Made some progress finally!

[Adam Schmelzle]

Finally got to sit down and work for pretty much a full day yesterday. I made solid progress on my multiplayer server, and should be at a point where I can at least test some basic functionality next time I get the chance to work on it.

Things have been so crazy lately that chances are looking slim for a June 1st release, but if all goes well it's still a possibility. I only have a little over 2 weeks to finish it if I want it out by June 1 because of gamejump.coms once-a-month release policy.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Yay, I've now had 2 whole days in a row to work. I have my phones connecting to my server, and sending/recieving data. It shouldn't be very long before I have a fully working 2 player online version of the box game. Probably by the end of the day.

I may just change the name of the game to "Attack Online", or something like that. This way, I'm not really restricted to 3 games, and can simply add more as time goes on without changing the name. That or I'll release each online game separately. I could have the online box-game out by the end of the month if I don't add any of the other games right away. This could also make for a reasonable test of the online play.

Any thoughts? I'd really like to have something new out there sooner than later. If I put something in the game that announces when updates are available, that should be enough right?

I also think I'll put in an "ad" for my own games at the start, just before the loading screen. If I advertise my games within my other games, it could increase the downloads significantly of newer games as well as the ones that are far down in the download lists. I did some tests by actually using the advertising system through gamejump.com, and got a good many clicks. I was around 15->20% click-through. Since my games are played 5000+ times a day, that could mean something like 750->1000 additional downloads, which would increase the players, and in turn more plays, and even more downloads.

I hope seeing ONE more add before playing isn't too much of a hassle. Since it's only going to point to my web-page(s), I don't think it'll be a big problem.

Nobody's posted in quite a while, despite having almost 200 members now. Come on, somebody must have some thoughts on the matter.

[maach]

Woo hoo! Was much fun watching the two cell phones keeping up to each other as "the other one" was played on.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Now to work on graphical fiddlyness...

[hooble]

It's ALIVE!!

I got the nio server working for socket support in Midp2.0 phones! On my high-speed phone, I have a ping under half a second, so it's pretty much real-time! On my Sanyo 6600, it's got about a 1sec delay, but it's not an EV-DO connection. I of course have much more work to do, but I can now join and play games between any combination of phone, Midp1.0 or 2.0 using http or sockets.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Server is much more robust now. At the end of the day yesterday, things were a little shaky. I've added in everything that I need on the server end to be able to re-join games if you get disconnected now. Just some work on the client side to finish that up.

I'm getting worried about how well my server will hold up when the game is out. My connection speed to my server is terrible ever since I moved. I'll likely have to find somwhere to host my server if the game is at all popular. At least the bandwidth shouldn't be terribly high-need as far as servers go. I should be able to get away with the cheapest service I can find.

Anybody have any suggestions? I have never really looked for hosting before, so I have no idea who's good/bad. I need to be able to run my own apps off the server, so I will need remote desktop/console access.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Players can now re-join games if the connection is lost, or the phone gets shut-off accidentally. I still have a bunch of special-case catching to do, for situations like: trying to join non-existing games, saving results of games, notifying clients of problems etc...

It's coming along.

[Adam Schmelzle]

The size of this game is creeping up. I'm over 50KB without ads now, so it's no longer going to be 3-IN-1, but 3 separate games. The first of wich will be the box game.

I am aiming to have the box game ready for next months release period. To meet that deadline, I need to be done by the 15th, which is less than 2 weeks from now. It'll be close if I want to implement all the features below...

What's left?
1. More testing for online gameplay.
2. AI for single player(still not 100% about doing this).
3. Interface cleanup: it's not pretty right now.
4. Record keeping. I don't currently have online scoring for the box game yet.
5. Stat tracking: # games playing, most players online at once, # games played, # players online
6. Spectator mode? Watch others play.

..if it's not ready for the 15th, it won't be out until August At that point though, I'll likely be able to release the other games that were originally scheduled to be in 3-IN-1.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Win/loss tracking is just about done. I am working on the score display right now...

[Adam Schmelzle]

Win/loss tracking is finished. Just havn't finished the look of displaying the current ranks.

I am looking at the June-15 deadline, and realizing that it's not going to happen. I could have this game 'finished' any day, but I would really like to have it tested thuroughly before release. If I give myself that extra month, I'll have time to do everything without rushing, and it'll be a better game. The one part that bugging me is the AI. I'll need several difficulty settings, and I don't want it to be too easy/hard, so that's going to take tweaking time that I won't have if I want it done by next friday.

Sorry folks

On another note, the advertisers stats tracking hasn't updated for the last couple days, so I don't have any idea how well ABC is doing after its Tuesday night release. I hope I can find out soon, as I would like to know how much work to put into it before friday.