What are you working on?
I’ve been sat coding a simple sound manager tonight and my thoughts turned to what other people are doing. I’m working towards what I hope will be a fun little game. My ideas for the game change regularly as I work out how to do new things or see what other people have done.
At the moment its going to be a 2D top down shooter, which is certainly not new but I decided I would create a game that I would enjoy playing and I enjoy blowing things up :o) I actually struggle for good game ideas which are original. I would LOVE to come up with something that no one else has thought of, but then I’m sure everyone does. So, whilst I carry on with my blast from the past, pun intended :o) maybe a really unique idea will pop into my head. Hmmm, pop….bubbles….popping bubbles….pinching bubbles on the iPhone screen to pop them…hey, that could be a cool game…wait…already done…damn :o(
So, whilst I don’t expect people to give away their intellectual property or spoil any big surprises, I thought I would see what you are working on right now, what kind of game is it i.e. puzzle, platform, shoot em up etc, are you doing your own art and sound or getting someone else to help out. Are there any sneak peaks at art you can share?
I’m really interested to hear about how other people have tackled the problem of coming up with an idea and then turning it into an iPhone project. I’m working on another project at the moment which is looking at how people come up with ideas and the steps they take in making that idea a reality. So, if you can share any thoughts, inspiration or just interesting tidbits of info on what your working on I know I’d enjoy hearing about it.
Mike
23 Comments
mike on May 22nd, 2009
Thanks Kel, it sounds like you have something interesting up your sleeve :o)
I agree about the big core changes later on. Its one of the reasons I’ve not done anything yet on actual game play. I keep working on the guts to get them covering everything I think I may need. It can get a little tricky as my sandbox project is moving further and further away from the tutorial projects I’ve got and it gets difficult to remember all the little changes you make when your on a roll.
Duke Nukem Forever ah, now that is something I’ve not looked at in a while. I was a massive DN3D player and followed DNF for a few years before giving up waiting :o) I hope that one day they do release it and that it is as visually stunning as they kept making out it would be. 3D Realms sound very much like me though, it will be done when its done :o)
Mike
iamflimflam1 on May 23rd, 2009
Haven’t had any great strokes of inspiration so I’m just redoing some retro games to get the hang of things. At the moment I’m just doing a remake of space invaders for the fun of it.
Trying to learn how to use photoshop, illustrator and my graphics tablet at the same time so doing all the graphics myself.
demetriusb on May 23rd, 2009
Working on an interactive comic. Touch the screen, characters change move etc. Sound Affects pop up. Particles where necessary. I have a story that’s laid out. Just working on the best way to transition from panel to panel. As an added plus, I developed a small soundtrack in Ableton Live.
jorge on May 23rd, 2009
I’ve been up until after 4am trying to figure out how to build a version of my iPhone game for distribution. I think I finally got it working.
Today I’ve also quickly created a web page so I can include a link with my App Store submission, I think it’s a requirement in order to provide support to users. Any advice that anyone might have in relation to App Store submission is very much appreciated.
Mike, I’ve been following your tutorials from the beginning, I think they’re great and very much appreciated, I’m always looking forward to the next one.
Here’s a link to my very simple web page with screenshots and a video of my first iPhone game:
mike on May 23rd, 2009
@iamflimflam1 space invaders is still a great game after all these years. I’ve seen some really nice versions of it as well recently. Trying to learn that AND do the art sounds like a challenge. I’m certainly too challenged to try and do my own art as well :o)
@demetriusb I’d never even thought about an interactive comic. Have you found it hard to come up with the comic story or is that something you have done before. Are you doing the artwork yourself?
@jorge Thanks for the video, it looks like a really different game. Have you used a physics engine as the movement and collision detection looks really good or have you done that all yourself? I would never have come up with an idea like that. Is there anything that inspired your idea?
Mike
Dave on May 23rd, 2009
I’m working on something similar to you actually, top down space shooter. We designed and implemented it for the PC at the Global Game Jam in London this February, and now I decided to port it to the iPhone.
mike on May 23rd, 2009
Hi Dave, sounds like you have a good design your working too. When your done I’d really like to see that :0)
Are you working solo? I’m interested to hear how people are tackling things like sound and art assets. This always holds me up and I’m wondering what other people do?
Mike
Mike
Dave on May 23rd, 2009
Well, i’m reusing the assets that were created during the Global Game Jam. I’ve had to rework them a little to fit in with your SpriteSheet class, but other than that all my assets are pre-provided.
The PC version is constantly changing and having new features added, so I’m in touch with the artist and musician who created the original stuff and they keep making new bits in their spare time.
RoberRM on May 24th, 2009
Hi Mike!
I’m trying to remake a game my brother and I did back in the ’90s for our Mac Plus. :D I’m glad to say that everything you are covering right now in your tutorials is perfect for me: I intended to use sprites, the very same animation method… Particles will be a bonus. ;) And I’m really looking forward the tutorials on sound and user interface (i.e. touches, splash and preferences screens).
I’m sure I could figure this things out by myself, but as you have seen my approaches are always too CPU consuming :D so I’ll definitely need (and welcome) your help.
I do my artwork myself, as well as the music and the coding (I’ll be sure to thank you for your help, don’t you worry about that ;) ). Fortunately, for this game all I have to do is add color to the sprites I used (and maybe a little more detail).
