Go play the winnie-the-pooh flash game I wrote!

[jack]

I can't remember if I've pimped it before, but: go play the winnie-the-pooh flash game I wrote!:

It's set ten years later, when CR and Alice[1] are about 16, and due to a clumsy mistake CR buys a cursed present for Alice, sending them to an alternate dimension where they face unresolved issues from their childhood games :)

It's aimed to be squarely in the tradition of Chip's Challenge. ie. top-down-tile-based push-things-around action/puzzle, but with fewer more complicated enemies rather than many simple ones (also see Deadly Rooms of Death)

There are 10 levels so far. Apologies for flash, see the poll below. Move with the arrow keys, press space to continue from message screens. Click the buttons on the right to jump to a level. There is a reason everything's so violent, it's not *just* gratuitous.

Walkthrough for level one: Walk down, walk left into pooh. Read the text. Start again. Walk down, walk right, walk left.

I'm sure most of you (hi Simon :)) have more extensive computer games written, but I enjoyed writing this. It is very much, what I had time to do, and left when I didn't have any time. One thing I may do in the next few months is polish it up.

Which of the following would you most like to see me do? (Vote for one option, or more only if you want to).

My name is and I think you should:
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Replace flash with C (for windows andlinux), or another web language
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Optimise flash code making it smoother
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Make the game turn-based instead of real time. (Or give an option one or the other.)
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Sometimes you can't tell if CR is going to move. Show this visually.
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Add UI. Eg. an intro screen, score chart, instructions, level progression
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Design more levels!
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Design more characters (currently there are CR, Pooh, Small and Piglet)
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Rework the metaphysics to make it more consistent.
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Write more consistent flavour text. (More puns? Fewer puns?)
---DefinitelyIf you have timeNo, don't bother Add live action animation of characters Can I play Christopher Robin? Can I play Alice[1]?

Comment:

[1] Who is CR's kickarsier sensibler contemporary best friend, now sort of girlfriend, not nurse. Apologies for misreading canon.

Comments

[emperor]

I still think you should Just Use Livejournal Polls.

I also feel obliged to point out that this doesn't work on my mac (Safari) at all - I can click the RHS buttons, but pressing space does nothing.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

Just Using Livejournal Polls: involves giving money to LJ, which you might not want to do.

(S)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Indeed, thank you. That is, LJ have provided quite a good service to me for ages, I'm ok with donating them some money. But doing so by getting a paid account feels like I would be paying for just some fairly mediocre polls and some annoyingly stubborn part of me rebells and insists that it doesn't want to seem like someone who ties their identity to the lj company. *shrug* It doesn't make sense, it will resolve itself when I install a wordpress variant, or similar.

[mair_in_grenderich]

just some fairly mediocre polls

and icon space! and the ability to syndicate people's rss feeds! and ... and sms-to-lj! and other exciting stuff!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

ROFL. Yes. But... In two years I've so far adopted zero icons. I don't think I'll hit the limit for a while yet. And rss aggregators are free and easy. :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Sorry. Thank you; I still intend to get good polling one day.

And thank you. Apparently flash in safari not receiving any keypresses has been a known problem :( Until I rewrite completely I don't think there's any fix. (I assume you've tried obvious things like trying to click to give it the focus. Does your computer have a flash viewer or anything?)

[emperor]

I did try clicking, yes. The only flash viewer is the one in Safari.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you. Then I'm sorry.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

Make it turn based rather than realtime. That way it won't matter that the key response isn't brilliant.

(S)

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and let us use the NetHack/vi keys for movement.

(S)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

For orthogonal movement the arrow keys just seemed so natural I didn't even think. I guess it's essentially trivial to include hjkl as well, I might as well do that if I make any changes.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

ZXL,!!!

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

I'M STUPID AND I'M STUCK ON LEVEL 5 AND THIS IS GOING TO GIVE ME NIGHTMARES AND I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you. I'm really pleased someone feels strongly about it (and actually plays it :)) even if badly...

Honest, all the evil violent stuff will be resolved eventually (though not within the levels written so far). And I'm sure you'll figure it out, there's not that many things you can *try* on that level :) *hug*

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

I like, but I keep dying on later levels because the keys get stuck - you either need to fix that or do a save game!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

You can skip to any level by pressing the buttons on the right. Saving within a probably won't ever be allowed.

There definitely is a problem with the keys, but on most people's computers they're not actually failing, just not well designed.

CR moves at the same time everything else does, which means that if you tap and release a key during a tick of the universe it's not clear if he should move afterwards or not. Currently he doesn't (see the entry on making that clear with graphics).

