Results so far

Consider this a short term report card of your performance as a result of marketing.

'Little Johnny has spent a great deal of time and effort in frantic activity to promote his work but all for very little effect.'

So far he has attempted the following methods to promote his game/app on google play.

• Over 300 emails sent to Youtubers, Reviewers, App Review Sites  (free)
• Advertised on multiple wargaming websites(4) with banner ads (paid)
• Advertised at Maccas in my local stores(2) on TV (paid)
• Handed out leaflets(1000) to letterboxes (paid)
• Handed out leaflets(200) in local board game stores in Melbourne (paid)
• Advertised on leadbolt mobile ad network (mobile ads) (paid) (1 million impressions)
• Advertised on facebook (promoted page) (paid) (190 likes)
• Advertised on twitter (pushed heavily) (free) 
• Advertised with google ads (on google play) (paid) (700k impressions)
• Ran a store at the local box hill tech market (paid)
• Had two tshirts made (paid)
• Placed videos on youtube  (free) (45+)
• Told friends and family and other contacts (free)
• Posted comments and links on forums (12+) (free)
• Left promotional material in locations like laundromats, cafes etc (paid)
• Written letters to ABC Good Game TV production (no response) (paid - stamp!)
• Posted thoughtful comments on blogs, discussions and youtube channels. (free)
• Subscribed to over 100 youtube channels to discuss his app. (free)
• Contacted every major and minor mobile app review site personally (free)
• Written to game news channels (free)

Overall result:

Increase from 2.7 installs per day to 3.5 installs per day (free app) over a 3 month period.
Averaging about 0.13 installs per day of the paid app. (Figures too low to detect a change)

'Little Johnny's performance is unsatisfactory this semester. He puts in a lot of effort and busy work but doesn't really achieve all that much.  I would like his grade to reflect the effort he has put in but the results are just too low to justify it. I think he would be better off focusing on a more productive endeavour - such as gardening. - F -.'

Own Comment:
Looking back over the past few months at my promotional methods, some of them were more effective than others.  The most effective of the various methods seems to have been the google ads and the leadbolt ads.  I don't like to suggest that the leadbolt ads were successful due to their price but they were comparatively speaking. Google ads were the most effective.  Pretty much everything else was a complete waste of time, money and effort if one is thinking of the results alone.  They were not a waste in the sense that I learned a lot from them.

User Acquisition and Retention

I worked out as I went to bed last night that there is a function that describes user acquisition and retention quite well. A model of sorts.

dU/dt = f(t) + g(t,m) - aU

where U = users at a particular day, t = time in days, f(t) = users gained through natural search methods, g(t,m) = users gained through paid methods where m = money spent and -aU where this represents the loss of users (uninstalls etc), a is approximately a constant.

What does it say though?

It means that your app or game will reach equilibrium in terms of current installs when the rate of increase equals the rate of decrease.  This will happen for a particular number of users for a given f and a.

Typically a can be considered a constant that ranges from 0 to 1.0 and the higher the quality of the app the lower the value, the shitter the app the higher the value.

In practice this works quite well.

For example, take my own app.

f(t) is  a constant of approximately about 4 users per day. Very low.

-aU is about 4 users per day as well. I have about 100 users so that puts a at about 0.04.  

That tells me that my app is of okay quality in my opinion.  If it were above 0.1 then I would be worried.  

The uninstall rate will lead to a exponential decay style curve.  Which makes sense. An app with a million users at day 0 will lose more users on day 1 than an app with one hundred users by virtue of the fact that there are more users who can uninstall it.

My goal, picked arbitrarily is to reach and settle at a value of about 1000 users at any time using the app.  

This would require I either drop a from 0.04 to 0.004 which is highly unlikely.  The idea of making my app at the very least 10x better quality is unrealistic.

Or...I can increase f(t) from 4 users per day to 40 users per day.  

Note this would mean that in a year's time I would have had 15,000 users install the app for a current install base of 1,000 users at any time.

g(t,m) relates to advertising and is not entirely independent of f(t). The two are related but for small values of m (such as in my budget) they can be considered independent.

If my f(t) remains at about 4, which is likely, and my a remains about 0.04 then if I suddenly spent a huge amount of advertising in a successful manner and g(t,m) spiked by say 100 users then most likely all I would see is a spike of users temporarily followed by an exponential decay back to my equilibrium value over a period of several months.

So if a developer wants to be profitable they have to first of all ensure that their value of a is low - the app needs to be high quality, and the value of f(t) is high.  

Unless you can improve your f(t) to a nice high value then it will never be successful. For example, my app will remain at about 100 users currently using the app.

