Here's the game that I've been working on during my inactivity: http://interguild.org/magnet-ball/

It's a 2-player Flash game that is best played with gamepads, and we submitted it to the Independent Games Festival competition. It was a pretty crazy project, and at one point we completely threw out the game we were working on and started from scratch because it just wasn't working design-wise. I'm glad we did that, though, because most people think this game is pretty fun and unique.

By the way, here's a video of the game being played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31WF6hxuOSE

Even though the submission deadline has passed, we're still continuing to work on it. The IGF is pretty lenient, and they'll let us continue to work on the game while they do their judging, but that's only useful if we haven't been judged yet. There are still some pretty important things that we have to do for this game, like put in music and sound effects, and I also want to redesign the colors of the menus so that they better fit the mood of the game (these menus were made when we had a different art style in mind). Fortunately, most of the music is already written, so it's just a matter of programming. Also, if you try playing with sound now, you'll hear a super crude test sound effect that plays at seemingly arbitrary collisions.

Although, the amount of time that I'll be dedicating to the project is going to really wind down now, and I'm already starting to get back to work on the Interguild. For instance, as I was writing this, I just finished reinstalling some tools that I've been using to code the new site. And earlier today I started reading Design for Communities again, which is a community management book that I started reading back when I was still posting regular updates about the new site.

So yeah, what do you think about Magnet Ball? Feedback would be awesome.

Magnet Ball reminds me of Pong, only it has more to it.

Are you able to design your own arenas or levels to compete in?

The gameplay really doesn't feel tight... I can't pinpoint very many specific things but the jumps especially feel extremely floaty and unresponsive. Great concept though. God to see that you're going for something original.

Next step... Aeon.

I think we need a game that features our avatars! No, seriously. I'm joking.

Here's my opinion of Magnet Ball.

PROS:
•Seems like an advanced version of Pong, except with avatars
•Is color coded
•Not realistic in any way possible
•Floating balls fall from the sky
•Gameplay looks fun

CONS:
•Maybe a little bit like Pong, which is a little unusual. Not necessarily bad, but unusual
•Not enough balls that fall from the sky
•No falling anvils

I think it seems very interesting, but if there were falling anvils, I would be extremely happy.

You need smoother controls. They feel kinda awkward right now, and you might want to work on the jumping algorithm,

Thanks for the feedback! I did notice that the movements felt really weird. What do you think of the latest version? Does it feel smoother? http://interguild.org/magnet-ball/

A jump lasts too long imo...

Oh wow the load time is long...

I wonder how slow the game runs on your computers. Press the backslash key "\" to open up the debugger and there should be a counter on the top-right that says what your framerate is.

I get 20 fps.  

I can't relate to what you are saying coz IT DOESNT LOAD!

60/59 fps

Because I'm fast, I'm fast, I'm really really fast

Mine hovers around 12-13, and I'm willing to vouch that I have a more powerful computer than most people on this site, so I'd say that this game has some very serious performance issues.

or it's best on a mac, because I got 59/60 fps

I am using Windows 7. I have a feeling you might correct, given that it is made in Stencyl.

I've tested the game on several different computers and performance has mostly been inconsistent. Sometimes it runs slowly, and sometimes it runs quickly, even on the same computer and same circumstances. The best thing that I can suggest is to make sure you're not doing something intense like running two versions of the game at the same time or something.

12 fps is probably the lowest I've ever seen it, though, and it usually happens on the worst computers...

I think the highest it's given me is 60, and hovers between that and 58.

My computer is definitely not to blame. I know that TF2 isn't that graphically intensive, but I regularly get over 120fps on max setting in 1080p. I don't really know what te problem is. Could it be I do with the graphics card models?  I use AMD because AMD are less pricey

What browser are you using?

Chrome

Ok, so this is amazing and sweet in youtube, but I can't run it I'm using chrome too.

Then I really have no clue why it's running slowly on yours. I do suspect that a big part of the problem is just the Stencyl engine, since much of that is outside of our control. We were able to save a ton of time by using this tool, but the tradeoff came in terms of file size and performance.

But I also wonder if the reason the jump feels so long for you is because of how slow your framerate is.

Wait, what do you mean you can't run it shos? It won't load? Or it runs super slow? Do you have the latest Flash Player?

It won't load at all. I have the latest flash player, but if it uses Java, it doesn't work on my browsers for some reason.