Level 18 is all polished up now - I went nuts with the level design so it's quite the unique level now. Spending the rest of today implementing feedback and finishing up the QA checklist.
In case you missed it, we broke 1,000 pageviews yesterday! As a celebration, here are some beta keys for you wonderful readers:
L8F27-BGEF9-P4E7R-AIF3K-YKBBT
G6CL4-2HTC3-IM54L-WHQR8-EOFZS
JSD4U-BWEF3-KKHPE-KEXPW-52I5J
You can redeem these keys via the Desura desktop client!
Update 1 @ 9PM: Just spent several hours playing through all 20 levels, bug hunting and looking for things to fix. I found 2 small bugs and a huuuuge list of little things, mostly in levels 1-10, that need to get fixed. Things like props being out of place, notes being out of sync, or certain backgrounds not color transitioning properly.
The good news is, once all of these items are fixed, the in-app store is completed, and all of the final art & sound is in, I think we'll be ready for release!!!
Update 2 @ 11:59PM: Completed a lot of the little fixes like prop positions and backgrounds, still need to recut a few music tracks which will be time consuming. Also fixed both of the small bugs I found. Calling an "early" night after working for 10 hours, gunna start bright and early tomorrow. Got a lot of work to do in the comes days.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Dev Blog 78 - QA, Feedback
Spending all of today doing QA - making sure all of the levels are good, balanced, fun, and free of bugs. Specifically I've been working on levels 16, 17, and 18.
Additionally I'll be implementing feedback I've gotten from a few game design professors and students at Northeastern (relating to gravity, gameplay, and game updates).
In case you missed the updates in yesterday's post, we're now on BandCamp as well as SoundCloud (and hopefully Spotify soon as well, pending approval). BJ over at Whizbang Music Productions is working on HQ versions of the music tracks he's done for us, which will be uploaded to these accounts!
Update 1 @ 10PM: 16 and 17 are polished quite well now, still working on 18. Just noticed this blog broke 1,000 pageviews! As a celebration and thank you, here's a few free beta keys for the Desura build of the Chromacore:
L8F27-BGEF9-P4E7R-AIF3K-YKBBT
G6CL4-2HTC3-IM54L-WHQR8-EOFZS
JSD4U-BWEF3-KKHPE-KEXPW-52I5J
You can redeem these keys via the Desura desktop client!
Update 2 @ 1AM: Level 18 is almost perfect, just need to playthrough a few times and balance note positioning.
Additionally I'll be implementing feedback I've gotten from a few game design professors and students at Northeastern (relating to gravity, gameplay, and game updates).
In case you missed the updates in yesterday's post, we're now on BandCamp as well as SoundCloud (and hopefully Spotify soon as well, pending approval). BJ over at Whizbang Music Productions is working on HQ versions of the music tracks he's done for us, which will be uploaded to these accounts!
Update 1 @ 10PM: 16 and 17 are polished quite well now, still working on 18. Just noticed this blog broke 1,000 pageviews! As a celebration and thank you, here's a few free beta keys for the Desura build of the Chromacore:
L8F27-BGEF9-P4E7R-AIF3K-YKBBT
G6CL4-2HTC3-IM54L-WHQR8-EOFZS
JSD4U-BWEF3-KKHPE-KEXPW-52I5J
You can redeem these keys via the Desura desktop client!
Update 2 @ 1AM: Level 18 is almost perfect, just need to playthrough a few times and balance note positioning.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Dev Blog 78 - Reflection on Progress Thus Far
Just had a quick meeting with Casper - the grade for the first half of my independent study was due today! I wrote a quick reflection about progress thus far, how much I've learned, what worked, and what didn't. You can check it out here - be warned it hasn't been edited or formatted yet, it's just my raw thoughts thrown on paper.
I plan on spending rest of today working on the in-game shop and implementing feedback.
