Well folks, here it is. The first bug/error/glitch I have discovered within "Have Car? Kill Zombies!"
(Don't worry, it's nothing "major" :D)
When posting your score to Facebook, if you (or anyone) views the post using the iOS Facebook App, you won't be able to see the actual score. The post is still visible, and whatever message you type to go along with the post is still there, but no one can see your score.
The score is still visible on the actual Facebook website.
I'm about 85% sure that I already have the solution for it (I just need to test it) and it should be fixed with the updated in 2-3 weeks.
-Cody
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Free Stuff!
Let's make this interesting!
The first 10 people to sign up on the forums (Click Here!) and send me (Cody Johnson (Dev)) a personal message, on the forums, will receive a promo-code good for one free copy of the game! Make sure you say "I want my free copy!" or something similar somewhere in the message!
Enjoy!
-Cody
The first 10 people to sign up on the forums (Click Here!) and send me (Cody Johnson (Dev)) a personal message, on the forums, will receive a promo-code good for one free copy of the game! Make sure you say "I want my free copy!" or something similar somewhere in the message!
Enjoy!
-Cody
Wow, kinda...bland?
I hadn't realized (read "thought about") how utterly bland and boring the front page of this Dev-Blog looks. Let's add some color:
As always, BUY IT!
-Cody
As always, BUY IT!
-Cody
Monday, August 20, 2012
It's Alive!!! (Again)
Well, Version 2.0 went live on the app store today. So get out there and buy it/updated your old version and enjoy!
-Cody
Hmmmm...It would probably help if I posted a link to the App Store Page...
BUY IT!
-Cody
Hmmmm...It would probably help if I posted a link to the App Store Page...
BUY IT!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Sweet Release
Well, there it goes. I just submitted Version 2.0 to Apple. It's all in their hands now.
-Cody
-Cody
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Oh wow!
Ha!
In looking over the last long post (a slew of good news) I realized that I completely forgot to mention the most important good news of all!
Once I started adding some of the artwork to the game, the performance took another major hit on my iPad 1. Resolute in my desire to get the game working on all versions of the iPad I went back and did even more performance tweaking. That's when I discovered it.
4 of the variables in my path-finding algorithm were set to about 5X the value they needed to be. E.G. the paths were being smoothed way, way, too much, the game was set to expect upwards of 200 "agents" who needed their paths found (only 35ish agents will ever occur in game). Upon setting these values back to where they were supposed to be, the game suddenly runs flawlessly. It even runs so well that I was able to cut all of my GenCheck code from an earlier update. Features will no longer be disabled on the first generation iPad.
I cut my RAM usage in half. It went from using around 120MB+ on the iPad (and subsequently crashing) to barely using more that 50. Of course, this was before I added all of the art and sound, but even now, with all of the art in the game, it only goes above 80MB when you are posting your score to Facebook.
What's that? I forgot to mention that too? Damn!
You can post your scores to Facebook. There, I said it. I spent a lot of time getting that to work for this update so everybody better do it at least once! : )
I will have twitter integration with the release of the next update scheduled for 2-3 weeks after this major update/relaunch goes through.
So yeah. Back to work.
-Cody
In looking over the last long post (a slew of good news) I realized that I completely forgot to mention the most important good news of all!
Once I started adding some of the artwork to the game, the performance took another major hit on my iPad 1. Resolute in my desire to get the game working on all versions of the iPad I went back and did even more performance tweaking. That's when I discovered it.
4 of the variables in my path-finding algorithm were set to about 5X the value they needed to be. E.G. the paths were being smoothed way, way, too much, the game was set to expect upwards of 200 "agents" who needed their paths found (only 35ish agents will ever occur in game). Upon setting these values back to where they were supposed to be, the game suddenly runs flawlessly. It even runs so well that I was able to cut all of my GenCheck code from an earlier update. Features will no longer be disabled on the first generation iPad.
I cut my RAM usage in half. It went from using around 120MB+ on the iPad (and subsequently crashing) to barely using more that 50. Of course, this was before I added all of the art and sound, but even now, with all of the art in the game, it only goes above 80MB when you are posting your score to Facebook.
What's that? I forgot to mention that too? Damn!
You can post your scores to Facebook. There, I said it. I spent a lot of time getting that to work for this update so everybody better do it at least once! : )
I will have twitter integration with the release of the next update scheduled for 2-3 weeks after this major update/relaunch goes through.
