Battle Gem Ponies: Aqua Class Moves

     Water is everywhere. The Pinto region even rests along the Sapphire Sea. In that very sea you'll find plenty of seaponies that are masters of the moves being listed today.

Check out some killer Aqua Attacks below!

Web Versions of My Unity Games

     I made a couple of my games playable on the web as html games. My teacher wanted to play my Phoenix Wright game and told me that the exe file I linked on my Games tab wasn't working. She suggesting making a web version so I made a new build in Unity and tried it out. I also did Feed The Plant that way like I intended a while back. I ran into problems with making it playable on the site before so I made a ZIP file this time so people can download and run it that way. The only downside to running these on the web is the little Unity icon in the corner that slides in when the game starts. It's not too annoying, but something to keep in mind.

     You can try them out yourself here: Feed The Plant and Phoenix Wright

Lessons Learned From Feed The Plant

     Taking the detour of quickly making my spin on Flappy Bird was a very refreshing and fun experience. It's rewarding having a fun and simple game out there. It's a favorite among the people who normally playtest my games. I've proven to myself that if I were to make another arcade style game, simplification is the way to go. Feed The Plant was my chance to limit myself to a small game with no progression features or plug-in integration I wasn't comfortable with.

      It's pick-up and play nature has given me further insight into the bite-sized nature I have in mind for my future RPGs. Alongside that I learned a thing or two about shrinking my game file sizes, I practiced spriting to the point were I feel like I can draw anything, and I figured out an interesting bit about making app icons.

Have a postmortem-ish breakdown below.

Status Report #31

     Big things happening all week! It's been one of the busiest weeks of my life so far with an entire game being made, lessons learned, research done, and connections made. Nothing happened for Unicorn Quest other than a tweaked idea for combat, but a lot of things happened for Yotes Games as a whole.

     Today I'm attending my college's open house to help inspire freshman and convince parents that game development is in fact a legitimate job. I also had a change of plans and won't be attending summer school like I intended which may lead to Unicorn Quest having an early release.

Check out the Status Report below!

Feed The Plant is on Google Play!

     Feed The Plant (my 2 day challenge) is now available on the Google Play app store! Judging by Candy Shop Catch I can see this game doing well over time. It may even be able to entertain hundreds of people who never heard of me before and get them to try my other games.

Download it on Google Play for Free Today!

     It's coming to Amazon and Samsung too soon. Their review processes take longer than Google's so don't expect anything until next week. This will also be the first game I put on the Samsung market, opening up that door for me later.

      I had a lot of fun doing this and am glad I went through with the challenge. Now I can get back to Unicorn Quest with more confidence and experience than before.

2 Day Simple Game Challenge

Presenting Feed The Plant! The shortest and simplest game I've ever made.

     Flappy Bird is an example of how far a simple game can go. Naturally after a hit like that there are hundreds of imitations. I hear about 60 clones being uploaded a day and scoffed at the idea of joining the frenzy. Countless times I hear "Hey Yotes, why don't you make a game like Flappy Bird?" and just roll my eyes. But then I got to thinking...

     Everyone is rushing for the leftovers of Flappy Bird's explosion, but they all upload the same game. They could at least try playing with the mechanics instead of swapping the sprites. What if there was only one set of pipes and multiple birds pass through it? What if they got eaten by a monster on their way through? What if you wanted that to happen? And after a doodle of a piranha plant eating bird on a note card I got serious.

     I was curious about my ability as a game developer. I see game jams all the time and wonder how people turn things out so quickly. My smallest and fastest project was Candy Shop Catch and even that took over a month. I feel like I could make a game quickly using everything I've learned so far, but is there any proof? I also found the idea of making a Flappy Bird game in under a week to be a great test for myself and a morale booster for spending the rest of the year on Unicorn Quest.

     As I'm typing this I have the finished game running in Unity and my phone. I'm working on promotional materials tonight so I can upload it to Google Play and post a video of it tomorrow.