Update 1 @ 6PM: Went through all 20 levels, checking that checkpoints were in good spots (and that there were enough of them). Each level usually has about 8 checkpoints, but the longer 8 minute levels need a lot more (around 23!). Also did some garbage collection (deleting unneeded assets, props, platforms, backgrounds) to cut down on file size.
Update 2 @ 7:15PM: I decided it would be better to methodically go through each level and check for specific things that might need to be adjusted. Today turned into a QA day!
Update 3 @ 11PM: We've expanded to BandCamp! You can listen to our awesome tracks there as well as on SoundCloud!
Update 4 @ 1AM: Implemented a small portion of feedback - punching to destroy obstacles is much more visible and clear now, with the addition of a small text animation that plays when the player successfully destroys an obstacle.
I plan on spending rest of today working on the in-game shop and implementing feedback.
Update 1 @ 6PM: Went through all 20 levels, checking that checkpoints were in good spots (and that there were enough of them). Each level usually has about 8 checkpoints, but the longer 8 minute levels need a lot more (around 23!). Also did some garbage collection (deleting unneeded assets, props, platforms, backgrounds) to cut down on file size.
Update 2 @ 7:15PM: I decided it would be better to methodically go through each level and check for specific things that might need to be adjusted. Today turned into a QA day!
Update 3 @ 11PM: We've expanded to BandCamp! You can listen to our awesome tracks there as well as on SoundCloud!
Update 4 @ 1AM: Implemented a small portion of feedback - punching to destroy obstacles is much more visible and clear now, with the addition of a small text animation that plays when the player successfully destroys an obstacle.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Dev Blog 77
Wrapped up Levels 19 & 20! Level content generation is complete! That's a big step towards release - we'll go back and improve levels and balance of course, but from now own it's all about bug fixes, balance changes, and last minute new features.
Shop still isn't 100% functional, but we're close, trying to fix a few errors is all.
Also we added a few more tracks to our SoundCloud!
Shop still isn't 100% functional, but we're close, trying to fix a few errors is all.
Also we added a few more tracks to our SoundCloud!
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Dev Blog 76 - FIG
Just registered to show Chromacore at Boston FIG in September, maybe even our next game Enigmatic as well! Working on implementing recent feedback today, and polishing up level 20.
P.S. - a few free beta keys, special for our blog readers:
PZ9ZN-KF9DO-28RCW-D71E8-SOE1B
M8LRE-3UPMW-ZQQHN-XJ4B3-TP8ZI
YSKW0-RLRRA-628HO-YSDHZ-324H8
Redeem here =)
Update: While working on level 20, I noticed that all of the Notes look exactly the same, and the animations all play at the same rate. It's hardly noticeable when there's 2 or 3 notes in each frame, but when there are 10 in a frame it's frighteningly noticeable So I opened up Photoshop and rotated each from of the Note animation by 90CW, 90CCW, and 45 degrees. Then I wrote quick script to randomize which one of these animations plays for each Note. Now they have much more variety and life to them!
Update 2: Level 20 is done, 19 still needs a little bit more work & creative level design.
P.S. - a few free beta keys, special for our blog readers:
PZ9ZN-KF9DO-28RCW-D71E8-SOE1B
M8LRE-3UPMW-ZQQHN-XJ4B3-TP8ZI
YSKW0-RLRRA-628HO-YSDHZ-324H8
Redeem here =)
Update: While working on level 20, I noticed that all of the Notes look exactly the same, and the animations all play at the same rate. It's hardly noticeable when there's 2 or 3 notes in each frame, but when there are 10 in a frame it's frighteningly noticeable So I opened up Photoshop and rotated each from of the Note animation by 90CW, 90CCW, and 45 degrees. Then I wrote quick script to randomize which one of these animations plays for each Note. Now they have much more variety and life to them!
