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Geek Culture / My first Android game - Space Squadron

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Nov 2010 20:38 Edited at: 25th Jan 2011 21:05
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Edit: Update. New video below.

Hello people. Just thought I'd let you know what I've been up to recently.

I'm currently working on games for Android in an attempt to sell them on the market place, and see if I can earn a few bob. I'm about 60% through the development of my first game "Space Squadron". It's a tactical turn-based space strategy game, but it's very easy to pick up and play. It's loosely based on my DBP game Dreadnought Commander.

Eventually it'll be on the market place for about 60p/$1. I've just uploaded my first alpha video to YouTube. So if you have an Android device and play games on it, let me know your thoughts on how it compares to other games you play.

Edit: FYI - All graphics are temporary place holders and various items such as determining which ships you can control etc haven't been included yet. It's very alpha!





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Poloflece
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Posted: 19th Nov 2010 23:55
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Cool


Poloflece, not to be mistaken for polofleece, polar fleece or polar flece. But I like to go by Polo or PFG, SO GET USED TO IT!
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BatVink
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Posted: 20th Nov 2010 12:24 Edited at: 20th Nov 2010 12:25
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Looks good. I would be tempted to let the effects, explosions, trails etc play out at the end of each turn.

Maybe you could underlay it with Google Sky Maps for a real background

How are you finding Android dev? I've created "Hello, Android", and also got the GPS returning my coordinates to the screen. I need to look into graphical display(preferably vector based) and I'm looking forward to creating something commercial.

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Fallout
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Posted: 20th Nov 2010 18:23
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Android dev hasn't been too bad for me! The libraries are pretty good, and the Android examples cover most of the new concepts like layouts. I only just found out Android 2+ has multi-touch support though, so I'll be using that on my next game (I was wondering how I'd get around that as an issue).

Keep me updated on what you put together. There may be some benefit in releasing software under the same commercial identity to improve the branding if our apps/games are compatible.

Insert piccy sig here. Eh? Why didn't that work?!?! Must ring help-a-noob. What was the number again? .... where am I?
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Jeku
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Posted: 21st Nov 2010 23:08
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If I were you I'd consider releasing it for free and having an ad to generate some revenue. When I released my iPhone game for $1.99 it had a 90% piracy rate. If you still want to charge something for it, consider placing an ad in there anyways, so at least the pirates are paying you


Senior Web Developer - Nokia
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2010 00:08 Edited at: 22nd Nov 2010 00:17
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Or do what Angry Birds does and just have a free version which has adverts and a paid version which doesn't.

Game looks really awesome by the way! Looking forward to trying it out.

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Fallout
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2010 00:28
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Thanks chaps. I have a friend who has released a number of iPhone apps. His thoughts are ad revenue isn't worth it since you only make decent money from click through sales, and who actually wants to buy stuff from their phone while in the middle of playing a game? I don't know personally, I'm just reiterating his thoughts.

He favours the free version + paid version approach. I really don't know, so I think this is going to be trial and error. I'm pretty sure piracy is going to piss me off though!

Insert piccy sig here. Eh? Why didn't that work?!?! Must ring help-a-noob. What was the number again? .... where am I?
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Oolite
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2010 01:59 Edited at: 22nd Nov 2010 02:00
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I'd buy this, first out of support for you and second because I actually want to play it.
I'd say, stick it up for a quid and forget the 'lite' version. I usually find I never buy the full version of something after playing the cut down version, no matter how much I like it. I usually only hit my phone for quick blasts of gaming and the lite version usually suffices. However, I normally buy a game if I like the look of it and its under a quid.
Maybe I'm a bit backwards though...

One thing I'd add is multi touch support for the zooming. It would put me right off if I had to go into the menu to zoom in and out all the time.
If I remember correctly then Android 2+ supports multitouch and right now I can't think of any Android phone, (bar the Xperia, which should be getting next year anyway) which doesn't have less than version 2.
(EDIT: I just read nearly the same thing above...)

Another thing that is just personal preference would be using the back button to start the time as I usually associate it with getting the hell out of apps, but I understand why you did it.
Mainly just nitpicking as it looks pretty polished so far.

