Pretty chuffed with my progress today, because today I got challenges working!

Currently I have four challenges available to play, and it’s simply a case of picking one before the game begins. You’ll notice in the video that the scene even changes slightly for some of the challenge‘s.

Next on my list of things to do is get the completed challenges to show as done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5aPlaXI0Q4

Now that I have my “art direction” sorted I decided to fix up and tidy up the outstanding graphics so that it all flows!

I’ve still got a few more objects to complete but it’s certainty getting there, I also made a few other minor changes to some of the graphics (coins are now smaller for example)

Today is the day I’ve decided my core mechanics are complete! The game feels right and natural, so I’m pretty happy!

I’m now going to start work on the next feature, that is challenges! There’s a lot for me to think about with this, I want to keep it clean and simple, I also want to be able to easily add more challenges at a later point without too much tinkering.

My initial thoughts about how they will fit into the game is that when the player selects a Zone, before the zone loads a list of challenges will be presented and the player can activate one to complete.

Here’s a screenshot of the graphics as they stand now:

Well on Friday my Ipad stylus arrived! Seems backwards using a stylus on a new touchscreen device, but drawing with a finger just doesn’t feel right to me.

So with new pen in hand, I set out to re-draw all my graphics for The Rocketeer. I’m pretty pleased with the outcome, the new style does’t feel as “childish” as the original. Here’s some examples of what I did in my 45 x 2

So on Saturday I released my first playable demo of the Rocketeer. The idea was to get an idea of how people feel about it as it is now.

Feedback on the whole has been positive and there’s a-lot I need to take in and digest. So, I’ve not touched the game mechanics at all since it’s release, I want to think carefully about my next move.

What was good about the feedback:

• No one mentioned that the gravity felt wrong.
• Everyone loved the smoke!
• Many said it was fun!
• I didn’t hand out many instructions but most seem to “get it”
• A few good ideas were put forward
• People liked the graphics

So, some food for thought.

In the mean time, I’ve started to address the last “negative”.

I haven’t got my art sorted, I’ll be the first to admit it. I don’t consider myself a great artist which is why I resulted to outsourcing it. The problem with that is, I can only grab what I can and try and match it to existing art work. This hasn’t worked. So I thought I would give it another go myself, I grabbed my Wacom and came out with the following:

I then added a few more layers, so now all together it looks like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jqlbl6EJy8

Today I added smoke to the kids engine. I’m loving it, it looks pretty realistic and yet it doesn’t look out of place!

I also got some feedback about coin placement, basically coins going upwards and coins going downwards aren’t always collectable depending on your location, so now all coins generate in a straight line, I’ve added a few more lengths to spice it up a bit!

Oh I also got written permission to use the background, but, I’m not sure I will use it now. I think I need something that fits the style (Thanks Silux )

I’m working on the Rating still, as you can see in the video (at the end) the figures are all there but the graphics aren’t. it also takes an age to get to your final score so much so that my game even gives up waiting and returns to the main menu haha

Another feature I’m working on is with coin collection. Rather than the fan fair fall down every-time a coin is collected it will only fall down if you get a chain of coins, doing that will also give you a little bonus!

Where to start! Loads of progress

I’ll start from the menu:

• Air mile tickets, coins collected and high-score’s are now saved and displayed!
• Slight change with the background on the menu as well.
• Added more phrases, some are pretty funny. (or so i think )

In game:

• Taking on Saulochina suggestion I’ve changed the textures on the trees and added the crown to some of them, they look much better (Thanks!)
• Changed the GUI slightly, now the it measures the distance left before the end of the level.
• Added two more layer’s of trees, one layer I really like is a single tree that whizzes by.
• Scaled the trees
• Made the blimps move up and down
• Added a little signal alert that warns you when a blimp is arriving (far right)
• Resized some of the clouds

Video:

BTW I pick up a green bottle in the game which causes the kid to charge forward, I’m working on that now so it’s going to change.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mSxEKjDq0Q

So today, I got air miles and coins  saving! I also added a few of Silux’s phrases into the random messages! (Thanks )

I also started to play with the art direction somewhat. I really want the game to look the part as well as play well, so I’m on the search for great free art. I’ve ended up on Deviant art (a great source) and though I can find free art to use in my game, its a bit of a challenge trying to find art that matches.

Anyway here’s a screenshot of the new Zone one, which has deviated away from it’s beach setting and moved into a woodland theme!

I’m loving the background, the wooden clock just seems perfect for my whole rocketeer theme, I’m not so convinced about my tress though

Ingame:

Background here

I’ve got two days worth of 45′s to catch up on!

Fixes:

• So… First up I’ve done a load of performance fixes, my FPS was averaging at about 45 (no pun intended) running over my code I could see I wasn’t recycling all my actors so that was the first “fix” now all my actors recycle.
• Secondly I noticed one of my recycled actors wasn’t being killed and just wasting memory out of screen!
• Thirdly, the ground was a long actor with an attached X-speed to it, this made the ground move and timed correctly I would create another actor.Now it’s just a two frame animation that’s statically positioned, this pretty much jumped my FPS up by about 6 FPS. Now I get about 59 FPS which drops to 54 every-now and then when there’s multiple objects on screen.

Visuals:

• Lots of coloured stars now shower down when coins are collected.
• Coins have had a slight re-design, but you probably wont notice.
• I’m trying out a different style for the trees
• The Blimp is now animated and much larger
• Many clouds now whizz past

Features:

• Air Miles Tickets are now available! You are awarded an air mile ticket for staying in the air for over a minute, if you touch the ground the air mile counter resets.
• Overall speed has been increased
• Scoring is coming together… So now when you are in the air the score increases, you get no points for running on the ground. Collect coins and you get a bigger score!

Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4vvHDXfSpA

So today I remembered I had a Wacom tablet, digging it out, dusting it down I got started on an enemy. I want something to avoid in the skies and started thinking about a blimp thats carrying a bomb, I soon had something on paper… Well, on screen at least!

I had the sketch so I started on creating a vector version, not finished this is what I came up with:

I made some other changes to my game, I went full swing and turned the ‘Energy’ back to ‘fuel’, I kept playing with energy and it wasn’t feeling right, so I’m back on fuel! I created a little fuel gauge and started work on a meter to measure the fuel usage. I hope to have fuel and speed management back into full swing by the end of tomorrow!

A few minor changes and some fixes today.

I’ve changed the clock’s back to coins because collecting the items will no longer shave off time. Instead you’ll collect coins for reason XXXXXXXXX.

I’ve added a little effect when the coins are collected, to busy the screen up a bit.

I’m still working on perfecting the energy system, it’s getting close… Though I have just noticed picking up energy is broken… somehow, so that’s something for tomorrow now