Update 2: Level 20 is done, 19 still needs a little bit more work & creative level design.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Dev Blog 75 - Bi-weekly Meeting, SoundCloud
Had another meeting with my game professor to go over progress and get more feedback! Some really useful notes worth mentioning are:
- Gravity is floaty - a piece of feedback I've gotten often
- Add double jump or hold jump for bigger jump
- Punch animation isn't strongly visible/conveys sense of punching
- Leveraging the awesome original music tracks (arguably the stronger points of the game) to market it
I think that making the player character fall harder/faster would be good, and adding a double jump would improve gameplay. Some things, such as the punching animation, aren't in my wheelhouse and not something I can address without an artist. Rather than edit the animation itself, I might try adding in a pow! text when the player punches obstacles, or maybe have some texture like an outline of an explosion appear.
That last piece in the list is definitely a must-do, which I've jumped on already. We have all this awesome music, why not get it out there? I've gone ahead and created a SoundCloud account for Incendiary Industries, and will upload the tracks to YouTube and Spotify as well.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Dev Blog 74 - Levels 19 & 20
I'm resolving the minor music track issue right now, levels 19 & 20 should be done soon! Also going to try implementing a basic in-app purchase system today. Updates to come!
Update 1 @ 4PM: Issues with level 20 seem to be resolved! There simply wasn't enough spacing in between certain cuts.
Update 2 @ 7PM: Got a basic implementation of in-app purchases, publishing to Google Play beta to test if it works or not. Also got a donation page up and running to slap on the in-game store since we'll only be selling 2 cosmetic skins and giving the game away for free. Simply for those who chose to support the developers.
Update 1 @ 4PM: Issues with level 20 seem to be resolved! There simply wasn't enough spacing in between certain cuts.
Update 2 @ 7PM: Got a basic implementation of in-app purchases, publishing to Google Play beta to test if it works or not. Also got a donation page up and running to slap on the in-game store since we'll only be selling 2 cosmetic skins and giving the game away for free. Simply for those who chose to support the developers.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Dev Blog 73 - Wrapping Up Levels
Working on finishing off level 19 and 20. As soon as these levels are complete, the rest of development will be focused on 3 things:
- Bug fixes
- Last minute feature implementation
- Balance and design tweaks based on feedback
As we look towards release within the next 2 weeks, these will be of utmost importance.
Update 1 @ 9PM: So there were some minor issues with the way the background track was cut for the last 2 levels. While waiting on those to be resolved, I fixed the annoying jettison bug that had been occurring for some playtesters. It was caused by a false positive boolean flag being triggered by the falling animation, which I believe is the only source of the jettison bug.
Also I spent some time in Photoshop changing the coloration of the obstacles, which are now brown with a red outline to differentiate from props and level platforms. Hopefully players will be able to easily spot the difference now.
Lastly, I fixed a bug that had inadvertently been introduced by the addition of keyboard support for navigation menus. It was interfering with mouse support for the same purpose. Keyboard and mouse now play nice with each other.
Update 1 @ 9PM: So there were some minor issues with the way the background track was cut for the last 2 levels. While waiting on those to be resolved, I fixed the annoying jettison bug that had been occurring for some playtesters. It was caused by a false positive boolean flag being triggered by the falling animation, which I believe is the only source of the jettison bug.
Also I spent some time in Photoshop changing the coloration of the obstacles, which are now brown with a red outline to differentiate from props and level platforms. Hopefully players will be able to easily spot the difference now.
Lastly, I fixed a bug that had inadvertently been introduced by the addition of keyboard support for navigation menus. It was interfering with mouse support for the same purpose. Keyboard and mouse now play nice with each other.
The Joy of Indie Game Development
Alternative title: "Why I do what I do"
Game development is awesome. It's fun, it's challenging, it's complex, it's brutal, it's competitive, and it's rewarding. And I don't mean cash money rewarding (though that can definitely be the case). I mean, it's genuinely worth pouring hundreds of thousands of man hours, and your very heart and soul, into a game. It's worth it because if it works, if it's good, it makes people happy. People have fun, people enjoy what you made. People laugh, or get excited, or smile if you made your game just right.
