Hello again, World...

I've neglected this little corner of the web for nearly three years, shame on me!

A lot has happened in that time. I was promoted at work (Yay!)... Then I was made redundant when the company folded (Boo? Hiss? Maybe, maybe not, I'm undecided...). Our children celebrated some birthdays - our eldest is now 6, and our youngest is 3. I suppose we got a little older too, but the less said about that the better! I've taken care of some real world projects - mostly satisfying physical work involving wood and concrete and hand tools and sweat. Oh yeah, and the whole goddamn world has been turned upside down thanks to a global pandemic. Fun times!

When I've not been homeschooling the girls, hiking in the amazing countryside that is rather conveniently situated right at my doorstep, completing practical projects around the house, reading all the things, and vegetating in front of netflix, I have been pratting around with my fingers on a keyboard tinkering with various software projects.

Absolute emphasis on TINKERING.

There has been little in the way of reasoning behind what I've been messing with other than "I am currently the master of my own destiny, I have some technology on hand, a brain that needs exercise, and although the libraries are sadly shut we do have an amazing resource called t'interwebs on hand these days, so why not just have some fun". Sure, keeping my brain active and tinkering with Java/Go/JavaScript might have some practical benefits when it’s time to find a new job, but that's as far as it goes. My mindset is firmly back to that of my 10 year old self, hacking away on a ZX Spectrum programming Sinclair Basic just for fun :D

So, what software projects have I been fiddling with, you might ask... Well, there are a great many, but here's the top ten (ok, ok, it’s less a top ten and more a list of things I've worked on most recently and/or not already forgotten about). In no particular order:

1) I started (well, nearly finished) working on my very own retro style minimal Simple RPG. I don't really know why I've not finished it if I'm honest. Developers and their goldfish-like attention spans eh? I'll probably blog about this project separately and add a link (or maybe forget to add a link) here when I do.

2) I rewrote theinvader360.com in Go. Almost entirely pointless, it could quite happily be a static site, but I wanted to so I did :) Yes, you *will* see a pattern emerge in my justification of how I choose to spend my limited time on this planet...

3) I actually released something on Google Play! Don't get too excited, it's just a Maths Quiz ;) Our eldest loves a maths challenge, and she responds massively well to gamification - anything where she can score 10 out of 10 is a winner. This app was built with her firmly in mind, no countdown clocks or pressure to "guess" the answer, just a simple ten randomly generated questions and taking your sweet time to answer correctly kind of deal. She's consistently scoring 10/10 on each challenge type now, so maybe something with a bit of hazard/risk is called for next... Although it’s a fairly boring "game" to look at, it was actually quite good fun to write. I might write more about it sometime, and maybe try to remember to link to it here...

4) I wrote a procedural maze generator and cobbled together a basic maze game. I never got round to polishing and releasing the app, but it’s installed on the living room fire stick and the girls like playing it every now and then :)

5) I fiddled about with PyGame and built a Lunar Lander game. This project was kicked off at a local nerd club gathering back when such things were possible, great fun! Oh how I miss being quiet and antisocial in a room full of grown adults, it’s just not the same being quiet and antisocial in the comfort of your own home.

6) My six year old and I collaborated on designing a rule set for a pen and paper tabletop game (SiTTeRS). I had originally planned to turn this into an app, but figured we liked it as it was - a low tech, two players in the same room, real time, physical pen and paper and a dice kinda deal, so I dropped the computer simulation aspect and kept it strictly low tech.

7) Nothing at all to do with games, but I wrote an extremely minimal headless Go application fronted by an equally minimal Vue.js frontend. Not particularly useful - you can achieve the end result as it stands in vue alone, but I liked getting the two parts to work together.

8) I built a very simple Memory game using Go and the Ebiten library. I’ve built an executable to run on my laptop, and an apk to install on our various android touch screen devices. This isn’t destined for proper app store release, but feel free to grab it from GitHub!

