Cubed

[Zerro]

Cubed - Download inside

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For a solid two years now I have devoted the majority of my programming experience to a simple little game called Cubed. Now I am not saying that I have spent every waking hour on this game, just the majority of my time programming. Also take note that I have been working on this project on my own. There are three different versions of Cubed. The first was just a simple project I started in school two years ago.

It was a simple puzzle game, but the core idea of the game was the face it took place on a cube.

After a while a grew pretty attached to the idea of Cubed and there were a couple of new ideas I wanted to implement. For one, I wanted the sides on the cube to rotate naturally, and another I wanted to implement was a simple map editor. This required a radical rework in the coding, and resulted in Cubed version 2.

A couple months passed before I brought Cubed back to the drawing board. This time I knew I had to make some major changes, as well as get a big chunk of it done before I showed anyone. One of the first major changes I took it through was the fact that I changed the programming language I was working with to Java making it much more versatile among users. The next major change was, taking it from windowed mode to full screen. Then there was the switching from top down game play to a side scrolling parallaxing gravity shifting hell of a cube.

It is current not an official game because there is no set objective. It is pretty much just a tech demo of walking around on a cube complete with a map editor. That is where I need YOU.

I need you to help me decide where to take the next level of this game to. I have all the fundamentals in place, I just need a solid objective. Whether that be some sort of puzzle, or an action adventure rpg. Maybe even a multi-player shooter.

Oh, I almost forgot, if you would like to be a play tester or want to help in any area you can just let me know.

Now for the game link.
Controls:
ESC - exit
P - pause
Left right arrows - Move left or right.
Space - Jump
Down Arrow - Open/close Map editor

Only when map editor is open
Left Click - Place selected tile/Select tile
Right click - Delete Tile

Move off the sides of the cube to rotate to the next side. The map editor is not fully complete, and that is what mainly needs feedback. How can I improve it. What does it need?

You need java installed to play. It is highly likely that this is already installed in your computer, most come with it these days.
Mirror 1
Mirror 2

 

[Zerro]

Update:
I have been working hard on improving the map editor. Ideally, when the game is finished anyone will be able to make their own custom levels and share them with the rest of the world.

I sidebar now pops up on the right hand side of the screen and populates with all of the tiles. You can then click the tile you wish to place, and start using it. This beats the hell out of the old method of scrolling through them with the up arrow key and trying to remember what tile was what. Also, the engine will take how ever many tiles you have as long as you name them properly. My aim here is for as much customization as the player wants.

Please take note that the graphics and maps are not final, merely a demo to show you what can be done.

Speaking of which, I am in need of concept mappers. That is, people who can test drive the map editor and show people just how well it can perform. As well as let me know what it needs.

 

[Rabbit]

Looks pretty interesting. What sort of puzzle game is it?

Most of the graphics in your first post are broken.

 

[Zerro]

I noticed the screen shots are broken. I have no clue why, I'll post a link to the web album later.

Right now its not a puzzle game. It could become a puzzle game. I just need to finish the map editor first. If you would like to beta test the map editor and tell me what it needs, or show me what you can do with it, then email me at [email protected]

 

[Maruno]

It strikes me that this could either be a puzzle game (navigate your character around the cube, picking up keys and unlocking doors to progress from entrance to exit - like a 3D Chip's Challenge), or if you wanted to be a bit more ambitious, how about an RPG?

Do the cubes have to be a certain size, or can they be any size? Cuboids may also be interesting. If possible, how about two cubes connected to each other by a single edge at right angles? If you can manage that, you could very easily have come complex dungeons to use (such as a square doughnut thing).

It's hard to imagine how it could be turned into an RPG, but I think it'd be extremely interesting if you could pull it off. A town cube would consist of lots of holes in the ground that acted as doorways into each building, and the interior of each building would also be a (small) cube (perhaps even an inverted cube, such that you're walking around inside it). The main trick to this would be figuring out how to make the links between maps look good.

