Note: There is no gameplay mechanic revolving around the blocks turning red after they stop moving, this is just something that the Box2D API does to let the developer know that objects are “sleeping” (not being simulated anymore).

As you can see, the player’s goal is to clear every level by creating words with the letters provided (for the prototype I created nine levels). One thing that is worth pointing out is that the player has the choice of completing a level in whatever fashion the player chooses, as long as the player clears out all the letters in the level by typing in valid words. For example, in level seven the letters falling down consist of “c”, “o”, “m”, “p”, “u”, “t”, “e”, and “r”. So the player can complete the level by either typing in “computer”, or by typing in “mop” and then typing in “cuter”.

I plan to expand more on the gameplay by working with a game designer, since it feels like it needs a bit more “fun” in order for it to not just be Scrabble with physics. This is also the first time I have used the Box2D API to develop a Flash game, and I must say, it’s turning out quite well so far .

Feel free to comment on the game, I’m also open to suggestions on gameplay or anything in general related to the game.

The basic premise of the exercise was to design a board game in which you are either “running towards something or running away from something” in 15 minutes. I chose to create my game in the “running towards” category, though I’m sure it could be easily changed to be a “running away from” game, and this is what I came up with.

Title: Ice Mountain

Goal: Be the first to climb to the top of the icy mountain.

Player representation: Mountain climbers

Number of players: 2 to 4

Game bits: Board, 6-sided die, mountain climber tokens

Board:

Rules: All players start by being positioned on the starting square (S). All players will roll a 6-sided die once to determine turn order, with the highest roll being first, second highest second, and so on. After order is determine, players take turns rolling a 6-sided die and moving that many squares forward. The game is over when one player lands exactly on the final square (F).

Game mechanics

• Get out of my way! (Getting knocked down by other players): If a player’s turn ends by landing on the same square as another opposing player(s) , have the player whose turn just ended  roll again and move the opposing player(s) that many squares back.
• You went too far! (Falling off the top of the mountain): As stated in the rules, a player must land exactly on the final square (F) in order to win. If a player rolls the die and goes past the final square (F), have the player go back the number of squares he went over, using the final square (F) as the starting position.
• Avalanche! (Being in the wrong place at the wrong time): When ever there are three consecutive rolls of the die with the same result (e.g. player one rolls 5, then player two rolls 5, then player three rolls 5) an avalanche occurs. If the number that is rolled consecutively is 1, 2, or 3 the avalanche will happen on the left side of the mountain, if the number is 4,5, or 6 the avalanche will happen on the right side of the mountain. If a player is on the side of the mountain were the avalanche occurred, that player must move SOUTH exactly one square. If there is no square south of the player’s location, the player is moved to the starting square (S).

That’s it! It felt pretty good sitting down and designing a game withouth having to think about how it was going to be programmed . Looking forward to level 2 on Thursday!

In the clip below he’s talking about how everyone should experience some level entrepreneurship. Through out his talk he really pushes the idea of dropping out of college to start your own company.

I highly recommend anyone who has any sort of passion for what they do to check out his full talk, it’s inspirational, funny, and one of the most motivating talks I ever listened to.

Joe Liemandt’s full talk on entrepreneurship (contains video and mp3): http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1446

Another great talk that is also a must watch, and has the same take away message as Joe Liemandt’s talk,  is Steve Job’s 2005 Stanford commencement address.

As you can see it isn’t a whole lot, just a bunch of boxes falling down, but damn does it look good .

Here is the source code for the project

package
{
	import Box2D.Collision.b2AABB;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.b2PolygonDef;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.b2Vec2;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.b2Body;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.b2BodyDef;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.b2DebugDraw;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.b2World;
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
	import flash.ui.Keyboard;
	import fl.controls.Button;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;

	/**
	 * Final result of Todd Kerpelman's chapter 1 box2d video tutorial
	 * (http://www.kerp.net/box2d/).
	 * The code here is pretty much line for line from Kerpelman's tutorial
	 * I added a small modification so the simulation may be restarted when
	 * the user clicks the restart button in the top left of the screen.
	 * @author Edgar Miranda
	 */
	public class HelloBoxWorld extends MovieClip
	{

		protected var _world:b2World;

		// Ratio of pixels to meters
		public static const RATIO:Number = 40;

