[FINISHED] Akiro the squid <3

Awesome, let me know when its done

 

Of course I will!

Today marks a year since I started working on Akiro. Well, sketching the idea happened way before, but it's now a year since I started working on it.

It started out as FlipFish, a simple idea where a fish swam in circles and dodged static objects. Then it started evolving. It wasn't just a small project anymore, I started to feel connected. I realised this will be my first entry as a game developer, so I decided to go all in.

It's gone through many phases. As said, FlipFish, but also Dodgy Drift and other mediocre attempts at being highly ranked in the App Store. It has landed on Akiro, and I hope my passion for the project shines through, and if it doesn't - it will soon enough.

I'd like to thank everyone who finds even the slightest joy in reading the development log. Just having come this far in development shows I've gone further than I thought I would, and thinking about one day completing it and releasing it into the wild is a peculiar feeling. So thank you, hope you're having as much fun reading as I have developing!

To a year of development, and to many more!

 

Woah, thats awesome!
Glad you've stuck with it for so long
2 year mark is coming up for Cosmos some time in July, gonna have to remember to look back on it that day

 

Two quick gifs, I'll keep this short cause I'm extremely tired now.


Quick animation test for starting the game.




Clicking a button (splash from button location).
Not working at all, but it's a start.

 

I only recently discovered the "WIP" board here and this is the first one I clicked on, and I have to tell you that I've really enjoyed following your progress on Akiro. I admit that the first gif I saw didn't sell me on the game because I thought it looked too simple, but your devlog was enjoyable enough that when I found a link to try the game out myself, I had to do so. And I was delightfully surprised too, because the game's unique controls make it much more challenging than it looks. I managed to get a high score of 32 and I'm damn proud of that.

 

Aww, that's to great, jester! Thank you for giving it a try, and I'm happy you like it!
I totally get that it looks too simple. It IS very simple. Also, congrats on that score, that's quite a lot!

Be sure to look around at other WIP's here, there's loads of talented people here! I'm quite a beginner myself, so if you're looking for bigger project, browse around.
Akiro is a very small project, and I think it's wise of me to not feature creep too much. I'm having a blast making it, though! You're welcome to join the journey if you'd like!

Also, while I'm already writing a post, I figured I could reveal something I've had in mind. When I release the game, I'm going to do something drastic. Not as a marketing stunt, although it could potentially be effective, it's more like marking an achievement. I'm thinking of doing something like this:

Spoiler: haircut

I was thinking about having it in all of Akiro's colors (which is currently a rainbow, but not 100% set in stone). This is quite silly and out of the ordinary for this development log, but I think it could be fun. I never dye my hair, but I figured if there's a time to do it, it's when I make my first step into indie development!

 

Oh yeah, I've checked out a whole bunch of stuff. Another project, "Scraps" is looking really cool (http://tinyurl.com/jnmalf7).

But I like that Akiro is a small project from a one-person team. I can very much relate to that, as well as many of the other things you've talked about here. While "feature creep" can lead a game off the rails if there are hard deadlines (or unrealistic expectations ), I think it's great to have a core idea that's simple but can be added to like Akiro. Like, you throw one new enemy into the mix and it's kind of a big deal, right? If you create enough enemy varieties, you might have to figure out a way to make each new game only include a certain (possibly random) set of them. But yeah, it's nice to see somebody else making something small while also being super passionate about it. I'm also coming up on a year of when I started working on my game, but I'm a little shy to share it just yet. Stay tuned for that, I suppose.

 

Feel free to share it whenever you'd like! I would love to see it. Also, have a great weekend.

 

I'm sort of procrasti-working. I really, REALLY should work on the main menu, but I'm so in the mood for drawing and listening to music. I don't think I could resist the urge even if I tried. So here's what I'm doing:


That red one is supposed to be Akiro, don't judge my drawing skills, haha. Okay, so I've been thinking...
The enemies need serious work. The only one I'm kind of happy with is the puffer fish, and still that one needs some rework, although not that much. More like small fixes, and possibly a more fluid animation.

The blue one (placeholder name: bigboy) is... dull. It works, but I think it should be more iconic. For now it just casually floats in one direction, and follows if the player gets close. One think I could do is speed it up a bit, and make it maybe curse after Akiro, or at the very least if Akiro gets out of sight - move in that direction.

The jellyfish (orange) has the same behaviour as the shrimp. It had some weird following mechanic that I have no idea how worked. But now, it's basically a big, mean shrimp.

My main thought is: I want iconic enemies. Not only that, they should be fun to dodge, and easily to recognize the mechanics on. I want the player to be frustrated if they screw up, not because the enemies are poorly designed.
That's going to be my main design issue. The player has a limited reaction range because of how the game is designed. My job is to make it fun, exciting and not repetitive.

I'm going to think a bit larger I think. Of course, I'm going to keep it as simple as possible gameplay-wise, but I have to look into making bigger enemies as well. If anybody has any suggestions, feel free to share them. What if I designed the enemies based on Myers-Briggs personality test? That could work.

 

Maybe it's time for a small update. I've been extremely lazy the last two weeks, so I can't say I've bothered to work on the game. Mostly because I just don't know what to do with the UI, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to fix the UI animations. At least I've done one good thing today, and that is reducing my ShowPanels script to about half the size.

 

This is the first time in forever I've opened Unity. I believe the reason I took a break was mainly because I have no idea what I should do, and I'm still not entirely sure. While I haven't physically worked on the game these... Two months (??!) I've thought about the direction I want Akiro to move in. I've decided I want to give leaderboard amongst friends another try. It just feels very correct according to how I envision the end result to be.

And while I'm already here, I want to thank each and every one of you who finds even the slightest interest in Akiro as a project. It means a lot. <3

 

No problem! I love following projects of others, and this is a project i love
If you can do online leaderboards (i know theyre probably hard) i think it would increase the replayability by a ton

 

For leaderboards try this: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3862 its free and easy to use.

Good luck with your project!

 

A user in the reviews commented on how packet sniffing could lead to someone abusing your leaderboard, what do you think?

 

Heya! I did try to implement leaderboards way back, but I quickly gave up on it because I didn't understand how to do it. I'd very much like to give it another try, though. Thank you for the link, Raven! I'll check it out.

Regarding packet sniffing... I'm unsure just what that is, and is it something bad?

 

basically people seeing what is being sent to and fro from your program. If your connection isnt encrypted they can probably send fake data over to your leaderboard

 

Can't you just send the data in an encryption and then decrypt it in each client?

Also its a little app, not an mmorpg, so its not that big of a deal if someone does cheat. If someone really wants to hack nothing can really stop them... accept lots of nukes...

 

yeah which is why i dont think its much of a problem
put it this way
if youre worried encrypted
if not just manually remove cheated scores yourself
and if it gets so big you cant (youre also officially a massive success) then you can just buy a better solution or have someone manage it

 

I know the feeling. My project was on hold mostly because of school, but also because I didn't know what to do with it. What it needs most is art that doesn't look like garbage, but I don't have that skill-set.

What got me working consistently on it again was making a to-do list comprised almost entirely of things that were either tiny (but nagging) issues or things that I've avoided messing around with because I thought it would be too frustrating/difficult. I hope you can get the leaderboard working anyway. It'll be a great learning experience either way.

 

Excellent idea, jester! It baffles me I haven't thought about that now that I've moved to a place for myself. I have space to make a giant to-do list right beside me.

 

It's an odd feeling not having the slightest idea what I should do. Let's just say that polishing and details are clearly my weak point right now, cause I don't know exactly what I should fix and how to make it feel correct. I could polish the main menu, but I have no idea if I should try:

The ink splat:
When the player presses a button, the ink splashes over the whole screen as a transition to another screen (choosing colors, highscore etcetera).


Curtains:
My mind gravitates to this cause it sounds so simple to implement in comparison to the ink splat, but I think the ink splat fits the theme so much more.


Or I could try to implement the online highscore. Or fix the actual game. There's tons I could do, but I have no idea what I actually should start with. I guess I should make a plan for what I should fix first, else I'm going nowhere.

 

Just do anything even if it's stupid... It's better than doing nothing. Or play the game(s) that inspired this... Maybe u will get some ideas from them.

 

I've been toying around with some main menu ideas lately. Those red sprites are 'shell' placeholders. I'm sort of imagining the shells opening and zooming in as a scene transition. I just think I have to try loads of different things, cause I have no idea what would fit perfect for Akiro.

 

Yeah trying a lot of stuff is certainly the way to go. Im on my 3rd attempt at a decent HUD xD

 

My "daily job" (not daily, I have some days here and there) takes all my energy, and it's starting to frustrate my creative side. There's been so many occasions lately where I've wanted to work on the game, but I lack the energy. Here goes a big attempt at pursuing my dreams. I'm going to fill this whole room with tasks and ideas, and I will develop and fix this game til my fingers bleed. If anything, Akiro now represents my dream job, and a shot at my ideal workday. Maybe I will never have game development as a main source of income, but I will hate myself if I don't at least try.



There's one really good thing though. I've come to the realization that I've come a lot longer than I initially thought. It feels like I've just scratched the surface, but... I only need to fix some bugs, implement facebook login and scoreboard, tweak enemies and then create music and art and I'm done... I'm ready.

 

Glad to see its come so far
It's rare to see games actually get finished

 

@Mothil
From reading your thread and following - I think you might be experiencing the results of not going through a proper design before starting development.
I'm not one to speak to this - I have experienced this myself more times than I will admit.

Seeing your struggles reminds me of past experiences - head first into a project knowing exactly what the player is going to experience - before really knowing what happens beyond the first 5 minutes of play. I've experienced this with personal and professional work.
Seems like you are course correcting pretty well - and I'm sure there are more experienced people who can give solid advice on how to better proceed and finish - from the point you are currently at.

For me - I've come into a spot where I think I'm designing better - so I have a better chance at finishing and not getting stuck in the middle and loosing motivation because of a lack of planning, or a needed change that derails progress.

Learning experiences are great in hindsight - but sometimes really suck when your in the middle of the experience.
Keep at it - take one of those stickies off the wall and plug away until it's done.
Thumbs up!

 

Splitting up the task into bitesize pieces and tackling them one by one really can help

 

theANMATOR, I so 100% agree there. I honestly do not have the slightest idea what I should be doing, I just run around headfirst until something sticks. I do have to say that using stickies on the wall might be a step in the right direction, cause it certainly helped me get a nice overview.

Thank you both for the advice, hope you're having a nice day!

 

I've been using Hack n Plan since I found out about here on the forums
Works wonders for me

 

Oooohh, never heard of that. It does look neat. I want to try it out, but I have a feeling that the wall is going to impact me more. I've found out that I'm a very physical learner, hence why drawing and doodling has always been impactful for me. I'll make sure to check it out though.

 

I like the sticky note idea. I usually just scratch stuff on a piece of paper that goes into my pocket. ahaha

 

Trello as well - I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm using it to organize individual dev steps for assets and so far it's been pretty good at keeping me on track.

 

Here's some small doodles/sketches on UI. I started liking the idea about having "ribbons" on the player portrait. Let's say for example you have your 10 friends with the highest scores. On each is a ribbon on the left with their placement (highest score, second highest etcetera) and at the right bottom is a ribbon with the Akiro color that was used.



I'm very tired now but hopefully it makes a bit sense. I can imagine this looking quite awesome in game, and I'm excited to try it out.

 

Nice, im looking forward to seeing it implemented

 

Just did a quick mockup of how I envision the highscores.

 

I'm liking the design

 

Thank you QFSW

 

Just tried a new style of main menu. Not sure if I like the "hard" style cause of how the gameplay is, but I think it looks better than the previous at least.

 

It definitely pops a lot more. The back text on a dark blue background is a little hard to see, after all. Two small observations: 1) I can't tell what that icon is next to the trophy, and 2) I'd maybe go for a different button colour. The mustard-y brown colour is, I think, pretty commonly disliked in general.

The Akiro font is great, by the way. Where did you get it? Or did you make it yourself?

 

Thank you for the feedback! Regarding the first point, it's supposed to be a quick paint bucket icon. I know it looks horrible, but it was basically just to remind myself which button was what.

I was thinking orange color because of complimentary colors, since the game is set in the ocean. I'll experiment more with it. The Akiro font was not made by me, but I can't remember the name. I googled something like "ink font".

 

I think the font is great but it needs to stay black
For the buttons how about a pale seaweed green?

 

All throughout the project, I've been telling myself that it's my first game, I have to make it perfect etcetera. I'm starting to think that maybe I should relax a bit. I don't actually need to add everything at once. I really want to add Facebook highscore list, but I think I'm going to skip that at initial release. I can always update it and add more.

I think it's healthier for my learning process at this point to just finish it and throw it out into the world. I'm a perfectionist by nature, so just the thought of releasing it with the problems it has ... aah.

But I'm of course going to fix the current small problems, and update art. Roughly, here's my worklist for now:

art:
- background (2-3 layers?)
- Shrimp Spawn animation art
- UI

music:
- sfx for everything
- menu
- level
- playAgain

code:
- fix shrimp teleport bug
- local highscore

 

Couldn't agree more
Do those things then release it, that doesnt mean your work is done though, you can carry on to improve it as you wish

 

Everything I've thought about (and frequently worked on) since yesterday is Akiro. I wrote above here that I wanted to fix shrimp teleport bug, which I fixed some hours ago, and local highscore. Both are fixed.

I also found out how the menus are going to look. Oh, and ads now play at every fifth death. Everything is starting to fall into place, and I can see the game starting to become a whole piece. I feel oddly calm, even though I know there's going to be trouble down the road. I'm just happy.

This project makes me happy.

 

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it
Stress is the worst

 

Indeed, I'm very happy there's no stress involved in this. I don't really have a deadline, so there's no reason to go all crazy about it.

 

you considering putting this on web portals like kongregate as well as free standalone builds on itch?

 

I see no reason not to, to be honest. I have no idea how, though, as mobile is my primary focus.

 

I just uploaded a quick video to showcase what I have until now. I've been playing around with UI lately, and I'd like to have some sort of wood/planks floating in the water as UI. I think it'd be cool.