April Progress Report (Growth & Prep)

 

This past week we've welcomed a new member to the scrappy Yotes Games team! 

ConfidentCow will be helping us with graphic design work to take some things off the overwhelming plate that is making this game look nicer.

He's an old friend who's been at this professionally for a few years now, ready to take on something new and exciting in his spare time. A pandemic side-hustle!

@Confident_Cow's gonna help us make trailers, YouTube content, promotional artwork, capture game footage, make a press-friendly website, redesign interfaces, plan out interfaces we haven't made yet, and polish up the attack graphics starting in May once he's all set to pursue his streaming & game development dreams. So give him some love and wish him luck!

Check out more of what we've been up to lately after the break.

Yotes Games Has a Patreon!

Support Battle Gem Ponies on Patreon!

     After tons of internal debating on whether I should do it or not, on a whim, I decided to create a Patreon today. To celebrate being over 150 weeks into development and on the verge of an Alpha build, I wanted to have some sort of morale boosting driving force to push me and the music team through the rest of development. I gotta imagine this is similar to how other devs feel when they launch a crowdfunding campaign. Only this one is entirely optional.

     It took all day to make and I think it turned out pretty nice. Colorful, detailed, yet concise, and with language conveying both lightheartedness and sincerity. Yes... I'm actually pretty proud of this. I just hope it's successful.

     If you could be so inclined, feel free to take a look around and consider becoming a patron to Yotes Games.


     Or just keep an eye out for one of these...

Become a Patron!

Lifespan of Downloadable Games

     My girlfriend bought a Sega Genesis at a retro games shop to replay games from her childhood and we've been playing it all weekend. It reminded me of how good it feels to be able to play something so impactful a decade later and see it in a new light with an older /wiser mind. It got me thinking about how good it would feel to have people going back to play games I've made decades later and remembering how I made their childhood. That's when another thought about permanence came to me.

     With Fish Feaster going away I can easily see Apple or Google just dumping their appstores some time in the distant future for a clean slate, or even closing it off as the appstore of decades X through Y. Do downloadable games have the same literal lifespan of physical console games? I know those can decay slowly over time, but since downloadable games can be stored anywhere and played on anything with the right emulator, do they have more longevity? I wonder if games I make 10 years from now will be remembered 30 years from now...

Trademark Annoyances & Scams

    Ever since registering the trademarks for Yotes Games and it's logo I've been getting a crazy amount of letters asking me to spend $300 - $3000 on their trademark registration services. Those services do nothing to further protect me and I really just dump them in the trash. I know that using a TM in commerce alone is enough to hold up a good case in court and registering the mark beforehand with USPTO makes your argument an open/close case.

     These companies are trying to scare people into thinking without their specific international coverage or inclusion in their databases, you could lose the rights to your words & logos! I seriously get a letter a week from a different company trying to use scary language, tiny text, and government looking symbols. Future game devs beware. Legal stuff isn't as walled-off and scary as some would like you to think.

    I just figured this is something worth sharing that I haven't put as a Lesson Learned in a Status Report yet.

Finding a Conversation Text Box System

     I'm trying to find something that will make RPG-style speech text easy to do (for free or within $20). I can use it for my forensics project and in Unicorn Quest. I haven't finished looking into it yet, but so far Dialoguer does a good job of simplifying branching dialogue trees and NPC Shop, Chat, and Dialogue Framework looks like it will wrap my text according to box size just the way I want it to.

     You know how text boxes in RPGs pop up and letters appear quickly one at a time and can sometimes be colored differently and word-wrapped so they don't go off the edges of the box? I want that.

     It's amazing how so many games have that feature but so few tutorials and programs are available for it. Most things I find are expensive RPG kits or engines with the text thing included. I'm ready to program it myself if it comes to that but if there's a cheap tool out there that does it easily why bother reinventing the wheel? I'll keep searching and experimenting today until I find something that works.

Choosing UQ's Platform

     I chose Android first and foremost because that's where my experience lies. It's the most fun for me to develop for and I feel like the market desperately needs more games with substance like Unicorn Quest. It's also a platform with hundreds of millions of users. I'm hoping a small fraction of that population catches wind of my little game and at least gives the demo a try.

