Continue:
I’ll be adding in an option to continue your game, from where you were before you switched your iPhone off, or, took that important call etc.

Difficulty:
I’ll be making the game easier and will include 2 difficulty settings. A new easier (default) setting, which I’ll call ‘NORMAL’. Plus, keeping the existing difficulty setting, which I’ll call ‘NINJA’.

Controls:
I gotten a mixed response from people regarding the on-screen controls. What I plan to do is add in an option to re-size the controls, and an option to swap UP and FIRE.  Also, the dark area that comes up, behind the controls, when your duck is on the bottom of the screen, I’ll add in an option to make that bigger (helps avoid obscuring duck with fingers etc).

Online High-scores:
I always intended to have online scores in the game, the only question, is do I use a pre-existing solution, such as OpenFeint, or do I roll my own? If I use OpenFeint, I could also add in achievements, and all the other OpenFeint stuff. If I roll-my-own, it would just be high-scores (no achievements) and it will work more like the desktop version of Qwak, and better integrate with the game (same look and feel etc).

Let me know what you think about that, please leave a comment!

Anything else?
If there’s anything else you’d like to see changed or added, please leave a comment (leave one anyway) and let me know.

Thanks for your input!

A lot of commercial games claim to have a long history; there are plenty that have seen sequels and spinoffs across many different platforms. Few of them have dared to stay exactly the same throughout their lifetime. Usually there’s a feature added, or a part of the gameplay changed… sometimes just minor tweaks, and other times, great sweeping changes. In the big-business world of multi-million dollar game franchises, the old adage “if it ain’t broke…” got thrown out of the window (and dare I say kicked into the gutter) a very long time ago.

Fortunately, indie developers don’t have to conform to the “accepted” way of doing things; they aren’t forced by publishers to do stuff that might ruin an otherwise good concept, so they’ve got every right to stick to one ideal and run with it for as long as they like. But for someone to do exactly that for nearly 20 years – yes, twenty, two zero – is a very rare and special thing indeed. This is what Jamie Woodhouse has done with Qwak, by taking it from a BBC Micro game in 1989 to the Amiga in 1993, the Gameboy Advance in 2006 and now for the PC in 2009.

Now this leads us to consider two main possibilities. Either the developer is dedicated but somewhat uninventive, and chooses to rehash the same basic formula out of convenience to keep his die-hard fans happy; or he is innovative in a way that few others are and he realises that his game was originally so close to perfection that to change it in even a small way could be disastrous. I’m not an unkind person, and nor (hopefully) am I an idiot, so I’ll go with the second option every time!

In one sentence, here’s why: Qwak is a timelessly brilliant platformer on every level, and it’ll satisfy every single retro craving you could possibly have. Easy to learn, hard to master? Check. Tons of pickups? Yup. Rewards for skillful play? Absolutely. Secret bonuses to find? You got ‘em. To be honest, if I had my way, Qwak would’ve been this issue’s featured game; that’s how great I think it is. Yet despite being around for so long it doesn’t seem to get mentioned enough.

Before I haplessly throw around too many more superlatives, I should probably explain the actual gameplay in a bit more detail. You control one of two ducks as you dash and leap through 70 levels in a plotless quest for high scores and shiny bonus items. On each level, or “scene” as the game calls them, are a number of golden keys. Collecting them all will open the exit door. Too simple, you may be thinking – but no! To spice things up you are encouraged to play at a jaunty pace, because lingering on a level for too long will cause a rain of spikes to descend from the top of the screen, placing your duck’s continued good health in severe risk. Oh, and did you notice how I said “one of two ducks” back there? That’s right – Qwak supports two players in cooperative gameplay for double the chaos and double the fun!

Getting in your way are various enemies with distinct movement patterns. Just like the fruits and gems you can grab for extra points (and other rewards), each can come in normal or extra-large proportions. Although you can get rid of enemies by throwing eggs at them, you also have to worry about conserving your eggy ammunition for later levels. Luckily, the fruit that you collect is converted into eggs at the end of each screen – but the further you progress, the tougher the enemies become, and so the more eggs you’ll have to use to defeat them.

