Leaderboard addition Pt2

Whilst i am still waiting on my company verification with the Apple developer enrollment process I am carrying on working on the integration of Scoreloops Leaderboard functionality. As you have no doubt read already I am finding it very exciting.

Well last night I got to work some more and decided ti was time to clean up some of my code, as with any raw development and coding process it can be a bit messy. So i did this in some small parts, as overall I am not quite ready with how I want it to be set out. So i will wait until i know how best for me to lay out the class etc.

I have the screen up and it collects the User and Leaderboard data and displays it when it is ready. However I am also using the HTTP socket stuff to obtain my Ads. So i think my code is rather busy right now. I do not really know if this is a real issue, or one that will just handle itself with multiple queries at the same time. either way the output text is a massive spam log at the moment. And i don't like that.

I really need to structure when i request my information. After all I am asking for several things sor tof at once....
1. Ads information
2. User information
3. Score list information (global scoreboard range)
4. Buddy list information

I do NOT think it is a great idea to just call all these things at once. So i am going to implement a Queue system and ask for each one at a time.

One difference between my game and a typical Scoreloop enabled game is that all my leaderboard information is on one screen. Whereas they typically have each item on a separate screen, allowing the player to select that type of leaderboard or buddy list etc will fire off the call to get the information. So i sort of need it all at once for my single screen, whereas they can get it in bite sized pieces ordered when the player requests to see it.

I think my Queuing method will work out great and I shall let ya know after tonight when I code it.

So far the only thing I am not sure about is grabbing the Buddy leaderboard and how this might effect my score_list that I have already grabbed etc.

Laters
Da Voodoochief

Scoreloop, Leaderboards & Marmalade

Well you know i am using the Marmalade SDK for my current game 'Hot chicks the Card Game'. This is still my simplist game and my current development title. As i am Still waiting on Apple to approve me as an iOS developer i am unable to work cross platform, bah! So instead i am working on several game designs and looking around for important stuff to work on.

As it happens I have been eyeing Leaderboards. I needs them, Heck i WANT them soo badly as all the games I write will be enhanced by having them. Now a while back I was loking at ScoreLoop. I liked what it says on their Web site and when I saw they had produced an SDK version that fits into Marmalade as a module my interest was absolutely piqued.

So I started on Saturday Evening by browsing on my Kindle Fire for a Scoreloop enabled game. I found a couple that looked like i might want to play them and downloaded them. Seconds later i was playing one of the games, though playing was not my priority. So I had a look around the menu system. Now i EXPECTED to have to Sign up for Scoreloop. I expected that I would probably not be able to see any high scores until I did this. Well I was wrong, gladly so...

In Fact it was amazing. I did not have to sign up for Scoreloop due to it's design and nature. It already knew who I was (the UID of my device makes Me unique). Once Scoreloop gets contacted by a machine it does not already know, they assign me a Handle or username (mine was Player_93235684, or something close to that). Then that is who I am on this machine. So without ANY sign up, i am in a score table, i can view other peoples scores from around the world (or other search options).

One thing putting m off was that I expected I needed to ask everyone to participate by signing up for some leaderboard or achievement system they have never heard of before. This is NOT so with Scoreloop. Now after i saw how wonderful this was I decided to play around a bit. So by touching my name i this one game I was given the option to change my User Handle or name. Excellent, i of course changed it to 'Da Voodoochief'. Later I went onto the other game and saw that it Already knew of my new User Name, YAY!

I was So excited in this amazingly forsighted way of handling new players that i spent most of Sunday working on inegrating Scoreloop into Hot Chicks. Here is a picture from Sunday evenings work in progress.

As you can see I have my test name information and also the top 10 in the leaderboard. Very exciting stuff. Now i will do another post about that real soon. Too much for continuing this post after all :)

Good luck,
Da Voodoochief

AdMob Ad campaign Setup

I have not really read too many accounts of what has happened when people have used the Google AdMob advertising system to advertise theirs Apps. However the ones i can remember I seem to recall were not carrying glad tidings.

