Android Digging for Burgers [a casual game for everyone about digging for burgers] coming Feb 28th

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
uhhh wow. . . . . .I think I love you <3 lol jk (that would be weird)
When can the likes of me get ahold of this game?

I didn't hear any music however. . are you looking for sound tracks or composers?
 
uhhh wow. . . . . .I think I love you <3 lol jk (that would be weird)
When can the likes of me get ahold of this game?

I didn't hear any music however. . are you looking for sound tracks or composers?
I appreciate the feedback!

There is no music as its only been 48 hours. Like a little game jam where I throw up every hour on the hour.

Other than that, I know a few composers. I'm pretty particular about music. This game might not get that far as there's little to no reaction on Twitter.
 
I like the other color scheme, but I came up with a new one.... that changes every 50 depths, but here's an animation where they change every 10 depths:



Here's a video of me playing. I had to tweak the new double burgers, because in this video they give full health and that's too easy:


Double burgers and a line of the same color blocks appear mandatory at specific depths as a reward and points bonus sort of thing.

I also spent a while to make an Android version. The first version ran at 15 fps. Over the span of a few hours its now up to 60 fps with some short cuts.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Interesting. this seems like something I would play for hours. the color scheme is nice too. swapping of them is very pleasing to my eyes honestly
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
Can you teach me your collision check? I feel like mine is gross and can be changed a bit
Code:
//Alarm 0 event
if (gridSnap)
{
   if (x < 145) && (y > 47)
   if (!position_empty(x+24,y)) && (!position_empty(x+48,y))
   {
       var n1,n2
       n1 = instance_position(x+24,y,oBubble);
       n2 = instance_position(x+48,y,oBubble);
       if (n1.iStable) && (n2.iStable)
       {
           if (n1.iColor == iColor) && (n2.iColor == iColor)
           {
               match = 1;
           }
       }
   }
   if (y < 169) && (y > 47)
   if (!position_empty(x,y+24)) && (!position_empty(x,y+48))
   {
       var n3,n4
       n3 = instance_position(x,y+24,oBubble);
       n4 = instance_position(x,y+48,oBubble);
       if (n3.iStable) && (n4.iStable)
       {
           if (n3.iColor == iColor) && (n4.iColor == iColor)
           {
               match = 2;
           }
       }
   }


   switch (match)
   {
       case 1:
           with (n1)
           alarm[1] = 1;
           with (n2)
           alarm[1] = 1;
           alarm[1] = 1;
           match = 0;
       break;
  
       case 2:
           with (n3)
           alarm[1] = 1;
           with (n4)
           alarm[1] = 1;
           alarm[1] = 1;
           match = 0;
       break;
   }
}
 
M

milch

Guest
this looks addictive :D i feel like the blocks getting destroyed felt more satisfying in the first version tho, since you have bigger pieces in there
 
this looks addictive :D i feel like the blocks getting destroyed felt more satisfying in the first version tho, since you have bigger pieces in there
I agree with you. There was a glitch in the previous video where with the new blocks, it failed to put those blocks into the pieces, so it was just the outline. That's been fixed now. Thanks as always for the comment!

Can you teach me your collision check? I feel like mine is gross and can be changed a bit
You may want to hop into the programming forum to ask someone else.


ENHANCEMENT UPDATE:

The long programming session yesterday, I added frills like better art, more animations, coins and a depth barrier to break up the different color palettes.

Here is a video of a 7 minute run, my stupid mistake ended it for me, despite how forgiving the game is. Its forgiving where you need to break the block by holding the arrow in the direction until the block breaks rather than a single push of the arrow to break a block.


For anyone not willing to watch the video this should summarize it:



Thanks as always for reading.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
I already did a while ago but my apologies. . . . . .sorry to bug you
Sorry no one will help you. I know nothing about this mechanic :(

I agree with you. There was a glitch in the previous video where with the new blocks, it failed to put those blocks into the pieces, so it was just the outline. That's been fixed now. Thanks as always for the comment!



You may want to hop into the programming forum to ask someone else.


ENHANCEMENT UPDATE:

The long programming session yesterday, I added frills like better art, more animations, coins and a depth barrier to break up the different color palettes.

