Slashdot Mirror
Snood, the Simple Game
Greg Costikyan has penned a
Snood screed
that bears reading for anyone into game design. I gave Snood a try a couple of years ago when I read that
Woz was hooked
on it. Fun. I've played it on and off since then. But the ninth most popular game in 2001? That's nuts. Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments? Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this (maybe for cell phones)? Or is the engagingly simple game doomed to extinction? M : The Snood-equivalent for Linux is Frozen Bubble.
A RIP OFF of the Bust a move game.
Say what you will about Quake 3 and its tendency to provoke violence in children, but at least people who obsess over it are communicating with other people, albeit over the Internet.
Games like this (and Tetris, and Solitaire, and so many others) are simply antisocial and psychologically crippling. You play for hours, not because you're "enjoying" it, but because your brain is too numbed to stop.
If our legislators had seen these in action, they'd be banning them before they worry about the comparitively healthy first person shooters.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
This thing may be able to put in the same category as snood.. however... is, it, as, good? only time (mostly free) will tell.
--
"pain is weakness leaving the body."Gamers tend to think that games will only be classics if they're adopted by gamers. That's why they're so surprised when deer hunting games outsell Quake.
My 64 year-old mother got hooked on Snood, and got a copy for everyone she knew. She doesn't know what kind of video card she has, she doesn't know the bus speed of her RAM, but she'd be up until 3 in the morning trying to beat her high scores.
Oh, it is already available on cell phones and PDAs.
there is nothing unique about snood. all of the gameplay elements are a direct rip-off of bust-a-move.
see this review for a little more on the subject, and give your money to the people who not only invented the game but implement it better than their 'successor' clone!
If only this game doesn't come with every spyware software in existance! All my friends have this game, and they wonder why their computer runs like crap after installation. Thank you Ad-Aware.
Games are at heart a form a recreation and enjoyment. Some people find games like Counter Strike and UT2003 disturbing, and with good reason. Games like Tetris, Solitaire, and Snood, are simply fun, without the violence. These are the types of games that parents, grandparents, and wifes play. That's a big market.
Heck, I'm a huge RTCW player, but one of my favorite games is still Columns on Sega Genesis.
Snood is primarily a cheap rip-off of the arcade game Puzzle Bobble (aka Bust-a-Move in the USA). Mame does an excellent job of playing the ORIGINAL versions, and there are also plenty of less "hacked" alternative (by hacked, I mean that Snood has removed a lot of the original features of the game that made it really fun).
[insert witty comment here]
In a child-like echoy voice;
"Ready
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
The Snood-equivalent for Linux is Frozen Bubble.
This may be the killer app that gets the world's desktop running Linux and KDE!!!
From the PS and PS2?
If it is, the one thing I noticed about it is that it's one game that girls of all kinds seem to like playing...
I got bored with it after about five minutes.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Isn't Snood just a rip off of Bust a Move? I heard of Bust a Move long before Snood. Or is this one of those occassions where Bust a Move is the rip off and happens to be more well known.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
There will always be a need for a simple game (board game, tetris game, etc.) that doesn't greet the user with 200fps and take 5 gigs to install needing 1.5 gigs of ram to run smoothly on the newest mind-bending video card. There will always be a market for that, but there is just a level of satisfaction of beating a computer at chess that shooting someone on a Counter-Strike map can never duplicate.
SecondPageMedia - Wha
I think there is a big market for compilations of classic games on portable consoles like the Gameboy SP.
And people on ancient PCs can play these games without having to have $300 video cards - good for poor people who still like addictive gameplay.
The windows version really blows. It's slow and thegraphics are chunky. Like most programs originally coded for Mac, it was NOT ported to windows properly.
I enjoy playing snood on my g4 when I am not working on journalism but I have tried it on PCs a few times and it is a terrible mess. How snood became popular outside the Mac platform I will not know...
Stanley Feinbaum, professional journalist and master debater! God bless the USA!
I think that was the problem with the .bombs
Everyone wanted to "Strike it rich" and didn't care if what they were striking it rich on was really worthwile. I mean come on dog food delivery?!
While I think that snood would probably be cool to play on a cell phone. Don't do it because you wanna get rich doing it, just do it cause its a thing that you think we need,
I think the quote is
do what you love the money will come.
moo.
a lot of people here on campus play snood and are also addicted to it. It is almost identical to the bust-a-move games. My mom playes bust a move for the n64 all the time, and she would challenge me to play against her (i would win eventhough the only time i play the game is when she challenges me)...and now she has my 10 year old cousin hooked on the gamel, because my mom actually bought her a copy of bust a move for the computer! I have not played snood, but it looks identical to bust a move.
i don't really know anything about where one would download or purchase snood, but it seems to me that the programmers for bust a move should be able to get money for copywrite infringement
[echelon]
The logic of solving small puzzles quickly and in sequence is the best training i can think of for the world's future coders.
Snood, like tetris, is a puzzle that is impossible (or at least improbable) to beat. But trying to do the improbable is one of the most endearing traits of the human species. (Think flying, scuba diving, landing on the moon, ending the cold war, etc.)
This speed induced logic could help to sharpen the minds of young scientists, and keep the minds of bored scientists busily doing nothing for the duration of their addiction. Crap. It's a double-edged sword.
God bless Snood.
Snood is fun, but it's hardly original, Taito's Bust-a-Move has been around for years prior to the emergence of snood, and has seveal arcade games, and ports on the PSX, PS2, GBC, GBA, PC and probbably others as well. It's interesting that almost enveryone in college has played snood, but most have never heard of the original. I don't really think there's any sort of analogy for it.
Bork Bork Bork!!
Blockout.
A 3D Tetris-a-like. Loads of fun.
.
it's a game that will entertain mentally challenged 5 year olds. What a waste of time.
Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments?
Of course theres still a demand for simply, small games. Just look at Nintendo GameBoys sales numbers.
The ORIGINAL game where the green monster from bust a move came from. I owned the commodore 64 version, and it was a VERY addictive platformer, which imho pushed a lot onto a small cassete.
I never completed all 100 levels, But its still a legendary game that deserves a mention.
Okay, played this thing for 3 seconds, it looks well executed [especially for an Open Source game, how the hell many GOOD games do we have? zero? yep!]
