Omelet Space Core - Postmortem
by Christopher Evans · 02/21/2010 (12:05 am) · 0 comments
As I said in my last post about releasing sales data, here is a link to our 2009 sales data on our company website. The numbers are really quite sad. To date we have not had enough sales for a paycheck from Apple, but at least we have the numbers online.
Anyway, another year and another game release. The new one is called Omelet Space Core or OSC. Initially we hadn’t planned on making OSC, instead we were going to work on another game featuring Max Diamond. However, with the release of iT2D 1.3 we decided it would be best to see what the new engine could do before we work on a larger project.
At the same time my business partner was adamant about building a few free apps, something I’ve been opposed to from the start. At the very least I want to make enough money for the company to pay for itself. In the end we decided on making free games that could be used to test new features and concepts. We call these Quickie Games (if you have a better suggestion on what to call them, we’d love to hear it).
2. Have small resource requirements (basic art and sound).
3. Incorporate new code or features that will be used in larger projects later on.
4. Includes non-intrusive advertising (we’re still trying to make some money).
5. Easy to play.
With these 5 little rules lets see how we did with OSC.
1. Quick to build hasn’t worked out as much as we would like. It has taken about a month to complete the game, most of the time spent waiting for my business partner to actually work on the art. In addition we did have a little project creep jump into the game, but more on that further down.
2. The small resource requirement has been fine. We have basic art, a few photos, and a couple of sound effects.
3. OSC incorporates several new ideas; we’re using iT2D 1.3, Dave Calabrese’s joystick code (with some improvements), Pinch Media’s analytics, and AdMod advertising.
4. Included AdMod.
5. Is the game easy to play? We think so!
Well, we decided to make an asteroid clone, because it seemed like a good way to test the joystick code and the game has some replay value. It took about two weeks to get to a beta stage, and it took another two weeks before we had all the art together and finished our testing. After my experience with Max Diamond Treasure Hunter I figure there would be a waiting period between development and the finished product, so while I waited for the art I worked on a few utilities apps for the iPhone.
Even though the game took longer to build then we planned we did have a little bit of project creep. We love Easter Eggs and cheats, so we’ve included one. While it may take a minute to get to the cheat, we think it is a nice touch.
Now to the issues I had developing OSC.
iT2D 1.3:
When we were testing game ideas we came across two concerns, first we discovered that iT2D has issues saving with loading particle effects and tile maps. Second, we had issues cloning objects. For the former issues we simple choose to eliminate most of our particle effects and tiles maps and for the latter issue we had to add a few more steps when creating objects.
Overall, 1.3 is a great improvement, and I have enjoyed using it.
Advertising:
I ended up using AdMod for the final development. Personally it was not my first choice, but when I tried to add code from other advertisers I could never get the code to compile. After a few hours I decided I would use something I know works. In the future I will switch between different advertisers until I find one I prefer.
Joystick Code:
Overall I have been pleased with the joystick code even though it does still contain a few bugs. I wasn’t able to narrow these bugs down and due to limited time and resources but I plan on posting the fixes in the future as well as the list of bugs I’ve found.
Testing:
One of the most important lessons I learned from my first game is the importance of testing game builds before you submit them to Apple. We failed to test a distributors build only to learn the loading time was so long that the iPhone would often close the app before it loaded.
In our testing for OSC we saw some occasional performance dips with a 1st generation iPod Touch, but besides that everything else worked fine. I just hope I didn’t miss anything and end up with another major bug like before.
Submission to Apple:
I sent OSC to Apple on 2/11/10. 5 days later Apple rejected the game because it was using Core Location with its ads. I fixed the problem (by turning off Core Location within the AdMod code) and uploaded the update the same day. By 2/18/10 it had been approved for sale. In total, with a rejection, it took 7 days which is a big improvement compared to other Apps I’ve released.
Last Thoughts:
Now that I’ve finished OSC I’m asking myself, what would I do differently knowing what I know now? I would have spent more time optimizing the code. Particularly working on data loading and unloading as well as image types and sizes. I didn’t think these were worth the effort at the time because this is a simple game, but I’m starting to think setting the habit of optimizing all app can only help, particularly when I’m working on larger projects.
On a funny note, when we had completed most of the game I came across the Torque Development Network’s Asteroids game. I had completely forgotten about it, and this is after I had made the game from scratch. In the end I decided to use my original code instead of using TDN’s.
Thanks for reading this, and download my game IT'S FREE! Let us know if there are any bugs or issues you come across so we can make this and other games better.
