Rough Sea Games

Rough Sea Games http://rough-sea.com Indie game development Mon, 22 Jul 2013 22:12:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 Rough Sea Games /wp-content/uploads/2008/10/rsg_rss-feed.jpg http://rough-sea.com 144 95 Indie game development Neo Circuit 2 update 2 http://rough-sea.com/2013/07/neo-circuit-2-update-2/ http://rough-sea.com/2013/07/neo-circuit-2-update-2/#comments Mon, 22 Jul 2013 22:04:31 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1922 Hey guys

a small update on NC2 and its progress. Its not really a lot but some stuff is already in.

This got already realized:

scrap Flixel and use starling framework for better performance (check last blog post, its now on 60fps on iPad2)
new art style and better UI

adding cool particle …

Continue reading »]]> Hey guys

a small update on NC2 and its progress. Its not really a lot but some stuff is already in.

This got already realized:

scrap Flixel and use starling framework for better performance (check last blog post, its now on 60fps on iPad2)
new art style and better UI
adding cool particle effects and other nice gfx effects (at least some of them
upgrading nodes is partly done, but I will think about the design again
conquering of nodes will be reworked
neutral (grey) nodes do not have to be conquered anymore
new and fancy level selection with a preview of the level
open and closing barriers (still not sure if it will really make into the game, but its quite an interesting element to add some strategy)
a wonderful new start-screen with beat detection effect (I know its useless but was fun to add it, beat detection might make it to the main game as well)
control of the game speed is now flawless (Osmos like)
two finger tap opens up main menu on ingame screen

What will make it into version 2 at release:

lots of new levels, I guess 60 or even more
improved and allied AI with different strategies
player color selection
re-balancing of all nodes to make the game more strategic
new nodes and level elements
player can vote on levels
player can earn points while doing levels and spend them on improving his upgrades
tutorial improvements
node info screen showing strength and weaknesses
new music and sfx
more cool gesture controls to show ui only when necessary
node tech tree coupled with achievements and unlocking more features in the game

Not with the very first release

integrated unlock-able level editor (I will try to get it into the first release but I am not sure)
even more unlock-ables and easter eggs!
replay mode
player can upload levels to servers
multiplayer mode (this would be so cool, but probably out of scope)

I am still working on finishing the level selection and player color selection, which is not too far away . Next will be the management part of the upgrade system as well as node balancing.
After this I have a full playable game and will add new levels. Sooo much work todo and no time… :/.

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2013/07/neo-circuit-2-update-2/feed/ 2 Neo Circuit 2 update http://rough-sea.com/2013/02/neo-circuit-2-update/ http://rough-sea.com/2013/02/neo-circuit-2-update/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:35:53 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1909 Well most of you (probably only a few anyway) thought Neo Circuit 2 will probably never see the light. Well as I have not written a single word since July here, I would have thought the same. But actually you are wrong!

…

Continue reading »]]>
Well most of you (probably only a few anyway) thought Neo Circuit 2 will probably never see the light. Well as I have not written a single word since July here, I would have thought the same. But actually you are wrong!

As I have only a very few hours a week left to work on a side project and unfortunately their are so many good games out which have to be thoroughly tested, it really took a lot of time to port the game to Starling.

The good news it. It runs currently at 60fps on an iPad2. The first version of Neo Circuit was performing really bad on iPad2, actually around 20-25fps and worse on the later levels. I tried one of the most critical levels with lots of nodes and powers on the screen but the frame rate was very stable at 60fps.

To make this work I ported parts of the Flixel to Starling. But there is not much left from Flixel to be honest. Most of the classes are completely refactored. I removed TweenLite classes and replaced them with Jugger.tween from Starling, which pools the tweens. Without pooling you are going to have horrible lag spikes on mobile devices. This change plus some other small optimizations actually made it very stable on the iPad2.

