As if to whet your appetites for the upcoming game design contest, game authors have been putting out a number of excellent ball physics games. The latest offering is Ramps, put forth by web designer Tyler Sticka. Your mission is to guide a ball from the drop pipe at the top of the screen to the exit pipe at the bottom using — you guessed it — muffins!
No, wait! Ramps! Ramps, I say! Ramps! I meant ramps.
Yes, position the muff-, er, the ramps by dragging the gray semicircles to your desired location. To change the angle, drag the little white dot at either end. When you think you have it right, click the pipe at the top to release the ball. Then sit back and watch it bounce and roll right into the bottom pipe. Or helplessly watch it fall into the red-hot lava underneath. Or see it flung carelessly about by creepy robot arms. Or watch it get sucked into another dimension by the silver portals. Or see it get eaten by a surprisingly heat-resilient piranha. Points are awarded for both time spent and balls lost, so plan carefully but be quick. After the 33rd and last level, you will receive some cheat codes based on how well you scored. Use the cheats to play again and enhance your score!
Ramps strikes a good balance, somewhere between ridiculous ease and irritating pixel-hunting. It reminds me of certain levels of The Incredible Machine—the ones where you had to guide a ball (or cat, or mouse, or muffin) to a certain place. However, Ramps offers a facet that was not present in TIM: timing. On some of the later levels (the ones with the jumping piranhas), you can either pass or fail a level depending on when you release the ball from the top.
Some aspects of the physics leave something to be desired, especially when the ball collides with the lower pipe. I've also seen balls go right through walls that were supposed to confine them. Additionally, I question the use of solid boundaries at the sides. They make some levels far too easy, yet there is only one level which would suffer greatly if your ball could travel off the edge of the screen.
So spoon the batter into the pan in scant 1/4-cupfulls, bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes and voila! Fluffy and delicious Ramps!
Nice one, Zxo! It is easy enough to keep things going, but also difficult enough to uphold your attention. It's not a big problem to get to level 33; I'm not sure I'll play again to improve my score (I got 101450 points and the "multiple spheres in play", "space gravity" and "tiny spheres" cheat codes).
You can get stuck and have to refresh the game, so be careful of that, and make sure you note the password, in case it does happen. Because if you don't you have to start over :(
Well, this is a fun little game.....until I got to level 26. I think I got level 25 by accident. I have no idea how to maneuver those arms to make them release the ball. I guess that is the trick and part of the game. Any help out there? Thanks.
Pinky - if your ball gets stuck, you can click the garbage cans at the top to reset the level. I never had a problem with the game getting stuck though. Is that what is happening to you? If that's the case, then your advice is definitely good.
duh, never mind. Sooze
Codes
Multiple spheres in play (0 points): waterloosunset
Space gravity (75,000 points): ziggyplayedguitar
Tiny spheres (100,000 points): fivefootone
Thought it was relatively easy to play. Even some of the later levels arent that bad. Managed to beat all 33 levels in one go and ended up with a score of 105840. Not too bad in my oppinion. Goofed up a few times, and some of the shots were luck-based (especially on the robotic arm levels).
Let this be a lesson, kids: Never review games on an empty stomach.
Got to level 24 without any trouble. Got boring so I stopped.
Cool ball physics.
Needs sound, though.
Well, now I'm at least not too afraid anymore that the physics (or especially collisions in this case) for my games are way too inaccurate...
This game really proves that nice graphics can make up for a lot.
I personally didn't like the game after a while because it got redundant, but I must say that it was a very beautiful piece of coding. Everything was smooth, there were not very many bugs and the visual appeal of the game was wonderful, good job coder!
Good enough to get me to play to lvl 17, but then it started to become a pixel hunt with the vacuums. Or maybe I suck. Looked nice. Would really only play it through for a Kongregate badge.
Hahaha, I read the snippet in Google Reader and honestly thought this game used muffins until I started playing it and couldn't find the muffins...
very fine game. level 17 is HARD though.
want to know the code? im sure you do, level 17's code is: milkwasthewrongchoice, thank you.
i would like to see it harder though. many levels were solved on my first try. :) or my second.
oh yea, if you're bored, try the much-easier ver. prototype 5!
I can't figure out level 32 for the life of me. That hand blocks the ball no matter what.... any tips?
This is hands-down the most well-written review of the game I've seen, Zxo! Nicely done, and thank you for the kind words.
I agree with the review and the user responses that some of the hit detection could be improved. This was my method of learning ActionScript hit detection, and I may have made some poor decisions when deciding between box-based and radius-based hit detection. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm excited to use those lessons in future games and projects.
nice job for a first game!
I do wish the physics were more accurate (by that I mean when a ball hits the end of a line...)
congrats though man!
and zxo... mmmm.. muffins (Great review :D )
I dunno, this game must be incredibly easy. I got to lvl 32 without much problem, besides a few lucky shots. I quit at that point, not realizing that there are only 33 levels! Teaches me to scan the review before trying the game out.
To be honest, this game hasn't really caught me. The idea is not really new and there's not much here that keeps my attention for too long. There are six different variables throughout the first 30 levels - that's weher I got bored enough to quit: the ball, the movable ramps, the immobile ramps, the fish, the hands and the sucking holes. Not much variation.
My biggest problem is, however, that considering tha fact that it's a ball physics game, the ball sometimes acts (bounces, that is) rather surprisingly, sometimes seems to bounce back with more impulse than it seemed to have before impact...
Something i haven't managed to figure out: the arms. Are they there to help or to hinder? They do both.
Eh, the physics leave a lot to be desired. I got frustrated on level 2 when, if you have two ramps intersecting (one sloping up, the other flat) the ball gets stuck where they intersect when it's rolling downward.
Way too fiddly and doesn't really make sense. Nice effort though. I can't wait to see a game with convincing physics. :/
The hands, I do not like.
For the person who asked about the one which is impossible not to get grabbed by...
I used one ramp to slope into the hand and one to block the hand from throwing it left. The hand got really testy and threw it downward. I'm sure there's a more physics based way of doing it though.
One of the passwords is
lifeduringwartime!!!!
That's one of my favorite songs!!!
the only one that i can't do is level 31
Eh. Not my cup of tea. It reminds me of a lot of stuff at teagames, and I don't always care for their games (they have great graphics and interesting ideas but the physics and controls always feel frustrating to me). In a similar fashion, I don't think the ball physics on this game are altogether too impressive. I also kind of feel constricted by the level size in addition to the size of the ball.
The graphics are really nice but not enough, I feel, to make up for a lack of innovation, a been-there-done-that feeling. I'm sort of tired of the guide-a-ball genre. I love ball physics, but I guess when I want my fill, I'll just keep playing within a deep forest.
my name is mitch and i am the master at that game personaly i find level 19 the hardest but i have mastered ever single level and everyone is always like level 32 is so hard the hand always grabs it but its easy you just have to get heaps of speed off the 1st ramp and then bounce straight into the roof and the ball bounces into the hand then the hand throws it at the roof and it goes in the hole
I'm stuck on Level 30 any tips?
Typical post and then do it!
Build a very steep ramp diagonally across the page from top left, spaced as far apart as possible making sure its placed at the furthest reach of the arms, so they cant grab the ball
Great game !
I played the game and found it extremely addictive, even though I wondered when it would end at times. It's a great game, though. Simple and entertaining.
if you need to finish the game quickly, here is the code to lvl 32
theresnootherway
If you want somthing funny use this:
"waterloosunset" code and move the line under the ball dispenser and do not make it diagonal
I got to lvl 24, but not longer.
xD Otherwise, thumbs up for cool game
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