P.S.
↑ ↓ ← → A B Select Start
↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ← → ← → A B A B Select Start
Anyway, another year and another game release. The new one is called Omelet Space Core or OSC. Initially we hadn’t planned on making OSC, instead we were going to work on another game featuring Max Diamond. However, with the release of iT2D 1.3 we decided it would be best to see what the new engine could do before we work on a larger project.
At the same time my business partner was adamant about building a few free apps, something I’ve been opposed to from the start. At the very least I want to make enough money for the company to pay for itself. In the end we decided on making free games that could be used to test new features and concepts. We call these Quickie Games (if you have a better suggestion on what to call them, we’d love to hear it).
What is a Quickie Game?
1. The game must be quick to build (with little to no project creep).2. Have small resource requirements (basic art and sound).
3. Incorporate new code or features that will be used in larger projects later on.
4. Includes non-intrusive advertising (we’re still trying to make some money).
5. Easy to play.
With these 5 little rules lets see how we did with OSC.
1. Quick to build hasn’t worked out as much as we would like. It has taken about a month to complete the game, most of the time spent waiting for my business partner to actually work on the art. In addition we did have a little project creep jump into the game, but more on that further down.
2. The small resource requirement has been fine. We have basic art, a few photos, and a couple of sound effects.
3. OSC incorporates several new ideas; we’re using iT2D 1.3, Dave Calabrese’s joystick code (with some improvements), Pinch Media’s analytics, and AdMod advertising.
4. Included AdMod.
5. Is the game easy to play? We think so!
So what is Omelet Space Core?
Well, we decided to make an asteroid clone, because it seemed like a good way to test the joystick code and the game has some replay value. It took about two weeks to get to a beta stage, and it took another two weeks before we had all the art together and finished our testing. After my experience with Max Diamond Treasure Hunter I figure there would be a waiting period between development and the finished product, so while I waited for the art I worked on a few utilities apps for the iPhone.
Even though the game took longer to build then we planned we did have a little bit of project creep. We love Easter Eggs and cheats, so we’ve included one. While it may take a minute to get to the cheat, we think it is a nice touch.
Now to the issues I had developing OSC.
iT2D 1.3:
When we were testing game ideas we came across two concerns, first we discovered that iT2D has issues saving with loading particle effects and tile maps. Second, we had issues cloning objects. For the former issues we simple choose to eliminate most of our particle effects and tiles maps and for the latter issue we had to add a few more steps when creating objects.
Overall, 1.3 is a great improvement, and I have enjoyed using it.
Advertising:
I ended up using AdMod for the final development. Personally it was not my first choice, but when I tried to add code from other advertisers I could never get the code to compile. After a few hours I decided I would use something I know works. In the future I will switch between different advertisers until I find one I prefer.
Joystick Code:
Overall I have been pleased with the joystick code even though it does still contain a few bugs. I wasn’t able to narrow these bugs down and due to limited time and resources but I plan on posting the fixes in the future as well as the list of bugs I’ve found.
Testing:
One of the most important lessons I learned from my first game is the importance of testing game builds before you submit them to Apple. We failed to test a distributors build only to learn the loading time was so long that the iPhone would often close the app before it loaded.
In our testing for OSC we saw some occasional performance dips with a 1st generation iPod Touch, but besides that everything else worked fine. I just hope I didn’t miss anything and end up with another major bug like before.
Submission to Apple:
I sent OSC to Apple on 2/11/10. 5 days later Apple rejected the game because it was using Core Location with its ads. I fixed the problem (by turning off Core Location within the AdMod code) and uploaded the update the same day. By 2/18/10 it had been approved for sale. In total, with a rejection, it took 7 days which is a big improvement compared to other Apps I’ve released.
Last Thoughts:
Now that I’ve finished OSC I’m asking myself, what would I do differently knowing what I know now? I would have spent more time optimizing the code. Particularly working on data loading and unloading as well as image types and sizes. I didn’t think these were worth the effort at the time because this is a simple game, but I’m starting to think setting the habit of optimizing all app can only help, particularly when I’m working on larger projects.
On a funny note, when we had completed most of the game I came across the Torque Development Network’s Asteroids game. I had completely forgotten about it, and this is after I had made the game from scratch. In the end I decided to use my original code instead of using TDN’s.
Thanks for reading this, and download my game IT'S FREE! Let us know if there are any bugs or issues you come across so we can make this and other games better.
P.S.
↑ ↓ ← → A B Select Start
↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ← → ← → A B A B Select Start
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