Worklog for Matty
Fantasy Game
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| To do on DFA game 1. Text status during game using drawtext 2. centre 'mage' text on char select screen 3. centre the middle icons and raise all the icons on the item page. 4. increase size of text on item page and put more information on there 5. adjust key text - use a drawtext not a textview 6. make or purchase icons for movement. 7. decrease attacktime value - perhaps 40% reduction in value 8. increase buff spell time - perhaps 50-60% extra 9. put blood particles on creatures when they are hit and blood chunks when they die. 10. fix bug with spell2button pressed when value is null = CRASH 11. fountain particles on fountain when it goes off either blue or red 12. icons - exit icons needed for item page and no equipment/slot equipment 13. background for inventory (hand drawn?) 14. dungeon level exit - build this in and allow progression to next level 15. test lightning and freeze abilities 16. fix unit clone "delay" values 17. sound effect when pick up items... 18. draw background for front screen and char select screen (hand drawn?) 19. fix hpbubbles - make them bigger, make them last longer, 20. bring battle char text down. 21. create creature templates 22. create item templates 23. make better dungeons - perhaps check next row as well as middle row when placing - yes definitely...check above and below...(next row on either side) 24. make lightmap / shaded area around player...low res image overlay with alpha 25. once better dungeon generation done create doors appropriately in right spots (near entrances to rooms)..potentially doors are never locked they are just closed at first hence no keys needed. 26. have fireball trigger explosive burst upon 'life end' of emitter 27. enable secret/hidden locations (mostly done) (add to level generation - simply close off some cells) 28. develop character progression system - not sure yet...need to design. perhaps simply add 5-10% to stats on linear xp progression (or less %) 29. if design character progression system need to make it one of those 'just a little bit further' designs to cause player to continue just a little bit further 30. have lightning chain itself across creatures...so hits one then randomly chooses another to hit up to 'n' (variable depending on level of spell) times during its lifetime within visibility and range 31. develop teleport spell - random location teleport to within dungeon...limited range...increased range more powerful 32. increase mana recharge rate 33. change mana bar colour to aqua/cyan not dark blue 34. change attackdelay bar to orange 35. have background hand drawn on main screen along borders/sides...make sure text is okay still 36. adjust GameCore.items.desc generator based on numeric stats 37. yeah remove keys. 38. limit shields to 1 active at a time 39. display particle effect when spell active (activedelay>0) 40. get sound effects set when hits/swooshes occur appropriately. 41. include critical chance and critical factor in attack function 42. have global shake value GameCore.shakex, GameCore.shakey which is applied to draw functions to shake environment when critical occurs (often - 20% of deaths are criticals) (set to 'rand(n)-n/2' and reduce each frame to 0) 43. that's enough for now...think of more later..  Markov Chain Text |
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| I've got a few ideas for my next game. I stopped work on the fantasy game I was building for a few reasons. My game Star Dancer has kept me entertained for over 18 months. That's a long time to be entertained by one game, especially a mobile game. It had mostly good reviews.. rating 4.4 on average. I want to make something which holds my interest for a similar time. Because google has stuffed my ad account I'll instead use an in app purchase to upgrade to the full version..one off payment. It will be a mobile rpg from first person perspective with hand drawn static backgrounds and characters. The design is mostly done. The code is about 15% done. The graphics 0% done. It will be purely offline. It will have a story. The basic interface has 4 character portaits on the right and a main window where movement, combat, shopping and dialog takes place. It will be effectively turn based. Combat will be heavily based on inventory decisions and spell decisions. The coding is relatively easy but there is a fair amount to do. Quite a bit actually. Then all the drawings. I'd say it is about 70 30 split in terms of graphics code respectively. I include story in that graphics split. The actual game engine I'm building for it is quite simple in design and should allow for a lot of nice features. There will be limited scripting. The flow of the story will be linear and exploratory. It will not have branches and so on but rather the player will find things out. Dialog is more informational than tree like. The game objective will primarily be about collecting powerful magic items and combining them in interesting ways to be very powerful. It will in that sense be more about character statistical development than character story development. Markov Chain Text |
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| I've started taking art classes. I'm a beginner but my drawings are quite okay. I'm planning my next game already as this one is currently just waiting for the artist to finish the graphics. Then I'll release. I'm thinking I'm wasting a bit of money on this...I'd probably be better off not doing it but it's too late now - I've already contracted the artist and I'm very happy with her work so far....it's just a bit sad that there will be no income from this game. Google's admob login has stopped working for me. Not sure why. And I have no way of contacting them. So my only source of revenue for the game which was going to be advertising has dried up. It's not the sort of game that I'd spend money on IAPs - i don't like them - so I'd planned on having advertising throughout it. The problem is something to do with my AdSense account...but I can't work out what....I've not had any bad activity on the accounts but google has simply shut it down without giving me a reason and then when I reopened it it won't connect to admob meaning I can't put ads in my game. I could use a different provider but I don't want full screen ads which is what most of them do..I wanted a single banner ad at the bottom of the screen for most of the time...oh well....them's the breaks I suppose. Anyway on to my next game idea. Markov Chain Text |
