Dates

Start Date
October 06, 2017 12:00 AM
End Date
November 03, 2017 11:59 PM
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Challengers

completed the challenge

Arcade Battle Arena

Arcade Battle Arena Challenge!

Make a game like the classics Bubble Bobble and Super Mario Bros 3 Battle Mode. Those games involve one or two players battling against waves of enemies on an arena.

Game Requirements

  • The game must have:
    • Start screen
    • Key to return to the start screen
    • Score system
    • Minimum of 2 enemies with different behavior (AI)
    • Graphics at least for the UI, player and enemies
    • Sound effects at least for when the player is hurt and when an enemy is killed
  • The actual gameplay must happen on a single screen (no camera translation)

Art Requirements

  • The game can be 2D or 3D
  • The art must use a maximum 16 colors palette
  • The art must be your own

Tips

  • An interesting game design approach of the two games is that they require the player to neutralize the enemy first, before killing it:
    • In the Super Mario Bros 3 Battle Mode, to kill an enemy, the player must first hit underneath the platform where the enemy is walking on
    • In Bubble Bobble, to kill an enemy, the player must first shot a bubble on the enemy
  • You can quickly make sound effects on Chiptone
  • You can decrease your color count by replacing two similar colors with a median between the two colors. This works nicely for similar dark colors or similar light colors
  • Enemy behavior can involve:
    • Response to the environment. What is the kind of tile that the enemy is currently at? What are the kind of tiles that are in front or behind the enemy?
    • Response to the player. Where is the player? Is it too far away? Is it close? In front or behind? How the enemy will respond to that?
    • Motion pattern. Does the enemy walk on the platform and stop for some time? Does it fly? Games like Super Mario World are good examples with a great variety of enemy patterns.
  • The tutorials on Youtube by Shaun Spalding teach some enemy programming. They are for Game Maker, but the logic can be translated to other game engine or framework:

Duration

4 weeks - October 6, 2017 to November 3, 2017

Submission

Post on this thread only your entries:

  • Link to the executable (specifying the platform)
  • Screenshots: if the screenshots are too big, post just a few, if they are small, you can post more, just don't take the entire space
  • A small post-mortem, in the same post of the entry, is encouraged, where you can share what went right, what went wrong, or just share a nifty trick
  • Source-code link is encouraged

Bubblebobble.png

SMB3_Battle_Mode_standard.png