Let's Gamify Goodness

Over the past few months, I’ve been helping someone named Ram with a little side project, and I thought some of you might enjoy it.

Ram runs a mindfulness and meditation site called Ramapani, and he’s been exploring ways to make spiritual practice feel lighter, more playful, and a bit less… solemn. One of the ideas he came up with, and the one I’ve been helping him shape, is something called the World Karma Game.

It’s exactly what it sounds like: a simple, daily invitation to do something kind, log it, and watch the world’s total karma tick upward.

No accounts. No ads. No leaderboard of who’s “most spiritual.”

No tracking. No Cookies.

Just a gentle nudge toward doing one good thing a day, and a shared counter that grows as people contribute.

I liked the idea immediately. It’s small, it’s human, fun, and it’s the sort of thing the internet could use more of. So I’ve been helping Ram with some of the writing, the structure, and the general shape of the experience. Nothing grand: just a collaboration on something that feels wholesome.

If you’re curious, you can try it here:

https://ramapani.com/page/wkg

It takes about ten seconds to participate. You do something kind, anything at all, and you add a point. That’s it.

What I love about it is how uncomplicated it is. There’s no moral scoreboard, no pressure to be perfect, no spiritual posturing. Just a tiny daily reminder that kindness counts, and that even the smallest actions add up when enough people take them.

Ram’s wish (and mine, if I’m honest) is that the counter eventually reaches one million. Not because a million is a magical number, but because it’s a symbol of what’s possible when lots of people do small things consistently.

Anyway, I don’t usually post here these days, but this felt worth sharing. If you’ve been part of this blog at any point over the last decade‑plus, you’ve already contributed more goodness to the world than you probably realise. This little project is just another way to keep that spirit alive.

If you try it, let me know what you think. And if you add a point, thank you, sincerely.

~ A collaborator

Lines

I love simple and beautiful puzzle games, and this one is my favourite at the moment.

Lines by Leo de Sol Apps

In Lines for Android, you must race to 'flood-fill' more of the screen than the computer. The gameplay involves selecting a point on the line for your coloured paint to start filling. The colours then race each other as they run down the lines with apparent minimal viscosity. If you have filled more of the screen than the computer, then you win, and you get 'medals' with which you will be the envy of your friends.

When coloured paint collides there is a piano stab sound effect which adds to the game's ambience. Not only is this puzzle a great way to challenge your brain, but it is beautiful as well. It is what would happen if the gods of geometry had a race. Ok, I don't think that mathematics has gods, but if they did...

There are multiple modes of play which get unlocked as you defeat different levels. The main mode of play involves choosing one or more points on the line to start from. In 'Eraser' mode, you get to remove one or more of your opponents starting points, you meanie! In 'Rope' mode you have to add one or more of your own lines to create short-cuts in your race against the opponent. In 'knife' mode you must cut the rope next to your opponent to strategically and dastardly stop him from filling your own region of the map. I haven't unlocked any more than that, however, there is also a 'paint' mode, and a 'mixed' mode which presumably requires you to do combinations of the other skills, such as cutting ropes as well as adding new lines.

There is a daily challenge to keep you entertained for longer, as well as a series of challenges for the dedicated Line player to test themselves against.

This simple but fun and beautiful game does have a few drawbacks. Some of the levels are rather easy to complete, but then again, I have only just started playing so maybe the challenge ramps up later. Secondly, the advertisements do come fairly thick and fast, which I know many people find annoying.

Overall, a great game to help keep your brain ticking over: +1 Geek Experience Point for Leo de Sol Apps.

If you haven't already left this page in a huff, then you might be interested in some other posts tagged with the word 'puzzle', or something completely different.

The worst game I've played in a long while

I was going to call this post "Is this the worst game ever?", but it sounded like click-bait.

The Station in Dig Station is a big dig station.

Dig Station is a game for Android. The blurb states:

"Manage little station on the alien planet. Get upgrades and go for adventures!".

