iPhone + kev g

[Abuse]

http://www.cokeandcode.com/rpgagain/dungeondesigner3.png

That looks a lot like HeroQuest !
Oh the memories...

[kevglass]

Glad you said that, sorta the feel I'm going for, albeit in a very lightweight way so it works nicely for phone players.

Kev

[Abuse]

Sounds good, look forward to seeing it in action (in Applet form ofcourse )

Seeing it made me consider buying a copy of HeroQuest off ebay... strictly for my nephew ofcourse 
Or maybe SpaceHulk would be more appreciated....

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[kevglass]

Did you know there's an anniversary edition of space hulk coming out?

I've preordered!

Kev

[Orangy Tang]

Hero Quest! There's something I've not heard about in ages. I remember enjoying it much more than Space Hulk, but I can't for the life of me remember why.

Time to go see which of it's rules I can go and pinch now.

[steveyO]

Thanks for the reply/clarifications kev.   
Spent the evening playing around with Android SDK/Eclipse Plugin and seems to work nicely...

However, couldnt figue out how to get the TestGame in your aboid distribution running using the Android Emulator..

From your blog.

I use the Android Eclipse integration to build the Android project and test on the emulator.

By this 'Android Project', do you mean in Eclipse you need to create another project (an Android one) on top of the 6 projects inside the aboid distribution (and copy the android package from the TestGame project to this new project)...  or do you convert the existing aboid-android project into an Eclpse Android Project.  ps.. Sorry.. I know u mentioned no support, but I figure this may also help others 

[kevglass]

Na, the TestGame project should be an Android project (along with being a Java project). Then you can either export an Android app from it (though you'll bundle some unrequired resources) or use the ant script to produce an Android apk.

Kev

[steveyO]

Aaggh..  Thanks for clarifying, this makes sense.   Will give it a bash tonight,  if it works I'll think I'll splash out on a new Android mobile

[kevglass]

Some more progress, just done a couple more dual releases; Block Knockers and the one I'm really proud of, Funky Football. Both android and iphone stacks are now based on OpenGLES rendering. We've a long way to go with producing everything we want but the games writing is starting to feel quite productive (almost 4k ish ).


CokeAndCode Blog Entry

[martineriksen]

Hi Kevin,

Super interesting stuff you are doing! I for one would be really interested in hearing about the download/ sales figures on the two platforms and how they compare! I released Air Attack on Android 1 month back. Sells maybe 15 copies a day, Lite version has maybe 1000 downloads a day. Would be super interesting to hear your experiences - especially because you have iPhone to compare with!

All the best,

Martin

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[kevglass]

Pretty impressive figures, 15 a day, that means on average you're selling twice what the top rated game for ages did, Retro Defence!

So far, my sales are no where near that - probably cause the game isn't as great However, I can say that the download rates on iPhone are sorta 10x that of Android and purchases so far are about 5x. Small figures so far though, so it's probably not that relevant data.

Kev

[martineriksen]

Seriously? Since I went live 1-2 months ago the sales figures have been pretty steady - about 1000 trial DLs and $10 earnings a day. That should make 15 sales with the 70/30 share that (I believe) Google offers. Wasn't too impressed myself - it is beer money not rent money :-) But if best selling game didnt sell better then I guess I should be really happy!! Anyways it is awesome just to have people playing my game. The browser version is hardly played at all although I myself find that more fun :-)

Very interesting with the iPhone/ Android comparison - will as you again in a few weeks! :-) And will definitely look into xmlvm and your blog entry on that.

Personally I agree with the people that think that Android is bigger than iphone in a few years; going on the Android market is more of a long term investment I think.

