Burning Platform by dr_soda

[raw]
made by dr_soda for LD23 (COMPO)
Created *ENTIRELY* on an Asus Transformer tablet. Yo dawg, I heard you like Androids, so I made a game on my Android so you can put it on your Android.



Butchery of memes aside...

--Description--
Your friends are stuck on a burning platform. Tilt your device around to keep them from falling off. Pick up items to stop the burning temporarily, rebuild the platform, or have one of your friends make a daring escape.

--Tools used:--
AIDE - A Java IDE for compiling Android apps.
Pixelesque - A paint style app for Android.
Plasma Sound - A theremin app.
SPC - A beatbox app.
TapeMachine - A post process sound editor.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.89 477
Audio 3.00 216
Fun 2.63 540
Graphics 2.40 682
Humor 1.96 568
Innovation 3.48 177
Mood 2.30 664
Theme 2.47 695

Feedback

Beanalby
23. Apr 2012 路 06:22 UTC
Didn't expect to see an android app here. :) Drawing walls seemed extremely short lived to the point that they couldn't be useful, interesting use of tilting to maintain multiple objects though.
aaronsnoswell
23. Apr 2012 路 06:55 UTC
The walls are far to short lived, but otherwise an interesting concept!
aaronsnoswell
23. Apr 2012 路 06:55 UTC
How did you make this on your transformer - I'm intrigued. Does it run some cut-down version of eclipse? Or did you just write code on the transformer, then copy it to a PC to compile the app? Either way, this is amazing and I want to know more!
馃帳 dr_soda
23. Apr 2012 路 07:02 UTC
aaronsnowswell: My IDE was an app called AIDE, available on Google Play. Not only is it a Java editor with autocomplete, code highlighting, refactoring, and the like but it also comes with an Android SDK compiler so no I did not have to transfer anything to a PC to compile it.

AIDE has dropbox built in, which I used to get prototype apks off the tablet long enough to pass them around to friends and upload them to my website for previews. It also has Git integration but I have not tried it.

My one wrinkle was that in order to put the apk on Google Play I needed a unique keystore, and that I had to generate on my laptop. Once I had that though, I tossed it onto the Transformer and used that to sign the apk and Google Play was happy.

If you would like a Linux terminal experience on your Android device you might also like Terminal IDE. It too comes with a Java compiler, as well as a c compiler and Vim.
neosam
23. Apr 2012 路 07:47 UTC
Nice Idea! Luckily I bought a android phone two weeks ago :)
Wampus
23. Apr 2012 路 09:28 UTC
Very hard but interesting gameplay. Its great that this was made entirely on an Android device.
angrygeometry
23. Apr 2012 路 20:52 UTC
well i don't have an android phone so i can't play, but nice work making a game entirely on a tablet man.
ben
23. Apr 2012 路 21:57 UTC
Wish i could play, respect though for making a game only available on the least accessible platform :]
RiamuDiMentis
23. Apr 2012 路 22:12 UTC
I found it kinda hard to play. But it worked great on my phone, cool game! And, as has been already mentioned, the lines aren't useful.
@daniel_sundberg
23. Apr 2012 路 22:13 UTC
Coolness, I love the retro feeling :)
@daniel_sundberg
23. Apr 2012 路 22:15 UTC
Downloaded and enjoyed on my Galaxy Nexus, AIDE sounds totally awesome, cudos and all that for doing it while staying on platform! :)
Fireblend
24. Apr 2012 路 05:16 UTC
Pretty neat! I love the strategies one begins coming up with after a few rounds. The line drawing mechanic is a nice idea, although sometimes my lines either do nothing, or have the opposite effect on the moving thingies. Impressive work getting this done from scratch on an Android tablet!
quickfingers
24. Apr 2012 路 16:41 UTC
sorry no android phone
devwil
24. Apr 2012 路 20:37 UTC
***I'm posting this on all non-browser games I bring up in an attempt to encourage folks to make browser games next time around. Do not take it personally.***

When hundreds of people make non-browser games, that means that, to play all of the entries, I would need to download hundreds of games to my computer. I typically use OS X, so Windows-only entries are particularly inconvenient.

