Wahoolazuma!

Big version here.

I'd heavily recommend downloading the .swf and running it from your local machine, but through a web browser is fine, too.

First off, let me say this game was inspired by Larry Marder's Beanworld. If you've not checked it out, it's definitely a fun read! Equal parts quirk, wonderment, and charm, it makes a great gift for just about anybody!

In Beanworld, the behaviors and lifestyle of the native beans are explored. Though it seems to be a pretty contained system that makes some sense, the nature of the beans is a simple one, often left to the imagination. In other words, a wonderful source of inspiration for fun little mini-games!

In case you're wondering the story behind the above game...well...go read Beanworld yourself!

By the way, this is a simple, rough version. If I were to create a game for anything other than my own personal learning experience, there are a few things I'd change. Any suggestions? I just might touch something up if you demand it!

EDIT: So it seems you can't score any points UNTIL you get a multiplier. I'll fix that up...soonish.

And I'm back...flowers in hand. Er...screen.

Big 'un here.

Yikes...it has been nearly a week since my last update! I can't let this happen again...

Anyway, the above is the result of a quick little experiment. The instructions, should you want to know what you're doing before you're doing it, are as follows:
The white flower is considered the "active" flower.
Click any segment of the active flower to spawn a new flower in that segment's direction.
You can also use your arrow keys to spawn a new flower.
Click the purple diamond to send out a tracer that traces the history of the buds.
Click the purple circle to clear the field of flowers.
The green slider lets you move the field around, so you can construct flowers even outside of the window!

That's it for now! I've been touching up the slingshot, and I've also been putting together a couple of mini-games for work. If I can, I'll post those games so you can see what it is that I do.

Speaking of work, we've just rolled out our new website!

Take a look!

Gotcha!

Large version.

I lied! Here's an update to the slingshot. I've got a decent idea of where I want this headed now, so I plan to get it polished up in the next few days!

The biggest addition here is the addition of the capturing bubble that seeks out berries that have fallen. Once it "sees" one, it rushes to it and grabs it. With berry in tow, it returns it to the center of the screen, drops it off, and a new berry spawns. This will be a huge element in the final product.

Slingshot pt. 2

Well, today has been quite the day. Little annoyances have plagued me throughout the day. I'm sure we've all been assaulted by the terrible images coming in from Haiti. All of my little issues seem so small compared to what they are going through down there. I encourage you to send good thoughts (or better yet, a little spare cash) down south. Our local Fox affiliate has a nice collection of links you can find here.

Right-o, then.



Large version.

As you can see, I've made some progress in this slingshot app. I have an idea of what I plan to do with this, but it might not be fully realized for a short while yet.

Slingshot (WIP)

Large version.

I'm not completely done with this one yet, but I did want to upload my progress so far. To fire off a shot, click and hold one of the two yellow dots. Drag back, and release it to fire! You can pack a lot of energy into a shot, so if you pull back too far, you'll likely send it flying insanely fast off the screen.

I'll be touching this up and doing a little more with it in the next few days.

Wind Redux!

Large version.

I decided to go back to the .swf from a couple of posts ago and add a few features. I think that this really shows how this could be formed into a useful application.

Controls are the same, but now rolling over any of the particles with your mouse allows you to see a few scraps of data from it, including:

• the ID (based on when it is added to the stage)
• the type (in this case, based on the color)
• the weight (which determines size and speed)
• the speed on each axis at which the particle is moving

Letter Scramble (WIP)

Large version.

Okay, this project is not quite 100% finished, but I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with it.

Not much to say about it. Type something in the white field and then click the grey INPUT button. Once the button is clicked, whatever is in the text field is split up using Flash's .split() ability. Each letter is sent into an array in order. From there, a movie clip is added for each letter. This movie clip has a target letter which is what we want the movie clip to ultimately display.

The randomization is achieved by having an array of possible letters (a-z, and A-Z). Every 2 frames, the text field is filled with a random letter from the array until this swap has happened a set number of times (25*letter position+10). When the set number has been reached, BAM! The field is then filled in with that target letter from earlier.

I plan to flesh this out and maybe even use it in a useful way in the future, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

EDIT: Linda asked about having all of the letters stop at the same time. Here's a .fla file that contains the code that does that.