I did not work on the AI yet, but I tackled one of the most important parts of the game play, the node take-over. It was not really well done in NC1. As you can see in the screenshots, its kind of implemented, but still WIP, as the whole art is as well. The node has now to be captured with 50% of its available space. If this happens you get the node loaded with 50% of its power. I have to play around with numbers, but it already feels quite ok. It slows down the game play but I think that is a good thing. The game gets much more tactical because of this.

For the UI there is a really cool extension for Starling. It will greatly improve the UI look and feel of the game. You can find an example here: http://feathersui.com/examples/components-explorer/

Still lots of work has to be done. But the cool thing is, the main game-play loop is working and I can now focus on making the game better. I will hopefully post more updates in the following weeks, but I won’t promise, as my day job is taking 120% of my time already ;).

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2013/02/neo-circuit-2-update/feed/ 2 Development of Neo Circuit 2 started today! http://rough-sea.com/2012/07/neocircuit2development_started_today/ http://rough-sea.com/2012/07/neocircuit2development_started_today/#comments Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:43:41 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1896

Today we started working on Neo Circuit 2.

We will work with the starling framework and abandon Flixel. Adobe is really supporting the framework and is developing Flash and Air for mobile further. Recently they introduced concurrency to flash, which will end the single-threaded times of AS3. …

Continue reading »]]>

Today we started working on Neo Circuit 2.

We will work with the starling framework and abandon Flixel. Adobe is really supporting the framework and is developing Flash and Air for mobile further. Recently they introduced concurrency to flash, which will end the single-threaded times of AS3. Soon they will support compressed textures in starling which is quite cool. We did also have a look at the nd2d framework from nullsoft, but it does not seem to have a very big community yet, so I decided to start with starling for now.

Neo Circuit 2 will definitely take quite some time, as we got a very cool full time job at flaregames which does take most of our energy. Nevertheless we will try improve Neo Circuit 2 as much as possible. Neo Circuit 1 earned us 6000$, it currently has around 1.800.000 play sessions and is still played around the globe about 2k-3k times every day. The average play session is 25 minutes, which is cool! The iOS version does not make much money yet (30-50$ bugs a month), because there are too much flaws and we did not promote it because of that.

Here is what we probably going to change:

scrap Flixel and use starling framework for better performance on desktop as well as on mobile devices
new art style and better UI
adding cool particle effects and other nice gfx effects
lots of new levels
improved AI
difficulty levels will be redone (variation is missing yet)
player color selection
re-balancing of all nodes to make the game more strategic
new nodes and level elements
conquering of nodes will be reworked
upgrading nodes will be redone
tutorial improvements
neutral (grey) nodes do not have to be conquered anymore
node info screen showing strength and weaknesses
new music and sfx
integrated unlock-able level editor
even more unlock-ables and easter eggs!

SKU’S

sponsored flash version of the game (probably with a reduced feature set)
a purchasable AIR application
free Android app with Ads
paid iOS app

Features which we will evaluate

allied AI
replay mode
levels can be uploaded to servers
player can vote on levels
node tech tree coupled with achievements and unlocking more features in the game as e.g. the editor
multiplayer mode (probably too difficult to do with our limited time)

Please let me know if you have more ideas.
More infos will follow ASAP!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2012/07/neocircuit2development_started_today/feed/ 5 Neo Circuit in iOS app store! YAY! http://rough-sea.com/2012/03/neo-circuit-in-ios-app-store/ http://rough-sea.com/2012/03/neo-circuit-in-ios-app-store/#comments Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:28:11 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1881

Last but not least Neo Circuit was approved by apple today. After several fixes and a reject because of portrait orientation issues the game was approved on the second submission. Neo Circuit will be steadily improved over the next few weeks. If you want to make a review please …

Continue reading »]]> Last but not least Neo Circuit was approved by apple today. After several fixes and a reject because of portrait orientation issues the game was approved on the second submission. Neo Circuit will be steadily improved over the next few weeks. If you want to make a review please write me a twitter message or leave a comment.