		// Number of frames until we launch another crate
		private var _nextCrateIn: int;

		// Button to restart simulation
		public var restartButton: Button;

		public function HelloBoxWorld()
		{
			// 1. Set up the world
			setupWorld();
			// 2. Creating walls and floor
			createWallsAndFloor();

			setupDebugDraw();

			_nextCrateIn = 0;

			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, newFrameEvent);

			// Put the restart button on the top most index
			// so it isn't covered by the falling crates
			addChild(restartButton);

			// Event listener in order to restart
			// simulation when the restart button is pressed
			restartButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onRestartButtonClick)
		}

		private function onRestartButtonClick(e: MouseEvent): void {

			// Remember that the world counts as one body so you
			// want to remove bodies until there is only one body left
			while (_world.GetBodyCount() > 1) {
				_world.DestroyBody(_world.GetBodyList());
			}

			// recreate the walls again
			createWallsAndFloor();

			// set to default value
			_nextCrateIn = 0;
		}

		private function setupDebugDraw():void
		{
			var spriteToDrawOn:Sprite = new Sprite();
			addChild(spriteToDrawOn);

			var artistForHire:b2DebugDraw = new b2DebugDraw();
			artistForHire.m_sprite = spriteToDrawOn;
			artistForHire.m_drawScale = RATIO;
			artistForHire.SetFlags(b2DebugDraw.e_shapeBit);
			artistForHire.m_lineThickness = 2.0;
			artistForHire.m_fillAlpha = 0.6;

			_world.SetDebugDraw(artistForHire);
		}

		private function newFrameEvent(e:Event):void
		{
			_world.Step( 1.0 / 30, 10);

			// Every few frames, until a certain numer of crates have been added
			if (_nextCrateIn-- <= 0 && _world.m_bodyCount < 80) {

				// add a random create to the world
				addARandomCrate();
				_nextCrateIn = 1;
			}

			//trace("Falling crate is at", _fallingCrate.GetPosition().x, ",", _fallingCrate.GetPosition().y);
		}

		private function addARandomCrate():void
		{
			// Add a falling block to the world.
			var fallingCrateDef:b2PolygonDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			fallingCrateDef.SetAsBox(randomInt(5, 40) / RATIO, randomInt(5, 40) / RATIO);
			fallingCrateDef.friction = 0.8;
			fallingCrateDef.restitution = 0.3;
			fallingCrateDef.density = 0.7;

			// Set it to, 250, -30
			var fallingBodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			fallingBodyDef.position.Set(randomInt(15, 530) / RATIO, randomInt(-100, -10) / RATIO);
			fallingBodyDef.angle = randomInt(0,360) * Math.PI / 180;

			var fallingCrate:b2Body = _world.CreateBody(fallingBodyDef);
			fallingCrate.CreateShape(fallingCrateDef);
			fallingCrate.SetMassFromShapes();

		}

		// Return a random number between lowVal and highVal, INCLUSIVE
		private function randomInt(lowVal:int, highVal:int): int
		{
			if (lowVal <= highVal) {
				return (lowVal + Math.floor(Math.random() * (highVal - lowVal + 1)));
			}else
			{
				throw(new Error("OMG! Wrong values passed to randomInt!!"));
			}
		}

		private function createWallsAndFloor():void
		{
			// Create the shape (polygon) definition
			var bigLongShapeDef: b2PolygonDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			bigLongShapeDef.vertexCount = 4;
			b2Vec2(bigLongShapeDef.vertices[0]).Set(0 / RATIO, 0 / RATIO);
			b2Vec2(bigLongShapeDef.vertices[1]).Set(550 / RATIO, 0 / RATIO);
			b2Vec2(bigLongShapeDef.vertices[2]).Set(550 / RATIO, 10 / RATIO);
			b2Vec2(bigLongShapeDef.vertices[3]).Set(0 / RATIO, 10 / RATIO);
			bigLongShapeDef.friction = 0.5;
			bigLongShapeDef.restitution = 0.3;
			bigLongShapeDef.density = 0.0;

			// Create the body definition
			var floorBodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			floorBodyDef.position.Set(0 / RATIO, 390 / RATIO);

			// Create the body
			var floorBody:b2Body = _world.CreateBody(floorBodyDef);