9) I started building a small Dungeon Sweeper game. No idea why I didn’t finish this, I probably should at some point, the scope is super tiny compared to the Simple RPG mentioned up top. It would also make a nice little fantasy console game. I might come back to this at some point...

10) I read about the Pico-8 a while ago and found the whole subject of fantasy consoles to be quite fascinating. I’d have killed for that kind of dev environment back in my Spectrum days! Then a couple of days ago I discovered the TIC-80... It’s free as in beer, free as in speech, and it supports JavaScript... Sold! I ported a nice Pico-8 tutorial to the TIC-80, and in a single day I had a crappy “game” that could be played on the living room TV using an Xbox One controller, and via the web using keyboard controls (cursor and “z” keys replacing the d-pad and “a” button). I can see myself spending a lot more time tinkering with these fantasy consoles :)

It strikes me that most of the projects I've enjoyed playing with recently have been quite small and short lived. I've aimed to spend only a day or two's worth of spare time on each, with the aim of getting something minimal and functional finished in that time. Pretty much the Ludum Dare rules really. This has been the case with pretty much everything other than the unfinished simple RPG game (no matter how “simple”, it’s still nowhere near a weekend project!).

I have lots of ideas for future projects. I’d like to finish the Simple RPG and Dungeon Sweep games at some point. I might write a completely pointless static blog/CMS engine, just because (add it to the heap of others out there that nobody wants or needs) :D I’d like to write some Spectrum / NES / Game Boy ROMs (maybe some remakes or demakes). I’d also like to see if there’s anything fun I can do with some of the old hardware we have lying around (Spectrum, Game Boy, DS, PS2, PSP, Wii, etc). I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that is pretty much a dedicated RetroPie machine - it gets played with more than the Xbox One, but maybe I should do more with it. If I’m feeling particularly masochistic I might spend some time on lower level stuff than I’m used to, maybe some assembly is in order :) I’d also like to spend some more time playing with fantasy consoles like the TIC-80, just because it’s fun...

Then there’s the huge subject of moving on from teaching our children traditional languages, science, and maths, and sprinkling in a little bit of computer science. There will be some Scratch and Python in my future for sure, and I can’t imagine any better teaching method than making games. It’s gonna be fun! :D

So yeah, I’m still alive, I’m not really focused on publishing new games to Google Play any more, but I do still love making and playing games and little educational doodads and thingermawotzits.

Until next time, au revoir!

Sensory - a cause and effect light show app

While testing my latest game (Jewel Match Blitz) it became apparent that TheInvaderOne (my 9 month old daughter) was very interested in what was going on. She has always been interested in the laptop, but the phones and tablets with their sounds and bright coloured lights and tappable screens took it to another level! Testing Jewel Match Blitz soon became quite a challenge! :) I'd hand her the device to play a little, and she had great fun until it was game over - at 9 months old she was never going to be particularly great at playing a strategic action puzzle game so the game overs came thick and fast!



The experience got me thinking about what kind of app would be suitable for a baby. TheInvaderOne loves touching the screen and seeing something happen, and feedback in the form of sound effects and bright lights never fail to raise a smile. I created a very small demo app for her using the particle effect already used in Jewel Match Blitz. When you touch the screen a particle effect is triggered at that position, keep touching and more particles are triggered. The app is multitouch enabled so up to 10 points can spawn particles in assorted colours simultaneously. She absolutely loves it!



I soon realised that other babies, and potentially SEN children and adults with various learning difficulties, special education needs, and/or disabilities could also benefit from the Sensory app, so I decided to package it up and make available on the google play app store. It is 100% free and is not monetized in any way, ads in an app targeted at users with limited understanding where the aim is to randomly tap the screen would be extremely bad karma! You can find the app here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theinvader360.sensory.app.free.android

I also figured that there are a few interesting principles involved in this tiny app that might mean it's of interest to other developers, especially those getting started with LibGdx. The app touches on particle effects, object pooling, multitouch, screen transitions, scene 2d ui, the asset manager, etc. The excellent Simple Game example touches on most of the main areas involved when making a basic game (assets, game loop, input, draw, sound). I think the Sensory app builds on that foundation to illustrate simply and clearly how to handle some of the more intermediate LibGdx features. You can find the open source project on github, hopefully it will be of interest to fellow developers interested in making games with LibGdx - https://github.com/TheInvader360/sensory

I'd be over the moon to hear that the little "side effect" offshoot of Jewel Match Blitz ended up helping you in some way, so please leave a 5* review of the app if you can (and maybe leave something in the comments here too!)

