Hi guys,

taken a long rest from coding as i was running out of ideas and inspiration. but hopefully thats me back now.

Stopped working on Ascendancy for now. and updating another one of my apps.
Working on Piggy Bank Tracker 3, updating it with new features and making it for tablets instead of mobile. may have a mobile version but not sure yet. The extra screen size of Tablets is ideal for what i have in mind and not sure if it would work quite so well for mobiles, but u never know. Just going to concentrate on tablet version for now.

for now i`m adding the Ability to have more than one account. So you can track multiple accounts for like savings or a child`s piggy bank as well. going to have a free version with up to 3 accounts i think and a paid for version with more features and up to 10 accounts, the free version will be fully functioning so you dont have to pay for it, only if you really want to pay for the extra features and support the continuing development of the app.

I have loads of ideas for this and may release it as soon as i have a working version and adding extra features as i code them, or just wait till i finish everything, but this would take much longer. ill see what happens as i develop this.

if anyone has any ideas then please leave a comment, want to make this the best Piggy Bank Tracker available on the app store. so tell me what features you would be looking for.

Rickynzx

He guys,

its been a while, so here's a quick update.
I am trying to implement the star map screen, i want to make the map be procedurally generated as i plan in having a lot of star systems, this is coming along slowly. I am able to generate the star systems and place stars on the map, but finding it a bit difficult trying to generate random star name, that sound like proper star names. I am continuing to develop this and is coming along slowly at the moment/ If anyone has any suggestions on how to generate random names for star system please comment, all suggestion will be looked at and considered.

I have been adding more content to the buy ship screen, been placing more images for ships lasers and engines. now i need to work out all the data for these systems. like power usage, re-charge times, rate of fire, max velocity etc. all systems have differences and you can add most systems to ships to customise them. Have to get the balance right between systems as well as price for the items.

lots to be done yet but should be a fun game when done eventually, its going to take a while before complete, because i want to add so much stuff to it, to make it enjoyable.
below are a few screenshots of the ships available so far, but i plane in adding loads more.

please feel free to send comments and suggestions, as well as some graphics and sprites which might get added to the game.(you will get a mention in the credits if anything you send is used in the final game).

These are the ships that are available to you at the start of the game ( the only ones you can afford)
these have various cargo capacities so you can start transporting cargo to different destinations.
These ships are by MillionthVector, you can check out his other work here

Been tinkering away at my rogue type game and thought i would show you all a short video of the main screen, nothing fancy but i have dded some randomly generated asteroids that fly across the screen, as you navigate the main menu.

Ascendancy main menu

I have also got an early video of the Create a captain menu in action along with the screen where you buy your first spacecraft

These are all early screens and will probably change a bit during development, but its just to give you an idea of what the game will be like.

Hey guys

I have been coding for a long while as i have started a new project that has nothing to do with app development, I have been busy researching how to make an arcade cabinet to run all the old arcade games. I now think i know how to make one but have to save a bit of money toget everything needed to make one.
I also bought myself an Arduino Uno and been learning some electronics so that i can eventually build some cool stuff.

Anyway, back to coding now and have been working on a new project and put the platform game on hold for the moment as i want to try something a bit different.
I am hoping to make a rogue type game which will be a bit of a challenge as i have loads of ideas for it. I think this will probably be PC only as it will be too big a project for smartphones, but ill see how it develops.

Here is a screenshot of the main menu so far.

I am going to add a few little animations to liven it up a bit. (maybe)
I`ll see what i can up with and show you an updated video when done.
The title of the game will probably change as this is just the beginning of the project and had to give it a name.

Probably not get much coding done in the coming months as work is really busy just now.

hey guys


Improvements made:

• Blocks can now be pushed left and right.
• Blocks now stop when they hit an obstacle.
• Blocks can now be pushed off of platforms and they fall to lower platform.
• Updated the message box function in editor.
• NPC function
• menu designed for NPC function
• can add characters to game that give you information/ help etc.
• now saves data to level data.
• can now delete NPCs.
• added edit function for NPCs.
• can reload NPC data into editor from level file.
• All functions for NPCs in editor now functioning. (I think)

next I have to add the function in the game that takes all the NPC data from the level file, and places everything where it should in the game. I will have to design a small screen that displays the NPC along with the text  that that is displayed as he/she "talks to you"

I also  want to add  a crusher that comes down from platforms above to crush you, these will hopefully have adjustable speeds and delays. i will have to create a menu for these within the editor to be able to place them.

