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[Ashmaran]

Interesting idea, seems to work pretty well. I guess you just need to ensure the different rules and bonuses keep it fresh.

I thought about your game title, and came up with a pretty cool one:

WordStrinGame

[Inanimate]

WordString is good, the Game part isn't good.

[Zaid Crouch]

Much as I'd like a name that actually uses the chaining nature of the game, it gets really tricky to style and read it. Especially if it's with a plural s word, 'cause then you basically lose the whole point of it (ie. WordString could just as easily be "word string" as "words-string").

The more I think about it, the more I like Something Beginning With ... as a title. I worry that it's too long, but in my mind it has a lot going for it. Any other opinions?

[Zaid Crouch]

I've been looking at the project for a little while tonight, and haven't really been able to get anything done. Not to worry though, my working week (Sat-Wed) is now over, so I'm planning to get stuck into things over the next day or two. So I thought instead that I'd take stock of where things stand currently, to start putting together an attack plan for the "weekend".

Lists incoming! Although they are by no means complete or well crafted. It's just a dump of my mental to do list.

By game "layer":

Stage layer (the stage representation - top part of the screen):

• Nothing implemented save the background image This will probably get a bit of love these next couple of days.

UI

• basic stat displays (score, words, etc) are all working, although a little bit of work is still needed on font, colouring and exact positioning.
• advanced displays (bonus gauge and word conditions) are functional, although currently only displayed as text labels -- these will eventually be moved to mostly sprite representations

Input

• all buttons are in place and responding to touches!
• buttons do not currently give visual feedback when touched, and only crappy audio feedback on the keyboard buttons -- whatever's there atm is placeholder.
• in game "pause" menu needs to be set up

Game Logic

• basic game logic is working well, including validating words, checking for duplicates, and a few other functions
• all current systems are based on using NSStrings for words, this will probably end up changing to a few other specialised classes to handle other word related info
• bonus conditions and gauge are working in a rough form, along with the resulting rewards
• condition setting is completely static at the moment, in future will be modified to allow a set of conditions (and probabilities) to be loaded in depending on the current stage
• lots more top secret additions to the bonus gauge in the works!

Stage peripheral stuffs

• implement (proper) screens around the stage - stage start, stage end, etc, etc, etc.

Look forward to more updates over the next few days

Edit: typos...

[Zaid Crouch]

Err, triple post. But... new video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrHljpIu0VM

Quite a bit of new stuff this time around. Got a bit of new art to chuck in some of the peripheral screens and stuff, so a lot of that's working better now. A lot of that also necessitated some rearranging of the code, and the way certain data is handled, with the net result that it's a lot easier to save, load, and pass around all sorts of game data (hence the new level summary screen at the end).

I've also got the first version of the bonus system in place, although there's still a lot to adding and refining to do.

Just to give myself a deadline to work in, I'm now aiming to have at least the one stage ready to submit to IGFMobile. We'll see how much gets crammed in by then

[Inanimate]

This is MY game. I love this. 

[Dom2D]

I'm sure this game will be a huge indie success. Very cool execution.

You might need some feedback when the player manages to fulfill the bonus requirements. This'll make it cleared and encourage the player to get those every time.

[Zaid Crouch]

I'm sure this game will be a huge indie success. Very cool execution.

You might need some feedback when the player manages to fulfill the bonus requirements. This'll make it cleared and encourage the player to get those every time.

Yup, that's next on the list - when a word is played, the word, base score, multiplied score, and another as-yet-unannounced-bonus (suspense! ) will all be displayed. Just trying to work out the best way to present the info.

I'm also looking at making the gauge a little bit clearer - it can be a little hard to tell exactly how full it is at times.

