WooHoo! StarKeep was just approved...

adado

... just now (3/10/10) and on my birthday of all days. First app!

Anyway, should I set the release date on it to tomorrow (3/11) or for something like Friday (3/12)?

I'll share details in a bit since the family is hungry.

TIA,
adado

firemaplegames

Congrats! Happy birthday!

quantumsheep

You know, I love space games. But one of my fave games is Zelda: a LINK to the past.

And you gotta love LINK. Even when given the option to change his name, I always leave it as LINK. Just seems right.

I generally don't like fantasy games. Unless LINK is in it...

Sorry. I'm unbearably wonderful. I'd LINK to a pic of me choking on someone else's vomit, but that'd be just a LINK too far..

QS

PS - congrats!

PPS - and now I realise that there's no LINK as you've not set a release date. And I feel fragile and exposed. Like Princess Zelda.

Maybe.

Sorry!

adado

[ DETAILS and PROMO CODES further down now...couldn't edit the first post since it was past the hour edit window. ]

Thanks FMG and QS!

Yeah, no link yet to share. It's approved but it's yet to show in app store, even Australia.

So do I set my "release date" for tomorrow (i.e. the day after approval) or for Friday? Or is it just going to use today's date and show in the listings for whenever the 10th's stuff show up!?

adado

Yeah, right now (6pm PST on 3/10) in the US app store, the new apps are 3/8. In the Aussie app store right now, they are 3/9.

So I'm guessing tomorrow will be fine (as it will still probably use 3/10 based on things I've read as of late). I guess the key is to use a date (the one you set) that is after the approval date and not accidentally have it set before the approval date!?

Nervous about screwing it up (even though it won't make much - basically a learning experience for GS and the app store).

quantumsheep

I honestly have no idea...

What kind of game is Starkeep? I like the name, and it's obviously sci-fi so I'm all in

QS

adado

[ Yeah, I mainly post as another user on these forums but one-in-a-while under this account...my pay account. If you know who, please don't mention it in a post. ]

DETAILS
========

The game is a spin (har!) on an arcade classic. It was mainly a "get to know GS" exercise and to see what GS could handle. I don't suspect it will sell too well since there is another homage to the same arcade classic (not to mention it is in the "action" and "arcade" categories of "games" - ouch).

I think this game really pushed the GS engine/pipeline in its current version (0.8.3). The actors' graphics are not really intense. The performance affecting pieces are:

• - the number of actors in a screen - upon scene start there are approximately 46 actors in play. That does not include any of the spawned projectiles, spawned point indicators, pop-up messages, or the spawned enemy ship
  
• - the movement and rotation of the defense rings' 30 segments (3 constrain behaviors each and a handful of other constrain behaviors for the player and you are looking at over 100 constrain behaviors at once!)
  
• - the spawning of numerous projectiles, point indicators, and the occasional enemy ship
  

Therefore, unless I scale it back a bit (say eight segments per ring and a few other things), it only runs well enough to play on an iPhone 3GS (or newer), a newer iPod Touch, and likely an iPad in backward compatibility "mode". Even now, it is pushing things on the newer model devices in terms of frames per second. I optimized the images and the sound files (maybe a little too much on the sound files but I think they are pretty cool). I don't think I "coded" it too terribly so I hope GS performance increases over the next few releases.

If I crunched all the time it took to produce into nights of four hours of work each, it was probably a little over two week's work. However, with family life, I'd often go 2 to 3 days without being able to work on it, so it was stretched out to over a month. :-(

PROMOTION CODES
=================

Anyway, here are some promo codes for those of you with the 3GS, newer Touches, or an iPad (in case someone reads this later on and there are still some left ;-) ):

`
TP34MRET9LR3
HHT3PH73NTY3
JH3FJYR993JY
RLKEXYA6KJHX
X4JHWA9TFR9J
4HWXTFJPXEXM
LN9KYKHJP6TY
ELHAJJ63PKX6
4XT47HKATJRH
3YPMPJWHTPKY
NRLE3FXJA6HP
XKPJH6L3EMNL
6F9ALEA7XNR9
4J4PR7XYJP7A
L4LXRJALFLTT
PMR9HEWLFPPN
LH4NEWF3PK3W
Y7KL3YAPEPYK
TY4JF47LEP74
RTY793W7993M
`
[ The screenshots are in backwards order...I re-uploaded them in the correct order so hopefully that will be reflected soon. I guess you upload them from last to first for anyone still not having done so yet. ]

Looking forward to some of my other ideas that I think will sell better than this little diddy.

