{"id":1229,"date":"2015-06-28T05:01:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bebensiganteng.com\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2020-03-02T13:52:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T04:52:14","slug":"launching-minus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/?p=1229","title":{"rendered":"Launching +Minus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Creating your own project while having a regular day job + family is pretty hectic, but it&#8217;s finally done, go here to <a title=\"http:\/\/games.bebensiganteng.com\/\" href=\"http:\/\/games.bebensiganteng.com\/\">download<\/a> and to read the entire development click <a href=\"http:\/\/bebensiganteng.com\/?cat=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. As for now its only work on iPhone.<\/p>\n<p>It took me roughly 6 months to design, develop, debug, and optimize and had 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/lunatractor.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/02\/new-yorker-donnelly-cartoon-pivot-26042010.png?w=640\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pivot<\/a> in the middle.<\/p>\n<h3>Concept<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/129065376?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"425\" height=\"754\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nDuring the usual long night work and in the midst of the <a title=\"http:\/\/asherv.com\/threes\/\" href=\"http:\/\/asherv.com\/threes\/\">threes<\/a> fad, I was allured by seemingly large profit (although mine isn&#8217;t very successful) and something that I could do whilst I&#8217;m working, thus the +Minus concept was conceived.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"source: imgur.com\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/dbDKAsW.jpg?1\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"source: imgur.com\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/EWhW0Mb.jpg?1\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In a nutshell it just something that when a number meets another number it&#8217;ll add\/subtract according to its value, I&#8217;m not sure whether somebody had done it before, but the idea seemed novel and simple enough at the time, hence I pushed forward.<\/p>\n<h3>Feature Creep<\/h3>\n<p>In the beginning, there was the dreaded <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Feature_creep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">feature creep<\/a>, below are just some of the features I have had thought of.<\/p>\n<p><b>Basic Ideas<\/b><br \/>\nThis the basic ideas that I wanted to implement;<br \/>\n&#8211; Bonuses\/Rewards<br \/>\n&#8211; Ranking<br \/>\n&#8211; Badges<br \/>\n&#8211; Tools<br \/>\n&#8211; Buy stuff<br \/>\n&#8211; Hurdles\/Trap<br \/>\n&#8211; Hall of fame<\/p>\n<p><b>Ancillary<\/b><br \/>\nOther extra ideas;<br \/>\n&#8211; Along the way, there will be Gods where you have to pass dowry to him.<br \/>\n&#8211; Also, the Gods will have demi-gods\/minions that&#8217;ll eat the coin and return positive number or spit out another coin that resulted in negative<br \/>\n&#8211; Magic block(s), so basically when you stepped on it, it&#8217;ll do wonder. (teleportation, etc.)<\/p>\n<p><i>Periodical bonus<\/i><br \/>\nI was thinking of having a bonus that occurs periodically during the game.<br \/>\n&#8211; It&#8217;ll remove 1 point off<br \/>\n&#8211; It&#8217;ll teleport you to a random place<\/p>\n<p><i>Triggered bonuses<\/i><br \/>\n&#8211; It&#8217;ll add 1 point to the stack<\/p>\n<p><i>Miscellaneous<\/i><br \/>\n&#8211; Enemy can be sedated for a period<br \/>\n&#8211; Wildcard coins!<br \/>\n&#8211; Teleport cards<br \/>\n&#8211; Bonus need to be bought<br \/>\n&#8211; Money\/coins have to be earn through level completion<\/p>\n<p>In the end, with all the limited time I had doing the entire features were impossible hence I had to scrape most of it and just launch the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Minimum_viable_product\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">minimum viable product<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Development<\/h3>\n<p>In development time, I had had struggled with a few entanglement mainly on the platform and the game mechanics.<\/p>\n<h4>Coding Platform<\/h4>\n<p>There are myriad of platforms to choose from that exist within the World Wide Web, at first I chose Cocos2D-x because back then I was playing with <a title=\"http:\/\/badlandgame.com\/\" href=\"http:\/\/badlandgame.com\/\">Badland<\/a> and I was compelled by their amazing graphics and stable FPS, so I thought to myself maybe this is the right platform.<\/p>\n<p>Scouring through their blogs and internet, it looks sound, robust and flexible.<\/p>\n<p>But I was wrong, C++ multithreading is really difficult and the fact that debugging in C++ is somewhat vague not to mention the long compile time, just made everything ultra-frustrating, hence almost half way through I dropped the whole thing.<\/p>\n<p>Adding my own shaders had proven very challenging, is not as straight forward as I thought it would be, adding more vertices had made Cocos2D-x leaked all over the place.<\/p>\n<p>So after awhile I dropped it and recode the entire thing in Adobe Air, which proves quite satisfying.<\/p>\n<h4>Game Mechanics<\/h4>\n<p>This was my biggest mistake ever, proceeding without testing the gameplay to the public.