Bloob (2003)
Downloads
The game can be downloaded here.
The source (including scripts) is available here
About
Bloob was a project created specifically for the IGF Student
Showcase.
Downloads
The game can be downloaded here.The source (including scripts) is available here
About
Bloob was a project created specifically for the IGF Student Showcase.
Bloob! is an action / puzzle game that requires you divide your attention between two
interacting games at once. You remove "bloobs" by shooting them on one side and by
classic "3 in a row" fashion on the other. As you get better, they start to appear
faster, almost forcing you to play both games at once.
Technical
The game is a home grown engine written in C++ and DirectX, with bindings to an early version of Ruby. The Ruby scripts are state machines that provide a majority of the game's logic, utilizing code blocks as objects to execute portions of code in responce to specific messages. The underlying C++ code simply handles drawing and object lifecycle and makes use of STL heavilly (a decision I consider now to be a mistake).
Design
Bloob! came from a game I saw at the GDC Experimental Gameplay Expo, which required that a person play 4 very simple games at once. I was intrigued by the idea and decided to experiment with the possibility of dividing the user's attention between several games. Bloob! was the result.
The game requires that you divide your attention between two games, or that you at least think about them and how they react to each other. The left side of the game is almost an action shooter. Shooting the bloobs that relentlessly fall upward from the bottom of the screen will gain you points and remove them from the screen. The right side of the screen is a clone of the puzzle games Bust-a-Move and Snood.
What's interesting is the way the two games react to each other. In order to shoot a bloob on the right side of the screen, you must first shoot 3 of that color on the left side. If you shoot one of a different color on the left, all three of those bloobs are transferred to the right side of the screen in random positions.
You gain score by removing bloobs either by shooting them down on the left, getting three in a row on the right, or by having them fall of the bottom of the screen (through removing any "grip" they may have to the top of the screen). Special bonuses are also given for various events like getting 3 bloobs of the same color on the left, or having bloobs fall off the bottom of the screen
Credits
Programmer / Designer - Jeff WardArt / Design - Ryan Roth
Music - Chris Steidel