Akantares Re-opening

Nov 6, 2024 at 12:12 AM
Been here way too long...
"Big Joe Tire and Battery Restaurant! Opening Soon! Eat at Big Joes!"
Join Date: Oct 7, 2013
Location: India
Posts: 528
Inspired by Soaprun's reopening over at this thread, I was inspired to bring back Pixel's other online multiplayer game, viz. Akantares.
akantares_ss2.png


akantares_ss1.png
~~Goal:
You need to shoot down your opponent. You can control the direction/angle of your shot. Various obstacles situated in space will affect the trajectory of your shot via gravitational attraction. If you successfully hit your opponent, you get a point. The first person to get 5 points wins.

~~Controls:
Up/Down arrow keys on title screen to change game mode, space to confirm.
Left/Right arrow keys (or drag 'Direction' slider) to change angle. Hold shift when using arrow keys for slower/finer control.
Space (or click 'Go!') to fire.
Z to toggle 2x zoom.
Esc to pause (doesn't work in online multiplayer).

On touchscreens:
Esc = top-left corner
Z = bottom-left corner
Up arrow = top right corner
Down arrow = bottom right corner


~~~~Game modes:

~~Single player:
You are the blue planet. You play against the computer (which for now just picks a random angle so it's pretty easy...).

~~Offline multiplayer:
You take turns playing against an opponent. Both you and your opponent use the same controls. Blue aims and presses fire, then red aims and presses fire, after that the shot is actually 'carried out'.

~~Online multiplayer:
Initially a Lobby is displayed with a list of players hosting games. On mobile devices you may have to press a little downward arrow on the right side of the white field to see the list.
You can host a game by pressing the 'Host' button, and your name and the time is added to the list.
You can join someone's game by selecting their name/time from the list and clicking the 'Join' button. Once a hosted game is joined, it is removed from the lobby and the players (host and guest) are transferred to the actual gameplay screen to start playing it.
The shot is carried out once both players have made their move (and they may do so in any order).
There is also a chat function. You can also choose a funny face for your player from the drop-down list.


~~Issues:
Physics isn't an exact copy of the original game.
Server is not robust to disconnections. If either player disconnects, no matter how briefly, both are kicked back to the title screen.


~~Credits:
Akantares by Studio Pixel.
Javascript recreation of Akantares, and music, by IdioticBaka1824.
Game code template by Alula.
Server and communication code template from Socket.io.
Support and inspiration from the Cave Story Tribute Site Forums and Development Room Pixel (Discord server).
I've been working on this on and off for about a fortnight now and I think it's in sufficiently functional shape to release, but since I'm not really a programmer you can probably expect to see unexpected issues crop up so please bear with me. The source code is on my GitHub in case you want to suggest improvements or host it yourself or whatever.

(Note from the hosting service: "Your free instance will spin down with inactivity, which can delay requests by 50 seconds or more.")

So yeah I hope you guys can enjoy this. Judging from this thread it looks like Akantares was originally released sometime in December of 2009, so I guess you could call this a preponed 15th anniversary celebration!

Edit: Yeah okay after some more playing with people and testing there seem to be a lot of bugs. I'm sorry about this. If anyone can help out please do :pignon:
Bugs:
Level regenerates randomly at times
Desynchronisation issues with scores and gameover/newgame scenarios
Upon level transition, a new level briefly appears before immediately regenerating
You need to press 'fire' again after both of you have pressed 'fire' once
You can now ask for a rematch with your opponent after finishing a game, and accept/refuse a rematch offer
Shots curve more, stay on screen more
Hosts can no longer join their own games
Direction slider no longer disappears right after accepting a rematch
Button clicking/depressing graphics added for the lobby
 
Last edited:
Nov 6, 2024 at 12:41 AM
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oh damn I don't think I've seen this game before until now. nice work bringing this one back
 
Nov 6, 2024 at 3:46 AM
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Few possibly gamebreaking bugs, probably from networking or something, but hey. Game works, it's playable, and it's there. Good on ya.
 
Nov 8, 2024 at 7:48 AM
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I did actually get to play this back in the day and I found at least one video on YT to refresh myself a bit

Tried to test online multiplayer with Bray, we get to the lobby screen and nothing happens, no names show up, can't click any buttons etc. Aside from what's been mentioned, the physics seem a bit different, shots don't circle back as much and the game waits a long time if any of them go offscreen.
 
Nov 10, 2024 at 4:41 AM
Been here way too long...
"Big Joe Tire and Battery Restaurant! Opening Soon! Eat at Big Joes!"
Join Date: Oct 7, 2013
Location: India
Posts: 528
Few possibly gamebreaking bugs, probably from networking or something, but hey. Game works, it's playable, and it's there. Good on ya.
The behaviour after finishing a game with someone was out of whack, i've implemented a way to ask for a rematch. I never saw other desync issues again, and am still not sure what happened or why :(

we get to the lobby screen and nothing happens, no names show up, can't click any buttons etc.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reproduce this behaviour :greydroll: Did any message show up when you clicked the host or join buttons?
the physics seem a bit different, shots don't circle back as much
Okay, I've fine-tuned the physics a bit :debug: hopefully it's a little more accurate now!
the game waits a long time if any of them go offscreen.
Technically, the shot is still there and in principle could circle back, so I felt I shouldn't "end it" right away. I think the original was like that too. I have, however, made changes such that they go offscreen less often now.
 
Nov 15, 2024 at 1:26 PM
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We tried again, the server worked this time which actually let me check the additional features. I'm quite certain the original online UI had all the different face reaction choices lined up on the (right? movable?) side of the game screen for faster choosing, since that used to be the only form of communication. The shooting feels more accurate now, however one thing we did notice was new maps double-loading in between turns, i.e. one map would load in very briefly but then be replaced before anything could happen.
 
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