Week 5: Lots of polish on Inner-Tube Climber

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A an animated pixel-art rendering of a spinning inner tube.
I decided to add extra lives that you can collect.
Here's what they look like!


tl;dr: Added lots of polish to Inner-Tube Climber—including more music, sound effects, and animations!


What happened last week?

A lot of little things!

  • More music!
    • Made a couple new songs.
    • Made new game-over and achievement musical cadences.
This achievement sound is played when getting an extra life or when reaching the end of the level. It uses FM synthesis.

This cadence sound is played on game over. It uses FM synthesis.
    • I spent some time re-learning how to use the music tool I'm using, in order to take advantage of some of it's fancier features.
      • So far, I've been making only NES-style sounds (PSG), and now I've learned how to make Sega-Genesis-style sounds (FM synthesis).
"Out for a Loop Ride" uses NES-style PSG sounds.

"Pump up that Tube" uses Sega-Genesis-style FM-synthesis sounds.
      • The tool I'm using is DefleMask.
        • It makes great authentic "chiptunes"!
        • It's probably not the best option for me, but it works for now.
        • I just learned that it's technically a "tracker". I've been thinking that I probably want to switch to a "digital audio workstation" for more power and flexibility in the future.
  • Made an extra-life doodad.
  • Added icicle and torch-flare-up animations and sound effects when entering a new tier.
An animated GIF showing the new animations for icicles falling and torches flaring up when reaching a new tier.
Added fun animations of icicles falling and torches flaring up when reaching a new tier.
  • Added a screen-shake animation when falling.
An animated GIF showing a screen-shake animation when falling.
New screen-shake animation when falling.
  • Added a fading snow-swipe animation when transitioning into and out of the main game-play screen.
An animated GIF showing a snow-swipe animation when transitioning in and out of the main gameplay screen.
New snow-swipe animation when transitioning in and out of the main gameplay screen.
  • Tried setting things up with the Google Play Store.
    • I uploaded a first test version of the game.
    • I created a private test group.
    • But apparently my internal test app is not at all visible to anyone yet.
    • The Play Store has pretty terrible and unclear messaging about what's going on.
    • But I guess I might be waiting for some sort of review process on their side before my private test releases are usable?
Cover art for Inner-Tube Climber.
Setting things up in the Play Store required creating some new cover art.
  • Created an itch.io page.
    • https://levilindsey.itch.io/
    • I figure hosting some things there instead of directly on my personal server, might give me more discoverability.
  • Fixed various small bugs.

What's next?

  • Forming an LLC!
    • I've been planning on forming an LLC at some point this year.
    • This is supposedly a good thing to do in order to legally protect myself, since I'm hoping to eventually reach a non-zero number of random users, and who knows what they could somehow want to sue me for at some point.
    • Also, if I do actually monetize anything this year, it might be beneficial to have an LLC for tax purposes.
    • So I spent a little time this week researching what all goes into forming a single-member LLC.
    • Maybe I'll make a separate blog post on that once I've done it!
    • But, since I'm looking into this LLC stuff now anyway, I think I'll wait to release Inner-Tube Climber until I have the LLC to publish it under.
      • So I think a new rough ETA for releasing Inner-Tube Climber might be sometime near the end of January.
  • For the actual game, I pretty much just need to make more levels at this point.


🎉 Cheers!

This is a simple icon representing my sabbatical.

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