itch.io

Hi everyone,

I’ve created a small 2D sprite-based game engine called SCL (Canvas Language), and I’d love to get your feedback on it!

https://playscl.com

To showcase what it can do, I’ve posted 3 games here on Itch.io, all made with SCL. You can find more games at https://playscl.com

On playscl.com, I’ve added a "Games to Make" section in the menu. Clicking this lets you customize any of the listed games — change the graphics, sound, or even the gameplay - Since SCL is just typed into a textarea, it’s easy to tweak things.

I designed this specifically to help newcomers learn by modifying existing games. If you’re new to SCL, I recommend starting with the hidden object games, as they’re the simplest to experiment with.

If you’d rather create games from the ground up, check out the full editor at https://canvaslanguage.com

Publish Your Creations

When you’re ready to share your game, hit the "Publish" button. It’ll wrap your game into a JS file locked to a domain of your choice. For now, it’s free — just use the coupon code provided.

I’d really appreciate any feedback or thoughts you have. Let me know what works, what doesn’t, or if you’d like to see any features added!

Looking forward to your comments,
Derek

I enjoyed the little surprises.

Thank you for that link. My brain must have been shut off this morning when I couldn't find the answer myself.

I work with a small book publisher and I suggested some book themed games. So there'd be a game with artwork from the book. Then there would be an outbound link to the book's website.

Is that allowed? Is it bad form? I think I saw a prohibition on referral links, but this wouldn't be that.

Congratulations, this game is great. It's giving me the same vibes I got first playing Angry Birds or Stickman Golf.

Maybe it's not possible, but I wish I could play it completely with my mouse, I still need to reach to the keyboard to hit the space bar.

As soon as I read X-Wing, I was in. I think you and I are in the same demographic.

I played a few minutes, I'll come back and do more later.

I found the controls and navigation a bit difficult to get used to. Especially finding the other ships. The speed up/down was too slow. Perhaps implements of 10 instead of just 1. I was playing in browser with mouse and keyboard.

I really liked the crisp graphics. 

Like I said, I'll come back and try more later.

Incidentally,  I was also inspired by X-Wing for my current game but it's a 2D shooter.

What does Move[RC] mean? and Edit[LC]  ?  .... I'm guessing Right and Left, but what is the C ?

I like the simple and gentle feel of it. I couldn't find the item menu to reset the bell so I got stuck about level 6 or 7 - just after it changed theme.

Adding the button pushing to the task is a great escalation to the game play.

At the very beginning I wasn't sure the game was working because I didn't understand that the boxes only moved opposite the direction the cat was standing. Maybe I'm just dumb? That caused me to get blocked and without a way to reset and start over, I think you might lose some early users that way.

But on the whole I really like were the game is going.

I'm not sure how to explain this. Giving it my best shot though...

I created an animation programming language called Canvas Language. I use it for gifs, general animations, and games. I would like other people to use it for games. I've created 2 games on itch.io using this tech - see my profile.

I put some game templates on the site. The artwork for each of the games can easily be replaced without any coding and you'd have an new game with your art. The code is also there to change actual game play (Canvas Language code) under the Advanced tab.

https://canvaslanguage.com/studio

I would suggest playing with the Puppy game to get a feel for how it works.

I'm considering having a game jam with the concept being to simply replace images in one of those games and make something new.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments?

Thanks for checking it out.

It's been a month and I'm still too busy to work on this much but here's an update.

• Added sound support to studio
• Added sounds to this game
• Added mute button to the UI
• Changed publishing destination to playSCL.com, specifically for this game: https://playscl.com/game/eqrmnwr6vl
• As I write this, the current version of the source is at https://canvaslanguage.com/studio under the "Games" tab.

I put a newly sized game in the studio. It is 540x960. I've also removed the shopping pages completely and refactored most of the code to better support a more hyper-casual forever-play kind of game.

Here again is the link to the game in the studio https://canvaslanguage.com/studio/clusterchaos

I'll be adding another couple games to the studio this week as well. I'll look into hosting an SCL game jam.

This is probably the most complex game I've tried to create with SCL (which wasn't originally meant for games). Here are a handful of issues I'm finding:

• No support for callbacks or promises - the Router() routine shown above is my old-fashioned solution to this
• No separate UI loop - in other words, you can't freeze game play and access a UI.
• It would be nice to be able to pass references to routines - that's almost a necessity at this point.

The title says it all.

I'm going back and forth on design because I can't decide if it is okay to hotspots outside of thumb range. Know what I mean?

I want a game where users can play it with one hand while their on the subway or whatever. But am I expecting too much of it?

(am I over-posting?)

