Pixel Gang (Android) [Beta released!]

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1


http://i.imgur.com/ZDzwC8m.png


http://i.imgur.com/xHjF3LN.png

http://i.imgur.com/GMu4USV.png


http://i.imgur.com/8GOS0L4.png

http://i.imgur.com/VCBXFA6.png


http://i.imgur.com/qgsWPyG.png

http://i.imgur.com/70Lpcv5.png

Latest release - April 13th 2014 (beta)

Download for Android!
(Update: unfortunately the game didn’t meet our expectations and has been taken down :frowning: We might revisit this some day though.)

Buy new weapons, recruit gang members and fight your way from the bottom to the top!
It’s time for the Warriors to step down from the throne.

Note that the game is still in beta. There’s regular updates & more content every week!

#2

Looks great, nice art :slight_smile:
And it sounds like a fun game.

Name Ideas :
-Mayhem (Your idea, just thought it sounded better without the other words)
-Bedlam (Synonym of Mayhem)
-Homicide : Pocket Edition
-Tumult (Another synonym)

Just some ideas, good luck :slight_smile:

#3

DAY 1
Hey guys,
here’s my latest project. I’ve thought about posting every day my progress and see if I can finish this in a week. :slight_smile:

In the game, you’re a fierce leader of a gang. You’re job is to buy new weapons, reqruit better gang members and fight your way from the bottom to the top!
There’s 9 other gangs that you’ll be beating against. Kinda like in Need For Speed - Most Wanted.

During fighting, both gangs has 20-30 guys. The last man standing wins!
Here’s a few planned weapons: club, pistol, uzi, AK-47, shotgun, grenades, flame thrower and bazooka.


http://imgur.com/qLV3D3N.png

http://i.imgur.com/hk2egXa.png

The name is still a WIP, suggestions are welcome!

DAY 2
Today we created the choosing screens, purchasing and IAP backend stuff. Don’t worry, the only IAPs in the game will be to buy more coins like in Hill Climb Racing and such.

Much of the art is still programmer art since we’re waiting for the real artist to finish he’s stuff.

What kind of music do you think would fit in this game? I know the sound design process will be fun, recording death screams and that stuff. ;D


http://i.imgur.com/Kukr8CZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/ZwYOWUy.png

Tomorrow I’ll be coding the internal highscore system and the ability to modify your gang’s settings. You can edit the name, your own outfit and perhaps something else.

If you know any funny gang names you want to see in the game, do comment!

[quote="saucymeatman,post:2,topic:47668"] Looks great, nice art :) And it sounds like a fun game. ... [/quote] Thank you!

Also, thanks for the name suggestions. We took them under advisement. :slight_smile: We’re also battling between Pixel Mayhem, Pixel Gang, and the Pixel Gang.

#4

DAY 3
The game is evolving nicely and right on schedule.
We’re pushing the official release date to 4.4.-6.4. since we rather beta test first this weekend. We want the game to be as polished as possible and to leave some time to create a nice trailer. :slight_smile:

If you want to beta test, please comment or send me a PM!! You’re going to need an android phone. And if you don’t have one but really want to test, I can put together a desktop version aswell.

Every tester will get their name in the credits (if they want) and perhaps something other special aswell. :wink:

Still a lot of programmer art. The most difficult part seems to be creating a good GUI with a nice flow.

At least we can start focusing on creating the content next, and that should be fun. Personally I like the polishing & code optimizing part the most. It’s fun to see the game come alive with details.


http://i.imgur.com/8DB99hR.png

http://i.imgur.com/kwjh5h1.png

#5

DAY 4

The biggest issue seems to be the AI blobbing into a one big pile.
At the moment the ones with non-projectile weapons (such as the baseball bat) just pick a random enemy, run towards him and starts beating. Also the player is a bit too powerful.

I’ve always hated the balancing part. It just feels so hard and random when every little detail affects every other small detail.
But otherwise the code & functionality is ready. Adding the content and polishing the GFX will be the next things in our list.

Here’s a few characters. I think the first version will contain 40 or 50 different characters.


http://i.imgur.com/WAMRqCI.png

Unfortunately not much beta testers has reported in yet.
Maybe we’ll just upload the game to Play Store, call it beta and after a week or so do an official press releace thingy.

I did manage to catch a cold too, but that won’t affect the developing. Also I stepped on my glasses so that’s something…

ps. There’s a total of 3 guys contributing to the game. I’m the developer, designer and whatnot, but there’s also a graphic & sound designer and a musician helping with the game.
pps. Watch this to get in the right mood!

#6

this looks cool greate work =D

#7

DAY 5
A while back I believe there was a ludum dare compo where you were supposed to earn at least 1 dollar with your game.
I’d like to put up a few goals for this game aswell.

