Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Using, learning, programming and modding the Gigatron and anything related.
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blaknite
Posts: 22
Joined: 18 Jun 2020, 01:10
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Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by blaknite »

Hey All!

Since ordering my Gigatron I promised a friend I'd port a Super Puzzle Fighter like game to it - now I've done just that!

puzzles.png
puzzles.png (9.8 KiB) Viewed 5257 times

The aim of the game is to smash as many clusters of matching coloured gems as you can in five minutes. Bonus points are awarded for chaining smashes.

Clusters are smashed when a smasher of the same colour is added to a cluster. Smashers are the gems with a dot in the centre. A cluster needs to be two gems or more and include a smasher to disappear. A single smasher will not disappear on its own. A cluster of standard gems won’t disappear until a smasher is added to the cluster. A cluster can be formed in all directions and be any shape or size. A chain is when you smash a cluster, the gems fall into place, and then another cluster is smashed as a result.

Smashers look like this:

smashers.png
smashers.png (1.76 KiB) Viewed 5257 times

Detecting the clusters of gems was a pretty awesome challenge. I'm not sure I want to ever code a graph search in asm again (lies, of course I do). I'm super happy that I got that to work because there was no way to pull off this game without it.

Hopefully you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think. Also let me know if you find any bugs. If it seems stable enough I'll submit a PR to the github repo to get it into contrib. In the meantime, the code is in my repo.

Controls

A: Rotate
B: Switch colours in place
Left: Move left
Right: Move right
Down: Fast drop current gems
Up: Hard drop current gems
Start: Restart game

Download

puzzles.gt1
(4.39 KiB) Downloaded 230 times

Runs on ROM Version 3 and above.
Last edited by blaknite on 22 Jul 2020, 23:20, edited 7 times in total.
walter
Site Admin
Posts: 160
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:00

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by walter »

Another nice game, thanks!
blaknite
Posts: 22
Joined: 18 Jun 2020, 01:10
Contact:

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by blaknite »

Thanks Walter :)

It's a fun little computer to code for. The combination of constraints and potential have me hooked :D
walter
Site Admin
Posts: 160
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:00

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by walter »

It is not yet completely clear to me when gems disappear and when not.

If, say a double blue block is dropped and disappears as a result, and another double blue block is then dropped onto the empty "floor", it also disappears, which I think might be a bug?
blaknite
Posts: 22
Joined: 18 Jun 2020, 01:10
Contact:

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by blaknite »

No trouble, it’s meant to work like so:

The smasher gems trigger a cluster of matching gems to disappear. The smashers are the ones with the dot in the centre. A cluster needs to be two gems or more and include a smasher to disappear. A single smasher will not disappear on its own. A cluster of standard gems won’t disappear until a smasher is added to the cluster. A cluster can be formed in all directions and be any shape or size.

Hopefully that helps? I’ll write up some instructions with pictures to add to the OP. Let me know if you’ve found a bug where the above isn’t correct.
delpozzo
Posts: 38
Joined: 03 Jun 2020, 18:47

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by delpozzo »

Awesome job blaknite! I'm really enjoying the gameplay, the smasher gems provide a unique twist.
at67
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Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by at67 »

Excellent work Blaknite works great in emulation and hardware on my end and is hella fun to play!
blaknite
Posts: 22
Joined: 18 Jun 2020, 01:10
Contact:

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by blaknite »

Thanks delpozzo and at67! I’m glad you enjoy it!

How do you find the difficulty? I don’t want it to be too hard that people get put off but I also don’t want games to be infinite.

I’ve been thinking about ways to constrain game time and encourage players to chain their smashes. Maybe by limiting the number of gems? See how high you can score with 1000 gems?

Another option is that every 500 points doubles the game speed. This option doesn’t fell like it plays into chaining and just makes the game more difficult imo.

That said, if you’re topping out before reaching 9999 points there’s no need to add an arbitrary constraint.

Thoughts?
blaknite
Posts: 22
Joined: 18 Jun 2020, 01:10
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Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by blaknite »

I've implemented a 5 minute game timer in this build. You've gotta score as high as you can in five minutes.

Let me know what you think of this compared to the unlimited gameplay.

EDIT: Attachment moved to OP
delpozzo
Posts: 38
Joined: 03 Jun 2020, 18:47

Re: Puzzles - A gem matching+smashing game

Post by delpozzo »

After playing your original version a handful of times, I can say that it definitely strikes a good balance between relaxing and challenging. It's great when it seems the end is near, then you finally get that life-saving smasher that levels everything!

At first I was scoring between 100 and 350 before losing. As I got better, I would easily surpass 1000 points with no end in sight. With that being the case, I think it's a good idea you added the 5 minute timer. I'll give the updated version a test drive as soon as I get a chance and let you know how it goes!
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