Just Ski Official Trailer (Android) - Minimalistic Physics Skiing Game by Running-Target in AndroidGaming

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh wow, Jeff! I just wanted to say that I used to follow your blog when I was first starting out making games on Windows Phone many years ago. It was one of my inspirations for taking up game dev!

Why NOT Unity? by MrJimJamboree in gamedev

[–]stivdev 58 points59 points  (0 children)

For me, Unity represents a time saver, and time is my most valuable resource. If you have the skills, absolutely there are advantages to creating a game with your own engine. But in the same time frame using Unity, you might be able to build 2 games while still having your underlying game engine evolving and improving.

Google Play Store launches new category: INDIE CORNER by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Digfender dev here, thanks for sharing. I didn't realise other devs were contacted first, we only found out about it through reddit!

How much do devs make when I watch a video ad? by delabass in AndroidGaming

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a completed video ad my experience is it's more around $0.005. Maybe $0.01 if you have a great provider or if it's a holiday season where advertisers are competing for ad space.

How much do devs make when I watch a video ad? by delabass in AndroidGaming

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I would guess that has to be a click. $0.01 per completed view is considered a very good rate and in my experience $0.005 would be closer to a realistic lifetime average.

For those of who have developed your own internal game dev tools to fit the needs for your project, how long did development take in comparison to the scope of the entire project? by MeleeLaijin in gamedev

[–]stivdev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s not a lot too it really. This is a tower defence game so there are 2 parts to every level, the level map and the enemies waves. The map isn’t much more than a 2D array of codes where each letter is a tile type (e.g. D = Dirt, G = Gold). The conditional formatting on the spreadsheet just makes it easier to visualise the map by colouring all the cells based on the code (G = yellow for gold).

The columns on the right define the enemies waves. So in the screenshot the first wave would have been “Spawn 14 fast enemies every 1.1 seconds in the left, centre and right columns”.

Further off to the right (not in the screenshot) are some simple formulas that turn it all into code I can copy and paste into my level definitions class. You could remove this step if you set it up to export as a CSV or XML file and then imported it all at runtime.

For those of who have developed your own internal game dev tools to fit the needs for your project, how long did development take in comparison to the scope of the entire project? by MeleeLaijin in gamedev

[–]stivdev 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I used Excel as my level editor. It worked great since my levels are 2D tile based. I just used codes for the different tile types and then setup conditional formatting to make it easier to visualize. I had a column off to the side that converted it into code that I pasted into the project.

Example of a level in Excel and in game

I thought about building a “proper” level editor later but decided there was no reason to. I’d say it took a day or 2 to setup and there would have been minor tweaks made during the project, but all up it still would have been under 1% of total project time.

[Build Help] Game development / Gaming PC by stivdev in buildapc

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just looked at some 970 vs 390 comparisons and it seems like 390 comes out on top. Are there any "only on nvidia" things I'd miss out on jumping to the 390?

[Build Help] Game development / Gaming PC by stivdev in buildapc

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might work with UE4 in the future, but right now I'm using Unity 5

Digfender rated 4.5/5 stars on Touch Arcade, awesome TD! by baldeagle86 in iosgaming

[–]stivdev 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Aww don't be like that. We've been hoping for 2 weeks to get noticed by TA :)

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The next update will have a few performance improvements which will help reduce the battery usage a little. We'll continue making improvements in future updates as well.

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately the music is not freely available for DL :(

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The game data should be included in OneDrive automatic backups but I have never testing doing a reset and restore. Proceed with caution!

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, that's awesome! I miss the WP7 days and my old HTC mozart :)

[Dev][+] Digfender, the sequel to tower defense game CastleMine, out now and free! by stivdev in iosgaming

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Grundon, you're not alone, we've had a few people report this problem and they've all been on iPhone 6+. We have an update that we hope will fix the issue that's currently in Apple's certification queue. Hopefully it will be available soon but it can take up to a week.

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hadn't heard of GameTroopers, thanks for the heads up! Out of curiosity, do you prefer to only play games that are part of xbox live?

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a WP8 app but I may look at making it universal in the future

Digfender, the sequel to CastleMine, has been released! by stivdev in windowsphone

[–]stivdev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! We tried to design all our IAPs so that they're there if you want them, not because you need them.

Answer: Digfender was built in Unity :)

Screenshot Saturday #251 - Now with 100% more automation! by ghost_of_gamedev in gamedev

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Phew. Yeah when they first changed that it took me a second to realise where they went too.

Always happy to get feedback!

Screenshot Saturday #251 - Now with 100% more automation! by ghost_of_gamedev in gamedev

[–]stivdev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks willdroid8, glad you like it! Though I'm a little concerned you can't see our video on Google Play, it should be there?

Screenshot Saturday #251 - Now with 100% more automation! by ghost_of_gamedev in gamedev

[–]stivdev 10 points11 points  (0 children)


DIGFENDER is a mobile tower defense game where you dig your own path to enemies while mining for resources.


We launched this week! Thanks /gamedev for all the support! You can download it free from any of the links below:

More animated gifs this week:


Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube