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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / [WIP] Pushdown

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Wilf
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2014 18:56 Edited at: 11th Jun 2015 22:01
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Pushdown has just updated on the Appstore!
This update has some bug fixes, graphics enhancements and an improved animation system.

Pushdown 0.2 on the Apple App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pushdown/id941055460

In addition there is now a Lite version - 9 of the 27 levels from the full version inclusing a bossfight!

Pushdown Lite on the Apple App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pushdown-lite/id988296034?mt=8


Trailer:


Video:


Trailer:


And some raw gameplay:



Heres the Facebook page, it would be awesome to get some Likes and Shares

https://www.facebook.com/PushdownGame

http://youtu.be/2-rgQk_MqZs

http://www.push-down.com/

This is Pushdown, my sons Jump\'n Run game idea. He is the Creative Director, Lead Artist and is 7 years old. I just code it and do as he says, which leads to an interesting dynamic..

The crux of the game is that the Frog King has kidnapped our hero Knights younger brother and imprisoned him in his castle. The Frog King is hungry, so jumping on the heads of the Eggmen guards turns them into cakes which must be Pushed Down to feed the Frog King. Again, 7-year-old logic.

Using a combination of torches, water buckets and hammers the player must progress through 24 levels, keep the Frog King satiated and rescue his brother (Sir Willy, who is five).



Twitter: @itanican
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PushdownGame
Website: www.push-down.com

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Wilf
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Posted: 5th Feb 2014 23:03 Edited at: 31st Jan 2015 12:01
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February 2014: some simple level shading and shadows for characters.



- Changed the colour of the main character to try to differentiate him from the background
- Changed held items from one spritesheet per item to a more generic solution
- Empty buckets now get filled on contact with water, get emptied on contact with fire eggs

Twitter: @itanican
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Van B
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Posted: 9th Feb 2014 13:05
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Yeah, that does make things a lot more defined. I'll keep my eye out for this, I like unusual games that don't just try and copy Mario, looks cool!

I am the one who knocks...
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Wilf
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Posted: 25th Feb 2014 18:04
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Thanks Van B!

State of play almost at the end of February:



- Pulled the camera out 25% - easier to anticipate the action now.
- New button icons, font
- New FrogKing Hunger indicator - changes colour according to how close you are to game-over
- New End of Round screen, incorporates Time Remaining into your final score
- Added a bunch of sound effects, these don't come across well in screenshots
- New particle effects for items entering water
- Bomb enemies can be defused using a filled water bucket, they change into normal enemies
- Simplified the save game system
- New cake gfx
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Blendman
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Posted: 25th Feb 2014 18:15
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Great !

The graphics are cool and fun.

For the big "boss in green", perhap's you should use a bigger sprite, instead to scale it.
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Wilf
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Posted: 26th Feb 2014 09:43
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Cheers!
Yep, definitely. All the graphics are being upgraded from placeholder to final, the frog will involve some Spine animations so I'm doing him last.
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Wilf
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Posted: 17th Mar 2014 22:50
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Progress has slowed while I help ship Isolani but I did make a start on Boss Fights.

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Wilf
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Posted: 11th Apr 2014 13:58
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I decided to take April off from work to finish Pushdown, so of course I get sick the first week

In-between bouts of coughing, I did make some levels and add underwater gameplay.



Idea is that you can reach some areas only by grabbing a heavy object like a hammer and sink.
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Wilf
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Posted: 11th May 2014 17:54
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Hmm, maybe I should post another update soon...
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Wilf
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Posted: 21st May 2014 12:22
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I had a rather productive month off, fixing bugs and actually adding levels.

On the workflow front I wrote a parser to take spritesheet output directly from Spine and add multiple spritesheet atlases in AppGameKit, removing TexturePacker from the process entirely. Before, I was constrained to one 1024x1024 spritesheet which would fit about 20 frames of animation at a reasonable pixel density. Now, its multiple sprite sheets and potentially hundreds of frames, so much smoother animations.

Earlier this week I was struggling with performance on my sons device (iPod 4th gen) so radically changed the graphics approach too; out go sprite blocks and auto-generated block shadows, in come dedicated texture backgrounds via Inkscape.

The game runs faster, levels load faster, it looks better and has the added benefit of letting my son draw all the graphics, something he's keen to do. Wins all round.



