My game Doodle Dash! created with Corona is now live in the App Store! (scroll down for Promo Codes, but please read as much as you can of the long post as well!)

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BACKGROUND INFO
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NOTE: You can skip to the next ***** section if you don’t want to read all the “gee-wiz” background info and go straight to the game info.

This post is to announce my game, Doodle Dash! v1.1, which was completed re-created using Corona. The original version 1.0 of my game was actually already live in the App Store but it was created using GameSalad, which I wasn’t very happy with (thus the switch to Corona Game Edition, which I AM VERY pleased with).

I was initially excited about GameSalad as I had no idea how to program in Objective-C, so it gave me a way to publish games. However, after creating two games with GameSalad there were 3 main issues that I couldn’t get over:

- 1. Performance: GameSalad games tend to run slow/choppy, and mine was no exception. I did manage to make the game playable, but performance definitely wasn’t at the level I wanted it to be. Corona’s performance is awesome, especially in comparison with GameSalad.

- 2. Lack of Social Features and Web Connectivity: I personally PLAY games that I can show off my scores on Facebook and compete with friends/family, so the fact that GameSalad doesn’t even allow you to publish a simple status update to Facebook really got on my nerves. Corona, on the other hand, allowed me to put Facebook publishing AND OpenFeint in my game (as well as a link to take players to the ‘Rate’ page from within the game)… which is very exciting to me.

- 3. GameSalad puts a ‘Made with GameSalad’ splash screen in your games unless you want to fork over $2000 upfront, which I could not/did not want to do. With Corona, I now have a nice ‘Beebe Games’ splash screen that shows before my game… since I’m a student, making my game only cost me $49--there’s no beating that in my book.

So after discovering Corona, ironically from the GameSalad forums, I decided to give it a shot and port my EXISTING game over. Of course, I had to start from scratch and learn Lua but after a lot of practice and studying I was able to get my ENTIRE game ported over, as well as a plethora of other new features that in my opinion makes the game 10x BETTER. The visuals even improved since performance was a big issue with GameSalad and therefore graphics suffered as well.

In short, I ported my existing GameSalad game over to Corona and as a result made the game much more playable (due to better performance), much more re-playable (due to achievements), much more competitive (due to social features), and much MUCH better overall. I’M also a lot happier as a result as well :-)

So thanks to the Corona team for making rapid *high quality* iPhone app/game development possible! And to those in the forums who help folks out. I got stuck a few times during development but thankfully reading the threads in the forums helped me pull through.

Now for the game details...

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DOODLE DASH! v1.1
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View in App Store (scroll down for promo codes):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-dash/id382456881?mt=8

In Doodle Dash! , you guide a cute blue monster named "Dash" through the Doodle forest to collect as many gems as you can before getting caught by the monsters. You'll wade past evil flying bunnies, bombs, and fat cyclops as you collect gems and yellow stars (which Dash hasn't quite decided if he likes or not).

Unlock special in-game achievements and compete with your friends (and even the world!) on OpenFeint---Can you get the highest Doodle Dash! score?? Don’t get too cocky though, Doodle Dash! may be easy to learn, but it can be hard to master. Just don’t take our word for it, try unlocking all 16 achievements for yourself!

WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 1.1

Summary: Version 1.1 is an extremely exciting new update with performance and graphics improvements, completely revamped controls & visuals, added achievements, and a plethora of new social features (OpenFeint, Facebook) to allow you to compete with your friends as well as the entire globe. We read all of your suggestions and implemented just about every single one of them!

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Version 1.1 New Features:
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- Uses a completely different game engine for much better game performance.
- Added OpenFeint support to allow you to see where you rank among the entire world (or just your friends).
- Added ability to post your scores to Facebook
- Revamped tilt controls for amazingly fluid movement!
- Added bombs on playing field for an extra challenge and more variety.
- Tons of graphical improvements (the Dash character, game screens, playing field, heads up display, etc)
- Added fun game music to keep you going strong (of course, you can mute it if you don’t like it)
- No more rounds; instead, you get two lives per game! (hey, everyone deserves a second chance)
- Trees were modified to be slightly more narrow for increased visibility.
- Added 16 in-game achievements for increased re-playability and fun!
- Added a pause feature (for all those unexpected interruptions)

Original Features:
- easy to learn tilting, non button-pushing, ADDICTIVE gameplay
- challenging no-end play mode that keeps getting harder and harder
- challenging, but undeniably "cute" enemies (with more to be added in later updates)
- checkpoints for an extreme score boost (as a reward for getting that far)
- combo points for not passing gems by
- stars to grant you "good luck" or even "bad luck" on your journey
- get a second chance with two lives per game!
- keep track of your highest scores, your friends, and everyone else’s on OpenFeint!