But it launches colors which arent already on the screen, adding needless clutter and taking away from the fast-paced nature of Bust-A-Move. Booo! Hissss!
Yeah, I formed that opinion in 3 seconds.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Let me preface this by saying whoever modded that as funny should be taken into some dimly lit parking lot and raped
With that said, you have some good insights there, but I disagree on one issue. I would argue that such single-player games as you name fall into two catagories. You have games (1) that require a lot of thinking to progress -- tetris, Freecell, etc; and (2) those games such as Snood, Tron, etc that do not. Games in catagory #2 cause people to faze out, and (IMHO) are the ones that are the most socially destructive.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
otherwise known as puzzle bobble to the rest of the world. Both mame and NeoRageX play it very well, btw. :)
Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
My circle of friends are somewhat addictive to this great little helicopter game.
-==-
My contribution to the 'amazingly simple game' genre are game buttons, reasonably rich games each played entirely within a single CGI form grey pushbutton, as both controller and display. I still come back to these every once in a while, especially Dashteroids and Happy Eater.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I've had snood on my samsung java-enabled phone for a few months...
Short answer: Most Definately
I've found older people and kids, especially, love Frozen Bubble (in Linux), as well as Tetris, Minesweeper, Tux Racer, etc. There will always be a place for these games. And don't just do it on the hope of making a mint: do it for the challenge, the thrill, the exposure, or even the vanity.
Fight with computer brings SWAT team
Little, simple card, board, and RPG games also get little respect from card, board, and RPG game developers or "hardcore" gamers. Magic: The Gathering (the card game) and Mage Knight (the miniatures game) are both available for purchase in every game store in existence, you can learn to play either in about 20 minutes, and they are fun and addictive. The rules, while not particularly rich or complicated, are elegant, and strong enough to keep people playing. But both of these games are looked down upon by "traditional" gamers.
I remember it like it was yesterday- rank upon rank of students sitting behind Macs in the computer labs, forcing helpless drama students to go to the engineering labs and use windows machines to get their homework done. Countless hours lost, students failing left and right, the university computer store replacinging record numbers of worn-out Mac mice and keyboards.... The cause: Snood. The year: 1998.
Good thing Slashdot stays on top of the latest trends in the Mac world.
Among my friends, Snood has come and gone, enjoyed a brief renaissance, and finally slipped into obscurity. In fact, the year I graduated, in 1998, the term 'Bad Snood'- for a stupid move, or a stroke of bad luck- was in common usage on campus.
Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
1. Take puzzle bobble (bust a move in the U.S)
2. Add shitty graphics
3. Add spyware
4. ?
5. Profit!
*THE* best game in the genre, at least for two players, is "Panel de Pon" aka "Tetris Attack" aka "Pokemon Puzzle League". This game has an amazing seesaw action two player, since the garbage blocks you send to your opponent can end up being used against you, allowing combos that will bring garbage blocks raining down on your own head.
EGM mentioned some upcoming mega-puzzle-compilation for GameCube, with 4 player versions of Tetris, Tetris Attack, Dr. Mario, etc...man, I am *so* there.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Yes, Snood is definitely one of the most popular games out there. Every once in a while it comes up in a conversation, and people always recognize it. My wife plays it on the pc for hours, and I play on my palm pilot whenever I'm stuck somewhere and have nothing better to do.
A game doesn't have to be an overhyped, over-produced, $2 million budget, 3D rendered, hunk of shit to be 'good'?
You're kidding me.
What I loved about the older video games, up until about the SNES era, was that game programmers could be innovative instead of concentrating on packing CD's full of graphics and 3D effects.
Well, I can speak for those at my school (UMPI) who live in the dorms. The games are widly held as being king over Halo or UT style games.
Now why this happens can possibly be attributed to the same reasons why Nintendo wont grow up (see previous slashdot story for more info); people seem to want simple games that are just fun. Nothing complex, nothing where many days/weeks are required to learn the game or even become proficient at it. People (atleast those that I have contact with) appear to fit into this reasoning.
3 cents (was 2, but inflation is a w3nch)
Page
We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
Here are several essays on game design, many focusing on simplifying a game to focus on the interesting mechanics and decisions. Clearly this applies to computer games as well, but non-computer games are also more accessible to non-programmers.
I habitually browse the web in one window while playing snood in the other. I was playing Snood when I saw this article. I play Snood while watching TV, and when I'm chatting, and whenever I should be working. I play Snood a *LOT*.
Further confession: I use the aimer, 'cause I prefer the puzzles to the actual dexterity skills. Or so I rationalize it to myself, anyway.
IGN is dead wrong about Snood, as is whomever thought that Frozen Bubble is equivalent. There are two seemingly small differences between Snood and the Puzzle Bobble series, but they make all the difference in the world.
The first difference is the lack of any timing element. This gives Snood a meditative quality unlike Bust-a-Move, which uses power bubbles and other flashy gimmicks as a crutch to make up for dull game fundamentals.
More importantly, Snood's danger bar can be ROLLED BACK. This makes Snood an infinitely more complex and strategic game than Bust-a-Move; you don't need perfect aim or lucky pieces to win, just great thinking. To use another video game analogy: it's the difference between someone who uses ticks and cheap combos to play Street Fighter II, and someone who can win without throwing a single hadouken.
There are just enough really subtle touches in Snood that I think Dave Dobson really understands game design. His earlier (Mac-only) game, Centaurian, is an outstanding tribute to Bosconian as well as every classic video game of the 80's.
I do pity the poor Windows users who have to put up with crapware like Gator to install Snood, though. The original Mac version never had any spyware, and I don't expect the Mac OS X version to, either.
I had a friend in college that played Snood for a very long time and her leg fell asleep so when she got out of her chair she fell on her leg just right and broke it.
Yep, Snood is responsible for at least one broken leg so, please play responsibly.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Sure, not all the games are equally challenging, and not every game will be met with the same appriciation as others, but it's definite a niche that needs to be filled and it's being filled quite well.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Woz likes Snoodling, huh?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I've played it on and off since then. But the ninth most popular game in 2001? That's nuts. Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments?
I like the sentiment, wanting the little indie game designer to succeed. That's great!
