Struggling for 2 months to certify my app. Always failing on point 3.6.3, but there is no explanation as to WHY exactly... Looks like it is time to install Android dev kit.
https://twitter.com/#!/pinbucket/status/148526598952456192/photo/1/large
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Crazy Jumpers went Free and Online
Here is link to Hall of Fame for Crazy Jumpers Online: Hall of Fame.
Interestingly, during creation of game and testing I was able to perform something like 14 jumps before hitting the ground. Someone on day one did 24! Having said that - this game seemed to be too difficult for majority of users. After 3 days the game recorded only 200 users with at least one successful jump!
Here is deep link to Crazy Jumpers Online for WindowsPhone 7 in case you feel lucky.
Interestingly, during creation of game and testing I was able to perform something like 14 jumps before hitting the ground. Someone on day one did 24! Having said that - this game seemed to be too difficult for majority of users. After 3 days the game recorded only 200 users with at least one successful jump!
Here is deep link to Crazy Jumpers Online for WindowsPhone 7 in case you feel lucky.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Want to try WP7 Free Games and Ads combo?
According to adDumplex, Crazy Jumpers Free managed to get 3.3k impressions on the first day, which could translate to $1.9 a day if monetised. Definitely not a sound business model ;)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Crazy Jumpers game for WP7 - download stats for the first 3 days...
... not gonna publish sales data, as there is nothing to publish, but the download stats are shown below:
The scary bit? 57 downloads was enough to get around rank 200 in paid games category. I am very tempted to perform a little experiment and publish the game completely for free (no ads) and see how the downloads go...
Anyway, working full steam ahead on my next WP7 project. Should have something to show off EOW.
The scary bit? 57 downloads was enough to get around rank 200 in paid games category. I am very tempted to perform a little experiment and publish the game completely for free (no ads) and see how the downloads go...
Anyway, working full steam ahead on my next WP7 project. Should have something to show off EOW.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Crazy Jumpers game sale data for day #1
For the first day, 32 downloads in total, the sales data look as follows:
1 purchase out of 32 downloads gives unimpressive 3.1% conversion ratio.
1 purchase out of 32 downloads gives unimpressive 3.1% conversion ratio.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Windows Phone 7, Crazy Jumpers game sales, update after the first week
Submitted game to the wrong category (puzzle & trivia, WTF?!), also had to pull back the app after 10 minutes and 34 downloads (discovered, there is no sound, due to the f****d up metadata), loosing therefore two precious days of the best exposure. Nevertheless the game managed to get to the 55th position in the subcategory (Paid + Puzzle) and 210th in paid games. Not sure how this translates to downloads / purchases yet.
On top of that decided to perform advertising experiment, and spent $70 on a slot at http://www.windowsphoneapplist.com/crazy_jumpers-a16510.html. Not very impressive!
On top of that decided to perform advertising experiment, and spent $70 on a slot at http://www.windowsphoneapplist.com/crazy_jumpers-a16510.html. Not very impressive!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Crashed my Windows Phone Developers Tool so badly
it does not allow to edit .cs files, compile my game or run the WP7 emulator. Trying to reinstall it, but it seems to be stopping at some point. Very frustrating :/
Monday, April 18, 2011
last night build
I wasn't really happy with the last night build, but after playing the game a few (dozen) times I can definatelly see some potential. Things that went wrong so far:
- placing the handle too close to the hardware 'Home' button. A few times managed to pust it, which killed the game.
- assuming that users will do what I've planned for them. The way to release parachute was to PULL the handle. Quite a few decided to tap it instead. There is no user guide explainng how to play, but it should be natural, so introducing some more changes.
- placing the handle too close to the hardware 'Home' button. A few times managed to pust it, which killed the game.
- assuming that users will do what I've planned for them. The way to release parachute was to PULL the handle. Quite a few decided to tap it instead. There is no user guide explainng how to play, but it should be natural, so introducing some more changes.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Finally managed to 'unlock' my WP7...
Took slightly more than 2 weeks of struggle with MS Support (my only complaint could be their response tinme - 2 days on average). GeoTrust were faster. Here come some eye-candy photos:
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Slowly but surely...
After some research I decided, my GUI will be done "the Microsoft way". Video may be a bit jittery, because my notebook was running in the "power saver" mode. but it clearly shows all moveable components. Things are getting to look nice-ish.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Just a small taste of things to come...
Monday, March 21, 2011
Torque is soooo dead...
Can't force myself to 'rewrite' the game AGAIN. Insted started working on a Windows Phone 7 version (well, that will be completely different game). One thing I realised is that for such a simple project, Torque (or any engine for that matter) was just slowing me down. Things that took me 3 days with torque (crashing editor, stuff not being saved, crashing engine) can be done with pure XNA within 3 hours!
That's how things look like in a Windows Phone 7 Emulator.
That's how things look like in a Windows Phone 7 Emulator.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
It feels like starting from scrach again...
I downloaded the latest TorqueX 4.0 Community Enhanced Edition, which in theory should be compatible with that latest XNA 4.0 (have a look at the dedicated portal here: http://torquecev.com/), but I am looking into the code and wondering, where was I... 4 months is a long time.
I feel like I need to start with something simple. A new, better title perhaps? How about "UFO carnage"? OK, sounds good.
Next. Another simple thing before I embark into adapting my existing code into the 4.0 stuff... A shiny GUI perhaps.
Perhaps.
I feel like I need to start with something simple. A new, better title perhaps? How about "UFO carnage"? OK, sounds good.
Next. Another simple thing before I embark into adapting my existing code into the 4.0 stuff... A shiny GUI perhaps.
Perhaps.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Bad Mojo! (Or what to do when bootstrapper.exe crashes during xna installation)
Essentially, you have to do the hard work yourself. For more details, go to: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2009/06/12/9740290.aspx.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Integration(s) and weekly eye-candy
Integration with the Torque X Community version went alright, no problems here. Also started using art sketches. Replacing them with the final, coloured version should be very easy (provided that Torque X editor can handle such operation without crashing). Some weekly eye-candy follows:
Thursday, September 16, 2010
"Attraction" beam?
Got another bunch of artwork, this time for Metropolis level. Not showing off everything, but have to tell you, it is going to look great. At the moment I am toying with the idea of adding another kind of beam that could be featured in my game. Next to the traction beam, the UFO could use "attraction" beam to strip clothes out of pedestrians, leaving, for instance that lovely lady wearing underwear and shopping bags only. I agree it is kinda low blow, but one have to think of the target audience as well, right?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Some good news and some bad news and than again rather good news
Game is progressing well in terms of the artwork. Got some fantastic sketches from Ben from http://www.piketoon.com/ - won't show you everything, just have a taste of what's coming:
I do prefer to work with the right artwork rather than temporary graphics, because it allows an early polish-optimisation (if I can call it that way). Essentially having this simple sketch inspired me with some code changes that hopefully will improve the game-play and player's visual experience in general.
The bad news for me, for some XNA users and for all Torque X 2D (or whatever the current name is) is that Microsoft is pulling out a new version of XNA - 4.0 which is NOT backward compatible with the current 3.1. More importantly Torque X 2D (or whatever the current name is) won't be supporting XNA 4.0. What it means is that I (and a few other peeps) will be soon royally f..ked with out existing project.
Good news is that there is a community 'movement' which is focused on:
a) fixing stuff that isstill f..cked up in the Torque X 3.5.1.
b) porting TorqueX to the XNA 4.0.
So essentially there is hope. Will report on that more soon (once I get some decent sleep.)
I do prefer to work with the right artwork rather than temporary graphics, because it allows an early polish-optimisation (if I can call it that way). Essentially having this simple sketch inspired me with some code changes that hopefully will improve the game-play and player's visual experience in general.
The bad news for me, for some XNA users and for all Torque X 2D (or whatever the current name is) is that Microsoft is pulling out a new version of XNA - 4.0 which is NOT backward compatible with the current 3.1. More importantly Torque X 2D (or whatever the current name is) won't be supporting XNA 4.0. What it means is that I (and a few other peeps) will be soon royally f..ked with out existing project.
Good news is that there is a community 'movement' which is focused on:
a) fixing stuff that isstill f..cked up in the Torque X 3.5.1.
b) porting TorqueX to the XNA 4.0.
So essentially there is hope. Will report on that more soon (once I get some decent sleep.)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
(this time) it is all about the final polish
I have played quite a few indie games from xbox games marketplace recently. I only bought two of them! My criteria: innovation, visual quality, game-play quality, re-playability, existence of the global score list, quality of the artbox.
Anyway, I decided to go extra lengths in terms of the visual quality and implemented a few additional options for some extra effect. For instance the creature player can abduct has a theoretical number of 8 effects, 4 death and for abduction (here called suction) effects:
Why theoretical effects? Because these are just slots -all effects have to be still created. And that's all for this weekend, may you have a productive time!
p.s. something motivational to read: $40,000 Xbox Live indie game Lumi is worth playing (arstechnica.com)
Anyway, I decided to go extra lengths in terms of the visual quality and implemented a few additional options for some extra effect. For instance the creature player can abduct has a theoretical number of 8 effects, 4 death and for abduction (here called suction) effects:
Why theoretical effects? Because these are just slots -all effects have to be still created. And that's all for this weekend, may you have a productive time!
p.s. something motivational to read: $40,000 Xbox Live indie game Lumi is worth playing (arstechnica.com)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
We are Xbox enabled!
It took me good two hours of tweaking Visual Studio solutions to make the game build for XBox360, but now it runs on my console as well as PC! Initially I got approximately 0.5 FPS :/ As it turned out, XNA was throwing and catching exception in a tight loop (even in C++ catching exception in a loop wasn't good idea). Xbox360 version requires a specific component to be present, adding the following code to my Game.BeginRun() fixed the performance issue:
Obviously I plan to use this component, but perhaps slightly later, when the whole game is ready.
Tasks currently on my list:
- Add landing zones and enable setting landing sequence in case we get two or more landing zones on the level (e.g. Zone1, Zone2, Zone1 again)
- Add projectiles (Adding level called "volcanic dodge-ball" would be nice)
- Add destructible objects and characters (bloody splat I created initially is OK, but definitely not enough - SPLATALITY is a must)
- Add sound effects (this looks rather painfull at the momemnt, as TorqueX seems to have no support for sound and music)
- Add some GUI and level loading manager.
- Add some dedicated graphics - this may be the easiest part as Julian from something2play agreed to deliver some juicy artwork.
Once that's done, the game must be enhanced to pass peer-2-peer and Microsoft tests (including swapping controller during gameplay, removing memory cards during saving and so on).
It is still a long way to go.
Anyway. I managed to spend some time playing Indie games from XBox Games marketplace. Most of them lack proper polish - in terms of graphics as well as gameplay. As far as the latter is concerned I am not going to drop the ball - not gonna rush too fast!
Components.Add(
new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices.GamerServicesComponent(this)
);
Obviously I plan to use this component, but perhaps slightly later, when the whole game is ready.
Tasks currently on my list:
- Add landing zones and enable setting landing sequence in case we get two or more landing zones on the level (e.g. Zone1, Zone2, Zone1 again)
- Add projectiles (Adding level called "volcanic dodge-ball" would be nice)
- Add destructible objects and characters (bloody splat I created initially is OK, but definitely not enough - SPLATALITY is a must)
- Add sound effects (this looks rather painfull at the momemnt, as TorqueX seems to have no support for sound and music)
- Add some GUI and level loading manager.
- Add some dedicated graphics - this may be the easiest part as Julian from something2play agreed to deliver some juicy artwork.
Once that's done, the game must be enhanced to pass peer-2-peer and Microsoft tests (including swapping controller during gameplay, removing memory cards during saving and so on).
It is still a long way to go.
Anyway. I managed to spend some time playing Indie games from XBox Games marketplace. Most of them lack proper polish - in terms of graphics as well as gameplay. As far as the latter is concerned I am not going to drop the ball - not gonna rush too fast!
Monday, August 30, 2010
It's all about sucking!
The TorqueX editor sucks for a couple of reasons. To name but a few:
- camera name is not serialized on level load - so you have to manually type it every time you load a level or editor decided to refresh it after significant changes in the source code of your game
- it looks like you can't mount object on other objects in the editor - but it works OK if called from your game's code.
- All scripts used by editor are pre-compiled, so you can't change / fix / path it :
- There is no source code for the editor - so you can't... see the previous point
From now on, the game 'sucks' as well. A C# version of sucking tractor beam has been officially implemented and it works well - this time with the full physics! (No video this time, as I decided to limit media posting to weekly 'eye-candy' posts, so the progress will be more noticeable)
And last point in the topic of sucking... Apparently all games written for Andorid will be in... Java. Does not sound like a solid platform for mobile game development!
- camera name is not serialized on level load - so you have to manually type it every time you load a level or editor decided to refresh it after significant changes in the source code of your game
- it looks like you can't mount object on other objects in the editor - but it works OK if called from your game's code.
- All scripts used by editor are pre-compiled, so you can't change / fix / path it :
- There is no source code for the editor - so you can't... see the previous point
From now on, the game 'sucks' as well. A C# version of sucking tractor beam has been officially implemented and it works well - this time with the full physics! (No video this time, as I decided to limit media posting to weekly 'eye-candy' posts, so the progress will be more noticeable)
And last point in the topic of sucking... Apparently all games written for Andorid will be in... Java. Does not sound like a solid platform for mobile game development!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Scope Creep continues...
I've just added an unplanned feature - "disappear on touch", which may prove usable. Implementation time: about 15 minutes.
HUD is soo last century...
Rather than adding a 'standard' HUD to show current throttle state, I decided to try something different here - two pulsing 'gravity' rings indicating available power. The result is quite pleasing, but would need some more attention in the future. Also borrowed some art from Platformer Kit to make the game visually more appealing. The current list of features is growing quite rapidly - including features that I haven't initially planned to add. But then again, the better polish, the bigger sales :D
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