Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training [Now Available on iOS!]

     The day has finally come! Unicorn Training is available for iOS devices! For just $1 you get 9 action-packed dungeons and a monster-filled forest overworld to explore! Level up and learn magical spells to blast away any evil creatures that stand in your path to greatness!

     It feels great to finally have my first real game out there for everyone to try. Fans of ponies and action RPGs in general will certainly be getting their money's worth. If you want to try before you buy, a free demo version is available with the entire first dungeon and boss fight. Every download goes toward making my next game even better, so be sure to leave a review and tell me what you think. This is just the beginning of a wonderful series.

Watch the Trailer.

Download on the App Store.
Or Try the Demo.

The Android versions are also available on Amazon and Google Play.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #16 (Milestone Complete!)

     The BYOC is finally over! I can take my foot off the crunch time pedal. Long story short, I lost the contest and hosted it poorly, but finally got a playable version of BGP in people's hands and made some friends. My game needs a lot more love before I can go around flaunting it, but I'll worry more about that once I catch up on schoolwork in prep for finals week next month.

Get some elaboration below the break, including a link to the BYOC Build video on YouTube.

BGP Demo Release Plans

     With the BYOC demo on the way I got to thinking about all the heck I'm in for as I work day and night to get this game out before the holidays. It's going to be one very busy summer. I just wanted to share what's to come playtest-wise.

Below the break you'll find my release plans for upcoming demos and the game's potential release date. Be warned! Things can change if big problems emerge.

Join Yotes Games on Google Groups For Early Access!

     I was inspired by this Gamasutra article to get serious about using Google Groups for public testing. It may not be useful at the moment but having a playtest group / forum ready to go will benefit me in the long run. My upcoming game will be pretty community dependent as I try to make a competitive turn-based RPG. I'll need hundreds of Alpha and Beta testers to get it just right. Having tons of people involved in testing will help out marketing wise too as people spread the word.

     If I ever release a public demo or give out early access codes, it's going to be to people in one of these groups. Yotes Games Exclusive will be for the few I choose to help me find things like game breaking bugs or play through spoiler filled story moments that I don't want the public to see. Yotes Games Playtest will be wide open for anyone to find, share, and post to. This is where I can get feedback on balancing and what people like, dislike, or get confused about. This would be the stable build I push onto YouTubers who want to play an early version of the game.

If you want access to public playtest builds of my future android games, participate in exclusive download code giveaways, or post on a forum that I will read regularly:

Join the Google Group: Yotes Games!

Unicorn Training is Available NOW!!

     It's finally here! Unicorn Training is up on Google Play (and so is the free version!). If you don't believe me, check out the games tab or the header icons on yotesgames.com! The full version costs $1 and profits will help me buy a Mac so I can port to iOS someday. Thanks to everyone who kept this project alive by following my disorderly antics and boosted my morale enough to continue working even when I felt like just dropping everything and moving on.

Now enjoy that game I promised!

Go Download It Now!

RIP Fish Feaster...

     My iOS Developer's license has expired and Fish Feaster, along with Fish Feaster Free and TriGrid, have been removed from the app store. Fish Feaster was my first game to reach over 500 downloads, a number only surpassed by Feed The Plant. Most of my games only have around 200 downloads to date. Thanks to anyone who has downloaded my first video game ever. It holds a special place in my heart as the game that got me on the right track of just finishing something for once.

     It may return once I get a new dev license, but that won't be until I make enough money to buy a Mac computer. This is also why Unicorn Training will only be available on Android for a while. My heart goes out to any iOS players following me, and I hope to have my games available for you all to play someday soon.

It died at around 725 total downloads over about 15 months.

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

Disappearing iOS Apps Reminder!

     On September 24th my iOS games will be pulled from the appstore! If you're curious about my first completed game project, Fish Feaster, this will be your last chance to get it! I know I'll be treasuring my app data for it as a reminder of how far I've come and how much I was able to accomplish even back then. I'll never forget the feeling of seeing my first game ever listed next to all the other official games that I once considered impossible for a novice like me to make.

    I've been Mac-less for what feels like a year now and it looks like Apple has changed a lot of things on the developer's side. Hopefully they make things easier/approachable the way Google does by the time I get another Mac so I can publish games for iOS faster next year. It's a shame I can't really show the PCT GameDevs how all the iTunes Connect stuff works from the inside. I guess I'll just save it for another time. It may even be easier to explain if the process gets more straightforward anytime soon.

My Candy Catch test app vanished when I moved data to my new iPod.
It no longer exists on iOS in a playable form.

iOS Games Disappearing (For Real This Time)

Last chance to get my iOS games like Fish Feaster!