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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd May 2014 15:28
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looking good all round

ten-net consulting limited
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Wilf
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Posted: 23rd May 2014 17:10
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Cheers Batvink!
Onto the tutorials now. Because writing one-off code, that will be seen once, is always fun...?

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Wilf
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Posted: 23rd May 2014 23:46
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And a video



Twitter: @itanican
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easter bunny
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Posted: 24th May 2014 05:33
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Looks pretty cool! Can't wait for a playable version


Audacia Games - Latest WIP - AUTOMAYTE 2.1, AppGameKit one click deploy to Android
"When you've finished 90% of your game, you only have 90% left"
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Wilf
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Posted: 23rd Jun 2014 16:18
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This month was a big refactor, improving the way I handle shadows and sprite-flashes. I did polish some graphics though, and ensure that there are cherries to collect.

Ain't a video game if there aren't cherries to collect.



Twitter: @itanican
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Wilf
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Posted: 19th Jul 2014 17:32
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First post updated with playable Beta.

Twitter: @itanican
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Wilf
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Posted: 18th Aug 2014 13:03 Edited at: 18th Aug 2014 13:05
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In the final stretch now, adding more gameplay to Bossfights and polishing levels. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the beta!



Twitter: @itanican
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Wilf
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Posted: 19th Oct 2014 23:11
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This month I had two hours to kill on a flight to Stockholm so I decided tentatively to upgrade Pushdown to AppGameKit V2. I resolved to back out the second I ran across any showstoppers, but the process was pretty much pain free.

The new compiler so, so much faster. Also stricter, I found a bunch of code problems that were previously hidden.

That out of the way, I tried messing around with Spine again. The result?

- Loading times are much faster.
- Memory consumption is massively reduced (no more loading in multiple spritesheets for characters)
- Graphics are massively sharper as the compromise between memory consumption and visible pixels has gone (see the edges of the Frogking compared to previous screenshots)
- More animations - again there was a limit on the number of texture sheets I could load before the min-spec device (iPod Touch 4th Gen) crashed OOM. Now the player character can play a swim animation when under water
- Animations tween between states - much smoother
- Animation workflow massively simplified - just export from spine rather than export spritesheets into a custom animation convertor to AGKs subimages format and then into game.

So AppGameKit V2 is all benefit, no downside as far as I can see.

Before the big change I also added a story system as the main piece of feedback from usertesting.com was "whats going on, and what is that green monster". My 8 year old Creative Director storyboarded it before I added a simple movie playback system using the existing level loading code.



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Wilf
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Posted: 31st Jan 2015 11:59
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Latest update Jan 31st, see first post!

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BatVink
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Posted: 31st Jan 2015 13:52
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As well as liking the game, I like your YouTube video. Especially the last few seconds where you play the game alongside the details of where to get it, very professional and engaging.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 31st Jan 2015 16:58
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Quote: " I'll keep my eye out for this, I like unusual games that don't just try and copy Mario, looks cool!"

Yes, this concept looks great.

Quote: "Especially the last few seconds where you play the game alongside the details of where to get it, very professional and engaging."

Yes, very professional presentation.

I smell a huge success here with this one.
You have a very creative designer + skilled graphic artist + capable programmer, and that can is a great team!

Sorry, but I can't think of anything to suggest to make this better.


Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V1 Tier 1
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Wilf
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Posted: 5th Feb 2015 22:42 Edited at: 5th Feb 2015 22:43
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Aww, thanks very much! See the first post for a new video. Creating publicity takes just as much time as creating the game

Twitter: @itanican
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PushdownGame
Website: www.push-down.com
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Wilf
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Posted: 25th Feb 2015 16:57
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Final graphic tweaks applied and approved by the little creative director, now its time to launch!


Twitter: @itanican
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PushdownGame
Website: www.push-down.com
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Funnell7
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Posted: 25th Feb 2015 17:12 Edited at: 25th Feb 2015 17:13
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Good luck Wilf (and the little creative director)... I see this thread was created a year ago almost to the day Congrats

Using AppGameKit V2 Tier 1
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Crazy Programmer
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Posted: 25th Feb 2015 17:34
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Quote: "Final graphic tweaks applied and approved by the little creative director, now its time to launch!"

Congrats to the both of you!
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