My programming background is limited to two small applications I did for personal use in Cocoa (while reading Aaron Hillegass’ book) and lots of hours helping my brother programming in Basic (first ZBasic, then FutureBasic, and finally REALbasic). I was in charge of the tedious work (for which I’m thankful, because now I don’t mind it at all and that’s my programming pattern: “Did it work? No? Then redo it!” ). :D
By the way, I’m an industrial engineer at day, lots of hobbies at night (coding, drawing, composing music, etc.). ;)
demetriusb on May 24th, 2009
I’ve done the artwork myself. i’m an graphic designer / programmer. drawn comics for different companies when i was younger. done motion graphics for commercials. do web design to pay the bills. i get my inspiration from motion graphics.
i have my first two paying clients for the iphone.
mike on May 24th, 2009
@Dave, that sounds cool. If you can let me know how progress goes as I’d love to see what it looks like.
@RoberRM, your programming pattern sounds just like mine :o).
@demetriusb, that is a great combination of skills. I really miss not being able to do my own artwork and it can get in the way sometimes. Shame I didn’t know you did these projects before as I’ve just started to engage another designer for graphics then I need, maybe next time if your available :o)
Mike
ricky on May 24th, 2009
I am working on a game that will need to use point sprites and textures. So I am actually waiting to see your implementation of your particles tutorial to help me through my game. Thanks for your willingness to share online.
iamflimflam1 on May 24th, 2009
Basic simple graphics are not too hard, but it can be a real time sink when you don’t know the tools very well. I spend a lot of time cursing illustrator, photoshop and my graphics tablet simply because I don’t know enough to use them effectively.
@ricky
I had a quick look at the point sprite stuff and it’s pretty simple. Here’s my stripped down code for rendering point sprites with a texture2d. All my points sprites are the same size, but you can extend this method to specify an array of sizes if you want.
Point2 is just a struct containing 2 floats (x and y). The method expects you to have already setup the following opengl states:
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);
glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
-(void) renderParticalsWithTexture:(Texture2D*) texture andPositions:(Point2 *) positions pointCount:(int) pointCount andSize:(float) pointSize {
glEnable(GL_POINT_SPRITE_OES);
glEnable(GL_POINT_SMOOTH);
glTexEnvx(GL_POINT_SPRITE_OES, GL_COORD_REPLACE_OES, GL_TRUE);
glPointSize(pointSize);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, [texture name]);
glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, positions);
glDrawArrays(GL_POINTS,0,pointCount);
glDisable(GL_POINT_SPRITE_OES);
glDisable(GL_POINT_SMOOTH);
glDisable(GL_POINT_SIZE_ARRAY_OES);
}
mike on May 24th, 2009
@ricky, @iamflimflam1 I’m actually just sitting down to record the Particle tutorial right now, so once its recorded and encoded etc it should be up around mid morning tomorrow morning UK time.
The point sprite stuff in the Particle Emitter is pretty much as iamflimflam1 has put above, just wrapped up so you can control the particles :o)
Mike
iamflimflam1 on May 24th, 2009
I need to learn patience :)
demetriusb on May 24th, 2009
I’m always available to do graphics. I understand how to properly integrate them into the iPHone SDK. Design clients have included DC Comics, Warner Bros, Trailerpark Interactive, too many to list. I’m creating a library of custom controls as we speak (buttons, switches. sliders etc)
demetriusb
Thomas on May 25th, 2009
I am curently working on getting to know how to code for iphone and making our first game. As of yet we havent anything to show but as soon we have a website and stuff to show i will let you know.
Very cool site and have been a great help.
meddy on May 28th, 2009
is there anyone not developing a game ?
iamflimflam1 on May 28th, 2009
“is there anyone not developing a game ?”
Well, this is tutorial aimed at people writing a game for the iPhone.
Iamflimflam1 on May 31st, 2009
Hey mike, I’ve almost finished my game. If you want a sneak preview email me your device I’d and I’ll do you an ad hoc build.
RoberRM on June 1st, 2009
@meddy: well, I intend to create a learning tool… disguised as a game. :D
jorge on June 4th, 2009
My very first iPhone app was finaly accepted, if anyone wants to try it go to my website, email me and I’ll reply with a free promo code ( I think this only works in the US ).
@mike: my game doesn’t have any special collision detection engine, it’s all very simple so far.
I must say that I have loads of ideas for games, everyday I think of a few, I do not value ideas as much as I do the capability of making them real. My ideas often come from watching the world around or simply closing my eyes and playing on an imaginary iPhone in my mind. I think most situations in everyday life could be turned into a game. In the case of my first game iBzoing it just evolved from my initial attempts at learning OpenGL.
Kel on May 22nd, 2009
Working on a new game idea that I’m keeping secret for now. I can tell you that I looked at some really fun flash games and the idea branched off of some of those initial ideas. (when I say branched off I mean branched really really far off!) I’ve got a loooong way to go as I’m learning Objective-C at the same time. I started as a C programmer and I do SAS programming at work.
Like you, I keep adding ideas in my head about the final game and changing things as I go along. It’s a healthy part of the creative process and it’s fun so long as you are making the big changes early on. Too many changes late in development will lead to Duke Nukem Forever syndrome. :)