published match 3 game

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nodjsoftware.match3

getting it all working in android was fun, definitely going to do that again

I'm currently collaborating with a game designer I met at a meetup on a "test" android project.  His designs seem to work really well which is something I'm definitely lacking.

If we can get this small game working then we can move on to bigger stuff.

I think my next step is to do the Unity roguelike tutorial and keep educating myself.  Hopefully this one isn't as out of date as the stealth tutorial in v5.

I suck at blogging

Actually I suck at anything that requires me to do something on a regular schedule.  I'm pretty sure the only reason my cats are still alive is because they yowl in the morning to be fed.

Anyway game dev news.  I started on a match 3 project in Unity mirroring the match 3 project in Stencyl.  Developing in Unity is much easier because of arbitrary data structures.  I'm sure Stencyl has that if I got into the coding but if I'm writing syntax anyway might as well use Unity.

The match 3 project is is playable here in its test state:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/match3/match3/match3.html

I'm now building it for android so that is fun.  Unfortunately android building has a delay between build and test which building for web doesn't but I guess thats just something I have to live with.

The step I'm currently on is fixing the UI so that it scales properly for arbitrary resolutions/screen sizes which is a must have for android deployment.

After the base game is finished I'll try to add different game types such as candy crush and puzzle quest style games.

Published a game

Welp I grew some balls and published a game (about bouncing balls...heh)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.NODJSoftware.BounceThingy&hl=en

Its a toy not a game in that there are no objectives.  I made it in about 2 hours, mostly getting the wrapping working and tweaking the speed and sizes of the objects. The sprites are the default Unity 5 GUI sprites that came with the engine.  There is less to it than most jam games but my objective was publishing SOMETHING and really I would have done hello world.

Thanks to the members of the penny arcade board, the stencyl board, and Unity Answers for all of the support and encouragement over last couple of years

I now claim the title of Game Developer

5 weapons was too many

but instead I made one good one

the laser "heats" the rocks making them more red until after 2 seconds they explode

it took a bit too long to figure out how everything works  but eventually I got it looking how I want

I'm still figuring out what mechanics I want for the game but its getting closer, maybe I'll actually finish that one

In any case I'm moving on to the next video tutorial, 3rd person stealth game and seeing if that has any insights for me

Working through 3rd video tutorial: survial shooter

One tip for learning this stuff I just figured out (after years)

Watch youtube videos at higher speed.  At 1.5 I can understand everyone perfectly, at 2x I miss stuff so I'll stick to 1.5 for now

website says how to do it

http://dottech.org/157904/how-to-play-youtube-videos-in-slow-or-fast-motion-tip/

Currently watching https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/survival-shooter

Its really long but has a good intro to the 4.6 GUI system (which is awesome) and more about the animation system which I still only half get.

finished space shooter tutorial on unity tutorials beginner page

These are so much better than when I started a couple of years ago. I can see recommending this to a total beginner rather than starting with a training wheels engine like Stencyl. This one doesn't use the 2d engine features, instead it uses an orthographic cam and 3d objects constrained in a plane so it is very simple. Also uses the old gui instead of the new one but the tutorial has some text instructions for the changes between the old version and the 4.6 gui.

I could do all of this stuff already without the instructions but I did learn some neat stuff like how to open the online documentation from monodevelop by select a keyword and typing cmd+singlequote

also learned a bit about 3d lighting which I know nothing about

the project comes with some nice assets which have a permissive license as long as they are used in Unity engine projects

final project here

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/Unity Tutorials Final/Space Shooter/space-shooter-final/space-shooter-final.html

arrows/wasd moves, control shoots - no real gameplay but it shows potential and is a really good learning tool

next step is I think I'm going to write my own space shooter prototype with an infinite field

Taking a break from reading manual, doing tutorials

Did the first tutorial on the Unity page

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/roll-a-ball

Result is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/unity%20test/balls/balls/balls.html

The tutorial used the old GUI but I used the new GUI components because I wanted to learn them...boy are there a lot to learn

I knew everything the tutorial was talking about but it was good to "get back on the horse" as it were.  I'm actually looking forward to doing the other tuts.

Already have ideas about how to expand the tutorial to add different gameplay elements.