Please consider making a browser game next time.
Jacic
24. Apr 2012 路 21:08 UTC
I wish I had an android so I could play... Maybe next time! :)
Julian Ceipek
24. Apr 2012 路 22:38 UTC
Unfortunately, I don't have an android tablet.
Serilyn
25. Apr 2012 路 03:13 UTC
It ran nicely on my G2. Really neat that you wrote it using only android. Like others said, the walls were too short lived to really be usable.
Spiridios
25. Apr 2012 路 03:31 UTC
Fairly hard to last very long, and I couldn't make the walls do much. But I'm quite impressed that you managed to do all this from within Android!
cjke.7777
25. Apr 2012 路 06:28 UTC
Couldn't play, no anroid
robcozzens
25. Apr 2012 路 08:38 UTC
I would have tried it if it had a web or osx version.
gritfish
25. Apr 2012 路 12:32 UTC
To be honest, I don't see how it relates to the theme... but I have incredible respect for the constraints you put on yourself for this. The game's stable, looks okay, controls well. Would be nice if the walls stayed for a while? After a minute I was just flailing wildly..

What was it like going android only? Would you do it again?
piman
25. Apr 2012 路 12:42 UTC
Very difficult to play on my T8300 - lines do not draw, or cut out halfway through.
馃帳 dr_soda
25. Apr 2012 路 13:29 UTC
gritfish - The ways in which it relates to the theme

1. The game world is incredibly small.
2. It shrinks by the second.
3. The view area also is small given the nature of the platform. It literally fits in your hand
馃帳 dr_soda
25. Apr 2012 路 13:34 UTC
piman : I suspect it's two things in particular. Particle effects and line nodes. I think I'll cut those both down.

To everyone, I agree that the lines feel like they disappear to quickly. I hope to address this in a post compo build, which will unfortunately have to wait until after the competition is over.
envy3d
26. Apr 2012 路 04:11 UTC
That was fun but reeaaally difficult.
Topaz
26. Apr 2012 路 11:51 UTC
Sorry, don't have Android. But it looks good anyway :)
AirRider3
26. Apr 2012 路 15:23 UTC
Well, I ain't an Android tablet... I hope you had fun creating it!
AlwaysGeeky
26. Apr 2012 路 16:51 UTC
Cool :)
caranha
26. Apr 2012 路 17:22 UTC
Hey Dr. Soda! Thanks for the game, I really liked the music, and the gameplay/pacing is perfect for a mobile platform.

I though that using the walls was a bit hard - It required a lot of precision to make your friends bounce off the walls correctly. Also, I would change the difficulty curve a bit, make the game start a bit easier.

Cheers!
dokidoki
27. Apr 2012 路 01:54 UTC
I can't add much beyond what others have said, but good job and thanks for the info about apps I hadn't seen before.
Jezzamon
28. Apr 2012 路 05:37 UTC
Looks cool but I don't have an android to play it on. :C
Geti
28. Apr 2012 路 06:20 UTC
Dont have an android but this is a cool entry, I should look into getting a tablet like this so I can make games on the go, haha.
joshimoo
28. Apr 2012 路 10:48 UTC
Don't have an android, cannot rate.
summaky
28. Apr 2012 路 13:59 UTC
I find it very difficult to control my friends and I am unable to keep them away from the edges. Also, the walls are near to useless, at least I couldn't make any use of them.
RHY3756547
28. Apr 2012 路 21:19 UTC
Don't have an android device. :X
Niavlys
29. Apr 2012 路 00:58 UTC
On my HTC Wildfire, I had trouble drawing walls. Otherwise, good idea and nice use of the touch screen and accelerometer.
Hazematman
29. Apr 2012 路 05:30 UTC
Very fun! I have to say I really enjoyed this and i'm probably gonna leave it on my phone :P
The one thing I think you can tweak is the difficulty, its a little too hard :P
馃帳 dr_soda
29. Apr 2012 路 06:14 UTC
Hazematman, thank you for the kind words. Those of you who do leave the app on your phone will of course be able to easily get ahold of post-compo revisions when those happen.

