Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category
Posted on January 24, 2010 - by Eric
Ftanks update – approaching beta
Still late but we think we can go beta this week. The terrain destruction system is undergoing some heavy optimization because it drops the framerate by 50% when it recalculates the terrain during an explosion. We are trying a ‘grid based recalculation by area’ method to restrict the part it recalculates. The come2play API is quirky and has some learning curve to make it behave optimally but nothing a deep dive can’t fix. Thats all for the technical wizardy my partner is doing. As for my part, here are a few new assets in the repository;
Posted on October 30, 2009 - by Eric
In Case you Were Wondering…
Change is afoot in Cavalcade Games land – but thats not the reason why this blog has been neglected for an extended time. The reason is I have caught some virus called Influenza which fortunately is not the swine or bird kind. With the valiant Shiki leading the charge by his lonesome for Fusion Tanks, progress on the art and game design side is on a standstill. Today is my 5th day of being a sicko so hopefully it doesn’t go to 6th.
As for the changes, we are keeping it a mystery until all the pieces are in place. But it involves wholesale changes to our operation. Lets just say, its us choosing our niche and turning CG to fit the local developer base. Exciting times ahead. Stay tuned!
Posted on September 30, 2009 - by Eric
Ftanks and Pushbutton Engine
Our next big release is codenamed Ftanks. Its a ‘refinement’ of the classic Worms formula featuring tanks (or Scorched Earth for the older readers) . It is funded by come2play to showcase their very groovy API. It is also being built with the Pushbutton Engine. PBE is a game engine for the Flash platform which by itself is great enough. But what made us jump into using it is the fact that its open-source, comes with a marketplace to buy/sell components and is made by Torque alumni. We knew it was gonna be much tougher than building our custom engine but we figured it will be good for us in the long run.
Posted on September 18, 2009 - by Eric
Website updates – Wibliya with Heyzap! added
We now have a Wibiya toolbar at the bottom part of our website
In it you can see our Twitter stream, look at our facebook page (be a fan!), subscribe to our feed, share a post to digg or reddit, etc —- all without leaving the site. This de-clutters our sidebar and also allows more convenience to our dear readers. But one of its feature that really help sold the plugin for me is the Heyzap! module.
HeyZap is a venture backed company that seeks to help make flash games easily embeddable in any website or blog. In our case, it fits perfectly with providing value to our readers. Not only can readers get updates on our games and news or opinions on the market but now, they can play flash to see great examples of what we are making or talking about.
The redesign will start next month and then our vision of what Cavalcadegames.com should be will be fully realized.
Posted on September 16, 2009 - by Eric
Word Mansion Update!
Word Mansion is once again delayed. This time due to some coding problems too mysterious to state. At this point, its now in the hands of our collaborator, Mr. Gabriel Bianconi to finish the game – sometime this year. 
So as offering to Effishenzi – the finish-your-game-on-time deity. Here is an animated art preview.
The game truly feels unique and a very delightful brain exercise. We might implement GamerSafe with it since thats the one publishers (aka portals) are keen to support. Once we have it on FGL, we will properly introduce it here.
Posted on September 7, 2009 - by Eric
Rock Paper Laser FREE! is out!
Rock Paper Laser! Free is now available on the app store after 10 days in the queue. The approach we did for this one is to retain all the core functionality and modes but stripped away everything that is not essential. 90% of the sound effects are gone, the tattoo help are always activated (discarded the 2nd spritesheet), and the backgrounds are whittled down to one. The cuts resulted in a reduction of the app size by 24%. But with the Unity3d, Agon Online and other 3rd party stuff in it, it just wasn’t possible to go below the desired 10mb.
Posted on August 29, 2009 - by Eric
Rock Paper Laser Promo Codes!
Rock Paper Laser! is now two weeks old in the app store and the good news is that we have cornered the “amputees with iphone” niche. The bad news is that niche only has 3 people in it. Fortunately, a number of people (with hands) bought our app about a new spin on the rock, paper game and left some glowing reviews ( Four 5 stars and one 4 star reviews) on iTunes. For all the people, thank you for buying our app. We got to inside the Italy charts for a day but got pushed out of that exclusive club.
We need more reviews of our app on the iTunes store so we will give out a few more codes in exchange for some honest reviews from our readership here. Here are 7 more promo codes. Use them if you havent bought our 99c app. or if you’ve already bought it (God bless you) give them to some nice kids you know and tell them to write their honest review up on iTunes.
