Hi all,

It's been a busy couple of months for me, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel yet, so I've made a game that I hope will keep you and your friends busy for a while:

http://www.matazone.co.uk/animpages/the_hedgehog_game.html

I'm also running desperately out of money at the moment (it's a long, complicated, and not very interesting story involving international shipping and advanced screen-printing techniques) so I'm also selling a painting I've done:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=7303961289

As well as the painting, I'm also selling lots of my VHS films:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZmatazone

Go into a consumption frenzy!

Anyway, 'hope you like the new game, tomorrow I'm going to be hitting the books again to work on a new chapter of my thesis, this one is on the exciting topic of William Gibson's use of authenticity in his novels. Doesn't the mere thought set your mind racing? No? I don't blame you! I'm already nearly a month behind on starting it because I've been working on this game. Oops!

As usual, if any of these links aren't working then use the ones on the main page http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html

Also, if you have friends that will like the game, my site, my painting, or my videos then please pass the link along; everything helps at the moment!

'Till next time, have fun,

Mata

Next time: Possibly new Mittens, maybe a new Snaffleburger. We'll see, but don't hold your breath!

I didnt bother to read the rules, and I'm a little drunk so it took me a while to learn what to do, but its a great game. Things started moving a little too quickly for me on around level 10.

Funnily enough, I've just had another person elsewhere say exactly the same thing!

Ive goten upto level 26 fine, im just starting to have probelms with it, its been 5 mins and i havent finshed it, iff you plan on updateing the game, maybe the sliding wall behind would be better off not starting till after the first shoot with the hedgehog?? I just find some leves the wall woudl close too fast before ive even taken my first shoot.

Yay! I've gotten to level 22 by now I think. It's addicting.

EEK! level 40 nearly destroyed my soul, how many levels are there??

Im geting a bug wehre i restart a level after dieing up against the first obsitacal in the game, ive got close down and enter the password, even hiting restart spawns me back in the same spot, odd

Shoot the hedgehog backwards into the wall to get more room. Tricks of the trade

WOOT!!!

thanks mata, loved the ending, BTW, I sence you had a troubeld past with student loans, and posibly cars, i woudl of called that last level Hedger in memory of frogger =>

Student loan forms were invented by Satan to erode the souls of anyone who is wishing to better themselves.

Cars are the bane of all hedgehogs (except those that don't live near roads, I guess). I do also think that they're not helping society and the world much, but they are probably a necessary evil for the moment.

Would that happen to be the B3ta board, and would he or she also happen to be called Novander?

Hey Hey! Funny game, with an awe-inspiring ending

I got half way, and then my mouse's batteries ran out. So, after refuelling, I played for the second time from the start again - and won! Woohoo.

I loved all the homages to other animations (Mittens, Clowns, other ones I can't remember, etc).

Nice work, matey!

TIP: There's a couple of levels where you can just slide across the very bottom of the level, moving underneath all the obstacles. Teehee. It's not cheating, really it isn't!

No, that's not really cheating, because you have to be quite accurate to get there in the first place, and secondly because you're only cheating yourself

I think my personal favourite level is 44, I think it's just a very elegant level design. In fact I think that the final ten levels are the best out of the lot.

I've tried to make it as web friendly as possible, with the reset button and the passwords, and I'm really very pleased with it.

Novander: Yes, now you mention it I think they did have the same username as you. That's a conincidence isn't it..

Pure coincidence. Lucky guess on my part, really.

I tried again this morning* and managed to get a few levels further.

*In the words of the Promise Ring: "When I begin my mornings, its the afternoon"

I love the voice of the hedghog! And I must say I do like that painting Mata.

Dude, that's awesome. I got to level thirteen before I had to stop. Rick thinks it's cool, too. Good job, man.

loved the ending...

=o)

Yeah yeah, that's right, bring on the guilt trip

Woo! That game could get seriously addictive! *prepares to be glued to the computer for the next 24 hours*

I got to level six before I finally accepted that if I was any more vicious towards the hedgehog I would have bad karma. And a broken Monitor and sore fist.
Mata, you are pure evil.

/agree
/all of it

This game deffinitely wasn't made for someone playing with a laptop-type setup (it's been impossible for me to make it past the 13th or 14th or so level with my power-nipple), but I enjoyed every level I played immensely! I shall have to jump on Randy's computer later or pull out my mouse to see the ending!

awesome game!
level 38 was funny, 41 was pretty, and the ending was great.

yayy mata!
(I also put a link to your ebay lots on my friends' site. I'd bid if I could but I can't get an ebay account or anything yet ._.)

Thanks!

The levels started off really quick to make, I think I did eight in about 90 minutes, but by the end they were taking ages. To put it another way, I started the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I started making levels, and I had finished that and watched another two films by the time the levels were finished.

