Anderfam Game Lab

Free games by a guy named Jim

Construct

Fantasy Words (Basic)

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I’ve decided to create utility applications — small programs that certain people may find useful or at least amusing.

The “certain people” I have in mind are creatives — writers and game-makers who may need, for instance, some nice fantasy names and words.

Sure, there are lots of generators on the Internet, but there’s room for a few more!

My first effort along this line is Fantasy Words (Basic). It uses random numbers and an algorithm to create nonsense words on the fly. The words are more or less pronounceable for English speakers, but are not English.

You can specify how long a new word should be (in the range of five to twelve letters). When you have a nice list, you can download it as a plain text file.

Here is a typical word list:

ihokuga
seboceka
secavedavoso
apesiboj
ayibepolido
avakafisuf
ohacopudu
ahayi
videlo
etutihu
xufulazi
iboforetatav
yosunimewob
axexixen
melijuw

Admittedly, pronouncing some of the above would be a challenge, but it could be done. Any of them could be a proper name or common noun in a fantasy language. Or some other part of speech.

The app uses mainly mouse or touch controls, but has a few keyboard shortcuts. The form factor is right for tablets or smartphones; however, I see this sort of thing as a desktop/ laptop application.

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.