Sierra's+Kongregate+Page

__**Sierra's Kongregate Log**__
9:11pm**
 * 1/27/10

This evening I registered for Kongregate. I have never used this site before.



While taking a break from reading, I decided to play my first game. However, there are so many to choose from! While looking at the Highest Rated games, one called "Dolphin Olympics 2" caught my eye and I decided to give it a whirl. I breezed over the instructions and learned that I was supposed to use my keyboard's arrows to control my dolphin and get as many points as possible in two minutes.

For the majority of the game, my dolphin was nose diving into the ocean floor, however I ended up going through two rings in the ocean which allowed me to skid across the ocean and get some points. The game ended and I was told:

"Congratulations! You just won the Junior Olympian Badge and 5 points!"
While I'm new to the site and haven't really explored much yet, I imagine this is good. I tested my first game, won a badge and five points and now I really must be back to reading.

9:35pm**
 * 2/14/10

While listening to the "Mercury Theatre on the Air" radio show for a class, I decide to play some Kongregate. While I'm still not very familiar with the games on the site, I decide to explore the Puzzle section of games because of my love for puzzle games such as Tetris and Bejeweled.

I choose a game called "Red Remover." The basic point of the game is to remove the red boxes while keeping the green ones. However, there are several levels in the game - each one is a logic puzzle increasing in difficulty.

The screen shot is an example of Level 5. The first 11 levels were pretty easy, after passing the first 10 levels I win a "Gravitational Innocence Badge" and 5 points.

This screen shot is the start of Level 17. In order to win the level, the red ball must be removed, but the two green objects must stay. It does not matter if the purple objects stay or go. In my first attempt, I simply remove the small purple box holding the red ball. The red ball falls right down on the green box at the bottom of the screen and takes it off screen with him. Fail. My next attempts, I try to let the smiling purple box go by releasing the small half white/half purple rectangle. It simply moves horizontally across the screen to the left. So, in order to beat the level I had to let the red ball fall and start the purple smiley box on its horizontal track at the right time to collide with the red ball and avert its course so it no longer hits the green smiley box at the bottom. (Does that make any sense at all in writing?) Well, I beat the level. That's what's important here I suppose.

My radio show ends and I am stuck trying to beat the 21st level of Red Remover.

This is what the level looks like. It's tricky, because the green smileys move and need to be trapped by the purple boxes to stay, I just haven't found the right combination yet. While I would like to keep playing at continue to work towards the next badge (obtained at Level 30), reading calls and I must do that instead. I'm pretty sure I'll attempt Red Remover again in the future.


 * 2/14/10**
 * 10:32pm**

So, I didn't get off of the site like I said I was going to. Instead, I added Liz as a friend on Kongregate and after seeing how many points she had I felt like a Kongregate slacker. I end up clicking a game called "I Love Traffic" which Liz had recently earned a badge in and played that for a bit. The point of the game is to direct traffic by controlling the traffic lights.



Above is a screen shot of me controlling traffic. You might think this isn't very exciting, oh - but it is! There is upbeat banjo music, occasional ambulances, car crashes and fun factoids at the end of each level! After playing this for a few levels, I earn the "Just Friends with Traffic" badge and five points. I'm up to 31 points at the moment (I got 1 point for rating "Red Remover"). I'm 19 points away from being a level 2 Kongregate player. Woot.

Seriously now, I'm calling it a night. Must do readings.

8:48pm**
 * 2/15/10

Tonight I returned to the puzzle game page and chose a game called "Super Stacker 2" where one stacks various sized squares and circles so they balance and don't fall off of the screen.

This is a screen shot of a failed attempt at a level. After completing the first 10 levels, I obtained an Amateur Architect Badge and 5 points. I am also informed that this badge is my second of 10 badges in the Beginner Quest. (The first being my Junior Olympian Badge from Dolphin Olympics.)

I decide to give a game called "Amorphous +" a try because it is also present on the Beginner Quest. In this game, I wield a large machete and swing at green, blue, purple and yellow blobs.

Here I am, going after green blobs known as "glooples." However, after being picked on my too many purple glooples I decide to try a new game. The next game I play is called "Bubble Tanks 2" and it is also part of the Beginners Quest.

In order to win a badge, I need to kill 100 enemies in one game. This took quite a long time, however I was rather determined to get another badge. So I went from bubble to bubble, killing enemies and gaining bubbles for my protection orbit.

Several minutes later, I have killed 101 enemies and collected 380 bubbles. With this, I obtain my "Bubble Bully Badge" and 5 points. Awesome. I now have a total of 41 points and I'm 9 points away from moving to Level 2.

