I’m back and the game is progressing well!

Since the last update in August I finished and shipped Spooky Bonus and it was a smash hit on the casual download portals!

Spooky Bonus’s success was a big relief for me because the reason I made it this summer/autumn instead of finishing Titan Attacks mobile was that I had completely run out of money and was rapidly going into debt. I couldn’t be sure how much money Titan Attacks mobile would in the current mobile market, and I had to bet on a safe win – and that win was Spooky Bonus.

Anyway, the good news is that I’m only working on Titan Attacks now until it’s done, and I expect that to be mid-January.

Video!

I made a quick video talking about the various Moon enemy behaviours I added and showing off the Mars world with the “Galaxian” style enemies. Take a look:

New Features

Here’s some more detail about the work I did:

- Square Rotation behaviour done. Can be first seen on level 24 (Moon world)
- Random behaviour done. Can be first seen on level 37 (Moon world)
- Lurch behaviour done. First seen on level 31 (Moon world)
- Divebomb behaviour done First seen on level 36 (Moon world)
- Verified all moon anims/sprites/enemy bullets work correctly and that levels are correct.
- Read in hotspots file which defines off-centre handles for the x/y coords of sprites. This means that the alien bullets and bombs appear and disappear at the correct y coordinates for example.
- Made Total Multiplier (an internal number) and Multiplier (visible to player) affect the starting position of enemies.
- Added in all Mars graphics, animations, enemies, bullets, levels.
- Galaxian behaviour done for Mars. Was quite a lot of work to get right! Cas used Yakly degrees (0-65535 for a complete circle) in a 16:16 fixed point number format to calculate all of the angles quickly (this was important for slow PCs back in 2003), but my engine didn’t support those. Now the port uses Radians, Yakly degrees, and plain old degrees. Crazy!

Next Up

- Titan Graphics and centipede behaviour
- Finish loose ends in the gidrah (enemy) class and behaviour class
- Laserbrain! (this isn’t as exciting as it sounds.)
- Animation loose ends (support a few extra XML animation commands)
- Bosses with turrets and health bars
- Player tank with all upgrades

Me on a BBC Micro circa 1991

The indie community is full of many diverse perspectives, and diverse perspectives are of course what makes life so enjoyable!

However, when it generates into “us and them” mentality I think there is a problem.

Underdogs vs Successful Indies

I’ve been an indie game developer for 9 years now and in recent years I’ve seen a trend where some indies seem identify themselves as underdogs and they sometimes attack indies who are successful. These attacks take many forms but at the end of the day they are unpleasant and unnecessary.

One common attack, or perhaps I should say “misconception”, is that successful “elite” indies are only in it for themselves and don’t help other indies. This is so false it’s laughable.

I’m neither an underdog nor am I rich. I feel I sit somewhere in the middle in that I’ve managed to survive somehow all these years, and I’d love to keep on doing that! However, one of the main reasons I’ve managed to keep going all this time is because I’ve been helped out many times by successful developers.

In 2010 I co-founded up Full Indie in Vancouver so that indies could get together to help each other out and motivate each other. That group now has 1759 members!

I also now run Full Indie UK, which is a UK-based indie meetup group. I did this because I know how much I and other indies love to share their experiences and how much we all need that and can benefit from it.

Noobs R Us

Therefore, I would encourage anyone who feels like an underdog to remember that as indies we all started in the same place – as complete “noobs”. Some of us have done well financially, some of us have done well in terms of recognition, and some of us have not achieved either (yet).

Railing against those who have done well isn’t productive, better to instead to use other people’s success as a motivational tool and to look at yourself and see how you can improve – that’s what I try to do anyway.

I’ve never felt anyone who has “made it” was shitty to me; more the opposite – I’ve been offered unsolicited help many many times.

Peace Man

So please, let’s stop this talk of “indie elites/illuminati” and “underdogs” and remember that we are all in this indie adventure together.

Indies are *way* more friendly and helpful than other industries. For example, I made business software for 9 years and we had to keep everything secret from our competitors and so did they!

Also if you see someone promoting this false, hurtful divide, perhaps it’s time to call them out on it and encourage them to see the awesomeness right in front of their eyes?

Remember, we make games for a living. How amazing is that?

I’m pleased to announce that our latest and best match-3 game is now out for PC/Mac. It’s called Spooky Bonus and you can download it here.

It’s a Halloween-themed match-3 game in which you find and buy spooky items to decorate your house with and those items have a direct effect upon gameplay.

So far it’s had a really great reception with a 5 star rating everywhere it’s on sale and has been doing well in various portal bestseller charts. People have gone as far as to say it’s “a perfect” or “the best” match-3 game :-O Wow.

The graphics look really good and the musician also did a great job. I spent a lot of time getting the sound effects and particle effects for the bonus items just right as well and a lot of people seem to be noticing that. Lemon Moose Games also helped with some of the programming including the new powerups and the house decoration screen.

So far I’m very pleased with the game’s launch on my site and other portals and it’s on track to be my best-selling game ever!

Please take a look and tell your friends and family who might be interested, thanks!