Ok, so I'm on spring break. You may be wondering where I am. Acupulco? Daytona Beach? Some tiny secluded tropical island? NO, NO and No dammit! Actually the only place I went was Erie Pennsylvania. Cold, dreary, so totally not tropical, Erie Pennsylvania. None the less I had a good time and was hard pressed for what to do this week for the brain teaser. Finally I came up with a good idea.
More games.
It seemed like people liked the games most as the posts and views have been going down down down. So we'll see if games won't perk them up again.
Games that peoples should try:
Tic Tac Toe
Making a game where two people play against each other is a good challenge for the newbie. You have to keep track of who's turn it is in order to place the right picture in the right space. You need to know where was clicked and when there are three in a row if ever. Bonus, identify games where it should be a tie (this is often).
A harder version is programming the computer to play tic tac toe. It should be possible that the computer can play to a tie almost (if not always) every time. There are a bunch of ways to do this. When I did it I created a weight system for each of the nine spaces and with each move the weights of the varying spaces changed depending on their importance to the current situation, it was largely defensive. Another way is to just make a bunch of if statements but personally I think thats lame as all get out.
Next!!!
The lines and dots to make boxes game, dealy thing...
I don't really know the name of this game its where you have a grid of dots and connect them trying to make boxes. Any box that is closed by a player is claimed by that player and counts as a point for that player...
OK that was a bad explanation but I found an excellent example online.
http://www.well.com/user/argv/java/dots.html
There are a lot of options for this game, all of which can make an implementation easier or harder. It doesn't even have to be a square or rectangle board, I've seen triangles and pentagons and octagons oh my! It can be a challenge even for experienced programmers.
Next!!!
Scorched Earth
When I did this game it was as a team effort between me and a friend at school. He did the physics engine and the animation for the tank and I did the terrain generator and some other littl extra bits. The basic premis is that there are two (or more) tanks on a hilly terrain. They cannot move and can only control the angle they fire at and the force behind the shot. You have to aim at the other tank appropriately. The explosion expands to a fair size circle and eats away the ground that it hits. It's very similar to Worms if you've played that.
Examples:
Scorched Earth:
http://www.scorch2000.com/
http://www.classicgaming.com/scorch/
Ok, so we're all gamed out and I'm now addicted to scorch2000, hope you all enjoy trying these as much as I'm enjoying spring break, see you next week.
Oh by the way, feel free to post on these forums. I'm thinking that maybe people aren't sure whether they're supposed to or not, I'm here to say yes, if you want to ask something or say something please do so.
Linear Mode
