Thanks for letting me know Kwadius The game cant detect anything past an iPhone 6 due to the version of Unity I'm using, but i am writing code to detect it manually. You could help by joining the Beta. Just send me an email to robert at protopop dott com and i will add a detection code to the next update. That we we can make sure it detects the 7+ and also see how high i can set the quality levels by default for that phone. That way it will detect it and set a higher quality level
Oh lookie, you got a special mention in Shaun's frontpage "best updates" weekly column: http://toucharcade.com/2017/05/29/best-iphone-game-updates-onirim-fallout-shelter-nimian-legends-brightridge-disney-magic-kingdoms-and-more/ well deserved, applause!
Thanks Nullzone- yeah, i JUST left a comment a few minutes ago. Its so noce of Touch Arcade to mention it. The game dev is going well - a lot because i am almost done the execution work and am getting closer to being able to just work on content.
Ooooh...VERY nice screenshot, cool stuff! What are those folks supposed to be? Hhmm...did you ever play Summoner 2 on the PS2? They do remind me of those weird mask people in the Wheel of the Perduellion there. Tried to find some pictures, but alas no luck
Thanks I like them too! Are you feeling better? I hope so I googled summoner 2 - i never played it but i have heard of it. They also kind of remind me of the triangle head in i think its called Afraid of the dark or something. They are Vandgellian Monks. They maintain the citadel of Vandgels and speak a lost language understood by a few people, including the current Empra of Vandgels (sorry, i know you hate that name Part of the story is understanding where they come from and their beliefs. Their head dress evokes the shapes of the Tower at Vandgels. There are different tower shapes and purposes across the continent, and the Vandgels tower has these kind of geometric, triangular shapes to it. Its all coming bit by bit - i am just eager to see the game out there I think once Vandgels is finished and BrightRidge and Vandgels are on the app stores and appletv i will stop and take stock. Im kind of at a point where im working 40+ hours on the game, so i have 2 jobs but only one pays, and i dont think i can keep it up (i dont sell many games although i do receive a lot of wonderful fan feedback whch keeps me going).
Whoa. They remind me of the crows in Monument Valley. My wife will love to see me playing this! She loves MV. Anyway, I understand the two jobs thing. You've been an inspiration to me to start my soundtrack editing studio. It's just not many video editors realize their music and videos could be so much better if they edited the music to fit the video instead of just fading in and out of songs. It's a slow process doing work just to show and put out there. At least yours has some fun rewards because you can keep playing it!
Thats so cool that youre doing that - and i can hear the passion in your voice. Thats one of the best ways to help people, when you yourself feel there's some good to be had from it I still have a lot of juice, im just thinking realistically - but i am selling some games and there's a lot of updates coming so there's more to come before i make any decisions - and it IS super fun to do
Very nice images, really looking forward to playing it. How soon is "soon"? In any case, you should contact TA staff (best via Discord these days, I think) and see if they'll write a "coming soon" frontpage article. And I still think "Empra" and "Emperoro" are terrible choices for their titles As they look more pseudo-Italian than pseudo-Latin to me, can I suggest "Imperatore" (male) and "Imperatrice" (female)? Somehow I missed that part of your end of May post: My 5 cents: You won't be able to keep it up. 80+ hours weeks simply are not healthy, not to mention that food needs to be on the table, bills want to be paid, etc. If the games don't bring in enough money to justify working on them fulltime, treat it like a hobby. Whenever you have time and feel like it, you do something with it. But the stuff that pays has clear priority. And if that means we have to wait 2 or 3 years for the next part after Vangdels (or that we'll never see it), then so be it. Don't get me wrong though: I spent A LOT of money and time on my LARP hobby when I still had time for that, and I know other folks who have other very time/money-consuming hobbies (diving, climbing, LEGO on a large scale, ...) . So yeah, a hobby can take up a lot of your "space", but it's still a "not doing this to earn money" hobby and not a paying job - and the latter comes first.
I'm with Nullzone on this one. My hobbies took a back seat when my son was born, but I'm definitely not complaining. Do what you can when you can, bro. Make sure you and your family are taken care of, and the rest will fall into place. That being said, what you've managed to create on a mobile platform STILL blows my mind! I'm actually shocked that some large video game company hasn't approached you with an offer to buy the rights to your IP. Could you imagine if Bethesda got ahold of this? Maybe this is something you should be looking into as well? What you've created is incredible, and I'm sure the right developer would pay good money for your IP. This is just a thought. I completely understand if you have no desires to sell your IP. You've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this game, and I just want to see that you and your family reap the rewards of it. Keep doing what you do best!
Thanks for the reminder and scoop about Discord (and for caring about my health Soon is still a while, like the fall - i am finishing updates 7.5 and then update 8 is a change to the core engine that allows me to "bring in" the vandgels content that ive been developing in another engine version on the side. Its mostly a lot of logistics but im almost there. Agreed about the work - i just took 3 weeks off because i hurt my shoulder. So i am taking extra care not to overburden myself. Thankfully a lot of Vandgels is ready to go as well as the story.
