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This is not a promotional AD or a sort of shootout, but as you everybody know (especially if you follow this blog) I mostly use Game Maker studio and the integrated language GML to code my games. Game Maker is a growing tool and always more programmers are using it to develop their games especially now that Sony and Yoyo Games found the agreement for the module to develop for PlayStation. With a group of other people I'm working to a blog dedicated to the powerful language of Yoyo Games and the blog is now reachable at the URL www.gamemakerblog.net . The blog is a community of programmers that want to find and share info, full of news, reviews and special sections. If you are a programmer, if you want to learn something more, if you wanna stay up to date with the news or if you wanna show case your game please give a look to www.gamemaker.net : from today on will be daily updated.

One week of beta testing

One week of beta testing on iPhone and so far so good: we just spotted few minor bugs and the glitches list is still quite short. Next week I will start to correct these little things while the testing keeps on going; what is absolutely good is that the game is very stable and it works well.
Coming week (I'm traveling right now) I will start to work to the PC version which will be quite the same with the exception of the different control system and the android version (which is ready) will go in play testing too on the runner for android.
Once all is ready we will publish "iPong: the game" for PC, iPhone/ iPad/ iPod and Android for sure. I'm not sure about Mac (we will see) and maybe a smaller version in HTML5.
Soon the website dedicated to iPong will be live and the pre-promotion will start hands down. I believe that in like 2 months we can announce the game for all the platforms but I don't know it yet.
We will promote through indie underground, social networks, blogs and gaming websites. Any update will be reported here...and soon.

End of coding, pre-beta version in testing

The biggest of the coding is done.
The turning device page (animated) has been done, the shop option has been linked with the url where the future shop will be online, few minor glitches has been fixed and few sound effects has been adjusted in volume.
This means the official coding has been terminated, I said the official because now there will be a lot of beta-testing and for sure a lot of things will come up which is why I uploaded this version (which I like to call pre-beta version) on the test iphone runner in order to test it and retest it.
I will also record some footage of the game to share it privately with other tester and for the phase of pre-advertisement.
I might publish some of those here.

Almost done!

Two days I don't post, two days full of work.
Most of what I needed to do has been done, the control mode option is there and works: now you can decide to choose between three ways to control your pad such as swiping mode (the same used until now), tapping mode where you tap the screen up and down to move up and down your pad and the finger mode where you keep and move your finger on the screen and the pad try to follow your vertical movements.
It works, the control setting screen is nice, big plus for the game. More over depending from your control choice 3 different little icons appear during the game when you try to move the pad.
The help screen has been done and I like it. It is just a single screen but it explains all the purposes of the game and all the objects you will encounter during your playing.
I decided that in the single game the player don't have to insert the name so once selected the single game mode the menu brings you directly to the level selection. Faster and direct.

I fixed few bugs here and there till my pc crashed again and I have to re-install everything and check one more time if everything worked and everything was saved.

The game is constantly rolling on my testing phone and the game itself is virtually finished. I'm working now on the initial screen of "phone in landscape position" which will be animated and will contain the disclaimer we will use not to be confused with the iPong TM

In the main menu there is one more option which is the shop option: the shop option will connect directly via web to our online shop which is not developed yet, so we need to fix the url and (even if close) connect the link with the shop icon.

Wanna play again?

The "do you want to play again?" screen is finally working. It appears every time the player loses an arcade game. If you select yes you will repeat the game against the same enemy at the same lever, otherwise you will come back to the main menu losing the level you reached.
The screen shows a constellation rotating on the background with a music looping which I composed in few minutes: I like it because it is just 2 bars looping! But it works

Control mode time! 

working from my bed

The title says all... yesterday my back snapped and I can't stay sit or standing, therefore the only option is resting in bed. Thanks someone invented laptops..
Ok, here we go with some updates of my work on iPong (or whatever will be ...):
- The music button is there: a little icon at the bottom right of the screen which makes the game mute of with sounds on. Works, looks nice ... checked
- The problem with the name disappearing after the first game has been fixed, was just a variable issue.
- Now whether you run a single game or an arcade game you have in the menu the back button: actually is a main menu button, every time you press it guess what? you go back to the main menu resetting everything you have done so far.  It's a little pulsing arrow on the bottom of the screen.
- Wasn't on the "to do list" but I've been fixing something that already for long time bothered me: The first time you open the game there is a sort of intro which takes you to the main menu; the length of this is about 10 secs required (with the excuse to give you a nice effect and a presentation title) to load in memory the whole game. Before every time a game was over and the player was taken to the main menu there was this effect and this waiting time. Now not anymore, beside the very first time you open the game you get always the main menu right away.
- Rematch mode: I'm still working on this, harder of what it seems because I have to put my hands on old code (original from pong 2013 lite). I've been thinking that in the arcade mode if you lose the game a new screen will show telling you "You lose" and asking you if you want to repeat the match keeping the same level or going back to the menu losing your level. The screen is ok, nice effects as usual in this game, the background music is missing but i'm planning to compose it today (i need only something that loops in the background) but the routine of rematch is not quite there yet. As I finish it and it works I'll put the music as well.

