Hi everyone,

I've made a new game. It's called Light's Out!, and is based on an 
electronic handheld game by the same name.

The objective is to clear all the lights on each board. It has twenty 
levels and penalties if you make too many mistakes. POV was used to 
create the buttons, pointer and cursor. A special homage to POV appears 
on level 9 :)

Here's a screenshot:
http://www.caltel.com/~abenge/lights_out.jpg

And the zip file (314kb):
http://www.caltel.com/~abenge/lights_out.zip

You'll need DirectX 8.0 or higher and Windows for it to work. The 
instructions are included in the zip.

Tell me what you think of it! I'd also like to know if it runs smoothly 
on your system. I capped the frames at 100/second. On my 1.6ghz machine 
it runs perfectly, with frames to spare.

Plus, if you have any bugs to report, please tell. I think I've buttoned 
everything up, but you never know!

Sam

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> Tell me what you think of it! I'd also like to know if it runs smoothly on 
> your system. I capped the frames at 100/second. On my 1.6ghz machine it 
> runs perfectly, with frames to spare.
>
> Plus, if you have any bugs to report, please tell. I think I've buttoned 
> everything up, but you never know!

Looks very nice and plays very smoothly.  I got stuck on level 7 so couldn't 
get to see the POV homage :-(

On my laptop I assume it runs at 100 fps as the CPU usage is only around 
15-20%.

One very small suggestion is that you should be able to make the game run 
full-screen, or at least change the size of the window.  In the 
"lights_out.log" file it says it could not find a full screen mode of 
512x512 - I assume this is an error because not many monitors will have a 
512x512 full-screen mode defined!

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scott wrote:
> Looks very nice and plays very smoothly.  I got stuck on level 7 so 
> couldn't get to see the POV homage :-(

Wow, a reply :) Thanks for your input!

The levels are made by randomly switching areas of the board, and it's 
you're job to 'undo' what was done to it. Each level *can* be beaten, 
but if you get off on the wrong foot, so to speak, it can be very 
difficult to fix it.

> On my laptop I assume it runs at 100 fps as the CPU usage is only around 
> 15-20%.

Well, I capped the fps at 100, so that's good.

> One very small suggestion is that you should be able to make the game 
> run full-screen, or at least change the size of the window.  In the 
> "lights_out.log" file it says it could not find a full screen mode of 
> 512x512 - I assume this is an error because not many monitors will have 
> a 512x512 full-screen mode defined!

I've never heard of a 512x512 screen resolution on *any* monitor/video card.

The game library I use lets you alt+enter for full screen as a default, 
so that's why there is an error. It won't switch to a nonexistent screen 
resolution. I've never had any luck switching back-and-forth between 
(regular) modes, so that's why I made the screen an odd size. To prevent 
the user from potentially crashing the game. It may just be an issue 
with target layers; I haven't tried testing a game without them yet.

If I see that enough people like the game, I'll add support for a full 
screen mode, and maybe even allow the high scores to be kept.

Sam

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Samuel Benge wrote:
> scott wrote:
>> Looks very nice and plays very smoothly.  I got stuck on level 7 so 
>> couldn't get to see the POV homage :-(
> 
> Wow, a reply :) Thanks for your input!
OK here is another one. (I planned to reply earlier, but my video card 
fan broke, and the temporary card I used could not display the game, 
current temporary does.)
I did reach level 9 and saw the POV logo's

[snip]
> If I see that enough people like the game, 
It is an interesting new concept, but I have two problems with it:
- One is purely me, I hate bright light and you made the game with 
simulated overexposure, even though white is just as white as always, it 
still annoys me.
- from level 5 on they have all the same difficulty level. (unless very 
high levels have more light) As soon as you don't see an obvious answer 
you start trying thinks randomly (at least I did). I have learned by now 
that there is a.o. a combination of switches that will switch only the 
light at position <2,2> or equivalent. But I still have no clue what 
that combination is. I keep finding it faster by now, but the number of 
switches to turn is too big for me to remember. So I can solve the 
levels but I don't feel I am learning to see the patterns. Put another 
way: it is boring, sorry.

