esviji (Game Review)

It's probably not a secret to anyone that I love SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), but I'm continually surprised more people aren't making games in SVG. One of the biggest advantages of SVG is that you can make something fit anywhere, because it is ... scalable!


And now, out of the blue, comes a game from Nicolas Hoizey that not only uses SVG, but, if you say the name out loud, is SVG!

Nicolas claims this game is based on Puzzle Bobble (also known as Bust-A-Move) from Taito, and while there are certain similarities (I find both soothing and fun), I think esviji is definitely in a class by itself, and somewhat more challenging.

In case you weren't around for Puzzle Bobble, here's what Puzzle Bobble's screen looks like:

The two little dinosaurs at the bottom pull a gun turret back and forth, shooting a colored ball at a pile of colored balls. If you hit one of the same color, all of those balls explode. The two dinosaurs are Bub and Bob and that game is a spinoff of Bubble Bobble, which is a platformer! But esviji isn't really the same at all, and in fact, more challenging.

Here's the actual playing screen of esviji.

Very simple, very elegant. Low-key, understated, just what you might expect from France. But very different from Puzzle Bobble!!!

You have the game name, the score, level, and lives. You have a pause button at the upper right. And you have some nice colored balls at the lower left corner, and a ball on the upper right. Your mission is to guide the ball by sliding it up and down and letting go at the right moment. You want to smash into a green ball with a 2 on it. Get all the balls off the screen and you go on to the next level.

But there's more. You'll notice stair steps on the upper left. If you let go the ball so it goes across and hits one, the ball will bounce off the step and down to hit the ball you want to hit. If you hit one ball, it explodes. But your ball keeps going and will explode another if it is the same color, and so on. Then if it comes to a ball of a different color, it changes into that ball.

Lots of strategy, but you can take your time and think about what you want to do. Simple but deep. And this game has all the components of a complete game. There are sound effects you can turn on and off, high score saving, and a very good tutorial. Here's how you navigate to get the information.

From the start screen:

If you touch the gears on the right, you go here:

Turning the sound on and off is good, but even better is the Tutorial. It's a simple set of cut scenes showing you how to play!

And

 

And so on. Really well done tutorial and leaves no questions about how to play! None!

Going back to the Start screen, if you choose the middle button (the blue ribbon award image), you go here:

You'll notice that the scores are ranked by difficulty, and I obviously chose beginner. When you start the actual game, you'll get these choices:

I'll have to work up to ... Crazy! But I like that there's room to grow.

When you play the game, you can hit the Pause button (which looks like this: | | ). The Pause screen looks like this:

All in all, very elegant. You can start slow and keep going for a long time. The only thing that I would add is some kind of background music, but because Firefox OS can play music and sound on separate channels, you can play your own music in the Firefox OS Music player and still hear the sound effects of your game.

But there's more!  Nicolas Hoizey has chosen to share his source code at https://github.com/nhoizey/esviji. I haven't had the time to dig in to it, but it looks like he's creating the SVG shapes in the body of the document and then moving them. He uses the SVG Animate tag but also uses JavaScript, so I'll be curious if he wants to share his basic architecture of the game at some point. I didn't know SVG/Animate was supported, and, uh, it looks like it still isn't in Internet Explorer 11. But it works fine in Firefox and Chrome. And super-fine in Firefox OS, Firefox on Android, or the "home screen of any IOS 6+ device".

Because Animate wasn't supported by IE 9 or 10 or 11, I've not looked at it much and my main interest is using JavaScript for object creation and animation anyway. So this is an interesting development in the SVG game world, a very small corner that I would like to see grow.

I'm in love with this game and will keep it on my phones forever! Thank you, Nicolas Hoizey! And please do more. Let's not wait another 20 years.

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 7 (out of 5)
Tested on: Geeksphone Peak (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/esviji

Heroine Dusk (Game Review)

I'm really excited about this game. Heroine Dusk is a "retro turnbased rpg adventure game" (in the words of Dora at JayIsGames) and strongly reminds me of one of my favorite RPG games in the 80's called Might and Magic (on the Apple II). I didn't care for Wizardry, but did love Might and Magic (though ultimately, Ultima was the ... ultimate of computer RPG games).