Here is a video of a 7 minute run, my stupid mistake ended it for me, despite how forgiving the game is. Its forgiving where you need to break the block by holding the arrow in the direction until the block breaks rather than a single push of the arrow to break a block.


For anyone not willing to watch the video this should summarize it:



Thanks as always for reading.
This is quite nice. Keep up the good work
 
I am going to wrap up this little game jam. I added little effects and tweaked things, but the major update is the title screen + title screen menu.

Next will be:
- game over screen
- purchase screen with gems obtained
- saving / loading settings
- a customize character screen.
- make 2 player mode less problematic.


* edit * Well that list is done.

 
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Added a few random outfits made up of bodies, heads and faces.

Game is Digging for Burgers... needed more burgers, so now it has giant burgers:



Game over screen added (its a bit glitched due to the fact its saving constantly... but its now fixed):



Video of it all:


For those painting attention next up will be:
- Purchase items with diamonds
- Customize character screen
 
A

Ampersand

Guest
This seems like something that would do outstandingly well on app stores. Very addictive, something I'd gladly use to fill my time on the train if I could take it with me.
 
The word "addictive" has happened 3 times in this thread.

Here is the store to buy outfits. It features locked, owned and available items in a variety of bodies, faces and heads.



And a video of it:


Credits section has also been added, even if the only credit so far is to me.

The next thing will be the customization options.

It shouldn't be too much longer before this is in the Google Play store. Then again I remember the giant task it was to put my last game on Google Play.
 
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Most of yesterday's session was spent making a new company logo. New game. New logo. That sort of thing. It is the first company logo I have made myself, which is ironic considering a decade or so ago I used to design a lot of company logos.

 
Yesterday was big to get the game done in a shorter amount of time. The customize character section was made:



Other than that, the block generation system has been remade so that the two player mode generates the same blocks to mirror one another so its a fair competition. Originally, the block generation system made the same blocks for the first 15 or so blocks, then it became quite random. Redoing the system also fixed a few issues such as the double burger being generated back to back for the third double burger.



I also made an Android page for the game to start adding features from Google Play Services which will undoubtedly come back to bite me.
 
This looks great! Neat Mr. Driller style puzzle stuff. You should finish it.

If you did this in 48 hours I hate you.
In the first 48 hours I had most of the actual gameplay done and it hasn't changed too much:

I think this was the 48 hours version:



I also had the flu.

In my eyes, its finished and I'm doing the Google Play Service functions like leaderboards and achievements.
 
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I STILL HATE GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES

The overwhelming majority of yesterday's programming session was spent on Google Play Services. Leaderboards were setup, 30 achievements were added, which is a far longer process than it is on SteamWorks. Speaking of SteamWorks its a far smoother process to setup achievements, leaderboards and do anything. Having to copy / paste the achievement codes is a chore as clicking anywhere on the entire line will open the achievement to edit it.

The game setup and testing process is far easier in SteamWorks. You upload a game, set which group of users can use it and its instant. With Google Play you need to wait for the update to go live. Even when it says its published... it might not be published for hours. Each and every update is like this.

On my tablet, the game is able to fetch my achievement data, but not my leaderboard data. Meanwhile, over on my phone, its able to fetch my leaderboard data, but not my achievement data.

Due to leaderboard support my game asks people questions that makes it sound like I'm trying to steal personal information. At least players can disable that, but it takes away leaderboard and achievement support.

CONTROLS FOR MULTIPLE SIZE DEVICES WITH THE SAME RESOLUTION

Other than that, I made the controls the same size from device to device. It seems like GameMaker recommends display_set_gui_maximise()... well what happens when my phone resolution is actually a larger resolution than my big screen television? So I went with a DPI method. Smaller devices have a larger DPI.

I discovered its easier to play on a tablet when the controls are in the middle rather than at the bottom. It turns into a strain on the wrists having to hold a tablet up from the bottom. There is now a control slider to move the controls up toward the center or top of the screen to hold the tablet or phone in the middle on the vertical alignment.
 
Well it was a horrible 24 hours. Things are tweaked, nothing related to Google Play Services worked when I went to sleep. Things are miraculously working after doing nothing as I slept. Proof that when you just give up, the other party starts working. I assume its because I had assigned beta and alpha to use Google Play Services when there is only an alpha version.

Google Play Store's instant app refuses to let me upload an .apk as its not a base apk. Apparently that needs to be changed in Android Studio rather than GameMaker. So I need to wait 2 - 3 hours for the updates to go live to use Google Play Services as for whatever reason it says I'm disconnected whenever I use a test build. My first game on Android seems to work fine testing with a device connected to my PC or downloaded from Google Play Services. The code is copy pasted from that original game.

Added a few sound effects mostly for the menu. I have a composer working on music... because I couldn't stop him.

Fixed a subtle and minor memory leak that shouldn't be a memory leak as the DS GRID is removed properly. I assume it has to do with a globalvar being created before the DS GRID. So I took a different route where the game constantly uses the same DS GRID and a new one is never created or destroyed.

Other than that, I tweaked the size of the control visual aides.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Are you using a shader? I was wondering this because the game looks old but new. . . .Of course your are lol will there be an option to turn this off? I'm not hating on this. Just hoping for more control is all
 
Are you using a shader? I was wondering this because the game looks old but new. . . .Of course your are lol will there be an option to turn this off? I'm not hating on this. Just hoping for more control is all
Nope. No shader. As I've pointed out several times on the forum, any shader at all makes my 10+ year old PC crash. Chances are you mean the fuzz caused by the animated .gif files and videos?

Here is how the game truly looks:

 
Yesterday felt far more productive even if it revolved around Google Play Services.

There are 30 achievements and I can get a lot of them easily, but I am a great player at this point. I've discovered the best way to reset achievements is to destroy my Google Play account and start from scratch. The achievement_reset() fails to work for whatever reason. I tweaked achievements to make them more difficult and space things out so there aren't so many achievements unlocking in a small span of time.

UNLOCK SYSTEM

I added the unlock system for cosmetic items. You accumulate X number of points to unlock the item. Then you buy it with a small amount of diamonds. Each score accumulates and goes to the unlock system, otherwise one high score would unlock 10 things in a row. Even then a good first score can unlock the first 5 items. Some may consider it a grind to get every cosmetic, I consider it a reward as cosmetic items do nothing other than make the character look different.

Everything takes 2 million points and below to unlock. I can average about 15,000 points per minute on a run, so everything should unlock in a little over 2 hours. I've even thought of increasing the score per giant burger so the longer you last the more points you get.

COSMETICS

More cosmetics have been added, mostly heads and faces. A few things that were there before have been tweaked. The player can now randomize the character by holding down at the bottom of the character customization menu.

ADS

Ads were added, but these are the kind of ads that reward you with diamonds. I should probably come up with a different name than diamonds. Something like "burgles" or "crunchems." You can always find diamonds as you play and diamonds are awarded at a game over, one for every 10,000 points. Ads happen after game overs only after the first 10 minutes of playtime. Then 5 minutes after that. Playtime is calculated by actually playing. If its paused or in a menu, that doesn't count.

Like my previous game, you're warned 3 seconds before the ad happens and there's a tip to give you something to read other than the same warning and notification you'll receive diamonds. Ads will probably be a waste as I'm not big enough to reap the rewards, nor can I do rewarded ads to incentivize watching video ads due to GameMaker limitations.

PHOTOS

Since I have no real screenshots to show... here are photos:

Phone playing the game (the blur is from the tablet camera unable to focus this close):



Tablet playing the game (in debug mode):

 
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Yesterday's update, I continued smoothing out leaderboard issues and enhancing achievements by tweaking them. There are more cosmetic items. The price for the cosmetic items was reduced. So the game should be around 2 - 3 hours to unlock everything.

Since there is no reason for screenshots, here are some of the random customized characters.

 
CHALLENGE MODE

I am back again. My part of the game is done and I'm still waiting on music. So while I wait, I decided to make a challenge mode. In Tetris it would be mode B. More traditional mobile games make it the campaign.

The bulk of development time was spent making the challenge mode menu. The menu can now scroll and shows three stars for each challenge to represent difficulty. When you confirm a challenge, you're taken to a difficulty menu. Completing a higher difficulty will grant you the lesser difficulty stars.