Note this doesn't even include the fact that of the 100 users only about 15% of them are actively engaged in using the app at any time.  The old stickiness DAU/MAU is useful too and makes then numbers look even worse.

I'd love to have access to the reports of some of the bigger games to get an idea of what their 'a' value is?  How much smaller or larger than 0.04 is it?  The uninstall rate is a good estimate of how high the quality of an app is.

Thanks,

Matt

Moddable Pilot Chatter

Pilot Chatter can now be modded in the game very easily.

I have included this, as a feature that was originally designed but not included, in the v1.30b release that was released today.

There are also some other adjustments to shaders but these are less important.

The Pilot Chatter mod ability can be activated by copying sequentially numbered .ogg files into the relevant subfolder in your music/stardancer folder on your device.

It should be fairly self explanatory how it works - there are two main sub folders beneath each faction, one is preparatory and the other is battle chatter. By putting numbered .ogg files in each the game will read them instead of the default audio.

This means I can create audio packs (potentially for sale or as a free download) which can be used with the game. It also means I can support other languages.

from Matt

The Benefit of Solid Design

The Benefit of Solid Design

Star Dancer was first conceived by myself in January of 2015.  I've talked a little about my inspiration and design process before but I thought I'd add some more.

When a game is developed, typically an indie game, features are often added and coded into shape as the game takes form over the course of its development.  Preliminary design work usually consists of no more than 'wouldn't it be cool too....' and is one of the reasons why many designs fail to make it to production.

I have hundreds of pages of hand written notes that have formed this game's design. But at the same time I've written games before.  

In 2008 I released a space combat shooter to a small audience (my work place) which was really just a hobby piece - not suitable for the general public to consume.  In 2004 or 2005 I wrote a space combat simulator which simply allowed the user to watch like a screensaver a space battle unfolding.

So as such I have knowledge of the techniques needed to make a space game.  I certainly don't believe I'm the best at this but I do have a background in mathematics, coding and science fiction which has stood me in good stead when developing Star Dancer.

When I look back at the original design work I did - which had details for the database backend, costs for commissioning artwork, screen interface details, flow of screen to screen there is a good amount which has been turfed.  However the core hasn't really deviated very much from my original design. It is very, very close to it in many ways. 

As such I am quite content to say that the game I have produced and am still enhancing is extremely close to the game I envisioned in January.  The concept that was in mind is extremely close to the finished product. And as such I am proud of my efforts.

I've said it before and will repeatedly say it.  If this game never sells more than a dozen copies I will still consider it a success, even if the cost of development was high - because I enjoy it.

The benefit of solid design work is that the direction the game takes during development is clear and as such results in a clear focus for the user when the game is released.  My game is good at what it does and it doesn't try to be all things to all people. Instead it focuses on what it is good at and sticks to its core values.

Something that can be a concern in the initial development stages is that you may think that someone else will copy your design. However that is a pointless concern because a) there are so many games and ideas out there that it is unlikely and b) no one can produce an exact replica of what you are making because they have different ideas about what to focus on.  

There are definitely better space games out there than mine on the market.  There are games with higher production values. There are games with a more well known game mechanic.  But there are still to my knowledge no games quite like my own. It is distinctive and of high quality - as the reviews have attested.

I hope you enjoy the game. If you've read this well done, you're one of a select few!

Promoting and Marketing A Mobile App (or any product)

Marketing and Promotions Part 2

As we approach the end of the year it is time for me to talk a little about marketing and promoting my game.

There has been a great deal said over the past few years about the difficulty in having one's app discovered on the mobile markets. In fact for independent developers it is difficult to have one's product noticed anywhere.

There are a number of solutions to this problem.  

The first is money.  If I had tens of millions of dollars to spend, plastering buses, billboards and television networks with advertising then people would know about my game. No question. This is what the major companies with a lot of finance do.

That is not a possibility.  However it would solve the problem quite easily though it would raise another which is whether the return on investment is positive or not. Generate enough hype and it possibly is (ala Star Wars or Fallout 4).  

Another solution is to find a distributor and let them wear the cost of marketing and promotions. A number of people I know through another forum distribute their desktop games through various indie publishers.  This works for them as they are mostly building casual games of the main types (hidden object, match 3 or card/solitaire games).  

There are no distributors of mobile games however. I think there is a very good reason for that - there is just too much noise on the mobile market.

Something to remember is that games are not essential products. They are in a sense a luxury item.  A game is something that people can go without and will happily do so.  A steak or a loaf of bread is not. People have to eat. People do not have to play my/your game.  

