The Factory

Play online: Newgrounds, Mindjolt (in Facebook), Mochimedia (and many more!).
Download: Direct Download (298Kb) (swf from Mochimedia).
Requirements: Pentium IV 1GHz, 64M RAM, 480×640 16 bits videocard, soundcard.
Code: the_factory.zip (all the '.as' files, but not the '.fla').
Tools used: Flash CS3.
More Info: Great Games Experiment, Newgrounds.
The second project I develop all by my own (except for the music). As most of my games, this one was also a learning experiment. I wanted to continue working with AS3 and to try out a physics library (Box2D), but more importantly, to get a feel on how most flash games make a profit (viral distribution, Mochiads, sponsorships, etc). Actually, I think that promoting this game and making adjustments to be hosted at certain sites took roughly the same time, if not more, than the actual development which took about 2-3 weeks (not fully into it). The response was better than I initially predicted, being front-paged at Newgrounds, getting some sponsorships and having over half a million plays in more than 650 hosts (according to Mochibots).


Fourjas (4 jointly-aligned squares)

Download: Direct Download (68Kb).
Requirements: Pentium IV 1GHz, 64M RAM, 480×640 16 bits videocard, soundcard.
Code: fourjas.zip
Tools used: Java, Eclipse.
More Info: Great Games Experiment.
A small falling blocks puzzle, similar to Tetris Attack (or Panel de Pon). Made intermittently during about 5-6 weeks, with the purpose of learning Java.
This was the first game I did completely on my own. As I'm not much of an artist, I decided to keep it simple and generate all the graphics inside the game. I'm pleased with the result, except for the title/credit screen which looks kind of dull.


Mi Pueblito (Mi Little Town)

Download: Direct Download (12.5Mb).
Requirements: Pentium IV 1.5GHz, 128M RAM, 800×600 16 bits videocard, soundcard.
Code: Included with the game (it's the '.cs' files).
Tools used: Torque Game Builder, Codeweaver.
More Info: Great Games Experiment.
Created along with by my brother Oscar, and featuring music from my friend Chris (aka "Waterflame"), to compete at Creanimax 2007. We thought on doing something easy to create and play, but that would also provide some amusement and entertainment.
We ended up with small game similar to a “Whack-a-Mole”, but with a twist. Instead of hitting an object when it appears, the goal is to break apart fights between villagers.
We chose to use Torque Game Builder, as I wanted to try out a "game maker" and we thought it would fasten development. And it's a nice tool, but it's probably not a good idea to use a new tool when having less than a week to finish!
We didn't win anything at Creanimax, but somehow it was selected as a finalist at the 3rd Annual IndieGame Developers Showcase and got a mention as "totally cool" pick at GarageGames blog.


Campo de Batalla (Battlefield)

Download: Text Version (44Kb), Contest Version (15.8Mb).
Requirements: Pentium III 700MHz, 64M RAM, 800×600 16 bits videocard, soundcard.
Code: Text Version, Contest Version, Precalculation.
Tools used: Allegro, FMOD, Dev-C++, Dev-Pas, Visual C#.
More Info: Great Games Experiment.
The idea for this project was to have a simple AI contest along with the local ICPC contest at my university, back in 2004. Recently (April 2008) I refactored the code, fixed some bugs and made a new precalculation program in C#. The goal is simple: kill as many opponents without being killed; but instead of playing directly, the tanks are controlled by another program (which you get to code!).
As we (Oscar and I) had only 2 weeks to finish it, most of the images were taken from games or other sources, and later modified to fit our needs. The songs were also commercial ones we liked, except one which is from a friend's band.
We made two versions of the game. The first one is in text mode, so the participants would have something to test their programs with. The other version is the one used at the contest and runs in two parts: first a program runs all the battles and saves them in a file; afterwards, another program reads the file and displays the battles. So, as a professor said, you're just watching the rerun :P.


Ophedrys (Nibbles Clone)

Download: Direct Download (36.5Mb).
Requirements: Pentium II 300MHz, 64M RAM, 480×640 16 bits videocard, soundcard.
Code: N/A (we lost it :( ).
Tools used: Allegro, FMOD, Dev-C++.
More Info: Great Games Experiment.
A game we (Oscar and I) made in the summer vacations between fourth and fifth semester (2002) for a state software development contest. We finished in second place, being the only game at the finals.
The images were mostly made from ground up, although we also used some SNES sprites significantly modified by my brother. The music, on the other hand, was just picked from commercial songs we liked.
The game tends to go too fast (particularly the intro and the credits), as the timing was handled by delays and we only tested on our computer (yeah, we learned from that). Also, in some computers it crashes at the start of the first level (no idea why). Unfortunately, as we lost the source code, we couldn't fix those issues later.


Space Invaders clone

Download: Direct Download (191Kb).
Requirements: Pentium II 300MHz, 16M RAM, 320×240 16 bits videocard.
Code: space_invaders.pas.
Tools used: Turbo Pascal, PSE.
My very first game! (Well, not counting the ones that were text-based). Developed along with my brother Oscar for our Pascal programming class in second semester (2001). As our first game, it's not very good (to put it kindly) and I have it here mostly for the nostalgia.
The game is a basic Space Invaders clone, with only one level which is repeated endlessly until the player loses all of his lives. It also keeps record of the points earned in each play in a text file. Most, if not all, of the sprites were taken from several SNES games and later edited to fit our needs; and the tunnel effect between levels was taken from a program made by bca that can be found here.
As this game was made in TP7, it cannot be normally run on machines faster than ~300 MHz due to a bug in the compiler. However, I’ve been able to play it through DOS emulators (such as DOSBox).


© Pier Paolo Guillen Hernandez
World of πer