On the art style side, we chose to use pixel style with dark color scheme. The style is not common for iOS apps and inconsistent with the general UI guideline of Apple’s products, but it seemed a natural choice when it comes to a “pixel cross” game. The central idea of this retro-looking style is to completely eliminate anti-aliased images, only use pixelated graphic elements.
When I googled the name of this blog, I saw a very familiar big name on the very top of the results. Guess what? DUKE NUKEM FOREVER!
3D Realms was my favorite game studio. And Duke Nukem 3D was the best shooting game in its era. Its successor, Duke Nukem Forever, was announced in early 1997. After repeatedly announcing and deferring release dates, 3D Realms said it will be released simply “when it’s done” in 2001.
After 14 years, it is still in development. Here I found a truly long list for things have been accomplish during this endless waiting… Continue reading
iPACROSS is a Picross-like puzzle game for iPad and, more importantly, our first attempt in the area of iOS development. We have 4 team members, video game industry veterans. Each one of us has quite a few AAA titles under his belt. But as indie developer, making iPACROSS for iPad, later for Mac, was for sure somewhat virgin experience to all of us. Like many other stories, the story behind iPACROSS has its own ups and downs.
If you are not familiar with Picross game, just look up the word on YouTube. Simply put, it’s a number deducing grid based puzzle game. iPACROSS does have some achievements. This game’s iPad version used to climb to the 1st puzzle game in Japanese App Store. Both the iPad and Mac version was featured in AppStore for several times. Even today, when I was writing this, it’s still among the hot games in Mac AppStore. Although it was not the type that everyone would like, the game has built up its reputation among loyal players. According to AppPicker, iPACROSS has an averaged rating with 4 1/2 stars.
Technically the game is not completely finished yet. As one of the two planned free updates, the 5th pack of puzzles will be released in a few days. We have also started the work for the final puzzle pack, and wish to finish it soon.
WHEN IT'S DONE 