I've found, from playtesting and from Game Demo Day, that Chromacore is a hit or miss game. When people like it, they LOVE it. When people don't like it, they reeeeally don't like it. And that's okay! I'd rather have a small group of fans that love it, over a bunch of people that are "meh" about it.
But boy oh boy let me tell you - the people that love it really LOVE IT. When these fans sit down to try a demo or playtest the beta, they get this wide grin on their faces and starting getting all excited. It's the same grin I make when I get really excited about game development. Some would get so excited they couldn't even articulate it; they would just keep repeating "awesome" and "amazing" and "wow this is great".
It's these sorts of reactions that make me giddy. It's these sort of reactions that make it worth it. It's these sort of reactions that reaffirm that day in, day out, I'm doing what I love. It’s reaffirmed that I've made the right career choice, that I belong in the game development industry, and that It’s what I love to do. I can’t ever see myself doing anything that isn't this.
It’s made the past 4 months more than worth it. The idea that I brought joy to players from a simple 2 minute demo level is really thrilling. Even further, the idea that I did this, that I made it happen, it mind blowing. I've of course had help from a laundry list of artists, musicians, and talented people; but at the end of the day I brought it all together. That's what really puts me over the moon.
Thank you to the fans we've earned so far, thank you to my game professor Casper Harteveld, my academic adviser Mark Erikson, CCIS Dean Richard Rasala and Game Design Director Magy El-Nasr. Without these folks, none of this would have been possible.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Deb Blog 72 - Boston Marathon, indieDB
Today 6 fraternity brothers and I volunteered for the Boston Athletic Association 5k, Tribute Run, and Invitational Miles. We were up and about at 5AM, and after working road monitoring for some 8 hours, we were exhausted. It was completely worth it though - with our home located on Commonwealth Avenue, a mere 2 blocks from last year's tragedy, it was truly amazing to see the overwhelming support for runners, survivors, and first responders today. It was great to see Major Walsh and actor Kevin Spacey give their opening remarks before the Tribute Run as well.
More of our brothers will be volunteering at the Boston Marathon on Monday, with the rest of us there cheering runners on!
Despite all that, later in the day I managed to spend some time publishing an indieDB page (very similar to our already existing Desura page). It still has to go through the approval process, which will hopefully be a few days. I honestly don't know how I'm still awake at the moment, but today was a good day.
Congratulations to all of today's runners.
More of our brothers will be volunteering at the Boston Marathon on Monday, with the rest of us there cheering runners on!
Despite all that, later in the day I managed to spend some time publishing an indieDB page (very similar to our already existing Desura page). It still has to go through the approval process, which will hopefully be a few days. I honestly don't know how I'm still awake at the moment, but today was a good day.
Congratulations to all of today's runners.
Update: Wow, much quicker than Desura, our IndieDB page has been approved by the mods! http://www.indiedb.com/games/chromacore
Friday, April 18, 2014
Dev Blog 71 - New features, fixes
Today I implemented screenshot functionality, as well as keyboard support for menu navigation. I also added an additional checkpoint to level 15, noticed during playtesting last night there weren't enough.
I've got a plethora of playtester feedback to implement, which I'll be working on throughout the weekend. It's hard to discern which feedback is useful and worth implementing, and what to ignore. For example, the most common piece of feedback I've gotten is that obstacles are too similar to props and level platforms, and thus hard to avoid. This will for sure be addressed! On the flip side, I've gotten complaints about the gravity, how it's too "floaty" and unrealistic. This I might skip over because well, it's a platformer game where you're running on the rooftops of a post-apocalyptic world where color hasn't existed in hundreds of years. Why realistic gravity is an expectation is beyond me.
Anywho, I've been looking into implementing in-app purchases. Soomla looks like a great open-source plug-in (and cross-platform) solution - will be working on getting that implemented as well so we can sell cosmetic skins for Teli and give the game away for free. In case we don't get cosmetic items implemented in a timely manner, the game will otherwise be $0.99 to buy.
