Game Creation Log - Arch Fiery
Photics
Member Posts: 4,172
September 12, 2011 — Progress Report
Here we go again!
After the disappointing sales from BOT, it seems like giving up would make sense. After investing a lot of time and money into a project, it just didn't seem to work out as anticipated. Yet, this is what I like to do. This is the realization of a childhood dream. I can't give up. The alternative would be wasting my free time playing MMORPGs. And while Star Wars: The Old Republic looks like fun, that's just not an acceptable alternative.
I had to try again!
And yet, I was stuck. For over two months, I wasn't sure what game I should to make. The joy just wasn't there. Also, I wasn't sure about GameSalad. Was the software to blame? Did my app get unfairly judged because it was made with GameSalad? Would my game have done better if I kept that fact a secret? Would it have done better if I used alternative software?
While the competition is heating up, I still haven't seen a good enough rival to the "Particles" behavior. With GameSalad, I could make a pretty cool looking fireball. Also, I didn't want to spend another six months on a game. Instead, I was looking for a quick confidence booster project... something that players would enjoy, but something that could be built quickly. I have found that the top iOS games aren't so complicated. At least, not at first. The design is pure.
So, how could I build a game like that? At first I thought I'd make a pinball game... but that seems to have been done. I realized that I'm not going to win with a clone. I have to create an experience that's fun and unique for iOS / Mac.
That's when I started playing around with a platformer. I haven't actually built one with GameSalad yet, and it's a pretty good system for building such games. Without too much trouble, I had a cool looking city scene... a deep-blue background with twinkling stars and a nice parallax scrolling effect. It was nice and professional. I think the game had a primal feeling to it.
People could play with fire... but not get burned!
Although, I had trouble moving the project forward. This fireball was pretty much unstoppable. What kills fire? Was I going to suffocate it with a giant rug? Nothing seemed to make sense... not fitting with the theme anyway. Arch Fiery is part of the Revisions / BOT storyline.
That's when I wondered... maybe this thing shouldn't fly. The game did start out with jumping, but flying seemed cooler. But ultimately I realized that the game was just too easy and slow with flight.
So far, I'm glad that I've decided to stick with this project. I've gotten much better at controlling jumping. Previously, I was using accelerate with a short timer. That works, but it's not as efficient as this...
Change Attribute self.Motion.Linear Velocity.Y to 400
I'm probably going to update the Platformer chapter in The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook, because of the new information learned while working on Arch Fiery.
Regular jumps are not too advanced. It's the WALL JUMPING that was like an epiphany. While I preferred the jumping fireball controls to the flying fireball controls, it still felt kinda dull. When I added wall jumping... WHOA... that's when I regained the joy. Suddenly, game development was fun again. Arch Fiery felt quick and fun. The game had challenge, without being too frustrating. The controls were smooth... left, right and jump. It was perfect for iOS. It's even great for Mac, as the game can be played with just three arrow keys.
The trick was hidden sensors. I constrained invisible actors around the fireball... one on each side and one below. Then, when the sensor collided with a wall, that's when the fireball could jump. By holding the touch, the jumps happen instantly. It was great fun because the fireball can ricochet between buildings.
If you'd like to see a screenshot of this, it's on my website... http://photics.com/arch-fiery-wall-jumps
...The poor man's debug is in effect. By using display text, the attribute values are shown.
I'm planning to keep this game under 20 MB, so maybe it will be finished by the end of the month!
There are some limitations though. I noticed that GameSalad starts to stutter when the scene is too large. I think 14,000 pixels wide is an appropriate size, but the game dramatically loses performance if I push it past 4,000 pixels. That's going to be a major limitation on level design. That seems to be the tradeoff for using GameSalad. While I can quickly make games with GameSalad, the problems with performance could be an issue.
Oh... and HTML 5 just doesn't work. Even though this is a 480x320 game, the cool fire effect doesn't work in HTML 5. Performance is also an issue, as the stuttering is far worse. Yet, I'm not worried about HTML 5 right now. Instead, I think this could be a cool app for Mac and iOS.
