (off screen/near an edge). I want more control over what the world shows, when It cuts off, game stops for screen transitions, etc. This is not always easy.

Another issue is the creation of world maps. I prefer algorithmic creation of maps, or some type of pattern. Manually producing maps can be significant work.

 

The game has been extended to include multiple levels. It uses gravity and bouncing for the ball, the gravity reverses after reaching the last stage, and then the player has to return to the beginning to win. If you fall back through the hole you came through, then you die.

The theme of two worlds is the world before and after gravity reversal. It should be somewhat fun. I want to add more features and make some interesting twists. The stages were created with text files, which is something I got from "which way is up" (although I did not like the way the files were read, so I only used the design, not the code). The stages are hard to design since they have to be effective both forward and in reverse.

I spent a lot of time on a specific bug that popped up in the gameplay. I have modeled the gravity off Richard Jone's pygame tutorial gravity. I even used the block sample he had for the game. However, in his code, the player gets stuck as it tries to move left and right. You can only move when jumping. Unlike his gravity, the ball in this game bounces. so it should bounce off the ground and ceiling and be blocked by the sides. However, it seems to get stuck on the ground sometimes and unintentionally continue falling and bouncing at the same time until it gets "spring loaded" and flies away. 

I tried to determine whether this bug was "playable". I think it is severe enough that it requires more work, but I would hate to sacrifice all the features to solve one bug. This is programming though, and features be damned. I will try to at least produce a menu and win/lose screen. I will try to use masks instead of rects, but I have found I have made things worse at times. Games are very difficult to test and, since i have been lax on version control, revert.

The bug is Zapped!! Ultimately, I didn't have to do too much changing, it was just adding another if statement in the code.

Since the bug got zapped, I was able to play through the game one full time. It is an alright game, somewhat fun, but could definitely use some additional features.

The game is pretty much complete. It is alright. You can play it all the way through, and kind of enjoy it. It isn't incredibly challenging, but that may be because I have played it about 20 times so far. I would guess that most people should be able to successfully complete it in 5-10 tries. For some, it may be doable on the first try.

The real question now is about features. Should I add more features? Does the game need more features? I think the game could use a feature or two more, so I may try to add something. Lets see, 27 hours... maybe 2 more for some small features and we can call it complete.

Let's see what other people think.

I spent a lot of time in the past two days playing the game over and over again. But I am proud to say with 10 hours left to go, the game is complete. There is a way to win and a way to lose. And if you really want to win, score all the points. It's worth it!

Testing takes a lot of time. It is a necessary feedback loop. I can also see why it would be necessary to have a full time tester for something like game production.

So now, I cross my fingers and see what other people think. I think the actual game is pretty decent. Very simple and straightforward. I wanted people to be able to win this time and play the game all the way through (with some possibility of losing).