Homebrew [WIP][Game] Bottomless Block Barrage - a Tetris Attack/Panel De Pon/Pokemon Puzzle League clone

[TricksterGuy]

Introduction

Bottomless Block Barrage (BBB) aims to be a Panel de Pon clone for the 3ds. Don't know what Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack, or Pokemon Puzzle League are then here is a video This game is a work in progress but it is currently playable. Currently this is unplayable in citra it is too slow.

Screenshot

Status

As of now the basic engine is complete, work is now being done implementing the various modes. Basic graphics are used now until better ones are found/made.

Game Modes that may be supported w/ status

• Endless Barrage - Play until you lose. [DONE]
• Score Barrage - Get the highest score in a certain amount of time/lines. [IN PROGRESS]
• Puzzle Barrage - Solve all puzzles in a certain amount of moves (Normal and Action modes) [IN PROGRESS]
• Mission Barrage - Similar to the same mode in Planet Puzzle League.
• Versus Barrage - 2 player game with AI (and possibly online play)

Features

Game

• New concept of "Chain link" (clink) in which you match groups of 3 or more rapidly before blocks are removed from the board.
• Ability to save replies of your game (For my debugging pleasure really!)

Puzzle Editor

• Puzzle editor is complete find the source code here I have already ported all puzzles from tetris attack to my format via my level editor.
  • For the Tetris Attack example puzzles see: bottomless-block-puzzles
• You can download the windows version of the level editor here. My hope for this is for people to create and share puzzles, if it catches on I will have the app be able to easily download new puzzles from a central location.
• For linux systems I have included instructions on how to compile the program with cmake.
• I still need someone to produce a binary for Mac systems. But I assume a similar method as described in the repo can be used, just install wxWidgets and use cmake.

Controls

• Up/Down/Left/Right moves the cursor
• A swaps the two panels over the selector
• R quick rises the panels
• Start instant quits and returns to Title Screen

Contributing

1. If you find a bug with endless mode, please intentionally lose and then save a replay. Replays are saved on the sd card in folder bbb-moves/ on the root of your sd card. Send me the replay file.
2. If you want to make your own puzzles for puzzle mode (upcoming) have a look at bottomless-block-builder here
3. I could use an artist just about everything was generated, or made by me (with the exception of the panels and border). See https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R-YQ4TT5hY9X3aqFWqW52wRc_LmMH8FDOBfWJ_8MDFc for formats of images.
4. Also music.
5. As far as code goes, if you want to help go on ahead, the codebase right now is kinda a mess and has several dependencies.
6. If you have any ideas pitch them here.
7. Feedback is appreciated at this point, I only released this now as a minimum viable product to get comments.

Known Issues

1. Some skill chain techniques may not work in my engine, for instance, trying to move a block when blocks are already falling above it does not always work.

Downloads

https://github.com/TricksterGuy/bottomless-block-barrage/releases


Credits

SRKTiberious for Panel Graphics, Chain Markers.
cots for new title screen, banner, and icon
TheWolfBunny Panel Graphics
xerpi for sf2dlib
flarn2006 for SFBmpFont
http://www.codehead.co.uk/cbfg/ for their bitmap font generator
Nintendo/Intelligent Systems for Tetris Attack.

 

[ElyosOfTheAbyss]

This looks coll, gonna try now

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just tried it and it's pretty cool, maybe add a proper pause function? I went to pause and it restarted the game

 

[AmandaRose]

Pretty cool but needs some kind of a background image plus sound affects and music.

 

[cots]

Oh, I really like Tetris Attack. This looks cool.

 

[MethFred]

Played with it for a bit. I do like that blocks feel more "floaty" than Tetris Attack. You can switch one out and back under a block without it falling.

Can you add to the Cascade/Combo/Chain window to show what your previous one was? After it clears, you won't know unless you were watching it.

Great work so far!

 

[zetaPRIME]

Clear animation is way too slow, and should immediately switch blocks into the "panic" sprite to show that the clear is registered.

 

[GalladeGuy]

Just thought I should mention this, but the original name of this game is "Puyo Puyo." Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon, Pokemon Puzzle League, Kirby's Avalanche, and similar are all just clones of Puyo Puyo.

 

[zetaPRIME]

Just thought I should mention this, but the original name of this game is "Puyo Puyo." Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon, Pokemon Puzzle League, Kirby's Avalanche, and similar are all just clones of Puyo Puyo.

Nope. Puyo Puyo is an entirely different game. (see: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)

 

[GalladeGuy]

Nope. Puyo Puyo is an entirely different game. (see: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)

Ah, I see. I got confused since both games look so similar. Feel free to ignore my previous post in that case.

 

[TricksterGuy]

Also I should mention that a small GUI framework will bud off from my code, once I polish it and add more common widgets to it and support touchscreen controls. I will make a release as a separate post.
I have already made dumped the code of the stuff I created in this repo I have named it sfWidgets since its based off sf2dlib and inspiration from wxWidgets.

This looks coll, gonna try now

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just tried it and it's pretty cool, maybe add a proper pause function? I went to pause and it restarted the game

Yep expect this in the next release, tis a result of me being lazy and wanting an easy way to quit and go back to the title screen quickly.

Pretty cool but needs some kind of a background image plus sound affects and music.