[Zaid Crouch]

Big day of work today (at least it felt like it). Piked on heading out with the wife to a friend of hers for the arvo to work on the game -- guilt it a great motivator

Anyways, today's highlights:
- the game displays the number of points earned / the amount of the bonus gauge filled for each word played.
- full re-write of the summary screen, with additional functionality (now allows you to review all the words played in the game), and new, different bugs!
- a better loading screen (including a few new systems to give me more flexibility with loading, and spending less time with the main thread blocked).
- lots of playing (play testing *cough*), and a few new PB scores :D

Anyways, while there's still a lot to be done, there's a largely playable game in there now, and as such...

Call For Testers

I'm looking for some people to put the game through it's paces, tell me how awesome or otherwise it is, and find all manner of hitherto undiscovered bugs. You'll need an iPhone OS device (iPhone/iPod Touch) running v.3.1.2 of the OS.

If you're interested, shoot me a message with your device's ID. If you don't know it, you can find it in iTunes -- connect the device, go to the summary page, and click on the serial number and it should show you the 40 character UDID. Alternatively, you can find helper apps on the store to get it.

I'm aiming to have the test build ready for the weekend -- I'm gonna throw together a quick tutorial and a few other bits and pieces.

Edit: typos

[Zaid Crouch]

Work continues!

I've been polishing a few things, chasing up and adding in more art, and finally turned my attention to one of the parts of the game that I've been avoiding: the "stage" part of the game. Most of the work so far's been on the mechanics of the game itself, but recently I've been looking a bit more at home I'm gonna stretch this out into a full game, and change things up a little.

Adding in NPCs and more in context feedback is part of that, and you can see the first version of that in moving pictures here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3RQXpuFfHQ.

The comment selection is a bit rough at the moment, and in the future I'll be changing the way it works a little, but the idea is there. I'm also thinking of adding in a few easter eggs and stuff in there too. 

There's a ton of new artwork in there too (mostly little odds and ends), and most of my little programmer art additions have been removed. \o/

[Jason Bakker]

Haha, love the running commentary in the new video :D

[ChevyRay]

Is there going to be an option to put the letters in alphabetical order as well? I can type like a mofo with an actual keyboard, but when letters are arranged like that on cell phones or screen buttons like that, it's just annoying for me, when I'd prefer just to have the letters in order where I know immediately where to find them all.

Mostly because I type words with a keyboard, not letters.

[Zaid Crouch]

Is there going to be an option to put the letters in alphabetical order as well? I can type like a mofo with an actual keyboard, but when letters are arranged like that on cell phones or screen buttons like that, it's just annoying for me, when I'd prefer just to have the letters in order where I know immediately where to find them all.

Mostly because I type words with a keyboard, not letters.

Sounds easy enough to do, will chuck it in :D

[Zaid Crouch]

Soooooooooooo................................. This thread's been quiet for a while now.

The project took a bit of a hiatus (well, I took a bit of a hiatus), but the last month has seen a resumption of progress.

Yay. \o/

My recent focus has been on expanding the game out from a single stage to a full game. I've been specifically working on the design and coding of the stage selection mechanism, and planning out the progression of levels. There'll be a bit of narrative around that, and I'm trying to decide how far I take that, although at the moment I'm thinking the game will be better served by something quite simple.

I do have a couple of concerns about how to change up the gameplay enough to keep it interesting, but dealing with those kinds of things is half the fun, right?

Expect more updates soon, and hopefully next time there'll be pretty pictures (mayhap even pretty moving pictures) attached.

[Zaid Crouch]

While I've been pretty quiet recently, a lot of progress is being made. Basically, the way I had the game built before was great for that one level, but it was a little inflexible. So my main focus over the last couple of weeks has been rebuilding a lot of those systems, whilst making them more flexible and dynamic. There's been (as always) a lot of new learning for me along the way, so the last couple of weeks have been  a bit of a rollercoaster, but fun.

As mentioned in my last post, I've also been working on the stage selection screen, and just received a bunch of (amazing) new art to go along with that and some of the new stages I have planned. So I thought I'd chuck a quick vid together, 'cause it's always nice to have stuff to show off. It's got a few quirks and oddities, but hopefully it's enough to give a sense of the look and feel of it.

Here it is!