Good to hear that you liked it If they live right around the corner, you should see if you can get their storywriter to cooperate with you. Would be interesting to see something similar as quest storyline in Brightridge.
Good timing jaysraptors. I just came here to write a bit about what's going on I should probably write this on my Blog but I like the community here at TouchArcade and I think it's a good place to put a few ideas down BrightRidge Updates 2015 One of the problems I've had with BrightRidge development is due to fragmentation. Originally BrightRidge ran on A6 and higher devices with 1gb ram or more. Well there was an understandable outcry, and although I didn't think I could do it, I spent about a week working on increasing the compatibility. Running a less detailed version I was able to make BrightRidge run on A5 devices. This made me happy because it could reach more people, but it also introduced some problems that I hope I have learned from. 1. It requires two project bases - i have one scene for the high detailed version and one for the A5. Maintaining two code bases has been more difficult, and i think that the A5 version also suffers because even if I don't load the high detail, the high detail elements are still included in the app size 2. The A5 version wasn't representative of the real game. It has much lower detail, leading to people being upset because the game doesn't match the screenshots, which were taken on an iPhone 5 3. There's no way to restrict downloads to specific devices, but the App Store says that the game runs on iPod Touch and more. There isn't anything I can do to change this and I hope Apple will change this policy. In the meantime people who downloaded the game and watched it crash were understandably upset 4. Hate mail - i get a large amount of "You're a monster" and " make it work on all devices" reviews. I understand people being upset, but I made this game because I want to share my world with people, express artistic creativity and make people happy. I get bad reviews but I'm a person, and getting a steady stream of this does not encourage me to keep designing. There are some things that I am not technical capable of doing, and being berated for them rather than encouraged for what I have done right is difficult. It also made me realize that people will never be happy even though I worked as hard as I could to add A5 support i still got the same amount of 1 star reviews as when A5 support wasn't included, so i am getting poor reviews AND a more difficult development process 5. Unity, Apple and 64 bit - this has kind of been a mini disaster. I love Unity very, very much, but relying on third party software and services like Unity and Apple has caused problem for me as an independent developer when they change their policies or services. The first was a case where a Unity terrain tree bug kept me stuck on Unity 4.2 for more than a year. I worked hard to help them fix the bug, but it was only recently that it was fixed. At the same time Apple has required 64bit support in all new apps from next week on (Feb 1 2015) and Unit has been working hard to add this functionality, but it wont be available on versions earlier than Unity 4.6, which meant I had to upgrade the project to 4.6 This had been tricky since a lot of the culling system and more has changed in 3 versions. I also purchased Unity 5 but upgrading the project to it has been very difficult. Also the performance of Unity 4.6 is less stable in my tests, and this has made maintaining A5 compatibility even harder. What does all this mean? What it means is that I have sat down and thought about how I can continue to make the best worlds possible without sacrificing my health to stress, and how to work within the fast changing technical specs in teh game industry. It means sacrificing a few things so that I can just "get to work" instead of putting out fires. So here is what i am thinking over 1. The games come first. First and foremost I want to create and share worlds. No matter what tools are available, i have to remember that I'm not doing this for money but for love of art. So I need to keep a perspective that the world is not crashing down if I run into technical difficulties. 2. Dropping legacy support. Someone told me at the start not to support older devices because it would be a minefield, and i think now he was write. I'm really glad that I gave it a good try, but the bad feedback, one star reviews are very discouraging. If I'm going to get hate mail I might as well focus on making the game as good as possible. Which leads me to metal 3. IOS Metal Support. I am very close to deciding to support Metal only devices, which means A7 chip and higher (iphone 5s, 5c, ipad mini 2,3, ipad air, air 2). This has several benefits. most importantly, it will restrict downloads to those devices, which i know have the memory and CPU to run the BrightRidge I want to deliver. This means that people who cannot run BrightRidge wont be able to download the game, but that is better than downloading it and having it crash. If i could support legacy devices I would, but I am not rich and am a solo developer and I have limited resources and must do the best i can with what I have. this also means I can expand and continue to develop BrightRidge knowing that I have the device power to back it up. If I follow these three things, it will let me continue to develop BrightRidge. What about older devices? Well, a lot of people have already downloaded BrightRidge and I do not want to leave tjem in the dust. So what I am probably going to do is rename BrightRidge to BrightRidge Lite (or something better) and offer it for free. this will be the current version that is on the store today, that works with A5 devices as well as it can. Then I will add a new version of BrightRidge optimized for Metal that includes the new features ive been working on (like quests and teleport bombs) for sale at regular price. I think this is the best way for me to move forward while respecting people with older devices who have already bought the game. BTW there is a message here to learn about Apple and device fragmentation. people may say there's no fragmentation on IOS but the lessons I've learned above say otherwise. There are now huge gaps in performance between devices, and I hope Apple will introduce new developer tools soon to address this. Multiplatform Right now I have been working on upgrading the game to work in the new versions of Unity. I am currently adding mouse and keyboard support and am finishing the Mac and PC versions. Whew - game development is Hard But i do really love it, and I'm grateful for the feedback and the lessons. i read somewhere that it takes a few games to get things right, and I think that what i have learned and the new approach will hopefully help. Nimian Legends BrightRidge Running on Mac with higher detail Nimian Legends 2.0 Interactive map (want a peek? It's still in beta but you can see it unfinished here: http://nimianlegends.com/map/ New NimianLegends.com home screen to advertise game, encyclopedia and interactive map
This is exactly the game I've been looking for. Open world with whatever story I want to make from it. No "story" to try to get through, no lore, just free roam forever. Thanks a bunch!
