2000 January 20 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2010-04-08 UMAG Released
UMAG version 1.0 is finally released! :)play at candystand
— A short post mortem or summary of the development —
Early Development
I had developed several multi-player games before but all of them where based on existing platforms, this time I wanted to create my own.
The idea for UMAG was just to create a multi-player game as simple as possible to learn from and create my own multi-player server.
Making a basic artillery game seemed like one of the most simple yet fun multi-player games.
Alpha launch
The first evening when Unnamed Multiplayer Artillery Game open alpha was released on Kongregate pretty much nothing worked, there was numerous bugs, mainly on the server, one of the more serious ones caused the cue for games to break and there where hour long waits to start a game.
For some reason people still seemed to like the game and kept trying to play, kong rating was at about 3.40.
After about a week and some frustrating bug fixing and learning Java better the game got fairly stable, and both players and rating started to rise.
FGL
I was a little worried that having most of the game already available on Kongregate might discourage sponsors, but I think it went the other way, since the alpha had such great rating on Kongregate (something like 4.30) it was already proved to be a success.
Tools, tech and stuff
Game client is written in AS3 and server in Java, using MySQL for database and is running on a debian server.
I use the Eclipse plug-in FDTFDT for the flash development, I compile with the flex sdk and try and use Flash CS to a minimum, I hate it >_<
For Java I use Eclipse too, and for the UMAG server I used the framework Apache MINA to handle Javas nio-sockets.
For graphics I(we) use photoshop, my friend Jonas Johansson made most of the graphics.
What went right
Public testing = win
Testing mutliplayer games by yourself is just really hard and boring, also most of the early bugs on the server only surfaced when having more than 30 simultaneous users, it was really good to find and fix these problems early on, and not having an nightmare late in the development.
The quality on most of the bug rapports where of course very low, but that combined with a lot of logging helped tremendously with the development.
At the time of release at candystand.com the combined playtime was just over 39 years, which I would think is one of the most massive beta testings ever made for a flash game. ;)
The game got way more popular than I had expected and is currently the highest rated multi-player game on Kongregate even though the final game is still exclusive to Candystand.
What went wrong
When starting the project I just wanted to create a simple multiplayer game and get it out quick.
Therefore the base of the game was more sloppy than it should have been, also I kept all the stats saved as flash cookie and used mochimedia’s leaderboards.
However as the game became more popular and competetive it got indefensible to keep the stats and leaderboards on the clients.
I had to rewrite parts of the game to make it handle more on the server and make it more secure.
Desync bugs.
I had problems with clients getting slightly out of sync since day one, sometimes, although pretty seldom and never possible to reprocude locally, the tracetories on one of the client in a game becomes slightly different, causing different results on the clients.
Eventually I made the clients take screenshots of the game and send to my server, I collected huge amount of data but never manage to fix the problem entierly.
Abusive users.
There’s a shooking amount of idiots at Kongregate, players who behave really badly, spamming, calling people names and harassing them. I should have implemented a ban och mute system from the beginning.
What’s next
There’s probably still a few patches to be made on UMAG, and the viral version is not yet released.
I’m probably going to filter the chat, and ban abusive users.
I think multi-player games it the way too go for me, there’s such a huge amount of singleplayer flash games out there that it’s really hard to stick out and get noticed.
There really isnt a lot of mp games, a mp game sure requires way more work than a single-player game but due to it’s rarety and replayability also attracts more and by far more loyal players .
Many UMAG players have played thousands of matches and still spends hours daily playingview leaderboards it.
2000 January 19 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2010-03-10 Cubor released, UMAG almost finished
Okay, I’ve released Cubor, and it got a review over at jayisgamesread it!, which is cool.
The artillery game, UMAG is almost finished, just a few sponsor adaptions and it will go version 1.0 in a few weeks.
