This game was picked up and featured in a blog post by TouchArcade here Yes, I did plan to launch it last November -- but it's been a challenging and unpredictable year. The game will come out when it's fun enough for you to enjoy! Developer background: My name is Michael and I've been making games for companies like Gameloft, Storm8, Jam City, and others for several years. Before that I used to make indie games for Kongregate.com, Newgrounds, and other Flash gaming portals. Human Puzzlepede is my first solo mobile game, and it is built entirely in Stencyl as a free to play commercial product (monetized by advertisement and IAP). It encompasses a lot of what I've learned into a new experience that should feel new and familiar at the same time. I hope everyone will enjoy it, and I appreciate the support so far! Original Post Hi TA, This game is called Human Puzzlepede and I've been working on it for almost 2 months now as a solo project. I'm hoping to release it sometime in early November! The basic concept is that you don't have a lot of control over the character, but you're trying to guide him through each level without dying of starvation or being killed by any obstacles. The game will be free to play and monetization will occur through advertising as well as being able to purchase coins which are used for continues. As you can see from the video, coins can be easily earned in-game, but the cost of continues will be high enough that you will not be able to collect nearly as many as you would want to be able to, and the later levels become very challenging. I'd love to post the results of the game here on TouchArcade including my retention and monetization numbers for the benefit of the indie community Cheers, Mike EDIT: New Screenshots added April 2017 -- see my post in the thread for details about this project! Thanks! EDIT: New GIF added June 2017
Thanks rezn! Im trying to take creative liberties after spending a few years feeling constrained by product managers (But not you, Quang -- if you ever somehow see this, you're awesome) and game industry executives. Here's a few more gifs of gameplay!
Nice! It has a really good sense of humour - I'm loving the text at the top, it gives it a nice bit of character! I'd worry about hit boxes and my finger on a screen - say I was using an iPhone 5S - however. It all looks a little too zoomed out but it's really hard to tell until you try it so you'd know better than me!
Been doing a lot of work on the game, probably going to push back development a few weeks, but I'm happy with how it's going! Thanks for the support! You can see some videos of development on my instagram where I'm trying to make regular development updates: https://www.instagram.com/mgribbin/
New Updates: 2017! Hi toucharcade! This project has taken considerably longer than I had hoped, but it has continually evolved into a smooth product that I think could actually generate some revenue! I'm hoping for feedback on the new art style, it's not fully implemented but as you can see I am taking it in a more casual arcade puzzle direction as opposed to the original very minimalist 8-bit style pixel art. Do you guys think this is a good way to go? -Mike April 10th 2017 Alpha Build
More new graphics After playing around with many styles I've arrived back at pixel art. The colors are intended to evoke the warmth of CRT televisions in the 80s and specifically some of the colors of Dr. Mario (my grandparent's favorite game when I was a kid). I originally planned this game to release in November 2016, and now it's looking like November 2017 is more likely, but it's actually quite fun and I can't wait to have other people play it and enjoy it! I've learned a lot, and not least I've learned that after many years of making games I am still fully incapable of predicting the time necessary to make one
Thanks both for the support! I originally planned for this to be a small game, but as you can see it has gotten away from me. It's still probably only about 50-65% ready for launch, so I'm expecting something closer to August right now, but it seems like I keep moving the goal post as long as I can find more runway time to develop with! If I had infinite money I think I would work on the game forever and forget to release it! Here's a look at the net obstacle and some bombs!