tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79206511335928719282024-03-13T19:52:52.834-07:00Rubble GamesRubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-83909817519841176722024-02-27T04:07:00.000-08:002024-02-27T04:07:05.756-08:00Nothing to see here?<p>Hi, this blog was an experiment in accountability that didn't really work out and just became an extra chore. A quick look will show you that I haven't posted here before today for nearly 5 years and currently have no plans to start again.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said I do currently have a new game in open beta and should you somehow read this blog without encountering a link to that game, please check it out on my website <a href="http://www.rubblegames.com/index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuf6Xopt0ZRJl-cYRkwZUf-YosWecxrLDT4atFnG3i98vR1idFMFP-znTphkao2T67pTTx1tuHHgdj-lRYvDiYDJd9HksJk5rhHzQoJcx7LxXAF45FrprzMBXtOZUjc6bC1Hr-NG5ojkRnVtLOXhHKwvIP4_3f0W-CnifU00_OCclzbUt68lh76Tj0HI95/s704/ISS_Screenshot1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuf6Xopt0ZRJl-cYRkwZUf-YosWecxrLDT4atFnG3i98vR1idFMFP-znTphkao2T67pTTx1tuHHgdj-lRYvDiYDJd9HksJk5rhHzQoJcx7LxXAF45FrprzMBXtOZUjc6bC1Hr-NG5ojkRnVtLOXhHKwvIP4_3f0W-CnifU00_OCclzbUt68lh76Tj0HI95/s320/ISS_Screenshot1.png" width="180" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqbAAsj9I7T0FTo7ddxVAyQ014BUfIHjaCs6oMsvdZOYMcm75OY_Px-BWx9SmlpaLjRuwgo-3YXA_uCysUImy4Jz10P9yASVO2HTEel6ndoFKmMfU0_ShAXYr6PSFkwkCLLnH403FYIMylBmOhWqlWmVeEDDtWG0HT-SHXqKPVFlVpWvhMI5xyTauMppj/s704/ISS_ScreenshotTitle.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqbAAsj9I7T0FTo7ddxVAyQ014BUfIHjaCs6oMsvdZOYMcm75OY_Px-BWx9SmlpaLjRuwgo-3YXA_uCysUImy4Jz10P9yASVO2HTEel6ndoFKmMfU0_ShAXYr6PSFkwkCLLnH403FYIMylBmOhWqlWmVeEDDtWG0HT-SHXqKPVFlVpWvhMI5xyTauMppj/s320/ISS_ScreenshotTitle.png" width="180" /></a><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>All the best,</p><p>Rubble Games</p>Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-84680298047740380092019-04-10T07:11:00.000-07:002019-04-10T07:11:44.453-07:00Pride of PlaceIt's with great pleasure, and perhaps a few nerves, that I announce the release of my latest game today, Pride of Place. It's available to play on <a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/pride-of-place" target="_blank">Kongregate</a> completely free, please check it out, let me know what you think, tell your friends and family etc.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blkBwKWFrgc/XK311piTbYI/AAAAAAAAAT8/IF9TijpQ9LQ4VVpS6pnD12hvuq8ckme8gCLcBGAs/s1600/titleScreenPoP.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blkBwKWFrgc/XK311piTbYI/AAAAAAAAAT8/IF9TijpQ9LQ4VVpS6pnD12hvuq8ckme8gCLcBGAs/s320/titleScreenPoP.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Sir, we appear to be heading for a giant credits sign'.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Presumably most readers have already clicked the link and are off playing so I could end this post here, but just in case there are any of you who like to have a little more information before clicking unknown links in a blog I'll delve a little deeper.<br />
<br />
So, the blurb:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pride of Place is part match-3 puzzle game, part crafting RPG but ALL action.<br />Play as a faithful drone protecting its captain in this story-driven sci-fi puzzler.<br />Target his enemies and gather the materials they drop to craft the powerful items he'll need to survive and prosper.<br />Fight to save a civilization, maybe even fall in love, but is everything as it seems?</blockquote>
Convinced yet? Great here's that link <a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/pride-of-place" target="_blank">again</a>. For those of you still reading...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Story</u></b></span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GmZcbhVcUN0/XK31zmf78HI/AAAAAAAAATk/n6sNS7dJfmw2VFk8BYdQ_Fy-shINcnjyQCLcBGAs/s1600/intro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GmZcbhVcUN0/XK31zmf78HI/AAAAAAAAATk/n6sNS7dJfmw2VFk8BYdQ_Fy-shINcnjyQCLcBGAs/s320/intro.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wait, are those his pyjamas?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The story is an important part of the game, there's a new part revealed after each level, so I won't go into detail here and spoil anything.<br />
I can say that Pride of Place has a sci-fi theme, it features a space drifter who has inexplicably found himself as captain of a starship and his long-suffering robot assistant. The heroic duo will find themselves on a strange planet with bad guys to fight and good guys to save.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u1OQpyFo9q8/XK31z_qZCgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/47k1jPkD_eUVH_FPc8wy3MFnbd52DX6XQCEwYBhgL/s1600/cityScreenShot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u1OQpyFo9q8/XK31z_qZCgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/47k1jPkD_eUVH_FPc8wy3MFnbd52DX6XQCEwYBhgL/s320/cityScreenShot.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bustling space city, with four (4) shops.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Gameplay</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eTGUMeLK8i0/XK31zn2Vb5I/AAAAAAAAAUE/ojrW59mrtuc77tKBrDdribDssyYFezilwCEwYBhgL/s1600/level1screenShot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eTGUMeLK8i0/XK31zn2Vb5I/AAAAAAAAAUE/ojrW59mrtuc77tKBrDdribDssyYFezilwCEwYBhgL/s320/level1screenShot.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice of them to line up like that, you'd be in trouble if they all rushed you at once.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Match-3 type games are well known by now so I won't go into that too much either. Matching your enemies will help the robot assistant target them, allowing him to aid and protect his captain. Once defeated, enemies drop materials that can be used to craft new weapons and armour, allowing you to tackle the fiercer creatures you'll find deeper into the game.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MtJs-sSh3Bs/XK310iGdwTI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/k9DQKmoKJ4AZKFDsK3t_JhMTOqju4YVNwCEwYBhgL/s1600/level5screenShot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MtJs-sSh3Bs/XK310iGdwTI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/k9DQKmoKJ4AZKFDsK3t_JhMTOqju4YVNwCEwYBhgL/s320/level5screenShot.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let's head into this lava cave full of giant scorpions and skulls and things.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fight your way through 13 varied levels, from lava caves to abandoned labs to the infamous Garnak Pits to finally unravel the mystery.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5zp-OHoK-0/XK310ACeelI/AAAAAAAAAUI/tJOvoYlYxEgjF62Ad24izyz6Cu3gP5YmgCEwYBhgL/s1600/level3screenShot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5zp-OHoK-0/XK310ACeelI/AAAAAAAAAUI/tJOvoYlYxEgjF62Ad24izyz6Cu3gP5YmgCEwYBhgL/s320/level3screenShot.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An entirely different lava level, see the lava is a different colour and everything.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Pride of Place is available to play completely free on <a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/pride-of-place" target="_blank">Kongregate</a>, please take the time to check it out and let me know what you think.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-80557604074857584792019-02-14T04:41:00.000-08:002019-02-14T12:39:02.760-08:00Rubble Games II: The Re-RubblingI've just had a read through my <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2018/03/quick-update.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a>, written almost a year ago now, in which I said I expected to be doing client work for the rest of 2018 and thought it unlikely I'd get much done on my own projects. As it turned out I was entirely correct in that assessment. I finished my last piece of work for my client at the end of last year and, apart from a couple of brief dives into the new version of the framework I use to make games (<a href="http://phaser.io/" target="_blank">Phaser</a>), I did very little on my own projects during that time. I also said that I was putting the blog to bed, so this post is to briefly announce that I'm waking it back up again.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Phaser 3</u></span></b></div>
<br />
Since returning to my own projects I've been working on my first Phaser 3 game. I've previously used Phaser 2 for everything, including my client work, but the new version seems stable enough to make the change. So far I haven't found the difference to be huge, some of the names of things have changed and I've had to search for the new way of doing things sometimes but like many devs I tend to look things up a lot anyway. On the other hand I haven't really seen any great benefit either, with perhaps one or two exceptions. This probably means I'm not using it's full potential yet, so perhaps later in the year I'll start having a few wow moments.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>New Game</u></span></b></div>
<br />
My current project is a Sci-Fi themed match-3 game with a few bells and whistles in the shape of a crafting system for equipping your character with progressively more powerful gear. In it's current state the game is playable but needs a fair bit of polish, I'm currently working on the story and gating certain bits of content behind progression through that. Once that's finished I want to improve a few things then start general polishing. I'm aiming to release early in March, but that can feel either pretty optimistic or easily achievable depending on my daily progress. It's been around 18 months since I released a game of my own so I want to get this right, but also doing client work has taught me the importance of a quick turnaround and I want to carry that over into my own projects.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUA-2dvr0qU/XGVf9ARsu3I/AAAAAAAAATE/8H-g9NX3mzA7ly5cWLrmPTEGTt9kCf-AwCLcBGAs/s1600/fightDesign.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUA-2dvr0qU/XGVf9ARsu3I/AAAAAAAAATE/8H-g9NX3mzA7ly5cWLrmPTEGTt9kCf-AwCLcBGAs/s400/fightDesign.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's some provisional artwork. It's not completely up to date and needs polish but I'm not expecting to make drastic changes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The game is provisionally titled 'Pride of Place' as a sort of attempted pun on generic ship names, but I'm increasingly unhappy with that while also unable to come up with anything better so hopefully finishing the story elements will provide some inspiration.<br />
<br />
<br />
That's all for now, I'll hopefully have a more in depth look at my upcoming game soon. Just a quick reminder that my previous game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is still available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-67155683077548274022018-03-06T02:10:00.000-08:002018-03-06T02:10:13.586-08:00Quick UpdateWell the curse of the blog strikes again. A month ago I wrote about how I was hoping to spend more time on my own games, since then I don't think I've touched my current project at all.<br />
<br />
February was a tough month on a personal level, there was hardly a single day when someone in the house wasn't ill with something. On a professional note though, things are going really well. Although my productivity suffered, I still managed to complete several games for my client and he's now asked me to take on a project that's much larger than anything I've done for him previously and could potentially keep me busy to the end of the year and beyond.<br />
<br />
It's looking unlikely now that I'll be able to spend time on my own projects on a regular basis, and therefore there's no point trying to keep to any sort of regular blogging schedule. I'll try and post updates whenever I make any significant progress but until then it's time to put this blog to bed. I'd like to thank everyone for reading, and I'll still be posting semi-regular updates on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> if you'd like to keep up to date.<br />
