IndieGogo

Hi again!

And there it is, PocketCrusades is on IndieGogo now!

http://igg.me/at/pocketcrusades

Please fund and share!

A trailer for PocketCrusades & IndieGogo

Hey guys!

First of all, here's a little trailer I made the last days:

Secondly, and more importantly, today, in 3 hours, PocketCrusades will be on IndieGogo. So if you like the project, please help it get funded. It would mean the world to me, and it assures that this will become a high quality game!

I'll post the link to the project the moment it get's online!

So, till later ;)

The Stinker

Hello and good evening everyone, It's way after midnight here, so I'll keep it short. I finished the second Orc hero, the "Stinker":

"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
(Kurt Vonnegut)

And here is his first spell:

Upon impact the Stinker destroys itself, but leaves the enemies stunned and deeply hurt.

Ok, that's it, I need some sleep.

Thanks for reading, good night.

Help me a bit

Hey everyone!

I'd be very thankful if you could help me boost my ranking on indiedb by clickin on this little button: Thank you, have a good one ;)

Status report - 24.07.14

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I've decided that from now on, I'll try to give a little status report everyday, containing what I did today, if I finished any milestones etc.

So for today:

1.) Increased performance

The morning was spent looking for potential places to save some drawcalls and/or memory. I was able to eliminate 4 drawcalls for a typical scene without any difference to the looks of the game. That does not look like much, but it produced roughly a 5% increase in frames per second, not bad, eh?

2.) Went through some music from Incompetech, found a few songs that could fit the game, but I haven't decided anything yet.

3.) Made a ToDo-List which can be found here. Some things are still missing, like audio, but other than that it has pretty much everything in it that needs to be done to finish the game.

Ok, that's it, thanks for reading,

have a good one.

Monetization - What I've got planned

Hey everyone,

Ok, after a refreshing 7 hour dose of sleep I'm back with another topic: Monetization!

Basicly, there are a few ways to monetize your game:

1.) Through Ads

Generally, ads are annoying, and nobody likes them. If they are annoying enough, most people will quit, and the rest will spends hard money to buy a premium version, or add free version of your game. A good example for this is the early "Angry Birds", before they came up with all the different IAP (see 2.)

2.) Through in app products that you CAN buy

Again, Angry Birds (at the current state) is a good example for this. Every level can be done without having to purchase anything, but in some cases, you just want to go the easy way, so you'll pay for some extra abilities to continue the game.

3.) Through in app products that you must buy aka "Pay to win"

Ah, the horror. I despise every developer that does this. Quite frankly, I'm pretty certain games like these aren't created by actual game developers but rather by accountants in disguise. One good example for this is the current "Family Guy" "game". Sorry, but if you have to pay not to wait for !24! hours after playing for about 3 minutes, something is wrong. That's not a game at all. That's like the uber-fast delivery service from amazon. What the fuck? Am I supposed to enjoy this? There are some cases where I think "Pay to win" could work, but not this way.

Ok, now here's what I want to do:

Every race has one starting hero, that can be played without paying anything. Also, they have one spell each that is included for free. However, to give you a wider variety of tactics, you can buy other heros. These won't be stronger than the first one per se, but they will give you the ability to change your tactics. The same goes for the spells. This way you'll be able to beat others without paying, but it also gives you the chance to change and adapt your style of play to beat players that you wouldn't have beaten before.

Also, since running server's is expensive, each online game will cost 1 diamond. If you win you can earn up to 3 diamonds back, depending on how devastating your victory was.

There'll be also some products that you don't really need, but you might like, like other skin sets for the gui.

You will be able to earn a decent amount of diamonds by playing the campaign, so there'll be no need to buy diamonds if you are good enough, or play long enough.

Does that sound fair? Give me your thoughts in the comment box or on twitter (@sensegames), I'm happy for every input!

Thanks for reading, have a good one1

Finally, a video ;)

Hello there =)

So, I won't count how often I promised a video, but I'm sure it was over a dozen times. Well, here you go:

Better late than never ;)

IndieDB

Hey there,

Just want to mention really quick that PocketCrusades is now on IndieDB!
Here you go: indiedb.com/games/pocketcrusades
Check it out =D


Thanks for stopping by!