Please download it HERE and don’t forget to vote 5/5. Thanks :)!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2012/03/neo-circuit-in-ios-app-store/feed/ 1 Neo Circuit close to iOS Appstore submission! http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-close-to-ios-appstore-submission/ http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-close-to-ios-appstore-submission/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:52:08 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1859 Hi guys,

Neo Circuit is only a few days away from submitting it to Apples Appstore. The download will be free, but it will have an In App Purchase option for playing all the levels as well as all difficulties. It will also support Game Center …

Continue reading »]]> Hi guys,

Neo Circuit is only a few days away from submitting it to Apples Appstore. The download will be free, but it will have an In App Purchase option for playing all the levels as well as all difficulties. It will also support Game Center for highscore submissions. I will leave out achievements this time, but might add some in further updates.

The Android version needs a little more polishing because there are some screen size issues which needs to be fixed first. I will keep you updated!

Update 19.Feb 2012: I have problems adding the in app purchase option. Still struggling with the native extension from milkman studios. Will try again this weekend. Stay tuned!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-close-to-ios-appstore-submission/feed/ 1 Neo Circuit reached a million plays!! http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-reached-a-million-plays/ http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-reached-a-million-plays/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:24:00 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1844

Neo Circuit reached a million plays today, which is quite ok for a flash game in 21 days. But even more impressive is the average playtime of 24 Minutes and 18 seconds for all play sessions. I am a little proud, to be …

Continue reading »]]>

Neo Circuit reached a million plays today, which is quite ok for a flash game in 21 days. But even more impressive is the average playtime of 24 Minutes and 18 seconds for all play sessions. I am a little proud, to be honest :).

The game was also frontpaged on Kongregate for a while and has a rating of 3.69 at the moment. I have some more good news to come soon.

Currently I am working on the iOS and Android version of Neo Circuit, which should be ready in a couple of days. So stay tuned. I will let you know as soon as I got it submitted to the stores!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2012/01/neo-circuit-reached-a-million-plays/feed/ 0 Neo Circuit sponsored and release by BigDino http://rough-sea.com/2011/12/neo-circuit-sponsored-and-release-by-bigdino/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/12/neo-circuit-sponsored-and-release-by-bigdino/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:39:48 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1840

Hey,

Neo Circuit was sponsored and released on the 25th of December by BigDino! I am glad about the deal with BigDino, because Earth Vs. Aliens without a sponsor did not perform well at all. The first numbers show that Neo Circuit is much longer played …

Continue reading »]]> Hey,

Neo Circuit was sponsored and released on the 25th of December by BigDino! I am glad about the deal with BigDino, because Earth Vs. Aliens without a sponsor did not perform well at all. The first numbers show that Neo Circuit is much longer played (actually twice as long as Earth Vs. Aliens) and the ratings seem to be quite good as well. It really helped that I put a lot of effort into the handling and the tutorial of the game. Actually 50% of the development time went into polishing, which really helped.

Please rate and play the game!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/12/neo-circuit-sponsored-and-release-by-bigdino/feed/ 3 Very first review of Earth Vs Aliens on fettspielen.de http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/very-first-review-of-earth-vs-aliens-on-fettspielen-de/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/very-first-review-of-earth-vs-aliens-on-fettspielen-de/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:29:44 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1824

The people from fettspielen.de, the third biggest flash gaming site in Germany, wrote a very nice review of Earth Vs Aliens. It got 24/30 points. (the review is written in German!)

]]>

The people from fettspielen.de, the third biggest flash gaming site in Germany, wrote a very nice review of Earth Vs Aliens. It got 24/30 points.
(the review is written in German!)

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/very-first-review-of-earth-vs-aliens-on-fettspielen-de/feed/ 1 Earth Vs Aliens featured by Newgrounds http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/earth-vs-aliens-on-newgrounds/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/earth-vs-aliens-on-newgrounds/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:49:04 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1805

Update: Newgrounds is featuring the game at their frontpage…this is just awesome!!!

