Weeeee! Finally we got approval from Apple on Friday last week and after a frustrating 3 hours of waiting for apple to push a button it launched!



You can grab it from the App Store on your device or simply follow this link: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr-nibbles-forever/id958818922?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mr-nibbles-forever/id958818922?mt=8)

Im so happy that its out the door, had a few people play already and some have submitted some bugs which need to get fixed soon.

Im on holiday in Bali from Saturday for some much needed R&R, but when I get back I hope to do a patch or two and if the traffic justifies it perhaps a content update.

The title says it all! The game is now finally out on Google Play:



[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.mikecann.mrnibblesforever](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.mikecann.mrnibblesforever)

It took me much longer than I had originally expected when I started it [back in January](https://www.mikecann.blog/portfolio/mr-nibbles-forever-a-prototype/) but im happy to say that no matter how it performs on the marketplace I feel as if I did it justice. I tried hard not to get fed up towards the end of the project as I tend to and put the hard graft in to get the monetisation and gameplay right.

I missed the deadline for the iOS version today as its still waiting to be approved by Apple but im hoping it wont be too much longer.

After that I plan on doing an Amazon build of the game and perhaps a content pack or two depending if I get more than just a handful of players :)

Its been almost exactly a week since the last developmental release of Mr Nibbles Forever. According to [the plan](https://www.mikecann.blog/myprojects/mr-nibbles-forever-getting-it-done/) this week should have been about implementing the landing page and gathering feedback from people, as I managed to get the landing page sorted in the first week I decided to spend the time developing the game instead.



So this week I have concentrated on decreasing the loading times for the game. On my Nexus 7 the loading time was about one minute which is way too long. The main reason for the load times is the way I construct the levels.

As mentioned [way back in my second post](https://www.mikecann.blog/myprojects/mr-nibbles-forever-prototype-2/) for the game the levels are made up of pre-defined chunks:

[![2015-07-12_15-24-52](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-24-52-1024x589.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-24-52.png)

These chunks are individual scenes. I did it this way because Unity doesn't support nested prefabs and I wanted the ability to change properties of some of the elements of the levels as I was developing. The problem with this however is that to construct the levels I must first load the chunk scene, then extract its contents and build a level.

Unity's scene loading system is very slow and causes the game to pause and stutter if you try to do it at run time. As a result I put a "build" button into the editor which runs through a small script which loads all the chunks into a specially built "Release" scene:

![2015-07-12_15-31-15](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-31-15.png)

So now all the chunks are available in one single scene at startup removing the scene loading issue while the game is running. This is great but it does now mean that the initial load of the game is gigantic as it has to load 80 chunks with thousands of game objects at startup. The result is the game takes a minute to load.

To solve this problem I modified my "build" process so now instead of simply importing the chunk scenes it also processes them a little bit. One common technique in optomising game performance is to use object pooling to reduce the amount of new objects that are created at runtime.

I know that the levels are going to have large numbers of certain types of objects such as spiders, nibbles and level tiles, so what I decided to do was record the unique properties for each instance of the objects such as their position, rotation, sprite type etc. I could then delete those objects from each chunk.

Now when a chunk is used in a level, it simply requests an existing instance of that object type from a global pool, then sets the unique properties on the object such as position and rotation.

The result of all that work is that the load times have been cut in half. So now just 30 seconds on my 2012 Nexus 7\. There is probably more room for improvements there but considering that the deadline for the game is coming up, im happy with it for now.

[![2015-07-12_15-47-42](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-47-42-1024x419.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-47-42.png)

In addition to that performance work, I also had a little more time to work through a few other small bugs and one more feature.

A few people had suggested to me that it would be good to add a "remove ads" option to the game as many people would be happy to remove the ads for a small fee. Well it wasnt a huge amount of work to do it so I put it in.

![2015-07-12_15-50-59](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-50-59.png)

![2015-07-12_15-51-30](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-51-30.png)

So now, you no longer need to watch an ad when you want to start or restart a challenge:

![2015-07-12_15-53-33](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-12_15-53-33.png)

Well that's it for this week. The plan for next week is to plan the game trailer and to experiment with full-screen post process effects again which will hopefully add a whole lot more to the individual visual aspect of each outfit.

As per usual if you are interested in testing the game on Android then join the community page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100690884724496136044 or for iOS email me: mike.cann@gmail.com

Well its been almost two weeks since [I declared the (tough) scheduled plan](https://www.mikecann.blog/myprojects/mr-nibbles-forever-getting-it-done/) for the release of Mr Nibbles Forever. In it I planned that last week was to be:



> 22nd-28th June
>
> 1. Design landing page for the game. This is important as I will need a place to put the trailer and to send people who are interested in the game. I have read several good resources on how this page should look. Some examples of other landing pages are: https://www.pixelprospector.com/list-of-websites-and-blogs-from-game-developers/. Once landing page is designed, run it pass some designer friends for help improving it.
>
> 2. Pester people for feedback on Alpha 8\. I need to get some real-world feedback for the game so I can fix bugs and improve the polish for release 9.
>
> 3. Contact some marketing people for help and advice.

