bubble-games-blog

[bubble-games-blog]

How to get some money with a game

(even if you just want to make a game)

I know it's been a while, but I'm currently not doing the things that I can really show or explain in anyway. But let's pick on one subject and speak about it.

The ads.

I personnaly HATE ads, especially if they are force upon you for every screen change you make. And I'm glad these days are long gone by now (at least in the "serious" game development). Instead, you can now see a lot ads than reward you if you CHOSE to watch them. They are mainly not needed to get everything in a game, but usually they speed up the process a little, in a world where everything is speed! They actually teach us a lot about our own patience :) You can get more ("free") coins, skip the waiting time, get a temporary power bonus... Even so you don't need to watch them, they are a pain in the ass. BUT I understand why they are here. Everyone understands that. And it's not a so much a pain as soon as we see it as a win-win. Even if the game is build around them. Remember: you DON'T have to watch them, and if you chose so, the developers make money (well...), and you win something to enjoy the game even more!

It proves two things: - the players don't want to be the milky cow of the developpers - the developers don't want the players to hate them for money reason!

And so, I decided to implement them too, because I don't want to abuse of the players' kindness, but if I can make some money... Surely not to make a full-time job out of it, but to help it!

You can find them in 3 places, one of them I'm not confortable with but I don't see a better option.

1. During the actual levels, you can get "leaves", which allow you to unlock more bonus and more powers as a hero. Maybe even new hero, still working on that. But you'll lose every leaf once you start a new level. Because you brother steal them from you. Nasty bastard! So, in order to unlock some power-ups, you may find you short of some leaves, and you are not sure you can get enough leaves on the next run. Here come the ads: you can watch an ad to get a certain amount of leaves, based on your hero level. You can do it as much as you want, so in theory you can get everything without even playing. But you are a masochist. The amount of leaves should be enough to get the skills you want if you miss something like 5% of the leaves. The point is not to force you to watch an ad, just to help you get the little extra you missed during the play. I'm pretty confortable with this one.

2. If you die, or just end a level without being full life, you'll go to the level selection screen, but you'll be tired. The less the health pool, the more the exhaustion. So, you'll have to wait a little. I've actually set it on one minute and a half to be fully restored, so that's the longer you may wait, in the even you died. Maybe you think it's too much (say it to me!), but you can then check your skills, your equipment, take a pee... And the ad obviously allowed you to overpass this wait. I'm fine with that too. (one the very first level, on “normal” mode, you don’t have this constraint, so you can play all you want to “try”)

3. The one ad I don't like. I've done some pre-closed-alpha-only-me tests, and I missed the "Replay" button inside a level. I had to go back to the level selection screen, and pick the level once again. Loats of loading time for nothing. BUT with a "Replay" button, you won't have the "wait" between levels. I don't want to force the ads, but I'd like to get some money out of my work. So I had to find a compromise: every 5 replays, you'll have to watch an ad (without being asked, that's what bother me). You'll be warn about that the first time you hit "Replay", but I still don't like it. Think about it like the lesser good :D

One last thing is the possibily (not done yet!) to totally remove the ads for a small fee. Again, nothing new, but I like this idea of totally helping the developper AND you at the same time.

Don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts about it!

And don’t forget to follow my Twitter and my Instagram if you want more light updates!

[bubble-games-blog]

How to draw when you're bad at it?

(and even if you try, you keep failing for a long time!)

Well, eventually, you have to decide what your game will look like. And eventually, you try to draw something vaguely ressembling what is on your mind. Then you stop. (If you are me, that is. If you are talented, you do something great of course!)

And eventually you understand why there are so many indie games in pixel art. Put it simply, the former reason of the use of pixel art in old games is from a technical order. One didn't has space to load fancy textures, so one kept it as simple as possible (KISS!).

Nowadays, developpers use pixel art because : - it is easy to draw something "good enough" to be understandable - it is easy to do it in "no time" (well, that's true only with "bad" pixel art, and low res) - it is cheap (because you do it yourself)

You could always hire a good illustrator/animator, but they don't come cheap at all (it's a lot of work, I don't blame them, but when you don't have money, you can't hire them :() You can't even ask one of your friend to help you, because as I said, it is so much work, they won't be able to help you throughout the whole game. Or if they can, enjoy! But don't expect that. So, like a good indie dev, you start by learning the basics of pixel art.