<br />
<br />
That's all for now, apart from a quick reminder that my latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-59371086062787924662018-02-06T10:00:00.000-08:002018-02-06T10:00:45.380-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 05/02/18Wow, sitting down to write this I realised it's my first 'weekly' development blog for two months, although I did post my <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2018/01/looking-back-at-2017.html" target="_blank">round-up of 2017</a> and (finally) the <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2018/01/zombie-cannon-attack-postmortem.html" target="_blank">postmortem of my latest game</a>, Zombie Cannon Attack!, during that time.<br />
I've been very busy for the last three months working on making games for a client so work on my own projects has taken a back seat, however as the client work looks likely to last for a while I've made an effort to start setting aside a bit of time for my own game in the hope that I'll be able to get back to making enough progress to justify weekly blogging.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Space Crafter: Crafting in Space</span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
My current project is a sci-fi themed shoot 'em up where the player gathers materials and uses them to craft their own equipment. It has the inventive working title of 'Space Crafter', but hopefully I'll be able to come up with something more exciting during the development process. Initially the idea was to keep the shooter part very simple - a fast moving side scroller with no jumping and autofire, a game that could be played with two buttons to control movement (or even one at a push (sorry)). To sustain player interest the game would throw large amounts of materials and experience points at the player and have a fairly complex crafting and equipping section to act as a break.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eGSTKbVQN4A/WnnT9NfqdTI/AAAAAAAAAR8/a1YmP7EGSkwQ3rqHp1JR3gcutryzi_aogCLcBGAs/s1600/testYeti.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="640" height="226" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eGSTKbVQN4A/WnnT9NfqdTI/AAAAAAAAAR8/a1YmP7EGSkwQ3rqHp1JR3gcutryzi_aogCLcBGAs/s320/testYeti.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What's that creature in the library? Dunno, I haven't named it yeti.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">I love it when a plan ... changes completely part way through</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4ba7pooLDw/WnnT8ic2TbI/AAAAAAAAARw/MkNfCT-KbrkD_OKy3dAHJjHS7Wz3qxF8QCLcBGAs/s1600/testLibrary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="640" height="226" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4ba7pooLDw/WnnT8ic2TbI/AAAAAAAAARw/MkNfCT-KbrkD_OKy3dAHJjHS7Wz3qxF8QCLcBGAs/s320/testLibrary.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wait, come back. Oh well, I suppose that pun was ... abominable</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So I had a nice simple idea, but anyone familiar with this blog or indeed with game development in general will know what's coming next. The art assets I'd taken a liking to were really designed for a top-down view, and although the character sprites work fine for a side-on view most of the backdrop sprites don't look as good. I'm determined that I'm not going to release anything else that I'm not satisfied with visually so I decided to switch to a top-down view. This has immediately made the game much more complicated as the player can now move in at least four and more likely eight directions. Also the enemy AI, which under the old system was basically 'move left', now has to track and follow a much more versatile player and therefore has to be much more complicated.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lXFN-CLgtZ0/WnnT8uBZLTI/AAAAAAAAAR0/YpvyaYr2_-4Y-5xFaUCzb328HBmE5RoUACEwYBhgL/s1600/testReactor.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="640" height="226" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lXFN-CLgtZ0/WnnT8uBZLTI/AAAAAAAAAR0/YpvyaYr2_-4Y-5xFaUCzb328HBmE5RoUACEwYBhgL/s320/testReactor.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A laser fight in the reactor room, what could possibly go wrong?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Don't be a fool, stay in school</u></b></span></div>
<br />
Phaser has some built in follow functions that I used to create different enemy behaviours in my first game, but much of what I did was to try and mask the fact that I didn't have the expertise to properly implement AI pathing to move the enemies around obstacles and find the quickest route to the player. It didn't help that I wasn't really using tilemaps. I've toyed with using tilemaps in my games (this is basically building the play area out of chunks of equal size that slot together like tiles) but my first attempt was a bit of a cobbled together mess and for Zombie Cannon Attack! I ended up going with something much simpler for performance reasons.<br />
Although I'd not initially planned to do it on this project, learning pathing and tilemaps was on my list of things to do in gamedev. I've already successfully implemented a test tilemap and added pathing behaviour to npcs, hopefully most of the work now will be adding more of the same and fine-tuning.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rVwUX7rsOVE/WnnT8tGyArI/AAAAAAAAAR4/HlnV1r8epX86tZ4CsbaM3kMnh9yhHEm0wCEwYBhgL/s1600/testSoldier.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="637" height="226" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rVwUX7rsOVE/WnnT8tGyArI/AAAAAAAAAR4/HlnV1r8epX86tZ4CsbaM3kMnh9yhHEm0wCEwYBhgL/s320/testSoldier.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've been calling this guy 'elite' soldier, but as he brought a machete to a laser rifle fight maybe I need to rethink that.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Happy Anniversary</span></u></b></div>
<br />
I usually post a few stats at the beginning of each month to help me track progress, and I've now been blogging for a year (my <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/introducing-rubble-games-and-super.html" target="_blank">first ever post</a> was on 8th Feb 2017) so it's a good time to have a look at some numbers. I wasn't very active in December/January so I've just mixed the stats together a little. In total this blog had 7194 views last year, an average of around 20 per day, but at it's peak when I was blogging more consistently I was getting around double that. I started my Twitter account at the same time so I've gone from 0 to nearly 2000 followers over the year. Not too bad.<br />
I took a fair bit of time off over Christmas and New Year which has obviously affected my hours worked, but as I've been earning plenty from client work it's not something I'm too worried about.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> followers: 1925 (+115 from November 2017)<br />
December/January blog views: 428/567<br />
Blog views/day: 16 (November was 31.3)<br />
Hours worked: 154.5 (2.5/day) (November was 3.9/day)<br />
<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-84053041073527671462018-01-22T09:46:00.001-08:002018-01-22T09:46:52.618-08:00Zombie Cannon Attack! postmortem<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
It's finally here! Anyone who's read my blog over the last few months will probably have seen me promise to post the Zombie Cannon Attack! postmortem which has been 'nearly finished' for ages now. I've been very busy with client work but I've finally gotten round to putting the finishing touches to it, hopefully no-one's been holding their breath in anticipation.<br />
<br />
Zombie Cannon Attack! was released at the start of August 2017 first on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a>, then on web portals (most notably <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a>) and eventually even as a PC desktop download via <a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> and <a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a>, just for the hell of it.<br />
<br />
Zombie Cannon Attack! is a zombie-themed endless runner / launch game hybrid. Check out the <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/08/introducing-zombie-cannon-attack.html" target="_blank">release blog</a> for more background. It was my second game and the first I'd developed entirely since leaving my office job to take over childcare responsibilities and work as a full-time programmer. For more on how the first year of that went, see my <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2018/01/looking-back-at-2017.html" target="_blank">review of 2017</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Project scope</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Zombie Cannon Attack! was initially meant to be a very small game to be made in a month or so, but it quickly expanded to two months and beyond. I eventually released after four months, the extra two months were needed to produce an Android version - of this the hardest part was integrating the plugins. Still a pretty small project, but also really late. That's not an easy combination!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Artwork</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s320/titleRelease.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I decided to do the art myself after using lots of free third party assets from different artists for my first game. The art from that first game never really gelled together into a coherent theme whereas ZCA art fits together well, the style also fits the game nicely. It's bright, colourful and not too serious. I'm happy to admit I'm not the greatest artist, but I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. However I'm looking to buy a complete set of assets for my next game. To get noticed your graphics need to be better than just ok, and time spent drawing sprites is time spent away from coding.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--T6UDZ9-ecE/WOvg4NH1mNI/AAAAAAAAAEo/KB6_biwN-dc88z_pekZH0O1ndc8uy6lnACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/zombieArmyScreen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--T6UDZ9-ecE/WOvg4NH1mNI/AAAAAAAAAEo/KB6_biwN-dc88z_pekZH0O1ndc8uy6lnACPcBGAYYCw/s400/zombieArmyScreen.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An early screenshot...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OrZ6SPqCFGA/WWN6QeToBVI/AAAAAAAAAJo/9f8FsyBr9SExtNYAZcf9pOFbJJ2X1tTggCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/laserRampageScreen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OrZ6SPqCFGA/WWN6QeToBVI/AAAAAAAAAJo/9f8FsyBr9SExtNYAZcf9pOFbJJ2X1tTggCPcBGAYYCw/s400/laserRampageScreen.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and the finished version. Hopefully the improvement is obvious.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For the music I used the excellent <a href="https://incompetech.com/music/" target="_blank">Incompetech</a>, I was able to find a few tracks that really fit with my vision for the game. It's an excellent resource and I highly recommend it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Android version</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8tSgUl_6OCc/WXXwjIH7GQI/AAAAAAAAAKU/lGhXa0Qiw78ET4PTvLmhHljGVR3mWaQ9wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/playStore.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="804" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8tSgUl_6OCc/WXXwjIH7GQI/AAAAAAAAAKU/lGhXa0Qiw78ET4PTvLmhHljGVR3mWaQ9wCPcBGAYYCw/s320/playStore.png" width="278" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I didn't know what to expect from releasing a mobile app so I mainly made the Android version for experience, in particular I always knew the game wasn't really big enough to justify IAPs but felt the knowledge gained from learning how to integrate them would be helpful for the future. I'm still a little undecided as to whether this was a good decision or not. I certainly learned a lot but spending weeks figuring out how to use plugins I was fairly sure I wouldn't need feels like an indulgence in hindsight.<br />