I've got a plethora of playtester feedback to implement, which I'll be working on throughout the weekend. It's hard to discern which feedback is useful and worth implementing, and what to ignore. For example, the most common piece of feedback I've gotten is that obstacles are too similar to props and level platforms, and thus hard to avoid. This will for sure be addressed! On the flip side, I've gotten complaints about the gravity, how it's too "floaty" and unrealistic. This I might skip over because well, it's a platformer game where you're running on the rooftops of a post-apocalyptic world where color hasn't existed in hundreds of years. Why realistic gravity is an expectation is beyond me.
Anywho, I've been looking into implementing in-app purchases. Soomla looks like a great open-source plug-in (and cross-platform) solution - will be working on getting that implemented as well so we can sell cosmetic skins for Teli and give the game away for free. In case we don't get cosmetic items implemented in a timely manner, the game will otherwise be $0.99 to buy.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Dev Blog 70 - Demo Day Complete
Proud to say Chromacore placed 2nd for "Best Art Direction" tonight!! Demo Day was an absolute delight!
All of the wonderful feedback and reviews we got were phenomenal! So many LOVED Chromacore, they were just as excited about it as I was! Truly inspiring to see the joy people got out of a short 2 minute demo level.
Got lots of great feedback as well, the next 2 weeks are gunna be a race to the finish line! Cannot wait =)
All of the wonderful feedback and reviews we got were phenomenal! So many LOVED Chromacore, they were just as excited about it as I was! Truly inspiring to see the joy people got out of a short 2 minute demo level.
Got lots of great feedback as well, the next 2 weeks are gunna be a race to the finish line! Cannot wait =)
Dev Blog 69 - Heh, Demo Day!
Going through final preparation for Demo Day, playtesting the demo and making sure everything is working properly.
One thing I noticed was that while the Main Menu has a (temporary) title track, the Level Selection screen and Credits screen don't have any background music playing.
I was wondering how feasible it would be to have the main title track continue playing uninterrupted across all 3 menu screens. I'm thinking if I used DontDestroyOnLoad on the MainCamera (which has both the listener and audio source attached) it might do the trick. The problem is the other scenes would then have 2 cameras and 2 listeners, which is no bueno in Unity. Maybe it's as simple as deleting the camera objects in the other 2 scenes? I'm gunna give it a go real quick.
Update 1 @ 3:20PM: So it wasn't quite as straightforward as I postulated. What I ended up having to do was use DontDestroyOnLoad as I planned, but I couldn't simply remove the MainCamera objects from the other menu scenes. This is because OnGUI requires a GUILayer object, which is attached to and dependent on a camera object.
So what I did was remove the MainCamera from all menu scenes besides MainMenu, and add a regular camera object with a GUILayer without the MainCamera tag.
This way, I can destroy the MainCamera object when I load a level or return to the main menu. Otherwise the title track would persist into a level, or play twice when you return to the Main Menu (because the MainCamera object with the song attached is still there when you return to the Main Menu with a duplicate of that same object).
With this implementation, the title track stays uninterrupted across the various menu screens, except when you return to the MainMenu. Then it has to start over - I couldn't see a way to have it persist completely, so I'm happy with this implementation.
Now time to pack everything up for Demo Day and head to Northeastern's campus!
One thing I noticed was that while the Main Menu has a (temporary) title track, the Level Selection screen and Credits screen don't have any background music playing.
I was wondering how feasible it would be to have the main title track continue playing uninterrupted across all 3 menu screens. I'm thinking if I used DontDestroyOnLoad on the MainCamera (which has both the listener and audio source attached) it might do the trick. The problem is the other scenes would then have 2 cameras and 2 listeners, which is no bueno in Unity. Maybe it's as simple as deleting the camera objects in the other 2 scenes? I'm gunna give it a go real quick.