Once this is done it might be time for a new game as i think there will be enough new features to make it better than the last game, and more fun, with more things to do.

hi guys,

took a little holiday from coding and now i`m back, i have been working on the placement editor.
i need to add all the code to the function for adding  blocks that can be pushed to the editor and in the game itself, so that i can add the blocks when designing a level and so that the game knows what to do with the new level data.

improvements made:

• Adjusted the code to make the blocks you can push work on touchscreen devices as well. 
• Optimized code for the baddies menu, should be a bit faster now
• .Movable blocks can now be placed in editor.
• and deleted (single blocks)
• and saved
• and reloaded
• and when deleting whole level
• Movable blocks can be loaded into game from file
• Fixed a bug where the end point and start point were not being recognized in editor when levels were being reloaded.
• Created new menu for delete all, which allows you to cancel if you change your mind.

Bugs fixed:

• Number of jewels was not getting reset when deleting whole level in editor. Now fixed.

hi guys

I have been working on the movable blocks, I was trying for ages to get this to work and just couldnt work it out, But eventually got it working and it was easier than what i thought it would be. I was trying all sorts of things to get this to work and it took me most of the day.

I can now make a bit more complicated levels with some sort of puzzle element as you will have to push blocks to certain places in order to get to out of reach platforms and collectibles.
The blocks can  be moved left and right for now, I want to be able to make them fall from platforms when pushed off, but i`ll leave that for another day. :-)

Hey guys

I am still working on the editor and my new platform game which i`m calling Sarah 2 for now.

Improvements:

• The editor now lets me rotate tiles, so that i can add more variation to the level layouts.
• changed the level data  structure to take into account the rotation of  tiles.
• added the new level data structure to game so that it can place rotated tiles.
• Added a tile properties menu to the editor from which i can currently just rotate tiles, but i will eventually add more functionality to this to change lots of properties for the tiles, like set to background, set to foreground and various physics settings etc.
• have tweaked the game play in  Sarah 2.
• tweaked the collision detection in game
• adjusted the positioning of the spikes in game.

have to test game and placement editor to make sure that the new changes work well.

I also want to add moveable objects to the game, so that you can push some blocks to better positions to achieve jumps to get to otherwise unreachable platforms. 1ll see how i get on with this task, might be a while before i can work out how to do it. having to think how to work this out as if you push a block too close to a wall you might not be able to get in behind it to push it back, so would i have a reset switch to move the blocks back to original positions, which might seem unnatural or would i allow Sarah to pull block as well. what if you push block off a level it is meant to be on and  falls? not sure how to tackle this,  but for now i think i might just settle for being able to push an object to where it is needed.

Hi guys

I have been working on the placement editor, tidying up some code, trying to make things work better and faster.

Improvements made.

• Editor now starts up faster.
• Deleted a lot of print statements that i was using to debug.
• Re-organising code to make it easier to follow and change.
• Adding some error trapping code to the editor, (i know  what to do and what not to do to stop editor crashing , but much more efficient if i can catch errors if i mistakenly do things the code doesnt like, and also much more user friendly so other people can use it eventually)
• Added a message box. so editor can display messages to help you and display error messages.
• All messages now display in message box.
• added current cursor position to the stats window.
• tidied up the moving platform menu, it was placing messages over the world display, now moved to message window.
• message window now a function so quicker to display messages.it automatically works out where to place text depending on text length and whether or not there are one or two lines to display. Original  function asked for co-ordinates and i had to work out manually, which took a bit of trial and error to get the positions right. you can also add rgb values for the text colour.

hey guys,

Adding some improvements to Sarah in Candyland.

Improvements:

• All stars now rotate, adds a bit more movement to the levels.
• Adverts now only appear every 3 levels , instead of after every level, which seemed far too much.
• monsters are now animated.

This has now been released to the google play store with the new features.

I am working on the game engine a bit more as i want to be able to do a lot more in the platform games.

Improvements to game engine i want to add.

• Add inventory so you can collect objects.
• to open doors
• to trade with npc's
• to work machinery
• add npc's to talk to, to get information/help
• add weapons
• add armor
• randomly spawn enemies
• enemies fire weapons.
• disintegrating platforms
• shops to buy items.

there are lot of other things that i want to add, but these are the main ones at the moment. dont know if all these will make it into the next game, depends on what i can manage to do, because i would like to release a game every 6-8 months.

I am also going to have to work with the placement editor so that i can add all the new improvements to it to use in the game.

I also want to start coding another game which will be a space combat/exploration game, where you can choose a ship and get missions to complete to earn money to upgrade your ship/ buy new ship.

Just mucking about with this to see where i will go with this at the moment.

Hey guys,

Not been doing much for the past month, but back to coding now. I can now delete multiple tiles in the placement editor by holding down the right mouse key and moving the mouse over tiles. This along with being able to place multiple tiles by holding down the left mouse button will allow me to build levels a lot faster than before.

Next i want to be able to adjust level sizes that i said i was going to do in my last post,but  didnt get round to.

