Monday, April 19, 2010

Bat Attack!

That's the name of my very first WarioWare D.I.Y. microgame, by the way.

I guess you could call it a riff on--or rip off of--one of Nintendo's first "weekly games," ABBE's Fright Light, as players are tasked with ridding a spotlit scene of shrieking bats.

Yes, my company is called "RainBlow Software." 

I'm pretty proud of it, to tell you the truth--mainly because I made all of the game's graphics myself. The background music was stolen--er, "imported"--from one of WarioWare D.I.Y.'s pre-fab microgames (Cake Defense), but I'm thinking of making my own tune for the already-in-the-works sequel--which will sport an awesomely creative name like Super Bat Attack!

Anyway, send along your friend code if you want to give it a go. (I shared mine here.)

14 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

And there it is: gay4play! You used it!

The game is brilliant. I was comparing it to the game it was modeled after earlier today. It's different enough to be fun, and CHALLENGING as heck.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, yeah, this version of the game definitely was inspired by Fright Light. My original idea -- which, hopefully, will be realized in the sequel, was different and deeper (in a way), but I cut corners a bit on this version just so I could get something out there.

RE: your comment about it being challenging -- I'm kind of thinking it's TOO challenging. I'm not sure how to make it less so, though. I could take out one of the bats, but that may make it too easy. Any suggestions?

Anyway, thanks for the thumbs up, Justin! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it. I'm really enjoying your games, too -- especially the wonderfully gay "Mario, Too?" :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, and, yes, I have finally used "gay4play"! It's also my PSN username, but I really have used that much...

Viewtiful_Justin said...

As far as making it easier, maybe you could slow down the roam speed on one of the bats...or two? I guess you would have to play with it to strike a good balance. (That's what she said?)

But making one of them slower might make it easier to catch. That would level the playing field a bit.

Bryan Ochalla said...

You know what? I don't think I knew you could slow down the roam speed. I'm going to have to check that out, because if you *can* slow it down I think that might be the answer. Thanks! :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

A ha! Apparently I *did* know you can change the roam speed, as all three of the bats were set to "slow" when I checked a few minutes ago. I changed two of them to "slowest" and put the updated version of the game in my warehouse. Let me know if you think it's still too hard -- I can set all three of them to "slowest."

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Sweet! I'll check it out right now!

It's easier, although I'm not sure the hit detection is better. I've run into that problem several times. My Suzy the Drug Lord game has the same problem...sometimes it doesn't register the taps. But I won this one many more times than I had the first version!

Bryan Ochalla said...

I don't think the hit detection is any better either, but the game doesn't seem to allow the user to tinker with that part of the process. I guess you could make the sprites bigger, but that doesn't seem like the best solution.

Viewtiful_Justin said...

True story. It apparently doesn't detect anything that's not drawn. If you make an empty box, nothing will touch it. I tried making some invisible triggers and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't work. It turns out that you can't make contact with an empty sprite...who knew?

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, thanks for sharing that little tidbit! So, the only way for me to improve the hit detection in my game is to make the sprites larger, which kind of stinks (but makes sense, too).

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Yeah...but I think the balance is pretty good right now, honestly.

I'm currently working on a Mario 2 game. The background is GORGEOUS! I look at it and can't believe I made it...now...if only I could figure out what, exactly, Mario is pulling from the ground...

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, I can't wait to see that!

Viewtiful_Justin said...

It's done! It's in my warehouse! And I switched out Mr. Driller for the first game I made...called Shooter90210

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, I'll go grab both of them this afternoon, after I'm done working. Thanks for letting me know!

I haven't put any time into my own games for a few days. Maybe this weekend...