2014 TGS之前

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這是2014 TGS 參展前錄的兩段GIF，一直忘了放上網路。可以看到有許多東西都還是暫時代替的物件，蠻有紀念價值的 :)

重新啟動

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之前本來把這邊變成Qubit Games的dev blog因此後來貼的文章都用英文，不過現在既然公司的網站以及blog都已經建立好了，因此想把這邊再回歸成我個人平常記錄一些生活中發生的事情以及遊戲相關技術的地方。之前在加拿大時張貼的文章現在變成一個很好的回憶，因此我想之後即使再忙，也會找時間在這貼些東西，也可以為之後創作的遊戲做一個很好的紀錄。

今天講講為何我的引擎叫做LynxEngine吧 :) 其實我本來的引擎是要叫做TigerEngine的，但是那時我想先做一個小的引擎試試，只有非常簡單的功能，然後才要開發完整的遊戲引擎 TigerEngine。所以我將這個小引擎取名為Lynx，也就是山貓的意思，一樣是貓科動物，比家貓大，但比tiger小，表示他是介於繪圖引擎跟遊戲引擎間的一個引擎 :) 但是後來得發展是LynxEngine功能越加越多，我也懶得再開發一套新的引擎了，所以最後Lynx的名字就一直沿用下去了...... 早知道一開始就叫做TigerEngine了，我比較喜歡Tiger這個名字  orz 

我最早一個引擎叫做VedaEngine，全部是用C+Assembly寫的，沒有用任何C++，連D3D API都是透過vtbl來呼叫。VedaEngine還包含遊戲編輯器，也是純C + Win32 SDK寫出來得，當初XBOX上的遊戲就是用這引擎做出來的。Veda就是吠陀的意思，那時真的很假文青 XD

Making of Space Qube, Part One

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I always want to write something about the process of making Space Qube but can't find time to do it. I uploaded few interesting videos today for an interview so I decided to write something today otherwise I probably will never do it :)

Stage 1, Prototype

At the very beginning, I was working on the prototype using my spare time when I was working for AMD. I created the voxel editor first then I though it would be cool if I use it to make a shooting game. I choose space as background because the performance of rendering a lot of voxels on iPhone 4 was not acceptable. So I came up the idea to use space as the background then I can avoid rendering a lot of voxels :)

The original idea is making a super simple endless game in short time because I didn't think I will be an indie at that moment, I just wanted to make a iOS game after work. The original gameplay is that the player just shoot and try not to collide the enemies. The enemies will try to hit the player and the speed of game becomes faster and faster until the player die.

The editor and gameplay prototype

Stage 2, Mock-up

After having the prototype, I thought I will need an artist to help me out. So I asked my old friend, Bic, to help me out. He also had a full-time job so he can only use his spare time to help me. At that time, I thought the casual art style should fit to our gameplay. So I captured few textures from Angry Birds Space to mock the game. The background layer system was pretty much done at this stage.

Mock-up game using the textures from Angry Birds Space

Stage 3, Pre-Alpha

Then Bic made the textures according to my idea to replace the mock-up textures. The god-ray post-processing effect has been added to the game at this stage because iPad2 is powerful enough to render this effect. I was thinking 8-bits casual art style is a perfect match to Space Qube but I think I was wrong when looking back now :)

The original art direction tried to emphasize the 8-bits pixel art

Stage 4, Alpha

At this stage, I was still working for AMD but Louis just quitted his full-time job to go indie. Louis knew I was working on Space Qube for a while but he can't help me out since he was busy. Now he had time to help me out. So we started working together on Space Qube and I also decided to quit my full-time job to focus on making Space Qube. After Louis joined, he made a big change on the art direction. The result is the current Space Qube and I think he made a good decision on the art direction and lift Space Qube to a higher level. At that time, we already had the idea of adding bosses at the end of each level but I didn't implement it yet.

Big art direction change after Louis joined

That's pretty much the evolving process of Space Qube and the game actually changed a lot since the first prototype as we keep polishing it. I actually didn't know we can walk so far when making the prototype but we did it. Although Space Qube is not perfect but I think we have done all our best to polish it as much as possible. It is really interesting when looking back the whole evolving process. We also learned many things during this period and it should help us to make a better game in the future. I also didn't know I will become an indie so quickly when making the prototype but I was very happy about being an indie so far and hopefully I will be happy about being an indie forever :)

The Qube System and Weapon Upgrades

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Hello everybody, today I am going o share you some improvements of the gameplay since we made a lot of changes after the open beta. We collected some numbers fromm the players so we adjusted and changed many many thing according to the feedback from the players.