But at the same time, is it really a success for all these so called inde developers to keep endlessly, endlessly, cloning the same handful of Tetris variants? Even ten years ago these things were stale, and now, in 2003, we have people hailing a design 100% borrowed from the Bust-A-Move arcade game from the mid 1990s as a "success" for the little developer? Surely there is a way to stay outside the "world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments" without resorting to writing rehashes of the same diddly batch of puzzle games.
Yes, the author appears to need extra revenue sources. Spyware is a suckshit thing to package with any program. I say flood Dobson until he removes Bonzai Buddy et al!
although, realizing this effect, the creator of snood helpfully provided a "Just One More Game" function, and even gave it its own hotkey :)
-- Microsoft is the best becau[INVALID PAGE FAULT IN MODULE Signature.exe AT ADDRESS 0x4353]
Perhaps it's worth noting that Snood (and all games like it) are based off of the addicting game Bust A Move, originally released on the Neo Geo in arcades in 1994.
;)
This type of game is definitely not new. Just had to give credit where it was due.
This game is evil. I go to college, and snood has become the game to play in the dorms. They are all addicted to snood!! And I am not joking, the amount of games played is a few hundred in the first month. WHY??? SNOOD IS THE DEVIL!!! (Shannon: Lay off the snood)
I went to a LAN party in the summer, and the most popular tournament was Frozen Bubbles (I *think*... CS may have barely beaten it). The great thing about the game is that the learning curve isn't very steep. If everybody has little experience at it (like most people at the LAN), that's when you have a blast. You can just hop in, learn the 3 buttons necessary, and have fun. =)
...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
It is a variation of Asteroids, As are ALL drop from the sky games, Tetris et al. You youngsters are probably amazed by Pong!
How can you give props to snood for being inovative when its a blatant ripoff of bust a move which came out several years before snood was even conceived.
I used to like squigs which was similar(ish) and came on a coverdisk of an amiga mag ... er, this was some years ago.
...
anyway if you think thats simple try this
(flash game)
I really like it, but then I'm biased. Yes this is a shameless plug.
Go on, shoot some fish!
I remember throwing quarters into Bust-a-move like 8 years ago. Then last year, someone asked me if i had heard of "Snood," supposedly the "most addictive game ever". Surprisingly enough, it's not near as good as Bust-A-Move even though it's a DIRECT RIPOFF and as far as I can tell, the little Bubble Bobble dinosaurs don't get any money from the probably $12 the Snood creators made from including spyware in the game. It's disgusting. Which would you rather play, a game with the bubbly goodness of the dinosaurs, or a crappy ripoff that pops up ads? Give me a break. Frozen Bubble stays relatively true to the original Bust-A-Move, and it's Free, so check that out, but please, for the love of everything that is good, inform EVERYONE you know who has ever heard of Snood that it is a crappy ripoff of Bust-A-Move and it should be called Bust-A-Move, if only to make people aware that Bust-A-Move exists. Please.
Or maybe it's an attention span thing...
Buy the President
More likely Unreal and Counterstrike doomed to extinction. The simple games will always be with us. Anyone for checkers?
The article says, "Tetris was the game that originally sold GameBoy, the single hit game that convinced people to buy the device."
I beg to differ - I had a GameBoy but was annoyed that it only came with stupid Tetris. I think GameBoy sold well because of the idea of being able to walk around playing games that were a bit more involving than existing handheld games (eg. those crappy flat display ones).
Back to my main point.... two other puzzle games I loved were Sokoban (although the version I have has 100 maps and is free) and Blots, a game that was remarkable because you controlled one guy with the left hand and another with the right hand. Unfortunately, I cannot find Blots anywhere now. It was a shareware game in pre-web days but the author seems to have slipped out of existence after posting only five free levels. Any one got info?
Finally, I don't think it matters what the game is called... I've played this game but have never heard the names 'Snood' or 'Bust A Move', I'm sure when the survey called it the 9th most played game, they were referring to all games with this same theme.
there is Froot. Definitely a must for Zaurus gamers who like Snood.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Sorry about that, but us PC people have enough good software that we don't have to port everything over. Hence, on the rare occasions a program needs to be ported from Apples, the coders don't have a lot of porting experience.
I hope that clarifies the situation.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
Ad-Aware is critically out of date, and therfore dangerous, according to SpyWareInfo. It's expected to be "out of commission" until February for the free version. He recommends Spybot in the meantime.
I think I still have a patch to modify the high score list. There was this guy who snooded so good and he was always emberassing us with his scores so we faked our scores to shut him up.
Because it is just a lame Puzzle Bobble ripoff. Sorry Snood, you're about 6 or 7 years too late.
It almost makes me sick that Snood has become so popular while nobody has even heard of Puzzle Bobble.
Snood, like the other puzzle games, including the ones from Popcap, has a problem with buying.
I want to buy Snood, but if I want it for my PDA and Windows, I get to pay for it twice. Gh-ey. Why should I pay popcap twice for the same damn game?
As for snood, there are quite a few snood products, and my gf is friggen addicted to it. She is not much of a computer person and Ive told her a dozen times she needs to register but she says "Why do that when I can find the reg code on google?!"
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Is there a linux equivalent for bejeweled?
Can your IM do this?
I used to be a hard core gamer. I had two consoles (PS and DC) and was constantly upgrading my PC to keep up with the latest and greatest.
Then I got married and got a career.
I don't have time for 40hr RPGs anymore. I'm honing my sysadmin, programming, and business skills while you're playing games. I'd rather pay my mortgage and invest for the future than stay on the PC upgrade treadmill.
I still like to play games, though. These puzzle and strategy games are great because 1) they're fun, 2) I can start, play, and finish a game in under 10 minutes, and 3) I don't have to buy the latest/greatest whatever to play them and avoid the hassles of troubleshooting drivers and all the PC related crap.
BTW, Snood is a total rip-off of Bust-A-Move and not a very good one at that. For those who like Snood you should really check out Bust-A-Move 4, probably my favorite puzzle/strategy game ever (Advance Wars for GBA is close second). It has better physics (Indeed!), multiplayer, and multiple single-player games.
As far as i can see, nobody is ever really going to want to spend huge amounts of time playing games on something like a mobile phone or pda, therefore huge, complex games are generally out of the question.
A simple, addictive game like snood(not that i have played it) is exactly what people will be looking for on these kind of devices.
