[Android] Lemmings-like game (WIP)

[LJLPM]

Ok, here's a new progress report about the game. So what's new? Well, I've mostly re-written a loooot of things about how the game is handled in memory, and it looks like the mysterious (memory-)bug that occured on some devices has vanished. That's nice because this is precisely why I've re-written some stuff!

For my smartphone tests, I use a Wiko Cink+: I chose this phone because it uses Android 4.1 ( < my Nexus7's Android 4.4, so it's interesting for comparing the game's behaviour), and, also, it has a tiny 3.5" screen (320x480px), which is, obviously, very useful to see 1) how the game is displayed on small(er) screens (your Android4 phone has probably a bigger screen than the Cink+, so if it's good on the Cink+, then...), and 2) if the game is playable on small screens.

I can also say that on Android 4.4 tablets (bigger screen), the game is absolutely a breeze to use: this is the Lemmings experience you all know (minus my game's modifications, like the fact that my Blockers stop Builders from building, ...)

Moreover, I didn't tell you yet about some in-game features, so, yes, there are other things to be revealed at a later time 

The game will probably require Android 4.0/4.1 to work.

below: screenshots of the game running on a Wiko Cink+ (Android 4.1) and on a Nexus7 (Android 4.4)
screenshots taken at the game's same time:
- 1st photo: the game with the default zoom in use when the level starts (-> full-screen level on its height)
- 2nd photo: the maximum zoom is shown. Even on small screens, you won't miss your Lemmings selections!
One can note that, on small screens, skill-icons and texts are not fully displayed (see Time, Goal, Alive infos). I will take care of this later...



ps:
I read the "Ideas for Skills" topic(http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2012.0), and there are very interesting ideas. Some of them found their way to my TODO list (which doesn't mean these ideas will be in the game, but... maybe?)
Don't forget that including these features in the game also means extra work to do in jLevelBuilder.
Besides that, for the gameplay, I hesitate between :
- always using the same 8 skills, à la Lemmings 1 (this way, you always know what skills you have, and where they are in the GUI)
- or having different available skills, depending on the levels (problem is: skills move around on the GUI (less handy) + when you start a level, you have to take some time to look at the actions you can perform this time)
For the simplicity of the game, I may choose the 1st option (Lemmings 1)

[RubiX]

NICE!

[Prob Lem]

That super-zoom is a pretty nice way of working around the inherent inaccuracy of capacitive touch-screens!

I'm just curious, though: What happens if or when a large group of lemmings end up bunched together? Or is this just not allowed to happen to begin with?

[LJLPM]

I'm just curious, though: What happens if or when a large group of lemmings end up bunched together? Or is this just not allowed to happen to begin with?

Well, it's handled in such a manner that you should(will!) succeed in doing what you want but I won't tell much more on that for the moment: sorry Actually, I did not look at what other portable/mobile Lemmings games did for handling such situations (I'm mostly thinking about Lemmings on PSP or Vita), but I can tell you that friends who tried the game didn't have problems with Lemmings selection and skill assignments

[Prob Lem]

Good to know.

The reason I asked is because it's actually handled pretty badly in Lemmings Touch for the PS Vita, and the included way of circumventing it (pressing left/right on the physical d-pad to cycle through lemmings) is so slow and unresponsive that it's completely broken. All portable versions prior to that use traditional d-pad and button controls (with the best version for this being the Game Gear one, in my view, as it just feels right), so probably aren't very relevant here.

[LJLPM]

Quick thoughts about "Lemmings selection + skill assignments + is the game playable on a small screen?": I was able to complete "This Should Be A Doddle" on the phone's 3.5" screen, on my 1st attempt, using exclusively the tiny zoom factor you're actually seeing on the -dark- picture below (-> zoom was scaled to make the whole level fit on screen! -> very tiny Lemmings!). An easy level, yes, but considering the extreme zoomed-out view used on such a small screen, this is a convincing demonstration of the good management of the player's inputs!

[LJLPM]

little update/confirmation here: in its current version, the game is playing well on tablets and smartphones, and I'm now mostly interested in designing the game's graphics and levels (time to move on from coding), therefore it's unlikely I'll add extra/new skills (I'll stick to Lemmings1's classic skills).

[LJLPM]

by the way, I forgot to tell, but the game only needs the permissions to read/write external data (for loading/saving replays + loading external custom levels) => only permissions required for the game to work are requested. It is an important info, indeed.

[LJLPM]

I wasn't satisfied enough with my "Pillar" tileset (it looked dull compared to the original "Pillar" tileset from Lemmings), so I decided to re-work it, and it's much better now!

- a glimpse to the new "Pillar" tileset:

[RubiX]

beautiful

[LJLPM]

Thanks I'm happy with the tileset now: it looks gorgeous on smartphone/tablet's screen, and I'll keep on adding more tiles to it. Moreover, as the game creation slowly but surely progresses, here are more early screenshots showing two tilesets integrated to the actual game: "(new)Pillar", and "Ice".
(middle and bottom images are actual screen captures from the smartphone and the tablet, respectively)

[RubiX]

Stop teasing us !

[BradLee]

Signed up here just to tell you that your "Lemmings-like" android game looks AMAZING.
Also your jLevelBuilder looks equally impressive.

Maybe when I finally have time to stop and sit down, I might give it a go.

Regards.

[LJLPM]

@RubiX: sorry Perhaps, you'll agree for just a little more, for welcoming the week-end?
(currently, this tileset is made of 110+ pieces. It's a nice tileset, and it won't be an easy task to make the next tilesets match the quality of this one)

- the level designed in jLevelBuilder, then imported into the game (actual screen-capture from smartphone):



@BradLee: thank you very much for your support! As a matter of fact, I do my best to deliver the very best Lemmings game released on Android devices! I still have a lot of work to achieve, but the current results are very promising, and it's a very exciting project!
About jLevelBuilder, yes, feel free to try it: I use it for designing the Android game's levels, but you can also use it to create Lemmings1 levels that are compatible with (Super)Lemmini & (Neo)Lemmix.
You'll find the download link (and the feature list) on my website.
And if you have any question about jLB, here's the jLevelBuilder topic.

[RubiX]

You are really going all out with this.
Congrats