Each challenge tweaks the game in simple ways and gives you goals for the sake of diversity. Some of the tweaks are removing or adding collectables, fast draining or recovering energy, adding grey blocks that give 0 points, increasing or decreasing death blocks and other interesting things. The goals include breaking X number of blocks, getting to a specific depth, collecting Y number of burgers, surviving X number of minutes and even obtaining a specific score.

Challenges record either time or a score depending on what they are. I had programmed them to record time only, then I thought that would be bad, since you can only get such a small time before no one can beat it. Having a high score for each seems more fun. I thought about removing the time in favor of the score, but why not have both? That way there can be challenges where you race to 100,000 points and others where you get as many points as possible in five minutes.

There are around fifteen challenges at the moment. Even on the highest difficulty, each one feels like it goes quick enough and there's room for greater challenges. Its really what the game was missing and offers 30 extra minutes of content if I speed run the hardest difficulty. The HUD has also been modified for the challenge mode to show off how close you are to the goal.

An even better part to the challenge mode is that I designed it with 2 players competitive in mind. So two players can go through and compete against one another in each challenge as a race. This would be on the Windows version since there is no two player option for the Android version.

Here is an animation of the challenge menu system:

 
MORE CHALLENGES

The challenges have turned into a fun diversion for me personally since there are different goals and mutations to the rules. Eight more challenges were added and its starting to get to the longer challenges... longer meaning 3 - 4 minutes for the hardest difficulties. Some of the challenges are more difficult versions of early challenges, but with modifiers to keep them fresh.

To keep diversifying things, black death blocks were added to later challenges and they turn the game on its head. The black death blocks instantly kill the character when touched. There is always strategy in a game about making the longest chain, but being unable to fall on or touch the black death block gets a lot more thought involved to avoid killing or trapping yourself.

BURGERS AND FRIES

There are now shooters that fire in 4 directions at 90 degrees, then every few seconds, they rotate by 45 degrees. The fireballs go over the blocks and kill the player, but they're only seen in later challenges. The system can generate them based on the challenge and will only appear 1 per row every X number of rows. The rows are set in the challenge. That way I can have a challenge of a low high score where there are shooters every 5 lines and a different challenge with a higher high score with shooters every 10 lines. The shooters fire based on the time of the HUD so they all shoot at the same time and they all have the same angles. The levels feel more alive thanks to these shooters.

Going through all challenges on the hardest difficulty took me almost 2 hours with the majority of the time on the later challenges. The game keeps track of such things as play time and with the reset data function, that helps too. Since the time will take longer for other players, I think I'll stop stop at an even 25 challenges.

New challenges makes for new achievements. New achievements have been added for the first star and then one for every 15 stars.

I gave multiplayer challenges a try and smoothed out the few issues there were. It worked well as a race and competition. Other than that there are now 15 color schemes that will cycle through.
 
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CONTROLS CONTROLS CONTROLS!

The composer wants a PC version as he only has an iPhone and I only have an Android. So I spent time polishing the PC version. Most of the polish was dedicated to the game controller system in two player mode. Getting 2 different controllers to control 2 different players. Smoothing out those issues.

A controls reminder is now setup on the back wall when the player starts to remind the player how to play.



IN GAME MANUAL

With so much focus on the controls, I wrote out a 1,000+ word manual to put in game. The new menu is the "how to play" menu located in the mode selection menu.



LOOPING BONUS

The game loops after 1,000+ depths (rows). I am finally at the point where I can loop or almost loop when I play the arcade. With this skill, I have now added bonus points and a big flashing statement that scrolls up the screen when you achieve it. The player is given 50,000 bonus points for each loop.
 
... i wanna play it :(
I keep going for comments like that. Thank you!

I'm just waiting on music. I've sent it to the composer so he can get a feel for the game and I'll start having other humans play it before I release it for other humans to play it. I might add more achievements as I can go through the game and unlock everything in a little over 2 hours.
 
Another day of digging in the code mine.