     I thought I already went through this a long while back but noticed something was off when I still had Fish Feaster Free downloads throughout the next few weeks after my expiration date. Now I remember the extension I got during a time last year when Apple's Development Portal had issues and blocked lots of developers out. To make up for it, Apple added some time to people's dev licenses. Apple requires $100 a year to keep your games on the app store and publish new ones. If people already downloaded them, they won't disappear, but there won't be any patches coming.

    That extra time helped me get my first game to a few more people so I'm grateful for that. Now it's time to watch them go again. I still have my apps on my iPod and I have the dev files on a hard drive so they won't really be gone forever. I'm just thinking now is a good time to get ready to pull my stuff down and prepare for a new age of quality control. My old works will always exist in the Games Page but as new releases come I'd like to start marking off the practice games. I want to be known for the RPGs to come, not the amateur arcade stuff. Once the app icons at the top of my blog fill up I'll be putting only my most popular games there. Apps that get taken down will just redirect to the Games Page.

Found Extra App Stores

     Gamasutra always has something new to show me and my latest discovery is this handy list of other appstores I can put my games on. I've only used Samsung, Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes so far. If my experience on Samsung proves anything, getting featured on a less crowded appstore can go really well. Even if only 15K people use a particular store, that's 15K people who didn't know about my games.

   I'll wait until Unicorn Training is done and in that break time between school semesters I can put all my other apps everywhere at once. Just in time for the holidays. I don't really feel like spending a whole day preparing for these markets just yet. I'd feel better if my first RPG went up when I join this new network. I'm not expecting any revenue from the things I have so far anyway.

Status Report #37

     School is finally over. I can hardly believe it. Just two more years and I'll have a lot of time to make whatever games I want and live in a place where I make the rules. I'm getting a taste of freedom now by having the first ever summer where I focus solely on making a game. No part-time jobs this year. I will be focusing purely on creating Unicorn Quest!

The End of Spring 2014 Semester status report is after the jump.

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.

DragCore is Available on Google Play and Amazon Apps!

     It's been a long time since I started this thing. Way back in 11th grade I thought this would be a nice, simple project that would let me prove to myself that I can make a complete game. It accomplished it's goal but it was far from easy. I'd say it's my best game yet, at least on par with TriGrid.

     All the last minute changes ended up being the error causing add-ons so I simply removed them. The in-app purchases and Game Services are gone, leaving the game simple and pure. Just a fun and free game to play on your phone. It's nice having 4 games under my belt now, a nice portfolio and proof of tenacity.

     DragCore can be found on Google Play today and Amazon Apps on March 6th so go and give it a try if you're curious. You can watch the trailer for it on YouTube too. It's fast-paced action with kamikaze aliens and electric dragboxes. That's a pretty cool concept when you think about it. Give it a try today!
    And good luck to anyone who can beat green and black enemies on the hardest difficulty!

TriGrid Available on iOS!

     Well this came as a surprise. After a bundle of patches and rejections, TriGrid was finally accepted and put on the app store. I had to strip out ads and in-app purchases to make it work, but it's out now for all to see. It's good to have an extra something alongside Fish Feaster in the market for people to play. Check it out here to see for yourself!

Candy Shop Catch is Now Available!!

     Candy Shop Catch is finally available for Android today! Pick it up on Google Play!

     This is definitely my best game yet and I couldn't be any more proud of it. I accomplished everything I set out to do with it and now have something to show to anyone and have them pick-up and play. Try it out for yourself right now and see what I've been working on for the last five weeks!

Play Candy Shop Catch Now!

The iOS version is on it's way, just going through Apple's review process. Hopefully it won't run into the same issues TriGrid had.

Fish Feaster Free Update 1.5: Now With Ads

     My first game now has working ads in it, courtesy of Google's AdMob service. Now my only game as of today with 500+ downloads will be at least microscopically profitable. It looks pretty good. Putting it into Xcode through Cocos2d was a bit of a pain but it turned out well in the end and only took a couple days. From now on, all this stuff will be handled by Unity and the AdMob plugins I got from Plato Evolved.

TriGrid Now Available on Android

 It's finally done! TriGrid is now available on Android! The iOS version is coming soon too, once it's been reviewed. Just search for it in Google Play to see what I've spent all summer tinkering with. TriGrid is definitely my best game yet and I hope you have as much fun with it as I did. Actually, I hope everyone enjoys it more than that! Find it here! Play on! And tell me what you think! Feedback, positive or negative, will only make my future games better.

Android Only: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yotesgames.trigrid