Many of the frequent posters here are already familiar with the limitations of GameSalad. That hasn't stopped plenty of other developers from finding success with the software. So instead of wasting time ranting, I decided to get creative again. Maybe this is the game that finds success. Heh... but the repetition of app building is starting to feel like the sci-fi show "Quantum Leap".
"Ziggy says this app has a 42% chance of success."
Perhaps that's a bad analogy. From the way I understand it, Sam never did get home. HA HA!
Here we go again!
After the disappointing sales from BOT, it seems like giving up would make sense. After investing a lot of time and money into a project, it just didn't seem to work out as anticipated. Yet, this is what I like to do. This is the realization of a childhood dream. I can't give up. The alternative would be wasting my free time playing MMORPGs. And while Star Wars: The Old Republic looks like fun, that's just not an acceptable alternative.
I had to try again!
And yet, I was stuck. For over two months, I wasn't sure what game I should to make. The joy just wasn't there. Also, I wasn't sure about GameSalad. Was the software to blame? Did my app get unfairly judged because it was made with GameSalad? Would my game have done better if I kept that fact a secret? Would it have done better if I used alternative software?
While the competition is heating up, I still haven't seen a good enough rival to the "Particles" behavior. With GameSalad, I could make a pretty cool looking fireball. Also, I didn't want to spend another six months on a game. Instead, I was looking for a quick confidence booster project... something that players would enjoy, but something that could be built quickly. I have found that the top iOS games aren't so complicated. At least, not at first. The design is pure.
So, how could I build a game like that? At first I thought I'd make a pinball game... but that seems to have been done. I realized that I'm not going to win with a clone. I have to create an experience that's fun and unique for iOS / Mac.
That's when I started playing around with a platformer. I haven't actually built one with GameSalad yet, and it's a pretty good system for building such games. Without too much trouble, I had a cool looking city scene... a deep-blue background with twinkling stars and a nice parallax scrolling effect. It was nice and professional. I think the game had a primal feeling to it.
People could play with fire... but not get burned!
Although, I had trouble moving the project forward. This fireball was pretty much unstoppable. What kills fire? Was I going to suffocate it with a giant rug? Nothing seemed to make sense... not fitting with the theme anyway. Arch Fiery is part of the Revisions / BOT storyline.
That's when I wondered... maybe this thing shouldn't fly. The game did start out with jumping, but flying seemed cooler. But ultimately I realized that the game was just too easy and slow with flight.
So far, I'm glad that I've decided to stick with this project. I've gotten much better at controlling jumping. Previously, I was using accelerate with a short timer. That works, but it's not as efficient as this...
Change Attribute self.Motion.Linear Velocity.Y to 400
I'm probably going to update the Platformer chapter in The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook, because of the new information learned while working on Arch Fiery.
Regular jumps are not too advanced. It's the WALL JUMPING that was like an epiphany. While I preferred the jumping fireball controls to the flying fireball controls, it still felt kinda dull. When I added wall jumping... WHOA... that's when I regained the joy. Suddenly, game development was fun again. Arch Fiery felt quick and fun. The game had challenge, without being too frustrating. The controls were smooth... left, right and jump. It was perfect for iOS. It's even great for Mac, as the game can be played with just three arrow keys.
The trick was hidden sensors. I constrained invisible actors around the fireball... one on each side and one below. Then, when the sensor collided with a wall, that's when the fireball could jump. By holding the touch, the jumps happen instantly. It was great fun because the fireball can ricochet between buildings.
If you'd like to see a screenshot of this, it's on my website... http://photics.com/arch-fiery-wall-jumps
...The poor man's debug is in effect. By using display text, the attribute values are shown.
I'm planning to keep this game under 20 MB, so maybe it will be finished by the end of the month!
There are some limitations though. I noticed that GameSalad starts to stutter when the scene is too large. I think 14,000 pixels wide is an appropriate size, but the game dramatically loses performance if I push it past 4,000 pixels. That's going to be a major limitation on level design. That seems to be the tradeoff for using GameSalad. While I can quickly make games with GameSalad, the problems with performance could be an issue.