1. Qube system. We created a new Qube system and you can think it's a in-game currency. So the players can use Qubes to create their own space ship, they can also use Qubes to upgrade their weapons or buy other itms. The most interesting part is that now the players can create space ships with different attributes. Before open beta, the player created space ships only have appearance difference but now all player created space ships are not only different in appearance but also in attributes. So the less Qubes the players use to create the space ship, the faster but weaker the space ship will be and vise versa. So every player can create a unique space ship which is the best fit to the player.

2. The game is totally free now. Since we decided to use Qube system in game, we also decided to change the game to a total free to play game. So you can play all levels for free! You can earn Qubes by playing game then use the Qubes to create more space ships or upgrade your space ships. Of course if you don't have time to earn Qubes in the game, you can buy some Qubes in our store

3. Weapon upgrade system. The most exciting changes we made is the whole new weapon upgrade system. In Space Qube, there are three different weapon power-ups you are able to use: bullet+, laser and missile. Now all of those weapons can be upgraded. For example, the first level missile can fire only 2 missiles at one time but the level 4 missile can allow you to fire 8 missiles at one time! It's very interesting to see your space ship to fire so many missiles and destroy the enemies like crazy

Here is a video which basically shows off all the changes we made so check it out. We are welcome to any feedback, even we can't add it to the first build but we can always add it to the updates.

New Printed Out Models

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We just printed out few more Space Qube bosses and they look awesome! We sent out the order directly from Space Qube and the models shipped directly to my home, it's so convenient and fun. We probably will print out more models after submitting the game, it's just around the corner.

If you are also interested in creating your own voxel toys, don't forget to give Space Qube a try when it's released and it's totally free.

Good News! The Final Build of Space Qube Has Been Sent to QA

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Are you ready to rock with Space Qube?

Good news! We just sent the final build to QA team and after this build pass the QA process, it will be submitted to Apple! We have scheduled it around mid June. We will launch the game in Canada, Taiwan and Finland first to test and tune the gameplay then launch it globally. So you may need to wait a little longer if you are not in these 3 countries, but we will do our best to launch it globally as soon as we can.

We did a lot of changes on gameplay since open beta, we will share those changes later.

Space Qube is finally about releasing!

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Good news! Space Qube is finally about releasing, we are planning to submit it to Apple iTunes store around early June. 

To celebrate it, I created a Link model  Its look is basically from "The Wind Waker" which is one of my favorite Zelda game  :)

Please keep your eye on this blog, we will post the news when we submit it. Keep tuned.

Qube Fighter II - Ryu & Ken

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Check out the charcters of Qube Fighter II :)

Space Qube Will Integrate 3D Printing Service

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Have you ever thought about creating some action figures by yourself? Yes, I do and now it's never been so easy to achieve by modern 3D printer. We have decided to integrate 3D printing service into Space Qube in the future. So you will be able to create any model you want using your finger on iPad/iphone then send it to print just by one click. The printed model will ship to your home directly and all of those are accomplished in one app!

The picture shows some testing samples I just printed out and the result is better than I expected. We will add this feature in the first update of Space Qube so don't miss it if you want to print your own voxel models out  :)

Video : Qubit Games at GDC 2013

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This is the video we took during GDC 2013. It was a nice experience and Qubit Games will attend more exhibitions to showcase our games and passions in the future.

After GDC 2013

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GDC 2013 was jsut over and we had a very unforgettable experience of attending GDC Play. We made few mistakes but also learned few things and knew many new friends. The most important thing is that we found many visitors like Space Qube :)

Here are some pictures we took during GDC 2013, more pictures and movies will come later.

In case you can't tell, this is Yu Suzuki :)

Brian Crecente is a friendly guy.

Space Qube won GDC 2013 "Best in Play" award!

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GDC just announced the winners of GDC 2013 "Best in Play" award and Space Qube is one of the winners. We would like to share this happiness and say thanks to everyone who has helped and anticipated Space Qube, we will work harder to polish Space Qube a better game!

Thanks again for all your supports and feedback, I promise that Space Qube wouldn't disappoint you ^_^

Here is the link of the official announcement.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/187581/GDC_Play_2013_Best_in_Play_game_winners_announced.php#.UTH3nzBkNLc

Mario 3D Land in Space Qube

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My son's modeling skill is getting better and better everyday. He made a 3D scene of Mario game and I was surprised that he can make so complex model now and he is only 5.

You can see many Mario characters in this 16x16x16 model, it's amazing ^_^

Space Qube Beta is Open Now!

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Yes, this moment is finally coming! We just finished the beta of Space Qube and it's open for beta tester registration now. Please go to this link to register your iOS device then you can start to rock with Space Qube! What are you still waiting for? Just go to register :)

We really want to collect more feedback from the real players by releasing the beta version. So if you register as the beta tester, please don’t hesitate to provide your opinions to us. We appreciate all the inputs from the beta testers and we will tune the game according to your feedback.

This is the screen you will see after beating the boss, you can simply press the Feedback button to send us your opinions ^_^

So see you guys in Space Qube beta.

Qubit Games Interview on Polygon.com

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The editor, Dave Tach, from Polygon.com had an great interview with our team couple weeks ago and now the article is online. It's a really good article about how we created Space Qube before and after quitting our jobs. Here is the link of the article, I suggest you read the article if you want to know more detailed stories about Space Qube  :)

BTW, don't miss the open beta of Space Qube, it will be available next week.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/31/3890376/spaceqube

Space Qube Open Beta

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We are going to have an open beta version soon to get more feedback from the real users. The registration page will open very soon and please stay tuned if you are interesting in joining the open beta test.

Qubit Games!

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Our team finally has a good name, Qubit  Games. Qubit is pronounced like Qube but also means quantum bit in quantum computing so that's why we chose it as our team name. 

In the following years, you will see more interesting games from Qubit Games and I wish someday people will  say "You really shouldn't miss the games from Qubit Games, they are awesome!!" ^_^ 

Christmas Charity Sale

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My son is making Mario badge for Christmas charity sale using Space Qube, good job ^_^

Surface RT Unboxing

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之前為了之後的Windows 8改版，只好忍痛訂了一台Surface RT做為ARM based Windows 8測試之用。我是10/19 左右在美國網站訂購的，所以無法第一批拿到。上禮拜四美國的朋友收到後就用US Post Express幫我寄出，今天早上就收到了，效率還不錯。

因為開發App的需要，iPad 2, iPad 3, Android(Sony Tablet S)平板我都有，相比起來，這次Surface RT的質感相當不錯，組裝也十分紮實，相較起來，Sony Tablet S 就整個被比下去了。我認為Surface RT的整體質感很接近iPad了，只是走不同的風格。變壓器的設計也很有自己的風格，說起來台灣的硬體廠商做了這麼久的硬體，卻很少有硬體設計比的上一個做軟體的微軟，台灣這些廠商真的應該好好檢討一下了。

照片是用Tablet S 拍的，效果不好請大家多多見諒。







包裝超簡單，就只有平板跟變壓器


這個虛擬鍵盤我覺得比iPad上的好





桌面設定會跟其他共用帳號的Win8電腦同步

因為早在preview版我就已經安裝了Windows 8，所以對整個系統已經很熟悉了，也就沒有甚麼驚奇或是驚喜之處了。硬體方面，試了micro SD 32 GB跟外接一些USB HDD都維持Windows優良傳統，沒有任何相容性問題。整個來說就是方便，不會像用iPad或是Android一樣無法直接存取網路上其他電腦的檔案。App不多，大部分也看起來很業餘，不過以Windows程式開發的容易度來說，海量的App是遲早的事，但是store的排序分類可能需要改進一下了。 

拿起來重量感覺類似iPad3，拿久了應該會蠻痠的。早上才拿到還沒辦法測試使用時間，等晚一點再試試。這台其實買來是為了開發遊戲用的，不過應該會變成取代iPad3的主力tablet。

RT版本桌面程式有限制，所以很多人卻步了，但是我覺得以這樣的組裝品質，Surface Pro會很令人期待，難怪國內雙A要嚴陣以待了。 可惜我現在已經變成無收入的indie game developer，不然還真想再買台Pro　:)

Angry Birds : Obi-Wan

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My son asked me to make an angry birds Obi-Wan voxel model after he played Angry Birds Star Wars game. That's the best I can do since I am a programmer not artist.....

But at least he gave me 5 stars rating. :D