This is a port of my windows adaptation of the classic "paper and pen" game Paddocks or Boxes as some know it by.
The Paddix main menu
The Paddix main board
How to play:
Paddix is a 2-player game, each player takes turns building fences between the posts in the main paddock, once all four sides of a smaller paddock have been built, the paddock is claimed by the player that placed the fourth fence and a point is awarded.
Once all the paddocks have been claimed, the game is over with the player that has the most points as the winner.
Controls:
Paddix has 2 modes of control: Gamepad mode and Mouse mode
Gamepad Controls:
Arrow buttons: Move pointer
o/Z / x/X : Build fence
Mouse Controls:
Mouse-movement: Move pointer
Left-Click : Build fence
Gamepad mode is set by default, toggle between modes via the pause menu.
Single-player mode:
By default, Paddix is played with 2 human players however, it can be played against an inbuilt computer-player with the "Player 2" menu option.
The face is the normal human mode, the other options are shown as a microchip with a colored label. The label shows it's skill level. The skill level sets it's likelihood of making a mistake.
Green: Easy, most likely to make a bad move.
Yellow: Normal, it may make a couple of bad moves on a bigger board.
Red: Hard, least likely to make a bad move.
Background effect:
Paddix has a simple bubble-like effect behind the main play field. This effect can be toggled on and off via the pause menu.
Background effect on
Background effect off
Placing fences:
To place a new fence, move the pointer between 2 free posts and press the gamepad button or left-mouse button, the fence will be built. The activation zone is shown below, if the pointer is in the highlighted areas the fence will be placed otherwise it will not.
Customization:
From the main menu, the following settings can be applied:
- Board Width: The number of claimable paddocks in the X direction. (Range 4 - 14)
- Board Height: The number of claimable paddocks in the Y direction. (Range 4 - 12)
- Colors: A predefined set of player color choices.
- Background: A choice of dark colors for the background of the main playfield.
Development:
I made this game in Windows years ago and thought this would be perfect for pico-8, this version takes the same approach as that version did with each grid square (paddock) containing it's four fences, when placed the grid, sections communicate with their neighbors so that the correct enclosure can be applied.
This A.I code is much better at playing Paddix than my old A.I code from the Windows version I wrote years ago, I took one look at it and thought, nah - rewrite!
Version History:
V1.5:
Added: System-menu option to end the current game.
Added: Flowers decal to the grass in the main menu screen, positions random upon each cart boot.
Fixed: Typo in help screen.
V1.4:
Added: Computer A.I player, It's no genius but it will give many players a fair challenge.
Added: Menu item for player 2 type, human (face) or A.I (microchip) with 3 skill settings.
Changed: Player labels in the game now show a face for human player or a microchip for computer player.
V1.3:
Added: Gamepad controls now allow the pointer to wrap around the sides of the board.
Added: Mouse pointer can now move outside the board, the crosshair changes to a red X in a circle when out of bounds.
Added: The crosshair's middle dot now changes to the color of the current player.
Added: The player's score boxes now have colored borders that match their fence colors.
Fixed: Potential to have hidden fences if color of black was chosen with black board color, now the black player color is dark gray.
Fixed: In mouse mode, fence-placing x/o keys could still be used to place fences, it's now mouse left-button only.
Fixed: In gamepad mode, both pico8-player1 and pico8-player2 controls move the pointer and place fences (though both sets can set any player's fence). This may save some hand-swapping or allow for one player to use the keyboard and the other player to use a separate gamepad.
V1.0:
Initial Release.
Credits:
Design: Brendos
Progamming: Brendos
Graphics: Brendos
Label Art: Brendos
Sounds: Brendos
Music: Gruber (Music from pico8 tunes vol-II)
Cool idea, good visuals, but the experience could be much better with some adjustment to the controls :
When playing on a big grid with controller, it's tedious to pass the controller back and forth, and it's almost guaranteed that you'll inadvertently press a button a few times along the way. A "undo last move" in the pause menu would help with that. Also, if a button press puts down a fence and ends the player's turn, future btnp action buttons should not put down walls as long as a full "no button pressed" state is encountered. If the move doesn't end the turn, it's fine to be able to keep the button pressed and move around, collecting a path of squares. It's currently very easy to irremediably mess the grid with fences of both colors when doing so.
An alternate control scheme option using two pads and two onscreen cursors would be much more user friendly. To stop the player who's turn it's not from trolling by obscuring the view, the player who's turn it is should be able to push the other cursor around, and both cursors shouldn't be allowed to overlap.
A P1 mouse P2 controller option might also be nice.
Speaking about mouse control, I see no reason to lock the cursor in the grid, especially when the real mouse cursor is invisible. When passing the mouse to the other player and playing full screen on a small grid, you often end up needing to move the mouse around, hoping to hit the middle area. Either allow the cursor to exit the board, or make make the mouse visible as an arrow when outside the board.
About the game rules, I'm surprised we are not forced to take when possible. Maybe that was just a house rule I was taught in middle school when I used to play that game on grid paper during class and I never knew better ?
Lastly, any plans for player against AI ?
Hi thanks for the feedback, I do plan to add an option for player2 as AI.
With the forced claim rule you mentioned this is not something I'm aware of in the way it's played, I guess theres nothing stopping players agreeing to enforce it as a rule themselves.
I've already updated gamepad controls to be able to wrap around the sides (not updated in this post yet though) and will look into the mouse pointer clipping as well, I'll probbably go with a different shaped crosshair when out of bounds to indicate no play there.
The undo last move option is also interesting and I'll have a look at it.
Lastly, I will most likely add support for 2 controllers but I like only having one pointer, both should be able to move the one.
Cheers
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