Inspired by BOT, the roadmap, and a need to get out if my comfort zone, I'm planning on starting an RPG. I'll have to wait until next winter for it to be really great though. If you don't mind, a few questions crossed my mind:
How will the improvements confirmed in the roadmap help you make BOT? Are they worth waiting for?
Have you had any regrets at all during development, what things did you do wrong (if any), and how would you do them differently?
m456arcus said: How will the improvements confirmed in the roadmap help you make BOT? Are they worth waiting for?
Game Center...
• Leaderboards — I'm probably going to wait for this, as it will likely boost sales.
• Achievements — I'm not waiting for this, as it's just too far away.
• Networking — this could be included as an expansion with in-app purchases, or perhaps launched as a sequel. It depends on the success of the project.
Most of the stuff in the roadmap is too late to improve the game. I'm planning to contact the GameSalad team when my game is near completion. If the next update isn't too far away — as "Spring" could mean late June — then I'll wait.
Image flipping
This will reduce image size, but not by a lot. I'm not waiting for that option.
Android Publishing
These gamers are more hardcore. I think there's a good chance that they'll love BOT. With Photics: Conquest, I had 200,000 unique visitors in a month. That game wasn't as good as this... unless you prefer text-based RPGs. Although, Android users are cheap. They like free games.
The Pause behavior dramatically changed the design, as it makes the equipment menu easy to implement. The equipment menu is one of the big-five screenshots and it's one of the best features about the game.
m456arcus said: Have you had any regrets at all during development, what things did you do wrong (if any), and how would you do them differently?
I don't know if there's anything that I'd change. Regret is different from hindsight. Obviously if I had to do the project over again, I would be much faster at it and I would avoid issues. I had a big problem in January / February. I couldn't get motivated to work on the project. I wasn't sure if the project would be a success. I was also doubtful about the future of GameSalad. I was messing around with Corona, wondering if I would work on another textbook.
Eventually I answered an important question... what's more likely to make more money? A Corona textbook or an amazing app? And after having used Corona, I started to regain respect for GameSalad. It would take me much longer to build BOT with Corona. I'm not even sure if it's possible, as I would likely give up. Level design would be a nightmare. BOT uses A LOT of particles, that would also be a challenge. Resolution Independence is so much easier with GameSalad. With scenes, saving attributes, animation, physics... there are so many little details that I'd have to fuss with.
Also, there's the psychotic math in my game. I had to create some pretty creative expressions to design my game. If I'm busy trying to translate Lua code, I wouldn't be able to focus on complicated expressions.
The design of BOT would likely be different if I had access to joints, arrays, sprites, layer functions, video and more access to iOS hardware. Corona can do a lot of that today. Yet, there isn't a single feature in Corona that I miss for the creation of BOT. GameSalad is either getting it later, already does it or already does it better.
I think this game has potential to be a Mac App Store success. That's a big feature for GameSalad.
There is one possible thing that could have changed. What if I didn't discuss this game at all? What if I stayed off the forums, like I did during the production of the Textbook? What if I didn't post here and I simply worked on BOT? Would the game be better or worse?
Ultimately, I think the progress reports are important, as this is something people are going to want to research. It also builds the prestige of this game and the GameSalad software. It's good marketing. People are interested in this game. People are looking forward to it. Knowing that, I work harder, as I don't want this game to be a disappointment.
Thanks for the info Photics. You can be sure that a lot of people including myself are anxiously awaiting BOT, and I'm sure it won't be a disappointment!
I'm still working on level design. I underestimated the difficulty of creating the explorable areas. Heh, it's only 146,800,640 pixels... what could go wrong?
m456arcus asked, "what things did you do wrong?" I think there is something that I've been second-guessing lately. Should I have gone with a Sci-Fi theme? It seems that a fantasy setting would have been easier to make... or at least not such a desolate world. Yet, I'm going after the hardcore player. I think that's what's going to separate my work from the thousands of other games. I can create a fantasy game later.
Apparently, another beautful game using the Unreal Engine is on the way. Yet, I was surprised by the first comment. It said, "booooooooooring" and the second comment that stated "Ditto" was surprising to me.