Acknowledged, but I did mention the state of this now is a minimum viable product, all the pretty bells and whistles will come later.

I'm no artist and I should probably be banned from opening gimp for that plain old title screen .

I chose not to use any of the sprites/music from the original games except for the panel graphics which I found on WolfBunny's deviantart, I am being picky here, but that said I would be willing to pay for custom graphics and music or accept donations of those two things.

But yeah getting this out there to find people who'd be interested in helping me with those parts now that I have done substantial amount of work on this. It took about 3-5 months off and on work to get here, and I can have the other modes out in a week of work really.

Oh, I really like Tetris Attack. This looks cool.

Thanks

Played with it for a bit. I do like that blocks feel more "floaty" than Tetris Attack. You can switch one out and back under a block without it falling.

Can you add to the Cascade/Combo/Chain window to show what your previous one was? After it clears, you won't know unless you were watching it.

Great work so far!

Yeah that window is for my debugging I'll probably stick to what the games do and show a little box where the match was made w/ details. Don't know an ETA for when I will switch to doing that still have to think about how I want it to look.

Clear animation is way too slow, and should immediately switch blocks into the "panic" sprite to show that the clear is registered.

Acknowledged, I will tweak some constants that control the number of frames for each action and do a little touching up there.

Just thought I should mention this, but the original name of this game is "Puyo Puyo." Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon, Pokemon Puzzle League, Kirby's Avalanche, and similar are all just clones of Puyo Puyo.

Puyo Puyo (Puyo Pop) is an entirely different game than Tetris Attack.

Puyo Puyo has pieces falling from above and you match four or more adjacently to clear then
Tetris Attack has panels rising from below and you match 3 or more horizontally and vertically to clear them

Puyo Puyo is also known as Kirby's Avalanche and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine over there
Panel De Pon was released in the US as Tetris Attack rebranding it as a Yoshi game.

 

[Tjessx]

Looks good!

 

[chaoskagami]

Nice job OP. I'm watching this closely, because Puzzle League has always been my favorite of the endless puzzle games. In it's current state it feels like you took a good amount of time getting the mechanics to feel really close to the original. The only issue I have is that the clear animation is a little too slow compared to the original (It's about right for easy, but the faster the game speeds, the faster the clear animation usually.)

Hoping VS mode will get completed - there's nothing like dumping a load of three garbage rows on your opponent. > (Just make sure to do proper security checks on data. We don't want exploits in homebrew.)

 

[TricksterGuy]

As promised I have uploaded a prebuilt binary of my level editor for windows, and compilation instructions for linux, just use cmake. Its not much use now since I don't have puzzle mode implemented yet. The next release of this game will include the time trial mode and puzzle modes along with addressing most peoples feedback.

My goal for releasing the puzzle editor is (I hope) that people will use it and share puzzles. If it catches on I will facilitate a way for people to play puzzles others have created over the internet.

https://github.com/TricksterGuy/bottomless-block-builder/releases/tag/v0.1.0

Also I have a github of puzzles as well

Looks good!

Thanks

Nice job OP. I'm watching this closely, because Puzzle League has always been my favorite of the endless puzzle games. In it's current state it feels like you took a good amount of time getting the mechanics to feel really close to the original. The only issue I have is that the clear animation is a little too slow compared to the original (It's about right for easy, but the faster the game speeds, the faster the clear animation usually.)

Hoping VS mode will get completed - there's nothing like dumping a load of three garbage rows on your opponent. > (Just make sure to do proper security checks on data. We don't want exploits in homebrew.)

Yeah I have been working on this off and on since late last year
And versus mode is going to be the last thing on the todo list, I don't even have support for garbage blocks yet heh.

And yeah netplay will be the biggest challenge, I'm looking forward to it

 

[CeeDee]

OH MY GOD I FUCKING LOVE POKEMON PUZZLE CHALLENGE

THIS IS FUCKING GREAT

THIS NEEDS A CYNDAQUIL THEME/MUSIC AND THIS IS LITERALLY BEST HOMEBREW

 

[SLiV3R]

Nice one. We need more guys like you in here!

 

[Sono]

I'll try this out once I'll have time, looks good!

Btw, if I'll have time, I might make a tutorial on how to use CSND, because appearenty there are no tutorials on how to use CSND.

 

[Shadowfied]

Oh my god! Pokemon Puzzle is one of my favorite games of all time. Will definitely try this!

 

[chaoskagami]

As promised I have uploaded a prebuilt binary of my level editor for windows, and compilation instructions for linux, just use cmake. Its not much use now since I don't have puzzle mode implemented yet. The next release of this game will include the time trial mode and puzzle modes along with addressing most peoples feedback.

My goal for releasing the puzzle editor is (I hope) that people will use it and share puzzles. If it catches on I will facilitate a way for people to play puzzles others have created over the internet.

https://github.com/TricksterGuy/bottomless-block-builder/releases/tag/v0.1.0

Also I have a github of puzzles as well

wxWidgets? Nice. Wish more people paid attention to this shit. Leaves us linux users incapable of running things if it's in .NET.

 

[xy2_]

Maybe add an option to use the screen vertically?

 

[chaoskagami]

I just realized another thing that I missed during pass 1 of playtesting - all matched blocks disappear at the same time. In the original they disappear gradually in a chain and you can swap to an open position even if the entire chain isn't gone yet.