Games on mobile phones are never very likely to rival those on things like gameboy advance, so keeping them simple seems the best option. Because of this i could see small developers selling a game (or at least the concept) to someone like nokia for their phones, and getting pretty rich in the process
Try any one of these methadone-based, browser games
We used to have Welltris, and I played it a lot when I was about 10-12 years old. I thought it was a pretty cool game. It was a similar idea to Tetris, but making it 3D and having the option for 5-block pieces expanded the game. It was also pretty original to have a looking-down-a-well perspective.
I don't know... it was not a huge departure from Tetris, but I thought it was decent.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
Been months since I had points to give, wish I knew why.
Suffice to say, if I had them now I'd give a bunch to you, one of the most insightful things I've read on here in a quite a while.
No Comment.
check it out - most of you have probably heard of it already tho' - One of the most addictive games I have ever played. Internet tetris for those of you who are slow....ya need two players unless you compile the bot - best way to play is best out of five. I really wish someone would come out with a version that had a central server so you could play more than just your small group of friends.
There will always be a market for games you can play in a discreet window with the sound off at work. I think Windows Solitaire is probably the most played game ever.
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
Perhaps Snood's popularity is due to the type of audience it's reaching. Much like Solitaire, Freecell, Tetris, etc, I've found it's more of an "office game." It appeals to a wide audience who likes to dabble in occasional mindless monotony to escape from...well, their daily dribble. These individuals, although not gamers in the _truest_ sense, still play video games and certainly account for at least a good portion of Snood's popularity.
That is a game you can build and build skills. I can quickly get into "the zone" and just be unstoppable (so far).
My girlfriend likes Bust-A-Move much more, so we have to trade back and forth as to the puzzle-game-of-the-moment. Not be a jerk or anything, but I find myself having to self-cripple with not rotating the jewels. Makes it a much harder game. Anyway. It's a great game.
Send your friends messages of love at fuck-you.org
The author of Snood, Dave Dobson, is a professor where I went to College. From what I understand from talking with him and people who asked him about it in school, he wrote it just for fun and figured he might make a couple hundred bucks over the lifetime of the game from the few people gracious enough to register the game. Its hard to believe how the game has taken off. I think this is more a triumph of the internet and the ways an uncontrolled distribution channel can let just about anyone into the marketplace. There are plenty of markets where cost of getting into the distribution channels alone is enough to stifle meaningful competition. Just read Charles H. Ferguson's High Stakes, No Prisoners for an example.
I think another thing to consider is that the internet doesn't just allow for originality or quality but also popularity. I think its sobering to realize that even in the anti-clique of the open source movement there is a lot pressure to conform to certain world views and also to tear down what's popular. (I'm sure everyone who posts to slashdot with a @aol.com address can attest to that) I'm sure there are games with better graphics and maybe better game play than snood out there, but I think a lot of peoples reflex reaction is to attack snood simply because its not necessarily the very first game of its kind. The problem is that without popular products, even ones that are not the best of their breed, some markets will never get wide exposure. I think that most genre's of software benefit immeasurably from exposure, it almost always spurs competition and I'm sure there will be bigger,faster,stronger snood that I'll hear about on slashdot in another year.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill
--Pat
Ambrosia (AmbrosiaSW.com) has been making lots of great fairly simple games for the Mac for years. When I first saw Snood, I was surprised to find that Ambrosia didn't write it. Everyone with a Mac who hasn't: GO PLAY POP-POP RIGHT NOW. I'll see you online.
(I'll just say this now, in anticipation of the many replies- yes, they rip off the ideas for most of their games. Pop-Pop is basically just Pong. So what? They do a great job sprucing up these simple games and getting the game play just right. And they do things like Escape Velocity, which is brilliant, I've still never seen anything else like it.
For those of you that are into puzzle games like myself there are plenty of other games worth mentioning. Here's my little list:
Columns -- Sega's answer to Tetris. Fun and addictive.
Magical Drop -- Sorta like Puzzle Bobble but upside-down. Highly addictive.
Money Idol Exchanger -- A Magical Drop-like game but there's math involved. Many may be put off by the cutsey graphics but it's a great game.
Puyo Puyo -- Released in the states as Puyo Pop or Puzzlow Kids. Tetris-like.
Chu Chu Rocket! -- Extremely fun in multiplayer mode.
I know for a fact that most of these have open source clones available, it's just a matter of looking for them.
Alejandro Abreu -- Composer http://listen.to/Ollin
What was it?...maybe it's that it was one of the three games available for the Mac in 1995.
KLOV rocks.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I've been playing Battlefield 1942 the last few months with a group of old friends scattered around all corners of the country. We use Roger Wilco so we can all talk to eachother while playing-- it's a fantastic way to catch up with friends, and a game that forces you to work as a team to win. Even the guys playing with us who aren't on our voice server are definitely typing. To not do so would lose you the game.
But communicating aside, I agree with you. Excess is bad, and if you're not enjoying it, why play?
okay, first off, i'm a fan of snood, i love it. though, the one game i fell more in love with was smiletris. i still don't know the rules, but i continue to waste my life with it.
secondly, going on with that whole debate that is going on about influencing children and Snood vs. UT. this is an insight i had a few days ago.
thirty years ago, children played board games. board games have rules, but you have to learn the rules and enforce them for yourself. you then have to be able to explain the rules to others when you want to play with them. you accept that you must play within the rules of the game and you're okay with that.
today, with computer games, the rules are enforced by the programming. children try to test the rules. they also try to find cheat codes and subconsciously, this gets them to feel that they don't have to adhere to the rules if they can just find the loophole.
that's why kids these days are bastards.
-"Hey, Baby. It's not a rash, it's textured love."
I love those simple games... the ones that make me focus and think for about a half hour or less. Tetris, Bust A Move (and other Snood-type variants), Tetris Attack (and other variants), Bejeweled, Nisqually, Glines, any of those Yahoo Games word games... all of those get some significant playing time during a standard week from me.
:)
But that's not to say that the more complex games don't get playing time from me. The Civilization series, the Final Fantasy series, Imperialism, the Diablo series... all of those also get played regularly on my computer/console.
The big point, though, is that each game fills a different type of gaming and entertainment niche for me. Both will have markets in the world of gaming.
