Yes, it’s time to announce my next game: LandFormer! LandFormer is a puzzle game based off the prototype I created at the 360iDev Game Jam in September. The original prototype was called UpDown, but there’s already an app in the store called that. Plus, if you look at the new theme of the game, I think LandFormer makes a lot more sense.

Here’s a first peek at the game. Just note that this is all still work in progress and that the look of the game may still change significantly before it ships:

Here is the write up on the game that I gave to Touch Arcade (with some modifications) when they originally covered the Game Jam:

LandFormer is a puzzle game. To complete a level, all pieces must be raised or lowered to a flat plane. However, you can only raise or lower pieces in the patterns dictated by the brushes. Strategy and intuition are required to master this simple yet challenging game.

Stay tuned for updates on the game’s progress as I continue working on it.

Owen

It has been quite a while since my last post. I would have been posting, but I’ve been doing some contract work, so I haven’t had a lot of my own news to talk about. I’ve also been doing my year-end bookkeeping, and as exciting as that is, I’m not sure anyone wants to read about my adventures in recording business receipts from 2009.

However, over the last few days I’ve been returning to my own projects and getting back into the swing of things. As you might recall, I took part (remotely) in September’s 360iDev Game Jam night and created a prototype for a puzzle game idea I had. I’m happy to report that I’ve been developing that idea further and it’s coming along nicely. The game now looks very different from the screenshot I posted on Touch Arcade, by the way. As for a preliminary look at what the game is becoming, I might have something to show early next week, so keep an eye out for that!

Yesterday I decided to rewrite the rendering part of my engine to take advantage of a bunch of optimizations I had been putting off making. It turns out that the changes I made over the last day reduced my render time by about 40%! That means that I can render nearly double the sprites on the screen without dropping my framerate. This is great news, and I’m looking at porting the changes back into Monkeys in Space at some point to help out with that game’s performance.

In other news, I thought I’d mention that I’ve decided to attend two conferences this spring: the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March and 360iDev in April. I’m looking forward to both conferences, but I’m especially excited about GDC as I’ve been in the games industry for over 6 years now, but I’ve never gone to GDC! I’m really excited to get a chance to finally go and see what all the fuss is about. I’m also looking forward to attending sessions on game design that are more broad than just iPhone games.

That being said, I’m also happy to be attending 360iDev again. It will be great to see the iPhone developers I speak with every day on twitter in person again. Last year I had a fantastic time at the conference and I expect no less this time. I’ll also be speaking at 360iDev. For my presentation I will attempt to create an iPhone game prototype in 80 minutes based on audience suggestions. While doing that, I’ll be highlighting some of my best practices for rapid prototyping. If you’re attending the conference, I hope you’ll check it out. If you’re not attending the conference, why not? Check out this amazing schedule of speakers. And if you’re thinking about it, go register!

Owen

After yesterday’s excitement my brain was swimming with information and thoughts on the iPad. Last night I didn’t feel like I could be coherent enough to write up my thoughts, so I thought I’d take a crack at it this morning. I feel asleep last night starting to write this blog post in my mind. I woke up this morning to find that Jeff LaMarche had already written up a good part of what I wanted to say on his blog. Because he already wrote it up so well, I won’t go over his points in great detail.

When the iPad was announced at yesterday’s Apple press event the internet was swift and brutal in its condemnation of the device. Why is it that this happens with every Apple device? Reactions yesterday seemed to range from: “It’s brilliant!” to “I’m very disappointed” to “The iPad is stupid and anyone who thinks it isn’t is stupid!” I can understand the people who are disappointed. If you were expecting it to be a MacBook with a touch screen, it’s no wonder you’re disappointed. The anger I don’t get at all. Just because Apple didn’t build exactly what you wanted doesn’t mean the device sucks. Personally, I think it’s brilliant. Here’s why…

One of the main criticisms of the device is that it’s “just a big iPod”. I’m reading this statement all across the internet. However, I think there’s a big flaw in this statement, and that’s the word “just”. One could argue that it’s “a big iPod!” I think what people are missing is that making an iPod bigger doesn’t get you the same device. No one’s had a consumer device with a multi-touch screen this size before. The size of the device will drastically change the user experience on it.

Watch Apple’s promotional video for the device. Look at Safari running on the iPad and compare that to Safari running on an iPhone. It’s a vastly different user experience! I love how amazing Safari is on my iPhone…for a mobile browser. But I don’t like surfing for any amount of time on it. The screen is too small and cramped for it to be a really enjoyable experience for any length of time. As soon as you double the screen size, the way in which you interact with the software totally changes and becomes a different experience.