Update 1 @ 3:20PM: So it wasn't quite as straightforward as I postulated. What I ended up having to do was use DontDestroyOnLoad as I planned, but I couldn't simply remove the MainCamera objects from the other menu scenes. This is because OnGUI requires a GUILayer object, which is attached to and dependent on a camera object.
So what I did was remove the MainCamera from all menu scenes besides MainMenu, and add a regular camera object with a GUILayer without the MainCamera tag.
This way, I can destroy the MainCamera object when I load a level or return to the main menu. Otherwise the title track would persist into a level, or play twice when you return to the Main Menu (because the MainCamera object with the song attached is still there when you return to the Main Menu with a duplicate of that same object).
With this implementation, the title track stays uninterrupted across the various menu screens, except when you return to the MainMenu. Then it has to start over - I couldn't see a way to have it persist completely, so I'm happy with this implementation.
Now time to pack everything up for Demo Day and head to Northeastern's campus!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Dev Blog 68 - Implementing new Levels, Game Demo Day
The basics of levels 15-18 have been implemented, now working on level design for 15. Trying to decide which levels would be best to demo tomorrow at Northeastern's Game Demo Day! It's a free and awesome event, if you're in the Boston area, check it out!
Update 1 @ 2AM: Whoo boy it's been a long day preparing for Game Demo Day tomorrow. Did a LOT of work on Level 15 - I decided since I love the music track for this level so much, I'll be demoing it tomorrow. So I had to implement the level and do all of it's design today. Additionally I did a handful of things to get ready for the booth setup tomorrow, like business cards, fliers, printed handouts, etc (below). I'm real pumped to show Chromacore as well as check out my fellow student's work!!
Update 1 @ 2AM: Whoo boy it's been a long day preparing for Game Demo Day tomorrow. Did a LOT of work on Level 15 - I decided since I love the music track for this level so much, I'll be demoing it tomorrow. So I had to implement the level and do all of it's design today. Additionally I did a handful of things to get ready for the booth setup tomorrow, like business cards, fliers, printed handouts, etc (below). I'm real pumped to show Chromacore as well as check out my fellow student's work!!
Update 2 @ 2:11AM: Ha found a bug before going to bed. Seems black bg texture for pause screen wasn't being resized properly. Fixed =)
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Dev Blog 67 - Closing in on Release
Almost done cutting the newest tracks - the final 2 tracks are en route as well! Once these are done we'll be doing some additional tweaks, iterations, and then release! We're almost there!
Update 1 @ 8PM: Look at all these gorgeous MP3's! Music tracks for levels 15-18 are cut and ready to be implemented!
Update 1 @ 8PM: Look at all these gorgeous MP3's! Music tracks for levels 15-18 are cut and ready to be implemented!
Monday, April 14, 2014
Dev Blog 66 - Desura Approval!
We've finally received approval to publish on Desura!!! Just have to add a few more screenshots and another gameplay video and we're good to go! Should be live soon. Working on cutting 4 new music tracks today, can't wait to start implementing new levels!
Update 1 @ 4PM: New gameplay video is up!
Update 1 @ 4PM: New gameplay video is up!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Dev Blog 65 - Made in MA, Bi-weekly Meeting
Made in MA was awesome! Proletariat and Glass Knuckle Games were among my favorite booths to visit - hadn't seen my old Level Design professor Seth Sivak in months! World Zombination has made huge strides since I last demo'd it, and it was already awesome before!
Had another meeting this morning with Casper, went over progress, and even did a quick playtest with another student. Got some great feedback! Once I get the next 4 to 6 levels implemented, I'll spend all of my time iterating and improving before release.
Had another meeting this morning with Casper, went over progress, and even did a quick playtest with another student. Got some great feedback! Once I get the next 4 to 6 levels implemented, I'll spend all of my time iterating and improving before release.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Dev Blog 64 - Tweaking, fixing, waiting
Today I'm mostly play testing levels, making small balance changes, fixing things here and there. Added new background art to level 6 as well. Should have 4 more music tracks tomorrow, excited to implement 4 more levels!
