Pop-Pop Candies

[b10b]

In a personal effort to return to making games for fun I made a classic Bubble Shooter styled with ... Candies!  The name of the game is POP-POP CANDIES and it is designed to run on mobile and desktop browsers (touch and mouse controls):

http://b10b.com/poppopcandies/

Gameplay:

Enjoy a sweet puzzle as you pop-pop all the candies using strategy and fast reflexes! Featuring 100+ challenging puzzles and marathon endurance levels this colorful Match-3 Puzzle Shooter game will entertain for hours.

Technical:

Made with Haxe + awe6 + CreateJS and designed to run on any device at ~30fps.  Many of the assets originated from royalty free sources.  The level designs mostly came from an open source project called Frozen Bubble, so big thanks to contributors there.  The levels (and star ratings) were sorted based on completion time of a few thousand sample plays.  A level designer might be added later.

This game is available to license from our website: http://b10b.com

[Goblet Ed]

Game looks delicious and works well.

Excellent work! 

Only thing that bugs me a little is how slow the UI elements tween into the screen. Makes the game feel sluggish at those parts.

[erich]

Looks great, very good presentation !

[BdR]

Excellent game, slick graphics and presentation.

Although I would change a few of the candy colors and shaped to make them more distinct. I mean look at the third screenshot in openingpost for example, there's a lot of purple/red and round sprites.

And also, when you shoot and remove the last green candy for example, but there is already one more green candy queued up, then you are forced to bring a non-existent color back in to play which is a little frustrating.

[b10b]

On 11/12/2016 at 1:28 AM, BdR said:

when you shoot and remove the last green candy for example, but there is already one more green candy queued up, then you are forced to bring a non-existent color back in to play which is a little frustrating.

Thanks for your comments all.  I have made, or will make, adjustments in response to each because feedback is so valuable.

@BdR I wanted to ask what you'd suggest for the issue you highlight above.  I know exactly what you mean, and have seen younger players struggle with it at first.  But I also observed that this initial challenge is a principle part of the gameplay arc because overcoming it reveals to the player a strategy necessary for completing the advanced levels (specifically the ability to stack unwanted pieces on to easily destroyable mounts).  So I have so far been unable to figure out whether this is a problem that "should" be solved, and if it should, how?  Thanks.

[BdR]

22 hours ago, b10b said:

So I have so far been unable to figure out whether this is a problem that "should" be solved, and if it should, how?  Thanks.

You're right, it's perfectly okay to leave it because it can be considered part of the gameplay. Actually, every version of Puzzle Bobble (1 through 4) does it the same way as in your game, so potentially leaving you with an unwanted bubble.

It is easily solvable; when moving the next-in-line bubble into the cannon so it's ready to shoot, just before doing this, quickly check which colors are still in the gamearea. If the next-in-line bubble/candy isn't one of those colors quickly change it randomly to one of those colors still in play.

[b10b]

30 minutes ago, BdR said:

... if the next-in-line bubble/candy isn't one of those colors quickly change it randomly to one of those colors still in play.

Yes, we'd need an extra condition that prevents this from being too helpful (e.g. only do this if <3 bubbles on stage).  Or I might make mop-up super simple and spawn bomb as next color when <3 bubbles on stage.  I'll try both and see how they "feel".  Thanks.

[calfromkansas]

Looks great, and plays well too. Good job! 

[Ewald]

Congrats, guys, a game well done. I like the fact that colors do not determine a fast decision, recognizing the shapes makes it a bit of a puzzler in the beginning.