When it comes to mobile marketing there really is only a handful of ways to be successful.  

What it seems to come down to is whether or not you can gain traction with organic installs. Installs through searching the play store or app store.  

I have tried the following methods so far, although I am fully aware that no matter what method I try - with the budget available to me - it is going to fall short of the target.

Methods:

Writing to app reviewers and youtube bloggers. I've written to over one hundred or more of these over the past few months. Minimal response.  It has resulted in perhaps a handful of extra downloads of maybe one out of twenty reviewers taking a look, but the majority deal with desktop programs only.

Advertising with banner ads on websites that target my demographic (male, wargamer, nerd/geek).  I have had perhaps a handful of downloads from these as well. Certainly not enough to justify the price of advertising.

Advertising on google ads or mobile ad networks of various types.  This is a tricky one to categorise. I do get results from these. However the result is linear in terms of what I spend.  If I spend double the money I get double the installs. However the advertising is limited to poor countries where English is not the main language.  In order to advertise to English speaking countries I need to raise my budget, which is not going to be possible.  So in one sense it works but in another sense it doesn't reach the people I wish to reach.  Budget is the big constraining factor here.

Twitter and Facebook posts have a limited effect - again, one or two downloads every few days as a result of a post on one of these is usual.

I am going to try advertising at my local fast food outlet with a small tv ad on an advertising platform I built part of earlier in the year for my day job.  My expectation is that it will result in an increase of downloads by a marginal amount - although I'm happy to be surprised.

Another attempt is to advertise at a local computer swap meet. I believe this will be more successful however I am not entirely sure just how much. I expect I will be able to convince many people to try the game out but I am limited by my own personal reach - I can only reach people I speak to. I expect on the 27th December I may acquire ten to twenty downloads of the free app - if I am successful. 

That is not many.

I have had tshirts printed, promotional letter box drops, made a game to attract people to the main game, posted on forums, and tried numerous different things.  However none of these - even if they were as successful as they possibly could be would have a major effect.

Success will come from one area. And that is to be 'featured' by google.  If in some way my app were to be 'featured' by google this would result in numerous, uncountable, downloads.  It happens to apps from time to time. But to get this needs organic installs, which only come by being high in the table of results, which only comes by having a lot of organic installs. So, it is a merry go round that cannot be gotten on once it has started. You will notice the same games shown on the 'merry go round' day after day - because they are successful they remain successful. It is that simple.

So, what does this all mean?

Well the main thing to consider is that I am not likely to be featured by google. If I hold a realistic view then I have to accept that my downloads, installs and players of the game will only come through the channels I work on.  At this stage the chance of a random sudden upsurge in installs is highly unlikely.  If it did happen it would continue. But it won't happen like that.

What I need to consider is this.

I have a good product. It is a solid, stable, high quality product.  It is fun and great to look at and listen to.  

I don't need to believe in my product - I know my product is good because there is nothing quite like it out there in the marketplace yet. Eventually there will be, but for now there is not.

The difficulty is going to be in getting the word out.  

Perhaps I need to accept that the game will never see hundreds of users downloading it in a single day?

It is unfortunate, if that is the case.

But is that the case?

I have tried so many options, so many methods and am still trying each one.  Most of them result in negligible success if any at all.  

It may be worth getting a reality check in terms of how successful desktop pc games are that are sold in stores through a distributor.  I imagine the smaller ones are not very successful at all.  

Hmm.....I look forward to my day of marketing at the local computer swap meet although I am not sure it is going to do much beyond that day. I may get ten or twenty downloads but I have a good idea that that will be all. Unfortunately.  If I get more than two or three paid downloads I will call it a success though not a financial success. Just a success in terms of acquiring some users.  

Single Player Campaign

Star Dancer has a single player campaign in addition to the quick battle mode.

In the lite version it is more a fore taste of the gameplay.  The real action is to be found in the full game.

Because of the nature of the game computer opponents dont launch  attacks against the player and so it can be played at your own pace against the computer.

I have played numerous campaigns now and even now i sometimes cannot easily conquer the galaxy.

As time progresses in the campaign your opponents become tougher with improved research and ai settings.  As such i often find the final couple of factions tough to defeat.

Also, some factions match up better against each other and i have always found Mars Colony a tough nut to crack regardless of whom I take.

Below are some screenshots from battles against the computer this morning as i enjoyed several cups of tea and coffee at my local cafe.

I hope that people get to experience my game as it was meant to be played and are not put off by the fairly low price equivalent to the cost of a cup of coffee.  Mobile games are typically free with purchases made once in the game.  Instead i have a fixed fee to play and own the game forever.

