Universal App is a Go Go!

Well I finally got around to testing if "Phoenix" is playable on iPad, and what we saw was good.   There does not seem to be any problems with it, although I did not test on The New iPad, I did test on the retina iPad simulator,  and from what I saw, everything should be A OK :)  . We are now implementing our first 25 levels, once that has finished we will split the game into two projects (free and paid). 

We finished our social network integration code, in the end we opted for the easy way,  similar to a tweet/post button on a website.  This seems like the easier option, until we can get our hands on the Facbook/Twitter iOS API,  which when we can, will be one of the first updates in the game.

Also we spotted a few minor bugs during our alpha testing, and those have been rectified, which is great.  So we anticipate to finish the first 25 levels by the 9th July, and we will be passing the Lite/Free version on to our beta testers, and hopefully there won't be any major bugs.  I anticipate the testers to have a few comments on some improvemetns on the game (which is expected really), and we will take all onboard.  All improvemetns that we feel that are necessary we will do, but for other not important, we might keep them for an upcoming update.

Whilst testing the other day, we got an idea for another game mode or even a different game entirely but with the same graphics.   We thought this idea was crazy and fun,  and we thought it would be an amazing iPad only game (seeing that the screen space much larger than iPhone/iPod).  We have decided to make the new gamemode an upcoming project for the end of this year, and codename "Phoenix-Assemble".    We might include a different version of this idea in "Phoenix" 2.0, which we will optimize for iPod/Phone.

Hopefully in the next few blog posts I can post some sort of image as a teaser for you guys.

Cheers,

Lite/Free version nearly complete

In the last week or so I have been working hard trying to complete the major bits of code that is stooping us separating the App to one Full version and a Free version.  Yesterday we finished what I think was the hardest bit of code left to do, and all that remains is the finishing touches on all first 25 levels (first 25 will be on Full and Free version), a few graphics for world select and a touch up on some features to get it running smoothly.  I anticipate by next week sometime, we can get the free version into an Alpha testing state, we might even go straight to beta with the free version.  If all goes well, I'll go and add iAds in straight away.

For the full version, once we have completed the split between full and free, we have a lot of work to do.  The major part of this work is the GameCenter Leader Boards and Achievements.   We have decided on the achievements we were going to create, but no graphics have yet to be made for the notifications, badges and no code as been implemented to track the achievements.

We also have to create further 50 levels for the two extra worlds that are bundled in the full version (we are discussing adding extra levels in each world before release).  Once the free version is out in beta, I'll get straight to work with the achievements, as it seems that will be the most time consuming and most problematic.

We will also be testing the universal app feature with the free version, if that goes well, we will most certainly be introducing "Phoenix" as a universal app for all iDevices.

I have also been working on trying to get proper social integration working on my app so that users can post their score on Twitter or on Facebook.  I have spent a lot of time trying to sort it out, but kept running into problems, so it looks that a smooth social integration will be off the cards for now, and I will stick to the old simple way of social integration.

The difference being that the simple less hassle way and the proper integration is just a url that passes a string to twitter and allows the user to post.  The downside of this is, the text appears in an editable box, so the user can type anything he/she wants, which is not desirable really, but if they wan't to cheat that's fine.

The way I was trying to get it was, that it was passing certain variables from the app to my webserver, a php script would be dealing with the request, and send information back and forth between the app and facebook, but it proved to be too big job for me.

New Website is up and running

I have been busy this week developing the new Gwef Tech website, It is now up and running for all to see.  I will be keeping the site more up to date than I previously did, alongside my blog and social network accounts.

Our aim so to give our existing and potential customers enough information on our upcoming projects.  By doing this we hope that they will see that we are hard working people and we aim to finish our jobs efficiently and at a high standard.

Please follow our social accounts:

Twitter - http://twitter.com/GwefTech
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gwef-Tech/123256927729340
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/gweftech

We will be updating these accounts on a regular basis (eventually) and we hope that we get a good following so we can interact with all and share upcoming projects.

Just a quick update on "Phoenix" - We are starting our draft advertising graphics now,  and are adding a few features in the game before sending out to alpha testers.  We have decided to finish the free version first before working any further on the full version.

That's it for now,  Thanks,

Gwef Tech