made huge progress last night / on this morning's commute. I added some sound effects and music, still not 100% sure i love it, but its better than silence. I also fleshed out the in app purchase system and implemented it. Right now you can play the first 5 levels for free, with ads showing up on completion of each level, and on the main screen.
You can unlock the game which gives you every level, removes the ads, unlocks achievements, allows you to customize the ship and gives you one mega bomb which will let you clear a level. I think this is a good value
I also have 3 consumable purchases, a single mega bomb, a pack of 4 and a pack of 10, for those people who wish to have an easier time of playing.
I now need to figure out how to activate the mega bomb. It has to be easy enough to use, but not so easy you use it accidentally. I have not settled on a method for this too. There is also a bug in the game where after level 5 in the free version it just loops back to level 1 instead of exiting to the menu. I'm planning on making it go to a 'buy me' screen, but i have not created that yet.
another week goes by and another progress report. This was a busy week!
- Implemented the changing of the background based on the levels, an easy job but something I was putting off. - Added islands into the mix - Implemented the mega bombs - Added 5 other ship types you can choose, for a total of 6 - Added 22 new buildings - Did a lot of testing of the in app purchase code, it seems bug free - Tweaked the design of the statistics page - Added a 'upgrade' screen for the end of the free version
Right now I'm fixing a few remaining bugs and working on level design. I had previously randomly generated all the levels, but to make the game a little more cohesive I need to design each one manually to prevent island huts in the city, and skyscrapers on an island.
This game is turning into a spiritual successor to Obliteration Although, Obliteration II will return!
Started really working on level design today taking into account the new buildings and backgrounds, this is a rough pass on all levels. Once that is complete I'll send out a build to beta testers so they can give all the new features a whirl as I fine tune the levels.
phew, first pass at all 90 levels complete. Already found a few bugs with building placement, and need to tweak some layouts, but I think this is good enough for today. I'll send out a new beta build tonight.
progress is moving along steadily into a release. It's really down to a short list of known bugs that need to be fixed. this past week I worked on the audio, iAds and iAP was finialized and implemented for the free version, and I settled on how it will break down:
free version: -Levels 1-5 -iAds -no customization
iAP Options: -$1.99 Unlock Full Game w/ Bonus (See below) -$.99 1 Mega Bomb -$1.99 4 Mega Bombs -$2.99 10 Mega Bombs
Full Game Unlock Includes: -Levels 6-90 -Custom Ships -Game Center Achievements -2 Mega Bombs -Removes iAds
I think this is a good tradeoff to unlock the game, you get a lot of good stuff for a small price, and you get to play the first 5 levels of the game for free.
For the custom ships, the game will have 6 different ships you can choose from to play, with bonus ships coming down the road (halloween, christmas, etc).
The Mega Bombs allow you to clear a level if it is too difficult. the bombs have roughly 10x the power of the normal bombs, so one blast and the buildings go flying. they are very effective You get two to start when unlocking the game, and can buy more if you want (but they are not necessary to play the game).
That's it for now. Next step is bug fixes, and starting to put together a trailer for the game. if you know of anyone who is good please send me a message!
Braydon_SFXMember, Sous Chef, Bowlboy SidekickPosts: 9,273
it's getting close and closer to completion. yesterday I went through every single level and took notes of everything that needs to be fixed. the list was almost 100 items long, and only 13 remain, and most of them are removing debug code and stuff like that. I think only a few hours of work remains before I have my first candidate for release.
@quantumsheep it's a never ending process it seems. even today I find things that make me want to spend days implementing a new feature, but no more. the list to release is all checked off (for now).
the past few days I've reworked some of the artwork, and spent some time redoing a lot of the sound effects. I'm hoping to do the final build tonight and then really put it through it's paces testing and fixing any remaining bugs. I'm planning on submitting to apple this weekend if I can with an late september/early october release. That will give me time to put together a trailer and press releases.
I keep coming up with great ideas for other games too, I wish I had more hours in the day to spend on this
Well done man! I really enjoyed testing this one out.
Thanks!
It's taken a lot of nights and weekends 1 hour at a time to make the game. My next one or two will be easier . Then onto an adventure game I started last winter.
well this is why you test and test and test. I found a bug I introduced a few mths ago when tweaking the game based on testers feedback. the end result was you could kamikaze through every level and get massive high scores and beat the game very easily.
that has been fixed
I also made an alternative to my house ads solution. Since we can't disable touch detection when behind an iAd (@codewizard, this would be an awesome feature), I came up with a static ad that tells people to upgrade to the full version. So the ad space is always showing something, but nothing that needs to be touched.
I've gotten good feedback from friends and family on the trailer, people seem to like it. It would be awesome to load it into the game, but maybe sometime in the future!
