Seren Nova 3D: Adding Gameplay

Just a quick update to show that the game is still in development and not dead!

I have two free weeks to work on my new 3D space shooter called Seren Nova 3D, so hopefully I can keep progressing.  I'm now focusing on game-play, such as what happens when the enemy or player is shot and collisions.

I'll keep you updated

Seren Nova 3D : More Enemies

After considering a few names, such as Space Falcon, I've decided to call my game Seren Nova 3D (Seren being Star in Welsh).  

In the development news, I've been working on the enemies and managed to get them to face and and shoot at the player.

3D, Testing the Waters

The previous posts were related to a 2D space project that I was working on.  I say that in the past tense, because I'm still not sure what I want to do.  I haven't released a game since January because I had stopped enjoying programming due to pressuring myself too much to work on a big project that had become overwhelming (Grand Prix Super Manager).   And although I've been trying different ideas in the meantime, I hadn't put any real time into any of the ideas.


Today, I've started to have a look at what it would take to make a 3D game using Monkey and minib3d.  I've set my heart on a simple space shooter 'on rails'.
It's my first real foray into 3D programming (I had tried a few years ago, but my programming knowledge was lacking at the time), and although I'm still not sure on whether it will lead to anything. So, here is today's progress:

The first screenshot shows a small 3D space ship model I created that currently only flies forward over some land, it currently runs on PC's through flash and mobiles using Android:

The second screenshot shows the a basic 3D ship model in the model editor which I'm testing out. 

Grand Prix Hero. Follow the leader

Since the last post, I've only got back to working on my games today and have been working on Grand Prix Hero.

I've now got the computer cars to follow the checkpoints exactly, and all face the correct way!  Obviously, I'll want to make their movement feel more natural, but I'd like to work on other parts of the game first.

This is not my first time trying to make a racing game.  

The first one was in Klick & Play when I was 13 or 14, where 2 player controlled cars would race around a small circuit that fitted inside the screen.

I then 3 attempts using Blitzmax (screenshots below), although at the time my programming skills were far too low for an ambitious project like this:

An early blitzmax game (2006?).  I managed to create a level editor, but I gave-up after not being able to get the computer car movement correct.

I even did an expirement with a 3D game last year in BlitzMax.  I made the circuit myself and was quite pleased, even though the feel of the circuit (and look) felt like driving on ice.  I gave up after realising my 3D modelling and texturing skills weren't up to the job.

blackberry

Over at the monkey forums.  I found this link https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/bpaa/https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/bpaa/ which packages Android games for the Blackberry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 OS.  I will have to give it a try and report my findings.

Zombie Rush a small game + gpsm small news

I'm nearly finished another small game, it's taken two afternoons and is called Zombie Rush.

It currently looks like this,
with 5 different zombies (including zombie Nazi) and 4 different weapons, quite fun so far:

Hopefully, It should only need one more afternoons work to finish and release it for Android and flash. I'm really enjoying using the Monkey programming language. So very happy with my investment.

As for my main project, Grand Prix Super Manager.

I've been working on the race engine, trying to be as modular as possible so I can work on a small area at a time, without it affecting the other areas of the Grand Prix weekend simulation, I've hopefully got all the sections and modules that will make up the Grand Prix weekend set-up.

I've also been playing a bit of Pole Position 2012, which has some really nice things in it, such as I like the merchandise and the driver training parts, but it really does seem like it was a half-finished game, which is quite buggy.

2013 F1 Teams

...and running in a browser.

(although for official releases, I'll probably have to change the team names)

GPSM and new beginnings in monkey

I made another small game to get to know monkey and see if it's right for GPSM (my Formula 1 management Game), and I really like it, it's certainly helped my code to be more organised and more modular based.

so, now I'm back to making GPSM,
One change is that I've separated the garage screen into two, so as seen in the screenshot below, there is a garage screen , where you will be able to see the condition of each of your cars, make repairs and decide whether to use a different engine or gear box.

The R&D will be for the pure development of this and next years car.

Screenshot (please excuse the terrible font and the location of the 'continue' button, I'm still not sure where to put it)

Rocket Croc - There are Piranhas! (and giant squid!)

I've nearly finished Rocket Croc, here are some images of the new animals I added today, as well as the current Level Select Screen.

Rocket Croc - Casual Game

As mentioned before, I've decided to switch over to using the Monkey programming language, and to get used to it. So, before I continue to work on Grand Prix Super Manager in Monkey, I've decided to make a small casual mobile game.

That game is Rocket Croc.  

It's taken me two afternoons and is nearly finished.  The idea is that you control a rocket propelled Crocodile in its search to eat.    Their are many technologically improved animals flying, such as fish, turtles and whales, and not all of them are good for the crocodile to eat.

Hopefully, (although I haven't bought the full version of monkey yet) the game will be available for Android, Flash and Windows.

Inspirational Indie Success

I've been inspired by the amount of money Grey Alien Games has made, being an indie developer, $145,000 from 3 games in 6 months.  You can read about the success here:

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/143000-from-3-casual-download-games-made-in-6-months/

I find very interesting that most of the money is from the downloadable casual PC and mac games market as opposed to the mobile market.  Which as improved my belief of trying to target both pc and mobile targets with my game.

