Glow Pong is up for review by apple!!! That brings to an end: 1) A longer than expected project and 2) A very, VERY frustrating day trying to work out how actually get it all to work.
Ive set a date for the 5th for Glow Pong to be released so it gives me a decent amount of time to market this blog and the game. Though, I will say that date is subject to Apple. Apparently they take there time to approve apps :/
Monday, 31 January 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Third and final post on the introduction to Seed Games - Introducing Glow Pong!!!
Hello,
Finally I can begin to release some information on my 'first' project... At least, as we have seen, my first project to make it to the finish line (Not quite there yet though).
Introducing Glow Pong, a modern day take on the classic pong from the 70s. Incorporating stylish 'Glow' style graphics with a major gameplay enhancement. Glow pong isnt simply a carbon copy of the old game, its a brand new game in itself. One that hopefully, will be well received iPhone users!
More on Glow Pong later, including a picture or two. But for the time being, back to the history of Seed Games!
So after my Mac disaster and the canning of Burger Toss, I was left without anything to work on. I had always had a fascination with Glow styled graphics, using them to great effect in my DiDA projects (GCSE). Ever since buying my iPod touch, I've seen many, MANY good examples of games using the simple graphic style (for those interested, the easiest way to make glow graphics is with FireWorks and using the "glow" (Obviously) effect). Its also worth noting, that many other people enjoy the glow graphics... most Glow games tend to have a fair few ratings (indicating good sales) and a good percentage of them are high star ratings.
I figured a glow game was in order. Now, I just had to design one. Im sure some people who have read this in the correct order, may have had a guess as to what my project would be. If you remember, in post one I suggested that people should produce a re-make of Pong - that classic 70s game. Well, I decided to take my own advice on board and create a pong.
Next thing to make a decision on, UIKit or Open GL ES once again. The latter would have been a little easier, though I had always intended to make something with UIKit, so why not now. After all, I was hoping this project would be fairly small. In the end, it turned out to be a big project. Over 1k lines of code... may not be huge, but for a game based on pong this is pretty good (Yes I know my inexperience, poor programming and abuse of line spacing will have bumped up the count).
Originally, it was going to be carbon copy. But during testing (on going, as a developer you will click that "Build and Go" button and have a bash at your own game after literally every line of code!), I stumbled across a nice little feature that took the game in to the 21st century. The feature actually doesn't sound all that brilliant, but it is certainly a gameplay enhancer. Once you get playing (perhaps with another player), you will see that it makes Pong just that little bit more fun. Besides, it makes Glow Pong a little different from every other game out there!
Basically, when you play Pong and someone scores a point, the ball will stop and revert back to the centre of the screen. After a short period of time (of someone clicking a button / touching the screen), the ball begins to move again.
Glow Pong differs here. The ball doesn't stop until you reach the score limit! Once someone scores a point, the ball bounces back up the screen! Like i said, it doesn't seem so cool, but trust me, it makes games a little bit cooler.
Ive hinted above that Glow Pong has multi-player support. Well, it does! 2- Player support on one device (sadly, no Game Center support just yet - I actually want to implement this wonderful feature in to a game at some point soon. Maybe a patch is in the works?). 1-Player with AI controlling the second paddle is also included... so if your on your own at least you can have a quick play. Though, Glow Pong is alot more interesting when you play with someone else. Why not whack it out during a lunch break!
Sounds are the only resource I didnt make myself. Im not exactly great with the graphics tools (frequently finding tutorials on the internet and using the methods in my own work) but im terrible with sound. The sounds, I think, are taken direct from the original game. Or at least, based upon them. NoiseCollector who uploaded them to freesound.org will take the credit for the sounds. I am using them under the creative commons 1.0 licence.
These sounds you can turn on, or off if they are not to your liking. You can change the winning score total and the speed of the ball! The faster, the harder the game is essentially. Similar to the original, the ball will react you your paddle. The location on the paddle changes the angle the ball fires off... as well as the direction it moves. Its hard to explain, it is best to give it a little go and see what I mean.
Finally you have a help screen. I know this is a little crammed, but I think its not too harsh for people.
