Clones is a friendly, fun, and engaging evolution to the classic Lemmings puzzle genre which includes robust internet-multiplayer with team play, different game modes, powerups, leaderboards, and a built-in level editor that was used to create the singleplayer campaign of over 150 clontastic puzzles spanning 11 CloneMaster bosses over 5 regions of the Clones Planet.
The Intergalactic CloneMaster Organization welcomes you! Take the scenic route and solve the fun and challenging problems crafted by the most cunning creatures in the universe then try the competitive route and test out your strategies head-to-head, in real-time, against other players around the galaxy!
Guide your clones as you explore over 150 perplexing puzzles on your pilgrimage across the Clones Planet to learn from the clever and quirky CloneMasters. Truly a thing of wonder, the clone's body has the remarkable ability of morphing into many different shapes to perform various actions. As a CloneMaster you must instruct each Clone when to perform a morph to overcome any obstacles. By defeating the Elder CloneMasters in one-on-one matches you will piece together the ancient CloneMaster Medallion and reveal a most formidable opponent.
Enjoy the thrill as you outwit your opponents during online play and witness the glory as you sneak out a clone on a successful sabotage mission, or admit defeat as your squad of clones is secretly stolen due to marvelous misdirection! Team up with friends and play co-op in any of the over 50 multiplayer levels, or create your own using the built-in level editor. Custom levels are automatically shared when a new player joins your server.
In my previous news posting i described how it's possible to use the logic and event objects in the Clones level editor to create a map with dynamic spawn and exit points. This time we'll examine a map created by a fan (who happens to be #1 on the singleplayer leaderboards) which uses the flexibility of the editor to create a map that plays like the classic game Minesweeper.
The gameplay of the map is what you expect for a Minesweeper clone, clicking a square will either reveal a number indicating the number of adjacent "nova" squares, or reveal a blank square, or trigger a nova which ends the level by causing the big clone at the top to explode out of shame. There is also a score counter at the top right which is a nice touch.
To pull this off requires a little bit of thinking, and a lot of copy/paste. Each square is an "Annotation Trap" which is normally used to display a voice bubble message to the player, in fact you can see some in the gameplay video and there are others in the editor to explain the layout. Each Annotation trap has it's "Clicked Close" event linked to a corresponding "Proximity Trap" which is the main logic element, it's really an event relay capable of modifying itself and other traps in the level. So on a blank square the proxy trap will simply propagate the click to nearby annotations until a numbered square is hit.
There is a "Updater Trap" set to Counter mode at the bottom which tracks how many non-nova squares have been triggered. If you manage to solve the level then that counter will fire it's event triggering a "Win/Loss Trap" which allows a level designer to instantly end the level as either a win or loss.
Currently the map is one big hard coded array, but we are thinking about how we could enable level designers to dynamically create a map this this so that it would be different each time.
Also, this Saturday April 23rd we are planning to have another multiplayer jam at 17:00 UTC - Bit.ly. Everyone is welcome to join, simply download the free demo and find or start a multiplayer server.
Lace Mamba Global will be releasing a boxed version of Clones in the UK on May 20 2011.
Two of the multiplayer matches from the recent Jam have been fully annotated, check it out and learn some winning strategies!
We've just released the 2nd official Multiplayer Jam Pack, download for free!
Saturday March 26th at noon (CST) and 8pm (CST) is a time to get Cloned.
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kinda reminds you of spore doesn't it?
lemmings
need Linux support.
Agreed. I would definitely buy this if it came to Linux.
Clones should run under Wine 1.2.X (install winetricks with gdiplus), Try the demo and if you have problems with it please post in our forums. We would like to make a native Linux port at some point.
got my watch
Interesting concept.
You have my watch, sir, and best of luck :)
This looks great! Tracking. :)
Nice idea.
Big Lemmings fan here! Looks like a lot of fun. Can't wait to try multiplayer