Month: February 2018

So, every week on this roller coaster of life I try to keep you (hi mom) up-to-date on the progress made with my indie-developed mobile game called BEER CHEER.  Guess what?!?!? This week I am going to do exactly that!  No frills, no fluff, and frankly… no funky fermentation will be added to this story.

Last week’s episode concluded with the resurgence of the Google Play Saved Games issues I have been having and my plans to fix them. Well, last Saturday after about two hours of shoveling snow I headed over to my beer buddy Bill’s bungalow to break bread.  We dibbled n dabbled with a few dry-hopped brews and ended up using Wild Ride Brewing’s peanut butter stout as our choice coding elixir.  The other runner-up for best algorithmic ale was Stoutello by Knee Deep Brewing.  I found the can at Market of Choice for $3.29 and you can bet if it’s there next time it’s mine.  We also split a bottle of Worthy’s Powder Keg which was surprisingly one of the better-tasting Winter ales I have had this season.

Anyway, we ended up finding the bug(s) in my previously written code and sending them to a land far away.  Now, when the player signs in on another Android device or deletes their local data, there is a copy always available in the cloud provided by Google.  The great part about all this is I get to do it all again for iOS integration! Yay! Such joy!  I am hoping it is pretty similar.  I am thankful to be able to use these services and not have to worry about those backends for now, though.  I could be writing up a custom leaderboards database through AWS, but this will do… for now.

Along with the technical updates over the week came a shit ton of player progression and play updates.  In scene 11 there are now bottle cards that display in the top right-hand corner. The objective is to get the displayed bottle over the finish line before any others.  If you cross any other bottles there is no progression and depending on the difficulty level of the scene you could be further penalized by bottle health depletion or bottle progress loss.  The mechanics of this addition will probably change, but the mainframe is there.

Previously, a player was able to set bottles aside for an unlimited amount of time. Now, depending on the scene this time period is limited.  Be careful how long you set your beer down!  I’m finding this addition makes the game much faster and more strategic.  In the movement to add more complexity the game timer is now working. If you fail to get the needed bottles across the line before the timer then game over.  And guess what?!?!? You also need to get at least one cap of BEER CHEER to proceed to the next scene as well! Ahhhh snap! Shit just got real.

Getting the saved game data to be persistent was a pretty big milestone.  That was hump I have been resting on for almost 3 months, and the progress made in 3 hours was incredible.  Big thanks to Beer Buddy Bill for stepping through that with me!  We also discussed the port to iOS and feel that is a logical next step.  So guess what I’m about to get my hands into now!

v.0.85.69 Build Notes

• Google Play Saved Games added
• Data persistence issues resolved when new scenes are added
• You have to have at least one cap to beat the current scene
• If you set aside a bottle too long it will break
• The game timer now works
• If you don’t put a cap on a bottle you receive some damage
• Next Bottle Cards have been added

Appreciate the click and scroll. See you next sip!

Cheers!

Auzzzy

Welcome back to the long road ahead part six! This journey will take you over bumps, twists, a few turns, and fortunately a few good beers before it’s over. Hopefully, you won’t be puking at the end of the ride, but instead enjoying a good ‘ol buzz of BEER CHEER!

Last week was a big one. I was able to catch up with Bend Brewing Company (BBC) and we are now working to bring their beer bottles to the game, and also offer some cool prizes for redemption at their pub located in downtown Bend, Oregon. This week you can see some of the early progress that’s been made to the scenes for BBC as we work to bring a unique experience that BBC fans will enjoy while waiting on their next Hop Head at the pub.

Along with a ton of new artwork added to the game I have been hammering out bugs as usual. There were a few show-stoppers that kept the player from moving between scenes. These have been removed with a forceful stomp to the face. A lot of UI work has been done to scene transitions as well making it appear a little smoother.

This week will be filled with more bug squashing, and hopefully, I can get some work done on the Google Play Saved Games issue. The goal is to have that done within the next week or two for sure so that I can start iOS development. It’s more than apparent how many people have iPhones, so we gots to make the jump. Along with all that be on the lookout for additional game mechanics, and some scene tweaking.

My family also celebrated my Dad’s 83rd birthday over the weekend.  He celebrated with a requested can of Coors Lite and the presence of his three grandsons.  My father has always been an old-school guy.  No matter how many Ching Chings or Boneyard RPMs I put under his nose he turns up only for Coors.  After 83 years he can enjoy whatever beer floats his boat, I guess. 

