Fan Frenzy, the fourth weekly game by Sarah Scialli, with lots of code help from Jim McCann. Starter code from Topple, and helper code the earlier games. Help drawing spheres from Alyssa Reuter. Minimal code help from Andrew Friedland, Minimal code help from cplusplus.com, the SDL tutorials, http://jerome.jouvie.free.fr/OpenGl/Tutorials/Tutorial4.php, code written from 15462, and some reference websites for syntax. Sound player code from http://www.libsdl.org/intro.en/usingsound.html. Art and music by Sarah Scialli
In this carnival style game, the goal is to get the ball to roll to the goal square. The player can use up to four fans to apply forces to the ball to send it to the goal. Extra points if the ball hits the little blocks.
The player must position and rotate the fans to get the ball to reach the goal. Then the player presses spacebar to set the ball in motion and see how they did.
I wanted this game to feel like a cheesy carnival game, where the player is cheering on this ball to move around. The game draws inspiration from The Incredible Machine, somewhat, but this game is very different. It also is reminiscent of a Zelda block puzzle. But the concept of applying forces in different directions is different than any game I've seen before.
I'm pretty happy with the gameplay. The puzzle is interesting and often complicated. One interesting, unexpected effect is the strange bouncing of the edges. Although it was unanticipated, it evokes the weird mechanisms that carnival games often have, with parts of the game moving around to tell you the game is working. I wish that I had figured out how to get the small blocks to give extra score, and also how not to make the fans move through each other when placing the blocks. I hope to go back and add to this game- maybe making the ball fall through the win square, and do more with the aesthetic.