Great read and thanks for supporting higher end devices! We all pay good money to have these devices so we can play games like this one!
Thank youSpock4Pres You're the second person to say they liked a 'game' where you just explore. I have always thought there is a large audience for 'experiences' as opposed to games, im sure a virtual Paris where you could go shopping or a virtual mount Kilimanjaro you could climb would interest people. I'm still working very hard to flesh out the world, and the BrightRidge experience. I haven't updated it since November because I have been working my day job, and upgrading the project files (which takes a lot) - but I will have some more upgrades to enhance exploration and a few new areas soon.
That's the reverse of what i usually hear. I'm glad you appreciate it and and took the time to write. Ideally, if I could, I would support all devices. Way back when I use to make games in Flash but I really wanted to make worlds in 3D. I spent so much time creating game engines in flash in 3d that i took away a lot of time i could have spent actually building the games (i still managed to finish quite a few). But i liked flash because the most people could experience my games free, and i wanted to reach as many people as possible. Today I think I should accept that Im at the point where i want to create these worlds in 3D and i want the experience to be open world, and in order to do that I unfortunately need to focus on at least A7 and up devices. But this will remove a lot of the stress time i was losing trying to solve all the challenges of programming across so many devices, and let me focus on finessing the experience to get where I'd really like it to be.
Glad to hear you are still alive and kicking And I fully understand and support your decision to stop supporting older iThingies. After all, I was one of the folks who suggested to drop all older devices and focus on Metal-compatible only. The hatemail you get over something as trivial as not supporting some device sucks mightily. But unfortunately this is the world we live in. On the risk to sound like an old geezer with "everything was better in my day", I dare say that 20-30 years ago you wouldn't get those. Kids these days (and a lot of adults too) way too often have no manners. I talk from firsthand experience here, seeing how surprised people are that our kid says "please" and "thank you". Don't let it get to you, just throw them in the trash. That you expand to Mac and PC is great news, hope you'll get more of an enchanted audience there Same goes for Metal support. I'll wait faithfully and with great anticipation to see Brightridge in full glory. And just in case I'm not on your list, make that 3 persons who really like exploring without any story you have to follow. @Spock: You are wrong on one point: there is a lot of lore in Brightridge, even if a large part exists "in the background". Protopop did a great job of making it non-intrusive and not immersion-breaking.