Today my first game is officially released as an indie games developer. You can play Earth Vs Aliens now on Newgrounds. The game will be released on Kongregate and other portals in the upcoming days. Please …

Continue reading »]]> Update: Newgrounds is featuring the game at their frontpage…this is just awesome!!!

Today my first game is officially released as an indie games developer. You can play Earth Vs Aliens now on Newgrounds. The game will be released on Kongregate and other portals in the upcoming days. Please vote for the game. Thanks!

Play and Vote here!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/09/earth-vs-aliens-on-newgrounds/feed/ 0 Admob with Air for Android using the native Android API http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/admob-with-air-for-android-using-the-native-android-api/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/admob-with-air-for-android-using-the-native-android-api/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:22:57 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1690 I have been researching for a while and to include Admob into my Android game made with Adobe Air and I stumbled over this article from James Ward. He describes actually the most important steps to have everything setup.

So as soon as you have done the steps to set everything up as stated in James …

Continue reading »]]> I have been researching for a while and to include Admob into my Android game made with Adobe Air and I stumbled over this article from James Ward. He describes actually the most important steps to have everything setup.

So as soon as you have done the steps to set everything up as stated in James Ward article (to the point where it says System Notifications and Services), you can start following the steps here to have your admob add running in your game or app.

1. Create the Notification Service in Java

First of all create a java class called NotificationService. The class is also copied over from James Ward article with slight changes:

package com.roughsea;
 
// This code is copied form James Ward article Extending Air for Android and change slightly
// http://www.jamesward.com/2011/05/11/extending-air-for-android/
 
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
 
import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.IBinder;
import android.os.Looper;
import android.util.Log;
 
public class NotificationService extends Service
{
  public static MainApp app;
  private boolean stopped=false;
  private Thread serverThread;
  private ServerSocket ss;
 
  @Override
  public IBinder onBind(Intent intent)
  {
    return null;
  }
 
  @Override
  public void onCreate()
  {
	super.onCreate();
	Log.d(getClass().getSimpleName(), "onCreate");
	serverThread = new Thread(new Runnable()
	{
	  public void run()
	  {
		try
		{
		  Looper.prepare();
		  ss = new ServerSocket(12345);
		  ss.setReuseAddress(true);
		  ss.setPerformancePreferences(100, 100, 1);
		  while (!stopped)
		  {
		    Socket accept = ss.accept();
		    accept.setPerformancePreferences(10, 100, 1);
		    accept.setKeepAlive(true);
		    DataInputStream _in = null;
		    try
		    {
		      _in = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(accept.getInputStream(),1024));
		    }
		    catch (IOException e2)
		    {
		      e2.printStackTrace();
		    }
			int id =_in.readInt();
			// this depends on what your flash code is sending
			if (id == 1)
			{
			  doNotification(_in);
			}
          }
        }
    	catch (Throwable e)
		{
	      e.printStackTrace();
		  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName(), "Error in Listener",e);
		}
		try
		{
		  ss.close();
		}
		catch (IOException e)
		{
		  Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName(), "keep it simple");
		}
	  }
	},"Server thread");
    serverThread.start();
  }
 
  private void doNotification(DataInputStream in) throws IOException
  {
    String task = in.readUTF();
    String showAdd = "on";
    if (task.equals(showAdd))
    {
      app.showAd();
    }
    else
    {
      app.removeAd();
    }
  }
 
  public void setApp(MainApp _app)
  {
    app = _app;
  }
 
  @Override
  public void onDestroy()
  {
	stopped=true;
    try
    {
      ss.close();
    }
    catch (IOException e) {}
    serverThread.interrupt();
    try
    {
      serverThread.join();
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
  }
}