Oh... and HTML 5 just doesn't work. Even though this is a 480x320 game, the cool fire effect doesn't work in HTML 5. Performance is also an issue, as the stuttering is far worse. Yet, I'm not worried about HTML 5 right now. Instead, I think this could be a cool app for Mac and iOS.
Many of the frequent posters here are already familiar with the limitations of GameSalad. That hasn't stopped plenty of other developers from finding success with the software. So instead of wasting time ranting, I decided to get creative again. Maybe this is the game that finds success. Heh... but the repetition of app building is starting to feel like the sci-fi show "Quantum Leap".
"Ziggy says this app has a 42% chance of success."
Perhaps that's a bad analogy. From the way I understand it, Sam never did get home. HA HA!
Comments
I'm still struggling with motivation and getting screwd by apple, but it's slowly coming back.
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...then I cleaned it up in Pixelmator.
There's heavy use of GameSalad's new Image Flipping feature in this game. To save on space, and keep things optimized, the buildings are often flipped... to make a bigger building out of a smaller image.
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=106840
Basically, I created the game's icon today and coins... err... rings... uh... glowy thing.... whatever. Are you trying to embed the PNG file into this thread? Photics.com blocks hotlinking. Heh, there is something primal about this game. I think one of the biggest deterrents to productivity is that I've been wasting a lot of time just playing with the fireball. It has a cool swooshing sound effect... which uses GameSalad's positional sound and velocity shift.
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September 13, 2011 — Progress Report
Particle Optimization
So, Arch Fiery is looking like a platformer. Yet, I'm not trying to build a Sonic or Mario clone. That's what I learned from BOT. Going retro could put my app at a disadvantage... those that remember the old games will likely prefer the originals because of nostalgia, while those that did play the old games might not have the patience for old school gaming.
That was tricky when I decided to add "Coins". And for a while, I thought about adding the spinning gold coins. It just didn't fit with the theme and it felt too much like Mario. So, I did something else...
By using Particles, I made little fiery orbs. By collecting an orb, the fireball will increase in size. Not like Mario eating a mushroom either... it's a gradual change in size. If the fireball hits an enemy, it loses power and shrinks in size. Of course... being made of fire, the contact will likely kill the enemy. That's how combat works.
However, when I tested this game on a Second Generation iPod Touch, I noticed about a 15% drop in FPS. All I did was add two coins too. After careful testing, I learned something important...
GameSalad will continue to process particles, even if they're off-screen!
To compensate for this, I made the power-ups sensitive to the main character's location. By using a rule, the particles will only run when the main character is close enough. That's good because I'm not going to get rid of the glowy things... only hide them. If a character dies, the level can be immediately reset... no loading!
I still have to figure out how the enemies will work... and what they will look like ...but the bulk of the work seems to be level design.
I also created the game's icon today. I used Icon Maker and Pixelmaker to make it. I tried uploading the icon to this website as my new avatar. Heh, but it didn't work.
Standard Issue
Wow, it's been a while since I felt this happy working on a game project. It took a while to get the project going, but now it's starting to come together. It's starting to feel like a standard iOS app... get the three stars, good physics... and I'll probably have to add a level select screen at some point.
I think the main difference is that I added more platforms and I added bombs. The idea is that the player will have to find the three stars for each level... while avoiding the bombs. If a bomb is hit, that's not the end of the world... but the fireball will lose power. If the fireball loses too much power, or falls through a hole, it explodes.
I have a sweet level reset in effect, so no annoying spinning pinwheel. Instead, the camera pans back to the beginning... and then everything is reset back to the beginning. It's really slick and professional. I think it makes the game more fun. I'd be adding two control types, as some players might not like controlling the game with the accelerometer. That does seem a little tricky.
This is not such a terribly difficult project. I'll have to figure out how many levels there will be. It shouldn't be too few, but I don't think there needs to be too many either.
Speed Run
One of the big problems with BOT was the difficulty. Almost immediately, the game is tough. Things are different here. It's more of a traditional iOS game... easy for general audiences, but still enough difficulty for hardcore gamers and perfectionists. Here's the final game design...
• The objective for each level is to get to the goal.
• To get extra points, collect the three stars.