So it is without an informed Mind, that I have just setup my first Ad campaign with them. However I am not starting that campaign till the 14th of March.A Date which is exactly 1 month from the launch date of 'Hot Chicks the Card Game'. I will continue this campaign then through 5 days, spending up to 10 dollars a day. Now i have also set my bid price at 2 cents. As i don't have much of a clue what that really means, I guess i will find out. And when I find out, so will you folks.

I am very excited, as setting this up was simply a few clicks of a button. The option on the Android Publisher page is right there next to ya App (Advertise your app!). I had to click it to see what it would do. The next page when setting up the dates for the campaign to run have some sort of bug in them and would not clear away once i set the date. Though this only held me up for a moment or two.

I selected March 14th as it will give me a month of data to go from, and I figure my downloads and average installs etc should maybe have stabilized by then, though hopefully they will still be growing hehe. If my App is stable, then the data I should be able to glean from this campaign could be awesome.

I look forward to showing everyone what difference it makes. I will of course be doing a 1st month report right as this campaign goes live....

If you know any relevant or useful information pertaining to this type of thing, I would love to hear from ya.

Laters
Da Voodoochief

Midway3 - Penny Pincher game

I am not very well at the moment, and so will be brief with this post. More when i am feeling better.

I was playing a minigame called Scattershot today, but grabbed these images of the Central game Penny Pincher.

As it is a rather dominant piece of geometry i ended up with two pictures of it.

Have fun,

Da Voodoochief

Apple Dev sign up, Problems

I wanna be an Apple developer. I wanna develop for Apple iOS platform. I wanna create and port my games for the iPod, iPhone and the iPad.

Alas i cannot do that yet.

When signing up to be a developer for Apple products they have an interesting split screen (application web page) that asks you to make a choice. Create your account as an Individual account, or as a Company account. There seems to be only one difference when glancing at the basic description and help on that page. For me that difference feels rather important. If you are in individual, then the publishers name on your game will be your own. If a Company, then your Company name will appear as the publisher.
 As someone who has been building his brand now for 3 years I feel very focused on maintaining and expanding that Brand. However in this situation things looked bleak. No wonder so many publishers on Apple products appear to be peoples names. I seem to remember somewhere that your name is always legally yours, even if someone else has the same name etc. Whereas a company name can be argued over it's ownership etc. I have NO IDEA why Apple thinks this is important for them to police though. Is this not the responsibility of the individual companies to deal with ?

 However I did several years ago setup SorceryGames LLC, obviously as a Limited Liability Company. Now i did this through LegalZoom, and to be honest I would not recommend this way of doing it. Not for the reasons I am sure first popped into your head. In fact I would not do it this way for a couple of reasons.
1. It costs more to have someone else do your paperwork and filing, though I believe LegalZooms costs were pretty cheap overall.
2. This is the one that matters to me. I do not know a thing about the company I have created. Legalzom did all the paperwork adn told me when i was good to go. So i was Blase about the whole thing, not retaining any useful information at al as far as i can tell about this company.
3. You will never know if you use third party if you have everything you need. Yeah.. you are out of the loop on this one. Having an outside company like this tell you at some point you need to pay more for something, something that you probably have never heard of before.

So not knowing the process of a company is one bad thing. For me i filed away all the peprwork they sent me. Just stuck it into a filing cabinet. Yet now Apple wants me to Fax (yeah FAX in this day and age, like i have one of those! bah!) soem Artciles of Origination to them. Heck i do not think i have ever heard of that peperwork before. I looked through what I have and cannot find it. Maybe LegalZoom have held onto it for me? How the heck am i gonna know 2 years later?

So currently Apple development is on hold, simply because I do not want to publish under my own name.

I am sure this story is going to be typical for a lot of developers, and I am sure some people reading this who are interested in getting into iOS development will find this to be important news to them.

I'll keep everyone updated..

Oh, so far Hot Chicks the Card Game on Android has been downloaded 160 times. YAY!

