And we’re there… almost by Mr Jack
222 check-ins and a lot of days later Alien Swing is now ready to submit.
Except Apple's site is down for improvements so I can't...
Fast Fast Slow Slow Fast by Mr Jack
Well, the promised tweaking hasn't happened yet, instead I got caught up in developing a level editor (in C# no less, making that three C-languages in one week) and investigating various technologies such as OpenFeint and text rendering options. So for most of the last week nothing obvious happened with the game. However, with the newly christened Level Editor harnessed up and ready to roll another 10 levels have gone in the last twenty four hours along with a range of new game play features, a (very) stand-in frontend end and the seperation into two game modes.
More excitingly I today travelled up to discuss artwork with our artist for the project (and my brother) Richard Aidley; getting the first of the art in should really make a big difference to the game and clarify some of the design decisions yet to make. I also dropped in on my pals at Strawdog Studios and had a look at where they'd got with Space Ark on XBLA since I was working for them earlier in the year.
It's a sad truth of working in the games industry that you're not going to like every game you work on, but Space Ark certainly wasn't one of those. It was a joy to play, and with plenty more polish and tweaking since I last played it, it's got even better. The games I've enjoyed the most have always satisfied one of two things, either they've been complex, cerebral games with interesting tactical depths like Civilisation 4 or Age of Empires II or games which provide the simple joy of elegant controls and satisfying movements like Tony Hawk, SSX or Indestruc2Tank. Space Ark slots firmly into the later category with a simple bouncing mechanic combined with in-air aftertouch and a perfectly balanced collecting system that is both accessible and rewards extreme skill with staggering scores. You can find a video of the game much as it is now on YouTube here, and - for those interested in the development process - the original pitch video Paul put together here.
Space Ark is chalked in for release early next year. If you have a 360, keep an eye out for it.
Using the real kit by Mr Jack
Yes, that's it running on a real iPod Touch. You can see a couple of other bits of progress too, although they won't look like much until I get some real art done. The background is using a test texture loaded from PNG using an .xml described texture page, and you can see the transition between two distinct screens going on - again these screens are described in .xml. That's the basic building blocks of a game, and now it's running on the real kit I can start tweaking it to feel right with the finger control and figure out some sensible level designs.
Setting up by Mr Jack
One of the reasons for choosing iPhone as the starting platform for Mr Jack Games is the ease, and low cost, of entry. Apple provides a full suite of iPhone development tools completely free of charge, signing up to the developer's programme (which allows you to run your work on a real iPhone/iPod Touch, and put content up on the App Store) costs just $99. That's real value for money. Even the hardware isn't expensive. I plumped for a MiniMac (£499) and a basic 8Gb iPod Touch (£149) as all I needed to start with, the friendly folks as KRCS in Coventry threw in a mini display port to VGA adapter - allowing me to run with glorious two monitor goodnesss - for free.
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| Everything unpacked |
Because I'd already got a keyboard, mouse, and a couple of monitors for use with my PC, the MiniMac was the obvious choice for me and a USB hub and a cheap USB extension cable even allows me to swap back and forth between PC and mac just by swapping a single USB connection. Handy. Getting used to working on a Mac takes a little while and tiny interface differences can niggle (why can't I maximize a window in the same way?) but the fact is that both PC and Mac have pretty solid, well designed interfaces these days. The only really troublesome problem I had was that the MiniMac doesn't handle normal British PC keyboards correctly, swapping " and @ round (among other problems) - fortunately this is easily corrected.
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| My cats decided to help out |
How did people manage before Google anyway? I'm sure I should remember. I started programming many years before the internet, yet alone Google, came along but now I find myself baffled as to how we ever got anything done. My whole journey into MiniMacs and iPhones has been informed and guided with the help of internet searching - I'd have been left with my " and @ keys reversed, swearing at Apple everytime I hit the wrong one but for 10 minutes on Google.
Once everything was plugged in and doing a good impression of working it was time to download and install the development kit, which weighs in at a hefty 2.5Gb but includes everything you need to get started. XCode is Apple's IDE, sitting over a GCC based compiler, and... it's pretty good actually. Easy to get into, powerful, comprehensive and configurable. There are a few oddities to get used to if you, like me, have spent most of your career working with Visual Studio but it certainly does the job. Running your app on the iPhone itself has to wait until you're a registered developer but the simulator provides a quick and easy way to get started.
Welcome by Mr Jack
Hello, and welcome, to the development blog of Mr Jack Games. I'm the eponymous Mr Jack - more formally known as Jack Aidley - and this is where you can read along with the trials, tribulations and idle amusements of a new games development venture. After many years of working in Games I've decided to chance my arm at developing my own ideas, and the iPhone provides the perfect platform for that. I believe there's a real place in the market for well made, simple, accessible games and with any luck Mr Jack Games will soon be producing just such games.
You can follow this blog using the RSS feed, or just pop back from time to time for updates.
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- Getting into In App Purchase, with a little online help: http://bit.ly/16t24n
- @StrawdogStudios marvellous game #SpaceArk is finally released on #XBLA today! http://bit.ly/b9lbJ0 (I did a bit of it) It really is good!
- Kwigbo has stuck the source to Artifice up under a creative common license, see here: http://bit.ly/boInED