<br />
Despite the questionable design decisions, the main problem with the Android version was marketing. I didn't do much pre-launch other than Twitter and this blog, and again in hindsight my tweets were never generating the sort of buzz you'd expect to see for even moderately successful games. I wrote a few articles and sent quite a few emails but to no avail, for the most part it wasn't a good use of my time. Identifying that marketing was a problem isn't the same as finding a solution though, I found forums and blogs to write to post launch and next time I can try and tie it all together for release day but I've certainly yet to identify a silver bullet.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GnINS6qSU2o/WYH2PmqPidI/AAAAAAAAALg/9iZH8dG6mawMSNP-lBfvGJI_UZUIEF_DQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/fightersFinal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GnINS6qSU2o/WYH2PmqPidI/AAAAAAAAALg/9iZH8dG6mawMSNP-lBfvGJI_UZUIEF_DQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/fightersFinal.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zombies and saucers and brains, oh my!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
All in all the Android version currently stands at a pretty poor 113 downloads and has made around 32p. From a commercial point of view this is obviously terrible, but even relative to the performance of the game on other platforms it's pretty bad, around half the development time to bring in around 11% of total revenue.<br />
However there has to be a first time for everything and the knowledge I gained should help in future projects, but it is pretty clear that I need to think carefully about whether it's worth releasing an android version for each of my future projects.<br />
<br />
For anyone interested in how I took an HTML5 game and turned it into an Android app, I used <a href="http://cordova.apache.org/" target="_blank">Cordova</a> which is free software that essentially wraps my web game in a stripped down browser and packages it as an apk file that can be downloaded via the Google Playstore. It's pretty easy to use, especially if you're not interested in adding plugins for things like ads or iaps. I found a few helpful guides (such as <a href="https://evothings.com/doc/build/cordova-guide.html" target="_blank">here</a>, but there are plenty more out there), and used free plugins (this one for <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/cordova-plugin-inapppurchase" target="_blank">IAPs </a>and <a href="https://github.com/floatinghotpot/cordova-admob-pro" target="_blank">this for ads</a>.)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zJGbk0IsgtE/WUArZowrG9I/AAAAAAAAAIY/FAKQb2boMwk4MfczNymV0IIcPlpRsjJ_ACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/brainsvilleTest2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="1600" height="98" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zJGbk0IsgtE/WUArZowrG9I/AAAAAAAAAIY/FAKQb2boMwk4MfczNymV0IIcPlpRsjJ_ACPcBGAYYCw/s400/brainsvilleTest2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The citizens of Brainsvillle were surprising unprepared for the zombie apocalypse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Web versions</span></u></b></div>
<br />
I'd released my previous game, <a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/super-endless-kingdom-mega-quest-extreme" target="_blank">Super Endless Kingdom</a>, on web only so unlike the Android release I had something to measure the web versions of Zombie Cannon Attack! against. It did much better than SEK which was good to see although it's still nowhere near being viable commercially.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOI/8X_k9Tq_F0IBLR7CDSI55DI4S403jO13QCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenWitches.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOI/8X_k9Tq_F0IBLR7CDSI55DI4S403jO13QCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenWitches.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you go down to the woods today, it'll be much busier than normal and full of witches and zombies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I make my games using the excellent <a href="https://phaser.io/" target="_blank">Phaser</a> framework, which is very user-friendly with an excellent community behind it. If you're looking to get into gamedev I'd highly recommend it.<br />
<br />
<b><u><a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">Kongregate</a></u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
I'm actually pretty happy with Kongregate, compared to Newgrounds their discovery for new games is pretty much non-existent and their ratings are fairly harsh and rumoured to be marred by troll developers downvoting competition in the hopes of winning the weekly/monthly cash prizes, but their revenue share system is easily the best I've come across. ZCA has so far made a little over £2.50 from Kongregate and is still slowly adding to that every week. This despite the fact that I only received 35% revenue share instead of the 50% I'd have got if the game had been made exclusive to Kongregate, in fact technically I lost over 70p by releasing on other platforms.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/rampageFinal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/rampageFinal.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's a nice horde of rampaging zombies you have there, be a shame if anything were to ... happen to it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><u><a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/697430" target="_blank">Newgrounds</a></u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Measured against the Newgrounds version of SEK it did pretty well, more than double the plays and a better rating. The really satisfying part was that it was featured on the front page and spent some time as the most played game of the week. Unfortunately the release was hampered by a bug that only showed up when the game went live on Newgrounds, the ratings suffered as a result so although it was well received I'll never know how much better it could've done, but it was a useful learning experience.<br />
Commercially speaking Newgrounds is a really poor option though, their built-in monetisation is entirely geared towards flash games and means there's just no way for a small HTML5 gamedev to earn anything. Unless or until that changes I'll be staying away from Newgrounds for anything I have any commercial aspirations for.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bAZfz-gCuj4/WZMDhsbTFRI/AAAAAAAAAMA/zj7mdXVbr_c-B1HB1rNDvii_xTT1Qr8CgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/newgroundsFeatured.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="644" height="305" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bAZfz-gCuj4/WZMDhsbTFRI/AAAAAAAAAMA/zj7mdXVbr_c-B1HB1rNDvii_xTT1Qr8CgCPcBGAYYCw/s400/newgroundsFeatured.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The day I won at Newgrounds, luckily I didn't let the fame go to my head.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><u><a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385" target="_blank">Gamejolt</a></u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
The Gamejolt release was a total afterthought to be honest, I wanted to release a desktop version for the experience and as a sort of completionist challenge that I set myself, so releasing the web version as a demo alongside the desktop version was an obvious step. Gamejolt unfortunately seems to take the worst parts of Newgrounds and Kongregate, discovery of new games again seems to be very poor but the site is also too small to generate any organic plays either. To be fair I put very little effort in to the Gamejolt release, but it's very difficult to see how any extra effort would have been worth it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Desktop versions</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As I mentioned above, the desktop version was more of a programming challenge than a commercial project (which is just as well really as I've yet to sell a single copy). By the time I released it on <a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">Itch.io</a> and Gamejolt I was pretty much ready to move on to my next project. As with the Android version, I went down a bit of a blind alley during development and added time to the project. However, again as before, I did learn a lot and I feel it's useful to get mistakes out of the way early on in my gamedev career in the hope that things can go more smoothly in future.<br />
<br />
I started out trying to use Cordova again, but could only manage to produce a Windows store version. I then switched to using <a href="https://nwjs.io/">NW.js</a> which I have to say was much easier to use (especially with the help of <a href="http://koobazaur.com/gamedev/streamlining-standalone-web-game-development-environment-phaser-nwjs/" target="_blank">this excellent guide</a>).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y4abUcxVCIo/Wd3tL2YkCrI/AAAAAAAAAN8/8jwKtIH2RDs5V3ajO1hg6YTWaXtSUBhuQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenHouse2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y4abUcxVCIo/Wd3tL2YkCrI/AAAAAAAAAN8/8jwKtIH2RDs5V3ajO1hg6YTWaXtSUBhuQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenHouse2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Something something zombie reference</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Lessons learned</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Even though Zombie Cannon Attack! earned over 5 times as much as my previous project and received a much warmer critical response, there's no escaping the fact that it was a commercial failure. Some decisions were taken knowing they weren't good in an immediate commercial sense but by building my skills and experience were hopefully an investment in future projects. Some decisions were just bad. For future projects I intend to focus first and foremost on releasing exclusively on Kongregate and only release on other platforms if there's sufficient interest to suggest it's worth my time. If I'd followed that advice on this project I'd be a whole 72p better off and have saved myself a few months, doing it that way once for the experience was useful but next time will have to be different.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading, I hope this has been useful to you or at least interesting. I'm happy to answer any questions so leave a comment or get in touch on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames">Twitter</a>.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-3509926285465051832018-01-08T08:02:00.000-08:002018-01-08T08:02:15.056-08:00Looking back at 2017So 2017 is all done and dusted and everyone reading this has made it to 2018, congratulations! It's also been a year since I left my last job and took up coding full time, so it's a good time for a look back. To cut a long story short, I started last year with a bunch of assumptions which mostly turned out to be wrong but wrong in ways which largely cancelled each other out, so the plan I started with is still pretty much intact.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Assumptions made an ass out of me</span></u></b></div>
<br />
The plan boiled down to making my savings last a year while I made and released games for web and mobile. Hopefully I'd make a living from this before my savings ran out, but I was aware this was a long shot. By making HTML5 games in JavaScript (using the excellent <a href="http://phaser.io/" target="_blank">Phaser</a> engine which I really can't recommend enough) I'd hoped to improve my coding skills to the point where I could find work as a web developer if it became clear I wasn't going to make it in game development, and to aid in this I was also following the Odin Project curriculum to learn web dev. As I mentioned earlier, this plan relied on a series of assumptions, most of which turned out to be wrong.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Assumption 1: My savings would last a year</u></b><br />
