Developments

A somewhat eventful day, yesterday, but one that took WAY too long!!
As I finished off the last of the levels, and got the game working toa moderately lovely standard, I figured I might as well start throwing bits and pieces into iTunes.
I've still got a number of days until Invisible Munky (hopefully) passes AppleReview, so I can relax and take my time with all the iTunesConnect gubbins.
Starting with the the description, the screenshots, the icon, I continued on and decided to tackle the GameCenter descriptions, too.
16 leaderboards are in the game. One for each of the game's themes, and one extra one to count your total number of spikes passed. Which should be interesting to see..



I didn't, however, add any Achievements..

Both previous editions of SpikeDislike have had an all to familiar "plinky" noice appearing as you reach Super combos and highscores and things, but this time around, I've yet to add them in.
I've been in two minds as to whether or not I actually need them.
On the one hand, they're nice plinkity things to have going on in the background, but this time the whole game includes a proper soundtrack, so can easily live without all those extra sounds.
The entire game has in fact been stripped down to the most basic of styles, with all that crazy onscreen stuff hidden away.. The sheer chaos of the menu system is now just one long sprawling menu.
Additionally, most of the "Path" achievements are completely broken, since .. well, there's now 14 spike-heights, and I couldn't think of 14 colours!!!! I wonder how long it'll be before someone complains about that fact?!

So, in all, a lot of the "noise" is missing from the game, and it's all been simplified without taking away from the game as a whole.
But what of the GameCenter achievements?

If I DID attempt to add them into the game, I'd probably need somewhere to display what you've earned. I'd also need to draw little badge icons for all the achievements, and then spend a good 24 hours filling in the repetitive and insane amount of garbage that you need inside iTunesConnect for all the stinking badges.
To be honest, that's probably the bit that's putting me off the most, as I've done that plenty of times before, and each time it's completely drained me!

But with about a week to go until I upload the final version to Apple, that little factoid is gnawing away..

.. Should I bother with badges?
Are they essential?
Will they add too much chaos to the game?!

I'm not sure.
Stay tuned!!

-=-=-

Daily Doodle : Always the Winner

Platdude doesn't like to lose.

.. But SpikeDislike usually wins the popularity competition.

Mailbag

Today's mail comes from sega42596, who apparently is a Little Big Planet fan.


Most of my "Controller Compatible" Android games are, indeed, already available on OUYA. The only reason I haven't added them all, is simply because I'm unhappy with none-touchscreen controls on the ones that are left.
"Kee, Bo and Ard Make Three" is a wonderful game, but is heavily reliant on swiping at the map to do anything.
Cardagain would be horrible to play with a controller, requiring an onscreen "Big obvious arrow!" to do the job of your finger.
The Heist is heavily reliant on rapid touches all over the screen, and is in no way suited to a controller..
.. and the list goes on.

Most of my 2013 games are heavily touchscreen based, as that was the sort of game I was trying to "figure out" at the time.
My 2014 games are much better suited to controllers, since that was when I was wrapped up in the world of OUYA.
This year, I'm trying my hardest to make games that work equally well with both controllers, or touchscreens. It's a lot to consider, for each and every game, but I'm going to be trying my hardest to find a nice middleground for the controls.


.. And as for Little Big Planet, I found the physics of that game to be shockingly bad, especially for a game that's esssentially based around it's physics engine.
The main character is FAR too "floaty", and the entire game suffers as a result.
I DO NOT like LBP. I honestly thought it'd be the most perfect platform game for me, and was horribly horribly disappointed.
... No, sir.. I don't like it.

If you'd like to stuff my mailbag, you can do so right here, at https://bit.ly/AGAW_Mail . Send comments, questions, game ideas, thoughts and more, and they'll probably turn up here, eventually.