tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41242449893336878402024-03-05T02:15:22.666-08:00Granny CoderiPhone games programming from unusual perspectiveMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-50894678087397261962010-02-17T02:59:00.001-08:002010-02-17T03:03:00.451-08:00Gelex is free!Hello dears,<br />my game Gelex is free on AppStore now! My publisher decided to offer the game for free so you can download it if you did not do it yet. Hope you will like it! Go and grab one copy for yourself. Let me know how you like it...<br /><br />Bye,<br /><br />MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-46050900331943663722010-01-13T13:11:00.000-08:002010-01-13T13:13:47.456-08:00Buy Gelex now a get 66% discount!Hello dears!<br />My game Gelex is <span style="font-weight:bold;">on sale</span>! Get it now and get 66% discout. So hurry up to get your copy of my game for your iPhone and iPod: <a href="http://itunes.com/app/gelex">http://itunes.com/app/gelex</a><br /><br />Hope you will like it. Let me know...<br /><br />By, <br /><br />Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-52831832009680486852009-12-04T02:29:00.000-08:002009-12-04T03:14:18.270-08:00Ready to go!Hello kids,<br />Gelex is available on <a href="http://www.handjoy.net/get-gelex-on-itunes-now.php">iTunes AppStore</a> all around the world. I don't know what more to say. It's here, it's free, there is <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/12/1-day-to-go-contests.html">contest</a> running and here is brand new trailer:<br /><br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yds-x9NAtmU&hl=cs_CZ&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yds-x9NAtmU&hl=cs_CZ&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /><br />I love this video even if I am not the author. Handjoy did it to promote the game.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.handjoy.net/get-gelex-on-itunes-now.php"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 55px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidaPwLD8tKTE1AeJIVQMWv9DvAMAq3r4lo5sU6bB3nm0h5_Pq25d8iF5VUCW8ftfqejoKAZKnwhQGbaQXwpt6wy8g7sNqkuXz02VYoisS0PXc0TIS41rv_B6muYt4bOKxISVUHtbqjWOZv/s400/appstore.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411329761533956546" /></a>Yesterday was really nervous and busy day. And Gelex was already available in some countries! Firstly in New Zealand, then Japan, Australia and so on. It was really excited to watch. Now it's everywhere :)<br /><br />Today's post is just short article, but I wanna mention one more thing. Gelex is free to download, we all know that, but if you like the game, having fun playing it and want to support me or think that I should get something for my effort? Then you could donate something through PayPal donation, which Handjoy created for this purpose. But it's completely up to you, if you don't like the game and think it's worthless, then nobody pushes you to do anything :)<br /><br />Thank you for reading, I hope to see your Gelex highscores on Facebook.<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-45911699624164333632009-12-03T02:53:00.000-08:002009-12-03T06:13:47.886-08:001 day to go! - ContestsHello kids,<br />It's here. Tomorrow is the D Day. But before that, there are some things that need to be done and said. Well, you probably know what I am talking about. Firstly it's our already running <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/11/and-what-about-price.html">price contest</a>. And secondly it is brand new competition (which I mentioned <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/12/2-days-to-go-facebook.html">yesterday</a>) where <span style="font-weight:bold;">you can win exclusive gifts</span>!<br /><br />But first things first. As you probably remember, 3 weeks ago I've announced on my blog new <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/11/and-what-about-price.html">contest</a>, where you will decide what will be the starting price for Gelex. It was also said, that if you really want Gelex for free, it's gonna happen. And I am happy to announce, that you've made a great job and the game will be for free! Here is the final result:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbwNri87jLFMMTQe-RY5SAhWX-ZG29u57I3A3Fr61pGXAlBIn3ojO20_9WEu6O0_egjoLak8I7AofavkavfdEYF-eHHbH0xfmdGs19-k4EK5a6DbwcIHxzSxX5FwKSqMTc1EJ_Lo6EH18/s1600-h/googleResults.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 53px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbwNri87jLFMMTQe-RY5SAhWX-ZG29u57I3A3Fr61pGXAlBIn3ojO20_9WEu6O0_egjoLak8I7AofavkavfdEYF-eHHbH0xfmdGs19-k4EK5a6DbwcIHxzSxX5FwKSqMTc1EJ_Lo6EH18/s320/googleResults.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410961611322559330" /></a><br /><br />1 600 results is enough to make the game free for first two days after the release. But I've convinced Handjoy to make it <span style="font-weight:bold;">free for whole weekend until Monday!</span> That's awesome and I hope you won't miss this opportunity to get Gelex without any doubts. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJddD43RIvyo5W5D2l2wi5hcNL-ymr61BmwCNCiBmNhGnWstGtMpqsCz6Lsi1yK9j0j93yKAs-97BnQP6Vg1Zg4ddqDCX-H-i-btqjZD13ekTvs5nxHmYdWklzWZ1u3JJEcYWU4GFnvsA/s1600-h/FBoption.PNG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJddD43RIvyo5W5D2l2wi5hcNL-ymr61BmwCNCiBmNhGnWstGtMpqsCz6Lsi1yK9j0j93yKAs-97BnQP6Vg1Zg4ddqDCX-H-i-btqjZD13ekTvs5nxHmYdWklzWZ1u3JJEcYWU4GFnvsA/s200/FBoption.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410969643282741778" /></a> <span style="font-size: 20px;font-weight:bold;">Gelex competition on Facebook</span><br />In conjunction with Handjoy we have prepared another contest, which will start tomorrow, when you start playing Gelex :) This competition is very simple. You need to beat all other Gelex players, earn the highest score in the game and <span style="font-weight:bold;">win great prizes!</span><br /> <br />If you wanna participate in this competition you need to do following steps:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiid-fyF5SlM7q9D21uIpCYKflk4gbzNLU6xLo3ORZuK3rRgez5rBVbnOrY_QlTvALpMRcErCWfVSWzyg0z1u6c_DULL5goS-RlnY3fMbIWHB_Iype3xkFpmp-X6Nr2iCgSMM95MnRi0MjS/s1600-h/boast.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 171px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiid-fyF5SlM7q9D21uIpCYKflk4gbzNLU6xLo3ORZuK3rRgez5rBVbnOrY_QlTvALpMRcErCWfVSWzyg0z1u6c_DULL5goS-RlnY3fMbIWHB_Iype3xkFpmp-X6Nr2iCgSMM95MnRi0MjS/s200/boast.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410970041558457618" /></a> • <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000566767792">Add me</a> as your friend on Facebook<br /> • <a href="http://www.handjoy.net/get-gelex-on-itunes-now.php">Download</a> and start playing Gelex :)<br /> • Connect Gelex with your facebook account (In Gelex options menu click on Facebook icon and follow instructions. It's very simple.)<br /> • Play Gelex and try to reach best score you can :)<br /> • When you finish your game, boast about your score on Facebook (click on Boast button on “Game over screen”)<br /><br />The first step is very important, because if you don't add me as your friend then I will not see your Facebook message and you won't be involved in this contest. So I advise you to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000566767792">do it now</a> :)<br /><br />This contest ends after this weekend. On Monday I will announce winners and Handjoy will send you your prize. And what are the prizes? Well here it is:<br /><br /> • 1. Place – The Highest score: <span style="font-weight:bold;">40$ iTunes</span> email gift certificate<br /> • 2. Place: <span style="font-weight:bold;">20$ iTunes</span> email gift certificate<br /> • 3. Place: <span style="font-weight:bold;">10$ iTunes</span> email gift certificate<br /> • 5 random contestants will receive promo code for Handjoy's iPhone game <a href="http://www.itunes.com/app/Jumboo">Jumboo</a> (1,99$)<br /><br />So what you think? I think you should try it, there is nothing to lose.