I'm in contact with a lawyer studio specialized in trademarks to discuss about the name ipong. Updates soon.

To do list ... lot of work still to do

After checking, testing and playing the game on the runner here is the list of things to do asap:
- The variable that contains the name of the player in the arcade mode gets empty after the first game. Is due to the fat that the asynchronous object is keep on going also when the name form is not there anymore. Should be a quick fix.
- Rematch mode: if you lose a match in the arcade mode you just lose the arcade and you go right back to the main menu. Might be a bit frustrating which means I want to add one more chance to stay at the reached level to have a (only one) rematch right after the defeat.
- Back button: at the moment in the menu there is no back button, can be nice to add it
- Music on/off button: will be added in the main screen.
- Kill the game button: during the game beside the pause button I want to add a quit button. The match will be lost.
- Controls and Help: the two sections that still need to be developed
- Copyright issue: we need to contact some expert to see if and how we need to change the name of the game :(

long day ahead...

Fixes, asynchronous functions and copyright issue

Big day of work, the control system is not there yet, actually I not even started.
While the computer was updating I could just work on smaller fixes so I did calibrate the frequency of the asteroids, I made the sign iPong on top of the game-field fading in and out making it a bit more dynamic, the variables that carry the magneto and the guns status now reset once the game is over, there is an elegant count-down (ten to 1) which introduces the menu while everything is loading and few minor things.
Something not minor instead is that I completely re-coded the system to type in the name. The problem wouldn't show on PC or any other computers but it would show once the game is tested by apple to be approved: when you type in anything the script that shows you the virtual keyboard and related needs to be asynchronous! Whoever not familiar with this term just think that the script and the new type-in window cannot bother the normal functionality of your program or any program running (included the iOS itself). This is to prevent malfunctions in case you receive a call or something like while you type in your name.
After one hour of learning I manage it to make the scrip working asynchronous.

While I was testing everything on the phone and I was listening to the main tune (with a choir that keep on singing "iPong" I had a terrible sensation...quick check and I was right....it seems that the word iPong is covered by copyright, it's actually a device that shoots ping-pong balls. New updates soon but this ain't good.

Monday's updates, iphone testing and mainteinance

Week end is over, new week ahead. Actually not a big difference between my Sundays and my Mondays.
I've been testing a lot the game on the iPhone runner and the main points are working well. Nothing run slow, not even in the long run which makes me happy because everything is under control. There are few things I have to fix which I noted in my to do list such as few variables that need to be reset once the game is over (like magneto and guns status, if the game finishes with one of these two on the next game starts with the two on, which is wrong), something I want to change like the little phone avatar (I just don't like it), something I want to make nicer such as the fancy "iPong" on top of the screen while the game is on on top of the control system that needs to be developed from scratch.

I modified the effect on the ball. Before the ball was like a comet with few particles effects applied at the same time to the ball's sprite...effect was good but not good enough to me. Now the ball makes smoke which is left behind when the ball moves. The effect is given by using 3 different particles systems, all smoke related but with different intensity and color. Looks better to me. 

Now: I'm want to start to code again because I want to do almost everything left within this week (next week I fly to Holland) but I need to perform some big maintenance on my working PC laptop.
If you red the previous posts you know by now that after a while the laptop loses performance and sometimes is near to crash. The hard drive is almost full so I'm backing up all the important project i'm working on to free some space.

Of course is taking AGES! 

