New Posts and New Games

I don't quite expect anybody to read this, so I suppose it will act more as a journal of my game development progress than anything else. I've been playing around with java and working on mobile games for the Android platform. Prior to starting work on Android apps I had no experience with Java, but had a strong background in C++, so the biggest problem has been getting used to the new syntax.

I started by making a couple games with basic Android layouts and image views. Little puzzle games that didn't involve anything fancy, but were fun to play and worked pretty well. With the help of my friend Tia working on the graphics for the games, they turned out pretty nice. My first game, Color Coder, is in the Android Market.

I've since moved on to working with AndEngine in the hopes of making more complicated and visually better games, using crazy new inventions like moving, animated sprites. AndEngine is a great resource for people like me, that enjoy working on things such as game logic, but very much dislike working on low level things like getting sprites to animate properly or having them react to gravity.

The current game I'm working on is a bit like Bejeweled in the fact that tiles will fall and chain with each other in a similar manner, but the game is played in a way that is different enough to set it apart from Bejeweled clones. Its working for the most part as of this post, but I have yet to add scoring or a timer, so right now its an infinite play game with now points. Games don't have a point if they don't have points, so I'll be adding a scoring system later today. The game also isn't much visually since it is currently comprised of sprites and backgrounds made using my awesome MS Paint skills, but the sprites are good enough to tell what you are doing until I can replace them with good looking images. I've already pseudo-coded most of the scoring algorithm, so it should be pretty smooth to add it, and once I put a timer in the game, it will be fully playable though subject to future tweaks.

I'm feeling pretty excited about this game, and really looking forward to working more with AndEngine.