Games And a puzzle bobble (bubble shooter) game?

[melonZgz]

Hello there!
I've been missing for almost a year, and now I'm back and updating all my published games (some of them doing very well and others very bad at the store...). I'm having some free time this weekend, so I'd like to start a new one, just for fun
I can say that starting a new game is something like a therapy for me, because it is the most exciting and demanding, I always take it as a challenge, then the final part of the development of a game (and of every project) is something very mechanical and not very grateful...
Lets see what I've done:

There is still no check of anything, just shooting bubbles (hex map loaded from tiled), and I'm trying to get a "spring" effect (som rebound) when the bubble hits other bubbles. I think this kind of game can be interesting... everybody knows the game, and it works, as it's fun to play.

 

[melonZgz]

Hi guys.
Well, finally done all the checks of neighbors, so a color match can be done, and if it's bigger than 3 all the bubbles are popped (I guess we all know the rules here...), and the floating bubbles will fall down:

Now I still have to do a lot more testing to find bugs (there might be some cases where the algorithm can fail), add animations for popping balloons, some particles here and there, trail effect for the ball...

 

[melonZgz]

Hi guys.
While finishing the Crossy road game and updating the rest of my games, I'm having some fun working on this one. So I've remeade almost everything I had:


Too many things to remember, but I've fixed all the bugs I had (there were many...), the style has changed, there are animations, particles, trail effect, points...
I still have to add a lot of things and I'd start to work on the GUI itself, level selection (I'm thinking in a Candy Crush like style...)
And for the main screen something like this:

 

[melonZgz]

Well, I don't know how many times I've changed graphics during the development of this game... But I like how it looks now
I've added a very basic GUI, with Main Screen and a first approach to a Level selection screen


The to-do list is still very very big to even become a prototype, but it's progressing...

 

[melonZgz]

Hello there!
During the last weeks (monts...) I've been working so hard in this one.
I've added so many things I don't even remember:
Now you can fail a level, and it can be because you run out of bubbles (I've added a counter) or because the bubbles are so low that collide with the bubble to launch.
You have a functional bar at the top of the screen indicating the progress of the stage, so if you do enough points you will get the stars proportionally.
You have a bubble in reserve, and you can swap then just by touching them
Now the bubbles explode in a sequence from the starting point, with a little delay. I think this makes the difference
I've updated the way a level shows up. First the camera travels, and then the background gets blurried so the bubbles can be seen more clearly
There are 4 different backgrounds
The level selection screen is scrollable, and it repeats. In the future I will add more episodes
POWERUPS!! there are 3 powerups available: The bomb (it will destroy all the bubbles around) the color ball (it will explode all the bubbles with the same color) and the rocket (it wont stop and will destroy everything it finds in its trajectory). Each one has it's own idle animation
There are 2 ways of getting the powerups, buying them or getting them along the level.
Everytime a floating bubble falls out of the screen the bomb powerup is filled (there is the animation as the button is been filled with yellow liquid), once its full there is the popUp that indicates you that you can use it.
There is a COMBO counter. Every combo the rocket bubble fills.


The to do list is still enormous, it would include all the bugfixing and adjustments, sounds and music, and different locations (ice levels, beach, egypt...)

 

[andymc]

This looks really good. Can I ask, do you code all the animations yourself or is there some box2D functions in use here?

 

[melonZgz]

Hello there. I've almost forgotten to post here the last updates for this game (mainly focused in the multi arcade, but not forgetting this one).


At this stage of development, you may not notice how many things have been added or updated between both versions (I couldn't count the hours involved...)
Lots of animations and gfx added/updated
Different locations
"How To" screens
Static bubbles

 

[LucaMs]

Hello there. I've almost forgotten to post here the last updates for this game (mainly focused in the multi arcade, but not forgetting this one).


At this stage of development, you may not notice how many things have been added or updated between both versions (I couldn't count the hours involved...)
Lots of animations and gfx added/updated
Different locations
"How To" screens
Static bubbles

Very nice. Beautiful graphics. Really professional.
(Envy )

 

[melonZgz]

Very nice. Beautiful graphics. Really professional.
(Envy )

I don't know if I said this before, but in this game there are A LOT of graphics that are AI generated...

 

[AnandGupta]

I don't know if I said this before, but in this game there are A LOT of graphics that are AI generated...

Can you give us some hint how you do it?
I mean what query you put?
Need to understand the process to get such beautiful images from a.i.

 

[LucaMs]

I don't know if I said this before, but in this game there are A LOT of graphics that are AI generated...