Im planning on releasing 2 version of Glow Pong. A lite version and a premium version. The lite version has a few adds. The premium has no adds and one bonus feature:
As this game is more than just a plain remake, ive included a rather exciting graphics feature. The 'paddles', which you control can be modified. You get the chance to change the colour to one of 8 colours. Had I actually used Open GL ES, I could have implemented a much better way of doing this - By changing the RGB values of the image. Though, to my knowledge, this isnt an option for UIKit. Anyway, its a nice little touch.
In the end, you dont need to buy the full version to enjoy glow pong. Though if your sick of the adds and wish to spice it up a little you pick up the premium game. Dont worry, the premium version will be dirt cheap. to be honest, its more of a donation if you feel like you are enjoying the lite version.
Here are the first pictures taken from the game. All though this is exactly as the current product looks now, it may change in the next few days whilst im polishing the game off:
*Sorry for the poor quality*
So, now with the gameplay complete, I am now entering the final stages of the development. Over the weekend Ill implement Iadds in to the lite version, make a trailer (and so some other advertising) and generally polish the game off a little. Maybe tweak the AI, though thankfully, I can do this at a later time if the community ask for it.
I think that concludes the introduction. Ill add a few more bits and peaces to the blog ready for the big opening. Hopefully its enough for people to get interested and follow Seed Games progress over the coming months.
Dan
Finally I can begin to release some information on my 'first' project... At least, as we have seen, my first project to make it to the finish line (Not quite there yet though).
Introducing Glow Pong, a modern day take on the classic pong from the 70s. Incorporating stylish 'Glow' style graphics with a major gameplay enhancement. Glow pong isnt simply a carbon copy of the old game, its a brand new game in itself. One that hopefully, will be well received iPhone users!
More on Glow Pong later, including a picture or two. But for the time being, back to the history of Seed Games!
So after my Mac disaster and the canning of Burger Toss, I was left without anything to work on. I had always had a fascination with Glow styled graphics, using them to great effect in my DiDA projects (GCSE). Ever since buying my iPod touch, I've seen many, MANY good examples of games using the simple graphic style (for those interested, the easiest way to make glow graphics is with FireWorks and using the "glow" (Obviously) effect). Its also worth noting, that many other people enjoy the glow graphics... most Glow games tend to have a fair few ratings (indicating good sales) and a good percentage of them are high star ratings.
I figured a glow game was in order. Now, I just had to design one. Im sure some people who have read this in the correct order, may have had a guess as to what my project would be. If you remember, in post one I suggested that people should produce a re-make of Pong - that classic 70s game. Well, I decided to take my own advice on board and create a pong.
Next thing to make a decision on, UIKit or Open GL ES once again. The latter would have been a little easier, though I had always intended to make something with UIKit, so why not now. After all, I was hoping this project would be fairly small. In the end, it turned out to be a big project. Over 1k lines of code... may not be huge, but for a game based on pong this is pretty good (Yes I know my inexperience, poor programming and abuse of line spacing will have bumped up the count).
Originally, it was going to be carbon copy. But during testing (on going, as a developer you will click that "Build and Go" button and have a bash at your own game after literally every line of code!), I stumbled across a nice little feature that took the game in to the 21st century. The feature actually doesn't sound all that brilliant, but it is certainly a gameplay enhancer. Once you get playing (perhaps with another player), you will see that it makes Pong just that little bit more fun. Besides, it makes Glow Pong a little different from every other game out there!
Basically, when you play Pong and someone scores a point, the ball will stop and revert back to the centre of the screen. After a short period of time (of someone clicking a button / touching the screen), the ball begins to move again.
Glow Pong differs here. The ball doesn't stop until you reach the score limit! Once someone scores a point, the ball bounces back up the screen! Like i said, it doesn't seem so cool, but trust me, it makes games a little bit cooler.
Ive hinted above that Glow Pong has multi-player support. Well, it does! 2- Player support on one device (sadly, no Game Center support just yet - I actually want to implement this wonderful feature in to a game at some point soon. Maybe a patch is in the works?). 1-Player with AI controlling the second paddle is also included... so if your on your own at least you can have a quick play. Though, Glow Pong is alot more interesting when you play with someone else. Why not whack it out during a lunch break!