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 Mainly waiting for artist now...... Markov Chain Text |
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| To do on fantasy game: 1. Intro text. Design some text. Plan it out. Then input it. 3 Lines of basic text. 2. Graphics from Brandie (wait for it wait for it) 3. Help text - improve the help text on the other screens - use frame layouts. 4. Auto Resolver - maybe, maybe not. 5. Victory text - maybe have Outro which is like the Intro text. To do on sci fi game: Nothing yet. Put this on hold. Wait until can focus all my attention on it after the fantasy game. The code is good enough for now - it can be built at a slower pace later on. Still don't quite know how you want the gameplay to work entirely. 3 lines of text for good and for evil. Creative writing. Test 'ease' of play for someone new to the game. Markov Chain Text |
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| Tighten up help. Have better text. Reorder bestiary. Come up with a decent title. Come up with some flavour text on the store page. Do testing to see if a user who has never played it can work it out. Credits (display on one screen) Audio On/Off (change text) Version Number in lower right corner Auto Resolution Button (gears) Markov Chain Text |
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| Most of the features are in now. The main thing I need is graphics from my artist(B). And potentially a few sound effects for certain events. I have built ads into the app. I have detailed player metrics online for the game. This was a very quick build. Approximately 20 hrs so far in a little under two weeks. The gameplay seems enjoyable. It's very simple. Good for mobile platform. I enjoy playing it which is a good sign. I am curious to see the numbers that it generates. Markov Chain Text |
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| Still lots to do in this game....but let's break it down into the following: 1. Fix bugs on World Map 2. Add Indicators (selected) on Unit Choice (don't have to be pretty - just a box will do) 3. Add Indicators on Battle Map (don't have to be pretty either) - indicators required are: - hp - buffs - curses - temporary hitpoints - current unit (box) 4. Add Victory / Defeat Screen Once all these are done build the first bestiary...unit collections..... Markov Chain Text |
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| Hi folks....here are some really early in game screenshots (yes they animate etc) of my next game. It will be a strategy game with a map and units and so on.... The basic premise is this: Choose your faction. Choose your difficulty. Grab neutral areas of the map. When all neutral areas taken start invading neighbouring territory. This is an art heavy part - the territories on the map will have 3 visual appearances: Neutral, Good and Evil. think lots of skulls and gothic scenes for the evil territories, Bavarian castles (Disney) for the good and peaceful hamlets for the neutral. Before going to battle the screens you see here will come up.... They will allow the user to swap out their current units with purchased units (gold comes from battle victories). Units have stats and abilities. Battle: Turn based alternate unit activation. Each unit chooses 1 option from 2 available per unit on a unit by unit basis (ie spells/attacks/defenses etc) - until one or the other side is dead (units revive after combat). If win gain a territory, if lose lose a territory. For each enemy killed gain 'x' gold to spend on units. Game is single player - no multiplayer component - I've learned since my last game that although people like multiplayer it is impossible for me to gain a community to play my games that would be needed for multiplayer to make sense. It will have no ads and zero monetisation strategy. The game is purely a game for the sake of playing a game. I am willing to forego the potential to earn $10 over the course of a year and instead focus on a good game. I haven't yet decided if there will be a secondary resource and whether this will be related to the territories on the map. Varying Difficulty will be implemented by simply adjusting the winning gold totals for AI opponents. Here are a couple of early ui screenshots from the unit choice screen...gives you an idea of how it will hang together (maybe...if you can visualise this sort of thing) Markov Chain Text |
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| Okay...I've started work on a new game. The first new game I've written this year that is going to be halfway decent again. I seem able to make about one game per year since about 2014. Here are a couple of screenshots:   This will be a game for Android phones. It will be a fantasy tactical strategy game. The basic gameplay will be as follows: Pick a province to attack. Pick your units from those available. fight battle (turn based, alternate activation, choose attack from two options per creature - things like attack multi, attack defensively, heal others, etc) Gain gold from winning battle and/or territory. Use gold to upgrade units and purchase better units to fight with. Artist will be commissioned again once I've got things ready, probably several months down the track. Markov Chain Text |
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