So i have finally finished the port of a game I released a couple of years ago for IOS and Android called Whack Mania.
It is basically a Whack a Mole game but with very nice graphics (I worked with very professional people here) similar to Mario Galaxy. Instead of the classic game where the moles appear on holes on a plane here they appear around a planet and you need to rotate it in order to smash them. There are a few other game modes but I prefer you to take a look a give me your opinion

Here is a video of what the game is about


And here is a video of the 3ds version


Another video of one of the final bosses


You can find more info on my blog

-------------- Update (2016/04/10) ---------------------------------------------------------------

- Fixed crash on consoles with language not set on english or spanish
- Cleaned up resources
- Lefties can shoot with R trigger now
- Fixed several crashes when changing from one level to another
- Screeen swapping, the game can now be played in the bottom screen
- Added option for rotating the planet with the circle pad (disable drag planet on options)
- Fixed typo on the 1st screen
- Improved 3d effect
- Game now uses boths screen by extending the viewport


And here is the Download Link if you wanna give it a try
DOWNLOAD

 

[neobrain]

Just curious, were the two shaders used in this game compiled with ctrulib/picasso or with nihstro?

 

[cebolleto]

Just curious, were the two shaders used in this game compiled with ctrulib/picasso or with nihstro?

I used nihstro for two reasons:
- I didn't need phyton
- The sintax was more clear and it has all the functionallity I needed

I liked what you did a lot

I also have a question... how did you know I have two shaders?

 

[neobrain]

I used nihstro for two reasons:
- I didn't need phyton
- The sintax was more clear and it has all the functionallity I needed

I liked what you did a lot

I also have a question... how did you know I have two shaders?

Thanks! Good to know, if you missed any functionality or have other suggestions, feel free to PM me about it

As for the two shaders: I opened the .3dsx file in a hexeditor and counted the occurrences of the shader header word "DVLE"

 

[Cyan]

very nice looking game.
Was it hard to port it to 3DS? Maybe romFS reading was the hardest? Thanks for sharing your solution to add external resources.

I still haven't try doing homebrew on 3DS, but I still hope I'll find time for a small project.

 

[ground]

the graphics are very impressing! I hope to see some more homebrew from you

 

[Intronaut]

I have tried to reproduce the crash you said but it did't happen to me. Which version are you using (cia, 3ds or 3dsx?) and which endless mode is it?

I'm using a CIA version, and it freezes in both endless modes

 

[ifrit05]

These kind of bugs are hard to track and unfortunatelly I don't have a N3DS. Is this happening on the 3dsx, 3ds or cia?

3dsx.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Nice. This is frankly too high quality to be called homebrew.
Have you considered submitting it to Nintendo or a publisher? Maybe you can get it released on the eShop Although now that you've released it as homebrew already, maybe not.
Although it's easier to get something released on the Wii U eShop, they are very open to hobbyist devs there, on the 3DS not so much, so you would probably have to go through a publisher to get it released (and of course they will take their cut of the profits too)
It's certainly possible though, the Colors dev (DS homebrew) got Colors 3D onto the eShop

 

[cebolleto]

very nice looking game.
Was it hard to port it to 3DS? Maybe romFS reading was the hardest? Thanks for sharing your solution to add external resources.

Actually it wasn't very complicated. The biggest problems I had was with things like creating the cia, or 3ds, adding the icons, the romfs thing, the texture format... the info is there but you need to spend a lot of time looking for things. Sadly this is a small community compared with what we had with the NDS or the Wii. People have moved to Android or IOS where they can make a little profit... (or so they thing)

the graphics are very impressing! I hope to see some more homebrew from you

Did you take a look at Jumping Jack? The graphics are not good at all, but the game is fun

I'm using a CIA version, and it freezes in both endless modes

3dsx.

