Halfgeek's Forum Posts

  • I disagree with everything OP has raised and not because I am a fanboy, but because of my own experience.

    C2 has worked as advertise. An easy to use tool but hard to master, like most things in life. My first game is a MASSIVE EPIC. It was grand in scope and guess what? It runs great on mobiles thanks to Intel XDK/Crosswalk.

    My second game was a crap Flappy Clone (hey its good practice trying new stuff!), runs great on mobiles thanks to CocoonJS.

    I am making my third game now, it's an epic Space Sandbox RTS/RPG, aiming for the depth of games like Privateer, Freelancer & Escape Velocity. So far, its perfectly do-able with C2.

    C2 is a great engine, but its still limited by your own talent pool. And C2 doesn't need its own native HTML5 -> Android exporter, because the ones available have massive teams behind it pushing through updates and improving it all the time, even if Scirra tried, I do not think they can match the international effort being Crosswalk or Intel XDK. In another few months when they add AdMob and Google Store support, it'll be perfect.

  • Yeah I was going to keep everything top down flat, but it felt a bit stale for stations, it just didn't pop from the background or foreground as Id like, so stations will be isometric... could be a weird gravity thing where stations all rotate slightly hehe.

    However, I'm not a natural artist by any stretch of the imagination though, I'm an ex-scientist (working as a postdoctoral researcher during 2013)!

  • argail Thanks!

    Are there any features you guys of the sci-fi genre like to see in the game? Some particular ship ability? I plan to have multiple active modules (not guns/missiles) but limit it to a maximum of 2, players would have to pick which they like, where players would touch an icon and it activates.

    Pleasure City Station, "Vegas in Space"!

    Mining Station

  • lolpaca Thanks!!

    Yeah the Boids is interesting but without some more features, it's quite hard to implement a complex pathfinding AI with it. I will just resign to using the Solid Pushout plugin to keep them from overlapping each other, that was the main objective, because when they chase they all clump up.. ala, Starcraft style, think 40 mutalisks all clumped up and BAM, one aoe, all dead.

    I wanted that to never occur, because missiles and beam cannons will do AoE and it would just be completely imbalanced to allow them to stack.

    I've got most of the gameplay logic worked out, now its just a matter of making art assets (usually the longest IMO, my previous game Ninja Legacy took me 5 solid months of art and animation!), and lastly, menus and station trading/inventory!!

  • Modular Station for one faction, here, its the Bio-dome version, an Agricultural Supplier.

    Will do a photoshop finish once most of the assets are done, to add some lighting and glows.

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  • Good effort, keep it up and soon you will be a great game developer!

  • Hopefully with their desire to stick with Intel XDK/Crosswalk, they will make dedicated monetization plugins for this export platform at least. Then we can say, Android via C2 is perfect.

  • Cannot, and no indication from Ludei it will change anytime soon, search the forum here you will see posts over 1 year old with Ludei acknowledging the problem..

  • Great, and Ashley Scirra would need to update a plugin for Construct 2, similar to CocoonJS with functions such as preload ads, display, hide etc. Getting there!!

  • Most of the art are place-holders to test logic. I'm making my own ships atm. Got a buddy who is making stellar bodies for me. Going for semi-cartoony-realism, the galaxy is a quick result.

    lolpaca thanks will definitely look.

    Edit: Just tried to get Boids to work but its refusing to cooperate, since I have waypoints that ships follow on idle, and they engage once they encounter their enemies, if enemies run out of range, they disengage and return to waypoints. But I did get that solid pushout behaviour from that thread, just what I was looking for also.

    I'd like to implement a neutrality tracking that's saved as a variable. So that the players action will have persistent consequences. ie. Player is neutral towards civilian (traders etc), bounty hunter, military faction, and hostile versus pirates. If players repeatedly attack traders for loot, it will shift, if past a certain threshold, it will trigger "Enemy Status" so that ship AI and turret will engage. Eventually the main storyline will allow the player to align with pirate or military.

