Just Kissed Games

Let me know what you think. Purple is the color assigned to arrow towers. It would be a different color for different towers. I was also thinking of increasing the opacity (see-through) for the build stages based on the level (level 1 = more transparent, level 6 = almost no transparency).

So, I have this awesome iPhone. But when someone sends me an MMS, forget it. I'm basically fucked. Because www.viewmymessage.com SUCKS ASS.

Sorry about that. I just had to rant a bit.

Phase 1:
Test and Tweak the zoom/scroll feature. DONE
Fix the "Sell" achievement. DONE
Fix the sound engine to co-exist with iPod music.
Modify the texture engine to make room for more graphics. DONE
Scale the enemies to twice the resolution. DONE
Reverse the speed toggling (normal->slow->3x->2x). Possibly enhance it.
Remove the start-up kissing sound in certain situations.
Nerf a few levels, mainly 5p/5m, and the easy/normal/hard challenges.
Restart option in-game, and a retry option on the score screen.
Fix placement off-screen bug.
Fix zero-score astar error.
Fix life display bug when resuming game.
Fix "Spiritual Conflict" goals.
Reduce cost of Lightning tower level 6.
Build/Upgrade animation. DONE

Phase 2:
Create new graphics for the interface. Started
Back button for the stats book.
Path graphic on the level select screen.

Phase 3:
Modify (or replace) the towers to show a different graphic for each level. 4/8 done
Enhance all missile graphics and such.

Phase 4:
Enhance the map graphics.
Re-add the title animations.
Improve help system.

Phase 5:
Move the level data to files.
Add more levels and challenges.
Add more achievements, or at least achievement levels.
Re-do the achievement graphics.
Enhance the high-score list.

Phase 6:
secret


If I missed something, or you want me to add something, let me know!

I've posted a walkthrough for the Heavy Metal level for those of you having problems.



Note that this level (and Steel Plated) will be made slightly easier for the first update.

Coner over at Slide To Play wrote up a very nice review of Besiegement. Check it out!

Besiegement Review at Slide To Play

It was not paid for and was completely unsolicited. And it is still awesome!

So, I got a request to do a short interview about my game... sort of. It is actually focused on how I developed my game on Windows. Yes, I'll be known as "The Guy that Hates Mac" from now on. ehh. I tried to like it, I really did.

Anyways, you can read the article here:
Ars Technica Arcticle

I'm working on the changes I mention elsewhere, mainly graphics and zoom ability.

I've been asked several times about how I wrote this under Visual Studio. Well, I wrote a "fake" iPhone that allowed me to develop the game without a Mac nearby. My code then interfaces with either real iPhone code (window, touch events, system events) or my phake phone. This is also how I use Fraps to create the movies on youtube.

This framework is free to anyone that wants it. It not only includes the iPhone stuff, but also has a sound engine (OpenAL) and a sprite engine (OpenGL). Most of my development time was on the framework, meaning my next game (God forbid I decide to go through this Hell again) will take a lot less effort.

Even if you didn't have access to a Mac, you could use this framework to create an OpenGL game and then borrow someone's Mac to do final testing.

But this isn't for the novice. You'll need strong C++ skills. Knowledge of OpenGL would be useful, as well as basics like creating graphics with alpha layers.

You can email me at picticon -at- gmail -dot- com if you want a copy. Please, serious inquiries only! And note, this isn't the game, it is just a shell that displays a single sprite and plays a sound when you tap the screen.

Here is a list of towers and the numerical data behind them. This is for any stats geeks out there.
Tower Data

Ok, so I've been working on Besiegement sometime after the SDK was released. I bought a Mac-mini and tried to use it... ugh. I've used Visual Studio for too long to get over the quirks of xcode. So I designed a way to write OpenGL programs on Windows, and compile them to the iPhone. Yes... this game was designed, written, tested, and runs under Windows as well as the iPhone.

Not only did I have to learn the Mac and iPhone stuff, I had to learn OpenGL. And since I couldn't find a small, easy portable framework for the sprites, I wrote one myself. And that took time.

And since Apple's soundengine from their demo code has memory leaks... I learned OpenAL and wrote a framework for that.

All this took time. Lots and lots of time. I knew I was working against a deadline. Someone was bound to release a tower defense game sooner or later.

Mote-M came along and it hurt a bit. It is a decent game. But at the time, it was unfinished (Hell, who releases something with place holders?!). And HARD. Impossible really.

So I worked even harder.

I was about finished, a few days from wrapping up, when Fieldrunners came along. Ouch. Very pretty game. They had a dedicated artist (or two). But really I thought... the game has nothing to it. A single wave, no sound, no options, limited gameplay. Unfortunately, it appears that graphics are everything to some people.

And the game was unfinished, just like Mote M. No sound for instance.

Has the App Story become a beta-playground?!? (On top of being a garbage dump for Soduku and number-slide game?!) It appears so.


So I spent a few more weeks adding even more. I'm not the greatest artist, but I'm a damn fine coder. I added the challenges, online help, and achievements.

And when it came down to it, and it was looking like I wasn't going to make my artificial deadline, I said "fuck it". I'll fix it in an update. Sad really, and I'm a bit ashamed of myself. But can you blame me? When everyone else is doing it?

So I promise the first update to Besiegement will BLOW you away. So hang on and give me a few weeks. I have something very very wicked in store!