My little bit of something in this big space.
As some of you may know I’m currently in the process of create my very first WordPress plugin (Xbox Achievements).
The idea behind the plugin is you will enter your gamertag in the settings and the rest is done by the app. It will download your game library and achievements for display on your blog.
So, I decided to include a widget!
Wordament is a boggle based game for your mobile device.
At current, the only supported platforms for Wordament is Windows Phone (WP), Windows 8 (Win8) and iPhone / iPads (iOS). You sign into the app using your Xbox Live gamertag. The game integrates with Xbox live, using your friends list to add them as ‘frenemies’ so you can see there scores inside the game.
Name: Marble Blast Ultra
Platform: Xbox Live
Genre: Strategy
Xbox Link: Clicky
Progress: Clicky
Compare To Bonxy: Clicky
Comments/Write Up
Marble blast ultra is one of the oldest xbox live arcade games around. @Cadab had this before me and probably influenced me to buying it so I did and started playing on the 15 May 2008. The game is based on you moving a marble around different maps and collecting gems or beating certain times to the finish line.
Watch the video below to get a feel of what i am talking about.
So i turned on my xbox and started playing Marble Blast. I went on multiplayer which i dont think id ever played before and got my first achievement.
I just had to win my first online multiplayer match. Pretty simple!
Second one to achieve was to collect a total of 75+ gems in an online game. Pretty easy again!
3rd in line was a bit more difficult. Finish every game in the game. I only had one more to go but it was the Schadenfreude.
In German Schadenfreude means joy in others’ pain or pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
This is the last level in the game and the hardest. After a long long long attempt (20 mins and 36 seonds) i finally completed it.
After this was the Easter Egg achievement.
Easter Eggs are hidding content that are put around the levels for players to find. They are usually in the most obscene places where no one would think to ever look. Well i used youtube videos to source the eggs and after about 2 hours i finally got the achievement! 馃榾
After this i had 2 achievements to go. One was to score 2000 points in total in online multiplayer matches. This will come with time so there is no real rush for this, the other was to complete all the missions, like the above achievement, but under the par time specified for the missions.
The last mission, which was the only one i had not completed under par time was infact the Schadenfreude. It had to be completed in under 3 minutes 30 seconds which if you have ever played the mission or seen it you will probably think it was immpossible. Well, I DID IT. Twice infact, as i signed in on @Cadab profile and completed it on there cos im such a good friend .
So happy i got this far. So all i need to do is complete the multiplayer one and then ill have completed the game. So over the next week im probably going to chip away at this achievement until it pops up.
I shall update this when i do.
Bonxy signing out.
Hey hey.
Just writing this post as I purchased a new domain the other day, but didn’t want to post anything until the DNS had been set up.
The site is now running under its offcial name of xBonx.com.
The old URL (x.Bonxy.net) will stay will to.
You can access your user accounts just by typing your Xbox Live gamertag after the forward slash.
Have fun.
Since the last post which can be found here i have piled a few more features into the Xbox achievements.
Firstly, with some help off @Cadab, i managed to sort out a neat little feature using what is normally a 404 error page.
This meant that i could create whatever i wanted to go after the foward slash and use it to detect different things.
So when you get a link like this: http://x.bonxy.net/Ghg8sj the script will break it down.
The first letter after the forward slash is the ‘type’. For instance, G means Game. So upon clicking this link you will get something like the below page.
Other links that will look like the above, but they are infact all different will be;
– http://x.bonxy.net/LGMo0R – As this one starts with an L it means its a Log entry. IE, The system has logged someone playing a game.
– http://x.bonxy.net/AwnhHQ – This one starts with an A which means it will link to an Achievement. IE, BobTheBuilder has unlocked this something.
You can also view a persons profile page by just going to the same above URL (http://x.bonxy.net/) and after the forward slash type a persons xbox live gamertag.
Kings Reigns
Like said in my first post about this project, this was going to be like a foursquare but for your xBox. So, one of the famous things about foursquare is mayorships. When you check into a place so many times, you become the mayor. Then you battle with other users to have the more check-ins of that place. If someone checks in more than you, you will lose the mayorship.
I have tried to import this system directly into xbox achievements. I want to make it so the more a user plays a game, the higher there count goes. (I have limited it this so it only counts 1 log per day per play. We dont want users cheating by turning on and off there xbox and make the logs get higher.)
A user has to have played the game a minimum of 3 non consecutive days before they become King. (I didnt want to take Mayor’s and mayorships so i changed it slightly.) The more a user plays the game, when there king, the longer there reign will get. Another user can only get hold of the reign by beating the amount of plays by 1.
Once the new user has aquired the reign the system will tweet the new king, and the previous king the news.
The system seems to be working well at the moment, with already 12 reigns issued out of 23 games.
Other People Playing
Another really simple, but effective feature i quickly added was the chance to see which other users are playing the same game as you. When you click on a games itself, for instance Battlefield 3 you can see at the below what i am talking about.
Future Plans
This weekend i am hopefully going to be incorporating more features into the system. Im going to be changing the way logs and game counts are added to the database, im also going to hopefully integrate a points system, giving points for more consecutive days and other mini challenges that will be available through the site.
More news will be posted soon.
While spending a little time developing a twitter for xbox app last night, which im sure @Cadab will do a write up for soonish, i came accross the idea of taking a users xbox details and awarding achievements.
They would not be achievements like in-game achievements, nor would they offer you gamerscore. Its basically just for fun but will offer stats and information about your game play, games you have played, time spent on the xbox and so on.
I started last night by doing the easiest thing and just adding the game you where playing to a database i created. This will then check (Using a Cron job) every 15 minutes to see if you are online. If you are online, the game you will be playing will be added. After the next 15 minutes, if your playing the same game, nothing will happen. Only 1 game play per day will be added to the database. If you have changed games, this new game will be added to the database. You will not be able to keep swapping between games to accumalate game plays.
I then have another page wont runs a script more often. This is user to award user with there achievements. Im calculating achievements using logic to work out how long a user has been online for, or how many times they have played a certain game, how many consecutive days playing xbox live. I can use it to calculate the award which will then be ‘added’ to that users account on my site.
I can make it harder for people to get awards by increasing different targets. Eg: I can set an award to be awarded after 30 consecutive days or playing, which will be hard, if they miss a day, there tally will be reset to zero and they will have to start again.
Hopefully i can keep adding to it and make awards for totally different things IE; ‘Playing the new Battlefield 3 within 24hours or release‘ or ‘1 Year Old – For playing a game over a whole year!‘.
Ill update this more when more work is carried out.
I had the idea of bringing achievements with the new bonxy system.
I want to design it so if users do certain things or find certain things they can unlock certain achievements. Whether it be finding a dead end (404 page) or updating there profile information we can grant them a different achievement.
We can use this to go as far as we want. Whether it be sending an SMS from Bonxy SMS or checking in with a new app that i have in mind, they can be used all over the network. There just a little something thats for fun.
We could also offer points for certain achievements or different user functions. Like i said, it can be used for lots of different things and a user can keep track on all there achievements on a nice page.