And eventually, you draw your hero, a very simple one because you're still bad (not that I'm good now, but way more than I was!): here come the blob!

It's a 32x32 pixels image, way too much for my skills. From here, I started to draw everything else according to this size.

Then I realized it was too much time consuming, and I scaled everything down to 16x16 as one unit. In the meantime, I had improved myself, so the result was better.

And the result was not only better looking on the device screen, it was also easier to draw! I mean, you have to think more before placing a pixel, but since you have only the fourth to draw, you can think twice as much for each one, so you still end up a winner!

Our pixel art is really great and I LOVE it (you can't imagine how much!), and I never want it to stop being seen, NEVER! But, even if they are countless way to draw in pixel art, I still feel that something IS the same. Each game is not unique. Kind of like with the low-poly (pixel art in 3D :p).

It is of course an easy way to keep your game low budget, but unless you're very skilled, I still suggest hire an illustrator, we definitely need them to create a good atmosphere for our game.

Let's think about these games (you may or may not like the graphics, but they are all awesome in their way): Fez, Braid, Journey, Seasons after Fall...

Thanks melancholia, thanks nostalgia, thanks pixels, thank you!

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter and my Instagram if you want more light updates!

[bubble-games-blog]

How to distinguish my game from these millions of runners?

(and why do I have so much stupid ideas?)

First thing first, my dear readers, you all wonder what is a runner? No? You already know? Ahem. Sorry, but I see someone in the very backroom who raises his hand. Yes? You would very much like an explanation? Here we go!

What is a endless runner?

"Non-stop running games are defined by two things: the player-controller avatar cannot stop its forward momentum, and it has feet. [...] Controls are generally simple, focusing on actions such as jumping over obstacles [...]. Success or progress is usually measured in distanced traveled without dying or crashing."

Thanks to Giantbomb

I could have try to do a better explanation, but since: - the vast majority of you already know what it is - this definition is very accurate I just copy-pasted it.

Although accurate, this is a very basic endless runner definition. Nowadays, most of them have at least these two added functionalities: - coins - power-ups

Coins are collectibles that the player must get in order to be either successful or buy things in the game. Depending on the game, they can just be another score (with the distance). Or they can just be here to show the way to the player. Coins are also another way for the developer to balance difficulty: he can place the least rewarding ones on the easy way, and the most valuable on the hard way. You can do anything!

Power-ups are, as the name implied, bonus that will empowered the player temporarily. The most standard ones are: - Flight: the player is now able to fly, so he cannot jump anymore, but he dodges every obstacles by flying over them. - Magnet: the player will attract the coins effortlessly, so he doesn't need to be precise with his jumps, or things like that. - Shield: the player is invulnerable to most of the damages the game offers, but he usually still dies if he fells over or if he is catched by the end of the screen. You can imagine a lot more, as a lot of developers did, and as I will show you on my article dedicated to these power-ups.

Some good endless runners

Temple Run

"Run for your life!" Probably the most notorious one on mobile. And... I actually never played it :shame: :boooh: I mean, I really DON'T like the style. I had a PS1, a PS2, I had friends with N64, GameCube, Saturn (yes), DreamCast (yes too.). I am old (30 IS old). I am from this generation of players. I love to play old games from this era. But come on, it almost hurts my eyes! I'm not saying I can do better, but don't ask me to play it! Yes, I know, no one asked me.

I can say much about this game, considering what I just said, but I had to mention it.

You can get this game here: Android or iOS

Gear Jack: Black Hole

"Gear Jack is back, in an all new endless adventure with beautifully sytlized graphics!" As implied in the description, this one is much more better looking! You start the game by playing right at the start. No fancy menu, no long tutorial, you just jump in. But who needs tutorial with such basic controls: jump (small double), sonic-style ball, slow. After a certain amount of time in a level, a black hole get you onto a new level, and your speed is increased. Eventually, you die. You can do some missions (avoid some obstacles, get some pickups...) to unlock more coins, that you get by playing otherwise. And a very easy skill progression exists: basically, you can improve every pickups, and be more resilient to some obstacles.

