Floppy Flamingo is going to open beta on Google Play! I've been busy translating the game (probably badly!) into a other languages. For now, the beta will be released only in countries with either English, French, Spanish, German and Simplistic Chinese. Other translations will be added in the coming weeks, and the game will be released in other countries as that process is completed. In the meantime, if you got here by trying out Floppy Flamingo or Slow Walkers beta, let me know what you think! Both games are still in active development, so now's a good time to get your voice heard.
Anyways, check back later for new developments.
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Hi everyone,
This will be my first blog post of any kind. First of all, here's a little bit about myself. I'm a 3D artist turned (turning?) game developer. Back in 2014, while I was working as a 3D artist on a research project for Memorial University, I started teaching myself to code and develop games in Unity in my spare time. I had always wanted to get into game design, and finding myself in a stable career position with some free time on my hands outside of work, I decided that it was as good a time as ever to get started. I had fairly limited coding experience prior to this, and while I had some insight into the game design process (largely due to having worked on the 3D animator side of things), overall it's been a huge learning experience. Since I'm a person who learns by doing things, I started development on Slow Walkers back in 2014 as a way to teach myself both how to code and to work within the Unity engine. Initially it was going to be a very basic game with (what I thought would be) a quick development cycle. However, as the idea began to develop and take shape, I decided to completely redesign the title from the ground up. I've now been working on the latest incarnation of Slow Walkers since the summer of 2015. There were a few starts and stops along the way, but Last August I released an open beta of Slow Walkers containing the first 66 levels (with the goal being to reach 99). For most of the past year, I've been working on developing that game further. There's been a lot to learn that I had never even initially considered, such as how to localize content, incorporate advertising, in app purchasing, online cloud save backups, etc. On top of that, I recently started working towards a degree in computer science, so there's been a lot of efforts to optimize older code as my skills develop. The game is coming along quite nicely, although I know there's still a few months of work left to complete the final levels and get it ready for a full release (hopefully by Halloween). Back in February, however, I made a slight detour. Deciding that I needed a bit of a break from developing Slow Walkers (and wanting to try out a few marketing and monetization ideas on a title I didn't put quite as much work into), I decided to develop another idea I had for a much simpler title with a shorter development period. That title is the wobbly ring toss game Floppy Flamingo (which is definitely not a title based on childish innuendo stemming from a joke I shared with a few friends over beers one night). While my initial development estimate of "a couple of weeks" has turned into "a couple of months", that game is finally nearing completion. Hopefully I'll get it released in a few weeks, and then it's back to working on Slow Walkers full time until October. If you get a chance, please download and play the beta of Slow Walkers (you can find it on Google Play. If you would like to try the IOS beta, send me your email and I'll add you to the list of testers). And give me your feedback! One of the main things I need right now is solid feedback on how the game plays and how it can be improved. Until next time, Sheldon Benoit |