The gameplay in the trailer looks like a lot of fun!
well this is why you test and test and test. I found a bug I introduced a few mths ago when tweaking the game based on testers feedback. the end result was you could kamikaze through every level and get massive high scores and beat the game very easily.
that has been fixed
I'd say my dev time is split 30% developing the game and 70% testing it. It's great that you managed to catch the bug before it went live.
thanks @quantumsheep! it took me a few hours to put it together, 1/2 the time learning how to use the basics of Final Cut Pro.
I fixed a bunch of more bugs today, small minor ones that only happened in certain instances. like playing between the hours of 4 and 5 am. or flying up with ship number 2. stuff like that.
I also settled on an icon. I had been working with an icon with a dark background, but it really didn't gel well with the iOS7 look, so I redesigned it and came up with what you see as my new profile pic. I like it, and it fits well on iOS 7.
Comments
You can unlock the game which gives you every level, removes the ads, unlocks achievements, allows you to customize the ship and gives you one mega bomb which will let you clear a level. I think this is a good value
I also have 3 consumable purchases, a single mega bomb, a pack of 4 and a pack of 10, for those people who wish to have an easier time of playing.
I now need to figure out how to activate the mega bomb. It has to be easy enough to use, but not so easy you use it accidentally. I have not settled on a method for this too. There is also a bug in the game where after level 5 in the free version it just loops back to level 1 instead of exiting to the menu. I'm planning on making it go to a 'buy me' screen, but i have not created that yet.
Lots too do, not enough time
another week goes by and another progress report. This was a busy week!
- Implemented the changing of the background based on the levels, an easy job but something I was putting off.
- Added islands into the mix
- Implemented the mega bombs
- Added 5 other ship types you can choose, for a total of 6
- Added 22 new buildings
- Did a lot of testing of the in app purchase code, it seems bug free
- Tweaked the design of the statistics page
- Added a 'upgrade' screen for the end of the free version
Right now I'm fixing a few remaining bugs and working on level design. I had previously randomly generated all the levels, but to make the game a little more cohesive I need to design each one manually to prevent island huts in the city, and skyscrapers on an island.
This game is turning into a spiritual successor to Obliteration
http://www.bewarethecataclysm.com
I also added two additional buildings to the game, including a lighthouse!
a new beta build has been sent to testers tonight! This was a huge updated that included everything I've talked about before.
progress is moving along steadily into a release. It's really down to a short list of known bugs that need to be fixed. this past week I worked on the audio, iAds and iAP was finialized and implemented for the free version, and I settled on how it will break down:
free version:
-Levels 1-5
-iAds
-no customization
iAP Options:
-$1.99 Unlock Full Game w/ Bonus (See below)
-$.99 1 Mega Bomb
-$1.99 4 Mega Bombs
-$2.99 10 Mega Bombs
Full Game Unlock Includes:
-Levels 6-90
-Custom Ships
-Game Center Achievements
-2 Mega Bombs
-Removes iAds
I think this is a good tradeoff to unlock the game, you get a lot of good stuff for a small price, and you get to play the first 5 levels of the game for free.
For the custom ships, the game will have 6 different ships you can choose from to play, with bonus ships coming down the road (halloween, christmas, etc).
The Mega Bombs allow you to clear a level if it is too difficult. the bombs have roughly 10x the power of the normal bombs, so one blast and the buildings go flying. they are very effective
That's it for now. Next step is bug fixes, and starting to put together a trailer for the game. if you know of anyone who is good please send me a message!
so close!
the past few days I've reworked some of the artwork, and spent some time redoing a lot of the sound effects. I'm hoping to do the final build tonight and then really put it through it's paces testing and fixing any remaining bugs. I'm planning on submitting to apple this weekend if I can with an late september/early october release. That will give me time to put together a trailer and press releases.
I keep coming up with great ideas for other games too, I wish I had more hours in the day to spend on this
It's taken a lot of nights and weekends 1 hour at a time to make the game. My next one or two will be easier
My plan is to sumit this week and then test for android and windows 8.
Android should be easy. Win8 might have to wait for true multitouch support.
that has been fixed
I also made an alternative to my house ads solution. Since we can't disable touch detection when behind an iAd (@codewizard, this would be an awesome feature), I came up with a static ad that tells people to upgrade to the full version. So the ad space is always showing something, but nothing that needs to be touched.
I've gotten good feedback from friends and family on the trailer, people seem to like it. It would be awesome to load it into the game, but maybe sometime in the future!
now i have to tweak the icon design to fit more in line with iOS7
I'm always terrified I've missed one somewhere!
QS =
DI fixed a bunch of more bugs today, small minor ones that only happened in certain instances. like playing between the hours of 4 and 5 am. or flying up with ship number 2. stuff like that.
I also settled on an icon. I had been working with an icon with a dark background, but it really didn't gel well with the iOS7 look, so I redesigned it and came up with what you see as my new profile pic. I like it, and it fits well on iOS 7.
iPad 3, iPad 2, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, iPhone5