<br /><br />Bye bye and be prepared for tomorrow :)<br /> MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-72282230005211502312009-12-03T00:18:00.000-08:002009-12-03T00:31:11.811-08:002 days to go! – FacebookHello kids,<br />When I started this blog, it was just for one purpose> to let people know what I'm doing and maybe to help some of them start doing something similar. So obviously I wanted to inform people about my blog, that it exists and that they can find here some (maybe :) ) interesting information. But how to do that? All I've heard and read was -> you have to be on Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and maybe other social networks to be known and your blog to be known.<br /><br />Well, I've listened to that advice and created my Twitter account and started writing there. I also created my YouTube account and with help of my grandsons I've created some videos and put them there. But no Myspace, no Facebook. You couldn’t find me there and I was not planning to change it in the future. <br /><br />But I still felt, that if I wanna spread Gelex world wide as much as possible, I need to somehow connect at least one of these social networks with the game or this blog. It was shortly after that, when I found out, that many other iPhone games use Facebook integrated to them. You know the story already -> I started searching and learning more about it :) The result is <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php?tab=iphone">Facebook Connect API for iPhone</a> – small code and some libraries, which you can easily integrate into your application.<br /><br />With <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php">Facebook Connect API</a> you (as a programmer) have access into users' accounts (of course only if they agree with that) and use it for various purposes. The simplest one is to write some new status message (again, only if the owner of that account agrees with that). More complicated are things like take information about all your friends and compare your game score with theirs. In the game you can see all your facebook friends and compare with them.<br /><br />So I've integrated Facebook API into Gelex, but for now only the simple way. That means -> if you finish your game, you can easily boast about your score in new facebook status message and ask your friends to beat it. You can see how it looks like on the picture below:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinB8d5aEQpgIcb3LuzVtjhdCjHp5EVa2nl7jUsF0v1-QEKdZOTWjhvJc2DjN3D55sIf85eVJ4TSqC5wjnTX6tVcQuYBQu2An6BjHmozLB7Y-wu3O3n8R9IYiX36kr4QtXBNqy7EgOgqR7B/s1600-h/FBboast.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinB8d5aEQpgIcb3LuzVtjhdCjHp5EVa2nl7jUsF0v1-QEKdZOTWjhvJc2DjN3D55sIf85eVJ4TSqC5wjnTX6tVcQuYBQu2An6BjHmozLB7Y-wu3O3n8R9IYiX36kr4QtXBNqy7EgOgqR7B/s320/FBboast.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410921770068623986" /></a><br /><br />As you can see on the picture I’ve created my own facebook account. I did that yesterday and you can add me as your friend if you want :) I can reveal you little secret -> <span style="font-weight:bold;">there's gonna be another new contest related to Facebook starting with the Gelex release!</span> But I can't tell you more right now.<br /><br />Back to Facebook connect topic :) I hope I will be able to improve it in future and add more Facebook related functions. Like achievements, this is good way to update your application and add new features. <br /><br />Thank you for reading<br /> MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-39043970167452864572009-12-02T00:15:00.000-08:002009-12-02T00:28:15.046-08:003 days to go! - AchievementsHello kids,<br />I wanna introduce you another Gelex feature which you could saw in one of my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQSLxfYHxM">previous videos</a> if you looked carefully. This new thing is -> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Achievements!</span> <br /><br />I must admit, that it was not my idea to include achievements into the game. Because few months ago I didn’t even know that something like that exists! You know, I always wanna add some challenges which would be keeping players to play it over and over (apart from trying to beat their previous score), but I was unsure how to do that. And then my grandsons came and told me: “Yeah, you should add achievements into it. It’s well known thing on consoles and lots of games got it.” So I started searching and learning more things about it. Again :) And I’ve realized that this is the perfect thing I wanna add into my game.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdcGpWwhHwozzIJVqqNhqggUAqipLW7y9J9QNG3HNaz-C2IWwWHGN4bbA33o3fdrzsEiAHjEI5Pih3I7oJRGHQ2PX_J50scPuvOKRCSOAu3sWzt4cPMJauBfkNNwB2ex-7QUc4foRHdFiM/s1600-h/achievements.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdcGpWwhHwozzIJVqqNhqggUAqipLW7y9J9QNG3HNaz-C2IWwWHGN4bbA33o3fdrzsEiAHjEI5Pih3I7oJRGHQ2PX_J50scPuvOKRCSOAu3sWzt4cPMJauBfkNNwB2ex-7QUc4foRHdFiM/s200/achievements.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410550472207495858" /></a>Current version of Gelex, which you could download just in 3 days! (I know ,I know. I’m annoying, but it is so close, that I must repeat it to myself again and again :) ), has got 30 different achievements. Some of them are very easy and simple, some are extremely difficult (I can’t achieve them or even be close to achieve them. But I hope you will be better player than I am. :) ) and some are just for fun, like the one where you should lose in first level to achieve it or the one where you should fill/cover whole playing field with Gelex bricks (this is also extremely difficult).<br /><br />Achievements are simply good feature you should add into your game. Another positive thing about them is that it is good for updates. I have idea about many other achievements that could be added in future updates. So instead of 30, there will be 40, then 50 or even more challenges to achieve.<br /><br />Ok kids, that’s all for now. One last thing I wanna mention -> there are still few promo codes left, so if you wanna try it before release and write about it somewhere, don’t worry to contact me or <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/11/submitted-or-not-submitted.html">Pavel</a>.<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-77428319866103768812009-11-30T08:28:00.000-08:002009-11-30T08:36:19.546-08:004 days to go! - HighscoreWe have only 4 days till the release and I still have some arrears. For example: finishing these two articles (<a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/10/social-network-system-part-1.html">first</a>, <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/10/social-network-system-part-2.html">second</a>) about online highscore system in Gelex.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG14-mGn1_HPiSc-Cw8TIk4m7oZrvdFRZZDCHdLhY-h74f9wrLQDfCA8GIfqBvU18JBCByAjg8u9aYcZYe09fuWIrnkjLF-k5tsjBhGPj2he1P0UetBcoXPOHrgAiZOvOyLRkkjWaD0yiv/s1600/highscore.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG14-mGn1_HPiSc-Cw8TIk4m7oZrvdFRZZDCHdLhY-h74f9wrLQDfCA8GIfqBvU18JBCByAjg8u9aYcZYe09fuWIrnkjLF-k5tsjBhGPj2he1P0UetBcoXPOHrgAiZOvOyLRkkjWaD0yiv/s200/highscore.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409935232256341410" /></a>Highscore in Gelex is very simple. There are 3 different tables. One for overall score, second for your best combo/chain (destroyed bricks in bonus time) and third table is handling number of destroyed bricks during whole game. Once you finish your game these data are stored into these tables and sorted. Information about date and time, when it was played, is also saved. There is nothing special about it. On the picture you can see how the result looks.