Welcome welcome, step right up. Entertainment for one and all. This is for you, all of you, a chance to either impress, try out some flash experiments for your own education, or finally make some use of that discarded tech demo you've had lying on your hard disk since Flash4. I refer to, of course, Minigame Marathon, the Flashkit interpretation of Nintendo's Wario Ware series, designed around the limitations and advantages of the internet and the Flashkit global community.
References:
These are some of the old threads on the subject. They may explain the history of the project - courtesy of, among others, Willoughby Jackson, io3, and iopred. Here, here, and here.
Basic Description:
Wario Ware is a game by Nintendo that involves the player to cope with the insanity of playing a series of short minigames of increasing difficulty in quick succession. For the Flashkit version it was decided to have a series of 5 second minigames each having 3 difficulty levels and a filesize not exceeding 32kb, which the main game loader would spurt out at random. Each game can be designed voluntarily by anyone who wishes to contribute.
Design Guidelines:
iopred has created a game example, of which the latest version can be downloaded from this thread. He also created the original template which is downloadable here.
Important Points:
-Make sure your filesize does not exceed 32kb
This being the internet, bandwidth is the most major restriction. Do not go over the limit! This can impact your design in several ways - choosing to go for vectors or bitmaps. Choosing to sacrifice sound for more visual impact..etc. The choice is all yours.
- Don't make calls to "_root" in your game.
The reason for this is that the games are being loaded dynamically as needed. Any calls to root would affect the loader, and not the minigame.
- Use a background of 450x350 to your game
Don't rely on using a stage colour for your background since the minigame will not be the _level0 movie. Also bear in mind that the timer obstructs the lower 40 pixels so keep that in mind in your design.
- Make sure you stick to the standard controls
In order to make the gameplay more intuitive, there are restrictions to the controls you can use. You can choose between either keyboard or mouse controls but not both. Mouse controls can involve moving the mouse, and left clicking/dragging, whereas keyboard controls are limited to the arrow keys and the space bar.
Required Code: (taken from the template)
PHP Code:
gameInfo = {creator:"your bame",name:"name of your game", info:"very basic instructions",keyboard:false };
This sends information to the short splash screen before your game is displayed. Make sure your instructions (info tag) are as short as possible - usually one or two words will suffice. The Keyboard variable if false, will mean your game is defined as having mouse control.
PHP Code:
function startGame(difficulty){}
This is the function that will start your game. Nothing should happen (at all!) until this function is called. The 3 difficulty levels would be 0,1,2. So startGame(0) would start your game on the easiest difficulty.
PHP Code:
victory=true/false
There has to be a boolean variable called 'victory' which defines whether the player has successfully 'completed' your game or not. It's best to define this at the beginning, and then change it as needed. For example, in a survival type of game, victory would be 'true' until something happens to change it to false. Conversely, and more commonly, if the player has to achieve something in the game, then victory would be false by default.
Again, the movie should have nothing on it before the 'startGame()' the function should attach everything, or move to a new frame. In this case I attached everything, but moving to another frame is also acceptable, as long as the first frame is blank.
It is also imperative that you leave the 'endGame()' function in, otherwise the loader cannot check if you have won or not. Finally if you dont want your game to end prematurely, still implement the checkFinished() function, but make it return false.
code:
function checkFinished(){
return false;
}
Keeping everything to standards is whats going to make this work.
So again, the main points:
startGame(difficulty) difficulty determines how hard your game is.. this will only be called with 0, 1 & 2. 0 being easiest, 2 being hardest.
endGame() this function is called from the loader, and should NEVER be called by your game, it returns a true or false, if it returns true, you get a point, otherwise you lose a life
checkFinished() this function allows you to force endGame to be called, if this function ever returns true, the loader will force your endGame() function to be called
Nothing on first frame Even though the filesize is small, the loader wont call startGame() until it is fully loaded, so keep the first frame blank so that we dont see everything loading
PHP Code:
if(this == _level0){
startGame(1);
}
On a par with the simple genius of a Gallagher penned single, this bit of code allows your game to run stand alone without the loader. Add this code to your game so you can play it and show it off here before I nab it and stick it in with the others.
