2 Months working on Chibi Heroes, a facebook game, and I am 8 bugs away from Open Beta! So how long is that anyway? Hmm, about a week or so. That means that on the 5th of December Chibi Heroes is open for everyone to beta test it.
Those pesky bugs can be fixed well enough; the main problem that I will face after this is getting people to play it.. as well as pay for it. Well, mainly getting enough people to know and play it. The first part of this problem is marketing.
Next up is monetization. Setting up a paypal business account as well as google adsense to make money seems like a no brainer. I'll be looking into other ways of monetization as soon as I reach this stage.
For now though, on with fixing the bugs! 8 of them no less gah...
*Chibi Heroes is a Facebook game built using ASP.NET. Check it out on Facebook on 5th of December 2009!
Monday, November 30, 2009
3 New Facebook Projects
I started 3 new projects! One is a medieval town building game, another is dark fantasy mythical game, and the last one is a story building game.
The first one is kinda inspired by simcity. Imagine playing simcity on Facebook! Imagine trading goods and services between you and your friends! The more friends you have the more prosperous you become due to increase trade. All this leads to an increase in city size. But wait! What is that in the distance... a tornado is coming this way?! The power plant is overused and the possibility of a meltdown is imminent? Ai Carumba!
Ever read Ravenloft? Imagine choosing an anti-hero from horror movies! Vampires, Werewolves, and Mummies are passé. Now it's all about Flesh Golem, Lich, and Death Knights from beyond! The stronger the dark lord, the bigger the army of darkness, the more mayhem they will inflict on the world!
Have you and you friends ever made up a never-ending story that each keep adding to over a campfire? Now you can play this game online!
The first one is kinda inspired by simcity. Imagine playing simcity on Facebook! Imagine trading goods and services between you and your friends! The more friends you have the more prosperous you become due to increase trade. All this leads to an increase in city size. But wait! What is that in the distance... a tornado is coming this way?! The power plant is overused and the possibility of a meltdown is imminent? Ai Carumba!
Ever read Ravenloft? Imagine choosing an anti-hero from horror movies! Vampires, Werewolves, and Mummies are passé. Now it's all about Flesh Golem, Lich, and Death Knights from beyond! The stronger the dark lord, the bigger the army of darkness, the more mayhem they will inflict on the world!
Have you and you friends ever made up a never-ending story that each keep adding to over a campfire? Now you can play this game online!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
MySQL limitation...
Well I have been working on ChibiHeroes for a while and the database I'm using is MySQL. I've been abusing the poor little sucker is more likely hah hah hah. I've been doing stuff with it that people will shake their heads and cry if they knew about it.
One of the things that I found out was you cannot set the current date/time aka NOW() as a default for a datetime field! What the heck? Oracle can do it. I have been doing it in PostGres SQL Database for quite a while now. So why can't MySQL do it?
What kind of a limitation is that? So I went back to check their forums/listing/documentations and guess what they recommend. They advise their users to use the timestamp. Huh? What the hell? It is like telling a user to stop driving a Ferrari because the clutch is broken and start driving the Ford Ranger. Gimme a break man! Fix the damn clutch.. err I mean limitation now!
Come on you guys, stop being lazy! This ability has already been used in Oracle and PostGres way back during MySQL 3.51. Numerous updates and improvements later we're still stuck with this limitation?
One of the things that I found out was you cannot set the current date/time aka NOW() as a default for a datetime field! What the heck? Oracle can do it. I have been doing it in PostGres SQL Database for quite a while now. So why can't MySQL do it?
What kind of a limitation is that? So I went back to check their forums/listing/documentations and guess what they recommend. They advise their users to use the timestamp. Huh? What the hell? It is like telling a user to stop driving a Ferrari because the clutch is broken and start driving the Ford Ranger. Gimme a break man! Fix the damn clutch.. err I mean limitation now!
Come on you guys, stop being lazy! This ability has already been used in Oracle and PostGres way back during MySQL 3.51. Numerous updates and improvements later we're still stuck with this limitation?
Friday, November 6, 2009
High Road or Go for Broke?
A week ago I came across this article in TechCrunch :
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/
What happens is that one of the big three of Facebook Game developers are using offers that borders on scam. You know, the hidden download toolbar from internet and automatic signup on premium sms texting services.
I never knew a part of the 200 mil revenue per year that Zynga has comes from scam offers!
Indeed, this has got me thinking on they way to monetize from ChibiHeroes. Taking offers out of the picture, I guess I would have to make do with paypal and credit card payments only so that my players don't get scammed.
How much will this decision affect my profitability? Probably a lot. But then I guess I can sleep much better since my players don't feel cheated and will buy more directly as an added incentive.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/
What happens is that one of the big three of Facebook Game developers are using offers that borders on scam. You know, the hidden download toolbar from internet and automatic signup on premium sms texting services.
I never knew a part of the 200 mil revenue per year that Zynga has comes from scam offers!
Indeed, this has got me thinking on they way to monetize from ChibiHeroes. Taking offers out of the picture, I guess I would have to make do with paypal and credit card payments only so that my players don't get scammed.
How much will this decision affect my profitability? Probably a lot. But then I guess I can sleep much better since my players don't feel cheated and will buy more directly as an added incentive.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Chibi Heroes Part 1
A Month working on Chibi Heroes I realized a few of the statistics that programmers throws out from time to time are true!
Here's what I say:
Cause
The game consist of 10% design codes and 90% engine codes.
99.99% of the user will be entertained by the design codes.
0.1% of the user actually knows what is going under the hood.
90% of the development time is spent on developing the engine.
10% of the development time is spent on developing the design.
99.99% of the user thinks the design codes IS the game.
