Geehawk--if you can bounce the gnomes enough times (6-8, depending on the type of gnome), they'll yield a powerup. Given this, there's almost an overabundance of powerups in the game.
As for the gnomes making the game--well, without the gnomes, it's basically just another variant on the classic 30-year-old ball breaker, no?
The DirectX issue is odd. The game uses 100% BlitzMax code (no external or 3rd party modules,) so I'm not sure exactly what I'll be able to do to fix this...I assume your video drivers are up-to-date?
As for speeding up the action: I plan to make more "advanced" level packs for folks who are used to a bit brisker gameplay, but my target audience is casual and all-ages. In the first version, I got a lot more "too tough!" mail than I did "too easy!". The ball used to move faster, but my private test pool said it was too fast (even though it was perfectly fine for me.) In the interim, though, you can make the game as challenging as you want it to be by trying to keep as many gnomes in the air as you can...
degac--Hm. What browser are you using? Is there a chance you could try using a different browser to download the game? I've got a simple PHP script serving up files for now, but there could be an issue with the headers it's trying to send or something...
As for the gnomes making the game--well, without the gnomes, it's basically just another variant on the classic 30-year-old ball breaker, no?
The DirectX issue is odd. The game uses 100% BlitzMax code (no external or 3rd party modules,) so I'm not sure exactly what I'll be able to do to fix this...I assume your video drivers are up-to-date?
As for speeding up the action: I plan to make more "advanced" level packs for folks who are used to a bit brisker gameplay, but my target audience is casual and all-ages. In the first version, I got a lot more "too tough!" mail than I did "too easy!". The ball used to move faster, but my private test pool said it was too fast (even though it was perfectly fine for me.) In the interim, though, you can make the game as challenging as you want it to be by trying to keep as many gnomes in the air as you can...
degac--Hm. What browser are you using? Is there a chance you could try using a different browser to download the game? I've got a simple PHP script serving up files for now, but there could be an issue with the headers it's trying to send or something...