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Good Junk (an iOS match-3 game about beer and junk food) [Available on the App Store]

A topic by IncludeBeer created Nov 12, 2016 Views: 2,931 Replies: 24

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IncludeBeer8 years ago (11 edits)

EDIT: Progress = 100% !!! Available on the App Store!

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/goodjunk/id1185333818?l=fr&mt=8

I started developing a small iOS game during last summer (2016). It's called Good Junk and It's a match-3 puzzle. I know there's literally a ton of this kind of game on the app store, but since it's my first game, I make it for fun and to learn something new. My goal is absolutely not to release a Candy Crush killer. I already have a good full time job, and I'm not evil enough to rip off people like they do!

What will make this game fun and different from all the other games (I think!), is the theme. Forget the candies, cup cakes and other pink cute stuff. You'll have to match and collect beer, pizza, hamburger and all kind of junk food. There's a fat guy you can use as a "power up" to clear one item from the board (he eats them all). There will also be some "good" food, but they will be the "enemy". It's not a serious game, it's supposed to be funny and stupid!

Enough text, here's the first video preview of the game itself:

IncludeBeer8 years ago

Progress, To-do's and Credits

What is done + credits:

Food item sprites (original graphics by JuicyVitamin, sprites by me)
Background graphics (original graphic by Game Art Guppy)
Custom font (Kenney font + BMGlyph)
Animation for fatso man (original graphic by eryprihananto, animation by me)
Polka music (by Kevin MacLeod)
Game logic to make chains of 3, 4 or 5 items, L shape and T shape chains
Power up when creating L or T shape chains
Power up to clear all items of one type
Collect a number of items to complete a level
Reach a target score to complete a level
Loading level data from JSON files
Saving game progress
Main screen with menu and animation
In-game menu

What needs to be done:

More food items sprites
Create a whole bunch of levels (+100) and tweak the difficulty level so it's well balanced between too easy and too hard
Screen before starting a new level: Display level number, high score to beat, and goals to complete the level
Screen after completing a level: Display score, high score, retry or go to next level
Screen to list all levels: level completed (retry and beat your score), locked (see your progress and what's next)
Add new items and new goals to make the gameplay more interesting
Add juice: more and better animations and sound effects

What I will maybe do later, I'm not sure yet:

Manage multiple save games (so you can let a friend play without screwing your own game)
Configuration screen to set music on/off, sound effects on/off
GameCenter integration
Social network (post score on Twitter / Facebook, or beat your friend's score)
In-app purchase (I will probably just sell the game at a very low price, but it may be free with possibility to unlock the complete game)

You can follow me on Twitter: @IncludeBeer

IncludeBeer7 years ago

To-do update

I was super busy since my last update, but I have completed these two tasks :

Screen before starting a new level: Display level number, high score to beat, and goals to complete the level
Screen after completing a level: Display score, high score, retry or go to next level

Now I'm working on this :

Screen to list all levels: level completed (retry and beat your score), locked (see your progress and what's next)

Nadia7 years ago

I think match-3 games are generally undervalued inside the industry, but they are actually very difficult to make well, and to make them funny. Anyway, it's very useful to build games with more typical gameplay from time to time. You can explore and realize by yourself why the mechanics work with people. Then you can play around with what you've learned and make it special.

Thanks for sharing!

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Yeah, most "hardcore" gamers will say match-3 games are crap for "casual" gamers. But they are still very popular.

Anyway, this game is mostly for my own amusement. It allows me to learn SpriteKit and build a game I enjoy playing. We'll see how it goes when it's finished, and what I will come up with after this experience !

Thank you for your feedback!

IncludeBeer7 years ago (1 edit)

Today I learned the magic of centerRect to stretch a sprite while keeping the edges at the original scale. It's very useful to resize buttons.

Here's the code I used in an Xcode Playground:

import UIKit
import SpriteKit
import PlaygroundSupport

let sceneView = SKView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 320, height: 480))
let scene = SKScene(size: CGSize(width: 320, height: 480))
scene.anchorPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.5)
sceneView.presentScene(scene)
PlaygroundPage.current.needsIndefiniteExecution = true
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = sceneView

// Original
let btnNode = SKNode()
btnNode.position = CGPoint(x: 0, y: 200)
let btn = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yellow_button00")
btnNode.addChild(btn)
let btnLabel = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: "Avenir-Black")
btnLabel.text = "Original sprite"
btnLabel.fontColor = .black
btnLabel.fontSize = 16
btnLabel.horizontalAlignmentMode = .center
btnLabel.verticalAlignmentMode = .center
btnNode.addChild(btnLabel)
scene.addChild(btnNode)

// X stretched without centerRect
let btnNode2 = SKNode()
btnNode2.position = CGPoint(x: 0, y: 130)
let btn2 = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yellow_button00")
btn2.size = CGSize(width: 300, height: 49)
btnNode2.addChild(btn2)
let btnLabel2 = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: "Avenir-Black")
btnLabel2.text = "X stretched without centerRect"
btnLabel2.fontColor = .black
btnLabel2.fontSize = 16
btnLabel2.horizontalAlignmentMode = .center
btnLabel2.verticalAlignmentMode = .center
btnNode2.addChild(btnLabel2)
scene.addChild(btnNode2)

