Probably one of the most commonly asked questions at TouchArcade haha In the main forum, when people are debating whether or not to buy a game, they always ask someone to TOFTT. That is, "Take One For The Team" or "Try Out For The Thread". It's pretty much unique lingo to TouchArcade as far as I know.
Yep it's a meme unique to TA -http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=3937&highlight=Rate+kiss&page=7
That is a pretty good name. And for the name of the game, instead of touch gladiators, I think that touch warriors sounds better. Or Blitzkrieg.
Two comments: Regarding using Google tools to share files, good old fashioned ftp/http could be almost as good for sharing resources. I think an experiment project like this benefits form being as open as possible. It might be fun and useful to have a public beta built for desktop computers (Win32, Mac)to get feedback in advance of the final official submission to Apple. Regarding a "company name" as cute as "TOFTT Games" is (I love it!), keep in mind that if this game were to be published under a new company name, that entails creating a new legal business entity and registering for a new developer account with Apple, things that both cost money/time. It may be simplest to simply distribute under the "Easy 8 Software" monicker alongside my other offerings.
Can't it be distributed under any account but we can change the developer name to whatever we choose? For example I think The Moron Test is copyrighted to DistinctDev but the seller is Berkeley Malagon. This is to help freelancers make apps for companies other than themselves.
The "seller" that apple lists must be either the legal name of an individual that registered as an Apple Developer, or the legal name of a company that is registered as a Company. Establishing a new developer account - individual or company costs $99/year - payments to Apple. In order to register as a company, documents must be provided to Apple demonstrating that the user applying owns that company name, and that the company is a proper legal entity. Forming a legal company in most states gobbles at least $300 in legal fees. The copyright notice itself can be different from game to game, but seller name (which is predominantly presented in the App Store) is locked.
All good points. We'll develop under Stroffolino's account (especially since he's the one who will end up making whatever money results anyway. ) We can still refer to ourselves as the TOFTT Team in the credits.
Okay, now that we've settled on a Gladiator game, we need to discuss the theme. That influences Here's some ideas I'm throwing out for discussion. Feel free to add your own. We may want to make this a poll once we have a good amount of themes. 1. Roman historical gladiators. Pro: Strong historical theme may appeal to some gamers, the era lends itself to setting a nice framework for art, story, and game mechanics (for instance, the 'grabbers' would be net throwers). Con: Not as flexible as some other themes in terms of going wild with options. App store may not like the more mature themes of having the audience decide who lives and who dies. 2. Fantasy setting. Pro: Lets us pretty much include whatever features we want without violating the theme. Magic, machines, different races, and so on. Con: A fair number of fantasy-themed games out already. Some people may be bored of the setting. 3. American gladiators. The fights are actually a new televised sporting event akin to mass wrestling matches. Pro: Tamer setting - no need to worry about the apple being squeamish if nobody's really getting killed. Unusual and potentially interesting setting. Con: It's a game. Bring on the killing! Users may prefer to see gladiators fight and die. 4. Robo gladiators. The fights take place in the future, with robots (akin to Battlebots). Pro: Future setting and robots give us almost as much flexibility as a fantasy setting in terms of including whatever we want. Also, robots are cool. Con: Less potential for a compelling story if the gladiators aren't human. So, thoughts?
I think it should just be knights, personally. Definetly not robots, preferably not americans, I suppose gladiators but for me preferably knights.
The google group has been created. Again, if you're involved in the project, either PM me your e-mail address, or join the group yourself at http://groups.google.com/group/toftt?hl=en You'll still need to request access to post (to prevent spammers from posting on our group), but the archive is public so even people not involved on the project can follow along if they like. I've made Upsidedown and Stroffolino owners of the group, so they have the same access I do for management tasks. Everyone else involved in the development team will be a Manager, allowing you to post messages and files for everyone else to access.
Having a default theme, presented well, is important. And a medieval theme with knights, archers, ogres, etc. could be particularly appealing, in my opinon. But I wouldn't want to rule out expanding it later. For example, it could be fun to have expansion packs adding "Team Zombie" or "Team Ninja" or "Team Sparta" in the future. One nice thing about the concept is that it can be mocked up with placeholder graphics, to get gameplay mechanics, UI, and AI sorted out. For example, I'm not sure how many characters in the player's team will be reasonable to control simultaneously with touch/drag mechanics. I'm quite sure that 4 would work well, but suspect it could work with as many as 6 independently controllable fighters on each team. It may well be that fewer fighters are better, if only to allow for less-crowded gameplay and larger, more detailed sprites. And variations are of course possible - having fighters "on deck" that can be swapped in and out "tag team" style.
A medieval theme would be incredibly flexible. You've got armoured knights, robin-hood style archers. You could offer a merlin-style character, pike-men, a dragon, ogres. Maybe even some unarmed angry peasants for good measure. Even just this would offer an incredible number of matchup combinations, and I suspect the game will be really interesting in head-to-head mode with multiplayer.
