5 ms·

"The key thing for me is quality." I wanted to say that I developed Rocket Renegade [1] for iOS. It's an 80s-inspired arcade shooter, with elements reminiscent

by Arjuna 10y ago

"The key thing for me is quality." I wanted to say that I developed Rocket Renegade [1] for iOS. It's an 80s-inspired arcade shooter, with elements reminiscent of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaga... and, of course, it contains bosses. I wrote all of the code, and I composed the soundtrack as well. The bitmap graphics were done by game designer Daniel Cook, who released them under a Creative Commons Attribution license. I believe that it fits all of your requirements: the quality is high, the gameplay is fun, it runs rock-solid at 60 frames per second, the music is awesome, and it's a POP game (Pay Once to Play); no IAP, no ads. It's essentially a straight-up, gun-for-your-highest-score-classic-arcade-shooter. [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rocket-renegade/id955229059?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rocket-renegade/id955229059?...

IgorPartola 10y ago
I just bought it and gave it a try. I have to say, it is not really my type of thing. After beating the boss, it just repeats, which is not really fun. I really liked the graphics and whatnot, but there was very little in ways of Replayability. It reminded me a lot of Xenon, but was basically over after the first boss. Still, great job! Hope it makes you rich.
- Arjuna 10y ago
  Thank you for checking it out! Yes, your feedback is well-placed; it does need additional game-play elements (e.g., power-ups, shields, variation, etc.) that would give it a higher replay factor. Again, thank you for taking the time to play and provide feedback. This was my first game, and it's clear that I have a lot to learn!
  - IgorPartola 10y ago
    Welcome. And best of luck. This is an awesome start!
Tenhundfeld 10y ago
Just purchased and played several times. Very solid gameplay, nice retro graphics, fun music. Congratulations. I was kind of hoping for some power-ups, like a faster shot rate or scattershot. Those might be present, and I just didn't get to them yet, only made it to stage 3-x on first attempts. I also wish the stages had more variation, might feel too repetitive after a while – though that might happen later also. Anyway, for $0.99, I'm definitely not complaining. It's a fun game and definitely an example of what I'm looking for. I'd personally be willing to pay more, in the $4.99 range, for a game like this, especially if it had some the variation features I mentioned above – but I might be unusual.
- babuskov 10y ago
  Hi, Could you please take a look at my game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drone-invaders/id1047158768 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drone-invaders/id1047158768 Powerups are there. :)
  - heartbreak 10y ago
    IAP were something he/she was specifically trying to avoid.
    - babuskov 10y ago
      There are no IAPs in iOS version.
- Arjuna 10y ago
  Well, first off, a massive THANK YOU for both the purchase, and for taking the time to provide feedback! Unfortunately, there are no power-ups, and the levels do repeat after the boss level (although the game does become progressively more difficult). Those are definitely great ideas for the next iteration of the game. Thank you, again. It means a lot to me.
  - dhimes 10y ago
    Fun game! (Sorry for your loss, indicated in the credits.) I'm not much of a gamer and I kept getting clipped by the rocks because I couldn't see my ship under my finger!
softawre 10y ago
Is this a Unity game? I built something similar (way worse I'm sure) based on the Space game tutorial: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter-tutorial https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter-t...
- Arjuna 10y ago
  No, it's not Unity. I used Swift, along with SpriteKit [1] to develop the game. [1] https://developer.apple.com/spritekit https://developer.apple.com/spritekit
  - jaegerpicker 10y ago
    Sweet, I love SpriteKit. It's really great to work with.
stordoff 10y ago
iOS only? It looks fun, but I don't have a working iOS device at the moment.
- Arjuna 10y ago
  Thank you. It's iOS only.
13hours 10y ago
Piggy backing on this to plug our game as well: Fleet of One [1]. Retro 80s space shooter with an original soundtrack composed by a SAMA (South African Music Awards) nominated musician, original artwork by a professional artist, a lot of time spent on level design with classic bosses. Have a look, there's a free demo as well. No IAPs. Real love went into this. We didn't even make the development cost back. We actively fought against the idea of IAPs and trying to hook whales, even though it would have been easy to introduce mechanisms to do it (on the hardest level it's almost impossible to beat). [1] iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/fleet-of-one/id580453079?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/fleet-of-one/id580453079?mt=... Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.polymorph.fleetofone&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.polymorp...
idunno246 10y ago
At 0.99 though, do you really make much money? Back of the envelop numbers seems that any game at that price point is so underpriced to never be profitable or more than a side project. Especially when an ad driven install costs more than that - relying on the pretty poor app store discovery mechanisms cant drive much traffic. (ive worked for free to play, so maybe we just saw a totally different thing) The reason IAP became so big is because there was a huge race to the bottom in pricing in mobile, $1 isnt sustainable, so everyone was forced to find alternate revenue streams. If apple got rid of free and <$5, the average quality of the app store could be so much higher
- tracker1 10y ago
  I keep thinking that a virtual arcade model could work well... you get N plays per day for free, but if you want to buy more "coins" you pay like $5 and they carry over... Each version improves existing games in the arcade and/or adds new ones... you can play your 20 coins/day first, then buy extra if you choose... there's no reason that model couldn't work quite well.
  - gearoidoc 10y ago
    Isn't that exactly what P2P/IAP is?
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    This is the model most Facebook games use. They might call credits "energy", but whatever.
- gearoidoc 10y ago
  Depends on what you define as 'much money'. I spent 3 months building Hipster CEO and its made me approx $40-45k (as well as leading to other projects). Not a bad return for 3 months work.

