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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / Solar Wind [Released]

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Scene Commander
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Posted: 26th Mar 2018 18:20 Edited at: 26th Mar 2018 18:21
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Hi all,

We're on a roll this month, and another of our games, Solar Wind nears completion. It's already been approved for Steam release and we're working on fine tuning the levels at the moment. We were away for awhile working on the media, and the look is subject to change even at this late stage.

Solar Wind is another retro inspired game, this time, we tackle the side scrolling shooter genre. Battle through 10 increasingly challanging levels (at present), blasting away with over 25 weapons. Dodge asteroids, navigate mine fields, fight big bosses, bomb enemy radar installations to jam missile and gun turrets, disable laser defenses, fight walkers and infantry, confront space worms and a host of other challanges.

Just a quick teaser shot of the first level, more screenshots to follow.

https://twitter.com/JimjamsGames?lang=en&lang=en
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GarBenjamin
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Posted: 26th Mar 2018 19:18
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Awesome and very impressive how quickly you are releasing games. Are these recent games all projects that have been in simultaneous development for quite a while or are you using your own custom framework you created on top of AppGameKit to rapidly complete these games?
TI/994a (BASIC) -> C64 (BASIC/PASCAL/ASM/Others) -> Amiga (AMOS/BLITZ/ASM/C/Gamesmith) -> DOS (C/C++/Allegro) -> Windows (C++/C#/Monkey X/GL Basic/Unity/Others)
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Posted: 26th Mar 2018 19:35
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Solar Wind has actually been in side by side development with The Amazing Adventures of Fanny Featherstone, However, We have a large library of useful functions which speed development, in many cases, we simply cut and paste code.

With almost all of our games, we create an editor so we can very quickly build levels, and test new features. This also allows us to rapidly develop genres. A good example of this would be the internal editor for Fanny Featherstone, which can quickly develop a number of styles of platformers, including scrolling, single progressive screens (similar to the games of the early 1980's), flip screen games, or should we want, a combination of all three.

SC
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GarBenjamin
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Posted: 26th Mar 2018 20:59
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@Scene Commander That is fantastic and exactly what I am working on. I haven't had any libraries built up since Allegro and XNA days. With Unity I spent all of my time on forcing it to work the way I want to develop. AppGameKit is made to develop that way "out of the box" so I am slowly building up a library of reusable code, patterns and tools again.

Well anyway you do great work and this foundational stuff should pay off. I think one of the most important keys to being a successful Indie is to reduce production cost. Steamlining time is a huge benefit. Wish you the best of luck!!
TI/994a (BASIC) -> C64 (BASIC/PASCAL/ASM/Others) -> Amiga (AMOS/BLITZ/ASM/C/Gamesmith) -> DOS (C/C++/Allegro) -> Windows (C++/C#/Monkey X/GL Basic/Unity/Others)
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Posted: 26th Mar 2018 21:10
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Quote: "Wish you the best of luck!! "


Thanks
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Supertino
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Posted: 27th Mar 2018 10:29
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awww I feel cheated now, I though this was going to be a remake of "solar winds" Look interesting though.
Checkout my PC/MAC games on itch.io | Checkout my STEAM games | Checkout my ANDROID games | Santas workshop on Steam
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Posted: 27th Mar 2018 17:47 Edited at: 27th Mar 2018 17:50
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Quote: "awww I feel cheated now, I though this was going to be a remake of "solar winds""


No idea what Solar Winds is or was, sorry to get your hopes up. It's actually inspired by a game I wrote for the Commodore 64 way back in 1989. Which was actually a top down shooter, so the name is a nod really.

New screenshot, I'll try and get a video together very soon. This one is of the first Boss fight where you come face to face with the Motheroid.

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Posted: 28th Mar 2018 20:28
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Hi all,

I've finally got around to making a video snippit of part of stage 1.

Enjoy, C&C welcome as always.



SC
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2018 12:35
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Hi All,

Following feedback, we've worked on ship visibility, all being well, it should be a little easier to see what's happening now in the videos. Gameplay wise it seemed chaotic, but was very playable, but that wasn't so clear in the videos.

Here's an updated video, which also shows some more gameplay.



SC
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Richard_6
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Posted: 4th Apr 2018 12:32
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Looks cool!
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smallg
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Posted: 4th Apr 2018 14:42
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Looks great, definitely chaotic but I'm sure after a few plays it'll just feel natural... - its kinda natural instinct in these games to avoid everything
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Posted: 5th Apr 2018 19:34 Edited at: 5th Apr 2018 19:35
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Quote: "Looks cool!"


