The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing v1.1 + Source code

[Duzz]

Ã,  Ã,  Ã, Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 
Download HLoBB Now!

What is the HLoBB?
The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing is a sporting club for figures of high historical significance. Members don gloves, and battle it out in a variety of arenas.

HLoBB is a hotseat multiplayer platformer type thing, kindof 'jump-n-bump' meets 'little fighter'.Ã,  The aim is basically to wipe out all the other players by picking up speed and timing your punch to hit them.Ã,  The faster you're moving the more damage is done.


Features
- 640x480 hi color
- 6 historical figures to choose from.
- Battle it out with 2 friends on the same keyboard, and against up to 5 computer players.Ã,  (Max of 6 players in a game)
- 10 zany powerups.
- 4 mind blowing arenas
- Awesome digital musical score by Modgeulator
- High score system thingy
- Dynamic crowd cheering reward a good volley of punches. (I mainly put this in so I could use the word 'dynamic')

Source:
It took me a while, but you can download the source code now, I didn't have the energy to describe in detail how it works, so you'll have to go by the comments.

Screens (Sneaky teaser ones. HA!)

Ã,  Ã, 
Ã,  Ã, 
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 



Ã,  Ã,  Ã, Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 

[Scummbuddy]

Yeah! Downloading now! Congratualtions on getting this game out! It looks like so much fun.

Edit* I would very much appreciate the release of the source code, when you can get around to it.

[Chicky]

Excellent! downloading now.

[aussie]

I was soooo waiting for this one...

EDIT

...And Henry VIII squashes the crap out of Ghandi!!! 94% to 5% damage!!!

This is awesome!

I'm crap at comeback punches (but I won my first fight). 

[BerserkerTails]

Oh wow! I'm glad to see this released Duzz! I've bene looking forward to this for a while. I'm definatley downloading this as soon as I get home.

Now the question is, how long will I be able to play it beofre Half-Life 2 sucks me back into it's grasp?

[edmundito]

OH wow, this is pretty awesome...

except that... did you play tested this game? It's pretty impossible to punch the computer.

If you hold down shift then the caracter gets stuck with his arm back and you can't move, so you have to keep randomly hitting shift until you magically hit the super-perfect computer player.... It's kind of like the pixel hunting of this game  :o

[Duzz]

Yeah, I think that's the major problem with the game, it's hard to figure out how to play effectively.  But if I simplify the gameplay, so that a punch hits immediately, or you can punch as much as you want without losing speed, the game becomes more generic, and there's not as much skill involved.  This means there's no room for you to become any better at the game, and so there is no longevity.
I'm hoping people get past the initial learning curve before the novelty of the game wears off and they give up.

Remember it's a LOT easier to play, and win against 2 or more computer players, because they pick on each other, leaving you room to move around and get used to the game.

[Moox]

Finally! Downloading now...

[Scummbuddy]

I'll be more than glad to give the American version of Abe Lincoln....Ã, 

Here's a problem I found when using rocket boots. On some of the labels you are in front of, some not.



I also wish there to be a way to quit to main menu from the character select screen.

[Redwall]

Freakily, I was just thinking about this and actually tracked down the GIP thread before I saw its thread here...

[aussie]

You're right Duzz, it's much easier to win against two. I can't beat the computer one on one.

One thing: during the selection process, the bottom grid is supposed to be filled out with the characters you choose (I assume). However, only player 1 is displayed. It looks like a bug to me.

BTW, what I really love is the AI. You really gotta tell me how you do it.

Spoiler

- I believe it's somehow related to the actions your player attempts. For example, in the bouncing castle, wheenver I begin to jump, the computer will do the same.

- Also, the computer players barely ever try to pick up the powerups. They seem to get them by chance rather than intentionally.

[close]

[Duzz]

Here's a problem I found when using rocket boots. On some of the labels you are in front of, some not.

Yeah, It think that's because the text overlays in AGS are drawn onto the background, and if players move behind it, the overlays go on top of them.Ã,  I don't think there's anything I can do about that one.

I also wish there to be a way to quit to main menu from the character select screen.

Yeah, I was going to put a button in to do that, just forgot.Ã,  I'll change it on the next version I release.

One thing: during the selection process, the bottom grid is supposed to be filled out with the characters you choose (I assume). However, only player 1 is displayed. It looks like a bug to me.

Yeah, that's more poor design than a bug.Ã,  It only shows the human characters that are selected, (and hence their keyboard controls).Ã,  I needed a way to show the keys where people would find them easily, and I thought this was probably the best way.Ã,  Maybe I should put 'computer players' under that grid, and put the computer characters selected there.

BTW, what I really love is the AI. You really gotta tell me how you do it.