Apparently, graphics aren't everything. Maybe I'm obsessing about the graphics too much. It shouldn't sacrifice gameplay. Maybe it's more important that the explorable areas have cool things to do. I think there should be some puzzle elements, in addition to combat.
Yet, I know those five screenshots matter. The promotional video matters. It has to look good. I was still struggling with the flatness of a top-down design. So, I started playing with clouds.
Earlier I posted about an amazing looking thing I was building... that was the cloud feature. It was incredible. It also caused about a 15% drop in frames... on an iPhone 4. I can't risk this game crushing older hardware, so I had to pull back the cloud feature. I think I reached a happy medium. The cave mist effect still looks believable, without crushing iOS hardware. Also, it made the backgrounds pop. They didn't look like flat eyesores anymore. Instead, it looked more like a living world... a war-torn world... but still a living world.
I was fairly happy working on the project. But towards the middle of the day, I started to lose energy. I'm trying to be creative, but the ideas aren't always there. Sometimes I get unmotivated when I think about the huge size of this project.
I'm currently working on my sixth area. There are 35 in all.
Tomorrow, it's more of the same... these levels need to get done.
m456arcus said: Thanks for the info Photics. You can be sure that a lot of people including myself are anxiously awaiting BOT, and I'm sure it won't be a disappointment!
Thanks!
I've been enjoying the game, as it's playable. Even though I don't need to kill the enemies in my way, the sword is a lot of fun. It's also satisfying to watch the enemies explode. It looks and sounds great.
I'm trying to get back on schedule. Today, I did really well. I created two new areas. Now I'm at 7 of 35. That's 20% complete. Not too impressive sounding, but I feel that things will progress quickly from here.
I also added a nice rock slide obstacle... the first of many puzzle challenges. How to get past those blasted rocks?
I'm off to bed. It's more of the same for tomorrow.
Poor Photics! You must do it - for all Bot-kind! Then eat something really good, lol.
I hope when it's done there will be a way to get cheats for the puzzles when I get stuck. I'm usually crap at 50% of all puzzles and then lose interest and never finish. That way lame-os like me can still enjoy and complete the game, ha ha!
How are you controlling the character? Joystick, 4-way pad, or, like the Zelda games for the DS, touch to go in that direction? Which sorta ties in with this question, can you only move in the 4 directions, like the Pokemon games, or 360 degrees? With the 360 option, if the game's perspective isn't top-down, it's probably not possible (I haven't figured it out yet, anyway).
MikeQuinn said: I hope when it's done there will be a way to get cheats for the puzzles when I get stuck. I'm usually crap at 50% of all puzzles and then lose interest and never finish. That way lame-os like me can still enjoy and complete the game, ha ha!
The idea is to make the game difficult enough so that people start posting strategy guides online, but not so difficult that it overly frustrates the players.
This is not an easy game though. Heh, I got lost in my level design... and I have a map right in front of me. I think the challenging games are more memorable. If the game is too easy, there's no sense of accomplishment.
A good comparison is The Legend of Zelda and Super Metroid. Certain areas are inaccessible until you have the right weapon/item.
m456arcus said: How are you controlling the character?
The exact control system is a secret. Although, I thought I already mentioned that it's top-down with 360° of movement.
However, 360° degree movement could be added to an isometric game. That would add a lot of extra work and animation. I thought about making BOT an isometric game, but it would add so many more frames of animation. I think that would likely crush an older device. So, I went with top-down. The controls feel good. I like it.
————————————————
April 13, 2011 - Progress Report (Supplemental)
Progress!
The game is starting to feel big. It's getting easier to lose track of the different areas. I'm almost done with another level. That will be two for the day.
This new level is a desert level. I'm considering adding footprints, as a way to make fun of Guild Wars. In that game, you could leave footprints just about anywhere... like on stone slabs and grass. Heh, I think it would be cool if I could do it the right way... only on the sand!
It's not hard to do, but there's so much to do already. I'm not sure if an inside joke is really worth the effort.
Right now, I'm exhausted. But earlier today, I felt an incredible wave of emotion. I was extremely happy! I was playing BOT... not building... not testing... just playing. I was wandering around the game, blowing up robot bugs with a rocket launcher, and I was having fun.