<\/p>\n<p>At first the game was supposed to be a puzzle style game, so I built all the algorithm for that, path-finding, enemy AIs, procedurally generated dungeons, etc.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/119719691?portrait=0\" width=\"548\" height=\"972\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had spent quite a lot on those parts, but when I showed it to my wife and daughter, they were perplexed by it, the gameplay was unappealing.<\/p>\n<p>So I pivoted! I created a new game mechanics and test it to the public first before I create the details, I showed it to some of my friends and the responses were quite good, not perfect, but then I really don&#8217;t have the time to delve deeper.<\/p>\n<p>So this the <a title=\"https:\/\/dl.dropboxusercontent.com\/u\/604317\/temp\/game\/main.html\" href=\"https:\/\/dl.dropboxusercontent.com\/u\/604317\/temp\/game\/main.html\">rough prototype<\/a>, pardon the <i>bahasa<\/i>, but basically it&#8217;s saying<br \/>\n&#8211; Combining a large number with a small number will result in subtraction.<br \/>\n&#8211; Combining a small number with a large number will result in addition.<br \/>\n&#8211; Equal numbers will result in 0.<br \/>\n&#8211; The goal is that all blocks need to disappear.<\/p>\n<h3>Monetization<\/h3>\n<p>As any developer out there, the lure of materialistic gain was always the main drive, but after a moment of contemplation I have realized that my title hadn&#8217;t had that addictive component just like threes have had, so I&#8217;ve decided to make it free and use ads.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of platforms for ads that you can choose from and each one has it&#8217;s advantageous, and most developers chose to use multi-platform ads that can automatically switch itself depending on the ad availability, but doing so requires a bit of a time to set up.<\/p>\n<p>After some research and experiments, I chose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chartboost.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chartboost<\/a>, their API is relatively easy to adapt, it supports multi-languages, you can skip the taxation form (just to see if everything work), and everything works just as its advertised.<\/p>\n<p>There are other things that I could describe the monetization process and\/or strategy, but I&#8217;ll continue on other post.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>The hardest part in producing a game is finding the right amount of fun to your gameplay and marketing, the latter will dependant on your time, budget, location, extrapersonal skills, and luck, which unfortunately I only have 2% of each trait.<\/p>\n<p>There are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pocketgamer.biz\/metrics\/app-store\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1000+ of apps being submitted<\/a> to the app store each day, so discoverability is paramount.<\/p>\n<p>But again, this is my first attempt, I&#8217;m finding new ideas almost daily whilst loitering around Osaka or when I randomly waking up at night by random nightmares or epiphany.<\/p>\n<p>Having my own brand is my goal, I don&#8217;t know how to achieve that but maybe after a thousand tries my luck will turn around.<\/p>\n<p>So wait for the next title!<\/p>\n<h3>Inspirations<\/h3>\n<h4>Design\/Animation\/Colors References<\/h4>\n<p>I&#8217;ve collected a number of games\/creatives from brilliant creators for my inspiration.<\/p>\n<p><i>Touch Ellis<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.toucheliss.com\/\">http:\/\/www.toucheliss.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Creator of ridiculous fishing<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/aeiowu.com\/\">http:\/\/aeiowu.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=na0gkhwNNSo\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=na0gkhwNNSo<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/guacamelee.com\/\">http:\/\/guacamelee.com\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ExLiQbecdT8\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ExLiQbecdT8<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Sword and sorcery<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swordandsworcery.com\/\">http:\/\/www.swordandsworcery.com\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MgEwAGar9wk\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MgEwAGar9wk<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Mother2<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oNeD8hDY1q0\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oNeD8hDY1q0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>PSP Patapon<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=trjnLfVTPCA\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=trjnLfVTPCA<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Wide Sky<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/9-bit.jp\/archives\/13432\">http:\/\/9-bit.jp\/archives\/13432<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Fez