Evenin’ all. Firstly, excuse me the self indulgence, but it’s diary number 52 – that’s one whole year we have been writing about our musings on a weekly basis (bar a couple of weeks off over Christmas). I’ll have to go back to the beginning and see how things have changed since that point! I’d like to thank you chaps (and TSA) for your continued support, it’s such a boost to everybody’s confidence and morale, so thank you!
The past week has felt like it’s been a relatively quiet one. A lot of time, however has been spent in the non-code development side with us planning how RoChain will work on iOS and other mobile platforms.
We’ve come up with some great ideas, ones that actually improve the game beyond its current restrictions, so we are hoping we are onto a winner here. However, what these new design ideas mean in reality is that we will probably have to re-write quite a bit of the code. It’s not a massive setback – but one that means dev time is probably going to be slightly longer than we originally anticipated. We also want to give RoChain a graphical overhaul, so that might take up some time too. Whether we do that, or outsource the art work is undecided at the moment but we want the game to feel fresh on the mobile platforms, whilst retaining the “feel” of RoChain.
We’ve also made some progress in familiarising ourselves with the SDK that we are using. It’s been quite interesting for me personally moving from one engine to another and figuring out how engine X handles a particular area, compared to engine Y. What has been comforting is that whilst both engines are very different in their intentions/purpose, they both seem to handle things in a very similar way and therefore with any luck that will cut down on the “learn time” for me and the rest of the guys. Don’t get me wrong, the SDK definitely has a few quirks which are annoying but nothing we can’t overcome!
In addition to the fun stuff, we have also been trying to do a little forward planning. When RoChain makes us several million pounds, blowing away the sales of Angry Birds and Doodle Jump combined, we are planning how that money will be utilised. That’s easier said than done. Obviously Adarakion will need to be incorporated, and need its own bank accounts etc. but in addition to that there is a lot of legal stuff to consider. Who owns the IP to RoChain? How will everybody be remunerated? How will the profits be invested / reinvested? Whilst to us (and probably most people), these are the boring side of things, however, they are arguably the most important.
The legal side of things is really mind blowingly difficult to get your head around at times. I mentioned the IP issue above, but what about the other people who have helped bring RoChain to this point. It feels like what started out as a load of mates making a game or two needs to become a lot more serious going forwards, and we can’t afford to make any mistakes now or we will regret it later. It’s a veritable minefield – whoever said making games was just about having fun seriously neglected 50% of the work involved!
Still, we will get there with a bit of work. What has become apparent over the last few months is just how much time it takes to develop a game. We are all still holding down our day jobs and all the work is being done in lunch hours / evenings. It does feel a little at the moment like we don’t have any personal time (bar a few minutes here and there) so with any luck, with all the planning and the global success of RoChain, we can change that! Gotta keep dreaming!
Kovacs
Happy birhday!
Dany2Step
happy birthday!
looking forward to RoChain coming to a platform i own.
gazzagb
Happy birthday!
Have you got a rough idea of when you think it will be ready? Sounds like you’ve all got a lot of work to do!
gnipper
Got a fair bit to do, and getting to grips with the SDK has had a few initial issues, but think we are nearly there now.. I would LOVE to say a month or so, but im leaving it a little more open than that.. definitely this side of Christmas though, and the sooner the better for us.
gazzagb
Awesome!
gnipper
Ill make an annoucement of the announcement when we are ready :)
gazzagb
I think you need to see a therapist about this whole announcements thing you’ve got, you’re clearly mental! ;)
G_The_Enemy14
I tried to play rochain, but it says its side by side configuration is incorrect when I try and launch it. :/
Happy birthday anyway :D
AG2297
Yeh I have the same problem on my laptop
gnipper
Hey guys – there was an issue with an older release. If you totally uninstall it, download the latest version from our site then the issue should be fixed!
Charmed_Fanatic
One whole year! Happy 1st Bday
AG2297
Happy first birthday :)!
Manorhowze
Happy 1st Birthday. Good to see that you are pushing forward with releasing on a mobile platform. Best of luck with that and all your future endeavours.
DJ Judas
RoChain has a lot of potential on the mobile platforms, the simplicity and addictive nature lends itself to that environment perfectly.
gnipper
Thats our thinking too. Though RoChain Mobile will play a little differently to the PC version :)