Project 4: A Further Surprise Snake Update (Version 0.2.0)

So it seems I still have a lot of procrastinating to do. I've managed to turn out another version of Snake. (This time version 0.2.0).

This version introduces:

* Awful Sound Effects - it's weird old beeps, that kinda appealed to me
* Mute - press 'M' to turn off the awful sound effects (this doesn't preserve between games yet)
* Scaling Snake Colour - now as the snake grows it fades to grey towards the end of it's tail. This makes it easier to see which way you're going (especially when coming back from pause).

Please play and let me know in the comments if you run into any problems or bugs or any thoughts at all really.

You can get the game from these links:

• The Windows 32-bit version and the Windows 64-bit version
• The Mac OSX version
• The Linux 32-bit version and the Linux 64-bit version

Thanks as always!

Project 4: A Surprise Update on the Snake (Version 0.1.0)

Again, my skills in procrastination have allowed me to get things done. This time, now that I don't have it as an active project, I managed to put out a revision of the Snake game.

This version introduces a couple of new features:

• Pausing! Now you can press 'p' to stop the game whenever you want. To resume the game just press any of the arrow keys and start going again. 
• Bouncing Scores! I'm sure I'm the only person who cares, but now when you hit a target the score bounces up and down a little bit. It's not amazing animation, but it's something.
• Proper key handling. This doesn't change the game at all, but I was able to apply a lot of the things I've learned about Processing.org and realized that the tutorial I'd followed way back in the beginning had a strange way of handling key presses (relying on the main loop of the program). Now I've updated it to use proper event handling. 

You can download the update:

• The Windows Versions (32-bit, and 64-bit)
• The Mac OS X Version
• The Linux Versions (32-bit and 64-bit)

If you'd care to beta test this for me I'd really appreciate it. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 34)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos we get the rest of the launch of Geek and Sundry. meaning we get to geek out about board games and books and we'll also get the chance to geek out about cake and sex, relationships and words too.

• The first videos in this volume are from Wil Wheaton's Table Top. Here we watch him play games with a bunch of cool people (This week, Grant Imahara, Sean Plott (Day[9]) and Jenna Busch). This show is great for the witty banter and it also let's you see people playing your favourite games or learn about cool games you may have missed. They also include some extra footage of their guests which are also pretty cool (and here we see Grant Imahara's).
• Next up, Rossana Pansino and CourtnyPants make rainbow unicorn cake on Nerdy Nummies. (The cake does not actually contain unicorns.) If you wanted to know how to make a cake of many colours, this is a pretty good guide.
• The next video in this volume is the inagural video episode of Sword & Laser (or The Sword & Laser ... I'm not sure they ever sorted that out). Here, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt talk about the lastest and greatest in Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. The audio version existed long before the video one started and continues on now that the video show has run it course. They also have a strong community over on Goodreads.
• Finally John Green talks about sex and relationships. The most important advice he gives I think is maybe the most important advice for any situation. "USE YOUR WORDS!"

Project 4: Snake: Update and Wrap-up

It may have taken me nearly a year to do a few afternoon's worth of programming, but the first version of my Snake game is finally done. (Spoilers: You can play it using the links at the bottom of the article.)

This was quite a bit of fun to put together. One of the nice things about programming a game (especially one this simple) is that the results are immediately visible. It's also nice to have small targets to hit that are fairly easily achieved.

The game plays pretty much like any instance of snake you may have run across in the past. I did choose to have the edges of the world wrap because I was entertained by the math, but I also enjoy that it does cause you to think a little extra since the snake is not always apparent as adjacent to you. Right now the game speeds up for levels 1 - 10, but the game doesn't end until you reach level 33.

For the record though you can technically win the game, however I'm not sure how possible that is in reality. I've found the responsiveness with my Mac Book Pro to be insufficient at the higher levels, but with a different key board it may be easier. It's also somewhat difficult because there's no boarder around the snake and so it's very difficult to see where the snake is at any given point in time.

I'm pleased with the level and score markers that pop up. It would be nice to have them fade in or out, or for the scores to bounce a little. I decided to stop where I got to and if I'm able to put those in as extras in a later version. Additionally in later versions I'd like to add some game modes and manage difficulty better than I am right now.

I'd really appreciate some help testing out this version of the game. If you have a little time I'd like to know:

• if/how it works on different platforms (links are below)
• if there are any bugs
• is it fun? What could make it more fun?

Comments in the comment section would be appreciated.

For now it needs to be downloaded, it's not really worth making it embeddable.

• The Windows Versions (32-bit, and 64-bit)
• The Mac OS X Version
• The Linux Versions (32-bit and 64-bit)

Control the snake with your arrow keys. You can quit with the 'q' key and win with the 'w' key. From the game over screen you can start playing again by hitting the space bar.

These should all run with the included files. Processing has an automatic generator and I've found that the Windows and Mac versions seem to work for me. I haven't had time to test it on Linux yet.

Thanks for your support. I'll do another version but for now it's on to other things!