Cheers,

/Martin

[martineriksen]

Oh, and thanks for the flattery :-) My Android device is currently with another team member but will try your games as soon as I get the chance - I am sure they rank high in greatness :-)

[Ranger]

Seriously? Since I went live 1-2 months ago the sales figures have been pretty steady - about 1000 trial DLs and $10 earnings a day. That should make 15 sales with the 70/30 share that (I believe) Google offers. Wasn't too impressed myself - it is beer money not rent money :-) But if best selling game didnt sell better then I guess I should be really happy!! Anyways it is awesome just to have people playing my game. The browser version is hardly played at all although I myself find that more fun :-)

How did you go with getting paid?  I've now done the same thing as you (used a friends address).  Did you use your friends bank account too?  Or just let the money sit with Google?

My paid version of Craigs Race went up yesterday.  $27 profit so far.  Woohoo! 

Personally I agree with the people that think that Android is bigger than iphone in a few years; going on the Android market is more of a long term investment I think.

I'm hoping the chinless HTC Hero will be a big hit in the US.

[Nate]

Ranger!? I thought we were waiting until the contest was over!? Damnit now I have to submit my game to the Market... :p

[martineriksen]

Congratalations - that is great for a first day sales!!!

I paid out to a friends bank account in the US. Worked pretty painlessly.

[Ranger]

Ranger!? I thought we were waiting until the contest was over!? Damnit now I have to submit my game to the Market... :p

We are!!!  Don't submit!  ...well, you can do whatever you like, but I'm not submitting.

I have 2 games:
- Craigs Race is the paid app.
- http://headtoheadracing.appspot.com/ is the ADC2 entry.

[Ranger]

Congratalations - that is great for a first day sales!!!

I paid out to a friends bank account in the US. Worked pretty painlessly.

Thanks!  I'm pretty happy about it!  ...although, when I look at the free versions figures, I'm not sure it is _that_ great.

Google tells me the free version has been d/led by 196,997 people, but only 53,038 kept it (in 5 months).  My server tells me every 3 seconds, somebody is starting up the game.  ...so that's 342 people that keep the free game / day vs 20 people that paid for it today, but then you have the fact that how many of those 53,038 people saw the paid version and decided not to buy it...I'm going to stop typing now. 

[Nate]

Oh! Crap! I'm afraid I have broken the circle of trust!

I published SingSong, but then unpublished it. This is cool because it saved my entry and I can republish it at any time. Whew, that was close!

Sweet Jesus, can you tell I'm a bit anxious?

[steveyO]

Downloaded Craigs Race a few days ago (got my HTC Magic). Very polished game. One of the first things I wandered was why there wasn't a paid version...  Uggh  Best not to think about it.. Were not in it for the money anyway!!!

[Ranger]

Oh! Crap! I'm afraid I have broken the circle of trust!

You're out of the circle!!!  

Actually, I have a confession, I broke the trust circle 4 days ago.  I put a "lite" version up on the market.  The only reason I did this, was when someone plays the ADC version of my game, if they challenge a friend to a race, it sends an e-mail which contains a link to the market so they can download the game, problem is, the ADC entries don't show up on the market (AFAIK), thus the need for the Lite version.

[Ranger]

Downloaded Craigs Race a few days ago (got my HTC Magic). Very polished game. One of the first things I wandered was why there wasn't a paid version...  Uggh  Best not to think about it.. Were not in it for the money anyway!!!

Thanks SteveyO!  Totally, money is just a bonus! 

[kevglass]

XMLVM have taken the time to commit the large patch I sent them. You can now use Java to produce OpenGLES for the iPhone

http://www.cokeandcode.com/XMLVM-OpenGL-Support-Patch-Commited

Kev

[Nate]

I plan to look into XMLVM someday soon(ish). I have two questions for you:

1) Honestly, can you (for the most part) just write your app in Java and have it work on the iPhone, or is there a lot of mucking around in ObjC?

2) I have a small lib that provides an interface to OpenGL so I can run the same code on both Android and the desktop (via LWJGL). How much effort do you think it would take to get my lib working on the iPhone through XMLVM?

I freaking hate developing in ObjC for the iPhone, so I'm trying to gauge how much pain it will cause me. I'm willing to suffer a little in the beginning if in the end I can write apps and not dick with ObjC.