Thanks Nullzone - you always boost my day Yeah, the bad reviews are hard, i get through it because they are just letting me know something they'd ike fixed, and almost all the reviews have either bee 4/5 star "i love it" or 1 star "it crashed". By focusing on metal it will at least limit downloads to devices that can handle it. It's worth mentioning again in case anyone's listening, Apple really needs to give developers the ability to restrict downloads to devices that the app works on, or at least not automatically say it works on , say, ipod touch when it doesn't. In defense of all developers we have no ability to change this. I got an Oculus Rift (which is pretty amazing) and it;s been a hit at parties. In the meantime i am also porting a version of BrightRdge to oculus rift and im excited about that. For the MAc and PC ports what's cool about unity is that I can use my PS3 game pad to test game pad controls on my mac. So far i am building the project file so that a single one will work on mutliple platforms - it checks if there's any touches and disables mouse and keyboard if there is, and vice versa. I've felt less stressed since thinking hard an making a decision about the device support, and giving away the current version for free may help more people discover the world of BrightRidge too
Just wanted to add that you are not alone with your decision to drop support for less powerful devices. On the same day I wrote my last post, the new issue of my biweekly computer magazine arrived, with a short article about Witcher 3. And guess what? They dropped "legacy" support COMPLETELY. And for the same reasons as you: artwork/graphics. Now you need what comes down to an upper range machine (how does current generation upper range processor & graphicscard, 64bit only, min. 8GB RAM sound?) to run Witcher3 *at all* . To get the full 4K glory with all bells & whistles, you need quite the high-end machine (with the corresponding pricetag) . I think it was the Art Director they interviewed. Asked about the extremely steep hardware requirements he responded that "graphics were really important for us. We didn't want to compromise in any way, and old/low-to-midrange stuff just doesn't cut it. So high-end only it is." Not to mention that playing Brightridge with 3D goggles sounds extremely cool hello, full immersion...
Haters gonna hate... Don't let the haters get to you. You have created an awesome world and it is highly appreciated by a lot of people. Haters are just more vocal about it. Please continue and don't get discouraged due to the poor reviews. If people don't read the description of it before purchasing, that is not your fault but theirs. They have no one to blame except themselves. No matter what, I will continue to support your work because developers who actually care about their games and not only money are ones I truly respect.
Robert, I think the game you made is brilliant! I only played the first version when it was just released and I had a blast exploring the world you created. This is your game and I can respect the hard work that went into BrightRidge. Expanding on the lore of your world is a cool idea. I know we talked awhile back about possible scenarios like the cave trolls, stone pillars with ancient glyphs and such. I also liked how you stayed away from making it into a fighting game. It's really cool to just see how things unfold as you move through your very, and I mean very, believable world. All I can say ,is stay true to your vision. You have mountains of talent, my friend. I am really surprized no one has come knocking on your door asking you to come work for them. Selfishly, I hope that does not happen, because I really want to play BrightRidge. I really want to experience what you have in store for us. I know it will be memorable. Thanks
yeah, I'm super excited about the Witcher 3 - the Witcher 2 ws one of the games that inspired me with it's beauty. I was watching the gameplay from the new game and it looks stunning, with little environmental details like where the rocks form together with the grass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LKP2dO3T0Q How the developers describe it is kind of similar to what I'm feeling. I want to push the envelope a bit, I mean, I think BrightRidge is the only Open World design iPhone game this way, with a real open world area like this - and I'd like to make it better. At this point it's no longer realistic to see an iPhone 3 the same as an iPhone 6+ - they are as different from each other as an original Xbox is compared to the Xbox One, and I think a lot of developers are going to have to take this into account. The Witcher 3 - so beautiful So far my oculus rift is a hit at parties People are really shocked by the immersion. I haven't hooked it up to Unity yet because Im busy making the upgrade to Unity 4.6 and Unity 5, but i should be able to try it soon. I think BrightRidge on oculus could be really cool
Thank you jaysraptors_to - I needed to hear that yeah, i am in a good groove right now - working on the 2 games and a lot of client work, and making sure i goto the gym and relax too because I know from experience you have to take care of yourself or you will burn out. I hope in current game dev courses they teach game developer health and wellness, because between marketing requirements and seating posture and these bright LCD screens shining in our faces it's important to add health into the mix You're right about the 'haters'. I mean, i understand and even appreciate critical feedback, although less so when there is nothing I can do to help, like with the hardware performance. In a way i am looking forward to Metal restricting downloads to compatible devices because i think it will save people from being understandably dissapointed if they download something and it doesnt work. And I'm really excited to see how I can use metal to improve the exploration and immersion in BrightRidge BrightRidge first attempts in Unity 5
Thank you gemineye62 I especially glad to hear you say it's a believable world. My favorite games have been ones where things seem to have a 'reality' to them. I was watching an interview withe the Witcher 3 devs and they were saying how everything needed to belong if it was in the game, it needed to make sense. I really identify with that. When I'm making the world part of it is procedural, math based so it is natural in a way because it's based on the rules of nature. And when i lace things i try to get a feel for where they would really go. In my mind as an artist i am trying to reveal a pre-existing world in a way, and to be true to fleshing it out. Kind of artsy talk but it's really what I feel inside. A lot of the positive comments have been about how 'real' BrightRidge feels - not the graphics quality but the sense of place, and that means a lot to me. Thanks for encouraging me to stay true to my vision. I mean, a vision is what a good game is inspired by and as a developer we should try to keep it in focus. There's a reason many of us decided to forgo sleep and a steady paycheck in order to share these experiences I am working ti make sales, but the real reward is in the experience of building the world and also exploring it - i like to run around BrightRidge myself too Just down the hill from the Glyph Stone Circle
Don't let the unappreciative, immature audience (who give bad reviews because you won't accommodate just their needs) get you down. Know that there are many of us who just want to see you do what you love and succeed at it! Personally, though, if you're going to make two versions of the app, I'd recommend making the FREE Lite version a new app, and applying the high-end-device update to the existing app. That way those who have already purchased it can download whatever version will work for their specific device (older devices being able to redownload the last compatible version with their devices). Otherwise, you'll be asking many people to purchase the game again just to play the "metal" update. However, if you do decide to make the "metal" update the new app, I will still gladly pay again for it. Love the work and passion that's gone into it and I want to see it continue!
