Wow, it’s really been 3 weeks since the last Vlog episode? Oops. I guess I got carried away with coding and drawing. However, I hope to make it up to you a little with the newest episode in which there is, yes, gameplay footage! (Can I get a “Heck yeah!”?) I shot a little bit of footage from the first level of the game and I explain how the game is played. In the next couple of episodes, I hope to show a bit of each level.

I also posted some screen shots of the game over on the Monkeys in Space page, if you want to see the game in a little more detail.

I can’t wait for everyone to be able to play the game! But until then, this will have to do:

Owen

It’s been a little quiet here on the blog and video blog lately. I apologize for not being more communicative. I’m hoping to get a new video blog posted in the next couple of days. The gameplay for the game has been nailed down and I’m really close to having the in-game art locked. Once I finish up a HUD for the game I’ll post some screenshots and even some in-game video! Woo!

However, before that can happen I’ve been taking care of some less exciting stuff. The last couple of days I’ve been working on a save system for the game. It turns out saving the state of a game that has a physics engine and is interacted with in real-time is a lot more complicated than for a turn-based puzzle game. Who knew? I kid. But seriously, what I hadn’t anticipated was having to build a whole new save game framework to handle it nicely.

At this point I’m getting a little concerned with the fact that there are only 10 days left in October. If I’m going to submit by the end of the month, I’ve got a lot of work to do. If I really buckle down I still might make it, barring any horrible problems [knocks on wood]. Otherwise I might end up pushing a week in November. Here’s hoping the next two weeks go well!

The good news is that my play testers seem to be really enjoying the game! There are a couple that keep battling for the high score in the leaderboards. It’s exciting to see! A week ago I thought I was Mr. BigShot with the high score in the game for the first level. Now I’m 5th. I love it when that happens. It means the people playing the game are discovering strategies that I hadn’t anticipated.

It should be an exciting next couple of weeks!

Owen

I know everyone’s used to seeing me post about Toronto iPhone Developer Meet-Ups, but I recently moved to Guelph, so I’m looking to start a new meet-up. There are bound to be developers here in Guelph, in Kitchener/Waterloo, and maybe as far as London who would be interested in meeting up to talk iPhone and share experiences.

Given that I have no idea how many of us there are, I thought it would be cool to roll our first meet-up into an existing meet-up called DevHouse Waterloo.

My friend Dan works for a company called PostRank, and they host DevHouse Waterloo on a monthly basis. I’ve gone before and presented on iPhone stuff, and they’re excited to have more iPhone people come out. If we end up with a whole lot of iPhone devs, we might consider starting our own new iPhone meet-up, but this seems like a good way to start.

Here are the details:

When: Monday, October 26th, 2009 – 7PM to 10PM
Where: PostRank offices – 180 King St. S., Unit 505, Waterloo, ON (MAP)
Additional Details: Important: to get into the building, you need someone from PostRank to come down to let you in. Hence, if no one  from PostRank is by the entrance, give us a call (519 514 0064), and we’ll come down.

Visit the DevHouse Waterloo page for full details. If you know any local iPhone devs, please spread the word. Hope to see you there!

Owen

It’s been 3 weeks since Episode 7, but I’ve been busy with a move from Toronto to Guelph, Ontario. In that time I’ve also released a teaser trailer for the new game and sent out an early build to a large set of play testers. Hear about it all in Episode 8!

Owen