<br /><br />That’s the local part. More interesting is online part. First time you join Gelex online system, you will be asked if you really wanna submit your high score. That’s little bit annoying, but Apple wants it this way. Then you need to enter your nickname. But only once (first time) and you will be never asked again (only if you want to change it). And that means not just in this game, but in any other (future) game, which will be using this system. You are represented in database by unique ID and the system is able to recognize you. So no further questions, filling forms and anything. That’s it; whole registration is just about filling your nickname.<br /><br />Right now you will see in online highscore your best score, your position in this global leader-board and few people with better score and few with worse. I’m planning to add some options to search these online leaderboards, but these will be implemented in some future update. Same thing applies to possibility compare your score with your friends.<br /><br />I hope you have better idea about Gelex highscore system now. Maybe it is just little thing for the game, but it is really important thing. At least I think so :)<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-84329485872535425832009-11-29T14:20:00.000-08:002009-11-29T14:25:15.935-08:005 days to go! - First reviewI must little bit apologize for my last article. You know, this is my private place, my own personal diary, where I should write my thoughts and opinions. But last time I was asked to make a change a put here some official promotion/presentation text about Gelex. And I must admit that it was kind of reasonable request, because lots of people came here last days to find what Gelex is all about and instead of that, they’ve found what I think about price, social network systems and so on :) So I hope you understand that it was necessary, but I promise you, that this was one and only exception and will never happen again :) There are better places to advertise Gelex than my blog :)<br /><br />Anyway, the important thing is that we have 5 days until the release day. I’m helping Handjoy with some promotion materials – some extra pictures and things like that. I’m slowly starting to plan and design some additions to Gelex for first update. Releasing updates and adding new and new things into the game is really important if you wanna keep the game alive.<br /><br />But first update is distant future and I will write about it more sometimes later. What I wanna mention today is my very first review of Gelex. That’s so awesome! There have been some previews already – English ones or in different languages which I don’t understand, so I don’t know if it’s positive or negative critique :D (I hope for positive :) ) But this is full review and it is really great. So here it is: <a href="http://diygamer.com/2009/11/tetris-foolproofgelex/">http://diygamer.com/2009/11/tetris-foolproofgelex/</a><br /><br />I wanna thank DiyGamer for it. And that’s nice end for today’s post :)<br /><br />Bye bye<br /> MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-54251361705916769752009-11-26T14:13:00.000-08:002009-11-29T14:28:37.409-08:00Gelex – Granny Coder & HandjoyHello kids,<br />This article will be used as official introduction of my upcoming game Gelex. If you are regular reader of my blog, then you won't find here anything new except the video at the end. That’s something completely new :) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">INTRODUCTION</span><br />Gelex is brand new iPhone/iPod Touch game for both casual and hardcore players. It combines physics elements with traditional match 3 concept. It is designed and fully optimized for the touch screen with easy to learn controls.<br /><br />Help crazy physicist Alex and destroy his newly invented matter called Gelex. Gelex takes form of small, quite annoying, jelly bricks and the only way to destroy them is to match them by color in special vaporizing machine. The more matches you make, the higher your score. So what are you waiting for? Enter Alex's awesome laboratory and start your helping mission.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">MAIN FEATURES:</span> <br /> • Jellylike physics<br /> • Progressive difficulty <br /> • Funny voices and animations<br /> • Challenging achievements<br /> • Online and offline leaderboards<br /> • Facebook integration<br /><br />If you like puzzle arcade games, then you will love this one!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Release date: 4th December 2009</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.handjoy.net/gelex/">PRESS INFORMATION-MATERIALS</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">PICTURES</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZwF51ECHbdmma2J1ndMKYR_OaAKOeSrNXUge2HqXWiaXN9jDjo5q72cLjfvi8iu9POQJ9Y0813oa-Wmjk2dCVuMl17bFZwQ8HtRWSzJSZBYQnOtjOqS91hQTZqxYxfrrjd6KENMvZtHT/s1600/IMG_0199.PNG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZwF51ECHbdmma2J1ndMKYR_OaAKOeSrNXUge2HqXWiaXN9jDjo5q72cLjfvi8iu9POQJ9Y0813oa-Wmjk2dCVuMl17bFZwQ8HtRWSzJSZBYQnOtjOqS91hQTZqxYxfrrjd6KENMvZtHT/s200/IMG_0199.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408546369888848994" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnVb22bE1exarSiO_hnUy6b6omzZcfSpDNEvy3cBurHwuVc9tfSS4MZVwvxLLnZ2wG4KaLHjpbPdWxWrwul8iCaOU9j1sTKfvcj3Z5HVk7I25_YjmTFAKyoFLfK0uUMISjbpmfs7NAeDN_/s1600/IMG_0165.PNG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnVb22bE1exarSiO_hnUy6b6omzZcfSpDNEvy3cBurHwuVc9tfSS4MZVwvxLLnZ2wG4KaLHjpbPdWxWrwul8iCaOU9j1sTKfvcj3Z5HVk7I25_YjmTFAKyoFLfK0uUMISjbpmfs7NAeDN_/s200/IMG_0165.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408546479346873250" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnGw68gbeCGiywzaFewrdOivljDCwQImeC45nWDWTUM4PNxuwLIA-1EpAvV27zhPJvSbHd-HmEufuNqyCgQY78iIjL21_P8HYdfzwHuOThUhTku-04TeOAHMr714e1wdWaQW7X2iw1H5VA/s1600/IMG_0209.PNG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnGw68gbeCGiywzaFewrdOivljDCwQImeC45nWDWTUM4PNxuwLIA-1EpAvV27zhPJvSbHd-HmEufuNqyCgQY78iIjL21_P8HYdfzwHuOThUhTku-04TeOAHMr714e1wdWaQW7X2iw1H5VA/s200/IMG_0209.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408546630822208898" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo5oAxlmwB0BGPExJ2Xs8bkNXkubH9LVpQo2YSkznvmTpEWTYqmCjbvmLI3AAiKtM5UB5oIXwceRaCA7W7B-LYdVwPl9zmU6vAuuHv0DGoGPc_kXx1iEZ7xq06jxPHj4m54PrYH2npfzw/s1600/IMG_0220.PNG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo5oAxlmwB0BGPExJ2Xs8bkNXkubH9LVpQo2YSkznvmTpEWTYqmCjbvmLI3AAiKtM5UB5oIXwceRaCA7W7B-LYdVwPl9zmU6vAuuHv0DGoGPc_kXx1iEZ7xq06jxPHj4m54PrYH2npfzw/s200/IMG_0220.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408546797140545170" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">VIDEO</span><br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RkTSjXZBdyg&hl=cs_CZ&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RkTSjXZBdyg&hl=cs_CZ&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /><br />Love,<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-74930071575930357482009-11-24T14:15:00.000-08:002009-11-24T14:19:33.115-08:00Approved!Hello kids,<br />This is just a short post. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gelex</span> has been approved by Apple and it <span style="font-weight:bold;">is ready for sale</span>. But don't look for it on iTunes AppStore right now, it isn't there yet. As I mentioned before, the release date is set on December 4th.<br /><br />Ten more days and the game will be out. By the way there are more than 1200 results on <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/11/and-what-about-price.html">that contest</a> query on Google. I hope you know what that means :D Gelex will be for free the day when it hits the AppStore :) And maybe even the other days. It's up to you!