Contest: NDS GAME - Grid Challenge! - By Miqualke

[Miqualke]

Here is Grid Challenge, a improved version of GridLock I already released.





So first, what’s the aim of the game ?

You need to move blocks with stilus to make free the path for the master piece (smiley piece) to the exit.
But horizontal blocks can only move horizontally, and vertical blocks can only move vertically. The square piece can move both way.
See the screen :

There the path is free, just make the smiley piece out of there ! you win !

ok, but how many levels ?

There is actually 750 levels.

Huge ! but it already demotivated me, that’s to much

Don’t walk away, there is the challenge mod !
You need to play 6 levels that are choosed randomly with 6 levels of difficulty.



Hum what are those levels of difficulty?

Ok so,
Easy1 : nothing special. No stress
Easy2 : There is a step limit ! if you don’t make it in those step, you loose.
Mid1 : Time limit.
Mid2 : Time limit AND step limit.
Hard1 : Only step limit, but shorter !
Hard2 : Same step limit, but a shorter time limit is added !

Ok, but once done ? 

You can play in Free Play mode for high score,  either by trying to do the most number of levels continusly by difficulty. Or you can choose to beat your lower number of step :


and where can i see my scores ? 

That can be found in highscore menu.




but are they saved ? 

Yes, they are saved on your sram flash card. And the first time you will play you will see this screen to create one save :

Sorry for wmb user ! save wont work.


Wait are you fooling me ? I see i could win skins in challenge mod 

Hehe yes, you can unlock grdilock skin by winning in challenge mod.
Here is the 4 available righ now :





And of course skins you unlock ares saved too.


How can i set one ? 

Go in the options : and select it.
You can also see how many skin you unlock.


known bugs ? 
Some probleme with sounds sometimes. Really minor and non bothering i guess.
Some save can be corrupted.


Did you work alone ?

All the code yes, but i was very helped by LorenzoLamas, lestat and Sylfurd for gfx. They deserve congratulation for their good works. Also Mollusk for PA_lib and dsdev.fr community 
I didn’t invented the concept, Nob Yoshigahara did severals years ago as a book puzzle game.



Anything else ? 
No i guess it’s enougth.
If you think about  nice feature or bug feel free to post it there.
Enjoy !
PS : if some people have ideas for skins pm me to get a template 

[Miqualke]

Here is now the nds and ds.gba

[Diffuse]

Hey that looks pretty nice! I remember seeing toy of that game a long time ago it had cars... and there was a book with a bunch of puzzles. Good job

[gally]

wow i love it !

[Miqualke]

Hey that looks pretty nice! I remember seeing toy of that game a long time ago it had cars... and there was a book with a bunch of puzzles. Good job

yes, and it was a grid 6x6 (got 7x7) with only 40 levels and the square block didn't exist.
I firstly discover the game on the web in flash, then I finished the 40 levels on my smarthphone with the UIQ version. Apparently there is also a palm version but i never seen it.

[rize]

I saw a flash game of this once.  I like a brain teaser like this.  At first I didn't like it because it limits the number of moves (it's hard enough without worrying about that), but then I saw free mode.

Anyway, it does what it's supposed to do and controls well enough to be playable.  It's a nice little diversion although I'd appreciate more originality.

The skins are hard to play because they aren't shaped like blocks.  Makes it hard to see things clearly.  Maybe the skins should be emblems on blocks (like the ganondorf block in the zelda skin).  in other words, the sword block and especially that boomerang block is hard to see well.  If they were pictures on blocks instead of just the item from the game, it would play better.

[Miqualke]

yes we thougth about that. but making item alone added better look to skins and it was more original.

We were in kind of hurry for releasing the game and zelda skin was finished 5 minutes before i posted if we had more time we would have make it more clear. I will be improved in next versions

I'm planning to release a template for people who would like create skins. Some already asked
Then by following some rules i could integrate them in next versions after people email those to me.

[Miqualke]

Here is the skin template for those who would like to create skin.
Some people asked.

No stand alone integration.
you need send them to me.

could be interested to see Final fantasy7 or Bleach skin.
Instruction are on the rar archive.
I won't promess skin will directly integrated, it need to be playable !
But i will try to work on all submitted skin (if there is some :p ) but there are a quite long integration work (transparency, "cutting").

[EnterTheHatrix]

well you've received mine..

[Miqualke]

yes your skin is very nice, it has good chance to remplace normal skin in next version.

here is the skin made by hatrix :












and the menu in bonus

[rize]

ah, now that is a great skin.  very gameplay oriented.  I agree that it should replace the normal skin!

[Miqualke]

Here is  the hatrix skinned version:




i'm waiting for your feedbacks.
but it's just a first version, Hatrix may work on all other menu screen :p

[rize]

The new skin looks very nice.  The main block (the one you're trying to get out of the board) should be more distinctive than just orange with backward arrows though.

Also... I really don't like being limited by turn or time after the first round.  Especially since the levels are randomly chosen from hundreds.  The gameplay is really unbalanced that way.  The levels should be put in an order of difficulty and timed and limited move modes should be separate from the main one.

ah, here's the flash game you based this on:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/gridlock.shtml

see, what this game has that your game lacks is proper balance.  in your game, the progression of difficulty is very, very bad.  you should try to determine a good ordering for the levels and make the difficulty progression increase more smoothly.  frankly, I'm surprised you got second, but the neoflash reviewers seemed to really like the game as you made it.  congrats I suppose.

[Miqualke]

I've got exaclty the same diffculty progression and levels in my first version of the game, you can find it on the gbax compo.

I realy wanted something different this time, so I add more levels, change a bit the playground, add new blocks.
750 levels was too much to be done in a level progession with difficulties increasing. So i decided to change that, and i wanted to change the gameplay. that's why i add step limit and time limit based on the minimum number of moves that is possible to finish the level.
Then for the interest, skins to unlock was a good way to make people really intrested to finish the game.

That's why the game is not a gridlock but a grid challenge, something a bit different.

If the level is too hard, you will lose. then you will restart another random levels at the same difficulty, mybe it will be easier to solve or not. but i wanted the game not too much difficult to everyone.
the 6 levels can be done by everyone who wants to spend some times on it. Maybe he will succeed cause of the luck to have easy levels, but luck is a big variable in a video game.

for the second place, i'm a bit surprise too, but i think the addiction for this little concept was a good advantage, and i don't think my port was a lame port with all the things i added to improve gameplay and interest with skins, so i accept it and i'm happy with it.
Sure you're realisation of flux desserved more, but i'm agree with judges that the little something that add a lot of fun and make it really addictive wasn't really present. Maybe it suffered of the comparaison of a lumines on psp that is really addictive.

btw a minor update could be found on my website http://miqDS.free.fr soon with the full remake of menu by hatrix.

[rize]

About flux.. I guess I expected programmers and game designers to be more hardcore and see past graphics... especially in a game where graphics don't really affect the gameplay (now, trying to play an atmospheric adventure like Metroid Prime or Zelda with stick figures would not be quite the same experience of course).