Still haven't been working on anything terribly exciting, but we have had a couple cool developments. First of all, Andrew has made some music for color coder and for two of our other puzzle games in development. They all sound really good and he has made them so they loop really well. Now that Color Coder has music in it, there's not much else left to do before we release a new update with Scoreloop in it.
Speaking of Scoreloop, I've been playing around with achievements in a different game. The Scoreloop achievement setup is actually pretty cool. Right now I have a couple of them set up so that they are earned simply by playing games. For example, one achievement is awarded when the player has played 100 games and on the Scoreloop award page it has a progress bar that fills up the more you play. When you do manage to earn it, a little popup will appear on the screen to inform you of the achievement. It is pretty cool, and I'll definitely be using it more in the future.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
More Documenting and More IDEs
Haven't been working on any projects as of late. I finished inline documentation of my second project and have moved on to the third. The third one is my biggest project to date, so it is going to take a while to get it all commented. Luckily, I already commented some of the major parts of it while I was coding it, so that is nice. I'm pretty happy with the inline comments so far. I can easily give it a quick read and right away understand what is going on, which is pretty much the only goal of commenting.
In addition, I've also been trying to get the Eclipse IDE installed on my laptop, which has been a time consuming pain. It has been problematic for two main reasons: 1) My laptop is like 5 or 6 years old and 2) Eclipse is still a pain to get installed. At one point I was using the SDK Manager to get things updated and it kept stopping at a certain point saying that it couldn't update a folder because it was in use. After trying for a while to figure out what other programs I had running and close them down to free up the folder, I came to find out that the SDK Manager itself was what was using the folder. Several hours later, I got everything sorted (for the most part) and Eclipse is now useable on my laptop, although I still need to get some things with AndEngine set up on there as well if I want to play around with that at all.
In addition, I've also been trying to get the Eclipse IDE installed on my laptop, which has been a time consuming pain. It has been problematic for two main reasons: 1) My laptop is like 5 or 6 years old and 2) Eclipse is still a pain to get installed. At one point I was using the SDK Manager to get things updated and it kept stopping at a certain point saying that it couldn't update a folder because it was in use. After trying for a while to figure out what other programs I had running and close them down to free up the folder, I came to find out that the SDK Manager itself was what was using the folder. Several hours later, I got everything sorted (for the most part) and Eclipse is now useable on my laptop, although I still need to get some things with AndEngine set up on there as well if I want to play around with that at all.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Inline Documentation and a New IDE
It hasn't been an exciting couple of days for my development projects. I decided that I've been working on so many different projects recently that it was probably a good idea to take a step back and actually get them documented. I commented all the activities involved in Color Coder. Previously it was just the main game activity that was commented. Then I started in on a couple other activities from other games I'm working on. I've still got a lot to go. I think it is a smart idea to comment all this stuff now while I remember it, just in case I come back to it later for upgrades or additions I'll be able to tell what I was doing when I first wrote it.
In addition to the commenting, I decided it would probably be good to upgrade my Eclipse IDE. I was using Galileo before, but after today I'm using Indigo, which is presumably better. I don't see that much of a difference though. The layout is pretty much the same but LogCat is a little bit different looking. I've also seen a couple changes to some of the drop down menus, but overall it seems to work out the same. Still it seems like it'll probably be worth it. I did run in to some issues though. I used the same workspace that I was previously using, which I guess can cause some problems. Long story short, it broke several of my projects. Luckily I remembered to back my projects up right before I set up the new IDE and fixing them was just a simple matter of replacing them with the backups. Of course Scoreloop gave me a bunch of issues and that took me a while to get figured, but it all ended up working out all right.
Now I'll probably be back to commenting for the next couple days. Its a little tedious and boring but having good inline documentation is always a good idea. Can't say I'm looking forward to it though. I have three more projects I need to get commented, so this could take a while.
In addition to the commenting, I decided it would probably be good to upgrade my Eclipse IDE. I was using Galileo before, but after today I'm using Indigo, which is presumably better. I don't see that much of a difference though. The layout is pretty much the same but LogCat is a little bit different looking. I've also seen a couple changes to some of the drop down menus, but overall it seems to work out the same. Still it seems like it'll probably be worth it. I did run in to some issues though. I used the same workspace that I was previously using, which I guess can cause some problems. Long story short, it broke several of my projects. Luckily I remembered to back my projects up right before I set up the new IDE and fixing them was just a simple matter of replacing them with the backups. Of course Scoreloop gave me a bunch of issues and that took me a while to get figured, but it all ended up working out all right.