Will be attending "Made in MA" PAX East party at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge tonight, to support my fellow student devs!
Will be attending "Made in MA" PAX East party at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge tonight, to support my fellow student devs!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Dev Blog 63 - Leves 12 & 13
Finished Level 12 early this morning, started on implementing Level 13. Might spend some time implementing new features once 13 is done, instead of jumping onto 14 right away.
Update 1 @ 5:30PM: Level 13 is complete! Also implemented some feedback - I've been told that on mobile the GUI buttons aren't sensitive enough. I've increase the button size slightly, and added a small clickable area around the button itself. That way, the button's size isn't too obtrusive, and the buttons themselves are more sensitive.
Update 2 @ 6:30PM: Working on new features. Apparently it's not possible to check the bundle version at runtime to see if an update is required: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17208261/get-app-bundle-version-in-unity3d
A possible workaround would be to have a webpage somewhere with the current version listed, and then check that against a version I have written in code somewhere. The problem with this is that I have to remember to update the version number in 2 different places and then check them against each other. Don't see the point in doing this...
Update 3 @ 9PM: Level 14 has been completed too! Continuing to add new features and fix small bugs until I get more music tracks for new levels.
Update 1 @ 5:30PM: Level 13 is complete! Also implemented some feedback - I've been told that on mobile the GUI buttons aren't sensitive enough. I've increase the button size slightly, and added a small clickable area around the button itself. That way, the button's size isn't too obtrusive, and the buttons themselves are more sensitive.
Update 2 @ 6:30PM: Working on new features. Apparently it's not possible to check the bundle version at runtime to see if an update is required: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17208261/get-app-bundle-version-in-unity3d
A possible workaround would be to have a webpage somewhere with the current version listed, and then check that against a version I have written in code somewhere. The problem with this is that I have to remember to update the version number in 2 different places and then check them against each other. Don't see the point in doing this...
Update 3 @ 9PM: Level 14 has been completed too! Continuing to add new features and fix small bugs until I get more music tracks for new levels.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Dev Blog 62 - Level 12
Chugging along implementing & designing Level 12. The song for this level, that BJ Derganc (over at Whizbang Studios) composed for us, is pretty radicall; it's dusteppy, fast paced, and awesome. I'm designing the level a little differently (in fact the quite opposite of the previous Level 11's design). It's all about falling and drops, to fit in with the theme of the song. Lookin' great so far!
Update 1 @ 9PM: Almost finished with level 12!!
I discovered and fixed a small bug cause by the last series of bug fixes. I had disabled movement upon death, which also occurred when Teli was supposed to be falling to his death. Now when the player falls off of a platform, they won't freeze and will properly continue to fall.
Additionally, because I was designing level 12 to have lots of drops and falls, I had to add some additional code so Teli wouldn't die when he got to the lower parts of the level.
Update 1 @ 9PM: Almost finished with level 12!!
I discovered and fixed a small bug cause by the last series of bug fixes. I had disabled movement upon death, which also occurred when Teli was supposed to be falling to his death. Now when the player falls off of a platform, they won't freeze and will properly continue to fall.
Additionally, because I was designing level 12 to have lots of drops and falls, I had to add some additional code so Teli wouldn't die when he got to the lower parts of the level.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Dev Blog 61 - Bug fixes, new level
After getting a good deal of feedback I spent some time fixing a myriad of bugs:
- Removed Level Auto-Generator from Main Menu until it's complete
- Chromacore was previously limited to Landscape only, but this appears not to always work. Added some code to ensure it stays in Landscape only.
- Tweaked respawn checkpoint positions to prevent death upon repsawn
- Teli only respawns once after death now, should remove any stuttering or shaking upon respawn
Working on implementing Level 12 now!