But, I contend that making those "simple" games, is, as the author pointed out, probably harder than making the more "complex" games. Kind of an oxymoron at first glance, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
A "simple" game must have few controls and those that it does have should be almost immediately obvious in nature. This severe limitation in design isn't overly restrictive, since a simple game will have simple rules, by definition.
But where a simple game is difficult is in the rules of the game. A simple game's rules must be flexible enough that there is no trivial strategy for putting up good scores or winning. The rules must, however, be simple enough that, in reality, they should be able to fit on a simple splash screen. The gameplay should be fluid and usually ever-changing, allowing for natural planning ahead and strategy building. Lastly, skill, not luck, should dominate the gameplay.
Taking these all into account, I can see why there aren't all that many of these simple games. That's not an easy design paradigm, in the least. But, simple games will never really get too much recognition, since they don't really need to. I think the authors of such games often realize that quite quickly. The market is there, but it remains quiet since it doesn't take much time or money to make such a game. So, the ideas can be coded up by an amateur or a professional or two, tested by a few of their friends, and put out for the world to enjoy. Not much infrastructure or capital or time needed for that, is there?
So, keep giving me both types of games. I'll gladly take both.
-Jellisky
Yes, as everyone pointed out Snood is a rip-off of Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble. I immediately recognized this when my sister-in-law showed me this game, Snood, which she was addicted to. Although I had seen Bust-a-Move, I never bothered to play it.
So, I immediately downloaded both for comparison. I can say for sure why, but I found Snood much more fun, and my wife and I soon became addicted. There is something about the gameplay of Snood that just seemed better. Perhaps it was the little things, like the speed of the shot from the cannon (much faster in Snood), the ability to do trickier shots in Snood (by sneaking the shot between two almost touching neighbots)?
I think this just goes to the point of the article/blog- it is really difficult to make a simple game so incredibly fun. Yes, Snood was a rip-off. Somehow though, the game ended up being immensely successful, and I don't think saying it's a rip-off of Bust-a-Move is sufficient to explain its success. (Although since Bust-a-Move was a successful game, I will admit that explains a large part of it).
The author of this blog obviously didn't do any research into this "original" game before going on about how it's an example of how the little indie developer can come up with something new. If he had, he wouldn't seen how big a rip-off the game is and how he's been had.
Oh, but wait, it's a *blog* so it's not supposed to be a well-researched piece.
Anybody know of any Spaceward Ho! knock-offs? That game used to keep me occupied for hours but I haven't played it since I left the evil Apple behind.
Then there's my brother, sister, mother, and father (when he could see) who all play games like Tetris, Snood, and other puzzle games, possibly even more religiously than I do mine.
Yelling at the screen, throwing controllers, slamming desks... You think MA rated games incite violence?!
These and many other "simple" games are popular for the same reasons:
Well, that's what I think.
-Rick
Greg is a fantastic designer, having worked both with paper and electronic-based gaming. Plan to visit often to get more insight in game design. It should be updated once a week.
My favorite game of all time is Astroblaster on Atari 2600 in Turbo Mode!!
It's like a combination of asteriods and space invaders, where you move all around and shoot the asteroids as they fall, only it's at warp speed and after you shoot one it splits up into more and they fly even faster towards you at odd angles. You hold down the trigger so that you have this steady stream of bullets and you zig zag all over the place. The more you get hit the more points you lose, until you die. But the more you shoot the more points you get and the faster the bullets come. I love that game more than any other.
Second place would be freecell for my palm pilot.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
I'm sure there are some nice parting gifts for you. Take care, okay? Bye now!
I'm sure other people have pointed out the fact that SNOOD has been around a while and by many different names. I'm not even sure SNOOD is the "Original" either. Many of the varients have other elements that differentiate them, and they can't exactly be called all the same game. Of the many that I've seen SNOOD is pretty unremarkable, even if it's still a "good game".
All in all, the best Snood-Like game I've ever seen was a small (I mean really small) Flash application.
And when it comes to Tetris... Not all *tris games are equal.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Most people I see playing online shoot-em-ups are too busy fragging their opponents to bother taking their hands from the cursor keys (or whatever they use for direction and fire) to use the keyboard; that would reduce their kill rate.
I've noticed that the foul language in online games is directly proportional to the pace of the game. As an example, Sony makes an online tank game called Tanarus that has several variations, some faster than others. In the slower game there's some expletives, but not a lot. In the faster game, the language is unbelieveable, because, while the pace is alot faster, it's still a tank game and therefore allows for typed messages between melees while your tank is cruising away or you're respawning in your base.
The reason we don't see worse language in Q3A, I believe, is that there simply isn't enough time to talk AND play.
I liked Snood so much, I convinced my teacher to let me use it for my term project in Java. Maybe he gave me an 'A' because he couldn't stop playing it ;).
I'll risk the life of my server to post a link here:
http://facehat.cjb.net/~wade/java/javood/
Snood is a complete ripoff. It's real name is puzzle bobble, or bust a move. It's not even an original game. The entire design has been stolen.. Play the real games. It's a big series and much better.
Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this
Yes. Bejeweled was made by one individual in a course of only a few days. That man and a few of his friends formed a small games studio called popcap and are doing very well with their java and PDA games.
When your in the games industry with a small budget, you have to pick your projects accordingly. Do not work on a massive game that will take over a year. Your first project will most likely not be a big hit, so don't count on future sales to keep you afloat. Work on quick turnaround projects that will generate enough so you will stay afloat when (not if) one of your projects bomb.
Treat your company as a business first, or you will find yourself over budget and out of V.C. or your own savings. My friends John and Brian of Popcap started out with little; and became the java games powerhouse of the web because they made smart business decisions. They also knew how to make games for their target audience, not just making games they themselves think are fun. There is still room in the java/pda market for other small teams to do this as well.
btu with games like snood or shockwave.com slow times at the call center would be hell.
Your story, while whimsical, was a blatant attempt at a Dickens-esque cleverness. 'She might not be the richest, she might not be the tallest, but on that cold London night, Sara had a heart that stood taller than any mountain. Please suh, can uh have a cup o soup? She'd say as she played Snort into the wee hours of a twinkling dawn. Save it, karma whore.
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell, 1984
"Or is the engagingly simple game doomed to extinction?"