<br /><br />Bye bye<br /> MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-68298298314842324822009-11-16T12:43:00.000-08:002009-11-16T13:06:08.767-08:00Submitted or not submitted?Hello kids,<br />After my last blog post there is only one thing I can write today, because anything else would mean that something went horribly wrong. But don’t worry, everything went just fine and I’m proud to announce that <span style="font-weight:bold;">the game was successfully submitted to Apple!</span> and now it is in their hands.<br /><br />If you look at the picture on the left side of this blog you can find that I’ve completed all tasks including the last one “submission to AppStore”. So the project is finished. What now? Well, I’m gonna take some rest :) But right after that there are tons of other things that need to be done. I will try to write all about it in future.<br /><br />Last part of my today’s article will be some formalities which I must mention. Lots of people ask me about promo codes. I’m really happy about that, but I can’t send you them. Firstly the game is in approval procedure and it is not on AppStore yet. Because of that nobody has any promo codes yet. At least I don’t know how to receive promo codes from Apple before the game is on iTunes. And secondly my publisher is responsible for these activities so you should probably ask them.<br /><br />I’ve told them about this promo codes problem and there is very simple solution. So if you are reviewer or blog writer or anyone else who wants to try Gelex before release and write something about it, they will be happy to send you AdHoc version of the game. AdHoc version is normal version of the game and certificate for your own iPhone which gives you permission to start this application. It’s needed to know your iPhone UDID to create this certificate.<br /><br />Let’s sum it up. If you are journalist who wants to try Gelex, please contact Pavel Barak from Handjoy – his email address is <a href="mailto:barak@handjoy.com">barak@handjoy.cz</a> Send him some lovely email :) and your iPhone ID and I can assure you, that he will be nice on you and give you Gelex game for review. Of course you can write me – <a href="mailto:marie.bila@gmail.com">email</a>, comment under this article, or message on <a href="http://twitter.com/grannycoder/">Twitter</a>, but I will just resend it to him.<br /><br />And please don’t forget -> I want Gelex for free! There are more than 100 results already, but I want more :) And you should probably too. :)<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-3754289980506361752009-11-14T09:04:00.000-08:002009-11-14T09:18:02.318-08:00… and what about price?Hello kids,<br />I am very happy to announce that THE GAME is finished! Everything on Gelex is set and done and I will submit it tomorrow to Apple. I’m still asking myself – will people like it and enjoy it as much as I do? Is it good enough? Shouldn’t I add something more into it? But the main question in my head is: What about the price?! So here is an article about it :)<br /><br />From very first day of my game development journey I was sure, that this is just my hobby, I’m doing it for fun and mainly to prove, that I can do it. So it is not surprising, that I planned the game to be for free and I still think that it should be for free, but the guys from Handjoy still trying to convince me, that the game is good enough to be commercial. They say that it is even better than most other commercial games on iPhone. Hehe :) I don’t believe them a word :)<br /><br />But I know they are putting money into marketing. There is professional trailer in development and other things that can’t be done without money. So here we have little dilemma. And of course I was little bit arguing with Handjoy about the price. But in the end, we have found the conclusion -> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gelex will be for free!!!</span><br /> <br />But there are conditions... like always :) The game will be completely for free, but just for limited time after its release. And only if people will really want it for free :) And how to prove, that you really want it for free? It’s simple. Just write anywhere on the internet message> <span style="font-weight:bold;">I want Gelex for free!</span> You can write it into YouTube comments, various discussion forums, on your twitter/facebook page, on your blog, write article about it or into comments under some other article. Simply just anywhere :)<br /><br />If the Apple approval procedure will go smooth, the game will be released on Friday the 4th of December. The day before (Thursday) I’m gonna search Google using the quoted query “I want Gelex for free!” (This whole sentence with quotes. <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=en&q=%22I+want+Gelex+for+free%21%22&btnG=Hledat&lr=&aq=f&oq=">link</a> ) and the results will set the price. Right now, there are no results on Google. So, people have nearly 3 weeks to change it :)<br /><br />And how many results there should be? Well, Handjoy wants the game for 2,99$. I want it for free. Together we’ve agreed that:<br /><br /> • 50 results on Google -> Starting price will be 1,99$<br /> • 100 results on Google -> Starting price will be 0,99$<br /> • 500 results on Google -> Gelex will be first day for free (Friday)<br /> • 1000 results on Google -> Gelex will be for free on Friday and Saturday<br /> • 2000 and more results on Google -> Gelex will be for free whole weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and maybe Monday in the morning :) ).<br /><br />So if you are waiting for Gelex and want it for free, then here is your chance. I hope you appreciate my effort in lowering the price as much as I could. Handjoy would make it for 2,99$ without comments – bad guys. Hehe. No no, they are great, but sometimes they must stop thinking only about business :)<br /><br />Bye bye my dears<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-22714515416830686822009-11-08T13:59:00.000-08:002009-11-08T14:04:51.356-08:00Beta version in action (+video)Hello kids,<br />This time I won’t write too much, because I wanna give you something better. It’s brand new video that my grandsons created last week. You can see there beta version of Gelex from start to finish. That means – short intro, menu with little sneak peek into help section, little bit of ingame play and menu again, but this time another section. Here it is:<br /><br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/joQSLxfYHxM&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/joQSLxfYHxM&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /><br />So, what you think? I’m spending so much time with this game, but I still love to watch it :) I hope you enjoyed this short video preview as much as I do.<br /><br />Love<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-4891756736389343132009-11-05T12:15:00.000-08:002009-11-05T12:24:43.175-08:00Silence before the stormHello kids,<br />After 3 weeks and something I have finally time and energy to write my new post. I don’t know how to apologize for such a long pause. But you know what? Maybe it is like silence before the storm :) Because storm is coming! It has a name and that name is Gelex! Even my Jasmina is excited about it :) I have so many great news for you that I can’t wait to write about them.<br /><br />First of all Gelex is in final stage of development. It contains all elements I wanted to be there and right know we are just testing it. Yeah, I said “we” and that’s right, because of second great news -> I’ve got publisher! Can you believe that? Me, old lady, who just wanted to prove, that even in my age you can do something like that. And now, after few months, my game is nearly finished and there is someone who will publish it to the world! They just read my blog and after that decided to contact me. It was few weeks ago, but everything was so unsure that I didn’t want to write about it earlier. But now we have a deal and I hope it will help Gelex find a way to more people.