Effect
The users see the 10% of the work that goes into the game and thinks that is all there is to it. They think the game is easy to develop, and should've been developed much faster than the time it took. They either do not know or do not care about the 90% engine that is running under the hood. Believe me, if it took a month to design a car, it took a year to design the engine that runs that car.
Here's what I say:
Cause
The game consist of 10% design codes and 90% engine codes.
99.99% of the user will be entertained by the design codes.
0.1% of the user actually knows what is going under the hood.
90% of the development time is spent on developing the engine.
10% of the development time is spent on developing the design.
99.99% of the user thinks the design codes IS the game.
Effect
The users see the 10% of the work that goes into the game and thinks that is all there is to it. They think the game is easy to develop, and should've been developed much faster than the time it took. They either do not know or do not care about the 90% engine that is running under the hood. Believe me, if it took a month to design a car, it took a year to design the engine that runs that car.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Facebook Apps
I have been working on a Google Android application for a while and has programmer block so I decided that I needed a break. So I began working on a Facebook Application during that break. Some break huh?
I've been working on this Facebook game called Chibi Heroes for a week or so. You can find it on http://apps.facebook.com/chibiheroes/
Yes, it is written using asp.net. Thanks to Kayson Wong for the excellent tutorial that he completed on 26 September 2009 (a week ago ha ha ha). It took me that long because I have no prior experience whatsoever in programming ASP.NET, although I have been using C# for the past 3 years commercially. The tutorial was so easy to understand I bet that anyone experience with ASP.NET programming can pick it up and hammer out a Facebook Apps in a few days.
This game Chibi Heroes will mark a turning point for me. This is the first program that I'm developing not as a consultant but as a SaaS (Software as a Service) provider. What do I provide? Entertainment. Hopefully.
Stay tuned as I go into details of the inner workings of Chibi Heroes in the next few weeks.
PS: I will be working on the Android apps as soon as I finished beta.
I've been working on this Facebook game called Chibi Heroes for a week or so. You can find it on http://apps.facebook.com/chibiheroes/
Yes, it is written using asp.net. Thanks to Kayson Wong for the excellent tutorial that he completed on 26 September 2009 (a week ago ha ha ha). It took me that long because I have no prior experience whatsoever in programming ASP.NET, although I have been using C# for the past 3 years commercially. The tutorial was so easy to understand I bet that anyone experience with ASP.NET programming can pick it up and hammer out a Facebook Apps in a few days.
This game Chibi Heroes will mark a turning point for me. This is the first program that I'm developing not as a consultant but as a SaaS (Software as a Service) provider. What do I provide? Entertainment. Hopefully.
Stay tuned as I go into details of the inner workings of Chibi Heroes in the next few weeks.
PS: I will be working on the Android apps as soon as I finished beta.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Control Technology, Not Let It Control You
If you have a pointy-haired boss dictating the direction of technology the company is going to take, run away fast.
Two and a half years ago, I was still working at a big company, when this actually happened. What did I do? I ran.
Don't get me wrong, I mean the company was very good and the bosses are nice and caring. Heck one time I was so sick, the boss was nice enough to offer to pay for a full medical check up. I didn't take him up on his offer though because I hate to feel indebted to anybody. But just because you read about it in "tech du jour" magazine does not mean you have to change your whole software department to use it. It is as silly as proclaiming you are a neurosurgeon after reading "Brain Surgery for Dummies". By the way, I did eventually went for a medical check up, and found out I had hypertension aka high blood pressure. So now I have to take some medicine every day until the day I die to prevent my heart from exploding or something. Just like that Ironman guy with that thingamajig that prevents his heart from melting.
The thing is, if you are running a technology integration firm you need to know that you need to use the right tool for the right job. You don't use a hammer to chop down a tree. You don't use a saw to hammer in nails. And you most definitely don't use a screwdriver to saw a piece of wood in half.
How bad could the situation be when technology that you boss chose just because it is over-hype as "poised to take over the world by storm" or "with this technology you will never have to code again"?
Imagine this scenario. You pointy-haired boss came upon a Predator wrist equipment. Now this equipment can cloak your boss, display real-time 3d mapping images, or cause a nuclear explosion. Now imagine your boss randomly pressing some buttons. What are the chances of him pressing the button that activates nuclear explosion?
Two and a half years ago, I was still working at a big company, when this actually happened. What did I do? I ran.
Don't get me wrong, I mean the company was very good and the bosses are nice and caring. Heck one time I was so sick, the boss was nice enough to offer to pay for a full medical check up. I didn't take him up on his offer though because I hate to feel indebted to anybody. But just because you read about it in "tech du jour" magazine does not mean you have to change your whole software department to use it. It is as silly as proclaiming you are a neurosurgeon after reading "Brain Surgery for Dummies". By the way, I did eventually went for a medical check up, and found out I had hypertension aka high blood pressure. So now I have to take some medicine every day until the day I die to prevent my heart from exploding or something. Just like that Ironman guy with that thingamajig that prevents his heart from melting.
The thing is, if you are running a technology integration firm you need to know that you need to use the right tool for the right job. You don't use a hammer to chop down a tree. You don't use a saw to hammer in nails. And you most definitely don't use a screwdriver to saw a piece of wood in half.
How bad could the situation be when technology that you boss chose just because it is over-hype as "poised to take over the world by storm" or "with this technology you will never have to code again"?
Imagine this scenario. You pointy-haired boss came upon a Predator wrist equipment. Now this equipment can cloak your boss, display real-time 3d mapping images, or cause a nuclear explosion. Now imagine your boss randomly pressing some buttons. What are the chances of him pressing the button that activates nuclear explosion?
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