     I'm not releasing on iOS because I don't have a Mac with the latest OS which I need to publish games. That's why DragCore isn't on the iTunes app store. I want to release both DragCore and Unicorn Quest on iOS as soon as I can afford a computer that costs over $1000 (which won't be for a long while). I also have vague dreams of porting Unicorn Quest to Playstation Mobile, Ouya, Desura, and Steam so it can reach as many people as possible. It'll be the same price across all platforms too. No more than $3.

    My focus right now is finishing the game at all. Launching on something like Steam is a project in its own right. I'd need to address the right press, make additional promotional art, and test out literally everything to fix bugs. Once I have a product, I can give it the focused porting and marketing it deserves. That's just the kind of mentality I have. Make the most awesome thing ever, then try to get a reward when it's finished.

     Unity let's me easily build to so many platforms. Why not take advantage of that?

3D Modeling: A Discipline of it's Own

     Having a friend of mine show me what he puts into his 3D modeling projects has shown me what I'll be in for once I start making 3D games. In my 3D modeling class we've used 3DS Max to create simple things like rooms, dressers, and furniture. Another friend warned me that just one modelling class would be nowhere near enough to teach me the basics of everything that goes into making interactive 3D objects for game worlds. I feel like I'd be in over my head with this stuff when I haven't even started on textures, animation, and collision detection yet!

     It seems to me that in order to master this art form I'd need lots of dedicated practice. I don't think I can do that. My plate is full already with all the things I'm balancing. If I ever get into using 3D assets I plan to hire dedicated people to do it. I finally completely understand why it takes a hundred people years to make a game. Right now I intend to learn the concepts and terminology in order to best direct such people. It's a good thing I have a grasp on 2D art and conveying ideas, because I think that will be how I best communicate and illustrate my intentions to a team.

Enemies By Accident (DragCore Design)

    Much like Rockstar accidentally inventing reckless police car chases, I made a feature of my bugs. When trying to get enemy behaviors from the DragCore prototype to work I came across interesting patterns and decided to replace the old features with the happy accidents.

     Orange and green enemies were supposed to dart away when the grid gets close. Now, the green ones only move when the player touches the screen and the orange ones change directions to move toward the player's finger's last position. The way I transitioned from one idea to the other is too complex to explain and I don't really remember the back-and-forth that took place in my head.

   Basically, enemies in the new DragCore are better than they were in the prototype. They are more varied and interesting this time around whereas the old ones felt like clones. When the game is closer to release I'll make a post with details on how each enemy works.

Working on Mach-Arena (The College Project Continues)

     With all the crazy busy things I've been up to I nearly forgot about Mach-Arena until Gaming & Simulation class started! I'll get to work with a team this semester and create a 3D Unity game for the first time. We'll also get to show it off at the big BYOC in May (hopefully) which could be tons of fun.

    This is classwork so development progress is pretty much necessary. Tuesday through Friday I have a video game class at 9:30am and I'll be posting when something particularly interesting happens. Right now things are getting settled and everyone is transitioning into school mode.

     I can't wait to see how everyone's games turn out this year. Last year's Game Maker projects were interesting but poor since none of us new what to do or how to work together. Things are looking a lot better this time though as we all learn from our mistakes.

From Baby Steps to Passion Projects

     I've come a long way. My goal up to now has been to teach myself what it takes to start and finish a  game. One that works well, no game breaking glitches, fun and unique mechanics, appealing graphics and polish, and available on as many mobile devices as possible. I feel that with DragCore, I will finally succeed. I will have a great game out there to point to so I have proof that I'm capable of producing something when I start my ambitious projects.

    All games I make after this have a somewhat ridiculous scope, but they are passion projects I am willing to fight through. I've taken all the baby steps needed to get the skill to pull them off. Now it's a matter of taking this personal final exam (finishing DragCore) and start officially considering myself a competent game developer. One that knows what he's talking about and makes games to get hyped for.