For my last game, I play "Bloody Fun Day" were a Death-like character kills cute creatures with a large machete. I complete the "Hatch a Plan Badge" and 5 points by finishing the tutorial and breaking the rules of the game by crushing 10 eggs. I want the points, so I break the game rules and crush the eggs.



It is now 10:12pm, I have a total of 46 points and I'm only 4 points away from Level 2. I'm excited because soon I will no longer have the "1" next to my name (meaning Level 1 player). That's all the Kongregate I can play for tonight!

9:41pm**
 * 2/19/10

Tonight I have to work from 5:45pm-11:15pm (exciting Friday night, I know) and I decide to play for a while rather than working on reading/papers. I discover a game off of Liz's page called "Learn to Fly." The premise of this game is teaching a cute little penguin to fly by buying gliders and rockets. Reaching various achievements (ie, gliding for 5 seconds) earns extra bonus cash on top of the research money one receives after each flight attempt. With this money, you buy fancier rockets and gliders for your penguin, upgrade the rocket gas, reduce air resistance, increase acceleration, or increase ramp height. All of which help your penguin achieve better flights. More cash = better flights = more cash = more playing. I keep playing, fearing that a Liz Waters resident will interrupt me to check out a movie at any moment.

I earned a "High in the Sky Badge" for gliding for five seconds and 5 points, bringing my total points up to 51 points total! And now I am a level two player! Meaning a big old **"2"** shows up next to my user name! Very exciting.

Here's my penguin - gliding and rocket boosting in all his glory. I accidentally clipped the bottom of this screen shot. This is quick playing and I need to hit arrows and space bar - so there isn't a lot of time to hit "print screen" hence the clipped bottom of the picture.

Next, I played a similar game. Only this time it was called "Hedgehog Launch" and the point was - that's right, launching a hedgehog into space. This animal launching game was much easier to earn money to buy various upgrades. I enjoyed it more overall because I felt like I advanced and got better each round. However I earned no badge. :(

Launching the hog.

Earning lots of money for upgrades after one flight! (Sidenote - doesn't this graphic look similar the iPhone layout?)


 * 2/20/10**
 * 7:52pm**

It's nearly 8pm on a Friday night and I'm in Memorial Library (cool, I know). I've been thinking about Kongregate and need a break from listening to radio screenings. I rated three games to earn three points. Now I'm going to play some Red Remover and attempt to win the next badge (and more points). I feel like a noob having so few points compared to the other members of Kongregate (and Liz) so I feel like I'm on a quest to earn more.

Here's what I've come up against in my quest to finish level 30 and win 15 points:


 * Level 22:**

I feel like Levels 21-29 often had a great deal of luck/chance to them due to balance and gravity being such factors in the game. Sometimes I felt like I was doing the same thing two or three times, but gravity would eventually be on my side and it would work.
 * Level 23:**

I had a lot of troubles with this one. Made many attempts and watched all the balls going flying off screen. Here was the final solution:
 * Level 29:**

You needed the small purple balls to keep the green balls in place! (Remember - red shapes need to go, green shapes need to stay and purple can stay or go)


 * Level 30:**

This level was WAY easier than level 29. Level 30 completed! I win the "Par for the Course" Badge and 15 points! I know have a total of 70 points. Level 3 is 40 points away.

Time for dinner and more school work, farewell for now Kongregate.

9:10pm**
 * 3/3/10

A week or so ago, I sent my boyfriend a referral to Kongregate. This Sunday, he signed up for it (which provides me with 15 points). Then he started playing it and reached Level 2 after several straight hours (his leveling up provided me with an additional 5 points). While I enjoyed getting the 20 points, I feel a competition brewing since he has already passed me by 10 points after his playing. [He has 85, while I have 75 at the moment.]

Death vs. Monstars

In this game, I was a skull battling stars. I earned the "Less QQ More Pew Pew Badge" and 5 points after upgrading my weapon and finishing the second level in the game.

Kongregate has crashed my Firefox three or four times and I'm thinking about calling it quits for the night out of frustration.

Okay, so I opened Kongregate in IE continue my goal of the evening to catch up/surpass my boyfriend's points.

I played a game called GlueFO 2.0 (stolen from Liz's profile). I liked it, the point was to destroy the big circles with the little one. It was unique from a lot of the games I've been playing where you automatically have a weapon and get upgrades through the levels, this game on the other hand required you to go fetch your weapon (the little dot) after each shot you took. Playing with my laptop's touchpad wore me out a bit, next time I play this game it's going to be with my mouse.