2. Create the AS3 code for communication with the service

Include this function wherever it fits your needs in your flash code:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
private function ToggleAdd(_show:Boolean):void
{
	var text:String = "on";
	if (_show == false)
		text = "off";
 
	var s:Socket = new Socket();
	s.connect("localhost", 12345);
	s.addEventListener(Event.CONNECT, function(event:Event):void
	{
		(event.currentTarget as Socket).writeInt(1);
		(event.currentTarget as Socket).writeUTF(text);
		(event.currentTarget as Socket).flush();
		(event.currentTarget as Socket).close();
	});
 
	s.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, function(event:IOErrorEvent):void
	{
		trace('error! ' + event.errorID);
	});
	s.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA, function(event:ProgressEvent):void
	{
	  trace('progress ');
	});
}

The port 12345 is actually selected by random, you should just get sure you are using one which is not used anywhere else. I use the text sending for just switching things on or off as an example, but you could actually send any specific data.

You have now setup communication between flash and your android app. Now Change your MainApp.java like this:

package com.roughsea;
 
import air.app.AppEntry;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Message;
import android.content.Intent;
 
import com.google.ads.AdRequest;
import com.google.ads.AdView;
import com.google.ads.AdSize;
import android.view.Gravity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.FrameLayout;
import android.os.Handler;
 
public class MainApp extends AppEntry
{
 
  private static String MY_AD_UNIT_ID = "use your own ad unit id here";
  private AdView adView = null;
  private MainApp app;
 
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle arg0)
  {
	try
	{
	  app = this;
	  NotificationService.app = this;
	  Intent srv = new Intent(this, NotificationService.class);
	  startService(srv);
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
		// service could not be started
	}
	super.onCreate(arg0);
  }
 
  public void showAd() { handler.sendEmptyMessage(0); }
  public void removeAd() { handler.sendEmptyMessage(1); }
 
 private Handler handler = new Handler()
  {
	@Override
	public void handleMessage(Message msg)
	{
	  if (msg.what == 0)
	  {
		if (adView == null)
		{
		  FrameLayout.LayoutParams adsParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(
	        FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
			FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
			Gravity.TOP|Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL
		  );
 
	      adView = new AdView(app, AdSize.BANNER, MY_AD_UNIT_ID);
	      app.addContentView(adView, adsParams);
 
	      AdRequest request = new AdRequest();
	      request.addTestDevice(AdRequest.TEST_EMULATOR);
	      request.addTestDevice("0299D8EE8828629D2B15162000A09DE9");
	      adView.loadAd(request);
		}
		else
		{
		  adView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
		}
      }
	  else if (msg.what == 1)
	  {
	    adView.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
	  }
	}
  };
}

3. You want to place your ad somewhere else, no Problem!

FrameLayout.LayoutParams adsParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(
  FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
  FrameLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
  Gravity.TOP|Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL
);

Just change the Gravity parameters to your needs. You can find a explanation of those parameters here

4. Now we need to setup the manifest file.

Load the AndroidManifest.xml file into your editor. You might have done some changes already when following James Ward article, but there are still things missing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest package="com.roughsea" android:versionCode="1000000" android:versionName="1.0.0"
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <application android:label="app" android:icon="@drawable/icon">
        <activity android:theme="@style/Theme.NoShadow" android:background="@null" android:label="app" android:name=".MainApp" android:launchMode="singleTask" android:screenOrientation="nosensor" android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation" android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden|adjustResize">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
			<meta-data android:name="aspectRatio" android:value="landscape" />
			<meta-data android:name="autoOrients" android:value="false" />
			<meta-data android:name="fullScreen" android:value="true" />
        </activity>
  		<activity android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity" android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation"/>
  		<receiver android:name="com.admob.android.ads.analytics.InstallReceiver" android:exported="true">
  		<intent-filter> <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" /> </intent-filter> </receiver>
		<service android:enabled="true" android:name=".NotificationService" />
 
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" android:targetSdkVersion="8" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
</manifest>

The following three lines are necessary if you want to have a landscape orientation pinned as well as fullscreen mode enabled. Change those parameters to your needs:

1
2
3

<meta-data android:name="aspectRatio" android:value="landscape" />
<meta-data android:name="autoOrients" android:value="false" />
<meta-data android:name="fullScreen" android:value="true" />

If your compiler does not find that style android:theme=”@style/Theme.NoShadow”, open the values directory under res in your project and load styles.xml

Add the following code to your styles.xml if its missing:

<resources>
    <style name="Theme.NoShadow" parent="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
        <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    </style>
</resources>

5. You are done…sort of

You should be ready now. First of all compile your swf, if you use the packager, it will build a apk file, which can be opened with any unzip tool. Go to the asset folder and copy the .swf into the asset folder of your project and rename it to app.swf

Compile your java android project and start the emulator. If you did everything right, you will see a test ad popping up in your flash app or game.

Dont forget to remove the addTestDevice codelines before uploading your app to the android market.

Closing thoughts
There are many android device and I have tested this code only an a Samsung Galaxy 9000S, but actually it should work on any other device. I hope I haven’t forgotten anything important. The code should work, I pasted from the original project and did only make some string adjustments. Please let me know if you run into any problems and I will try to help as far as I can.

I have no proof yet, if this fixed the account fraud problems, but I am quite sure, because the standard google admob API is used. We should be on the safe side here. You are actually not limited to admob, you could add any other advertisement API if its available for android.

Thats its for now. I hope somebody finds this helpful.

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/admob-with-air-for-android-using-the-native-android-api/feed/ 5 LudumDare #48 – 21 Escape http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/ludumdare-48-21-escape/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/ludumdare-48-21-escape/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:45:12 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1678 Hey guys,

the last 48 hours were quite exciting, I was taking part at the world wide game jam Ludum Dare #48 – 21 The Theme was “escape” this time. While that is a very good theme for a computer game, its actually used in lots of games already, so its hard to come …

Continue reading »]]> Hey guys,

the last 48 hours were quite exciting, I was taking part at the world wide game jam Ludum Dare #48 – 21 The Theme was “escape” this time. While that is a very good theme for a computer game, its actually used in lots of games already, so its hard to come up with something entirely new. I did the game “Lost in the Shadows“.

The game is a rogue like adventure game where a dwarf is lost in the mines and tries to escape without dying. You have to find the exit, dig for water to survive and collect as much gold nuggets as possible on the way. Sounds fun, but actually the game gets boring too fast. Its probably a content problem but also a design issue as well.

So here is my post mortem:

What when right…

Level generation
Level generation was done very fast and the rocks are layered, rooms where cut in after the rocks were calculated. There are 4 different rock types, the easiest which the level is filled from the start. The second rock type is generated with rectangles. The third layer is more complicated, because it can only exists on the second type of rocks and the same with the forth type. So when you dig the rock gets harder step by step. This makes the game much better and more appealing. The rooms where cut in after the rocks where generated. That was ok, but I would change the now and cut the rooms after the first rock type is set. That should make the levels even better. The hardest rock types sometimes reveal hidden items. You can find gold nuggets and water. While the distribution is ok for this small short game, it needs much more improvement for a decent experience.

Sfx
The sfx creation was a lot of fun. I went out with a hammer to hit some stones in the park, fiddled around with water in the sink, walked around to record footsteps and so on. That was really cool and exciting. The recordings have a not so good quality due to the iPad2 microphone, so I pimped them a little with audacity. That was fun and didn’t cost too much time. The mining sound worked quite well, so I synchronized it with some particles. That is actually my most favorite part of the game yet.

Character pixel art
The character creation was ok as well. You have to know, that I am very inexperienced in creating pixel art, so it was really ok for my knowledge level!

Gameplay and gui implementation
The implementation of the gameplay and the GUI was working out very well. Actually I had only a few minor bugs nothing I to worry about and it was done quite fast. Well the code is far from optimal, but that was not the purpose of that competition.

I got it done:
Well it was my first official game jam ever and I got the game done. That’s was and still is really good for my ego! I overall invested around 20hours into the game creation.