As long as people like my boss and my wife exist, absurdly simple games will continue to be popular. How many hours have been wasted by snake or memory on Nokia cellphones? Solitaire, Freecell, etc.
A radio maverick jumps to internet only. The Future of Rock n Roll
Thought I'd try my hand at what they call 'trolling'. and your sig is right on.
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell, 1984
Isn't the object of Snood to score points by grouping three or more of one type of monster together and then they fall off to oblivion?
Yeah, that's really violence free.
Violence is still violent, regardless to what it is towards.
And pretending to be violent is not necessarily the same thing as being violent.
One of my favourite games when I was a kid was going outside and playing 'war' with my friends. According to current popular reasoning, I should either be in the army, a mercenary, or just a ravening lunatic, (er, ignore that last bit). Nope, I'm a semi-normal person.
This game is such blatant rip-off of Bust-A-Move that I find it DISGUSTING that anyone would have the nerve to call it creative. The "designer" of this game should be sued, divested of his property, and quite possibly shot. Thank you.
It doesn't really surprise me to see such games as this take such a high position in a most popular games list. To be perfectly honest, I think the ring of the gaming industry that has produced such titles as Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament has begun to lose site of the most important aspect of gaming: the gameplay; and i'm really surprised to have seen the likes of Counter-Strike and such cling to their elevated status for so long. When I look back to the dawn of video and computer gaming - well, the dawn to someone born in 1980. (the advent of the NES) - there is something that I recall being there that I just can't seem to find today: fun. You could possibly say this is attributed to general childhood nostalgia, and this definitely does play a part, but I think not as big a part as most people would believe. I think today's high-tech games are turning into overgrown graphical demos. What is the single most important thing that is needed in order to market any game on the internet today? Screenshots. Why are these things so important to people? What I'd like to see once in a while is a written document authored by the game's designer detailing his vision and intention behind the game's design and what innovations he hopes to incorporate or perhaps even discover in developing the game. Perhaps what I envision is some sort of publicly available, abridged version of the design doc for the game or something along those lines. Something to assure the fans that the team behind the game has aim and creativity. However, I don't see this kind of thing coming into common practice anytime soon, mainly because I think most of today's development teams lack all of what was mentioned above.
-Zeecog
I don't think I'd have them creating the art for my game. I know, I know, it's not about how good a game LOOKS... but where there are a million other games out there that play JUST LIKE THIS one, it's not worth my time to play it unless it has something the others don't.
Do the makers of Bust-A-Move have a legal case here? New Bust-A-Move games are still coming out (for the PC, too). Is it me, or do computer games have little if any ability to copyright their ideas? Most FPS are clones of the originals, as are simulation games, etc. They aren't new ideas, they're ripoffs. Movies suffer similar consequences (after a teen movie comes out, it isn't uncommon to find a complete ripoff along side it in Blockbuster). Why is there so little protection on visual creativity?
GL
Gee thanks guys. I downloaded Snood and it installed BonzaiBuddy on my machine. Now I have to run AdAware to kill it, which takes ages.
Just a warning for those of us who prefer to avoid smegware.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
All of you people out there who say "Snood is just a crappy bust-a-move" obviously have never even PLAYED Snood, or at least not for more than a few minutes. I also guarantee that you didn't read the rules of the game, so you really don't know how much better Snood is and basically you are just talking out your ass.
Snood is a great game - please, give it another try. It helps to register your version as well, to unlock all the puzzles and features.
Basically, stop poo-pooing on this great game. Support it, and it's creator, and more games will come!
-ZOD-
You may be wondering why Snood is so much more popular than the game it poorly rips off, Bust-a-Move (aka Puzzle Bobble). I mean, BaM was around for years, appeared on many more systems, enhanced the gameplay over the generations, always had multiplayer , etc, etc. So why Snood?
Simple: Snood was (is?) available in the America Online games section.
Yep, we have another thing to curse the "drooling AOL hordes" for - popularizing an inferior puzzle rip-off. Oh, and for a good non-spyware-riddled version, try Popcap.com's Dynomite, or at least go out and one of the many versions of Bust-a-Move (not all versions listed).
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I've been playing Battlefield 1942 the last few months ...
What server do you play on? I just started playing a week or so ago and am trying to find some "regulars" to play with. I've found a few people, but just joining at random doesn't work because most of the time you do that the people play with the team work of autistic lepars.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Give me a break. Games are a crap way to catch up with friends. E-mail and phone calls are great ways to catch up with friends. News groups are a great way to catch up with friends. Even livejournal and the likes are good ways to catch up with friends. When playing games there is very little catching up. When was the last time you asked someone how his relationship was doing or how his kid is recovering from the illness or how he likes his new boss in the middle of a quake match?
Part of the problem here is that there are so many little but addictive games. Regardless of whether or not they can sell in compitition with the big name games, they have to compeate with each other. After you create your game, you have to prove that it stands out from the crowd of tetris varients and similar games before it will sell really well.
Personally I like Puzzle de pon out of the bubble popping games. Too bad I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyone know of an arcade with it in the bay area? If i remember correctly, the biggest difference between bust-a-move and puzzle de pon is that puzzle de pon is a timed game while bust-a-move is based on the number of bubbles you fire. Plus there were hidden skill shots that gave an insane number of points in puzzle de pon.
Okay, how about a truly original (not to mention addictive) twist on Tetris
Triptych is kindasorta like Tetris, except you freely rotate the blocks (instead of in 90 degree increments), and it has physics. Yes, _physics_.. the blocks act like spongey rubber blocks, bouncing around and stuff. It's insanely fun to play - personally, I find it extremely easy, but that's kinda nice.. y'can take your brain off the hook and just enjoy the mad bouncy fun. And of course, it gets faster the further you get.
FWIW, it's from the same people who made Pontifex 1 and 2 - the bridge building games. Definately worth checking out.
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
Who found this game very very boring? I cannot believe so many people liked it! It completely failed to capture my imagination or stump my brain. I played it several times trying to figure out what the big deal was, with no success.
Now, BattleBalls (aka Senkyu in Japan) on the other hand, got many of my quarters in the arcade.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
tetris
crystal quest
bust a move (snood)
What exactly is it that these games do to people's minds??