Laters
Da Voodoochief

Light Me Up Midway3 Minigame

Just a quick post so I could show ya the Light Me Up minigame. This game is now working great and looking good. A really cool challenge for twitch and timing reactions.

A Pretty cool looking Booth i think. As these weeks draw along, the whole thing nears completion. I am realy loking forward to knowing when the release date will be. Then you are all going to have a GREAT and surprising time.

I Expect to be able to give away a bunch more green tickets when Midway 3 launches. YAY!

Laters
Da Voodoochief

Android missing 'Just In'

It seems a bit frustrating to me that the general populace does not understand games very well. they are under the misconception for example that a good game always does well... erm, no. They seem to believe that people will see your game even if it is crap, well they know lots of  crap games after all (again, they know so few!).

So here I am , a newly published Android developer. My game is now out, and yes, only in one place so far. That place happens to be the biggest portal for Android apps i am told on the planet (Android Marketplace). The reason it is so popular is because this is the default place to get all your Apps from. So everyone can get to this so easily on their phones and devices (except Kindle Fire, which defaults to Amazon App store). And i discover something I did not previously know...

Coming from being an Xblig and Then WP7 Indie developer, I am used to seeing a feature of those App Stores that gives my game an initial chance at doing something, that something being noticed. I have blogged many times about lack of visibility, but on those platforms there is at least a starting chance. I am talking about a list a list that everyone that releases a game makes it onto, though how long before you get pushed off is anyones guess.

The 'New Releases' list, or as it was called on the Android, the 'Just In' list. I say as it WAS called, because it has gone. Not only has it been removed on the Android Marketplace, it seems that Amazon also feel it is not worth supporting, as they have a New list, but it ony has paid Apps on it. an oversight? Or is it because they arenot making money on free apps, only good will. Well with a captured market in the millions now (Kindle Fire) I guess they cna do what they want.

While i was wondering what happened to the Android New releases list, i browsed the web to find any relevant information. Maybe i am just missing some vitally important aspect, like having to register for a new releases list or something. This link is for one of the most interesting articles I found. check it out and I will make several comments after the break about it. Please read the comments section, MOST Important!!!

AndroidPolice - This Just In

hmmm, I really feel I understand all those commenters, all those developers telling their own stories in such succinct fashion. bah!....  Well now you have read that article I assume you now have some idea why the list disappeared. Yet, I think it has nothing to do with spammers. I also when browsing for information came across another article (which i would link, only i cannot find it now grrr. and i am sure it was on Gamasutra.com !). This article mentioned the fact that these portals make no money from free Apps. and as Free apps are becoming more prevalent thanks to the Ad support getting so much better etc. This article reckoned that the list was removed for three reasons.
1. It made them no money, only cost them bandwidth charges.
2. Free Apps found makes it less likely a person would purchase an app.
3. Now they can sell advertising for your games, as it will be virtually the only way anyone will hear of it.

Now i know that number 3 may seem a bit cynical, and maybe it is. However I also believe those 3 ideas to be the same for Amazon. After all these are big companies working on making money, not just giving away products for free. So it may not be in the best interest of the Portals to promote or highlight free Apps, but as an Indie developer it is a bit harsh. At least Amazon on the Kindle Fire at least has a nice New tab for paid Apps... If only mine was paid and not free i could maybe take advantage. Though i have not monitored this list, so it may possibly not be as honest as it looks.

Obviously i started this post with the general publics perception in mind. The reason is because i wanted to link to that article and in what he says you can read so much about his opinion, and unfortunately i feel it is also the general opinion.

So many people seem to feel that a Developer simply needs to social network FB and Twitter etc and their good game will be popular. I Beg to differ, and it is a HUGE time investment to find lots of followers. Heck ,we want to write games, ot just talk to strangers (unless they have tried our game of course, haha).

So now i am wondering how much it will cost me to advertise my game on Android Marketplace and Amazon App Store (if it gets approved of course).

Laters
Da Voodoochief