Unlike a web game, or a game deployed as an exe, it's not as simple to have a "compo/post-compo" build pair available for download when you're distributing like this. So, once the rating period has ended I'll make available this compo version in archival format and the Google Play link will be the "living" post-compo after the fact.
levelbylevel
29. Apr 2012 路 22:10 UTC
Love that its an android app :) don't see that much. I like it, very difficult but still fun.
mneubrand
30. Apr 2012 路 00:41 UTC
Nice little game. The line concept reminded me on Chalk Ball. The tilt controls and short lived lines can get pretty frustrating sometimes tough.
thynnmas
30. Apr 2012 路 02:54 UTC
Longer lived (or wider, so they'd be easier to hit the friends with) edges would make it a lot deeper (in trying to group them, or get them in one direction), allowing for less frantic gameplay and a bit of tactic. Otherwise, quite enjoyable.
scgrn
01. May 2012 路 03:45 UTC
Nice idea, but I couldn't really get a grasp on the gameplay. Completely awesome that you made it on device!
namuol
02. May 2012 路 00:16 UTC
Definitely too hard for me but really fun while I actually manage to survive! I think maybe if walls just lasted a while longer but you could only have so many at once it'd feel more balanced and less futile. Giant nerd points for doing this all on your transformer!
4urentertainment
03. May 2012 路 17:10 UTC
Alright so I managed to get my hands on an android phone for the promised review, and here it is!

First, let me start by saying that I think it's pretty awesome that you managed to get a game finished on android in just 48 hours! It plays really well! So kudos on that.

As for the game itself, I find the concept pretty nice actually. Having to control two avenues at once in order to keep the boxes from falling. The problem is that it feels a bit too unforgiving.

It's already rather difficult as it is, but the ground progressively gets smaller which makes it very hard. I'm not sure if there's currently a way to win or if it's just survive as long as you can. But either way I think if you tone down the difficulty a bit it could be pretty nice!

A suggestion is to maybe have the lines you draw with your finger last for a few seconds longer. Also I can see how you can build upon this by adding different kinds of boxes, different kinds of powerups. It could totally be a neat little arcade game!
Shadow
06. May 2012 路 04:17 UTC
Great game. Loved the ultra retro look&feel of the game. The concept is also quite innovative (at least for this round of LD). Sometimes I felt like tilting my phone to move the particles in some direction so perhaps you may add a little bit of "gravity" that works by tilting your phone, but it's not THAT strong as to allow you to save your "friends" by only tilting. It's a hard game but I enjoyed it.
Btw, works like a charm on a Galaxy S (GT-I9000B)
jeffz
07. May 2012 路 09:47 UTC
Unfortunately I don't have an android device.
pighead10
07. May 2012 路 11:01 UTC
I don't have an android ;-(
Datamosh
07. May 2012 路 13:31 UTC
Ooow, I don't have an Android phone to test this one. Looks good anyway :)
Sestren
10. May 2012 路 00:04 UTC
I'm very impressed that you were able to code something like this entirely on a tablet for the competition. I'd say that's a pretty nice "meta" way of reinforcing the theme. :D
Will Edwards
11. May 2012 路 09:39 UTC
can we have a link directly to the APK? I'm having trouble getting it onto the phone via Google Play thingy :(
馃帳 dr_soda
11. May 2012 路 13:52 UTC
Will Edwards : I've posted a link to the raw apk, hosted on my site.
tomhunt
13. May 2012 路 20:51 UTC
kudos for making an android game and posting it on google play!