<br />
Pretty straightforward really, I'd worked out what I tended to spend and factored in how much of that I'd no longer need to spend when working from home. It soon became clear that I don't spend nearly as much as I thought I did though and even without any money coming in my savings were good for 16-17 months. 1-0 to me.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Assumption 2: Coding might be too hard</u></b><br />
<br />
I'm not sure if this counts as an assumption, but it was certainly a consideration. One possible way my plan could fail was if I just wasn't good enough. I couldn't make a game that would run in other peoples browsers, it would lag, it would crash and do horrible things to their pc/phone etc. Or I'd be able to put a game out there but the technical difficulties of various monetization methods would overwhelm my fledgling coding skills, it wouldn't work on games portals or with ad platforms and I'd have no way of making any money.<br />
As it turned out, none of this came to pass. I certainly had a lot to learn, and I've encountered my fair share of problems, but it turns out I'm a decent coder. I enjoy problem-solving and I haven't come across a single technical issue that I haven't been able to get past either with a coding solution or by designing my way around it. Yay me, 2-0.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Assumption 3: I'd have a lot more time</u></b><br />
<br />
For about 18 months before I quit I'd been working 30 hours a week and putting in another 10+ at home on web or game dev. Adding that together with time spent commuting and I assumed I'd be able to make games, learn web dev, teach myself Spanish, start playing guitar again, something something exercise and anything else you can think of, while also taking over primary childcare responsibility for my little boy. Obviously this was nonsense, I do about the same amount of work now as when I worked in an office, and the things I didn't make time for then I still don't make time for now. 2-1, damn you reality.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Assumption 4: If I could overcome all the technical hurdles and release a working game, I'd be able to make at least a small amount of money</u></b><br />
<br />
My thinking was that if I could make a game I was happy with and release it in working order I'd make some money to supplement my savings, then I'd refine the process with everything I'd learnt for my next game and do a little better the next time. Rinse and repeat until I was bringing in enough to stop relying on my savings before they ran out completely. The idea that I could release a decent game and make no money at all from it never really occurred to me, but there's so much competition in gamedev right now that the most likely response to a new game is basically 'meh'. I'd say this was 2-2, but it's such a big flaw in the plan that it's more like 2-3.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Assumption 5: My only choices were making games for myself or doing web dev work as an employee</u></b><br />
<br />
I'll go into this a little more later, but by the time I'd released a couple of games and got a decent looking website up and running I had something I could show potential clients who wanted a game making. It's client work that has really saved this year for me, in fact I make more in 10 minutes of client work than my own games made in 10 months. So, 3-3. everything still to play for.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Year in Brief</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<b><u>January</u></b><br />
<br />
I spent my first month working on finishing my first game, Super Endless Kingdom, polishing what I could and boosting performance. I also created the first version of the <a href="http://www.rubblegames.com/" target="_blank">Rubble Games site</a> and built an overly complicated site for <a href="http://www.superendlesskingdom.com/" target="_blank">Super Endless Kingdom</a> using Ruby on Rails to lock access behind a password. This later proved to be totally unnecessary and I stripped out the backend and remade the game page as a static site.<br />
<br />
<b><u>February</u></b><br />
<br />
I started(!) to think about marketing, I created this blog and the Rubble Games <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> account. I struggled to get playtesters for Super Endless Kingdom prior to launch and wasted a few weeks waiting before giving up and deciding to push ahead with release anyway.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<b><u>March</u></b><br />
<br />
I released <a href="https://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/super-endless-kingdom-mega-quest-extreme" target="_blank">Super Endless Kingdom</a> on Kongregate and it basically sank without a trace. I eventually got some feedback and made some improvements but it was too little too late. To date the game has 610 plays on Kongregate earning me (in theory) a grand total of 55p.<br />
A few weeks later I released on Newgrounds, where things went much better in many ways. I got more useful feedback and a lot more interest. It got around 5x more plays and a much higher rating than the Kongregate release but monetization for HTML5 games on Newgrounds is almost non-existent. However the feedback was pretty postitive, which I really needed after a disappointing month, and the game was also featured as staff pick in the Phaser newsletter.<br />
<br />
<b><u>April</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Having learnt a lot about what didn't work I set out to make a new game. This game would be made and released in under 2 months and designed with mobile in mind (eventually released in August as <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a>). However this was also the first month I'd had to deal with working through a lengthy school holiday and my productivity suffered while I adjusted.<br />
<br />
<b><u>May</u></b><br />
<br />
As Zombie Cannon Attack! took shape I tried to find a way to earn from it. I contacted various games sites about the possibility of them licensing the game or sponsoring it but didn't get any interest at all so I decided instead to go for a mobile release on Android.<br />
<br />
<b><u>June/July</u></b><br />
<br />
I spent the next few months getting the Android version ready using Cordova, much of the time was taken up getting plugins for adverts and in-app purchases to work. I added some polish to the game itself, but nothing that made a major impact on the way it played.<br />
<br />
<b><u>August</u></b><br />
<br />
Zombie Cannon Attack! released. I've almost finished the Zombie Cannon Attack! postmortem that covers this in more detail, I just need to find time to edit it. In brief, while it did noticeably better critically than Super Endless Kingdom it can't be considered a success by any means. It's currently 'earned' me £2.85.<br />
<br />
<b><u>September</u></b><br />
<br />
I continued with post-release work on Zombie Cannon Attack!, but by this point it was clear I wasn't on a path to earning my way as a gamedev. I started putting much more time into my webdev course.<br />
<br />
<b><u>October</u></b><br />
<br />
I put Zombie Cannon Attack! to bed with a Halloween update and started work on a new project, but I was still concentrating more on learning webdev. I went down a bit of a blind alley with a prototype for a clicker/idle style game before eventually settling on my current project - a sci-fi shooter/crafter. By the end of the month I had a semi-functioning protoype.<br />
<br />
<b><u>November\December</u></b><br />
<br />
I got my first paying gamedev work for a client and everything else was basically put on a hold. It's been a great few months personally and professionally, but as far as solo indie gamedev stuff goes you could be forgiven for thinking I'd vanished off the face of the Earth. I've had very little time to work on my own game, so I've had very little to post about on this blog and so very little to promote on Twitter etc. I'm hoping to spend a little more time on my own stuff, but as I'm writing the end of year round up for 2017 a week into 2018 you can draw your own conclusions about how that's going so far.<br />
<br />
So, in conclusion. Can you make it as a solo indie with no professional coding experience? Maybe, but you need to bear in mind that all your assumptions are wrong and to make it you'll probably end up working for someone else.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-26939005192449900722017-12-28T10:45:00.000-08:002017-12-28T10:45:15.325-08:00This is just to say...Just a quick post to say I'm still busy with client work so there's nothing much to report right now. I'm planning to do an end of year round-up and release the long promised Zombie Cannon Attack! postmortem as soon as I can (hopefully next week). I'm also hopeful I'll be able to spend at least one day a week on my own game in the new year which should give me enough material to get back to something like my normal blogging schedule.<br />
<br />
Hope you all had a great Christmas and have an equally great New Year.<br />
<br />
That's all for this week (and year), thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-48472848970888554182017-12-05T03:21:00.000-08:002017-12-05T03:21:24.087-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 04/12/17In <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/11/weekly-development-progress-report_30.html" target="_blank">last week's brief update</a> I wrote that I was too busy with client work to spend any time on my own games and I'd be posting less frequently until I had more to show. It will therefore come as no surprise to those of you who have read this blog before that I pretty much instantly contradicted myself and actually managed to make a bit of progress with my own game inbetween making a couple of games for my client.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Space Crafter: Crafting in Space!</span></u></b></div>
<br />
For those of you who haven't read this blog before, my latest embryonic project is currently going by the working title of Space Crafter (catchy I know). It's a pretty simple side-scrolling shooter/rpg with a crafting/trading/equipment management section to provide more depth. I still don't have a huge amount to show but I've bought some art assets I've had my eye on for a while and swapped them for the rubbish placeholder art I was using. There's still a long way to go but here is the official first screenshot.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CrF550cRiQU/WiZ97hytUKI/AAAAAAAAAO4/OV5srADvme4wpZiKC_IM6E--n3PooT9YACLcBGAs/s1600/newAssetsTest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="435" height="196" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CrF550cRiQU/WiZ97hytUKI/AAAAAAAAAO4/OV5srADvme4wpZiKC_IM6E--n3PooT9YACLcBGAs/s400/newAssetsTest.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very early days, but I'm going for a ruined/abandoned colony look here. I need to rough up some of the assets and cover some of the empty space but it's a start at least.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">November Stats</span></u></b></div>
<br />
So November was a great month. Getting a nice chunk of client work is great for my morale and bank balance and I'm really enjoying it. However the metrics I've been keeping track of mostly took a bit of a dip in November. This blog especially took a hit, I didn't have much to write about so I didn't have much to promote and it shows in the viewing figures. My hours worked were down slightly, but this is partly down to an illness at the start of the month.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> followers: 1810 (+80)<br />
November blog views: 939<br />
Blog views/day: 31.3 (October was 38)<br />
Hours worked: 116 (3.9 / day) (October was 4.2/day)<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-17335633266962096702017-11-30T02:51:00.000-08:002017-11-30T02:51:25.973-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 27/11/17Just a quick note this week to say that I've got nothing to show for now as I'm still focusing on client work. So, as I said I was considering <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/11/weekly-development-progress-report_20.html" target="_blank">last week</a>, I'm putting the weekly posts on hold until I've got more to write about.<br />