I dont know whether to pick the level size when i create a new level or just start designing levels and let the editor adjust size as i add tiles. It might be easier to pick level size on creation, as that is the way the code works at the moment, to allow it to expand as i go will be a bit more difficult as i will have to work out sprite numbers as i go along,and will disrupt the way the levels are created. I will have a think about it and see what i can come up with, although making editor adjust size would be much more flexible and less restrictive.

Hey guys,

I have been working on the placement editor, the baddies now appear on a separate layer, so i can turn the baddies on and off. Previously i could not place any tiles or objects under the baddies, this has now been changed and i can add things to the same tile the baddies appear, and get rid of them when working on the level layout.

next i want to add the ability to change the size of the levels, currently all levels have a fixed width(40) and height(23), No idea why i picked this size of level, might have been some thought behind it that i cant remember now though, but whatever the reason this size is very limiting for more complicated and bigger levels.

Hey guys,

The long wait is over, game is finally released and is available here


Its been a long while getting to this point.
its not the best game ever but its the most complicated thing i have ever attempted and i am happy with it in its current state.
I could have added lots more to it as i have loads of ideas, but thought this project had to come to an end eventually, maybe a sequel to add some of those other ideas i had...;-)

hey Guys,


Sorted the crashing out at long last, this has been occurring for a long time now, but kept putting it off as there was so much more that was needing done, got to the stage where i had to get it sorted in order to continue. took me a while but got it sorted in the end. It was occurring when i was loading in new levels and the code was not starting at the beginning of the main game loop, but somewhere in the middle for some reason.
I had to manually go through the code to see what was happening and came to this problem that has now been fixed ( about time too as this was really starting to annoy me).

i am now sorting a few more bugs and sorting various things that should not take too long, so hopefully a release before the end of the month is very likely.

Thanks for everyone`s patience in this and wont be too long now.

Hey guys,


AGK has been fixed, so i can finish the game up and get it released now.

Had to delete text from various screens and menus that was displayed to help me debug.

Still having random crashes which i have traced to when new levels are loaded and displayed.
I am going to re-code how the levels are loaded into game so this might take quite a while till i figure out the best way to do it, i have an idea so hopefully it wont take too long.

hey guys.

All levels finished now.

Few bug fixes.

• Fixed a bug where sarah was sometimes not jumping when jump button was pressed on Android.
• fixed bug where app would crash if there was no internet connection when attempting to download high scores
• Image of timer was not being deleted at end of level, this has now been fixed.
• Fixed a bug where game would crash if no internet connection was detected and you played arcade mode. This was caused by game trying to look up high scores and trying to print to screen when they were not available.

Game is almost complete but cant quite get it finished because the programming language i am using (AGK) has recently been updated,but there seems to be a slight problem with it when i am trying to download in the high score tables. So i cannot release until this has been fixed so i can test the game thoroughly.

hey guys,

That`s all the levels for worlds 1 and 2 complete ready for release.

I am now testing the game and have a few minor adjustments to make.

Fixes and adjustments

• I have resized the baddies for world 2 as they were the wrong size and were not appearing on the platforms correctly.
• Adjusted positions of the arrows.
• music in the  game now plays full version instead of short version.
• tiny text was being displayed at start of level in arcade mode, this has now been deleted.
• moving platforms now appear in front of trees, where previously they would disappear behind them.
• made the left/right buttons a little larger.

Hey guys,

Not updated for ages as i have been working loads and not had a lot of spare time, but i have been putting in the odd hour or two when i have been able to.
Anyway i am now on the final level of the game, i will release game after this has been completed and the game has been tested thoroughly.
This release of the game will have 2 worlds with 12 levels in each. I also plan on adding a third world when i have time, but this will be uploaded at a later date.

I have a few minor adjustments to make to the gameplay but nothing major ( I think), i have also managed to finally fix the crashing problem which occurred when i was deleting images before i was deleting the sprites, this caused the cash as once the image was deleted the sprites had no image to display.



I changed the amount of stars needed to get an extra life from 100 to 50, this helps with the harder levels as they were hard to finish without losing a life, although it is possible.

I will upload a new video just before release at the end of the month.

Thanks for all your patience as i have taken a lot of time over this game. At times i thought that I was trying to make a game that i was not able to complete, but i have managed to find solutions to all the problems i have encountered ,even though some have taken ages to sort out, and i actually gave up several times only to come back to coding when the solution came to me.

hey guys,

Working on world 2 levels just now.

Changed the time to complete level from 500 seconds to 200 seconds, the previous time was far too long to complete the levels and 200 seconds seems much better and more challenging.
if you cannot complete level in time specified the counter continues to countdown and you end up with a negative score and the end of level.

Created some graphics for the world selection function.
world selection function now implemented and working.
Had to flip graphics for the flying monsters in world 2 as they were flying backwards.

Have to apologise to folks as i have to put the release date back to end of October, finding it hard to spend lots of time finishing off game, with full time job and family commitments, finding it hard to complete it in the little spare time i have every week.