Month: May 2012

As the title says, Bit Beast is now in beta testing! The game is finished (save one caveat, noted below), and we’re just looking for bugs and such.

The one thing currently unfinished (maybe) is the Bluetooth battle system. The code is finished, except it doesn’t work in my tests. This does not necessarily mean my code is flawed in this case, though. I have two Android devices, but only one with a working Bluetooth radio (the other was unfortunately dropped and busted). I managed to get a version of Android x86 running in VirtualBox, and I even got it to use a USB Bluetooth adapter plugged into the computer. Unfortunately, this USB adapter sucks, and so I am left unsure if my Bluetooth code is flawed, or if I have flawed testing hardware/software. I need either another USB Bluetooth adapter or (preferably) another Android device with working Bluetooth. If you have either of these and live nearby, please let me know! I’ve also got a Stack Overflow question up about this issue located here.

I plan to release the game sometime before the end of May, come hell or high water.

Goodness, I should have posted something sooner. We’ve moved, and that whole process took a bit longer than I had hoped (still dealing with random tasks related to moving off and on).

Bit Beast is still coming along well, and I still hope to meet my semi-conservative release estimate of mid-May. I’ve been playing around with a bunch of Android’s cool hardware features, such as the various sensors and GPS. There are now 3 “mini-games” that make use of these features and allow you to earn bits. You can shake your device in a mini-game measuring jerk (change in acceleration over time), earn bits based on distance traveled as measured by GPS, or by speed as measured by GPS. Those things were fun to play with, and make nice additions to a virtual pet. I know I had one back in the day that could be shaken to earn in-game moneys. I’ve tackled countless other Bit Beast tasks over the past almost-month as well, and my To Do list for the game is steadily shrinking. I’ve got some Android Dev Guide pages I want to read over at some point, and then of course there is testing. If you have an Android device with 2.2 or newer and are interested in beta testing, let me know!

In addition to game making, I’ve been playing some great games lately. A few are:
-Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade
-Tribes: Ascend
-Unreal Tournament 2004
-Unreal Tournament 3
-A number of Ludum Dare entries