   I have 4 finished games to my name now. I've learned so much about the process since high school and my determination has yet to falter. My next three games are on a much larger scale, likely taking more than half a year each compared to the 2-4 month projects I've been doing so far. Each on of those projects has taught me tons through all the mistakes, process experiments, and discovery of development tricks.

    I've made 3 arcade games, next I'll be doing an RPG, platformer, and another RPG respectively. It makes up for the total of my college career. After those, I'm cast into the "real world" where I have to make a tough decision. Do I give running an indie studio a try, or do I put those dreams aside? I'm depending on my next three titles to tilt my fate toward the former. Excitement is at an all time high as I'm just dying to get started on those games. I'll be done with DragCore by February. It's time for the home stretch!

Don't Sprite Too Hard

     I'm getting better with managing file sizes. I used gigantic sprite sheets for Fish Feaster, taking up many times more memory than I needed to. It's important to keep in mind how you can use scripts to manipulate sprites in order to have variant sizes, change directions, or even alter colors and transparency. The few lines of code you'll need to do that will be much easier on the memory load than countless sprite files way larger than than need to be.

      In the end, your game will run more smoothly, take up less space on users' devices, and make you feel like a game developer who works smarter, not harder. Making so many sprites by hand was my biggest mistake with my first game, and I never made it again. Now I try to find more ways to mess with sprites through code and my future games will be better because of it.

Bite-Sized RPG Gameplay

     Playing the new Zelda on 3DS had me thinking about ways to make a giant RPG adventure feel convenient through bite-sized play. I want to allow players to enjoy short playing sessions, but still be able to experience a giant quest when they have more time. I decided a good way to go about this is by having dungeons in the game separated by room. Each room is it's own big puzzle, and getting to the next room is equivalent to beating a level in a regular mobile game. Something fast and rewarding that saves on completion so you can put the phone away at a moment's notice.

     Pop-in, solve the next room, pop-out just as commercials end. Get on a train, explore the overworld for a bit, level up, get some money, close the game as you arrive at you stop. All without worrying about being too far from save points or losing your place in the middle of a big complex dungeon.

Spreading Out Gushing Posts

     Part of the reason why I started this website was to test things out. To try things I didn't understand and show what makes me a developer. This is one of those times where I learn a lesson about overloading myself. Writing the Gushing About posts takes a big chunk of time and energy. That's stuff that I need to make my games, which are delayed at this time. I want to spread these posts out a bit and start to do them every other week. This way, I don't have to worry about the posts seeming rushed and half-hearted and I get more development time. I'm thinking about just posting some game design advice in it's place instead. I tend to learn something new every week anyway. It would be a better use of time to share a quick tip then get back to work.

     What this really comes down to is time management. I'm working my butt off to get my games off the ground but there are only 24 hours in a day and I spend 8 of hose sleeping. I want my games finished but still want to maintain this site so it's an interesting place to be. So, Gushing About posts are now every other week and every Wednesday without one will have some game development advice in it's place.

So make sure to be here next week, because I'll be gushing about Banjo-Tooie.

Being More Social

     Social networking involves a lot of socializing, not just throwing up links and ads. I've been more active on Twitter in the past few weeks and the results speak for themselves. I went from 150 followers  (3 months on Twitter) to over 350 in two days. Surprisingly, it wasn't from follow backs. Most of my followers reacted to my comments and discovered me that way. I'm far from famous though, so don't think of me as some Social Media Master. These are just techniques I'm trying out to see if they work in my favor.

How Much Beta Testing Will My RPG Need?

     Lately, I've been considering just how much beta testing my RPG will need. I want to have plenty of time to iron out any bugs and tweak gameplay for this thing I'm placing everything I have on. I want to do a 100 day launch countdown too, releasing more info each day and posting videos every tenth day. It seems like a good way to get the word out once I've completely finished it. Having buildup like that will also give me spare time to make minor fixes (if necessary), and reach as many press contacts as possible.

    I know that all games should be given this much attention to do well, but my RPG seems to be the one best suited for a hardcore audience wanting to check up on a game's development every day or so.