The biggest thing that will differentiate the iPad from the iPhone and MacBooks will be the software. You can already see that with Apple’s built-in apps. They’re completely different from their iPhone counterparts because of the big screen, but also totally different from their Mac counterparts because of the multitouch. Just looking at iWorks for iPad you can see what kind of amazing things you can do with, let’s face it, fairly boring software. What will be really amazing to see is what 3rd party developers do with it. With the app store integrated into it from day 1, consumers are going to have incredible choices in software. People complain that they prefer their PC to a Mac because there’s more software available for it. Just wait until you see what developers do with the iPad!

I want to touch on Jeff LaMarche’s main point, because I totally agree. This isn’t meant to replace your MacBook. This isn’t targeted at the guy who wants 20 Unix shells open and is running Vim instead of Pages for his text editing. This is aimed at people who want a no nonsense computer that “just works”. You don’t have to worry about where you put your files, you don’t have to worry about how to install an application, you don’t have to worry about how much RAM it has, or how fast the processor is. You don’t have to worry, you just buy it and it works. An article on CBC News about the iPad launch stated: “…interest was split roughly 50-50 between males and females, and the average age of potential buyer was 34.” That’s unheard of in the launch of tech gadgets. What this means is that they’re going after a totally different market than everyone was expecting. What I find even more telling is that CBC filed the story under “Arts & Entertainment” not under “Technology”.

So those of you who are thinking about this in terms of a technology aren’t seeing it the way Apple wants their target market to see it. This isn’t a computer, this is something you need in order to do the fun things you want to do more easily.

I called my dad last night to talk about the launch and he had an interesting point. He said that he pictured people treating it like a book. You generally keep it on the coffee table and pick it up when you want to look something up on the web, or play a game. You carry it into the dining room or kitchen when you want to look up a recipe. You take it to bed to read a book. It’s always there and you don’t think about it like it’s a computer…it’s just something you always use.

Personally, I think this is a big step in a new direction about thinking about personal computers that started with the iPhone and iPod touch. I think that as developers start creating amazing apps designed specifically for the device, everyone will start to see how important this could be. As Apple releases future versions of the device, we’ll start to realise that things are changing and that personal computing isn’t about technology, it’s about how you use it.

Owen

I’m so excited about the potential news of an Apple tablet on Wednesday that I can’t help myself. My father and I have been sending each other articles with the latest rumours for the past week or two. Today we traded our predictions for what Apple will announce on Wednesday and I thought I’d share mine with you, dear readers.

This is all pure speculation. I don’t know anything that everyone else reading the rumours doesn’t know. I have not been contacted by Apple and asked to port Monkeys in Space to the tablet. This is just my guess. [end disclaimer]

With that said, here’s my prediction for what the tablet might be:

Name: I think it will be something no one’s guessing… I think it will be 2 syllables (see: iPod, MacBook, iMac, iPhone), so I think that rules out iTablet. But I don’t think it will be iPad because it’s too cute and clever, and Apple doesn’t work like that; and I don’t think it will be iSlate because of Microsoft using the word so much at CES. So my guess is that it’ll be something no one’s placing money on.
Cost: $899 in the US (which means about $1200 in Canada…zing!)
Screen: 10″ touch screen. A lot of sites are guessing two models: 7″ and 11″, but I think 11″ is too big and 7″ is too small for what this will be, and I think they’ll start with one configuration and expand to other models if they sell enough.
Battery life: 6 hours no WiFi, 3 hrs with WiFi
Agreements: Major newspaper subscriptions, new online bookstore through iTunes, since Amazon won’t want to distract from the Kindle, and B&N won’t want to distract from the Nook.
Stylus: No. I think a lot of people would like to see it, but I think they’ll concentrate on multi-touch with fingers and design the UI around that. Designing the UI for use with both a stylus and fingers would be incredibly difficult.
Other Interaction: There are some rumours that the back of the device might be multi-touch sensitive (so that you could move your fingers on the back while holding it), which would be amazing, if true. I don’t think it will be, though I hold out hope.
Camera: Front-facing so that you can do video chat with it on the go.
Software to show it off: Games. A lot of gaming sites have been invited to the press event, who have never been invited to Apple events before. All of them take this to mean that games and multimedia are going to be the primary “wow factor” that shows this thing off. I think the emphasis will be on this device being for fun above all else. I think that’s the only way to sell it: by differentiating it from a laptop and an iPhone at the same time.
Connectivity: Wifi for sure. I think it may also have 3G connectivity (like the Kindle) so that it can always be connected, though I don’t think it will be used like a cell phone…just for downloading email, etc. If they make it connected, I really hope that the wireless plan is either optional, or can be rolled into an existing iPhone plan somehow (tethering?). I don’t want to pay for 2 wireless data plans a month. If it releases with 3G connectivity, I worry about its availability outside the US at launch. I’m hoping we don’t see another long wait for Canada to get it.

So there you have it: my prediction. On Wednesday you may berate me for my stupidity, or you may book me on your television program as an “analyst” for future predictions relating to Apple technology.

