Horror Vacui
| Horror Vacui | |
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| General | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Sinman |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Source | |
| Downloadable via the Homebrew Browser | |
| Peripherals | |
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Horror Vacui is a two player abstract strategy board game based on the antiquated notion that "Nature abhors a vacuum." It's my first original game design and first attempt at game programming.
Gameplay
Each player is assigned an element, Water or Earth. Players takes turns placing cards representing their element until the board (called the Vacuum) is full.
Each card can have one of three temperatures chosen at random: Normal (green border) or one of two extremes, Hot (orange border) or Cold (blue border). When placed on the board a card's temperature is transferred to any adjacent cards.
- A normal card has no effect on adjacent cards
- Opposite extremes cancel each other out and normalize the temperature of both cards
- Identical extremes result in the removal of the adjacent card and normalization of the incoming card
- Adjacent normal cards assume the temperature of the incoming card, normalizing the incoming card
- If there are no adjacent cards then there is no change to the incoming card's temperature (eg. a Hot card stays hot)
A player may sacrifice an extreme card to normalize an opposing extreme already on the board.
Players may also randomly draw an Ice Age or Inferno Event Card. The player drawing an Event Card loses their turn and the entire board is affected by the extreme temperature change as if they were adjacent to an incoming card of the event's temperature.
The game is over when the board is full. The player with the most Normal cards on the filled board wins. In the event of a tie, the player with the most cards overall wins.
Modes
VS CPU
- Player 1 is Water
- CPU is Earth
VS P2
- Player 1 is Water
- Player 2 is Earth
Controls
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Action |
|---|---|
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Move cursor |
 or  |
Confirm selection/Place card |
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Back to title after complete |
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Reset at any time |
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Quit game |
Changelog
V0.04 2009-01-19
- hooked up hardware functions for power and reset
V0.03 2009-01-15
- Animated CPU cursor after its "thinking" delay
- Either player can now return to the title screen at the end of the game by pressing the plus button
- Either player can now reset the game by pressing the minus button
- Added Syslog to simplify debugging (using TekWarrior's wonderful syslog-enabled version of wiiload)
- Refactored source code (still stuck manually managing multiple timers for animation)
V0.02 2009-01-13
- Added improved start-up chime
- Added a game over loop
- Fixed bug that allowed a player to normalize an extreme card with a normal card
V0.01 2009-01-13
- Initial Release
Known Issues/Todo
- It's 8-bit, get over it
- Occasionally soft crashes on exit (press Reset button on the Wii to return to the Homebrew Channel)
- The source is not as tangled as it used to be
- Add an in-game explanation of rules/tutorial mode
Special thanks to
- devkitPro for obvious reasons
- teknecal for the excellent tutorials on CodeMii.com that got the ball rolling
- NoNameNo for GRRLib and providing said ball with a steep incline
- Korg DS-10 which was used to create all in-game audio
- Hermes for A/SNDLib and OggPlayer
- TekWarrior for his syslog-enabled version of wiiload
- The rest of the WiiBrew community for sharing their knowledge