I'm currently trying out monkey, which is a nice games programming language from the inventors of blitz3D and blitzmax which I love. It makes porting the game to different targets, such as (windows, mac, mobile targets) very easy.
So, I'll be testing it out in the next few days and consider whether to continue the development of GPSM (Grand Prix Super Manager) in that or to stick with Processing.

Now, I've got a lot of free time, so will really get back into developing GPSM and hopefully try and finish it in the next couple of months. Fingers Crossed and Start your engines....

Ads, Update. What's happened Leadbolt?

I had a create last month last month from ads, using mainly leadbolt, and a bit of admob.  During the second half of the month I was making between 40-80$ (30-65 Euros) a day.   This was mainly from Spain using my The Penalty of Ramos or (el Penalti de ramos) joke game.

But this month (even though it started well), I have only been making between 2-6$ a day and it looks like Leadbolt don't have many advertisers anymore, sometimes there aren't even any ads available in the country (at most there is just one)
As shown here, I'm not the only one to experience this.

I have enjoyed making money with Leadbolt and they are a business with a focus on making money, they have seemed to be a respectable one.   However, as well as moving to the 'easy to learn' and multi-platform monkey programming language, I'll probably be phasing out Leadbolt ads from current and future games.

 Any suggestions for good advertising networks?

NaGaDeMo Game Update

Today, I've been working on my top-down spy/stealth shooter game that I'm hoping will eventually be available for Android phones, flash and Windows/Linux PC's. 

It was meant to be finished for National Game Development Month (NaGaDeMo), but I think because of learning a new language and a few problems I've mentioned previously, the best I can hope for is a demo level of the game.


Today, I have managed to do a little:

• Enemies and objects (such as crates, chairs, ...) can be added in the editor
• The Player now collides with objects as well as the tile map
• The Player can shoot bullets
• The Bullets now can collide with  the tile map and objects
• Fixed various annoying problems with the editor, and added a new menu, to make selecting the tile and objects you want easier.

Here is a screen shot showing the enemies, objects and bullets now in the game:

And here is a screenshot of the incomplete level editor which I'm using to create my levels:

 

In regards to graphics, I've only added a chair to the objects, which can be seen in both screenshots above, I think I'll leave the graphics untill I' need some time out from coding.

NaGaDeMo - No Go

It looks like I'm not going to get my NaGaDeMo game finished.
I haven't had a lot of time to continue making the game as I've been quite ill and haven't been up to it.

Today, was my first day back working on the game, and I've spend most of the day learning monkey and editing the level editor.  So haven't made much progress, game wise.

This week I'm going to be busy as well preparing for a two week trip in July, so it doesn't look good.

But as said in the last post from last week, I'll aim to try and get at least a demo level done by the end of this week. But to do that I've got the following things to do in 3 days:
Create basic enemy movement/AI
Create more tiles and graphics,
Create objectives in the levels (such as destroy computer / get documents / reach point A / rescue hostages).

I will try and update more this week.

NaGaDeMo Game Update: Collisions and Prospects

Today I have started on collisions with the map.  It's taking me longer than I expected because I'm still getting used to Monkey (although as mentioned before, because of my experience with BlitzMax, I am liking it a lot).

The screenshot doesn't show much difference, and the collision isn't perfect yet, but it show the man stopping when there is a wall in the way of where the user has clicked and the man.

As said before, I'm going to program the game in the free version of Monkey (which let's you compile full HTML5 games), and if I complete the game, I'll then buy the full version and release an Android version of the game.   But, to be honest I don't think I'll have an Android version before the end of the month or even a full version of the game.  I do hope to have a demo ready, with at least one full working level.

NaGaDemo, Delays and Finding a new tool: Monkey

A week has passed since my last update.

But I've been frustrated with processing.org.  It's definetly not suited to a tilemap based game.  So, I've been thinking long term and looking for a good game engine/language that I can use long term for bigger games.  Over the past few days I've been looking at the languages ease of use, what targets it can compile for (most important is Android), and then small things such as if it's possible to add adverts.

I eventually came down to, libGDX, Gideros, glBasic and Monkey, which all felt not so difficult to get into.  I think, I was a bit overwhelmed with libGDX coming from a Basic background.  I really liked Gideros, and think it's an awesome tool if your just focuesed on Android or the IPhone.  But, my choice came down to glBasic (which I had used before) and Monkey, which both can compile the same code for a variety of platforms, from Android and iOS to Windows and Linux (among others)

I have chosen Monkey for two reasons, first there are community created modules for using ads in mobile games, and secondly, it's not too far away from my first love, BlitzMax.

Anyway this means that my NaGaDeMo game has taken a step back as I rewrite it in Monkey, (I'm at the same point as I was in Processing and it has taken only a few hours).  I hope that the loss of 7 days will allow me to complete it.  Also, at first it will probably only be available for HTML5, as I'll have to wait until my next pay day to buy Monkey, which will enable me to compile for Android (and PC and Flash).

For very small games I will continue to use Basic4Android.