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[JobLeonard]

Oh, so that's wha that 100 in the top left corner is supposed to be!

[oodavid]

Oh, so that's wha that 100 in the top left corner is supposed to be!

Hawhaw, yeah! That was functioning as expected, but just plain boxes; highlights the reason I want to smash in some basic GFX so people can at least get a decent feel for what it's supposed to be like.

A lot of people hear my description of "A casual game based on chemical bonding with a story based around the French classic 'The Count of Monte Cristo' where you uncover the psychological tricks employed in modern mobile games" and run for the hills, when they actually play it on the other hand they get it almost straight away. Chuffed to bits with this!

[JobLeonard]

Sounds painful. Based on my previous experience with British slang I guess that means you're happy?

[oodavid]

Just implemented the settings logic throughout the game, simple stuff, but a satisfying tick on the list!

Toggle: Music, SFX, Colourblind mode, Notifications.

Have planned a number of "special atom" types to add to the game, but I'm super keen to do a little housekeeping before I crack on. Hopefully I'll find time this weekend to draft up some new levels and get another APK built for playtesting...

Oy man I need to get the story and phschology stuff written, it's nagging!

[oodavid]

I noticed that an 18-bond atom creates a score of "666" so I decided to add a special praise for that score...



Bashed through a relatively long list of minor tweaks, sadly not many with visual changes or gameplay tweaks. Improved analytical logging, Facebook Login, Local Notifications (almost complete) etc.

[7Soul]

Need an artist? Wink wink nudge nudge

[oodavid]

Need an artist? Wink wink nudge nudge

Afraid not, I've got a guy lined up to start working on this in the next month or so (ie: once I've nailed down a few more features and content), but super thanks for the offer!

[oodavid]

Worth double-posting this (here and on Screenshot Saturdays).

I had a bit of a conundrum with the name; either "Molecule Match" or "Dantès Story", so what settled on is actually both names. At the very beginning for all the intro levels, I want to take the theme into the timeless realm of space, then once the player groks the game to introduce the main story element.

I'm hoping this divide makes it easier to explain the game mechanic without muddying the water with regards to the story as the story won't have started yet...


click for big

Edit: I just bought moleculematch.com - good times

[oodavid]

So I'd previously hand-coded the coordinates for the nodes on the map, with yesterdays rejigged map I decided to make a little tool to automatically generate my coordinates by scanning the image. Maybe 20 minutes of code + another 30 minutes tinkering with the image to get it up and running - it's already saved me time and I've only used it once!

Firstly, I've added a new layer for levels - regular levels are black, secret paths are in white.

original	+levels	-original

You can't see on the images but in the centre of the nodes is a single pixel in either green or pink. I then run a script to find these pixels and dump them into an array, after which I crosswalk the array to find the "parent" and also analyse the saved level data to make sure everything is in order.

At the end of it, I have a compact JSON file with coordinates and just-enough level info to render the map without having to load extraneous data.

[oodavid]

Been a slow week for the game (no bad thing TBH!) so I've been unable to do anything technical; instead sticking to activities I can do without heavy focus. I've spent some mindless mindless minutes cobbling together some better placeholder graphics for the adventure Map from the 2002 movie adaptation of the book:

Level	Bronze	Silver	Gold	God
Edmond	Danglars	Fernande	Mercedes	The Count

A notable addition is God (from Michelangelo's Creation of Adam), who I've decided to use as a narrator for the initial part of the game (Molecule Match), God may make re-appearances later on as a crutch for breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the player. I'm rather happy with the choice of God in this Role - I toyed with the idea of Alexander Dumas (the author of the books) but I could too easily imagine that just confusing people. God is obvious.

Furthermore, I've made a little headway with the manner in which the core game mechanic is introduced, having spoken to a few gamer friends (I confess I don't really play them much) they argued that I'd ramped up the difficulty way too quickly and need to use a simple, structured format:

1 - Introduce a new mechanic (the challenge)
2 - Plateaux the gameplay (the reward)
3 - Revisit old mechanics
4 - ...repeat

I've realised that the core Game code is a bit too tightly coupled so I'm probably going to refactor that to use a queueing/callback system that should make it somewhat easier to tweak on a level-by-level basis.