Thanks macatron Im a bit slowed down but still working on it. It helps that the last year has basically been reworking the backend to make it easy for me to add stories and worlds - Vandgels landscape was built completely in one week using the new procedural technology - and i actually tested at least 10 or so worlds in that time. So im looking now to just be creating instead of the more diffcult programming that its been. I will be sure to rest and after Vandgels is out i will take a good look and consider what the best next step will be. But the game has gone from like 34 a day to almost paying my rent, so that's been an encouraging growth. I dont have a very expeisive lifestyle, so if i can increase it a bit more i could concievably live off of it. We will see - either way its just been such fun and a priviledge to share the worls and hear from people like you and Nullzone
50,000 views for BrightRidge trailer. Thank you And here's what's new in BrightRidge update 7.5 out today: What's New in Version 7.5 NEW + Expanded realtime Day/Night cycle - slider to control time of day Options > playground > Time of day + Can set Sun Direction and DayCycle smoothness in Explorateur Mode + added travel option to past, present and future in objects panel options > playground > objects + added fireworks to objects panel + Add ruined setting in to objects + Can skip night in day cycle + Falling Damage : can be enabled or disabled in options. Disabled in BrightRidge by default for legacy - options>settings>gameplay + Underwater depth scattering changes with new time of day + Completely divorced World data from main adventure engine for multi world design FIXES + fixed Crashing on Ent shape change / Footsteps + Fixed Presets option screen alignment + Fixed errant camera positions after certain puzzles + Dungeon disappearing after Supernova cinematic + fixed map camera fast travel bug + Bug where you could shoot arrow through second sentinel shielding OPTIMIZATIONS + Removed unnecessary blend probes + Deleted legacy quest code - now fully AdventureGen Engine 3.0 + Cleaned up and reduced size of Projects folder + Created multi-world project structure in preparation for Vandgels + Removed garbage generation from footstep splashes + Remove shadow casting from ParticleSystems + Hide Birds (cpu heavy) by default on earlier devices + Separated jump/grunt sounds into separate function + Decreased or removed garbage allocations from AlignToSlope, Treant foot puffs (now pooled), time of day slider icons, eagle shape change, butterfly animations, day cycle and water reflections + Disabled some objects (fish, ) on early devices iPhone 5s, 6, 6+, ipad mini 2 by default + Removed shadow casting from lights that dont need it + Reduced size of some fish schools and hide fish when not underwater / separated fish schools into separate locations POLISH + Added UI highlight to Options button when needed + Improved quest target positions for Love and Tin + Improved lighting in Dungeon + Hide atmospheric scattering at night + Object panel includes a warning about story mode + Time of day slider updates icon and position with cycle + small fixes and consistency to UI screens + Updated Slider UI graphics + Added hard landing grunt sounds CHANGES + removed walk barriers from Libertesse and lookouts + Separated global objects from world specific data + Removed Sun up/down - replaced by Time of Day slider + No falling damage if you shapechange in air from flyer to humanoid + Added NL url to splashscreen + Removed FX and Water Particles On/Off from Effects options + Brighter nighttime + Replaced button texts with icons where possible. This is to prepare for translated versions and be more universal in meaning + Removed target arrow and options - redundant with Target marker + disabled corrupted npc toggle option and corrupted characters from game - too unstable. will replace with new characters in future update + ambient intensity to always 1 for more visibility and light bounce effect - can still change it in settings + Reduced default shadow distance in iPad Air2 (can be changed in options)
nice proto. gonna try this later. oh do you have the ETA for vandgels? or maybe show us a little footage from it?
It's games like this that are actually the number one reason I'm hoping to purchase the new iPad Pro in the very near future, so it can be enjoyed in its full glory. My iPad Air is getting just a bit long in the tooth now.
Another massive update, awesome job as usual, Robert! Congratulations on the 50k views, well deserved. And I need to annoy you again about getting on Discord and having a chat with the TA folks. Just recently, Wavelight mentioned his new game Strike Team Hydra there, and Rob wrote a frontpage article in under half an hour. So, go for it for Vangdels @David1953: Agree on the Air1. While it still runs like 99% of my games perfectly fine, for newer high-end stuff like Robert's it is reaching its limits (or already past them in some cases) . Just waiting for the taxman to give me back money, then it's an iPad Pro 10.5 for me too
Cool, and thanks - im really eager to know how it plays on that. Are you on my beta list? I would love you to test a new update v8 for BrightRidge, and a version of Vandgels on the new ipad. If you're interested just email me your email address at robert at protopop dott com I am working on identifying devices using their device number, which never changes. Right now BrightRidge uses an old version of Unity because older versions perform better on mobile in many cases. Because it's older it doesnt have built in detection for new devices. But i am writing the new detection code, and i would love to see if it can correctly detect your device. If it can, i can use it to automatically set higher quality for it by default.
