I've spent the majority of my dev time this last week working on the Farmageddon website. With the new website launched, it's time to put the finishing touches on this Android & Windows game and get an Alpha version published for people to try. And before working on the site, I made quite a bit of progress on the in-game menu system and gameplay updates as well. I'll be sure to get to it all by the end of this article.
Starting off with the most recent work, the new website for Farmageddon is now published and available for the public. I have done away with the old & plain dev blog layout and replaced it with a farm-themed CSS3 website, complete with screenshots, video, and forms for contacting me about the game as well as registering to receive newsletters via e-mail.
I wanted the focus on the default page to be the game's assets, as well as putting a lot of focus on the link to play the video... all while ensuring the end-user realized instantly that this was available for Android & Windows 8. I'm back and forth on whether the end-result is too crowded, but this is the website as of writing this:
The new website for farmageddongame.com
As you can see, the website looks nothing like it used to. I still have some work to do, but I'm very happy with the results thus far, and right now finishing the game is the number one priority.Concerning the game, I had made quite a few updates since my last article here on IndieDB. I've been playing around with new settings for the tornado from time to time, but every time I get it to look right, I kill the frame rate... so my next goal is to optimize as much of the game as possible, so I can know what I can get away with as far as particles rendering for the tornado.Immediately after a user logs in, they are now taken to a main menu. Along with farm animal buttons for the three different game-types (Classic, Arcade, and Zen). The user is also presented with a stats window showing their current level in the game, as well as how many of each farm animal they have saved in their "career".
The new Farmageddon main menu
All players will have free, full access to the Classic game-type. They will also receive a dozen or so trial runs of the Arcade and Classic modes. Regardless of which game-type you play, your totals for saved cows, pigs, and sheep are added automatically. There will be leaderboards available for each of the game-types, as well as total farm animals saved and other stats.The last major update to the game itself has been the tornado. As I mentioned earlier, I've been having a bit of trouble squeezing out a decent frame rate while keeping the tornado looking good, but I'm confident that one way or the other I will be able to make this all work. The tornado is currently made up completely of particles, and while I really like the look of it, I think I will need to make a few sacrifices in the long run to benefit the gameplay experience.
The login screen, complete with new particles-only tornado
I am obsessively trying to keep the framerate over 60 FPS on my tablet. It may seem a bit excessive, but I am trying to keep the game running optimally on as many devices as possible, and if I can accomplish this 60 FPS target, I know that there will be a very long list of devices capable for running this game at a playable framerate.With the website complete, things should be wrapping up pretty quickly in-so-far-as getting a playable Alpha demo published on the site for people to play. If anyone is interested, you can sign up for our newsletter at farmageddongame.com to automatically be notified when the game is made available.
