Mattcrampy
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I have a new mobile. After looking at the thing, I've realised that it's almost perfectly suited for a game of DROD, albeit one with smaller rooms than normal (like the Palm DROD that was in production for a while). I think it'd work, not least because mobile phone graphics aren't especially strong, and the room-based play would suit the ad-hoc nature of mobile gaming.

The mobile phone keys would move Beethro around, # and * would rotate Beethro, 0 would undo and one of the function keys would rewind to a checkpoint. In the menu, you'd be able to see the map, restore, all that goodness.

Thoughts?



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skell
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Thoughts?

I'm with it .

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Citrus
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I like it. But who will make it?

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NiroZ
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hmmm, how would you deal with the small screen size? moveable camera perhaps? and how would you assign the keys? (9 movement keys, 2 swing keys and then the moveable camera+4 keys, and a excape to menu key) thats 12 (or 16) keys all up, so it would be pretty cramped.

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[Last edited by NiroZ at 05-30-2007 04:24 AM]

Banjooie
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I don't suppose anyone happens to know an average resolution for most mobiles? I can try to make a mock-up of what it might look like.

StuartK
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It seems to be a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but FWIW...

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=439967

Banjooie
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96 width seems pretty common. I think 8x8 is the smallest you can reasonably make a tile and still have it visible, so that'd give us 12 tiles by....looks like either 64 or 128.

12x8? I'm not really sure how much you could do in 12x8, to be honest. 12x16, maybe, if we build for a 96x128.

Stefan
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Banjooie wrote:
12x8? I'm not really sure how much you could do in 12x8, to be honest. 12x16, maybe, if we build for a 96x128.

You can actually do quite a lot with only 8x8 (provided you are a good architect). Check out this thread.

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Dali
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We can do a lot of things, but it's not enough to make many kind of puzzles.

16*16 would be better.

StuartK
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Perhaps aim for a higher resolution display, but include 6x6 graphics, in the knowledge that many will only be able to play using them. It should be possible to distinguish between monster types at that resolution, especially if colour can be used...

Just incase it wasn't clear why I suggested 6x6

96/6=16

128/8=16

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[Last edited by StuartK at 02-27-2006 11:31 PM]

trick
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File: 6x6-drod.png (1.6 KB)
Downloaded 1627 times.
License: Public Domain

So .. "What could a 96x96 DROD with 6x6 tiles look like ?"





- Gerry

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[Last edited by trick at 02-28-2006 04:16 AM : forgot the shadows]

Briareos
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trick wrote:
So .. "What could a 96x96 DROD with 6x6 tiles look like ?"

Whoa... even tinier than Chip's Challenge on an Atari lynx... *boggles*

But DROD on my Palm's 480x320 display - now that would be something...

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[Last edited by Briareos at 02-28-2006 04:46 PM : s/not/now/]

Chaco
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Egads, that's tiny... but I can't even find Beethro! Is he invisible?

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Banjooie
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Beethro's in the upper left corner--if you can't find him, try for his sword.

Alneyan
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Actually, you should just show the two squares Beethro and his sword occupies. That way, you will be able to kill monsters and strike orbs just as usual, but won't see anything else.

The point is, of course, to help build up your memory of DROD rooms. I hope you remember where that last roach was, or else.

Chaco
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Oops, I thought that was an orb. Another limitation, I guess.

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trick
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File: lowerdrod.gif (2.7 KB)
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License: Public Domain

Two more, because I felt like it ..



(Edit: Don't worry about rank points, btw -- I'm just doing this for fun.)

- Gerry

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[Last edited by trick at 03-01-2006 12:34 AM]

Banjooie
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I am...really impressed with how clear the 4x4 ones are.

NiroZ
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those tiles are surprisingly good, considering...

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[Last edited by NiroZ at 05-30-2007 04:25 AM]

michthro
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Considering how good even 4x4 tiles look, how about using it for the level map? See this thread.