I also hope players enjoy watching the spa e battles and tweaking their AI settings to defeat their opponent.

I've said it before and will say it again.  Even if the game is not widely received or known I love playing it and can spend hours on it.

Faction Differences

Faction Differences

There are five factions in Star Dancer each with their own collection of fighters, bombers, cruisers and capital ship classes.

The five factions all share the same base characteristics for flight and defense however their weaponry is quite different from faction to faction - this is what separates the different factions from one another.

Each of the factions has different advantages and disadvantages based on their weaponry. I will detail these below.

Fighters

Of the fighters, Mars Colony has the most powerful fighters in the game.  Their fighters carry easily the heaviest weapon for a small ship and often prove the most difficult enemy to take down late in the campaign.  You will often find if you are struggling to defeat Mars Colony that it is their fighters that are proving the most challenging to defeat. 

By contrast the Outlander fighter is the weakest of the fighters in the game. It sports a tiny pea shooter that does very little damage, however it does have an extremely high rate of fire and low power drain.  

The other fighters vary in their effectiveness only marginally. The AioSenti fighter is very damaging at short range and less so at long range.  EarthHope's fighter is the default 'average' kind of fighter, it will be outclassed by Mars Colony but hold its own against most of the other fighters. 

Bombers

Once again, Mars Colony has the most powerful bombers in the game, They carry both an anti capital weapon in the form of a powerful set of rockets and a heavy Plasma Cannon for taking down enemy ships.  They are a much upgraded version of the Mars Colony fighter and apart from their lack of speed are once again the enemy that will prove the most difficult during the campaign usually.

The Outlander Bomber is also the weakest of the bombers although it does carry a rear mounted weapon which is a nasty surprise for ships that pursue it.  It is really no more than a heavier Outlander Fighter class ship - its weaponry is almost identical to the Figher but is simply supported by a heavier chassis.  

The other bombers vary only a little in effectiveness.  The Hushami Corp fighters and bombers each carry a series of burst rockets for long range duels with limited ammunition.  Typically however they are of similar if not slightly greater effectiveness than the other factions AioSenti and EarthHope.

Cruisers

The Mars Colony cruisers are some of the most ineffective cruisers in the game. They carry very heavy weaponry, a mix of short and long range but with extremely low rate of fire really find it difficult to hold their own against enemy vessels of similar size.  

The Outlander cruisers are the most deadly cruisers in the game. They carry two long EMP Cannons which are capable of dealing death to both small and large vessels alike.  These cruisers can defend themselves against smaller vessels quite well and can take down enemy vessels quite quickly if they can bring their guns to bear.

The Earth Hope cruiser carries the best beam weapon for a smaller capital ship in the game.  It does however lack any firepower against smaller vessels so is only of use in a fight against other capital ships - at which it excels at.  

AioSenti cruisers carry one of the weakest beam weapons in the game - but at least they have one. Otherwise they have a set of short range forward facing weapons which are very damaging to anything that gets close.  Their mix of weapons makes them a general all purpose larger vessel capable of taking on both large and small vessels although they are outclassed by Earth Hope and Outlander Cruisers in a firefight.

Hushami Corp cruisers carry a very weak beam weapon although they also carry a very powerful limited ammunition cannon.  They do however have the ability to limit the enemy's firepower with their experimental energy draining weapons.

Capitals

The Mars Colony capital is the most ineffective capital ship in the game. It carries a mix of weaponry, likes its smaller cruiser brother but its weapons are too low rate of fire to be of much use against most other enemy capital ships. Should it hit a smaller target the target will be vapourised but with such a low rate of fire is highly unlikely to do so.

The Outlander Capital ship is the supreme capital ship in the game. It carries the second most powerful beam cannon in the game that also drains enemy power. It also carries a series of EMP Cannons which can take out small and large vessels.  The Outlander's capital class ships and cruisers make up for the fact that their fighters and bombers are so outclassed. All their technological efforts have gone into their larger ship classes.

The AioSenti Capital carries the most powerful beam cannon in the game.  It has no other weapons however and will struggle against a host of smaller vessels.  The beam cannon will tear through enemy capitals in very short order.  

The EarthHope Capital is a general all purpose capital class ship. It carries flak cannons along its length that help it deal with enemy fighters and bombers but it also unfortunately has the distinction of carrying the weakest beam weapon in the game.  The EarthHope beam cannon is unlikely to cause any kills but it will help keep enemy cruisers honest.  EarthHope relies on its combined arms efforts to win battles and needs its smaller vessels to support its cruisers and capital to defeat an opponent.