Low latency Rocket area games in quake and unreal approach this level of addiction but they don't have that poetic minimal quality.
What other games have that minimal yet addictive quality??
This kinda reminds me of one of my customers. I quite often talk to my game customers via email (Asking how to get past a level, needing a re-download after loosing the game, etc. Not all 'support' stuff really, but, kinda nice to talk to the people who enjoy the games, and find out what they want more of.) Anyway... one of my customers that contacted me had a serious problem. She was in her late 60's, I believe, and loved Tile Panic!, a fairly simple puzzle game that requires some quick thinking on higher levels.
Problem is, her daughter wouldn't let her play anymore. Apparently she had heart problems, and after a while, her blood pressure would go WAY up, and she'd have to quit playing.
Not wanting to be the death of nice little old ladies, I created a separate version for her that takes out the time-based element of the game. She's the only one I know who managed to actually play perfect games on more than one of the game difficulty levels! But the whole thought of someone refusing to give up playing the game dispite the health detrement because they like the game too much is both strange and encouraging ;-)
(Eh - since I'm here, I'll plug one o' my other puzzle games, since that's a bit o' the discussion on this thread - go check out Tile Panic!, as mentioned above, and Boulder Panic! 2 DX. Or don't :-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Sometimes the simple games are the best.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for the original PlayStation is a great example of this. Everyone that I have showed this game to has become hopelessly addicted, yet it could easily be coded by a small team.
Even though it was released back in 1997, it consistently goes for good money on eBay, because it is so much fun and so hard to find.
deserve any. It is yet another clone of a great game from the early 90's. There is no innovation in snood. It's not even a great clone.
It's like a tetris clone, but one player, and with confusing animated pieces. Intereting, but nothing worth writing home, or blog, about.
Have you heard of puzzle mode? Also introduced in the puzzle bobble (bust-a-move) series long before snood.
On my hall we have a small room that used to be the hall phone booth before everyone got phones in their room. We set up an old Mac with Snood on it and it is a great stress reliever and invariably results in a large number of people hanging out in the hall, talking or just watching the game. So I would argue that used properly, Snood and games like it can be great community builders.
Why is Slashdot promoting Snood when the "free" download includes a Bonzi Buddy promo (and what else?) even when the EULA makes no such mention?
Its too bad snood is just a rip of puzzle bobble and snood seems to get all of the credit.
:)
Most snood players have never even heard of puzzle bobble even though it is original, and has "Cooler" features.
Maybe i'm wrong, but it seems puzzle bobble came out in '94, i don't know when snood was released.
Here is a link to some puzzle bobble info if anyone cares
http://taito.overclocked.org/pbobble.html
Anyone that points to it as a model for game design is mad!
I'm pretty shocked that this little game made 9th most played game in the world. Many commments prior to mine say Snood is nothing more then a Bust-A-Move knockoff. Being a former Snood addict, I never played Bust-A-Move, so I couldn't say for sure if it was until i did a google image search of Bust-A-Move screenshots It's kind of hard to deny this point. I first played Snood in my fiancee's dorm at her school where it's extremely popular among the students there. Needless to say, i was hooked for a few months playing it non-stop. After awhile, It turned into a game I play on occasion, to distract myself for a little while.
However, aside from originality issues, the article poses a few points:
* Games of this nature are POPULAR.
* Games of this nature appeal to a broader demographic then the majority of big-selling retail games. Senior citizens all the way down to 6 year olds play these types of puzzle games. It's good for parents, knowing their child won't be exposed to ultra-violance. It's a good alternative to those who are squeemish when it comes to the likes of 3D first person shooters etc.
* Games of this nature are good for passing the time away until you have to do something else.
I don't necessarly agree that Snood and it's developer should be recognized in the game industry with trumpets sounding like the article suggests. However, I do think games *like* Snood should be given more respect and attention to.
The simplicity of Tetris, Snood, Bust-A-Move etc, is one of it's main selling points. They have a very a small learning curve, fun to play, and help pass the time away without getting too involved in the game itself, and they don't require much when it comes to hardware requirements.
But what is their market potential? First things that come to mind are cellphones. These types of games would also encompass atari games, etc. Anything with minimum hardware requirements. Another use for them would be handheld game machines such as GBA and other less popular portables. Games of this type would fit the bill for PDAs as well. Outside of that, nothing else comes to mind off hand.
In any case, I enjoy Snood for the game that it is, and I'd like to see these types of games get a little more recognition. I wouldn't stop playing Counter Strike or Quake over them, but I do believe they have their place in the gaming industry as a whole. With some more orginiality, a little more diverseness, I believe developers who produce games of this nature, in time, will recieve the recognition that they deserve.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
snood is one of the most addictive games ever made. Nothing mind boggling or new, just exetremely fun. thats something most newer games forget. Games are not just toys but art, and a form of self expression. Modern games seem to be more intrested in "OMG HOT GRAPHICS" to relize that more important things make a quality game. This is why ALL the good games come from basement companies
Doom was writing when id software as a basement co.
the build engine was written by a 12-year-old, and developed(into games) by a then-modest sized company 3d-realms.
Serious Sam, and postal were also by nobodies
windows machines ... The year: 1989.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 and 2.0 were in essence pretty shells around DOS. Windows 3.0, the first "Mac killer", wasn't released until May 1990.
The cause: Tetris.
If you're still addicted to falling tetraminoes, if Tetris is still your drug, then by all means shoot up!
Will I retire or break 10K?
This is just a Bust A Move ripoff! It plays exactly the same!!
The arcade in UCLA's student union had something like 8 Bust A Move machines and they were always busy... back in 1992 when I was there in grad school. I doubt Snood is 11 years old.
-marsh
I also like Tetris Attack, which a bunch of others have already mentioned...
and it has multiplayer: Puzzle Bubble Online.
PopCap Games has a similar title called Dynomite.
http://www.popcap.com/dynomite
To the poster above who stated that somehow by subtly changing things it's original, yea sure... and vanilla ice *didn't* rip off other rappers/song writers for his songs/beats
Seriously The game blatently copies bust-a-move(or bubble bobble, whoever said that bust a move copied it, get a life, its the same game). About those gimmmicks your talking about, let's face it, the games been out for years, if you want the bare bones of it, grab the first ps one version for $5 and have at it. The vs. mode is enough to beat snood to death.
