Outpost Omega

I've used the same graphics engine I used for Stellar Forces and Assault Squad to make another new Android game: Outpost Omega.  In this realtime strategy game you must defend and maintain a moonbase for as long as possible against a range of problems, including meteors and invading armies.

You start with 6 armed units and some medibays.  These used power, and over time resources are dropped that must be collected to maintain the power levels.  There are also other factors that make life harder: meteors will randomly crash into the moon starting fires which must be extinguished.  In addition, enemy invaders will attack your base and must be repelled.

The layout of the moonbase is randomly generated each time to give each game variety, and there's loads of tension as you send out a unit to collect resources outside where they are exposed to attack.  It's a great game if you've got a spare 5 minutes, and completely free!

Free Websites for Android Developer!

I'm all about saving time, and here's a great tip for any Android developers who need their own website to promote their games, but haven't got the time to create one: let someone else do it for free.

Let me break it down into easy steps:-

1) Google your "company name" and follow the links.  By "company name", I mean whatever name you gave Google when you set up your developer account.  If you follow the links, it shouldn't be long before you get to one of those app aggregator sites, with all your apps nicely listed on one page.

Here's a few I found when I googled my own "Penultimate Apps" name:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Penultimate+Apps&hl=en_GB
http://www.androidappsgame.com/publisher/penultimate-apps
http://apkpure.com/developer/Penultimate%20Apps
http://www.mobogenie.com/developer/penultimate-apps.html
http://apk4ios.com/productlist_bydev.Penultimate+Apps_1
http://www.androidapps.biz/publisher/penultimate-apps
http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/Penultimate+Apps

Frankly, they've done a much better job than I could.

My Most Popular Android Game

The world is a strange place.  Out of all my free Android games, my Kids Horror Adventure, a no-graphics text adventure, has now had over 29,000 downloads, which is about twice as many as my next most popular free game (Stellar Forces).  Who would have thought in this day and age that a simple text adventure would be so popular?  I might create another one.  They are the ideal game for me: no graphics!

New Game - Assault Squad

So my new game Assault Squad is about ready for proper public consumption and has now dropped its "alpha" tag.  It seems to be bug free, I just have to probably improve its instructional aspect so players know what on earth is going on and how to play!

It's a Realtime Strategy game, and it's main selling point is the advanced AI. There's an AI for each side of each mission, and you can even set the AI to play against itself and sit back and watch the action.  It's single player only (or you can even set the AI against itself and watch the action unfold).  There are currently 4 missions, each with a range of maps, and there is also the option of randomly-generated maps so no two games are the same.


You control a squad of units and play against an advanced AI. Select a unit and then select where you want them to go. Your units will automatically shoot at the enemy if they see them, or if you're in control of aliens they will automatically attack. You also have a limited "pause" option which allows you to temporarily freeze the action so you can take stock of your impending doom. Use it wisely!



Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scs.assaultsquad.main.full

British Summer Time and System.currentTimeMillis()

It's that time of the year when I remember that you can't directly use System.currentTimeMillis() to calculate the current time, since it is now an hour out.  D'oh!

Deity - "Multiplayer Populous"

My latest Android project is ready to announce: Deity.  If you remember Populous, then you'll be right at home here.  This is a multi-player turn-based strategy game.

You play a God who begins the game with a small group of followers and not much power (or "Mana" as professional Gods call it). 

As a God you can move your followers about, and ask them to either pray (giving you more Mana), grow crops (which are needed for your followers to survive) or build a house (which will generate more followers).

Once you have some Mana, the real fun begins.  You can create god-like effects to try and destroy your enemy God's followers, like floods, earthquakes and volcanos.  See the lava in the above screenshot!

This game is still in alpha, and I'll be the first to say that the graphics are a bit ropey, but I wanted to get it out there as quickly as possible as it's ready to play now, completely free, and has no adverts or IAPs.  What have you got to lose.

Seeing into the Future

The Linux "locate" command has a "-e" option which "Print only entries that refer to files existing at the time locate is run.". 

Does this mean that if you leave this out, it will find files that don't exist yet?  I'm running "$> locate half-life3" now...