  1. Get over 1000 downloads during the first month
  2. Get a few happy fans to tweet something positive about the game 8)
  3. Earn 20$. With twenty bucks I’ll get a six pack of those sweet long drinks. :wink:

Here’s the current gang list.

I might have to add a few other gangs outside the list too, maybe even generate them in the code to add a bit of randomization.
That’s just another feature bloating the code though so I’ll leave it for the future versions.


	1. The Warriors
	2. xXx
	3. (yet unnamed gang consisting of ninjas, maybe yakuza but theyre not ninjas :D) 
	4. Crips
	5. Grove St.
	6. Lizzies (a gang of women)
	7. Vets (old soldiers)
	8. The Patriots (skinheads)
	9. Vikings

I’ve also thought about the final scene after you beat the last gang in the list and become the king.
It should be something funny and special. Maybe throw in a few references to Gangs of New York, and of course to The Warriors. If you know any other good gang movies, please do recommend!

Our website is also down since we exceeded the bandwidth limit, which is very annoying. No doubt loading all the images hundreds of times to these threads was the thing causing it.
I’ve since moved all the images to imgur.

Tonight the next order of business will be refactoring the code.
The vision, and therefore the requirements, are beginning to be quite clear. The objective will be to make adding new content as straightforward as possible.

[quote="VIrtueeL,post:6,topic:47668"] this looks cool greate work =D [/quote] Thanks man!
#8

DAY 6

I let the game run by itself for a couple of hours today.
It didn’t crash or create any weird memory bugs, which is a good sign.

Wathing the AI buy guns, recruit new members and climb the gang tree was pretty fun actually.
I also did a todo-list of things that needed to be fixed or changed. The list got quite long, but most of it are just small things.

It’s going to take a couple of days to polish everything, but I have plenty of time left.
If I’m not ready before the planned release time, it’s because creating the trailer, sounds and website will eat more time than originally thought.

If I get enough help though, it’ll be a piece of cake.
Quite ironically I was just reading the chapter in Code Complete 2 where the author talks about how predicting required developing time will almost every time go south.

Here’s the (buyable) weapon list so far.


1. fists,
2. knife,
3. baseball bat

4. nunchuku,
5. sword, 
6. bow

7. hammer, 
8. taser,
9. chainsaw

10. pistol,
11. shotgun,
12. rifle

Btw, the name of the game will most likely be just Pixel Gang.
We’re still battling whether we should add the in it. What do you guys think?

no one ever answers my questions goddamnit

#9

DAY 7


http://i.imgur.com/ZDzwC8m.png

#10

Thats funny :slight_smile:

#11

Ooh, a shiny medal! Thank you :wink:

DAY 8 - 10

There’s really not much interesting stuff to tell about.

I’ve been blasting out code like a crazy person and am still waiting for the artist dude to deliver me some new material.
He’s quite busy though so looks like I have to do them myself, again. Yay 9000 upcoming hours on photoshop… Maybe I should hire someone from the interwebz.
Also the musician has been busy with his studies so I can’t even show you any songs. :frowning:

I found an interesting article which inspired me to do some code refactoring. I ended up changing a lot of stuff, but it’s okay since it’ll be even easier to keep updating new content in the future.
Also I’m skimming through Game Programming Gems #1. Data-driven programming, fuk yeah. Most of the book is C++ but there’s some useful stuff regardless.

The main issue with the game still is AI. Although it’s starting to look better, I’m not exactly sure how to make it fun enough. I hope I’ll get some valuable feedback when I release the game for beta testing.

One good thing is that I’ve kept up my motivation. Here’s another article I found helpful.
The main point I picked up from it is to Just Keep Doing It (as in programming), and to block any distractions. English isn’t my native language so that’s the best I can do trying to explain it. :smiley:

I’ll post another update the second I have something cool to show.

#12

DAY 11

FRESH POT!!

Did I just waste an hour doing this?


http://i.imgur.com/i6yt78C.png

I could pontentially release the game this weekend as a beta. There’s about 5 gangs ready, the ones in the image above.
I have a few things I need to finish, and one annoying bug to squash, but think I’d be ready on sunday.

Anyone interested? Anyone? :persecutioncomplex:

I’m definetly sinking more time in this than I originally planned, but as you all know, you can’t stop the feature creep after it starts to flow.
But it’s okay, I want to make a fun game.

I’m gonna do the website tonight and start planning the trailer.

#13

You can not stop the feature flow?
Well, ok, depends on the project…

#14

Download for Android!

Okay, we released the beta, FINALLY! Might be a bit rough around the edges, but there’ll be weekly updates.

Post what you think! 8)