[kevglass]

There is definitely still some fcking about with ObjC each and every time I write a new game, normally because I run across something in the Java side that doesn't quite work correctly in ObjC. However, now I've been playing around with tech for a few months I can honestly get things fixed with minimal effort.

I would take your own cut of XMLVM, it's easier. Strip it down to what you need and do your fixes on that, trying to cope with the entire code base hurt.

That said, I've now written three games that I have deployed to Android, iPhone and Java 2D applet. When I bug fix or feature add in these games I don't even look at the ObjC, treat it like byte code.

I have a similar library, gives me a layer to OpenGL (and Java2D on applets) which is mostly what I code against. I would say with your app (SingSong?) that there will be some specific contacts/music APIs on the iPhone that'd you want to expose - I'm working on some of these atm.

So, in short.

1) No, I would say you nearly always end up fixing "something" in ObjC. For me, thats better than fixing "everything" in ObjC

2) It depends quite how much your lib does. If it's just pure GL calls and a bit of mouse/finger input - should be pretty quick.

One thing I have found just recently was the concerns about performance with the XMLVM method are totally unwarranted. XMLVM provides a little annotation that lets you control how/when your garbage collection takes place. This gives a much more stable experience than on say Android. I actually have more performance problems on the Android side than on the iPhone.

Kev

[martineriksen]

Hi Kev,

Got my hands on an iPod and bought your game - good stuff :-) Love how simple yet deep it is. A few ideas:

- How about enabling online play? You could create a battlenet kind of service that matches people to one another. Given that it is turn based the networking shouldnt be too complicated.

- How about expanding on the concept to create something like for example Blood Bowl?

Yes, I know none of these ideas are easy and straight forward to implement :-) Also a few questions:

- Is anyone using the webplay? My game is available in the browser too (where it is much more fun if you ask me) but noone is playing it there.

- Any new updates on the iPhone/ Android download ratios now that the game has been out for a few days?

Cheers,

Martin

[kevglass]

- Online play, I'm looking at some generic multiplayer framework for my turn based games on appengine at the moment. Starting out with a free othello/reversi game. Should be able to play applet vs android vs iphone pretty soon now

- Blood Bowl selling is a bit dangerous, Games Workshop are a bit protective. However, should sales pick up a bit you can expect Funky Ice Hockey, Funky American Football and Funky Rugby any time

- We're not finding webplay hit alot. Considering changing the concept to stick the applet on as many portals as possible for advertising the mobile versions. Maybe a restricted lite version only on the portals. WDYT?

iPhone vs Android stats. Good news they are both still selling some (better than zero ). Android still only sells tiny amounts (0-2 a day) compared to iPhone, which seems to sell 4-5 a day. However, the interesting bit is really the lite versions. On Android, after the initial rush, the downloads of the lite version are really low - maybe 25-50 a day. On iPhone there are 3x that trying it out. Seems to me it's much easier to sell on iPhone at the moment, I'll probably focus more time there.

Kev

[martineriksen]

I would just give the applet versions away; there is so much good stuff running in browsers that mobile games running in a browser has a hard time getting noticed - especially if access is restricted. Also I found it really hard to find any portals that would carry Java games.

Very interesting with the figures for iPhone - I have started the thought process for converting Air Attack to iPhone - would be great to hit so many more people!

Following your story with great interest :-)

[martineriksen]

Regarding Blood Bowl: I would call it something else and modify the rules to match the mobile format better - surely GW would shut it down immidiatly if there was any hints of copyright violation. I guess I just miss the violence in games :-) Actually iPhone gamers are 50% women though so more peaceful games could have a bigger potential.

[h3ckboy]

Actually iPhone gamers are 50% women though so more peaceful games could have a bigger potential.

REALLY? I am surprised that so many would play any form of game. I suppose it probably ahs something to do wiht it being so easy at hand lol.