Ambient Occlusion

Hi everyone again,

This is already my second post today, and it's close to midnight here, so I'll keep it short.
Paul Usul Fluegel who's creating DwarvenKingdoms gave me a hint on how to make the trees in PocketCrusades a bit more beautiful, and he was totally right, have a look:

Before - Without AO on the trees

After - With AO on the trees

I had Ambient Occlusion turned on in my light mapping at all times, however, I did not notice that the Unity Importer had "Generate Lightmap UV's" turned off for the tree models.

Well, now it's done, so thanks Paul.


Good night everyone!

Big news everyone

Hi everyone,

The last two weeks I've been on vacation in Croatia, and it was wonderful!
But still, I managed to work a bit every day on this project, and made huge
progress! Here's a list of what I've done:

• I finished the campaign menu, that's the final version now
• I made a tutorial - the first two levels of the campaign will teach you the basics of the game
• Parts of the shop system
• The first "real" level of the campaign
• The game over check of the game
• Refined the animations of the game
• Optimized huge parts of the game
• Tested it on several devices:
• Device                         FPS on High quality          FPS on Low quality
• Samsung Galaxy S4                    ~45                                    ~60
• Samsung Galaxy S2                    ~30                                    ~40
• Samsung Galaxy S                      ~25                                    ~35
• Refined the fighting of units
• Set the values (Gold, Food, etc. - These might still change a bit after alpha testing)
• Refined the hero
• A settings menu (sound, quality, etc)

Basicly, the game is playable, however, there are still a lot of things todo:

• Online PvP
• The rest of the shop system
• Music and SFX
• Optimize even more (I guess I can make it at least 30% faster)
• The human hero
• The fog of war is a bit buggy
• Same goes for the mini map

Since I do not have to study for the next 3 months, I'm pretty sure I can find the time to make a little video on all these changes. 

So, till then, have a nice summer day, and thanks for reading!                                          

The Orc Hero

Hey again!

Just wanted to tell you that there has been an update to the orc hero. If you look back at this post some time ago, you'll see what model I initially wanted to use for the (first) Orc Hero. After looking at it several times, I just wasn't satisfied.... So, here's the new one:

THE *TANK*

Not bad, or what do you think? I think he fit's perfectly into the style of this game.

Thanks for checking by, now have a nice day!

Particle effects

Hey!

So I just came along this post by Danny Groleau, and want to mention that not only is he completely right, but also want to add that you can use ParticleEffects for much more than that. I primarily use them as static effects for different atmospheres, as they are cheap solutions for:

Sun-Rays

The sun rays on the right spot, little particles around the area,  all solved with
cheap particle effects.

Water (-falls, -splashes)

What a great atmosphere. The combination of the waterfall, the splashes and the light rays
makes a wonderful picture.

Decent Fog and Dust

Look at the fog and the small particles surrounding the building.

They can make the difference between a good looking game, and an awesome looking game. If you are using Unity, like I do, here's a little trick to make them look even better. For all particle effects (fog, fire, light-rays), add a small point light in exactly the color of the effect. It will appear as if the light is send out by the particles (just look at the sunrays). For water effects use some cyan. This of course can have quite an impact on the performance of your game, but since I use them as static effects, these lights are included in my lightmapping.

Thanks for reading!

Some screenshots

Hey everyone,

As promised in my last post, here are the new screenshots. I hope you like them, tell me what you think ;)

Thanks for checking by!

Just some quick infos...

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to show that I'm not dead yet, and neither is this project. I've just been really busy the last few weeks and haven't found the time to post anything. Nevertheless, I was able to finish some big points of my todo list. I'll make a longer post, maybe even with a video, but certainly with screenshots tomorrow, where I'll talk about all the recent changes and developments.

That's it already, thanks for checking by!

I'm way too tired!

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen!

First off all I want to apologize for the long pause in my posts, it's not that I haven't been working on this project, I just do not find the time to make an extensive post about everything that has happened since the last time. So here's a quick summary, maybe I'll find the time to go into more detail the next few days:

• Orc Hero
• Orc Tower
• Hero Spell
• Mana/Rage System for the Orc
• Particle-Sound-System - I'll definitly make a post + tutorial on that one, could be interesting for anyone using Unity. It's very easy: Let all the ParticleSystem have the possibility to add a sound that get's played alongside the System. Also show/play it in the editor to make it easy finding the right one.
• Human Start Building
• Human Hut
• Human Barracks
• Human Tower
• Human Worker
• Human Archer
• Human Warrior
• Human Oracle
• Basicly the complete Local-Game System
• ParticleEffects for Arrows (Archer & Tower)

In addition to that I have now pretty much everything planned on paper and in writing, and will soon create a little Guide or Manual for the Game.

