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[PompiPompi]

I am starting to work on a new game for the Android. Basically a space invaders clone called "Dojo Invaders".
You play as a ninja protecting your dojo from invaders(possibley Samuraies?).
It's not horribley innovative, I thought of making it pretty classic in gameplay. Although I will tweak the gameplay to my liking and make it suitable for the Android.

I wanted to make a game that won't be too difficult to make, since it's going to be the first game I am making for the Android. It will also allow me to set my foot in the Android Market and feel the water.

The theme for this game is Ninja\Smuraies... supposingly the art work shouldn't matter, but I think different settings and artwork sometime have the habit to introduce different restrictions that can affect gameplay.
We shall see about that.

I am thinking of making the extremly retro(and programmer art skills friendly) low res pixel art. So the practical game resolution would be 320x240.

Here is an initial sketch of how I think it may look like, to give a feeling for the game.
At the bottom it's suppose to be the ninja, at the top you can see the samurai with his bow. There is some sort of rectangle pattern in the middle, that would be the pattern of the Dojo's floor.(Yes the whole screen is inside the Dojo).
Those rectangular things in the middle are the shields, they may be hay or something else.
I am not sure about the gap between the hay piles. Something I will need to tweak.

Anyway, What do you think? From the "business" side? from the artistic side? From Any side?
Feedback is always welcome.

[PompiPompi]

Here is a possible sprite for the Ninja, looks kind of like a purple baby ninja?(I was told).
I actually ment to make it more blue, but hmm...

[PompiPompi]

I made an image of a samurai. I changed the bow with a spear, because bow is too difficult to make in such a resoluion.
I also tried two different coloring. I really don't know what kind of colors look better, I am kind of bad at this. :/
What do you think? Which look better? Or maybe I should do other colors?

[kamac]

Your sprites are adorable in their own way  .

Are you coding in Java, or NDK, or...?

[PompiPompi]

Thanks,
Regarding what I am using, Java + NDK. With eclipse, under windows.
Currently I don't have an Android device, so I can only use the emulator.
Hoping to get one soon.

[kamac]

I wonder why are you going android  .

I didn't make fortune on it from my game! (32 cents for now, still growing  )

[PompiPompi]

I have seen your game, I don't know how it plays but the visuals are an issue. I believe.
I think with better visuals your game can do a lot better.
Well I am kind of late for the party.
I should have developed for Android like months ago, now the market is more saturated. But still, I am trying "my luck".
I am not looking to make a vast fortune, but I hope to make more than a few cents. I know it's hard, my previous game didn't make much either and I worked on it for two years.

But I still think you can successed, you just need to learn... how to make appealing games. For instance, learnning that visuals could make a big difference.
I won't know without trying.

[PompiPompi]

A concept of the game scren. The Dojo.
I see I have made the sprites pretty big, so not a lot of smaurais fit in. I will have to test this gameplay wise. :/
I think I can start trying to write code to make something playable.
By the way, do you think the black sprites in the Dojo floor are too conspicious and would make it hard to play the game? Or irritating?

[PompiPompi]

I worked on the game logic mostly. I fixed some bugs, but there is still a bug that some run time information seem to persist after I close the app in the Android emulator. It could be that it doesn't really close the app and it lives in the background.
It's not a serious issue, I am sure I can find out more about it(when I will search about it).

I have made a small gameplay video. There is a lot of tweaking to do before this could be really fun. I mean, everything from the shuriken rate, the spear rate, the samurai speed and etc will determine how much fun\boring will be and for how long.
For now it's hard to tweak because it's hard to play on the emulator, heh.

I am also thinking to start selling this game on the Android market as an alpha, eventhough I don't have an Android yet. I think the emulator is pretty good in that respect, because it is good at emulating the bugs and issues that are on real devices.(I told my brother to run it on his HTC, and it worked).

Do you think people would pay $2 for the alpha? I would say it's mostly to support the developers. I also want to start sell when I have a more compelte game. What do you think?

A test video:



Hmm, game over? (Very typical anime like drawing )

[kamac]

Strange game to me 

Fatal Wars 2 coming to android, but not PC  ?


Mm... Isn't invaders supposed to have up/down look, instead of left/right?

[PompiPompi]

Fatal Wars will be on the PC as well, that is, if I ever get to finish it.
It is currently on hold.

Err, the reason that is is left to right is because you are suppose to rotate the Android device physically. XD.

[PompiPompi]

I have started an IndieGoGo campaing to fund Dojo Invaders.
There is also a fun short video I made for the campaign and that might also act as the game's intro(I hope it doesn't offend anyone O_O).

http://www.indiegogo.com/Dojo-Invaders?a=306461&i=addr

[ANtY]

How could it offend anyone? 

[PompiPompi]

Hmm, I thought those stereotypical protraits of Ninjas and Samurais might offend someone. But yea, it's a bit silly.

[PompiPompi]

Hmm, I havn't been too productive this weekend. So I made a list of all the thing I can think of that still should be done in the game:

• In game exit button
• Multi touch
• Walking animation for samurais, to the sides...
• ... and forward
• Death animation for samurais
• Javlin throwing animation for the samurais. Just the hands and toroso
• Shurkien throwing animation for the Ninja
• Losing the game and existing from in-game functionality
• Losing due to 4 deaths
• Losing due to samurais reaching the Ninja
• Main menu
• Credits
• Options
• Scoreboard
• Bonus Samurai with mosnter head
• In game pause, and pausing when in Android life cycle pause
• Thinking of in game audio
• Menu Audio
• Gameplay tweaks
• Game over screen
• Winning after 256 levels? Maybe less? It's for the Android, not your ol grandpa's pacman I should think about it.

Not a lot of things, but it's hard for me to think of more right now.

[JackMenhorn]

People won't play $2 for an Alpha of a game and wont pay for a game you haven't tested on an actual device. 

[Superb Joe]

people won't pay $2 for space invaders

[ANtY]

Even if no one will tell them that it's a space invaders?

[PompiPompi]

Hmm, maybe you are right. heh.
Anyway, I am going to finish this game, whether I put it for free or for 2$(1?).

[kamac]

Go 1$ 

This is Android Market man. No one buys your products until they fuck brains out.