Sounds are the only resource I didnt make myself. Im not exactly great with the graphics tools (frequently finding tutorials on the internet and using the methods in my own work) but im terrible with sound. The sounds, I think, are taken direct from the original game. Or at least, based upon them. NoiseCollector who uploaded them to freesound.org will take the credit for the sounds. I am using them under the creative commons 1.0 licence.
These sounds you can turn on, or off if they are not to your liking. You can change the winning score total and the speed of the ball! The faster, the harder the game is essentially. Similar to the original, the ball will react you your paddle. The location on the paddle changes the angle the ball fires off... as well as the direction it moves. Its hard to explain, it is best to give it a little go and see what I mean.
Finally you have a help screen. I know this is a little crammed, but I think its not too harsh for people.
Im planning on releasing 2 version of Glow Pong. A lite version and a premium version. The lite version has a few adds. The premium has no adds and one bonus feature:
As this game is more than just a plain remake, ive included a rather exciting graphics feature. The 'paddles', which you control can be modified. You get the chance to change the colour to one of 8 colours. Had I actually used Open GL ES, I could have implemented a much better way of doing this - By changing the RGB values of the image. Though, to my knowledge, this isnt an option for UIKit. Anyway, its a nice little touch.
In the end, you dont need to buy the full version to enjoy glow pong. Though if your sick of the adds and wish to spice it up a little you pick up the premium game. Dont worry, the premium version will be dirt cheap. to be honest, its more of a donation if you feel like you are enjoying the lite version.
Here are the first pictures taken from the game. All though this is exactly as the current product looks now, it may change in the next few days whilst im polishing the game off:
*Sorry for the poor quality*
So, now with the gameplay complete, I am now entering the final stages of the development. Over the weekend Ill implement Iadds in to the lite version, make a trailer (and so some other advertising) and generally polish the game off a little. Maybe tweak the AI, though thankfully, I can do this at a later time if the community ask for it.
I think that concludes the introduction. Ill add a few more bits and peaces to the blog ready for the big opening. Hopefully its enough for people to get interested and follow Seed Games progress over the coming months.
Dan
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Second post - More about Seed Games & An introduction to the original team
Hello again,
First of all, I should introduce the original team. We had just 3 people in Seed Games, me, Scott and DJ. Though they both have not been involved in the past developments in any real way, I am hopeful that they will have roles in the next development. Especially DJ, as it could be his idea that we base the next game on.
Back to the history of Seed Games and my personal experiences whilst learning to program. Were up to the point that I have decided to learn Open GL ES - exclusively because I didnt know better nor did I really have a clue how UI Kit could be used to develop games. For those who like to spend money on books, Beginning iPhone Game Development (another book from Apress) is a nice little place to start. Granted, the vast majority of it is about Open GL ES and Quartz 2D. Not too much UI Kit (enough however to get you going!) but since Open GL ES is something that you will eventually come to learn, its well worth purchasing.
So, with the tutorials on 71Squared blog, I begun to learn Open GL ES. It really wasnt going in. I lacked experience with If statements, for loops - both of which popped up frequently. I had never seen (or taken in) the 'dot' syntax. I had no idea how object interacted with each other....
It was a nightmare. I had, in honesty failed to understand Objective C in any real depth. The correct thing to do would have been to create something with UI Kit. I again, ignored this and bought Mike Daleys book. In fact, I bought it when it was in the testing stages so the code I was reading clearly could have been improved (and it has since the book has been released). Its called Learning IOS Game Programming: A Hands-on Guild to Building Your First iPhone Game.
I spent a while reading this book (A couple of months maybe)... Had a nice introduction to Open GL ES but that was about it. It will be helpful when it comes to learning Open GL ES (Maybe in uni) but I couldnt exactly set out and create my own game engine from the content... yet.
Even though the time spent perhaps could have been spent better elsewhere, I still maintain the book did me a lot of good. I finally got my head around OOP (Object Orientated programming) concepts! I saw a good amount of loops and decision statements that I had gained some valuable experience. I had seen how the foundation framework works (Strings, arrays etc). All in all, great experiences. Even though it had taken a while, I now felt confident that I could produce a game.
