where have you

been?

OK, so it's been a long time since I've written anything on this blog. A few reasons; I'm lazy and don't like to write. I've actually contemplated deleting this blog many a days but for some reason it's still up. I focus too intensely; when I start a new project I usually give it 100 percent of myself until I get to a point then I start something new and the cycle repeats.

So what have I been up to recently? I started learning opengles shaders, I gotta say after a few days of reading I really enjoy feeders, its cool. I think with shaders I will be able to do some tutorials, I know I've been saying i'll write some tutorials about something but I get distracted easily, I find learning more interesting than blogging.

I do plan on writing a few things about gles based on the android platform, why do you ask? We'll they are lacking; I mean there are gles2 tutorials out there which is cool but they are either based on c, c++, c# or they are based off the old NEHE tutorials which while are great but the way shaders work, its better to rearrange the way you think. The programmable shaders are different than the fixed func so its better to study it from scratch.

Also the tutorials I see often leave huge segments of code missing, when I am learning I prefer to have all the code right there to look at and follow, I really dont like following a tutorial only to have compile errors and then I realize parts of the codes are missing. Anyhew I will be trying to do something about shaders, I'll put up videos and what not too.

stay tuned ya'll Im serious this time, maybe
bluBee

Six

Today I released my 6th app, whoopie... Well the more I develop the more I realize how much I don't know and how much my peers seem to understand. I feel like I'm drowning in my lame sauce trying to program but hey, I'm sure we all feel that way about something in the sphere that influences us all.

So Fruit Drop Blitz, its a interesting take on the traditional match 3 games, in this one you can move one space at a time anywhere on the board, so if you think ahead you can setup some really amazing score multipliers. That's basically the way to get high scores, think a few steps ahead and setup the fruits to smash, splat, and spray their juices all about.

The game is up on the market now, you can check it out here

You can also point your qr scanner at the image below.

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.

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

Mobile game development....

and me.

I decided to use develop for the android market for many reasons.
1. Only a one time $25 dollar fee to sign up.
2. Android is growing very rapidly.
3. Almost real time feedback on apps or games that you release.
4. There seemed to be many suitable frameworks to build from.
5. Google Android is mostly open source
6. Starting in Java saves headaches.

I will go into more details on the above list in future blog posts but those were just a few of the reasons why I decided to develop for android.

Now that I knew what platform I would develop for the next step was to find a framework to use. After much research, trial error, quitting and starting over, I decided to use the LIBGDX framework. LIBGDX is an opensource framework developed by badlogic and nate sweet. You can find more information on the framework here, the blog here, and their forums here.

Now that I had my target platform, development framework, now all I needed was an amazing idea. After a lot of thinking I decided to take on the technically challenging Arkanoid. After a bit of cold feet, I got started actually writing semi functional mobile code about 5 or 6 months ago. My first Android Game Break!

I chose this seemingly simple game because the game mechanics are straight forward, the ball bounces off the walls, paddle, and destroys the blocks and the player gets some points. If the ball falls below the paddle, the player loses a life and if the player loses all their lives its game over.

With such simple game play mechanics one would think it should be easy to create such a game. Well for me, it took me about one and a half month to get the game. The game play is very fast and can be quite challenging, once you get the feel for the game it becomes a little easier to handle but it does take some time.

Even with such a great framework and a fairly easy to use programming language, It was still very technically challenging to get something to even show up on screen. Then actually implementing the above stated mechanics in code.

You can check out the game for yourself.

or 

download at the Google Play Store

to be continued....