The story of another game on Libgdx + Box2d
The idea to write a game I caught fire in 2011. In August 2011, having no PHP development experience, overlaid with books and these your Internet sites, at night I wrote a small browser-based real-time space strategy. A sort of OGame clone. Of course, with their ladies and preference. But this project was not destined to be born, in December of 2011, the Motherland suddenly asked to repay.
Returning in December 2012, first of all I got a job at a local large IT company. It was necessary to quickly re-enter the working rhythm. By spring, I could not sleep well - I dreamed of writing games. The second attempt was to write a simple TD on Unity. Something even happened - the guns fired, the mobs moved. But I was constantly tormented by the fear that I could not finish the job. So it turned out. Family, work - free time was not at all. It was only in the fall of 2014 that I firmly decided that I would make the game and that’s it. I will not sleep, I will not eat, but I will. A sort of challenge to "weak." What came out of this, read on.
In 2013, they gave me a tablet. It was then that I learned that there is such a miracle as Google Play. When I first got there, there was no limit to delight. Eyes diverged from the number of proposals. After some time, some sketches of the future game began to appear in my head. I wanted something simple, but interesting. Since childhood, I loved to play Chapaeva. It was on this game that I stopped.
Since I didn’t have combat knowledge of Java and Android , the books “Developing games for Android” , “Programming games for Android” , “Android for programmers” were ordered on Ozone . Creating Applications " and " Java Philosophy . " After reading confidence increased. Armed with a notebook (as advised in the books), I issued two sketches:
At this muse left me. The artist from me, as you yourself might have noticed, is none. But a friend came to the rescue from an old work - the great master of Photoshop. Looking at my masterpieces, he issued
I was wildly delighted. I just could not believe that the game was about to appear. At the same time, these layouts were shown to a friend-programmer, with whom we had long been studying in the same class. And here we are already two burning. But we didn’t have to rejoice for long, having installed IntelliJ IDEA, we realized that we didn’t know what to do next. A rather long period of searching for information began - how and on what to write the game. As a result, we stumbled upon Libgdx . Quickly ran through the documentation - it. Exactly what you need.
')
But then, like a bolt from the blue, an idea comes to us to tie historical facts to the game. Since we write Chapaev, then the design should be appropriate. So there should be Red and White (these colors were in the first version of the design, but there they are random). Must be the symbolism of the time. There should be a tactical map (which, incidentally, is also in the first version, and it was she who pushed us to the historical peg). Must be rated. Must be pvp. Must be a tricky AI.
To the rescue (for the umpteenth time) our designer comes and gives out
All was written in free time. I must admit that the main work took and took most of the day. Plus, family and home bustle. In the end, we were glad if we could work on the game for at least 2-3 hours. But sometimes a miracle happened and we, at a staggering pace, almost in Stakhanov style, at night created the game screens one by one. In fact, it turned out to be easier than we expected. And after a couple of weeks, we had a working prototype, which we launched on our devices. It's time to write the game world itself with physics. Of course, inspired, we threw all our strength on our bike. But the longer we wrote and polished it, we understood that we fall into an endless cycle. They wrote something new - they tested it, they found mistakes - they corrected it. And so on to infinity. Sometimes it fell off what worked yesterday. This could not continue for a long time, and we went in search of a physical engine. To our great surprise, we found what worked in Angry birds, namely Box2d . Now the reasons for that rapture are somehow incomprehensible. Now it is all obvious, but then we were happy as children.
But here another obstacle lurked us. Box2d is very well suited for platformers (there are enough articles with examples in Habré). We have the same game with the top view. We turn off gravity and make a very serious mistake, namely, we choose the wrong scale of the game world, it turns out to be VERY large. As a result, the checker moves very slowly. Later, when we corrected this error, it turned out that when converted to physical quantities, the checker moved at a speed close to the speed of light.
Approaching the end of the second month of development. Experience accumulated. The game became more interesting. But a lot we have not yet implemented. As a result, we decided to temporarily abandon the network game and bring the pvp mode to the second version of the game. Instead, fasten a local rating. We use SQLite and just count the statistics on games by AI and each player (when two people play on the same device).
For the game with the "computer" we wrote a simple AI. But it turned out that he made the moves patternably and after several games the player already knows what kind of checker the bot will go. It was necessary to improve, and at the same time to add a turn in turn and an inversion of control.
We translated the game into English and German.