I walked in on a friend playing this game once, and he was calling it innovative. Hell you don't see me taking the source for quake, changing the title, taking out the netcode, and replacing it with spyware and saying it's my brillant piece of work do you? Would you stand for it if I did? HELL NO. Look at this "Snood" logically and you'll see why it should get no priase.
Take a look at some really innovative games for a chance, like moonbase commander or something.
-GearType2
These small games are incredibly popular with women.. I caught my girlfriend's mother the other day playing snood, and my mother has a gameboy with only one game (Tetris) that she's been playing for three years now..
www.lonseidman.com
I think it's called Super Bust-A-Move or something... excellent game. Different characters, player vs. computer, player vs. player, puzzle mode, alternate puzzle and vs. modes... and hidden characters and stages. I doubt it costs much, and I find it's a lot more fun with a controller, than on a computer, using a keyboard. I also have the PSX version, which is more arcade-like, and has the excellent time trial mode. I originally played it years ago on SNES, when my older sister rented it, and I've been hooked ever since.
Maybe I am remembering bubble bobble incorrectly but Snood seems to be the exact same game to me. Am I missing some sublety or am I just crazy?
----
Ironically enough, there were PC versions of Bust-a-Move 2 and 4. Thus making Snood even less remarkable (if that were possible)
Other systems BaM appeared that you didn't mention were the Saturn, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Gameboy Color, 3DO, Gamegear, and (I'm pretty sure) the original non-color Gameboy.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
This game has been around. I used to play it on my parents' Mac before going to my summer job that year. I had to rush to get there on time more times than I can count.
errrm... #9???? how the Bust a Move is much better then this game.
In case you don't know, he's the guy who made Snood. He taught my introductory programming class last semester. Great guy.
Yes, despite the very decent money he surely makes from his game, Dobson still teaches Computer Science and Geology (if you really care at what college, look up his webpage, I'm sure he mentions it). I thought he was a great teacher too: his passion for programming, and his in-class examples, come from the field of games, which are a wonderful teaching tool. The components of a fairly simple game (like, say, Space Invaders) make a great introduction to the various concepts of programming. You have graphics, game logic, user interface, possibly networking, etc.
Yeah, Dave's a good teacher.
I used to play on my old Mac - was written by a guy in Germany.
Premise was that you wer elooking for lost spaceships in deep space. The screen had a grid overlaid on it with horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. You would launch "probes" by clicking on an intersecting set of lines. A number would show how many, if any, spaceships were located on the grid lines radiating from the intersection you clicked. You had to locate 5 ships and would score higher if you could locate all ships in the least number of moves.
Was a neat game but have never seen it anywhere else.
You had a screen with a grid of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. The grid represented an area in deep space. You would click on an area of the screen where the lines intersected
Ok, ok, hear me out.
People, like friends of mine, seem to think that playing an FPS like UT2k3 eats up something like 16 hrs. a day, as opposed to the litte minesweeper inbetween. And only is something for superl33+ freaks. Wrong.
When I feel like having a little break I fire it up and play 2 - 3 matches at most, all usually no longer than 15 minutes each.
Actually playing an FPS like UT2k3 in CTF (capture the flag) mode can been either very difficult or boring, depending on the people you've got on the server.
The only essential difference in 'gaming-nature' I see to a game like B-a-M or Tetris is the fact that it only is interresting as a goal-orientated multiplayer and that it has more controls than a n00b can grasp imediately.
There is point though that games like ut2k3 in popular modes like CTF can be very frustrating when trying to reach a skilllevel that is able to compete with expierienced players. Coming in a public server as completely new to the game seems somewhat pointless if no one gives you some help and advice along the way. Sort of like competing with Kasparov in Speed-Chess.
That's probably the most outstanding feature that keeps the occasional-gamer away from choosing FPS as their past-time.
The need to compete not with brick-dropping algorythyms but with real people that can plot and plan ahead and are far more challenging (& fun) than any AI could ever be. But also has a higher 'entry' threshhold.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Snood is just a ripoff of SNK's Bust a Move, which was released in 1994. See here.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
The game is incredibly easy for the most part. The hard part is play control.
Any puzzle game that makes play control the biggest challenge isn't much of a puzzle game. It's a play control game.
To me, there are just four words to describe such games: not worth my time.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I wish I had some points to spare :/
Good variations of asteroids include Pang, and the manta ray level in super mario sunshine.
Snood only installs URL links to the Bonzi site. It doesn't install any software other than Snood. Please don't spread false rumors.
Information may want to be free, but posting that code is stealing and wrong! You can be sued and possibly prosecuted for stealing. You should delete that post asap.
i'm still waiting for a fully 3d opengl real time online chess board.... for windows. how damn hard can this be?!?
rhy
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
You dumbasses still haven't figured out that this poster always trolling?
/.ers with mod points are.
Do you fucking morons read through their histroy and journal before modding them? If you have you would have noticed that this poster is a troll, they allways cracks jokes when ever they get low karma and a score of 1. Then they are yet again able to not only troll people, but prove what a bunch of stupid fools
Better graphics, better sound -- no spy-ware... Dynomite rocks...
No I do not work for PopCap games, I'm just addicted to Dynomite -- which means my carpal tunneling syndrome has a carpal tunneling syndrome.
"When was the last time you asked someone how his relationship was doing or how his kid is recovering from the illness or how he likes his new boss in the middle of a quake match? "
Wednesday night. (It's thursday morning)
What else am I going to do when I'm dead? And I suck and get killed a lot. Do you also think that playing basketball with your friends is a lousy way to have fun together, just because relationship discussions during the game are extremely limited? Can you think of a better way to get 10 people across the country into a conference call at the same time than by centering it around something they all enjoy doing? Try it. Call 10 out-of-state friends and try to get them into a 3-hour conference call. Then, try it again with 10 out-of-state gamer friends, and invite them to play a game and chat. Tell me which one gets more friends together.
Click here: http://www.costik.com/weblog/2003_01_01_blogchive. html
Anything labeled "NEW" and/or "IMPROVED" isn't. The label means the
price went up. The label "ALL NEW", "COMPLETELY NEW", or "GREAT NEW"
means the price went way up.
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...