For those of you not familiar with the original Star Fusion, here’s what its all about…

Star Fusion is a simple arcade game in which you control the Sun by dragging it along the y-axis. Stars move towards you from the right of the screen at varying speeds. In addition to the Sun you also control a thermometer which has a numeric heat value attached to it. Each of the stars also have a numeric value attached to them. Your aim is to collect the stars by matching the value of the thermometer with the numeric value of the star at the moment it touches the Sun.

There are a number of other details that help keep things interesting. For instance, you can double tap the Sun to cause any stars in your direct horizontal path to accelerate towards you. There are also time and score multiplier power-ups to be collected. Games last 2 minutes and are dynamically controlled so that no two games are the same.

(You can try the original Star Fusion at no cost. Details at the end of this post)

If you’ve read my blog or seen my tweets, you’ll know that I’m currently in full flow on my 3rd game which is proving to be an extremely lengthy, uncomfortable project (There’s a chance it may not see the light of day in its current form – more on that shortly). With all this work, and limited time, I had metaphorically pushed Star Fusion under the bed until next year.

So, you know how it is, I was developing away on my new game, making good progress but decided I needed a short break for coffee (Grinding your own beans with a vintage hand coffee grinder and taking the time to get the Espresso just right means that this “short break” is actually fairly lengthy ;-)). For some reason during said coffee break, Star Fusion popped back into my head and I wondered how easy it would be to port it to the iPad. A couple of hours later I had a basic shell working but held off implementing any of the game logic. This was great fun, I was having a blast working on Star Fusion again but I wanted to do it justice. I didn’t just want to port Star Fusion over to the iPad as it is, I wanted to make it better.

So that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to release Star Fusion HD with a completely reworked engine and a number of new additions and improvements that suit the iPad platform. I’ve already put a decent number of hours into it and expect it to take no more than a few months to complete (during my spare time).

So what’s going to be new in Star Fusion HD? Here’s my hit list…

1) A graphical overhaul with some nifty particle effects
2) The game will change from a time based system to a dynamic, endless, wave system (I may add additional modes in the future)
3) New power-ups (and a new way to collect them)
4) Lots of star types with vastly different appearances (unlocked as you progress through waves and viewable in the planetarium)
5) Open Feint integration for leaderboards and achievements
6) A chain system for reaching higher scores

The game is still very much a work in progress but I’d like you to see it anyway. Check out the screenshots below.

Oh and just for you, my dear readership, I’ve made the original Star Fusion for the iPhone free for a few days. Its not a marketing stunt but I would like you to download it and see what you think. Please leave your comments here, they will help influence the features of Star Fusion HD.

This post is part of iDevBlogADay, a group of indie iPhone development blogs featuring two posts per day. You can keep up with iDevBlogADay through the website, RSS feed, or Twitter.

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)

What makes the iPad good for games development

1) A 9.7 inch screen. It may just be a larger screen but this will make a huge difference when developing games. More screen real estate means more room for virtual controls, more possibilities for multiplayer (on the same device), and more room for advanced gestures.

2) Speed. Early reports are suggesting that the device is blisteringly fast. Applications open quickly, pages render quickly in the browser, and the interface is highly responsive. Ultimately this suggests that as games developers we will have more processing power to give a smoother playing experience (Although this is countered somewhat by the higher resolution and therefore the requirement for higher quality resources).

3) Low cost. This means that the device will end up in the hands of more people. One of the best things about the iPhone as a games development platform is the huge audience. It looks like the iPad will be no different.

4) Higher priced Apps. Its way too early to tell for sure but I do think that with the introduction of a bigger screen users may be prepared to pay more for Apps. There has to be some psychology in that somewhere.

5) Drawing Apps. I think the Brushes demo illustrated that the iPad could be great for sketching out ideas for games. I use a Wacom tablet at the moment but nothing can beat the feel of drawing directly onto a device.

What’s not so great about the iPad

1) No camera. I don’t understand this one bit. Surely a camera is a no brainer these days. Everything comes with a built-in camera, even my socks (ok maybe not my socks). A camera opens up lots of possibilities for games. Here’s hoping that it will be released as a plug-in accessory.

2) No Multi-tasking. I felt I had to mention this just because it would be nice to be able to have more than one App open. It would of course pose some quite serious issues with memory management though and if the iPad is really as fast as people are saying then hopefully we won’t miss it too much.

3) Existing iPhone Apps will be immediately available on the iPad. Not everyone will agree with this but I really don’t think iPhone Apps should be available on the iPad. The iPad will display iPhone Apps in a small window in the center of the screen and allow the user to expand the App to fill the screen. Lots of Apps are going to look really ugly with this feature, case in point – my own Rocket Santa game. It’s graphics are isometric pixel art and I suspect they will look hideous when scaled up.

How will it impact my direction as a games developer

For my own part, I plan on pre-ordering the iPad as soon as possible. However, I don’t plan on developing any games for the iPad yet, at least not until I own and have spent significant time using the device. The potential for building games specifically for the iPad is really exciting and something i’ll definitely be pursuing once it launches (who knows, maybe i’ll return to my IF game after all).

I’ll continue developing my latest game for the iPhone and if, once I have the iPad, I think it will convert well then i’ll port it over with a new interface.

Thats not to say I won’t begin investigating the iPad’s features now. Apple have already made the iPad SDK available to iPhone developers (under a non-disclosure agreement) and I already have it installed on my MacBook Pro. Exciting stuff indeed.