What went wrong…

Tileset creation
The tileset creation was really bad, it took me ages, at least 2-3 hours which is, compared to what is looks not worth 15 minutes. There is still a bug in the tile set. Connected to this my biggest time consumption was the FlxTilemap class from flixel. I never used that before and it didn’t work at all for my game. So I decided to implement it by myself, which isn’t too complicated, but I was a little frustrated already about my progress and made bad mistakes.

Game design and game mechanics
The idea was to create a rogue like adventure, but without monsters, just the mine and the dwarf with a tight storyline etc. Sounds ok so far, but the most important part, the storyline, was done in the last half an hour before submission. So just a few atmosphere texts made it into the game, thats it. Well, actually the story wouldn’t have made sense at all, at least for what I have planned for, because you can die quite fast and so everything gets repeated, which is not a good game experience.
The water and the nuggets worked ok as items, but I would have needed some traps and enemies overall. The game is lacking lots of content here and so its really not that much fun. So all in all the game mechanics are quite poor. You walk around dig some rock, try to find water to survive and if you are lucky you will find some nuggets. I have to invest much more time thinking about the concept before starting coding and art creation.

Music
No Music, I have never done music and I started to use musagi 2 hours before I wanted to submit. I realized that this would take me at least several days, because I have never created any music. The game doesn’t feel complete now.

Overall I am quite happy and I am will pimp the game so I can release it con kongregate or newgrounds. Thanks to the ludum dare team for all their hard work. I am happy to be part of such a great community and this was definitely not the last ludum dare for me!

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/ludumdare-48-21-escape/feed/ 0 Started NeoCircuit developer diary on Google+ http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/started-neocircuit-developer-diary-on-google/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/started-neocircuit-developer-diary-on-google/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:48:40 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1674 the title says it all :).

Neo Circuit developer diary on Google+

]]> the title says it all :).

Neo Circuit developer diary on Google+

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/started-neocircuit-developer-diary-on-google/feed/ 0 my next game – NEO CIRCUIT http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/my-next-game-neo-circuit/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/my-next-game-neo-circuit/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:24:53 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1664 The new game will be called “NEO CIRCUIT” and is a strategy title, mainly for mobile devices. I have still not decided if am am using flash or Corona SDK. This time the graphics will be done by myself as well as sfx and programming. I am not sure about the music yet, but that …

Continue reading »]]> The new game will be called “NEO CIRCUIT” and is a strategy title, mainly for mobile devices. I have still not decided if am am using flash or Corona SDK. This time the graphics will be done by myself as well as sfx and programming. I am not sure about the music yet, but that will be decided later!

Earth vs. Aliens is still waiting for a proper bid on FGL, so its not officially released yet. The bidding will take at least another 3-4 weeks.

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/08/my-next-game-neo-circuit/feed/ 0 Alien Invasion is now called Earth vs Aliens http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-is-now-called-earth-vs-aliens/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-is-now-called-earth-vs-aliens/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:52:25 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1651 Due to my submission to FGL, I needed to change the name, because Alien Invasion was too generic. I hope you like the new name

]]> Due to my submission to FGL, I needed to change the name, because Alien Invasion was too generic. I hope you like the new name

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-is-now-called-earth-vs-aliens/feed/ 0 Earth vs Aliens on FGL http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-on-fgl/ http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-on-fgl/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:27:51 +0000 http://blog.rough-sea.com/?p=1622 Earth vs Aliens was released to FGL today. If you want to play the game just create an account and start playing. Here is the link

http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_game.php?from=dev&game_id=19365

I made a video with more gameplay footage:

]]> Earth vs Aliens was released to FGL today. If you want to play the game just create an account and start playing. Here is the link

http://www.flashgamelicense.com/view_game.php?from=dev&game_id=19365

I made a video with more gameplay footage:

]]> http://rough-sea.com/2011/07/alien-invasion-on-fgl/feed/ 0