Yo! Another beta is ready for you to play! Kickstarter backers can download it for Windows or Mac. Linux users: I spent some time this week preparing the game for Linux, so someday this will be ready! My main goal with Linux is to have it work “headless” so you can run servers on Linux (but also play on Linux.)

I will be hanging out on the forums/chat this morning, so hopefully we can do some group play-testing of the game!

Little update on the Kickstarter rewards: getting rewards together is pretty involved! But we’re making progress, we have all the magnet sets in, and we’re getting in most of the packing materials, and whatnot. So pretty soon we’re going to be able to start sending these items out! I can’t wait for you to see them in person! We also got in a ton of poster tubes, and we’re currently working with a box company to get the box set details sorted out.

New features this time include video options, so now you can go fullscreen or windowed in any res you want. There is also a “Size” option where you can pick how large your screen is. Small simulates how the game will look on phones, medium/large on tablets. Huge for big HD desktops (other desktops may prefer medium/large.)

Another feature I’ve added is the ability for modders to use vector art in their menus, this means they could add in really slick looking post-game power-graphs/charts. Nobody has implemented this, but I hope to see some cool use of this feature soon!

Lastly, thanks to everyone’s bug reports, I’ve included over twenty bug fixes. Just to give you a bit of a peek at what goes on while I’m making games, this is how I track what I’ve done in the past week:

== beta8 ==

= 4/4/2013 =
– code: add bounds check for all id’s sent through Lua API to other functions.
– removed boring items from TODO.txt
– spaghetti: clean up the trans code so it’s not so dynamite jack oriented
– gutted view/audio/video/settings sub-systems out of game.cpp and into their own “separate” classes / files

= 4/3/2013 =
– vector drawing HTML element?
– added in vectorart support to html
– ipad version: re-require login now that we’re back from GDC (menus_mods.hpp)
– added vignette to menus background.
– menu: quit
– added background visuals to menus.
– re-worked all menus to work in any resolution, etc

= 4/2/2013 =

– settings: fullscreen
– settings: video res
– fix positioning of on-hover planet info
– mods: ability to remove planets/etc. if fleets are going to said planet, delete those fleets as well.
– mods: labels in other colors
– top of keyboard numbers don’t work on some keyboards (but did work in Galcon Fusion)
– should be able to type numbers in chat when hovering over the chat box
– dual: keep score of how many wins/losses per player
– galcon: there’s a moment in co-op where a previous send() command can come in after a round ends, but during the pause, and cause a fleet to launch early. it should ID by game or something so that doesn’t happen?
– dual: hide enemy ship numbers on your side
– turns: hide enemy ship numbers during their turns
– after pause if you typed it doesn’t resume text properly, goofs up.

= 4/1/2013 =
– mod_client not getting the HTML update between co-op rounds.
– be able to chat on pause screen
Рduring trans, allow keyboard presses, but NOT mouse clicks… (so chat can continue during the pause)
– have production have +80 instead of just 80 so it’s more obvious
– tab-completion of names not working on client side? (case sensitive?)
– make ping case-insensitive.
– allow single character chat

Anyway, thanks to everyone for checking out Galcon 2! I’m going to open up the iOS beta to a limited group of people pretty soon, so I’m looking for volunteers on the forums. I’m limited to a small number of players, so I can’t promise that you will be added.

Cheers!
-Phil

Ahoy there, beta7 is now live! Kickstarter backers can download it for Windows or Mac. Be sure to leave some feedback in the forums, your participation is a huge help!

I spent most of the week working on the iPad version of the game in preparation for GDC (the Game Developers Conference) that I’m going to this coming week. That means there won’t be a new build of the game next week.

I did a ton of work on the control options, so now you can customize the controls quite a bit. Be sure to check that out. I also made a ton of little tweaks to the “dual” and “turns” mods. And I fixed a ton of bugs, including some pretty messy ones!