As for Android Dev, I recently started getting into it but I got swamped with life, will definitely pick it back up again soon though as there are a few apps I'd like to build for myself.

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Fallout
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2010 10:57
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Thanks for your feedback mate. Regarding the 'back button' I have included an on-screen 'start time' button, which you can enable if you like, which then returns the back button to it's normal functionality and sticks an icon on-screen. Hopefully that'll do the job for people who like to keep it as purely a 'leg it' button.

As for multitouch zooming, I didn't know most phones are on Android 2 these days. That's interesting, as I'm building this for 1.5, as I was just trying to support as many phones as possible. I'll stick with 2+ in future. But the zoom function on this game is false, in that it simply switches everything to double sized graphics. The classes I'm using don't allow rescaling of the images dynamically. I've chosen those because it's much faster for drawing, but the side effect is, I can't resize them. I have to make the zoomed and unzoomed graphics up front.

I'll stick with v2.0 in the future though, so I don't have all these limitation, especially in light of you saying most phones are 2+ these days. This has definitely been my learning development app though. The next one I have planned (a cool zombie survival arcade game) I'll use everything I've learnt and hopefully knock it out more quickly.

Cheers again for your support.

Insert piccy sig here. Eh? Why didn't that work?!?! Must ring help-a-noob. What was the number again? .... where am I?
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Fallout
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Posted: 6th Dec 2010 14:33 Edited at: 6th Dec 2010 14:37
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For those that were interested, I've had a quick bash at putting my website together today, and you can now follow the blog for this game from there.

Hangfire Software

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Fallout
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Posted: 25th Jan 2011 20:05
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Update! Finally released a 2nd video of the game in progress, for those who are interested. I'm nearing completion now. I basically have to improve the AI, tweak a few graphics, sort out some music and test.



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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 26th Jan 2011 22:23
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Oh my god, mega nostalgia coming back - I played a game very much like this back in my youth and I absolutely loved it. Can't remember what it was called though.

Great work


Blitzwerks | Indie Development Team
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Fallout
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Posted: 27th Jan 2011 13:08
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Thanks mate. Was that game called Critical Mass by any chance? I played that too and loved it, and it was the main inspiration for this game.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 29th Jan 2011 07:20 Edited at: 29th Jan 2011 07:24
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Fallout...

Massive Respect for you now

umm is there a particular handset you designing for? like some dev's like to pick a handset that their game is specifically made for... for me when I do start making android apps will be the Dell Streak as I really like it, (trust me before you say.... dell!? if you are going to... personally I resented them for personal computers and laptops for ages... though I have huge respect for their servers dont get me wrong)

I am waiting for the release of the Streak 7 inch edition as it still fits in your pocket and it not big and bulky like the 10inchers

So if this plays out good on sadly only 2.2 for as far as i have heard Dell is not planning a hooneycomb release for the Streak 7 inch, I will gladly fork out a £1 for you, btw.... umm you should release a one level free version with ads on main menu and in pause menu.... let them flavour the graphics and tutorial, dont give too much away, this is a great game.

and it seems I always have a lot to say so forgive me hehe ^^ I just like to be clear and concise... I will be making a post in GEEK CULTURE later today hopefully, please do read into it visited your website, cool... be sure to view my thread later it might be interesting for you

regards

MrValentine

{edits were just slight spelling typos}

TGC Products: Dark Game Studio–DarkCLOUDS-Enhancement Pack-3D WorldStudio-Animated Sprite Pack-FPS Creator X9 free upgraded to build//getting on next purchase-Dark Data-DarkNet-Unity-EZRotate
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Fallout
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Posted: 30th Jan 2011 13:55
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Thanks MrValentine. I'm aiming the game at any handset which supports 1.6 or above (though 1.6 has SoundPool bugs which can cause hanging). It should play fine on lower speced phones as well as brand new ones. I want my market to be as large as possible. I have a Samsung Galaxy, the new Desire HD and an old low res phone at my disposal, so plenty of screen resolutions to test on. But yeah, targetting as many phones as possible is the way forward!

I'll reply to your other thread now.

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Libervurto
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Posted: 30th Jan 2011 15:49
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@Fallout
This looks great, I am planning a game that uses some of the same elements so thanks for the inspiration too.


Everything worthwhile requires effort.
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