Hushami Corp's Capital class cruiser is a bit of an unusual beast. It carries a fairly low effectiveness beam cannon but has the ability to disrupt enemy power generation which offsets the low power of the beam itself.  Hushami Corp relies also on a combined arms approach with all ships needing to contribute to find itself victorious.

Overall

My own personal preference in the game  (as designer) is to play as the Outlanders. I don't mind the fact that the fighters and bombers are low effectiveness because their capital and cruiser class ships more than make up for this. If I had to pick a second team I'd probably pick AioSenti since I simply love the ship designs but they are also a tough one to win battles with against certain opponents depending on the stage of the game.  I haven't played enough battles as Mars Colony to have an opinion on them but their low effectiveness capital ships don't really fit my play style.

Progress

Star Dancer is slowly progressing in terms of downloads and exposure.

It is actually quite tricky as an independent, very low budget, developer to gain exposure in a way that is appropriate and effective.

Every rating and review counts and apart from one rather unusual one they've all been extremely positive and I'm thankful to the users who've left these reviews. They've also been very constructive and have made suggestions that in many cases I've implemented with a few days of their comments.

I find it important to take my users seriously since they are the ones who I want to enjoy the game.

I am mainly concerned with providing a fun experience that is highly polished and good quality.  So far I believe I've provided that.  I do have metrics and reports that help me work out where players are getting stuck or what they seem to be missing from the game when they play - these are very helpful to me.

Recently I've made an addition that was suggested to me to include engine flare/thrusters showing as a visual by a youtube follower.  This was in the end a fairly easy addition and looks quite effective. So - I'm glad that user suggested it,since I was able to then add it in easily enough.

In terms of usage - I've noticed that the game gets a decent amount of usage by players outside the first few days of install - which is great. I was a little worried that maybe the game was being downloaded, played once, and never played again. This does happen but it is not as big a problem as I first thought.

The hard thing is that advertising costs money - at least effective advertising does.  If I want to reach a large number of people I need to advertise. Also I've noticed that most online advertising, at my budget, reaches populations who don't speak English and may struggle with the game content as a result.  It is very expensive to promote the game in native English speaking countries.

As such I believe that my game will gradually gain traction in terms of installs rather than be an overnight success.

I'm hoping that by June I will have several thousand users of the free app - that would be nice, and is not outside the realms of possibility when i look a the quality of apps on google play.  There is a lot of low quality products on that store which do make it hard to find the gems (like mine!).

Here is a picture of the new thruster additions:

Machine Learning

The AI or computer opponents in Star Dancer are tough especially in the full version.

There are two modes of AI player in the game.  Offline and online.

Offline is used in quick  battles.  Online is used in the campaign.

Offline uses a system where it randomises its settings based on whether it wins or loses.  If it loses it makes major changes.  If it wins it makes minor changes.

Online picks the best human player in the campaign and uses a modified version of those settings before altering them and revising every ten minutes.

Online also changes its research  settings every 10 minutes to stay at the forefront of cutting edge tech.

This means it is very hard to beat the AI in the full version.  Right now I'm in tbe middle of a campaign against 4 other computer opponents with 10 planets.  I started with 2. Gained 1.  Im struggling to capture another because the computer is so tough.

Eventually I will overcome the ai but then it will improve as well.....

Cut the chatter red two!

In my original design on paper I had pilot chatter (and a few other features) that never made it in to the original release.

However, with time spent working on audio - and with my release from hospital - I have been able to add some nice touches of pilot chatter with a range of voices providing random battle chatter in the background throughout the battle.

The battle is split into two phases in terms of audio - the opening and the battle. In the opening the chatter is more preparatory talk. In the battle it is pure battle chatter.

The idea behind the pilot chatter is not that it be understood, or heard easily - it is meant to be background noise that adds life and colour to the combat. And that it does.

I've also added sound effects (which I purchased way back in March or April). They play when the lasers and beams fire, when ships explode and when ships flyby the camera.  They are pseudo 3d audio in that they reduce in volume with distance from the camera. Being in space there is no sound but also there are no obstacles really so it may be non physically correct but it is fun- and that is what games and movies are - fun.

Oh...here's a short video of a clip of one of the spaceships flipping on its axis to fit through a gap.  You can't script this stuff - it just happens and looks fantastic when the camera catches it.

The game is coming along nicely however it is difficult to market it still - so many mobile games out there in a saturated market that it is difficult to get people to notice my game. Hopefully they will eventually.