Two friends played it. One of the friends was a harsher critic, and managed to make it through a loop of 1,000 depths his first play so I tweaked a bunch of things.
- No touch'ems are now animated to look different than death blocks.
- Death blocks are now no dig'ems.
- Shooters were added to the arcade mode at 500 depths which takes about 4 minutes of playtime to reach. Shooters appear once every 25 depths and more often as the player goes deeper until the end of the loop. Shooters will only appear once per depth.
- Crushers tremble far more before they close inward. When crushers tremble, the player's energy flashes orange as well.
- Specific crusher information was added to the how to play manual.
- "Arcade" and "Challenges" are now "Arcade Mode" and "Challenge Mode."
- Collecting health items illuminates the energy green for a second.
- Fixed "constant burger" issue where burgers refused to disappear after they left the play area so you could see a pixel or two.
- Fixed issue where blocks would appear beyond the crushers that moved inward. Now when the crushers have moved, the blocks are removed as they spawn rather than getting removed 1 pixel into the screen.
- Modified chili burger system to scan even further for no touch'ems to not drop the player into no touch'ems when the chili burger wears off. Before it scanned 4 tiles further, now it scans even more.
 
S

signal

Guest
Looking really slick. I'm eager to try it out. Kind of amazing how much stuff you got done in a short period of time.
 
Looking really slick. I'm eager to try it out. Kind of amazing how much stuff you got done in a short period of time.
Lack of sleep helps. Plus, in a way I've done everything before with previous games. This game was made from scratch to prove I can remember how to do everything as its been a year since I've made a game from scratch.

In yesterday's session:
- Modified fry shooters no longer shoot when you're next to them. It makes the game far easier during the areas with fry shooters.
- Added touch screen mode, for the one person I know that has a Windows tablet. When you start the game it informs you grab a controller and press a key or grab a keyboard and press a button or touch the hand to use touch screen controls. The touch the hand thing was added because originally it was touch the screen and people with a mouse felt the game had mouse support, which it has zero mouse support other than a touch screen acts like mouse support. To hinder people from clicking on the hand themselves, I removed the mouse cursor.
- Added new tile themes. It helps with challenge mode having assigned themes and it will help the trailer have more diversity.

Three more people play tested yesterday. One feedback was great, one feedback was thorough from a person who tackled the challenge mode. The last feedback was a screenshot proving he had played. Today someone will test the Android version.

Today I will probably make a trailer to prepare for when the game has music.
 
S

signal

Guest
Lack of sleep helps. Plus, in a way I've done everything before with previous games. This game was made from scratch to prove I can remember how to do everything as its been a year since I've made a game from scratch.
Gotcha :D I was reading through you devlog in amazement how you were just breezing through achievements, high scores, ads, controls, etc. It helps when you've done those things before in previous projects :D
 
Gotcha :D I was reading through you devlog in amazement how you were just breezing through achievements, high scores, ads, controls, etc. It helps when you've done those things before in previous projects :D
Achievements and ads were still no cakewalk. :) Then again, I think to when I'd help out on my uncle's farm... so everything programming related is a cake walk compared to that.

I also come up with a better virtual key system for touch screens that I will need to go back into my previous touch screen game to update.

Thanks for the feedback.

Here are some screenshots from the last programming session:

Fries:



Block Theme: Zips:



Block Theme: Frosting:





2 Player Frosting:



Grey Blocks Break 1-by-1:

 
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hogwater

Member
All your new colors look really great, much better.

Consider using the colors from the "fries" screenshot for the blocks in the "2 player frosting area." Those blocks have a little to much black in the color mix, making them look dull. I mean black as in shade, where color is mixed with black to darken it rather than a tint (adding white) or tone (adding a complementary color etc).
 
All your new colors look really great, much better.

Consider using the colors from the "fries" screenshot for the blocks in the "2 player frosting area." Those blocks have a little to much black in the color mix, making them look dull. I mean black as in shade, where color is mixed with black to darken it rather than a tint (adding white) or tone (adding a complementary color etc).
Which one of these four is better?








As for the colors in general there are 15 palettes for the standard cubes, 5 for the zips and 5 for the frosting at this point. They're easy enough to make.
 
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I guess the first, although none of them are as successful as the colors from the fries screenshot.
Thanks for the reply. Wow I misread what you wrote... several different times. I think I get it now.

Which one looks better?