Regardless of whether I’m right or wrong, if Apple does announce a tablet on Wednesday, I think Apple could once again change the way we think about personal computing. A truly portable computer with an intuitive touch interface and Apple’s ability to design beautiful form-factor could be revolutionary. I guess we’ll see…

Feel free to dispute/discuss or post your own predictions in the comments.

Owen

I never wrote up a formal postmortem for Dapple and I wish I had. Now that Monkeys in Space has been out for over a month and I’ve released one major update, I thought it was about time to sumarize what went right and what went wrong on my second game.

Because I really enjoy reading Game Developer Magazine, I thought I’d follow their template for a postmortem and list 5 things that went right followed by 5 things that went wrong on the project.

What Went Right

1. Prototyping, Iteration, and Early Feedback. One of the processes I put into place when I started Streaming Colour Studios is the extensive use of prototyping and rapid iteration. When you build a large console game, you need to plan out everything a lot more because there are 100 people working on the game. When it’s just you, you can afford to play around with ideas a lot more.

Monkeys in Space actually started out as a completely different game. The first prototype I built involved controlling space ships with black holes. One of the things I learned with Dapple is that the sooner you get feedback the better. So this time I sent that first prototype out to a few trusted friends to get their opinions on it. The feedback that I got was that the controls weren’t intuitive enough and the game wasn’t really fun to play, just frustrating. This was fantastic feedback to get so early in the process and I was able to start trying new ideas and iterating on the design.

Eventually I got to the point where the game was fun, but the space ship theme wasn’t working for me anymore. I had had an idea for a bonus level that involved picking up monkeys floating in space with your ship, but after discussing this with a few friends over coffee (one of them ended up writing the music for the game) I decided that the game might be more fun to play if the monkeys were the focus of the game. Once this decision was made, it opened up new avenues for art direction, marketing, names, and even merchandise.

Once I had the monkeys in the game, I opened the game up to much more public play testing. People were playing the game and providing regular feedback at a much earlier stage of the development than with Dapple. This proved to be invaluable for fine tuning the design and polishing the game.

2. Gameplay. Monkeys in Space fits into the “line drawing”/”chaos management” genre of games, but it needed something to set it apart and help it to stand out. I had also learned, through my experiences with Dapple, that I needed a gameplay mechanic that was easy to understand, but offered depth to the experienced player. Monkeys in Space offers familiar gameplay goals to players familiar with the genre (get the monkeys to the bases), but adds a twist that adds depth to the game (linking monkeys together). The chaining mechanic was added about mid way through the prototyping process, but the feedback from play testers was unanimously positive. I’m very happy with how the game ended up playing out. The chaining adds a risk/reward factor to the game that has been mentioned in a lot of reviews.

3. The Name. I mentioned above that the game was originally about space ships. Well, it was a search for a name for the game that ultimately led to the game being about monkeys instead. I was brainstorming game names with some friends when I mentioned I had been thinking about adding a space monkey level to the game. Immediately we all started thinking about fun names for a game involving space monkeys. My favourite at the time was “Space Monkey Rescue”, but I ultimately abandoned it because of trademark concerns. I contacted my friend Stacy, who is a writer, and asked her for help. I sent her some of my favourites, including just “Monkeys in Space”. I told her I was looking for a 50’s or 60’s sci-fi b-movie feel for the title and she came up with “Monkeys in Space: Escape to Banana Base Alpha”, which I absolutely loved. I think the name is perfect for the game in that it captures that silly retro feel I wanted, and it says “yes this is a game set in space, but it’s not a serious sci-fi game; it’s fun and it has monkeys!”

4. Artwork. With Dapple I had decided to hire a professional artist to do the game’s artwork. While the artist did an amazing job and I was extremely happy with her work, hiring an artist is also expensive. With Monkeys in Space I decided to take a different risk and do the artwork myself. Now, I took some art classes in university, I’ve done a little life drawing since then, and I once had a job where I was using Photoshop for eight hours a day, but I’m not a professional artist, so this was kind of a risky move. However, in the end, I was quite pleased with the art in the game. I think the monkeys especially turned out quite well. No doubt a professional artist could probably have bumped the artwork up a notch (or two), but I’m happy with the results. On top of that, it was also really fun. It was great to get back into drawing regularly again and I think it’s something I’ll be considering for future games, if it’s a possibility.

5. Reviews and Apple Feature. Monkeys in Space has received some great reviews from the iPhone gaming press/critics (you can read them on the Press page). Every good review helps to build buzz around a game, but one of the biggest reviews the game got was from TouchArcade.com. Their Monkeys in Space review was on their front page for two days and during that time I saw a sales spike close to what I was to see being featured by Apple. Then a week after the Touch Arcade review ran, the game was featured on the App Store in the Games -> What’s Hot section. This happened just before Christmas, which couldn’t have been better timing. It wasn’t a front page of the App Store feature, but it was enough to push me into the Top 100 Kids Games in the U.S. store. This gave the game some momentum through the holiday boost.

