Animal Trackers (Release Date: Thursday 3rd May 2012)

[DaveA]

Well, the near future is here, as Animal Trackers now has a Twitter account. I'd been meaning to create one for a while, but hadn't quite got round to it.

And thanks for making me aware of @Doomfan who is now following me. I've updated my blog and have given you a mention.

[DaveA]

Just a quick progress report.

I'm currently in the process of playtesting each level using all three control methods (finger point, d-pad and accelerometer tilt), so that it's just possible to get three stars (and separately the golden egg) with each of them.

Remember, earning three stars is for those players who want a real challenge, requiring you to find and follow every short cut from start to finish.

But if you just want to enjoy guiding each member of Team Tracker around each level in a more leisurely manner, there will be enough time for you to do so (once you've discovered and subsequently avoided any red herrings, of course).

Well, while I continue with the playtesting, I'll leave you with a picture of Pumi trying to decide which way to go...



Oh, and the eagle-eyed of you may have noticed an addition at the top right of the screen - a HUD (Heads-Up Display) showing the relative distance between Pumi and her quarry, in this case, the elk.

Hopefully, this visual indicator will give you the incentive to try one more time if you've still not quite caught your quarry after a number of plays.

[burn]

This seems like such an original idea. I'm really looking forward to this game. Will this be a Universal game or is it just for the iPhone/iPod?

[DaveA]

Ever since I was a kid I thought it would be fun to be able to track animals, but living in a city doesn't really give you much scope beyond the occasional fox or squirrel track in the local park. So now that I'm older, I figured I'd do the next best thing and make a game about it.

Since this is my first iPhone game, I decided to do the simplest thing and write Animal Trackers for the iPhone / iPod touch, with iPad compatibility in the form of 1x / 2x modes. In an ideal world, Animal Trackers would be Universal, but there are a number of hurdles that need to be overcome before that can happen.

The first and most important is time. I had originally planned for Animal Trackers to be released before Christmas with the hope that it would sell well enough so that I could continue working on updates full-time at home. But with unforeseen issues cropping up which were taking up to a week each to solve, it became apparent that I wasn't going to make it. So, rather than release a rushed game in the hope of taking advantage of the holiday season, I decided to spend a little more time on it, polishing it up. As a result, from a financial point of view, I can't afford to delay launch any longer than that.

Secondly, there is a limit to the size of an app that can be downloaded OTA (over-the-air) via 3G without hooking it up to a computer or using wi-fi. This is currently only 20 MB which is barely enough for the iPhone / iPod touch version, let alone the high resolution graphics needed for the iPad. Making Animal Trackers Universal from the outset would mean that no one would be able to download it until they got home or got to an accessible wi-fi hotspot and I think that may deter a lot of people who may wish to have it on impulse.

However, should Animal Trackers do reasonably well on the App Store, I'll be able to continue working on updates for it full-time, potentially including an iPad version. Otherwise, I'll have to go back to how it all started and just work on updates before and after work which will naturally take longer (assuming I can find another job, that is… lol)

[DaveA]

I've added a poll to the top of the page asking which control method you see yourself mostly using when playing Animal Trackers.

The three options are: finger point, on-screen d-pad and accelerometer tilt.

With the finger point method, you just touch the screen wherever you want your tracker to head towards.

The on-screen d-pad is semi-transparent and centred wherever you place your thumb on the screen. You then slide your thumb in the direction you want your tracker to move. If you take your thumb off the screen, the d-pad will be re-centred wherever you place it down next time.

Tilt control moves your tracker in the direction the iDevice is being tilted.

Naturally while testing, I'm using all three methods, but I'd be interested to know if there's likely to be a favourite method or if it will be relatively evenly spread amongst the three.

Thanks.

P.S. I just noticed when I wasn't signed in that the poll read, "You may not vote on this poll". It's a shame that only TA members who are signed in can vote as I think there may be a large proportion of readers who are unable to vote.

[burn]

I like the D-Pad myself. That's what I use when playing Harry Potter. Sometimes I'll move him directly by touch but I prefer the D-Pad.

[DaveA]

Merry Christmas!


I hope you all have a great holiday season.

All the best

Dave

[burn]

Merry Christmas to you, too! Don't spend too much time opening all of those presents, you've got a game to finish!!

[Doom]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Well, the near future is here, as Animal Trackers now has a Twitter account. I'd been meaning to create one for a while, but hadn't quite got round to it.

And thanks for making me aware of @Doomfan who is now following me. I've updated my blog and have given you a mention.

Wow, just stumbled across your thread and was shocked to see my name thanks guys for that..I don't get out much this game will do well BTW..

[DaveA]

Well, I've done the first pass at playtesting all 50 levels of Animal Trackers.

I did originally plan on giving enough time for each level to allow a leisurely amble to earn 1 star, but I later felt that without much of a challenge to progress to the next level, it would detract from the gameplay.

So, even though the game is playable as is, I'm now doing a second pass (I've done levels 1 ~ 20 so far) adjusting the times and scores so that the first few levels are easy enough to get used to the game, but subsequent levels become progressively more challenging.

The key to a good time is to look for shortcuts. You may be able to get away with blindly following the tracks in the early levels, but sooner or later you'll come to a level where there just isn't enough time to do it that way.

I've added some extra help diagrams to the console offering tips on how to do that, so I hope they'll be self-explanatory enough to be useful.

There's also a tips and comments section on the Animal Trackers website (not the developer blog), so there'll always be help in one form or another available.

Lastly, I've been conscious that it's been a while since I last posted on the TA forums, but if you'd like to know what's what on a more regular basis, please feel free to follow me on Twitter as @AnimalTrackers.