I have 11 areas complete. It's enough to wander around the main base and get a good sense of exploration. There are three basic types of levels so far... caves, desert and mountain pass. There's also another area... no further description yet. I'm now able to connect these areas and it's great.
I'm about 33% complete with the levels. The two levels per day pace is holding. Soon I'll probably be pestering GameSalad about the status of Game Center.
The explorable areas should be complete by the last week of April. Two more weeks after that, I can add quests and more enemies. That's it... the game is finished after that.
So, I'm off to bed. The cycle continues... can I create another two levels tomorrow?!
You have to believe in the game you are making right, and nothing promises better then enjoying playing your own game (except for other people :P)...although that probably has a lot to do with it being your own - speaking generally here of course
This is fun to me. Otherwise, I'd find easier ways to make money. This project is part of something that I've been thinking about for years. If I work really hard at it, and it's successful, then I did the right thing. If it fails, then at least I know that I tried my best.
From when I was little, I wanted to run my own arcade. But today, arcades are dead. Also, I don't think it's very fun to sit behind a counter and make change for people. That's a pretty boring job. There was also a certain dark aura about arcades... little dirty... little grungy... not many girls around.
Apple has built something beautiful. Video games are mainstream now. It's ubiquitous. An arcade can be in your pocket. You can play with friends — from anywhere. You can choose from a library of thousands of games. With Game Center, Apple is earning their commission. Leaderboards, Achievements, Social Networking, multiplayer, voice chat - those are amazing features.
This is the dream!
With GameSalad, I'm finally able to make my ideas reality. My previous GameSalad projects (not counting The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook) were OK, but not enough to truly stand out. I think things will be different with BOT. If I'm right about BOT, I'm one step closer in turning "Photics" into a successful business. If I'm wrong, I would have wasted four months of my life, along with the money invested into this project.
If it fails, do I give up? Heh, I probably won't. This is what I do. There are so many ways BOT could be successful...
• iTunes App Store • Mac App Store • Android (Supposedly coming to GameSalad in the Fall) • Web publishing - turning Photics.com into an online arcade • I suspect that Apple TV will eventually play games too • I suspect that Windows publishing is also a possibility
That's up to six different markets.
Also, if I'm having fun making BOT, I think that means it's more likely players will have fun with the game. It really is different this time around. I was struggling with my other projects, not really having as much fun as I should have. But with BOT, it's pretty close to what I was imagining. Some parts are even better than I imagined... Rocket Launcher, Night Vision, Item #2, Laser... awesome!
I'm actually surprised at what I'm feeling. Usually I'm very logical about things, but I think I'm building something special here. This could be the turning point. I've been working on Photics.com projects for over 12 years. I've never felt like this before. BOT is on a different level.
woohoo can"t wait to see screenshots. I dislike the toucharcade community but its a necessarry evil because they have so many page views. I think you should use this gamelog in your promotion campaign too.
AddictiveGames said: woohoo can"t wait to see screenshots. I dislike the toucharcade community but its a necessarry evil because they have so many page views. I think you should use this gamelog in your promotion campaign too.
I think that Touch Arcade frowns on GameSalad. It's rare to see a GameSalad game reviewed there. Other than that, I think it's an OK site. The forums are very active and the developer community over there is pretty good.
Maybe BOT will change some opinions. GameSalad has lots of potential.
Oaklandasfan said: By the time this is done, I'd say it is worth $5. But having really low prices is a better way to get sales.
I'm planning to release the game as a tier-1 app. That's 99¢ on both the iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store. I could probably push the price higher, but I'm not planning to do that. I think the lower price will result in more sales.
I have a better understanding of market now. I know that I avoid apps that are not 99¢. Why? The top apps are usually at that price, so why buy one game at $1.99 when I can get two 99¢ games? Also, I've seen the prices drop too many times. Street Fighter 4 dropped to 99¢ from $9.99. I think that creates price campers. Customers might wait on the side-lines, waiting for the price to drop. If it starts at 99¢, then they don't have to wait for a price drop.
I think the things that hurt my previous games... they were too short and $1.99 was too expensive.