The easiest way I find is to press a key and hold it down until he's moving. If I want to walk continuously (eg. to run away from pooh down a twisty corridor) I hold a down right until he starts moving into the square I want him to go up from, then switch instantaneously to up, holding that, etc.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

I understand. There's one of the ladybird levels - 9? - where you need to dodge around a lot though, and that's when I kept dying.

Don't you dare make Piglet mean!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

The one with the gigantic pit at the left you have to dodge back and forth on? Yes, that's really tricky. I plan a route in advance and then concentrate on excecuting it, and it's still hard for me :) (Of course, I can't see -- I don't know if your computer does have a problem mine doesn't or not; nor if my explanation helped at all or not.)

But yay, someone else on level 9 :)

Don't you dare make Piglet mean!

ROFL. He's only got a cameo here, there aren't any proper levels with him, just a teaser trailer, without *all* the animation. He is evil, but as you've hopefully seen (a) in a more duitiful and sweet (if ominous) way than pooh and (b) he's been corrupted by Disney and the confused subconscious of a 16-year-old boy -- part of the plot is you (as CR) really want to cure that!

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Eeergh, what a gross game!

I'm stuck on level 4. Maybe I'm just dim, but it seems like there's nothing else I can do - it's practically symmetric!

Also, why after level 3 does it say "Why were there two poohs?" when there were actually 3 poohs? That seems odd.

And I think it should be turn based instead of real time.

And eeergh!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for playing it!

Eeergh, what a gross game!

LOL. I thought the violence was funny :) You are supposed to be understand and cure it before the end of the game, but there was just something compelling about having to go all out on Pooh's arse...

I'm stuck on level 4. Maybe I'm just dim, but it seems like there's nothing else I can do - it's practically symmetric!

The levels are supposed to be tricky[1]. it sounds like you haven't worked out the trick yet. There was a hint at the end of level 3 iirc. I don't know what you've done, but you have to dodge round the right corner to send the first bear the wrong way, and then be far enough ahead you can get into the centre not persued by him.

[1] It's really hard to judge what's too easy/too hard for someone to work out when you already know the answer.

Also, why after level 3 does it say "Why were there two poohs?" when there were actually 3 poohs? That seems odd.

Doh. Because I wrote the text and the levels not always the right way round. I should have said "several".

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Nope, no closer to doing level 4. It's driving me insane. I can run round the outside in an infinite loop, but there is no way to dodge anywhere without the first bear following me, afaics

And I think it should be turn based instead of real time.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Do you know why?

Re:

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I always like my failures to be because I am too stupid rather than too slow. And it frustrates me when my failures are because the computer doesn't notice me press a key.

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

Joining in the general venting, xomg what the hell do I do in Level 4? It's so bloody tricky! You shall have to make a n00b-friendly version of this game.

In answer to your questions, I say only this:

- C is scary. Java is the One True Way. (Plus it should work on everything in theory, or so the great and wise lecturers tell me :P)

- Plz to be teaching me ActionScript someday; I have Flash MX and the most I've done is a bouncy ball that took half an hour to do. -_-

- Yes, UIs are teh win. Says the pixie writing a dissertation on one. ;)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. *Everyone* seems to get stuck on 4. But they all figure it out eventually, so it seems I pitched it just about right, though perhaps should have put it later in the game.

But I don't know Java, and I don't know if learning another language is really useful or not... I believe it works fine on most OSes, which is teh cool, but always seem to get fed up of java games online taking ages to load.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I _think_ you should either have made Pooh slightly (one space) further away, to account for loss of key control / general incompitence, or made the hiding space slightly (one space?) deeper. Lots of the time I thought I was hiding it in I wasn't. As in, a level where you have to get something exactly right is always going to be much harder than a level where you just have to pick up a general principle, and I _thought_ that level 4 was the "pick up the general principle that he goes round corners when he can see you" and that level 5 was "now use this to solve a trickier problem"

[thethirdvoice.livejournal.com]

I did it! Had to go back to level 6 though. It was fun, if the bloodyness was a bit icky.

I pressed enter while doing your poll, so you have an entry from 'th'.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you! Most people, even clever people, spent ages whining about how it was too tough and didn't work first. Well done, and thanks for looking, I appreciate each person checking it out.

I am trying to do some new levels, but won't be ready soon.

[athanasius.livejournal.com]

The text after level 8 says, in part:

"He glanced at the put which had..."

s/put/pit/

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Yes, it managed to lack complete proofreading. Thank you for pointing it out (though the corrections probably won't be out till v3.0 if that ever comes.)

And hi! Nice to meet you, and thank you for playing! :)