> I'll add support for a full 
> screen mode, and maybe even allow the high scores to be kept.
> 
At last you need more variation in the boards. Plus a few introductory 
levels to learn some combinations that only affect one or a few lights. 
A bit like the combination of rotations that only swapped two cubes in 
rubic's cube.

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your score will not be saved!

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andrel wrote:
  > It is an interesting new concept, but I have two problems with it:

The idea didn't come from me; I just implemented it.

> - One is purely me, I hate bright light and you made the game with 
> simulated overexposure, even though white is just as white as always, it 
> still annoys me.

I got an e-mail about that very same thing. I didn't realize it would be 
so annoying...

> - from level 5 on they have all the same difficulty level. (unless very 
> high levels have more light) As soon as you don't see an obvious answer 

Hmm, I tested it, and I don't get the same problem.

> you start trying thinks randomly (at least I did). I have learned by now 
> that there is a.o. a combination of switches that will switch only the 
> light at position <2,2> or equivalent. But I still have no clue what 
> that combination is. I keep finding it faster by now, but the number of 
> switches to turn is too big for me to remember. So I can solve the 
> levels but I don't feel I am learning to see the patterns. Put another 
> way: it is boring, sorry.

Yeah, it is kinda boring. I programmed it just to learn a few things and 
keep my programming skills up. What I really want to make is another 
'Metroidvania' type game. I still need to learn some things before I 
can, though.

> At last you need more variation in the boards.

How so? Boards with different shapes?

> Plus a few introductory 
> levels to learn some combinations that only affect one or a few lights. 
> A bit like the combination of rotations that only swapped two cubes in 
> rubic's cube.

The difficulty does rise rather steeply. As I said previously, if enough 
people like it, I'll improve on it. For now, I'll let it sit and collect 
dust.

Sam

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>> - One is purely me, I hate bright light and you made the game with 
>> simulated overexposure, even though white is just as white as always, it 
>> still annoys me.
>
> I got an e-mail about that very same thing. I didn't realize it would be 
> so annoying...

Leave it as an option though - I like it :-)

>> - from level 5 on they have all the same difficulty level. (unless very 
>> high levels have more light) As soon as you don't see an obvious answer
>
> Hmm, I tested it, and I don't get the same problem.

It took me a few goes to realise the board was randomly generated by 
"switching" a few squares before showing the board.  I always got stuck with 
a board with 2 lights on in the bottom row and cannot work out how to get 
them off.  If I am unlucky I get this on level 3 or 4.  After about 100 
random clicks it then looks solvable, but often I just restarted the 
program.

Oh yeh, there should be a button to start again at level 1.

>> At last you need more variation in the boards.
>
> How so? Boards with different shapes?

Yeh, or just label certain squares as "always off", which is essentially the 
same thing.  Or allow the "toggle 4 neighbours" rule to change, I remember a 
game once where clicking each square toggled a random (but constant) 
selection of squares on the whole board.  Was pretty fun.

> The difficulty does rise rather steeply. As I said previously, if enough 
> people like it, I'll improve on it. For now, I'll let it sit and collect 
> dust.

Yep, that's what always happens to my projects too :-)  Right this moment I 
am about 60% through writing a game, but now I have an idea for a better one 
which I want to start on right away!  I have no incentive really to finish 
off the first game.

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andrel wrote:
> your score will not be saved!
bug: the first level after you continue after completing all levels does 
not have 2 switches but many more.

btw I seem to be learning a bit at last. I recognize now a few patterns 
that I can solve. Now most of my levels are below 100 clicks. Total 
score last time 23700.

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andrel wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> your score will not be saved!

It won't? <grin>

> bug: the first level after you continue after completing all levels does 
> not have 2 switches but many more.

Ahh, I *try* to fix these things, but there is always that one variable 
I didn't account for. I know why global variables are a bad idea now....

> btw I seem to be learning a bit at last. I recognize now a few patterns 
> that I can solve. Now most of my levels are below 100 clicks. Total 
> score last time 23700.

Not too bad!

~Sam

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> Yep, that's what always happens to my projects too :-)  Right this 
> moment I am about 60% through writing a game, but now I have an idea for 
> a better one which I want to start on right away!  I have no incentive 
> really to finish off the first game.

Wow, you reached a whole 60% of completion on a project before having 
another idea... *jealous*

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