So yeah. Back to work.
-Cody
Looking pretty good
Well, I finished and implemented all of the art yesterday and just spent most of today composing a new track or two for the game. Things are looking pretty good for meeting my Friday deadline!
-Cody
-Cody
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
A Slew of Good News
As of 10:00 PM (EST) last night, the game officially entered in-house beta! This means that the gameplay/mechanics are more or less fully developed (save for a few minor tweaks and balance) and I am now focusing almost entirely on polishing/creating Art and Audio for the next week before the game's update/release.
I am extremely pleased with the current gameplay. It is very skill/twitch/reflex based and it is super difficult to achieve a gold medal on all but the first level. Just last night I spent upwards of an hour and a half attempting to get a gold medal on the second level and, as of this posting, I have yet to do so. And I enjoyed every minute of it.
Now, to some people, that might sound like the game is simply to hard, or not properly balanced. I would disagree, the game is difficult without being frustrating or unfair. There is a very simple set of rules and the player is only every capable of performing one of two actions: turn left or turn right (relative to your current position). You crash into an obstacle? You lose. Run over a human? You lose. Go off screen? You lose. Run over a zombie? You score points, boost your combo meter, and your speed increases. That's it. One life to make a high score, earn a medal, and hopefully unlock the next level.
Every action (menu navigation and gameplay) is controlled by swiping up, down, left, or right. You use up and down to navigate the menus, right to accept or select something, and left to go back. When controlling the car, if you were traveling "up" you would swipe left or right to turn left or right. If you were traveling "right" you would swipe down or up to turn left or right. Basically, you swipe anywhere on the screen in the direction you want to be going. In testing, this control scheme worked really well with with high speed, reflex based, gameplay (when compared to buttons, tapping, or a joystick).
If you read some of the earlier posts, you will find mention of a planned "Upgrade Shop" and potential power-ups/pick-ups that I had been thinking about including in the game. Well, I'm not thinking about it any more, they're not in the game.
As stated above, I really like the gameplay the way it is. The shop, in early trials, proved antithetical to the gameplay as it is currently. The game became far too easy when you could buy extra lives, higher starting combo, decreased speed-up amount, etc. When I had two plus lives, it became insanely easy to score a gold medal on all of the levels. So I scrapped the shop (and pick-ups) to preserve the skill-dependent, challenging, gameplay.
And yes, as stated above, my current goal is to have the update shipped off to Apple for approval on or by Friday the 10th. It's going to be a busy week!
-Cody
I am extremely pleased with the current gameplay. It is very skill/twitch/reflex based and it is super difficult to achieve a gold medal on all but the first level. Just last night I spent upwards of an hour and a half attempting to get a gold medal on the second level and, as of this posting, I have yet to do so. And I enjoyed every minute of it.
Now, to some people, that might sound like the game is simply to hard, or not properly balanced. I would disagree, the game is difficult without being frustrating or unfair. There is a very simple set of rules and the player is only every capable of performing one of two actions: turn left or turn right (relative to your current position). You crash into an obstacle? You lose. Run over a human? You lose. Go off screen? You lose. Run over a zombie? You score points, boost your combo meter, and your speed increases. That's it. One life to make a high score, earn a medal, and hopefully unlock the next level.
Every action (menu navigation and gameplay) is controlled by swiping up, down, left, or right. You use up and down to navigate the menus, right to accept or select something, and left to go back. When controlling the car, if you were traveling "up" you would swipe left or right to turn left or right. If you were traveling "right" you would swipe down or up to turn left or right. Basically, you swipe anywhere on the screen in the direction you want to be going. In testing, this control scheme worked really well with with high speed, reflex based, gameplay (when compared to buttons, tapping, or a joystick).
If you read some of the earlier posts, you will find mention of a planned "Upgrade Shop" and potential power-ups/pick-ups that I had been thinking about including in the game. Well, I'm not thinking about it any more, they're not in the game.
As stated above, I really like the gameplay the way it is. The shop, in early trials, proved antithetical to the gameplay as it is currently. The game became far too easy when you could buy extra lives, higher starting combo, decreased speed-up amount, etc. When I had two plus lives, it became insanely easy to score a gold medal on all of the levels. So I scrapped the shop (and pick-ups) to preserve the skill-dependent, challenging, gameplay.
And yes, as stated above, my current goal is to have the update shipped off to Apple for approval on or by Friday the 10th. It's going to be a busy week!
-Cody
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)