You can get this game here: Android or iOS

Wind Runner

Ok, on this one, the graphics are AMAZING. (it's definitely not my main concern, but it's always nice to play a beautiful game.) You really feel the speed with this game, you have to have good reflexes and a good memory! A pet and a mount (that you can both upgrade/change) will accompany you, you can change your skin... You can buy a lot of items to get further into the levels.

I definitely recommend this game if you like the genre.

You can get this game here: Android or iOS

No good mechanisms to grow powerful

As you can see if you played many endless runners, you generally have no growing mechanism at all, and if you have one (for the best of them), they are usually pretty straight-forward. I'm not saying I'm doing something über complicated, but I do hope you'll have more choices (that will totally blend once you've played the game for your whole life, muahahaha!) (ok, I mean, you can unlock everything, it's just more expensive). I've been greatly inspired by a WONDERFUL game: Rogue Legacy. You should definitely play this game if you just wake up from a very long hibernation (I hate this joke, shame on me).

As you can see, it's REALLY the same graphical idea, I hope they won't mind :( You have to pay some leaves to upgrade your skills, and depending on certain conditions, you unlock new possible upgrades.

But it was not enough. And because I'm stupid and I don't seem to be able to estimate the duration of a task, I wanted to had some equipments too.

That's really easy to understand: 9 levels = 9 swords + 9 shields + 9 helmets + 9 perfumes. All of them with different stats. The obtention depends on the level played, and certain conditions (don't drop under a certain HP ratio...)

You should be able to finish the game without any of this upgrades or piece of equipments. But you'll have to be very skillful!

Different modes for different gamestyles

I defined two modes for Blon: a story mode and an arcade mode.

The "Arcade" is just a real endless runner. You can jump, and that's it. (and do some other special actions, but you'll have to wait on the pickups ticket to know about that!) If you don't die, you just keep running, faster and faster. Hint: it's on this mode that you can get the "perfume" items.

The "Story" mode is the reason this game take me so much time: I wanted to have 3 boss per level, so a total of 27 AI to think about and develop. Considering your hero can only jump and attack, but no real movement, it's not that easy! But it's fun to find new ways to interact :) The first two mini-bosses in a level are fight on the ground, and the last one, the real boss, is fight from the air. That way, I could imagine something else for at least 9 enemies :D The last boss is played just like a shmup (like Gradius), in fact. So, you actually have an end to each level in story mode. That way, you can feel the progression, and you can "stop" for a day when you have accomplished something "meaningful" (we're still talking about a game, so I put an emphasis on these quotation marks!).

I hope this help me get my game to a different place from all these endless runners.

Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter and my Instagram if you want more light updates!

[bubble-games-blog]

What kind of game should I make?

(for a Human Lvl 1 in gamedev)

I'll be straight forward: I immediatly wanted to develop an infinite runner (TL;DR). Now, let's explain why.

Number of D

The very first question one should ask himself is 3D, 2D iso or 2D? Of course, as the evolution of the video games showed us, the answer is quite easy: a 2D game. And according to the kind of game I had in mind, I went for a horizontal scrolling. I don't really think I have to explain these choices, they seem pretty obvious to me. But that's only the first step, now you have to chose how the camera moves.

Camera

I initially tried a following camera, which moved exactly as the player was moving. It didn't work at all :D If you don't have the control of one of the direction (in this case, the horizontal), that's probably the worst choice you could possibly make. The camera was only moving... vertically. It felt like your character was immobile, you didn't have any impression of speed. So I tried to smooth things a little, but it was still not what I expected. The only choice left for a 2D environment was to fix the camera. I mean, I could have guessed that from all the infinite runners I have played, but patiently experienced WHY the others choices were bad was instructive. That's the only camera mode that let you see your character and the obstacles with enough distinction (which is primordial in this kind of game). Furthermore, you can feel the speed (especially during acceleration), and that's great!

