Andys Blog

Teaser

Some initial images of some things I’m working on…..

Cube Runner News

Well, Cube Runner 1.1 made it into the App Store this week.

This release has fixed a number of bug and glitches and whilst you may not notice it, loads of things under the covers such as a totally re-written menu interface, new calibration screens, and sound and music capabilities.

Sound & Music I hear you cry - where? Well, the sounds and music aren’t actually in 1.1 however, a couple of extremely nice gents (Nick Burstein and Nate Belasco of Fancy Hat Productions) volunteered to write the music. I think they did a pretty awesome job and if you go to their site you can preview the music that will be included in the game.

So, V1.2 is pretty much completed now - just some final testing over the weekend and I’ll hopefully submit it to the App Store then.

Wahay - News at last!

I’ve just found out that Apple did reject the submission and have uploaded the new version.

Its still 1.1 (I had to upload it with the same version) so its now back in Apples review queue and will hopefully be up in the App Store shortly.

I’m working on getting Sound and music into V1.2 plus hopefully some other suprises.

Also, check out http://cuberun.org - this is a nice site by Logan Park dedicated to Cube Runner. There are a number of level packs available to download as well as a cool online level creator.

I was also asked to do a small interview for iPhone24-7.com. They also have a nice review of Cube Runner there

One other App I have almost ready to go

Is iPicross/iNono (working titles and this will certainly change as I think iPicross is already taken). I’m just working on getting some decent puzzles put in.

If you aren’t familiar with Nonograms - these are drawing logic puzzles. Picross DS (a game for the DS) is a version of this.

If anyone fancies sending me in some puzzles then they may get included in the game.

Some screenshots:

Next moves

Well, after the trials and tribulations of this week, I’ve just decided on my next game. Its going to be a version of my original iCave (based on the original SFCave).

This is actually a game I’ve ported to pretty much every platform I’ve worked on (Sharp Zaurus, Java, Nokia, Windows, Linux and iPhone/Touch) however this version is going to be slightly different.

Firstly, its going to use OpenGLES for the engine. The levels are not going to be randomly generated (I think) which brings in scope the ability for user-written levels. This has actually been the suprise success of Cube Runner (which I never expected) and as its a popular thing I’ll keep it going.

Actually this doesn’t really suprise me as I loved making levels for games as I was growing up (Kickstart, Racing Destruction Set, etc), but its quite good to see that it hasn’t lost favour.

Anyway, just working on the level design so far - got the background working and scrolling nicely on a test app.

Nothing too exciting yet but some screenshots coming soon.

Note - this doesn’t mean I’ll be neglecting Cube Runner at all.

A gamble!

I’ve decided to put Cube Runner back into the App Store for the moment as I’m getting too many requests for it (literally an unbelievable amount of emails).

I *may* have to pull it again if Apple suddenly decide to approve the update (despite my comments asking then to reject it) but I’m hoping not.

Still waiting…

Well, still waiting to find out what is happening with the broken update - will be it be approved or rejected (so far neither). Until that happens I’m totally at limbo as I can’t upload a new update until that happens.

The worst is the total lack of communication from Apple. A simple “Sorry, we’re really snowed under at the moment and will get to you eventually” would be fine but to get no response at all….

Anyway, whilst I wait, I’m working on a few bits. The layout downloading has been improved a fair bit as well as the calibration.

One thing that has changed is that the layout names are now taken from the @deflayout line rather than the name of the gzipped layout. This shouldn’t affect already downloaded layouts but will affect new ones.

Actually another thing I’m not 100% sure about (and won’t be until I do an App Store update) - what happens to existing downloaded layouts. I *think* they will remain there. They do when I upload a new dev version but that is under XCode and it may work differently in the App Store.

I do wish that Apple had allowed us to test the App Store mechanisms BEFORE it went live! I think a lot of these initial teething issues could easily have been avoided.

Ah well.

Cube Runner Update

Cube Runner has temporarily dissappeared from the App Store. This is because I submitted an update that I’ve subsequently found could cause a couple of issues.

Unfortunately I only noticed this after submission and only managed to spot it because I had to restore my phone and install from fresh and it appears that with a clean install the calibration wasn’t be set correctly and the game would be unplayable.

So in order not to cause problems, I’ve temporarily removed it from the App Store until I am able to either reject my initial submission or load a new one. It will be put back as soon as I am able.

3G iPhone

Well, I did end up going into Camberley early(ish) to get the new iPhone. Not as early as a friend who emailed me at 6:30 to say that I should get down like now as he was in a queue (in Kingston) and there were already loads of people there.

Anyway, I ambled down about 8:00 (O2 shop there weren’t opening until 9), turned the corner and there were about 25 people waiting. Knowing that the supplies were going to be slim I thought that I didn’t have a chance in hell, so looked up a bit to the Carphone Warehouse shop - only 4 people there!

So wandered up and joined the queue. Anyway, realised quickly that the 16Gb was a no hoper but had already decided that I wasn’t too fussed either way (haven’t managed to fill up more than a 1Gb of my 16Gb touch yet anyway). So CPW decided graciously to open at 8:40. We all trooped in, and the first couple of people started the process. Then, all went wrong. Everything went down. The 2 guys serving decided to try to get as many people into the process as possible so about 30 mins after I was giving my details. Not sure what happened, but amazingly it just worked for me and everything went though so I was the first person (actually in Camberley I think) to walk out with a 3G iPhone!

Walked past the O2 shop which looked to be in a right shambles at this point (they were only letting in 2 people at a time I think) and well, the looks I got (well, it was a fairly obvious bag the phone was in :)) - daggers didn’t come close.

Anyway, the phone is pretty nice. Does everything the original one did plus GPS with Google Maps is brilliant, and the data rate is pretty good. Very pleased with it. Overall rating - probably an 8 1/2 out of 10. Not perfect by any means (but then I’m still waiting for the perfect phone) but it does what it does well. Oh and visual voicemail is great!

Cube Runner

Well, Cube Runner went live Thursday morning (UK time) slightly ahead of schedule and so far its getting some nice feedback.

I’d like to thank everyone who has emailed me with feedback (all very nice so far). I’m trying to respond to everyone but if you don’t hear back I’m very sorry.

There have been numerous requests for enhancements.
All of these have been very useful and will definately be considered - the level editor is already being considered. Also, I will be posting the designs of the included levels for people to modify and play with.

So just to say thanks for downloading it, I hope you have as much fun playing it as I still do.

Also, if you haven’t found it, the main Cube Runner support pages can be found here.

Comments can be added here - apologies if they don’t appear very quickly as due to the inordinate amount of spam I get here - I have to manually approve the comments (and yes I do forget to check as often as I should).