• To get even more points, get a perfect... power level 16.
-- (Four power-ups are hidden throughout the level to go from 12 to 16)
• A timer will be added for even more points.
I pretty much finished the first level. When I was done, I was like... wow! The reason is because I tried a speed run... get all the stars, get all the power-ups, avoid the bombs... as fast as possible. Wow... I just kept saying that... wow. With the wall jumps and long drifts through the air, I was having fun. Heh, I liked the little sense of panic as I got near a bomb.
And what's nice about the game is the quick reset. So if you're playing to be a perfectionist, it's quick to restart. I do need to add some more features though...
• Pause Menu
• On-Screen controls... for those that hate the accelerometer
• The goal... (I'm not sure what that should look like, but it shouldn't be a flag poll. HA!)
• Level Select / Title Screen
I'm still planning to send this game to Apple next week. I might be able to do that. I'm still not sure how many levels there should be. I think that depends on how productive I am and how much space is left.
I also spent a lot of time today playing with sound effects. I wanted the fireball to have a swooshing sound effect, but I didn't want it to get too annoying. While playing around, I did something neat... instant audio fade-outs. I used the self.Time attribute to work like a divider. As the actor's timer value increases, the sound volume decreases. Sure, I could have done that manually in Audacity, but this allows me to reuse and alter sound effects for different situations.
Music might be an issue. With a 20 MB game, 4 MB of sounds could be an issue. So, I haven't actually placed any sounds yet. I can worry about that later.
There's one last thing... PERFORMANCE.
Maybe the people at GameSalad are reading this thread, which should show why communication is important.
Right now, I hit the technological limit. Arch Fiery runs at (approximately) 30 FPS on a Second Generation iPod Touch and around 60 FPS on an iPhone 4. That's perfect. If I added much more to my game, the performance would suffer. Yet... and here's the problem... is 0.9.8 going to improve performance? From what I've read here, 0.9.7 and even 0.9.7.1 hurt performance. So, a speed boost would leave more room for game improvements.
• I don't know when 0.9.8 will launch.
• I don't know if 0.9.8 will improve my game.
So, without that information, I'm still aiming for a September 23 deadline and a September 30 launch. One might think, "Dude... wait the week. You can at least get achievements in your game." That would be nice, but I don't know what GameSalad is doing. I've learned not to wait for them, because deadlines can slip. I don't know for certain that there will be a September update at all... so I have to just keep working and not worry about that future stuff.
The technical limitations didn't stop CBS from making a really nice game with GameSalad. That's what I'm trying to do here.
I don't mind if CBS (They're a major television network) gets a head start, because they built a really good game. But if they get HTML 5 exporting, and the rest of us don't, I see that as a big problem.
Although, this doesn't make sense. GameSalad should want to show off that game. Maybe CBS is like me... they don't want their games on the GameSalad website.
It wasn't moved to their facebook site. It launched on both simultaneously. There was just an issue on Arcade version that needed some extra time to fix. That's why it was pulled. It will be back up once we get the issue resolved.
-- Yodapollo
Although... it seems that CBS got a special privilege. Will HTML 5 exporting be added to GameSalad?
The Burnt Forest
Heh, this thread got a little bit side-tracked. But fortunately, my game seems to be moving along nicely.
I think I have an idea for the number of areas. I'm aiming for four areas. (I'm still not sure how many levels will be in each area.) The city is one area. The Burnt Forest is another. (There's a screenshot on Touch Arcade.)
The story is that the fireball crashed in a forest. It's part of a military experiment that went astray. (I'm thinking of adding a short comic-book style intro, as this is part of the Revisions / BOT storyline.) When it crashed, it damaged an already dying forest.
That's why the level has such a dark look. I wasn't trying to go for a Halloween theme, but it seems to be fitting for a late-September / early-October launch. It reminds me of Super Ghouls and Ghosts on the Sega Genesis.
One of the nice features about this level is the parallax scrolling. There are five levels of parallax scrolling...
