The download is an installer for Win32.
Uninstall from the Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs utility.
[edit]You can also get it as a ZIP archive if you don’t have the required installer authority on your system. It’s small…[/edit]
The reason for this post.
(1)
Those of you who download will note that the sound option doesn’t work–mine monster is mute.
Is there anyone here who is interested in writing some sound effects (something Windows Media player can play --MineMonster is written using Delphi 5.0). Since MineMonster is a blatant plagarization of MS Minesweeper I can offer no pecuniary renumeration – only your name emblazoned in the about box and in the help. Any sound effects/music will be embedded in the executable so it can’t be easily abused…
Note: The MS Minesweeper has some of the most obnoxious sound effects possible. Avoid!
Be imaginative. Nothing over-the-top, but all ideas considered. Deep water sounds work.
(2)
A little testing is in order. I think the ‘Expert’ mode is currently impossible. It’s set to width,height = max; number of mines = 4/10 *width *height. I play in Intermediate. It’s not super challenging (it’s almost guaranteed I’ll win if I don’t do something stupid).
I would say base it on click rate. Take the minimum number of clicks required to complete the puzzle and give a window of time to figure out each click. Say 3 seconds on hard.
Don’t make the grid too large because then it becomes tedious like those games where you make one mistake and you have to go through lots of the same stuff.
I wouldn’t say any higher than 50x50. Lets say you get 8 times less mines per number of squares and it takes 3 seconds to figure out each one, then a difficult game should take
(50x50/8*3)/60 = 15 minutes
I don’t think people would want to play longer than that.
The expert level defaults to the maximum size playing field your desktop can handle. My resolution is 1280x1024, making my expert level 53x38 = 2014 squares. I’m finding that somewhere between 375 to 400 mines makes it fairly challenging (that is: 18 to 20 percent of the squares contain mines)…
but then, when it’s late I’ll turn on the TV and play solitare or mine monster to relax… so I tend to stick to intermediate level.
The reason I wrote MineMonster is I got tired of accidentally clicking the wrong square… they’re so small and close together in minesweeper… and that the minesweeper maximums are 24x30 squares…
In any case, I thought I should get some feedback to what you all consider challenging (something reasonably solveable but not always without some careful guessing)… What percentage of mines to squares give you trouble?
Once I get a good percentage I’ll pack in a few googled sounds and make the final installer.
[edit]
Oh yeah, the timer/score has nothing to do with click rate. It’s simply the number of seconds that transpire before you win the game. The only thing improved over Minesweeper’s scoring is that the timer won’t run unless you’re actually playing…
[/edit]
[>] Fixed expert mode level.
[>] Autoflag option to automatically flag obviously mined squares.
[>] Autostart option.
[>] No sound (decided it’s a bad idea).
I loved the game, well I am addicted to minesweeper and minemonster just seems to be a great alternative. However, I have a few comments that I guess would benefit the players of the game.
One reason Minesweeper is popular on windows… ok apart from the fact that it comes by defualt with windows… is that its clean and decent interface. Similar is your game. However, I think, the colors should be modified.
The colors for the numbers should be made darker and similarly for the blocks. Also the font for the numbers should be changed. Keep it simple for easy viewing… no need for anything fancy. Something simple can end up being fancy.
I like the score keeping method. Also I think in the menu, it seems weird to have options for level pop-up. Because if we change anything, it becomes a custom map, doesnt it! Well I guess they figured out that in the windows version.
I find the expert level in windows erlatively easy. I would say 20% mines seems right at the moment. Implement that and we’ll test it for ya
Also, just to add onto that! I dont really know if this is relevant for minesweeper or not. But how about a pause button. When paused, the entire field is say covered by a “sheet” - so you cannot cheat. Pause and then play and so on…
Sometimes, i play minesweeper and then you have some minor work to attend to. Why waste all the effort put it… just pause the game! And then upon return start playing from where you left off!
[>] You’re right about the lightness of the numbers… the graylevel matches too closely to the background. This was in part intentional… the number “1” appears most often, and so is de-emphasized to avoid visual clutter and emphasize numbers around which you must think harder…
Also, what do you mean by “blocks”? If you mean an covered square then all it is is the standard Windows beveled panel… Changing your system colors will change the colors of those…
[>] I’m not sure what you mean by fonts. Here’s my mainform (in design mode):
I chose that font (top line) because (1) it doesn’t look as crapulous as the M$ MineSweeper font, and (2) each numeral is distinctive (MS MS really makes me squint to distinguish numbers). Are you complaining about that font? or the one on the second line (for scoring/timer)?
[>] The current maximum for number of mines (and I could previously not get any feedback on this) is set at 18.6%. I can bump it up to 20% if you want, but going higher than that introduces too many “impossible” situations, methinks… The game is supposed to be relaxing. Please comment!
[>] The 30 second penalty for the “automatic first click” feature is intended for just the reason you specified. I also find myself toggling between several applications (that’s why the timer stops when MineMonster looses focus). I think your “sheet” idea is a good one! I’ll get to work on it at the next available moment (a week or so).
[>] I’m not going to change the level pop-up’s function… it works as intended. The interface needs help though (apparently, since it confused you). The custom level is the only one you can change… and that’s not obvious. So I’ll have to fix that (the way it is presented).