 It sounded fun, but one of those statements is a lie.

You start the game with a little dig station, and after a short period of familiarising yourself with the controls (there is no tutorial) you discover the main mechanic of this game - the counter in the top right indicates how much stuff your station has gathered. Soon you discover that you have to upgrade your main drill. Doing so increases the rate at which you get stuff. Everyone likes games where you get progressively better, even if it is just the rate at which you gain yellow numbers, right?

One of several upgrades in the game.

Once you have gathered 2000 'thingies' you get to further upgrades to your little station, such as hull, hydraulics, electronics, etc. The names matter little: each one does nothing but increases the rate at which you can mine 'wotsits', and by this stage you are craving ever more and more of their yellowy, numerical goodness.

After a short while you discover that this game is going to reward you for interacting with it in various ways. Soon you have devoted your entire evening to clicking the upgrade buttons rewarded each time by the counter of 'thingy-jigs' spinning over faster and faster.

After a while you have become a junky to collecting yellow numbers. You need ever higher orders of magnitude for the next upgrade and so you devote even more of your time to gathering the yellow 'somethings' required by the game. You discover that you can increase the productivity of your station through a number of ways. For example, 'click this button one hundred times and you increase the productivity by 1%'. So you do it. You actually spend the next two or three hours of your life pressing a button hundreds of times to get incrementally faster rates of 'whatchamacallits'.

You are an addict now. You will willingly accept the 'advert' button just to get ahead in the game.

Now, I don't mind 'clicker' games, if they are done well. In my thirst for ever higher mine rates in Dig Station I thought I was enjoying myself. I thought that this was a good game with an interesting mechanic. I thought I was going to be rewarded for all of my efforts. I thought there was going to be some sort of pay-off for ever-higher orders of magnitude.

I was wrong.

The developers lied. There is no pay off. No reward.

They promised 'adventure', but there was none. The game has no challenge to it at all. You simply progress through the game by giving it more and more of your time.

Eventually you have gathered an arbitrarily large amount of yellow 'numbers' and the game gives you the option of progressing to the adventure. So you do...

... but first you have to press a button one hundred times....

So you do.

Then the planet explodes. GAME OVER.

You do not even get a chance to continuing playing some more, nor start over. And worst of all, the 'adventure' you were promised from the start does not occur. the game just...stops.

I was left with a feeling of loss for the several hours of my life I had dedicated to clicking buttons on my screen for what turned out to be simply a vehicle for adverts.

This game is click-bait. Literally and figuratively.

It isn't the worst game ever. The graphics have a lovely retro feel and if you really want to waste four or five hours of your life, then there are worse ways, but the developers have been disingenuous in their description. I can't help but feel disappointed and fail to see the funny side of the time wasted.

If you want to play a good 'clicker' - one that rewards you with challenging puzzles and a real sense of the game developing, then do try Candy Box if it still exists. For a great 'digger' game with a rewarding end (and the ability to carry on doing what you want even when the game ends) then check out Motherload on miniclips.

Minus one geek experience point awarded to C6H6. I've never taken geek experience points away before, and I wouldn't do so just for a poor click-baity game, but if you read through the developers comments to poor reviews in the app store, then you will see why these developers need their geek status reducing.

That's all for now. Rant is over, but if you are still will us, then you might want to read about that time I found Usbourne's book of Computer space games from the 80's; or you may be in the mood to waste your time in a fun and rewarding way.

Castle Defender is a brilliant new game for the BBC micro

Every now and then a new game is developed for vintage computers. Built by computing enthusiasts these games are often better than the original offerings from the time that the machines were first popular, or include titles and ideas that come from the modern age.

Castle Defender is the BBC micro's first ever tower defence game, and it is really very good. Programmed by Chris Bradburne with graphics by John Blythe, this game is superbly well written and designed. The graphics are stunning and the game play is addictive. I have been playing all morning, with admittedly, a pathetic high score of only 40% to show for my efforts.

