Friday, June 06, 2008

Ballshot re-released, sources available

So I've finally pushed myself to fix-up and rebuild Ballshot for the latest server platform and we've released the game recently. Ballshot is a mobile clone of Puzzle Bobble

I have to say that working on this particular game has been one of the best times I've had while programming. It was one of the few times I've had to use a bit of math in real-world programming. It wasn't very complicated math at that, linear equations are taught in grade school if I recall correctly :) Also the extensive use of recursion and fiddling with bit masks etc. to calculate if 3 or more balls of same color are connected has been hours of .. errr .. fun ? :)

Sources for the game are available (without the networking functionality - single-player mode only) here:
BallShotGame.zip.
You can modify the sources/graphics, build the game, and play your own creation. I've donated the game sources as a part of NetBeans Mobility tutorial on device fragmentation that I helped put together.

If you are interested in doing mobile Java development then downloading NetBeans and going through the tutorials is an excellent start.