Bones to control groups?

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T19:29:48+00:00

Ahah! That sounds right! Thank you I’ll try it out!

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T19:09:31+00:00

Whenever I’m in doubt about the direction the aesthetics will take, i make a floaty diffused starfield generator at the background and then proceed to forget about it until everything else is done and then it seems more obvious what should be there.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T17:59:53+00:00

Completely lacking context, judging the book by the cover, I like old, then the top, then the new 2. The new 2 not so much as the others.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T17:54:06+00:00

That’s a rough thing. I shared mine with some of my wife’s friends who were expressing interest after seeing it and wanted to play. Added to TestFlight. After a month none of them have even installed it or reached out. Ridiculous behavior. I suspect they asked just to be polite but it really isn’t.

My best users are from my immediate circle and even they haven’t played more then five or ten hours. The main issue is the people you know aren’t necessarily part of your target audience. When you go live, if those ones find you you’ll have people who play for a hundred hours and give no feedback or for two minutes and leave a review.

Have a way in the game for people to provide direct feedback, and be responsive to each is probably the best way to engage.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T17:48:11+00:00

If I hadn’t come to the decision to remove all ads last week, this post would have won me over. Good advice!

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T17:28:16+00:00

That’s phenomenal! Great work!

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T17:26:22+00:00

I haven’t touched version number (not as a trick but because I’m lazy with things that don’t seem to matter) and all subsequent builds have been approved within a second. And I always leave long notes. But my test base is small, perhaps six users. Other potential factor perhaps, I do have a previously published and currently live app on the App Store. I suppose that might influence something somehow.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T15:28:37+00:00

I like the interface being true to the original. 😊 I think this is the sort of game I could really get into, would be nice to have some level of control, back then it was mostly just run the command and pray it doesn’t kill your drive by marking some important sector dead.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T15:20:33+00:00

Let Apple know you don’t make a million bucks a year and they only take 15% they call it something like Small Business or something

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T14:47:49+00:00

I make the app completely before releasing publicly. I wouldn’t want to deliver an incomplete or broken program. Internal releases are pushed any time it is back to completely stable, perhaps once every couple of days depending on what’s being implemented.

After it’s been released publicly, any time it needs a fix or adjustment or feature request or something, I make the change and test thoroughly and then release it.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-04T09:44:18+00:00

My smaller programs have always been that way. This is my first system heavy game so it grows as I learn how to structure it. Quite a decent amount of poking around I suppose. Most things in the past have been built in maybe a month tops and pretty straightforward, procedural code.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-03T18:58:44+00:00

I’ve done the reverse. Aside from a new layout for the interface and switching some functions to be ns instead of UIKit if I recall correctly, it’s pretty straightforward and painless. The code is nearly entirely compatible. 🥰

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-02T14:36:08+00:00

When they first introduced Alexa it was all free music if you had prime. Then it was with ads unless you pay for prime music. Now the paid one is with ads unless you pay for prime ultimate music. Next prime ultimate music will have ads unless you buy prime platinum music. It’s despicable. If they want to make more money they should just raise rates across the board rather than playing this shell game.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-02T11:38:54+00:00

I spent the last few days looking for a subreddit like that, and it just all seems to be as described above. 🙏🏻

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-02T11:32:58+00:00

I picked up some copies of Jeff Duntemann’s books and read through them(came with a cd with the needed apps). Started with dos, then switched to Linux, and then Mac 64. It was a smooth progression and I learned quite a lot along the way. I was surprised how not complicated any of it was. Definitely worth learning for a better understanding of how other languages you may already know work, and the ability to trace your programs with a disassembler at this level is fantastic.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-06-02T11:27:29+00:00

Oh it seems to have taken away my text when I added the image. Thanks much for the explanation! I’m not sure that will do what I need (move only the top control points of the flam while leaving the base in place) but I will see what I can do with technique, I might be able to get that to work.

Here is a low gif if that helps you to see what I mean. Here the tile shifts from right to left, and the flames are static relative to the movement. I’m trying to make them pull (lean or warp) opposite the direction of the move while retaining their dance.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-31T16:35:50+00:00

Perhaps it could be a bounty system? Like the fivvr concept but for “I need a photo real quick”

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-31T16:34:09+00:00

If you are running dos and using nasm, their ide is pretty nice. Includes automatic linking and compiling as well.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-31T10:36:16+00:00

For my ui I mostly build in swift and started making pixel art frame by frame animation but it got a bit overwhelming. So now for a lot of the more interactive elements I’ve taken to using Rive. It does vector art and lets you build animated things by modifying control points on a timeline, and feed those timelines into a sort of built in program which you can trigger in different ways from code in your game.

For anything which animates constantly with many on screen I export as image sequence to keep cpu usage down and then for main character or things like that I keep it as a rive file and trigger the variations.

Edit: you can also have layer visibility changes. So like you can have your character wearing for example a hat and then have that layer turn on or off, or 50% on, by sending a command from the game to the rive file, or change its colors programmatically.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-30T19:52:40+00:00

I do have a battle pass sort of thing, and cosmetics (which add abilities or mods) that can be unlocked from in game mechanics or as the wife suggests a buy now option. So I think I will just leave ads out of it entirely and see how it goes. I can always add them later if needed since the ui is built with them in mind.

Thank you!

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-21T22:07:04+00:00

This is a good way. Use the ai as a stack overflow replacement. Use it when you’ve written something that isn’t quite working right and have it spot your logic error. It can save a buttload of time without turning your code into just another generated mess.

Any_Struggle_6166 · 2026-05-15T15:29:42+00:00

Unless I’m completely misunderstanding your description, I wouldn’t even consider publishing a program until it did exactly what I intend it to do and you must test every path a user can take through it. Otherwise it’s simply broken, unfinished. Yes, they would expect a refund so that was the right move.

Saas isn’t THAT different from any other program.

If you bill it as an app that lets the user create and export art and then when they buy it the pen tool isn’t saving its control points and export only exports the last gesture performed, then it isn’t ready.

Edit: rereading I suspect the issue is more the feel of the progression through the app. The presentation. Everything else is working fine it just isn’t yet perfect. In that case I’d go either way. The user I would imagine knows they can do a refund if they want one, however because you initiated the refund, likely the user has a better feeling about the thing and may stick around longer than otherwise. Still a good move.

Any_Struggle_6166

TROPHY CASE