#fowl ball

[acesexualscreaming]

A pitcher at a baseball game threw a ball and on its way a bird swooped down and got hit by the ball and this died the ball never making it to home plate so... What do you call this? A strike? A ball? Or maybe a Fowl?

[rickermortes]

Lame Ducks.

Fowl Ball: Lame Duck Edition is live in the App Store.

I've let it simmer for a day before I posted anything, just to see how it took. And it's doing okay. It's already moved a decent amount of copies with nobody knowing about the release, so I guess that's good?

Funny thing is, Lame Duck Edition has ads. And I thought the ads only appeared on the title screen.

NOPE!

They stay through the whole app, which is hilarious. Because it means the ad actually hangs out near the control area for the player, making us look super crooked. I assure you, I thought the ad was only visible on the title screen.

In any case, work progresses on Ratastrophe today. I took a couple days off to recover. This afternoon, I've got a bunch of stuff I want to implement and finish up.

[rickermortes]

Hello, Android.

Well. What a week it’s been. Work has been chugging away on Ratastrophe, Lame Duck Edition went in to Apple for approval and now? Fowl Ball is running on Android. There are some bugs to work out, but it plays. Zounds. Also. Let's add this: Ratastrophe is also playable on Android right now.

[rickermortes]

You cheap bastards.

Well, some of you refuse to buy Fowl Ball. We'll fix that. 

Fowl Ball: Lame Duck Edition is on its way to the App Store. It's Fowl Ball without any extras. It's the single player mode without GameCenter access and an ad on the main title.

It'll be out soon. Interesting to see what will happen with a free app. I will laugh my ass off if it makes more money for us than the paid version.

[rickermortes]

Fowl Ball 1.03 ... Get yoself ready.

1.03 is coming. Soonish. No date, it hasn't been submitted, but I was finally able to fix one of my most nagging issues:

The mother <expletive> collision. The duck doesn't have an issue with collision anymore. I fixed it. I'm happy. Other additions will be a more authentic "2600 experience." I'm editing the graphics a little to come closer to what the 2600 was capable of. Namely, the sprites will be edited to have only one color per horizontal line. The particle effects on the trucks will be changed to sprite effects. The duck ramps up speed more quickly now. Also, I plan on implementing a random angle in the opening faceoff.

Those are certain changes. Possible changes:

Adding Twitter support to tweet high scores.

"The Next Level" aka "Hard Mode". With the fixed collision, this becomes doable.

Super duper. Back to work on the next game.

[rickermortes]

Fowl Ball 1.02 - Incoming

Fowl Ball 1.02 has been completed and has been uploaded. It's passed initial validation and will be reviewed within a week, I imagine.

Unfortunately, I've been having troubles with Hard Mode, so it'll have to wait for the next update. Also, Monster Mode will arrive in October for Halloween.

Added: New scoring, a few achievements (we're slowly getting this worked on), a couple of joke modes, and some bug fixes.

[rickermortes]

Of mice and menus.

I've been rearranging the menuing in order to work better with the Mac version, so that's been taking some time. However, I really like how things are turning out. In particular, the code has become much easier to read.

So. That's that. I've found ome better code for handling differences between the Mac/iOS versions, so that's been a help. The controls work for both when I enter the gameplay area. It's seamless. And with the new menus, it'll look great across the board.

Fancy.

In other news, Fowl Ball v. 1.02 is almost done. I'm running behind on it. I wanted it finished by Jan 31, but I just didn't have time. The new scoring is complete, achievements are in, an unlockable hard mode has been implemented, and two joke modes have been included. All in all, it's a fairly sizable update.

That being said, Fowl Ball will be WIP for the foreseeable future. I like updating it, because it's easy. So, I'm sure updates will arrive over time. For instance, Monster Mode should arrive for Halloween.

[rickermortes]

Seems like a Cure kind of day.

So shall it be. The cure plays and work resumes on Game 2. 

I've joined forces with a friend and former co-conspirator in game development. Back from the Sparkle/Froghaus days comes Jin to do art for Game 2. He's brought me some of his first work, and it's pretty damn awesome. So, the best news of this? Game 2 isn't going to look like crap and I'll have a lot more time to focus on design and programming. This is a ... huge boost.

Today, I've been outlining the Cocos2D scenes I'll need for the game, as well as making flowcharts.

By the end of the day, I'm hoping to have the bones up and running for the main menu.

Already, this is shaping up to be lightyears beyond Fowl Ball in terms of gameplay and quality. I'm really excited. Jin's art has really got me excited to get back to working on the game so I can see it in action.

As for Fowl Ball, I've got a bunch of stuff for the next update finished. Still deciding on Monster Mode. I may hold it for a Something Neat Halloween celebration.

Sales have ... tapered off. I'm hoping to get some reviews, but nobody's bitten. And that's okay. Maybe we leave it as it is, and say, "Game released, lessons learned, move on."