Bomberman (ボンバーマン) is a Japanese video game originally developed by Hudson Soft in 1983 and nowadays it has more than 50 variations across different platforms. It had once listed on many people’s favorite game list. This semester, our team is going to create a multi-player online game using Java programing language that based on this one.

The old Bomberman

The first generation of Bomberman is a single player adventure-style game. Player controls the character to move around the maze-based platform, using time bombs to blow up the rocks and find the way to the next level. As the game level increases, different enemies appear and they can kill the character by just touching it. In order to win the game, the player need to use their own strategies to open paths to hide or kill the enemies by using the time bombs. For more information you could check here.

The new Bomberman

Today’s Bomberman video game has change a lot, but the basic game rules are based on the original one, and instead of a single player adventure-style game, now it has became a multi-player battle-style game. For additional information about the latest generation, you could check here.

Game rules

In the new Bomberman game, no matter you are playing single 1 V.S. Com or multi-players verse each other, there’s no game level involves because their goal now is to kill others and to become the last one survives. The weapons available in this game are bombs only, but you can increase the bombs’ power or change the type of bombs by getting items. The beginning bomb power is one, meaning when it explodes, it can only affect the tiles in the current spot, and the top, bottom, left, and right, and one bomb can trigger another bomb to explode if in range.

At the beginning of each game, players can adjust the game setting as they want. For example, they could change the time limit, number of match, select battle map, and game mode, etc. Also, in the new Bomberman game, there are more items available to collect to improve the interest of the game. Those items are for increasing players’ bombing power, and some for making the characters not that easy to die. The details for each item will explain bellow.

Game play

For now, let’s take a look of the game play:

Game mode and time limit

There are two game mode players can select: the Basic mode and Survive mode.

In the Survive mode, there’s no time limit. Players have to kill each other and become the last one survives in order to win. However, if all players die at the same time, the game will draw. When this happens, the match will not count, and the game restarts again.

In the Basic mode, Players have to kill each other within the specified time limit. If there are two or more play still remain in the battle field after the time ends, game will draw, same thing as all players die at once.

Number of match

Players can select how many consecutive wins in order to finish a game battle. The first one gets the maximum wins, he or she becomes the final winner, and the game ends.

Maps

In this game, there are several maps players can choose. Beside the graphic looks different, each of those maps has different effects add to the characters.

The classic one looks like the following, which has some indestructible tiles blocking the ways to limit players’ movement. Also, it helps players to trap and kill others by placing a bomb between those tiles.

 Item list

In different version of Bomberman, the available items may change, but the universal ones are the following:

Icon Item Name Description
Fire Up Increase bomb power by 1 tile
Fire Down Decrease bomb power by 1 tile
Bomb Increase Increases the number of bomb the player can place at a time by 1
Bomb Decrease Reduces the number of bomb the player can place at a time by 1
Roller-Shoes Increases the player’s speed by 1
Clog Decreases the player’s speed by 1
Pierce Bomb Changes player’s bomb to be able to penetrate through multiple soft blocks or items
Power Bomb Increases bomb power to the maximum range, but only the first bomb the player places take the effect
Full Fire Increases bomb power to the maximum range
Power Glove Gives the player the ability to pick up, carry, and then throw bombs
Bomb Kick Gives the player the ability to kick bombs by walking into them, then the bombs will slide to the other side of the screen unless a tile or another player blocks them
Invincible Suit Makes the player invincible to all dangers in a short period of time

Character Animation

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