10 games in 3 months. Game #7 released - Tower Defense

General (non-technical) New Apps / Works in Progress
#1

Howdy,

A few weeks ago I started a new project, 10 mobile games in 3 months. I do all the software development (in Corona SDK) and most of game design, and my partner takes care of all the art and sound.

I like to work intensively, so we kick off each game on Monday morning with picking the genre, fleshing out game design, and by the evening I am coding and she is drawing. We work 8 hours a day for seven days. On Sunday we release the game, as much as we were able to finish.

I have a background in web apps, but have never touched mobile apps or games before. My partner opened Illustrator and Flash for the first time in her life 3 weeks ago :slight_smile: So these are our first steps. The point of the project for us is to learn mobile game design, coding, art, sound, the whole works.

We started 3 weeks ago and completed 3 games already in the genres of Match-3, Slots and World of Goo. Below are the videos for each game.

I also keep a blog about this project where I post our progress and learnings along the way:

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/

I have released the code for each game into open source:

https://github.com/skryshi

Have fun with it. I tried to write good code, but given that I am learning Lua and Corona as I fly, there is some flux to it.

I post about this project regularly on Google+ (yeah, it’s also my first experiment with social blogging :), so follow me there to receive updates:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/110121357337213948525/posts

Arman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwXBGWNFq8A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M82hqMKT4fs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2wmR_FTWww

#2

Very cool.  Good luck with your endeavor and thanks for sharing!

#3

Cool, please update this thread along with your blog

#4

Oog is especially cool!

#5

And we are done with game #4 - “RunJumpDuck”. We tried to make a martial arts style platformer this week. It was MUCH harder than expected. By far the hardest genre we attempted so far for both of us. So what we have now at the end of a week is not a game yet, it’s a prototype. Here is a video and a writeup about it:

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-4-runjumpduck-released.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53aSlNV8BIU

#6

arman7 - this is a great project, and great work so far on the games. Definitely keep us up to date. Inna is going to send you an email to see how we can help.

David

#7

Awesome stuff Arman!

I’ve added links to your current 3 projects to Corona University under “Sample Code”:

http://www.coronalabs.com/resources/tutorials/sample-code/

Please let me know if you add more demos and I’ll link them up as well. Keep up the great work!

Brent Sorrentino

#8

Thank you everyone. It’s an honor to be listed in Corona University.

I couldn’t open source game #4 because it’s using proprietary engine MTE and licensed tilesets. But I plan to open source as much of this project as possible.

#9

Very cool.  Good luck with your endeavor and thanks for sharing!

#10

Cool, please update this thread along with your blog

#11

Oog is especially cool!

#12

And we are done with game #4 - “RunJumpDuck”. We tried to make a martial arts style platformer this week. It was MUCH harder than expected. By far the hardest genre we attempted so far for both of us. So what we have now at the end of a week is not a game yet, it’s a prototype. Here is a video and a writeup about it:

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-4-runjumpduck-released.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53aSlNV8BIU

#13

arman7 - this is a great project, and great work so far on the games. Definitely keep us up to date. Inna is going to send you an email to see how we can help.

David

#14

Game #5 - Word Origami - is done. In fact, it was done two weeks ago, but then my laptop broke, and notwithstanding all the virtues of living on Bali, replacing a Mac turned out to be a long affair. We had a great time developing this game, and it’s one of the games we eventually want to polish up for the full release. Here is a video and a writeup about it:

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-5-word-origami-released.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTv1tMTQrcs&feature=youtu.be

As before, I am releasing the code with an open source license. The art and the sounds are for your personal use only:

https://github.com/skryshi/WordOrigamiPublic

#15

Awesome stuff Arman!

I’ve added links to your current 3 projects to Corona University under “Sample Code”:

http://www.coronalabs.com/resources/tutorials/sample-code/

Please let me know if you add more demos and I’ll link them up as well. Keep up the great work!

Brent Sorrentino

#16

Thank you everyone. It’s an honor to be listed in Corona University.

I couldn’t open source game #4 because it’s using proprietary engine MTE and licensed tilesets. But I plan to open source as much of this project as possible.

#17

Nice work Arman!

I’ve added your latest two samples to Corona University. Keep up the great efforts. :slight_smile:

http://www.coronalabs.com/resources/tutorials/sample-code/

Brent

P.S. - Bali is a beautiful place; I stayed in Ubud for a couple weeks back in 2011, and really enjoyed it.

#18

Wow great work. Great idea setting some goals and doing what can with the time limit, excellent learning experience. 

#19

Game #6 - Adventure Game - is done! This is our first original game, inspired by an iOS hit game Device 6. Making an original game is hard. It’s like trying to find your way from the middle of a desert, no landmarks, all directions looking the same. In retrospect a great game seems obvious, but finding that right set of features is hard. We spent many hours discussing the plot, the puzzles, the art style, and there was often no way to know how well something works without building it and testing in a prototype. That takes a lot of time. Our productivity was one day of effort to make one minute of gameplay, the lowest of all the games we made.

Here is a writeup and a video of it:
 

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-6-adventure-game-released.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA2YlKib3S4

I am releasing the code with an open source license. The art and the sounds are for your personal use only:
https://github.com/skryshi/AdventureGamePublic

(I used a few recent features, so a Corona build that supports Graphics 2.0 is required to run the code.)

P.S. Bali is a beautiful place, if anyone is in the area, shoot me a message.

#20

Today we completed game 7 out of 10. It’s a tower defense game with whimsical art, where everyday characters such as the punk, the local beauty queen, and the bum must defend their neighborhood from the alien invasion. Featuring an Elvis impersonator. 

The writeup and the video:

http://fastgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/12/game-7-tower-defense-released.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atfMXIAc0-s

I am releasing the code with an open source license. The art and the sounds are for your personal use only:
https://github.com/skryshi/TowerDefensePublic

(I used a few recent features, so a Corona build that supports Graphics 2.0 is required to run the code.)