Now I'll probably be back to commenting for the next couple days. Its a little tedious and boring but having good inline documentation is always a good idea. Can't say I'm looking forward to it though. I have three more projects I need to get commented, so this could take a while.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Carnival Game Menus
Yesterday I added a couple menus to my carnival game that have really improved its playability. First, I added a large start button to the game when it first starts. Clicking it removes the button and, obviously, starts the game. Before, the game just started when the activity loaded up and the player really had no time to get ready. Now they can start the game when they please. The second menu addition I've made is a Reset/Quit menu that pops up when you click the back or menu buttons when the game is active. The options do exactly what they say. The reset button simply restarts the game, bringing up the start button again, and setting the game back up to be played. The quit option brings the user back to the game select screen.
Next I plan to start doing some high score saving. I don't expect the saving part to be hard, but I also want a menu type screen to pop up telling people what their end score was and if it is a new high score or not. I also want to display those high scores somewhere on the game selection screen. I'm not really sure where to put those scores though. I'll be playing around with that a bit, trying to determine the best place to put those scores. Then its on to the settings page, help page, and a main menu page where you get access to all these things.
Next I plan to start doing some high score saving. I don't expect the saving part to be hard, but I also want a menu type screen to pop up telling people what their end score was and if it is a new high score or not. I also want to display those high scores somewhere on the game selection screen. I'm not really sure where to put those scores though. I'll be playing around with that a bit, trying to determine the best place to put those scores. Then its on to the settings page, help page, and a main menu page where you get access to all these things.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The 4th Mini-Game
Didn't really work on anything yesterday. Somewhere nearby there was a car accident and one of the vehicles ended up hitting a power pole, apparently causing it to catch on fire, so I had no power for several hours yesterday. Prior to and following the power outage I didn't really work on anything worth mentioning. The day before, however, I managed to complete the fourth and, for now, final mini-game of my carnival game pack.
The new mini-game is a whack-a-mole game that I have called "Tap-A-Mole". It turned out really well and its actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The screen consists of a series of mole hills. Every second, moles randomly pop up from the mole hills, pause for a bit, then duck back into their holes. If the player touches a mole, it is replaced with a colorful flashing star to show that they touched it, and the player is awarded 10 points. If the mole manages to duck back into their hole without being tapped, a chat bubble saying "Missed Me!" appears over the whole. The player has 60 seconds to tap as many moles as they can. In easy mode, two moles pop up every second. In hard mode, 3 moles pop up every second, and they pause for a shorter time before ducking back into their holes. Since the games last for 60 seconds and hard mode pops up three moles a second instead of easy mode's two, it is possible to get a higher score in hard mode than in easy mode.
Now that this mini-game is pretty much finished, I need to start working on some of the more basic stuff: reset menus, high score displays, a settings page, etc. I'll be working on that and my maze game on and off.
The new mini-game is a whack-a-mole game that I have called "Tap-A-Mole". It turned out really well and its actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The screen consists of a series of mole hills. Every second, moles randomly pop up from the mole hills, pause for a bit, then duck back into their holes. If the player touches a mole, it is replaced with a colorful flashing star to show that they touched it, and the player is awarded 10 points. If the mole manages to duck back into their hole without being tapped, a chat bubble saying "Missed Me!" appears over the whole. The player has 60 seconds to tap as many moles as they can. In easy mode, two moles pop up every second. In hard mode, 3 moles pop up every second, and they pause for a shorter time before ducking back into their holes. Since the games last for 60 seconds and hard mode pops up three moles a second instead of easy mode's two, it is possible to get a higher score in hard mode than in easy mode.
Now that this mini-game is pretty much finished, I need to start working on some of the more basic stuff: reset menus, high score displays, a settings page, etc. I'll be working on that and my maze game on and off.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Pachinko and Hard Modes
For the last few days I've been working on the third mini-game for my carnival pack. I'm particularly fond of this one. Its based on those horse racing carnival games where the player rolls a ball up a ramp and scores points when the ball falls through differently marked holes at the end of the ramp. The player's horse moves based on how many points the player scores, and somebody wins when their horse makes it to the finish line.
I've made a similar game. Instead of having the player roll a ball up a ramp, I have the player drop a puck in to a Pachinko type board. It bounces down through some pegs and a bumper that is moving back and forth. Eventually, the puck falls in to one of nine slots and the player gets points based on which slot. The points (ranging from 5 to 20) cause a rocket on the left of the screen to move up towards a finish line in a fashion very similar to that of one of the horses from the carnival games. In my game, the player plays against two computer opponents. They don't have their own Pachinko boards, but every once in a while, based on a stopwatch, the computer opponents are randomly awarded one of the same point values the player can get. So the player has to race the other two rockets to the finish line.
In addition to the new mini-game, I also added hard modes to the new and previous games. In the basket catch game I simply increased the gravity so the balls fall faster. In the juggling game I added two more balls for the player to juggle, making the total five. It gets really hard to keep them all from falling off the screen when they are all bouncing off each other. For the hard mode of the rocket race game, I made the computer opponents score at a slightly increased rate (something like 1 or 2 times more per minute). That alone didn't feel like enough so I also switch the probabilities of scoring 5 points or 10 points. Now, in hard mode, the computer opponents have a 4/9 chance of getting 10 points and a 2/9 chance of getting 5 points (instead of the other way around like in easy mode).