Sorry Fey, the game has a heavy bias towards mouse users!

I'm glad people like the ending. It's the happiest ending I've given any of the things on The Other Side. I just felt that it suited the mood of the game. I did have a far more destructive ending in mind, but this one took me on the spur of the moment, and I've found it's usually wise to listen to those voices.

Perhaps I should be worried that the voices usually tell me really messed up endings for things...

trust the voices, muses are your best friend, deamons your only confidants!

Oo, it's been linked to as the first item in the b3ta newsletter today, and it's currently number 2 in the latest Channel 4 games chart. Hear that server groan!

that low graphics, high style system pays off, dosent it =>

ive often wonderd just how many ppl would have to hit the mittens kitty conversation swf to accctaly hammer your sight, surly the file its self is about the same size as the overhead =>

The first Mittens animation is about 91k, The Hedgehog Game is only 208k, so the server should be okay hopefully! I was rather proud of how much information and music I got into such a small file

It just goes to show how efficient actionscript, vector graphics, and mp3 files are that all that fits into such a small space.

The simple graphics actually serve two purposes. Firstly there is the obvious minimalist aesthetic of the whole thing, but more importantly it means that there are less lines for Flash to calculate whenever the screen moves, meaning that it can keep a reasonably high framerate. The accuracy of the collision detection relies on the framerate, so I needed to make sure that this remained as high as possible!

BTW, I'm really pleased with the system I used for the music on this game. I made it all at the same bpm, then programmed it so that at the end of the loop it would check if a new level had been reached, then if it had been it would play a new random loop. I had considered constructing a fully randomised music generator that would take a selection of drums and other instruments and combine them together, but decided it was best to stick to something a bit more simple! Still, the method I used means that there is no sudden jump between tracks at the end of a level, making the whole thing sound very smooth.

Wow! I just noticed that the hedgehog game has been put up on ebaumsworld!

So far, I've gotten up to level 16! fun game!

So it has... Without my persmission... Hm. Oh well, there's not really a lot I can do about it.

Hedgehog game on Kontraband clicky

On my site I know it's been played by something in the region of 100,000 people, give to take 20k. Including all the other sites it would be loads more than that... And do you think I've got any donations from strangers who've played it? Have I b***ery (not that I'm occasionally a little bitter, but you'd think someone out of all the people who've finished it would have donated a bit).

Bunch o' mercenaries.

I noticed with the zombie kittens game you split it into a few files, (this was back when I had dial-up and had to route through my temporary internet files to watch Matazone stuff when I was offline) was that so that stuff like this didn't happen?

" If you are the original creator of material featured on this website and want it removed, please contact the webmaster."

Just in case you do, I mean, you could at least require them to put a link to matazone.

Yep, it worked pretty well too, but was a bit complicated to update the files if I changed the directory structure of my site so I decided not to bother this time.

Technically there's not really a problem; they pay the bandwidth this way, but a link to my site would be good.

I cannot believe it, but I finally beat the hedgehog game. And it warmed my heart.

Excellent, excellent. I've been addicted for the past week or so, and my hat is off to you, sir, for making a game so very similar to crack in its addictiveness.

*plays the game a bit more, just because*

Aww, what a lovely ending. Although I did cheat to get there, I thought that it was a great game. I also liked the 'frogger' type part at the end, although that was probably a more general reference to hedgehogs.

Sues did suggest I make a game where you have to get across a road with loads of traffic. I pointed out that Frogger had already done that, but I figured it would make the ending make a bit more sense if I had traffic as the final level.

I'm glad people enjoyed the ending. It felt odd making a happy conclusion that didn't include mass destruction...

Kinda like golf. But better. By a very lot ^_^

I got up to level 30 before Real Life interfered, in that meddlesome way of Its. I shall complete it at some point, though. You've got me all curious about this ending...

(when I'm old enough to own stuff in a true and legal sense, some of the aforementioned stuff will be donated)

mata, I thought you should know, the zombie kitten game has been put on I-am-bored.com

I let a guy from another website have a copy of it, with the addition of a link in the top right corner throughout the game. Apparently that version has spread quickly!

The feedback about it on that site wasn't generally very good, but I'm guessing people were playing it on 'easy' where there's not really any skill needed to win.

I only just played the game this afternoon. Very addictive.


YAY!:lol:

Damn hedgehog got stuck on the edge of a lava pit. I can't get a hold of him again, he keeps going, "owowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow..." and so on.... Actually, now it's starting to sound like a machine gun.

That would be what the 'level reset' button is for. It shouldn't happen often, but it is a fairly complicated script making the whole thing work, so it will sometimes get a glitch.

Yes, well... I waited a few minutes to hit the reset button because the sound of a hedgehog going "owowowowow" was so amusing.