PS Mobile isn't exclusive to Android and is based on Mono/C# as far as I know. So libgdx probably doesn't work.

Sounds like pretty strong gameplay values to me

But thanks for your detailed reply. It seems like a very sensible approach you're taking, and I very much agree that the traditional "demo for the full game" approach really doesn't work anymore. There have even been studies that have shown that releasing a demo for game actually hurts sales usually.

Is it inside the Curiosity cube?

I'm not at all surprised with your feelings towards this

But I largely agree with your objections in games that seem to be just a calculated ploy to extract money at the expense of good gameplay.
But since we're living in a world that for better or for worse is targeted towards consumerism and capitalism where people need to earn money to make a living, F2P with IAP has a place. I'd like to explore ideas where it can work without resorting to purely cynical money-grabbing.

I agree, but there's a pretty delicate balance there between being commercial and delivering a good game.

But IMHO these cosmetic items really only make sense if the game has a social aspect where other people can see your cosmetic upgrades (why else would someone invest in those?).

Personally I think Temple Run has struck a pretty good balance here. They just provide the option to speed up grinding in order to score higher, but in the end it's still primarily a fun little skill game.
At the other end of the stick is a game like Megapolis, which seems to be purely focused on making people pay to just get on with the game (which in itself is rather shallow).

So can you share anything about how you're going to not let the business model invade Puppygames' core gameplay values?

I'm not sure I follow. Could you elaborate? How would that work?

There is this trend for these so-called "Free To Play" games with in-app purchases as there are some stunning success stories there.
This model is quickly getting a bad rep in some circles because these types of games are often sort of 'skinner box' type games where the actual game play seems to be quite cynically intertwined with the business model. As such, all too often these games' enjoyment is actually hindered by the business model.
Still, for some types of games it can be interesting and there are some games that don't seem to be any less enjoyable by following this model.

So have you considered going down this route? If not, why? If so, how do you prevent letting the payments get in the way of the actual quality of the game play?
Any other thoughts about this? Or even experiences?

Interestingly, a recent research report suggested that providing game demos actually reduces sales quite significantly (whatever the quality of the game).

IMHO the best form of DRM is adding value to your product that is practically impossible to copy.
This can be different things that apply to different people.
1) For example an online community can be very important to some people (MMOs and such, but also things like friend lists on platforms like XBL etc)
2) For many people, having the original in its original packaging simply adds value in itself that no pirated copy can provide. This doesn't even necessarily need to depend on physical packaging: Knowing you downloaded an official copy is valuable for many people. Liking the company you buy from helps a lot there.

This doesn't really apply to a large number of games and to a large number of people.
For example single-player games often don't benefit from online features. Many people just don't see the value of getting legitimate copies. The sense of 'value' is a very subjective thing.

So I don't really have an answer for that other than making sure your game is visible everywhere and getting your game via legit channels is as easy as possible.
But trying to prevent creating a digital copy is usually a waste of time and can even promote piracy.

If there's an interesting Scala library released as a .jar, I'd be more interested in it than 2 borrowed eggs 
That said, my assumption there is that this Scala written library will be perfectly usable from java.

But I'm actually quite interested in Scala, so while it might not reach everyone here I'd say bring it on nonetheless!

Cool concept

However I didn't quite get the 'vibe' of patent illustrations from these colourful game graphics if I'm honest.
Looks fun though.

IMHO the weirdness is that there are so many experts in something that's so fundamentally broken.

Where exactly did you store your images?

I don't know why it was displaying one image, but seeing you've stored your images with your sources, you might want to load the images from the classloader and using ImageIO:



(so without the 'src' part in the path!)

I think PHP is just totally weird. Why do people put up with that?

lucky bastard

That looks really promising!

If you've been able to do this as a solo developer, adding sound won't be a problem at all (at least not from a technical pov).
As for sound content, there are lots of royalty-free resources available.
You might even consider just buying a mic and become your own foley artist (it's fun!)

I just tried it on my Vaio Z also with an Intel GPU, and it worked fine and smoothly here although there was no sound.
I replaced win7 with linux on there though; not sure if that makes a difference in terms of compatibility.

I'd personally try to make the enemy bullets stand out more (fire balls or something), and the player's fire a lot faster to make shooting a bit more satisfying.

