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Design our maps please!

Right, we've got Psycho Fireman up to a playable state - so we want you DOING SOME WORK.

We've placed the map data into a wiki so you can create your own puzzles, we'll then take the best work for the official finished game.

Please help because, frankly, we're rubbish at this bit.


To play an example go here

How to create your own puzzles

  • Go to the wiki main page
  • Set yourself up with a user account
  • Create a new document with a unique name, say Awesomelevel
  • Cut and paste this text into the form.
  • Edit the map to make it a puzzle of your own design

A breakdown of how the map stuff works

  • X = Wall
    P = Player starting position
    V = Victim (a cat)
    F = Fire
  • The aim of the game is to push the cats into the fire
  • To play a level you need to cut and paste the wiki URL. So if our level is http://wiki.robertmanuel.com/wiki/Awesomelevel - then we need to go to http://www.robmanuel.com/psychofireman/psychofireman.swf?url=http://wiki.robertmanuel.com/wiki/Awesomelevel to load it within the game
  • If there's more cats than fires then you won't be able to complete the game
  • Only place one player starting position into the game, placing two will make the universe collapse
  • Making maps that are landscape-shaped will look better, as that's the shape of the screen and the game stretches to fill
  • You can probably make maps that break the game. Very easily, in fact
  • That STARTMAP ENDMAP stuff is very important. Without it the game will not recognise your map

Next week

The game is far from finished: the graphics aren't coloured in, the tune isn't there, there's no way of playing more than one level without reloading, no restart and no visual tweaks to really sell the burning cats - we'll leave this stuff for the final week of polishing and selecting maps.

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Showing 6 to 10 of 18 Comments

  • Comment by:
    kaolinfire
    Username:
    kaolinfire
    Posted on:
    Fri Mar 6, 2009 at 02:42 am
    Comment:
    Thank you. My brain's needed jump-starting all week. I don't know if this will have done it, in the end, but is seems like it has a good chance of it. :)
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  • Comment by:
    bucsie
    Username:
    bucsie
    Posted on:
    Mon Sep 1, 2008 at 07:59 am
    Comment:
    I'm sorry to say this but this game is sokoban with different graphics!It's not a new game,there's nothing original about it.a new game should have something different in the game-playing, otherwise why would anyone switch from the original?
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  • Comment by:
    Pewit
    Username:
    Pewit
    Posted on:
    Sat Aug 16, 2008 at 02:46 pm
    Comment:
    Just thought I'd point out that it'll never sell to the Merkins as they use 911 to call the emergency services. Other countries mainly use 112 but just to be different, Australia uses 000. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_call
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  • Comment by:
    dennisspa
    Username:
    dennisspa
    Posted on:
    Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 08:37 am
    Comment:
    ...there's something weirdly addictive to us about sorting, ordering, fixing. I think most truly addictive games fall into this 'tidy up gaming' categry. So there you go, secret to making the next tetris. No need to be tabloid friendly.
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  • Comment by:
    dennisspa
    Username:
    dennisspa
    Posted on:
    Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 08:34 am
    Comment:
    There's something in our human nature that drives us to tidy up. Throw in some simple rules and you're on to a winner. It could be clearing the scattered balls on the pool table, solving a rubik's cube, aligning shapes, ordering cards, eating dots..
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