Jewel Match Blitz - Match 3 Remix!

Apologies for such a long absence, I've been neglecting my indie Android games recently. Time to put that right with a new release - Jewel Match Blitz :)

Jewel Match Blitz sees me dipping my toe in a new genre, the strategic action puzzler. From the screenshots you'd be forgiven for thinking it's yet another Bejeweled or Candy Crush Saga copycat game... But you would be wrong! :p

I grew up in a time where action puzzlers like Tetris, Columns, and Dr Mario were all the rage. Jewel Match Blitz plays more like one of those old classics than a "swap the jewel/candy/whatever positions to match 3 or more" that has seemingly been done to death in recent years. If I were to liken Jewel Match Blitz to any existing game I think Columns would be the closest match, but it's still quite a different game mechanic. In Columns the jewels fall from the top of the screen (similar to both Dr Mario and Tetris), and it's up to you to arrange them such that groups of three or more are formed and then disappear. In Jewel Match Blitz the jewels push up from the bottom of the screen, and you need to identify and tap groups of three or more adjacent matching jewels to make them explode (Match 3). You can also tap the occasional flashing blitz jewels for a blitz bonus. Your aim is to stop the jewels from reaching the top of the screen, or it is game over.

The game is available for free on the google play android market (as are all my other games) and has a global google play game services leaderboard. Download it now, sign in, get a highscore, then challenge your friends to try and beat you! It gets real addictive, real fast :D

As always, I hope you have fun!

LibGdx Google Mobile Ads SDK Tutorial

The number one ad service being used by Android and LibGdx developers at the moment is Google AdMob.

If you've not updated your app recently you should consider doing so soon. Google says:

Android (6.4.1 and earlier SDKs)
Deprecated. On August 1, 2014, Google Play will stop accepting new or updated apps that use the old standalone Google Mobile Ads SDK v6.4.1 or lower. You must upgrade to the Google Play version of the Mobile Ads SDK by then.

Ok, so we want to migrate to the new Google Play Services way of doing things - this blog post walks you through the process :)

Install this apk to see what we'll be building!

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Barebones Sample App

First thing I did was grab an up to date version of libgdx. They are now up to 0.9.9 stable, I'm sure there is a lot of awesome new stuff in there for me to investigate, but TheInvaderOne isn't really leaving me with a lot of time for Android these days so that'll have to wait!

Next I created a new libgdx project using gdx-setup-ui.jar (see this old post for a walkthrough), added a .gitignore file, and made my initial commit.


Eclipse Setup

In eclipse, import the barebones sample app (file > import > existing projects into workspace) - you should now have at least three projects in package explorer (core, android, and desktop).

Open the Android SDK Manager, download the latest SDK Platform and Google APIs (at time of writing: 4.4.2/API19), the 2.3.1/API9 SDK Platform, and from Extras - Google Play Services.

Locate the <android-sdk>/extras/google/google_play_services/libproject/google-play-services_lib/ directory on your machine (on my windows machine - C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\extras\google\google_play_services\libproject\google-play-services_lib) and copy into your working directory alongside the existing libgdx projects.

File > Import > Android > Existing Android Code, Next, Browse, navigate to the local copy of google-play-services_lib in your working directory, Ok, Finish.

Right-click your android project, select Properties, Android, scroll down and click Add, select the google-play-services_lib project, Ok.

A refresh and clean in eclipse probably wouldn't hurt at this point, so go ahead and do that.