The alpha/beta is the highest rated multiplayer game on kongregate (fighting for the 1th place with the excellent Platform Racing 2)
I’ve also moved into a new office, it’s in the same building as my old one though :)
2000 January 18 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2010-01-11 Cubor and FaceBlox Rescue Completed
Currently got two games on FGL, Cubor and Faceblox Rescue (enormosly silly name)
There is a small trailer for Cubor hereyouCube!, it’s an old project that I decided to revisit.
I’ve released a open alpha test of the artillery game (running under the project name: UMAG).
It has a rating of 4.21! and is one of the highest rated multiplayer games on kongregate.
Check it out!kongregate
It even has it’s own forumkongregate forums and stuff!
2000 January 17 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-11-22 RIFT released! :D
Finally released R.I.F.T. currently exclusively at candystandPlay at candystand.
A couple of links:
RIFT – Developer interviewdeveloper interview
RIFT – Companion Cube unlockableCompanion Cube unlockable
RIFT – Video walkthrough of the first 20 levelsvideo walkthrough
RIFT – A few words at mochilandmochiland
2000 January 16 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-10-25 Current projects
I’m spending most of my time on contract work and playing diablo 3 with d2forge, but these are the current projects we’re currently working on for devm-games.
Sound fx and music is still remaining to be completed on RIFT, but shouldnt be too long now… ;)
|
Project Name: SwingerFrog |
Project Name: ArtilleryMP |
2000 January 14 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-10-09 Finally released Steam of War!
Steam of War is now available in the games sectiongames :D
RIFT is almost finished too! Just the sound and music remaining.
2000 January 13 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-08-26 Project R.I.F.T.
Tank Wars is pretty much finished, waiting for the sound and music to be done.
In the mean time we’re working on a new game, a platform-puzzle thingy.
I’m doing the techie stuff and my friend Jonaswww.littlepixels.se is doing the graphics.
2000 January 12 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-07-30 New Office! :D
Moved devm out of my apartment and into an officepics from the office in kista, just outside of stockholm
2000 January 11 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-07-11 Action RTS awesomeness!
I’ve been kinda lazy lately, but I have gotten some work done on my RTS :)
2000 January 10 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-06-28 Project Tank Wars
I’ve finally started working on a new game, working name Tank Wars, havent still decided on the final name, but it will be something like “Steam of War” or “Cogs of destruction”.
I’ve also released a new game, Connection, which is a fairly simple game, but pretty fun.
Tilt is still rather popular, over 6.5 million views now :)
2000 January 9 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-04-27 Some new games
I’m finally about to start a couple of new game projects, got a little more contracting to do though, but here are a few screens from prototypes.
Tilt has gone quite well and is now at about 4.3 million views, sweet!
I have a really awesome idea for a sequel that will enter development soon.
2000 January 8 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-03-17 Tilt released!
I released Tilt a few days ago, and people seems to generally like it a lot.
There’s a nice review herewww.jayisgames.com.
I’m currently working full time on a game as a contractor, so there wont be too much action around here in the coming weeks.
2000 January 7 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-03-09 Project Cuber
Started a new game, project name Cuber, is 3d puzzle game, and it’s going to be pretty good I think, hopefully it should take more than a week or so to develop.
I am making a ingame level editor for it though, and that might take a bit more time than I had originally hoped.
2000 January 6 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-03-04 SVN server at home
After some clumsy mistakes leading to me losing some stuff I really didn’t want to lose, I finally installed a SVN serverhttp://www.visualsvn.com/server/download/ at home, hopefully I’ll just remember to actually commit everything reasonably frequent :)
2000 January 5 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-02-28 Project RC-Robot
I decided to put up a early build of a project I’m playing around with, I still haven’t decided what the graphical style is going to be, and the gameplay is also very early in development.
Anyway, here’s the swiff ! :)
2000 January 4 - 00:00 Old batch converted post
2009-02-15 Project Galaxy, mp game
I’m working a bit on a turn based strategic multiplayer game, 2-4 players, about galactic conquest and stuff.
It might turn out pretty cool, but it remains quite a lot of work before it will be worth showing a beta.
Instead I’m offering a few screenshots :)
Btw, the lens flare effect is shamelessly stolen from zupko