<br />
The client work is going really well and I'm both enjoying it and learning plenty. I am hoping to take some time to make progress on my own projects but paid work comes first, especially in the run-up to Christmas.<br />
<br />
I'll have a monthly round-up next week and the long-promised Zombie Cannon Attack! postmortem is almost ready.<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-79382538358789634182017-11-20T08:19:00.000-08:002017-11-20T08:19:45.620-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 20/11/17I spent most of the last week doing client work. Getting my first game for him to work on his site was a little stressful and distracted me a little from my next project for him and my own projects, it's all sorted now though so I'm looking forward to getting on with it this week.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Mathematical!</span></u></b></div>
<br />
The work I've been doing is for a website called <a href="https://mathsframe.co.uk/" target="_blank">Mathsframe </a>that specialises in making maths-based games for primary school children. They have a large catalogue of flash games that I'm helping to update and remake as HTML5 games now that flash is pretty much on borrowed time. My first game is <a href="https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/308/Bar_Charts_Tablet_Version" target="_blank">here</a> and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but more importantly the client is happy too which means more work for me. The games are all pretty small, well under a week's work each, but I've really enjoyed the change in pace and scope and learnt a great deal in a short space of time. It's also pretty great to get paid for gamedev work.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">More (really pretty good) excuses</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As I said <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/weekly-development-progress-report_14.html" target="_blank">last week</a>, the client work has meant less time for my own projects. I've been too busy to do anything at all on my next game and although I've nearly finished a rough draft of the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> postmortem it's still not quite ready. This has led me to have a bit of a rethink about this blog, as exciting and interesting as the client work is for me it doesn't really make great content for posting here. Unless I make a lot of progress on my own projects over the next week I'm considering switching to a fortnightly or even monthly format for now. It's been really useful for me to collect my thoughts at the start of the week and look back on the progress I've made, but it's needed less when I already have a client to hold me to account.<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-80450294750441441752017-11-14T08:20:00.001-08:002017-11-14T08:20:57.023-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 13/11/17I've had a really busy and exciting week. I did some work for a client remaking a flash game <br />
as an HTML5 game. It went really well and has led to at least one more project and probably more afterwards. I'm still putting finishing touches to it and making sure everything is compatible with the client's site so I'll post more next week but obviously this is great news and I'm pretty chuffed right now.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Backseat coder</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Paying work for a client clearly takes priority over my own games and even over my web developer course so those will have to take a bit of a back seat for the duration. I'm still hoping to spend a day at least on both these but we'll have to see.<br />
<br />
Having been so busy, I've not been able to make any progress on the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> postmortem. I really would like to get it done though so I'll try and find time over the next few days. Progress on my next game project (a sci-fi shooter/crafter) was also limited, but I have now finished coding all the artisans and equipment. It's pretty rough still but I generally find that once the basic code is in place the hardest part is mostly over and I can then use a more focused approach to make continual incremental improvements.<br />
<br />
So as I said, an exciting week and things are a little up in the air right now. When they settle down a bit I may need to reconsider the format of this blog but for now I'll see you next week as usual.<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-14624438707906531182017-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:002017-11-06T08:00:26.974-08:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 06/11/17I spent a good chunk of last week trying to shake off a stomach bug, so only managed a pretty poor 20 hours work. After the solid 35 hours I put in <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/10/weekly-development-progress-report_30.html" target="_blank">t<span id="goog_150510260"></span>he week before</a><span id="goog_150510261"></span> I'm a little disappointed, but these things can't be helped and I'm better now and raring to go.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Postmortem postponed</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've pretty much run out of things to say about this title screen, so I really do need to get that postmortem done!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Unfortunately that means I haven't had chance to get much work done on the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> postmortem I've been meaning to do for a few weeks now. It'll be a separate post to the weekly devblogs though so I can just post it as soon as it's finished.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">That new game smell...</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Work on my new project also suffered a little, but I did manage to tidy up the code a bit to cut down on some of the repetition and hopefully speed things up going forward. In terms of new features I managed to add another artisan (a heavy armourer) and the ability to sell weapons and armour. Although I'd planned to get the gear crafting part of the game coded first, I also spent some time working on the shoot 'em up section. It's still very basic so making a few improvements was a pretty easy win while I was still recovering. The crafting section is what's interesting to me at the moment, but it's obviously going to be the shooter section that will provide the gameplay screenshots and gifs to pull players in so I'll need to start fleshing it out more pretty soon. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>October Stats:</u></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> followers: 1730 (+81)<br />
October blog views: 1178<br />
Blog views/day: 38 (September was 35)<br />
Hours worked: 130 (4.2 / day) (September was 3.4/day)<br />
<br />
I'm pretty happy with how October went, with a bit of a push towards the end I just managed to hit my hours target. That's actually a new record for a calendar month, although I've beaten the hours per day in some of the shorter months. I'm hoping to at least match that this month despite not being off to a great start as you'll have read earlier.<br />
Twitter followers continue to grow but at an ever decreasing rate, perhaps growth will pick up again when I have something to show from the new project but as things stand it's growing with very little effort on my part so I can't really complain.<br />
This blog also grew again, it's a bit more modest this time than the 50% month on month growth in August and September but it's still really nice to see and to be honest that sort of level didn't really feel like it was sustainable forever.<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-84528576531451204682017-10-30T11:42:00.000-07:002017-10-30T11:42:23.982-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 30/10/17Another week done, and another month nearly done too. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. I had a really busy week last week, in terms of hours worked it was one of the best of the year so far, and so I'm pretty close to making my hours target for the month despite having to take a few days off for various reasons.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">That thinking feeling</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenMenu.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's the most zombieful time of the year!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As I said <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/10/weekly-development-progress-report_23.html">last week</a>, the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> Halloween Horror update is out on several platforms (a full list is at the bottom of this post) and if you feel like getting in the Halloween spirit by sending a rampaging zombie horde up against a forest full of witches then you should definitely give the game a try.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOc/36zXWlHwSVwyo5lW-uDugBEPYN0S1NVfwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenHouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOc/36zXWlHwSVwyo5lW-uDugBEPYN0S1NVfwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/halloweenHouse.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, pumpkins don't make good barricades. I've tested it so you don't have to.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now that I've taken it as far as I intend to, both in terms of platforms to release on and updates to the game itself, I'm planning to do a proper postmortem soon (hopefully next week), but I think now's as good a time as any to give a brief update on how things are going in a more general sense.<br />
<br />
I started the year with the hope that I could make some sort of career out of making games, but also with an understanding that this was a long shot and pretty unlikely to happen. Indeed it's such a long shot that I can't honestly say I even considered it plan A. I've mainly been teaching myself to code with the intention of pursuing a career as a web developer, which is why I chose to make html5 games in javascript to maximise the crossover between gamedev and webdev. I had hoped that I could make enough money to supplement my savings while I continued learning, but it's been clear to me for months now that this is also pretty unlikely so lately I've been putting more time into web development and less into games.<br />
<br />
I've learned a huge amount this year and really enjoyed doing it, I'm still making games (see below) but I've come to accept that it's part hobby, part means to an end (the end being learning programming) and shifted my focus accordingly. Still, if me from 5 years ago had been told I'd have learned to code and released a few games by now I know he/I'd have been pretty impressed.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Let's slice things up a little</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As I said at the start of this post, it's been a busy week. Despite the slightly negative overview I've just written I'm pretty happy with how things are going in general and with the new game. I've now got a vertical slice of the game completed and things are starting to come together. Although it's all still very basic and filled with placeholder graphics, you can at least complete the games basic cycle.<br />
<br />
As a player you can kill bad guys, collect resources, sell the resources to artisans (well one artisan at the moment). The artisan can then craft equipment (guns only at the moment) which you can then buy from them and equip on your character, then go back out hunting for more resources. Now that one artisan and one equipment slot is working it's just a matter of fairly repetitive copying, pasting and amending to get the others working. Once that's all done I can start focusing more on minor things like graphics and gameplay. Maybe I'll even have a few screenshots before too much longer.<br />
