Libgdx homepage redesign

My favorite game framework main website just had a major redesign. The website is shined to a polish!

If you are interested in becoming a game developer then you have to check out this framework. This link also has a great getting started video.

Check out the libgdx redesign!


Spread the word. Libgdx is used in 1.24 percent of all apps on appbrain. The most used framework out there.
Reference

Open source software and Independent game development

I have been working on some new games with my favorite framework, libgdx.

I do everything from coding, art, and some but not all music. Being a independent game developer is quite time consuming. From creating bug free code, to creating compelling art, marketing *which I don't do other than on this blog*

There are a lot of very talented coders out there but I have seen that a lot of coders doesn't have very good art skills. I wanted to start a little series where I create some art tutorials and have the artwork out there for anyone to use.

Now being a independent game developer, I am building from meek beginnings. What does that mean? Well I use free and open source software.

1. The libgdx game framework

1. The most powerful cross platform game development framework.
2. Supports webGL, Java, Android, Linux, Mac, Windows

2. Inkscape

1. One of the best open source vector image editing software

3. Blender

1. The best open source 3D modeling, rendering, animating software

4. IrFran View

1. Used to convert image formats, resize images, do simple image editing.

Using open source software are often as powerful as the major ones sans the exuberant price tags. The main difference is the User Interface. Often I hear that open source software has terrible User Interface. I often say that it just takes a little getting use to. With that I wanted to start creating some art tutorials. I will be creating tutorials and providing the assets on this blog for download.

Slide It!

Just put the finishing touches on a new project that I started. Initially I had a much larger scope project but after continually running into coding brick walls, I had to scale back on my ambitions and start from the ground and build my way up.

Slide It! is a classic slide puzzle game that we all remember from our childhoods. I even went so far as to use natural wood textures and some relaxed music with tactile feedback buttons to just give it a real low key vibe.
Developing this simple game was a challenge and actually took me over a month just to work out the logic and some other things as the base framework. I plan to expand on the work I've done here to continue to create more interesting games and sharpen my development skills.

You can check the game out over at Google Play store by following this link .

                                                                    or scan this qr code

I have a video on youtube that gives a little walk through on how to solve the puzzle and play my game. In this version there's no dragging only clicking next to the empty tile to swap positions.

I would appreciate some feedback, feature requests etc.

Appbrain, but isn't that a ....

a pay per download site?

Today I noticed that my game Brexel, was listed on appbrain.com, I have no idea how the game ended up on there, as I though developers had to pay to list there apps on that website and its a pay per install type service.
It looks like appbrain just copied the google play page, stars, ratings, screen shots, descriptions and all and put it up there. I am happy because the more exposure for my games the better.

I'm happy to see my games getting out there and do plan on continual improvements as I learn to become a more proficient game developer.

Click here to see the appbrain page

Leadbolt, what...?

OK this is like my 3rd blog post and I'm talking about mobile ad networks to get revenue, why would I say Give leadbolt a try?

Check below for more details!

Honestly though I have to share my results with just a few apps that were learning experiences. I created three games so far my first attempt at a game, which was influenced heavily by Arkanoid. Break!, I previously made a post about that game. I also created another Arkanoid inspired game called Brexel. This one was head and shoulders above Break!, It had online scores, better graphics, dynamic sounds, amazing music, it was just an all around better game. You can check it out below.

download Brexel

http://goo.gl/KQsav

Then I made a third game Beach Runner, this one was the most advanced game I ever made but there's a lot of room for improvement in the game play.

I will write a more detailed blog post about that in the future.

What does all this have to do with mobile advertisers? Well when I launched my first game around December 2011, I had google admob displaying banner ads in my games. From December 2011 to May 8th 2012, I've made about US $21.00 in total from admob, now when you initially release an app that's when you typically get most of your downloads.

Now over the past week I implemented leadbolts mobile ad units in the same games and I have seen really shocking results. In one week after implementing leadbolt I've already generated US $5.00 dollars.

Now keep in mind that my apps aren't downloaded many times and also from looking at my scoreloop daily user score reports and the information from leadbolt on a good day I get about 100 users but typically its between 10-50 users per day, so from about say 50 users per day over a one week period I made US 5.00, while over 6 months using admob I've made US $20.00. I think that shows leadbolt has to be the way to go for mobile developers who would like to get a little more income per month.

Now I am no where close to being paid yet since I need to reach US $100.00 to be paid but for the simple fact that I using leadbolt  in one week I made a 1/4th the revenue I made in 6 months on admob has proven to me that this is a path I want to take.

I would really recommend you go over and SIGN UP for leadbolts amazing service.

A few more things, using leadbolt you have direct contact to someone who will always answer your questions within a timely manner. You have their email address and skype contact information. Using admob I haven't been able to find a good way to get in touch with google about anything, even when I do send emails I get a cookie cutter email response that can be really frustrating when you have real issues that pop up. I haven't had that issue with leadbolt and my account manager.

Also to mention implementing their sdk is very simple, there is on .jar file that you add to your libs folder and  the rest of the work is done through the web interface that leadbolt offers.

I would really recommend anyone who has tried any other mobile ad networks to give leadbolt a try, they have may different types of offers with very high eCPM. Here is a short YouTube video about the ad types they provide.

Give leadbolt a try