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April 15, 2011 - Progress Report
Wrap X & Y?
Would Pac Man be as successful if the side door was removed? It's something I've been thinking about while I'm wrestling with a wrapping issue. This problem totally crushed my productivity.
Basically, it's like this...
If the scene wraps, players can cheat by shooting through the sides. If the scene doesn't wrap, I run into issues with the clouds. In general, I'm struggling to get the clouds right.
I don't like to choose between two lousy options. If I prevent cheating, I hurt game performance. That's not good. Today, I was thinking of ways to beat this problem. So far, I've been unsuccessful. I tried expanding the scene size, using non-scrollable layers, multiple cloud actors... it still didn't work right.
The real solution - Wrapping on a layer level - But GameSalad doesn't support that.
I think I'm tired. It was a long week. I got a lot done, but there's still more to do. Perhaps I should just relax this weekend... at least a little.
If the scene wraps, players can cheat by shooting through the sides. If the scene doesn't wrap, I run into issues with the clouds. In general, I'm struggling to get the clouds right.
Or:
On each bullet, have a rule that destroys the bullet before it reaches the edge of the screen X/Y Position.
i.e.
Any: If self.position X >470 self.position X <10 self.position Y > 310 self.position Y<10
Yeah, I thought about destroying the bullets, but they're not really the problem. It's the clouds. (I don't like rules on the edge, as I'm not sure if they'll work with low frame rates.)
With wrapping turned off, it's 100% effective to stop cheating. I'm thinking of ways to fix the clouds, while keeping the game optimized and avoiding issues with seams... which is extra tricky, since it's a transparent actor.
I'm focusing on fixing the clouds, since it already has a slight seam issue. When it completes a cycle, you can see it on the sides. An invisible bar appears... very annoying.
Here's a little detail about how I tested the bullet destroy thing. It was one of the various tests that I tried this morning while trying to resolve this problem.
I didn't want to kill the bullets/missiles too quickly, as it didn't sound or look right to see something suddenly disappear. So, I created a "dud" system. If the actor crossed the edge, it would trigger the "dud" attribute. In other words, it was harmless to the enemies.
As mentioned in the previous post, stuff that happens on the edge of scene might not work properly. I could have made it work, but I like pixel-perfect-precision. If the shot is at X1/Y1, it should hit. It shouldn't just disappear or not explode.
I wasn't satisfied with the solution. It didn't feel solid enough.
This might be considered obsessive, but that's what my game will be judged upon. When players play the game, they shouldn't be thinking... "Annoying scrolling clouds." They should be thinking, "Man, TANK has a hard life. The world looks pretty messed up."
Good morning! I feel a lot better today. I fixed the issue with the clouds. I thought of the solution while going to bed. Heh, this was especially frustrating because I knew I would be thinking about it all night. I had a strange dream... these giant birds were chasing me, as I was running around a square building. I took one of these birds and smashed it's head through a sheetrock wall, but there were still lots of others... and they were getting bigger. I assume that the square represents my level design and the birds are from Angry Birds. They were plush and doll like.
Anyway, I woke up early and I got to work. My design is now bulletproof... literally! The bullets don't wrap to the other side and kill enemies that shouldn't be killed. Pac Man would have trouble in my game, as wrapping is now turned off.
Here's the interesting part I realized. With such a large image, wrapping was hurting performance. When I disabled wrapping, and INCREASED the size of my cloud actor, performance actually improved. (Instead of wrapping, I'm using tiling.) To mimic the wrapping effect, I simply added a rule...
If cloud position.X is less than or equal to zero, then change X-position to 1024.
It's the perfect solution!
• It improves performance • It solves the seam issue • It stops wrapping-bullet-cheating • It allows for effects expansion
I brought back the Double Clouds effect. It looks good, but I decided it wasn't good enough to justify the performance hit. Two 2048x2048 actors causes a significant drop in FPS.
It dropped to 99¢ before the tsunami, then the price went back up.
A lot of developers play games with the price to encourage sales. While an effective marketing technique, I think that upsets existing customers and tarnishes your reputation as a developer. I'm not planning to play pricing games with BOT.