How to play it:
-Tilt to move Dash left or right

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PROMO CODES
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If you use any of the promo codes, PLEASE take a moment to leave a rating. Wherever I post promo codes, there are always those who take the codes and never take the time to leave a rating/review… PLEASE don’t be one of those people! I’ll be happy to give out more promo codes if all the one’s below are taken, but please remember to leave me a rating/review! --Thanks!

KXL6JPXXRNJR
EMHNH7H9EAJE
MXKP4M9PRREW
WXTEW3KJJJWF
WR4P9HKXJ9NR
4MJJXKTPE439
6W3JXW3YH4T6
J76K7KKYNJFM
TXHY9X4P7J4F
XMP6L37W4E4A

Please let me know what you think!

To Ansca: Please take a promo code and let me know what you think! It wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for you so I’d definitely like to read your ratings/reviews.

Thanks again, and looking forward to any feedback (be it positive or negative).

Thanks for the promo codes.

I just twitted it and facebooked it as well

twitter.com/ansca
facebook.com/ansca

go re-tweet and like on facebook.

Game play is awesome !!!!! Nicely done and thanks for the positive feedback.

Yeah, I keep bumping into monsters and bombs ! Yikes....

Carlos

Oops, I forgot to post some screenshots. These are the same one's from the app page:

Thanks a lot carlos! I'll have to go 'like' on Facebook, thanks a lot for taking the time to download it and for all you do at Ansca... If you have time, please leave a rating/review in the App Store, thanks again!

ok this is a very addictive game....

still on it....

c

Wow that's great to hear! Are you chilliberto on OpenFeint?

That's Gilbert.

Just out of curiosity, will my app by chance get it's own spot on the Corona "customers" page?

http://blog.anscamobile.com/category/showcase/

It will be there as soon as we can.

Will let you know. It usually takes two days to get editorial, copy, etc ...but we will have it up.

Carlos

Yeah no rush or anything, just curious. Sounds great though!

Thank carlos.

Whoa...now this looks good. I will check it out!

Well it looks like just about all the promo codes have been taken... but not a single review/rating has posted yet.

Did anyone who took promo codes also post a review/rating? Please do...

I never got a promo code but will pay the 99 cents to play. I like the graphics and styling and love the fact that it was made with Corona.

Hey Jon,

Very interesting background on your game, thanks for sharing. I too have been using Game Salad for a quick way to get a game running, but I've bought Corona as, like you, I'm finding Game Salad is creaking a bit under the weight of my games demands. Great to see you've 'ported' your app over to Corona. Any tips on the Lua learning process or on how you coded the equivalent Game Salad-type behaviours and rules in Corona ?

Congrats on the release.

Hi Delta,

I have experience with PHP web programming, visual basic, and even some Delphi back in the day so Lua was very similar. It's a scripting language, so once I got used to the small syntax differences (most of my experience lies in PHP), it wasn't too hard to get used to.

The hardest concepts for me to understand was the enterFrames, the listeners, and getting everything organized within the code, but I'm really starting to get used to it.

As far as porting from GameSalad, I never really got stuck with anything because where GameSalad limits you in many areas and makes things difficult do to it's "no code" policy, Corona excels in just about every one of those areas BECAUSE of the fact that you can use a simple function to do what you want to do.

My GameSalad game was a few scenes, moving objects, timers (which ran off the game clock because timer behaviors slowed things down WAY too much), and basic collision checking.... Corona, especially Game Edition, happens to excel in all of those areas... and they can be implemented very easily as long as you follow the simple documentation regarding the individual functions.

The hardest part was going from scenes to just hiding groups of objects but I got used to that already.

If you have anymore specific questions I'll be happy to help you out.

Have you tried Doodle Dash! yet? If not I can give you a promo code in exchange for a rating/review... It'll give you a chance to see an old GS game "ported" over to Corona in action.

I just can't believe they charge $2000 to get a splash screen removed and to allow you to make an http web link in your game... 20 times the cost of Corona SDK with only a fraction of the power and flexibility.

Jo,
Yeah, enterframes and listeners are my sticking point right now... I kinda know what they do it's figuring out how to use them in the context of the gameflow. I've used C++ a little and I've got decent at Unity Javascript, so im on my way. I've done some really interesting stuff on GS, like you I scrapped the GS Timers and built my own, and also have a nifty sprite recycling routine (I NEVER use Spawn or Destroy on GS, it's poorly implemented). And I'm not paying the$200 either.

I really want to compile to Android though, as well as the extra oomph Corona gives, so I'm hoping to shift over fully to Corona as the Game Edition has settled into a more complete and stable state. Are you using Game Edition or normal Corona for your coding ?

I've all sorts of queries but I'll try to space them out rather than flood you with them. If you have any occasional spare time i'd love to throw some Q's at you in regard to getting a (very) basic game up and running, you could format the thing and it could maybe be used on the Corona website as a downloadable pdf, or online tut if Ansca liked it enough.