I’ve decided that while I don’t want to share sales specifics about the game (like the infamous Dapple “Numbers” post), I will share the shape of the graph of sales since the game’s launch:

What Went Wrong

1. Release Date. I mentioned this earlier this week, but my release date turned out to be a big mistake. I submitted the game to apple in mid-November and wasn’t sure when to expect it to be approved. I got the email from Apple saying the app was ready for sale at about 7:30pm on Wed, Nov 25th. I was so excited that I switched the app into the “for sale” state (by setting the release date to the 25th) and started preparing the email I’d send out to the press in the morning. On Thursday morning I sent out my press release along with screenshots and video, etc, to iPhone sites. At that point I started getting back “out of office” replies and suddenly released it was Thanksgiving in the U.S. See, we Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October, so the date completely slipped my mind.

At first I didn’t think it would be a big problem. But then I started reading the review sites that were staffed for the holidays and most of them were just running stories about the hundreds of games that were going on sale for Black Friday in the U.S. Not only that, but it turns out a lot of people apparently take a long weekend from Thursday-Sunday, so it meant I didn’t hear from anyone until well into the next week.

However, I can’t really complain as the game eventually did get picked up by review sites, but the roll out was more gradual than I had hoped. The delay meant that my marketing lost some momentum right at the start, which isn’t ideal. In the future I will be paying closer attention to U.S. holidays when I set my release dates.

2. Delays. When I did the first concept sketches for the game that was to become Monkeys in Space, the original plan was to build the game in 2 months or less. From start to finish, the game ended up taking almost exactly 3 months. One extra month isn’t terrible, but that’s a 50% overshoot of the original plan. Now I have excuses: my wife and I moved cities, which ate up a few weeks with packing, moving, and unpacking, etc. But I think the biggest reason the game took longer than I thought it would was because I decided to do the artwork. Because I was doing the art and the programming, it meant that the two couldn’t happen concurrently. When you work with an external artist, they can be drawing while you’re coding, but I didn’t have that ability this time. The artwork took longer than I thought it would, which pushed my timeline out. Ultimately, it was worth the extra time to make sure the art was good enough to meet my expectations for the quality of the game, but it did delay its release.

3. Marketing Push. I learned some important lessons with the launch of Dapple. One of the most important was the need to have your marketing push happen all at once. You want everyone to be talking about your game at the same time. I’ve already mentioned the problems the release date caused with this, but I suspect there were some other missed marketing opportunities around advertising that I didn’t explore. I haven’t had a lot of luck with advertising driving sales. However, I think if done properly, there may be ways to leverage advertising effectively, even for $0.99 games…I just haven’t figured it out yet.

4. Not Enough Levels in v1.0. During development I had to make a call about how many levels to include in the initial version of the game. I looked at the great games in the genre (e.g. Harbor Master, Flight Control, etc) and looked at how many levels each had shipped with, and decided to ship three levels. I also chose to limit myself to three levels at first because the game was already taking longer than I had expected. However, what I discovered is that people expect new games to contain as many levels as the other games do now, not how many they contained when they shipped. Some of the reviews of Monkeys in Space have mentioned that they would have liked to have seen more levels in the game. Since then I have released a fourth level as part of a free update and I hope to release more. Regardless, what I failed to realise is that the free update system for iPhone apps creates a different set of expectations in people’s minds. They don’t care that game X shipped with one level; what matters is that it has five now. This was an important lesson in competitive analysis for me.

5. Public Recruiting of Testers. I almost listed this in the “What Went Right” section as well, and it just barely squeaks into the “What Went Wrong” list. Very early in the process (much earlier than I’d ever considered before) I started asking people to play test the game and provide feedback. I put out a call on Twitter, on this blog, and in iPhone gaming forums, looking for people who wanted to play the game and provide some honest feedback about what did and didn’t work. The reason this should also be in the “What Went Right” is that I got some terrific people playing the game and providing me with insightful and helpful feedback. However, I also had a lot of people sign up, get the builds, and I’d never hear from them again. I think there is a small group of people who say they’ll beta test a game just to get a free game. The good news is that I’ve met enough great people that I now have a decent list of preferred testers I’ll ask first next time.

Conclusion

All in all, I’m extremely proud of Monkeys in Space. I think that I learned a lot from some of the mistakes I made with my first game, but I still made a few new mistakes. I suppose that’s all part of the process of becoming a better game designer, developer, and business person. What I like most about Monkeys in Space is seeing new players pick it up and to watch how easily they get involved with the game. I also love watching people laugh when the monkeys scream and wave their arms frantically. People seem to have fun with the game, and that makes me happy. To me, that alone makes the game successful.

Owen