Battle Replay

This was a battle  fought between a good friend of mine and myself.

Great fun.

Design and Development

Design and Development

In order to develop Star Dancer I had to design the game on paper first.  I am the sort of person who writes things down rather than simply jumps in and gets started.  Planning, preparation is very important.

So at the beginning of the year I put together a design on paper.  

Many sheets of paper.

Much of the design changed over time but the core idea remained the same throughout and much of the interface and back end is still very strongly based on the ideas that came out of this design process.  

Also - the budget was included in these documents. I sat down and worked out how much I believed it would cost me. I was fairly off in some cases but all in all I've kept close to the budget I indicated at the beginning of the year.  Whether I've gone over or not depends on whether I include a handful of costs that were 'bad expenses' or items that weren't used in the end (such as a library of classical music that I bought a licence for).  

Here are some sample documents in the design.  I have approximately 200 pages of notes that went into the making of this game.

Four Ship Types

Fleets in Star Dancer have a maximum of 16 space ships per fleet, much like a game of Chess.

There are 8 Fighters, and lesser amounts of Bombers, Cruisers and the Capital ship.

Fighters are easily destroyed but with researched firepower and good AI behaviour settings can cause a lot of grief to larger vessels.

Bombers are very good general purpose craft and can easily take down larger ships but have enough armour to withstand the assaults of smaller fighters.

Cruisers have heavy firepower but are often quite different from faction to faction. Earthhope's cruisers lack anti fighter and bomber capability but carry a lot of beam weaponry for instance.

AioSenti's cruisers are general purpose with a good mix of heavy and light weaponry.

The Capital ship often carries more weaponry than the other vessels but can find itself easily outnumbered - keeping it alive can be quite tricky and if it is destroyed you will wait a long time for it to rebuild - unless you've been researching Economy.

Marketing idea

As an attempt to improve my sales figures (2 sales so far!) I thought that what I would do is make a little 2d javascript game and publish it on a few sites with links within the game to my real game.....the javascript game (so far) is here..... I wonder if that will appear in the post? if not the link is here:

gameplay video 2

Game Play Video 2

Here is another gameplay video with my dulcet tones explaining how to play!

Note the video is supposed to be rotated to the left but Youtube seems to have stuffed it up....I'm trying to rotate it as I type this........

from Matt

Single Player Added

Single Player Mode Added

One of my users put in a request in their rating on Google Play for single player mode or the ability to practice against bots, so I did.

By selecting the option marked "Training" in the drop down menu on the create game option the game will also create 4 other players in the game for you to play against.  

Because of the way battles are pre calculated (and the time they take) I cannot allow the bots to launch attacks against each other or the player but they are able to be attacked and they also perform research and adjust their AI settings from game to game based on the settings of good human players.  

Otherwise the feature is not too different from a regular game.  

Hopefully my user who put the rating in gets to see and enjoy playing against the bots.

In the Lite version the bot is named the imaginative name "AiBot" but in the Full version they have more human sounding names that are based somewhat on the faction theme, eg the "Mars Colony/Russians" have Svetlana, the "Hushami Corp/Japanese" have Tanaka, and so on.

I might do another walk through of how to play, a lengthier one at some point soon I think too with audio - me the developer explaining how to play.

Fun is all we need

Fun is my purpose

The main reason I developed this game is purely for the fun of watching epic space battles.  That is the reason why there is a screenshot feature built directly into the game as well as playback controls.  

There are numerous different AI settings which can be selected with the slider method some of which provide for some truly epic space battle sequences.  

Allowing the user to specify their own music tracks also helps - you can simply copy music files into the relevant game folder (music/stardancer/battlemusic/....) and watch battles to your own choice of audio.  

The explosions are delightful to watch too! War was never quite so fun! (Note in real life I can't stand war I just like the pretty colours in my game... )

It is a beauty to watch the ships dance and weave around each other (hence the title Star Dancer) as they circle each other and duck and dodge the bullets as well as try and get a clear shot at their targets.  

So put some heavy metal music on (might I recommend Nightwish) and make some space battles.

A feature I would have liked would have been to allow automatic upload to youtube but this was sadly not going to happen.

Another feature the original design called for was pilot chatter between each pilot in the fleet....much like the old Star Wars movies (original series).  "Cut the chatter Red 2....look at the size of that thing....we're passing through the magnetic field hold tight" etc - but this was beyond my ability in the time frame allowed. Still one can dream.

Behavioural AI Settings

The key component to successfully winning battles in Star Dancer is setting your ships' AI behaviours appropriately.