Thanks curtisrshideler - I'm really glad you brought this up because I've been giving it a lot of thought because of a few technical issues. I totally agree with what you suggest. BrightRidge was built in Unity 4.2 which is about a year old and is very stable, yielding great results on iPhone. Starting this Sunday February 1, 2015 Apple requires all new apps to be 64bit. Unity will only offer 64bit builds in Unity 4.6 or 5 (they are REALLY rushing right now to add it in - poor guys), which means I have had to upgrade to Unity 4.6. One problem is that I find the newer Unity is less stable on IOS, making it work even worse on older devices. Sooooo.... In anticipation I have already submitted a free version of BrightRidge to the App store this week that uses the very stable Unity 4.2. If it's accepted then i will leave it up but not for sale for the moment. My goal was pretty much what you suggested. Im going to update the current App with the metal update. That will restrict downloads of it to IOS 8 and A7+ devices. For people who do not have these devices, i'll add a link to the free version (which is technically the version that is currently on the app store). So brightRidge free will be equal to the current BrightRidge 1.2.1, but it wont be updated anymore. If Apple doesn't accept my free version before February 1st then I have to think of a different plan, because i don't know if I can support a free build that will work as stable as the current version does. Which means i would have to keep the current version as the free version, and make a new BrightRidge metal app as the updated one. I don't want to do this because of what you mentioned, and I dont think i will end up having to do that. All this to say theres a lot of technical considerations that go into something as simple as the app update (who knew), but I have really learned a lot from making this game, and once i have it figured out the experience will help with future development. Thanks for contributing to the discussion about it - it's good to hear these suggestions form other real people so that it's not just me in my head trying to figure all of this out Outside the Inn - Unity 5 beta test for BrightRidge (low res - no Metal)
Awesome! It'll mean I won't be able to play the newest updates since I'm still on iOS 7, but I will still be super supportive of the game. It's only a matter of time before I upgrade to a newer phone and will have to be on iOS 8. But for now, I'll still be enjoying it on my old iOS 7. But I'm super excited to see where it will go and what it will look like by the time I get a new phone. And super excited for you to have some fun creating more this year!
Thanks for the support I want to reach IOS 7 people, especially since folks like you are on it still. Right now the only way to keep A5 devices from downloading the app is to restrict it to Metal, which only comes in IOS 8. i COULD not restrict it, and just keep the main version IOS 7 (or even 6) compatible, and just say that it's not compatible with A5 devices. I can set it up so that it will use metal if its available, and will use opengl if it isnt. Then I could still offer the older free version. Its tricky because one way reaches more people, but also opens it up for incompatible devices to access it. The other was restricts it to compatible guaranteed devices but leaves out IOS 8. Probably better to think forward and just do the IOS8 meta thing, but after reading that you're on IOS 7 i am going to give it some more thought. I should probably look at IOS adoption rates too to help me through this transition.
Realtime Shadows with IOS Metal It;s early but I finally got BrightRidge working (mostly) in the Unity 5 beta (which is still being developped) For the moment lightmaps are not working, but i tried realtime shadows in Metal on iPhone 6 and they run great. Previously they would slow things down to a crawl. I'm looking forward to updating the visuals component by component. (antialiasing, etc) Realtime Shadows in BrightRidge 1.3.0 (IOS Metal)