Maybe I'm making the game too big. I've been working pretty hard this month, mostly on level design, and I've still got a long way to go. 12 of 35 areas are complete. That means I basically have to triple the amount of work I've already done. HA!
The project size is already 68.8 MB!
I'm starting to wonder if I can even upload such a large project to GameSalad. If the game is about 1/3 complete, the final size should be about 200-250 MB.
I don't see any other option but move forward. When that feeling of doubt starts to creep in, I only have to hit the "Preview" button to feel better. I'm really happy with the way the game looks and plays. I haven't even added additional enemies yet.
Anyway, that's it for today. I'm really tired. The last four days were not as productive as they should have been. In order to catch up, I'll have to work really hard tomorrow!
Comments
How will the improvements confirmed in the roadmap help you make BOT? Are they worth waiting for?
Have you had any regrets at all during development, what things did you do wrong (if any), and how would you do them differently?
I never even knew about the 1x1 pixel issue.
Fascinating and educational!
• Leaderboards — I'm probably going to wait for this, as it will likely boost sales.
• Achievements — I'm not waiting for this, as it's just too far away.
• Networking — this could be included as an expansion with in-app purchases, or perhaps launched as a sequel. It depends on the success of the project.
Most of the stuff in the roadmap is too late to improve the game. I'm planning to contact the GameSalad team when my game is near completion. If the next update isn't too far away — as "Spring" could mean late June — then I'll wait.
Image flipping
This will reduce image size, but not by a lot. I'm not waiting for that option.
Android Publishing
These gamers are more hardcore. I think there's a good chance that they'll love BOT. With Photics: Conquest, I had 200,000 unique visitors in a month. That game wasn't as good as this... unless you prefer text-based RPGs. Although, Android users are cheap. They like free games.
The Pause behavior dramatically changed the design, as it makes the equipment menu easy to implement. The equipment menu is one of the big-five screenshots and it's one of the best features about the game. I don't know if there's anything that I'd change. Regret is different from hindsight. Obviously if I had to do the project over again, I would be much faster at it and I would avoid issues. I had a big problem in January / February. I couldn't get motivated to work on the project. I wasn't sure if the project would be a success. I was also doubtful about the future of GameSalad. I was messing around with Corona, wondering if I would work on another textbook.
Eventually I answered an important question... what's more likely to make more money? A Corona textbook or an amazing app? And after having used Corona, I started to regain respect for GameSalad. It would take me much longer to build BOT with Corona. I'm not even sure if it's possible, as I would likely give up. Level design would be a nightmare. BOT uses A LOT of particles, that would also be a challenge. Resolution Independence is so much easier with GameSalad. With scenes, saving attributes, animation, physics... there are so many little details that I'd have to fuss with.
Also, there's the psychotic math in my game. I had to create some pretty creative expressions to design my game. If I'm busy trying to translate Lua code, I wouldn't be able to focus on complicated expressions.
The design of BOT would likely be different if I had access to joints, arrays, sprites, layer functions, video and more access to iOS hardware. Corona can do a lot of that today. Yet, there isn't a single feature in Corona that I miss for the creation of BOT. GameSalad is either getting it later, already does it or already does it better.
I think this game has potential to be a Mac App Store success. That's a big feature for GameSalad.
There is one possible thing that could have changed. What if I didn't discuss this game at all? What if I stayed off the forums, like I did during the production of the Textbook? What if I didn't post here and I simply worked on BOT? Would the game be better or worse?
Ultimately, I think the progress reports are important, as this is something people are going to want to research. It also builds the prestige of this game and the GameSalad software. It's good marketing. People are interested in this game. People are looking forward to it. Knowing that, I work harder, as I don't want this game to be a disappointment.
Heh, so, I'm going back to work!
Head in the clouds
I'm still working on level design. I underestimated the difficulty of creating the explorable areas. Heh, it's only 146,800,640 pixels... what could go wrong?
m456arcus asked, "what things did you do wrong?" I think there is something that I've been second-guessing lately. Should I have gone with a Sci-Fi theme? It seems that a fantasy setting would have been easier to make... or at least not such a desolate world. Yet, I'm going after the hardcore player. I think that's what's going to separate my work from the thousands of other games. I can create a fantasy game later.
