Njam supports adding more graphical
themes to levels. There themes are called skins and they define what game
elements will look like. Skin consists of one row of images, each image is
25 x 25 pixels, all saved into single .bmp file. Here are some examples of
skins that come with the game:
To install the skin, just add your
.bmp file into skins folder of your instalation. The files there are named
Back000.bmp, Back001.bmp, Back002.bmp, etc... just take the first free number
and use it. The game automatically loads all skins that it founds there. If
you wish to play only using your skin, name it Back000.bmp and set Skins option
(Main Njam menu->Options) to Classic. When in Classic mode, only Back000.bmp
is used.
Note: it is important not to skip the numbers when creating new files.
Note2: Linux users, watch out: B is capital letter B in Back???.bmp
If you make some nice skins be sure to
send it to me at: mbabuskov@yahoo.com and
if it's really good, I'll include it in the game.
History
I wrote first version of Njam back
in 1999. It was a MS-DOS game that run on my old 486 which I don't even have
anymore. It run in 640x480 screen with big 16-color sprites and used internal
speaker to beep-out some sound. I used asembler to draw some things directly
into video memory, so it doesn't even work on today's machines. The game had
20 cooperative levels, and I was always struggling to pass the 19-th, and actually
never passed the whole game. Even then, I was also a two player game. That's
how the idea was born. You can see some screenshots of the old game here.
In 2001. I tried to do the same thing with DirectX, and made some of it. I added
many powerups (the old version only had superpower working). The networking was
also an idea, but I never managed to do it with DirectPlay, so I finally gave
up. I wanted it to be great multiplayer game, so only duel type of game was
available, but playing one on one became boring after few months.
In 2002., I switched to Linux, and my mind opened towards OpenSource way of
thinking. I finally realized what is it all about. Not long ago, I played
two great Linux games: Maelstrom and LBreakout2. Both are using SDL library,
so I digged and... found the treasure. SDL is just great. So I said to myself:
Let's do it. I dig out some of the old Njam sources and started coding. And
I also tried recompiling my games on Windows with Cygwin. I got cross-platform
version in no-time (just the time needed to copy the sources and compile)...
so great that I still don't believe it. SDL also offers networking, and I have
finally introduced it in version 0.95. The game is playable on LAN, two, three
or four players can compete in free-for-all kind of game. The next step in
development was making level editor which is incorporated in the game so
that level can be tested at once. This is introduced in version 1.00, so now I
completed everything I planned for this game so far. (Some improvements on
graphics are needed though). If you have some great suggestions for future
development please drop me an e-mail.
Trivial facts and tips
What does the word Njam mean?
Njam is a word from my mother language
(Serbian), and it means Yummy. The whole point of the game is eating so bon
appetite.
GPS factor
GPS factor shows how good are you
at killing ghosts. GPS is a short for Ghosts Per Superpower
and shows how many ghosts a player killed per superpower he had. It should
be measured by the whole game. The best I managed so far was in some duel
match I won 4:3. I had 41 ghosts with 5 superpowers, which equals to GPS of
8.02. During the first level of that match, I ate 14 ghosts with one superpower
(my personal best). If someone outmatches this in a regular game, please send
a screenshot and it will be included here.
There are three very good ways to kill ghosts:
Get a superpower and invisibility
at the same time. The ghosts will not run away from you, and it so much easier
then. The invisibility is much better than freezer (option 2) because it lasts
three times longer than superpower so you have time to pick it up, then
pick the superpower, and then eat the ghosts.
Get a superpower and freezer at the same time. Ghosts stand still
so it's easy to kill them.
After you do 1 or 2 get another
superpower if available on screen and stand on ghost spawning point and wait. When they come
out, you just eat them.
Tips for newbies
you can always make red and
orange ghost chase you, and sometimes it's really useful
if you see two or three blue
ghosts somewhere, don't go there
it's a good idea to follow
a blue ghost sometimes, because he doesn't see you
don't wander around active
pentagram if you don't have a superpower on you
in duel games the freezer
can be very powerful if the opponent has the superpower. If he kills many
ghosts and goes to pentagram to kill them all once more, you can pick up the
freezer and the ghosts will be additionally delayed, long enough for his superpower
to run out, while in the meantime you would eat cookies and gain advantage