by Arjuna 10y ago

IgorPartola 10y ago

I just bought it and gave it a try. I have to say, it is not really my type of thing. After beating the boss, it just repeats, which is not really fun. I really liked the graphics and whatnot, but there was very little in ways of Replayability. It reminded me a lot of Xenon, but was basically over after the first boss. Still, great job! Hope it makes you rich.

Arjuna 10y ago
Thank you for checking it out! Yes, your feedback is well-placed; it does need additional game-play elements (e.g., power-ups, shields, variation, etc.) that would give it a higher replay factor. Again, thank you for taking the time to play and provide feedback. This was my first game, and it's clear that I have a lot to learn!
- IgorPartola 10y ago
  Welcome. And best of luck. This is an awesome start!

Tenhundfeld 10y ago

Just purchased and played several times. Very solid gameplay, nice retro graphics, fun music. Congratulations. I was kind of hoping for some power-ups, like a faster shot rate or scattershot. Those might be present, and I just didn't get to them yet, only made it to stage 3-x on first attempts. I also wish the stages had more variation, might feel too repetitive after a while – though that might happen later also. Anyway, for $0.99, I'm definitely not complaining. It's a fun game and definitely an example of what I'm looking for. I'd personally be willing to pay more, in the $4.99 range, for a game like this, especially if it had some the variation features I mentioned above – but I might be unusual.

babuskov 10y ago
Hi, Could you please take a look at my game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drone-invaders/id1047158768 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drone-invaders/id1047158768 Powerups are there. :)
- heartbreak 10y ago
  IAP were something he/she was specifically trying to avoid.
  - babuskov 10y ago
    There are no IAPs in iOS version.
Arjuna 10y ago
Well, first off, a massive THANK YOU for both the purchase, and for taking the time to provide feedback! Unfortunately, there are no power-ups, and the levels do repeat after the boss level (although the game does become progressively more difficult). Those are definitely great ideas for the next iteration of the game. Thank you, again. It means a lot to me.
- dhimes 10y ago
  Fun game! (Sorry for your loss, indicated in the credits.) I'm not much of a gamer and I kept getting clipped by the rocks because I couldn't see my ship under my finger!

softawre 10y ago

Is this a Unity game? I built something similar (way worse I'm sure) based on the Space game tutorial: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter-tutorial https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter-t...

Arjuna 10y ago
No, it's not Unity. I used Swift, along with SpriteKit [1] to develop the game. [1] https://developer.apple.com/spritekit https://developer.apple.com/spritekit
- jaegerpicker 10y ago
  Sweet, I love SpriteKit. It's really great to work with.

stordoff 10y ago

iOS only? It looks fun, but I don't have a working iOS device at the moment.

Arjuna 10y ago
Thank you. It's iOS only.

13hours 10y ago

Piggy backing on this to plug our game as well: Fleet of One [1]. Retro 80s space shooter with an original soundtrack composed by a SAMA (South African Music Awards) nominated musician, original artwork by a professional artist, a lot of time spent on level design with classic bosses. Have a look, there's a free demo as well. No IAPs. Real love went into this. We didn't even make the development cost back. We actively fought against the idea of IAPs and trying to hook whales, even though it would have been easy to introduce mechanisms to do it (on the hardest level it's almost impossible to beat). [1] iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/fleet-of-one/id580453079?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/fleet-of-one/id580453079?mt=... Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.polymorph.fleetofone&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.polymorp...

idunno246 10y ago

At 0.99 though, do you really make much money? Back of the envelop numbers seems that any game at that price point is so underpriced to never be profitable or more than a side project. Especially when an ad driven install costs more than that - relying on the pretty poor app store discovery mechanisms cant drive much traffic. (ive worked for free to play, so maybe we just saw a totally different thing) The reason IAP became so big is because there was a huge race to the bottom in pricing in mobile, $1 isnt sustainable, so everyone was forced to find alternate revenue streams. If apple got rid of free and <$5, the average quality of the app store could be so much higher

tracker1 10y ago
I keep thinking that a virtual arcade model could work well... you get N plays per day for free, but if you want to buy more "coins" you pay like $5 and they carry over... Each version improves existing games in the arcade and/or adds new ones... you can play your 20 coins/day first, then buy extra if you choose... there's no reason that model couldn't work quite well.
- gearoidoc 10y ago
  Isn't that exactly what P2P/IAP is?
- tedmiston 10y ago
  This is the model most Facebook games use. They might call credits "energy", but whatever.
gearoidoc 10y ago
Depends on what you define as 'much money'. I spent 3 months building Hipster CEO and its made me approx $40-45k (as well as leading to other projects). Not a bad return for 3 months work.