My name is Josip Matić and I’m a Computer Engineering student doing game development for a hobby. I want to show practically my first game which is close to being complete for release.
The game could best be described as arcade-style obstacle challenge. Player controls the bubble left and right while it automatically moves up and down, bouncing off solid surfaces. The goal is to reach the exit with the bubble while avoiding or going through obstacles, which consist of spikes, walls of different colors and lasers of different colors. The game also comes with built-in level editor, so players can create and share their own levels.
The game is built with Monogame (of course), using MonoGame.Extended on top of it for many things. It originally started as a speedrun challenge for myself using pure XNA Framework - how fast can I deliver a minimum viable product (result: 4 hours). Since then, it evolved into something more… presentable, then I had to put it aside for a year and 3 months due to health issues and university demanding more stuff. I have returned to it recently, rewriting it from scratch.
I also have a gameplay video, but it’s from the old version of the game, which was written with XNA and was using older graphics. Still, the gameplay is the same.
Now, should start thinking about release, so I’d like to use the opportunity to ask for some tips where can I start with research on what to do. Any help would be appreciated.
Looks fun! I guess a lot of us have done our share of bouncing balls, but you’ve really taken it in a unique direction. including audio, and even a nice looking menu. What more could you ask for? Good luck with launching process, would be cool to hear about your release experiences once you get that far!
Thanks
I have a feeling releasing will have a whole other set of issues… but before that I’ll need to determine the worth of my game. And come to terms with my fears (people not playing etc.) Oh well, comes with the job, I think?
Also, I had a bit of a fun testing Open Broadcast Studio for recording:
Level design is the key for games like this.
For example “Even the Ocean” is an amazing game and game mechanic , has an ok/good story but level design is just teribble for that mechanics.
Also your graphics/art need an artist touch or some light effects.
From programer view:
You have level designer, in game debug,game mechanics and a solid game. I can’t even make a simple drag and drop button system : ) I see very hard work there.
Yeah, I’m aware of that. It will be tricky to design an interesting set of levels (around 50 levels in total with varying difficulty), especially with so little tile types (7 in total). But I don’t implement more as I won’t finish the game otherwise X)
Yup yup. Unfortunately, I have budget of exactly 0
I’ll see, however, if something can be done when polishing time comes.
You have White/Blue/Red/Green. You need Black/Orange.
I’d spend the next month or two adding animations, particles, lighting, and sounds into the code… XNA.com has all the kits you’d need and even graphics and sounds.
Beyond that I don’t expect you to sell it for more than $1-5 and even free with advertisements won’t go too far…
So, basically you have a good start to a game engine, a basic game, and education… Now you have to decide if you can radically alter your game within six months to a year, only dabble with it for the next five years, or go in a different direction…
With that, most of the work on the game itself is done; what it remains are debugging (with necessary refactoring), and both functional and visual polishing. Especially visual polishing. Brr. And I’m not an artist… HEEELP XD
I know. It’s my bane as I’m not artist, but I’ll try my best. For audio is simple, I already know a nifty tool to generate SFX I want, and as for music… well, there’s someone on this very forum offering free tunes
Still, thanks for your blunt opinion, it’s something I needed. ^^
Well, it’s been a while…
Finally, I’ve been able to release a first demo version (0.1.0), showcasing 10 levels and no level editor (for now). I’d be grateful if someone would try it and give some feedback ^^
I’m well aware already of the bugs present, thanks to the feedback from few people I’ve messaged personally, and am working right now to fixing them. Those include:
Color blocks producing more sound than needed
Clipping through wall in some (rare) cases
Hit detection in few cases (on level Timing most prominently)
Camera going up or down and getting stuck until player dies
I was tired when testing the build for release as I wanted to finally have something more than picture or video, so those bugs slipped up. Lesson learned, I guess?
Good luck with launching process, would be cool to hear about your release experiences once you get that far!
