New Game: Lost Caverns on the Play Store (And apple App store)

Tom2012 · October 2015

@totebo

EDIT: Ive attached the scaling I've got set in my game properties.

The scale I'm using in Rube is the large squares are equal to 1000 pixels. The smaller squares (10 x 10 within the larger squares) are then 100 pixels. So at the start of my Rube class I set the scale like this:

-- This class reads the sprites and box2D bodies created in RUBE
-- And adds them to the screen
 
Rube = Core.class(Sprite)
 
function Rube:init(scene,levelData)
 
	self.scene = scene
 
	-- Set scale
	-- 1 square on rube = x pixels
 
	local worldScale = 100

So to set the position of sprites, it's then:

self.x = math.floor(i[index].center.x * worldScale)
self.y = math.floor((i[index].center.y * worldScale)*-1)

To position the graphics on in Rube...
1) I create the graphics at @2x scale, (which I later add into texture packer)
2) I drag these onto Rube
3) Set the opacity to 1 (for some reason it's always .5)
4) Hover the mouse over the graphic and note the HEIGHT property
5) Get a calculator and divide that value by 200
6) In the properties panel on the right of Rube, set the Height (world scale) to this value

This process adds the graphics as they would appear at the right size. After you've done it a few times, it becomes second nature.

So the short answer, set the world scale to 100 in your rube class and treat the mini squares in rube's editor screen as 100 pixels.

I'll attach my Rube class too...

The Box2D scale I haven't changed.

Tom2012 · October 2015

@Ninjadoodle - Thank you so much! Awesome to hear you've played it and like it.

@john26 - Congrats! I think I might be the only person to have to get gold on all levels (for testing purposes).

You'd probably need some OCD to do it. Thanks again for checking it out.

totebo · October 2015

Thanks Tom, great answer. In my current project I setScale to 100, then I use units in Rube as 1cm. So a box that's 2000x2000 is 2 meters square in the Box2D world.

And as for the graphics, I set them to their actual height in Rube and pick the right @nx in my Rube class. Question: when you use the @2x in the project properties, does it automatically choose the right size? If so, does this work even with spritesheets?

Zizanyman · October 2015

For some reason, when I play this game, none of the enemies or treasure appear. I just randomly die and can't see any enemies. I am playing on ASUS ZenFone 2. I will try reinstalling.

Tom2012 · October 2015

@Totebo - Gideros automatically chooses the right size.

I'm not sure exactly how it works but I started developing the game for 480 x 320 and the 2x resolution for the retina display. I created spritesheets at normal resolution and 2x resolution. Since then we have lots of variations on the 'retina' resolution. But gideros seems to pick the biggest sprite sheet for the current resolution.

Let me know if I mis-read your question, or if there's anything else I can help on.

@Zizanyman - Eeek! Thanks for reporting that. Not sure how I can reproduce that here, unless there's an emulator for the ZenFone within Android Studio...

totebo · October 2015

@Tom2012, yeah that's what I meant. So you have spritesheet.png and spritesheet@2x.png and Gideros would magically pick the right one with this code?

texturePack = TexturePack.new("spritesheet.txt", "spritesheet.png", true)

Let me know if you can successfully test your game with an Android Emulator; it's not straightforward.

Tom2012 · October 2015

Thats correct Totebo. That's the exact setup I'm using. Using that will pick the correct sprite sheet, based on the settings in properties.

totebo · October 2015

Amazing.

totebo · October 2015

@Tom2012, I can't get this to work for some reason. Check out the thread here for specifics: http://giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/6030/scaling-pixels-1-2-3-and-beyond#Item_20

Tom2012 · October 2015

Sounds like you've solved it, but I've posted a note there. Let me know if there's anything else I can help on

totebo · October 2015

Yeah, all good now thanks. I think this was the last feature of Gideros l've used, my knowledge is now feature complete.