I used the game engine from the book and began my first game - Burger Toss. Essentially you flick food to the customer who wanted it. Here are a few pictures:
PIC 1: Here you see the game screen. The player would use his finger to flick the food upwards. I actually though the game graphics were pretty good... Not everyones cup of tea but since im not graphically minded in anyway, this was the best of the (royalty free) images on the internet.
I should mention a few features. The people blink (as you can see with the left customer) which I thought was a cool feature. The mouths also move when they are eating too. Both of these were terribly hard to implement.
PIC 2: Here is the Open GL ES based options screen. It would be easier to use UI Kit but since It was getting close to the end of the project, I just wanted to get it finished. Infact, it could have been alot worse.
PIC 3: This is the main menu. Again, the guy here has a blinking animation to keep things a little less plain.
PIC 4: Here you can see how I borrowed a scoring style based of call of duty.
PIC 5: Here shows the burger being 'flicked'. Its spinning and getting smaller as it moves across the screen to make the game take on a semi 3D look and feel.
Burger Toss had 3 game modes. Endless (shown above). Essentially you play until you run out of lives (a feature added after these pictures were taken). You scored points by flicking foods to the right people... the more you did in a row, the bigger score multiplier. It was a basic game mode which the other two were built upon.
Time attack mode gave you 90 seconds to score as many points as possible. The quicker you get the food to the correct person, the more points you got. It was fairly cool actually.
Countdown mode was my personal favourite. You were given a 30 second (It was subject to change, today I would have made it about 15 seconds) and that began to countdown. Each correct flick would add extra time to the countdown timer. Imagine as you get down to the last few seconds, all that frantic flicking!!!
All three game modes had the option to be played on easy mode, or hard mode. Hard mode differed by one feature. The customers 'needs' changed every few seconds. For example, the guy on the left one moment could 'need' a muffin. Moments later, he needs a burger! This mode never let you settle down in to a routine. Once again, I was proud.
I had even coded in support for Game Center. I had the leader boards set up... and was about to add in some achievements and then, disaster struck.
Now, constantly in IT (in school, in the work place... everywhere when computers are involved) you are told to back up your data... Well, I hadnt for a few weeks despite the warnings I had been given - My mac would simply freeze up on occasions. Infact, If I was a little less lazy, I would have had a fresh install of the OS. It didnt feel right.
So one evening, my mac froze and I switched it off... Only to be greeted by the horrible sight of a corrupted hard drive. There perhaps was a way to salvage things (and boy I did try to find it) but the hope faded when I accidentally deleted my Windows partition. A reformat followed and the only back up I had, was one completely out of date.
I therefore canned the project indefinitely. 4 months of my time effectively wasted. (though I do have the latest version on my iPod touch so it is part of my portfolio) One day I may go back and finish it, perhaps releasing it as it is for free (Still needs a bit of work - at the moment I have no motivation to complete the work). One consolation is that I begun the current project soon after. Which I should have been doing a few months before.
Therefore a lesson to learn. Back up your data on to an external source!!!! If you have a mac, perhaps time machine is the way to go.
So that brings me to the end of the second post. The third one will finish off the story and introduce my current project.
Dan
First of all, I should introduce the original team. We had just 3 people in Seed Games, me, Scott and DJ. Though they both have not been involved in the past developments in any real way, I am hopeful that they will have roles in the next development. Especially DJ, as it could be his idea that we base the next game on.
Back to the history of Seed Games and my personal experiences whilst learning to program. Were up to the point that I have decided to learn Open GL ES - exclusively because I didnt know better nor did I really have a clue how UI Kit could be used to develop games. For those who like to spend money on books, Beginning iPhone Game Development (another book from Apress) is a nice little place to start. Granted, the vast majority of it is about Open GL ES and Quartz 2D. Not too much UI Kit (enough however to get you going!) but since Open GL ES is something that you will eventually come to learn, its well worth purchasing.
So, with the tutorials on 71Squared blog, I begun to learn Open GL ES. It really wasnt going in. I lacked experience with If statements, for loops - both of which popped up frequently. I had never seen (or taken in) the 'dot' syntax. I had no idea how object interacted with each other....
