Performance tweaks, splash screen, and ads philosophy

I've finally started work on the most technically challenging and potentially buggy group of features, the online features. Each feature will be explained as it is implemented.

These features include at the moment:

- Ads (implemented).
- Analytics (pending).

- Cloud save (pending).

- Personal server based level update system (pending).

There are a million ways to get ads wrong. I've played so many games where ads would break the flow of gameplay, block half the screen, or just be too near something clickable and get clicked by accident.

With this in mind I've spent a lot of time thinking if and where ads should go in Pachinguys. What I've decided on for now is to only show ads to the user at the bottom of the end of level screen. My reasoning for this is as follows:

a) The level end screen had enough free space to hold the ad without being too close to anything clickable (including the device buttons in devices that have virtual buttons).

b) Up until the end of level screen the player has not yet gained any value (had any fun) with the game. Completing a level is the goal and the main driver of fun in Pachinguys. So once I as a game maker gave some value to the player, I feel OK with asking for some back.

And I do mean asking. Ads are turned on by default, but the option to remove them forever is displayed clearly just above the ad (but not too close as to avoid accidental ad clicking). After a prompt to the player explaining how ads help me make more games, the player can choose to disable all ads forever. This setting is saved, survives through play sessions, and when cloud save will be implemented this setting will be saved and shared across all the user’s devices.

I’m still considering if I should disable the ads for the first two (tutorial) levels. On one hand the player is still learning how to play and ads at this stage seem premature. On the other hand starting the ads at any level other then the first seems inconsistent. Currently ads are enabled for all levels, but this may change.

I’m using Google’s ad service with Admob. As an interesting anecdote, you can’t create a new Admob account in a browser that has an ad blocker enabled. Usage is not blocked however (so disabling Adblock to create the account and enabling it from then on works fine, and yes the irony is not lost on me).

I've also added new functionality to the splash screen (the screen you see while all the graphics load). It now displays a random silly phrase at the top. Followed by a(temporary) Pachinguys logo, followed by the Andengine logo and “powered by Andengine” written at the bottom.

In other news, I've tweaked the main game loop a bit, cleaning up some redundant calculations which should hopefully improve performance on older devices. I’m still looking into the low frame rate issue, but at least there is some progress.

Closed alpha and star system

Quick update on the current state of development.

Pachinguys is now officially in closed alpha. What this means is anyone whose email address is in the alpha testers group can download Pachinguys from the play store. Receive updates as new builds are uploaded. And send feedback and bug reports back to me. Currently the alpha group is limited to a small group of close friends. But it will grow with time as needed.
The play store listing again demonstrates my lack of graphical skills. Yet another thing that will get improved once a graphics person is on board.

Isn't she beautiful ?

Want to join the alpha group? Great! Send me a message with the email associated with your android device and I’ll take care of the rest.

In other news, I've designed a new level, and added visible indication of how well the player did on a level (the good old 3 star system). This indication is currently saved on the device (may use Google game services to move them to cloud storage at some point). The indication is displayed at the end of each level as well as on the level menu buttons. The star system makes sense in Pachinguys as 1 star indicates the level has been cleared. 2 stars indicate a near perfect solution and 3 stars are only awarded for the perfect solution. Encouraging the player to retry and rethink previous levels.