The app appears to be available in the Aussie app store now. U.S. and others likely early in the AM sometime.

[ Oh, and I suck and have no patience for artwork/design on a PC. :-( ]

JGary321

TP34MRET9LR3 - Will review when it's up.

butterbean

Happy Birthday and Congrats!

Will play and review soon!

Y7KL3YAPEPYK

firemaplegames

I took RLKEXYA6KJHX and left a 5-star review!
Plays great on my 3GS, great sound effects!

JamesZeppelin

used ELHAJJ63PKX6
Left a review

I really like this game
the atari vibe and getting the guy in the middle reminds me of playing yar's revenge as a kid

SingleSparq

Ahhh!... based on one of my favourite games as a kid - Starcastle! was wondering when someone would remake that. Nothing like the classics. Mine is based on 3 classics combining Astroids, missile command and defender - hopefully out soon.

JamesZeppelin

Has anyone on the app store done a virtual centipede controller yet?

adado

Thanks all thus far! I appreciate it. I do like feedback, so feel free even if you have something not-so-rosey to share [ just not in an app store review ;-) ].

@QS: I think the cat is out of the bag, err, the sheep is out on the range with macview's reply.

@TinyM: centipede controller...is that a spinning wheel controller? Yeah, I was wondering about that. A little swipe action just might work and it pertinent to another arcade classic I was thinking about implementing (after some non-arcade ideas). Oh yeah, I remember Yar's Revenge...

adado

@FMG: I noticed your review mentioned it was hard just like the arcade version. That is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the arcade classic...how hard it was (oh, and the vector graphics). I played around a lot with it to make it easier as I tested but I didn't want to make it too easy. Let me know if any of you get to the "end" and if so, I may need to add some levels.

@Others in general:
Do you think the hardness is a bad thing?

I'm loving the sound effects too. They remind me of a game that always stands out in my mind in terms of audio (as it was the first game with a subwoofer): Major Havoc

adado

@TSB: Yeah, the graphics are simple but I tried to remain somewhat true to the original. I really need to enlist the help of an artist type. I have an old friend who worked for Activision back in the early PC days that I hope to tap as I hear he is looking to get back into game art.

@Others in general:
I did want to add an earn an extra life at X many points and maybe some power-ups like double-firing, a shield, warp, etc. but I also just wanted to get it out. I thought those additions really wouldn't change its popularity (or lack thereof) much.

There was a glitch that showed up once when testing where the score appears to be written twice - only offset - making it unreadable but I was never able to re-create it so marked it up as a GS fluke.

firemaplegames

No, I like the difficulty. Brings me back!

Actually I don't need any more help getting brought back - between my friends and me, we have about 40 classic arcade games and pinball machines! Total nerd city...

Centipede uses a trackball controller, btw.

Tempest uses a spinner controller. Another classic vector game!

And I actually played an original dedicated Major Havoc machine pretty recently. It's extremely rare. That game uses a special controller as well - a left-right roller controller. Kind of like rolling a locked-in-place beer can.

Most Major Havocs were sold as kits that fit into Tempest machines, so they use Tempest's spinner control.

ANYWAY, I think you did a great job with the game!

The only thing I wish were a little easier, would be the controls. This is more of an iPhone size issue though. The buttons were such, that I had to keep looking at them to make sure I was pressing the right button. I am always busy monkeying with the buttons instead of focusing on flying the ship.

If you make an iPad version of this, and you should!, I think it would be cool to have a large fire button on the right, and on the left would be a special "triangle" type of controller:

Imagine a small circle trapped in a triangle. You would put your thumb on the circle. And you would still only rotate the ship left, rotate right, and thrust. (up would be thrust) It would still be a 3-way digital control, but the circle would move in an analog fashion.

You would never have to lift your thumb though, and you could focus on the action.

