Kaizer Mobile

The revamped Open Space II sector. Boring WIP shot.So, as I said in the last post, Taking Mars needs a break. The thing is, I began Taking Mars in the hopes of bringing in some money, but it still needs a few major features to successfully launch (like a better tutorial, A.I., etc.) and those are going to take a little longer than I’d like.

New plan: Kaizer is going mobile.

Android phones and tablets will get it first, and iOS if/when it gains traction (and money). And online if it keeps interest (and money) from there. Desktop and web will have to be secondary (for a little while) because of some significant changes…

Changes?!

Yup. It may look mostly the same (minus the wholly new, streamlined interface — uber-designed with small screens in-mind) but there are some general mechanics, Captains, and other changes to the game that could use some revisions/overhauls.

Such as!?

Well, here’s a few for-sures:

1. New and updated captains and sectors.
2. Ships will no longer use the number-heavy energy system.
3. Sector debris and resources will be drastically changed to make for better Space Battles.
4. Simple, rewarding tutorials.
5. Heavy optimization means it should work on as many phones as possible and look really, really sharp at the same time.
6. A friggin’ A.I. (admittedly, it’ll probably be simple-minded at first).

There may or may not be more, but I’m thinking I’ll keep it under my hat until closer to launch.

Beta/Launch/Cost??

Not sure if I’ll be doing a beta or anything. If I did, it would likely be an open beta and phone-only at first.

I’ll be posting later about how this whole money making scheme of mine is going to work. BUT KNOW, there will always, always be a free version of Kaizer available… Like, forever, man.

Also, if you’re wondering why Kaizer will be able to come out so much faster than Taking Mars, even though I have to basically rewrite it (again), it’s actually very simple: Kaizer is actually very simple. That, and I’ve got a pretty good “flow” down. Still takes a while, but there’s a very solid structure to work from/on.

That said, I’m not adhering to a release date (or at least not posting it), those never seem to work out. I’m just working. (Also, probably no posts for a while.) HaPPY Early DECember!

¯\(°_o)/¯

Changing Gears

I’ll update soon, but, essentially, I’m moving back over to Kaizer for a bit and really focusing on a quick launch. Good stuff to come…

Like your first birthday...

The site’s a mess at the moment because the servers are flooded (literally, they’re in NY) and response times are crap. Ergo, this is all a ruse to distract you from the fact that I made some bad cosmetic decisions to the site (which I shouldn’t have done in the first place). Ruse-y.

(Seriously though, the east coast, if anywhere, can recover better than ever. I hope there’s good spirits in the mean time.)

Still working on A.I.. It’s going surprisingly well. I still have no real good idea when it’ll be done, but so far I’ve implemented the necessary tools and am hammering out the basic structures. Still, I’m happy with the direction it’s going. A.I. is tough, peoples.

Other Taking Mars updates: I immediately noticed a few issues with the last update, but was a little too gung ho for the new challenge too make an update-patch (it’s not too big a deal anway); so, that necessitates a fix pretty soon. I’ve also been seeing a few phantom errors here and there. I might try and pin-point those as well. The update should be out in a week or so (…still gung ho).

Personally: I recently read the Scott Pilgrim series. Ya, that’s fucking amazing. I tried to make a way-too-late-but-still-sarcastically-obtuse tweet about it, but came up short. So, instead, here’s my summary:

Geek-driven satire of a Canadian. Has some Nintendo-esque references. Funny.

I think you can see why I didn’t post anything.

My opinion is that it’s far-and-away better than the movie. Minus fight-scenes. You should check it out, given some governing factors; i.e. you:

• Played videogames in the ‘80-‘90’s.
• Like Nintendo (sorry Sega, I guess you needed better reps in Canada).
• Are Canadian.
• Are awkwardly, engagingly fun.
• Like hilariously-obtuse characters.
• Like Calvin & Hobbes art-style.

So. A few of those. Not necessarily all of them. You’ll probably like it. Go buy it.

Anyway, that’s about as long as this need ever be, so.. bye.

Taking Mars beta-12.10.23

Agent: Life (Defense); District: Control. The update is live—just a few corrections and changes—with one useful new addition: You can now see an agent’s life and defense, and a district’s remaining control, whenever you zoom in on the map. Similarly, the icons showing whether an agenda is attached will now only be displayed while zoomed in.

That’s about it, time to go back to AI-stuff. If anything comes up, I’ll post another update. Ciao.

P.S. Friendly reminder to check the Change Log for the specifics.

P.P.S. Messing with the site a bit, trying to make it more readable and stuff. Just playing really. So don’t worry if things go wonky for a second.

Taking Mars beta-12.10.17

A preview of the new messaging system showing a tutorial for the Research Phase.New version has gone live. As you can see from the screenshot, there’s a new messaging system at work too. Tutorials are the only thing that populate the space at the moment, but more will be coming in time (such as important events, alerts and otherwise obscure bits of game information). I know I said there wasn’t going to be tutorials for a while, but I’m sure I was too tired to see the logic of that when I said it. Further reflection made it obvious there had to be tutorials rather soon. It’s a complex game after all. The tutorials could use some more work (it’s kind of a shotgun-approach at the moment) but I’m happy that I got it working, and I think it covers all the necessary elements.

I also finally got around to organizing the Taking Mars forum. It’s been separated into 3 major sub-forums: Announcements, General Feedback, and Bugs. So be sure to stop by, it’s open to all and doesn’t require an account (just an anti-bot test).

Seeing as it’s the second release, I figured it’s time to create a change log for the game. I’ll be keeping it up to date from now on (though I might miss a few things, given my stream-of-consciousness coding-style).

So where to go from here? Well I can already think of a few small changes I probably should have added before I uploaded to the server, but the game’s good enough right now, I’ll do a small update in a few days. I really, really, really want to get to work on the A.I. though. And when I wake up, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I'm a little behind

The new version should be up in a few hours. Bugs :\

Tutorial...

…tomorrow. :/

Right On Time, Half a Year Late

Taking Mars (beta).

Yes, there’s a long way to go, but right now I’m happy with it. You’ll need a second player for now, but soon enough there will be an A.I. to sharpen your teeth on.

It’s a, um, not difficult, but complex game. So, I know not everyone will fall in love with it, but I think those that do (or at least get over the learning curve) will be excited at its prospects. I know I’m psyched for it.

Updates will be frequent for the next week or so, but then I’ll have to go quiet for a little bit while I build the initial A.I.

Well that’s about it. I hope you enjoy what I’ve made so far and I look forward to any comments or critiques you have.

Play on, players.

If it was up to me...

…stupid thing would’ve been out by now. Sure, you probably wouldn’t know how to play, but you’re smart peoples, you could figure it out. Instead, at the probably-good-in-retrospect-advice of others, I’m about half-way through writing all the super-auto-help topics explaining all the concepts and mechanics.

And, I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but there’s not going to be any interactive tutorial in the beta. I’m going to be doing something particularly special with it and I don’t think I’ll give it away until the full launch. So that makes learning slightly more difficult, but there should be plenty of auxiliary help systems to explain the game in the mean time.

So to breakdown the timeline as it stands:

1. Finish the help systems and proofread a few times.
2. Playtest a few times.
3. …
4. Game!

So, that’s like Thursday or something, right? Right? I goddamn hope so.

P.S. Your patience is legendary.

Behind the Scenes

This is usually what I’m looking at; getting it right:

It is a process. I’m working as fast as possible. I’m sorry for all the long-winded, short-sightedness. It really should be out soon. :D