

A flash platformer made in 48 hours by myself and 4 other people - windsurfer
http://www.globalgamejam.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2010/6841/hats_game.swf

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xs
I started to play this game at work and instantly knew I wanted to beat it and
play it all the way through. It had a great look and feel to it.

Since I did get to the victory screen I thought I'd share my comments with
you. In fact this if the first time I've ever commented on YC/news and had to
register just to do it.

1\. I really wanted a way to go directly to the hat I wanted to use instead of
cycle through them. Pressing 1 for blue, 2 for bunny etc would have made it a
lot less frustrating.

2\. The green hat totally confused my jumping finger. I'd put on green, jump
high, switch to bunny, try to use the same button to jump with but nothing
happened.

3\. I had absolutely no problem figuring out what the goal was, how to use the
blue hat, how to pass the first level, how to enter doors etc. I don't come
from a long background of video game players. I was told by you that x and c
are the controls and bam with a little playin around I learned what to do.

4\. I really liked the simplicity. It looked 8 bit but we know flash isn't 8
bit. Why did you choose those graphics as opposed to a more smooth sprite?

5\. I never got used to the zxc controls. I am right handed and all but for
some reason my fingers kept getting it mixed up. When doing harder moves like
jumping high and shooting I'd have to think it through first "ok i have to
push c,z,z,z,c" and I'd still screw it up. I'd hit z 4 times instead of 3.

6\. The only levels worth playing were the last 2. I almost gave up on the
last level though. Had to go eat a cookie and think about it, and come back. I
died at every single obstacle at least once trying the last level.

7\. The second to last level was my absolute favorite. This is where you first
have to shoot a guy have him die on spikes, jump over spikes, and repeat. The
last jump to the exit took me forever and I planned a lot of different methods
to finally get it. The reason why I liked it was because it seemed very hard
to me yet I saw the door right there and knew the level was short. I had
victory taste in my mouth every time I made that jump but something would
always go wrong.

8\. I enjoyed the early levels as a tutorial on how to use the hats but the
replay value is not really there if I already know how to use the hats.

9\. I really liked the lack of loading screens, lack of time it takes between
death and startover, lack of frills. Just give me a game and you did!

I think if you like this game you'll probably another flash game called
"Chronotron". Anyways I really enjoyed your game. I think you're doing great
and thank you for sharing it!

~~~
xs
oh and I forgot one last thing. I really thought the music and sound effects
was refreshing and great. also my favorite was the yellow hat, i liked both
its musical graphics and the sound it made when you shoot it. i think i only
had to use it on 1 level though

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gizmo
Sweet game, nicely done!

Enjoyed figuring out what the hats are for, and how to use them.

In no particular order:

\- with the blue hat, keeping c pressed will turbo-toggle invisibility. It
looks like it does something, but it doesn't

\- when you are in the air while doing a big jump (green hat) and then switch
to speed (pink hat) you suddenly lurge forward and miss your jump. Ouch! In
the same style, when walking to a cliff and switching hats (to get to the
green one) you enthusiastically run into the cliff the moment you equip the
pink hat.

\- having two different jump buttons with the green hat is confusing. It's
also not consistent with the pink hat. The pink hat makes you run even if you
don't press c, but the green hat doesn't "upgrade" your normal jump with x.

\- I haven't been able to figure out what the yellow (music?) hat is for.

\- I only discovered by accident that you can use the dead bodies of the
bigger enemies as plateau.

\- touching the spikes with a toe kills you instantly. Not very forgiving.

\- it took me a few levels to figure out that you have to walk _past_ a door
to trigger it, that standing in front of it and hitting some keys doesn't
work.

\- having to switch quickly to the right hat can be frustrating. Especially if
you see enemies approaching from both sides and you accidentally cycle past
the blue hat.

\- I got stuck on the level where you have to scare one of the big guys into a
cliff with the red hat. I can stand on the body, but I can't make the jump to
the exit because the avatar either hits his head on the ceiling or doesn't
jump far enough. I suspect there's some kind of floating ability I missed.
Hrm.

Nice game though. Congrats!

~~~
windsurfer
Thanks for the commentary! I really appreciate it!

We are still probably going to update the game, and have already done some
work on it in fact. This was just the 48 hour milestone :)

I will certainly take your comments into account!

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albertsun
Part of why Flash is so popular is that the tools it gives creators makes it
so easy to so quickly and easily develop applications like this.

Kudos.

~~~
Tim_M
And this is what people forgot when they say html5 is superior. 'The future' -
maybe but is anyone creating tools to speed up the generation of html5+js?

~~~
godDLL
Cue Adobe. Once they get off the high horse.

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chipsy
This game has a disturbingly large number of features for the amount of time
taken...which ends up making it kind of hard to play. It took five or six
tries to understand the first puzzle of the game, and it actually crashes
Firefox when I die sometimes.

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Sandman
Well done, I really enjoyed playing that game. I had to literally pull myself
away from the computer because it's getting really late and I ought to go to
bed, but I'll certainly play it again when I get the chance. Just one thing
though: it's a bit hard for me to play the game because of the controls - I'm
not using a US keyboard layout so the Z key for me is where the Y key is on a
normal US keyboard. Perhaps you could make it so that the V key is used for
changing the hats?

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makmanalp
Hey, my friend was in the gamejam in WPI at Worcester, Mass. and ended up with
this:

<http://www.globalgamejam.org/2010/flickering-torch>

One cool thing to do with yours would be to have 1-5 be hat switch keys

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petercooper
Played for a few minutes, couldn't get past the first guy.. as in, the guy you
see within 5 seconds. I tried shooting those clouds but they don't seem to
affect him, and if I try to run through him.. I die. So.. HTF do you play this
game? :-)

~~~
imok20
X makes you invisible - notice how your opacity changes? Just go invisible and
let them zombie walk by you, the continue on your merry way :)

~~~
petercooper
X only makes mine jump. C results in a weird puff of smoke. I took a video:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d2Gqy2zIsE>

This is Flash 10 on Safari 4 on OS X, by the way.

~~~
petercooper
I figured it out thanks to another comment above. Seems you have to stand
still, not run and press C. Brought up on too much Mario and Sonic I'm
afraid.. always running :-)

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araneae
Is flash really the only good language to write web games in?

I started writing a game in Love/lua, which is really great. But you can't
write web games in it, as far as I know. Any other options?

~~~
est
Unity3D, silverlight, WebGL

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Raphael
I'm several levels in and I can't jump high enough, even with the green hat.
Am I missing something?

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tomh-
Which gamejam were you part of?

~~~
windsurfer
The Carleton gamejam, the one in Ottawa, Canada.

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netizen
wow, nappy hacker. The joys of cut and paste. I admire your zeal, but the
truth is the product is too intrusive. I too would just say no!

~~~
windsurfer
I don't understand what you mean.

If you're referring to my use of Flixel, this was a cautious decision made at
the start of the project.

If you're referring to my coding ability, I can assure you that I was coding
for at least 30 of the 48 hours.

~~~
yumraj
I think you can easily ignore a negative comment which doesn't describe what
the comment is about or what the issue is, talks in abstract and is from a
user who created the HN account 1 hour ago, with the purpose of making that
comment.

Most likely it is from someone who doesn't understand, or is just plain
jealous (for whatever reason).

