Blog Update 12/21/2014: Still here, plans for the rest of the year, Jelly!

      Hey everyone! As usual, I am extremely sorry for the lack of updates here on the blog. I can't believe that my last post was back in October. I feels like I have been away for a long time. I have been very busy over these past couple weeks and haven't had a chance to post an update or even work on any of my own personal projects. However, even though I sometimes seem to disappear from here I always end up returning. Returning back to my own home. My development blog.

Although I can't guarantee it, I want to try and post an update here on the blog at least once a week

some old screenshots I took from various stuff I worked on not too long ago:

      I just want to talk a little bit about whats going on. What I have going on and what I have planned. Although I haven't posted here in a while I have been working a lot in unity and doing a ton of interactive 3d stuff.  Unfortunately the screenshots I posted above are not anything for a new game or project. We will probably never see anything from the above screenshots in any thing I have coming up in the future. I just wanted to share a couple of screenshots of work I have done but never really talked about when I was away.  Just thought I would post those to make this blog update a bit more interesting though.

Also I have made the pro version of my Jack-O-Lantern app available for free now on the Google play store: Google Play: Jack-O-Lantern 3D PRO

     Anyway, I would like to say that I do definitely have a new game in the works. It won't be a big third person adventure game or anything fancy but instead just a nice simple small game. If you follow me on twitter you may have already seen these images, but here they are again in case you missed them:

    Those are just some teaser images and nothing from the final game. But as you may have noticed from the first screenshot, my next game will be called "Jelly Stack".

As we all know 2014 is coming to an end real soon and 2015 is upon us. I however am not ready to say farewell to 2014 just yet and so this new project of mine "Jelly Stack" will be my final game release of the 2014 year. Its my goal to finish and release this one final game before we never get to see 2014 again.

"Jelly Stack" again will only be a quick simple short and hopefully addicting game about stacking falling jelly squares on your plate. I plan on releasing this for Android on the Google play store and maybe even to some third party portals such as kongregate, etc

That's about all the news I have for now. So stay tuned, I will have more updates in the coming days or so and I hope to see you all (if there is anyone reading my blog) again couple more times before 2014 ends.  As always its good to be back and thanks for reading!

Doodles!

     Hey everyone! I recently added a new page on the blog called "Doodles/Sketches". You can find it above  right next to the "3D artwork" tab. This is a page I have been wanting to put up on the blog for a long time but kept forgetting about it. On this page I will post various doodles and sketches I draw over time. I really love doodling and sketching out my ideas or even just random thoughts onto paper. I have been doodling before I even learned about game development.

Anyway feel free to check it out! I will probably update this new section of the blog frequently with new sketches because doodling is just something I typically find myself doing daily.

Doodles and Sketches

Ice Cream Aliens now Free!

     Hey everyone. My 3D Android puzzle platformer game with no jumping "Ice Cream Aliens" is now free on the Google Play Store

100% free to download and play
100% ad free

 Get it on your Android device now!
Google Play - Ice Cream Aliens

 

Enjoy the game and have fun!

Release: Jack-O-Lantern 3D App

 Hey everyone. Today I released my "Jack-O-Lantern 3D" app! If you remember in my last blog post I mentioned I was working on 3d jackolantern app and I even showed a little preview. It is finally finished and available now on the Google Play store 

The app features a high quality 3d Jack-O-Lantern that really lights up + other features. I created two different versions of the app. A free version and a pro version. The free version has limited features and the pro version has full features.

Jack-O-Lantern 3D is the perfect app for getting into the Fall spirit! Don't have Halloween decorations at your home? You don't need them! With my Jack-O-Lantern 3D app you will instantly feel the atmosphere of the Fall season! 