December 30 is the time "H". After spending a week testing and correcting errors, we brought the matter to the end. Now the game in the Market is gaining downloads and ratings. It took 2 months to write the whole game. They wrote together. In total, the team 3 people.
It makes no sense to lay out the charts for now, since the game is only two days in production, but almost $ 3 has already been earned on advertising. This is not an achievement. This is just a fact.
Perhaps such a beginner as we need some tips.
1. Study competitors. Search, analyze, read reviews.
2. Start collecting errors at the testing stage, it saves time. We use Crashlytics in our project.
3. Design. Design. And once again the design.
4. Prototype. Take the paper. Draw, cut. Try to play the paper version. Very many points will be decided at this stage.
5. Think over ways to monetize in stages from points 3 and 4. Since we have nothing to sell (at least for now), we only managed to show advertising.
6. The best is the enemy of the good. The moment never comes “Well, here! Finally, everything is ready! ”. Know how to prioritize tasks. If the implementation of a new feature takes more than a week and it is quite comfortable to play without it - lower the priority. Transfer the task to the next iteration of development. It is better to release a version that can be played, than to drown in the sea of ​​"hotelok." Do not complicate, be simpler.
7. Do not hesitate to show intermediate versions to your friends, colleagues, acquaintances. They have a fresh look. They have no prejudice to the product. Listen to criticism. Do not be offended if criticism is tough. All people are different. Do not rush to realize what some people think will be a bomb. Take on the pencil. Who knows, maybe it really will be a bomb.
8. I always carried a notebook with me. Ideas came sometimes quite unexpectedly. Try to write everything down. Much more easier and more correct (IMHO, of course) to choose a few worthwhile ideas from a pile of sketches.
9. Never! Hear? Never stop. Do not be afraid of failures. Failure is great. This is an indication that you are moving. This is an experience. You can't buy it.
10. Believe in yourself. Even if no one else believes in you or in the idea (yes, sometimes it happens). This is your idea. And you must complete it.
I have it all. Thanks for attention.
Update
At the time of publication of the article, we have 1.5k unique installations from the market and a little less than 4k thousands of users in total.
In our category we are in the top 4
Returning in December 2012, first of all I got a job at a local large IT company. It was necessary to quickly re-enter the working rhythm. By spring, I could not sleep well - I dreamed of writing games. The second attempt was to write a simple TD on Unity. Something even happened - the guns fired, the mobs moved. But I was constantly tormented by the fear that I could not finish the job. So it turned out. Family, work - free time was not at all. It was only in the fall of 2014 that I firmly decided that I would make the game and that’s it. I will not sleep, I will not eat, but I will. A sort of challenge to "weak." What came out of this, read on.
How it all began
In 2013, they gave me a tablet. It was then that I learned that there is such a miracle as Google Play. When I first got there, there was no limit to delight. Eyes diverged from the number of proposals. After some time, some sketches of the future game began to appear in my head. I wanted something simple, but interesting. Since childhood, I loved to play Chapaeva. It was on this game that I stopped.
Since I didn’t have combat knowledge of Java and Android , the books “Developing games for Android” , “Programming games for Android” , “Android for programmers” were ordered on Ozone . Creating Applications " and " Java Philosophy . " After reading confidence increased. Armed with a notebook (as advised in the books), I issued two sketches:
and time
and two
At this muse left me. The artist from me, as you yourself might have noticed, is none. But a friend came to the rescue from an old work - the great master of Photoshop. Looking at my masterpieces, he issued
first design version
I was wildly delighted. I just could not believe that the game was about to appear. At the same time, these layouts were shown to a friend-programmer, with whom we had long been studying in the same class. And here we are already two burning. But we didn’t have to rejoice for long, having installed IntelliJ IDEA, we realized that we didn’t know what to do next. A rather long period of searching for information began - how and on what to write the game. As a result, we stumbled upon Libgdx . Quickly ran through the documentation - it. Exactly what you need.
')
But then, like a bolt from the blue, an idea comes to us to tie historical facts to the game. Since we write Chapaev, then the design should be appropriate. So there should be Red and White (these colors were in the first version of the design, but there they are random). Must be the symbolism of the time. There should be a tactical map (which, incidentally, is also in the first version, and it was she who pushed us to the historical peg). Must be rated. Must be pvp. Must be a tricky AI.
