Own Games

Ada 5 hal dasar yang bisa jadi penyebab kamu gagal login ke akun google play-mu.

1. Aplikasi tahu bulat tidak di download dari Google Play Store 2. Waktu di hp tidak sesuai dengan yang seharusnya 3. Aplikasi Google Play Games belum versi terbaru 4. Koneksi internet yang kurang lancar 5. Servis google play games tidak di enable (ada di settings -> apps -> google play games)

Jika semua syarat di atas sudah dipenuhi tetapi masih tidak bisa login, ada 2 cara yang bisa kamu coba.

1. Melakukan uninstall updates untuk aplikasi google play games.

Pertama-tama kamu masuk settings -> apps -> google play games. Lalu pilih tombol uninstall updates

2. Login secara manual

Pertama-tama pastikan hp kamu dalam keadaan offline. Selanjutnya masuk ke dalam aplikasi Tahu Bulat. Setelah aplikasi selesai dibuka masuk ke halaman statistik. Selanjutnya nyalakan kembali koneksi internet anda dan tekan button hijau bergambar joystick.

Apabila datamu sudah hilang, silahkan langsung menuju nomor 2 "cara mengambil data dari cloud" untuk mengembalikan datamu.

1. Cara menyimpan data di cloud.

Masuk ke tab "Statistik" (tekan tombol di pojok kanan bawah layar), tekan tombol awan (tombol awan baru muncul apabila kamu sudah login google play), lalu tekan tombol "save". Silahkan tunggu dan jangan tutup gamenya sampai ada konfirmasi "Cloud save berhasil".

2. Cara mengambil data dari cloud.

Masuk ke tab "Statistik" (tekan tombol di pojok kanan bawah layar), tekan tombol awan (tombol awan baru muncul apabila kamu sudah login google play), lalu tekan tombol "load". Selanjutnya pilih data yang akan diambil kembali. (ini akan menimpa semua data game yang ada di hp).

Apabila tidak ada data yang bisa dipilih, berarti cloud save belum pernah kamu lakukan dan data tidak bisa dikembalikan lagi.

3. Menggunakan fitur Auto Save.

Masuk ke tab "Statistik" (tekan tombol di pojok kanan bawah layar), tekan tombol awan (tombol awan baru muncul apabila kamu sudah login google play), lalu tekan tombol "auto save". Game akan mencoba menyimpan data ke cloud secara otomatis setiap kali aplikasi dibuka. Untuk menonaktifkan, tekan kembali tombol "auto save".

INFO PENTING:

A. Cloud Save membutuhkan koneksi internet. Pastikan koneksi internet menyala sebelum mengakses cloud. B. Pastikan kamu selalu menyimpan data di cloud sebelum kamu meng-uninstall/mengupdate game kamu. Pastikan sudah ada notifikasi "Cloud Save Berhasil" sebelum kamu menutup gamenya. C. Kami (Own Games), tidak menyimpan save data pemain. Semua data akan disimpan di cloud masing-masing pemain.

Apabila ada masalah lebih lanjut, silahkan hubungi kami via fanpage resmi Own Games Indonesia 

Currently SOMEMON is basically a Mini Trading Card Game. So player can collect the monsters in form of the cards and then battle each other. The gameplay mechanic is still constantly changing. The last one limit each player's deck into only 4 cards. We're really wanted to share the detail of gameplay mechanism here, but I'm still having difficulties in explaining it here since nothing is final yet. I've spent almost 2 hours to try to describe it here with no decent result, so I'll postpone it for now. Sorry... OTL

Talking about the development itself, our programmer, decide to take a really brave path. He decide to use OpenGL for our Android version of the game. I myself believe that this is a very risky step that will also expand the development time. But by using the OpenGL, we can improve the game performance, quality, and size at the same time, so we believe it is worth the time. But it's not an easy ride, this was what Jefvin show me after 2 days of trying OpenGL for the first time:

It's a beautiful triangle, isn't it? Lol!

Now, we are trying to finalize the gameplay and then try to balancing the game. We'll also open 2 tables at a local comic festival called Pakoban in our city, Bandung, next weekend. Pakoban is the best pop convention in Bandung (IMHO) and next weekend is a long weekend in Indonesia (Ascension Day and Isra Miraj), so we expect lots of people to test the product and gave feedbacks. We are also going to held a mini tournament in the event to test how competitive the game is. Hopefully the test will show us the full potential of the game.

That's all for now, if you're interested to read the previous dev blog entry, please follow the link below: #01 - Introduction #02 - Battle Mechanism #03 - Monster Design #04 - Kitouch #05 - Battle Update You can also join us on our Facebook Page or Subscribe to our newsletter at www.somemon.net

In our 2nd blog, we depict the battle as the visualisation of interaction between human. The visualisation include many aspects, such as using social media related attack move's name (you can read more about it here). But the most important thing is the concept of IP Bar (Interaction Point Bar). IP Bar, in short, is an alternative way to show normal HP Bar. While HP bar is usually full at the beginning of the game and decreased every time the player got damaged, IP bar behave completely different. IP Bar will be empty at the beginning of the game and filled anytime the character is damaged. Well.. according to our play test, this mechanism is confusing. :|

Based on the feedbacks, we found out that the IP Bar is not noticeable enough. Most people ignored it and kept playing, then they were surprised to found they lose the game even though their "HP" bar is full.