Mobile device

Nowadays, you can ask yourself the question pretty mindlessly, you don't have to struggle with the complexity of the engine: which support do I want to develop for? I went for the mobile devices for three main reasons: - the pool of players is larger on this support - the F2P model is easier to "sell" on mobile - I wanted the minimum possible of controls

Let's develop these points. - The first one is only statistical, I didn't invent anything new here. Plus, the mobile market is growing each year, so what is true now will be even more true when the game will be released. Nothing to discuss. - Ok, that may be a false statement. Let's say I feel it that way. Although I love free games on any device, I think the F2P on PC are more delicates to implement, because you have to sell something in game that is not necessary to finish the game. So it's mainly skins and other "meaningless" features (I don't say their are not important though). In the end, a player who don't want to pay won't pay. And if you want them to pay, you have to create a great game (I have in mind games like League of Legends, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Path of Exile...) That's not fit for a solo indie developer. On the other hand, for a mobile device, you can add the VERY annoying (I'm the first to hate that.) timers or money. Then, if the player doesn't want to wait, he can chose to watch an ad. So no one is really paying to play. Annoying, but fair. The developer still have to get money for his works, and he can chose which ads are shown. So if the player is impatient, he actually help the developer, and if the ads are good enough, he can even find another good game (but we all know that never happens, because it's always the same ads...) - Last point, I wanted the less controls possible, one touch would have been ideal. The idea behind that is to have the less action possible, and so the less development possible. That was actually a good and a bad thing, because you have to think as others ways to interact with the player. So more creatives ways of playing! Plus, on a mobile, you shouldn't have a controller as an overlay on your screen.

Quick gameplay

And our quest is not over yet! Once you have an easy control system, you have to create a quick content. The current mobile market wants to play short sessions frequently. So you have to provide a way to play for something like 3-4 minutes, then stop without any impact. The infinite runner system is quite good on its own for that (that's probably why so many infinite runners exist), so I just stick with this logic. But I wanted more (we'll come back to that on a next post I think).

Game Engine

Any game developer has at his disposal many engines: Unity, Unreal Engine, Game Maker, Construct, RPG Maker... They all have their pros and cons, but eventually you have to chose one and stick with it. If you have a lot of time you can switch, but I hadn't! Considering my meager knowledge in programming (I studied some C, C++, Java in school), I finally settled for Unity: - C# was close enough to what I liked in C and Java (I hate "var", sorry) - Totally free (unless you're making a lot of money, which will be more than welcome!) - You can easily build for Android, iOS, PC... I pretty sure others are really great (I'm talking to you, Game Maker!), but I found Unity to be both very deep and very shallow, depending on what you know and what you need.

Finally

So, why an infinite runner? I guess everyone tried at some points to create this kind of game, if only for the training. And that's exactly what it is: a training. I'm giving my best to make a great game, but I'm not fooling myself. Even Unity has a great tutorial (that I barely watched, boooh) on the development of an infinite runner. A beginner's one. The reason why many people start this way (in my opinion) is because of the simplicity of this kind of game. You can't beat that: you run, you jump.

But... that's definitely not good enough. The next post will be about the changes I make to improve the gameplay significantly.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to follow my Twitter and my Instagram if you want more light updates!

[bubble-games-blog]

Why do I start a devlog so late?

(but first, why not?)

So, as I said on the last post, not everything will be directly about the game. The title mentioned it: I'll speak about the reasons I finally started a devlog, even so lately. I hope you don't mind, and I'm sure this will relieve me of some frustration. But in the very doubtful case of one of you actually minding:

I've read a lot of good feedbacks about the writing of a devlog during the development of the game. Let's go through them.

- First perk, and probably the most important one, you can receive feedbacks from many other developers and players. That alone is basically priceless. I mean, I didn't actually get anything since my last post, because there is not much to say (and no one read it :D), but I'm very confident you will help me (and I'll be very happy to help you too) when the time comes. Yes, even you, carelessly watching a serie while reading this! While this exchange happens, the game will improve accordingly. But, and that is my big mistake, since the game is already well advanced on the roadsheet, I won't be able to modify everything you may tell me... *slap himself in the face* I mean... I could, but what may take too much time won't be changed.

- Second perk, it will definitely help me be more constant. Since I HAVE to show you my works (because that's the goal), I HAVE to show you something new every week. (Even this week, don't worry.) (Not much though.) (And it's something old, just so you see the evolution.) I'm working alone, like many of us do, poors indie-developers. I don't know how the others are able to keep developing their game after many months. I'm pretty sure it's too much for one person alone. That's why everyone insists on doing a first SMALL game. I failed this time, but I don't want to give up, and so: this devlog happens.