Yeah, I'd love to see the game with a promo code.

@delta: Yeah feel free to contact me with any questions you have. I might consider posting a tutorial at some point. I made Doodle Dash! with Game Edition. I wanted to just use normal Corona but couldn't get around the need for collision detection. I tried making my own collision detection function but it slowed things down WAAYY to much, so I opted in for Game Edition... can't wait til' it gets to Beta status.

Here's a promo code for you and anyone else who wants to try it out, please leave a rating/review if you take a promo code!!!

PF6P9PTXJTPT
W96NXMRY6LJX

I have another game out, designed by my wife and partner in crime with Beebe Games titled 'She Doodle' and it was made with GameSalad... My next project is to "port" that one over with Corona.

Oh and as far as Android development goes, I'm not currently interested in it because I don't own any Android devices but I know that Android is picking up speed and I DO plan on porting my more successful titles to it eventually... so I'm VERY thankful that Corona will allow me to do that very easily.

That's great to know Game Edition was used. I was wondering about it's usefulness at this early stage but it sounds very promising.

Oh, can't redeem your codes yet as I'm in the UK (how stupid is that rule ?) but i'll try and buy your app later, better check if I have any balance first. Let me know how you want to take on the tutorial project, I can give you an email addy of mine if you'd like to get things going and not clutter these forums up with various questions and smatterings of code. I'm busy myself most of the day so it won't be a bombardment of mails or anything, but given your transition from Game Salad production to Corona, and my imminent venture into the same, I think this makes a perfect opportunity to work out some introductory course to the ever expanding Corona user base.

@delta: You can contact me using the form here...

http://beebegames.weebly.com/support.html

Looks like there are some promo codes still left... anymore takers?

Hi

I took this one W96NXMRY6LJX

It is a great little game...I will review...

What was your code for the accelerometer? are you directly coupled to it or do you use some filtering...

Thanks again

Rob

Hi Rob2,

Thanks, I'm in need of reviews... It seems as though most people who took the promos forgot that detail lol. Hopefully I'll get more soon.

Anyway, about the accelerometer... First, I set the AccelerometerInterval to 75, which explains the sensitivity... but that's okay, I wanted it to be that way because of the fast pace... You actually get used to it and it works in your favor in-game. The version 1.0 that I created with GameSalad, the tilt controls were the number 1 complaint. Since this Corona version, not a single complaint regarding the controls so I'm very happy with that. In fact, not a single complaint at all yet :-)

After setting the accelerometer interval, I gave the main character a speed attribute (which is set to 30).

Then in the onTilt function you minus the speed attribute multiplied by the yGravity and that's what creates the tilt controls I have in my game. Of course, that took A LOT of time and tweaking of the 3 values especially since there is no accelerometer support in the simulator (I wish there was some kind of simple tilt-left or tilt-right simulation using the keyboard though!).

Hope that helps! Please don't forget to leave a rating/review...

On the case now...thanks

I had already reviewed but I have updated it..

@Rob2: Thanks for the awesome rating/review! I really appreciate it.

For anyone that's interested, I just submitted version 1.2 of Doodle Dash! to the App Store (Waiting for Review, so will probably be out in around a week). Below are some of the additions as well as the new screenshots:

What's New in Version 1.2?

- Performance-related enhancements for even smoother gameplay! (due to using Alpha 3 instead of 2)
- Graphical changes/improvements for a better visual experience!
- Changed game background to off-white for easier viewing (as opposed to bright white)
- Added more sound fx and increased the quality of game music track (which now defaults to OFF but can be easily switched on with a touch)
- Added 3 New Enemies: Bushes, Snakes, and the Hole of Death!
- Adjusted game speed settings and gem scoring for better score balance
- You now earn even MORE points for surviving longer!
- Added more gems and increased their score value!
- Added a “best score” to the game-over screen for those who don’t want to use OpenFeint.

Screenshots:

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I'll make another announcement on this forum when 1.2 is live! (with more promo codes as well)

-Jonathan Beebe

I took code KXL6JPXXRNJR

Review will be posted shortly.

PS - I, too, came here looking for an alternative to GameSalad. I am getting tired of waiting for mediocre updates from them and always having to find workarounds for simple tasks that should be built into a game engine.

I'm still trying to figure out how to relate some of the GS concepts to Corona. For example, you mentioned that instead of "scenes" you insert all of your display objects for particular "scene" into a group and insert your current scene into the stage and remove() all the rest. Not sure if I'm explaining it right...

Also, do you create all of your "scenes" in main.lua or do you create a module for each one and programmatically load the module for each scene?

The thing that really has me thinking is "camera control" in Corona. For example, making a simple shooting game in GameSalad where the camera follows the bullet is a no-brainer. I guess in Corona you have to think about it differently and the background images actually move and the bullet just stays in the middle of the screen. Is that right?

