Status Report #18

     So... So many bugs... The Unity update complicated things to a point where every bug is a nightmare that takes about 5 times longer to solve. Testing solutions means either building to the device or restarting Unity and reimporting 2D Toolkit. I sent some error reports and hope there is a solution on the way. It's all I can do really. Despite the major setbacks, some things got done. I'm still hoping to have DragCore done early in the month. There may not be released until February at this rate though.

Here is this week's Status Report:

   Completed:

• Coded Main Menu
• Coded Challenge Menu
• Coded Crystal Shop Menu
• Game Can Go to Gameplay Screen, and Exit to Main Menu

       I just wanted to get something up where I can get to the actual game in a flashy way from the main menu for when I'm testing on the device. Problem after problem kept pooping up when I coded the menus though. For most bugs I didn't have any clues to go on because I can't use the console window in Unity anymore. Even now, there are some small bugs I'll need to fix but for now, I want a game loop working. Maybe seeing my game in action will boost morale enough to overcome these annoyances.

     Two days were spent on fixing a simple misspelling that caused a huge series of bugs. In the updated 2D Toolkit, the classes of AnimatedSprite and SpriteAnimation were replaced with SpriteAnimator and I had no way to know what went wrong without my console window. It turns out the tutorial pages I bookmarked were outdated. So I saved new ones and learned a new lesson. Always check for updates, and when there is one, check for updated tutorials.

     As for the February delay, I'm not too worried for lost downloads. DragCore is a free game anyway and gives people time to play other games then come looking for something new & free to play. It will be a smaller number of people, but I wasn't expecting thousands of month one downloads anyway. I really just want a very nice looking game out there. One with in-app purchases that are tempting and gameplay no one has seen before.

   Downloads:

   Nothing extraordinary here, as always. I am happy to see Amazon working just fine tough. I also changed my Apple ID so I stopped getting reports from there a few days ago. It'll be working again by next week though.

   Revenue:

     I'm going to need music and sound effects eventually, but I'm using placeholders from TriGrid for now. I'm also finished A Link Between Worlds and it was magnificent. One of my favorites in the series. I've taken tons of notes on the little things that make the game so marvelous. I really feel like my RPG is going to be much better now that I took a look at some expert game design language and things. I plan to save the Hero Quest for later. It may be good to replay the game when I'm actually working on my RPG rather than right now when it's still fresh in mind.