Introducing Project Firefly – and the future of Rockbot

Due to the removal of Rockbot from Google from Play Store, at this time, I have no interest in developing Rockbot. Please remember, this is not a company, I get no money from the game. My payment is just satisfaction from developing games on my free time.

I will still finish Rockbot2, but, won’t be doing that anytime soon, because I need to clear thing a bit and leave the dust to settle down.

That said, I am now working on a new title, with codename Project Firefly – not the final game name that is a secret until we get more later into development. Characters and graphics will be created by my wife while I, as usual, will take care of coding. More details about the project will only be revealed later, but there are a few things I can speak of right now.

  1. The game will be a MetroidVania-like game. It will contain areas, with several linked maps. The idea of this is to make the game endlessly expansible. I will be able to add more areas later in the game.
  2. Won’t be tottally editable as Rockbot. Makint it editable as Rockbot2 was, while a noble goal, is a nightmare and makes the game take much more time. So all cutscenes, bosses and some details will be just hardcoded. Let me give an example. There is a Boss on Shantae Half Genie Hero, that is a giant mermaid that you need to free from chains, destroing the gears that are holding her, before actually fighting her. This kind of thing was not possible in Rockbot, because I needed to make the boss simple enough the user could be able to create his behavior in the editor. Now I will be able to just create in code custom bosses with their own special characteristics.
  3. Part of the code was refactored and it now uses SDL2. SDL is the library that provides graphics, threads, timer, sound and input for developing the game. Previous version was 1.2, and was picked because of portability to older platforms such as Playstation2. As the new game requirements will be far greater than Rockbot, there is no sense in using the old version. New one is better supported in Android and also is now backed by Steam/Valve.
  4. Speaking of requirements, Firefly Project will run on 720p resolution and 60 fps. SDL2 helps a git to improve speed, but the truth is, if your device is slow and can’t run it, sorry, that is life. Right now, performance and Android are not part of development concerns.
  5. The differential of the game will be mechanics similar to Dizzy games, that you use items in some places and get new items to use somewhere else.
  6. Don’t expect a release anytime soon. I am just starting and there is a lot of work to be done.

I will make a FAQ for this project later, when I have the time. See you.

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