A-MAZE-ING 2 (quasi-official) (sorta)

[catandmouse]

So about two years ago I decided to make a game for my nephew. The game I decided on was a remake of A-MAZE-ING, personalized for them. So I did, and it worked quite nicely.

Well, I now have a version which is meant for general consumption. It even includes a direct credit to TI Instruments for the original idea (as was legally approved by TI). The gameplay is almost identical to the original, except for some the following tweaks:

1. No pouncing cats. I never did like that feature. All other cat behavior is approximated, though, including the speeds.
   
2. Being caught by the cat is no longer permanent death. Rather, you run back to the start of the maze and get a chance to try again. If it is a cheese hunt, you drop all cheese and if it is invisible, the cloud is restored.
   
3. When you pass levels, you get yarn. You can drop the yarn. When a cat crosses dropped yarn, they will start playing with the yarn for a short time, distracting the cat and allowing the mice to pass through safely.
   

These changes do make the game somewhat easier (that was the point; my nephew is a sensitive kid, and I wanted to blunt the sharp edges of the game), but playing it, I found that it mostly allowed me to play at higher difficulty settings and still win. You can still ramp up the game settings to "nigh impossible" if you really want to.

The best version of the game I have is unfortunately only for Windows. (If anybody wants the original python code, email me and I will do my absolute best to find a copy.) I have attached it here as a zip file. To play the game, just extract the zip to a some directory, and look in the Amazing2 directory for Amazing2.exe. This is the windows executable for the game. It includes built-in help and a key reference (so you know how to move the mice.) You need to leave the executable as-is in the directory because it relies on local files to run, but you can totally create a shortcut on your desktop.

Also, I'd love to hear what you folks think about this. It was a fun project.

Amazing2.zip

Edited November 18, 2015 by catandmouse

[+Ksarul]

Nice effort--and the yarn is an interesting touch. . .

[+jedimatt42]

The gameplay is nice.

 

The sound of the maze being drawn in the original a-maze-ing is something I deeply associate to the game, and would have liked to see/hear included.

 

Running from the smart cats is cool... the 'scared' behavior works well.

 

Given your original target audience, this looks like a real success.

 

-M@

[catandmouse]

The gameplay is nice.

 

The sound of the maze being drawn in the original a-maze-ing is something I deeply associate to the game, and would have liked to see/hear included.

 

Running from the smart cats is cool... the 'scared' behavior works well.

 

Given your original target audience, this looks like a real success.

 

-M@

 

I'm afraid that sound is easily my biggest weakness as a programmer, and recreating that opening sound was a daunting thought indeed. I kind a wish I could have included it as well, but time and talent did not permit.

[Opry99er]

Very nice. i have enjoyed it so far. A good modern take.

 

And the opening sounds... Pretty sure it is just hitting a sound channel with a certain tone during a particular part of the maze drawing, then shifting pitch and volume slightly when a new direction is taken with the maze drawing algorithm. Could probably be duplicated fairly simply just by playing with tones and durations... A random(ish) algorithm tied to the sound generator would likely yield a similar effect which could be tweaked as necessary.

 

Thanks for your contribution to the forum. It is a very nice game!

Edited November 20, 2015 by Opry99er

[catandmouse]

Very nice. i have enjoyed it so far. A good modern take.

 

And the opening sounds... Pretty sure it is just hitting a sound channel with a certain tone during a particular part of the maze drawing, then shifting pitch and volume slightly when a new direction is taken with the maze drawing algorithm. Could probably be duplicated fairly simply just by playing with tones and durations... A random(ish) algorithm tied to the sound generator would likely yield a similar effect which could be tweaked as necessary.

 

Thanks for your contribution to the forum. It is a very nice game!

 

Yeah, that sounds about right, although I honestly have done almost nothing with sound during twenty-odd years of programming. I really just ran out of time.

 

I also realized that there were a couple of other changes I forgot to mention in the original post, and I can't seem to edit it any more. They are changes in how the multi-player mode works. Basically, they are

1. If you have two players on a cheese hunt, there are twenty pieces of cheese to collect rather than ten. This goes for both cooperative and competitive.
2. If either player is scared back to the start before all the cheese is collected, they drop only those pieces which they personally collected.
3. In a cooperative cheese hunt, both players have the same score and must collect all twenty cheese pieces before the exit appears. Once the exit does appear, it remains open (and all cheese remains collected) until both players are through, even if one or the other is scared back to the entrance at some point.
4. In a competitive cheese hunt, the two players are playing essentially independently. When either player is scared, they run home and drop all collected cheese, regardless of the other player's status. The main difference here is that you have to collect ten pieces of cheese to escape, rather than five as in the original. The other change is that if you do accidentally collect more than ten pieces of cheese (which is allowed), you have actually helped your opponent! They only have to collect the remaining cheese in order to escape.

Yeah, creating the "run home" mechanic really made multi-player cheese hunts more complicated.

Edited November 21, 2015 by catandmouse

[Opry99er]

Very cool info.