    For player ships, there will be a few options. Starting with a simple Fighter, can buy Heavy Fighter, Heavy Trader, Drone Fighter, and the equivalent Frigate versions (after advancing the storyline).

  • Pro = Full-time

    Hobby = Part-time (after they finish their IRL full-time job).

    Whether either one is successful and make money or not is not dependent on their status as pro or hobbyist. It's all about the dedication and hours you put into it each day.

  • 1. 32 Years old with a family, not enjoying my day job: work too hard, too little pay, little prospects for stability/future.

    2. Decide to have an attempt at a career in making games, something I've always dreamt of since I was a teen.

    3. Quit job!

    4. Start being an indie dev full-time (over-time)!

    All this and my old career was as a research scientist (postdoctoral), have not drawn anything since my highschool years (once I used to be an avid comics fan), and my last attempt at programming was also in highschool with visual basics and C+.

    Do or do not, there is no try!

    ps. Currently it's: work even harder, for no pay and little prospect for stability/future!

  • Current Trailer

    I've started this game a few months ago as a tribute to old classics such as Privateer, Freelancer and Escape Velocity. The reason for doing this is because I feel there is a distinct lack of this genre on mobiles, especially ones where the controls and UI are simple and fitting for the platform.

    I've also felt it was clumsy to fly 3D spacesim games on a small screen with digital joysticks/pad. That and I also love real-time strategy games, so why not combine both genre into one? Escape Velocity did it brilliantly, so did Eve: Online.

    As I am currently nearing the end of the development phase (then the polish phase too!), making random missions as well as the main storyline missions and pop-up big-head character dialogs, I would like to present an overview of the game in one post.

    You are a once-wealthy trader, out of luck and in debt due to a calculated risk (and nasty pirates!) that went wrong... Your debtors offered a great deal to wipe clean your debts, but they require you to fly a capable ship before proceeding with the mission. You start out in an obsolete tin-can trade ship, the Nomad. From here on in, it's all up to you:

    * Simple, minimalist UI, touch on space to fly to location, touch on modules to activate.

    * Start trading in the "safe" quadrant of the Wildlands sector.

    * Take on random missions, select from: Patrols (scout nav points), Bounty (destroy target/s), Defend (vs waves of enemies), Escort (wishing those haulers moved faster!) and Cargo Runs (cashed up pilgrims, witness protection, data crystals, illicit stuff!).

    * Select a variety of ships to suite your needs. Hit and run? Fly the light-fighter Stiletto. A trader at heart? The Galaxy-class corvette has a big cargo bay. Work your way up and fly the devastating Hyperion C-Beam Frigate or fearsome Nadesico Drone Frigate.

    * All ships are upgrade-able with modules.

    * You control your guided missiles: Slip between targets to hit a weakened one or bunch enemies together for a powerful AoE Torpedo.

    * Dynamic trade prices, station type and location specific prices. Trade in exotic dancers, contraband, flesh dolls or even beer!

    * Be the bad guy, yarr your way to fame and fortune by plundering trade ships. Burn those militia fools!

    * Pick your faction in the main storyline and reach a different ending.

    * Planned inclusion of online PvP, free-for-all or team vs team (I am a solo dev on this game so this may come along in a later update!)

    Updated Screenshots:

    Coming soon to Android (first) with a target date of June 2014 and then immediate followed by graphically enhanced version for Chrome Webstore, PC/MAC (exe) and iOS (later, I need to purchase some Apple gear first!!). Thanks for reading, and feedback is welcomed!

  • farsmile90 I saw your new game, Crazy Patagon, looks cool. Did you use the WebGL effect Glow Horizontal/Vertical for those objects/text? I ask because previously I tried using that and it ran very slow on mobile devices.

  • yongsheng I know you guys are all working very hard, but is there a time frame for AdMob support in Crosswalk?