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Skears 2 (incomplete)
After a few people made it apparent that they liked the original Skears, I decided to make a sequel. It would have a faster frame rate and have around 50 levels (and a few more which would act as a bonus for completing the game with enough points or a warp). However, it was never finished and simply stops after level 41 is completed.
The main problem was that Flash doesn't seem to let you make tweens and stuff after frame 1600. I encountered this while I was making level 42, and had to think a while about what to do.
First, I thought I could cut down the number of levels to 30, and use the freed up frames to make the bonus levels, warp levels and ending. However, I eventually decided not to because: a) it would have been difficult and b) the game also had other problems.
The higher frame rate couldn't be handled by many PCs and meant that testing was difficult. As a result, the difficulty curve was a bit off. I wasn't happy with the scoring system at all. (Basically, after each level, you got a pre-set number of point, but lost 25 each time you died. Getting a higher score was a only case of dying less.) I basically felt like I could do better.
When I do make Skears 2, it will be made again from scratch and, with the experience I've gained from the Mini Skears series, it will be much better. But until I learn how to use and manipulate scenes, it will remain a distant possibility.
I'll hopefully finish the remaining 13 levels by next week. After that, 4 people are going to playtest it, after which I'll make a few changes to make the game fully complete.
If you have any comments (good or bad) or need some tips with a particular level, please e-mail me.
Incidentally, if you're finding the game a bit hard, try clicking the link just below the game to open it up in a seperate window. If you maximise this window, the game will be a little easier because the targets are bigger.
If you want, you can see some different versions of the original Skears by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page.
Have fun!
If you want to play the above game full-screen on a seperate window, click here.
Here is a list of all the versions of this game which have been made.
There isn't an incredible difference between the different versions, but I thought you might be interested to see them anyway.
They are listed in chronological order, so if you see them all 1 by 1, you'll get an idea of how the game was developed.
This is the original game, rol-ovir. There are only 2 levels.
Here is the 2nd game - rol-ovir 2. The 1st 2 levels are slightly easier and there are 8 new ones.
Here is a version of Skears with different graphics (filled fuzzy squares).
In this next version, I made the thing run in low-quality mode. It looks totally different.
Here is a version of rol-ovir 2 with the rotating square deleted.
I started Skears 2, but it remains incomplete since it isn't good enough.
Here's a slowed down version of the above game.