38 replies to this topic

[monocledsardine]

Summary
You are a lighthouse, and your goal is to shine light on good ships so that they can see you and move away from the land. If the yellow bar above a ship is filled up, the ship has been saved. The more ships you save quickly, the more points you gain.

Be careful! If the ships hit land, they will sink. Also, there are pirates and water mines out at sea that will try to blow up your ships. You must get rid of these menaces by focusing your light on them and burning them. To focus light, press the 'E' key. Note: make sure to unfocus the light by pressing 'W' before you shine it on good ships again.

To help you out, your lighthouse has been enabled with advanced technology that allows you to create a mine wherever you right click. If you have enough time to pile up mines and blow the bottom one up, you can use this to get huge combos. Use wisely - if you focus too much on playing around with mines, you will lose all your ships.

There is one more type of ship, one that is very rare - steamers. Once you get a score above 1000, there is a chance that a steamer will come onscreen. Steamers give you a large amount of points if you fill them up with light. They are practically immune to everything in their path, which they blow up (so you can get large combos if you stick mines in front of them). Also, if you light them up, they will light up every ship that is near to them, so they are definitely worth filling up with light.

If you don't save enough ships or destroy enough obstacles witihin the time limit, you will lose the game. You can see how much time you have left by the number of green ships shown in the top left corner of the screen. A more specific time bar is shown at the top right (it counts down time for each green ship shown).

The wind is also shown in the top right corner (white arrow). It determines which direction the ships will go - wherever the wind is pointing, the ships will come from the opposite side of the screen.


Controls
Mouse - Change the position of the light

W - Focus the light
E - Unfocus the light
OR
Left mouse press - Focus the light
Left mouse release - Unfocus the light
Shift or Ctrl - Keep the light at the same size (you need to use this if you are using the left mouse button)

Right Click - Create a mine wherever the mouse is - very good for setting yourself up for combos

Note: As soon as you use the left mouse button, the game automatically assumes that you are going to be using the mouse for the entire game, and the light automatically expands when you are not holding down the mouse button. To stop this from happening, use the W and E keys and do not push the mouse button.

F1 - This information screen
F4 - Toggle fullscreen
F8 - Toggle graphics quality
F9 - Take screenshot (exports to the game folder)

Full-screen? No
Changes Resolution? No
Room Size: 800x600 (approx)

Created Using: GM7 Pro
Current Version: 1.50
Yoyogames link (use the download link here if you want to download it): http://www.yoyogames...ames/show/88791
Size: 5.3 MB

Some comments on speed: I have now set the room speed to 55. The game uses multiple full-screen surfaces that are redrawn every step, so it may go a little slow. However, we have attempted to make it run reasonably fast on a reasonably good computer. It should be able to run at 45 FPS on most computers, and if you have trouble, make sure that it is running on low graphics mode (F8).

Screenshots:
http://img339.images...screenshotv.png
http://img149.images...creenshot1h.png

Credits:
Lighthouse is a creation of Orbic Entertainment (www.orbic.co.nr).

Misc. Design & Programming - monocledsardine
Programming - P-entertainment
Spriting - wiseman15

Thanks to Avenhym, ganondorf, VigilantGuardian, tehraptor, Matthijs, and anyone else who has collaborated with Orbic at any point in time. Also, a big thanks to everyone who has played this game and/or commented on it.

Thanks to GM FMOD for a working sound system. Thanks as well to wiseman for making some ambience on very short notice.

Thanks finally to DPoole for being the first to review this game. It really helped the development!

-monocledsardine

Edited by monocledsardine, 02 January 2010 - 09:11 PM.

[Mailas]

Oh wow this looks pretty epic, will definitely try it out!
One thing I couldn't figure out exactly was how to steer the red-sail ships away, but still this was fun to play.
9.6/10

PS I loved the little sun-glare effect if you shine the light at you. xD

Edited by Mailas, 13 July 2009 - 08:26 PM.

[monocledsardine]

The ships with the red sails are pirates - you have to burn them. Push 'E' to focus the light, then shine it on them to make them explode.

[Zccc]

Original gameplay and good interactive graphics!! Awesome work!

Edited by Zccc, 13 July 2009 - 09:11 PM.