Well I managed to do 1) and 2) but I decided that I didnt need to do 3) just yet, instead I made do with the excellent advice on these two pages:

https://vgamemarketing.com/
https://www.pixelprospector.com/

I may go back to 3) in a week or two if I need to.

As for 1) well I decided after an hour or two of messing around in Photoshop that it would be easier and faster to just buy an off-the-shelf WordPress theme and adjust that to my needs as I was intimately familiar with WordPress. The theme I chose was [Grizzly from Wegrass](https://themeforest.net/item/grizzly-responsive-app-showcase-corporate/1546240):

[![2015-07-03_07-33-47](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-33-47-300x231.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-33-47.png)

It seemed to have all the features I needed for now and was responsive which is super important these days.

The next issue was what name should I call the "company". Up until now I had been going with the name "Nibblers" as that was the name that "Mr Nibbles" was published under too. "Nibblers" however is very specific to Mr Nibbles games and if I wanted to do non-nibbles games in the future it would sound a little odd so I needed a new name.

After much head scratching I decided I wanted to base the name around my favorite animal the Mantis Shrimp. If you dont know what it is, then checkout [the oatmeal's excellent bit on it](https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp). The problem was that mantisshrimp.com is taken, also its difficult to tell someone the domain, as they either dont know how to spell it or are confused as to how many S'es there are in the middle.

So in the end I decided to go with something that was related and instead use the Mantis Shrimp in the logo. So I went with.... Epic Shrimp:

[![2015-07-03_07-41-32](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-41-32-1024x728.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-41-32.png)

The site is still very much under development but at least I now have a good landing page for Mr Nibbles, Ectoplasm and Mr Nibbles Forever:

![2015-07-03_07-43-27](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-43-27.png)

So although last week was supposed to just be design, I decided to go the full-hog and implement too, which means that I have one more week free for development.

Speaking of development, this week we [supposed to be a bug-fixing and polish pass](https://www.mikecann.blog/myprojects/mr-nibbles-forever-getting-it-done/):

> 29th June – 5th July
>
> 1. Do bug-fixing and polish pass of the game. Push release 9 of the game to people for testing and feedback.

Its true that I did indeed fix some minor bugs...

![2015-07-03_07-46-39](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-46-39.png)

... this week was mostly dedicated to improving the high scores system in the game.

As a result of some feedback from people I decided that the game needs to be more in-your-face about the competitive aspect. Hopefully this will encourage people to return more often so that they can try to get higher up the leader boards.

I was unsatisfied with my current GameCentre and GoolgePlayServices implementation of the highscores so I decided to roll my own using my Parse.com experience. So now you will notice that next to the high-scores button that every each play you are given your daily rank:

[![2015-07-03_07-49-39](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-49-39-1024x772.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-49-39.png)

Clicking the button will show you the top ranked players in each category:

[![2015-07-03_07-51-51](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-51-51-1024x768.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-51-51.png)

You will notice that your name is "???" until you set your name:

[![2015-07-03_07-54-31](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-54-31-1024x763.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-54-31.png)

Once done, all your old and new scores will now be saved under that name, this works across devices too.

[![2015-07-03_07-55-33](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-55-33-1024x773.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-55-33.png)

I am also experimenting around with having a button next to any high score which also has a saved replay.

[![2015-07-03_07-57-26](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-57-26-1024x763.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-03_07-57-26.png)

Clicking the button will open Everyplay and show the recorded run for that highscore, which I think is pretty cool!

Well that's it for now, this weekend I am going to be extremely busy on something else (more in another blog post soon) so I wont have any more time, but hopefully next week will either be more bug fixing and polish and getting more feedback on the game.

As usual if you would like to try the game and are on iOS then just email me: mike.cann@gmail.com, or if you are Android then join this page: [https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100690884724496136044](https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100690884724496136044)

Until next week!

Well i'm now 8 weeks into development of Mr Nibbles Forever and I can safely say that the game is now feature complete (this probably should be Beta 1 release then not Apha 7 but oh well :P). I didn't do a release last week as I had quite a bit of other work on and so there wasn't all that much progress so I thought I would skip a week.