Game Play loop

As I change the type of game, I'm working out how the gameplay will be continuous/forever. I have think have the basic play look figure out. It goes like this: play levels to earn points -> with enough points can choose and upgrade -> fight to actually get the upgrade.

I had wanted to work something in there with the nebula, as was part of the original game (reaching it was the goal), but I'm not sure how to do that yet with forever gameplay.

I may have the first playable levels of this new format online early tomorrow and you'll be able to play with the source code then.

Stay tuned.

New title for the new size of 540x960.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I  think I'll trim the concept down again. Originally, if you read above, I was going to emphasize story, then I cut that out for game play only. Now I'm think of changing game play again to be much more purely hyper-casual and to even remove the upgrade shop and $ concept.

Perhaps, the game play will consist just of wiggling your thumb. Upgrades through play only without the shop or much in the way of choices. I'd still like to incorporate the goals somehow though.

Nothing quite like the holiday to take one's eyes off the ball.

And now that I'm back at this, I realize that I should make this game for portrait mode. Or should I keep it as a desktop/browser game? I don't know. Can the game work in both modes?.... it would certainly mean a different challenge in each orientation.  Below are shots, as it is now.

Current dimensions are 800x600. If I make the dimensions 800x800, then just center it on the viewport... would that work? Thoughts? Mission design would be wonky. On the other hand, I could just rotate the combat layer 90degrees for portrait. ... thinking...

I decided to forsake a complicated story and instead go with a game that is more strategy, economic.

The game will have the goal of going from from A to B through a series of missions, M1-Mx. User will be able choose the order of the missions that is best for their status (loadout, defense etc). The hard part  is finding a challenging and engaging balance.

Something like:

(AttackerPower+AttackerDefense) - (YourPower+YourDefense) = Difficulty

Then place an expectation of user power+defense to be at particular levels having completed x number of missions.

Plus, I need a UI and reward system that keeps drawing players forward.

Trying to decide what story to go with. The original Flash game had a story that started like this, slightly altered:

It was only a short time ago that planets of the cluster were first visited by the Sav. Their ships were not large or powerful but they could travel between stars in mere hours. This gave the Sav their power. Though their weapons were little more powerful than the other planets the came quickly to dominate. They called their travel technology "warp" and they held it secret and held it close.

Then one day their advantage was lost. A Sav vessel was disabled and then "rescued". It was not long before warp technology was stripped and disseminated through-out the cluster. All was not lost for the Sav. By then their influence was vast through economic dominance nurtured through their past monopoly on warp. From a trading empire they shifted to military power. What they couldn't dominant by economy and warp they dominated by force of arms.

The planets under the Sav Influence and those outside lost their balance. Whereas before warp they had no contact with each other except through the Sav, now they discovered each other. Sometimes trading, sometimes fighting. Borders, influences, wars and unrest abound. The Sav treat them as misbehaving children but they are growing up fast and the Sav are losing control. Militaries, rebels, militias, privateers and pirates are all at work. A new equilibrium seeking itself is now disrupted: a ship has been found.

From somewhere, entering the cluster, floated an unknown vessel. Collected by subjects of the Sav it was held awaiting transfer until stolen by  privateers. You are those privateers. And your new ship is powerful.

(I'm so sorry that so much of that was written in a passive voice)

OR

A simple story with none of the political stuff.

The decision will affect missions design.

Post #2

Today I did a few small aesthetic changes and one big change. The important change was how to handle shielding on ships.

I'm not sure if I think the new style is better looking but it is easier work with and much faster to render. Drawing, turns out is very processor intensive and was causing performance issues when several attackers were drawn in the same frame.

Old code:

draw onto _sprite
         strokestyle "rgba(200,200,255,.5)"
         linewidth 2
         circle 17,20,23+_repeat*3
enddraw
// 5 shield rings would mean this is called 5 times

New code:

update sprite _sprite.shieldContainer where alpha=arg.1*2*10

Much much much much faster, and better looking. Instead of calling this 5 times, we'd just pass in '5' as the first (and only) argument.

btw, "_sprite" is a built in that always refer to the current sprite being worked on.

https://canvaslanguage.com/studio/clusterchaos

13 years ago I made this game for Flash called Cluster Chaos 

I took the sprite engine from the game to make Canvas Language which I use to make gifs and games.

Now I'm re-making Cluster Chaos using SCL. The play will be a bit different but I think it has to be because people use their fingers to play.

The following captures are already part of the new game:

(this is the development studio)

I don't just want people to play my game someday, I want people to use my game engine too. So as I build a game using it, you'll see how that's done. 

You can play the game as I work on it (and even change it if you want) at https://canvaslanguage.com/studio/clusterchaos . You can edit the source code in the Advance tab, upload your own replacement images, and download/upload your own project files to save your changes. No account or login is required. You just can't publish it - it's just for experimenting, for now.

