Android App: Avoid Them!
The App
Current version: 1.0.1 (August 2023)
It's the most recent game and app I've made so far.
It is a Minesweeper type video game. Contains 6 difficulty levels and 4 different game modes.
It is played by pressing the virtual buttons, thus avoiding problems of incorrect pressing with the finger directly on the squares.
It has a portable console design which can be played in portrait or landscape mode, to provide a better experience.
You can customize the environment by changing the colors of both the buttons and the virtual case, with a total of 288 possible designs.
As I already mentioned, it is a minesweeper-type game, that is, you must reveal the entire map avoiding revealing the squares that contain a hidden enemy.
The thing to avoid in this game is finding spiders (or a representation of them). If you lose, a cute little spider will appear on the screen that will surely make fun of you. Avoid them at all costs 😄.
To know where a spider is, you simply have to trust the numbers. Numbers are your best ally and they will never lie to you.
Obviously it is a game in which you must think and analyze the situation well before revealing any random square 🤔. The numbers are there to help you.
If you still have problems with how to play a minesweeper, you can look for some guides on the Internet, they are not difficult to find.
The application has 4 different game modes, which are:
- ⭐ Classic Mode ⭐
- 🚩 No Flags Mode 🚩
- ⏱ Time trial Mode ⏱
- 🔥 Ultimate Mode 🔥
The levels range from very easy to very very hard.
As games are won, new difficulties and different game modes are unlocked, so that the difficulty is progressive.
The game has 4 directional buttons, 1 action button to reveal boxes, 1 button to place flags and 1 pause button.
It has score tables for each difficulty and each game mode so you can see your best times in each level.
You have 2 ways to win a game: Revealing all the boxes or putting all the flags in the correct place. This avoids (most of the time) losing unfairly.
The game is made so that you never lose by revealing the first square in each game.
If you unfortunately reveal an enemy, you have the option (not mandatory) to watch a small ad to win 3 more tries 🛡. If you get these attempts and don't use them, they will wear off over time. I would recommend using them only in very difficult moments.
The game has an automatic loading and saving system, so if you are playing the game and exit the application, you can continue playing the game afterwards. But beware, there might be a problem with saving from time to time if the application is completely closed abruptly.
The game has 7 different languages: English (default), Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese.
Here is the promo video I made for the game:
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Development
I finished this game in May 2022.
I started creating it since August 2021 (almost a year before) but during all that time there was a subject at my University that consumed practically all my time 😟. If it wasn't for that, I would have finished the app in about 2-3 months.
As I mentioned in the article where I talk about my programs made with Processing3, I developed the game Avoid them! based on a computer game that I once made using that language (June 2019), which simulated a portable video game console and had a minesweeper as its main game. Obviously that game was very basic compared to what this app is now.
Before creating Avoid them! I was going to make an app about my school (with information and maps) but I decided to make this game because it would be easier to make.
I didn't know what to call the game, I thought of many possible names but the name had to be short and I didn't want it to be just "Minesweeper". There are already many games with that name (although that's what the game is about 😅).
Both the name and many texts within the application had to be short to avoid that when doing the translations, the text would be so large that it would go off the screen.
What took me the longest was, again, putting in all the translations and trying to correctly represent what I wanted to say in each language (although most likely there is some mistranslated language).
But this time something else also took me time... playing my own game many times, mainly to see how long it took me to play each level and thus get a rough average to create the levels against the clock that everyone could beat. Both with flags and without flags. I played each level of each game mode at least 10 times.
With this application I practiced Object Oriented Programming a lot.
Although from time to time I would get stuck somewhere, I managed to fix it sooner or later. I remember having a problem with the database that made the game very slow every time I revealed a tile or it took time to close or open the application. When I had this problem, it took at least 7 seconds to start a new game, now it does so in less than half a second (also depending on the speed of the device).
As I mention in the "About me" article in the Beat box section: once again, I made almost all the sounds in the game, both the buttons and the spider (except the songs, with those I used a program).
With my dubbing knowledge that I studied at UPIICSA, I was able to make a voice for the spider to have that laugh. To make that laugh, I imagined the spider as a small and innocent version of Twitch, the mutant rat from the game League of Legends. She would have almost the same charisma.
All the drawings that are not emojis were made by me, either programmed or in Paint 😁.
At first I had thought of making more dangerous animals to be the enemies (along with the spider). For example, scorpions, snakes, bats, and even poison dart frogs. But since some species didn't have much to do with each other: not all species were poisonous, not all species hide like spiders, etc. In the end I decided that the game would only have one enemy animal.
Spider
The spider design was based on the family of real life spider species: "Latrodectus" also known as "Black Widows". If you ever see such a spider in real life, know that although their main goal is not to attack you, and they are very shy, if they do attack you, they will implant a very painful venom with various dangerous effects that can last for hours or even days. Although its venom can rarely be deadly (depending on the variant of this spider), avoid them and be careful.
Here is a video about this spider (If you have arachnophobia, don't watch it):
I made the song tones with a program that simulates Mario Paint, and simply by looking at the sheet music of the 2 songs I played, El Jarabe Tapatío and Cielito Lindo, I could easily make the sounds (because currently I don't know anything about music).
I think this application is the biggest software I have made so far since it has thousands of lines of code. Well, apparently that title will no longer belong to it when I finish this web page haha.
This is an image of the app in Android Studio:
Can you beat my score?
My best time so far in "Classic" game mode on "Hard++" difficulty is: 56 seconds.
Secret game mode
The game has some Easter Eggs or secret things.
To give an example: Did you know that pressing the pause button in the "About" menu makes a very Mexican effect appear? 😁
The truth is that there is a Secret game mode, that is, the game does not have 4 game modes, but 5 😮.
If you're playing games and suddenly you win a game and you don't hear the usual melody, but instead hear a snippet of the song Cielito Lindo, you have unlocked the secret mode!
But that game mode is considered SPOILER!
If you have already unlocked this game mode and have already played it, feel free to click on the button below.
SPOILERS: If you want to see the content of the secret level with SPOILERS, click on the following button.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
The truth is that it's not that secret, you just have to watch the promotional video until the end haha.