One more mini game left and I'll only have the finishing touches and settings pages to add. Right now I have instructional Toast messages popping up when a game is loaded that tell the player how to play, but I'll probably replace those with a "How To Play" type page where you get instructions on each game mode. I also need to get the scoring and stuff set up as I plan to add Scoreloop to the game.
I've made a similar game. Instead of having the player roll a ball up a ramp, I have the player drop a puck in to a Pachinko type board. It bounces down through some pegs and a bumper that is moving back and forth. Eventually, the puck falls in to one of nine slots and the player gets points based on which slot. The points (ranging from 5 to 20) cause a rocket on the left of the screen to move up towards a finish line in a fashion very similar to that of one of the horses from the carnival games. In my game, the player plays against two computer opponents. They don't have their own Pachinko boards, but every once in a while, based on a stopwatch, the computer opponents are randomly awarded one of the same point values the player can get. So the player has to race the other two rockets to the finish line.
In addition to the new mini-game, I also added hard modes to the new and previous games. In the basket catch game I simply increased the gravity so the balls fall faster. In the juggling game I added two more balls for the player to juggle, making the total five. It gets really hard to keep them all from falling off the screen when they are all bouncing off each other. For the hard mode of the rocket race game, I made the computer opponents score at a slightly increased rate (something like 1 or 2 times more per minute). That alone didn't feel like enough so I also switch the probabilities of scoring 5 points or 10 points. Now, in hard mode, the computer opponents have a 4/9 chance of getting 10 points and a 2/9 chance of getting 5 points (instead of the other way around like in easy mode).
One more mini game left and I'll only have the finishing touches and settings pages to add. Right now I have instructional Toast messages popping up when a game is loaded that tell the player how to play, but I'll probably replace those with a "How To Play" type page where you get instructions on each game mode. I also need to get the scoring and stuff set up as I plan to add Scoreloop to the game.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Mini Games and Finishing Touches
Yesterday I wrote another mini-game for my Carnival themed game pack. This one has the player drag a basket back and forth across the bottom of the screen to catch balls that spawn at the top of the screen. I need to do a little bit more work on it, but then I need to work on the other mini-game a bit too. Right now the game ends after a single ball is missed, but want to make it so that it ends when a total of 3 balls are missed. I used the AndEngine physics stuff and it resulted in the balls being spawned going different speeds and sometimes having a little horizontal momentum as well. Making a hard mode should be as easy as increasing the gravity affecting the balls so they fall faster.
I spent some time adding some finishing touches to my Deep Sea Trapper game. Getting music ready, switching the sounds over to using SoundPool instead of MediaPlayer, centering the settings page, etc. I also set up the Previous and Next buttons on the "How to Play" page to be actual images instead of the default Android buttons I was using before, so now they will fit with the artistic theme when its all finished. So, now I think the full version of Deep Sea Trapper is all ready to go once some better graphics and the audio aspects are added, barring any additions I decide to make.
After I was done setting up all the Deep Sea Trapper stuff, I went back to working on my carnival game pack. I didn't start messing with a new mini-game, but I think I've decided what the other two games are going to be. Anyway, the part I worked on today was the game selection screen. I'm pretty happy with how I have it set up. I have one big animated sprite that will eventually have animations of the 4 different games on it. The user swipes the image to page left and right through the games and the sprite slides over to the next choice. On the bottom of the screen there is a Easy and Hard button (each mode will have an easy and a hard mode) that the user presses to start the game. I also plan to add some text that shows the high score for each mode. Again, I'm pretty happy with how the menu page turned out. Its working exactly how I envisioned it would.
I spent some time adding some finishing touches to my Deep Sea Trapper game. Getting music ready, switching the sounds over to using SoundPool instead of MediaPlayer, centering the settings page, etc. I also set up the Previous and Next buttons on the "How to Play" page to be actual images instead of the default Android buttons I was using before, so now they will fit with the artistic theme when its all finished. So, now I think the full version of Deep Sea Trapper is all ready to go once some better graphics and the audio aspects are added, barring any additions I decide to make.
After I was done setting up all the Deep Sea Trapper stuff, I went back to working on my carnival game pack. I didn't start messing with a new mini-game, but I think I've decided what the other two games are going to be. Anyway, the part I worked on today was the game selection screen. I'm pretty happy with how I have it set up. I have one big animated sprite that will eventually have animations of the 4 different games on it. The user swipes the image to page left and right through the games and the sprite slides over to the next choice. On the bottom of the screen there is a Easy and Hard button (each mode will have an easy and a hard mode) that the user presses to start the game. I also plan to add some text that shows the high score for each mode. Again, I'm pretty happy with how the menu page turned out. Its working exactly how I envisioned it would.
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