// X stretched with centerRect
let btnNode3 = SKNode()
btnNode3.position = CGPoint(x: 0, y: 60)
let btn3 = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yellow_button00")
btn3.centerRect = CGRect(x: 10.0/190.0, y: 10.0/49.0, width: 170.0/190.0, height: 29.0/49.0)
btn3.xScale = 300.0/190.0
btn3.yScale = 49.0/49.0
btnNode3.addChild(btn3)
let btnLabel3 = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: "Avenir-Black")
btnLabel3.text = "X stretched with centerRect"
btnLabel3.fontColor = .black
btnLabel3.fontSize = 16
btnLabel3.horizontalAlignmentMode = .center
btnLabel3.verticalAlignmentMode = .center
btnNode3.addChild(btnLabel3)
scene.addChild(btnNode3)

// X/Y stretched without centerRect
let btnNode4 = SKNode()
btnNode4.position = CGPoint(x: 0, y: -40)
let btn4 = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yellow_button00")
btn4.size = CGSize(width: 300, height: 100)
btnNode4.addChild(btn4)
let btnLabel4 = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: "Avenir-Black")
btnLabel4.text = "X/Y stretched without centerRect"
btnLabel4.fontColor = .black
btnLabel4.fontSize = 16
btnLabel4.horizontalAlignmentMode = .center
btnLabel4.verticalAlignmentMode = .center
btnNode4.addChild(btnLabel4)
scene.addChild(btnNode4)

// X/Y stretched with centerRect
let btnNode5 = SKNode()
btnNode5.position = CGPoint(x: 0, y: -160)
let btn5 = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yellow_button00")
btn5.centerRect = CGRect(x: 10.0/190.0, y: 10.0/49.0, width: 170.0/190.0, height: 29.0/49.0)
btn5.xScale = 300.0/190.0
btn5.yScale = 100.0/49.0
btnNode5.addChild(btn5)
let btnLabel5 = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: "Avenir-Black")
btnLabel5.text = "X/Y stretched with centerRect"
btnLabel5.fontColor = .black
btnLabel5.fontSize = 16
btnLabel5.horizontalAlignmentMode = .center
btnLabel5.verticalAlignmentMode = .center
btnNode5.addChild(btnLabel5)
scene.addChild(btnNode5)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

I forgot to add the link to the API doc. It explains how centerRect work. See the section "Resizing a sprite node": https://developer.apple.com/reference/spritekit/sk...

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Level select screen: DONE! :)

Now working on a progress bar for the power up button. When it's at 100%, the button is enabled and the player can use the power up to call the fatso man. You can see a preview of the fatso man drinking all the beers in the second animated gif in my first post. It's a basic animation for now. I hope to have something more polished when the game is finished.

More screenshots soon!

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Progress now at 70%: New screens, level select, new animations, progress bar... :)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

New food sprites!

I just added a lot of new food items. There's now 10 junk food (beer, burger, fried chicken, hot dog, pizza, taco, chocolat, donut, fries and wine) and 5 good food (apple, banana, carrot, grapes and strawberry), for a total of 15.

Every match of 3 to 5 items gives you points and increase the progress bar. When it reach 100% it unlock the power up that will clear the item of your choice from the grid. But there's a twist! If you match good food, the progress bar will decrease, because fatso man doesn't like fruits! Think of the progress bar as fatso man's happiness. Also, the power up won't let you choose a fruit. Fatso man will only eat the junk food. So the only way to get rid of those evils fruits is to make a chain of 3 to 5 items... and make fatso man sad!

Next step: create a ton of levels, then play, adjust, re-play, re-adjust, and repeat until I'm almost insane!

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Finally I didn't work on the levels. I worked on adding juice! Animations and particles are very fun to work with! More screenshots this week-end!

By the way, I would love to have some feedback. Is it a game you would play? Do you find this funny or stupid? Do you have any idea to make this game better? Let me know!

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Preview #2 :)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Beta testing with TestFlight ! :)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

GoodJunk now have its own Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GoodJunkGame/

IncludeBeer7 years ago

The beta tests are going well. I will release the 3rd, and hopefully the last, beta version this week-end on TestFlight. This version include bug fixes and new features such as :

Bonus points at the end of levels if you still have remaining moves (with sound and animation)
Tutorial at the beginning of the first 5 levels, and then when there's a new feature available to use in the game.

The final game should be available on the Apple AppStore this Spring 2017 ! :)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Almost finished! Here is a preview of the new level layouts I just made :

sitebender7 years ago(+1)

I wanted to chime in and say I am your audience. Junk food appeals to me... I am eating a doughnut as I try to type this right now with my pinkies. I also enjoy this match three style of game since a specific other game got me hooked and shall remain nameless. Others laughed at me for playing the game, but like everything good just add frosting and people will like it more!

You also look to be a dapper developer even with an apt user name considering the game :-)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Thanks for your comment! I also like this type of game but they're all about stupid candy. Now we can play with food we really like! :)

And don't be fooled by my profile pic, I made this with an app! ;)

sitebender7 years ago

I assume because candy appeals to kids and included beer appeals to adults and rebel teens.

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Yes, I think there's definitely a public for a game with beer, junk food and burp sounds! We'll see when it's released if it can get some attention in the middle of thousands of other match-3 games.

sitebender7 years ago

There are thousands of every type of game at this point with a few rare exceptions that within a year or six months.... they too will be covered.

IncludeBeer7 years ago

At last, I have finished!

I'm making screenshots and a video preview for the app store, a last round of tests, then I submit the game on the app store! :)

IncludeBeer7 years ago

GoodJunk is now available on the App Store! :)

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/goodjunk/id1185333818?l=fr&mt=8

IncludeBeer7 years ago

App preview video

IncludeBeer7 years ago

Now translated in french and russian!

I'm currently working on the iPad version.

Try it right now! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/ap...

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