PUX - side scrolling shoot-em up

Well I was playing a bit lately with concept of web browser java games. I wanted to start with something easy but not boring and after pondering with a few ideas I've settled with side scrolling shoot-em up type of game. Right now it's in very alpha state ;), much like a proof of concept then an actual game, but still I've decided to upload it to the server so others can follow it's development - I really hope there will be something to follow ;).

So here is its address: www.ktgames.net/webgames/pux

Controls are:
W/S/A/D or arrows - movement
SPACE - fire

Yes I know that it's the title from sigmore mines.. you can think of it as a Borg ship :P

Sigmore Mines 1.06

Hi, I've just posted to portals a new version of Sigmore Mines 2.
It's bugfix update only. On some phones (tested on Nokia 5310) the game was hanging while selling items and while displaying the about dialog - now it works fine.

Sigmore Mines as web browser game?

Well I have a question for you my readers (if anyone is still reading my "forgotten" blog):

What do you think of java web games (applets)? I know there are few, mostly massive multi-player ones, but what would you think of sigmore mines as a web browser game?

Back from hollidays

I'm back.. well one week is something but surely not enough.. Anyway I really should start making some game :D

Hollidays

Well I know that recently I suck at blogging.. but now I have an excuse ;) from today evening up to 3 September I'm on holidays and I will at least try not to touch the computer ;).

I think also that SM2 was my last J2Me game (probably). The idea of PC + Windows Mobile combo died out due to the poor performance of the second.. JavaFX looks promising (and would be even more promising if they made runtime for Android also), but it is still developing technology so I'm a bit afraid of investing my time in it. Right now I think about Applets - they could be played on win, linux, mac. For userbase I could just embed my applet into Facebook app and hope that someone will like it ;).

Sigmore Mines 1.05

Hi,
I've just posted new version to the portals (better latter then never ;) ). As for tweeter. It didn't worked for me. This service is a bit of crap.. All what I've got were people who follows thousands and were followed by thousands - in other words some spam-links_farm stuff.

Ok but back to the main topic. 1.05 release is important one. It fixes bug with overload penalty discovered by "animate". In previous versions even when the game was telling you that you were punished for carrying to much stuff, you actually weren't because, monsers' action points where not refreshed after their turn (only after player's turn). Now they are, and this affects also spells rest time, this probably rendering game a bit more difficult.. Anyway and as always, have fun :).

Tweeter

I have created an account on twitter http://twitter.com/kamilt . I don't know how it will work for me but I think that short notes about my development status are more likely to be kept updated be me, comparing to long blog posts for which I don't have much time lately. So no just for testing period, I invite you dear reader to follow me on twitter :).

What I'm doing now?

I know, I'm not posting much lately, but the fact is that there is not much to post about. In my work I'm spending 7.5 hours at front of the computer working with T-SQL + C# or PHP, and after work I try to learn German so in the end I don't have much power left to make something else.. I wish I could speak German fluently, but well.. it takes time.. Anyway I have a list of things I want to do in the near future :

• Change entry page of my website so I could divide content based on topics such as j2me games, windows mobile games, pc games, other application, a bit about me etc, but I don't have idea how it should look right now..
• I have written some small useful apps and I want to put them online, but I need to make them fit my webpage content (look one point up).
• I'm learning .Net 3.5 Windows Presentation Fundation and already have an idea for 3 different apps which I want to write using this technology.
• I'm in the beginning of writting Windows Mobile Game - engine and main menu is done already (Stani - I fixed the menu, shoudl work with your thumbs now ;) ).
• Want to see next Star Trek movie :D
  

Sigmore Mines 2 Nightly builds

Hi,
I have a bit of motivation to work on new features of SM2. The result of this is a nightly build version of Sigmore Mines 2. If you want to live on edge and see today test upcoming features, go to my forum and download latest nightly build. Here is the direct link : click.

Easter Wisches

I'm going to Poland for Easter and I'm not taking my laptop with, but I will try to visit my forum from time to time so hope to see you there :) - forum.

And of course happy Easter very one :).

SM2 1.02

Sigmore Mines 2 - Version 1.02

* Fix : Corrupt save game when book was in inventory while saving.



New version is now posted to all three portals (GetJar, Mobilerated, Phload), how soon it will available for download depends on portals' processing time.

New platform for my games.

I somehow managed to caught a flu.. as a consequence of this I'm laying all day in bed (with headache and stuffy nose all the time..). On the bright side of this, now I have time to think about my next hobby project. Yeah, I'm still starving to make a nice rpg game (not necessarly direct Sigmore Mines continuation), but this time I want to target different platforms and decided to check my luck with PC and PocketPC and the same time. I already have a simple 2D engine for PocketPC (but running on OpenGL so 3D is also possible) and I want to make a simpe minigame to test it. However I havent decided yet, how simple is simple enough...

RPG Rules

I was thinking a bit about rules system for rpg game. If your system is poorly designed, it in no time become uncontrollable and you end up with unbalanced game. When to think of it, all those stats numbers are probably interesting only for economists, but not for gameplay. The truth is that player will not see the difference between attacking monster which is for example 10% stronger than player, from monster,which is 15% stronger..