Here's something interesting I saw today...
http://toucharcade.com/2011/04/11/unreal-engine-powered-dreamscape-looks-interesting-and-beautiful/
Apparently, another beautful game using the Unreal Engine is on the way. Yet, I was surprised by the first comment. It said, "booooooooooring" and the second comment that stated "Ditto" was surprising to me.
Apparently, graphics aren't everything. Maybe I'm obsessing about the graphics too much. It shouldn't sacrifice gameplay. Maybe it's more important that the explorable areas have cool things to do. I think there should be some puzzle elements, in addition to combat.
Yet, I know those five screenshots matter. The promotional video matters. It has to look good. I was still struggling with the flatness of a top-down design. So, I started playing with clouds.
Earlier I posted about an amazing looking thing I was building... that was the cloud feature. It was incredible. It also caused about a 15% drop in frames... on an iPhone 4. I can't risk this game crushing older hardware, so I had to pull back the cloud feature. I think I reached a happy medium. The cave mist effect still looks believable, without crushing iOS hardware. Also, it made the backgrounds pop. They didn't look like flat eyesores anymore. Instead, it looked more like a living world... a war-torn world... but still a living world.
I was fairly happy working on the project. But towards the middle of the day, I started to lose energy. I'm trying to be creative, but the ideas aren't always there. Sometimes I get unmotivated when I think about the huge size of this project.
I'm currently working on my sixth area. There are 35 in all.
Tomorrow, it's more of the same... these levels need to get done. Thanks!
I've been enjoying the game, as it's playable. Even though I don't need to kill the enemies in my way, the sword is a lot of fun. It's also satisfying to watch the enemies explode. It looks and sounds great.
Busy!
I'm trying to get back on schedule. Today, I did really well. I created two new areas. Now I'm at 7 of 35. That's 20% complete. Not too impressive sounding, but I feel that things will progress quickly from here.
I also added a nice rock slide obstacle... the first of many puzzle challenges. How to get past those blasted rocks?
I'm off to bed. It's more of the same for tomorrow.
Hungry!
I'm so hungry, but I'm not finished with section X4 / Y4... must keep working.
You must do it - for all Bot-kind! Then eat something really good, lol.
I hope when it's done there will be a way to get cheats for the puzzles when I get stuck. I'm usually crap at 50% of all puzzles and then lose interest and never finish. That way lame-os like me can still enjoy and complete the game, ha ha!
How are you controlling the character? Joystick, 4-way pad, or, like the Zelda games for the DS, touch to go in that direction?
Which sorta ties in with this question, can you only move in the 4 directions, like the Pokemon games, or 360 degrees? With the 360 option, if the game's perspective isn't top-down, it's probably not possible (I haven't figured it out yet, anyway).
This is not an easy game though. Heh, I got lost in my level design... and I have a map right in front of me. I think the challenging games are more memorable. If the game is too easy, there's no sense of accomplishment.
A good comparison is The Legend of Zelda and Super Metroid. Certain areas are inaccessible until you have the right weapon/item. The exact control system is a secret. Although, I thought I already mentioned that it's top-down with 360° of movement.
However, 360° degree movement could be added to an isometric game. That would add a lot of extra work and animation. I thought about making BOT an isometric game, but it would add so many more frames of animation. I think that would likely crush an older device. So, I went with top-down. The controls feel good. I like it.
————————————————
April 13, 2011 - Progress Report (Supplemental)
Progress!
The game is starting to feel big. It's getting easier to lose track of the different areas. I'm almost done with another level. That will be two for the day.
This new level is a desert level. I'm considering adding footprints, as a way to make fun of Guild Wars. In that game, you could leave footprints just about anywhere... like on stone slabs and grass. Heh, I think it would be cool if I could do it the right way... only on the sand!
It's not hard to do, but there's so much to do already. I'm not sure if an inside joke is really worth the effort.
Happy!
Right now, I'm exhausted. But earlier today, I felt an incredible wave of emotion. I was extremely happy! I was playing BOT... not building... not testing... just playing. I was wandering around the game, blowing up robot bugs with a rocket launcher, and I was having fun.
