Pixel Towers - Android / Desktop Game

[bach]

Hey everyone,

We just released a new game on the Android Market. It's a fun little retro stacking game with neat chiptune music and pixelart. The game was entirely created with libgdx (http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/). It also features an online global leaderboard supported by ScoreLoop.



The game is completely free (no ads, nothing). We have a donation version available if anyone wants to shout us some Cookies & Beer (we love cookies. and beer.)

Would love to hear what you guys think of the game!

Desktop Version (no online highscores): Download

Standard Version (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.thegreystudios.pixeltowers)


Cookies & Beer Version (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.thegreystudios.pixeltowerscab)


Cheers,
Bach | The Grey Studios

[RylandAlmanza]

Looks cool! I don't have an android, but I'll let my friend know about it and then give you his feedback.

[bach]

Looks cool! I don't have an android, but I'll let my friend know about it and then give you his feedback.

Awesome! Much appreciated

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

[princec]

Cute looking. Unsurprisingly I do rather like the pixelly graphics

Cas

[ReBirth]

Apk file?

[elamre]

This looks cool! too bad i dont own an android

[ReBirth]

This looks cool! too bad i dont own an android

That's why I need apk to test it using bluestacks.

[bach]

Thanks heaps for the interest guys. I'll get an executable jar up for everyone who doesn't have an Android phone. It obviously won't have any online integration, but the game's the same..

Meanwhile here's a little gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET5NN3381R8

Cheers,
Bach

[tberthel]

I love the pixels graphics.

[Damocles]

very cute, I likes it

Are the black and white squares the rubble pile, after the tower collapses?

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

[H3rnst]

great game, I've just put a shortcut on my home screen 

[kappa]

looks and runs really nicely. Very polished too and IMO deserves a spot in the featured section.

FEATURED.

p.s. any chance of a playable version for the desktop (or maybe applet) since it is using libgdx?

[dishmoth]

Really charming!  Nice work!

I am admittedly a bit thick, but it actually took me a few goes to work out why the game was ending.  I'd assumed you could drop the blocks to fill in gaps in lower levels (Tetris-style) and thought the game had ended because I'd run out of time or dropped a 'poison' block or something.  I think maybe the 'Game Over' screen pops-up too quickly.  You could perhaps delay it a second so that the player can register that the block they just dropped has smashed to pieces.

Other comments:
- The 'Back' button does nothing during some of the menu screens (I can't remember which; possibly the 'Game Over' screen).
- The game insists on using internal storage.  (Is this to support very old Android versions?)  I had to uninstall it immediately to stop my phone grumbling about lack of storage.
- The application asks for permission to use the phone's identity.  Is this for the ScoreLoop leaderboard?  If I was the sort of person who payed attention to App permissions, this would worry me.

Cheers,
Simon

[bach]

looks and runs really nicely. Very polished too and IMO deserves a spot in the featured section.

FEATURED.

p.s. any chance of a playable version for the desktop (or maybe applet) since it is using libgdx?

Wow, thank you. This is amazing! Working on a desktop/applet version. A few things I need iron out before release.

very cute, I likes it

Are the black and white squares the rubble pile, after the tower collapses?

Thank you, white and black squares? Do you mean the particle effect when you drop a block?

great game, I've just put a shortcut on my home screen 

Awesome

Really charming!  Nice work!

I am admittedly a bit thick, but it actually took me a few goes to work out why the game was ending.  I'd assumed you could drop the blocks to fill in gaps in lower levels (Tetris-style) and thought the game had ended because I'd run out of time or dropped a 'poison' block or something.  I think maybe the 'Game Over' screen pops-up too quickly.  You could perhaps delay it a second so that the player can register that the block they just dropped has smashed to pieces.

Other comments:
- The 'Back' button does nothing during some of the menu screens (I can't remember which; possibly the 'Game Over' screen).
- The game insists on using internal storage.  (Is this to support very old Android versions?)  I had to uninstall it immediately to stop my phone grumbling about lack of storage.
- The application asks for permission to use the phone's identity.  Is this for the ScoreLoop leaderboard?  If I was the sort of person who payed attention to App permissions, this would worry me.

