Bytesize Adventures

Project Management – It’s perhaps the least sexy part of independent game design and development. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have struggled endlessly with existing products trying to cram your “unique” workflow into their stubborn interfaces, only to not even bother opening it again after a handful of attempts.

I’ve often resigned myself to the fact that project management tools just don’t suit my style of game development. It is true afterall that developing games for the iPhone involves a much shorter time frame – rapid development and multiple iterations are key (at least for me). Still, without these tools I find myself floundering. Where do i write my new ideas? How do I track my progress? What are my next steps? keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Tangents | Tags: basecamp, brainwave, gtd, ideas, omniplan, pivotal tracker, process, project management, the hit list, things, todo, trac, workflow
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This week has mainly been about the game’s theme and artwork style. The blocks you saw in last weeks post were only intended to be placeholders and it had gotten to the point in the project where they were becoming difficult to overlook. I struggled with the theme for some time, even contemplating not really having one – creating something terribly abstract. Eventually I drew inspiration from the key gameplay element, exploration. With this also came the working title for the game: “Explorer”.

With a theme selected, the artwork was, and still is, a challenge. I want the game to have a strong visual identity so i’m aiming for anything but realism. What I currently have will alter considerably before the game launches – this is just a first pass.

I also introduced a new element to enhance the exploration theme, fog. I hope this will serve its purpose to enhance the feeling of exploration and indeed to drive it. It’s still very much in a prototype form (hence the visual artefacts).

Next steps are work on the customisation and level editor. I’ll then build off all of these elements as I flesh out the game.

In other news, i’m finally fed up with the current project management tools on offer. Its not that they’re not very good – they are. They just don’t seem to fit with my style of working. I find myself forcing my workflow into the tools and inevitably they end up just getting in the way.

To that end i’ve decided to take a weekend out of game programming to write my own project management tool for game design and development. I intend for it to very simple and driven by the way I work. Perhaps calling it a project management tool is a bit of a stretch – its more of an idea management tool… but thats how I design and develop my iPhone games. I’ll write a blog post detailing the tool once its complete at the end of this weekend.

Until next time…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Weekly Update | Tags: explorer, project management, prototype, screenshots
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Time for another weekly update. Also, I have a screenshot for you this week. So grab yourself a coffee and read on. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Weekly Update | Tags: books, cocos2d, game engine, screenshot
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This week i’ve been stripping my next game back to its core mechanics. I’m really evolving the core gameplay into something that I hope is easy to pick up and instantly enjoyable. Currently the core mechanic revolves around exploration and an element of risk vs reward.

As part of the evolved gameplay, the visuals are also changing on a daily basis. I’m still not happy with the basic style and thats something i’m working on. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Weekly Update | Tags: Indie game mag, professional review, rocket santa
1 Comment »

This week has been an interesting one, i’ve been playing with 2D physics engines. More specifically i’ve been testing integration of the Chipmunk physics engine into my new game. I have to say, it didn’t take too long to get to grips with Chipmunk and the templates included in cocos2d give you a good starting point. Rather than moving objects to a specific point, you move them by applying forces to their body within the game space (which itself has a number of attributes such as gravity). keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Weekly Update | Tags: Chipmunk Physics, cocos2d, Microsoft Courier
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Another week over, so time for my weekly update.

Unfortunately I’ve been ill for most of this week so I haven’t been able to spend any time working on my game. I think this highlights the difficulties of working as an independent games developer – it doesn’t take much to disrupt your work and it can have a severe impact on your development schedule. I’m lucky in that I also have a full time job so I don’t have the financial pressures associated with developing independently. I wonder how other devs cope with this. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Tangents, Weekly Update | Tags: alice in wonderland, game editor, lego, tim burton
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I’m currently suffering from a mild form of writers block.

Writers Block – “The inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing; normally temporary.”

This has of course manifested itself in the lack of posts on this blog for the past few weeks. In an attempt to alleviate this i’m going to start writing regular weekly posts recapping progress on my new game. This will of course be in addition to other, more in depth, posts that I write (once my writers block subsides).

So here’s the first update: I’m currently working on my next iPhone game which is progressing steadily. I don’t want to share too much at the moment but I will tell you a few interesting things about it…

1) The game will have a built-in level editor to enable you to create your own levels directly on the iPhone.
2) All of the official levels in the game will be created on the iPhone using the same level editor you’ll have access to.
3) I plan on launching the game with a large number of levels. In fact i’m hoping to get as many people as possible to contribute a level for the initial launch.

I have a very basic game engine working and i’m now working on a very early version of the editor. After that i’ll move on to saving and loading levels. Then its back to the creative stage to design some of the more interesting game elements.

In other news, i’ve re-designed the website which you can read about here. I’m also going to be moving web host in the coming weeks, having finally had enough of the terrible performance of my current host.

The iPad launches in a matter of months and for my first iPad exclusive game I plan on returning to my canceled Interactive Fiction game but completely redesigned and redeveloped. I’m also still toying with the idea of Star Fusion 2 either as an iPad or iPhone game.

So lots on at the moment and some exciting things ahead. Stay tuned.

(Image courtesy of petesimon)

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, Weekly Update | Tags: iPad, writers block
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Lets face it, the previous design for Bytesize Adventures was pretty ugly. More than that, whilst it served its purpose, it lacked direction and cohesion.

As we entered 2010, and with a third iPhone game in development, I decided it was time to do something about the site. What you’re browsing now is my redesign for 2010. What do you think?

I love web design and development and with this latest design I took the opportunity to focus on the details and components that make up the site. Here’s a brief look at some of the key decisions I made for the new design. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Tangents | Tags: colours, Design, typography, web design, website
2 Comments »

So, as predicted, Apple’s big announcement yesterday was the introduction of their new tablet computer – the iPad. Like most developers, I feel the desire to share my thoughts on the device and how it will impact my direction as a games developer. One caveat to bear in mind is that all of this is just conjecture at the moment since I haven’t actually used the device. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: News, Tangents | Tags: apple, iPad, Tablet
2 Comments »

The idea behind Rocket Santa was to rapidly develop a fun Christmas game, partly to gauge interest in holiday themed games and partly because I was keen to create a second game before the end of 2009. The game had its fair share of teething issues and feedback i’ve received for Rocket Santa has varied wildly. A few people have stated that its too easy and lacks depth, others have said that it’s really enjoyable and has a good pickup-and-play factor.

Rocket Santa has been in the App store for nearly 1 month now so I thought it would be nice to share the sales figures with you. Rocket Santa is listed in the UK and US stores only and i’ve converted all values to dollars to make it easier to digest. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary, News | Tags: app bake off, iphone app sales, mundue holiday promotion, notcot, promotion
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