It was a nightmare. I had, in honesty failed to understand Objective C in any real depth. The correct thing to do would have been to create something with UI Kit. I again, ignored this and bought Mike Daleys book. In fact, I bought it when it was in the testing stages so the code I was reading clearly could have been improved (and it has since the book has been released). Its called Learning IOS Game Programming: A Hands-on Guild to Building Your First iPhone Game.
I spent a while reading this book (A couple of months maybe)... Had a nice introduction to Open GL ES but that was about it. It will be helpful when it comes to learning Open GL ES (Maybe in uni) but I couldnt exactly set out and create my own game engine from the content... yet.
Even though the time spent perhaps could have been spent better elsewhere, I still maintain the book did me a lot of good. I finally got my head around OOP (Object Orientated programming) concepts! I saw a good amount of loops and decision statements that I had gained some valuable experience. I had seen how the foundation framework works (Strings, arrays etc). All in all, great experiences. Even though it had taken a while, I now felt confident that I could produce a game.
I used the game engine from the book and began my first game - Burger Toss. Essentially you flick food to the customer who wanted it. Here are a few pictures:
PIC 1: Here you see the game screen. The player would use his finger to flick the food upwards. I actually though the game graphics were pretty good... Not everyones cup of tea but since im not graphically minded in anyway, this was the best of the (royalty free) images on the internet.
I should mention a few features. The people blink (as you can see with the left customer) which I thought was a cool feature. The mouths also move when they are eating too. Both of these were terribly hard to implement.
PIC 2: Here is the Open GL ES based options screen. It would be easier to use UI Kit but since It was getting close to the end of the project, I just wanted to get it finished. Infact, it could have been alot worse.
PIC 3: This is the main menu. Again, the guy here has a blinking animation to keep things a little less plain.
PIC 4: Here you can see how I borrowed a scoring style based of call of duty.
PIC 5: Here shows the burger being 'flicked'. Its spinning and getting smaller as it moves across the screen to make the game take on a semi 3D look and feel.
Burger Toss had 3 game modes. Endless (shown above). Essentially you play until you run out of lives (a feature added after these pictures were taken). You scored points by flicking foods to the right people... the more you did in a row, the bigger score multiplier. It was a basic game mode which the other two were built upon.
Time attack mode gave you 90 seconds to score as many points as possible. The quicker you get the food to the correct person, the more points you got. It was fairly cool actually.
Countdown mode was my personal favourite. You were given a 30 second (It was subject to change, today I would have made it about 15 seconds) and that began to countdown. Each correct flick would add extra time to the countdown timer. Imagine as you get down to the last few seconds, all that frantic flicking!!!
All three game modes had the option to be played on easy mode, or hard mode. Hard mode differed by one feature. The customers 'needs' changed every few seconds. For example, the guy on the left one moment could 'need' a muffin. Moments later, he needs a burger! This mode never let you settle down in to a routine. Once again, I was proud.
I had even coded in support for Game Center. I had the leader boards set up... and was about to add in some achievements and then, disaster struck.
Now, constantly in IT (in school, in the work place... everywhere when computers are involved) you are told to back up your data... Well, I hadnt for a few weeks despite the warnings I had been given - My mac would simply freeze up on occasions. Infact, If I was a little less lazy, I would have had a fresh install of the OS. It didnt feel right.
So one evening, my mac froze and I switched it off... Only to be greeted by the horrible sight of a corrupted hard drive. There perhaps was a way to salvage things (and boy I did try to find it) but the hope faded when I accidentally deleted my Windows partition. A reformat followed and the only back up I had, was one completely out of date.
I therefore canned the project indefinitely. 4 months of my time effectively wasted. (though I do have the latest version on my iPod touch so it is part of my portfolio) One day I may go back and finish it, perhaps releasing it as it is for free (Still needs a bit of work - at the moment I have no motivation to complete the work). One consolation is that I begun the current project soon after. Which I should have been doing a few months before.
Therefore a lesson to learn. Back up your data on to an external source!!!! If you have a mac, perhaps time machine is the way to go.
So that brings me to the end of the second post. The third one will finish off the story and introduce my current project.
Dan
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
First post! - An Introduction to me & Seed Games and a little help for new developers
Hello,
I am aware that currently I have the grand total of 0 (yes, zero!) followers / iphone enthusiasts / developers / interested parties. Rest assured, I have not gone mad and begun 'blogging' to myself. I have always had the intention to bring this blog to life near the time our first 'app' will be released. I am going to pack the blog with information on our first application so that their is plenty of information for you to view upon viewing Seed Games' blog for the first time - With luck, you will keep coming back for more!