While I'm here... you'll want to see me completely botch what you meant when I read fries:



 
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As the composer works on the music, I have continued tweaking things to enhance what’s already there.

– Added short themes for the title screen and game over. There are also two jingles for breaking a burger block and making it through a loop of 1,000 depths.
– Added V-Sync and window screen size options to the settings menu. This should make it easier for specific hardware compatibility issues to get full screen or at least a big, near full screen.
– Added a squishiness to both the player and the blocks when they land. They squish and fatten out while getting shorter, then return to their normal size.
– Added a stats screen that can be found in the settings and pause menus.
– Added a timer in the single player game below the depth to show how long the player has lasted.
– Added green text to show how much energy is gained with burgers when the player collects them. Before, it was just a green highlight of the energy itself.
– Added more frosting color schemes to total 15, just as the cubes total 15 while the zips only have 5.
– Fixed and modified other small things too numerous to mention.

Here is a video of everything the game contains, but its not a trailer or anything:




 
A tester managed to break a few of the time survival challenges. To rectify things, a meat grinder was added to the survival challenges and other challenges in the future.

The mighty meat grinder appears at the top of specific challenge stages and moves down at a slow place. Despite its always slow pace, if the player begins to leave it behind, it will always be dragged down so it is never far behind. This will keep the player moving forward because its intimidating to see it grind up the blocks as it churns.

A new set of challenges has been added bringing the current total to 26. These are the Firehouse I & II where the player needs to collect chili burgers in order to break through no dig'ems. This puts more of an emphasis on lateral digging and even path finding how to get chili burgers that are perched higher than the player.

Even minor issues are getting smoothed out as more people play test the game. Production has slowed down as there's nothing to be added without making the game much grander than it is. This might be the best I can squeeze the sponge until the music is finished.

 
S

signal

Guest
This might be the best I can squeeze the sponge until the music is finished.
How about the slightly off-center text in the black boxes? Or is that a design choice? That would've bugged me like crazy if I was dev'ing this game :D

Oh and the color palette in the last screenshot (with the grinder) looks the best to me.
 
How about the slightly off-center text in the black boxes? Or is that a design choice? That would've bugged me like crazy if I was dev'ing this game :D

Oh and the color palette in the last screenshot (with the grinder) looks the best to me.
Thanks. I like it too. The color scheme changes as you progress, but that's always the first scheme of that theme.

As for the off center text, its perfectly on center but the spacing makes it look off center. For whatever reason the text ends with a typical spacing after it rather than no spacing. Its always been like that for me when I use sprite fonts even when I have 0 or -1 spacing and proportional or not proportional. Others have mentioned it in previous WIP games of mine. The best I can do is move it over a few pixels to look centered.

Even in 2 player, the text is fa_centered and set to room_width / 2 and its still off.

 
Fresh testers tested the game and returning players kept playing the challenge mode. As always, the game was tweaked here and there.

- Added a new challenge to better explain the crushers work via the player's energy. The common question and or theory is the crushers happened at specific depths.
- Added the ability to get to the title screen directly from a game over by pressing the back button.
- Added the start of two music tracks. The panic mini song and the playing in game song. The music system was also smoothed out to keep track of the in game song when a player visits the pause menu and that theme plays or when a jingle is played.
- Added in game achievements and in game achievement unlock system rather than relying on Google Play and Steam achievements. This expedites achievement testing, because they use the same achievement codes, unlocking them in game will ensure they can be unlocked in Google Play Services and Steam.
- Added brief instructions on menu buttons such as Enter or the green A button to confirm and Escape or the red B button to go back.
- Added a mega score for long term achievements. Long term meaning 2 - 3 hours, but its based on a combination of other scores found in the stats section.
- Added more achievements reliant on the Mega Score and a few other select outfits. There are now 45 achievements which seems a bit excessive, but the game has grown.
- Added different exit confirmation statements. Once you exit the game, a different one will show next and cycle through.
- Added an exit screen that lasts for 4 seconds and shows a statement mostly for publicity. It uses the same cycle system as the exit confirmation statements.
- Modified how the Android directional pad works. It still looks like a 4 way D-pad, but now it works more like an analog stick with 360 degrees, even if its still just 4 directions.
- Modified the player's movement to be 20% faster and the jump lets the player move 50% faster. The movement speed while in air was increased to hopefully cross gaps.
- Modified the two Firehouse challenges to only spawn chili burgers between the second and eighth blocks rather than between the first and ninth.
- Modified the HUD to correct a few minor issues.
- Modified reset data system so you only need to click it and confirm rather than select yes, then exit settings and confirm.
- Fixed an issue where the crushers weren't creating an explosion of pieces of blocks they destroyed.
 