• (Fixed Background) Starry sky
• (Background - 50% speed) Far trees
• (Background - 75% speed) Not so far trees
• Action area
• (200% speed) Overlay
I keep thinking these levels would look good in a sniper game... or zombie shooter. But right now, I'm focused on this game. And considering the holiday season is coming up, this will probably be my last game for a while. I'll be going into book-writing-mode for the Fall.
The first area is basically a tutorial. It's meant to be easy, so that players can get used to controlling the fireball and understand the objectives of the game.
Happy Holidays
The last two days, I was struggling with this project. I was starting to wonder if I was wasting my time. Once that type of thinking starts, it can damage the project. At one point... I even gave up. I started working on my next book, as people seem to appreciate my GameSalad book more than my GameSalad games.
If I really gave up on this project, the last two weeks would be wasted. Yet, if the project wasn't fun, I would be wasting more time on it. I wasn't excited about this project anymore... until...
I started using the clock attributes
Next month is October. That means Halloween is on the way. Since the Burnt Forest looks very much like a Halloween game, it makes sense to emphasize that fact. So, for the second-half of October, the bombs turn into pumpkins. It's pretty cool. It made me happy and I now feel motivated to finish up this game.
It also adds a sense of urgency. A holiday theme is no good if it's too late.
Scoreboard
It's amazing to me how the simple stuff can be the most difficult. At the end of each level, the player's score has to be displayed. This was surprisingly tricky, as the score in Arch Fiery comes from three spots... Stars, Power and Time.
It was tricky... do I use scenes/pause? ...do I spawn actors in the scene? ...how should the text be aligned?
I fought with those questions today. It's surprising to see how the text can get messed up so easily. The numbers were bouncing around when I used interpolate as a counter. I had to get really creative with the use of the display text attribute to get it to work properly... three different scores in one little box.
I also had to fight with the look. Where should the buttons go? How big should they be? What color should they be? What should the icons look like? Should I just use words instead of icons?
At the end of the day, I think I built something nice. It's still not finished, but it's at least there was good progress. Getting past this challenge was seriously delaying my project.
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I did think about it though... like putting up an HTML 5 version... but it didn't run. The fire effect doesn't display properly and the performance is lousy. I posted a picture of the box here...
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=1926266
Good Day
It's a good day. I wasn't killed by a rogue satellite...
http://news.yahoo.com/falling-six-ton-satellite-headed-toward-earth-011725135.html
I wasn't worried, but I did think about it. What if a bus sized object crashed into my office? That would have been a problem for the development of this game. HA!
So not only is today looking good, yesterday was a good day too. I worked on the pause menu. I added sliders for volume, sound and particles. Yes... in Arch Fiery... you can control the amount of particles displayed.
That's almost the last bit of heavy lifting. I'm trying to get the major technical issues out of the way before I create lots of scenes. I don't want to have to go back and update dozens of locations. I'm looking forward to focusing on level design. That's more fun for me.
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Lefties
A strange thing happened when I woke up. I started thinking about WASD controls... what about the lefties? So, I mixed it up. The Mac version of this game can now be controlled with the AWD keys or the arrow keys. Also, the space-bar can be used to jump. I think the player should feel comfortable. With rules, it doesn't just have to be a single condition. The "Any" setting can be used to create multiple conditions... such as mouse touch, space or up key for jumping.
I got much of the heavy lifting done over the weekend. I have a working level select system and Game Center is ready. If GameSalad adds achievements this week, I have a bunch of ideas for achievements too. The goal is to finish this week. So if GameSalad is late, I can't wait.
Monkey Businesses
Today I created a level that I'm really proud of. I wanted to make a really big building for the Sizzle City area. It's nice. It reminded me of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building. And at the top of my big building is an antenna. Above that is a star. With nice touches like that, this game seems more professional.
It takes about two hours for me to create a nice level. I have seven levels complete. That leaves another 17 to go. I should finish the game this week. Although, I'm having a bit of trouble creating levels for The Burnt Forest. I think that's because I'm used to city life. HA!
Another interesting thing... Sizzle City reminds me of Donkey Kong. I think it might be all the metal platforms. Yet, Arch Fiery is more like a puzzle racer. If you're after a good score... the first objective is to find all the hidden items. Then, the goal becomes to get all the items as fast as possible... without hitting the hazards.