In this release:

![this-week](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/this-week.png)

Thats all from my [Trello board](https://trello.com/b/Ic11WQzF/mr-nibbles-forever) for the project, the numbers are the amount of time I spent on each one (red is time taken, blue is estimate)

Before I get into some of the details you can see some of the new stuff in this video:

<iframe width="1280" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0NR5bTPx15k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

As you can see I have added a couple more particle effects and a new power up, the double jump. This meant changing some of the chunks so the player could not jump out of the world. I also added some "secret" areas that the player cant get to unless they have the double jump.

I have also added fruit to the game and "fruit collection" challenges. I have placed fruit in strategic locations in some of the chunks. These locations are often alternate routes to the normal one and are harder to get to, so you take a risk getting to them. I haven't decided what to do with the fruit when a challenge isn't currently active, for now I have just made it so that a fruit is worth 5 nibbles, let me know what you think!

In this release I have also added the Everyplay game recording service. I use this service to record every run in the game, then give the player the option to watch and share it. Hopefully this will encourage social engagement and drive new players to the game and encourage existing players to play more. I introduce this to the player when you complete the first challenge:

[![IMG_0163[1]](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_01631-1024x768.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_01631.png)

If you click watch replay then the Everyplay service starts up:

[![IMG_0164[1]](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_01641-1024x768.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_01641.png)

You can even provide a narration to your video using the front facing camera (click to watch)!

[![2015-03-14_11-32-10](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015-03-14_11-32-10.png)](https://everyplay.com/videos/14904453)

I also added IAP so you can purchase outfits if you don't have the patience to collect the nibbles and spin the week. There is also high scores in there now for iOS that uses Game Center.

So the game is pretty much done now apart from the missing artwork and audio. I have been speaking to various Artists and audio people for a few weeks now so hopefully things should start to come together by next week.

As usual if you would like to test out the iOS version just shoot me an email: mike.cann@gmail.com or if you are on Android then join [this community](https://plus.google.com/communities/100690884724496136044).

The 4th week of development is over and although I haven't had as much time as I would have liked this week (reinstalled windows AGAIN, prepared for my open-water swim) I still managed to make some significant progress, checkout the video below:


<iframe width="1280" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CK_iMVFTiu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have managed to the "Wheel of Fortune" in and the "Dressing Room". They aren't quite complete yet but you can see where i'm going with it. You can spend your collected nibbles on the wheel:

[![2015-02-09_09-43-42](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-09_09-43-42-1024x664.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-09_09-43-42.png)

You can win a variety of prizes:

![2015-02-09_09-44-45](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-09_09-44-45.png)

At the moment there are two types of prizes "Powerups" and "Outfits". Powerups may be things like an extra life or a free respin of the wheel or slow-mo. Outfits will change the appearance of Mr Nibbles as you play the game. I intend for there to be quite a few to choose from:

[![2015-02-09_09-47-11](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-09_09-47-11-1024x576.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-09_09-47-11.png)

The outfits wont just change the way Mr Nibbles looks they may do extra things such add particle effects, trails or different sounds. Im hoping this will provide the extra variance to the game that will keep the player playing, striving to get more nibbles and a better score.

I am planning on using the "Crossy Road / Bitcoin Billionaire" monetisation strategy, incentivized ads with a sprinkling of IAP. Incentivised ads on FB was not allowed but it seems like its okay to do this ([and do it to make some serious money](https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fcross-road-made-over-a-million-dollars-from-video-ads-2015-1&ei=XhLYVO28E5HN8gW9nIGoBQ&usg=AFQjCNGggJtWNB4jFUygOTqfE9UCsAAnBg&sig2=HMjCzS9FEPRMboL1rEfqcw&bvm=bv.85464276,d.dGc)) on mobile.

I have had far less time than I would have liked to work on the game this week mainly because it was my birthday over the weekend and quite a bit of time was spent preparing for that.



The little time I did have however was spent on two main things. Firstly the video:

<iframe width="854" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q-mv6LWmtBQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The first thing I worked on was adding a new type of chunk that serves as a sort of tutorial to teach the player to tilt the device to slow Mr Nibbles down or speed him up as this seems to be the biggest sticking point with people regarding the controls.

The hanging spiders force the player to slow down and the sign hopefully shows them they do that by tilting the screen:

[![2015-02-02_10-03-16](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-02_10-03-16-1024x617.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-02_10-03-16.png)

I have a bit more work do do on this before its done but I hope it will help teach people the controls, let me know if it works!

Because this chunk acts as a tutorial it needs to go near the start of the level so the second major bit of work this week was to create a "scriptable sequence" that lets me dictate the type of chunk that needs to spawn:

![2015-02-02_10-12-39](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-02_10-12-39.png)

Previously the chunks were randomly selected based on the difficulty which was based on the distance the player had travelled through the game. Now that its scripted its much more controllable but hopefully still leaves a lot of room for the randomness that makes the game replayable.