			// Create the shape
			floorBody.CreateShape(bigLongShapeDef);
			floorBody.SetMassFromShapes();

			var tallSkinnyShape:b2PolygonDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			tallSkinnyShape.SetAsBox( 5 / RATIO, 195 / RATIO);
			tallSkinnyShape.friction = .5;
			tallSkinnyShape.restitution = 0.3;
			tallSkinnyShape.density = 0.0;

			var wallBodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			wallBodyDef.position.Set(5 / RATIO, 195 / RATIO);

			var leftWall:b2Body = _world.CreateBody(wallBodyDef);
			leftWall.CreateShape(tallSkinnyShape);
			leftWall.SetMassFromShapes();

			wallBodyDef.position.Set(545 / RATIO, 195 / RATIO);
			var rightWall:b2Body = _world.CreateBody(wallBodyDef);
			rightWall.CreateShape(tallSkinnyShape);
			rightWall.SetMassFromShapes();

			//trace("My world now has", _world.m_bodyCount, "bodies in it! Wow!");
		}

		private function setupWorld():void
		{
			// 1. Set up the size of the universe
			var universeSize:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			universeSize.lowerBound.Set( -3000 / RATIO, -3000 / RATIO);
			universeSize.upperBound.Set( 3000 / RATIO, 3000 / RATIO);			

			// 2. Define gravity
			var gravity: b2Vec2 = new b2Vec2(0, 9.8);

			// 3. Ignore sleeping objects
			var ignoreSleeping:Boolean = true;

			_world = new b2World(universeSize, gravity, ignoreSleeping);

			//trace("My world has", _world.GetBodyCount(), "bodies in it!");
		}

	}

}

You can get the Zip file containing all the project resources (source code, FLA, FlashDevelop project file) by clicking the link below.

Box2dChapter1_EdgarMirandadotnet.zip

My next goal is to finish up chapter 2, which is a bit longer then chapter 1 (50 lessons instead of 22). I’m currently on chapter 2 lesson 4, and I’m aiming to do around 5-10 lessons a day. I find it it’s easier to learn if I do about an hour or so of lessons each day instead of doing the whole batch in a day or two, there is also so much I can take of just watching video tutorials all day .

Look out for my final result for chapter 2!

As far as what new content I put into the site, here is a short list…

• New Portfolio page
• New Resume Page: page contains my resume in HTML format along with a downloadable Microsoft Word and PDF format
• Slightly modified About page
• New Contact page

Feel free to contact me via the contact page if you spot any odd errors around the site!

Here are some of the main points I took away from Terrill’s talk

• Developers are making $10k-$30k a day.
• Zynga current takes in revenue from the following: 30%  ads, 30%  microtransactions, 30%  Super rewards (e.g. sign up for Netflix and get 10,000 gold). There was no mention of the missing 10%.
• Zynga is willing to consider buying a Facebook game application if it has 200,000 daily active users or more.
• If you are going to put your flash game up on a social network, don’t just embed it as an application! Incorporate social aspects into it.
• Most games shouldn’t have real-time multiplayer (unless it’s a game like poker), try to incorporate a style of play similar to e-mail chess .
• If you do decide to incorporate real-time multiplayer, make sure the user is able to play with strangers and not just their friends.
• The platform is social, people log in 4-6 times a day to play a game for 5 minutes each time.
• Status is important, let the user be on stage, ranking vs. friends.
• Gender: Competition vs cooperation, a grooming game makes for a cooperation experience.
• Recipient loop (Gifts): You send a gift to a friend, they send you a gift back to you and to their other friends. Good example of this is Little Green Patch (http://apps.facebook.com/greentrees).

This has given me great motivation to work on my current project Grid[z]. I been putting in a lot of work into it for the past couple of weeks, and I think it’s almost up to the point were my partner (http://www.parrisstudios.com/) and I have a leader board and a fully functional game. It’s currently being testing by friends and I plan to have it up ASAP and hopefully get my taste of Facebook success.

Check out the Grid[z] beta on Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/gridzzz/.

I will be attending the 1st annual Flash Game Summit (http://www.flashgamingsummit.com/). Finally something that is geared towards the flash game dev community! Can’t wait to mingle with all the developers!