Thanks. I was trying to go for the 80's style logo's you used to get above the arcade cabinets when I was a kid (golden age of video games for me). I used to love looking through all the computer mags of that time, looking at the adverts for all the arcade conversions that would be coming out for your Spectrum and C64 (always used the arcade game press artwork and screen shots in them) and trying to redraw them on paper and even on the C64 (spent a full 12 hours once just doing a spot on version of the Gauntlet logo on my C64) just using a joystick to draw with It's pretty much how I learnt to draw. Thanks, Mike.
Hey! The logo looks good, but it's lacking in "tunnel" and "runner" kind of feel if you know what I mean the game looks pretty dark like tunnels should be, maybe the logo could have a darker feel to it aswell? Implementing the character in it will give your game a "face" aswell.. Will the main texture in the tunnel change shades or to a completely another texture in the game? This might add some graphical variation to the gray style I'm just posting something that comes to mind.. Keep up the good work
Hi Patsui, Sorry for the delay in replying, late night and an early start Yeah, I played with those ideas for the logo, but ultimately I wanted something that stood out and was very easy to read. First off I had the back wall texture rolled like a tube cut in half, but the silhouette of the logo just didnt stand out well enough. I also played around with the running theme of it as well and I was going to (and probably still will) go down the Rolling Thunder logo route where the characters silhouette is part of the font (I loved that game in the arcades). Yeah, Im planning on having different areas in the game that the player can jump/warp to in the same kind of way as Monster Dash does it. That way the player gets a slight breather and its a smoother / easier way of changing the texture maps. Most of it will be a skin job for the levels, but also depending on the levels, it may also allow me to do some neat obstacles and effects. This will be the last thing on the to do list thou to be honest (and fairly time consuming as well I expect to do), so may be included in updates to the game as I also need to be careful about the download size of the game as well I guess. Theres always the knock on effects for every feature I add to the game that I need to think about and if I try to add everything at once, I could end up never releasing it, plus it gives me a chance to do decent game updates. To be honest thou, I need to be careful as the game gets pretty fast and one of the reason for doing the subtle bricks is that the different objects that fly towards stand out a lot better. Right I need to get a couple of more things in the game tonight (fingers crossed), but thanks for your feedback and I like the look of your game (going by video). Cheers, Mike.
Chicken mode Hello, Just another really quick update for you. Ive just added a new gameplay feature which I came up with while coding the collision detection when you get close to the obstacles (for the sound effects and maybe a couple of dodging animations). Basically, its a little game of chicken. You versus the obstacles! Get close enough to the walls and it starts a timer that counts down, so you have to continue narrowly missing the walls to gain extra time and score bonus points all the time while doing it. It seems to work out pretty good as at the beginning of the game, its a nice steady pace, so its a lot easier but the time limit means you cant really miss a single obstacle; whereas later in the game, its a lot faster, but the speed allows you to miss a couple of obstacles without the time running out. Its a nice case of danger / reward and increases the score attack aspect of the game. All been well, I should have the basic alpha ready for mid / end of this week (Start of December) but dont hold me to that. Cheers, Mike.