I destroyed 10 UFOs and earned the "Warrior of the Worlds" Badge, along with 5 points. I then ranked the game, bringing my point total for the evening to 86. 1 more than Anthony. Ha - victory for a moment. I am 24 points away from being a Level 3 player. It's 10:10pm and I'm calling it a night for Kongregate activities.

7:17pm**
 * 3/15/10

While taking a break from studying for a midterm, I go to my Kongregate page and am pleasantly surprised to find that I somehow have 101 points! I check my point history to see how this occurred and discover that I was rewarded 15 points for "Complete Profile Award." Sweet. My quest for points continues!

I'm only 9 points away from leveling up to Level 3. Hopefully I'll have some spare time soon to play a couple games and level up!

10:55pm**
 * 4/18/10

I decided to branch out from my usual puzzle/logic games and see what else Kongregate has to offer (which is a lot). I started playing a game called "Sonny 2." The game is described as "a combat based RPG where you play as a zombie, level up and gain items to advance to the next zone."


 * Sonny 2**

Something interesting I noticed while playing this game was how active the users were in the chat feature. Usually when I'm playing puzzle/logic games the chat is completely empty. However, while playing Sonny 2 I noticed that there was a lot of chatting going on about an interesting topic: how hot your girlfriend was.


 * Sonny 2 chatting** - topics include: dating an older girl, discussing the hotness of partners, asking if you've ever had sex, etc.

The conversation ended (possibly due to bed time?) and since I'm not particularly enjoying playing Sonny 2, I decide to search for a different game to play.

I move on to a game I find a link to off of the main page of Kongregate, it is called Continuity and it features a "sliding tile platform."


 * Continuity**

The game has a really simple premise, you get a key, you use the key to open a door and move up to the next level. However, it has a creative and interesting interface that I really enjoy. There are three different rectangles which are settings the user can go into. The space bar is used to zoom into the various settings and then to zoom out so the 3 rectangles can be reordered so that you can enter the next setting. The settings have to match in order for you to move to them. Looking at the image above, the man is the rectangle on the bottom left, he is able to move into the right left rectangle because they compliment each other - if the right bottom setting had a wall rather than an open space, the user would not be able to move into the setting. (Side note - notice I'm back to puzzle/logic games and the chat is empty. No talk of sex here.)



After completing 7 levels of Continuity, I earn the "Four-Square Graduate Badge" and 5 points. This also takes me to the 3rd level in Kongregate overall. While I'm really enjoying playing Continuity and would like to continue, it's nearly 1am. Hopefully Continuity will save my progress so I can pick up where I left off if I want to play again.

Despite the notion of going to bed, I begin playing the game Shopping Cart Hero 2. The point of the game? You run down a hill with shopping cart, jump in the shopping cart, and go flying. Earning dollars allows you to buy protective gear, upgrades to your shopping cart, groupies, and tricks.


 * Shopping Cart Hero 2**

4:39pm**
 * 4/19/10

In another attempt to get out of my usual puzzle games, I found a multi-player game called Draw My Thing! It's basically like Pictionary online. You draw and your partners guess and then you guess what your partners are drawing.

In this round, one of my two partners was drawing "Disney." I had no idea what was being drawn, but the third user playing did and they received the points for guessing correctly.
 * Draw My Thing!**

Something I found interesting while playing was that if no one was correctly guessing, users would just start to spell the word. Which, in my humble opinion, is cheating. But I guess there aren't any "Draw My Thing!" police. And I have the option to leave if I don't like what's occurring.

Cheating (?) with the word "feet" in Draw My Thing!

Here's a screen shot of me drawing a "cylinder" in Draw My Thing! If you take note at the guess columns, you'll notice that spelling is also an important aspect of the game. Someone guessed "cylander" instead of cylinder.



After growing tired of Draw My Thing! I switched back to Continuity and played a few levels of that. After the obtaining the first badge, more rectangles join the picture, making the levels more difficult:


 * Continuity**

10:02pm**
 * 4/19/10

I'm trying to check out some more multi-player games, so I find a game called Buggle Connect. I accidentally missed the instructions and there was only one person who I was matched with to play against.

So there is a really brief period of time when you click these white dots, but you can't tell who's clicking what. The time ends and the dots are either red or green. That's about all I could gather from my time spent playing this game without any instructions. I had no idea what I was doing and there was no way to earn achievements or points so I grew tired of the game very fast.
 * Buggle Connect**

I move on to a different multi-player game, Platform Racing 2. Users choice different races to participate in. Up to four people can participate in one race. If only one person joins the race, only that person will compete.

