Dice Tower beta 4 progress

Just a few days after beta 3 was released, things are going very well with beta 4 already. I have added full iOS 4 support, with fast-app switching. I have also upgraded Cocos2d to the latest version. Documentation and tutorials are really taking shape now. So after beta 4, there won't be much left until an official release. So next week might be a good estimate time frame for a submission to Apple.

Work has already started on a new game for the iPad, it's only on paper right now but the game mechanic is going to be very cool. More on this later and in another blog! :)

Beta 3

Beta 2 was released this past Saturday and so far the new features and changes have been greeted with excitement. This is a very encouraging sign for the game. We are still tweaking the artistic style of the game as I write this. One important thing I will be working on before beta 3 is the balancing of combo multipliers and luck factoring. These are extremely important to the fun of the game. Also, a new combo will be introduced,  the "Full House".

Here is the change log for beta 3 so far:

    - Increased odds for Bomb, EarthQuake and Time Down in randomization of dice when rolling.
    - Tutorial and hints are activated now when you first launch the game.
    - In the Options menu, the "Tutorial" checkbox is now a button called "Reset Tutorial".
    - Fixed HTML help files transparency. Was showing with black background.
    - Increased the odds of Joker and Extra Roll special dice in Endless game mode.
    - Sound and music are back into the game now. Stupid little mistake on my part.
    - Changed the star particle image for better bonus animation.
    - Polished most the graphics.
    - Redone the fonts from scratch to get a more unified overall look.
    - Changed the scores UI display.
    - Added OpenFeint icon to Pause menu screen and the Title screen.
    - Fixed Enter Name button not responding to click.
    - Goal line, now moves when scrolling occurs.

Why not leave you with some cool screens of the new graphics in beta 3?

 

Beta 2 is coming soon

Quick update on the status for Beta 2 of Dice Tower.

Here is the change log as of today. Dice Tower is really shaping up to be a great and fun game.

    - Die position is higher when moved with finger.

    - Improved die movement recognition over slots.

    - Routine to verify out of moves now checks if Extra Roll die is in play but not processed when rolls left are equal to zero.

    - Moving die colour is changed to red if cannot assign to die slot.

    - New goal line graphic.

    - Can now go over goal line, all completed rows over it are extra points.

    - Increased starting number of dice rolls per level.

    - Straight combo gives you Extra Roll, Treasure or TimeUp die.

    - Fixed bomb die.

    - Fixed Joker die not changing to any value when row is finished.

    - Now show version number in Title screen.

    - Accelerometer support added. You need to shake the device quite a bit to shake the dice cup though.

    - Added a number of games played counter internally.

    - Changed the score icon to a Trophy.

    - Fixed small memory leaks.

    - New dynamic hint system implemented.

    - How To Play page is a nice transparent HTML page now.

    - Updated scoring calculations for combos and chains.

    - Increased start time to complete a tower in Time Attack mode.

    - Updated how combo chains affect scoring of each floor.

    - Fixed the Earthquake special die behaviour.

    - Number of starting rolls in endless mode is set to 6.

    - Implemented a better dice randomization mechanism.

    - Fixed multi-touch issue.

    - New OpenFeint leader boards for Time Attack and Endless mode.

    - Tons of new OpenFeint achievements added.

    - New multiplier value that accumulates when you do combos. It goes down by 1 point every 15 seconds or more depending on your luck factor (combo chains value).

    - Support for multiple combos per floor added.

    - Chest added to allow you to save dice in your inventory to re-use later on.

There are still a few things left to do before it will be released. I am planning on getting it out tomorrow if all goes well.

New hint system

With the beta going full strength, testers have requested for some kind of help system or tutorial level. We have decided to provide both. Dice Tower can be a complex game to understand at first. So dynamic help with a step-by-step tutorial is what we have decided to do.

Here is an early screenshot of the dynamic help system.

Beta 2

First beta round was sent a few days ago. Already we are receiving extremely detailed reports from our beta testers. That is really amazing. We can improve the game concept, mechanics and make it more accessible using the feedbacks we are getting.

The general concensus so far is that the game is good and the game play mechanics works great.

The second beta will be sent out either today or tomorrow. We will keep on having betas until everyone is satisfied with the game.

Woohoo, beta testing is starting tomorrow!

Beta testing is officially starting tomorrow. Today will be a quick post because there are so much to finish up before beta testing can start. The game is ready, only a few polishing and fixes here and there but overall it is ready.

New logo and App Icon

Yesterday has been a long art design class for me. I am learning the ins and outs of vector graphics design. Here is what I have come up with for the ArianeSoft Games logo.

And finally the Dice Tower app icon:

Please give me your feedback, I would really appreciate it.

Beta Testing Phase 1, NEXT WEEK!

Yes, finally. The first phase of beta testing is starting next week. Releasing is coming faster than I thought.

Yesterday was the first time we have put the game on a physical device, an 8MB iPhone 1st gen. The game runs pretty well but the dice needs to be bigger and moving the dice is quite a challenge with the fingers. They are way bigger than a mouse cursor and they hide most of the phone's screen surface when moving dice around. So some tweaking needs to be done there today. As for the game performance, we are quite happy with it so far. It still needs some optimization in some areas but overall it runs smooth.

More on the beta testing progress next week...

Simplicity

After a long time trying to make the game more complex, I have decided to come back to the roots, the simplicity, the fun of the game. This game does not land itself to RPG elements very well. Sometimes, simpler is better.

The game is already very fun, so now I am concentrating on polishing, bug fixing, finishing songs and getting the graphics reworked by a professional. My goal is to go beta in two weeks.