Single game mode, iOS simulation

Sunday morning and the single game mode is done.
Beside some little bugs due to calibration all is fine and completely playable.
Yesterday I was very concerned about the fact that after a while and after many games (single games) the system started to slow down and along with it the game.
I just launched a simulation in the runner of my iPhone 5 tester and I played for more than 30 mins: all is still smooth and fast, which means that the problem was related to the PC emulation version most likely to my laptop which is old and full.
By running the game on the phone I noticed only a little thing which I don't like when the player needs to type the name. It makes a little shift which is acceptable but not nice but unfortunately is not modifiable because is part of the system itself.
It might be that is just a glitch in the runner and once I'll burn the final game it will disappear, not the first time actually...

Little lunch break and the I will start to work on the control system, trying something and running some tests. 

Single game

Today I've been working the whole day to the option single game. I started to clean up everything but there are still some sprites of the old game that I might be able to re-use so in order to avoid any important loss I decided not to clean but to code.
As I predicted the single game mode needed a complete re-coding because everything is changed in the menu. We can now enter our name, we choose few options only by the "Single Game option" plus now there are avatars and computer communications: I decided that in the single game mode the computer avatar is just a phone which tell us what's going on during the game avoiding the more mean sentences of the arcade session.

Obviously nothing went smoothly and it took quite long time to fix everything. Now more or less all work, I need to check, re-check and check again but my PC crashed again and I don't know if it's because is way to old, way to full or my code itself has got glitches.
Hopefully not the last one so I start to clean up the PC right now.

Name length day...

Strange title for a post but believe it or not I spent the whole afternoon to fix a very little feature:
when you pick the arcade mode the game will ask you to type in your name which will appear in the game score and every time the game will speak to you.
Actually for many reasons the name length limit is 7 letters or it will create graphic issues. I had to add a little routine on the variable that carries the string "name" which checks how long the name is and, if longer than 7 letters, will ask you to retype it.
The routine was an easy task, but for some reason after that nothing was working as it should. Every time the game was ended something in the menu was happening and nothing was working properly anymore.
After many hours all is fixed and the routine works.
I launched also a complete game in "cheating mode" (just a little cheat I added for testing purposes where the collision with the computer pad is always equal to null therefore the player always wins) from match one till the congratulation screen and everything works just fine.
For the records now I'm testing the game via PC in emulation mode (arrows as pad controls) to make all faster. As quick I start to work on the multi-control mode I will have to check the game on touch devices (probably on the yoyo-runner on my test iPhone 5).
Right now I still have a lot of code belonging to the old game as well as few objects unused. Before I start to work to the control modes I need to clean up all the unused code, sprites, objects, sounds to relocate the valuable memory and avoiding huge waiting time while I send the software wi-fi to the runner.
Tomorrow's task.

goodnight

updates iPong: music and code

A lot of work on iPong lately, if this diary is not updated every single day is because most of the time the game needs attention in its last days f development.
Here the updates: the arcade part has been virtually finished and integrated in the game as well as the new menu, faster and indeed with a better look. No bugs or glitches so far (game testing is on right now) and, beside minor changes soon will get the "internal green flag".
The new menu looks good, way more eye catching than the old one in the lite version despite the fact we are using the same objects, just in a different way.
The nebula effect of the menu is now present in a different look also during the game itself: combined with the background zooming and rotating effect makes everything way more fancy.

I still need to code two major things beside few minor menu items:
1) the single game mode will be recoded using the base of the old routines. Won't be a big deal.
2) the control mode: in the old "lite game" the main pad was controlled only by swiping up and down the screen. Even if I keep on thinking that this is the most effective way to play the game we got some bad feedback about that and I have to admit it is hard to master. On iPong the Player can choose how to control the pad with several options: beside the actual swapping mode I'm thinking about the tapping mode (tap up and down to move the pad up and down) and/or the finger follow mode.
The chapter controls will take me I guess one whole day of coding and I need to see all the options by testing the game on touching devices directly.

Now, the most important update of the last 3 weeks of work: MUSIC.
The original Pong 2013 uses tunes from the movie Tron Legacy from Chemical Bros. Now: Pong 2013 is a free game and no-one will bother us because of the rights. iPong instead has got a bit higher expectations therefore we need original music.
Thanks god I have a music background so armed with my Magix Music Studio I developed 3 brand new tunes: iPong menu, iPong in-game and iPong Congrats.

The first one sounds very epic inspired but historical movie soundtracks. The second needed to be short, easy, catchy and loopy...I came out with some tribal drums and few patterns going in a loop with a more than decent effect. The congratulation tune is in Dub, quite acid and is not actually completed yet but I am almost there.

We are thinking also to make a longer version of these tunes and eventually sell them on iTunes along with the game. Let's see.