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.handjoy.net/img/minilogo.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 146px; height: 139px;" src="http://www.handjoy.net/img/minilogo.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>The publisher is <a href="http://www.handjoy.net/">Handjoy</a> company. They are also from Czech Republic, so it was easier for me to communicate with them. They are such a nice people. This weekend they will be presenting the game on <a href="http://www.gds09.cz/">Game Developer Session</a>. It’s amazing! They even helped me with some last parts of development - especially with sound effects and music. But I will write about it sometimes later.<br /><br />I wanna write more but I must keep something for tomorrow :) I hope I will be able to write every other day like before. I also wanna thanks to all your support, it’s marvelous. Thank you<br /><br />Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-89061247376203196402009-10-10T01:09:00.000-07:002009-10-10T01:26:29.908-07:00Social network system - part 2Hello kids,<br />Oh my dear! Nearly one week without any new post on my blog! Finalizing the game takes me so much time, that I’ve completely forgot to write some fresh news here. But don’t worry, I’m fine and Gelex is really close to finish. It could be like two weeks or little bit more and it’s gonna be done.<br /><br />I would like to continue with the topic about “social network systems”. As I’ve <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/10/social-network-system-part-1.html">already said</a>, they are fine, quite easy to implement (as far as I know) and they offer a lot of functions. But these positive information you can find easily on their web sites. What you can’t find so easily is – what’s wrong with these systems. Like:<br /><br /> - Visual customization – you must stay with the design and visual style they have done, even if it’s completely different from visual style of your game<br /><br /> - They don’t guarantee you anything – now it’s free, but if they decide to change it, you can’t do anything about it. Or if they decide to put advertisement into it. Or if they go bankrupt or something and close this service. Part of your game simply depends on somebody else and you can’t really control it.<br /><br /> - Too much functions – when I’ve seen <a href="http://www.openfeint.com/">OpenFeint</a> for the first time as a user (in game <a href="http://johnehartzog.com/projects/stickwars/">StickWars</a>) I was so confused. I just wanted to put my high score online! It’s like – you wanna buy small car for shopping and going around the city, and they give you spaceship :) I don’t need that.<br /><br /> - Useless functions that make it even more confusing – like that chat function. It has no reason for that game (<a href="http://johnehartzog.com/projects/stickwars/">StickWars</a>) and it was kind of confusing (at least for me) to enter a room and find other people to chat with.<br /><br />For me all these negative things I’ve mentioned are just small problems. Sometimes you can even avoid or solve them. In some systems the visual style can be changed, if they put advertisement into the system, you can switch and implement another one; some systems offer you possibility to make them as simple as possible with just one function. So, there is a way, how to deal with all these problems. But there is one thing that I really hate; it is in all social networking systems and you can’t avoid it anyhow.<br /><br />It is registration process and the need of making some account. For example: you as a user play you favorite game and you’ve just made a huge score and wanna impress the world with it. So you click “submit” button to put it online. But hey, there is a login screen! You don’t have any account like that, so you spend next five, ten, maybe even more minutes registering – filling all those forms, confirming that the email you’ve entered is valid (so you probably need to turn on you computer and check the email), waiting for activation and so on. Just because you simply wanted to put your score online.<br /><br />Maybe it’s a banal thing, but for me it really matters. I don’t want to bother players. If I’m playing a game I wanna have fun, not to be bothered. Like in the game <a href="http://www.firemint.com/flightcontrol/">Flight Control</a>. I really love it and I admire <a href="http://www.firemint.com">authors</a>. There is online system that is exactly what I’m talking about. You wanna put your score online? No problem, just click submit, enter your name/nick and it is done. In few seconds! And if you want to control your score from PC, to have an icon and other features, you can register and make account. But only if you want, if not – the system can deal with it anyway.<br /><br />But for my bad their online system is not for public. So I had to invent my own system. It’s already implemented in Gelex and it’s working great – that means the way I wanted :) Next time I will write more about it and what features it brings to players. Thank you for reading.<br /><br />Bye bye,<br />Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-5986304767596889362009-10-04T03:09:00.001-07:002009-10-04T03:23:11.787-07:00Social network system - part 1Hello kids,<br />Few people asked me if I'm going to implement some "online social network system" into Gelex. And I was like: "What is it? I don't know what you mean?" So I started searching the web for some information about that and after a while I've realized what these systems are, that they are mainly for handling online score and…. that I'm NOT going to use anyone of them. And here is story why.<br /><br />There are quite a few social network systems (or frameworks), which can be implemented into your application. Some of them are free, some open source and some are just commercial and you must pay for using them. Right now many iPhone games use <a href="http://www.openfeint.com/">OpenFeint</a>, <a href="http://corporate.scoreloop.com/">Scoreloop</a> or <a href="http://plusplus.com/">Plus+</a> system.<br /><br />The main purpose of social network system (which I’ve found) is to handle online high score. You can compare your results with other people all around the world. These systems are closely connected with facebook or twitter and (for example) you can compare your score with your facebook friends, which played that game too. You can also send some kind of challenge to your friend. That means that you send them invitation to play that game and that invitation includes your highest score and he/she must beat it.<br /><br />Social network systems usually offer much more - like chat system, where people can talk to each other online. But this functionality is not really useful for the game. At least for games I've been playing.<br /><br />Overall I think it is quite good thing to have system like that in your app. But I’ve decided to create my own high score online system with features that fit exactly a needs of Gelex. <br /><br />Next time I will write more about reasons why I have decided for my own system and how the system works. That’s all for now.<br /><br />Love,<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-21286936131156148782009-10-02T10:18:00.000-07:002009-10-02T01:34:53.608-07:00Creating main menuHello kids,<br />Today I've got lots to write about and some pictures to show you, so let's move straight to the topic which is main menu of Gelex.