Stellar blocks
Naveen Kumar Awar
St. Mary′s University, USA
: J Comput Eng Inf Technol
Abstract
Stellar Blocks is another version of the classic Breakout game. Usually, the breakout game has a line of bricks over the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls. When a brick is hit, it is destroyed and the ball bounces away. The player loses a chance/life, when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To avoid this, the player is given a paddle, which can be moved sideways with the given controls. Stellar Blocks is set on the background of a starry sky, the bricks being in the shape of various constellations. Each of the ten levels is named after a well-known constellation. This game is intended to educate students about the various constellations in the night sky. As the bricks of the game are arranged in the shape of a constellation, there is a high likelihood that a player will remember the pattern of that constellation. The complexity of this game is determined by three factors: Ball speed; paddle size; and constellation shape. As the game advances, the ball speed increases, the paddle size decreases and the shape of the constellation becomes more complex. As the ball touches the ground/bottom of the screen, the player loses a life. The paddle is used to bounce the ball to the bricks, preventing it from touching the ground. As the bricks get hit by the ball, they break and disappear. When the player loses all lives/chances, the main menu is shown to either start a new game or to quit. The game is developed using Game Maker Pro 8.0 and the executable file of the game runs on a Windows Operating system.
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