Mattcrampy
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You might be able to use some clever effects around Beethro to make him stand out - all the squares around Beethro are lighter or something.

But great work, Trick! I think I like it better in colour, it's a lot clearer.

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roach strangler
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I like your idea but by the time im done playing it on the cellphone my eyes will hurt

Curzon
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I wrote a game for Mobiles some time ago. It was a puzzle called RushHour http://www.thinkfun.com/RUSHHOUR.ASPX?PageNo=RUSHHOUR).

I think DROD is well suited for mobile phones (apart from the screensize, wich already was discussed in length).
The key controls should work reasonably well on an ordinary cell phone.
I could imagine that the user can decide whether he wants to see the whole room (somewhat between 8x8 - 16x16) on small tiles or having larger tiles and scrolling.
DROD is turn based, which is nice. The memory requirements are quite low as well, as I only need to know the status of the current room.

I would start a project for porting DROD to J2ME (Java for mobile devices) if I can get some help from the community. This would range from creating images to actual programming and eventually hold design.

In fact I started yesterday...

trick
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File: silliness.gif (1.4 KB)
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Curzon wrote:
I would start a project for porting DROD to J2ME (Java for mobile devices) if I can get some help from the community. This would range from creating images to actual programming and eventually hold design.

I'm kinda busy with other things, but I love fiddling with pixels, so tell you what: If you can get done a playable demo of J2ME DROD (with placeholder graphics), I'll make you some tiles. (Not before TCB is out, though.)

Btw, are you planning to get this onto some phones ? If so, how ? Doing that wasn't exactly straightforward last time I checked ..

Banjooie wrote:
I am...really impressed with how clear the 4x4 ones are.

Thank you . ..hey, makes you wonder how low you can go, doesn't it ?



- Gerry

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[Last edited by trick at 03-06-2006 03:51 PM]

Curzon
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trick wrote:
Btw, are you planning to get this onto some phones ? If so, how ? Doing that wasn't exactly straightforward last time I checked ..

Well, that's a good point, but programming a game in J2ME without loading it up to some phones doesn't really make a lot sense.
I don't know about other phones, but I have a Nokia, where some software for the upload is supplied. I can use my laptop and the IR port. The game consists of two files (.jar and .jad) the upload manager places them correctly, so that the game appears as application.
I think, that it should be possible to upload it by using the internet, but I don't know a lot about that option.

To the images: I greatly appreciate your help and I love the demoscreens!


I already have a prototypic version with some basic functionality. If somebody is interested I can upload it.

- Alex

mrimer
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Curzon wrote:
I already have a prototypic version with some basic functionality. If somebody is interested I can upload it.

Yes, would you, please?

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Curzon
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File: MobileDROD.jar (56.9 KB)
Downloaded 85 times.
License: Public Domain

Here is the .jar file.

Curzon
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File: MobileDROD.jad (284 bytes)
Downloaded 80 times.
License: Public Domain

... and the .jad file.

To run it you need either a mobile phone or an emulator.
I use the WTK (at suns page: http://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/download-2_2.html ).

When you install that, double click on the .jad file should work.

-Alex

NOTE: If it doesn't work, download the .jad file again (I changed a bit).

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[Last edited by Curzon at 03-06-2006 07:40 PM : new attachment version]

Curzon
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File: MobileDROD.jar (101.2 KB)
Downloaded 98 times.
License: Public Domain

Update on the progress of MobileDROD

I have implemented all functions of the original DROD. However, the version is quite alpha still.

I did not have the time to build a decent hold. And I am still lacking a mechanism to load a hold from file.

I realized a serious problem when I tried to upload the game to my cell phone. My mobile is 2 years old and supports only Java application up to a total size of 64KB. The current version is 101KB.

I will try and reduce functionality and do other optimizations to reduce the file size. Suggestions are welcome.

Nonetheless, here is the .jar file of current version

Curzon
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File: MobileDROD.jad (272 bytes)
Downloaded 77 times.
License: Public Domain

... and the .jad file