Merry Christmas!! (2013)

     It's Christmas Day, which is a time to relax and enjoy time with family, festivities, and feasts. I really shouldn't be the only one taking it easy today either. No go have fun today! There are families to hug, presents to open, things to watch, presents to open, games to play, and a world that is in slightly higher spirits for just one day.

     More Game Dev tomorrow.

Winter Break Routine

    I'm on a development routine now, wake up around 10, breakfast, manage web stuff (blog, emails, marketplaces, social media), eat lunch, work on DragCore and fix any web stuff problems, eat dinner (sometimes reading Gamasutra), continue working on DragCore 12AM, workout (20 mins), shower, play Zelda, sleep. That's everyday and it keeps me busy. at this rate DragCore will get finished on time. My parents are very respectful of my work now so I'm hardly ever interrupted. They even handle the chores I used to do and tell me to get back to work. What you see in the image above is where I spend my day. 

    I miss having a desk at school, but my bed will do for now. Laying down all day gets cramped so I got a folding chair so I could use my bed as a desk. I hunch a bit to reach anything, but it works. I put my laptop on interchanging books so nothing sets on fire and I put my backup harddrive next to it. It's a comfy setup but the real workstation is my laptop itself. Now, it's back to work for me. School starts January 13th.

TriGrid's Lost Features

     A few features got cut from TriGrid during development. There were going to be 100 challenges instead of 60, but I made the level select sprites 3x4 instead of 5x4 and didn't want to change them all. The purple triangles would originally cling to walls but that behavior led to constant errors so I reverted them to behaving like yellows that turn more frequently and never changed them back.

     Every time the player moved, the blue arrows where going to move one space in the opposite direction. That led to problems in the level design though. Sometimes it was just impossible to catch one from behind and it basically destroyed all hope of beating a level within a time limit.

     When I came up with shooter mode I debated making that the primary game and having Challenge mode be a bonus, but I decided that Shooter was simpler and felt like a worthy award for mastering all the challenges (it also made a compelling in-app purchase). I also had multiple pages of text in the tutorial menu but shortened them to one sentence when I noticed most test players skipping the instructions completely.

     Things don't always go as planned and problems arise during development sometimes. It's up to you as a developer to adapt and evolve the game to overcome these obstacles. I'm happy with the way TriGrid turned out.

Samsung Seller Office Problems

      I'm getting all kinds of errors when trying to put my games on the Samsung Seller Office. My 100% Indie Account sends me broken emails and app submissions are closing in a week. It's way too close to the holiday rush to even bother with this stuff. I'm just going to wait for my new 100% Indie Account to go through and try again when DragCore is done.

      Sure, I'll miss the holiday rush but Samsung devices can still get to Google Play. The only advantage I'm missing is exposure on the Samsung marketplace and I'm pretty sure TriGrid and Candy Shop Catch won't be on the top of the "holiday must have" list.

      I'll be on top of things later, I'll be trying crazy hard to get my platformer (coming after the board game) featured during the holiday rush just to know what it's like. If anyone else is on Samsung's 100% Indie campaign, I could totally use some insider tips on how this all works. All I know so far is what I could find when looking around on their website.

Other Indies

     I've been listening to indie game dev podcasts for years now but thee topics feel more relatable than ever. Once you get a grasp on Unity and releasing projects the things that once seemed out of your league are not so mysterious and unattainable anymore. While I haven't been able to get much work done lately, I have been listening to the words of wisdom from others to get me through the mountains of schoolwork.

     There is something really reassuring about hearing people doing the same thing as you fighting just as hard. Plenty of people are working jobs they hate for little money and taking whatever hours are left in the day to work on game projects they love. That story never gets old. I just really wish I knew people like that in person. Pretty ironic since I attend a school with a game development major. I'd like to do something to meet developers and talk face-to-face.

     I'd like to attend PAX East next year or the year after, just to get a feel for it. I think I'd be good to go as a guest before attending with my own panel. I'd see cool things, meet people, and just open up some good opportunities. Especially if I let people know what I'm all about.