AndroidManifest.xml

Ensure that the target in android project's project.properties file is at least 13, and the android:minSdkVersion in your AndroidManifest.xml is at least 9. Sadly this does mean users running ancient versions of Android will be excluded, but there's nothing we can do about this. There are very very VERY few devices still running versions below 2.3/API9, so at least you won't be excluding many users...

Add these two lines as children of the 'application' element:

<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.version" android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version"/><activity android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.AdActivity" android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize"/>

Add these two permissions as children of the 'manifest' element:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/><uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>

Save changes, then refresh and clean in eclipse for good luck...


Banner Ad

See this version of the android project's MainActivity class for a reasonably straightforward banner ad implementation.


Interstitial Ad

This diff shows an interstitial ad implementation (ActionResolver interface lets us trigger interstitial actions from the core project while retaining the invaluable LibGdx cross-platform functionality).

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That's all there is to it!

As always, please feel free to leave comments below. I can't really offer support - TheInvaderOne and "Real Life Day Job" leave me very little free time these days, but other visitors will often leave helpful solutions, and if I find a spare moment every now and then I do try to answer any unresolved queries.

Anyway, I hope you have fun making your games - be sure to leave a note here if you release something on google play or the amazon market, I'm always happy to check out new games :)

PS - one final note if cloning from https://github.com/TheInvader360/tutorial-libgdx-google-ads, pay attention to the problems view in eclipse! You will need to create an empty 'gen' directory in both the google-play-services_lib and tutorial-libgdx-google-ads-android projects, and ensure you have the required android sdks installed. As is often the case with eclipse, a liberal amount of refreshing and cleaning will do no harm...

LibGDX Google Play Game Services Tutorial

Google Play Game Services offers cross platform social leaderboards, achievements, and much more (realtime multiplayer, cloud saves, anti-piracy...). I've started implementing google play game services leaderboards and achievements in my LibGDX Android Games, and the purpose of this blog article is to walk through the process so you can do the same!

• I've published an example project on Google Play check it out!
• The example project is freely available on GitHub check that out too!
• You can also get the complete (free) version of Super Jump a Doodle here!

Continue reading after the jump to find out how to add these features to your own games!

Fruit Run FREE Slot Machine - featuring google play game services!

One million installs!

1,066,345+ users have installed my LibGDX Android games :)

Due to reporting lag that number is a few days out of date, and it doesn't include installs from third party scraper style stores, so the real number will be a little higher, but I can safely say I have over a million installs in total. Awesome :)

So, how do the various markets stack up?

Street Race Swipe LibGDX Scene2D Tutorial

I have been meaning to write a LibGDX Scene2D tutorial for some time now (ever since my Quack Attack FREE Duck Hunt Game got ridiculously popular). The problem has been finding the time, instead of writing blog entries I've been making games!

I had a great idea for a multitasking game, play four independent games at one time to train your brain and test your ability to multitask. The result was my 4 Games 1 Screen FREE Brain Training Game. I built this game as four separate games from the outset, with the intention of possibly building further on each minigame and releasing as standalone apps. The first of these standalone apps is Street Race Swipe Racing Game, which brings us neatly to the point of this article...

Street Race Swipe Racing Game is such a simple game at its heart that it seems like an excellent candidate for a tutorial article :) I remember being massively impressed by the example SimpleApp on the LibGDX wiki when first starting out, there was so little to it but it touched on all the basics of what is needed to make a game. I'm hoping this mini project will be almost as simple and just as helpful to others!

4 Games 1 Screen - Musings on mobile game control

So often I hear that players hate onscreen controls on touch devices. No physical button means no tactile feedback to let you know you are 'touching but not pressing' a button. This fundamentally different interface means the traditional joystick / d-pad control scheme can no longer be the de facto standard for gaming controls across all platforms - replicating "up down left right a b start" on a phone or tablet is far from ideal (but an ouya or gamestick is another matter entirely ;)).

In my latest game, 4 Games 1 Screen, I try to make the most of a tricky situation. I've embraced the android mobile platform and the control options it offers. Our phones and tablets have accelerometers and touchscreens, the old nintendo and sega machines did not, it's time to think outside the box and make the most of these features.