Anyway, sorry to hijack your post. Just hoping to pick your brain a little bit.

BTW - I just took a break from this comment to play Doodle Dash and it's pretty darn SLICK!!!

Dave

Hi Dave, thanks for the review!

I'm not a pro at Corona yet, but here's what I've got for your questions as it stands...

I was having a little trouble at first getting used to the concept of adding things to a group, and then turning the objects of a group invisible when not in use (or removing them) when not needed and then loading up a new group.

Since making Doodle Dash! However, I've gotten used to it and it's really pretty simple. I like how the last thing you insert into the group is the top-most "layer" that is displayed (meaning it'll be drawn on top of the things previously inserted into that group), so that makes organizing a group pretty simple once you get used to it.

For Doodle Dash! I put everything into main.lua and just separated everything with huge comment blocks because I was still in the process of learning Lua/Corona so adding modules to the mix was a little too much for me at the moment. However, I'm working on porting my OTHER GameSalad-made game "She Doodle" (which is a sister-game to Doodle Dash!) and I've been loading my scenes as separate modules to get more organized. Now that I have a grasp of how to really make a working game with Corona, the development process will be a lot smoother for me from here on out.

So with that said, the best way to learn all of it is to just get in there and start coding. When things don't work, figure out how to fix things one step at a time and you'll learn QUICK. That's how things went with Doodle Dash! I just went in there and started coding until I got the hang of it... Having a background in PHP scripting language so learning Lua was pretty much a breeze, it was all the organizing and how it all fits in with Corona and game development that made it a little confusing.

I haven't had the need for "camera control" yet, but I knew that I would need it eventually... I just figured I'd cross that bridge when I got there. The first place I was going to look was the forums, so I went ahead and did a search and you might use this as a starting point to figuring out how to do camera control:

http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/scrolling-background-phase-2

Sorry I can't give you more specific guidance on that but as it stands I don't have a clue how to display only a portion of the game "map" and have the so-called "camera" follow a player around on the map... but if you figure that out I'd definitely like to know! I'll probably be posting in the forums when I finally need that... hopefully someone will submit a code sample demonstrating that though, it's something that's VERY common in gaming.

Thanks for playing Doodle Dash! If you like it keep it installed because version 1.2 is in the App Store review queue at the moment (new features shown in the post prior to yours).

Thanks again Dave!

-Jonathan Beebe

@Dave: Not sure if you're still monitoring this, but just in-case I thought I'd share this with you...

I'm actually going to be using "camera control" in my next release (currently working on it) and it was actually pretty easy to implement in Corona.

First, you create/position everything in your "scene" relative to the camera's starting point.

Then, you simply place everything on screen in the same "group" and your group object becomes the camera. Simply adjust the x/y values of the group and voila! You have camera control :-)

Hope that helps...

very basic question here..but were are groups covered in the documentation?

Thanks Jon,
That makes perfect sense.

Do you have another display object (like Dash in DD) or group assigned to controlling the movement of the camera group, or is your camera automatically scrolling?

If you have Dash controlling the camera, I guess you would just watch his x,y coordinates and adjust the coordinates of the camera group, right? But that brings up another question... In GameSalad you would do that by using the constrain attribute behavior. How would you constrain the camera groups coordinates to Dash's coordinates? All I can think of is using something like timer.performWithDelay(5, controlCameraWithDash, 0)

Does that sound right?

@Rob2, groups are hidden in the Graphics (Images, Shapes, and Text) section of the API Reference - https://developer.anscamobile.com/content/display-objects#Groups

@Rob2: Groups ARE covered in the API reference, but it doesn't really mention simulated "camera" control.

@Dave: In Doodle Dash! there is no camera control actually. Dash is just staying in place and everything else is moving upward and being moved back below the screen once it passes the top.... It just makes it "look" like Dash is moving down when in face he is staying in place :-)

Great Infor Jonbeebe. I just emailed you for some questions. Cheers. Great game!

Jon,
Thanks for the clarification. Oh and congrats on the blog (on the Ansca blog) write-up! I enjoyed reading it and now I'm even more excited on making my first game in Corona!

Dave

Doodle-Dash #25 on iTunes Top Free App

Carlos

Wow thanks for the update Carlos, my wife checked the 'Games' category a little earlier and it was at #14, but this morning I wasn't even on the first page of the 'Top Free Overall' category, so thanks for bringing that to my attention!

Some more stats... the OpenFeint global leaderboard for Doodle Dash! shows 24,383 players as of a couple minutes ago! And that's just the people who Enabled OpenFeint when they first installed the app--I can't wait until the monthly report comes out to see how many people actually downloaded it.

Thanks again Carlos to you and your team for producing such a great SDK that has made this possible :-)

Congratulations Jon!!!

Well deserved for such a great game!