I have 11 areas complete. It's enough to wander around the main base and get a good sense of exploration. There are three basic types of levels so far... caves, desert and mountain pass. There's also another area... no further description yet. I'm now able to connect these areas and it's great.
I'm about 33% complete with the levels. The two levels per day pace is holding. Soon I'll probably be pestering GameSalad about the status of Game Center.
The explorable areas should be complete by the last week of April. Two more weeks after that, I can add quests and more enemies. That's it... the game is finished after that.
So, I'm off to bed. The cycle continues... can I create another two levels tomorrow?!
I am wondering about some things ...
are you married?
What do you do for fun?
Ace
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
any screenshots of BOT?
From when I was little, I wanted to run my own arcade. But today, arcades are dead. Also, I don't think it's very fun to sit behind a counter and make change for people. That's a pretty boring job. There was also a certain dark aura about arcades... little dirty... little grungy... not many girls around.
Apple has built something beautiful. Video games are mainstream now. It's ubiquitous. An arcade can be in your pocket. You can play with friends — from anywhere. You can choose from a library of thousands of games. With Game Center, Apple is earning their commission. Leaderboards, Achievements, Social Networking, multiplayer, voice chat - those are amazing features.
This is the dream!
With GameSalad, I'm finally able to make my ideas reality. My previous GameSalad projects (not counting The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook) were OK, but not enough to truly stand out. I think things will be different with BOT. If I'm right about BOT, I'm one step closer in turning "Photics" into a successful business. If I'm wrong, I would have wasted four months of my life, along with the money invested into this project.
If it fails, do I give up? Heh, I probably won't. This is what I do. There are so many ways BOT could be successful...
• iTunes App Store
• Mac App Store
• Android (Supposedly coming to GameSalad in the Fall)
• Web publishing - turning Photics.com into an online arcade
• I suspect that Apple TV will eventually play games too
• I suspect that Windows publishing is also a possibility
That's up to six different markets.
Also, if I'm having fun making BOT, I think that means it's more likely players will have fun with the game. It really is different this time around. I was struggling with my other projects, not really having as much fun as I should have. But with BOT, it's pretty close to what I was imagining. Some parts are even better than I imagined... Rocket Launcher, Night Vision, Item #2, Laser... awesome!
I'm actually surprised at what I'm feeling. Usually I'm very logical about things, but I think I'm building something special here. This could be the turning point. I've been working on Photics.com projects for over 12 years. I've never felt like this before. BOT is on a different level. I've stated on the Touch Arcade forums that if Touch Arcade contacted me directly for an interview, I would release screenshots early.
They haven't contacted me. HA HA!
So, screenshots and a promo video are about three weeks away.
Maybe BOT will change some opinions. GameSalad has lots of potential. I'm planning to release the game as a tier-1 app. That's 99¢ on both the iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store. I could probably push the price higher, but I'm not planning to do that. I think the lower price will result in more sales.
I have a better understanding of market now. I know that I avoid apps that are not 99¢. Why? The top apps are usually at that price, so why buy one game at $1.99 when I can get two 99¢ games? Also, I've seen the prices drop too many times. Street Fighter 4 dropped to 99¢ from $9.99. I think that creates price campers. Customers might wait on the side-lines, waiting for the price to drop. If it starts at 99¢, then they don't have to wait for a price drop.
I think the things that hurt my previous games... they were too short and $1.99 was too expensive.
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April 15, 2011 - Progress Report
Wrap X & Y?
Would Pac Man be as successful if the side door was removed? It's something I've been thinking about while I'm wrestling with a wrapping issue. This problem totally crushed my productivity.
Basically, it's like this...
If the scene wraps, players can cheat by shooting through the sides. If the scene doesn't wrap, I run into issues with the clouds. In general, I'm struggling to get the clouds right.
I don't like to choose between two lousy options. If I prevent cheating, I hurt game performance. That's not good. Today, I was thinking of ways to beat this problem. So far, I've been unsuccessful. I tried expanding the scene size, using non-scrollable layers, multiple cloud actors... it still didn't work right.