I suppose the biggest news is the game is now done. Rather than shovel it out instantly, I'll give it some time and set a release date for Android on February 28th and keep doing what I can until then. Here is a glamor shot that you saw in the original post:


With the music getting wrapped up, I have been enhancing the Android version for my phone to smooth out some things. The issues being the interface for the controls, making them look better and improving performance despite a system designed for decadence.

NEW CONTROL INTERFACE

The control interface has always been tweaked, but its been a focus the past few days. The size of buttons and directional pad along with their placement. The settings has an option to adjust the position of the controls as well. The interface was remade from scratch to resemble a controller, but that was before it took a transparent approach as it looked ugly in screen shots. Perhaps it will come back or even give the player a choice.

As mentioned in a previous blog, the directional pad works more like an analog stick that allows for 360 degrees even if the game only allows for movement in four directions. This method feels better to play and allows for moments where the thumb is placed outside of the pad itself. Another good thing about this method is a player can slide their thumb rather than moving it from position to position. It feels far better with this extra layer of detail and fool proofing.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT

Having a lot of moving blocks on screen creates a burden. Adding the ability to have the tiles merge creates another burden. When the blocks land for the first time, they check surrounding blocks to see if they can merge. On a tablet or PC it works fine, but on the phone there is a noticeable slow down, so to prevent this, there are now different detail qualities. The game can detect when its moving less than 55 fps for 3 seconds and change itself to low quality. In low quality, the game doesn't bother to merge the tiles, it assumes they're all individual blocks to save a lot of processing power.

FIXING COMPRESSED AUDIO THAT FAILS TO LOOP

As it turns out with .m4a and .mp3 files there's the slightest 0.045 second gap that prevents a file from truly looping. Each time the file is saved it adds a bit of silence to the front of the file. Even removing the silence will add the silence again when exporting to .mp3 format. To correct this, the music loops are using .ogg format. Previous games will need this correction as well.

FIREWORK FINISH

At the game over and victory screens, players are given bonus diamonds for every 10,000 points. To accentuate this, the finale screen will allow players to speed through the screen until the point when the diamonds are given. For each bonus diamond, a sky flower is set off complete with a rumble and sound effect. Its another tweak that should make the finale feel more rewarding. The higher the score, the faster the fireworks are set off. With the detail quality system, the lower quality sky flowers are of course less impressive.

For the record, 300,000 is extremely difficult to achieve, let alone 400,000 seen in this animation.



- Added a details setting to help phones maintain 60 fps. The game will also detect if you have low fps and adjust accordingly.
- Added a confirmation to abandon the dig.
- Added more sounds.
- Modified the menu selection bar to have a bit more dazzle and pop.
- Fixed a 2 player bug that rewarded the second burger block was worth an excessive amount of points.
- Fixed several infrequent issues with controller vibrations.
- Fixed music loops caused by split second gap in compressed audio.
 
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More jingles were added over the past few days. Jingles for purchasing something and another for unlocking. There are other tweaks and enhancements, but its slowing down as the sponge has been squeezed.

Without anything to program or fix and a week away from the game's release, a mini game was added. The basis of the mini game is simple, players are in a plane with full control while other planes drop blocks and carry burgers. Dodging a block when its dropped gets you points and snatching a burger gets bigger points. The more planes fly by, the more planes spawn.

There is concern that the game is becoming too large but I'm uncertain this mini game will get enhanced and make it into the game. Its radically different than the gameplay, its tough to find a place to put it and in a game called Digging for Burgers, why are you flying? At least with the planes flying with blocks, it would explain how the blocks would get into giant crushers.

Here is the minigame:



11 days from launch!
 
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