Unity 3D is more difficult than expected :-(

Time really flies... Just realised July almost passed and I haven't post anything for the whole July yet - this is probably the first time since started this blog last June...

My focus during end of June was on updating my 2 games. "Mespfi V1.01" is now live with the new Nextpeer V1.1.9 SDK, and "Where Is It Ver 1.02" been greatly enhanced with all images re-created.

July has been quite painful and challenging, as the learning curve for Unity 3D was a lot steeper than I expected.

First need to get familiar with the 3D interface - finding an object in the new 3D interface is still quite challenging, and still not quite use to the hundreds of options for different objects.

Next the concept of Material, Texture, Mesh, Prefab, ....etc, all quite new and don't think I can tell the difference or explain when should each of them be used yet.

Tried a few books, at first I started with "Unity iOS Game Development Beginner's Guide", but half way through it, the example no longer works and the author doesn't seem to respond to lots of questions been raised on the net. Also quickly browsed through "Unity iOS Essentials", but the content was a bit too advanced for beginner's like me. Finally settled with "Unity 3.x Game Development By Example - Beginner's Guide" and although the book doesn't focus on iOS as the previous two, the content is easy to understand/follow and more suitable for my level. Currently on chapter 10 and felt more confident now. If you are also interested in learning Unity 3D, would strongly recommend this book.

Still have a long way to go with Unity 3D, but the vision of able to publish games in 3D, and most importantly - not just limited to iOS platform, definitely worth all the effort!

As this path seems to slowly move away from Objective-C, start wondering if I should start another blog call "New 2 Unity 3D" ??

Read More

My second game "Mespfi" published!

My second game "Mespfi" finally published, yeah! Some info about the 3-in-1 game listed below.

This was originally scheduled to be my first game in the beginning, but later was delayed due to some technical difficulties...

What does "Mespfi" mean, you might ask? Well, I made that up from the first 2 character of each of the 3 modes: "Memory, Speed and Find" - so technically it should be "me-sp-fi".... :-P

The screens on App shop copied as below to give you some idea about the game:

The description is as below:


Challenging 3-in-1 game suitable for the whole family. Test your memory skill, tapping speed plus your ability to find things not in pairs quickly. Can be played by single player or up to 8 players over the internet in real time.

The game can be easily adjusted to suit different age/level of players:

---------------------------------
For little ones who hasn't start learning numbers and alphabets, can start with "Find mode" with content type set to "Image", for them to enjoy finding one of the cute images that's not in pairs. There're over 80 different images, enough to provide them lots of fun for a long time.

---------------------------------
For parents with school age kids, this game is also suitable for helping kids with the learning and/or familiarising of numbers and alphabets.

For younger ones, recommend to set "Starts with 1 and A" to "Yes", and either "Disable count down" or increase the "Count down value (sec)" to a suitable value which they are comfortable with. You can later increase the difficulty by adjust the values accordingly.

---------------------------------
For those who enjoy challenges, the following settings are recommended for the highest level of difficulty, see how good you are in all 3 modes!

-Memory mode: 
--Starts with 1 and A: No
--Count down value (sec):1
--Content type: ABC+123

-Speed mode:
--Starts with 1 and A: No
--Disable Count Down: No
--Count down value (sec): 3
--Content type: ABC+123

-Find mode:
--Disable Count Down: No
--Count down value (sec): 3
--Content type: ABC+123

Includes over 80 different images and over 60 different backgrounds.

Personal "Top Score" recorded in each of the 3 different modes separately. Game also supports Game Centre for leaderboards and achievements.

Multiple languages supported: English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

For those interested in learning iPhone/iPad programming, a link to the full source of a simplified version is also available in the game.

Read More

Graphic/image design is too hard for me...

Just submitted my 2nd game "Mespfi". Found most of the time in past 2 weeks mainly working on final testing, tweaking, and doing some graphic design stuffs. As before, this graphic/image thing is definitely not my type... Codes can be easily written, tested, but trying to draw/design something that looks "nice" or "attractive" is just too hard for me.

Read More