So, lets have a small introduction:
Its worth noting that, if you Googled the term "Seed Games" a few months back you may have come across (what I understood to be) a game torrent site. I, or any of those involved at Seed Games and the blog you currently are reading had absolutely nothing to do with that site. Thankfully the site seems to have been taken down. If you are going to pay for any content, it should be for games. A lot of hard work and dedication goes in to a game, do please reward those involved in the development. :)
I am Dan, 19 now and live in sunny Egglescliffe. That is somewhere near Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton and local to a lovely part of the country called Yarm. If you ever get the chance to visit (or live locally), make sure you get your self in to the Black Bull in Yarm. By far the best pub around! I am looking forward to September when I shall be going to Uni to study Game Development / Computer Science with Game Development units (Northumbria / Newcastle / Sheffield Hallum / City University (london) or Kingston). In the long term, I hope to win the lottery and become a pilot - though, as anyone who has looked in to this with any depth will know, its ridiculously expensive!
I own a PS3 (currently it has YLOD - Third time I have had that). Im a big Socom fan and am looking forward to Socom 4 in the coming months. That I enjoy playing with the lads from SOD! I have a wide array of games that are sadly gathering dust. I pride myself on two things, 1) my KDR on COD and 2) The fact I am a 'Trophy whore'. I bought Uncharted 1 exclusively for the trophies - It turned out to be a fantastic purchase!
And on to Seed Games...
Seed Games has been in existence for a while now. The idea to develop games begun on one cold December evening with friends in 2009. We were out, discussing ideas for things we should do on a night (baring in mind I was 17 for another few weeks whilst the others wouldn't be 18 for 6 or so months - The pub was out of the question). I thought back to the many times in the past I have wanted to make computer games. Suddenly my mouth began to move and I had suggested the idea! I think the suggestion went down a treat as my (2) mates began to take an interest in the whole idea.
They both enjoyed playing games on a wide variety of consoles, and both had experience with Game Maker in secondary school. We began tossing ideas around, some realistic... some not. Ultimately, I would say, our enthusiasm got the better of us. Apparently we were going to be making the next HD First Person Shooter! Clearly this was never going to happen, so we did some research. It was agreed that I would be doing the coding.
In the early days, we toyed with Dark Basic, FPS creator, Game Maker 8 and Torque game builder. Nothing grabbed me, or in fact us.
1 of us owned an Ipod touch. I had been keen to buy one (along with a Mac for that matter) so suggested we develop on the Apple system. It took a little bit of convincing as, well, one of us wouldnt have the system to play the finished product. Though it was agreed it was a fantastic platform to build games on... especially for newbies.
I took a lot of inspiration from a youtuber named Leuvsion (see below this paragraph for a link). He had set himself a challenge to build an iPhone game in 30 days. Start to finish including learning the programming language.
http://www.youtube.com/user/leuvsion
Christmas came as did new year (and my birthday :D). My ipod touch was with me and I instantly fell in love with it. Cracking bit of kit. My mac was bought and delivered on the 5th of January. I got myself a lovely 13" MacBook - 2.26Ghz Duel Core, 2GB DDR3. Costly yes, but worth it. OSX is, in many ways better that XP / Vista / 7. XCode is a joy to use (Compiler, you write code in this 'program'), Objective C is a lovely, simple and powerful language to know. UIKit is a nice place to start with game development and Open GL ES is a graphics system used throughout the industry! Win win win I say!
Now it should be noted that I had to have a Mac in order to develop on the apple systems (including Desktops and Ipads). Yes I could have got myself a nice gaming rig for that price but since Flight Simulator (2004 - as I have a vast array of addons) is the only game I play for PC, Im not at all fussed.
Leuvsion and his 30 day iPhone game making videos introduced me to a few new terms and books I should buy. For those interested, these are: Programming in Objective C 2.0 (Steven Kochan) and Cocco Programming for Mac OS X (Aaron Hillegass).