Adding RPG elements to the game Hello, Just a quick update (no screen shots (maybe later) been coding most of the week), just so you dont think Ive forgotten about the game. Ive finally got all the money pickups in the game including all the different patterns for them. I think there where about 410 different prefabs (Unity name for groups of objects) in total for these (that was a long and dull job). Its semi random how the game displays them based on the players luck status and level. So the higher your luck and level, the better the chance of getting more valuable stuff, but to also help even things out a bit more, Ive also added three different levels of object density (number of objects to display) so even if everything is low, you still stand a good chance as you could get more objects on screen (better chance of actually running over things) if the density is high. I may also add other special items in there as well, but that will be at the end of the game if I do. Ive almost finished the basic hit point / energy system as well for the game, some of the walls are not working with it, which Im trying to find out why (probably a stupid spelling mistake on my part), so Im hoping to have that done before I go to bed. The reason for adding energy / health to the game instead of a single hit and your out is that because of the chicken feature I added (last post), I felt it was a bit unfair to do instant death to the player, but if you keep been greedy, its your own fault. The game is definitely starting to lean a lot more towards have the basic role player style character elements to the game which I think will make the game stand out from all the other dodging games out there and it also gives the players an on going goal of constantly improving your character so you can get a better score and buy better stuff for your character. With that in mind, Im assuming if you are going to spend a lot of time developing your character, you are going to want to customize him a bit and add your own personality to him. So Im also going to start investigating the best way (and how (only a vague idea at the moment)) to do that and try to get something in the game for next week and if I do manage to get at least the basic frame work in, Ill e-mail all the beta testers and send out the first pre-alpha for you to look at. Sorry if this was a bit of a ramble and I hope it makes sense as Ive been spending as much free time I can on this so to anyone from the outside I may sound like a raving nutter. Any questions, just ask and Ill try to answer them as best as I can as thats the reason I started this post after all. Thanks, Mike.
I'm not dead!! Hello, Sorry for the long delay in updating this but its been a nightmare. I decided to get help in programming this game from a more experienced coder (Ive had a couple of publishers showing interest in the game so it suddenly went from been a fun learning process to been something with a lot more protencel (yet still fun)). Well to cut a long story short, I was let down twice by a couple of coders who just disappeared after agreeing to do the work (which took up so much of my time trying to get in touch with them and looking again for someone else), but in the end Ive got a really good coder helping out (well hes doing all the code now freeing me up to get down to the art work and game design) and he is a really hard worker and Im struggling to keep up with him some times =). So at the moment, the game stands at about 60% complete I think. All the features are basically in the game now, still rough and things need ironing out, but the features seem to do what they need to do. You can jump to different levels now (done a couple of different style for the game and plan on have 4-5 different style ready for the initial version of the game with plenty of ideas for new ones in updates) via jump gates (which look really nice when you see it animated with all the particle effects going on) which you can look at from the attached pictures. Theres a moped in the game now as well that you can ride and I plan on adding other vehicles in the game as well (may be related to the level theme). All the pick ups are in with the special effects for each of them. Ill add some screen shots later to the post once Ive got everything sorted. Ive also just updated the game logo and the slight name change as theres already a game called Tunnel Runner in the App Store and I made a nice little puzzle game (Gogo Digger) on the mobile phones a few years ago with the same character called Gogo, so seemed like an easy way around the problem and I plan on doing an update to that game at a later date for the iPad, so it should all work out well. So Im looking for some feedback please on which logo to use for the game please. So if you would like to voice your opinion on your favourite (top, middle or bottom) and I can take it from there. I'll update later in the week with some screen shots from the other levels. Thanks, Mike.
One of the new level themes Hello again, Just a really quick post before I go to bed. Heres one of the new level themes for the game. Just done for a laugh but it looks pretty good in the game. Still need to model the different bike for this level. I hope you get a buzz from this as it made me smile while I was doing it If anyone has any suggestions for other themes, let me know. No promises of course, but I do like the idea of movie themed levels and it's a nice feature for updates as well. Good night, Mike.
Hey, So far the images look great. The images actually remind me of "falling Fred", another game that came out a few weeks ago. Anyway, it's better that you take your time with "go go tunnel runner" and not rush anything. I'm sure it will be worth the wait. In terms of the 3 logos, I really like the one on the bottom the best.
Thanks for the info. Thanks for the feedback. I think most people seem to like the third logo best, so unless anyone say otherwise, looks like that's going to be the logo to go with. Not heard of Falling Fred, but I'm downloading it now to have a look at it and see if it's like my game, and if it is then I'm sure I can change it around a bit so my game stands out as a different game. No point in releasing a game that's already out in the App Store I've had a quick play of Falling Fred and I'm happy to say my game is totally different to it Thanks again for the feedback. Mike.
