Klick play download

Think of it as a God game in its own right and youve got the right idea. Youll probably end up getting more fun out of designing and tweaking your game than you will out of playing it. Klilc n Play, as its title suggests, is almost entirely mouse driven. There are icons here, and icons there, all ready for clicking and dragging. Menus pop up and pull down all over the shop, and there are more dinky little tick boxes than you can shake a stick at.

There are so many options at your disposal, itll make your head spin around like a pinwheel. This isnt as daunting as it sounds; the blurb on the back of the box states boldy that there is absolutely NO knowledge of programming required, and for once thats absolutely correct - all you need is the ability to work out a sequence of logical problems. With a bit of practice, and a fair bit of bailsing everything up, it wasnt long before Id grasped the basic gist of what everything did, why it did it, and how you could apply it.

Its pleasantly user-friendly, too - it sort of holds your hand and leads you gently through the Valley of Game Design, with a charming smile on its face the whole time. There are three main segments youll have to use. The Storyboard Editor basically dictates the sequence of levels in the game, the Level Editor lets you set up each stage the backdrops, sprites, and general layout.

Theres also an Events Editor. I decided to make a simple Breakout game, using a Frenchmans severed head instead of a ball. Not that Ive got anything against the French, its just that Even the beautiful, talented and intelligent ones.

Just because they're French. First I went to the Storyboard screen and clicked on a blank panel representing Level One. It prompted me for a name. I decided to call it Frenchmans Head since I am unbelievably imaginative. Double clicking on the Level One icon sent me to the Level Editor. OK, time to pick a few sprites and things. Theres a wide range of fully animated ones at hand in the various libraries that come with it, but none of them were quite good enough for my purposes.

It seems that no-one at Europress Interactive thought that severed Frenchmans heads would be in demand. So I created my own little sprite representing the obnoxious Gauls foul little noggin, including a few frames of animation so that hed be blinking in confusion as he rebounded off the walls.

I drew this using the limited drawing utility included with the program, although you can always import graphics youve created on other packages if youre fussy. Next, I decided how the head would move. I wanted it to be computer controlled and use the bouncing ball movement pattern.

If Id wanted, I could have defined a path for it to move around, and had it spitting out globs of French phlegm at me, but no, this is Breakout, not Space Invaders , so it was bouncing ball or nowt. Then I selected a graphic for the bat with which I was going to deflect him; this I took from the library. I placed it under player control, limited its movement to left or right only objects are capable of moving in 32 directions if you want them to , and set its speed, acceleration, and deceleration rates.

Then I quickly knocked up a block graphic, an imbecilic approximation of the PC logo will do , copied it a few times and set its movement to static. This far it had taken about ten minutes. On to the Events Editor.

The Events Editor is where youll be fine-tuning the heart of your little creation, deciding what happens when your laser bolt collides with the Space Invader, controlling the sound effects, scoring system, etc. Since this is the hardest bit to work out - even my simple Breakout clone had tons of events happening all the time, such as the head hitting or missing the bat, the blocks being destroyed whenever poor Pierres head ricocheted off one, points being scored, increases in speed, the whole kaboodle - theyve simplified the process by including a work-it-out-as-you-go-along mode, known as the Step Through Editor.

This is the coolest thing in the world. You start your game and as soon as something happens for the first time, it stops and asks you what you want to happen next. So, as soon as I started and Jean-Claudes bonce thumped into my bat for the first time, a little Collision message appeared, together with a range of options.

Did I want his head to shatter into a million bloody chunks? Did I want it to stop moving, or to transform into another object? A few clicks later, and voila!

Henri rebounded off the bat, accompanied by a sampled Oof noise from the in-game library if Id had the time, I could have rigged a mike up to my soundcard, and sampled the sounds of a genuine Frenchman grunting in pain, just to personalise things even more. He hit the side of the screen. The menu popped up again. Did I want him to reappear on the other side, start shooting fire at me, or anything like that?

I settled for another rebound, and a different Oof noise. The process continued until Id. So its up and running, but its not much of a game so far. I hadnt set a finite number of lives, for instance, so the game went on and on ad nauseum - not such a bad thing if you find watching Frenchmens heads bouncing off walls as funny as I do. There was no scoring system. When you destroy all the blocks, it carries on running.

Time to go to the serious, meaty Event Editor. This section is reminiscent of those Logic Problem puzzles that were all the rage a few years ago. Enough above average sounds are included but adding your own will add a whole new dimension. There are a lot of commands and a large manual but it is not too difficult to learn each command over a period of time.

The product comes with ten games that are both playable and available, customisation, and for use as example programs for developers to learn from. These games are: Gracillis VThis is an arcade space shooter. The player has five lives and must shoot as many alien ships as possible. Hungry HedgehogsThis is a two player math game. Simple math questions are displayed and the player must select a combination of numbered hedgehogs that will add up to the same answer as the sum displayed.

Each correct answer moves the player's hedgehog along the bottom of the screen and the first to complete the trip gets to eat a juicy worm. A number of cards are placed face down in the lay area and the player must find the matching pairs. Music Madness!

This game allows the player top record a simple tune and play it back. Racing LineThis is a two player top-down racing game. There are four tracks and the action keys can be redefined Reversi The classic board game where players take turns to place a black or white tile.

By placing the tile strategically a player can win an opponents tiles. The player with the most tiles of their colour on the board when all positions are occupied wins the game Romeo This is a puzzle game. The Pie Devil has kidnapped Juliette and Romeo must rescue her. This involves climbing ladders, collecting keys etc. All the while the player must avoid the pies that the Pie Devil is throwing at him. If he's hit, Romeo must eat the pie which makes him too fat to climb ladders any more so, at the cost of a life, he's replaced with a slimmer version with which the player can attempt the puzzle again.

Slot Machine This is a basic slot machine game.