But I still have a lot of work to do, here's my list for this week:

• food has to be reduced when dead!
• (Maybe) Highlight the selected unit some other way?! (Halo?)
• Only ONE! Hero (of one kind) alive at a time
• When hero did perform special attack, set ANGER/Mana to zero
• Terrain performance sucks, try making it a mesh (T4M?)
• Multi selector doesnt work now that race is implemented
• Hero hit needs sound
• Turn off NavMeshAgent when close to mine (Turn on after)
• Remove as much transparency as possible
•  Selected  Ring
•  Effects?
• StartUp? (Building etc)
• Add voices... Eg:
• On attack: "Get him", "Kill him"
• On hit: "Arrgh", "Uh"
• On kill: "Yeah"
• On Select: "What?", "Yes?", "Why are you bothering me?"
• On Build/mine: "Sure" (Annoyed), "Okay", "Hmpf", "Do this, do that...", "Gimme a break"
• On finish build:"And now?", "My work is done!"
• Add sounds... Eg:
• During build: Saw and Hammer

And that was just a summary. But, the game is making good progress, even though it costs me (way) too much sleep. Well, enough for today.

Thanks for reading, good night!

On the topic of AI

Hi everybody!

The last few days have been very stressful, as I have to study quite a lot at the moment. Since I don't find the time to (really) work at the Project currently, I try to at least plan as much as I can and figure out how to solve some issues.

One of them being the AI of the Units. Some of the questions I came up with:

• Should the player have a possibility to set what the unit(s) should do? ie.:
• Patrol - Attack bypassing units
• Defend - Attack if you get attacked
• Run - Run away if attacked
• Hide - Run away if enemy comes close

• If not, should the Unit have a way to decide? ie.
• Attack bypassing units if you are stronger
• Defend, but don't attack if you are a bit weaker
• Run if you are attacked and the enemy is way stronger

• Or should they all just react the same way everytime? ie.
• Just freaking attack enemies if you see them!

• Furthermore: What if I'm currently going somewhere? ie.
• Player sends Unit to some point. On the way there it encounters enemies. What now?
• March on
• Attack them immediatly
• Attack them if they attack me

• What if you have friendly units nearby? Should they help you attack?

And these are not even all the things that come to my mind. Do you have any suggestions?

My idea would be something like this:

• If you are send somewhere, don't attack units you encounter on your way. Just keep going, even if they attack you.
• If you are in idle-mode, do not attack enemy units unless they attack you, or they attack friendly units or buildings nearby.
• If you are attacked:
• Enemy is weaker: Attack
• Enemy is the same: Attack
• Enemy is a bit stronger: Attack
• Enemy is way stronger AND you are alone: Run
• Enemy is way stronger AND there are friendly units in idle-mode nearby: Attack
• If nearby friendly units are attacked:
• Attack!

I'm not quite sure yet if this will be the way it turns out, but we will see about that. Currently, all units that are able to fight (Warrior, Archer, Hero) behave like this:

• Idle: Attack enemy on sight
• Going somewhere: Go there first, if you switch to idle, well, the above.

Which is a bit too less in my eyes.

Please, if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments below, I'd highly appreciate them!

This is fucking hilarious =D

For once, nothing new about the game. Just thought I'd share a video by FaptainObvious, which not only gave me a good laugh, but also features a great indie game with beautifull graphics and some awesome gameplay.











That's already it, thanks for reading.

The campaign menu

Good evening!

As I'm writing this lines it's after midnight here in Austria, and it could be that I already had a few beers, so if you find any spelling mistakes, you can keep them.

Now, what I'm really here for: As I stated in my plan earlier this week, today (or yesterday, by a few minutes) should be the day where I finish the campaign menu. And.... I did. In fact, I completely redesigned the whole menu, since I thought it's a bit overloaded for a game mainly designed for mobile devices.

I will show you all it's beauty in the next video, which will come either this weekend or some time during the next week. But for now, enjoy some screenshots:

The main menu - It features an orc which just runs around.