Some levels will give you a chance to eat up some fruits and rack up some serious points while others have a more ponderous nature, and there are even traps to work around in many later areas if you want to reach the juiciest items. The screen wraps around from top to bottom and you’ll frequently have to use this to your advantage in order to dodge enemies or get to places you need to go. It can be a slightly boggling idea on your first few plays, but this subtle mechanic is a large part of Qwak’s charm. There are also bubbles to lift you up to otherwise unreachable heights and gates to block your way unless you have the correct colour key, not to mention the levers or even the mushrooms, skulls and flowers.

Despite the tight time limit it’s always worth taking a moment at the start of each screen to plan your route. Put one foot wrong and you could end up in a dead end with a screen full of juicy fruits laughing at your clumsiness! There are even screens where you must kill all of the enemies to progress – oh, did I mention that keeping a hold on your egg-flinging urges is essential? Getting stuck through a lack of ammo is more than a little embarassing…

I’ve already touched on Qwak’s highly polished presentation, but it needs to be said again that the art, music and sound effects could hardly fit together any better. There are several graphical themes to the levels including old mines, ancient Egyptian labyrinths and crumbling castles, and while the music isn’t tailored to each location it still brings back a fantastic MOD-music atmosphere. Special effects give just enough extra shine without distracting you from the action (and crivens, there’s a lot of it to keep your eyes on).

Comparisons could be drawn against any of several popular arcade games of the late 80s before Qwak was originally released all those years ago, but honestly, this game carves a niche all to itself and deserves to be appreciated as such. Considering that everything in the game is the work of our good Mr. Woodhouse himself, the game becomes that little bit more impressive. Please, do yourself a favour and buy this game – nothing is perfect, but this is about as close to platforming heaven as you’ll get.

Fantastic utterly addictive game that works well with the xbox controller for windows. I actually downloaded the demo about a year ago but was put off by the price as the australian dollar at the time was much weaker. Recently, I was going through an old issue of Retro Gamer (I have a large backlog to get through) and read the feature on your game that reminded me about it. Happy about the purchase, its a totally awesome game.

Thanks Ryan! and Retro Gamer magazine! Also, just had another one…

Aaargh! I am utterly utterly addicted to this game! I used to play it on an Amiga back in the day, now I’m glued to my Mac. Thanks for the hours of fun! P.S. I note that no one else has yet come close to my ridiculously high scores… ;D

This time from ‘Wendy’ who has topped the highscore tables on more than one occasion, including a massive 251 million points (plus change!). Well done Wendy, and thanks also for your suggestions and insights in to the game.

Still recon I’d give you a good run for your money in 2 player mode!

Okay, so if you run an iPhone games news site or blog, please grab one or more of these gorgeous screens of my soon to be released iPhone game Qwak, and stick them on your own site for the whole world to see.The screen above shows Qwak (the little red duck) lost and alone in the snowy wilderness that is the Arctic. Plenty of yummy sweets to collect in the Arctic, cute dolphins too!The screen above shows Qwak (the little yellow duck, why does he keep changing colour?) fearlessly dodging some nastly looking black spikey ball things, I think he’s hoping some magic bubbles will come out of those bubble machines he’s standing on!The screen above shows Qwak (the little yellow duck) exploring some long lost abandoned mines. Those purple 5 egg things, allow him to dispatch his enemies with dinosaur eggs, which crack open on impact and shower out a bunch of goodies.The screen above shows Qwak wondering around some cold dank castle, he’s trying to figure out what those little coloured levers are for, and which one he should pull first!  Wonder what’s in that wooden treasure chest too…The screen above shows Qwak (ouch, he’s under attack by a little red fish) exploring the catacombs below some long lost ancient pyramid, somewhere in Egypt! Apparently there’s lots oh hidden secret passageways and things to discover…

Don’t forget! Qwak will be available for your iPhone very soon, it’s not an easy game, but it will test your ninja skills to the limit! Also, Qwak has it’s own site here: http://www.qwak.co.uk (game-play movie there too).

Thanks for looking, and thanks for supporting the little guy and indie game dev! Please spread the news! Thanks! Jamie.

I’ve done around a dozen half marathons now, and loads of 10k races. My personal best time for a half marathon was 2 years ago, when I ran the Sheffield Half in 1hr 38m 15s. Which I was very happy with my performance that day. I ran a consistent 7m 30s per mile, from start to finish; and was completely out of gas by the end of it.