To the rescue (for the umpteenth time) our designer comes and gives out
completely different concept
Screensaver:
Main screen:
Ratings:
Settings:
Preparing for battle:
Battle Screen:
The screen in the choice of type of management (in the future we removed it, but it will appear in the 2nd version):
Pause:
The battle is over!
Main screen:
Ratings:
Settings:
Preparing for battle:
Battle Screen:
The screen in the choice of type of management (in the future we removed it, but it will appear in the 2nd version):
Pause:
The battle is over!
From layouts to code
All was written in free time. I must admit that the main work took and took most of the day. Plus, family and home bustle. In the end, we were glad if we could work on the game for at least 2-3 hours. But sometimes a miracle happened and we, at a staggering pace, almost in Stakhanov style, at night created the game screens one by one. In fact, it turned out to be easier than we expected. And after a couple of weeks, we had a working prototype, which we launched on our devices. It's time to write the game world itself with physics. Of course, inspired, we threw all our strength on our bike. But the longer we wrote and polished it, we understood that we fall into an endless cycle. They wrote something new - they tested it, they found mistakes - they corrected it. And so on to infinity. Sometimes it fell off what worked yesterday. This could not continue for a long time, and we went in search of a physical engine. To our great surprise, we found what worked in Angry birds, namely Box2d . Now the reasons for that rapture are somehow incomprehensible. Now it is all obvious, but then we were happy as children.
But here another obstacle lurked us. Box2d is very well suited for platformers (there are enough articles with examples in Habré). We have the same game with the top view. We turn off gravity and make a very serious mistake, namely, we choose the wrong scale of the game world, it turns out to be VERY large. As a result, the checker moves very slowly. Later, when we corrected this error, it turned out that when converted to physical quantities, the checker moved at a speed close to the speed of light.
Approaching the end of the second month of development. Experience accumulated. The game became more interesting. But a lot we have not yet implemented. As a result, we decided to temporarily abandon the network game and bring the pvp mode to the second version of the game. Instead, fasten a local rating. We use SQLite and just count the statistics on games by AI and each player (when two people play on the same device).
For the game with the "computer" we wrote a simple AI. But it turned out that he made the moves patternably and after several games the player already knows what kind of checker the bot will go. It was necessary to improve, and at the same time to add a turn in turn and an inversion of control.
We translated the game into English and German.
Total
December 30 is the time "H". After spending a week testing and correcting errors, we brought the matter to the end. Now the game in the Market is gaining downloads and ratings. It took 2 months to write the whole game. They wrote together. In total, the team 3 people.
It makes no sense to lay out the charts for now, since the game is only two days in production, but almost $ 3 has already been earned on advertising. This is not an achievement. This is just a fact.
What we have taken out for ourselves
Perhaps such a beginner as we need some tips.
1. Study competitors. Search, analyze, read reviews.
2. Start collecting errors at the testing stage, it saves time. We use Crashlytics in our project.
3. Design. Design. And once again the design.
4. Prototype. Take the paper. Draw, cut. Try to play the paper version. Very many points will be decided at this stage.
5. Think over ways to monetize in stages from points 3 and 4. Since we have nothing to sell (at least for now), we only managed to show advertising.
6. The best is the enemy of the good. The moment never comes “Well, here! Finally, everything is ready! ”. Know how to prioritize tasks. If the implementation of a new feature takes more than a week and it is quite comfortable to play without it - lower the priority. Transfer the task to the next iteration of development. It is better to release a version that can be played, than to drown in the sea of ​​"hotelok." Do not complicate, be simpler.
7. Do not hesitate to show intermediate versions to your friends, colleagues, acquaintances. They have a fresh look. They have no prejudice to the product. Listen to criticism. Do not be offended if criticism is tough. All people are different. Do not rush to realize what some people think will be a bomb. Take on the pencil. Who knows, maybe it really will be a bomb.
8. I always carried a notebook with me. Ideas came sometimes quite unexpectedly. Try to write everything down. Much more easier and more correct (IMHO, of course) to choose a few worthwhile ideas from a pile of sketches.
9. Never! Hear? Never stop. Do not be afraid of failures. Failure is great. This is an indication that you are moving. This is an experience. You can't buy it.
10. Believe in yourself. Even if no one else believes in you or in the idea (yes, sometimes it happens). This is your idea. And you must complete it.
I have it all. Thanks for attention.
Update
At the time of publication of the article, we have 1.5k unique installations from the market and a little less than 4k thousands of users in total.
In our category we are in the top 4
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/247651/
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