Tag Archives: arkaroid

Breakout clone progress: a level editor!

Fans of Hyper Gauntlet, worry not! I’ve just about fixed MonoDevelop and will be able to fix the remaining bugs soon. Hopefully you’ll get a new version sometime next week.

Over the last week I’ve built a rudimentary level editor for my Breakout clone. You build a grid of empty blocks and click on them to fill them with different coloured ones. It’s simple, but it works, and it all saves to a binary file of roughly ~1KB in size. This means transferring them to and from a server should be easy. So look out for user-created levels in the future!

So here’s what an empty grid looks like.

Empty block array editor

And here it is with a few blocks in it.

Partially filled block array editor

Leading to an eventual pattern like this. Just type in a file name, hit “save” and you’re done.

Filled block array editor

The great thing is that the patterns don’t have to be filled. You can quite easily leave some blank sections to aid you pattern. Additionally you can make them as long as you want. This would be best played in a classical setting, but I aim to have a long-scrolling game type available, similar to how tower defence works.

I hope to have a more in-depth article for you next week, but I’ve been very busy working and playing GODUS. That thing is addictive!

Arkaroid – a Breakout / Tower Defence blend

For the past couple of days, I’ve been unable to work on Hyper Gauntlet because my other job has required that my PC be on 24/7, and my PC needs a restart before Unity will let me debug anything in MonoDevelop, so instead I’ve been working on something brand new behind the scenes. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to Hyper Gauntlet as soon as I can (probably over the next few days), but it’s been nice to work on something a bit different recently, and today in lieu of a dev post, I’d like to announce it.

What is Arkaroid, you ask? Arkaroid is an insane cross between Breakout and tower defence with a little hint of Cookie Clicker thrown in for good measure.

The game takes place in stages. To start with, you will be hard pressed to find any difference between Arkaroid and a normal game of breakout, you’ll have your paddle, your ball and some coloured blocks to break. When you break a block, however, coins will come out. Collect them with your paddle and they’ll be stored for later. After a couple of levels, the blocks will start slowly falling from the top of the screen. If a block passes or hits the paddle, it’s game over!

When you’ve earned enough coins, you can buy your first gun. Guns are upgradable towers that automatically fire at blocks on the screen. You’ll need them to help you take out the tougher and more numerous blocks of the later stages. You can have two guns at any one time. Varying the types of gun used per level will be wise, as some are better-suited to certain situations than others.

Additionally, you’ll be able to upgrade your paddle and ball with both one-off upgrades and temporary, but powerful consumables.

So far, I’ve only been working on Arkaroid for two days, but here’s what it looks like.