GEISHA NOVIA - Ever wanted to be a merman geisha?

[Skomakar'n]

Video summary of days #29 through #41!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt2pPRn30Yg&hd=1

English subtitles have been added. Just turn annotations on to see them.

Despite the vast amount of days that span this period, I have unfortunately been short of time to make many substantial updates. Otherwise there would have been more videos already.

News include:

* Day and night with a sad sun and a freaky moon.
* A meter for the upgrade, to know when to stop driving into rocks.
* Little labels constantly showing up as points are received, to see how much was given.

[eatcomics]

That mermaid character is extremely fun to watch. He looks like my brother swimming in our pool...

[Skomakar'n]

That mermaid character is extremely fun to watch. He looks like my brother swimming in our pool...

Hahaha. Sounds like a big pool.

[eatcomics]

That mermaid character is extremely fun to watch. He looks like my brother swimming in our pool...

Hahaha. Sounds like a big pool.

It is rather large, but not quite unending level with obstacles large...

[Skomakar'n]

Hello, hello.

There are reasons for this project to have suddenly gone from active updates to complete silence for quite a while now, and I am sorry for this. Partially, the reasons have been personal, but not all of them.

First off, the problems with the achievements have persisted, and after some personal contact with Apple crew, it still hasn't been solved. Then, at the beginning of this week, my OS broke down, and I had to reformat my computer, which took a while as external drives were messing up and whatnot as I was recovering files (I still have all the game code and everything else, so don't worry about that).

After the fresh install, however, I couldn't get my tools back up and running properly to compile my project and run it on the device, and after another day of failures I decided to be rash and I updated to OS X Mountain Lion. Having updated computer and phone to the latest stuff, I figured the coöperation should once again be flawless, but no. Xcode is crashing on startup. I've mailed back to my Apple contact, but there will probably be no reply until after the weekend.

I figured I could do some graphics that are left in the meantime, but no luck there either; no version if GIMP, installed from download or MacPorts, will work in Mountain Lion.

I'm trying my best to get back on track again, but I wanted you all to know that the lack of updates have been due to lots of misfortune lately, and not because we've given up. This sucks.

[Skomakar'n]

WE'RE BACK ON TRACK!



Above is a picture snapped moments ago, showing that the game is once again up and running. After probably more than a week of battling with computer reinstallation, linking errors and the hounds of hell, I can finally get back to work and finish this lovely game off. Will perhaps even the achievements work right off the bat now? I haven't dared check yet.

I am happy!

[Skomakar'n]

Decided to type something quick up before bed. Back on track we are indeed. However, I have just gotten a full-time employment that started this week, meaning some means to fund Royal Railway, but also very little time to work on the game.

Geisha Novia is nearly done, and I do work on it every morning and evening as I ride the train to and from work, which gives me about 90 minutes each way, and then I have about 30 minutes when I get there, as I always come early, and don't have to start working for them right away.

The following remains:

* Store scores and achievements for later upload if no networking is available when they are scored/unlocked. This is actually more complex and time-consuming than it sounds, and I will need more time on the train for this.

* Some more graphics for the background, to make the game a little more interesting in general.

* A nice, big loading screen to display when booting up the application.

* The final music and some more sounds, which is not in my hands, but in Erik's.

This means that there isn't really much to show as we progress right now, because the caching of player data will take a while with such scarce coding opportunities, and the graphics will too. I may show a video before release if the graphics are done before the music, I guess, but once again, this may take a while – just don't think I'm not working on it, just because you're not hearing much from me.

If the payment from the employment is sufficient and enough remains when I've dealt with the necessary things to pay, I may end up getting an Android device for development too.

To show at least _something_, here's the shiny castle that Novia now swims out of at the beginning of the level every time it restarts; it's not a sequence, but just a foreground asset, so this has in no way increased the time it takes to reset and get going again. I've simply added the image to the game world without changing anything else, and it takes about a second to get out of there.



In other news, I tried my hand at making a HTML5 canvas game last week, and ported my simple C++ platforming engine:

Click here to open up the page.

I've noticed that it's possible to jump once in mid-air after dropping off a ledge. I've forgotten to set/reset the relevant variable. Might fix this some day. Move around with the WASD keys. It's not much.

------

I hereby also deeply apologise for just posting in my own thread and nowhere else, but I really don't have the time for anything but work right now. ._. I need to get to bed right away.

[Skomakar'n]

Geisha Novia has been submitted to Apple for review!



I will fill you in with details on all of the news eventually (I want to find myself a proper screen recorder for the phone), and will keep you updated on the review process.

[dandymcgee]

Congrats man! Exciting stuff. Keep us all informed of your progress.

[Skomakar'n]

Thanks!

[Skomakar'n]

Nice. I wake up, and my colleague has set up a Facebook page for the game, and I'm already posting messages there as 'Geisha Novia' rather than myself. Well done, Erik.

http://www.facebook.com/geishanoviagame

[superLED]

Sorry if this is already written somewhere here, but how much will it cost? If it's not too much, I most serantly will give it a try :D

[Skomakar'n]

Sorry if this is already written somewhere here, but how much will it cost? If it's not too much, I most serantly will give it a try :D

It's a 99 cent game like most of them, so practically free! That'd be awesome. :D

[superLED]

Sorry if this is already written somewhere here, but how much will it cost? If it's not too much, I most serantly will give it a try :D

It's a 99 cent game like most of them, so practically free! That'd be awesome. :D

Sounds awesome!
Good luck with your game ;D

[Skomakar'n]

Thanks! I will try to record the game tonight, to create a promotional video.