A hoard of orcs and goblins storm my castle defences on the BeebEm emulator.

The aim of Castle Defender is to protect your castle from the waves of computer controlled 'nasties'. You build towers at strategic points along the way to shoot your enemies to death. There are three different types of weapons which can be upgraded as you earn more gold. Indeed, upgrading your weapons is the only way you will succeed at this game.

There is an initial steep learning curve in Castle Defender. At first the cursor key controls seem a little counter-intuitive, and you will possibly long for a touch screen. The best approach is to only use the left and right cursor keys to navigate the battle field. The second lesson you will need to learn is how to read the display at the bottom of the screen. Some enemies have shields which make them almost impossible to kill unless you have weapons that can deal with shields. Choosing the appropriate mix of weapons is essential to surviving each wave of nasties in Castle Defender.

Snakes! I hate snakes, Jock! I hate 'em! Come on! Show a little backbone, will ya!

There are four levels of superb high-resolution MODE 1 graphics, with each level getting progressively more 'evil'. You can skip levels by pressing the corresponding key 2,3 or 4 at the start of the game, although if you do the game wont track your high score. The animation is very smooth and the enemies make a satisfying 'pop' when they die.

It really is a joy to see developers creating new games for vintage machines, particularly when the results are such superb quality releases. One geek experience point is awarded each to Chris Bradburne and John Blythe.

You can download a copy of this game for your BBC micro or BBC master computer, or run it on your PC in an emulator such as BeebEm.

Zap that nasty! The loading screen of Castle Defender.

More modern games for vintage computers are available on the Homebrew Heroes Facebook page.

Well that's all from me today. I'm off to squish some 8-bit orcs...

Introducing Weekend Warriors

This August I have been working on a new game: Weekend Warriors.

Weekend Warriors is a strategy text game of spell-casting and problem-solving. You play the part of a wizard protecting your kingdom from the endless hoards of computer generated enemy horror.

You have at your disposal over sixty unique spells from which you must choose those that will defend your kingdom. Some spells will summon creatures to do your bidding, whilst others represent magical objects, places and enchantments that will aid you in your quest.

At each turn you must defeat the hoards of your enemy by matching symbols on your enemy cards with powers generated by your own creatures.

Facing your first enemy: The Baby Giant Slug, adept at killing noob wizards, this monster requires 2 points of combat power and 1 point of defence power in order to be defeated, however there is a short cut - just one point of fire power will toast this slug to death.

Spells are cast by spending either gold (generated by defeating enemies) or mana points (one point is generated each turn).  The more powerful spells cost more to play, and sometimes they are delayed one or more turns, so you need to think about what you will need in advance.

Unlike many games of this genre, you have access to every spell in the game, which you can access at any point in the game by opening your spell book.  There are currently over sixty unique spells to choose from, with more coming soon.  It is recommended that you study each spell carefully and weigh-up their costs against what you require to win. Some spells reward you for having already cast other spells, for example, the spell Bloodlust gives you combat points equal to the number of warriors you have in your battlefield, so it would be a good strategy to spend precious resources building up your army of warriors.

The spell book showing some of the available spells.

Weekend Warriors allows you to play the game however you want, and you are rewarded for knowing the spell book inside out.

Each turn consists of two phases.  In the first phase you may look through your spell book and choose spells to cast. You may wish to examine the creatures and objects already on your battlefield for activated abilities or to 'rest' creatures you do not need.  In the second phase your creatures spend their 'stamina' points generating powers for you to use in defeating the computer-controlled enemies.  In this phase it is too late to rest your creatures, although you may still cast new spells and organise your armies.

Viewing an item in your battlefield.  Here is the battle axe, which is just waiting to be equipped to a suitable dwarf.

Weekend Warriors is ready to play in public beta form.  There are probably a few bugs still to iron- out, and undoubtedly the game-balance will need tweaking based on feedback.

