Soundtrack

The response to the sound track to StarsAway seems divisive at best. So posted it on soundcloud. https://on.soundcloud.com/bhuxMq2wGxKBU68DA

The updated I released today on iOS

Loading speeds are something I’ve always had mixed feelings with on the iOS version of StarsAway. Yes, after you’ve loaded the game once and played a couple of levels it gets much snappier thereafter but most players will have had got a pretty bad impression by then.

So I had a bit of a play around trying to improve things…

Somehow I forgot to implement multithreaded loading across the whole game. I used it to load the different level sections in the middle of a game but until todays patch it wasn’t fully implemented when first loading a level or loading the title screen. It turns out to make quite a significant difference.

I tried tweaking the speed further by having the title screen start before all the assets were loaded and begin loading some level assets well in advance.

End result: first boot is much faster but still not perfect. It does load the first level at a reasonable pace on first load and after that everything is close to instant.

But that ‘close to instant’, is great. Second boot you can open the game in a second and get halfway through a level in the time most iphone games would still be booting.

I’ll implement these improvements to my free Endless StarsAway game at some point. That’s had a bunch of downloads but this hasn’t led to many purchases of StarsAway indicating it’s failure as an initial sales pitch. Perhaps I threw it together to quickly and it needed a bit more polish.

Released a recent big update getting things ready for the pc release

New content:

• New endless level – Gives a new spin on the game.
• The second loop and third loop have had a lot of work.

Tweaks:

• Lets you know when you have unlocked a mini game.
• Some enemies have been tweaked and improved.
• Novice difficulty has had a speed increase and increased health to compensate. There has been a very small increase to the speed in normal difficulty.

Fixes:

• A lot of work fixing translations.
• A number of small visual fixes.
• Little fixes to menus.

The new endless level was designed so I could release a demo that would double as a stand alone game in it’s own right. It features a number of differences from the main game.

The third level in loop 2 has been revamped and there has been a significant revamp of the first level in loop 3.

There were a lot of bugs with translations that were fixed. Resolved issues include translated text not showing, buttons resizing too small in some langugages, and there have been many tweaks to the translations themselves.

Releasing a quick patch

People expressed interest in using a gamepad which StarsAway does support but not fully yet and I was planning a lot of work on the gamepad in the next big patch.

As people were going to pay it now with a gamepad I decided to release a quick update that reduces the big deadzone on the left Joystick. That one change makes the game much more playable with a gamepad and makes the gamepad by far the easiest way to play through the game. Perhaps too easy!

It also added shoulder button functionality to the Survivors mini game and iOS requirements have been reduced to iOS 14 and above.

It’ll be out once it passes the apple app store review.

Bad to work

With the game release I’m now focusing of polishing of the gamepad support. Yes, it supports gamepad but I was very much focus on making the best mobile game I could.

So far I’ve tweaked the gamepad/keyboard controls for the survivor mini game. Next I will need to add button icons so people know what controller buttons to press and give full menu support so people can select to play a mini game via the controller.

I experimented with auto aim for controllers (as they’re harder to aim with than a touch screen) but so far I didn’t come across anything I liked.

Now released, my biggest doubts about the game come from the limited game testers and the worry that it is too hard or has tricky difficulty spikes. I’ll have to wait and see what people say about it. I never planned it to be an easy game but I wanted it to be hard in a fun and encouraging way.

I Hit Release

My finger hovered over the release button.

Why?

What pompousness?

What I’ve been thinking sat on this gem?

Why pick an arbitrary date for release when I can just put it out there? It’s not like I have the marketing skills to make a difference in the extra time. The game’s finished for goodness sake.

The mouse button made a click. It’s done.

I sat back…

1st Feb is the big day

The games passed review on the app store and is unlikely to need any more patches before release. I picked the 1st Feb for release. Any remaining big issues should appear before then and I have some time to flail about, hopelessly, trying to promote the thing.

Being built around mobile I found the design heavily informed by the touch controls.

No bombs, as I didn’t want to clutter the touch controls with extra buttons. No StarFox style homing charged shots, because it’s easy and fun to aim with a touch screen.

Now it’s all done I’ve been looking at the issues with a PC port and it’ll take some thinking to make it feel at home there.

It currently works with a gamepad and keyboard but it wasn’t designed for that. Those controllers are easier to manoeuvre with, yet, far harder and less fun to aim with. This changes the ways the game plays in ways it simply wasn’t designed.

Some of the mini games such as Ball and Car ones are easier to play and probably a better experience on PC but elsewhere it’s really not the desired experience.

I also tried cranking up graphical settings and, after countless hours poured into tweaking the mobile version, much of sudden changes the look in ways I find jarring next to the game I’ve been staring at for so many months. Crank up the fancy lighting and your carefully chosen colours go to pot.

The build I have now detects the OS and gives appropriate menus and slightly improved shadows and would work OK as a PC port, but in it’s current state I would rather people experience this on mobile so will hold off a PC port a bit. Just until I find a way to make the game feel right.

First post

Getting ready for the first release of my first commercial game. StarsAway. I’lll use this page to write updates and info.

Classic rail shooter action. Find secrets and tactics to clear levels effectively across three difficulty settings. The three main levels typically takes between 11 – 15 minutes and then there is a second loop.
Classic rail shooter action. Find secrets and tactics to clear levels effectively across three difficulty settings. The three main levels typically takes between 11 – 15 minutes and then there is a second loop.

Beating levels in different difficulties unlocks a range of mini games that involve flying and driving and more as you navigate and explore a range 3d environments. The mini games are typically about 10 minutes long and, as with the main game, they are designed to be replayed in pursuit of high scores and best times.

Included mini games:

Rings – Endlessly fly through rings until you miss one

Ball – Roll around various obstacles collecting candy

Rocket – Use a jet pack to navigate environments and fly through rings within time limits.

Car 1, Car 2, Car 3 – Try and achieve best times around 3 courses.

Flying 1, Flying 2, Flying 3 – Fly around 3 different islands each with 60 trickily placed collectables.

Survivor – A little 2d survivor style game with 8 different power ups to level.

An original atmospheric synthesiser soundtrack with a total of 11 tracks.

Do a barrel roll.