The real solution - Wrapping on a layer level - But GameSalad doesn't support that.
I think I'm tired. It was a long week. I got a lot done, but there's still more to do. Perhaps I should just relax this weekend... at least a little.
On each bullet, have a rule that destroys the bullet before it reaches the edge of the screen X/Y Position.
i.e.
Any:
If
self.position X >470
self.position X <10
self.position Y > 310
self.position Y<10
Move offscreen (if you're recycling) or destroy.
And add camera offsets if you need to.
Cheers,
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
With wrapping turned off, it's 100% effective to stop cheating. I'm thinking of ways to fix the clouds, while keeping the game optimized and avoiding issues with seams... which is extra tricky, since it's a transparent actor.
I'm focusing on fixing the clouds, since it already has a slight seam issue. When it completes a cycle, you can see it on the sides. An invisible bar appears... very annoying.
I didn't want to kill the bullets/missiles too quickly, as it didn't sound or look right to see something suddenly disappear. So, I created a "dud" system. If the actor crossed the edge, it would trigger the "dud" attribute. In other words, it was harmless to the enemies.
As mentioned in the previous post, stuff that happens on the edge of scene might not work properly. I could have made it work, but I like pixel-perfect-precision. If the shot is at X1/Y1, it should hit. It shouldn't just disappear or not explode.
I wasn't satisfied with the solution. It didn't feel solid enough.
This might be considered obsessive, but that's what my game will be judged upon. When players play the game, they shouldn't be thinking... "Annoying scrolling clouds." They should be thinking, "Man, TANK has a hard life. The world looks pretty messed up."
Bulletproof!
Good morning! I feel a lot better today. I fixed the issue with the clouds. I thought of the solution while going to bed. Heh, this was especially frustrating because I knew I would be thinking about it all night. I had a strange dream... these giant birds were chasing me, as I was running around a square building. I took one of these birds and smashed it's head through a sheetrock wall, but there were still lots of others... and they were getting bigger. I assume that the square represents my level design and the birds are from Angry Birds. They were plush and doll like.
Anyway, I woke up early and I got to work. My design is now bulletproof... literally! The bullets don't wrap to the other side and kill enemies that shouldn't be killed. Pac Man would have trouble in my game, as wrapping is now turned off.
Here's the interesting part I realized. With such a large image, wrapping was hurting performance. When I disabled wrapping, and INCREASED the size of my cloud actor, performance actually improved. (Instead of wrapping, I'm using tiling.) To mimic the wrapping effect, I simply added a rule...
If cloud position.X is less than or equal to zero, then change X-position to 1024.
It's the perfect solution!
• It improves performance
• It solves the seam issue
• It stops wrapping-bullet-cheating
• It allows for effects expansion
I brought back the Double Clouds effect. It looks good, but I decided it wasn't good enough to justify the performance hit. Two 2048x2048 actors causes a significant drop in FPS.
So, it looks like I'm going back to map making.
I do that also with wrapping clouds in a platform project I keep dabbling with.
Ace
It dropped to 99¢ before the tsunami, then the price went back up.
A lot of developers play games with the price to encourage sales. While an effective marketing technique, I think that upsets existing customers and tarnishes your reputation as a developer. I'm not planning to play pricing games with BOT.
As a comparison,
http://appshopper.com/books/an-unofficial-gamesalad-textbook
The price for the textbook has been consistent.
Photics: Revisions has been the same price for almost two years...
http://appshopper.com/books/photics-revisions
BIG!
Maybe I'm making the game too big. I've been working pretty hard this month, mostly on level design, and I've still got a long way to go. 12 of 35 areas are complete. That means I basically have to triple the amount of work I've already done. HA!
The project size is already 68.8 MB!
I'm starting to wonder if I can even upload such a large project to GameSalad. If the game is about 1/3 complete, the final size should be about 200-250 MB.
I don't see any other option but move forward. When that feeling of doubt starts to creep in, I only have to hit the "Preview" button to feel better. I'm really happy with the way the game looks and plays. I haven't even added additional enemies yet.
Anyway, that's it for today. I'm really tired. The last four days were not as productive as they should have been. In order to catch up, I'll have to work really hard tomorrow!