If you happen to be at GDC, say hi! I’m friendly! Just look for the guy with the ridiculously huge belt buckle. I’ll be at the Indie Game Summit and the TouchArcade party for sure. And I’ll have a special GDC-only Galcon 2 sticker to give you

Cheers!
-Phil

P.S. Thanks for everyone’s bug reporting and testing this past week. Don’t worry, I’m not ignoring you, I just didn’t have time to fix all those things because I had to get the iPad port done this week. So the multitude of things we found still aren’t fixed yet. I’ll be working on those after GDC

New beta6 ready for exploration! Download for Windows or Mac. (Beta still only available to Kickstarter / PayPal backers.)

The final magnet set proofs came out great, we’re ordering the final stuff now! These are so much fun!

I’ve added in a “dual” mode for head-to-head play. This isn’t really “playable” on your computer, but you can kinda see what it’s going to be like for playing on the iPad.

I did a huge overhaul of the client / server stuff. The coolest bits are the adjustable chat region and the updated co-op mode. You’ll also see in this screenshot the percent-o-meter slider. This is more useful for mobile devices, but for now it’s in the desktop version too. Also, I added in nice looking “Galcon Fusion” style backgrounds and fades / transitions. However, it felt a bit off, because the game is so beta right now, having it look polished like that seemed awkward. So I disabled them for now.

Lastly I added more tabs to the Settings section. The only one with real settings is Audio as I added in the classic sound effects to the game. You’ll need to double check that they are set to on to hear the sound effects in beta6.

I’m going to be hanging out in Galcon chat and on the forums for the next couple hours, so someone get a server set up and we can play!!

Thanks!!
-Phil

Okay, so about 6 or 7 weeks ago this article got posted somewhere (anyone remember where??) about how demos reduce sales. I figured I’d try that out with Dynamite Jack. First a graph showing the number of demo downloads on iOS:

Second, a graph showing $ earned via the full version on iOS.

Best I can tell, sales go down when I got rid of the demo. Then they went down a bit more when I re-enabled the demo version of Dynamite Jack. My hope is that eventually the demo-to-full conversion groove will pick back up to bump sales up a bit more again.

That said, though, the number changes aren’t terribly clear. I’m guessing it would take higher volume or better A/B style testing to really make any sort of decent claims about this stuff.

The only thing that I think is terribly clear is that when Dynamite Jack got launched in the Humble Bundle on March 6th, it doubled the number of demo downloads on iOS for a day.

-Phil

Okay! It was a pretty great week here! Short version: beta5 is out for Windows and Mac, try ‘em out! Be sure to also try the esparano_frustration mod, it’s got a world map, and it’s pretty tricky.

Last Saturday a bunch of players and I played Galcon 2 multiplayer for about 2 hours and found tons of them. So I’ll be joining the first server we get up and running to play again today, and hope to track down all the new quirks. I’m especially excited to try out the Co-op server mode I added. Check on the forums for server IP addresses!

Also, I was able to include esparano’s frustration mod. It’s got a cool world map and it’s quite tricky. So give it a try and have some fun!

Anyway, have a good time trying out Galcon 2. Be sure to tell me what you think! Your feedback means a lot to me, so keep it coming

Cheers!
-Phil

P.S. The Android port of Dynamite Jack is out now as part of the Humble Bundle with Android 5 bundle. This is exciting for Galcon 2, because it means I’ve now got the larger part of the porting work done for Galcon 2!

Hey! I’ve just completed porting Dynamite Jack to Android! You can get it right now in the Humble Bundle with Android!

If you’re new to the Humble Bundles, they offer several games in a bundle and you can pay what you want for a bunch of great indie games! Dynamite Jack is along side Dungeon Defenders, Super Hexagon, Beat Hazard Ultra, Solar 2, and NightSky HD. You can grab all these games on Android, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Android for just a few bucks!

Also, we’ll be announcing a new Dynamite Jack maps contest with Dynamite Maps very soon, so sharpen up your map making skills to win some sweet prizes! Check back in the forums or in the Community Maps section of the game for details in a day or so.

Cheers!
-Phil

P.S. Galcon 2 had it’s first multiplayer game this past Saturday! For now, the beta is closed to Kickstarter backers only, but you can read the progress so far on the Galcon blog .

Hey, it’s been a crazy last week working on Galcon 2. I’ve just managed to get a rough version of multiplayer working, and it’s moddable too! I didn’t get it ready to work on my dedicated server yet, so has to run on a real desktop. So whoever can set up their router to work first gets to claim they were the FIRST Galcon 2 “admin” Please post your IP/port info to the forums here.