I don't know if it's the best or 'correct' method, but what I usually do for mouse-look is in a first-person game is this:

1) read the relative X/Y movement values of the mouse
2) use these values to change 2 rotation angle values of your Player object that define where he is looking: Add the relative X movement of the mouse to the rotation angle of your Player class that defines the rotation along the Y axis. Add the relative Y movement of the mouse to the value that defines the rotation along the X axis.
3) when rendering the 3D scene, the first thing you do is call glTranslate to put the player at the correct position (using its x,y,z location values)
4) after that, use glRotate to rotate the camera along the Y and X axis using your 2 rotation angle values in your Player object.
5) when you press forward while the player is on the ground, use one of your rotation angle values (the one that defines the rotation along the Y axis) in your Player object to calculate the updated position.

Like I said, I don't know if it's the best method (I'm hardly a 3D expert), but it works for me and is quite easy.

There are some encouraging stories about indie games on Vita though, for example http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-28-retro-city-rampage-sells-best-on-vita-not-so-well-on-xbla

As an aside, I heard this PlayStation Mobile SDK is really quite good and lets you create games for PlayStation Vita (and PS Mobile android devices).
There has been talks that something like that is also coming for PS4.

The catch is that PlayStation Mobile is C#.

So I imagine java on PS4 would at best be possible on a real devkit.

There's very little point to creating unlicensed stuff for a console besides hobby hackery. PC is much better for that.

The whole point of releasing something for PS4 is to use Sony's ecosystem to drive your sales, imho.

It's unfortunate that Oracle doesn't have a Chief Gaming Officer anymore, seeing java on PlayStation now makes more sense than ever.
I'm sure ChrisM and co would have been all over it.

Your game reminded me a little bit of an old game called 'Sleepwalker'.
When I saw your game, I was wondering why this was about a blind tomb raider and not, say, a blindfolded parkour runner? That would have seemed like such a slam dunk to me, seeing you're a parkour runner yourself.
It could pretty much retain the same mechanics but in a much more original setting.

It looks very fun though with that 'pick up an play' quality but potentially still deep with the time-shifting puzzle element. But I think it needs a bit more visual character, and perhaps some more game mechanics later on.
But, you know, I didn't play your game for myself and perhaps the more familiar style will be easier to sell (and who am I to judge anyway...)

As an aside, I thought Jaffe was pretty good as a judge (I've watched all 4 shows). He generally gave good, practical, insightful and very constructive feedback. As much as I adore Chen's work, he was sometimes quite vague in his criticism, and the girl seemed mostly just cheery.
But the format of the show really doesn't lend itself to anything else but quickly accessible games. That could work to your advantage

But the 2nd hand thing is about physical media.
2nd hand digital downloads never existed in MS' and Sony's ecosystems anyway so that's a bit of a moot point.

I think it's already happening. For example their PS+ service is so popular nowadays that I could imagine them taking that model to the next level. They certainly seem to be putting all the technology in place for that kind of thing too. And then there's the self-publishing that they're planning to do.
You'll pay top prices for being in front of the line for new games and you'll be nickel-and-dimed for popular online-heavy competitive games, but everything else is getting cheaper.

I'm a bit undecided if that's a good thing though atm.

Wow, that's interesting
Perhaps it could be a good idea to get some money together to buy a devkit then (i'd be willing to chip in if it could lead to something viable).

Is it the PS4 OS that's Linux, or are just the development tools Linux based? The Naughty Dog guys have gone on record saying how nice Linux is as a platform to do your development on (in the Uncharted days), but afaik the PS3 doesn't run on Linux, so I always sort of assumed that they were just talking about the development tools.

No idea why I'm asking you because you obviously didn't say anything about the subject whatsoever

I could imagine you need a devkit to get Java+LWJGL&friends up and running there though

The way I understand it is that you will be able to create games on your PC for PS4, similar to what you can do with PS Mobile.
But if you want to really get down and dirty and low-level, you will need the devkit.

Apparently there will also some sort of indie-friendly self-publishing program. Could be interesting.

That DirectX thing looks like an in-house developed layer made by Paradox on top of LibGCM, not something that is part of the PS4 SDK.
OpenGL on the other hand was part of the standard PS3 toolset (also built on top of LibGCM), so it seems very likely that OpenGL will be on PS4 too.

This actually looks *really* promising.
I love your take on Minecraft-meets-FPS with some strategy put in the mix.

But I have to say that these last screenshots don't look as good as before, purely from an aesthetic p.o.v. (although I'm sure there are lots of technical improvements so keep them coming anyway ).

Eeuww, everything all dark gray.

The only thing I do in eclipse wrt the fonts is just making them smaller.