<br />
<br />
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-87172580921515487862017-10-23T09:00:00.001-07:002017-10-23T09:00:39.012-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 23/10/17I was away for a few days last week so I didn't manage to hit my hours target, but despite that I still got quite a lot done and cramming it all into a shorter working week made it feel pretty busy.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">More versions than Blade Runner</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOc/pxwtBraOaeooDsFYY9sjSJarLq-BpHkxwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/halloweenMenu.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If The Walking Dead had added witches, maybe I'd still be watching</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well maybe not more, and to be honest I can't be bothered to research and check, but last week I released a downloadable desktop version of Zombie Cannon Attack! on both <a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> and <a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a>. I also released the demo web version on Gamejolt and updated the <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> version to include the new <a href="https://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/weekly-development-progress-report_17.html">Halloween update</a> that I'd released on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack">Android</a> a week ago. So that's still quite a lot of versions. I'm planning to give it a week or two then write a proper postmortem of the game, but at the moment I've no further plans to release on new platforms or add anything to the game.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOc/36zXWlHwSVwyo5lW-uDugBEPYN0S1NVfwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenHouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOc/36zXWlHwSVwyo5lW-uDugBEPYN0S1NVfwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/halloweenHouse.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If The Walking Dead had added pumpkins, maybe I'd er...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Out with the old, in with the pew</span></u></b></div>
<br />
That means I'll be concentrating on my next project from now on. As I've mentioned before it's a sci-fi themed RPG shooter. I'm aiming to keep the shooter part pretty basic, ideally with simple left/right movement and one-button controls. The plan is to have enemies come at you thick and fast while you blast away gaining experience and materials and trying not to die for as long as possible. You'll then take the materials back to your outpost/colony and trade them to various artisans who'll craft better equipment to sell back to you. As you progress your colony will become stronger, as will you and your artisans, allowing you to fight ever tougher monsters. It's still early days but the core mechanics are all variations on things I've enjoyed in other games so it should hopefully mesh together quite well. More on this next week.<br />
<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date you can also follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
My latest game, Zombie Cannon Attack!, is available on all these platforms:<br />
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a><br />
<a href="https://rubble-games.itch.io/zombie-cannon-attack">itch.io</a> (desktop download)<br />
<a href="https://gamejolt.com/games/zombie-cannon-attack/279385">Gamejolt</a> (web & desktop)<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack">Kongregate</a> (web)<br />
Give it a try and let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-69743743679262685532017-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:002017-10-17T14:02:17.995-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 16/10/17Last week was a bit of a mixed bag, my hours worked were a bit below target but it was a pretty busy week. I've completed the Halloween update for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> (see below) and just released it today on the Google Play store, I have a few tweaks to make to versions for other platforms so I'll get on with that this week.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Super Screamy Halloweeny!</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOU/WyqoZZH33t4579qBwQnyI5wCp2kkZKdqgCLcBGAs/s1600/halloweenMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ZLUJXXT8I/WeZqY9RBFCI/AAAAAAAAAOU/WyqoZZH33t4579qBwQnyI5wCp2kkZKdqgCLcBGAs/s320/halloweenMenu.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zombies and pumpkins and witches, oh my!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So what's in the Halloween update? Well, after the zombie hordes invaded the towns and cities, some of the inhabitants fled to the apparent safety of the nearby Spooky Forest. Unfortunately the zombies have found them, and it seems the forest wasn't quite as empty as it seemed...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOI/8X_k9Tq_F0IBLR7CDSI55DI4S403jO13QCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/halloweenWitches.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOI/8X_k9Tq_F0IBLR7CDSI55DI4S403jO13QCPcBGAYYCw/s320/halloweenWitches.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wonder if the soldier had time to regret his choice of a large pumpkin as cover</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yes, the Spooky Forest is full of Witches. Literally, full of them, in their hundreds - leaving their bubbling cauldrons and pumpkin heads lying around everywhere too. Not to mention the haunted houses, which almost outnumber the trees. To be honest it's difficult to understand how no-one happened to notice them before.<br />
<br />
Luckily for the fleeing citizens however, instead of turning on the terrified refugees in an orgy of frog-metamorphosising destruction, the Witches are actually helping. Witches must really hate zombies, either that or the whole idea of evil witches is some sort of nefarious patriarchal myth.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOY/mJ4qAUEj-j8CBzWR-BLU-Etv-TzcYKJ7wCLcBGAs/s1600/halloweenHouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OBDmZEU-7Pc/WeZqqKUrT9I/AAAAAAAAAOY/mJ4qAUEj-j8CBzWR-BLU-Etv-TzcYKJ7wCLcBGAs/s320/halloweenHouse.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Beryl, have you seen my skull lying around?" "Have you checked the attic?" "What would it be doing up there?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, 'plot' aside, what you actually get is some nice new Halloween themed scenery and obstacles. I've also added a bit of animation to the new scenery and obstacles to spruce things up a bit. More importantly though, there's a new enemy to face. Witches fire an ice beam that hits multiple targets, making them dangerous enemies for even the largest horde. Worse still though, the ice beam both damages and slows your zombies. As Zombie Cannon Attack! is at heart a race against time to pass on the infection before your zombies decompose this makes the Witch a really tough enemy. I've spent most of the week tuning the difficulty, it's much tougher than the default level 'Starter Town', and maybe a little tougher than the unlockable 'Brainsville' level too, but that difficulty is balanced by the extra data you can collect to upgrade your ravenous undead minions.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>In other news...</u></b></span></div>
<br />
The new game is progressing slowly, mainly thanks to the time I've taken out recently to update Zombie Cannon Attack! I've done some work on coding the equipment system, and when that's finished I'll move on to crafting. At that point the core of the game will be ready and I can start fleshing out the shoot 'em up section.<br />
<br />
My latest game, <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/08/introducing-zombie-cannon-attack.html" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a>, is available for FREE on <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">web</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">android</a>. Give it a try and let me know what you think.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-47422967098013898432017-10-11T03:18:00.000-07:002017-10-11T03:18:54.212-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 09/10/17Last week was another productive week, in fact taken as a whole the last fortnight has been my best in terms of hours worked for over 6 months. Hopefully I can at least keep at this level for the rest of the year, although this week so far hasn't exactly gone according to plan (hence this blog post being a couple of days late).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">If you go down to the woods today...</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y4abUcxVCIo/Wd3tL2YkCrI/AAAAAAAAAN0/ujCpSAzbmZkqEtrYyZ11rU4FVBtDdojNQCLcBGAs/s1600/halloweenHouse2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y4abUcxVCIo/Wd3tL2YkCrI/AAAAAAAAAN0/ujCpSAzbmZkqEtrYyZ11rU4FVBtDdojNQCLcBGAs/s400/halloweenHouse2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cobwebs and pumpkins, either it's October or they really need to tidy up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I <a href="https://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/weekly-development-progress-report_25.html" target="_blank">mentioned recently</a> I'd started work on a Halloween update for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> I now have a workable Halloween level with a new enemy and new scenery. I need to do a bit more testing and balancing (at the moment it's pretty tough), then update the title screen and add some sound effects. If there's time I'd like to add a bit more but obviously the main thing is to get it out in time for the run up to Halloween so we'll have to see how it goes.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOE/LECgCvW-Ivk0-L8yP9qK_JQEjpyYGnE-QCLcBGAs/s1600/halloweenWitches.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QaSIftERwQA/Wd3vgaRvcdI/AAAAAAAAAOE/LECgCvW-Ivk0-L8yP9qK_JQEjpyYGnE-QCLcBGAs/s400/halloweenWitches.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In a slight departure from traditional folklore, witches now shoot ice beams from their broomsticks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">A short time ago in a blog post not very far away</span></u></b></div>
<br />
My new sci-fi themed shooter/crafter hasn't seen much progress this week as I concentrated on updating Zombie Cannon Attack! I've mainly been planning the crafting system out on paper but I have a decent outline now and hopefully I can get some of it coded this week. There's not a lot to see at the moment and may not be for some time, my plan is to buy in the art assets which should speed up development but also means I'll be mostly working with basic placeholder art for a while yet.<br />
<br />
My latest game, <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/08/introducing-zombie-cannon-attack.html" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a>, is available for FREE on <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">web</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">android</a>. Give it a try and let me know what you think.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-6872218413745499382017-10-02T07:04:00.000-07:002017-10-02T07:04:26.683-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 02/10/17To say last week was a bit mixed would be a massive understatement. I had the very sad news that my Nannan passed away (that's Grandmother to non-Sheffielders), but then also a lovely day for my Nephew's 2nd birthday where my young son and nephews joined forces to basically beat the crap out of me. Somehow with all this going on I managed to put in my highest hours worked total for nearly 6 months.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Ch Ch Changes</u></b></span></div>
<br />
