CHANGE LOG
- more accurate collision with tail of wire
- transparent balls so you can see through them
- flashing ball when it can't be burst
- flashing of player after respawn is now faster
- added game score stats screen
- added new bubble sprites from Johan Vinet
- fixed some minor visual issues
WHAT IS THIS?
This is my version of Pang!
STORY
I've been obsessed with this game series by Mitchell Corp ever since the 1990 Atari ST version. I'm currently trying to 100% the Nintendo DS version (it's the best version by far!) though I also love the last arcade version which is called Mighty! Pang.
HOW TO PLAY
Move left and right and fire your harpoon wire.
Split the bubbles into smaller sizes that are worth more points.
Burst bubbles of the same type in sequence to increase your score multiplier.
Discover special bubbles and power-ups.
You have three lives.
...go for the Hi Score!
CONTROLS
cursor left & cursor right = move
cursor up or X = fire harpoon
WIP
There's lots done already, I'm pretty happy with it so far.
Gameplay came quickly. Ever since then I've been polishing and adding details.
TODO
I want to add more special bubbles and some collectible power-ups.
Needs music. SFX and GFX are (probably) placeholders.
NOTES
I will write more about the design and my choices sometime before the end of the jam.
Dude, very nice. Very nice, indeed. Played for quite a while. I think I have seen the arcade version but never played it. This will definitely be a go-to when my PocketCHIP comes.
I'm sure you have long wish list of things already...keep going! One thing that might be nifty but not really a game changer is a background texture instead of the big purple field. Maybe one that changes pattern and colors. Would add some difficulty to later levels too.
Could make do some palette unlocks too for score levels, just for funsies. :)
Awesome!
I'm a huge fan of Pang aswell and this plays very nice.
Thanks guys! I have a big list, and Johan Vinet just sent me some new bubbles sprites. Hopefully he'll have time to do more gfx! Until then I'll experiment with some background patterns.
We have a new baby girl so I can only really code when she's feeding with my wife or sleeping. But I think about the code when I'm not able to code.
this is legit fun. man i love pang.
also never knew there was a ds version...will need to look into that...
@Eduardolicious it was a PAL only release due to publisher problems. But DS was region free so you are good to go! Plus it's super cheap these days - less than £5/$10/€10.
Try Amazon or eBay or I can ship on a copy if you have problems.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PANG-Magical-Michael-Nintendo-DS/dp/B003VM9DDY/
Great game. Never heard of it before, but it's perfect for this format. Might have to have a lookie at the DS version.
You're in for a treat! The DS version has an endless "panic" mode like I have done here, but it also has a tour mode with tons of preset levels that involve as much puzzle solving as they do action, that is if you want to get the gold medal target high scores. All in all I think the DS version has in excess of 100 levels!
I'm travelling for the next few days, so I think I am done with my jam entry for now.
I'll be expanding this game after the jam deadline to include a handful of preset levels in a short "tour" mode. Johan Vinet will also be doing more graphics for the game, which is great news!
Finally, here's a sample of my game over, score summary screen:
T-the ground's not gonna eat me, is it? D:
I have nightmares that start like this, you know.
I never played any of the originals but this has a great look and fun game play. Thanks for making this! I'm totally enjoying this right now.
Thanks! That makes me happy.
Hopefully I get a couple of hours to add one more thing.
Awesome game and nicely done engine! Yeah pang series is great.
At first I was suspicious because of how hard this game was, but with freeze it ended up being nice and fun! Solid game!
It's always difficult to judge difficulty, so I'm happy you find it fun!
It was funny ! But i'm not fonc of scoring system. The classic way to play pang is keeping the bubble number the lowest possibleby avoid hitting the bigger ones. If each bubble score 5*the number of bubble in play for exemple, player will have to take risks to make a big score.
Also if there's no bubble on screen you shuold autolaunch next bubble
Oh and I love the super deformed bounce effect on big bubble.
@benjamin: thanks for your thoughts on scoring! I can talk about this stuff forever. :)
However, the current system (taken from original Pang) already has opportunity to play a risky game.
The way of playing that you refer to as classic is what I would refer to as the beginner way to play: just burst a bubble at random, then burst all bubble that come out of it. Then go for the next bubble and do the same. This is not the clever way to play.
High score and high risk way to play is to split largest balls first, one colour/size at a time, so you reduce the balls in an ordered way from largest to smallest. This makes sure your score multiplier is maxed out as often as possible. Then, you can burst all the red bubbles at maximum multiplier for highest scoring. This for me is the riskiest way to play, and the way I like to play.
Here's the scoring chart from the original Pang, in my version all scores are divided by 10.
In fact, the Nintendo DS version of the game uses this predictable scoring to have tiered goals. It has preset levels of various balls all on screen. It's possible to calculate the maximum score that is possible on this level (playing the risky way) and so they set bronze, silver, gold tiered target scores that you have to aim for. Bronze is easy and can be gotten making many mistakes and playing any way really, silver is a little more difficult, gold can only be achieved by figuring out the way to get around the level (there are platforms and barriers) to get to the largest balls and trim them down neatly. I've not checked but I'd guess the Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers equate to 40/60/80 percent of max score? I hope that makes sense.
Auto launch when there is no bubbles on screen: I agree, I will do something like this. I'd have to look at the original to see exactly how Panic mode works there. I did not have time to do this balancing. If you are good, you start to see holes!
Thanks for your feedback! :D
Very fun, nice looking game! I included it in my Pico-8 Jam #2 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
@JaF thanks!
@Juipter_Hadley thanks for featuring my game Pico Pang! You're pretty good at it. Really happy that you remember the original game. Keep up the great work with your videos.
Very nice Matt. Do you think you'll ever return to this and add levels?
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