Aspirer, did you try the mouse control? I think it's a bit more comfortable, if you're okay with the latency of paddle speed versus mouse speed.

The arrow key setup was actually not a glitch - it's very intentional on my part, though I definitely understand the frustrating aspect of the choice. If you leave the paddle in one of the hemispheres for a long time (rather than instantly changing direction), I found that fixing left/right to clockwise/counterclockwise can be just as confusing, so it was an attempt to keep the arrow keys as always "making sense." On the other hand, what you experienced, switching keys for a rapid change in direction is also confusing if you change hemispheres. I didn't really have people to playtest, but from the little response I've got it sounds like the latter is more common. Really I should put in a time buffer after stopping the paddle so that it uses both methods.

In retrospect, I realized pretty quickly in that my design posed something of UX problem... I got a late start (halfway through the month), so I just kept on with it. Still not sure what the best control scheme would be..

EDIT: Also, right shift and left shift are fixed to clockwise/counterclockwise, if you want to try that method. Though, there is a weird bug where the first time you press one of them in the game, it doesn't register. From what I can tell, that's something strange with SFML.

Hey I didn't realize about the time zone being a couple of hours ahead of me -- I won't push my latest changes to github as it sounds like we are now past the deadline. My entry is posted above, with the link to the Github page, where you can check and see that no changes have been pushed since the deadline. Well, here's the link again, for easy reference, but it is included above, prior to the deadline: StickBall on Github.

If you are on a PC, it requires Ruby to play. Installing Ruby on Windows is really easy, and install instructions are in the Readme (on github). We were able to compile for Mac to a .app, but I did not post the .app prior to the deadline. The .app is the exact same as the github version - it just makes it possible to try it out on a Mac without installing Ruby. Ruby Install instructions for Mac are also included in the Readme, but it's a little harder to install Ruby on a Mac than on a PC. So..... I'm not sure if the .app would be disqualified for deadline reasons, but here is the link in case it is of interest: StickBall Compiled for Mac. If I need to take the link to the Mac .app down for deadline reasons, please let me know.

Wow, it's been a whirlwind of activity coming down to the deadline. Glad I posted a few days ago to be on the safe side!! Well, I think the game turned out pretty decent. We added in lots of sounds and a fair amount of graphics effects and I think it looks pretty nice. Following is a screenshot of what it looked like a few days ago, prior to finishing touches. Best wishes to all. I'll be checking out everybody else's games in the next few days.

Oh and a big heads up about the power-up controls: Ctrl is used for the Bump Power-Up, and Shift is used to cast spells. No button is needed for the Kick power-up. The Kick Upgrade automatically increases the player's kick speed. There is a small mistake in the readme about the kick feature.

First thing I notices is "bundle install" doesn't work.... I have to install all three manually. I have never downloaded/used Ruby, so I followed your directions to the letter, downloading the 1.9.3 (or whatever it is you offer a direct link to), then downloaded the *.zip file from github, "Open Command Prompt with Ruby", go to the game directory, and bundle install fails...

And now, as I'm writing this, the manual install failed on the Ashton gem... Here's a screenshot...

I don't know what development tools it's requesting (I made sure all three options were selected when I installed Ruby...)

Aspirer, did you try the mouse control? I think it's a bit more comfortable, if you're okay with the latency of paddle speed versus mouse speed.

The arrow key setup was actually not a glitch - it's very intentional on my part, though I definitely understand the frustrating aspect of the choice. If you leave the paddle in one of the hemispheres for a long time (rather than instantly changing direction), I found that fixing left/right to clockwise/counterclockwise can be just as confusing, so it was an attempt to keep the arrow keys as always "making sense." On the other hand, what you experienced, switching keys for a rapid change in direction is also confusing if you change hemispheres. I didn't really have people to playtest, but from the little response I've got it sounds like the latter is more common. Really I should put in a time buffer after stopping the paddle so that it uses both methods.

In retrospect, I realized pretty quickly in that my design posed something of UX problem... I got a late start (halfway through the month), so I just kept on with it. Still not sure what the best control scheme would be..

EDIT: Also, right shift and left shift are fixed to clockwise/counterclockwise, if you want to try that method. Though, there is a weird bug where the first time you press one of them in the game, it doesn't register. From what I can tell, that's something strange with SFML.

Oh wow, that is *MUCH* better! I actually almost won using that. lol

I understand what you're doing with the arrow controls now that you explained it a bit, That does make sense. I guess it's basically "Left arrow moves toward 9 oclock, right moves toward 3".

I'm going to play another time or two and see if I can view the win screen a bit.

My only suggestion, knowing these controls, is perhaps not using Shift (I popped up the "Sticky keys" prompt a couple times. :-P)

First thing I notices is "bundle install" doesn't work.... I have to install all three manually. I have never downloaded/used Ruby, so I followed your directions to the letter, downloading the 1.9.3 (or whatever it is you offer a direct link to), then downloaded the *.zip file from github, "Open Command Prompt with Ruby", go to the game directory, and bundle install fails...

