Norakomi development for Android slow, but first app on Google Play

Supporter (10)

26-10-2014, 22:23

Hi all!

A while ago I posted a topic that my brother (the "real" Norakomi) and I would start developing some games for smarthphones/tablets based on some of our favourite oldies ( Knightmare, the goonies).

Things seem to take a bit longer then expected, but slowly slowly we're getting there.

My own development of my game based on konami's Knightmare was put on hold because I wanted to work on porting Bart's Manbow2 first, which ended up in me first wanting to work on a sort of silly-ish idea of me to create a Manbow2 "teaser" game based on Pacman, which I called Pac Manbow Jr. ( yeah, what got into me??)

Bart's Goonies based game has finished some basic levels at the moment. At the moment he working with the guys that he was working with in the (long time not finished yet..) Deva Project and the idea was to make this Goonies based game a Prologue to Deva.

If you like to keep up to date on our development, follow our blog at:
norakomi blogspot

I'll be starting on tutorials for novice programmers soon and will be working on finishing Manbow2 for Android / iOS which hopefully be done within a couple of motnhs

In the mean time here is the Manbow 2 "teaser"!

You can download it form Google Play:

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Van Manuel

Ascended (19469)

27-10-2014, 10:28

That's all very nice, but I'd find it much cooler if new cool MSX software would appear... But, if this is what makes you happy, so be it! Have fun!

Van NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6067)

27-10-2014, 12:10

I tried it on Samsung Galaxy SIII... Right side buttons are in middle of screen and level grapics are not in sync with sprites. All characters move trough the walls. -> Unplayable

Van Patsie

Master (254)

27-10-2014, 14:35

I have similar issues as NYYRIKKI on my Nexus 7 (2013) as seen on these images:

Van Latok

msx guru (3938)

27-10-2014, 15:58

And probably worst of all, it's very hard to get any recognition for your hard work. Better develop good MSX software indeed...

But hey, what Manuel said, if it makes you happy, great!

Van Norakomi_Rik

Supporter (10)

27-10-2014, 17:02

Holy Smoke...Ouch... I thought i coded correctly for the game to adjust to different screen sizes, but apperently something is still wrong. I'll address to that asap.

Thanks for the feedback and screenshots.
As for "developing good msx software...", that's up to my brother.
He still has some unfinished msx projects. I've sent him the message...

Van ARTRAG

Enlighted (6935)

27-10-2014, 18:59

On my samsung galaxy S it looks good
Nice game thanks

Van Patsie

Master (254)

27-10-2014, 19:47

My first thought is that you're scaling on either horizontal or vertical size, but don't take the complete aspect ration into consideration. My nexus 7 has a 1920x1200 (1920x1104 effective, because of the android keys) screen which would make it a 16:10 ratio. Perhaps your testing device has a 16:9 (or even different) ratio which would pull some things out of alignment.
Ohw yeah, I wanted to say nice go for a first try game on android! congrats

Van Norakomi_Rik

Supporter (10)

27-10-2014, 22:38

Hi Patsy,
Thanks for your encouragement^__^.

I fixed the bug causing it to not scale right for other device than my 480x800 template device.
What went wrong is that the variable that calculates how much and images need to be stretched in the x or y direction got rounded down because it was set to be an integer variable (no decimals) instead of a float (with decimals)

I uploaded a new version to Google Play which should be available in a couple of hours.

So Yes I am scaling on horizontal and vertical directions seperately and indeed not working with an aspect ratio.
I tried a couple of different sizes and dimension and as long as the resolution is not getting to high (1280x800 still looked fine to me) a change in aspect ratio that wasn't to far of from the aspect ratio that i used as a template (480x800; 16.6:10 aspect ratio) I didn't mind too much the uneven stretch too much.

Real reasons actually why I didn't use aspect ratio (which is probably the "better" option) is that i had already more-or-less finished the game before starting to think about how to actually code for adjusting to different screensizes (I'm a relative newby programmer). And just stretching x/y seperate to stretch to full screensize seemed just easier than keeping the same aspect ratio and having to add black bars and allignment.

Van Patsie

Master (254)

28-10-2014, 08:36

It looks a lot better now! The controls are a bit hard to master, but other than that it plays well. (my fingers and brains are still oldskool I guess, trying to do all movement with the left thumb and 'fire' or 'jump' with the right)

Van Norakomi_Rik

Supporter (10)

28-10-2014, 10:17

Yeah. In the beginning i found it also quite hard to get to move the player around exactly like i wanted, since the 6 button controller is just something i never used. It takes a bunch of games, but after a while my skills got better. It's need strong concentration though to move around flawless, but i started enjoying it.
It's like learning to play guitar or piano; at first it seems so hard to put your fingers on the right keys, but after a while it becomes natural.

I could have created a std. 4 button controller, but I thought that that would simply take up to much space of 1 side of the screen (or either they would be to small) and I would've had to move the playfield to the right. Or i would have had to overlap the controller with part of the playing field, which would cause other issues.
Just thought this might be best sollution

Namco created a "swipe" controller for their smartphone/tablet version of pac man btw.
But i didnt like that very much. I felt like i didnt have fast enough of a control over the player...

1 thing i found. If you want to move around corners quickly f.e. go up & then to the right it's faster/easier (at least to me) to use both hands, so press up with left hand; right button with right hand, etc..
^__^