This blog has been going for well over 2 years now. Its purpose is to chronicle my game development efforts and hopefully to share some insights with you. 2009 and 2010 were both productive years. Now, with 2011 officially over, its time to take a look at what I achieved in 2011 and what I plan to achieve in 2012. keep reading…
To celebrate this holiday season, Coffee Cellar is on sale with a massive 50% its regular price. That means you can pick up 6 months of blood, sweat, and tears for the low price of 1 dollar – well actually 99 cents (69p). Its not actually a 6 month supply of bodily fluids, its an actual iPhone App (Just wanted to clear that up).
If you still need convincing, read this review from Tap! Magazine.
The sale will last over the Christmas period and then it will return to its original, although still reasonable $1.99 (£1.49) price point.
I hope you can take advantage of the offer. If not, perhaps you’ll consider buying a copy for a friend or loved one.
When I released the Christmas update for Coffee Cellar I thought “I know what would be cool. A mug icon with Rocket Santa on the front”. That’s how these things start.
For those of you who don’t know, Rocket Santa is a game I created in collaboration with a talented pixel artist in 2009. The aim was to test the Christmas market and… well… it kinda failed.
Back to my riveting anecdote. I went ahead and released Coffee Cellar with its cool Rocket Santa mug icon. I also thought, I haven’t played Rocket Santa in a while, I’ll download it. Well, I did and it crashed upon opening.
So, I thought I’d just fix the bug and update it. Cutting an overly long story short, my code was a mess and really out of date. I had a go at fixing it but ultimately settled on a better idea. I’d re-write the game for scratch with zero code re-use.
It turned into a bit of a challenge. Trying to re-write the whole game with superior gameplay and no new graphics (whilst trying to keep the dev time short). A few weeks later and that’s what I’ve done. The same awesome graphics with a new engine. Here’s what’s changed…
+ Brand new sound effects and music across the board.
+ New gameplay based on delivering as many presents as you can.
+ Cool particle effects including… Snow!
+ A more dynamic landscape.
+ Dynamic difficulty.
+ Game Center leaderboards.
+ Better performance.
+ Re-worked controls for smoother gameplay.
+ A new icon.
Oh yeh, the best bit. Its Free too. No Advertising. No IAP’s. No virtual currency. Just plain ol’ Free. A gift from me to you. Happy Christmas.
The Coffee Cellar Christmas update is out now. Featuring…
- Features 3 new festive icons
- Shake your phone for a random coffee
- Tap the name tag in your cupboard to view concise coffee details without leaving the cupboard
- Fixed the appearance of the name tags in the cupboard. No more names running off the end of the plaque!
I’m extremely happy right now. I just walked into my local newsagent to peruse the magazines and, totally by chance, stumbled across a written review for Coffee Cellar. Totally unexpected and awesome in equal measure. The magazine in question is Tap! – a UK iPhone & iPad print magazine. Here it is…
Pivotal moment in my App development career :)
I thought I’d write a brief post to catch you up on what’s happening with Coffee Cellar. Its currently on sale at $1.99 (£1.49) so please grab a copy now!
I had a nice review from Tap! Magazine which you can read here – They awarded Coffee Cellar 4/5 stars and called it “An easy and pretty way for coffee connoisseurs to keep track of their favourite blends.” keep reading…
Coffee Cellar is available to buy today in App stores around the world. It’s been a long journey and I hope the finished product reflects the time, energy, and passion I’ve invested in bringing it to life.
In the next few weeks I’ll write posts on sales figures and a postmortem. For now though, please support me and download Coffee Cellar here. If you feel particularly generous, rating or reviewing the App would also be very well received. keep reading…
I attended an Indie games conference last week and one of the things that really resonated with me was the value of working with others. Whilst I’ve always tried to avoid this, partly because I enjoy being in control, and partly because I enjoy the variety in the various disciplines, most of the people I spoke to had only positive things to say about working in a team.
This past week I’ve spent time thinking about this and looking at what I’ve achieved with Bytesize Adventures, as a single person operation. When I look at my ambitions for this year and beyond, its clear to me that I’ve hit a ceiling in what I can personally achieve alone. Game development is still very much my hobby (although I’d like it to be more) and splitting my spare time between development, graphics, sound, marketing, etc means that game production is very slow. keep reading…
Astro Noughts has just been approved by Apple and is available now on the iPad App Store.
You can buy it here for just $0.99 (59p).
I’ll have some follow up blog posts soon but for now I’ll leave you with the official press release. Or you can pop along to Gamasutra to read it. You can also download the Press Pack containing some images which you are free to distribute.
– Astro Noughts Press Release –
Set in the depths of space, you’ll face wave after wave of planets hurtling towards you.
By calculating the correct mathematical expressions, you must obliterate as many planets as possible and avoid the space debris.
Fast paced, mental arithmetic is the order of the day.
Features:
Astro Noughts is available from the App Store now priced at just $0.99
iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/astro-noughts/id406791013?mt=8
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWsZ570plYw
Fore more details, please visit:
http://www.bytesizeadventures.com/astronoughts
You can learn more about the developer, Bytesize Adventures, at our official website: http://www.bytesizeadventures.com or you can follow us on twitter here: http://twitter.com/chrismwaite
Astro Noughts has just been submitted to Apple for approval. With any luck it will be hitting the iPad App store some time in December. Its been fun and I’m pleased with the final result. With submission out of the way, its time to turn my hand to a spot of marketing (something I’m not terribly good at).
To kick things off I have a slew of screenshots and even a gameplay video to share with you. I have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting gameplay videos and trailers. Its yet another facet of Independent game development that is normally a career in itself. You’ll also have to excuse the quality – Apparently my Ricoh R8 produces abysmal videos.
Gameplay Video
Screeshots
