Hm I personally didn't think it was hard. The API documentation worked perfectly for me. I used the demoes but for me the hardest part was nothing really. Everything just worked...that's how awesome cocos was for me, of course I had some stumbles but the good people here on the forums always fixed the problems.
StickWars - Top 10 paid app for about 3 months, build with cocos2d
(79 posts) (22 voices)-
Getting started wasn't too bad, but I encountered a lot of problems later on when I ran into problems stemming from concepts I didn't understand.
A lot of these were fixed week by week, for example when riq posted up his short tutorial on the different texture formats. That fixed a lot of issues with my code.
I agree with you, all the examples are fantastic and really let you plug and chug to create a game from nothing in a relatively short amount of time.
Posted 2 years ago # -
sergen1976
MemberLongJohnnyE,
The StickWars crashes when I finish the level after last update. It quits abnormally. After I start the game it continues to next level. May be it is something to do that I said 'No' when the application asked to agree on some kind high scoring server.
I have iPhone 3g with 3.0 OS on it.Posted 2 years ago # -
Not your fault, bug on my end. If you switch to a new save slot and start another game, that error wont exist, and when Apple approves the update I sent them last week you can continue your saved game without those crashes. Sorry!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I found an interesting post about AppStore marketing.
http://blog.appstorehq.com/post/103207193/iphone-app-marketing-what-works-and-what-doesnt
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks for the marketing post - and great game by the way! This is a tough market. I posted my 5th app last night - first one using cocos2d-iphone. My first app was in the top 100 for a while at the end of 2008, then quickly dropped off the radar. Release it for free, and boom, tens of thousands of downloads. I'm thinking, it was only $0.99 - why couldn't I have seen those number when it wasn't free. :-) But I'm having fun, especially now that I've found cocos2d-iphone. It rocks!
Posted 2 years ago # -
LongJohnnyE, stickwars got mentioned in this month Edge, #204 page 152. It was a article mainly about iphone gaming, where they gave the game a positive mini-review. Good publicity.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@Joao, that's awesome, I'll have to try to find a copy of that. Thanks for the tip!
To be honest though, any review from any major media source that mentioned StickWars did so after it was already #1 in the US store, so the app rank in the AppStore is still the most important factor in sales :/.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yup, Top 10 (or even 25) App Store ranking is a much higher driver of sales than anything else you'll see. Still, it's great to see mentions & reviews!
-Bryan
Posted 2 years ago # -
LongJohnnyE:
Collateral reviews... not bad ;)
Posted 2 years ago # -
OpenFeint is basically a drop-in system that gives your game a complete social/scorekeeping UI that may save you a lot of time creating it yourself, and end up being better than what you could have made.
Players seem to really enjoy it so far...there is no way I would have been able to code up my own achievement system along with a UI to display all of it, but with OpenFeint it would take you no longer than 1-2 hours to completely integrate it and have achievements + leadboards set up. The most frequent question I get about OpenFeint is they ask if they have to reset StickWars (which fixes other issues), will they lose their achievements, and I gladly tell them that their data is saved on the OpenFeint servers :).
I have had really no negative reviews from a user about it at all. The biggest issue was a few complaints about not being able to change user names, but they are fixing that in new releases.
One big plus for me is the leaderboards support version filtering, so you can create leaderboards that are hidden to certain versions.
The negatives are you give control of all your players scores to a third-party, so you may have a little more trouble supporting your users. But I've found that many people don't have too many problems with it, and those that do, the OpenFeint people have been taking steps to correct the issue.
You should also check out some of the other systems out there. The other contender I found so far was 'Scoreloop'. They have a pretty cool system, and you should check it out to see if it fits your game better. I also tried out their API and was able to integrate in a matter of a couple hours.
Check up on the OpenFeint pricing. I'm not sure if it will cost anything, but you should be sure before you sign up. The last thing I read said that it was free for most developers, I think.
I don't think it necessarily has a huge direct impact on sales, but I really think it adds a lot to the game that I would otherwise be unable to provide to my users. Just check out http://search.twitter.com/search?q=stickwars+unlocked :D
Posted 2 years ago # -
Oh what a great feedback, so I'm convinced to use it now. Actually Openfeint is now totally free for developpers, they have a deal with Apple : they get 5% for all the games sold through Openfeint, Apple get 25% (instead of 30%) and the developper still gets 70%.