4 Games 1 Screen is a challenging brain training game, the aim is to multitask by playing four games at one time, and avoid making too many mistakes. Make too many mistakes and it's game over. Each game is kept relatively simple for two reasons - first the game has to have a single objective and control method, second you have to be able to play four of these things at once so too much complexity would be too distracting for the player.

The mini games are:

• Asteroid Attack - Tilt to steer your ship, asteroid collisions damage the shields, and when the shields are gone - gameover man, gameover!
• Tap Jump Cowboy - Classic infinite scroll platform game (like canabalt, and gemserk's excellent vampire runner) tap the screen to jump, save the cowboy from running into the campfires!
• Speedy Sums Math Master - Fully engage the left side of the brain, evaluate the math problem and mark it as correct or incorrect... You not only lose a life when you get it wrong, but also when you run out of time - so think fast!
• Street Race Swipe - Swipe up or down to change lanes in this fast and furious racing game, avoid crashing into the other sports cars, too many bumps and your car will explode!

Each game can be played independently (full screen) in practice mode, but the real aim of the game is to play them all at once - the game is called "4 Games 1 Screen" afterall :) I find it fun, addictive, frustrating and challenging. The frustration is what makes it so addictive haha, I see gameover and immediately try again to "do it right this time" :)

No onscreen controls, and a game that would not really be possible on traditional gaming platforms, this is truly a mobile game designed for mobile devices. I hope you go on to check it out (it's FREE, so why not!) and if you also like making your own mobile games that you might consider some of the thought behind the concept - don't lament the lack of physical controls, instead make the most of what is available!



Finally, does this mean that I won't ever release a mobile game with onscreen controls? No. Definitely not. A future project will be a traditional platformer, with android enabled consoles like the ouya and gamestick firmly in mind. I will no doubt make a mobile version of this game with onscreen controls (it would be silly not to). I'm not against onscreen controls, I'm against not thinking up interesting ways to make the most of what the mobile platform offers. I believe a platformer will only work well with traditional controls, but we don't always have to make traditional games :)

Happy gaming boys and girls!

Scene2D Investigation... Result: Quack Attack Free Duck Hunt Game!

I started looking into LibGDX Scene2D recently. No real reason, other than it looked like it could be something interesting to learn, so why not! :) Best way for me to learn is to just get stuck in, so I got to work on a Duck Hunt tribute, and learned as I went along...

It's clear that Scene2D UI is the way to go for menus and the like, so much cleaner than my past approach. Scene2D UI combined with table-layout makes setting up menus and HUDs a breeze. Even better, tweaking layouts becomes pain free, a real bonus! I'll certainly be using it again in future games.

As for making use of Scene2D in the game itself (over and above the HUD), it was tricky to start with... All the tutorials I've read so far have advocated the MVC approach, and it seems that MVC is not really possible when using Scene2D (the model and view are tightly coupled). Still, I've not been doing this long enough to be stuck in my ways, so I figured I could just ignore some of what I'd learned in my earlier projects and just go with the Scene2D flow.

I was surprised that there aren't more tutorials available on the subject to be honest, but I muddled through with various bits and pieces I could find. The most valuable resource when getting started was the LibGDX suite of tests, they are always a good starting point when looking at something new. The official wiki was helpful too. It's a bit presumptuous to think that I'm in a position to write tutorials on the subject (due to me being a newbie myself), but I think I'll post a few code snippets in the coming weeks to share some getting started tips, maybe even an open source step-by-step mini game "how to" if I have the time.

I like how Scene2D lets you encapsulate Actor behaviour in its own act() method, it's pretty cool just instantiating an Actor and then just leaving it to its own devices. My first Scene2D game (Quack Attack) has the game logic class spawn a Duck object at various intervals, the Duck class itself keeps track of how it should behave (overridden act() method sets various actions for the duck to perform dependent on its current state), and it also takes care of drawing itself via the overridden draw() method. It's really nice to be able to look at that single Duck class and immediately "get" exactly what a duck will do in the game, without having to look at various other classes. I guess this is one of the main Scene2D strengths, but on the flipside it's what makes MVC impossible...

