Hey guys! Rob Blou here .. I thought I'd share my story on how I developped my 1st iOS game with almost no coding or game developpement knowledge but with a lot of passion, ambition and coffee.
I've been a passionate gamer since I'm 4 and some of the first games I played were Space Invaders and Missile Command. Right off the bat I liked the idea of protecting something you love from getting destroyed and I think we all can relate to that .. it is, imo, the main reason why the movie UP was so good. We could relate to the old pal wanting to protect is house from being destroyed and it turned out that the way to protect it was to do something crazy and risky ... and that's exactly what I did with my ambition to create my 1st video game.
After the Atari era, I didn't play many shoot em up, I was more into action rpgs and platformers but I then discovered a little jem on the Sega Dreamcast called Ikaruga. Ikaruga is an amazing and really challenging shoot em up made by Treasure and the concept is simple but make it stand out compared to other shoot em up games. You mostly use 2 buttons, one to shoot and one to switch between black and white. When your ship is white you absorb white bullets but 1 black bullet will kill you and the opposite is also true. So the game is not so much about shooting everything but more about surviving by switching colors while defending yourself.
That concept of colors stuck with me and I was hungry for more games with a similar concept but I found nothing like it. After trying to make music out of a living and failing at it I thought "What is the other thing I love so much that I could spend all of my time doing without getting sick of it" and as you all probably guessed, the answer was darts .. hum I mean video games.
I searched online for an engine that would require almost no coding skills and I found 2 or 3 softwares but one stood out since it was simple and free. It's called Gamesalad and it's not free anymore but it's worth your money if you have little to no coding skills and want to get into game developpement. After many trials and errors and many many hours watching video tutorials and forums, I got to a point where I was confident enough to make a prototype of my game and then maybe hire someone to polish it and fix my most of my mistakes. After 2 months, most of the main mechanics where working and it started to feel more and more like a game. The main problem was that I wasn't making money and I didn't know if that would ever bring me anything other than fun and a sentiment of accomplishment. So I did what the old pal from UP did and took a risk.
I then found a governmental program that helps startups by giving them a really low salary for a year but in exchange I had to go to their boring classes. I applied and 5 meetings later I got approved!! I worked my ass off on this game and at some point I had to take music production contracts to keep paying the bills and meanwhile no progress was made on the game. After almost a year of hard work and almost no money, my game is finally out on the appstore!!! It's a mixture of a modern and colorful space invaders with a color matching concept. You have to swipe your finger on one of the 3 ninja star at the bottom of the screen to protect your house from monsters. As you probably guessed, the ninja stars have different collors that matches the monsters collors. It's simple but I put a lot of effort to make it challenging and addictive. It's free and has no ads! There are IAP but there are not required to finish the game or anything of the sort.
So now I'm here, almost a year later with still no money but with the great feeling that I accomplished something I never thought I could. Please try it out if you have an iOS device and let me know what you think and if you have time, please consider posting a review on the appstore
Thanks for reading my story and I hope it will encourage some people to get into game developpement!
Cheers!
Monster Rain:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/monster-rain/id1020821132?mt=8
I've been a passionate gamer since I'm 4 and some of the first games I played were Space Invaders and Missile Command. Right off the bat I liked the idea of protecting something you love from getting destroyed and I think we all can relate to that .. it is, imo, the main reason why the movie UP was so good. We could relate to the old pal wanting to protect is house from being destroyed and it turned out that the way to protect it was to do something crazy and risky ... and that's exactly what I did with my ambition to create my 1st video game.
After the Atari era, I didn't play many shoot em up, I was more into action rpgs and platformers but I then discovered a little jem on the Sega Dreamcast called Ikaruga. Ikaruga is an amazing and really challenging shoot em up made by Treasure and the concept is simple but make it stand out compared to other shoot em up games. You mostly use 2 buttons, one to shoot and one to switch between black and white. When your ship is white you absorb white bullets but 1 black bullet will kill you and the opposite is also true. So the game is not so much about shooting everything but more about surviving by switching colors while defending yourself.
That concept of colors stuck with me and I was hungry for more games with a similar concept but I found nothing like it. After trying to make music out of a living and failing at it I thought "What is the other thing I love so much that I could spend all of my time doing without getting sick of it" and as you all probably guessed, the answer was darts .. hum I mean video games.
I searched online for an engine that would require almost no coding skills and I found 2 or 3 softwares but one stood out since it was simple and free. It's called Gamesalad and it's not free anymore but it's worth your money if you have little to no coding skills and want to get into game developpement. After many trials and errors and many many hours watching video tutorials and forums, I got to a point where I was confident enough to make a prototype of my game and then maybe hire someone to polish it and fix my most of my mistakes. After 2 months, most of the main mechanics where working and it started to feel more and more like a game. The main problem was that I wasn't making money and I didn't know if that would ever bring me anything other than fun and a sentiment of accomplishment. So I did what the old pal from UP did and took a risk.
I then found a governmental program that helps startups by giving them a really low salary for a year but in exchange I had to go to their boring classes. I applied and 5 meetings later I got approved!! I worked my ass off on this game and at some point I had to take music production contracts to keep paying the bills and meanwhile no progress was made on the game. After almost a year of hard work and almost no money, my game is finally out on the appstore!!! It's a mixture of a modern and colorful space invaders with a color matching concept. You have to swipe your finger on one of the 3 ninja star at the bottom of the screen to protect your house from monsters. As you probably guessed, the ninja stars have different collors that matches the monsters collors. It's simple but I put a lot of effort to make it challenging and addictive. It's free and has no ads! There are IAP but there are not required to finish the game or anything of the sort.
So now I'm here, almost a year later with still no money but with the great feeling that I accomplished something I never thought I could. Please try it out if you have an iOS device and let me know what you think and if you have time, please consider posting a review on the appstore
Thanks for reading my story and I hope it will encourage some people to get into game developpement!Cheers!
Monster Rain:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/monster-rain/id1020821132?mt=8
Last edited by Rob Blou,