The Race selection. As said earlier, you can play the campaign from either side.

The map selection! I think this one really looks nice. As you can see, only
the first map is enabled at the moment, as you have
to finish this before moving to the next one.

Now, I will head for the bed, as tomorrow will be a very busy day, where (hopefully) I will find the time to finish the hero.

Thanks for reading, Good night!

Predictions - I'm not good at them

Hi everyone!

On the 25th of January I showed you my plan, which was, with hindsight, as wrong as it could be. It looked like this:

27.01. InGame-Setup (Starting the level/map - setting of players, buildings, mines, etc.)

29.01. BASIC Interaction (sending them around) with RTSUnits (Workers, Warriors etc.) 

19.02. Complex interaction with Workers - Building things

22.02. Running Inventory-System

26.02. Menu

14.03. Complex interaction with Warriors - Attacking
20.03. Complex interaction with Heros - Casting spells
23.03. GameOver/Won - conditions

28.03. Multiplayer Setup


Well, I sticked to the plan for the first 5 points or so, then, I slowly noticed there is now way to keep up with it. The reason is simple. A day only has 24 hours - screw you earth, rotate slower - and I would need some more. A typical day for me looks, on average, like this:

6 h of sleep
1 h to get the day started (coffee, shower, newspaper, walking the dog etc.)
5 h of work for my company
3 h of studying at the university
1 h of studying at home (ie. preparing for tests)
3 h of working for this game
1 h of working for different projects
4 h with my girlfriend                                                                                        
24 h

As you can see, I'm on a pretty tight schedule, I barely find the time to do something other than work, and it's pretty exhausting. And still, I'm only a month behind my plan. (Compare that to the 19 centuries that Jesus is behind his plan ^^ ) Now, even though my plans are bad, I somehow need them, so that I don't fall in a hole of procrastination.

So, I propose a new timeline to finish this project, this time a more realistic one:

• The Hero System
• Walking                          ✓
• Attacking                        ✓
• Special attack                 31.04.2014
• The Fighting System
• Position Players               ✓            
• Differentiate them            ✓
• Fight between them         ✓
• Winning conditions          03.05.2014
• Campaign
• The forest                        ✓
• The Ridge                       18.05.2014
• The Burning Mountain     ✓
• The Glacier                     12.05.2014

• Copy the above two to the        10.05.2014
  Human side

• Update main menu
• Campaign menu               29.04.2014
• Multiplayer menu             16.05.2014
• Config menu                    02.05.2014
• Shop menu                      20.05.2014
• Award menu                   25.05.2014  
• Multiplayer
• Serverside                       15.05.2014
• Clientside                        16.05.2014
• Ingame                            20.05.2014
• Finish the game
• Sounds                           10.06.2014
• Effects                            14.06.2014
• Testing                            07.07.2014

Alright, that sounds like a plan, hopefully I can stick to it this time.

What are your thoughts on timelines. Do you just work on what comes to your mind, or do you have a full plan of everything you're gonna do before you actually do anything?

Thanks for reading!

• Write a post in bed      ✓

Just some screenshots for the Campaign, and some updates!

Hi everyone!

Easter is over, so it's time for some quick updates!

1.) The hero! He walks, he crushes bones, and he destroys everything that comes in his path. So what's left? The special ability! I hope I'll finish this tomorrow, let's see.

2.) The Multi-Selector! I don't know if I have ever written about this or not, nevermind. One big challenge when creating a RTS for mobile (and therefore touchscreen) devices, is the simple task: Select several units. How are you gonna do that? Well, I for one, tried to solve it with a little button that you can move over all units you want to select. And it WORKS! I'll show you how and why in the next video (hopefully also featuring the hero)

3.) The campaign! As you have seen in my previous posts, 2 maps are already (or nearly) finished. The game will have a single player campaign that stretches over 4 maps, and can be played with both sides. So, the last 2 days were spent making a campaign overview map, which will guide you through your process and provide some background story. Here some screenshots:

The burning mountain - As seen in my previous posts

Some snowy ice map

The forest map - As seen in previous posts

Just some details

The human capitol

The Ridge - Haven't even begun working on this, but that map is gonna be awesome!

The whole map!

So, that's it for today. Questions, comments, suggestions? Leave them below!

As always, thanks for reading!