I'm sure the coupled view and controller will make things difficult on larger more complex games, but for simpler games I don't think it's a big problem. I guess if I were ever to try porting a Scene2D heavy game to a different platform it'd be a problem too, I am pretty sure porting Racing Game or Evil Monkey Touch Defense or Zombie Game to XNA would be pretty straightforward (if we ignore the tilt/touch control issue), but porting Quack Attack to a library without a similar scene graph implementation would not be so straightforward (would probably have to port the whole of Scene2D too!). Again I don't really care about that right now as I'm focusing on Android only, so I think it's quite likely that I'll be using in-game Scene2D in the future.

I've just published my first Scene2D game on Google Play, it's totally free (ad supported), so feel free to install and check it out. If you like it, I always appreciate a nice rating/review :) Check it out here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theinvader360.duckhunt.quackattackfree

I think it turned out quite well, and am pleased with what was achieved in a relatively short amount of time. Keep an eye out for future blog posts featuring mini Scene2D tutorials if you're interested in that kind of thing :)

Until next time - happy gaming, and happy game developing!

Monkey Magic!

UPDATE - As a result of a request from Fox, this game has been removed from the Google Play market. I may create a new version at some point using all original graphics (i.e. not the Family Guy monkey), but in the meantime why not check out one of my other games?

I released a new free game recently - Evil Monkey Touch Defence. You control a "good" Evil Monkey / King Kong type character, his job is to try and protect the tower from incoming missiles!

This was an experiment in creating the simplest possible control scheme for a casual game, while still making a game that's good fun to play. When you touch the screen the monkey starts dropping his aim, when you release the screen he fires. No buttons, no tilt, no nothing, just touch and release anywhere on the screen to control the game - it couldn't get any simpler! The longer you survive the faster the missiles get, and the more missiles you destroy the higher your score, simple and addictive fun...

You can check out Evil Monkey Touch Defence here. I'd love it if you would leave a nice rating or review if you like the game :)


On the subject of free monkey based casual games for android... A friend of mine recently released his first game, you can check out his Monkey Game here - it's a fun casual physics game that uses Box2D behind the scenes. There's nothing in the least bit evil about this monkey, he just wants to eat his fruit (and not get eaten by a croc!)

Tower Defence - Slacker's Diary

I've been slacking recently. Between work, Christmas preparations, and home improvements, there's not been a whole lot of time left over to work on Android games. Anyway, that's enough of the excuses, question is - what am I going to do about it?

I've made a little progress on Tower Defence, but the plan is to put it on the back burner for now, keep working on it whenever I have a nice block of time to dedicate to it, but if I only have an hour or so available at a time to work on more trivial projects instead. I love the momentum that builds up when working on really small simple games, and I'm hoping to get a few of these little games started and finished in the next few months, and just keep chipping away at TD as a longer term project.

Here's a video of the tower defence game as it stands:

Most of the basics are there really, but getting the game finished involves quite a few tasks, not all of them trivial - adding enemy waves, turret upgrades, multiple enemy types, multiple turret types, lots of level maps, level unlocking, graphical improvements, game balancing, etc. I might put an early unfinished version of the game up on the market at some point, maybe with rough graphics, just a handful of levels, and not the best balancing, but I worry that if I do that I might never finish the game properly!

On a positive note, keep your eyes peeled for a new project starting soon! :)

Tower Defence - First Progress Report

My last post was very wordy. This one should make up for that...

Here's what I've got so far:

It's starting to look a little like a TD game :)

Next up - I think it's time to get them turrets a'shootin!

Kicking off a new project - Tower Defence!

I've started working on a new game... Yayness!

Zombie Survival - now available free on google play!

The question was - Can I make a game in a weekend? The answer was no. Or yes. Or, well... maybe. Kinda. I don't know...