Screen shots:

Both versions available on the play store now.
Get it here:

Jack-O-Lantern 3D Pro

Jack-O-Lantern 3D Free

 This is my first ever Non-Game app release. Jack-O-Lantern 3D is a interactive 3d novelty/toy app that gives users their very own jack-O-lantern. My goal was to create a high quality well polished 3d interactive Jack-O-Lantern app for Android devices. I gave myself a one week time frame to create the app from scratch from start to finish. I created everything from 3d models, graphics, touch controls, mechanics, to the app icons, user interface (UI), etc. I really wanted to deliver a well polished app that looks both visually appealing and professionally done. This was a great project for me to take on and I think it shows how far I have come as a developer. I had a lot of fun creating this and am really proud of the final results. I look forward to creating more apps similar to this and aim to deliver the same quality and polish with my future apps and games. Thanks for reading and I hope you check it out.

Enjoy. Have a great weekend!

Preview: 3D Jack-O-Lantern app (100th post!)

     Hey everyone. Today I want to showcase a little bit of what I have been working on this past week. This is going to be my first Non-game app (yesterday I wrote a blog post discussing that I would be focusing on creating some non-game apps)

Anyway I have been posting some screenshots on my twitter about this lately over the past couple days. For the Halloween spirit,  I decided to create a 3D Jack-O-Lantern app. I started it over the weekend and have been developing it bit by bit. I plan on finishing it up and releasing it before the end of this week so very soon.

It will be a very simple 3d interactive novelty/toy type app that gives users their own jack-o-lantern in a nice 3d scene.

                      (In Blender3d, model with two different textures, light and normal)

                     (In Unity3D engine with bumped Spec Shader)

The app will include various small features that users can tweak and interact with. I am still working on implementing them at the moment but overall I am almost finished with it.

For now you can check out the beta web player build here: 3D Jack-O-Lantern Beta Build Demo

There is a lot of other features I have already implemented but did not include in the beta webplayer build. So expect more in the final version. 

My goal with this app is to focus on creating a very well polished high quality interactive 3d scene. So focusing on high quality graphics and high quality 3d models is very important this time around. I want to deliver something that is visually appealing and is nice to look at.

That is all for now. As I mentioned earlier, I plan on finishing this app and making it available on the Google Play Store for android users by the end of this week. I look forward to it and am having fun creating this 3d jackolantern!

Thanks for reading. More soon.

Off topic: Wow this is my 100th blog post here on blogger! Its been crazy. I have a lot more posts and am here to stay for a long time. I want to take a second to thank the people behind blogger for creating this service. I love blogger and I plan on using it for a long time. So thanks people at google and people who create blogger!

Non-game apps, smaller ideas, android dev and rapid development

Hello once again everybody.

Today I want to talk a little bit about what I have been planning, what I have been working on and what types of projects I have coming up in the future.

More Android Dev:
I have been focusing on the android platform for the past couple game releases and plan to continue developing more and more apps and games for this platform. As I mentioned in a older blog post, the android platform and the mobile market have been a huge area of interest for me and I really enjoy creating applications that users can run off their favorite devices. Whether its their phones or tablets. It just feels nice to create something that runs on a portable device and can be taken anywhere with that user.

Another reason why I have recently been focusing on the android platform is because of the ease of access. Its different than web, pc, mac and linux platforms. What I mean is, once I create an app and publish it to the Google Play store or other app store, its really easy for tons of users to access it, download it and try it right away on their device. It feels more available to users. Having something published through the app store for mobile devices just seems more convenient than it would be if it was on a desktop type platform. There is a lot of other reasons why I am focusing on android now but I think I am starting to ramble now and I don't want to make this a long blog post. Bottom line is, I really love developing for the mobile platform now and see myself releasing many apps/games just for android in the future.

Non-Game Apps:
Speaking of apps and the mobile platform, recently I have been having a lot of ideas for a bunch of small apps I want to create. These new ideas are actually not necessarily game ideas but instead just various small interactive non game ideas. I have been creating games and only games for nearly four years now and I truly love doing it but I kind of want to start branching off from games and create non-game apps now. Just various ideas that I have that I think are really cool or would make really cool apps. I want to put the skills that I have acquired throughout these years creating games to use and try my hand in a different area of development.