 

[Luka S.J.]

Hmm...I can't critisize this right now because I don't know what the game is about. Can you tell us any information about the game (not only the name). By writing what the game is about and what the features will be (or are) more people might acctually pay attention to your game. But it's still good to know that you are working hard and haven't given up.

 

[Zerro]

Thank you so much for the feed back Maruno, and DragoChamp.


LINK TO CUBED SCREEN SHOTS ALBUM

I will start with Drago.
There is no real game in this yet. Right now its just a cubed engine and it is really hard to describe the features. I briefly attempted to explain the features in my first post but I will try to go over them again in more detail. But the easiest thing to do would be just to download the game and give it a test drive for yourself.

Maruno, first starting Cubed version 3 out my main goal was to turn it into an RPG. And everything you just described is possible. You are able to have multi-sized cubes(This pretty much being different areas.) And you can layer the cubes as well. Being that you start on the top and work your way into the inner layer. The main concern about the rpg is the dynamically changing maps. That being the sides actually rotate when you move off of a map to the next side. You can kinda get a glimpse at what I am talking about in some of the screen shots, but to get the full idea, download the game and try it out.

Now for the game link.
Controls:
ESC - exit
P - pause
Left right arrows - Move left or right.
Space - Jump
Down Arrow - Open/close Map editor

Only when map editor is open
Left Click - Place selected tile/Select tile
Right click - Delete Tile

Move off the sides of the cube to rotate to the next side. The map editor is not fully complete, and that is what mainly needs feedback. How can I improve it. What does it need?

You need java installed to play. It is highly likely that this is already installed in your computer, most come with it these days.
Mirror 1
Mirror 2

Currently working on:
The majority of tile system is being reworked. The current system loads tiles from the tile directory and changes the layer they will be placed on based on the prefix of the file name. This will be changed to allow tiles to be placed dynamically, allowing them to be placed on any layer.

 

[Maruno]

Ah, I see how it works. That's completely not what I imagined at all. I imagined a 3D cube floating in space, and you were able to walk all over the surface (the centre of gravity being in the middle of the cube).

I presume you're going to change this, but the little guy can only jump up 1 block. And that's all but useless except in specially-designed maps (which would be restrictive at best).

The game looks good, although as I said I was hoping for something else. It would be nice to connect each side's screen together to make one continuous map, but that would cause problems at the corners (unless you just display only directly-connected maps, with any empty space being black).

 

[Zerro]

3D would be very nice, but I am just one person lol. Maybe Cubed version 4. I am fully aware of the gravity being way to strong lol. Could you tell me anything you notice about the map editor?

 

[Maruno]

Heh.

Well, I can't see much else about the map editor. It's pretty simple, and being able to play inside the game is a bonus (since you can immediately tell whether you can reach a secret area).

Speaking of secret areas, how about having panels that look like solid blocks, but you can go behind them and as soon as you do, they fade away to show you what's behind them?

Also, tile layers. At the moment one square can only have one tile on it, and there are some tiles that seem to be moss or other decoration (i.e. they should go onto background tiles).

Do you also think you could change the controls a little? In that, right click changes the tile selection (in the bar) to the tile you're currently hovering over, and have a blank "erase" tile as part of the tileset. Might be a bit easier to cope with if you expand on your tileset, as you wouldn't need to waste time searching for the tile you wanted. Just a thought - it'd depend on what people find easiest.

Could you also put a limit on the falling speed? If you fall forever it just keeps speeding up (as far as I can tell).

 

[Zerro]

lol yeah, gravity is a *****. Right now there are foreground and background tiles, they are just on the same layer as everything else. I have also been working on changing the layers for each tile set. Meaning with the click on a button all the tiles change to foreground solid or background. Also I will get right on editing the controls. Thank you very much for the feedback. The next release will also allow you to control gravity thanks to your gravity comment. That way you can edit how high the player can jump and ect. Expect to see it sometime tomorrow. If you have any other suggestions till then I am all ears.