And now, as I'm writing this, the manual install failed on the Ashton gem... Here's a screenshot...

I don't know what development tools it's requesting (I made sure all three options were selected when I installed Ruby...)

Hey thanks for checking it out!

Dang! I wondered if ashton might end up causing problems. In defense of Ruby and bundler, it probably would have all worked perfectly without ashton, which can sometimes cause technical glitches on certain machines.

It can really easily to be made to work on your system, but it would require a couple of manual changes to the code. I would push to github with ashton taken out, but it's after the deadline, and the github repo is my submission, so I can't really go back and change it after the fact...... hm.....

What I'll do is, I'll make a clone repo (without ashton), and I'll post the link here, so you can check it out.....

https://github.com/MattLemmon/StickBallClone

There it is.

If you want to save yourself the time of re-downloading all the media files, just replace the following four files:

Gemfile

main.rb

/rb/beginning.rb

/rb/field.rb

That should get it to work fine. After you've made these changes, just cd into StickBall and execute `bundle install` and then `ruby main.rb`. I hope you enjoy trying it out. I will look forward to trying out your game this evening. Best wishes!

BTW, I posted previously on the PUTT Techincal Q&A in order to try to identify these compatibility issues prior to the deadline, but this is the first I've heard back about it. Well, we all do what we can. I'm 99.6% sure it will work for you with the changes above. Thanks again for trying it out!

BTW: Another way around the barn might be to install the Ruby dev-tools. There is a good description of how to do this in the Readme and Install documentation of wintertime's game:

just make the following manual changes:

1 - In main.rb:4

#require 'ashton'

2 - In rb/field.rb:16

#@mist = Ashton::Shader.new fragment: ......

#gem "ashton"

Just comment out or delete all of the stuff listed above, and that should get it to work, BUT, the frame speed will probably be off after removing ashton, so you should also:

5 - copy and paste over the entire contents of the `field.rb` file, using the version from StickBallClone:

https://github.com/MattLemmon/StickBallClone/blob/master/rb/field.rb

6 - also replace the entire contents of `beginning.rb`:

https://github.com/MattLemmon/StickBallClone/blob/master/rb/beginning.rb

My only suggestion, knowing these controls, is perhaps not using Shift (I popped up the "Sticky keys" prompt a couple times. :-P)

Ahh - sticky keys! I forgot all about that dumb thing. I'm usually around my Mac, and so ended up doing 95% of my development on it (which is also why the windows binary isn't the most up-to-date version of the game).

Yes, I was about to say people need to install the DevKit to get the game from ml_ working, then I saw he quoted me from my docs already.

I would like to clarify my game runs with a Ruby without the DevKit. The above is from the 0.3 docs, I edited it in the final 1.0 docs to show it runs without the DevKit, since I tested it by installing an older 1.9.3-p194 package without it and also had a friend test it without DevKit on 1.9.3-p448.

Oh and please dont be scared of installing Ruby! It is a professionally looking installer, which is as simple to use as the installers of commercial games you installed.

Yes, I was about to say people need to install the DevKit to get the game from ml_ working, then I saw he quoted me from my docs already.

I would like to clarify my game runs with a Ruby without the DevKit. The above is from the 0.3 docs, I edited it in the final 1.0 docs to show it runs without the DevKit, since I tested it by installing an older 1.9.3-p194 package without it and also had a friend test it without DevKit on 1.9.3-p448.

Oh and please dont be scared of installing Ruby! It is a professionally looking installer, which is as simple to use as the installers of commercial games you installed.

I did try yours out, it ran smooth enough for me. I didn't test it for win/loss conditions (had to go grind up some deer into burger, lol), but what I did test worked fine.

I would offer a couple suggestions, and these are just my opinions:

--The start menu is a little hard on the eyes, maybe tone it down a bit, smaller fonts, etc. It just seems to all run into and over one another.

--I would've liked the power ups or the ball/paddles to be bigger--it was a small task in itself to hit one of the power-ups.

Like I said, not so much error as just suggestions that would make me personally enjoy it a bit more. Good game!

::MIPPY::

Sorry, I forgot your game earlier (your link was on page 2, and I only checked 3 )

Your game was definitely entertaining. Liked the "Hot balls!" message. Pretty complete game.

My only one suggestion:

--You need a third power-up. (EDIT: Clarifying, a third "time" based power up)

It looks like Noctumus and his little team are off to ...

*shades on*

PONG Kong! YYYYEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11147293/putt/putt.zip [10.9 MB, Win7 (and XP I think)]

Lol, this was a damn good, fully finished game. Much impressed. Kudos on the "worm-hole" powerup idea! My biggest (really only) suggestion is possibly slowing down that damn ball so I don't lose every time. O_o

Lol! Thanks a lot for your kind feedback!