All constructive feedback is welcome.

Further updates in the future are planned, with more spells and enemies to keep you going.  What is even more exciting is that there is planned original artwork for each spell and enemy in the game coming soon from the talented artist Pob, who worked with me on Spellunker. You can check out Pob's artwork for Spellunker here.

One of the creatures in the spell-book view, showing (from left to right) name; 'summoning' button; spell class and types; description; placeholder for artwork (coming soon); flavour text; casting costs; stamina; abilities; links to other spells that work well with this one.

To get you started with Weekend Warriors, I've created a short tutorial.  Just press the 'Help' button in-game and choose a help topic.

Weekend Warriors tutorial running on my Lumia 950.

If you have enjoyed this post, then you may like this post from last year's game Have Spell Will Travel.

Summer projects over the years

So, I haven't posted for a little while. I have been enjoying the hot weather and some time off work, however I have also been working on a new project (some teasers at the end of this post...)

Each summer I aim to complete a new project.  Listed here are some of the best projects I have attempted over the years....

...starting with...

2008 The Unofficial Talisman Computer Game




An electronic implementation of Talisman - the Magic Quest Game.  I wrote this for fun and to develop my programming skills. It was in no way an attempt to undermine Games Workshop's intellectual property, however, GW did flex their legal muscles and I decided it best to remove this game from all sites that I control.  Nevertheless, it was tremendous fun to create, and it is still tremendous fun to play today.

2012 Star Funk

Here my mining vessel is under attack from a group of passing traders.

StarFunk is a game of Inter-Galactic trade, exploration, mining, piracy and combat for Windows.  If StarFunk is like any game, then think of Elite, but in 2D.  It is completely open, and although there are several missions to complete, how you play and what you do is entirely up to you - although getting on the wrong side of the space police is usually a fatal decision.

2013 Space Combat

I never quite finished this game, however I did distribute the code for anyone who wants to finish it.  In Space Combat you must defeat wave after wave of enemy space craft by throwing dice to overcome their defences.  The executable version is playable, at least for the early levels.

2014 Spellunker

Spellunker is a spelling and adventure game for Windows. You follow the story of Wordsworth Spellunker in his quest to find the truth about his parents.  Along the way you must defeat the various, ever-more challenging levels by casting magic spells - literally spelling words from the assortment of letters you are provided with. The longer your word, the more points you accrue.

The artwork for Spellunker is provided by the lovely Pob, and some of the story-line was created with thanks to Ben.

2015 Have Spell Will Travel

Have Spell Will Travel is a web-based adventure game. You play the part of a hero, defending the town from dreaded kobold attacks. At every turn you will be asked to test one of your many abilities. You could choose your highest stat, but you never know how dangerous your enemy is. With a little luck and skill you may survive long enough to quest for the fabled Sword of Gygax, or even defeat the dread sorcerer, Warren Fogbender.

You can choose from one of over 168 different characters each with a unique set of abilities.  Want to be an Ogre-ninja?  How about a Fairy witch?  Well, with Have Spell Can Travel, you can!

2016 - New game coming soon.

Early version of Weekend Warriors being tested in the Edge browser.

I am currently working on a new game.  It is still in the early stages, however I can say that it is a strategy game in which you must balance your attack and defence powers to overcome various challenges thrown at you by the computer.

The working title is Weekend Warriors, so called because one of the characters in the game - The Weekend Warriors - are so tough you may only play them on a Saturday or Sunday.

That's all for now, but stay tuned to find out more.

A new update to Have Spell Will Travel #HaveSpell

I released a new update to my adventure game "Have Spell Will Travel" today.

What's new?

• Three new character classes - the Paladin, Mystic and Ninja.
• One new quest (can you find the awesome thing from Lake Mulbz).
• Loads of new items and creatures that will try and stop you from getting those items.
• I've tweaked the experience system so that it is not possible to gain loads of experience all at once.