There are 16 different AI setting sliders.  They default to the central position (equates to neutral) and may be shifted left or right.  

The AI system works as follows:

Every few seconds each ship tries to acquire a new target to attack - or if their current target has been eliminated they will try to acquire a new target.

The various settings carry a weight from -5 to +4.   By sliding the settings to the left or right sets the value for each of these.  A value to the right (positive) indicates that this setting should be pursued.  A value to the left indicates it should be rejected.  

Different settings can have very different outcomes for two fleets and can make all the difference between victory and defeat.

I will explain each of these in turn.

Target Larger Enemy:

A value to the right adds weight to targeting enemy vessels that are larger than ourselves.  A value to the left adds weight to ignore enemy vessels larger than ourselves.

Target Enemy At Close Range:

A value to the right adds weight to targeting enemy vessels that are at a very short distance from us (in any direction).  A value to the left indicates we wish to ignore targeting enemy near us.

Target Enemy At Optimum Range:

Similar to the Close Range setting but this is based on a distance which is approximately equivalent to the maximum effective range of our weaponry.  The interaction between this and the previous setting can make for some interesting dynamics.

Retain Target:

This setting determines how long we continue with the same target.   A low value indicates change target often, a high value indicates change target rarely.

Target Enemy Dead Ahead:

Setting this to the right indicates we wish to target enemy who are directly within our fire arc to the front. Setting it to the left indicates we wish to ignore enemy who are directly to our front.

Target Enemy To Our Front:

Set to the right to target enemy towards our front - anywhere in the front 180 degree arc. Set to the left to ignore enemy forwards of us.

Target Enemy To Our Rear:

Set to the right to target enemy who are behind us. Set to the left to ignore enemy behind us.  This is a useful setting for smaller agile vessels.  A smaller agile fighter for example may decide to change target fairly regularly and choose to target those ships behind us - this will provide a more dynamic 'dance among the stars'.

Target Enemy Targeting Us:

This is a rather interesting setting as well.  By setting this to the left the ships will target enemy who are not currently attacking us.  This is useful if we wish to avoid direct confrontation.

Target Lightly Damaged Enemy:

Enemy who have taken some but not a lot of damage are included in this setting.  

Target Severely Damaged Enemy:

Enemy who have taken a lot of damage and are near death are included in this setting.  This and the lightly damaged setting can combine in interesting ways.

Target Approaching Enemy:

This is the perfect setting for those who either like direct confrontation or a skirmishing role.  By setting to the left you can make sure your ships prefer to attack enemy who are facing away from us (backstabbing!) or by setting to the right you can cause your ships to prefer to attack enemy who are coming right for us.

Target Enemy Targeting Our Capital Ship:

If we have a capital ship present this setting can tell us whether we want to protect it or not with our other craft.

Target Enemy At Extreme Range:

Extreme Range is out of range for all smaller craft and only ships with beam weapons are most likely to be within firing range at this range.

Target Faster Moving Enemy:

A faster moving enemy is calculated at the time the new target is acquired.  It is relative to our own current velocity vector.  Typically if a ship is spending a lot of time changing direction it will have a low velocity vector compared with a ship traveling in a straight line.

Target More Agile Enemy:

Agile in this case refers to acceleration.  Ships with a high acceleration are more likely to be fighters and bombers.  We can choose to focus upon  them or ignore them as we see fit.

Target Enemy Ace:

Aces are enemy ships who have successfully killed or shot a lot of enemy ships in this battle.



Hopefully that gives some insight into how the AI settings work in the game and will help you be victorious against your foes.

Features to implement

Bug fixes and features to still implement.

There are a handful of features that I would like to implement at some point.

First of all - there is a known issue with the login popup appearing when a network error occurs.  This is fairly unavoidable but a little annoying.  If the user's device loses connection then it can sometimes popup a message about the user login which the user can often simply dismiss.

Also, I feel there needs to be some way of indicating to the user, while they are not in the game, that they have received a battle or a player has joined. However I want this to be unobtrusive and I have not worked out the best way of doing so that is obvious to the player, not intrusive, and which is easy to implement for the user.  

Thirdly there does need to be additional help information guiding the player for the first time. To be honest I almost think a simple youtube clip of 'how to play the game' would suffice and post them here because it is, for a mobile game, fairly complex even at a cut down level. However my Dad and my sister are able to play (who are not regular game players) so it can't be that hard.

In the meantime here is a link to a youtube slideshow of some screenshots from the battles.....

And an animated video....

About Star Dancer

In mid January 2015 I decided I wanted to write a game again.  I'd been learning java for android and had some spare time and had a burst of inspiration.  

