next »

[kcbanner]

Super Wizard Fever!

Super Wizard Fever is live in the Play Store and the App Store!

-- Beginning of Devlog --

I've been taking a break from developing my other game caracal, but I've been itching to do some game dev. So, I'm working on a simple infinite runner aimed at mobile.

The story is basically get as far out of this forest as you can going as fast as wizardly possible. Initially I had the idea of having a temperature meter, that you need to keep low in order to keep playing. Hit obstacles and go too slow, and the heat rises (eventually causing you to explode and lose). I haven't really worked that out yet so that might not make it in.

I have the basic running, jumping, and camera done. I'm working on adding "wizard juice" pickups, which will fill a meter that allows you to double jump (depleting some of the wizard juice). If you completely fill the meter you enter "Super Fever!" which I haven't quite worked out yet but I think will involve riding your wizard staff like a surfboard flying above the terrain for a short time. Another option would be to have the terrain drop away and enter some kind of very simple guitar hero style section until the fever depletes.

[SunWuKong]

The name is so good I had to click on this. Looks promising and best of luck!

-Tim

[kcbanner]

I've been doing a bunch of work on the look and feel, tuned up my palette and dug out my tablet and added a new "wizard juice" pickup.

(click for smooth gfy)

I've planned out the wizard juice mechanic a bit more:

• A juice meter at the top of the screen will show current level
• Picking up potions will increase juice level
• The higher your juice level, the higher your run speed
• The camera will pull back (player moves toward left edge of the screen) the faster you go
• Hitting obstacles or double jumping will use decrease the juice level

I haven't fully planned out the "fever mode" yet, but I think it will begin once you max out juice level and will have an extra bonus on top of speed. I think increased score per distance and perhaps begin counting up some sort of "fever combo" (not sure how this will work yet, maybe jumping through rings or something).

Now I think I need to add some UI and some more effects for pick up / death / run speed indication. I like the idea of having his feet leave a trail of flames in fever mode.

[kcbanner]

Here is a quick post to show some of the art I've been working on for the title screen:



and some of the UI for in-game is done as well:



More gameplay updates soon.

[kcbanner]

A fancy intro screen:

(click for smooth gfy)

I added some "dust" animation to the run cycle, not sure if I like it or not...I was trying to add a sense of speed. There is a new run cycle for when you are at full wizard juice, he uses his staff like a surfboard:

(click for smooth gfy)

I keep getting distracted with animations instead of actually implementing more gameplay.

[yaomon17]

Looks like a solid simple runner. Not too much to say here, it looks nice and cohesive. 

[kcbanner]

This week I polished the jumping physics a bit more, added some better potion animations, pick up zones, and a game over screen:

(click for smooth gfy)

(click for smooth gfy)

I also added a subtle screenshake when dying that you can see if you click through to the gfy links. I'm going to pair this with some wizard explode animation where his staff and hat blow off in random directions upon crashing.

This week I'm hoping to add a shooting mechanic. Tapping either the left side of the screen or a button on the left side will shoot a bolt of wizard lightning from your staff, which will destroy the first obstacle it hits. I'm planning on adding some stone walls and other destructable items to the platforms (got any suggestions?). Shooting the wizard lightning will deplete your wizard juice.

I'm hoping to find a nice progression curve where you start to need more and more speed (to make it over long jumps), while still spending juice periodically on lightning shots. The idea is you need to get closer and closer to optimal timing on wizard shots, juice collection, and jumps as the game progresses.

[kcbanner]

I just published Super Wizard Fever on Android! I'm excited to have my first project completed and out the door.

I plan on publishing on iOS as well. Looking forward to getting some feedback on the game. Leaderboards are a feature that I've wanted to do for a while, so I think that's what I'm going to tackle next.

Play the game here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caseybanner.wizardrunner.android


I'd love to get some feedback, criticisms are welcome!

[and]

I do love a nice parallax scrolling forest

Will take a look when it's out on iOs!

[BeautifulGlitch]

Best name ever! xDDDD

[Niteris]

Your game looks great!

Let me know if you need trailers or other promotional videos for it, I'm a freelancer audio/video editor (and voice actor if you need it) and I work extremely quickly and at a fair price.

Send me an email at [email protected] 

[kcbanner]

I released up update where I integrated leaderboards and achievements using Google Play Game Services. Overall it was pretty easy to integrate, the tricky bits were in making sure disconnection/reconnection worked properly and everything in the UI remained consistent.

I've started my first (very small) ad buy on AdMob to hopefully get some more users and feedback on balance.

As always the game is here! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caseybanner.wizardrunner.android

[kcbanner]

I created a short trailer! Creating all this marketing material is definitely not my strong suit, but I'ts fun to learn. Check it out:

[Niteris]

I created a short trailer! Creating all this marketing material is definitely not my strong suit, but I'ts fun to learn. Check it out:

Not bad! Let me know if you need a more professional promotional video made to help attract people to the game, I have 5 years working experience as a audio/video editor and would love to help you promote Super Wizard Fever for an affordable price!

[kcbanner]

Thanks for the offer! I'm working on adding more content now (cave obstacles, new backgrounds), once that's done I'll probably need to redo the trailer

[and]

Hey, cool trailer! It seems to communicate exactly what the game is. Have you approached anyone to cover the game, either press or youTube folks?

[kcbanner]

Thanks! I've approached a handful of mobile an android review sites with a short blurb about my game and the trailer. So far I haven't gotten any responses but I'm going to continue reaching out to some more places. I imagine the amount of stuff reviewers have to sort through is pretty high.

I also have an iOS build ready to go, I'm just waiting for Apple's approval. Once I launch that I'll be able to reach out to all the iOS sites when I go live, which I'm hoping will help me work my way up the "New" app list in the store. Based on my research getting ranked somewhere on that list is pretty critical near the beginning. Google Play has a similar list but I didn't get anywhere close to that when I launched on there haha.

[kcbanner]

Long time no update! I currently have 225 total installs, 53 of which are still installed. Not the smash hit I'd hoped for but a great learning experience. I have an iOS build in the works via RoboVM, I just have to set up my Apple store page and I'll be able to publish on iOS.

I just released an update that added caves:

[kcbanner]

Super Wizard Fever has been approved and is now in the iOS App Store! I submitted it on Saturday night and it accepted earlier today. Happy to see Apple has sped up their review process.

I decided to go for a no-ads, $0.99 purchase for iOS. I'm interested to see how this does in comparison to the Android version. If I get two sales on the iOS App Store I'll beat out all my add revenue on Android 

[kcbanner]

As an experiment I tried doing a promo code giveaway on TouchArcade for the iOS version. I got a bit of good feedback, but the unfortunate thing is that users that install the game with a promo code can't leave app store reviews, so it doesn't help in that regard.

I have some additional levels I'd like to add, but I think for the time being I'm going to move back onto my other project Caracal. Super Wizard Fever was really fun to build and publish, but I feel like based on the reception I've seen so far spending more time trying to get more users into the game without dedicating a lot of time creating more content isn't worth it for the time being.