Do please check it out.

A whole load of logic games for all you geeks

Earn yourself +1 geek experience point  for every puzzle solved.

Plastelina Interactive Logic Games

I am a big fan of this site because the logic games really come to life and there are loads to choose from.  Here is the classic you have a wolf and a sheep and a box of cabbages and you need to get them all to the other side of a river, only you can't leave the wolf and the sheep alone, for obvious reasons, similarly with the sheep and the cabbages.  Well, I won't spoil the fun for you if you haven't already solved it...

The first step to solving the puzzle - the only safe move.

Game number two is a variant of the above game, only this time you have three missionaries and three cannibals.  The Cannibals eat the missionaries if ever they outnumber them.

It is worth getting this wrong a few times - and you most likely will - just to watch the cute animation of the cannibals eating the missionaries.

...and so it goes on.  There are fifteen games to choose from and I recommend heading over there soon.


Strand

A really nice puzzle game that gets very devious.  In Strand you must complete each level by stretching the elastic bands over the virtual pegs.

Stretching elastic bands to connect the dots.

The number on each peg tells you how many bands you need to connect.  In this image the puzzle is nearly solved.  Just one more band to connect.

...and here is a walk through in case you are stuck...




Peg Solitaire

You have probably played this before in the real life (but that is waaay over-rated).  In Peg solitaire simply move the pegs one over the other to remove them.

Move each peg so that it jumps over another peg. That peg is then removed - sort of like in draughts.

The game gets steadily more difficult.  There are two constraints, first the last peg must land on the black space, and also you only have sixty seconds to solve each puzzle.


The four colour problem

It is said that you only need up to four colours to fill any map. In this puzzle you must play against the computer to fill the largest possible region in your colours (two for you and two for the computer).

Sort of like Risk, but then again, nothing like Risk.

The Game of Marienbad

Saving the most evil until last.  Try and beat the enigmatic 'M' in his favourite game - Marienbad.  There are four piles of sticks and players take turns to remove any number of sticks from one pile (but only one pile at a time). The player who is forced to pick up the last stick is the loser.

It starts off easy.  Pick any number of sticks from one row.

And then you get defeated.

Over and over again.

When you get bored of being humiliated by 'M', do check out the rest of the SmartKit website. There are dozens of games to play.  One of my favourites being Rightbot, leftbot.

A very simple game that gets very challenging quickly.  in this game you push the robots using the corresponding buttons.  Each robot can only move in one direction when activated, but they can push each other as well.  Introduce a few teleporters and obstacles and you have a very challenging game.

Th..th..th..that's all folks.
If you are still awake and you managed to scroll this far without it just happening in your sleep then you might be interested in some of our other geeky posts:

Five games to get you thinking today - more puzzles for geeks.
Weird particle art thingums - doesn't the name say it all?
Ways to waste time on the Internet
or, if you just want to play an adventure game, check out:
Have Spell Will Travel.
See you next time for more geeky stuff.

Hacking a JavaScript text adventure game 05

<< First  < Previous

Continuing with our short series on creating a JavaScript adventure game.  Today we will look at creating a few more features and put them all together into a longer demo.

1. Download the files
2. The CSS
3. Adding reminders
4. "The Astonishing Cave of Unimaginable Horror."

1. Download the files

You will need a copy of three files to use this example.  Download now.

The files are:
index.html (this is the code for the main page)
flags.json (this code keeps track of the various flags used in the game)
script.json (this code keeps all of the adventure game - the options and paragraphs of text).


2. The CSS

We first looked at the CSS in the third post.  In this version I have added some more CSS rules to make the adventure game look at little better.

The adventure game running in Microsoft's Edge browser.

This is intended to be an example only.  I am no self-confessed expert at CSS and you will no doubt want to experiment with the CSS code to make it look exactly as you want, however you will agree that it looks a lot better for the face lift.


