Author Topic: Ballplay Genius is an interesting cross platform puzzle game  (Read 3854 times)

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Ballplay Genius is an interesting cross platform puzzle game
« on: February 03, 2011, 06:20:04 PM »
Ballplay Genius is an interesting cross platform puzzle game



Quote
Welcome to BallPlay Genius. A very easy to understand, yet challenging. The object is easy. Some balls roll over the screen and you can change their course by setting up plates or walls, or by removing plates.

When you get your task in the puzzle done without getting too many balls destroyed you win the puzzle
The game is great due to it's simplicity. Anyone can understand the rules, yet the game DOES offer a challenge

The game also features a puzzle editor so come up with whatever creativity you have in mind

The concept of the game is pretty easy.... The balls go back and forth. They roll, as soon as they hit the wall, they'll turn 180 degrees and go back until they hit a wall.

Now that's no fun now, is it? Therefore you can place plates in the puzzle. They change the direction of the balls.

The picture below shows how the balls direction is changed by a plate


The number of plates you can put into a puzzle is limited, so check your limits before you start puzzle it all out. You can also remove plates by selecting the empty tool in the tool menu. Some puzzles allow placing walls, but that's a rarity.
Now you can do something with the balls. What you got to do depends on the task the puzzle gives you. What tasks are there?

    * Regular
      There are balls and there's an exit. The balls have to reach the exit. You need to get at least the required ammount of balls to the exit. You can try to perfect yourself by getting all balls to the exit, but that's not always required.

    * Wall Breaker
      Inspired by Arkanoid. Have the balls to break all blocks. Once all blocks are gone the puzzle is over. If you have the required ammount of balls still in the field you win the puzzle
    * Break-Free
      An expansion to Wall Breaker. Break away all blocks, but the last block you break away will transform into an exit. Then the rules become the same as for regular.
    * Color Split
      Basically the same as regular, only with green balls and red balls, a green exit and a red exit. The red balls need to go to the red exit, the green to the green. You must be alert. A ball that comes into the wrong exit counts as destroyed and can make you lose the puzzle.
      If you suffer from color blindness, I recommend to turn on the colorblind mode in the configuration. It will mark the red balls with an "R" and green balls with a "G" and will mark the exits in the same manner. Hopefully this may help you solve the puzzle even when you cannot see the difference between green and red.
    * Dot collector
      The puzzle contains some dots. By letting a ball roll over it you can collect them. Once you got them all the puzzle will be solved, if of course, the required ammount of balls is still in play.

Of course, in the starting puzzles, the puzzles are designed that way that you'll always come through without getting one ball destroyed. But as you can guess when you get the the harder puzzles, this will no longer be so. There are several things that can destroy a ball. Let's discuss some.

    * Falling down
      A ball must roll over a stone floor. If you can see the background fractile through a tile it can be that it's a hole. When the ball rolls over it, it'll fall down and is lost and counts as destroyed.
    * Exploded
      There can be bombs in the puzzle. A ball that rolls over it will be destroyed, destroying the bomb itself in the process.
      Sometimes a puzzle is designed that way that you need to sacrifice a ball over an explosive in order to create a way for the other balls. Look well if that's required if you see these things in the puzzle.
    * Shot
      Laser guns can be installed. They can be of several colors. When something goes over the switch with the same color the laser will shoot a laserbeam and destroy all balls it meets on the way.
    * Caught by an enemy
      There are enemies that destroy all balls they touch. Some can be controlled by plates. Others just follow their own way. Whatever the case, don't make them touch your balls

With all this you should now be able to play.

Good luck.




The game is pretty demanding, below is only of overview on the computers I tested this game on.
   Right now the game has only been tried in Windows Vista.
Tested on:
1GB RAM, 1.80GHz, 32Bit OS, Widows Vista 6.0.6000

Minimum requirents:
Windows 2000 or later
DirectX 7 or later
   Basically you need an Intel based Mac in order to run BallPlay Genius. (I no longer own the stuff to bring you a PPC build myself, but if somebody else can make you one).

The true MacOS X release will be for Intel based Macs, runnning Leopard. 2,66 GHz, 4 GB RAM is what the game's tested on.

Minimum requirements (taking PPC and Intel all together):
Mac OSX 10.3.9 or later
OpenGL 1.1 or later
   The source code should be Linux compatible, but since I never got Linux running good, I couldn't compile it yet, once I can get you a Linux version I'll fill out this section

Minimum requirements:
Minimal Linux version unknown (as that can be distro-dependant)
OpenGL 1.1 or later

Note:There will only be a Linux build for x86 based machines!

Examples of directory usage by BallPlay Genius. Of course this may differ with each version of the OS.
For username I used in all examples: Tricky.
All files BallPlay Genius produces are cross-platform. So if you (for example) copy a user account from Windows to MacOS it will work properly.
   
Used OS:    Windows Vista
Public users:    Unavailable
Private users:    C:\Users\Tricky\Documents\BallPlay_Genius\Users
Temp doc dir:    C:\users\Tricky\documents\BallPlay_Genius\Documentation
   
Used OSes:    Tiger, Leopard & Snow Leopard
Public users:    /Users/Shared/BallPlay_Genius/Users
Private users:    /Users/Tricky/Documents/BallPlay_Genius/Users
Temp doc dir:    /Users/Tricky/Documents/BallPlay_Genius/Documentation
   
Used OS:    Will be tested later
Public users:    Not available
Private users:    /home/Tricky/Documents/BallPlay_Genius/Users
Temp doc dir:    /home/Tricky/Documents/BallPlay_Genius/Documentation

http://ballplaygenius.sourceforge.net

 

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