Launch<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/40269839\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/40269839<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/TidePool\/10655495\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/TidePool\/10655495<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Abcs-koenyv\/10733659\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Abcs-koenyv\/10733659<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/New-Bisous-les-Copains-4\/10695641\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/New-Bisous-les-Copains-4\/10695641<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Nectar-Business-Superpoints-Competition-Illustration\/10835295\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Nectar-Business-Superpoints-Competition-Illustration\/10835295<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Carbon-Cycle-Augmented-Reality-Game\/3486381\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Carbon-Cycle-Augmented-Reality-Game\/3486381<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Visual-Playground-2013\/10118793\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Visual-Playground-2013\/10118793<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Chaos-City\/6641035\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Chaos-City\/6641035<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Cinemash\/7911407\">http:\/\/www.behance.net\/gallery\/Cinemash\/7911407<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/doodles\/doctor-whos-50th-anniversary\">http:\/\/www.google.com\/doodles\/doctor-whos-50th-anniversary<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IzPTwoGsxg8\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IzPTwoGsxg8<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/simogo.com\/games\/yearwalk\/\">http:\/\/simogo.com\/games\/yearwalk\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Rymdkapsel<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L_WgB77dUdo&amp;feature=youtu.be\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L_WgB77dUdo&amp;feature=youtu.be<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Quiz Up<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quizup.com\/\">https:\/\/www.quizup.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Tiny Thief<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinythief.com\/\">http:\/\/www.tinythief.com\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.qixen-p.com\/\">http:\/\/www.qixen-p.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Design\/Character<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/m1.behance.net\/rendition\/modules\/101912383\/disp\/68f9e8beb8d32154535a766a0dac1afa.png\">https:\/\/m1.behance.net\/rendition\/modules\/101912383\/disp\/68f9e8beb8d32154535a766a0dac1afa.png<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ashervollmer.tumblr.com\/portfolio\">http:\/\/ashervollmer.tumblr.com\/portfolio<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.soundshapesgame.com\/home\/public.html\">http:\/\/www.soundshapesgame.com\/home\/public.html<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Color Palette<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicolinepatricia.com\/The-Highlands-Adventure\">http:\/\/www.nicolinepatricia.com\/The-Highlands-Adventure<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/asherv.com\/threes\/threemails\">http:\/\/asherv.com\/threes\/threemails<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/spryfox.com\/our-games\/road-not-taken\/\">http:\/\/spryfox.com\/our-games\/road-not-taken\/<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Music Refences<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Serph\">http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Serph<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lullatone.com\/\">http:\/\/www.lullatone.com\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/I+Am+Robot+and+Proud\">http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/I+Am+Robot+and+Proud<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Dom+Mino%27\">http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Dom+Mino%27<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Monster+Rally\">http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Monster+Rally<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Hauschka\">http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Hauschka<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Special Thanks<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/_riaparamita_\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My wife<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PrasetyoY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@PrasetyoY<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/puhze.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@puhze<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/moriken.biz\/log\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@moriken<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/leichtgewicht\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@leichtgewicht<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/21species\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@21species<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creating your own project while having a regular day job + family is pretty hectic, but it&#8217;s finally done, go here to download and to read the entire development click here. As for now its only work on iPhone. It took me roughly 6 months to design, develop, debug, and optimize and had 1 pivot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,4,12,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1873,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions\/1873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahmat-hidayat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}