It has been on my todo list for too long: this morning I worked on Bloblocks' promotional website.
I hope it is simple, readable and colorful enough:
It should look like this!And this afternoon I have a great appointment with the dentist! He's going to play to Bloblocks with my broken teeth (and my money) :/
I am still waiting for Apple's approval to sell Bloblocks. on iPad.
The most difficult is to continue working while waiting for a big thing.
I don't know when I'll have a reply and there's always this risk of temporary refusal for one reason or another (for instance a bug to correct).
I do the best I can to port the game to Android.
The big problem with Android is that there are many screen sizes in the wild.
For Bloblocks, I want the players to have blocks big enough under the fingers to explode them comfortably.
So, no smart-phones… until I add an "intelligent" zoom feature (next step).
To begin, I concentrate on tablets with a screen of at least 7".
These tablets are usually narrower.
To maximize the board size, I had to switch to vertical orientation and to move game elements a little bit (buttons and score).
But on a bigger tablet, the game will switch to landscape mode, which I think is nicer on big screens.
By chance, Bloblocks is graphically simple and that's not too complicated.
What's stressful is not to have physical access to enough devices to ensure that players will have a good gaming experience.
Here's a photo of Bloblocks running on the Nexus 7:
Two hours ago I submitted Bloblocks to the iOS App Store (iPad only for now).
I hope the game will be accepted and in stores quickly!
To make a game-play movie, I played a little to the Arcade Mode today. I nearly reached 160,000 points but had to stop and work ;) I still love to play to my game and I think that's a good reward.
So yes, when you will be able to, play to Bloblocks!
The more I think about it, the more the Puzzle mode seems alive. I am not even sure I made the decision whether or not to create it. It built its existence over the Arcade mode, like an organism.
This make me think of the two brain system described in Thinking Fast and Slow (which I am currently reading). One is animal, quick and addicted to senses. The other is profound, requires focus, energy and will to function.
It fits perfectly Bloblocks: A strange introspection. The Arcade mode is animal, The puzzle mode is more a profound machinery. The two modes works together to produce a whole experience with a stronger ambiance.
Damn, I hope you will like my first little game!
Damned, I was that close to deliver today :)
Instead I prefered to spend more time improving the interface for iPad and creating GameCenter achievements.
Now the todo list is reduced to :
Next, I'll work on android, I got my Nexus 7 today!
I like tablets, they feel personal and are great for media consumption.
I really enjoyed making Bloblocks for the iPad and am looking forward to test it on Android.
However, there's something I miss: a good old joystick.
I think the touch screen and the tilt are not good enough for classic game-plays. Damn, playing to a good platformer on a keyboard already feels wrong. With a touch screen it's just feels shitty.
You know, we've been creating joysticks and pads for more than 30 years. The feel of a mechanic button is something valuable to create a link between the game and the player. Push the button!
Of course many games are perfect for touch (Bloblocks wouldn't work well without some kind of pointer). But well... even more game-plays are really great only when played decently.
I would like to create some games controlled with a pad and was worried about tablets. I would like my players to be able to enjoy games and not fight with their controls.
That's why I looked for some solution to this problem. I was happy to find a few.
The keyword here is "iCade" (arCade on iOS).
Thinkgeek sells this funny iCade 8-Bitty: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ecea/
The Gametel controller seems less hacky on android but cost more and is less fun to look at: http://gametelcontroller.com/
But searching for "icade gamepad" on amazon will give you many results and more recent gamepad designs.
The idea is that gamepads connect via Bluetooth to iOS and Android and pretend they are an external keyboard (or a regular joystick on some android devices). The game just have to bind fake keys to game action. Easy and well documented.
I am worried about the qwerty layout though... In France the common layout is azerty which may require the user to switch his keyboard layout when he wants to use an icade device (I have to investigate this).
I don't know yet about multi gamepads support for multiplayers games.
On the developer side, I found a few things for iOS:
The last link is cool, the emulator can use a regular USB joystick plugged to OSX and proxy its commands to your iOS device through Bluetooth. Perfect for work and might work with an android device too with luck.
All this leaves some room for more labs.
By the way, joystick support also comes to browsers so... Great times ahead for gamers with a pad in the pocket ;)