We are Birds of Borg Resistance Is Futile You Will Be Assimilated
We are Borg. We are one mind. We all fly in the same direction. We are directed by left and right cursor keys (or A and D). We are strongest attacking together. We regenerate when we are not under attack. We are in the internet. If we choose to do so. We are green. Prey ist gray. Other Borg are colored differently. We will assimilate them. All of them.
Birds of Borg is a HTML5 web game written with phaser with a node.js/express/socket.io based server, both client and server written from scratch. It's best to be played with Chrome (also tested in Firefox). It has a single player mode with AI opponents, and there is an internet based multiplayer variant for 2 to 5 borgs. Due to time constraints the node server only supports trivial match making, as soon as enough players enter the same mode (2 players up to 5 players), a new game is started. I have no idea how well the node server scales, please bear with me that a 48h multiplayer game isn't completely tuned ;-)
The "growing" theme was supposed to be supported as well, but I'd rather wanted to submit a reasonably working game than one with the game design changed in the last minute... It is 2 button only, though!
Have fun, and vote!
21.12.2015 Update: I updated the server to notify visitors about potential multiplayer games in order to increase their possibility; as the game hasn't changed at all, I consider this to be within the rules.
Well done, interesting gameplay. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to try it multiplayer, but still a very interesting experience.
Few thoughts: * there are too many obstacles, birds are not able to fly smoothly, which makes the first impression of being trapped * it's better to separately mention controls, outside of the long text (nobody reads long texts) - they're hard to notice. I've found them from the second try. * some background music (even simplest, generated) would set a mood and fill silence.
@dekart: regarding your points (thoughts greatly appreciated!): * The many obstacles are actually by intention - I tried with less, birds flock too much then so it's getting difficult to kill any at all without being killed oneself * For the controls I could add a splash screen on "Ready/Set/Go" on first time invocation - already wanted to do that, but time didn't permit * Yes, background music would be awesome. Didn't have time, didn't check the tools, etc. pp. There's a hum in the background, repeating every 3 seconds, but maybe its volume is too low.
Nice work. I will say the sound effects in the beginning were quite jarring, especially when I didn't know what was going on. But once I figured it out, the game was actually quite fun. I enjoyed it! Nice work on doing multiplayer too!
Thanks for all the positive feedback :-) Will check your games in the coming days, too!
@Trasevol_Dog: Hey, good idea! Hand-designed levels would be a definite plus. The screen is actually procedurally generated, but only by very simple means. I had more ideas, but again, it was lack of time for implementing these... @Jupiter_Hadley: Great, good to see that :-)
Very, very neat idea! I think this has a lot of potential. As it is currently, I think the chaos of the initial melee makes it feel luck-based instead of skill-based. If I survive the initial melee with more birds than my opponents, I win. The AI is also probably over-aggressive. But these are pretty minor points: on the whole, this is a very neat, very original game. Thanks!
Oh man, this is awesome. Saw it on Jupiter Hadley's channel and had to give it a go. I feel the one thing this game is missing is some kind of objective to fight over, otherwise the dominant strategy seems to be running away and letting the other AIs fight it out. Also wondering if you've tried boids flocking algorithm? Could make it feel more natural.
@timeshapers: can't do standard boids flocking, because the birds all fly in the same direction... There is a (rather sophisticated) flocking algorithm in place, I just didn't ramp it up too much, you should basically do the flocking yourself by running some birds into walls and letting the birds further away close up :-) Unfortunately, the AI isn't that... smart yet. All AIs should actually team up against you, but it doesn't always work that way...
And yes, it's really a shame that everybody tries the game at different times, so you can't find somebody to play with ;-) I'll probably update the server to show an estimated number of players looking at the landing page, so you can estimate whether there's a chance that someone will play a multiplayer game with you...
I updated the server to notify visitors about potential multiplayer games in order to increase their possibility; as the game hasn't changed at all, I consider this to be within the rules. I also added a Readme and a License to the source distribution.
Very well made. Feels and sounds a lot like a classic arcade game. Only thing I would think is a drawback is the collision with the blocks. It felt too "sticky" to me, and I think they should slide a bit more along them so I felt like I still had some control even though they were slowed down. Great job.
Comments32
Few thoughts:
* there are too many obstacles, birds are not able to fly smoothly, which makes the first impression of being trapped
* it's better to separately mention controls, outside of the long text (nobody reads long texts) - they're hard to notice. I've found them from the second try.
* some background music (even simplest, generated) would set a mood and fill silence.
@dekart: regarding your points (thoughts greatly appreciated!):
* The many obstacles are actually by intention - I tried with less, birds flock too much then so it's getting difficult to kill any at all without being killed oneself
* For the controls I could add a splash screen on "Ready/Set/Go" on first time invocation - already wanted to do that, but time didn't permit
* Yes, background music would be awesome. Didn't have time, didn't check the tools, etc. pp. There's a hum in the background, repeating every 3 seconds, but maybe its volume is too low.
Will check your games in the coming days, too!
@Trasevol_Dog: Hey, good idea! Hand-designed levels would be a definite plus.
The screen is actually procedurally generated, but only by very simple means. I had more ideas, but again, it was lack of time for implementing these...
@Jupiter_Hadley: Great, good to see that :-)
actually its a good idea, srsly! fun game!! will you continue the dev?
@mockthebear: I plan to, but life is pretty tight with time slots ATM. I will post updates if I do.
Actually, the way the game was originally planed (and not executed due to time restrictions) would have felt less luck-based. I guess.
Nice simple but neat graphics, cool retro sounds and nice controls.
Had a look at your timelapse video also, thanks for sharing :D
I feel the one thing this game is missing is some kind of objective to fight over, otherwise the dominant strategy seems to be running away and letting the other AIs fight it out.
Also wondering if you've tried boids flocking algorithm? Could make it feel more natural.
There is a (rather sophisticated) flocking algorithm in place, I just didn't ramp it up too much, you should basically do the flocking yourself by running some birds into walls and letting the birds further away close up :-)
Unfortunately, the AI isn't that... smart yet. All AIs should actually team up against you, but it doesn't always work that way...
And yes, it's really a shame that everybody tries the game at different times, so you can't find somebody to play with ;-)
I'll probably update the server to show an estimated number of players looking at the landing page, so you can estimate whether there's a chance that someone will play a multiplayer game with you...
I also added a Readme and a License to the source distribution.