New Tunnel Code Just a quick update for you before the weekend as I'm going to out at the weekend so may not be able to update this. Mark the coder has re-written all the tunnel generating code for the game and it's running a lot smoother now and is much more fluid then it did as the different sections of the tunnel now just flow between each other now. If I can get hold of a camera, I'll knock up a quick YouTube video for it to show it off as it does look and feel really nice when you see it in motion (and that's coming from a Yorkshire man that plays everything down). Should also have some in game tunes to show off next week if the audio guy allows me =) Cheers, Mike.
Music examples from the game! Hello, Just a quick update for you on the game and a couple of tunes from the game for you to listen too. The music is done by a very talented guy Tommy Renshaw http: (whos always interested in good quality projects). Tree Level Tune 3,149KB Vector Land Level Tune 2,063KB We are also almost ready to start sending a beta out to testers, so Ill be picking 5 people to start with from the people that have already e-mailed me, just to make sure you are still interested. Most of the time really has been taken up with adding things like GameCentre, Twitter and Facebook functionality to the game and basically getting everything up to speed (menu stuff has been a nightmare). The Time Trial stuff is really good fun and the Game Centre speed tables really make you want to better your times. Anyway, please let me know what you think of the music as any and all feedback is welcome and I'm sure Tommy would like to hear your views Thanks, Mike.
Icon for Tunnel Runner Hello, Because the game is almost ready to go out to the game testers I figured it was time to knock out an App Icon for the game. So heres the first attempt. Hope you like it. All the models and textures for the icon are taken straight from the game (Ive just sub divided the player model to make it look a bit smoother for the render) and added a couple of glowing effects to make things stand out when small. Thanks, Mike.
Thanks. It's taken a lot longer than I expected to do this game, but there's been a couple of false starts that messed things up big time, but it's almost done now I've cut out the RPG bit as it didn't really fit with the rest of the game the way I expected it too, but the time trials mode more than makes up for that. The entire project has been a big learning curve for me, but not in the areas I was expecting. I ended up passing the coding duties over to someone else (which was one of the reasons it took so long to do (the couple of false starts I mentioned earlier)), but I've partnered up with a really great coder now as well so we should be able to get a few interesting games out in the future (fingers crossed). It really is hard to find decent people that are also willing to invest a lot of their spare time into something that they may not see any returns from, so I think I've really stuck lucky there. Anyway, thanks again for your comments, its much appreciated. All the best, Mike.
Ready for Beta Testers Hello, Well after a lot of messing around and false starts, Gogo Tunnel Runner is ready for testing. So at the moment Ive got a couple of testers lined up and another couple more just about to start, but I would be interested in getting another 4-6 people signed up for testing if anyone is interested? If you are then either let me know on here or PM me and Ill get back to you with details. We are using Test Flight for issuing the builds so once you sign up to it you just get an e-mail link to the newest build which you download straight to your device and your off playing. Really simple and clean of doing it. Beta testers will get a credit in the game by the way as a way of a thank you. The game features: Facebook support Twitter support. Game Center support. Its also an Universal game so if you have an iPad and iPhone / iPod, you dont have to pay twice for it. Ive attached a couple of screen grabs from the game just to remind you of the game. Thanks, Mike.
Beta testers feed back. Hello, Well the feed back for beta testers seems really positive so far and there's also been a couple of suggestions that we have / are implementing in to the game. There is still a couple of places available for beta testers if anyone is still interested but just to warn you that it will not work on anything less then a third gen iPod / 3GS iPhone so that is the minimal hardware that will run it. It's a 3D running game that one of the testers says reminds him of Boost 2, so if you like these type of games and want to have some input get in touch with your e-mail, UDID and device type. Testers also get their name on the credit list (room for about 10 names). Cheers, Mike.