3. Adding reminders

I thought that it would be useful to have reminders appear on screen to help you remember whether you have found certain items or not.  For example, in this demo game you can find a (somewhat useless) key.

The first step in this process was to record some new attributes for each flag.  Open the flags.json file and take a look.

Each flag now has a 'show'attribute.  If the value is set to 'true' then the description will be displayed on the right-hand-side of the screen.  Furthermore when you hover over the description a longer description held in 'text' will appear as a hint.  Some flags are used to control whether the play has already completed an action (so that option is not given again) and so not all the flags should be displayed in the reminders.

The JavaScript code to make this work looks like this:

It starts on line 148, and it does the following:

Create a new list of reminders.
For each flag:
    If the flag is on and the flag should be displayed
        Add the description to the list
        Add the 'text' as hover text
Put the new list into the html of the thing called 'infoContainer'. (You can see infoContainer on line 176)


4. The Astonishing Cave of Unimaginable Horror

The demo adventure is rather short, but it does show off all of the things that you can do using this code.

The adventure starts at the bottom of a deep hole.

Not much to do here other than accept your fate and press 'OK' (it's a bit like downloading Windows 10 updates in that respect)

Shortly you are given some options:

By investigating the running water you will discover that you are at the bottom of a wishing well.  There is some gold you can grab here, but once you have this option shouldn't be presented again.  Notice how there is a flag that will prevent this option being displayed again.

Soon you find an object...

By searching the unfortunate victim from a little earlier on you will discover a bronze key.   Notice how we set a flag to appear as a 'reminder'.  Also, the option to try the bronze key in the iron padlock is now displayed.  Try to visit this location without the key - the option will not be given.

Actually, the bronze key is not the correct key for the iron padlock (presumably you need an iron key?) and the key will get stuck. Line 108 in the script.json file controls this behaviour:

Trying the wrong key in the lock is not a good plan.  When you do flag 3 (the key) is turned off.  You should see that the key is removed from your list of objects in the 'reminders' section.

The code for turning flags off is dealt with on line 92 in index.html.


Well that's enough for now.  Maybe I will continue with this series in the future and add a few more features - such as a combat system for dealing with the sleeping beastie to the west.

For now, I hope you enjoyed this brief JavaScript tutorial and you found it easy enough to create your own games.


Bored already?

You might like to play a longer JavaScript adventure game - see Have Spell will Travel, or read all about it on this blog.

Before I go I should point out that the images used in this tutorial come from the brilliant duo: Lorc Delapuite from Game Icons

Hacking a JavaScript text adventure game 4

<< First < Previous

Continuing our JavaScript adventure game series.  Today we will add a scoring system.

1. Downloading the files
2. Adding the scoring system

1. Downloading the files
You will need a copy of three files to use this example.  Download now.

The files are:
index.html (this is the code for the main page)
flags.json (this code keeps track of the various flags used in the game)
script.json (this code keeps all of the adventure game - the options and paragraphs of text).

2. Adding the scoring system

We are going to add a scoring system so reading certain paragraphs will reward you will points.

Here we have added a 'Gold' counter to keep track of the score, but this could really be anything, and of course, the counter could count up or down, and you could have multiple counters if this makes sense in your game.

Here on line 49 we've added a new variable to keep track of the 'Gold'.  It starts at 0.

Line 61 adds the gold found at a location to the current score.  Note that this will run every time you visit a location whether you intend to or not.  Currently the game cannot detect whether you have visited a location before or not.

Here I have gone into the script file and added a new attribute for each location.  Each location now has an amount of gold associated with it.  Notice that this is used on line 61 of the main program?

Line 64 changed so that the current gold value is displayed onscreen under the title.

A little CSS to make things look a little nicer.


That's all for today. - Next time we'll make a longer example program; add some more CSS to make things pretty and have some reminders so you know what objects you have found so far.  See you there.