Playniax 2.0

[playniax]

For those who care, I am back!

Not that I was really gone but I haven’t released anything in a while.

Monkey 2 is dead and because of this Pyro 2 is dead. I still think it is a shame because I thought Pyro 2 was my best work so far but I had to move on.

For me now my tool of choice is Unity! Yes, I basically did a 180 and have learned to love it!

Before Unity I first tried AGK and really liked it. I even started working on a framework for it called Combustion but after disappointing performance results I’m sorry to say I shelved it.

Anyway, a few months ago I was approached by CIROCCO STUDIOS who hired me to work on a game idea they had called ‘Asteroid Invaders’. This game is almost done and will be released very soon. Before CIROCCO STUDIOS hired me I was working on our own game called ‘Dumbot’ still in Monkey 2 / Pyro 2 and after pitching this game to CIROCCO STUDIOS they bought it and even ordered more levels. To guarantee that the code won’t break I decided to rewrite the game in Unity and most of it is done so this game will be released also very soon.


Asteroid Invaders

All in all I have 3 games in the works, 2 templates and a framework for Unity that for now remains nameless. I might call it Pyro for Unity but haven’t decided anything yet. Most importantly, I have my coding MOJO back because the whole Monkey 2 situation was depressing.


Dumbot

So I or I should actually say ‘we’ as Playniax have been very busy and I hope to share more news soon!

Bye,

Tony

[3DzForMe]

.  All in all I have 3 games in the works, 2 templates and a framework for Unity that for now remains nameless. I might call it Pyro for Unity but haven’t decided anything yet. Most importantly, I have my coding MOJO back       

Great news, Glad to hear you've moved on to new ventures, I'm a fan of your work and wish you the very best.

[Steve Elliott]

For those who care, I am back!

Not that I was really gone but I haven’t released anything in a while.

Most importantly, I have my coding MOJO back

Glad to hear it!   

Monkey 2 is dead

Shocker, not like Mark Sibly to abandon a language.   

For me now my tool of choice is Unity! Yes, I basically did a 180 and have learned to love it!

Before Unity I first tried AGK and really liked it. I even started working on a framework for it called Combustion but after disappointing performance results I’m sorry to say I shelved it.

Forced yourself to love it?   

I've always found AGK fast for 2d, but if you wanted some extra FPS you could have compiled it using C++.  I'm glad you've found something that works for you though.

Games are looking very polished, congrats.

[playniax]

Thanks guys!

Yeah, AGK Tier 1 I was using and I never tried Tier 2 that will probably NOT have the performance problems I had.

AGK is a great engine, don't get me wrong here...

[Kryzon]

Good to see you again playniax!
So, from your experience, does Unity have decent enough performance? Have you tried it on low end systems?
Also, are you using the Personal or Pro edition?

[Qube]

Before Unity I first tried AGK and really liked it. I even started working on a framework for it called Combustion but after disappointing performance results I’m sorry to say I shelved it.

Lots of logic per loop is a frame killer for AGK Tier 1. Hopefully one day they'll actually do native compiling so more complex frameworks can be done.

Having said that the Tier 1 side is no slouch and perfectly capable of full on HD 2D games with hundreds of sprites zipping around.

So, from your experience, does Unity have decent enough performance? Have you tried it on low end systems?

I know this question was aimed at Playniax but I can tell you that Unity is a lot faster than AGK Tier 1 in code execution but slower in raw 2D execution. But.. If you dive into Unity's new DOTS system / Project tiny then you're looking at super fast and super small.

For example, look at this in Chrome https://unity3d.com/tiny A full Unity game in just 1.8mb ( The initial transfer gets the game started in only 969 KB compressed data (162 KB engine, 199 KB game code, 597 KB of art). An additional 861 KB in audio files loads in as the game plays totaling 1.8 MB for the full project. )

For those who care, I am back!

Nice to hear from you and good luck with your upcoming projects

[iWasAdam]

Great to have you back. and cograts about the games - well done

[MikeHart]

Great art as always. Good luck with your future business affairs. It sucks for everyone who is affected. But I am sure you will pull it off.

[playniax]

Thanks...

Yes, Unity performs well enough for what I need.

If I remember correctly I was having trouble getting tile performance right in AGK with Tier 1 but I am sure there are ways to tackle this.

[Amon.]

Good to know you are back in action, Playniax.

Please, don't give up on the framework for AGK. It's a highly active community with plenty of members and I think a framework, especially from you, would be welcomed greatly.

[playniax]

I doubt I will finish the AGK framework but I may release the code so far. It has been a while so need to check if it's worth the trouble...

We will continue our asset packs so this could be of use to AGK users also.

[playniax]

So a little game we helped produce called Asteroid Invaders for Cirocco Studios!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Cirocco.AsteroidInvaders

This is my first finished game made with Unity!

Have fun!

[Qube]

This is my first finished game made with Unity!

Looks really polished, nice one

Not normally one to criticise things but in the video there appears to be more titles than actual gameplay ( though the end tag line made me laugh ).  Bit of a nit pick but in a gameplay video I'd like to see more in game action rather than cut scene titles. Not sure if you are limited on Google Play with that though time wise?

So after screaming during learning Unity what do you make of it now you've done your first game?. For me I got a bit bored with the repeated coding structure but then my first game wasn't very technical. Note - it's not optimized so if your GPU has limited RAM, don't try it

I'll probably dive into Unity again at some point now that are putting more time into the 2D side with proper 2D lights and upcoming 2D shadows. I know there are plugins for this kind of thing but for longevity I prefer native support.

Unfortunately I don't have any Android devices or else I'd grab it. Are you planning an iOS / Mac or PC version?

Anyway, good luck with your game and I hope it does well

[Derron]

Gameplay: looks nice and toony-consistent. Yet it could have some more bells and whistles to make it look "less static" (just judging the screens, so excuse if they are there ;-). Casual gamer-ines like a lifely world.

Video: effects look like for a "render game" not a "vector based/drawn-images game". Also it misses a lot more game play rather than texts more suiting to a "teaser".


bye
Ron

[Xaron]

Welcome back and grats to the game release! Bit sad to see only 100+ installs after 3 weeks for a polished and free(!) game but oh well... that's probably the reality nowadays...

Fiddling with Unity as well and really like it currently.