Update @ 2AM: Just published some additional bug fixes - when I fixed the previous issues, I inadvertently created more issues. Reminds me of the programming copypasta joke:
99 little bugs in the code
99 little bugs
Take one down, patch it around
117 little bugs in the code
Anyway, so the issues were now when Teli hits an obstacle, the death animation plays but he doesn't respawn and just lies there uselessly. The other issue was that after death (either from obstacles or platform edges) there was a small window where the player could still provide input and Teli's animations and movement would be triggered, right before respawning.
So now Teli will respawn properly after obstacle death, and all controls are disabled once Teli dies and enabled upon respawn.
Update @ 2AM: Just published some additional bug fixes - when I fixed the previous issues, I inadvertently created more issues. Reminds me of the programming copypasta joke:
99 little bugs in the code
99 little bugs
Take one down, patch it around
117 little bugs in the code
Anyway, so the issues were now when Teli hits an obstacle, the death animation plays but he doesn't respawn and just lies there uselessly. The other issue was that after death (either from obstacles or platform edges) there was a small window where the player could still provide input and Teli's animations and movement would be triggered, right before respawning.
So now Teli will respawn properly after obstacle death, and all controls are disabled once Teli dies and enabled upon respawn.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Dev Blog 60
Chugging along on implemeting the new levels - I'm experimenting with a "Stairway To Heaven"-esque level design for Level 11, so it's taking longer than normal. Hoping it'll make for a kick-ass level!
Update @ 11PM: So this might be overboard, but this level could be AWESOME! Going nuts with the design, it's a bold strategy Cotton, we'll see if it pays off for us.
Update @ 11PM: So this might be overboard, but this level could be AWESOME! Going nuts with the design, it's a bold strategy Cotton, we'll see if it pays off for us.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Dev Blog 59 - All Nighter
Currently pulling an all nighter to give a jolt to progress, gunna try to stay awake all day! Cutting level 12 music track now!
Chromacore beta got denied by the Apple reviews, apparently it can't be marked as a beta or alpha build anywhere in the game or title or code...so I guess I can't do public beta testing on iOS >_<
Update 2 @ 8AM: After my run I decided to do another beta gameplay video, here it is!
Update 3 @ 5:30PM: Working on implementing the new tracks. Ronny and I had a quick Google Hangouts meeting, we've decided to mix it up for levels 13 & 14 - Ronny is going to re-cut these tracks a little differently to make for more interesting gameplay. Should be sweet ^-^
Chromacore beta got denied by the Apple reviews, apparently it can't be marked as a beta or alpha build anywhere in the game or title or code...so I guess I can't do public beta testing on iOS >_<
Update 1 @ 6:30AM: Just finished cutting music for levels 11, 12, 13, and 14! Gunna go for a run and then take care of some errands. Will get back to work on implementing the new music around noon.
Update 2 @ 8AM: After my run I decided to do another beta gameplay video, here it is!
Update 3 @ 5:30PM: Working on implementing the new tracks. Ronny and I had a quick Google Hangouts meeting, we've decided to mix it up for levels 13 & 14 - Ronny is going to re-cut these tracks a little differently to make for more interesting gameplay. Should be sweet ^-^
Dev Blog 58 - New levels & Facebook ads
Working on cutting & implementing level 11 today. Will probably start on Level 12 later if all goes well.
The Twitter ad campaign went crazy well, I got a good deal of followers for $0 spent. The Facebook campaign, not so much. In the first day I spent $5 and got 3 likes, and I only 155 views on the ad. I've changed the cap to $10, so by the end of today if I don't see a big improvement in either views, click-throughs, or likes I'm gunna pull the plug on Facebook and spend money on Twitter ads instead. It seems as though I can reach more people that I care about via Twitter anyways.
The Twitter ad campaign went crazy well, I got a good deal of followers for $0 spent. The Facebook campaign, not so much. In the first day I spent $5 and got 3 likes, and I only 155 views on the ad. I've changed the cap to $10, so by the end of today if I don't see a big improvement in either views, click-throughs, or likes I'm gunna pull the plug on Facebook and spend money on Twitter ads instead. It seems as though I can reach more people that I care about via Twitter anyways.
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