Granted the latter is for Mac OS X development and not iPhone - but the lessons are still relevant. For the newbies around who maybe interested in beginning iPhone development, I would suggest buying Beginning iPhone 3 Development along with the Objective C book. Followed by Learning iOS Game Programming by Mike Daley. This will introduce Open GL ES and game engines! Cracking read.
So after learning Objective C... In something like 5 months. I had hopped to rattle through it but I tell you, its hard! Learning a programming language is hard. Prepare to spend hours reading over the same paragraph over and over again! I may have, at times of pure frustration damaged my book! Though, it is worth noting that once you get cracking with typing your own code, you will eventually get it. By that I mean, once you sit down and finish your first program you will feel like you know everything. The difference between you after a month of learning and after a your first program is huge.
So, after Objective C I was a bit lost. After Googling around, I learnt about Open GL ES. For those who are in a similar situation to me, I would seriously advice you go away and produce a game similar to Pong using "UI Kit. Do not touch Open GL ES. It has a seriously tough learning curve to it. Especially if you wish to make your game fully with your own code.
Alternatively, you could have a look at Cocos2D - which is a game engine all ready for you to use. Its not 'drag and drop' like Torque so at least you are doing some good amounts of code. In a decent sized project, you will likely write over 1000 lines of code.
So I began to learn Open GL ES using the fantastic tutorials by Mike Daley at 71 Squared. These tutorials should be one of the first places to go when you are planning on loosing your social life to learning Open GL ES.
http://www.71squared.com/
I began to make my way through these tutorials. Now, I was not in the right place to do this. Hence why I suggest you go back and make a game or two with UI Kit. Practise your if statements, your For loops etc.
I see this post has become quite big - Im therefore going to publish it and make another tomorrow. At this point of the (I guess) 2/3 part post, I have my Macbook, Ipod touch a few good books and beginning to make a small mistake that would cost me about 3-4 months of development time by learning Open GL ES. Read the next post(s) for what I did next. How my first project ended up a complete mess (lessons for all developers especially to learn!!) and how my first release is coming along!
Dan
I am aware that currently I have the grand total of 0 (yes, zero!) followers / iphone enthusiasts / developers / interested parties. Rest assured, I have not gone mad and begun 'blogging' to myself. I have always had the intention to bring this blog to life near the time our first 'app' will be released. I am going to pack the blog with information on our first application so that their is plenty of information for you to view upon viewing Seed Games' blog for the first time - With luck, you will keep coming back for more!
So, lets have a small introduction:
Its worth noting that, if you Googled the term "Seed Games" a few months back you may have come across (what I understood to be) a game torrent site. I, or any of those involved at Seed Games and the blog you currently are reading had absolutely nothing to do with that site. Thankfully the site seems to have been taken down. If you are going to pay for any content, it should be for games. A lot of hard work and dedication goes in to a game, do please reward those involved in the development. :)
I am Dan, 19 now and live in sunny Egglescliffe. That is somewhere near Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton and local to a lovely part of the country called Yarm. If you ever get the chance to visit (or live locally), make sure you get your self in to the Black Bull in Yarm. By far the best pub around! I am looking forward to September when I shall be going to Uni to study Game Development / Computer Science with Game Development units (Northumbria / Newcastle / Sheffield Hallum / City University (london) or Kingston). In the long term, I hope to win the lottery and become a pilot - though, as anyone who has looked in to this with any depth will know, its ridiculously expensive!
I own a PS3 (currently it has YLOD - Third time I have had that). Im a big Socom fan and am looking forward to Socom 4 in the coming months. That I enjoy playing with the lads from SOD! I have a wide array of games that are sadly gathering dust. I pride myself on two things, 1) my KDR on COD and 2) The fact I am a 'Trophy whore'. I bought Uncharted 1 exclusively for the trophies - It turned out to be a fantastic purchase!
And on to Seed Games...
Seed Games has been in existence for a while now. The idea to develop games begun on one cold December evening with friends in 2009. We were out, discussing ideas for things we should do on a night (baring in mind I was 17 for another few weeks whilst the others wouldn't be 18 for 6 or so months - The pub was out of the question). I thought back to the many times in the past I have wanted to make computer games. Suddenly my mouth began to move and I had suggested the idea! I think the suggestion went down a treat as my (2) mates began to take an interest in the whole idea.