Thanks..

Quote: "Looks great, definitely chaotic but I'm sure after a few plays it'll just feel natura"


It does feel more natural when playing, but I've listened and I am replacing some of the particles with sprites, and I'm happy with the result, same amount of chaos, but maybe a little more realistic...

SC
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SpecTre
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Posted: 8th Apr 2018 16:46
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Looks great, doing some good stuff on Steam. Keep it up
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Posted: 9th Apr 2018 12:36
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Quote: "Looks great, doing some good stuff on Steam. Keep it up"


Thanks, we're getting there.

SC
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Posted: 20th Apr 2018 07:14
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Hi All,

We're very happy to be able to tell you that Solar Wind has launched as Early Access on Steam. It's been a rocky road as we've struggled with the graphical look and feel for a few months, but we're finally happy with the direction. For the next week or so, Solar Wind can be purchased at a 15% discount, and as it's EA, we're encouraging players to help shape development through their feedback. We've already made one update based on a player suggestion and we're expecting to make many more.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/756630/Solar_Wind/

Thanks,

SC
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Green7
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Posted: 24th Apr 2018 08:26
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If you maybe could try to let the smoke trails not follow the cam, but stay where they popped up. if you got lots of smoke on the screen it gathers around the ship and folows the screen, hiding what's going on. it is a nice effect, but in nature it would not do so. but overall it looks like a lot of fun, reminds me on jets 'n guns.
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Posted: 24th Apr 2018 16:24
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Quote: "reminds me on jets 'n guns"


Thanks, that's a nice comparison and we're happy with that.

SC
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0x7f
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Posted: 25th Apr 2018 18:56
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looks great but it seems there is a slight lag on the side scrolling if you just look at the ground when it leaves the screen you can notice it.
i've had that with my own side scrolling code as well in agk and couldn't get real smooth scrolling going. not even with just a simple plain text scrolling function.
i've also seen this with almost any agk side scrolling game even the official examples, just wondering if its only me and i'm imagining things lol
however when testing other 3D animations in say unity for example, they scroll much smoother.
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Posted: 26th Apr 2018 06:40
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Quote: "slight lag on the side scrolling"


Thanks for the feedback. I am looking into that issue as it doesn't happen on all systems. It's linked to vsync and isn't really noticable in the heat of the action, but is something I'd really like to address.

Please remember that Solar Wind is early access, so there are bound to be some teething problems, although we're trying to eliminate them before release.

Anyway, back to it.

SC
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0x7f
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Posted: 26th Apr 2018 12:51
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i'm glad its not just me and sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread or something. i know its early access and not finalized, so good luck it looks like a cool game
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Posted: 26th Apr 2018 17:12
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Quote: "good luck it looks like a cool game"


Thanks, sales are good at the moment, but we're not resting.

SC
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Posted: 29th Aug 2018 04:02 Edited at: 29th Aug 2018 04:03
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Hi all,

It's been a couple of months coming, but we're nearly ready to launch an update to Solar Wind. This is a big one, with a major graphical overhaul, 5 new stages, a doubling of the player weapon, armour and equipment upgrades, 7 new big and mid stage bosses and a whole mass of new alien threats, bring the total of unigue behaviours, challenges and threats to well over 90 and set to grow further.

Enjoy the teaser.

SC and the JimJams games team.

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Green7
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Posted: 29th Aug 2018 08:35
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Looks good! Nice animated stuff, details and optics, i like it.
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Posted: 29th Aug 2018 10:57
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@Green7

Thanks. Always good to hear feedback, and especially positive .

SC
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Posted: 5th Sep 2018 10:55
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Hi all,

We just wanted to say thanks for everyone who has supported us with feedback and play testing for Solar Wind. We've very pleased to say that since we released the latest update a few days ago. We've had 100% positive feedback from this latest build with 7 Steam Curator reviews in the last week, without a negitive word in sight.

SC

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Posted: 18th Sep 2018 15:43 Edited at: 18th Sep 2018 15:46
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Hi all,

It's been awhile since I've had anything new to report, but we're really pleased to announce that 2 more Steam Curators have reviewed Solar Wind and we've still had a 100% positive feedback. Thanks to everyone who's supported us, and if you want to grab a copy yourself, it's available for a very low, bargain price on Steam.

Details here.

Thanks for reading,

SC
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