Been a while since I've posted an update in this thread.

Currently, I'm working on the next game and it's taken a little more time to build than first anticipated.

The game will be a puzzle game and I have already built more than 100 levels! The game will help you to build up your memory.

Will post more information and some screenshots in a while. I hope I'm able to release the game early February.

My fourth game Blackout has just been released!

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Let me know what you think :-)

played it until I had to wait 10 mins(!) to play again...thought about watching ads and paying...but just not willing to.

Good game though - was easy at start - I thought too easy...and then it got really hard...

pretty slick, did see a few problems though. Anyways - well done. I might turn it on again.

I realize the need to monetize but maybe this one leans a little too hard on that too soon - I was almost getting addicted before it stopped me from playing....

@joelutting! Thanks for testing the game and leaving a review :-)

It's actually 20 minutes between every free life, just like Candy Crush. 

I know the start is easy, but I wanted to really show the user how things work.

What problems did you find?

The monetization isn't just for earning money on the game. The fact that you only have 5 lives and then you have to wait will hopefully make you want to come back. This way you don't play 20 levels and then you're tired. I might solve it in a different way if I find a better way to do it :-)

Nothing wrong with a lives schema if you choose that.  Although for a new game it can prove a tricky metric to balance.

You can keep lives but offer a new life per reward video viewed?  This is a popular mechanic.

Reality check: you are not CC and maybe regenerate lives every 5 mins?

Nothing wrong with a lives schema if you choose that.  Although for a new game it can prove a tricky metric to balance.

 

You can keep lives but offer a new life per reward video viewed?  This is a popular mechanic.

 

Reality check: you are not CC and maybe regenerate lives every 5 mins?

A new life per video is something I did think about, but I haven't implemented it yet.
I didn't mean to compare my game to CC. I just meant that I like their idea that if you don't play too much, you might want to come back for more. Maybe 20 mins are too much and I need to adjust this.

Thanks for the tips!

ah - interesting. I did go back today and play a bit more - so I guess that worked - here is the problem for me....I got the impression I had to wait 10 mins IN GAME, not that I could just go away and come back later.

If that was clearer it might be quite good - I did want to keep playing at the end of my lives and was quite annoyed I would have to wait around - I have not seen this method before so it was not obvious to me what it meant.

What problems did I find? minor things - a title was only showing top half of text on the screen between levels, I got a bit confused as to what to do at some points - on the map; tapping things eventually got me going (but it was not obvious to me), finally achievements don't seem to work. I'm at level 25 and have none of the achievements even though it states you get them on level 5,10, 20. Also pressing back on my phone didn't leave the game which I am used to, so it was a bit annoying - not sure if this is something ppl usually put in.

Thanks for more input Joel! This is really helpful!

Nice to know that it wasn't clear enough. That's so important to fix. I have also added the other bugs you pointed out to my todo-list, so these things will be fixed asap.

A new version of SquareSpinner, Beelly and Blackout has been published :-)

SquareSpinner:
-Made the game a little bit easier

-Added an About screen

-Some other optimizations

Beelly:

-Made the game a little bit easier

-Set Touch as default steering mode

-Some other optimizations

Blackout:

-Added a leaderboard

-Changed some helper texts

-Fixed a couple of issues

-Some other optimizations

Thanks to everyone who's given me feedback to work on :-)

My fifth game will soon be released. Will be posting information about it here in not many days  

It's an endless platformer game. Looking forward to posting it here and hear what you think about it.
Stay tuned!

My fifth game is now on App Store and Google play

This might be your best yet - had a go - quite compelling, and I slowly got better, which I like about games that seem really hard at the start. Gave it 5 stars, but I'm still the bottom of the small rankings. as soon as those gaps came in the platform I got stuckl :-(

well done.

This might be your best yet - had a go - quite compelling, and I slowly got better, which I like about games that seem really hard at the start. Gave it 5 stars, but I'm still the bottom of the small rankings. as soon as those gaps came in the platform I got stuckl :-(

 

well done.

Thank you, Joel! That's nice of you to say :-)

Yeah, it gets a little bit harder when the gaps come. But without them it was too easy

Wow, I've been featured in "New games we love" by Apple Over 600 new scores in the game center since yesterday :-)

Which store? I can’t even see that section today in the UK store
Post a link to the featured game!

The featured game is this one:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scolors/id1451650715

At least on App Annie it says it should be on the "new games we love" in the UK! And here are some of the other countries: France, Germany, Norway, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden and many more.

well done! is that your first feature? Should get plenty of downloads over the weekend - I got a minor feature for one of my games ages ago on iphone and ended up with 50k downloads

well done! is that your first feature? Should get plenty of downloads over the weekend - I got a minor feature for one of my games ages ago on iphone and ended up with 50k downloads

Yes, it's the first and I'm so proud and happy Really motivates me to keep building games.

50k is amazing, I don't dare to get my hopes up that high.

Congrats!  Keep up the good work.

Thank you @horacebury!

One of the reasons I decided to build 12 games in 12 months was to become better at finishing projects. For years I've been building games for a few months just tweaking and adding features until I lost motivation and started something new. So I had to become better at finishing projects and setting limitations to my self.

@cyberparkstudios Thank you :-)

For years I've been building games for a few months just tweaking and adding features until I lost motivation and started something new. 

That's me that is!!

I have to ask: how did you decide on the games to build? What was the criteria for reducing complexity and what do you do when you reach the fourth week and find something which will take serious effort to complete?

I usually sit and talk with my gf (she does most of the graphics) and we just try to come up with as many ideas as possible and then we write down the ones we like best. I have much experience with programming, so I try to figure out how long the game will take to create.

If I think the game is doable and will be fun to play, we start designing and building it.

The 12 games in 12 months isn't fixed to 1 game per month. SquareSpinner (our first game) took only two weeks I think, so that let me have more time for the other games. Some games will take longer and some shorter :-)