An Akka Actors "Kill The Characters" Game

This is a simple video game written with the Scala programming language and Akka Actors.

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to type all of the letters and numbers before they reach the top of the screen. If you type them all first, you win, otherwise you lose.

Status

This is very much an "Alpha" release. Everything seemed to be working well on my old iMac, and then I tried using it on my new MBA, and, well ... I think I got the bugs worked out.

Demonstration

You can see the game in action here:

http://alvinalexander.com/scala/akka-actors-video-game

Running the Game

Package the game with the sbt assembly command. This uses the sbt-assembly plugin to create a single JAR file. Once it creates a JAR file in the target directory, run the JAR file like this (the name will be different):

java -jar target/AkkaGame-1.0.jar

By default that command uses 10 circles. Set the game to use four circles like this:

java -jar target/AkkaGame-1.0.jar -n 4

You can also adjust the game speed. Set the game to use four circles and double the speed like this:

java -jar target/AkkaGame-1.0.jar -n 4 -s 2.0

I haven't seen any problems with the game on my six-year-old Mac, but if you do, you can try running it like this:

java -client -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true -jar target/AkkaGame-1.0.jar

In theory that command should make the game run a little faster, or redraw better.

Created By

The original game was created by Alvin Alexander, http://alvinalexander.com