Does that make sense?

adado

@FMG: Yeah, I was actually originally toying with smaller but overlapping versions of the left, thrust, right buttons in that order but I just couldn't get it to go right with controls that didn't have your left thumb cover important real estate. I even played around with just thrust on the left and fire on the right with accelerometer tilt to control left/right. However, I think average users would get confused when the ship was facing downward (i.e. I could keep left/right interpretation the same or I could flip when facing down...but either way I thought would confuse one demographic of user). I'll see if others complain in the review about the controls and re-visit if I need to. I thought left to right (and vice versa) worked pretty well with a small gap but yeah, I did catch myself peaking for the right button at times.

You and your friends' collection sounds awesome. Where do you house them all? Do you have a website featuring such? You ever go to that classic arcade convention in Cali? I'd love an old Tron unit (the multiple mini-game one not the Deadly Disc only one).

You are right about trackball for Centipede. I was actually thinking as I typed that that the Centipede could go up/down in the game so I don't know why I left it as I did. Probably because I remember Tempest used a similar controller but I recall that only being left and right around the shape.

I need to go make me a Stunt Cats - yeah, purposely mashed together - type game in terms of successfulness (and awesomeness)!

firemaplegames

there's an END! cripes!

And yes, my score is currently doubled up visually?
EDIT: oops. now it is ok. i'll see if i can replicate it.

EDIT: could it possibly be from getting a bunch of points, and at the same time completely destroying a vector ring (thus losing points?)

EDIT: It seems like the only way to create that doubling up is to have one score be larger than the other ( as the text is centered?) so one score has one more digit than the other?

EDIT: yes, that is when it occurs. when a vector ring is destroyed. at that moment the score sometimes doubles up.

adado

Ahh, yeah, the double up did occur on me upon a shield ring's last segment being destroyed but I couldn't get it to occur again. I'll have to play test it longer and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for the info!

EDIT: Yeah, I just played the first level about 20 times just inching up to the outer blue ring and wailing on it being careful not to hit the green ring. When I destroy it all, I get the double score so it is evaluating two of series of nested if-thens for left zero padding the score. Likely a bug and may need to not left zero pad. Let me tinker.

EDIT2: Okay, it is a GS bug I think. After setting the "display text" to various static values (like "A", "B", etc.) in the nested if-thens, an if and then something in its otherwise (i.e. further in the nested if-then construct) are BOTH being executed! Yikes!

firemaplegames

This game would actually work perfectly in portrait mode. You made the graphics small enough to work in either orientation without too much fuss. That would give you a nice inch or so at the bottom for controls.

I realize that you're probably done working on the game though! Star Keep 2!

adado

@FMG: StarKeep 2...ugh! ;-)

firemaplegames

We keep our games all over the place! Not too much room left though...

My one friend actually restored a barn on his property and turned it into an arcade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22136797@N00/212286301/in/set-1311228/

I haven't been to California Extreme yet, would love to go!

I am from just outside of Philly, there was actually an upright Tron for sale last week on craigslist not too far from here. 150$. Gone now though...

JGary321

holy...that....is...awesome...

adado

Regarding Duplicate Score Overlay Issue:

Yeah, there is a GS bug with nested if-then type constructs. I had to wrap a bogus condition around my final otherwise as it fired even if something earlier in the chain fired. May need to create a test project to see how many levels of nesting it occurs at (currently, I am five deep...six if you count the bogus one) or whether it may be an odd-even situation in terms of token parsing.

Be careful folks with nested Rules behaviors.

I officially have my first update now I guess! :-)

rebump

Congrats. I used: 6F9ALEA7XNR9

Weswog

@adado Happy B-day!: Downloaded the code LH4NEWF3PK3W I will leave a review:)
If you can go to the forum link here and download a promo code that is an app for birthdays!
Also if you do get a chance to download a code please comment on the forum about it or leave a review:)

http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=4166#post-24872

Cheers, Weswog

adado

@Wes: Will do!

quantumsheep

Liked the look of this so bought it on the UK appstore

Will give it a spin on the way home from work!

Cheers,

QS

rebump

@QS: He's got promo codes above! :-)

quantumsheep

I know. But sometimes, if I think I'm REALLY going to like a game, I like to pay for stuff. Show some support etc