The AI was actually much simpler in concept than I thought it would be, I did the basic coding for it in about 2 days.
It's basically:
- If there's another player on the same hotspot as you, find the closest one.
- Run towards them, until you're close and fast enough, and press punch.
- If there's no one on the same hotspot, get to another hotspot...

Getting them to navigate around the level was the hardest, I used specific hotspots to make them jump continuously, move toward a certain point, move slowly toward a certain point, etc.Ã,  There were a few more specific ones as well.

They jump randomly every now an then, and also when they're moving faster than the player and the player jumps.Ã,  So they mimic the character to a certain degree, but also look like they're doing their own thing a bit too.
And yeah, they don't seek out the powerups at all, nor do they bounce off walls to pick up extra speed. But I gotta give some advantage to the players =)

[aussie]

Oh, I see. That's clever actually, I thought it'd be much more complex.

I've played with my little brothers quite a few times. We've had a ball.

A couple of suggestions from the most devoted HLoBB fans (I don't know hard these would be to implement):

1. A "plain" level:
- Just run up to each other and punch.
- No bouncing aside from the jumping ability of each player.

2. General stuff:
- Make static punches available (even if these only do little damage).
- Specific speed and punching features for each player. For instance, Henry VIII is big and fat, so he should build up speed more slowly, punch harder and jump a bit less than the others. Ghandi should be super fast, do little damage and jump heaps. And so forth.


Just some ideas...

[Captain Mostly]

seriously splendid! I'm deeply impressed by how smooth the movement is! Really amazing! Well done!

[Duzz]

A couple of suggestions from the most devoted HLoBB fans (I don't know hard these would be to implement):

1. A "plain" level:
- Just run up to each other and punch.
- No bouncing aside from the jumping ability of each player.

I'm not sure how the mechanics of this would work, if the gameplay decended in to running up to your opponent and hitting punch as fast as possible, it wouldn't really work.

2. General stuff:
- Make static punches available (even if these only do little damage).
- Specific speed and punching features for each player. For instance, Henry VIII is big and fat, so he should build up speed more slowly, punch harder and jump a bit less than the others. Ghandi should be super fast, do little damage and jump heaps. And so forth.

The static punches thing is a good idea, I can probably make them do a bit of damage even if you're standing still when the enemy is close quite easily.Ã,  I'll try and do that for when I update it.
The specific player features is already more or less in there, but I couldn't work out what to change for Caesar, Lincoln and Napoleon.Ã,  I would probably make Henry slow, but resistant to damage, and Hitler more agressive, and thus have a higher attack.

If you want to fiddle around with the physics values, hit Ctrl-G when playing, the debug gui will be at the top of the screen.

seriously splendid! I'm deeply impressed by how smooth the movement is! Really amazing! Well done!

Thanks, I must say I was inspired by the quirkyness of your games when deciding apon the historical theme =)

[Redwall]

Lincoln could have a longer range (he's tall and has long arms) and Napoleon is short and can... erm... do something. And Caesar is just badass. "Let's see how many of you are remembered in two thousand years!"

I can see the problem.

[jetxl]

Man, that's a nice game right here.
Everything is done great. The sound, the graphix, the details, ect.
But I don't feel like I have control over the character. I just keep bumping agains the other player by random actions.

[Sam.]

downloading right away. thanks for another original experience duzz.

[Mephistophilis]

That is one damn fun game once you work it out! one thing that only just irritated me was that stamping on people or falling from great hights doesn't damage.
I just faced off against Napoleon And I flew in my Rocketboots up really high, i mean REALLY high, and then fell landing squarely on Napoleon's head, but he was gone only about 5 seconds later did he fall bouncing to the floor on the other side of the screen!

[Duzz]

Hey people.  Long time no post. I've still been AGSing though, working on a killer sequel to Duzz Quest.

I finally got around to getting HLoBB working after updating to a later version of AGS yonks ago.  Some bug I was exploiting disappeared and I had to change some code, but couldn't be arsed for a while (say 4 months).

Anyway, I've uploaded a newer version of the game with slightly improved gameplay, and a couple of other things people requested. 

I've also uploaded the source code, which works with the latest version of AGS.  Of course it will be obsolete as soon as the new version of AGS is released with the new scripting language, but it could still be interesting to look at if you're feeling brave. 

[evenwolf]

duzz,

I'm having real trouble finding the actual download.  The "download" button leads me to a page with descriptions and a zip for the source code.

Can you paste the actual url somewhere so's a hillbilly like me can find it?

[Duzz]

Sorry, I'm retarded.Ã,  Damn case sensitive server...
It's fixed now, This link should work.Ã,  (Tell me if it doesn't), otherwise the direct link is here.