After several attempts of redesigning the IP Bar, we decide to throw it away in the end. So instead of designing the UI, we make the indicator become the target of the attack in the gameplay. Therefore IP Bar is replaced with an "IP Tank" (please note that the name is not final yet). The IP Tank is designed to have a big red button that serve as the target of the attack which is located below the tank. Every time the button is attacked, the tank above the button will be filled. And on top of the tank, we provide a display to indicate the exact number of the Interaction point. Please check the image below.

As you can see in the image above, the tank is empty at the beginning and being filled after. By implementing the IP Tank we make the game goal more clear: "Fill your enemy tank".

You can see the gameplay gif animation in this link. (Sorry, can't post the gif here due to 1MB gif size limit)

While we love this new mechanism, we think that this reduce the "monster-fight" feels in the game. Do you think so? Please share your thought. :)

You can read our previous blog post here: #01 - Introduction #02 - Battle Mechanism #03 - Monster Design #04 - Kitouch You can also join us on our Facebook Page or Subscribe to our newsletter at www.somemon.net

Kitouch is created to build the experience of Social Media in the game. In Somemon’s universe, Kitouch is said to be an advance social media that is available for limited user. Kitouch is developed by a computer scientist and psychologist that found a technology to detect the Somemon activity between human interaction. The reason Kitouch is developed by them is still unknown. But unlike any popular social media out there that only allow you to view status from your friends or public profile, Kitouch presents the user with random people's status update to interact with. Of course this is not a real status from real person in the real world, we'll use this mechanism to tell the story of the game to the player, something like this:

In addition to tell the story of the game, those status update will also be used as the "enemy" to fight in Somemon. As you can see in the picture above, there's no "Like", "Comment", or "Share" button. The only button available currently is "Interact". When user press this button, they will be directed to the gameplay screen. With this mechanism, player will have a freedom to choose which enemy to fight (player would be able to see the enemy's somemons in the bottom left of the post).

We also make a simple avatar system to be used as profile pictures on those Kitouch post. We are still not sure to allow the player to choose their kivatar or not, but probably we will.

There's also several other social media feature in kitouch, such as chat room and profile page. But I will save the story for later. :)

A little bonus, here's the idea where I got the design of the "Ki" in Kitouch logo.

Thank you very much for reading this dev blog. Please share your opinion about the game. :) And if you're interested in playing the game before it comes out, please subscribe to us at www.somemon.net

You can also reach us via our facebook page.

As a fan of Pokemon and Digimon, I do make some research about Pokemon and Digimon design. But just like how I want to make Somemon's universe different with those giants, I try to make Somemon's design  as much different as I can. The first thing I do is removing all of the infamous element system (e.g. fire, water, grass, etc.) from the Somemon. While this approach doesn't really solve my issue in trying to be different, it does help me a lot in designing the basic concept of the monsters. So instead of the normal element, we chose "Thumb" (the more general version than "like"), "Comment", "Share", and "Scroll" as the basic element. This is also the starting point where I decide to name the Somemon's attack with bizarre name such as "Like Beam" or "Comment Storm". haha.

At first, I want to add "Post"/"Content" element instead of "Scroll", but the "Post" element seems to be really powerful compare to the others. It feels like a "God" element since you cannot like, comment, share, or even scrolling around in social media without any post around. So we decided to keep the "Post" element as something special in the later version of the game. The "scroll" element is created to balance the gameplay mechanism which we will share with you in future dev blog.

This is my approach in designing the starting monsters for those social media element system:

Giving a thumb/like is a very basic functionality of interacting with other in social media. But this mechanism seems to be very powerful that it's being implemented in many social media in many form (Favorites, Love, etc). That's also why Facebook took a very long time in implementing their "reaction" button (according to what I read here). So I describe this element to be simply strong, something brute force. With this in mind, I decide the starter monster for "Thumb" to be a bear: "Thumbear" - "Thumbeard" - "Thumbpion".

"Comment" is the top reason that makes a post, especially in Facebook, become a "top" post that keep appearing in the timeline. "Comment" gives a warm feeling to the poster, which make the interaction feels rich. So I would like to choose an animal that close to human to represent this element, such as a pet. While there's a lot of options out there, my choice goes with "cat": "Catmment" - "Catmmentor" - "Catmmentking".

