Jewels 2 Status Update
UPDATE on May 20th: So Google I/O 2013 happened. They announced — finally — a gaming service called Google Play Games. This is pretty much what I was expecting to have after last years I/O, but nevertheless the thing is now real. The biggest surprise was that it also supports iOS devices! 😲
So I had already integrated OpenKit for Jewels 2, which was great, but there were some nice bonuses with Google's solution. After thinking about it for some days and trying the code, I made the decision to switch to GPG from OpenKit. As GPG also supports iOS, there was not much point of keeping the both services implemented.
Naturally this has caused a delay in Jewels 2 development, since I had to rewrite the leaderboard and cloud save (*) stuff, but it only took about three days of work, so not that bad. 🙂 However, Google requires a game using the services to have at least 5 achievements. As I wrote earlier (below, actually), my plan was to add the achievements in a later update, but now I need to have them in by the first release. Oh well, shouldn't take too long. Still a few days of May left, let's see if I can get the Android version out before June (probably not, though). 🙂
*) Doing cloud save is actually pretty difficult when you cannot merge the datasets when there is a conflict.. The end result is that the game should not be played simultaneously on several devices when syncing on the same account, because only the latest sync is kept. I'm still testing various approaches of manual, semi-automatic and automatic sync. If I could merge the datasets, using automatic sync would be a no-brainer, but alas, it's more difficult in my case. 😛
The original post is below:
Long time no write; it's time to unleash a quick post for your reading pleasure! I have some exciting news to share with you — and no, it's not the release date, sadly that one is still a mystery even to myself.
However, I can give you the Ultimate Deadline(TM) for Jewels 2. This has been known to my Twitter followers for some time now: I will do my best to release the game before July 2013, hopefully sooner than later! What's so special about July, then, I hear you ask? Oh, you didn't ask? Well I was sure I… *ahem* Anyway, in July my wife and I are expecting our second baby, a little sibling to our now 3 year old daughter. So that's the Ultimate Deadline(TM). 😄 Now, if I had to guesstimate the release date, I might be inclined to say May instead of June, but too early to tell for certain..
But wait! There is more. Remember I talked about the social gaming components earlier? Continuing on that note, I am hereby announcing that Jewels 2 will support cross-platform leaderboards (and hopefully cloud sync of game data) through Google Play Games (see the update above) our friends at OpenKit! This means that players can compete with each other in the numerous game modes, no matter whether they're playing on an iPhone or an Android device. 🙂
And even better, I'm hoping to add in cloud synchronization of the game data, meaning all your player profiles (if you have more than one), statistics and saved games in Jewels 2 are accessible from any other device you might have. On iDevices Jewels 2 naturally also supports Game Center leaderboards. Of course, should Google unveil some magical gaming component at this years Google I/O, I'd be delighted to support it as well.
As for achievements: currently the plan is to first release Jewels 2, and then in a later update add some achievements for the players to reach for. What's on my TODO list before the release, then? Well I've still got a couple of background scenes to draw/set up, the cloud sync thing, some minor code thingies and some polish. And testing, of course. So not too much work, actually, which is nice. 😉
What else… Oh, you might have noticed the screenshot on the right? (That also appeared on my Twitter before; keep an eye out for more, especially on #ScreenshotSaturdays! 😉) It's from the COLLECT-mode, where you need to collect an increasing amount of each jewel per level.
Aaaand that's it for this post, bye!
The first look at Jewels 2
Here are the very first screenshots from Jewels 2 (running on Galaxy Nexus here)! The background graphics are still temporary but otherwise we're looking at the actual game. As you can see, I have not changed the jewel graphics (except for the red one, which was an ugly duplicate of the green gem) much, only minor tweaks here and there. Click for the full image.
That is all for now, I will share more pictures when I get at least one background scene constructed. 🙂
Say hello to Jewels 2…
…well, to the logo at least.. 🙂 I'm quite happy with it (at least for now), so it is likely to be the final logo.
Follow me on Twitter!
Just a quick update to let you know that MHGames (still just me 😉) is on Twitter, starting today. Feel free to follow! 🙂 What else… oh, the username: @mhgames_ (notice the underscore at the end). Side note: I also have a personal account on Twitter, but I'm not tweeting there, so this is the one to keep an eye on.
I'm not the most active blogger (if you're reading this, you've probably noticed), so I figured short tweets might be easier for me to manage — we shall see, I guess. Anyways, I'm getting ready to share something Jewels 2 related, as I still haven't posted anything but boring textual content about the game, so stay tuned!
Social gaming in Jewels 2?
In my (hideously lengthy, apologies) last post, I briefly mentioned about the social integration options for Jewels 2. For this one, I'd like to you — dear readers (if any! 😛) — to chime in, as to what would you like to see for the social gaming options in Jewels 2. This means score sharing, leaderboards, possibly achievements (should I think of any worth adding), etc. (Side note: the game will have a local high score tables in any case.)
First of all: does the game actually need to have a social component? As I was thinking about the possible options, I started leaning towards including only the basics: score sharing and nothing else. No leaderboards (fact is: they are bound to get hacked sooner than later). The player would be able to share their score to, say, Facebook and Twitter, if they wanted to. What do you think, as players? Would you miss the online leaderboards (even if they're about to be filled with fake scores)? Let me know in comments.
Alright, for discussion's sake, let's assume the majority of you would prefer to have online leaderboards. Never mind the fake scores problem. As I see it, I have three options for Jewels 2:
- Use the built-in (1st party) gaming integration for each target platform. For example Game Center on Apple devices.
- Use a cross-platform social gaming component (3rd party), that works on majority of the target devices. For example Scoreloop.
- Don't use anything (i.e. just the basic score sharing as outlined above)
Options #1 and #3 are currently my favorites. Using built-in platform features would equal to less problems than with 3rd party options. This would be ideal, right? We have Game Center, we have Game Circle for Amazon Kindle devices, we have Scoreloop for BlackBerry devices… Notice anything missing? Google! Whoah! What the hell, why is there not a built-in gaming component on Android? I don't know. Hopefully Google will announce something next year; it would be great to have a built-in one (as long as it's optional and not intrusive).
Android users, what do you think if Jewels 2 (for Android) didn't have online leaderboards, but the version on all the other platforms did? Naturally I would support Google's own solution should it emerge.
As for option #2: I'd really rather not add 3rd party components unless I have to, but assuming you players would want to have cross-platform leaderboards, there would be no other option but integrate a 3rd party service. What would it be? Scoreloop? OpenFeint is no more. What about HeyZap? Any ideas?
Option #3 I already explained at the beginning of this post. This would be the most pain free solution from developers point of view, but obviously if the players want something, I do my best to provide. Hence this post. 🙂
Oh, almost forgot the achievements! Anybody want those?
Feel free to.., no, actually I encourage you to comment if you have something to say regarding this topic! I'm very interested in hearing from you, otherwise I have to decide it myself and probably get buried in complaints… 😉
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