Last Friday I started work on a totally new game - Zombie Survival. By the end of the day Saturday, I did have a playable "game". Or more accurately I had a working game mechanic. There was a good guy, zombies, an objective, and it was fun to play, it even looked pretty good. I guess that could be called a game. Except, it can't. Not really.

A game is more than just the mechanic and the graphics. The mechanic is what really matters at the end of the day, but there's a lot of additional stuff that you have to pack into your game no matter how simple/casual the market - this stuff isn't really optional anymore.

It took an additional four evenings and nearly a whole Saturday morning and early afternoon of effort before Zombie Game was ready for the marketplace. In that time I added screens for highscores, help, gameover, paused, etc, saved/read settings and highscores to/from persistent memory, improved the look and feel throughout, implemented sound and music, did some refactoring (I'm learning as I go, so tend to clean up / rework as and when I have a lightbulb moment), playtested and tweaked difficulty to get things just right (the fine line between challenging and frustrating is where the fun is found!), carried out lots of testing on multiple devices, and did a little bug fixing.

All in I reckon it took about 45-50 hours effort spread over 8 days to go from nothing to published, and I'm really pleased with that. But 48-ish hours effort is not the same as 48 hours elapsed time (lots of problems solved themselves in my head overnight, the subconscious mind is a wonderful thing!), I guess Ludum Dare will have to wait.

I'm sure my girlfriend will be glad to know that I'll be giving it a rest for at least a week or two now... A full time job plus putting in full time hours on an android game resulted in this being quite the antisocial week! Anyway, the game is up on google play, and it's a free download, so why not give it a go? Cute zombie fun just in time for halloween :)

          

Making a game in a weekend… Can it be done?

UPDATE - Download the finished game for free here!

I’d like to enter a Ludum Dare 48 hour competition one day, but I don’t think I’m ready yet. Create a finished game in a single weekend, sounds like a monster task!

This weekend I decided to give it a test run, see how far I can get in a couple of days. The answer is – further than I’d have guessed! Here’s a runthrough of the process…

First 3D project

As expected, I ended up starting a new project... It's quite a leap up from what was achieved in Race Game.

Laptop video (shows 2D and 3D rendering plus raw map files):

Android video (shows smooth 3D rendering on android device):

Next steps will include:

• Control scheme to suit android devices
• Nice 3D models for keys, treasures, etc
• Animated opening doors (quite how is a mystery!)
• Cartoony / cutesy graphics and sound
• Level select screen
• Level complete screen
• Game complete screen
• Efficiency improvements
• Lots more level maps

I think I'm going to drop the 'score' aspect, instead an achievement based level rating sounds good... Finish level for one star and ability to progress to next level, finish level having collected all treasure awards additional star, finish level in under X seconds awards additional star. Quite easy to progress through the levels, but replays required to get 100% perfect three star level rating.

Interestingly, Race Game has a fair number of android 1.6 users. Considering how few 1.6 devices exist, it's clear that there are people out there with low spec devices that want to play casual fun games. With this in mind, I'm going to keep striving for as near global compatibility as possible.

This game will be an arcade/maze/puzzler/adventure mashup. I'm going to leave out enemies, make it more about getting to the exit quickly, exploring, etc. This simplifies things for me, and should result in a game that appeals to quite a wide market.

A separate game that introduces first person shooter elements (zombies, weapons, and a darker art style) could be built on top of this base later on.

The code is freely available here, and there's a demo up on google play - check it out!


          

Racing Game - Powering on ahead!

I've neglected the blog for a few days, spent my time working on the app rather than writing about it. As a result, quite a lot of progress has been made in the past few days :)

Here's a video of the app as it currently stands:

Racing Game - Too early to go alpha?

I've still not taken care of my housekeeping tasks, but I do have a fully functional HUD now - this makes me feel a little guilty but a lot happy :)

Racing Game - HUD and Timer

As expected, I left the housekeeping for a while and carried on with the fun stuff :) There's a couple of things worth a little mention today:

1. How to render a heads up display
2. Introduction of a new timer class