Thanks for stopping by once more. I hope you got a good snore. Hey, that rhymed.

Cheers!

Auzzzy!

This morning the elliptical machine told me that I had too many IPAs over the weekend and that I was probably not going to beat any records.  Unfortunately, BEER CHEER is a thing to be moderated. As with all good things in life (ie chocolate) we must learn to balance our indulgences to maintain healthy symmetry! The good thing is… the more I work out during the week the more I need to balance that with a beer or two on the weekend! Lessons for my fellow beer-bellied gamers. Lessons!

Last week was a whirlwind of baby and beer bottles as I walk a thin line between not getting them confused.  The major update of the week is a new mechanic for the conveyor belts.  Some conveyor belts will have a cheer meter or cheer switch.  Currently, there are only cheer switches making a debut on Scene 10 for this version.  In order to change the direction of the conveyor belt you must perform at least one cheers.  If your cheer meter depletes the conveyor belt will switch back to the incorrect direction.  Tricky tricky huh!

v.0.85.64 Build Notes

• Cheer switches have been added.
• BEER CHEER bonus bug has been fixed.
• “Cheers” is now said every time there is a cheers.
• Added new “Cheers” voices (Mom & Ezra).
• Scene management code has been reworked for 3rd time.
• New Scenes added to SM alpha location.
• When empty bottles cross the finish line progress is removed. They must be recycled.
• Exit scene button has been moved to left side of screen.
• Retry and Next buttons have been moved to lower left of screen.

There were a lot of technical issues with scoring that was fixed and I am happy I invested some more time into figuring out how to limit the hit detection between two 2D objects in Unity.  It is a little trick that tells the other object to become the sub-object, but it eluded me for a while.

Not only was there a lot of development progress this week, but there were lots of marketing starts as well.   Unfortunately, I can’t share all of those tidbits at this time, but hopefully, in next week’s update, I can let the cat out.  Thanks for stopping by and checking in.

Cheers!

Auzzzy

Sometimes, I feel like this journey into video game development may lead to broken pockets and worse… broken hearts as I read countless stories of failed ideas. The Steam marketplace is flooded with indie games displaying dismal sales. I realize BEER CHEER can only hope to create a market where one did not exist. Maybe it will find a few fans here and there that help propel the property in new directions. Maybe… just maybe there is a niche for beer games with substance.

Well, welcome to week four of the dev log as I hurl myself into destinies unknown stopping for an occasional beer from the locals. Last week was huge and if you’re playing the alpha you have seen the new locations being worked on. Please be aware these are early prototypes of scenes to come so much is likely to change. Being able to add local breweries to the game is a goal we take passionately as this will amp up the game’s flavor tremendously. A big thank you to Bend Brewing for being the guinea pig for now! Ever since my wife and I first started dating in Bend they have been one of our favs. So much so that the year before our wedding we visited the pub every Tuesday for locals day. We actually ended up serving Hop Head, Elk Lake, and Ching Ching KEGS at our wedding. Needless to say the dance floor was popping and the good times rolled! We created lifetime memories where upon sipping a delicious Ching Ching are brought back with vivid detail. I hope to deliver something the brewery’s fans can appreciate while perhaps waiting on their beer or on the plane to their favorite beer festival.

Beyond the major updates, I also tackled a lot of bugs plaguing the scene completion order and the home screen play button’s function. I’ve decided to stick with the button displaying “Play” at all times versus saying “Continue” once the player has gone through at least one scene.

Another big addition last week was the addition of bottle recyclers provided by Bend’s one and only The Broomsmen. So, the game gets a little bit harder now as players are now responsible for cleaning up unfilled bottles before they hit the end of the line. Previously, if players passed an unfilled bottle there were no consequences other than not being able to cheers. Tap the empty beer bottle into the recycler or players will lose progress. Fortunately, The Broomsmen have provided our first bins and will safely deliver the bottles to the best facility for recycling.

That was a pretty good update and a wrap for last week. This week I’ll be adding in another game mechanic for controlling the conveyor belts. And stay tuned as we may have another big addition in the works! Thank you for stopping by. See you next week!

Dilly Dilly,

Auzzzy