Character's pixmap

So, finally, we have the final character's pixmap prepared.

We are thinking about calling him "FiVe". The name is pretty obvious when you realize the character is no more than a "5" rotated 3D along its own axis.

The Game

So, finally, how's the game.

It will be a platform-puzzle game  where the player needs to rotate the phone in order to change the gravity of the game. The player will need to hang the mobile in fron of him and rotate it like a steering wheel. Doing this, the main character (a spherical character, like a ball) will roll in the screen, advancing and going through the obstacles, jumping, avoiding the traps... and so on.

Next, a video. Graphically is too poor because there are only collision platforms. They won't appear as they do now, it will be far nicer :)

And this will be the main character!! We were thinking in other type of character, basically a ball with hands and feet... but my girlfriend, while she was doing an university project, did it (notice it's just a 5 rotated along its axis in 3D), when we saw it was like love at first sight...

Technology

So, I said, "let's start my video game development in a mobile phone"... but, which one?

IPhone seems to be the best option, it has the biggest market, it's the most known platform... but on the other hand, there is a lot of comepetence! a huge number of downloads, that's right, but there are a lot of companies developing games nicer than mine, with more people working on it... and you need a Mac to create your program!! I cannot afford that!

Android... well, I need to program in java (I do prefer C++) but seems nice. Unfortunatly I'm having the same problem, too many companies, too many good products...

So I though in Nokia. They have their own online shop called "Ovi Store", they are still the first company in mobile phones that means my app would be available for a really huge number of devices all around the world... but people doesn't know it too much! Ovi Store is growing, they had 2 million downloads few months ago and now they are close to 3,5 millions... it's my big chance and, definitly, it's my favorite option.

And Nokia have Qt. I've already worked one year as C++ (Qt) programmer and I do like it. It's easy, powerful... all I need. I can also add OpenGL to my code. Perfect.

So I though... OpenGL? it will be better if I develop a 2D game, I don't really know a lot of OpenGL and I don't have so much time. Focus in OpenGL means more time, and I don't have so much. Then, I remembered Qt had something called QGraphicsScene, a scene where you can add items (pixmap, or lines, circles) and show them in the screen. It was really powerful, with a lot of good designed methods and classes... and, in the end, a 2D game is not more than some pixmaps interacting with the player, isn't?

This is how I finally started my video game development. I had to program my own collision engine (thanks to http://www.metanetsoftware.com/) based in projection vector, I'm developing my own game engine and nowadays I am creating the levels one by one. So far four and half :) I would like to create ten and distribute it for free as demo, and program fourty more and sell it for... two euros? don't know, I'll solve this problem later.

Start your engines

So here I am... writting in my first and surely last blog.

Since I was young, my dream job was being a video games developer. I spent my whole life designing games each time I could, being always the "master" when playing rpg games with my friends, being the first and the last one reading the manuals of boarding games... and after, in the university, each project, each homework, each program I had to develop finished in any sort of video game.

Six or seven months ago I found myself unemployed, sharing a rent flat with my girlfriend and not having incomes. Fortunatly, we were able to keep some money and so far we are surviving with that. We are having some part timer works, like teaching provate lessons, and with that we can survive few months more.

So, I found myself few months ago unemployed, with the economical crisis hiting hard in Spain, being impossible to find a job if you are a more or less experienced C++ programmer (not java, that's easy to find :P)... and with the possibility to develop videogames por mobile phones.

I always envied the video games situation twenty years ago in USA, where people in north america could program and develop their own commercial video games from their home. Just one or two programmers where able to develop their games... how lucky. But when I started to program it was pretty difficult, and more in a country like Spain (always two steps behind all the important european countries), where there are not so many companies.

Then, the possibility to program in a mobile phone appeared. Nowadays it can be like twenty years ago in north america, just one programmer can develop his video game and try to sell it on the online stores... it was the perfect mix. My necessity of incomes, the difficulty to find a job (still searching, by the way), all the time of being unemployed... and a dream.

So I started, with the help of my girlfriend (she will take care of the graphics) and step by step it's going a bit further. Well, I spend all my time programming but it's ok, who needs free time? :P Let's follow "the rule of the three W" (work, work and work) and let's see what happens.

And now I create my first and last blog, where I will be posting the news of the videogame, pictures, videos... any sort of information.