If you have any suggested changes for the game, let me know. Solo is lonely and sometimes bereft of ideas.

(the partial shields need to be fixed)

(maybe a bit ugly, the Decorate button may disappear altogether)

(I actually like the color scheme on here)

The "story" of the game is that ions from the nebula are your fuel, so you have to earn ions thru fighting as you try to reach the nebula.

It's online now. I put it under Action. There should be a "Casual Action" category.

Please check it out.

Thanks.

I just publish Clock Cheese to https://sclanim.itch.io/clock-cheese

For mouse or touch, turn the gears to avoid crushing the mouse as he eats the cheese. Nom nom nom. Catch stars for extra points and extra mouse lives.

40 levels.

This game has actually been a project of mine for many years but friend always told me the controls were wonky. I changed it to their satisfaction so I hope you agree.

Made with Canvas Language game engine (see my profile about that)

🤣  I'm moments away from taking it out draft and you all got me re-thinking again.

Yeah, from the dropdown list. I'll go with Strategy.

My next game is really simple. You simply guide a mouse around a loop. It's hardly an action game, but it isn't a puzzle game either. Maybe "other".?

How should I decide? Or, what constitutes an action game? because I keep thinking COD like.. which this definitely is not

Your thoughts?

- thanks

Yeah, I know what you're saying, but ... <shrug>well</shrug> lol

An original and addicting (and frustrating) little puzzle game for browsers. Free to play. 40 Levels of challenge. Simply roll blocks around the corners of other blocks to move them into the marked places. Easy right? Except when you get blocked.

https://sclanim.itch.io/block-roll

Do you expect mobile games (in portrait mode) to be playable with one hand?

I'm working on a game that I had finished before but the controls were unintuitive. Specifically, I thought the controls were great but my friends told me it was garbage and they couldn't figure out how they worked.

I understand where they are coming from. If you look at the screen of the game, your instincts tell you how things should work but that isn't how I programmed it.

Now I have 2 options:

1. "Original" - my unintuitive darling which works perfect once you understand it
2. "New" - intuitive but cannot be played effectively with one hand

I'm going to have to go with the New version unfortunately, but I am curious about mobile play with one hand.

Do you expect mobile games (in portrait mode) to be playable with one hand?

Hello. I joined yesterday and think maybe I should have earlier.

Over 10 years ago I did a Flash game. It was a lot of work and completely unsuccessful.

Since Flash was dying, I took my sprite engine from the ActionScript and converted it to JavaScript. Then I wrote a parsing engine for it and that's how I created Canvas Language (also called SCL). SCL is an animation programming language. I use it to make GIFs and games. 

I'm planning up to 4 more games for Itch since they are mostly made.

I'd like SCL to be good enough for other people to make games with it.

Thanks for the review.

It's funny because the bug that Andruhex reported above was that "locked" squares were actually not locked and you could quickly complete the puzzle that way. So this morning I made sure they were locked - sorry (not sorry!)

I'll check out your game soon.

I think I'm set for music, but I'll keep you in mind.

Regarding domain lock...

I put my first game on here yesterday, and to provide a domain lock I checked document.referrer like so:

Pseudo-code:
       if (window!=window.parent) HostCheck(document.referrer); // if in an iframe, get the referrer and check that.

It worked in all my tests and this way the hosting url doesn't matter because I test against my subdomain sclanim.itch.io

So my question is:

Is this okay? or is my method mistaken in some way?

Hello.

My first impression is that the play area is small. Then when I played it, I thought the empty space on the left and right (the area where blocks fall) is too generous.
I like the graphic style and the music.
It really soaks up the brain juice so it might not be something to play when I want to relax.
It was too hard for me but I probably just have to get used to the controls. It really does use a lot of mental energy.
I don't know how to do it, but if you can give little rests or breaks in the middle of the action, that would be nice.
I'd give it a 3. If I was better at games like this then it would be an easy 4. 

I did find one bug. I was going crazy with rotations and a pieced stopped early. Here is a pic:

I hope this helps.

will do!

Yep. That's a bug. I'll fix it asap. Thanks alot - it sometimes takes a 2nd set of eyes!

How are you doing that? I'm not sure what you mean?

https://sclanim.itch.io/block-roll

This is my first time here on itch. It's a simple puzzle game. Simple in concept but surprisingly challenging too. 

It's funny, because I'm working alone, and I'm more concerned that the link works and that the game runs for you than I am your opinion on it.
So please, first tell me it runs, then tell me what you think and how to improve it.

I've been wondering if I should have included sound. I left it out because I didn't think it would add anything to such a simple game. What do you think?

Thanks!