You can download beta4 for OS X or Windows.

In other news, the Kickstarter rewards are coming together! Here’s a picture of the magnet set proof on our fridge!

And here’s a picture of Nan working on the Power Necklaces.

Have fun with beta4!

-Phil

In the near future, about 60 or so people are going to be getting the Galcon 2 box set. One of the goodies is a set of marbles to play the Galcon Marble Game! I designed this game this month and I’m posting the rules here as part of the #1GAM for February.

About
– Dominate the Galaxy with your Marble Shooting Skills!
– Players: 2 – 4
– Ages: 5 and up

Supplies
– 4 sets of 7 planets (small marbles).
– 1 shooter (large marble).

Setup
– Draw a circle (or any reasonable playing area) enclosing the Galaxy
– In order from highest online rank to lowest, each put down a single planet from your set until all planets are placed.
– Lowest rank plays first

Playing
– Pick one of your planets as your starting point.
– From there, shoot the shooter.
– If you get an enemy planet out of the Galaxy, you get a bonus turn.
– If you got one of your planets out of the Galaxy, your turn ends.
– If you get no planets out, your turn ends.

Winning
– The winner is the last person with planets in the Galaxy

Rules
– You are allowed to knock your own planets around if you want to, but you may not shoot at the planet you are starting from.
– Knocking out multiple enemy planets in a single shot only gets you one bonus turn.
– No matter what, if you knock one of your planets out, you don’t get a bonus turn.

Have fun!
-Phil

Have you ever wondered how marbles are made? I bet you have. Here’s a video of Shannon “Snoop” Norris of Fireworx Glass Studio creating the Grand Admiral reward art glass marbles. They came out incredible, but they are near impossible to photograph because they are all 3D-inner-reflective glass stuff.

I’ve been a bit busy the last few days working on Dynamite Jack for Android. This helps out Galcon 2 a ton, because now I’ve got a wrapper for Android that will work with Galcon 2 when I’m ready for Android porting time!

I’ve also put together a beta3 of Galcon 2 that includes several new mods I made, a “Turn Based” mod and a “Bot War” mod. I’ll have some details about the API changes in the forums for the modders, I’d really like to include some user mods in a build in the near future!

Download beta3 for Windows or Mac. Please leave some feedback on the forums!

Thanks!
-Phil

Thanks for trying out beta-1! Today beta-2 is available for Windows and Mac! Here’s what’s new:

– Created an object-oriented Lua style wrapper for the modders!
– Created 3D sphere rendering for the game
– Fixed a few issues with changing your %
– Changed default res to 800×600 from 1024×768, as some people were having trouble at 1024×768. Eventually I’ll have a way to pick your screen size
– Fixed a few other minor bugs.

It takes a bit of digging around in the forums right now, but for the brave, there are already some really cool mods getting made. So check those out too!

I spent most of my time this week working on the rendering. Here’s a recap on the journey:

The week started out pretty bare. The planets were completely invisible. Ever wonder why I haven’t added “black planets” to the game?

Got a basic texture on the planets. A nice zoom in shows some detail. This is one of the Galcon Fusion textures.

Messed around with crazier styles and pink unicorns. I bet there’s going to be a Unicorn Clan in Galcon 2.

And spent days and days making some really cool planets for the magnet set I still have a bit more work to go yet.

Most of that cool crazy planet stuff isn’t in the beta right now. Lots of those things are going to be sold as “cosmetic upgrades” for Galcoins in the game, and right now I really want to focus on making a solid core game. So for now, the planets have been upgraded from the plain circles, but nothing too fancy yet!

Have fun, and thanks for being part of the Galcon 2 beta!
-Phil

P.S. Oh yeah, the whole point of all that is: I’ve been working on the planet rendering for the fridge magnet set! I’m almost done!

Sheet 2:

There are 101 pieces to the fridge set right now! I originally was going to do just a single 8.5×12 sheet, but decided that Galcon 2 is so epic that it DEMANDS two 8.5×11 sheets of fridge magnet awesomeness These are getting pretty close to what the final art is going to look like.