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ab9UD18gvC_2atVx3gYiN7f0tWnMHEpBq3B8KU0Qtb3k7s2ImorABxQNq5dwLPjFluRCSy2qBxzXrb2DEIEmNVwEPVYZv2ME9evp0gU1gQ9Mjeb04766vcKsEfD6Y24-F3P57hqqMoNF/s1600-h/vedec_stoji.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 143px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ab9UD18gvC_2atVx3gYiN7f0tWnMHEpBq3B8KU0Qtb3k7s2ImorABxQNq5dwLPjFluRCSy2qBxzXrb2DEIEmNVwEPVYZv2ME9evp0gU1gQ9Mjeb04766vcKsEfD6Y24-F3P57hqqMoNF/s400/vedec_stoji.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387915657383565234" /></a> Firstly I wanna remind you one of my last article, where I was writing about the story. I've showed you some sketches of the physicist. Here you can see new visual look of him. He still doesn't have a name, but this picture is final. There will be some sort of "introduction animation", in which he will be playing the main role. You will see whole his laboratory and part of this room will create perfect place for main menu screen.<br /><br />I've already drawn whole laboratory, but for today I will show you just the main menu screen. Here it is:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TM1gz4eJ0Z9F3b0quhXSRuq3Eei4RbnKIL98SygDSXeLHvH-l_fqN7nvRHg1wLfwD6_ylX1SPK8XbTxg3y0jAMIHrY56Z_4Zw5Ct0GBsUWosfW2SRYixZ_DXzz1zrjVu2uwsexy-62E8/s1600-h/bg_menu.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TM1gz4eJ0Z9F3b0quhXSRuq3Eei4RbnKIL98SygDSXeLHvH-l_fqN7nvRHg1wLfwD6_ylX1SPK8XbTxg3y0jAMIHrY56Z_4Zw5Ct0GBsUWosfW2SRYixZ_DXzz1zrjVu2uwsexy-62E8/s400/bg_menu.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387915885366278722" /></a><br />From the picture you probably get idea how the menu looks like. But let me describe few more things:<br />- the flip chart is the place where you will see all these menu items, but it's quite small. So there will be some kind of "zoom trick" when situation needs it.<br />- name Gelex will be animated in some bouncy jelly way :)<br />- physicist will be little bit animated - he is alive not a statue :) - and he will be pointing at the place where you touch the screen<br />- there will be some Gelex bricks and they will be interactive - you can grab them, move them, throw them away :)<br /><br />As you can see some of the menu parts are useless for the menu purpose - like the physicist's pointing or Gelex bricks. But I hope people will like that there is more than just few simple menu items which start the main game or setup some options.<br /><br />Ok dears, thank you very much for your support and if you want, write me some name sugestions for the physicist.<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny Marie Marie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-11237559507840330372009-09-27T08:15:00.000-07:002009-09-26T23:15:30.907-07:00Evolution! (+video)Hello kids,<br />it's been really busy two weeks and Gelex made huge step forward. With all these polishes and optimizations I've implemented, the game plays and feels much much better. At least for me :)<br /> <br />As I've promised before I've prepared new video where you can see all these new things in motion. On top of that you can see some elements which I didn't mention yet:<br />- numbers for score now have an animation when they change<br />- there is an animation when you make combination of same colored bricks<br />- new animation for faces when they are destroyed<br />- there is implemented level system - after you destroy some amount of bricks the game becomes harder - you can see your progress in the upper left corner - the green "level window" slowly turns red, if it's all red you will go to the next level<br /> <br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QtxOZd7c5VA&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QtxOZd7c5VA&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /> <br />If you watch the older video and then this new one, on a first look you will feel that it is still the same game. But on a second look you will realize (I hope you will :) ) how much the game has changed and I like to say "evolved" :)<br /> <br />For me the ingame part of Gelex is complete. I know, I know there are still no sounds, but I will deal with music and sounds in the end. Right know I'm focusing all my skills on one thing -> The Menu!<br /> <br />If you've read interview with me on <a href="http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG%2EBiz/Gelex/news.asp?c=15588">PocketGamer.biz</a> (I really wanna thank Jon for this opportunity and the article!) you would probably know, that I want my main menu to be more interactive, more animated or simply just more fun. Wait for the next article and you will know more how I wanna achieve that.<br /> <br />Love,<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-37088134868226547872009-09-23T08:50:00.000-07:002009-09-26T06:20:16.076-07:00How to polish your game - part 3Hello kids,<br />All these polishes I did last week are great, but i was still feeling that it needs something more. So i decided to add one more animation. It's related with score system and I didn't explain that system yet, so I write about it today.<br /><br />The score system is quite simple, but it's kind of tricky, because it is the key to master the game and earn lots of points. So here are the rules:<br /><br />1) if you make combination of 3 bricks, you will receive 3 points - first 3 bricks are worth 1 point each<br />2) when you make any combination, timer for bonus will start counting - it is represented by yellow tube<br />3) each destroyed brick will give you one second to the bonus timer<br />4) if you destroy more bricks than 3 in bonus time, each brick is worth one more extra point - fourth one is worth 2 point, fifth one 3 points, sixth one 4 point and so on<br />5) When bonus time is over, bonus score ended and starts from the beginning. Game will save how many bricks you've destroyed during that bonus time as "combo"<br /><br />So your goal is to keep destroying the bricks shortly after each other. I hope you get why :) If not, wait for the game and after few games of it, you will understand the rules.<br /><br />I've mentioned combos - how many bricks you have destroyed during one bonus time. Each time you make any combo (at least 5 bricks destroyed needed) you will be awarded with some evaluation/rating. These are just text messages, but I wanted them to be more attractive. And here comes the last polish I've made.<br /><br />The idea of this effect was simple. The text is made from Gelex matter that will splash on your screen and then flow off it. Here you can see the result:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/741/gelexgood.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 265px;" src="http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/741/gelexgood.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />What you think? Isn't it cute? :) Maybe it looks simple, but it was quite hard for me and took me lots of time. But I'm happy each time I make a combo and see this little animation. :) Sometimes I really wish to see it more often. But you know, then it wouldn't be so special :)<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-15101923646426421192009-09-19T07:48:00.000-07:002009-09-19T07:54:53.042-07:00Optimizations - part twoHello kids,<br /><br />As I promised you in one of my last posts I’m going to tell you some more information about optimizations in the code. Last time I ended at the situation, that physics processes took same time as the graphics ones. I’ve realized that I can’t do much more with the physics. So the only choice was to find some ways to optimize drawing functions.<br /><br />I wouldn’t say that it is some kind of real optimization, but it’s more like write the code better way :) My intention was to minimize number of calling glDrawArray function, because it takes quite a bit of time and I was calling it so many times – ineffectively. So I tried to put as much images as possible into one triangle trip and drew it in one single call of glDrawArray.