Other than that there was a host of other small changes in this release:

- Added menus music
- Added options for enabling and disabling sounds and music to the main menu
- Chunks now correctly join together seamlessly
- Added an in game pause button and pause menu
- Added a loading progress bar
- The backyard theme collapsible floor now looks like dirt rather than cage.
- Added unity analytics
- Fixed the chunk testing tool
- Fixed the squeaky sound effects issue

As usual if you would like to play the iOS version email me: mike.cann@gmail.com, the android version can be played if you join this group: [https://plus.google.com/communities/100690884724496136044](https://plus.google.com/communities/100690884724496136044) or just join the facebook page to stay up to date with updates: [https://www.facebook.com/mrnibblesforever](https://www.facebook.com/mrnibblesforever)

About a week ago I had an idea: what would [Mr Nibbles](https://www.mikecann.blog/portfolio/mr-nibbles-2/) look like if it was turned into an endless runner? Well in-between other things I knocked out a gameplay prototype using my weapon of choice these days, Unity.



After just a couple of days I had the basics of the Mr Nibbles game mechanics working, its amazing how fast you can make things in Unity when you have all the assets already:

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j0nkTm4_028" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The two fundamental ideas I had for this game was that you couldn't ever stop running and the levels would be randomly generated. You can control the speed of Mr Nibbles by tilting the device (or using the arrow keys) but you cant actually bring him to a stop or cause him to turn around like you can in the original.

This restriction creates an interesting mechanic where you have to carefully control your speed through the air as not to land on spiders.

Speaking of spiders, I always thought they deserved a little more motion to bring them alive so now they can jump a small way out towards Mr Nibbles when he gets close:

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uK7EZcRagmc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

As for making the the game endless, I needed a way to proceduralally generate Mr Nibbles levels. The easiest way I could think of doing that is by breaking up levels into small sections called "chunks" and then stitching those together as the player moves along:

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UzrYv3AxTuM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Chunks must have an entrance and at least one exit tho they can have multiple exits which makes for some interesting player choices:

![2015-01-16_14-35-50](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-35-50.png)

For now there are 26 chunks in the game and they are randomly picked as the player moves through the world. The idea is to grade these chunks by difficulty and the longer the level goes on for the harder the chunks spawned are.

[![2015-01-16_14-55-28](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-55-28-150x150.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-55-28.png)[![2015-01-16_14-56-42](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-56-42-150x150.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-56-42.png)[![2015-01-16_14-57-49](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-57-49-150x150.png)](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-57-49.png)

To help with building chunks I took advantage of what I consider to be the single greatest strength of Unity, its tools customisability, to write some level building and testing tools:

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jBGAm1I9VP4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

After the hard work was done it was just a matter of adding a little more polish, some basic menus and sound effects and a few more game mechanics such as destructible floors and spring traps.

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x_NHCxBwcXQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So for now the game is very basic, there is no progression and nothing in the way of challenges. My thinking is if people enjoy the raw gameplay in its prototype form then I can add Jetpack Joyride style missions and more varied themes and powerups and more mechanics.

So this is where you can come in, give the game a try, see what you think and let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at: <a href="mailto:mike.cann@gmail.com">mike.cann@gmail.com](https://www.mikecann.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-01-16_14-58-34.png)

You can download and try the desktop version here: [https://goo.gl/yDAFUm](https://goo.gl/yDAFUm)

Or you can [email me](mailto:mike.cann@gmail.com) and ill send you a link with the iOS version so you can play on your phone or tablet.

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/11_scene.png "11_scene")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/11_scene.png)

Those who know me know I used to do [quite abit of development](/posts/?s=xna) in c# using Microsoft's XNA platform.



Well I like to check back in every now and then with some of the big players in the community to see what's going on.

One of those players is [Catalin Zima](https://www.catalinzima.com/), who is famous for producing many great shader and effect samples.

One of Catalin's reccent project particularly caught my eye however as I had tried to tackle the same problem several years ago when I was in my final year of university. That is, Dynamic 2D Shadows Calculated on the GPU ([/posts/shadowshader-in-rendermonkey/](/posts/shadowshader-in-rendermonkey/))

[Catalin's approac](https://www.catalinzima.com/2010/07/my-technique-for-the-shader-based-dynamic-2d-shadows/)h to the problem is far more elegant that my brute force iterative approach. He uses a clever technique of distorting the desired casting image about the light in such a way as not to require iterative pixel lookups.

If you are interested in the more details in the technique I encourage you to check it out over on Catalin's blog: [https://www.catalinzima.com/2010/07/my-technique-for-the-shader-based-dynamic-2d-shadows/](https://www.catalinzima.com/2010/07/my-technique-for-the-shader-based-dynamic-2d-shadows/)