Is that ninjhax 1.0 or 2.0? if it is 2.0 then I am sure it is related to the N3DS

Nice. This is frankly too high quality to be called homebrew.
Have you considered submitting it to Nintendo or a publisher? Maybe you can get it released on the eShop Although now that you've released it as homebrew already, maybe not.
Although it's easier to get something released on the Wii U eShop, they are very open to hobbyist devs there, on the 3DS not so much, so you would probably have to go through a publisher to get it released (and of course they will take their cut of the profits too)
It's certainly possible though, the Colors dev (DS homebrew) got Colors 3D onto the eShop

The game was released on IOS an Android 2 years ago and it had a very poor reception that's why I decided to give it a second chance as a free homebrew (so far the reviews you guys had given to me are much better than the ones I received on any of the mobiles market)
Also, I don't think the eshop is a market where making profit is an easy thing

 

[Cyan]

maybe users are comparing with what's available.
as a console homebrew, it's very good ! we don't see a lot of 3D homebrew either, so it's nice to have something new.
as iOS, maybe they have a lot of other games and don't care about a single one?

 

[cebolleto]

I totally agree with you. So this scene was a good chance for me to let my work be known

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Actually it wasn't very complicated. The biggest problems I had was with things like creating the cia, or 3ds, adding the icons, the romfs thing, the texture format... the info is there but you need to spend a lot of time looking for things. Sadly this is a small community compared with what we had with the NDS or the Wii. People have moved to Android or IOS where they can make a little profit... (or so they thing)


Did you take a look at Jumping Jack? The graphics are not good at all, but the game is fun



Is that ninjhax 1.0 or 2.0? if it is 2.0 then I am sure it is related to the N3DS


The game was released on IOS an Android 2 years ago and it had a very poor reception that's why I decided to give it a second chance as a free homebrew (so far the reviews you guys had given to me are much better than the ones I received on any of the mobiles market)
Also, I don't think the eshop is a market where making profit is an easy thing

Well, you have less competition on the eShop, there are thousands of games already available on iOS and Android that cost next to nothing. Making money on the Wii U eShop might be tricky as it's not that popular, 3DS is very popular though and there aren't a whole lot of eShop exclusive games so it should be easier to sell the game there.

 

[Osga21]

That's very impressive for a homebrew game

 

[hippy dave]

Had a quick try, looks really good - like everyone else says, impressive quality. Doesn't need it to function, but the one aesthetic suggestion I'd make would be to draw something to the touchscreen, even if it's just one static image like a piece of paper or something.

 

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone for the comments!


If only it were easier to get access to an official SDK...


Yeah, I am also surprised that after the good job smea and the others did reverse engineering all the 3d methods on the 3ds no one has still using texture combiners. It is not very different to how OpenGL ES 1.1 manages this


I am happy you guys are liking it, the last two levels are a bit special, so keep playing
I also thought about the possibility of shooting with the R button but I'd like to hear an opinion of a left-handed guy, I think they are alreay used to playing like this too
I have tried to reproduce the crash you said but it did't happen to me. Which version are you using (cia, 3ds or 3dsx?) and which endless mode is it?

Hey, I did find something that kinda made me suck at a level. Holding down the L button shoots, but also makes it harder to play. Can you make a button changer or something. It got to hard to play. I still love it though. Also, I found a HUGE bug, I loaded up level 5 (On the 3dsx one) and, the screen keeps flickering. Please fix.

 

[ifrit05]

I had hoped you had released it on the play store, I wanted to support you since its so great.

And yes, I have a N3DS.

 

[mungry]

Hmmm....not quite sure what i'm doing wrong here. I put the WhackMania directory (with the icon.bin, romfs.zip, and WhackMania.3dsx) into my 3ds directory through ftpbrony on my N3DS and it appears on the HBL but it seems it just boots into a black screen and leaves me to power down the 3DS.

 

[ifrit05]

Hmmm....not quite sure what i'm doing wrong here. I put the WhackMania directory (with the icon.bin, romfs.zip, and WhackMania.3dsx) into my 3ds directory through ftpbrony on my N3DS and it appears on the HBL but it seems it just boots into a black screen and leaves me to power down the 3DS.

Give it a bit, it has to decompress the RomFS into memory.

 

[mungry]

Give it a bit, it has to decompress the RomFS into memory.

Oh okay, so I should just let it run on the black screen until it boots?

EDIT: Ok it's working and I am playing it! Thanks!

 

[ifrit05]

Oh okay, so I should just let it run on the black screen until it boots?

Yeah, should only take about 30 seconds or so.