Tom2012 · October 2015

EDIT: Got on the iOS App store yesterday too.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lost-caverns/id1045041311?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=4

jdbc · November 2015

Why is Lost Caverns in Libgdx showcase?

https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/showentry.html?id=404d0559-ce70-4f82-b928-583bd4a2de07

Tom2012 · November 2015

@jdbc

News to me. Don't even know what that is! Thanks for letting me know.

keszegh · November 2015

weird.

techdojo · November 2015

@Tom2012 - Just a quick question, your games look amazing, why aren't you monetising them in some way. The very least you'd do is compensate yourself for your time.

Games like this have massive appeal if pushed and marketed correctly?

Just saying...

hgy29 · November 2015

Hi @Tom2012, did you have a chance to check how your game behave in HTML5 ? I'd really like to know

Tom2012 · November 2015

@techdojo

Thank you! At the moment I've got Admob on there. It's not very well implemented as I made the mistake of 'creating a game and then trying to squeeze in the ads'. For the next game I'd consider monetization from the outset.

I've had around a hundred downloads since it's launch, and made about 42p. :-\" I'm still not getting the marketing side of things.

@hgy29 Me too. And it's definitely on my to do list. In fact if I keep making games HTML5 may well be the route I take.

Thanks!

john26 · November 2015

Your game is really high quality. Perhaps you could have approached a publisher? But might be too late now it's released, not sure?

Or perhaps you and @techdojo could collaborate, since he seems to know more about marketing! Just a thought...

Also, you might consider Steam (for that, add more levels, story, nice video). Apparently there's good money to be made.

Also I'd definitely send it to Youtubers.

techdojo · November 2015

I'd be happy to offer (what little) advice I've got. Although off the bat I'd say get the website sorted, try and integrate some kind of social network sharing, tweet like crazy, create a facebook fan page.

Put interstitial ad's between the screens - and either offer an IAP to turn them off or just make the game paid (I think £2.99 is doable easily).

You could also do an update and lock some extra levels behind an IAP - if you're going that way make sure you take EVERY opportunity to let people know it's there and how to access it. I made this mistake on my first app with IAP and just changing where and when we put in some nag screens made a BIG difference.

The artwork on your app looks amazing and it's a shame for it to get lost.

What I've discovered is that development is only half the story. If you're not happy doing all the marketing yourself (and to be honest which dev does), then you really need to partner with someone who does, it's like programmers partnering with artists, however nowadays these days you need to add a marketing person. I'd be happy to do an equal royalty share with a marketing person as 30-50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

I heard it mentioned that it's no longer (and arguably never has been) Apple (or Google's) job to drive traffic to your app - it's your job to drive traffic to your app store page, either through your site, or your social network or your marketing.

Tom2012 · November 2015

@john26 @techdojo

Excellent advice and very much appreciated. I spent my time figuring out how to make the game and completely neglected the business side. (Newbie mistakes!)

My next goals are:

- further monetize this app
- Improve my site (it sucks!)
- Create Twitter and facebook accounts and actually use them
- Start a dev blog
- Pick the next damn game idea

I went into development hell with this game over 3 years, so part of the on-going plan is much shorter cycles. I figure once you have a framework in place for things like saving, levels, physics etc... it will save some time.

Thanks again guys, these are very valuable posts. =D>

john26 · November 2015

I think you should approach publishers eg Chilingo. Pop Cap games is another one I've heard of. Can anyone else recommend a publisher that they worked with?

Like you I'd much rather delegate the publicity work to others.

kussakov · November 2015

We have praised Tom2012 so much, but I don't see any reviews for his app on the Apple App Store.
Tom2012, I left a 5 star review to maybe help you get more downloads.

Tom2012 · November 2015

@kussakov Thanks kindly for the review.

@john26 Great suggestions. I'll look at those publishers today.

>-

I'm also experimenting with ASO on the app (App Store Optimization) to see if that makes a difference. I'm familiar with SEO so it's not that different.

I guess instead of backlinks in SEO, you have number of downloads in ASO.

The game is getting steady downloads (if low) but that's not a problem. I'm going to begin a new game very soon, correcting the mistakes I've made on this one.

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