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.

Unicorn Training Enemies: Flapwick & Psybat

     Flapwicks are big ol' Zubat looking monsters that fly around and pause to screech every couple seconds. Every third screech has a slightly bigger hitbox than normal but all screeches do the same damage. Hitting a Flapwick makes it alternate between moving horizontally or vertically. Like spinners, these were meant to wander freely but I'm having trouble with the code for that but this Drillor style wall bumping works perfectly.

     As for the Psybats, they took most of the code from Goorbs and basically flap in place until you hit them. When hit, they throw one of their four levitating rocks at you which do more damage than Goorb balls but don't bounce everywhere. Once all the rocks are gone, the bat resorts to feeble screeching like it's Flapwick cousin until you can take it out. The rocks will block everything but the Cut and Surge spells so you'll have to time your shots or switch over to a spell that can kill them.

New (Fleshed Out) Unicorn Quest Ideas

     A bunch of ideas for Unicorn Quest came to me last night as I was trying to fall asleep and I couldn't help but keep waking up to make note of them all. These all happen to be either little details I said "I'll figure out later" or mistakes I'm noticing with Unicorn Training's design. Having all these details down has me more pumped than ever to just start that project already!

     I really want to prove what current me is capable of rather than me from a year ago. Sadly I won't be touching it until I start my senior capstone class so it's pretty far off. I have other fun projects to occupy me until then though, so I can wait. Catch all the new brain blasts below the break!

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...