Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Fat Owl with a Jetpack is still happening! After a long break the game is getting close to finished. The current version has over 40 levels. Mostly of the race and survival types. This has taken a long time and since I started the project, many two button 'lunar lander clones' have been released but none work like Fat Owl. You don't run of fuel, you don't die when a wingtip brushes the wall and it all happens at 60FPS. If you're interested in finding out what this means. IM me for a TestFlight build. Thumbnail below is from the original post I put here three years ago!
Hopefully soon. My other games took far too long... The whole idea is that the game is fast, responsive and everything is done through just two buttons with no swipes, virtual pads or tilt controls. I had the chance to test the controls on about 20 people today at the Develop Conference (the UK's GDC, kind of...) and almost all of them could get around the level after about a minute of playing. It's designed to be a mix of lunar lander and a wheel in a motocross/trials game (you get extra speed by rolling round the walls) and it seems most people get that. It's only been 'playable' for a few days though so its very early days.
The game now features loading multiple levels (well, 'levels' is overstating it, I guess they should be called maps for now) and Thrust/Gravitar style lifting of heavy objects. There would be pics of this but I'm on vacation with my kids, only have 3G on my phone and probably shouldn't be working on it at all but it's just too much fun. Haven't enjoyed coding this much for years.
Hey, that looks really cool! I like the style of gameplay! You could do a lot of great things with a game like that. I hope you complete and produce a great game in that style.
It will get finished and quite soon. I have a history of taking on projects that are a little too much work for one person, this one isn't...
I've been messing around with the shaders and have come up with a thing that sort of looks like torn paper. The other pic shows the low resolution image that defines the map. This is just experimentation, it'll probably change several more times before its finished. What this means is that, for world shapes at least, they are very very easy to create. I'll also be building the editor in the game with the ability to base levels on imported pictures. This will hopefully make it into the released game at some point but definitely not on the initial release, it's one thing to make a usable editor, another that you are prepared to put into the hands of people who can give one star reviews...
Looks interesting, could you please say more about what will be the main goal of the game? I definitely approve intuitive controls and your decision not to use virtual joystick - I hate virtual joystick Also +1000 points for 60 FPS! Try to get these on older devices like iPhone4 old original iPad and people will love you Good luck with the development!
The plan is that the entire game will be played through just two buttons. I already have it picking up and dropping objects (like the star in the recent pic) without having to ad any extra controls, it's all about hovering 'close enough' to the right spot for a couple of seconds. Right now it runs at a very solid 30 FPS on 3gs, iPhone4 (in non-retina) and iPad1 in 512x384. On all newer devices it runs at a vey solid 60FPS. This is at full resolution except iPad3 which I might have to 1440x1080 but I haven't checked yet, i'll look into optimising shaders later.
Sorry, i'm not sure what you are asking. Are you bothered by the lack of story? it not running at 60FPS on all devices?
More info on Fat Owl With A Jetpack here: My Blog. In other news, thanks to graphic engine optimisations (or, more accurately, a one line bug fix) the game now runs at 60FPS on everything from 3gs up. I'm not 100% sure that this will be true of the final game as there is still a lot to go in but fingers crossed...
I think that's possibly because it was a very early demo of what is basically just a control system. It's just mechanics, just the core of a game. That first post was just a check to see if anyone thought this control system had been done before, I didn't want to waste my time coding a game only to be accused of ripping something off. I still have a lot of work to do and it could be that the 'upcoming games' forum has changed since I last posted here. If you want to know how many levels, powerups, etc. you should probably stay away from this thread for a while.
You had me sold with the name alone, but the game looks awesome as well! Please explain, again, why you think it would be a bad idea to include the editor in the initial release? I would think that would only make people rate it higher.
Simply because I need to get this finished fairly soon and making the editor user friendly enough for everyone to use is a lot more work than making an editor for level designers. That said, the current editor is actually pretty easy to use. I'll put it in a video soon.