** Racing up a wall in "Newbieland." I ended up completing the race in under 1:30, so earned the "Newbieland Conqueror Badge" and 5 points.
 * Platform Racing 2

The next game I try is in a category I haven't explored - Music. Music Catch 2 is a highly ranked game, so I give it whirl. The point is to collect yellow musical notes and avoid red ones at all costs (because they will hurt you). Purple musical notes give you power (and help you earn the Easy Badge). Piano music is played during the game, I like it.

Notice I tried to participate in the chat, but it didn't really work. I didn't know what they were talking about when the users said "dino" but they were referring to another user (who was on his way to bed).
 * Music Catch 2**

The next level the musical notes changed to stars and moons, but it's the same concept. The more yellow shapes you get, the larger your orb grows...making it more difficult to avoid the evil red shapes. In the above screenshot, I had just recently been hit by a red star and my orb shrunk. However, I ended up collecting 10 purple powers and gaining the Flying Purple Power Eater Badge and 5 points! Woot.

After obtaining that badge, I replayed the first level, "Leaves in the Wind" in order to work toward obtaining the next badge and I did on my first try! I got the Raking the Leaves Badge and 15 points for collecting 4,000 shapes in the "Leaves in the Wind" level.

Next, I play the level "Gentle." In order to get another 15 point badge, I had to end the game with at least a 100x combo. I rose to the challenge and collected the Gentle Giant Badge and another 15 points. (Side note - I really enjoy the soothing piano music that accompanies this game.)

I attempted the next badge twice, but was not victorious. It is worth 30 points and has an awesome name, "Never Gonna Let You Down." In order to obtain it, you need to finish the "Letting Go" level with 5,000,000 points. Quite a task. I play again, didn't do as well as the second time I played - despite ending with a larger orb and not hitting a single red shape. Grr. There must a trick that I don't know about. I'm quite tired, so looks like I'll have to let this badge go...for now.

5:15pm**
 * 4/20/10

I'm going to attempt the "Never Gonna Let You Down" badge again for Music Match 2. Wish me luck!

I did very poorly. Didn't even crack 1,000,000 (you need 5 million to get the badge). I bumped a lot of red shapes as well. Not good.

I find a game called "Toss the Turtle" in which you launch a Turtle in the air and earn money to buy various items. I started a chat with some of the people in my room.

I thought it was interesting that "dinobot19" said he wasn't really playing games, rather he was talking with friends. (He was also tired of handing out his CV, which I can relate to as a senior who needs a job)
 * Chat in Toss the Turtle**

Gaming wise, I won the Help From My Little Friends Badge and 15 points! Nice.

I played a few more rounds of Toss the Turtle. Poor little turtle gets pretty beat up each time he flies out of the rocket, as one would imagine. I'm only 8 points away from Level 4!
 * Toss the Turtle**

10:07pm**
 * 4/20/10

I went back to Toss the Turtle and earned enough cash to buy a new rocket. With the strength of the new rocket, I was able to earn the Fun and Profit Badge and 5 points!


 * Toss the Turtle**

I check out some of the most popular games on the front page and try a game called Syndey Shark, in which, I am a shark and the point is to eat people, animals, boats, planes, etc. Awesome, right?



While playing, I earn the Species Sampler Badge and 5 points. How did I earn this badge, you wonder? I had to eat a passenger on a cruise ship, a horse head, and an orca. Great game. The shark jumps in the air, as well. With this badge, I am now a level 4 player! Very exciting.

6:00pm**
 * 5/5/10

I decide to give a game called "Enough Plumbers" a whirl because it was featured on the front page of Kongregate and I'm always looking for more points. The game is pretty much Mario, only I'm bad at it and become easily frustrated.

Unlike Mario, in this game when you get a coin your character clones itself. That's a cool concept.

And despite me being kind of bad at controlling my plumber, I earned the easy "Send in the Clones" badge and 5 points. Yay Kongregate for rewarding me and cheering me up.

Side note - my plumber isn't in this screen shot because I just ran into one of those fireballs and he fell off the screen. :-/

9:32pm**
 * 5/5/10

Liz is on Kongregate right now (I know because Kongregate tells me) and she's totally whooping me. She's earned a TON of badges and points in the last week or so. So, I'm trying to earn some points.

I've returned to Red Remover, attempting to get the 30 point badge.

So, basically to earn the 30 point badge you have to beat all 40 levels "at par" (not going above the minimum number of clicks/moves) and then you have to complete all 40 levels AGAIN, only you're basically in the dark. As pictured above, you only control a little bubble of light. After completing 20 levels like this, I got a tad annoyed.

Alas, this challenge might have wait for another day because homework is calling me....