Snaxe: Hour 0

September 12, 2011 by davidc

This Friday there's a video games party at my atelier, celebrating and sharing video games, old and new. I've been meaning to write a new game for people to try out on the day, but of course I've been too busy to think about it and didn't remember until the weekend. Then I got drunk and didn't remember until today.

So, I have four days to write a game from start to finish. This rather limits my options: I'd rather hoped to test out some new gameplay idea, ideally linking in with this month's Experimental Gameplay challenge. But given the time limit, I'm going to have to go with something simpler:

• The game will be written in Java, which I use for rapid prototyping, using either Slick2D or JME3, since those are the two frameworks I'm most familiar with and I won't have time to learn another.
• The gameplay will be based on some time-tested concept.
• The artwork will be very simple, i.e. within my own capabilities. This will tie in with the retro theme of the party anyway.
• It'll be projected on the big screen, and people can join in over wifi with their smartphones.
• There can be no (essential) sound, since it would probably be drowned out by the music and talking anyway.

With those things in mind, I've decided to make a multiplayer version of the classic Snake game. Probably most people won't have played Snake since their shiny new Nokia fifteen years ago, so it shouldn't be too overplayed. And as for multiplayer, a quick search shows that it may have been done, twice, but neither version is functional at the moment.

So, multiplayer Snake in four days. Starting now. Off to work I go.

Next: Hour 1.