[Game] Alien Keeper « cocos2d for iPhone

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[Game] Alien Keeper

(15 posts) (6 voices)

Started 1 year ago by alien_ken
Latest reply from abitofcode

Tags:

alien keeper

alien_ken
Member

Thank you Riq, and all the contributors to Cocos2D. I've learned so much from this forum, it's unbelievable to think in the old days you had to look everything up in a book ;)

My brother and I have just released our first game, using Cocos2D, to the app store (approved in 24 hours if you can believe that). It's called Alien Keeper and is inspired by the classic arcade game Zoo Keeper.

Any feedback you guys have would be appreciated, we're new at this, but having a blast!

The bad news is that it was approved yesterday, but the new release list appears to be stuck on 3/1, so no joy there.

ITUNES LINK: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=359479126&mt=8

*** Alien Keeper - a true game for gamers! ***

PICK UP AND PLAY
- super fun, challenging, different every time
- boots super-fast, get right in the game
- no loading screens, this app is fast and fluid
- challenge your friends - how high a score can you get??

HOW TO PLAY
- Tilt to move, tap anywhere on the screen to jump/shoot.
- Hold the device like you'd hold a book, and use either thumb to jump/shoot.

FEATURES
* Three separate stages
* Bricks - capture and contain the aliens by building the bricks
* Platforms - jump to the top to save the princess, avoid fireballs
* Bonus - destroy all enemies and the mothership to earn an extra life
* Infinite levels -- how high can you get?
* Local and Online leaderboards & achievements
* Amazing 8-bit style sound effects & music
* Incredibly fluid, natural gameplay
* Tilt controls done RIGHT

TIPS
- Jump multiple aliens for mega scoring.
- Ray gun will capture aliens, however you can also use it to score huge jumps,
since you are safe while holding the ray gun.
- But don't get greedy, sometimes it's best just to clear the stage.

* Automatic tilt-calibration: game will ask you to set a center-point
at the start of every game.

* Custom tilt-calibration: play in the position that's comfortable for you
* Hold device in the position you'd like to play, the neutral position
* Tap "Set New Calibration" button to set a new center-point
* You're good to go, the app will remember this setting
* You can change calibration at any time, even during a game

Alien Keeper is OpenFeint Enabled.

PROMO CODES
LKW779FR3PL7
M4KJ77FKE6W9
K6MNMTXKEMLR
MY3FTEPARPYA
PJLHEFTEMXPX

Feel free to ask any questions about how we did anything in the game, although I don't think there's anything too challenging going on, coding-wise. Cocos2d made it possible to make this game easily and run smoothly without a ton of time spent optimizing.

Would love love love a review if you like it :)

Posted 1 year ago #
MrMojo
Member

looks nice! what did you use for collision detection? Roll your own or one of the physics engines?

Posted 1 year ago #
alien_ken
Member

Thanks. Rolled my own collision detection. Pretty much just used CGRectIntersectsRect on each sprite that needed to be checked, after filtering out ones that don't need to be checked based on position or state. I subclassed CCSprite for the blocks, for instance, so I could have a property for the state of the block, and which wall it's on, etc. I tried to make sure I was only running collision checks where they absolutely needed to be run. Frame rate is consistent, so I didn't bother optimizing much past that, but if I had to, I think using Chipmunk for collision would probably do the trick.

Posted 1 year ago #
MrMojo
Member

cool. thanks for the info! how long did it take to make?

Posted 1 year ago #
alien_ken
Member

It took just under 2 months...started early/mid January.

Posted 1 year ago #
reedjsmith
Member

Awesome game, I actually bought it from the store directly because the graphics were ols school. Reminded me of Dig Dug.

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

Just bought it, you had me as soon as the 8 bit music started playing. Haven't managed to get to the space invaders yet gonna have another go now. Where did you source the sound? I particularly like the audio as the remaining aliens are added up.

The iPhone is ideal for these Retro style 8 bit games.

Left a review (abitofcode aka codemuppet)

Posted 1 year ago #
David994A
Member

@alien_ken: fun game - very retro - I like it! How did you do the retro music?

Posted 1 year ago #
alien_ken
Member

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it!

The sound effects...my brother is the musician, we just tweaked a synth he has until it had the right retro sound (single oscillator, square waveform I think), then played around until we got a bunch of little songs we liked (most of which I didn't use, but was able to put in the promo video, so that worked out well). For the sound effects (like the jump sound, or the sound of the aliens being added up when you clear a stage, those we just recorded a ton of different (and really short) notes on the synth, like one or two notes at a time, or in succession. Then he opened up a bunch of effects processors in Pro-Tools and started trying everything until we heard something that sounded cool, and went with it. We ended up making over 50 different sound effects (way more than we needed), which was great because we were able to keep trying out different sounds in the game. The first batch we did were all too long (in duration) and too low in pitch, just didn't fit the game, and they all overlapped. So then we did a huge batch of shorter, higher pitch sounds and just kept plugging in the different wav files in the game until everything fit right. It was definitely one of the more fun parts of this :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Codemattic
Moderator

"you had me as soon as the 8 bit music started playing" me too. I bought it and reviewed it. Reminds me of my Apple][+ and Atari days - in a very good way.

Posted 1 year ago #
alien_ken
Member

Just wanted to let everyone know the LITE version of Alien Keeper was approved (about 48 hours approval time). It's not in the new releases list, but hopefully soon :)

Here's the link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=360877093&mt=8

It's free, of course, and has the first 6 or 7 levels from the game. Not sure if this is the best approach, after reading all the posts in the "success in the app store" thread, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe next game we'll try the freemium approach. I do like that idea. Have to start looking into how you do in-app purchases...

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

If you go the freemium away you should definitely look into audio packs using your 8 bit tunes and effects.

Posted 1 year ago #
alien_ken
Member

That's an interesting thought...how do you mean, though? Like different sound themes or something? It's not like you can have a game with no sound effects that you have to pay for them :) But maybe like different "skins"?

By the way, I just played Super Turbo Action Pig...I love everything about it...the gameplay, graphics, sound/music...all great.

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

Audio skinning pretty much covers it, a pack would contain all the effects and Music for the game to be played. Maybe take some of the classic games and produce 'inspired' themes. Possibly add an audio player area where people could fire the sounds at will.

Glad you enjoyed it :) We chose a nice simple idea with the intention of just getting it out of the door unfortunately we're both as bad as each other and kept picking and polishing for another 3 months. Seems to be quite popular at the moment but there's a lot of games out there with big promotion budgets (something we do not have).

Btw "I just played Super Turbo Action Pig...I love everything about it...the gameplay, graphics, sound/music...all great." would make a great review ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

Just got your PM, thanks for the review :D

Posted 1 year ago #

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