Apprentice Soft

Hey there!

So, 10 days after releasing Cosmonaut, I am in the process of thinking about my next project. Cosomonaut took me almost 17 months, which is super long for a single developer. I learned a lot during these 17 months though.

After Cosmonaut I just want a quick project that will involve what I previously learned. I am talking about 2 months project max.

After almost 17 months of night developing, Cosmonaut is finally available !

Here is the link to the Android version:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmonaut.android

Hey there!

It’s been a couple of months I didn’t give news about Cosmonaut! Did I drop the project? Was I on a desert island? No, nothing of that kind. I worked A LOT on Cosmonaut. But I didn’t have many things to show. Even on Twitter I was very quiet in the past few months, while I am usually very active on Twitter.

So what’s new about Cosmonaut? Well... the game is very close to be released! It’s both exciting, and a bit stressful. Exciting because it’s my biggest project so far and I am very proud of it. I learned a lot in terms of game development with this project. Stressful because this game is definitely not the kind of game that will encounter success. What I propose with Cosmonaut is very different from what people look in mobile games. Cosmonaut is a slow-paced game. No quick satisfaction, no quick reward. It’s a game where you move slowly, monitor your oxygen and fuel. Think and act... and lose a lot! haha.

So how Cosmonaut evolved during the past four months? - Some arts were created in collaboration with a Montreal-based artist, Gemil. This took more than a month. You can see a sample of this collaboration in the GIF. - A LOT of optimization in terms of memory usage and processor usage has been done to make the game work smoothly one phones. - The game now supports German language (Hello German people!) - The game now supports AZERTY keyboards for the desktop version (Hello French people!) - The game has been heavily beta-tested, debugged and balanced. Well... balanced... Growing in the 80’s, I have a test for difficult games. And the tendency since at least a decade is to make games more and more easy. I am completely against this tendency and find it boring as a player. Thus Cosmonaut won’t be easy. It will be difficult and frustrating, as games were back in the days! hahaha. Bring the 1 star rating and negative comments on the Google Play Store!

Cosmonaut will most likely be released before the end of April. Right now I only take care of the last few “cosmetic” details such as “Do I put this music or this music at the end?”, or “Is this sounds better than this sound?”

Can't wait to announce the official release, soon!

Hi there !

It's been more than a month that I didn't give new about Cosmonaut ! What happened during this month ?

I mainly created levels. Fourteen levels so far. Plus a lot of small code modification here and there.

Right now I am working on a tutorial level.

Hey guys !

A few days ago I presented you a prototype I developped for the One Button Jam. But what did happen with my main project, Cosmonaut? Cosmonaut project is still alive and I work on it on a daily basis!

I am designing the levels. For now I have almost 5 levels done. I aim for around 20 levels.

Here is a prototype I developed in 10 days  for the One Button Jam that ended last week.  Has the name says it, every game in the One Button Jam must be playable with only one button, which make the gameplay very tricky. You can play this game here : https://apprenticesoft.itch.io/epic-ball-adventure-prototype

In Epic Ball Adventure you control a ball that can roll right or left by pressing F. You need to cross levels full of obstacles. I used libGDX to create this game. The game is based on physics. It contains only 5 levels. Most of them are VERY challenging, as I didn't have time to balance the game. I'll probably keep working on this game to make a small physic based game for Android. 

Hi ! 

I didn't give news during the past month. Was I on vacation ? No... I wish I was... I was still busy with my day job, and, more importantly, I was spending my evening drawing new tilesets for the final version of Cosmonaut ! 

Yes, the release is approaching ! The core coding part is finished. Now I need to draw, design, level, debug, and test the full version. Then, there is the potentially endless debug-polish-test loop... 

But well, I am getting there soon-ish ! 

Hey ! 

 So what happened during the last 10 days ? 

I worked a lot on the electric arc that I am implementing to my next game Cosmonaut. 

Compared the previous video I posted, the electric arc has been greatly upgraded : 

- The hitbox is no longer a simple rectangle in which the electric arc appears. Now the hitbox takes the exact shape of the electric arc, and follows it. 

Hi ! 

 I have not published any update about Cosmonaut for weeks.  What's new ?  I spent A LOT of time on the introduction. It was very painful. Writing to code, writing the dialogue, drawing, finding a cool music. 

 I'll stick with this intro for now, although it must be polished (Drawing and dialogue mainly).

 I am tired of wasting time on the intro, I am terrible for this. I want to go back to the core coding, to introduce few mechanics, and finally start designing levels.

 Here is a first draft of the introduction for Cosmonaut. 

Hey ! 

 Lately I worked on the introduction of Cosmonaut. Basicallt, there will be a short dialogue, with cool music, just to give the context. 

For this dialogue, I need dialogue boxes. And I also needed a code, that will read the dialogue, line by line, and display it in the box. 

I did all that the pas weeks. Now I need to work on a short dialogue. 

And find the music... 

And maybe create an animation that will go with the dialogue... 

- Is this a revolt? 

 - No, Sire, it is a revolution.