Sharing is the most powerful element in social media. Everybody knows that the vital part of being viral in Social Media is by sharing the post (or retweet, reblog, you name it). But even so, I want to show this power not as something brute (it will confuse with "thumb" element). Therefore I choose something to show the power of the spreading to visualize this element. Talking about spreading, I believe that the best option out there is dandelion flower. So, here goes: "Danshare" - "Dansharon" - "Danshalion".

While "scroll" is a special element in Somemon. I found it hard to represent this monster in some kind of animal. But in the end, I decide to use animal that has a slippery skin. So my choice goes with a frog. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you: "Scrog" - "Asacrog" - "Scrokage".

For any of you who are wondering about why Tomadog, Tomaduo/Tomatwo, and Tomaberus is not included, it's because they are not the starter monster in Somemon. So I'll save the explanation for later.

So, that's all for today. Thank you for reading, and if you're interested in taking part in the beta testing, please subscribe to our mailing list at: www.somemon.net  We'll announce the open beta via email when it's ready.

The first idea of "interaction" that come to mind is to make someone's somemon visit other people's heart and then fight each other. But this idea easily crumble with this case: Alex interact with Anna. Alex is a confident person while Anna is a shy one. If Alex's somemon (read: personality/character) visit Anna's heart, wouldn't it make Anna become both confident and shy during the interaction? What happen with Alex then?

After several attempts, we decide to make the "fight" as a representation of the real interaction between human. So just like the idea that state Somemon is not real, therefore the fight is also not real. Don't worry it's still a real game though. At least we hope so, lol.

Since the battle is not real, then how about the attack? the damage? Is the defeated Somemon dead? The concept of "dead" Somemon after the interaction was eliminated and then revived again shortly. When two friends happily interact with each other, both of their character will grow - none of them is going to die after the interaction. In this case, dead somemon concept becomes strange. On the other hand, when a bad person threaten a person (which is also count as an interaction) it's often found that a cheerful person will no longer become cheerful after being threatened. So, there are cases where Somemon might die after the interaction. With those consideration, we decide to keep both of the concepts. The first one will be introduced first, and the second will be introduced later along with the game growth (it will make a good base for the antagonist characters).

In the first concept, the Somemon will not die. So we get rid the idea of Health Point (HP) and replace it with "Interaction Point" (IP). At the beginning of the interaction, both of the Somemon's IP is zero. The attack will not decrease the IP, but increase the IP. The Somemon whose IP bar is filled first is stated as the loser. Let's check the mockup of the battle screen on the gif below:

You can see that the Green bar was empty at the beginning and being filled after each attack. Please kindly note, that this is still a mockup and not final yet. There'll be more upgrade, especially in the visual effects. You might also notice that the name of the attack is also a bit weird: "Poke" and "Chat". Since it's not a real fight, we design all the attack move to be related with terms from human interaction (both real and in social media). So you can expect to see a move named "Like Beam" or "Comment Blast" in this game. ;)

I think that's all for today. Feel free to give your feedback to us. Your feedback will be really appreciated. :) We are also currently looking for Beta Tester for this game. Should you be interested, please register via this link: www.somemon.net

At first we had a lot of difficulties in building Somemon's universe. We were trapped between Pokemon-like universe (a real world where human live together with Pokemon) and Digimon-like universe (a separate world a.k.a digital world). Both of Pokemon's and Digimon's universe concept are really strong and can be easily accepted by a lot of people. I think that's also the reason why we keep trapped in those concept while designing the game. But we want to make Somemon different, Somemon is not just another monster collecting game clone. With that determination in mind, we start building the game universe; anytime we start to feel "this is starting to looks pokemon/digimon", we immediately cut the idea.

The current concept (as being told in the comic above) is based on the premise that a person's character is developed through the way they interact with each other. Since social media become popular, the interaction between each other become more frequent that it makes their character grow faster. We depict this "person's character" as a monster that grew in their heart; that's where the name "Social Media Monster" comes from.

In the Somemon’s universe, Somemon isn't a real monster, nor it's a monster that live in separate universe. Somemon is not real, it is just the representation of human's character. With this concept in mind, we are able to elaborate more on the gameplay mechanic. Such as: "how would they fight between each somemon if they are not even real?", "where do the fight take place?", "how would even you catch a new somemon if they are not real?". This concept feels really exciting for me that it makes me unable to sleep all night just to think about it. (I think this is also one of the blessings of being a person who live in creative industry.)

I think that's all, this post has become quite a long post. :| Thank you very much for reading this post! Please come back here again tomorrow, we plan to tell you more about the basic gameplay mechanic and a screenshot for #screenshotsaturday !

I would also like to remind you that this is a story about our development process, thus there might be a change in the final product. You can also give us feedback regarding the concept, feel free to say whatever you have in mind. We will read every comment and consider every feedback, but the final decision will still be on us. :)

Lastly, if you want to take part in the open beta, please register at www.somemon.net

We plan to start the Open Beta this month (around 23rd) via Google Play. So, make sure you have an Android Phone to join the beta testing.

See you tomorrow!