I've been having fun playing this game, so it might do well.
I see a small window of opportunity for this game. I think this is a nice Halloween game — for all ages. Yet, October could be a rough month. The new iPhone seems to be on the way. And with the holiday sales, the iTunes App Store is about to get ultra-competitive again. So, I gotta hurry.
Video
Wow, I'm having a lot of fun creating levels. It's been tough, as I've been struggling to create unique experiences for each level. I think I've done that today... like pushing air conditioners onto bombs... or rushing through the pseudo-bridge to collect the power-ups. I think it's a fun game... in the traditional iOS style. It might be popular.
So, that means I have to figure out where to put the video. I tried setting up an exclusive. But no surprise, the sites weren't interested. That means I'll probably put the video on my website.
What kind of video would you like?
• A tutorial - an explaining how to play the game and how it was built.
• A trailer - make a flashy video that shows off the game.
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I think the casual video is better. I don't think the video should be about fancy effects. The hype for BOT was pretty big and a lot people got disappointed.
I think this game is better than BOT. It's more fun. I think it has a more attractive look too.
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September 29, 2011 — Progress Report (Supplemental)
FUN!
Something strange is happening with level design... and it keeps happening, so I think I should document it. Starting a level is tough, as it's a struggle to make each level unique. And yet, when I finally finish a level, I'm quite pleased. "That's my favorite level!" How can that be? How can each new level be my favorite? I think that's how I know I've done a good job. I have trouble picking my favorite level from Sizzle City. That section is complete. Now it's back to the forest. I'm having trouble with these levels. While I don't know which single level is my favorite, so far I like Sizzle City more than The Burnt Forest.
Maybe that will change when I'm done. I'm planning to finish up the game this weekend. There are nine more levels to create and then I'll need to create a nice title screen. That's it. Arch Fiery is almost done.
Smash it up!
So this morning I wasn't sure what to do about The Burnt Forest. I tried thinking about it as I went to sleep, but I wasn't sure what I would do. So this morning, I started with a regular platform. I figured a Petrified Tree would be good for jumping around. But when I created this new actor, I didn't deselect the "Movable" option. My little tree trunk just fell out of the scene.
And as I'm fixing the problem, and trying to make the image fit in a rectangle, I realized something... why not make this thing move?
So, I put three of them together... making like an Angry Birds structure. Wow, it was a great feeling when I launched the fireball into the side of this structure. This would give The Burnt Forest a unique experience from the other Arch Fiery levels. Also, this interactive environment makes the game more entertaining.
Now I know what music to play today while I work — "Smash" from The Offspring. Heh, there's something primal about pushing blocks and playing with fire. I think this is a very entertaining platformer.
Although... it's not always good breaking stuff. GameSalad... you tricky software... you destroyed my file today. Yeah, whatever, I got a backup. I lost about 15 minutes of work, but it's better than losing the whole project. This could be a life-changing app, or it could be a disappointment like many of my other GameSalad projects, I don't know. What I do know is that I will not be defeated by a glitch like this. I backed up my stuff.
Heh, I think I'll go back up my project again.
Is this dude hiding something? Is it going to be a completely new way of playing IOS that he's soo scared to release any info in case people copy? Could he just be trying to pull the wool over our eyes by drumming up hype and not showing us anything because its not actually as good and fun as he makes out?
My guess to the above paragraph is simply no, so rather than the odd screenshot, why don't you show off a little, you're hoping to complete this weekend and still won't show a video! Your stubbornness cost you dearly with BOT, learn man! People want to see as early as possible to either track the progress of something, or if they don't like it, to move on, people don't want to follow to just feel let down at the end because its not what they thought. In other words ... Show your work man!
As for video, you'd be nuts in my opinion to keep it casual or do a tutorial. A tutorial should be included in the game, you don't need a trailer of it and the actual promo for the game should be as good as it can be. If you see a video that just looks rubbish, it gives the impression that the dev didn't care enough to make a good trailer. I don't think i've ever seen a big game or big film etc just have a basic trailer about it, its all about impressions!
A video is planned, and should be available before the game is released.