I've seen your older apps too and I don't think those were made with AI either.
Also, by "graphics" I didn't just mean drawings, the animations are also very nice.

 

[melonZgz]

Can you give us some hint how you do it?
I mean what query you put?
Need to understand the process to get such beautiful images from a.i.

This thread helped me a lot:
This is the game he made
https://bestaiprompts.art/angry-pumpkins/index.html
In my case, I use ideogram, it was the first I tried, and it worked very well on generating text since it's first versions. What I usually do is basically trial and error. It has a "magic prompt" function wich can be usefull. I usually try different prompts until I see something I like, and from that you can remix the image...
In this game, AI generated graphics are: the home screen, title and button, all the backgrounds, the bubbles, the color powerup, the text (+1, +2, combo, super combo...), the hand for the "how to" screen and the particles...

I've seen your older apps too and I don't think those were made with AI either.
Also, by "graphics" I didn't just mean drawings, the animations are also very nice.

Yeah, once a graphic is generated it allways have to be treated by Gimp/photoshop. And after that, of course is the coding, for coding I've used some AI, but just to help me writing some functions, but ALMOST ALLWAYS I've had to correct things here and there

 

[melonZgz]

Hello there. I've been working on this game last weeks, and it's almost done. I think the game is ready for a first beta (some details here and there and it's done).

I've been working on the icon. I'm not fully convinced... What do you think about it?
Maybe one week and I'll launch it

 

[AnandGupta]

I've been working on the icon. I'm not fully convinced... What do you think about it?

Looks good and different to me from many existing ones.

 

[melonZgz]

Looks good and different to me from many existing ones.

Maybe too different?
I have more classic versions of it

flat colors:

3d look:

And a promo image:

Anyway, tomorrow I'll upload first beta version to Google Play, hope it won't be too long to be accepted

 

[melonZgz]

Hi guys.
First public beta finally released

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ninjagames.bubble

Something VERY STRANGE I've just discovered (yes, just after releasing it) is that it runs faster in devices with 120Hz screen. I promise you all that it worked OK until yesterday in all my devices. Anyway, I've allready fixed it, so it will be fixed in the next update, I hope it will be very soon...

 

[Sandman]

I've finished all the levels, it was fun.

Do you wish for feedback on things, and if so what kind of feedback?

 

[melonZgz]

I've finished all the levels, it was fun.

Do you wish for feedback on things, and if so what kind of feedback?

Thanks for playing it! Wow you were fast, there are 60 levels...
Yeah I'd love some feedback.
First of all if you find bugs and things like that. If it's smooth or it freezes somewhere. If everything is OK (I know it only runs ok at 60Hz)
Second: did you like it? Please be honest here. Gameplay, music, etc. (Translations, text, etc)
I'm a solo developer, and as such there are times when I may not see things that are obvious to others, or maybe the difficulty is not OK
Of course ideas. They are more than welcome!

Something VERY STRANGE I've just discovered (yes, just after releasing it) is that it runs faster in devices with 120Hz screen. I promise you all that it worked OK until yesterday in all my devices. Anyway, I've allready fixed it, so it will be fixed in the next update, I hope it will be very soon...

I reply to myself. I bought a new phone last month, wich has a 120Hz panel. I thought that it was running ok at 120Hz, but I had it configured at 60 Hz!, so all my test devices have been 60Hz devices. I accidentally changed it to 120Hz yesterday (still don't know how I did it accidentally), but I just noticed it won't run ok.
FYI, it's because I use next code in the render event:

...
World.Step(1/60, 8, 3)
...

So it will run OK only when the refresh rate is 60Hz. I should use:

...
World.Step(deltatime, 8, 3)
...

But now new problems appear: as I'm using A LOT the .applyForceToCenter function, and it depends on deltatime, because a lot of strange things start to happen now
I think should use .applyAngularImpulse instead... or make the forces used dependant on deltatime

 

[josejad]

Hi melonzGZ.

I'm playing your game. Looks great.
I think I've find a bug. Level 11, first special ball. If you don't fire it, and just swipe your finger around it, all the balls falls and you get stuck there.

If you can't reproduce it, I will try to send you a video

 

[melonZgz]

Hi melonzGZ.

I'm playing your game. Looks great.
I think I've find a bug. Level 11, first special ball. If you don't fire it, and just swipe your finger around it, all the balls falls and you get stuck there.

If you can't reproduce it, I will try to send you a video

Found! Yet another thing to fix...