For now my choice is on Openfeint because scoreloop doesn't support twitter. (only facebook). All those tweets with an itunes link are awesome and certainly generate a few sales a day. Maybe not a lot but this is still a few dollars a day. That's a pity they don't provide the stats.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Glad it helped. Also, I tried out your game and liked it. 5 star review! :). Congrats.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@jptsetung - the deal that Open Feint has is most likely through LinkShare.com. I have an account through them too & get 5% also for sales made through my links. I put those links in my free apps & point to my paid apps in the App Store - gets me click-through tracking info & 5% extra cash. Works great for me.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@LongJohnnyE, thanks for the info on OpenFeint. I have just started playing with it for a game I am working on. Quick question: those Twitter updates, do you manually use the social networks notifications API or are they done automatically for Achievements if a user has social notifications turned on?
thanks,
MikePosted 2 years ago # -
They are automatic for achievements if the user gives permission.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi LongJohnnyE,
I have just bought the latest iPhone App Directory magazine and they have reviewed you app.
It is half a page, here are the scores:Longevity 4
Fun Factor 4
Practicality 2
Value 4
Overall 4Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi all,
I'm trying to integrate 'OpenFeint' into my game but have hit a problem. I understand that 'LongJohnnyE' has successfully integrated this technology into his StickWars game, perhaps you could advise me, thanks?
I don't think the way I'm launching OpenFeint is correct. The first time I click on the OpenFeint button the 'Setup Screen' appears, I then select the OK button to set up a user account. This all works fine. However, when I shutdown and then relaunch my game (and then click on the OpenFeint button) all that happens is a 'pop up' notification message appears at the bottom of the screen,
eg... "Logged into OpenFeint as: myUserName"What I need to happen is for OpenFeint to launch the main 'OpenFeint GUI' screen without the user having to click on the same OpenFeint button twice (i.e. clicking on the same OpenFeint button twice works fine and displays the main OpenFeint GUI, but it's not ideal and will confuse users). Hope this all makes sense!
My existing code is below:
-(void)runOpenFeint {
// Initialise OpenFeint system if required
if([GlobalDataManager sharedDataManager].openFeintLaunched) {
[OpenFeint launchDashboard];
}
else {
[OpenFeint initializeWithProductKey:@"MY_KEY" andSecret:@"MY_SECRET" andDisplayName:@"Raider"
andSettings:nil andDelegate:nil];
[GlobalDataManager sharedDataManager].openFeintLaunched = YES;
}
}Posted 2 years ago # -
The [OpenFeint initializeWithProductKey...] call should go in your applicationDidFinishLaunching method.
When the user clicks the button, you can just call [OpenFeint launchDashboard]; Since you have already called initializeWithProductKey you do not need to track whether or not OF has been initialized. If there is no Internet access the offline dashboard will be opened (assuming you are using 2.1).
Posted 2 years ago # -
@dnsolo Do what SmallMike suggested, it worked great for me.
@MrCoCheese thanks a lot for posting that! I enjoy reading reviews of my apps, and now I need to try to track down a copy of that magazine.
I agree though, wth is practicality? If I got a 2...I bet it means StickWars crashes a lot...which it does, so I wouldn't blame them.
Posted 2 years ago # -
In that case, I think that's a silly criteria. How often in real life do you have a need to...launch a sheep into space, fight in a robot suit, or kill an army of zombies (hopefully not)?
Still, glad to see they liked the game overall.
Posted 2 years ago # -
After having a closer look at the other games in this magazine the practicality factor seems to be and average of 2-3.
Where the weather app reviews have a average of 4-5.Posted 2 years ago # -
StickWars ultimate challenge :) ?
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=332426830&mt=8
Posted 2 years ago # -
@jd I used to go through and email developers who did the "This game is great for fans of StickWars, Flight Control, etc..." and ask them to remove the name of my game from the description if their game was in no related or similar to mine. At some point I got tired of it and gave up ;).
Posted 2 years ago #
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