Games One game a month! personal challenge

andymc · Nov 6, 2018

I know my months seem to be measured in "valve time" (look it up), but here's the next one, due for release in a few days (hopefully real days, not weeks).

It's a simple asteroid dodging game, where you control the ship using your finger to drag it around, as you get further the asteroids come faster and faster. The first release will store a local high score, then I'll do a second release with bug fixes and online highscore table.

andymc · Nov 16, 2018

Oh dear, it's been ten days since I posted and I've not released it yet. Okay, I promise to try to release the first version this weekend. Here's a WIP video:

Eme Fibonacci · Nov 16, 2018

Libgdx?

tufanv · Nov 17, 2018

awesome !

andymc · Nov 19, 2018

Eme Fibonacci said:
Libgdx?

Hi, yeah, all my games use LibGDX, at some point I'll look at the Xui2D framework, but haven't got the spare time. It's useful for me to use my existing games as code bases for new games. I'm going to write an asteroids clone next, so I'll be able to use this games code, mixed with my landscape control scheme from the twin stick shooter game to write Asteroids, so should be nice and quick.

My weekend got taken up with family stuff and my one year old has an awful cold so isn't sleeping well, meaning no evening dev time for me, but come hell or high water, I will release the first version of this to the play store on Wednesday.

giga · Nov 19, 2018

andymc said:
Hi, yeah, all my games use LibGDX, at some point I'll look at the Xui2D framework, but haven't got the spare time. It's useful for me to use my existing games as code bases for new games. I'm going to write an asteroids clone next, so I'll be able to use this games code, mixed with my landscape control scheme from the twin stick shooter game to write Asteroids, so should be nice and quick.

My weekend got taken up with family stuff and my one year old has an awful cold so isn't sleeping well, meaning no evening dev time for me, but come hell or high water, I will release the first version of this to the play store on Wednesday.

Like the determination, we are rooting for you!

eps · Nov 20, 2018

It's really tough, especially with a young family. If you think you've got no time right now, try it with 2 children!!

I've set myself a similar challenge - a game I've been mulling over for at least 4-5 years is now almost within touching distance. I've been getting some friends to alpha test it and was making some good progress over the past 2 to 3 weeks, but it's all tailed off a little... but I think I have a clear path to release or at least beta release.

Q. @andymc how do you handle an online scoreboard? Do you use Google Play, Firebase or Amazon or other for that? Obviously I'm not after your code, but if there's a post somewhere or you've got a link to an article which would point me in the right direction that would be great.

I was hoping to release my game at the end of the month - if I slip in to December it may well get swallowed up with all that craziness...

andymc · Nov 21, 2018

hi @eps I use google play service. I actually didn't write my code for it, the wonderful B4A coder @Computersmith64 helped me out on that, h'es put google play service to good use in his games, like Five Dice, and they work well. He also helped me with achievements. There is some good sample code in the forums though if you look up leaderboards in the search box.
Anyway, need to do my day job (and sneak in game programming too)

Just a side note, I love using Trello for my task lists for my games. It has a mobile app too, so if you think of something, or a fix for a bug then you can write it on the list on your phone wherever you might be.

andymc · Nov 21, 2018

Okay, it's done. The first version is uploaded and being processed on the Play Store right now

There's plenty of features I still need to add. But right now, it plays, you can turn sound effects and music on and off, it has a game over screen, the highscore code works. So yes, it's a playable game.

Once it's up, the link should be:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.coffeeinducedgames.asteroidsprint

UPDATE: Okay, so Google rejected it as the link on the title screen "Rate us" went to my list of games on the store, rather than the main game page. This was obviously because for the first version. There is no app page, so I was going to update it later, but they rejected it anyway. So I've removed that and re-submitted it. Hopefully it will be live in a few hours.

Next features to add for next few updates:
Alien attack ship
Helper drones bonus
Online Highscore table
Loads of graphics tweaks
Ship upgrades with gems
Better sound effects
Achievements

All this will come but I wanted to get the MVP (minimum viable product) released, then iterate it over the next few weeks in a Lean fashion (lots of Agile terms there for the modern devs among us )

Hamied Abou Hulaikah · Nov 26, 2018

Are you sure?

andymc · Nov 26, 2018

HAH said:
Are you sure?

Hi, yes, that is me. That income was mainly from the success of my Invaders games I put on the store in 2014, then got popular in late 2016. But now I'm branching out into other space shooters that aren't direct copied of Space Invaders.

andymc · Nov 28, 2018

Another quick update, I have put the game on the market, but am now adding more features. I'll add the online high score table before publishing this next update to the store, but here's a video showing the way it looks now:

Screenshake was actually really easy to do in the end.