They both enjoyed playing games on a wide variety of consoles, and both had experience with Game Maker in secondary school. We began tossing ideas around, some realistic... some not. Ultimately, I would say, our enthusiasm got the better of us. Apparently we were going to be making the next HD First Person Shooter! Clearly this was never going to happen, so we did some research. It was agreed that I would be doing the coding.
In the early days, we toyed with Dark Basic, FPS creator, Game Maker 8 and Torque game builder. Nothing grabbed me, or in fact us.
1 of us owned an Ipod touch. I had been keen to buy one (along with a Mac for that matter) so suggested we develop on the Apple system. It took a little bit of convincing as, well, one of us wouldnt have the system to play the finished product. Though it was agreed it was a fantastic platform to build games on... especially for newbies.
I took a lot of inspiration from a youtuber named Leuvsion (see below this paragraph for a link). He had set himself a challenge to build an iPhone game in 30 days. Start to finish including learning the programming language.
http://www.youtube.com/user/leuvsion
Christmas came as did new year (and my birthday :D). My ipod touch was with me and I instantly fell in love with it. Cracking bit of kit. My mac was bought and delivered on the 5th of January. I got myself a lovely 13" MacBook - 2.26Ghz Duel Core, 2GB DDR3. Costly yes, but worth it. OSX is, in many ways better that XP / Vista / 7. XCode is a joy to use (Compiler, you write code in this 'program'), Objective C is a lovely, simple and powerful language to know. UIKit is a nice place to start with game development and Open GL ES is a graphics system used throughout the industry! Win win win I say!
Now it should be noted that I had to have a Mac in order to develop on the apple systems (including Desktops and Ipads). Yes I could have got myself a nice gaming rig for that price but since Flight Simulator (2004 - as I have a vast array of addons) is the only game I play for PC, Im not at all fussed.
Leuvsion and his 30 day iPhone game making videos introduced me to a few new terms and books I should buy. For those interested, these are: Programming in Objective C 2.0 (Steven Kochan) and Cocco Programming for Mac OS X (Aaron Hillegass).
Granted the latter is for Mac OS X development and not iPhone - but the lessons are still relevant. For the newbies around who maybe interested in beginning iPhone development, I would suggest buying Beginning iPhone 3 Development along with the Objective C book. Followed by Learning iOS Game Programming by Mike Daley. This will introduce Open GL ES and game engines! Cracking read.
So after learning Objective C... In something like 5 months. I had hopped to rattle through it but I tell you, its hard! Learning a programming language is hard. Prepare to spend hours reading over the same paragraph over and over again! I may have, at times of pure frustration damaged my book! Though, it is worth noting that once you get cracking with typing your own code, you will eventually get it. By that I mean, once you sit down and finish your first program you will feel like you know everything. The difference between you after a month of learning and after a your first program is huge.
So, after Objective C I was a bit lost. After Googling around, I learnt about Open GL ES. For those who are in a similar situation to me, I would seriously advice you go away and produce a game similar to Pong using "UI Kit. Do not touch Open GL ES. It has a seriously tough learning curve to it. Especially if you wish to make your game fully with your own code.
Alternatively, you could have a look at Cocos2D - which is a game engine all ready for you to use. Its not 'drag and drop' like Torque so at least you are doing some good amounts of code. In a decent sized project, you will likely write over 1000 lines of code.
So I began to learn Open GL ES using the fantastic tutorials by Mike Daley at 71 Squared. These tutorials should be one of the first places to go when you are planning on loosing your social life to learning Open GL ES.
http://www.71squared.com/
I began to make my way through these tutorials. Now, I was not in the right place to do this. Hence why I suggest you go back and make a game or two with UI Kit. Practise your if statements, your For loops etc.
I see this post has become quite big - Im therefore going to publish it and make another tomorrow. At this point of the (I guess) 2/3 part post, I have my Macbook, Ipod touch a few good books and beginning to make a small mistake that would cost me about 3-4 months of development time by learning Open GL ES. Read the next post(s) for what I did next. How my first project ended up a complete mess (lessons for all developers especially to learn!!) and how my first release is coming along!
Dan
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