Initially I was going to make an on the rails shooter but chose not to after realising the touch interface on a mobile was going to be difficult to make fun to play with.

Instead I chose to write a strategy game that is more inline with the types of games I enjoy.  

Many years ago I used to play a WW2 ground combat game called Combat Mission. It was turn based real time - wego - rather than iguogo. I had also written a similar space combat game in 2008 which I enjoyed making. So I thought I'd combine the ideas.  

During January and early February I wrote the initial design, including budget, components required, and so on.  Everything was accounted for - database structures, code, graphics, media, assets etc.  

I actually went a bit overboard initially and wanted to have pilot chatter (I was very inspired by movies such as the original Star Wars) and a host of other features.  Both budget, time and the fact that it was a one man job meant that I had to be more restrained in what I produced.  

My budget was under $6,000 AUD for the whole project and it is still under budget.   The 3d engine used was jpct-ae - a light weight java open gl library that handles a lot of the opengl stuff under the hood.  The rest of the code is mine. The graphics and music all purchased and commissioned.

During late May early June my health declined and I ended up in hospital (I was working full time as well as working on this in my spare time).  I am still under watch in a semi hospital environment and am hoping one day to get my life back to some sense of normalcy.  

I had hoped to release this game in mid November.  We will see how things go. The world seems different than before my illness but I cannot place my finger on what it is yet.

from Matt

Here's a picture of me - the developer in my backyard.

Full game (v0.82)

Lite Version

And a how to play video (no audio yet) - basic gameplay

Battle Replay

Battles are shown as a pre calculated replay.  The battle can be paused and resumed with the button in the top right corner.  The central button at the top changes whether or not the team colours are used to display the ships. Darker colors indicate higher damage.  The green button on the top right allows a screenshot to be captured.  The slider at the bottom of the screen can be used to adjust playback position.

The icons at the top are health icons.  They transition from green through yellow, orange, red to 'gone' when a ship is damaged.  If the fleet is destroyed it will have no ships. The battle is over either when the time runs out (about 2 minutes) or when a fleet is destroyed.  I am yet to see two fleets completely wipe each other out!

Pressing the back button on your device will take you back to the menus.

Campaign Map and Battles

On the campaign map you are able to attack any enemy planet (other color than your own) by touching their planet.  When doing so the battle will calculate (takes a few seconds) and then send a replay to your opponent.  You are then able to watch the battle in full 3d and see how it went.

Sometimes a planet will have no planet ring - this is either because the player is unable to be attacked temporarily or has no player assigned yet.

If you successfully attack a player and win the battle then their planet changes colour and becomes one of your own.

The object of the game is to take and capture all the planets in the system.  The Full version has 10 planets, the light version has 6.

After a battle your ships may be damaged.  If you have less than 4 ships remaining then you will briefly be protected (special conventions of interstellar warfare prohibit attacking vulnerable enemies!).  However you can still launch an attack with less than 4 ships.  Ships will rebuild over time - which is calculated on the remote server.  

Damaged ships are shown in orange, fully functional ships are shown in green.

Research Strategy

In Star Dancer research is a key component to securing victory for your faction.

Research is divided into 4 focused areas.

These are:

Speed, Firepower, Defense and Economy.

By choosing one of these areas to devote time to researching your faction's fleets will improve over time.  This is all calculated on the remote server and continues researching whether you have the game open or not.

You can only select one focus area at a time but this can be changed as and when desired.

Economy 

Researching Economy will decrease the time taken to rebuild ships in your fleet.  The percentage boost to economy indicates the percentage reduction in build time for each ship. 

The benefit of researching economy is that your own fleet will rebuild faster than an opponent with less time spent on researching economy.  This many mean the difference between launching an attack against a full strength or weakened opponent. The maximum value for economic research is not as high as for the other focus areas.

Defense

Defense research increases the base armour or damage that each of your ships can take before being destroyed.  This research increases at a fairly rapid rate to a maximum value - it will reach its maximum value within a couple of days usually.  Having tougher ships makes them more likely to win a direct shoot out with enemy of similar type.

Firepower

Researching firepower increases the damage performed by your ships' weapons.  This research increases at a rapid rate as well and usually within a couple of days is at maximum value or close to it.  This focus area especially helps ships that already have high firepower values.

Speed

Researching speed improves your ships acceleration and velocity values.  By improving a ship's acceleration they are more likely to be able to get into a good position in the battle better and are harder for enemies to target.  It also means that your ships will be able to target slower enemy more easily.