They are really frustrating to debug, because I can't use the gradients I was using either because the custom colors aren't supported, HTML just inherently doesn't do gradients over large areas or some other mystery that remains mysterious at the moment. It's the gradients that I thought gave the game a little extra polish. The other option is to draw the gradient rectangles using GameMaker Studio...take a screenshot...edit the screenshot in MS Paint or Gimp...save the rectangle & finally port the rectangle into the game. 

If that doesn't seem like a big deal keep in mind I would have to do that for each position of the rectangle as it gets hit by enemy weapons. So we're talking 20+ rectangles, in a separate color scheme for the Laser, Shield & Quantum energy bars, for each available character skin. That's a no. It's too much work for too little pay back. If you want that nuance in the graphics of Aviator Quantum, the HTML platform might not be the most enjoyable experience for you, so check out the working demo on Steam!

​http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663837373

If you haven't read the earlier posts, I'm a first time game dev, which means that a lot of the subtle nuances of the different platforms are more like what heavy body blows are to a boxer. It doesn't mean that a loss is imminent, but it is wise to take a step back and reassess things. Here is a list of the things that trying to port to HTML has taught me.

Save/Load - Why put a save/load feature in a demo you ask? So I can test that feature with the beta testers instead of releasing the game. I don't want gamers emailing & tweeting me about how the game sucks because their save files were broken, or worse they don't tell me the feature is broken AND they tell other gamers not to give Aviator Quantum a try at all.

Not a big deal to take it out you say? Actually in terms of game architecture it was. I coded an automatic save feature that initialized every time the player died. That code had to be removed. The entire screen that asks the player if they want to start a new game, load a saved game, or delete their save file had to be removed as well.  The score was saved as well every time the player died, that had to be removed as well.

I put some unlockable skins in the game as well as a teaser/reward for playing the demo to it's entirety.  With no save feature, those skins are just teasers now. Do you sense the domino effect now?

Plus all the deletion code & buttons had to be deleted as well.

UI - The code that handled what the player saw on screen was designed for PC users(both Mac and Windows, though getting an Apple dev license is going to be it's own post coming soon) & mobile users. NONE of that code is necessary in coding the HTML version of the information display.

Good news: Not a whole lot of thought process needed, because it was really a whole bunch of deleting switch statements that I commented & formatted on the front end.

Bad news: A lot of the code that I put in to make the game accessible to multiple platforms has to be removed. I'm looking into how to keep the letterbox effect I have because, all the devices that have internet access don't have hardware keyboards. So far, I haven't figured it out. 

Debugging - Debugging HTML is a bit of a chore, because I have to upload a zip file EVERY.   SINGLE.    TIME. Having a notepad helps, but if the game crashes, I can't make a note of every single error in order to fix all of them in one fell swoop.

So why go through all this trouble? Because HTML has the easiest hurdle to clear in getting your game to the masses. Just about everyone in Western civilization has access to the internet. No specialty platform or operating system needed like Steam, Android, iOS, PlayStation...etc. Hope this was educational. Until next time or some other time... 

I'm a first time game dev and I'm having trouble figuring out what platform to launch from. The wonderful thing about Gamemaker Studio is that it gives me so many platform options. Sometimes the worst thing about Gamemaker Studio is that it gives me so many platform options. What I mean by that is when I began this game was a PC game, but I felt like I couldn't make the graphics justify it being on PC. So I switched gears and developed the game with Android mobile & tablet devices in mind. That's why you see the touch screen buttons on the side in my demo videos. However sites like idevgames.co.uk, Steam & itch.io have me rethinking yet again. Now there's no rule against a multi-platform release, but I'm going to be honest. I'm a one man dev team & I don't want to troubleshoot multiple platforms at the same time. Maybe I'll do a Twitter poll and see what happens...Stay tuned!

So I'm going to level with you guys & gals. I've been working on this game for almost three years before I launched this site. So this blog wasn't really going to be a true reflection of the producing process, but it will be a window into the PUBLISHING side of things because that's where I am in the game dev process. The core game is built, if I want to add levels, enemies, cutscenes it's just a couple clicks and some code.  So from here on out this blog will be dedicated to the publishing side of things. Yay!

Hello World! This is the traditional initial greeting when it comes to programming. I have been working on this game since the summer of 2013. It started off a tutorial I found on Youtube. The tutorial was about how to make a 2-D space shooter on this software a classmate was so excited about. That software was Gamemaker Studio & that tutorial will be linked at the bottom of the entry.

When I started I was a noob at programming, art design & game design. All I knew was I enjoyed playing video games. I always had a curiosity about why the games I enjoyed didn't have certain elements, features or mechanics.  I honestly started this journey as a coding exercise so that I could put one more skill on my resume. What ended up happening was the beginning of the game Aviator Quantum.