- Third and last (for me) perk: you can see the evolution of the game through the months. And if you can see it, I'll be able to see it too! It's a very powerful tool to use, as if you can see were you come from, you can be proud to be where you stand right now. And thus, you want to keep developping everyday. That's also the tricky part about starting a devlog so lately in the process. But worry not, I still have some previous screenshots to show you. I'll try as much as possible to remember what I did, and why I did it, the whole seasoned with some learning from my mistakes.

- Bonus perk: it will definitely teach me how to manage a devlog for the next game I'm intending to develop. And that will improve it for every others reasons I've written about!

Ok, so that were the "good" reasons to write a devlog. Now let's talk about the "less good" reason. I don't mean you shouldn't do it, because it's obviously a necessity in our world: the marketing aspect. A lot of people are giving a try to the game development, so you CAN'T realistically hope to be noticed (unless your game is sooo good that no one won't play it) without trying to be talked about. It's basically the only way for a indie developer to be known. So we have to use it!

Maybe I only see it as a "not so good" reason because I'm really pissed with all the campaigns for random products (I don't necessarily speak about video games) we can see out there. It's actually a good thing if you do it just to survive and create your next game (or a new piece of art, or whatever you want to do), not to just sell anything and be a multi-millionaire. Of course, you know why I'm writing it.

And without further ado (I love this expression), here are some oldies:

You can notice how I downgrade the general quality for two reasons: - we didn’t see the pixels enough - I don’t know how to draw pixel art! (well, now it’s kind of better)

Actually, since I'm so late in the devlog, I think I won't try to catch up. Instead, I will explain the genesis of the game with some posts, like a post-mortem alive. When that's done, I'll be more comfortable talking about the core of the game.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to follow my Twitter and my Instagram if you want more light updates!

[bubble-games-blog]

I always liked the video games’ musics. That’s pretty much the only kind of music I listen, with movies sound track. Last weekend, I heard for the first time this wonderful song. I never played this game (but the two firsts, yes!), and now, JUST FOR THIS SONG, I will.

Did you already have this feeling about a song? That it is so good you want to learn about the game?

[bubble-games-blog]

One of the best out there! This actually helped me a lot (we’ll see that soon enough!)

Simple Rock Tileset - Tutorial  https://www.patreon.com/Namatnieks

[bubble-games-blog]

The story of Blon ~o~

(or how do I get started selling my game)

Welcome to the wonderful and magnificent devblog about my first game: Blon! (well, that's actually a lie, I tried to make some other games, but I do intend to finish this one!) I had no idea about the better way to start this blog, so I figured: it exists for the game, let's talk about it.

Synopsys

Blon is set in a non-realistic world which has no name, during a time that is not important.

The Blobs are a happy family. Everyday, they harvest the leaves from the Great Tree in their yard. And that's all they really care about: eating these leaves. Of course, they love doing nothing, playing around the Tree, squabbling... But one terrible day, as they woke up, the Great Tree was missing: nothing left of him, from roots to leaves! The Blobs were so shocked they couldn't move at all. Except for one.

You will incarnate Blon, the younger brother - but very brave - of this large fraternity, and you will try to save them before it's too late! (but don't you worry, they actually don't "need" to eat, they just love to, so you can take your time to sightsee.)

Gameplay Features

- A deep talent-tree that may change the gameplay (in a good way!). Another Great Tree! - Every level has three difficulties that adds a handicap, slightly changing the gameplay! - It's an infinite runner, with some parts of shoot'em-up. - If you don't like the shmup part, you can still play in Arcade Mode, and you will just run and jump! - Depending what you do, you will be rewarded with a new piece of equipment that will improve your next attempts!

Screenshots - Videos

Development

- The most part of the mechanism have been developped (including the talent-tree) - I'm relying a lot on Kevin MacLeod's musics (it's pretty nice and free, you all know that!) - The story is fully written (just look up, that's the full story.) - A demo is on the way! - It's pretty hard to find good audio SFX, but I think most of them are covered.

Considering the demo I'm trying to release: - It will include the four first levels/worlds. - All of them have their graphic assets drawn. - The level design is done for the first three worlds. - You will have a hard time killing all the bosses, but you can try for all them.

And... that's it. I think I said everything I should for a first post. I'd like to be as regular as one update every week, but maybe not every post will be about the development of the game per se. Still close to it though :)

You can check (if not already done, you shy people!) more frequents (but more shallows) updates on: - my Twitter - my Instagram