And on that note, I'm going to do some planning!

[oodavid]

"It would be truly surprising if atoms could not be arranged to form molecules. If molecules could not give rise to life. That the smallest decision, even at the atomic level, could not echo through the ages like a pebble cast into a pond. In Molecule Match, you will be taken to a different world. We will explore the life of Edmond Dantès, a pure and gentle soul betrayed by his peers, torn between vengeance and redemption, seeking a life lost to the smallest of decisions. Before we tell Dantès' Story, we must first master the heavens..."

Suck on that, opening paragraph!

[oodavid]

I've been dedicating periodic moments to the game, but seemingly never quite enough time to update the devlog, having just reviewed my git log I realised it's amounted to a fair amount of work. What is this tinkering you beg? Let me divulge:

Toolset

I've really tightened up my "mapper" script so that all map-related data juggling is automated:

• Scans a source image to calculate node positions (explained in previous post)
• Links nodes together to create the node-garden (parent / child). Deals with large gaps elegantly.
• Validates levels, pulling in just enough info to render
• Warns of missing / unfinished levels
• Slices and compresses the map into tiles (imagemagick)

Intro Levels and Story

Maybe 80% there with regards to the first-run experience and the way in which the game introduces new mechanics and techniques; I'm probably on my own a bit in that there's a buggerload of techniques that the player must know before I can start introducing randomly generated levels, ho-hum. But I think that fits quite well with the divide of "Molecule Match" and "Dantès' Story". The former being the learning curve, and the latter the game proper.

Regarding the Story, I've come a long way since casually stating "I'll base it on that famously complex French novel"; most of "Molecule Match" is written, and the first 3 or 4 chapters of "Dantès' Story" are pretty much there, they just need proof-reading.

GFX and SFX

Might sound a bit daft to veteren developers, but every plain "View" (rectangle) has been replaced with an image or 9slice-image! Granted there's still a few placeholder graphics, but I'm a really happy with this as it means updating the look and feel is a breeze.

Sounds-wise I still only have a handful of SFX and no music, at some point I'll spend a few hours scouring the free resources so I can get the "feel" aboout right so I can hand it over to a sound engineer.

Next APK Demo

This Sunday!! (the 20th)

I have a free weekend and a fairly short list of tweaks to do before I have another playable demo. Hold on to your hats!

[oodavid]

Decided to spend a little time on the animation engine, am rather happy with the new direction; the main "aha" moment was realising that each animation duration should be dependent on distance, the result is nifty:

[JobLeonard]

Digging the overshoot on the shuffle and the bounce on the falling atoms.

[oodavid]

Thanks JobLeonard, the .gif doesn't really do it justice cause it's somewhat laggy. I'll be releasing a new APK later today; I'll be sure to keep you posted :-)

[JobLeonard]

I only now notice that connections remain when pushing shuffle - that's new behaviour right? You do realise you've made it even easier to do shuffle scumming this way?

[oodavid]

Yeah that's a design choice, after you said it was annoying to have the shuffle break your molecules I tweaked it to keep bonded atoms in place, I noticed that shufflescumming  was a lot easier (still an awesome term BTW).

What I've decided is that each level should have a pre-designated number of shuffles, with an option to double the number available with an in-app purchase. That way a player could pay to stack the cards of chance in their favour.

Working hard to have the next release ready in a few hours :-)

[JobLeonard]

Oh that is just evil. I like it.

BTW, have you seen this comic yet? Seems... relevant to what you are trying to do with this game.

[oodavid]

Heh. Well, I know who to blame for 30 minutes of procrastination

I always end up in a comic-book-loop...

[oodavid]

And we have lift-off!

Alpha APK for Android (20th April 2014)

Not as many levels as I'd hoped (only 15 in this build), but I reckon I'll be able to rattle another 20 or so out in no time. I've been focussing on the FTUE trying to make sure the levels don't get too hard too quickly.

Feedback is always welcome. I cobbled together a facebook page too if anyone wants to join that I'd be happy to have you.

And with that, I must bid you goodnight, it's been a long day!