My game just got released on bigfishgames.com
by Amjad Yahya · in Torque Game Builder · 07/31/2013 (7:58 am) · 7 replies
Hello everyone,
I have finally got my new game released on bigfishgames.com after months of coding and testing. I just want to share my experience with you guys - my fellow game developers, it's called "Skeleton Pirates" and it's a tower defense type of a game, but before you continue reading, please check the game video below and check out my game on BFG here
-This was my second game to be released on BFG, the first one was a match 3 game Fruit Mania, it was a total disaster, having spent one and a half year coding and hoping it will do well but I was disappointed. It was my fault, I did not build a well-established catchy game. So my advise to you: build a COOL GAME or else it will be a waste of time.
-The issues I have faced during my first and second submission were as follows:
1.Make sure that "alt+tab", "control+alt+delete" and anything that will cause your game to loose focus is handled properly (you should pause game and stop music), additionally, make sure the game will not crash when the game looses focus especially on Windows 7.
2.Change the binding "alt+enter" to "toggleFullScreen()" function, as this will cause the game to crash when pressed the first time to switch to windowed mode and then a second time to switch back to full screen, the second time will crash the game, the solution is to bind "alt+enter" to a custom function where you would use setScreenMode() to handle screen toggle.
Fixing issues before submitting will save you a lot of time, issue No. 2 delayed the release of my second game for 40 days, yes 40 days, BFG has an average of 175 games for testing at any given time.
-Expose your beta-game to different types of gamers and listen to what they have to say, I have changed some of my game parameters based on the comments of the people that I have asked to test, their comments made sense and helped me figure out what to change to make it more appealing to different types of gamers.
Finally, I would be more than happy to answer any question regarding this matter.
I have finally got my new game released on bigfishgames.com after months of coding and testing. I just want to share my experience with you guys - my fellow game developers, it's called "Skeleton Pirates" and it's a tower defense type of a game, but before you continue reading, please check the game video below and check out my game on BFG here
-This was my second game to be released on BFG, the first one was a match 3 game Fruit Mania, it was a total disaster, having spent one and a half year coding and hoping it will do well but I was disappointed. It was my fault, I did not build a well-established catchy game. So my advise to you: build a COOL GAME or else it will be a waste of time.
-The issues I have faced during my first and second submission were as follows:
1.Make sure that "alt+tab", "control+alt+delete" and anything that will cause your game to loose focus is handled properly (you should pause game and stop music), additionally, make sure the game will not crash when the game looses focus especially on Windows 7.
2.Change the binding "alt+enter" to "toggleFullScreen()" function, as this will cause the game to crash when pressed the first time to switch to windowed mode and then a second time to switch back to full screen, the second time will crash the game, the solution is to bind "alt+enter" to a custom function where you would use setScreenMode() to handle screen toggle.
Fixing issues before submitting will save you a lot of time, issue No. 2 delayed the release of my second game for 40 days, yes 40 days, BFG has an average of 175 games for testing at any given time.
-Expose your beta-game to different types of gamers and listen to what they have to say, I have changed some of my game parameters based on the comments of the people that I have asked to test, their comments made sense and helped me figure out what to change to make it more appealing to different types of gamers.
Finally, I would be more than happy to answer any question regarding this matter.
About the author
#2
I used TGB 1.7.5 to develop the game during which I have encountered some issues that were resolved with the help of people on this very forum, that's why I felt the need to return back the favor and post this thread.
The most critical issue that I have faced during the development is the slowness of the engine itself compared to native C++. I've been following the progress of T2D MIT and I think this issue has been well handled well, MIT is now a lot faster than its predecessors. Anyway, back to TGB, I have noticed that sometimes I have a cursor lagging issues when another program is running in the background during the execution of the game both on Windows and OSX, to solve this I had to rewrite some parts of the script to optimize it and reduce the amount of unnecessary calculations or heavy-duty routines, this was crucial because on BFG the customers try the game before they purchase it using a "Program Manager", this PM will affect your game in one way or another, so try not to make the same mistake.
More to come later...
07/31/2013 (9:49 am)
Thanks Simon.I used TGB 1.7.5 to develop the game during which I have encountered some issues that were resolved with the help of people on this very forum, that's why I felt the need to return back the favor and post this thread.
The most critical issue that I have faced during the development is the slowness of the engine itself compared to native C++. I've been following the progress of T2D MIT and I think this issue has been well handled well, MIT is now a lot faster than its predecessors. Anyway, back to TGB, I have noticed that sometimes I have a cursor lagging issues when another program is running in the background during the execution of the game both on Windows and OSX, to solve this I had to rewrite some parts of the script to optimize it and reduce the amount of unnecessary calculations or heavy-duty routines, this was crucial because on BFG the customers try the game before they purchase it using a "Program Manager", this PM will affect your game in one way or another, so try not to make the same mistake.
More to come later...
#3
07/31/2013 (5:01 pm)
Congratulations on releasing your game :) 
#4
07/31/2013 (5:55 pm)
Cool stuff! Well done on shipping a finished product. :) 
#5
07/31/2013 (7:38 pm)
Congrats on releasing, looks like a fun game :-) 
#6
08/01/2013 (3:09 am)
Congratulations!
#7
08/01/2013 (7:29 am)
Thank you all :-) 
Associate Simon Love
Thanks for the pointers about the issues you've encountered, I'm sure that will help others!
I'd even suggest a full post-mortem (if you have the time or desire to do so) listing what went right and what went wrong during development.
Not only would this help fellow Torque users, you might even get more people to know about the game.
Really cool to see actual projects make it to the real world!
I assume you've used TGB for this?