<br /><br />Next thing I found out was that it is much more efficient to calculate coordinates of vertex by myself compared to using OpenGl transformation functions and to join some objects into one triangle strip through degenerated triangles, instead of drawing them separately.<br /><br />I can guess that my experiences won’t help much other people, but what could really help is <a href="http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/technotes/tn2008/tn2230.html">this guide book</a> or <a href="http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/3DDrawing/Conceptual/OpenGLES_ProgrammingGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40008793-CH1-SW1">this one.</a> Both of them were very useful for me and other programmers can find there information that can improve their code.<br /><br />Ok dears, thanks for reading my today’s post.<br /><br />Bye<br /><br />Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-20294963787406770202009-09-15T13:22:00.000-07:002009-09-15T14:33:45.808-07:00How to polish your game - part 2Hello kids,<br />I wanna continue in my last article about polishes that will improve the visual look of my game. Last time I managed to add some changing colors into the square field. This time I tried to add some animations to make the background more alive.<br /><br />As you will see, all those new things are just small improvements, but as a whole (I think) it boosts the quality of the game a lot. So here is the list of new things:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_rtiL3Iu2Ch19aY8OmVGDxV3p_Vg3lc0qbUFCLwezfknsKUHQKdSkM6quxHwcH6lURcEoOSzD4U0el1CJCsJM4mreLXe840EtewHMq6LFCnJ3_XbkmVshiPOvGtpXxgrV_aRbwan22SG/s1600-h/door.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 75px; height: 75px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_rtiL3Iu2Ch19aY8OmVGDxV3p_Vg3lc0qbUFCLwezfknsKUHQKdSkM6quxHwcH6lURcEoOSzD4U0el1CJCsJM4mreLXe840EtewHMq6LFCnJ3_XbkmVshiPOvGtpXxgrV_aRbwan22SG/s400/door.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381599474845580418" /></a>1) Door over the “next brick view” window – each time you receive a new brick to control, there is an animations of closing and opening door.<br /><br />2) Lights above this (1) window – when there is door animation, the lights above it start flashing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgrY1p6ERvfIVXurGb9bYfJgnzTzNkznrTSLMd6TBr0h9IHWhyM2jCJ6w5NQbZ9UU09RLIkzn-JI6UsAT7BSKaIpbUA_-_93ZlrJJOCjlu04T0HjmmDQ5cB0umV3Qa-V_7h78gN5OfwUi/s1600-h/bubles.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgrY1p6ERvfIVXurGb9bYfJgnzTzNkznrTSLMd6TBr0h9IHWhyM2jCJ6w5NQbZ9UU09RLIkzn-JI6UsAT7BSKaIpbUA_-_93ZlrJJOCjlu04T0HjmmDQ5cB0umV3Qa-V_7h78gN5OfwUi/s400/bubles.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381599567885999602" /></a>3) Bubbles in these tubes – in the blue and yellow liquid in tubes flow some bubbles<br /><br />4) Surface of the liquid – now it looks more 3 dimensional :)<br /><br />5) Popping bubbles – in tubes there are little popping bubbles above the luiqid.<br /><br />6) Flashing lights – actually they act more like broken lights, but it looks fine :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DzHZb9ig0TM2n4Q5T1amYC4sXKB_3yA2SeWNlwQv_B9Hun3hp0u0wc63BZFcLAf4_hpqheLMR48IwZTXR_W9sCrF3Ovjmlb7tZ6Iz2GbJA1XhPi9Fjul5_Yd4YC3dT05ntcRR-gdOvJ0/s1600-h/valveSteam.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 90px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DzHZb9ig0TM2n4Q5T1amYC4sXKB_3yA2SeWNlwQv_B9Hun3hp0u0wc63BZFcLAf4_hpqheLMR48IwZTXR_W9sCrF3Ovjmlb7tZ6Iz2GbJA1XhPi9Fjul5_Yd4YC3dT05ntcRR-gdOvJ0/s400/valveSteam.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381599659247310146" /></a>7) Valve and steam – I added 2 valves into the upper left corner. They move every time there is a change in amount of liquid in tubes and sometimes there is steam coming out. The steam is done by particle effect. It was not so hard, but it needed few tries to look the way I wanted to.<br /><br />And that’s all. In next few days I’m planning to create new video and you will see all those things in motion, but for now you must accept only these images.<br /><br />Bye bye,<br />Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-71735481879281921682009-09-12T05:05:00.000-07:002009-09-12T05:20:57.223-07:00How to polish your gameHello kids,<br />I have realized, that I’m spending so much time just playing witch Gelex and doing nothing else, that I’m not sure if I can finish it according to my plan. You know, my productivity declines, I write few lines of code, build it to see the result and after half an hour I’m still running the emulator and playing Gelex even if the new lines of code didn’t work the way I wanted :) I really love the game!<br /><br />But for today I wanna write what I did with the background. As I mentioned <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-can-play-it-video.html">last time</a>, it feels little bit empty. So I had an idea about the main field (the one with squares). I wanted to be animated and it should be changing colors during the play. In OpenGL is quite simple to give image some color tint. So I’ve prepared the field in grayscale (as you could see in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyENlRAxvOM">last video</a>) and write a function which gives it a color tint and gradually changes it. The change is quite slow, so it doesn’t disturb you from playing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6AMtQhHLqDsgJD9Zpf1zv_ZVmXjEJCjd04bwQhhY6Wpy8OPThR8R3PD9aGMwTkXJU1LbZWe_1hlJBo8TYWg2tJl6AdnEtoF5BBOLUbYCvL7z6x0-3BJwegHobt40x4O9Q6G_06SfQdE80/s1600-h/HSV_cylinder.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6AMtQhHLqDsgJD9Zpf1zv_ZVmXjEJCjd04bwQhhY6Wpy8OPThR8R3PD9aGMwTkXJU1LbZWe_1hlJBo8TYWg2tJl6AdnEtoF5BBOLUbYCvL7z6x0-3BJwegHobt40x4O9Q6G_06SfQdE80/s200/HSV_cylinder.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380553663403872002" /></a>But there was a problem with that. I was increasing and decreasing one of RGB component randomly and that quite often leads to the situation, that the image was grayscale without any color or colored with very strange color (not really nice). The algorithm was just not right. I found out, that I could use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV">HSV representation of color point</a>. I got saturation and value set to 1 and I’m changing (increasing or decreasing) only the hue component. Then it's transformed into RGB for OpenGL use. As you can see on image, there won’t be any strange color at all. And it works great.<br /><br />Everything looked alright, but I wanted more :) So I tried to set different color tint to each vertex of the field and the result amazed me. I think it improved the visuals like hundred percent :) This time I don’t have video of it, but you can see three images of the progress and I can guarantee you, that in motion it looks really fantastic :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfYTOdBZX1MzZTfRaMHBs9G8FL1h-vlL08GvTwCc7Ff3HL5cDSZZD5VQrBKDePjfSqP3O3ZTZ-nf8siLwgas3yLFCJOsdiQc7sDJCh765nVAZ5mUc5kWGUxLJrnu4ym6ClbCltCcIGc3h/s1600-h/field.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfYTOdBZX1MzZTfRaMHBs9G8FL1h-vlL08GvTwCc7Ff3HL5cDSZZD5VQrBKDePjfSqP3O3ZTZ-nf8siLwgas3yLFCJOsdiQc7sDJCh765nVAZ5mUc5kWGUxLJrnu4ym6ClbCltCcIGc3h/s320/field.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380552241477970578" /></a><br /><br />More about other polishes that I’m planning to add into my game will be in the next article.