1. ) 33PHLAWTJY4X
2. ) N3FFFX6YR97W
3. ) NXKRMK693467
4. ) 7ARXR4XJ6K64
5. ) 94F6EMKJTX4R
6. ) TRFFRLWAJPTW
7. ) AKR7Y6XE4WAW
Enjoy the game!
We have submitted the lite version and should be out next week. Rock paper Laser Free packs a lot of gameplay in it but its ad supported with Mobclix.
Posted on August 9, 2009 - by Eric
Rock Paper Laser! is out!
At long last, our newest and 1st iPhone / ipod Touch game is out — Rock Paper Laser! aka RPL. Here is the app description;
Rock Paper Laser! takes the well-loved game to a whole new level with the addition of 3 new hands; Dog, Water and the all-powerful Laser.All wrapped up in an action-packed and exciting new game with new rules!
* Dog, Water and Laser joins Rock, Paper and Scissors.
* Survive against a CPU controlled hand meant to stop you from getting a high score.
* Play against your friends or family with the 2-player mode.
* Also contains the classic Rock-Paper-Scissors game.
* Learn the rules to play Rock Paper Laser by hand.
* Fast, Fun and Family-Friendly
* Publish your score in the online scoreboard, Facebook & Twitter. (powered by Agon Online)
* 6 backgrounds – Boxing ring, wood, art, etc.
* easy to learn, fun to master
Posted on August 1, 2009 - by Eric
RPL Now in Review!
We are pleased to finally pass our firstborn, RPL, for review at the iTunes store. Filling out the app submission form was unexpectedly nerve-wracking! Maybe it was because any mistake you put in the description, keywords, categories, etc. will have serious implications such as rejection, search placement and such. I have scheduled the release at August 7 (around 9 days from submission) but we will start checking our inbox and iTunes connect starting around August 4.
I don’t know if we are fortunate or unfortunate to submit in the middle of an iTunes adjustment to description, keywords, top 100 algorithm and other stuff. I hope some clarity will be had next week by the time we are approved (or rejected). But with Apple who knows anymore. Dealing with them is like dealing with a Greek God, temperamental and unpredictable.
Now that RPL is submitted, we are preparing the promotional plans starting with the product page. Its mostly finished except for the Quicktime video. The script for the demo is done and tomorrow I will be heading out to buy a tripod for the cheapo camera to be used in the recording. The third phase is a full redesign of the cavalcadegames.com, one that eventually will have a games section, media, and fully fleshed out about page.
So hang tight, we will be fully unveiling RPL next week. I hope you can support us so that we are able to grow to make the more ambitious ones. Take care Y’all.
Posted on July 23, 2009 - by Eric
Beta Testing Guidelines for iPhone Apps
RPL recently went into the beta testing phase. We have a very limited budget so we only have a mac mini, Unity license, and 2 ipod touch right now. We wanna make sure the apps runs fine on the iPhone. So we decided to solicit help from the community for testing on actual iPhones. 3 kind volunteers agreed and they sent in their udids and the RPL betas are now in their inbox.
Beta testing is a is not as simple as it looks. So I sent them guidelines, along with the thank you note and installation instructions. I will share what i sent them, feel free to criticize, give suggestion, etc so that we may improve it. We will regularly beta test our apps and web games in the future so this will definitely be reused.
Welcome!
First of all, thank you for taking the time to help us beta test our product. Beta testing is an important part of attaining a smooth, stable and polished product so we truly value your contribution. Here are a few guidelines to make every feedback we get be in proper context and usable.
Please note that these are not required but suggestions only.
General Testing
- Give feedback on the icon and the name of the product.
- Take note of the emotional response during the 1st usage of the product
- Take time to know the product first and how quickly you understood it.
- Please try the product in your natural environment
- Alone and focusing on the product
- In an idle moment (waiting for something)
- With friends
- Take note of anything that takes too long (or has you waiting too long) for your taste.
- Proceed to technical after using the product naturally a couple or more times.
Technical Testing
- Try to tap on every button, menu and submenu
- If a crash occurs, retrace the actions leading up to the crash
- Check for performance issues
- Also check for sound related bugs
Have fun with our product and e-mail your findings, negative or positive feedback, recommendations and reactions to contact[at]cavalcadegames[dot]com. Once again, thank you and we hope for your support when we release the final product.
I think we will get feedback after a day or three. If all goes well, then we submit to Apple.