If there are any questions, then post them here and we'll answer them or have a discussion. However, bear in mind that as a project, the basic guidelines have been set for a while, and because of the games that have been amassed so far, these are not likely to change.
FAQ:(Without Emily Newton Dunn) Q. When is the deadline for my game?
There is none! This is a community project that is designed to be a gradually increasing collection of miniature works by the Flashkit games community. Whenever, it's your call
Feel free to post completed games in this thread, and we'll stick them with the rest. The current stack of games is running at: http://www.thebornimage.com/1c1p/flashkit
I've just tested the latest offerings from iopred and Kendude, and they'll be uploaded tomorrow morning UK time, as soon as I can get to my registered copy of flashfxp. So here's to hoping from a strong showing from all of us - let's show Nintendo what a global community can do
Update: ThehumanChimp has created an online game validator which lets you check the important variables of your minigame online. This can be found here: http://www.chimpbot.atbcp.net/gameupload/
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
Again, the movie should have nothing on it before the 'startGame()' the function should attach everything, or move to a new frame. In this case I attached everything, but moving to another frame is also acceptable, as long as the first frame is blank.
It is also imperative that you leave the 'endGame()' function in, otherwise the loader cannot check if you have won or not. Finally if you dont want your game to end prematurely, still implement the checkFinished() function, but make it return false.
code:
function checkFinished(){
return false;
}
Keeping everything to standards is whats going to make this work.
So again, the main points:
startGame(difficulty) difficulty determines how hard your game is.. this will only be called with 0, 1 & 2. 0 being easiest, 2 being hardest.
endGame() this function is called from the loader, and should NEVER be called by your game, it returns a true or false, if it returns true, you get a point, otherwise you lose a life
checkFinished() this function allows you to force endGame to be called, if this function ever returns true, the loader will force your endGame() function to be called
Nothing on first frame Even though the filesize is small, the loader wont call startGame() until it is fully loaded, so keep the first frame blank so that we dont see everything loading
endGame()
this function is called from the loader, and should NEVER be called by your game, it returns a true or false, if it returns true, you get a point, otherwise you lose a life
checkFinished()
this function allows you to force endGame to be called, if this function ever returns true, the loader will force your endGame() function to be called
Nothing on first frame
Even though the filesize is small, the loader wont call startGame() until it is fully loaded, so keep the first frame blank so that we dont see everything loading
wasn't specified in this thread so i didn't know it. I made the required modifications and it's attached now. Thanx for modifying my game but i kinda prefer doing it myself, so i did so and just copied the functions you needed. Here's the attached file:
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
I just have some suggestions:
It would be neat if the loader could display a list of all games and you could choose one to practise. It would also make it easier to see which games have been added lately (it would be great to be able to sort this list based on the date the game was added/modified).
Maybe newly added games should have a higher probability of being chosen? That way a newly added game would not risk being "lost" to the same degree, which would help to encourage both developers to add new games and players to return.
Hey, here come's a new one. There's a variable in the game called "vel" it determines the kart speed. I would like you to change it (if the game is too easy or too difficult according to the time) in order to make the kart advance appropriate to the time the game takes. Maybe it's okay like that.
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
Sorry, i forgot to post the file in the last post. Here it is:
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
PhobiK, i found a problem with your key racing game, you can hit an arrow, for example Left, then whenever it says you have to press Left it goes forward. Basically just hit an arrow on your keyboard and the game plays itself. And a suggestion: make some kind of penalty for hitting an incorrect arrow so you can't just hit all four arrows at once over and over and win the game.
Also, i've made my own game , let me know if I did anything wrong.
~MD
Edit: removed attachment - new version of game in new post.
Thanx MD004. I corrected the problem now, and also made that penalty thing. Here it is:
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
Just a mistake MD, if you destroy the last helicopter with the last bullet it fails the mission.
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
I fixed the problem, thanks PhobiK. Also in your kickups game i managed to get the ball stuck in the wall once (going left-right-left-right..etc because of the *-1) but i've never been able to get it stuck again so maybe it's not a big deal.
Here's the new version of mine:
Edit: removed attachment - new version of game in new post.
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This is MC. His _parents sent him to stop() by the super market to buy some _root beer if he wanted to gotoAndPlay() with his friends at the park later.