<br /><br />Love<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-71495991328668839412009-09-10T09:49:00.000-07:002009-09-10T10:09:57.365-07:00You can play it! (+video)Hello Kids,<br />Last two days I was so busy - working hard and implementing all the new images into the program and I've also improved the code itself - that I had no time for anything else - my garden, my chickens, my cat, even my goat. Everything had to wait.<br /><br />But right now I’m really happy that I put so much effort into it. The application could be finally called a GAME :), it’s fully playable and I got brand new video for you to see it in action. So, here it is:<br /><br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JyENlRAxvOM&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JyENlRAxvOM&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /><br />Isn’t it cute? :) I’m so proud of myself. The face animations are so funny. In Chipmunk (<a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/09/physics-in-my-iphone-game-video.html">the physics engine</a>) I’ve lowered the friction property, which means that all these bricks are slicker, so they are sliding over each other. And it feels great to play with it :) <br /><br />Ok ok, that’s enough of self-praise and back to the reality :) It’s playable and looks quite finished. That’s fine, but it’s just a beginning. I need to add music and sound effects, menu, maybe some loading screens and so on. And I see another million things that I wanna add into this in-game. You know not something huge, new gameplay element or something. No no. Just small things, that will make the game more polished. <br /><br />First of all I wanna do something about the background field - the grey field with squares. It’s so boring to watch and the game feels empty. I wanna put there some animations or something. That’s the problem of the entire background image. It’s so static. Some animations would make it alive. I have some ideas, but I don’t wanna write about them now. I want to see them first and if it’s gonna work I will write something about it.<br /><br />I’m gonna take some rest now and you can write me a comment what’s your impressions :)<br /><br />Bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-28866145267835392382009-09-08T10:32:00.000-07:002009-09-08T10:54:39.151-07:00Background image is here!Hello kids,<br />Last few evenings I’ve been drawing the main in-game background image and now I am really proud to present you the result. It should represent the machine, where you can let the jelly bricks disappear. You can read more why there is machine in my <a href="http://grannycoder.blogspot.com/2009/09/physicist-and-story-in-my-game.html">previous post</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWDy3QglnJLtCAsDHiOGa9-hBzrsIs_-QBsia-kX8g9JEMQst-XLZ1Kw8N-B2iPjtgnef7Y44hVMdlBkIOe0GHp4Q1z-Cr2EXA2GEB0IIw3XUQIaMJ_pJIpGxIlGba9eMxKwgkfaAPgh7/s1600-h/bg.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px; cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWDy3QglnJLtCAsDHiOGa9-hBzrsIs_-QBsia-kX8g9JEMQst-XLZ1Kw8N-B2iPjtgnef7Y44hVMdlBkIOe0GHp4Q1z-Cr2EXA2GEB0IIw3XUQIaMJ_pJIpGxIlGba9eMxKwgkfaAPgh7/s400/bg.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379151956574837506" /></a>Let me describe what you can find there. I put some “nice” (I know they are as ugly as my goat Liza in the morning :) ) pink numbers there.<br /><br />1. You can find level number there. Each new level the game becomes harder and harder<br />2. Next brick – shape and colors of next brick<br />3. Information about score points<br />4. You highest score you’ve ever scored<br />5. Game Over line – if there is any brick above this line after the time limit (6) is over, the game ends<br />6. Time limit – how much time left for controlling your actual brick<br />7. Another time limit, but this time for score bonuses – I will describe that sometime later<br />8. Main field for playing with bricks<br /><br /><br />I have also prepared one fake screenshot (it’s prepared in Photoshop, so it’s a fake not real screenshot :) I didn’t put new images into a program yet) how the game should look in the final form.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg869ohnu6GMLKRUWl6pdZspn0yLrMWYwgLHkaDDagQMUoB2IFtB6itpzy6eHKpuw6Ts5Qtr7OBVaO1cT04exv_CZq8PIAw9RS9hjiCaCLqhex8whVlAL1227flHmY-vOsHssAZ9YFAkR2K/s1600-h/fakeshot.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg869ohnu6GMLKRUWl6pdZspn0yLrMWYwgLHkaDDagQMUoB2IFtB6itpzy6eHKpuw6Ts5Qtr7OBVaO1cT04exv_CZq8PIAw9RS9hjiCaCLqhex8whVlAL1227flHmY-vOsHssAZ9YFAkR2K/s400/fakeshot.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379152489408743122" /></a><br /><br />I am still not convinced about the main square ground, because it feels a bit empty, even if there are bricks, there is lots of empty space. I will try to do something about that. And these faces are little bit too big.<br /><br />So let me know if you like it or not. I am waiting for your responses :)<br /><br />Bye bye<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124244989333687840.post-73786664002383008882009-09-07T13:10:00.000-07:002009-09-07T16:59:19.048-07:00First optimization (+video)Hello kids,<br />I’m going to tell you more about some programming things I’ve done in my game and how it affected the results. And I got fresh new video for you. Again with nice music by <a href="http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_a_Vašek">“Eva a Vašek”</a>. I can guess that younger people don’t like it, but I love it. I wanted to add some Hungarian polka, which I also like, but I got it only on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_record">LP records</a> (you know these black big discs :) ) and was unable to digitalize it.<br /><br /><object width="430" height="271"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yCs2t44k0lg&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yCs2t44k0lg&hl=cs&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="430" height="271"></embed></object><br /><br />What you can see is very first look at gameplay itself. One finger for moving, two fingers for rotations. When 3 colors match together, little square inside the brick appears – whole brick should disappear after that, but It doesn’t. Yet! :)<br /><br />What you can’t see are many hours of experiments and failures with optimizing the code to run as fast and smooth as possible. First of all I found out, that when I switch off “Compile for Thumb” in XCode settings, the application runs much faster. But that was just beginning. Next thing I’ve learned was, that Chipmunk should be compiled in GCC compiler with parameter “--fast-math“. But that helped just a little.<br /><br />Then I was kind of stuck at one point. My physics operations took so much time and I was unable to improve it. I tried to change size of spacial hash, that’s what documentation says and should help -> doesn’t. Then I changed squares for circles as the basic physical object -> again no improvement. After that I’ve developed idea that I’m going to do the physics operations not on all objects in the scene, but only on upper ones, because the bottom lines don’t need that. They are fixed at one place. Of course that was wrong idea and leads to even worse results.<br /><br />But in the end I’ve discovered it! I’ve lowered the number of iterations of physical solver. That means that all calculations are less precise. So you should say that is a bad thing. But it’s not! Firstly it lowers the time for physical processes significantly and that’s what I really wanted. And secondly, because of less precise calculation results, objects in the scene acts more elastically. And that’s wonderful.<br /><br />At this point my physics engine takes same time as graphics processes and I’ve got some pretty good ideas how to improve them too. But you need to wait for some future post about that.<br /><br />Bye kids,<br /> Granny MarieMarie Bilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167859499798812490noreply@blogger.com2