3D Exploration, now with proper targets...

I haven't done a lot of work on my 3D test game today, I've been busy with the lovely bureaucracy of Spain.  However, I improved the smoothness of the ships movement and added some better looking targets for the ship to point at.

As you can see, my 3D experiment is in the form of a basic 3D 'on rails' shooter in the form of Lylat Wars (or Star Fox for non-Europeans).

2012: Review of the Year Part 1: My Android Games

This year I finished my first games and published them on the Google Play Store for android mobiles.  Although, I don't actually rate any of them as being any good (except for hangman for educational purposes), they have given me a useful introduction into the commercial side of game making and have allowed me to feel more confident for the future (as before 2012, I had NEVER finished a game).  They've also allowed me to pay the rent and buy a few beers.

Below, I have given the games that are available in the Android store my personal rating and then I'll show their total downloads for 2012.

My Scores
Hangman 6/10
Zombie Hell 4/10
Pixeloids   3/10
Zombie Infection Defender  2/10
PixelStrip 2/10
Don't Cry Ronaldo 1/10
Abramovich's Job 1/10
Stop Santa 1/10

The Penalty of Ramos  0/10
The Penalty of Messi 0/10


Free Downloads  (Total = 484,632)
The Penalty of Ramos:    238,965  :  (Released May 2012)

The Penalty of Messi 85,252  :  (Released May 2012)

Don't Cry Ronaldo:    59,980  :  (Released June 2012)

Zombie Infection Defender:    31,186  :  (Released March 2012)

Hangman:    27,636 :   (Released February 2012)

PixelStrip:    21,105  :  (Released February 2012)

Zombie Hell:    13,214 :  :  (Released May 2012)
Abramovich's Job:    3,804  :  (Released May 2012)
Stop Santa:    1,863  :  (Released December 2012)
Pixeloids:    1,627  :  (Released March 2012)

Obviously from the free downloads stats, you could probably imagine that the ones at the top made the most money from adverts and the ones at the bottom made only a little. Also, Santa was released on the 7th of December and was downloaded more times in December than Pixeloids was in 9 months, which shows that if your game doesn't look attractive, get any exposure or isn't relevant to any current subject it will probably die.



Total Downloads (Each Month of 2012)
February.  Downloads = 11,251
March.  Downloads = 19,889
April.  Downloads = 28,599
May.  Downloads = 225,884
June.   Downloads = 118,233
July.  Downloads = 60,420
August.  Downloads = 14,416
September.  Downloads = 15083
October.  Downloads = 14,350
November.  Downloads = 12,501
December.  Downloads = 23,745

Conclusion
From these stats, we can see that my worst apps made the most money by far.  So, even if you (like me with The Penalty of Ramos) make the worst game imaginable and only spend an hour on it, if you aim it at the right audience (in this case Spain) or target a popular subject at the right time, you can be relatively successful for a short period of time, such as The two 'Penalty of..' games where very successful for two months, and they quietened down.

Não Cry Ronaldo Um jogo para Euro 2012

Eu criei um jogo de piada rápida chamada Não chore Ronaldo.

No jogo você tem que parar as bolas, cartões amarelos e Messi de se aproximar de Cristiano Ronaldo, ao deixar-lhe de beber seu leite.



O jogo está disponível para celulares com Android móveis aqui na loja jogo google:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sionco.nolloresronaldo

Tenha um riso e se divertir enquanto você assiste Euro 2012

Zombie Hell. Now available on Google Play for Android

My next game for Android mobile phones has been released, it's called Zombie Hell and is available here on the Google Play Store.

In the game you play a sole survivor of a zombie plague.  Use two different types of guns or a grenade to fight of the Zombies.

There are 13 levels and 5 different types of Zombies.

Download

Pixeloids, Finished

Despite a few disasters, and it being a month late, I've finally finished my third Android mobile game, Pixeloids.  I've submitted the paid version to slideme.org, and Google Play (formally the Android Market).  I'm too tired to submit the free, Ad-supported version, as I have to make one or two very minor changes first.

www.sionco.com

Third Day

Well, Yes I did miss one week of development due to personal commitments. But this Friday (my only real free day that I can work on the project) I have completed the first game, the memory game, where the user has to find two similar cards (one with the English word on it and the other with a picture of the object or subject).

I'm fairly pleased, as this game is ready to be used across the different planets, and just needs the graphics to be inserted for each planet, and a score system (which I'll implement across the whole game).

I'm even considering releasing a version of this game on it's own as a resource for teachers of the English language, with as many different vocabulary subjects as possible.

Second Day

So, Friday is definitely my coding day, as it's the day I have free.

Today, I've been working more on the navigation from area to area.

I've included the current progress as screenshots below.

The user can select which planet they want to enter (such as number planet or animal planet) and then from there they can select which game they want. The red buttons will eventually be replaced with a nice picture for each game type (Well all the graphics will be replaced, as to increase productivity, I've just included the quickest graphics I could draw).






I've also started the first game which will be a 'memory' card game, where the user has to find pairs of objects from a set of cards. It isn't complete yet, but at least it's a start. If I can get at least one game completed a week, I think that will be good progress.



I'm looking for someone to do the cartoon graphics for my game, so leave me a message if you can.

Learn English Educational Game Diary

Just a quick update.

In the first 3 hours.
I've starting creating the basic navigation system of the game.

version 0.01
-Created basic program structure.
-I've got a simple menu at the top of the screen for exiting the game, and returning to the main screen.
-I've created the navigation for entering the different themed sections (Currently they are badly drawn planets, such as number planet, colour planet, animal planet, etc..)

Development Difficulties and History - part 1 or 2

I decided to create an educational game a year ago, and my current progress on the Learn and Play game for learning English is a semi-functional piece of software written in BlitzMax with only 4 games, an even less functional and older version in Blitz3D and lastly an even older and less functional version written in Game Maker. So a year has passed an I'm not feeling too optimistic.

I will tell you the history of how I came to this point.

My first experience into game making was when I was 10 or 11 in 1995 and 1996 where I bought a disk version of Klick & Play, which was and is a hilarious graphical programming for making games. I never actually finished a game but some of my highlights included:

• Military Bananas 1,2,3,4,5 and 6! - This was a one screen take on Worms with small bananas with various strange faces and guns. The enemies didn't actually move, but only shot when the user's character (I forget the name and story I made up for him) was on the same level as him
• Bebo - an awful platformer of a baby in a blue mac and bobble hat who said "eh-oh Bebo" in my recorded voice when he died.
• Various racing games - I often tried to make Formula One games, but these often looked like small cars going round a track made of Lego bricks.

However, I don't think I still have the floppy disks that contain these games, which is a sad loss for me, and even if I did I don't actually have a floppy-disk drive. But, I will try to recreate some images of the graphics or characters and post them in a future blog post even if it's just for personal sentimental value.


After just a couple of years with Klick and Play, I got bored with the limitations of the software and my inability to draw, and also the installation for the first time of the internet in my house diverted my attentions, as now I wanted to make websites,

After a few years of making websites of various quality through my teens, my next brush with game making came in my final year of University. After, two years of struggling and failing to learn the Java programming language for anything except command line programs, I was faced with the task of creating a program for my final year project, how I dreaded this.

While other people wear making complex programs for mobile phones and all sorts, I some how managed to get a project to make a train system simulation, for mostly simulating the signal boxes and a train moving through it. But let's just say my final program was incredibly less complex than my original discussions, but somehow I managed to get a 2(II) instead of the fail or 3rd I had expected.


To be continued...