Anderfam Game Lab

Free games by a guy named Jim

2D

Balloon Shoot

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As you might guess, Balloon Shoot is a game in which you shoot balloons. So I’m classifying it as a shooter, but it’s really just target practice. The balloons do not shoot back.

I made the game because I had some nice, colorful balloon popping animations courtesy of Robert Brooks at Game Developer Studio. Brooks is an artist who sells his original game graphics on his website, and also gives away a great many high-quality graphics, among them the set of popping balloons.

In fact, I ended up creating the entire game with freebies from Brooks. (I’ve bought some of his art, too, and will feature it in future games. But the balloons just spoke to me.)

The only graphic in the game that didn’t come from Robert Brooks is the bullet. I managed to draw that myself.

Update: This game can also be played on the Construct Arcade.

Wormhole Guardian

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My latest game is a throw-back, a vertical space shooter created in Construct 2, using graphics from the assets bundle I got with the program back in 2012. In fact, I used some of the same images and sounds in my 2012 game, Deep Space Patrol.

The premise in Wormhole Guardian is that you are the captain of a ship on sentry duty at a stellar portal (the wormhole), with orders to attack and delay any enemy ships attempting to transit the wormhole. You’re a speed-bump, not expected to survive. Your performance will be judged on the basis of how many enemy ships you destroy versus how many get by you, before you are destroyed.

The most important enemy ships to destroy are the red ones. They’re unarmed transports, just trying to get through the wormhole to attack the planets you are sworn to defend.

The game has three difficulty levels. It is smart-phone and tablet friendly, but the best way to play is on a computer with a keyboard.

Note that since my last blog post, I have added some other games to this website. You will find them on the Game List.

Guess the Number

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Over the decades, the first real program that I’ve created in a new programming language or platform is a “guess the number” game.

By “real program,” I mean something beyond the traditional “Hello, World” program, in which you get the computer to print out that (or another) simple message to the screen.

I’ve written “Guess the Number” in Basic (a few different dialects), Pascal, JavaScript, Python, and GameMaker Language. Probably some others. Creating the program requires a language-specific knowledge of random numbers, input and output, variables, and conditionals (if/ then logic). By the time you’ve got “Guess the Number” up and running, you’ve mastered a good chunk of the new language.

Admittedly, as games go, it’s not much. More of a programming exercise.

Until now, I never bothered creating “Guess the Number” in Construct. The reason is that you can easily produce small graphic-intensive programs with Construct 2 or 3 almost immediately.

I decided to fill in the gap. If nothing else, creating the game allowed me to play with sliders.

So here is my Construct 3 version of Guess the Number.

Star Drop: a physics puzzler

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I like physics in games. It seems — well, natural. So, I checked out the physics puzzle template in Construct 3, enjoyed the basic action, and decided to make a game out of it. After swapping out the graphics, adding multiple levels, and a few other odds and ends of my own, this is the result.

Star Drop is a simple game, and can be played on mobile or laptop. Just click or tap to remove the wood blocks, and let gravity do the rest. Try it on HARD for a challenge.

The Pumper

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Yes, it’s another simple shooter. I’m either on a roll, or in a rut.

In this one, the player is represented by an antiquated rail-gun that can only shoot straight up. That’s OK because the enemy is flying overhead and dropping bombs. The gun has great range and a high rate of fire. You should be able to destroy a lot of bombers. But they will keep coming, faster and faster. It’s the way of these things.

My goal was to create all of the graphics and sound effects from scratch, and still have a decent looking and sounding game.

Check out The Pumper.