Cheers,
Simon

Brilliant feedback!

- I will add a delay to the Game Over screen, actually had that planned for release but somehow forgot about it.
- Back button. Hmm, I'll go through the menu's again and make sure it's used properly. Thanks!
- Also the game is 2.1+ only anyway so I'll enable app2sd in the next update. Again, something little I just forgot about
- Yea unfortunately ScoreLoop uses the phone's id for tracking. From what I can tell all major online leaderboards use this approach to track players. We don't store or use any of that data though.

Thanks everyone for checking it out. Desktop version coming soon

Cheers,
Bach

[bach]

Just updated the first post with download details for the Desktop Version. So anyone can check it out now:Download

Please note that the desktop version is lacking online highscores at this stage. Looking around for a good way to implement something.

We also updated the Android version with App2sd and some other suggestions from this thread!

Cheers,
Bach

[ReBirth]

Finally, dekstop version!

[Nyhm]

Video looks great - love the music/sfx!

[RylandAlmanza]

Just played the desktop version! It's great! (Also, my friend with the android phone has been playing it ever since I told him about it. It's really addicting!)

[Giovanni]

Great game! You have done a really good job there 

[ra4king]

Wow really fun game! Reminds of the similar arcade game you find in malls or Arcade Stores.

[bach]

Thanks everyone for checking it out Glad to hear the game is enjoyable!

Cheers,
Bach

[feelingtheblanks]

It's really nice game, may i ask how long did it take you finish this project ? I mean the time from scratch to uploading to the market ?

[bach]

It's really nice game, may i ask how long did it take you finish this project ? I mean the time from scratch to uploading to the market ?

It took us (we're a team of two) just over a month to create the game. We're only doing this in our spare time so we unfortunately don't have as fast of a turnaround as we'd like But, for whatever reason things went fairly smoothly with this project and we're able to make good progress..

Cheers,
Bach

[feelingtheblanks]

It's really nice game, may i ask how long did it take you finish this project ? I mean the time from scratch to uploading to the market ?

It took us (we're a team of two) just over a month to create the game. We're only doing this in our spare time so we unfortunately don't have as fast of a turnaround as we'd like But, for whatever reason things went fairly smoothly with this project and we're able to make good progress..

Cheers,
Bach

I see so with a team of 3 or 4, it'd probably take sth like that too, cuz we have no libgdx experience at all. Thank you.

[JESTERRRRRR]

Nice love the gfx

[bach]

I see so with a team of 3 or 4, it'd probably take sth like that too, cuz we have no libgdx experience at all. Thank you.

Drop me a line if you get stuck. Always happy to help if I can

Cheers,
Bach

[feelingtheblanks]

I see so with a team of 3 or 4, it'd probably take sth like that too, cuz we have no libgdx experience at all. Thank you.

Drop me a line if you get stuck. Always happy to help if I can

Cheers,
Bach

I'll do so for sure, you asked for trouble    Thank you

[gbeebe]

Can't play in linux?

java PixelTowers.1.0.4.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: PixelTowers/1/0/4/jar
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: PixelTowers.1.0.4.jar
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:217)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:205)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:321)
   at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:294)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:266)
Could not find the main class: PixelTowers.1.0.4.jar. Program will exit.

[ra4king]

It has to be "java -jar PixelTowers.1.0.4.jar"

[gbeebe]

meh, new error:

Not a directory: ../pixeltower-android/assets/gfx
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" java.lang.NullPointerException
   at com.thegreystudios.pixeltower.screen.SplashScreen.present(SplashScreen.java:86)
   at com.thegreystudios.pixeltower.Game.render(Game.java:38)
   at com.thegreystudios.pixeltower.PixelTower.render(PixelTower.java:26)
   at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:163)
   at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:113)