All too often, I set off way too fast, and run out of steam on the second half of the run, so to my mind, a consistent run, is a perfect run.

Well, it’s Sheffield Half Marathon 2010 in 6 days time; I’ve been doing extra training runs, and feel I could be within striking distance of a new PB. I don’t like to tempt fate, so will just do my best on the day, and see how it goes. Woo Hoo!

I’ll put some video up of the game running at some point, but check the screens out for now (you can click on them). As you can see, it pretty closely resembles the PC / Mac version, and although the iPhone (and iPod Touch) is a relatively low-powered device, I’ve not really had to cut it down to size much. So far, it’s got all the bells and whistles of it’s big (desktop version) brother.

What you can see here, is an extract from a texture atlas I’ve just created, consisting of all the sprites in Qwak. Actually, there’s not that many! The original texture atlas is 1024 * 1024 pixels in size, and there is plenty of room to spare.

What’s more, the iPhone can probably fit 4 or more of these in to video ram (depending on your texture format). By my standards, that’s video-ram-a-plenty!

I used my own tools to create texture atlases, and it’s super easy to access all your sprites from within your games’ source code. Check out my other site for more info: http://www.dev2ool.com

The really good thing was that so many people on the mailing list echoed the news of the sale (so, thank you people on the mailing list), and so they they really helped things along nicely.

The following image shows the top 10 traffic sources for the 7 day period of the sale. As you can see, the ‘deals’ sites were major sources of traffic. Though I feel there may have been a lot of 1p sales from those kind of sites.

On the subject of the 1p sales, and how do I feel about getting so many (240 I think) 1p sales? Well, there’s no money in if for me; there’s extra support (so, that’s my time), but, if it gets people playing (and enjoying) the game; perhaps there’s a chance those people will pass the word on to their friends? So, I don’t think it’s so easy to predict the longer-term effect of those sales (and sales at regular price are currently pretty healthy).

There was also a discussion on indiegamer.com forums, if a minimum £1 purchase price would have been a good idea. It may well have been, but again, it’s perhaps not so black and white (simple to predict).

I’ve learned a lot from this little experiment; not the least that it’s good to make noise, stand out and be different. People notice you if you’re doing something unusual and different. Another thing I’ve learned; is the power of having people on your side, rooting for you, and helping you to make a noise; I mean, fans of the game, and people on my mailing list (also the words of encouragement and approval I get from fans of Qwak, and even my other games; always gives me hope and spurs me on).

So yeah, I feel kinda warm and fuzzy, and quite optimistic right now; and looking forward to making more games!

Breakdown by Day

The following table shows revenue generated on each day, PayPal fees, and how much I make.

Date            Revenue         PayPal Fees     In My Pocket
16/01/2010      £32.23          £4.02           £28.21
17/01/2010      £192.96         £32.40          £160.56
18/01/2010      £52.79          £7.24           £45.55
19/01/2010      £100.40         £15.37          £85.03
20/01/2010      £106.29         £14.84          £91.45
21/01/2010      £156.21         £24.24          £131.97
22/01/2010      £72.81          £11.49          £61.32
23/01/2010      £22.98          £1.59           £21.39
Totals          £736.67         £111.19         £625.48

So, it’s not a massive amount of sales; but for an indie, and considering I was getting less than one sale per day (!) in the weeks leading up to the sale, it’s not so bad.

Breakdown by Platform

The next table contrasts how the Mac and Windows versions did.

Platform        Revenue         #Sales          Average Sale Price
Mac             £180.61         134             £1.35
Windows         £556.06         548             £1.01

So, while I did get a much higher volume of sales for the PC version, Mac users are seemingly more generous!

Big Spenders

The next table shows the best sales I had, with a number of people opting to pay the default asking price, or above! Sadly, the most popular price point was 1p (I expected it might be).

Amount          #Sales
£19.99          1
£15.99          1
£15.00          1
£12.99          3
£9.00           2
£7.99           1
£6.99           1
£6.00           4
£5.00           17
£0.01           240

So that’s just the raw-data. I’ll do another post, and talk a little more about my thoughts and what I feel I learned from this little experiment. In the mean time, get Qwaking, and enjoy the game…