Having said <a href="https://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/weekly-development-progress-report_25.html" target="_blank">last week</a> that I'd settled on my next project, I then had a complete change of heart and decided to shelve it. While idle/clicker games are currently all the rage, I'm personally pretty bored with the genre at the moment and unless or until that changes I don't think I could bring the enthusiasm to the project that it would need. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is where being slow to prototype new games can be a problem. Thankfully though, I've already done a big chunk of the next prototype which is based on an idea I've been wanting to pursue for a while now. I'm a little wary about going into details too early again, but it's a simple shoot 'em up with a fairly complex crafting/trading/upgrading system behind it to sustain interest.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">September Stats</span></u></b></div>
<div>
<br />
September was a tough month for work, with plenty of ups and downs to distract me. My hours worked total was pretty poor, and would have been even worse without the late push. While it may be understandable I do need to do much better this month and I'm aiming to beat my previous record for hours worked which currently stands at 129.5 in a month.<br />
Twitter follower growth (follow me <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">here</a>!) slowed quite a bit in September, I'm not following back as many people as I used to in an effort to keep my timeline readable and it does seem to have had an effect, however more than 100 new followers is still nice to see.<br />
This blog had a great month though, August had already beaten the previous record by nearly 50% and once again views/day has jumped another 50% in September. A big thanks to everyone for reading. The idea behind the blog is to collect my ideas together and hold myself accountable, but since I started the blog in February readership has increased five-fold which is pretty satisfying.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">Twitter</a> Followers: 1649 (+110)</div>
<div>
September blog views: 1051</div>
<div>
Blog views/day: 35 (July was 23.6)<br />
Hours worked: 103 (3.4/day) (August was 3.9/day)<br />
<br />
My latest game, <a href="http://rubblegames.blogspot.com/2017/08/introducing-zombie-cannon-attack.html" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a>, is available for FREE on <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">web</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">android</a>. Give it a try and let me know what you think.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/titleRelease.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-52843622940974522512017-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:002017-09-25T12:54:08.242-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 25/09/17Not too much to report this week, I pretty much took half last week off for various family things. I've made a little progress with my next game, which I'll go into shortly, but got no further with the desktop version of Zombie Cannon Attack!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Trick or treat?</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As well as working on a paid desktop download of Zombie Cannon Attack! I'm also considering a Halloween update. The theme would fit in nicely and I've already designed an extra NPC, designing a new themed background and obstacles shouldn't be too much trouble and there's a good chance I'll reuse any assets I make (more on that later). For now you can still try the non-Halloween version for free, there's a <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">demo web version</a> with a good few hours play on Kongregate, or you can download the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">full game on Android</a> (also FREE!) which has plenty of extras and bonuses.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A-h5P06MqlY/Wcjo2R1eo6I/AAAAAAAAANU/tNGCgW85YdwV3Kiwa-V5gfRbC5vkSHL3ACLcBGAs/s1600/zombieWitchConcept.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A-h5P06MqlY/Wcjo2R1eo6I/AAAAAAAAANU/tNGCgW85YdwV3Kiwa-V5gfRbC5vkSHL3ACLcBGAs/s320/zombieWitchConcept.png" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zombie Witch concept art, (maybe) coming soon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Spam clicks make the world go round</span></u></b></div>
<br />
My next project, provisionally titled Zombie Clicker Attack!, is an incremental clicker with a similar theme to my last game. In fact, as the title implies, it's a <i>very</i> similar theme which will allow me to reuse many of the assets. Hopefully this should greatly speed up development time.<br />
<br />
Although the plot will be basically the same (help a mad scientist take over the world with zombies), obviously the game play is quite a departure from a hybrid launch game/endless runner. The aim will be to raise a vast horde of various zombie types and conquer a series of increasingly well-defended territories, using the data you gather to upgrade your zombies along the way, but you'll be doing this while under constant attack from your potential victims.<br />
I'm hoping to add a small action section to make the invasions more than just clicking a button, but it's still early days yet so we'll see. I've almost finished the first 10-15 minutes of gameplay, this comprises the first territory to conquer and will be a good vertical slice of the game for testing. Once I'm happy with that the rest of the process will be gradually introducing features to flesh out that core concept. As ever, more on this next week.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0yJ1j-zZiy8/WcjqXGu9l9I/AAAAAAAAANg/9C_KV1T3CoAh5lkRyJcx2UWrziA6YVv9wCLcBGAs/s1600/clickerProto.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0yJ1j-zZiy8/WcjqXGu9l9I/AAAAAAAAANg/9C_KV1T3CoAh5lkRyJcx2UWrziA6YVv9wCLcBGAs/s400/clickerProto.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very early prototype shot, as you may have noticed from the lack of a map on the map tab</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-92232618464830875492017-09-18T10:21:00.000-07:002017-09-18T10:21:29.746-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 18/09/17A difficult week, all in all. If you read <a href="https://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/weekly-development-progress-report_13.html" target="_blank">last week's post</a> (which thanks to a <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames/status/909714463573594114" target="_blank">fluke retweet explosion</a> is now my second most viewed post of all time) then you'll know most of the bad stuff as it was actually written midweek and things got a lot better afterwards. However I don't really feel like I've got much in the way of progress to share this week so I'll keep it short.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Desktop Stop Shock</span></u></b></div>
<br />
I've hit a bit of a wall in producing a desktop version of Zombie Cannon Attack! The method I was using creates an .appxbundle file instead of an .exe file. While it works fine on my PC, from what I can tell it's only really good for the Windows Store, which means incurring extra costs that I can't really justify as it seems unlikely I could recoup them. I'm now looking into a different method, hopefully more on that next week.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s320/titleRelease.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zombie Cannon Attack! desktop version, two weeks away for the last three weeks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Big in Iraq</u></b></span></div>
<br />
I experimented with using Google Play Store promotion codes (giving free in-app purchases) for the Android version of <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> (coinciding with the release of v1.2, get it now! etc) and the results were interesting. It's easily been my best week for downloads so far but they've mostly been from the Middle East as opposed to the previous norm of the EU/US regions. The new players have so far generated very little revenue though, and given how slowly downloads have been going since launch it didn't really take much to beat the previous weeks' efforts.<br />
On a more positive note the average rating is now up to 4.8, which is nice, but I'd certainly trade the .8 for a few more downloads. (<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Hint, hint</a> 😆)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Core blimey, it's working!</u></b></span></div>
<br />
I've continued work on the prototype for my next game. It's starting to take shape and I'm fairly happy with it so far, even if most of the game still only exists in my head. I coded a couple of functions that are pretty central to how the game will play and I can see it starting to evolve. I'm now leaning towards thinking it will work and hopefully I can move ahead with it more quickly now I've got the core of it done. Again, more next week.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-24996347298426753052017-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:002017-09-13T08:57:26.781-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 11/09/17Apologies for the delayed blog this week, I've had a rough few days of crappy sleep and lots of things have had to be put off. It's a measure of how badly I'd been sleeping that what would usually count as a below average night's sleep last night has actually left me feeling refreshed and raring to go. Hopefully that can last.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Sounds like a problem</u></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
As well as getting the latest Android version of <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> finished, I split my time last week between working on a prototype for my next game and getting a Windows version of Zombie Cannon Attack! ready for release. I'd had a lot of problems with the Windows version, which turned out to be mostly caused by the version of Windows I was targeting.<br />
<br />
A Windows 10 build is not compatible with anything lower so I'd targeted Windows 8.1 instead. As my games are browser based, the non-web versions run on a webview (essentially this packages the game in a stripped down browser window). The Windows 8.1 webview is based on Internet Explorer which turned out to be the root of my problems, as IE doesn't support web audio (as well as being rubbish in many, many other ways). The Windows 10 webview is based on Edge which runs everything just fine. I'm limiting my potential audience by doing this, but the audio of Zombie Cannon Attack! is pretty essential to it's humour and the workarounds I had to put in place for the 8.1 version compromised the sound effects to a level I just couldn't accept.<br />
<br />
Once I'd got the game running I spent a little time adding extra keyboard controls and adding a fullscreen option that I'm pretty pleased with. Everything seems fine after testing and I'm ready to try and turn what I've got into something players can actually download and install.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s320/titleRelease.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those zombies are trying to eat him, they're not his backing singers. Just in case there's any confusion.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">That 'difficult' third game</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As I mentioned, I also started prototyping my next game. At the moment I'm going for an idle/clicker type game based on broadly the same theme as Zombie Cannon Attack!, with a working title of Zombie Clicker Attack! I've seen plenty of other gamedevs talk about knocking together a prototype in a few hours, but unfortunately that's not how I work so it's taking a little longer and I'm still not convinced I have something that will work. The obvious danger with this is that I end up spending so much time on the game that I follow through with an idea I'm not happy with so the time I've spent isn't wasted. Knowing when to fold 'em is something I've never been great at and I'll need to work on that a bit more. You can rest assured I'll be posting more on this as I make progress.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-71927791888167010442017-09-04T09:54:00.000-07:002017-09-04T09:54:14.340-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 04/09/17Another busy week, I spent most of it bashing my head against the brick wall that is developing for Windows using Cordova. To be fair it's not a very strong brick wall as I've so far solved every problem I've encountered, but not without a lot of swearing at my computer. Apart from an annoying issue that stops me changing the volume of sound effects I have what appears to be a fully working Windows version of Zombie Cannon Attack!, or at least a version that works on my local machine. I've a fair bit more work to do before I'm ready to release it though.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Zombie Cannon Attack!, now with added buttons!</span></u></b></div>