[Tumetsu]

I think this was pretty nice idea but I would like to present one suggestion about controls which really struck my "designer's eye". As directing light happens with mouse I would suggest following control scheme over current one:

Mouse left button pressed (hold down) : Focus light
Mouse left released (not holded down): Unfocus light automatically to certain level. Preferably gradually.
I'm not sure what use Shift really had but if you think it's necessary, it could be toggled with right mouse button.

With this control scheme everything is focused to mouse which should make controlling a bit easier. You can still keep keyboard controls. Online scores and different enemies would be good addition too.

[monocledsardine]

I'll be sure to add mouse controls, thanks for the idea.

Sound and music are also coming in the next update, so keep posted.

[DPoole]

Just thought I'd mention that I reviewed this game on KwikLook Blog.

The game is pretty original and I liked the graphics quite a bit. Overall, it's nice.

[Katuko]

It's great to see an original game that actually has some effort put in. You had simple but fitting graphics, and the light transitioned smoothly from large to small. The menu looked pretty cool as well. I only have two small issues with this game, one of which only popped up at the end. One, there is no sound. A few simple sound effects like dampened explosions from the mines, bubbling from a sinking ship, sizzling from the focused light and some sort of "you rescued a ship" sound would really have improved the feel. Two, you used the standard look for the high score table and message box. Kind of hit me in the face at the last second. It is not enough to lower my opinion of this game though. Seriously good work!

[monocledsardine]

Thanks for the review and comments, sounds have been chosen, mouse control has been added, and I'm working on altering the menu and a few other things. Unfortunately, my laptop just went kaput, so I'm having to wait to get it fixed until I can use GM.

Edited by monocledsardine, 06 August 2009 - 07:59 PM.

[monocledsardine]

Wow, finally the updates are done! This game is quite addicting now...

New updates: sound finally added! Much better controls, more appropriate menu, you can now create mines for better combos, a new type of ship added, and, best of all, a full length tutorial!

Tell me what you think! And tell me what high scores you get... I've gotten about 6900.

Edited by monocledsardine, 20 August 2009 - 04:55 AM.

[monocledsardine]

Sorry for the double bump, but due to MAJOR uploading errors, I have made a new page on Yoyogames for Lighthouse (I changed the link in the first post). The new link is http://www.yoyogames...ames/show/93875. Please rate again if you can find it in your kind heart to do so .

[DPoole]

Brilliant. You focused on the parts which needed the most improvement and now, overall, it's a much better game. I really like the new menu, and with the new tutorial, I was able to understand how to play the game more.

I wish this game would get more exposure; it really deserves it...

[monocledsardine]

Well, I might add a few small powerups and online highscores soon, if that makes things any better.

[ecrgclimb95]

Powerups sounds like a very good idea.
Perhaps one that destroys all the mines on screen.
Or freezes all the ships.
Also, I think the cruise ships or whatever they are should come into play earlier.
Just some suggestions.

[monocledsardine]

Alright, here are the powerups I'm thinking of right now - tell me what you think:

1. Freeze all ships
2. Destroy all mines (for points, of course)
3. Make it so you can stick a lamp in the middle of the sea to light up ships

I'm also thinking of occasionally making tons of ships appear at the same time (rarely). Good ideas, bad ideas?

Also, for the next version, wiseman and I can add one more enemy/ship. What type of thing would you guys like?

[angelofsilence]

Great game so far!Would love to see some powerups and more levels added in!

Heres an in-depth review i've written up for the game!
Lighthouse In-depth Review

[walkingbush]

You have a really fun game here. Its real addicting and well crafted. The menu is cool, the game is fun, and the tutorial is humorous, but still shows you how to play. 9/10 ecause its not perfect. For another ship, do a ship thats faster than the normal ones, but worth more points. You can have a double points powerup. And, you can have whirlpools that come up, so that you have to wacth for ships and get them before they fall into the whirlpool.

[monocledsardine]

Also coming in the next update: unlockable achievements.

For another ship, do a ship thats faster than the normal ones, but worth more points.

That sounds cool - it would also be nice if there could be something unique about those ships (eg. they give you a powerup or something like that). Any ideas?

[walkingbush]

I once played a submarine game where you shoot PT boats and once a game a rainbow boat flys past the screen, and if you can hit it (the torpedoes were kind of slow) you get alot of points. Maybe have something like that, but with your own twist? Like a hoverboat (even though its not really present time, cause thats the point) or somethingt similar? Anyway, good luck with your ideas.

[monocledsardine]

Ooh, hoverboat, I like that .