To see the difference, the difference must be big enough, and if small differences are not useful, the rpg system should not allow them at all. To make such system I have grouped tasks into difficulty levels. I've created a few groups, just easy, normal, hard and difficult.

I run a simple test program to see the outcome of such system, here are the outputs:

Attacking easy enemy

• Hit
• Hit
• Miss
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Miss

Attacking normal enemy

• Hit
• Hit
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit

Attacking hard enemy

• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit

Attacking difficult enemy

• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss

Of course output is randomized, so different runs give different results. What I like about the approach I used is that you can just by looking see clearly the difference in the task difficulty. Now all what game needs to do is to tell which monster belong to which group, taking into account such thing like experience with using weapons(hitting a monster with a bow for an archer is easier task than for a warrior) and other factors.

Forum

Maybe you already noticed, or maybe not, but I want you to note that there is a forum link on my ktgames website. You can post questions there about my games and of course read the answers ;). PS My friend is developing his own J2Me game in similar climate, so I have decided to share the forum with him. Check it out. Forum Link.

New website's layout :)

I have changed my website's layout. This time it is designed by me from the beginning to the end. I hope it looks cleaner and is easier for the user to navigate. In addition, my old forum is back :) (search for a link on my website : www.ktgames.net). Also Sigmore Mines 2 has its own domain : www.sigmoremines2.ktgames.net :).

PS Did you know? I'm learning intensively German language right now. Maybe future versions of SM will have English/Deutsch/Polish translations :).

Sigmore Mines 2 v1.01

Today I have posted a new version of Sigmore Mines 2. I don't know how fast each portal will update its content, but I think it is a matter of hours.

What is new in 1.01?
- I fixed a spelling error.
- Not recognizing that final quest was finished is fixed.
- Introducing normal and hard difficulty setting.

Hard difficulty is the difficulty of SM2 v 1.0
Normal difficulty means:
- more chances of getting gold from killing a monster
- more chances of hitting a monster (+10%)
- few monsters have less mana, attack rating, defense rating

Previous save game is compatible with this version, when old save game is loaded it is treated as a game on hard difficulty setting.

Future plans

Hi all. I have on my hard-drive SM2 1.01 version with minor fixes. Actually with fix for misspelled "Strenght" and sometimes when you kill final boss, the game didn't recognize his death.. Yeah there are persons who have finished the game ;), but due to the number of feedback regarding of difficulty of the game, I have decided to add a difficulty setting in the options menu. Current difficulty level will be a hard one, and normal will be a bit easier.

After a month (well almost)

Hi all,
It is almost a month from release of Sigmore Mines 2 and I must admit, I'm happy how the things are going. Looks like there are no show-stoppers bugs in my game, and the game itself was well received, by the players :) (thanks for the mails guys!:) ). I am also surprised that Sigmore Mines 1 is not dead. I thought that when I release SM2, no one will buy SM1 - guess what, I was wrong :).

Looks like even with this beta testing phase, I still managed to include such thing as "Strength" instead of "Strenght".. I don't want to release a new version only to fix spelling error, so I think I will implement new functionality also. Someone suggested such thing as high-score table. I really like the idea, especially when connected with posting score online. I am just not sure what player actions should be incorporated into a score and how to weight them.



By the way. Maybe someone know free subscription system which I could use to notify the participants of a new versions of my games? What do you think about building community around my website? How would you like it to look like?

Sigmore Mines 2 featured on Phoload!

Looks like Phload like my game so much that they have decided to put it on the main page:). I don't know for how long it will be there, but I'm happy that they liked my game so much to put it there:).

PS I've just arrived to Vienna, I will answer all mails tomorrow.

First day of waiting

I am still waiting for portals to process my game. Getjar product information is saying that SM2 is active*, but the link they gave me is still not working. On mobilerated my game has "pending" status.

What was a nice surprise for me is that even if the game still cannot be downloaded from portals, I have got sales! (yes sales - not just one :) ). But please people, wait for the game, be sure it's working on your phone before you buy it, ok? I am doing it for fun and fame ;) but as a lone game developer, I don't have all the handsets of the world and I can't ensure that it's working on all phones. So first download the game (when it will be possible), play it a bit and if everything is fine, but it ;). But still those sales were a nice birthday present :).

* The getjar site is a bit of lottery now.. if you have "Application not found" page, just hit refresh until it "finds" the app..

Sigmore Mines 2 Released!

Today are my birthdays and as a birthday gift, I have decided to release Sigmore Mines 2 :). Website is up and game files are posted to portals (getjar and mobilerated). Now I have to wait and see how players will like my game. Anyway happy playing :)

Hunting bugs

Even now as I'm writing this post, someone is (probably) playing SM2 trying every wired combinations to find bugs which I couldn't find before ;). Looks like I have bugs in level generation code, too powerful spells, something called "null crossbow" ;) and few other things. But everything is being fixed sooner or later. Yet I must admit, I did not expected to have so much minor mistakes in my code.. oh well.