Thread: my breakout clone

I would like some feedback on my breakout clone, "Blockout". You can download it from my site: http://www.geocities.com/lambs_04. There you can also find a screenshot of it. It uses Allegro so you may need to download the dll file. The only changes left to make to it that I am aware of is to improve the ball phsyics. The source code is included in the zip file.

Comments on the game speed and usage of music are of important interests to me.

Thank you.

The game is really boring, the graphics are too dull and you either need to decrease the speed of the paddle or increase the speed of the ball because it's pretty easy (don't give out so many 1-ups). You should also not give power-ups so often. I noticed that the very far right side of the paddle seems glitchy, and sometimes the ball will go right through it. It seems like the sound is off too. Is it supposed to make a sound every time you hit the wall, because most of the time it's way off cue. The rest of the sounds are fine, there's just this one that's always not in sync. Here are some power-up suggestions if you need any:

- shoot rockets
- speed up ball/slow down paddle
- make paddle smaller/larger
- make ball mutiply
- sticky paddle

You can also get some other ideas from this game. The ball tends to go the the side more as the game goes on (but it starts out going more up and down). I think you should change that.

Other than that I think you got yourself a pretty nice solid engine there. All it needs is a few extra touch-ups and I think it'll be great. Hope this helps.

Oh, and alt + enter doesn't make it windowed for me.

- make paddle smaller/larger

This is in the game as a minus and plus powerup. Getting the minus reduces the paddle size while at the sametime increases its speed. The plus does the opposite. After fix the glitches I'll look into adding more powerups. Right now theres four powerups:minus, plus, reverse, and life up.

Alt + Enter only works during the menu. Well, it should.

The sound that plays when the ball hits a block is too long and therefore it sounds out of sync. I think that's the cause.

Did you get the reverse powerup? Is it easier to control now?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

It says green snail software.

This is a frog :-p

Another thing you could do to enhance the gameplay is to make the paddle "slide" and/or "bounce" off the edge. You can make it either as a powerup or just all the time. I think little things like that will make it more fun and make the gameplay a little more intresting.

The paddle is very glitchy on the right side, but I don't notice it as much on the left. Also, sometimes when you lose a life the way the ball starts over makes you lose another life (ie you lose two lives in a row). I've had this happen to me several times (maybe you should wait until the player presses space or something before you release the ball, like in other breakout clones?).

One more thing, I found your levels sort of boring and repetive. I have a level that I created attached, check it out. I made it a bit more cooler I think. If you need any more creative ideas and/or level design, just ask.

Originally posted by confuted
It says green snail software.

This is a frog :-p

I couldn't find a snail so a frog had to do.

I couldn't find a snail so a frog had to do.

lol, here and here, and here.
Although I think this one of the grid-model is the coolest if you want my opinon.

Originally posted by lambs4
I couldn't find a snail so a frog had to do.

or you could just call it "green frog software"....?.....

Yes, I probabley will changed it to frog software.

Funkydude, I'm going to include your level my game, ok? Thanks for that and for the snail links.

I don't like allegro, I hate it...

Why?