Computersmith64 · Nov 30, 2018

HAH said:
Are you sure?

It's possible to make a good living from ads without having a hit game. Since I started using AdMob in May 2014, I've earned almost US$430K - about 75% of which has come from one app (Five Dice), which has had a total of just under 1M downloads. Revenue can go up & down significantly over short periods of time but if you're in it for the long haul (& with a little luck) it can average out to a pretty reasonable income.

Here's an interesting stat for you: In total, my apps have shown 113,577,425 ads up to this point. That's quite a few really.

(Sorry Andy - not trying to hijack your thread)

- Colin.

andymc · Nov 30, 2018

Computersmith64 said:
I've earned almost US$430K - about 75% of which has come from one app (Five Dice)

You know you've opened yourself up to begging letters wanting to know how to do that same thing right?

Computersmith64 · Nov 30, 2018

andymc said:
You know you've opened yourself up to begging letters wanting to know how to do that same thing right?

Hah! I'll just repeat what I tell people now - "I got lucky"! In all seriousness, I just wanted to show that it's not impossible to make a decent living out of being an independent (& solo) developer. I should have added that 14 of my 16 Android apps were developed using B4A (including Five Dice). The 2 that weren't (1 x Android Studio & 1 x Unity) generally aren't earning more than a few cents per day.

- Colin.

Hamied Abou Hulaikah · Nov 30, 2018

Great work man @Computersmith64 and @andymc
The B4X game development is a big big start point for us
1 year ago, I developed 10s billing apps using B4A, My clients billed >$2M , but in other hand I got a friction of this amount (as margin profit about 1%)
I got famous and reputed in App development in my country, But I want good income also, I feel myself idiot Why I wasting my time in headache with billing apps!!!
So I starting shifting my effort for game programming.
B4X is stable & straight forward IDE.

Thanks in advance for Mr @Erel & Others

Douglas Farias · Dec 1, 2018

I wish you success and money

eps · Dec 19, 2018

andymc said:
hi @eps I use google play service. I actually didn't write my code for it, the wonderful B4A coder @Computersmith64 helped me out on that, h'es put google play service to good use in his games, like Five Dice, and they work well. He also helped me with achievements. There is some good sample code in the forums though if you look up leaderboards in the search box.
Anyway, need to do my day job (and sneak in game programming too)

Just a side note, I love using Trello for my task lists for my games. It has a mobile app too, so if you think of something, or a fix for a bug then you can write it on the list on your phone wherever you might be.

Cheers @andymc sorry, for some reason I didn't see your reply. I'll check out the sample code Hopefully I'll be able to work it out.

I'll check Trello - I'm more a piece of paper type person, but maybe Trello is a good replacement.

Good work by the way! Your download numbers are impressive, I know how hard this can all be!! Sometimes you spend ages on something and it gets very little interest, whereas at other times something small and fairly insignificant garners lots of interest.

andymc · Dec 20, 2018

Given that Christmas is almost here and I've had children couching they guts up for the last month at home, this challenge is getting put off to 2019. I'm not fussed if any other B4A user copies the games I'm going to do, as I'm copying them anyway, so here's the target list for 2019:
Frogger
Asteroids
Defender
Missile Command
Harrier Attack
Simple Cannon Fodder clone
Break Out
Mini Tanks Game
Pac Man
Microbes clone (old amiga game)

I also want to work on some tutorials showing how I make my games using B4A and LibGDX on my website, I'll try to do some youtube videos too.
I'm going to update my existing games too, I need to monetise them as much as possible, like adding more IAP's to remove ads and get upgrades to in game items, improve how I use ads, use more rewarded ads, and try different ad networks through admob mediation.
There's so much other stuff to do too like getting well known on other forums, not just this one, so I can release games and get more traction straioght away, I'd quite like to work on a team developed game too, but that would need more spare time.

ilan · Dec 20, 2018

andymc said:
Frogger
Asteroids
Defender
Missile Command
Harrier Attack
Simple Cannon Fodder clone
Break Out
Mini Tanks Game
Pac Man
Microbes clone (old amiga game)

I like this list. I just came back from holiday in Austria (vienna) and i brought with me a c64 mini and an Atari console because i love those retro games and i want to make some using x2 lib (if it wont be to complicated)

I have added rambo to the c64 mini and old memories came back

Games One game a month! personal challenge

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