What kind of non-game apps?
So I have a ton of ideas for a variety of non-game apps that I want to develop. There is really no specific way of explaining what type of app these ideas will be because these ideas vary from one another and each one could be described in its own way. But I guess that I could say that some of these non-game apps will be more like "toy apps", "novelty apps", "simulation apps", "random apps", "3d interactive apps", "interactive art", etc. They are just going to be these small, fun little ideas that I will pull out of my head and create in app form and then share with everyone.

What tools for development will you use?
Off course, I am going to continue using the unity game engine and blender3d. The same tools I have been using all these years. I think that the unity engine is a perfect tool for creating pretty much anything. Its not limited to games creation and already actually a lot of people have been using unity to also create non-game apps. Unity will always be my tool of choice when it comes to game development, app development, interactive development, etc.

On Rapid Development:
I have a lot of ideas and I want to pump out as much as I can in the fastest time. Through the experience and skills I have gained throughout these years creating games, 3d modeling, animating and publishing I have kind of adjusted, created my own workflow and became a fast efficient developer. Once you truly understand how to use the software and tools and spend years practicing everyday you naturally adjust, you learn how to do things faster and more professionally. I have also learned to down size projects. Keep them simple. They don't have to be some big complicated project that should take months to complete. They can be small and enjoyable. I never liked spending too much time working on one single project. I have done it before many times in the past with previous game projects. For example, "Hide-n-Seek Winter" one of my older games, was the biggest project I ever created so far. It took me four months of development to complete the entire game. And of course I am really proud of completing the game and finishing it and publishing it, part of me was really happy that it was finally over with. Four months of development on a single project is really long and a lot of work for one person. So now, I plan on spending as little time as possible creating my new games and apps. A week (7 days) will probably be the most. I plan on rapidly developing the app within a week time frame and publishing it the same week then moving onto the next idea. There might come a time where I release a new small app every week now and that is something I actually really look forward to doing.

Will you still create games?
No need to ask such a question. I will always create games. I love creating games and am very passionate about it. Just because I want to work on non game stuff now doesn't mean I won't make games anymore. It just means that I will be creating even more content plus games. I have a lot of non-game app ideas but also I have just as much or maybe even more small game ideas that I also want to create. Sometimes, I might even have moments where I am working on both a non-game app and a game app together at the same time!

So that is all for now. I am very very excited. I love developing and creating my ideas. Bring them to life and sharing them with the world. I look forward to showing what I have coming up and can't wait to get these ideas out there.

Thanks very much for reading. Stay tuned! More updates coming soon.

Release: Ice Cream Aliens (Android)

Hello Everyone! Today I bring you a new game to play on your android devices!

My 3d puzzle platformer game "Ice Cream Aliens" is now available on Google Play Store

Get It here: Google Play: Ice Cream Aliens 

App Icon:

 



















Description:
A challenging 3d puzzle platformer game without any jumping! Meet aliens and get the ice cream at the end. This game is intended to be difficult and only the best of the best players can reach the end and earn their ice cream!
 
Hardcore platforming lovers this is the game for you.
-No Jumping!
-No checkpoints, falling will bring you back to the start!
-Tricky puzzles!

Although its a short game, reaching the end will not be an easy task! You will loose many times! Guaranteed!
So, do you accept the challenge? Will you be able to overcome the this stressful platformer? Or will you pull out all your hair in the process? You want your ice cream?!? Your going to have to earn it in.....Ice Cream Aliens!

Screenshots:

 


Earlier a while back I did say that I would be porting my LD30 game entry over to android. Finally, I got around to doing that and now "Ice Cream Aliens" is available to play one your android devices!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the game!

Hello! I'm back.

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Last time I posted was after submitting my entry for the LD30 competition. Its been over a whole month since my last post! Anyway, that is going to change because I am back once again and have a lot of projects planned for the future. Mainly mobile game projects, but this is talk for a different blog post. For now, I just want to say hello to everyone and let you all know that I am still here and still creating games and 3d stuff and all that other good stuff! (I mean, if there is anyone out there who reads my blog and is interested in what I do of course).

