Status Report #49 (Research, Blog Plans, & Invisible Walls)

     The big change this week is my new plans for Yotes Games in 2015. New site look, bi-weekly posts, and updates on my most important game ever. I need to change up the way I do things because day-to-day happenings can be pretty dull when there's nothing tangible to show. Games are also more prone to hype when you don't know every last detail about them.

     A lot of things happened this week and I learned a ton of stuff dev-wise. Catch this week's wisdom review below!

   Completed:

• All Walls/Doors On Outdoor Maps
• Object Prefabs & Empty Scripts For Remaining Assets
• Potential Alternative For Dig Minigame (Just Get the Items From The Wall Like Chests)
• Lowered Enemy Spawn Positions to 8 For Better Placement
• There Can Be 2-4 Waves of Enemies Each Battle
• New Plans For Yotes Games Website
• Discovered Screenshot Scrutiny on Indie Statik via Bobby Schroeder

     Lessons Learned:

• I Found Redundancy In My Door Script. I List Region & Specify Room Type Which Should Both Be The Same Variable To Avoid Mistakes.
• Temporary Prefabs Are Great For Non-Tile Based Level Building.
• Unity Allows You to Copy/Paste Component Values. A Useful Trick I Should Have Used.
• Even When You're Ready To Go Big, Keep It Short. You Don't Want To Outgrow Your Practice Project. (I Feel I Am Capable Of More Than What Unicorn Training Shows.)
• I Learned Quite a Bit From Following Developers Making Similar Games
• I Really Miss College. Everything Except the Classes.

     I finally found a use for those giant chests! I'll put those in dungeons because they fit the tile size so perfectly. I'll use the smaller chests for outside places.

     When it comes to grinding stuff out I found that it takes a couple minutes to get into a groove and streamline things before it becomes as efficient as possible and I just zone out and do it. I like to listen to podcasts to keep me laughing and alert but I make sure they're audio only so I focus my eyes on work. The internet is very attractive in times of boredom so workers beware...

    I did some research this week on Pokemon-style RPGs on mobile devices. I've seen a lot and I'm have yet to see one with a soul of it's own, where the connection to Pokemon is more a mechanical coincidence rather than a "collect them all" exploit. One that stood out was Micromon which is in a hype frenzy right now as their release date hit this week. I took the time to look through their stuff and read their comments and forum posts.

     By learning what their followers act like, how they respond to them, what content they post, and when content is posted I can better prepare myself for when I make my Mobile Class RPG Project. If they can reach over 50,000 Facebook likes, so can I. I see this game not as competition, but as something to learn from. As if they are testing the waters or warming up the market for me.
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   Downloads:

   I noticed a lot of days this week where Feed The Plant was downloaded twice. I find it amazing to see that 2 new people manage to find it each day and give it a try. Seeing Micromon climb the charts makes me daydream about launch day for my future titles. Thousands of people eagerly awaiting the first opportunity to play an experience I crafted myself. That many people enjoying my labor of love, and the sweet payoff of the first Apple/Google payment that gives me the funding to keep living and do it all over again. I want that.

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     An aesthetic change was made to the boss doors in the way they open. Because all the other dungeon doors open via stepping switches I wanted the boss door to match. Originally you would have gotten a big boss key front a giant chest that would open the door when you approached it, but this way would be simpler, faster, and match the rest of the game. It'll still maintain the anticipation of approaching the big chest after passing the big door with a skull on it.

Doing these for all the rooms was a pain.

     I seriously am dying to get started on my class project but that is a semester away from now. The most time consuming part of Unicorn Training is done and I simply have to power through the rest. I'll be done by September and finally have an RPG to my name.