<br />
As well as the technical behind the scenes stuff, I've also made a few changes to gameplay to adapt the mechanics better to desktop play. Mainly that's meant adding keyboard controls, but as there will be a paid version I've also removed all trace of ads or premium currency from the full game and reworked a few things to balance those changes. I've also added another layer of achievements for the full version only, and these will be in the next Android update too.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/rampageFinal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/rampageFinal.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rampage through Brainsville on your Windows PC, soon(ish)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>There's life in the old game yet.</u></b></span></div>
<br />
I'll do a full postmortem on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Zombie Cannon Attack!</a> once the post-release dust has settled (which obviously won't happen til I actually stop releasing on new platforms). At the moment I'm a long way short of where I'd need to be to make a full-time living at gamedev, although this game has done much better than my last game did (both in critical and commercial terms) and I've learnt a huge amount in the course of developing and releasing it.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMY/KOWGgFwoBTU9jut7rT73c5icVRqr7kaMQCPcBGAYYCw/s320/titleRelease.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ooh, closing in on Version 1.2.34, said the serious proper gamedev</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">August Stats:</span></u></b></div>
<br />
August was a really busy month, as you'd expect from a release month. However that isn't really reflected in my hours worked. School holidays and family commitments have taken up a lot of time (not that I'm complaining, family comes first) so when I've had the time to work I've had to cram it in. Twitter continues to grow steadily, I've been a lot stricter with who I follow back to try and cut down on timeline clutter and it doesn't really seem to have made a difference to the growth of my followers. This blog had a really good month and was up almost 50% on the previous month, helped by me tweeting a lot more as I promoted Zombie Cannon Attack!'s various releases. Readership has now more than trebled in the last 6 months which is always nice to see. A big thanks to you for reading today and helping to add to that.<br />
<br />
Twitter 1539 (+164)<br />
August blog views 731<br />
Blog views/day: 23.6 (July was 15.9)<br />
Hours worked 119.5 (3.9 per day) (July was 3.5/day)<br />
<br />
<br />Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-25045825767403890382017-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:002017-08-29T12:38:26.847-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 28/08/17Last week saw the release of Zombie Cannon Attack! on <a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/RubbleGames/zombie-cannon-attack" target="_blank">Kongregate</a> (one of the major web game portal sites). The launch was relatively successful, it already has nearly three times the total plays of my last game after less than a week. I'll need to see how plays drop off over time to get a better idea of how it went but I'm reasonably satisfied so far. I also got plenty of good feedback, enough to produce three separate updates in the last week. Launching a game is always a little tiring and stressful but as it's the third launch this month I'm starting to get the hang of it. <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android version</a> downloads are slowly increasing too, but it's fair to say I won't be retiring off the proceeds of Zombie Cannon Attack!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMU/aiFrHt87oAs6jk1d_vJASW9gcP629cQQwCLcBGAs/s1600/titleRelease.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7b68kSYh0Mk/WaW-aYwPbII/AAAAAAAAAMU/aiFrHt87oAs6jk1d_vJASW9gcP629cQQwCLcBGAs/s320/titleRelease.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's the update you've all been waiting for... introducing the Settings button. Yeah!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Window(s) into the future</span></u></b></div>
<br />
I'm now looking at releasing on Gamejolt, I'll need to produce a downloadable desktop version of the full game if I want to release the demo browser version, this is something I've been thinking about doing anyway though and I can then also put it on Itch.io and other sites. It shouldn't be too difficult to produce a Windows download using Cordova, however as the game is designed for mobile I'll need to adapt some mechanics for desktop first.<br />
<br />
I'm also now thinking about my next game, as I'm mostly just tinkering with ZCA so it's a good time to start something new. I'm considering either a territory based clicker/idle game or a simple shooter with a fairly complex crafting/trading system. I'll probably end up making them both eventually but I'm leaning towards the idle game first. I'll write more once I have something to show.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-43755525277547476062017-08-21T08:28:00.000-07:002017-08-21T08:28:43.801-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 21/08/17Last week was a bit quiet as far as gamedev news goes. Family weddings and birthdays took up half the week and left me well short of my hours worked target, but under the circumstances I think I can be excused for slacking a little.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Koming to a portal near you</span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I'm getting ready to release an updated demo version of Zombie Cannon Attack! on Kongregate. I've put some of the lessons learned from the Newgrounds release into practice. I still need to do more testing but everything looks good so far. I'll be posting and <a href="https://twitter.com/RubbleGames" target="_blank">tweeting</a> about it when release day arrives.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFwbGGAlPqI/WUBGodRBEtI/AAAAAAAAAIY/MHYhJAvVCOs1Av3K3har2Lk9LUCMGjplwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/newHouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFwbGGAlPqI/WUBGodRBEtI/AAAAAAAAAIY/MHYhJAvVCOs1Av3K3har2Lk9LUCMGjplwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/newHouse.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you've ever wondered what sound a zombies head makes as it bounces after being fired from a cannon, you've probably got too much time on your hands. So download my game!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Androids + Potions = Fun!</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Today I released Android version 1.1 (get it <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">here</a> FREE!), the changes are mainly to the later stages of the game to try and keep it challenging. I've also reduced the cost of unlocking the second world (Brainsville), as I really want players to experience the content even if they can't afford to buy potions (ZCA's premium currency). Potions are also one of the rewards for watching video ads and the price change makes that route much more feasible. I've boosted the amount of Potions in the IAP packs too.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/rampageFinal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="730" height="177" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6XiuAaBk9fM/WYH24VuhvKI/AAAAAAAAALc/pYiKlW0mye0mqnqjhqJANKEzEkS3bp6bwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/rampageFinal.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's now much easier to terrorize the poor citizens of Brainsville, you're welcome!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Downloads are still going slowly but I'm looking at more ways to market the game on a budget (a budget of nil) and I'm hopeful the Kongregate version will help too.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7920651133592871928.post-46865756261227355022017-08-15T07:49:00.000-07:002017-08-15T07:49:12.839-07:00Weekly Development Progress Report, 14/08/17After the stress of launch week, last week was another busy week but thankfully much less stressful. I solved the main problems with Zombie Cannon Attack! on Newgrounds, which were issues with how the game interacted with the host site rather than problems with the game itself. I'm happy that it's all sorted out though and ready for release on more portals from next week.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Features and Bugs</span></u></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bAZfz-gCuj4/WZMDhsbTFRI/AAAAAAAAAL8/VMMUt1pOKDk9g__uszwWIYQgEk-FTot5ACLcBGAs/s1600/newgroundsFeatured.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="644" height="244" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bAZfz-gCuj4/WZMDhsbTFRI/AAAAAAAAAL8/VMMUt1pOKDk9g__uszwWIYQgEk-FTot5ACLcBGAs/s320/newgroundsFeatured.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Always make sure you get proof it really happened!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Zombie Cannon Attack! actually ended up doing really well on Newgrounds despite the initial problems. It was featured on the front page and spent a day or so as the most popular game of the week (they use a rolling seven days, with games dropping off exactly a week after launch). I've had some really positive reviews, including my personal favourite:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Almost instantly addicted. It's simple but super cute and kept me playing for a half hour before I realized how much time had passed."</i></blockquote>
See <a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/697430" target="_blank">here</a> for the rest, lots of nice things were said and pretty much all the negatives are from the issues I mentioned before. As with most projects, I was really excited to get the game out to players but I also had a few doubts along the way and it's great to see people enjoying playing.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Attention Seeking</span></u></b></div>
<br />
Unfortunately this success has yet to translate to the Android version, where downloads are still going slowly. It's clear I have lots to learn about marketing, and I'm wondering if I released too early as with a little over 4 months from concept to release there wasn't much time for marketing. I'm hoping the next portal releases will drive more downloads and in the meantime trying to get as much attention as possible from review sites and social media.<br />
If you're reading this and you haven't downloaded Zombie Cannon Attack! yet, I'd really appreciate you giving it a go and letting me know what you think.<br />
<br />
Zombie Cannon Attack! is out now on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubblegames.zombie_cannon_attack" target="_blank">Android</a>.<br />
<br />
For a full preview blog try <a href="https://rubblegames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/introducing-zombie-cannon-attack.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Rubble Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16866801316422244885noreply@blogger.com0