I created the first version of this game at my summer house over just two weekends in 2015. The full version differed only by minor interface tweaks, improvements to the wave generator, and Facebook integration.
The game featured saving and progress synchronization across devices, allowing players to exit on one device and continue on another. At the time, I thought this was a useful feature, but now I see it as an unnecessary use of time.
Most of the bugs in the game were originally made for another game that never saw the light of day. Yet in this game, they fit perfectly and added a unique charm. I designed the game interface myself using GIMP.
This is a highly engaging hidden-object game featuring numerous mini-games and tasks.
The game was developed by a team of three to four people, but the team composition changed several times, so the total number of developers was roughly twice as many. In addition, marketers, documentation creators, and a project manager also contributed… I can’t provide all the details, especially since I’ve forgotten much of it.
The game was developed under Linux using Code::Blocks. The target platforms were Windows and macOS. The engine was a heavily modified HGE, primarily to support Linux and macOS. Here, the SDL library and its companions — SDL_sound, SDL_image — proved very useful.
The game was released around 2010. As far as I know, it is still available on various publishers’ websites.
This is my version of the game King’s Valley for the ZX-Spectrum, which I wrote back in my school years. The game is not a clone of the original MSX title but rather inspired by it. The main character was copied pixel by pixel from King’s Valley 2 with the help of graph paper, a few keen eyes, and a pencil, thanks to my friend Yevgeny Yanushkevich. My brother Ilya and my friend Yevgeny also helped me design the levels. All the development of the game and its resources was done entirely on the ZX-Spectrum.
In the video, there’s quite a serious player – completing the game in just two hours.
In fact, the game turned into quite a long-term project, stretching out, if I remember correctly, for about a year. It was written right after I lost the disks with the source code of my previous game – a port of Knightmare from the MSX.
The game can be found in the World of Spectrum archive and on other sites.
Strangely enough, World of Spectrum claims that the game was released in 1994. That doesn’t quite match reality, since that was already my third year at the Academy, while I had actually written the game back in school.
To this day, I continue working on reviving the game for mobile devices (iOS, Android), TV set-top boxes (Apple TV, Android TV), desktop platforms (Linux, macOS), and the web. But I’m doing this VERY slowly – sometimes putting development aside altogether, and sometimes spending just a few hours a month on it.
The idea was simple: “I’ll take Krakout and Arkanoid: Space Ball, quickly rework them, and release something new.” Yeah, right – wishful thinking. “Quickly” didn’t happen for several reasons: the old game code was useless, and even looking at it hurt my eyes; plus, the plan was to use a new (for that time) version of the engine and replace my old simplified math with the Box2D physics engine.
So the old projects “voluntarily shared” only some assets and ideas – the game itself was written entirely from scratch. Levels in the game were grouped into worlds – there were 10 worlds in total, each containing between 10 and 40 levels. To save time, some worlds were copied from previous games. But several levels and even entire worlds were newly designed. Different people worked on different levels and worlds.
Because the game’s levels were meant to be dynamic, an external editor was created for building episode worlds. Level data was stored in XML, describing object types, appearance, behavior, and durability. The editor worked with object groups – for example, a circular trajectory with radii R1 and R2, rotation speed and direction, and the number and type of objects on it. When loading a level, each object became independent in the game while still visually belonging to its group.
Krakoid on the OUYA TV console
Target platforms were iOS, Android, Android TV, OUYA, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Both the game and the engine were written in C++. Development was done under Linux, in my favorite editor – VIM.
At one point, a publisher from China requested the game. I had to implement special, localized payment methods. The tricky part was that each mobile operator had its own SDK for different payment systems. It was impossible to test integrations locally, so I had to rely on sparse documentation and my own experience. I don’t remember how long it took to implement all the payment options, but the work was eventually completed. A special build of the game was sent to the publisher for testing – after which the publisher disappeared.
And that wasn’t the first publisher to vanish after receiving a build.
Arkanoid: Space Ball will be a surprise for the amateurs of unusual and picturesque games as Arkanoid and space games. Everybody who wishes to spend time perfectly will take a pleasure in Arkanoid: Space Ball too. A futuristic atmosphere, modern techno-style graphics, a dynamical gameplay and an excellent soundtrack give this game as a present for all Arkanoid’s admirers.
You have to clear a lot of platforms-levels soaring in space, and meteorites, spacecrafts and guns of enemies constantly will be threatened your life. Numerous bonuses dropped out from the broken blocks will help you to pass all obstacles: the laser, the rocket launcher, force fields and many other things. Game is distinguished by the features interesting and unusual for classical Arkanoid: horizontally oriented break block formation, moving and shooting bricks, Gravitational anomalies effects to flights of the balls and missiles, etc. In short, whether you are a teenager, student, parent or grandparent, you will instantly fall in love with this exciting game.
Main features
Level generator – non stop gameplay
Level editor – create your own worlds
2 modes to play – usual arcade mode and krakout mode
Original bonuses and power-ups – use it carrefuly
Unusual space objects – we are in space, who know what come
A hidden-object game with a mystical yet detective-style story. The player must move between the real and mystical worlds to solve various tasks.
The game features a range of logic and arcade mini-games. The game was developed on a modified HGE engine using SDL libraries. Target platforms were Windows and macOS, while development was carried out on Linux. Versions for Windows and macOS were sent to publishers, but the Linux version remained on the development computer.
For a time, Between the Worlds was at the top of iWin’s publisher charts.
Two versions of this game were released — one for DOS and one for Windows.
1997 and 2002
It was a classic Tetris that included several variations: Tetris, Pentix, and Color Tetris.
What made this Tetris special was its support for network play with up to 5 players. When a player cleared two or more lines at once, random blocks would be added to the opponents’ wells.
The DOS version was written in Borland C 3.1. Apart from the network mode, its distinctive feature was a Windows 95–style interface. The network was implemented over the IPX/SPX protocol.
The game was written in C entirely from scratch, without any engines or third-party libraries, except for the IPX/SPX library. For graphics output, it used direct memory access. On startup, the game created interface elements in a memory area outside the visible screen, then copied them into the visible part for rendering. Because of this approach, the game wouldn’t run under Windows 95, even in compatibility mode. Unfortunately, the source code for this version has not survived.
I couldn’t find a screenshot of the DOS version.
If I recall correctly, the Windows version was written in C using Visual Studio 6. For the engine, it used the CDX library. The game had a client-server architecture: any player could act as the server, and the others would connect to them. It ran over TCP/IP. Thankfully, I was able to preserve the source code for this version.
Windows version in normal mode
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