Although I did not post in over a month, I did create something not too long ago actually. I didn't want to get rusty with my game dev skills. Around the beginning of September, I created  a really small project I call "Hello". This is not really much of a game. It was more of just a small weekend project I did for fun. It is a game I use to kind of show of my game dev skills and introduce my self as a developer. If you remember a long time ago I created a small "Welcome to the Blog" project that welcomes people to my blog. This "Hello" project is similar to that.

Anyway, In this extremely short game, you explore a small city with trees and chirping birds and must collect the letters to spell out the word "Hello". After that the game ends.  It is "Hello", nothing more and nothing less.

PLAY IT HERE (Webplayer)

You can also download an android version of the game here: Hello - Android

Controls: Click the screen to move the character around. (Same for touch screen controls)


ScreenShots:

That's all for now. Once again, it's not really much of a game or big project but it is evidence that I am still here :)

So Hello everyone again! I am glad to be back. Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post. As I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of projects planned that I want to get working on.

Thanks for reading. More soon.

My first Ludom Dare experience + 48hour Game Entry

      Hey everyone! It has been a crazy fun weekend. I finally participated in my first Ludum Dare challenge ever and it was a great experience!

If you are an indie game developer like me, I am sure many of you might have heard of Ludum Dare. If you haven't heres some info. Ludum Dare is a really well known challenge/competition to the game dev and indie dev scene. Developers are given 48 hours to create a game (solo) based off a theme that was voted on by the community. There is of course other challenges such as a team challenge and mini challenge and I think a couple other ones too, but I participated in the solo 48 hour challenge. The challenge started over the weekend and ended this past Sunday.

Anyway, as I said earlier, this was my first time ever competing in the LD challenge. I have always heard of it for the past years and even checked out some older entries a while back but never participated until now.

The funny thing is, I wasn't even really planning about participating. I just came home that day, signed into twitter and all I saw was tweets from various people posting their progress on their LD projects. It caught my attention and looked really interesting to me so I said to myself "Alright, I'm in!".

The theme this time was "Connected Worlds". A really awesome and cool idea for a game theme. I actually recently tried out a couple of other peoples entries and there are some really good ones out there. Really creative entries posted by a ton of other indie developers. I encourage you to go check out some of entries and give the devs some support. You can check out the entries here: LD30 entries (there is a lot!)

What did I make?
For my entry, I made a game I like to call "Ice Cream Aliens"
A challenging puzzle platformer game without any jumping! Venture off to various colorful puzzle worlds that all connect to each other, meet aliens and get the ice cream at the end!


Game Screenshots:

You can play it directly in your web browser Here: Ice Cream Aliens - Web(LD30 Version)
Also you can check it out in my LD page HERE

Controls:
     -Move with WASD or Arrow Keys
     -Use mouse to click on some objects

How to win:
 There is different colorful block worlds that all somehow connect to each other. Each block world is different and has a different puzzle that you must survive. The aliens you meet a long the way might give you some hints. Jumping in this colorful block world is illegal. Falling off will start you from the first block world. Your goal is to get the delicious ice cream at the end. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

Experience and dev notes/progresss:
     I had a little less time than 48 hours because I had actually started a day late. I have never worked so continuously and non-stop on any other project before. I just felt like I had to get it done. It was a great feeling to complete so much game dev work in one single sitting. I actually did not plan out any of it. I made up this whole game randomly as I went.  I would just go ahead and add each new idea to the game that came to me without even thinking about it. I didn't get to some things like adding sound fx or music or creating proper menus for the game, but the rest is all there and I am proud of it.