Here's a typical screenshot from Might and Magic I - first-person point of view.
 

 and one from Ultima II - top-down point of view.

And here's a screenshot from today's game, Heroine Dusk - first-person point of view.

Like Might and Magic and Ultima, you will travel through a medieval setting with the the tap of your finger, battling monsters, getting gold, and in general, living inside a world that is inside your Firefox OS phone!

Here's the opening screen:

Nice and moody. If you're curious, here are your options:

The music, by Yubatake, is moody also, and sets the tone for an RPG. And if you needed more, there's a somber prologue:

Tap on the button to wake up.

By the way, you're a serf and if you press the I button at the top right, you'll find out that you are the heroine of the story.

The I button is info (or inventory) and tells you what you're carrying (a stick), wearing (serf rags), and how much gold (none). There's also a little blob on the center left that will turn out to be a map of where you have been. You'll also see your hit points (25/25 - if you go to 0/25, you'll die) and magic points (4/4). Magic is used for spells, and you'll pick them up but you start out with none. You're a serf, after all.

So next you hit the I button to get back to the story. The controls are really simple and I find much easier than using a mouse on a PC. Smooth and fun! You move by tapping in the center to move forward, or on the left or right to turn.

You're ready to  leave and you turn and see a door.

Go through the door and you're outside in a courtyard.

This is a monastery and you're told its not safe! So move west. Oh, oh, what's this?

Definitely not safe. A monster named "Shadow Tendrils" blocks your path. You can click on the sword on the right to fight or the smaller running figure to ... run away. Let's fight!

You attack and the enemy misses. Fight a bit more and with any luck, the monster is defeated.

You get 1 gold piece. Good for you. Keep going west until you come to Monks Quarters.

Inside you find a chest.

Open it and you'll find a wooden stick. Your first weapon. Next go back out and head north until you come to a building called Meditation Point.

Inside you'll find another chest.

It contains a spell that lets you heal yourself.

You're now ready to explore the world. Head South from the Meditation Point and leave the Monastery.

And so on. The game looks large and I'll be curious what lies within. I'll write up a followup review after I've played it a week or two!

If you want to know more about the game and its author, go to http://clintbellanger.net/. Definitely worth $0.99!

What's that, you say? $0.99? Yes! I paid for this game. Firefox Marketplace is now set up for payments. As I noted in my last game review at http://firefoxosgaming.blogspot.com/2013/12/orbland-labyrinth-game-review.html, Orbland was for sale but I just tried the free version.

I tried the free version of Heroine Dusk, but decided it was time to bite the bullet and plunk down $0.99. Here's the two versions:

The paid version is called "Heroine Dusk donate", and I did just that. The procedure to buy a game is pretty easy. Here's the procedure I followed:

After clicking on $0.99, I had to sign up at marketplace.firefox.com and become registered with Mozilla Persona system.

Then I had to make up a password.

Oops, it didn't like my password! It has to be between 8 and 80 characters.

They also wanted a PIN from me:

I then had to confirm my account by email and then give them my mobile number and carrier.

And then they sent me a SMS message that I had to copy a six-digit number from, all to prove I am a real person and not a thief. And finally, they wanted a credit card number and the relevant details.

After all that, my purchase was approved, and all this was able to be done on my trusty ZTE Open Firefox OS phone. Pretty cool, huh!

I'm curious if people can buy games in other countries. If anyone has, let me know.  This is so exciting!

Firefox OS is now real. If you can buy games in the marketplace, how much more real do you want? I am really excited about being able to buy a game, and very pleased that the first game I bought was a role-playing game that I'll spend hours playing! I'm especially impressed because this is a large complicated game but fits nicely on my low-memory phone and runs great. If anyone says you can't play real games on a Firefox OS phone, tell them about Heroine Dusk!

In case you haven't guessed, I'm a big RPG fan, which makes me bump this up to a 6 out of 5 and because it is a bargain but paid app, I'm giving it a 7 out of 5 because I'm so excited. Yippee!

Cost: Free for limited experience, $0.99 for full game.

Genre: RPG
Score: 7 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace