Game Development Blog #65

Game Development Blog #65

"Fancy Blog Title"

What's up there, Planet Earth. Good to see you all once again. Been about a month, so I suppose it is time to settle in for a couple few and do the ol' update routine. Here goes.

Things are alright. Quite busy over here, as they usually seem to be. I am finding myself without too much free time these days, and though it is ultimately a good thing (it means that I am being productive) that also will allude to a certain level of burnout. I really, really need a break from things soon, because I am having some days here and there where it is just getting quite hard to turn out useful work, and to find the raw enthusiasm to throw myself into it. Just the same, my main projects are shaping up fairly nicely, and that's quite a big motivation if anything (momentum often is!) so it's keeping my sails winded, or however you'd say. On that note:

Trapdoor is finally nearing it's end stage of development for Android, a lot of work has gone into this little project in the past couple of weeks and it's gone from a rough little toy to feeling like a pretty fun game, to be honest! When I have something that's at the point where I can play a full session, GAME OVER, and then instantly restart to try again.. and again.. and again, that's a very good sign (and an excellent feeling as a developer/producer). For me, it's the sign that the soul is intact there, and it becomes much easier to envision the other little elements which must be put in place to enhance the existing game experience, less of a case of "hmm, guess we will tinker with X Y and Z to try and see what happens." Honestly, this game just needs a nice shiny coat of UI and it's ready to call it a day, and I am happy to unleash it. Those interested to see a WIP of what I am talking about can find a preview posted on our YouTube page - it's still fairly rough, but you should be able to get the gist.

I am looking to produce an iOS port of Trapdoor as well. If anyone out there can help, please drop me a line! If you want to straight-out charge me for the work, we can talk - but if you'd be interested to profit share, that would make my life entirely so much easier for the time being!

GunHead - The beast continues development! It's been sidelined a bit as TD has taken the fore, but I have still been actively involved in pushing for this game. At the beginning of the month I started on a mad tear to try and burn through asset production; they are coming along very well, but I am far short of reaching my "art complete by Feb 01 2012" goal. Steady as she goes! Meanwhile, the gameplay is still finding it's footing as we wrestle to properly configure the control layout, great strides have been made in the mobile game in the past few weeks and it's required some heavy re-planning on how certain important fundamental elements will work. We're almost through this phase, but not out of the woods yet. My whole purpose of developing this game is that it must play absolutely perfectly on the touchscreen, which is contrary to the case of any other platformer I've seen on the device thus far (insert my usual rant about lazy, crummy virtual D-pads as a weak accepted norm here). I am very anxious to get through this part and onto the next phase, where we can start laying down the actual level structure (this is obviously dependent on the final control setup to be in place, before we can proceed!) and then there's a whole 'nother chunk of development to battle through!

I'll take this aside to mention that I've been really enjoying having a jailbroken device for the course of this iOS development; waiting on builds from the programer, going through provisioning profiles, getting stuff signed, etc - you can easily skip all of that when you have a JB. My coder can just through the latest raw build up on the DropBox, and I can suck it off of there and install straight to my phone, without ever involving the use of a PC! I just figured out how to do that last week, it's wonderful! Android had spoiled me with that and now I have that ease of deployment on iOS as well. For those interested, you need to use iFile (the Cydia app, not the "App Store" one) to synced to your DB account, then (also in iFile) drop the .IPA where Installous can see it - then install from the latter, and that is it. Marvelous.

Hop Cop - I think I have mentioned this game on my blog a time or 2 in the past. It looks like development of this title is shortly to get underway as well, this will be a vastly different endeavor than my usual method of doing things (do I have a usual method of doing things, actually?) - to the point where it's very likely not going to be a Headcase Games release, but a different label for various reason. Don't worry, still me, still my game! In an insane turn of events, this game might make it to market faster than anything else currently in development right now, but as usual, we shall see. Stay tuned.

Other news: Gearing up to go to PAX in Boston this April, which will be an important time for me as I'll have much to promote (and hoping to have it all launched by then!) I am going through the process of trying to secure a speaking panel for myself and some others at the show, hopefully that will work out (I need that kind of exposure). Lots of talking in the background about plenty of other things, a bit of freelance work to pay the bills in the meantime, and really - just trying to keep my S together. There's plenty more to say about all of this and more, but I think I have said enough for now, and so I leave you. Thanks for reading.

Game Development Blog #64

Game Development Blog #64

"Another year, Another Dollar!"

Hahaha! It looks like I have coined a really appropriate phrase for indie development. Think about it.. Anyway, don't think too long, because after nearly 3 years of "independence" I am finally at the point where I am earning some steady, solid money doing this! Let's not get carried away, it's far, far from a valid amount to actually live on, but our game is earning steady money several months after our feature has wrapped up, and it's definitely better than the $20/month I was getting before. Not HUGELY better, but I would wager that we are officially past the majority of people who try to make any money off modern mobile app development. We are getting about $500/month in sales now (after the app stores take their cut). As I said, not a huge amount of money (and I need to split it up) but considering that I'd expect most devs don't even crack $1k in their lifetime anymore, I think it's a very good sign. So long as the numbers don't die out, that is. We'll see..

Anyway, numbers aside, here's your standard Production Update.

GunHead - coming along nicely. This past summer I'd planned to release this game by November - now it is looking more realistic to expect sometime in February, and to be honest there is quite a lot of work to do yet. But what is there, is pretty awesome. Looks awesome, controls awesome, everything is coming together. I am getting some serious thoughts spinning in my head about how to market the game, and honestly I doubt I will spend under a grand on that. For this type of game I'd say it's a necessity, but I expect to make that back easily. Expect there to be some wild/unusual marketing for this game the likes which haven't been attempted yet for a "little mobile game," as usual you need to get creative in how you sell things or no one will ever know it exists!

Android development is a bit stalled currently, iOS has been going strong but slowed as well, and Xbox is actually sitting in the lead for some time now - but overall I am very happy with where progress is on all the platforms. A lot of work rests on my own shoulders right now (pumping out assets and designs, etc). I am purposely trying to keep the game from getting too design-heavy (if you've looked at any of the material I've previously posted about GunHead, you should understand that designing such a game oughtn't be a Herculean task). I am probably going to post some videos shortly in here (within 1 month's time) so keep your eyes peeled.

Trapdoor - as has always been the case with TD, it's still the victim of a lot of start/stop development - but I really like where it is sitting right now, it's just a fun little game, it's different, it's hectic, very easy to get into and get some immediate gratification from, a perfect title for "2-minute play" on a touch screen - and good for any audience. I really need to buckle down and live in the game for a few days to bring it to the next level, I still think it probably has only a couple of weeks of earnest development left to go in it.

Tic Tac Jack - so, this actually released this past week! I don't think I've even mentioned it in the blog at all - it's been sitting in Ben's head for a good year and a half, and we rushed through development full-steam some months ago (granted, a short and small project). Without getting into details, it released "before it was ready" and launched playable, but verrrry incomplete in all facets (whoops!) I don't think it's still up on iTunes, but it should return shortly following the New Year.

What Else is Going On - lots I guess, I mean it is the end of the year and all! Personally, my time and energy have been largely wrapped up with freelance work (as usual, I am fairly close to being absolutely broke, and that is not hyperbole!) Picking up contract stuff is not exactly "what I want to do" especially when my own developments are fairly well-along in earnest production, but I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to earn a couple of bucks during these otherwise very dry times! Anyway, that's all just wrapped up so I am on my own stuff for the time being, although some other opportunities are out there (day jobs) which I need to put some effort into following up with as well - the sort that are "good opportunities which really should at least be attempted," although my main thrust is still on getting these games wrapped up properly and released.

That's all for now, I will try to get a reflective year-end wrap-up post put up before the year's end. Watch for it - and thanks for your support!

Game Development Blog #63

Game Development Blog #63

"WHERE DID YA GO?"

I WANNA KNOW!

Oh, I am here, alright. Very busy. I was fairly well into the late stages of writing a decent #63 update several weeks ago, when my girlfriend stormed into the apartment and we had a nice little argument about something which made me feel like not really typing in the blog anymore. I think it had something to do with the piles of smelly dishes in the sink, which had been sitting there long enough that I no longer remembered we even had a kitchen..

Well, without digging too terribly far back into the past, let's concentrate on the present, why don't we..

180 - Just kidding! You wanted to hear news, right?

GunHead - ohh, so much is going on with this game, I don't know where to begin! I usually am fairly cryptic (to degrees) about it when I mention in here, so why not start with a couple of screens - which you may or may not have seen elsewhere..






Yeah, so now the cat is out of the bag, and you know all that is to be said about this one! Not even close! Here's some juicy tidbits for you.

- developing for iPhone, Android, and Xbox Live Indie Games
- retro style (duh!)
- release early 2012
- unique new control mechanic unlike any seen before for a mobile platformer

Don't let that last point pass you by, because it really is the clincher. I hate platformers on the touchscreen because surprise surprise, they are horrible. No fun to play at all. If you've played my previous game to any appreciable degree, you might know I have some concern with "how does one design a touchscreen game play to the strengths of such an interface?" There's tons of platformers on mobile, some very nice-looking, and they all have atrocious control schemes that make you wish "oh why doesn't it just have buttons." No more. GunHead will finally "feel" right and not in some lazy-slapped-on way. Even the current prototype feels awesome.

There's certainly a lot more to say about this game, a good amount of which you might be able to deduce yourself between looking at those pictures and having any knowledge about me (a quick scan through my past blogs should say it all really). Stay tuned.

Trapdoor - I was going to post some pics of this as well, but to be honest, I haven't any to show other than some mockups right now! There's an early image floating around on one of our pages though, although I don't think it will really tell you too much. Anyway, here goes:

Trapdoor, as previously mentioned, is actually the very first game I sat down and spec'd out a few years ago, when originally turning my eye to the mobile scene (not counting iFist, although that design wasn't originally my idea anyway). I drew up Trapdoor and 180 came out of my head almost immediately afterward, and I decided to go with the more involved project. As time passed, I've never forgotten "my first" and not for want of "no idea shall be wasted" - it was just a good idea, for several reasons. And especially in hindsight, and consideration of the reception 180 has received. Lots of people like 180, but especially on a mobile platform, it doesn't seem too many have the patience to learn it. With Trapdoor, this is much less of an issue; it really is one of these games where you can fully grok the entirety of the rules within a heartbeat. There's not really a depth of strategy to it, just a tense and building test of reflexes and stamina, and that is fine with me!

As I've plumbed the development of the design, I decided to take many cues from games such as Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja; that title is exactly what a mobile game should be, they really hit all the tenets across the boards. I would love to writeup a breakdown of why that game is so sound on so many levels, but I think I'd prefer to execute such lessons in my own game instead. No, Trapdoor will not play anything like Fruit Ninja at all, but there is certainly some very low-level understanding in the game's foundation going on.

180 - okay, all kidding aside, I do want to mention a bit of what's up with the latest over here. As usual, there is still some reason to talk about this long-in-the-tooth game. We are still using it to chart the path through the various Android marketplaces, and it is enjoying some decent visibility in that regard. We've recently been promoted at the Toshiba App Place (built into their Thrive tablet) and another promotion on another store is not far away either. I am in talks with several other stores to do things there as well, so I am just trying to keep it going as it makes sense to. Mobile markets, and Android in particular, are a very different beast than any traditional way of selling things - once something gets any kind of momentum, it can absolutely keep it's relevance (and grow). Especially with the type of product which isn't necessarily a one-off (and I don't mean for an abundance of updates, necessarily).

We've recently enjoyed promotions on Nook and Amazon, and (to a degree) the new Kindle Fire, although none of this has ended up going much toward my pocket. I am hoping to keep the doors open long enough to introduce my newer products however, and really to keep some more of a steady stream of them flowing through. That's the point of being a small indie!

Otherwise for 180, we still have a very cool Strategy Mode which is partially developed, sitting on the shelf, waiting for a little downtime to be polished up. As I've said, it's different enough (mechanically) to be considered as a whole other game, and I am thinking to sell it as IAP (especially considering the amount of free copies I've already distributed of the base version of the game!)

There's so much else to say in regards to the micro and macro of the industry, but that will have to wait for next time. Thanks for reading!

Game Development Blog #62

Game Development Blog #62

"Back in the Day"

Well, this week has shaken the world of Nerd-dom to it's core apparently. The great Steve Jobs has passed onto the Great Beyond, and like so many of my generation, it's caused me to reflect momentarily on what men like him have done and how it's influenced our lives. I've seen more than a couple of blogs or Facebook posts this week where people recount the good (?) old days of their youth, when they first got exposed to the ol' personal computer. Guess here is my time to chime in, likewise.

Born in 1975, I was in grade school by the time the Apple ][+ was making the rounds (hey young whippersnapper, that was how it was supposed to be typed!) This giant beige-grey box with all these crazy ribbons leading out of it, plugging into the crappiest joysticks you ever saw, and the slowest/loudest printer you ever heard. I'm not sure which crossed my path first, computer or video game (I might have scored my Atari 400 at home a little earlier than laying my hands of the ][+ ), but it didn't matter. I was taken with the thing immediately, and started spending every recess cooped up in the classroom with this magical new device while all my peers were out in the schoolyard tossing around the pigskin. This didn't sit well with my teacher, of course, who enlisted the school guidance counselor to drag me away and figure out "what the heck was wrong with me?" (oh, if they only knew!) Regardless, I'll never forget that day in 5th grade when the school principal called my name out over the public address system in the middle of class one day, to come to his office and hook up the computer for him :P

Anyway, I had the bug and soon enough summer came and I needed to get my fix, I'd start "renting time" at the local public library and messing with the machines there. My parents took heed from all of this and ponied up $1k to buy me an Apple //c for my 11th birthday (yeah, I was a bit of a spoiled kid). Green monochrome monitor, Scribe printer.. no mouse (yet). I did finagle with BASIC and such a bit, and enjoyed it, but early on my brain decided that art was my forte much more than juggling with the numbers. I had my share of issues of COMPUTE! and Family Computing magazines, and I typed in plenty of those programs in the back.. but somehow

410 POKE 24,5
415 POKE 38,6
420 GOSUB TELLTO
425 DATA 32,6,2,77,9,33,87,3,84,2,993,26,93,41,942,268,83,247,2,733,8343,7,16

wasn't all that appealing to me inthe long term. Besides, I got my hands on an NES and suddenly the //c looked absolutely primitive by comparison. In hindsight, I guess I shoulda maybe stuck with the programming, shrug..

Game Development Blog #61

Game Development Blog #61

"The New Tablet Scene Pt 1"

Howdy and welcome! Time for another (albeit brief) update of what is happening in Headcaseland.

This was our 1st week post-Android Market promotion. 180 Ultra is still being featured on the sub-category page "Brain & Puzzle" (visible on the phone) - to take advantage, I cut the price in half to a measly dollar. Even so, downloads have dropped off dramatically (< $10 a day, or even half of that). Just today I removed the well-rated Free (ad-supported) version from the store to see if it makes any difference, but it seems to do nothing. Ah well, the feature was nice while it lasted, and I learned some valuable lessons if I should be so fortunate to have another in the future (I should have promoted Ultra for free, briefly, and padded the ranks a bit - just 12 ratings, even for a featured game, do not make an easy sale of what looks to casual observers as "just another puzzle game").

On a related note, on the eve of the feature, I put the word out and asked nearly everyone I knew with an Android phone to help out and give a rating (this is people I know is person, though most were casual acquaintances). I was surprised to see that only about 3 people out of ~20 actually responded to that call for action. I am not trying to be whiny about it, so much as to express "this is what you should expect if you try the same." I would expect that anything less than a good 100 or so reviews, bare minimum, looks appealing to a casual observer. I'd hoped that the 250-odd reviews immediately visible on the (likewise 4.5-starred) Free version would help to push things over the edge, sadly it was still not enough (ahem.. "puzzle game, puzzle game!" I know, I know)

Good things to note: glowing reviews finally came in from by big sites Appolicious and PocketGamer, the likes of which I've been wanting for a long time (although once again, it's too little too late).

Also worth noting, I've decided to push things on the Nook front - we've traditionally had stronger downloads on that market than anywhere else, and while it's had nice bursts of sales here and there (consecutive $50 days make me smile fairly wide) it's been steadily drowning into nothingness with the usual numbers that you see everywhere else (a sale or 2 a day). We got great reviews over there, but as I consider the Nook "it's own unique market" (for good and bad) it makes sense to get a little experimental once in awhile - so I cut the price of the Full game to Free for a short spell. They were kind enough to give us a tweet on their feed (they've got about 20k followers) and I did my part to post on a couple of the relevant boards, doing my best not to sound terribly spammy. I should note that some boards (which should be embracing the *&$#@ developers!) will aggressively hunt you down and murder you for posting such things. Also, and probably most importantly, I put up a link on the Nook Facebook page (highly trafficked, I believe they have about 360k followers on there!) which I suspect may be getting me a bit of visibility as well (frustratingly, it is difficult to tell). Posting on someone else's FB fan page can often be tricky, as it might just read as spam and not show up at all.. and in many cases, followers will never see postings by anyone but the admin of such a page. But obviously it is worth a shot!

Anyway we got ~1300 downloads on Nook yesterday, and I'll assume a similar story today. The Nook market is steadily getting completely inundated with garbage apps (like any store), in just a few short months it's become packed like any place else - but relatively speaking, the ratio is still fairly good to get some good product up there and potentially see some steady sales as a result. That's my assumption so far anyway, time will tell (watch this space!)

If you've been paying attention this week, Amazon announced their new Kindle Fire tablet which is due to launch in short order. I am particularly looking forward to this for the usual obvious reasons, not least of which is that we've been featured on their store previously and currently are sitting comfortably nestled with a healthy (if low-ish) set of reviews to show for it. I'll likely pull a similar stunt (put the game free for a bit on their store, try to push our app past the 100-review margin) in time for the new market launch, and hope that it will translate into some decent sales when their market goes live worldwide, which I expect to happen in conjunction with their hardware rollout. I'm still not certain what the plan is, as a lot of things are in flux between our coverage over all of these stores (as you can tell, just trying to maintain a bead on everything can be quite time-consuming) but considering that we've an app out there which is critically reviewing very well and that our primary audience does seem to eat it up when it gets proper exposure, it does feel very worthwhile to be jostling things in this way. There doesn't seem to be much other alternative as a tiny developer, unless one has the necessary hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to make a proper marketing dent. This is the reality these days.


Meanwhile, 180 Strategy Mode looms on the horizon - worth mentioning as it's quite an unusual evolution of the gameplay, and could certainly be worth releasing as it's own app. Development is presently frozen for a few reasons, but there's a chance it will see release by the year's end (especially depending on how the continuing promotions end up). We'll see how it winds up. I am eager to move forward with that, and explore a special Tablet Mode and VS. Multiplayer Mode down the road as well. Fans, be vocal about your frothing demand if you ever want to see this stuff happen!

GunHead is progressing (new build arrived this week!) ad it's finally taking some decent shape. We've got it integrated into a proper engine, screen scrolls, tileset editor seems to be working properly (visual plus ground collisions and such) and the control is coming along nicely. This is all Android, but I am on track to pick up iOS development as well. It's awesome to see it finally getting to the point where I can just unload content into it!

Trapdoor is also progressing nicely, as with GH I have become the bottleneck for both titles (they need content and heavy design work, which is my job). The game is likewise functional but needs a good chunk of work to get it to be "fun," it'll get there though. I just need to sit down and deal with it!

A Card Game is also in the works for iOS, I don't know if I am allowed to say the name of it at this point :) Once again I am the holdup, it should come together quickly once I can return to devoting time to it. Barring unforseen circumstances, all these apps should appear on one platform or the other by year's end. There's a lot of work to do!

What have I been up to? Actually had a job interview recently and spending a lot of time testing for that, and in fact I need to get back to that right now. So many of you people don't like to actually pay for stuff, I need to earn a living somehow :/

Hey! Remember when I actually used to write about Retrogames, on this (ahem) blog interestingly-titled "RetroGame of the Day?" Perhaps I will pick up the pen again - if not daily, then perhaps once a week, sound off if you would like to see that. I had a lot of fun writing those (and easily compiled enough reviews to fill a book, or three) but as they were intended to ultimately help promote my litter operation here - well I just say that I did get a nice chunk of views every so often, but sadly it didn't seem to do much for sales.

Game Development Blog #60

Game Development Blog #60

Yep - that is the title of today's blog entry!

What's going on, headsketeers! Time to turn on, tune in, drop out. Or is it sign in, log on, up load? Man, I never can keep up with this stuff anymore.

So then! Lots to talk about, but I am busy, so it'll be brief. First order of business, a week ago we finally, finally got a high-profile feature for 180 on the Android Market. It looked like this:


Not bad! I was proud - it stayed up there on top for a whole week! Sadly, I didn't get the sales I was expecting (not that I was expecting hugeness, but I was expecting better). We are still displayed in a smaller capacity this week, hopefully the momentum will continue. I suspect the promotion will wind down in a week's time, but if we are lucky it will stick around for a bit longer than that. Big, big Kudos to Google for working with us to make this possible.

After all that hard work, I did manage one pretty major oversight on my part which I am sure had some effect on things; we should have prepped harder to get more reviews/ratings for Ultra when this feature campaign began. We showed up with about 10 5-star user rankings, which is nice, but considering that all the other apps on that list had close to a hundred, if not thousands of rankings. I blame myself for that oversight; we got some ranks in once the new downloads poured in, but the system seems backed up and they haven't been displayed for over a week now.

Anyway, more things are still going on with 180, but now the big push is really past for all that I can do. Expect more news when it's ready.

So what else is going on? Sharp-eyed folks may have seen some teaser images for new titles in development - GunHead and Trapdoor, both of which have been discussed here quite a bit. Development is continuing in earnest on both titles, and a 3rd has just begun development as well. Need I mention that it is an exhaustingly busy period? All 3 titles will see release by the year's end, in fact the non-GunHead ones *should* release within a month's time if all goes according to plan.

There's a lot more to say, but really I must get back to business. Thanks for checking in and being supportive!

Game Development Blog #59

Game Development Blog #59

"WORK TIMES A BILLION"

Yes, the chips may be down, but that won't stop me from putting out a little update discussing what is going on. Here's the skinny - my home internet connection is offline for about 2 weeks and change (horrors!) Before you make fun of me, it's actually a fairly critical time for that to happen as I am spending a huge amount of time talking to many different people about lots of important business-type dealings right now (selling stuff, ya know). I am regularly getting contracts and agreements, printing out/signing/scanning/reuploading. What used to be fairly easy in the span of 15 minutes now requires that I run back and forth between various physical locations to handle such things (exacerbated by the fact that I haven't a car either). It's nice that the cafe up the street has free wifi, so I can't complain too much. Likewise, as I am in early development on two new titles, this is when I usually am hip-deep in reference digging (something that must often be done while I am fleshing things out at the beginning of a creative cycle). So my work-style has been taking a fairly dramatic hit; I am doing the best I can.

On the upside of all of that, I am pleased to report that all of this means that things are generally very busy for me. I am finally past active development with 180 in (nearly) any way shape or form - while we are still figuring out the Casual Mode (now called Strategy Mode), it's a bit of a slow process and my role is diminished while the programmer does his part. Meanwhile things have ramped up considerably in production for GunHead as the Android version is finally coming to life a bit, and (at last) I am in the thick of it developing assets. I could go on for pages about asset dev for this game, but I think I will save it until I am a bit further in. it's a kick for real :)

The other cool news is that things are finally getting dusted off for Trapdoor once again. Yes, this is the very first mobile game that I'd ever written any kind of documentation for, and it's been sitting on the backshelf for a long time while other things have come and go. At last, a programmer and I have decided to take advantage of the coming long Labor Day weekend and just do a little "game jam" and attack the thing. It is exciting to work on a small, short-term project, and I am eager to get through the process and see how we fare. I don't expect we'll have a fully-functioning product by the end of the phase, but if we can get a good way through it with more than a bare skeleton, that will be pretty awesome; then a couple of weeks or so to polish it, and (at last) another release to unleash upon the unsuspecting world!

There's a lot more to say, but hey - I have to get back to work.

BONUS: Must-read! "How to do make Media Kits, Retro Dreamer Style!"