     Through out the time that I was working on my entry I would occasionally drop by to my LD page ever couple hours and write little blog dev notes/current progress updates/post screenshots of what I was doing or got done. If your interested you can check out those entries over here on my LD page:
 
Ludum Dare - Snowconesolid

The tools I used to make this game:
   -Unity Game Engine
   -Blender3d
   -Gimp
   -Unity Playmaker


Closing Thoughts: 
     Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the final game I created. I even say somewhere in my LD blog entries that I think it (Ice Cream Aliens) might be one of my favorite game projects I have ever created. It was challenging and fun and really pushed me further as a game developer. Of course the game is not perfect do to the time constraint but I am really happy with it. I think sometime in the future I want to go back to my game, polish it up and update it or build more to it and release it again. This was my first LD but I defiantly don't think it will be my last. I look forward to participating again sometime in the future. Ludum Dare 30 was a great experience and I wish everyone who entered good luck!

Thanks for reading!

More soon!

 

Release: Beach Ball Shooter Android!

     Hey everyone! I have finished porting "Beach Ball Shooter" to Android. Just as promised in my previous blog post.

The game is complete and now available for free on the Google play store for android users to download.

You can get the game here:
Beach Ball Shooter - Google Play

or easily find it yourself on the app store from your android device.

Had fun porting this and learned more about android dev. Gained a bit more experience from this project as well.

Beach Ball Shooter is now my second published Android app. Its a really short and easy game but I hope you enjoy!

More Android news and game dev news coming soon! Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Snowconesolid Games + Android, Plans for mobile platform!

     Hey everyone! Today I want to share some news and my future plans on where I am going next with my game making interests, although I am pretty sure that the title and the image above give off a little idea.

 Games and apps on mobile platforms have always been exciting and interesting to me. Last year around the beginning of 2013 I became a licensed android app developer and published my very first mobile game to the Google play Store.  That game was "Revolver Finger". It wasn't very good, controls were a mess, graphics were poor and the game was full of bugs. Although my first android app had many problems I was proud of it and happy that I completed the project on my own and published it on the app store. That game was more of a learning experience and starting point for me to dive into mobile game development instead of a serious attempt to create a mobile game app.

Since the release of Revolver Finger I have kind of shifted away from mobile development and began focusing on PC and web game projects.  During that time period I have created a number of much better quality games and released them for various platforms. I have greatly improved my skills in many areas of game development and now I am ready to come back to mobile platforms.

So now I am going to be shifting my focus back to mobile game/android app development. Does this mean that I will not be making any more Pc/web games? Of course not. This means that my games will now be available on one more extra platform and that they will be portable! I will still publish titles for as much platforms as I can. Using the unity game engine, its easy to make games cross platform. However, I can't guarantee that all my future games will be cross platform. Since I have picked up an interest for mobile app development I have come up with a number of small mobile game ideas I want to create that will most likely be exclusive to android. Most of my games will still be cross platform though.

Whats the next big Snowconesolid game plan?

   Before I get into any of my new game ideas I want to work on porting a couple of my older game projects to android. Doing so will give me a little bit more experience working with android and publishing and at the same time make some of my older PC/Web games available on the go!

Currently I have been working on porting my most recent game "Beach Ball Shooter" over to android.

I already have set up touch controls and created a test build of the first level from the game. I got it running on my Galaxy S3 and everything seems to be working nice and smoothly.

Here is a video of beachball shooter running on my S3:

I am almost finished porting Beach Ball Shooter over and I plan on making it available on the Google play store in the next day or two. So real soon.

Once I port and publish BeachBall shooter over to the Play store I will begin porting over another game which I will announce in a later blog post.

That is about it for now. I am very excited to develop for the android platform once again and I look forward to sharing my games/apps/ideas/creations with everyone!

Thanks for reading. More updates soon!

Onion Duck!

My most recent artwork and original character. "Onion Duck"

Created entierly in Blender. Rendered in cycles.

I'm planning on using my Onion Duck character and creating a simple android game from this idea I recently had.

I might show some progress on development in the next post or so.

Something random, coming soon...

     Put together this really small teaser web demo for a really random game idea I am currently working on staring my "Bag Face" character.

Try it HERE

I am looking forward to showing more about this project in upcoming posts. As I just mentioned, its just a game I am randomly putting together.

Stay tuned for more updates soon!