Flash

I've started on the Flash program for our game. I'm about 25% the way through but I've got the rough idea down and I can show you guys on the next meeting.

Basically it's an interface that looks like a very very simplified (think stick figures ala Wii) version of Streetfighter/Tekken. There's only 2 characters and a hp bar on screen.

There will be 2 buttons that correspond to each player's mouse.

When clicked, the stick figures will be animated in a simple way (punching the opponent's face) and possibly playing a sound. Some hp will also be knocked off the hp bar.

That's about as far as I got until I discovered one big problem - we can have 2 mice, but there will only be 1 cursor on the screen. -__-

So I thought my whole idea of having 2 buttons to trigger the damage for each character was destroyed until I did a quick Google search and found a trial version of TeamPlayer.

Basically, TeamPlayer is a program that gives each mouse/touchpad/tablet connected to your pc it's own cursor. So there we go! Problem solved.

So I'm thinking our game will be like your typical fighting game - only you can actually physically hit your opponent instead of mashing buttons on a dpad/keyboard!

This also allows freedom of creativity of movement, as you don't have to remember that down+front+punch is a hadoken, you just have to complete the simple task of hitting that button (mouse) - and you can do it however you want!

So now we can express our inner violent selves without actually harming the opponent (this is where the pillows come in) AND have a tangible outcome on screen. (How do you judge who wins a normal pillow fight anyway?)

That said, the Flash program is not done yet, so we may still come across some other problems in the game.

I've got a regular wireless mouse from a friend, and Apple single-button mouse from another friend, and Floyd has kindly agreed to loan us his Apple mouse for our demo. (We still have to go pick it up from him though)

Here's the screencap of the Flash program so far:

As you can see, there are 3 cursors on my screen so that's working well. There's 1 on each hp bar and 1 in the middle. The trial version of TeamPlayer only allows a max of 3 cursors so that's just nice - 2 for the mice on the players and one for us to control the program.

Also, TeamPlayer only runs on Windows OS and not Mac. So that's why I ran the .swf file on Internet Explorer.

Let's meet up tomorrow or Monday to test out the physical part of the game. Preferably Monday, because I'd like some time to finish off the Flash program.