B&B Release Date: October 4!

I'm happy to announce that Bugs and Bacon should be released on October 4! This of course is pending Apple approval, but assuming all goes well, you'll be able to play it in barely over a week from the time I'm writing this.

Since I'm student teaching full-time and marching in the Penn State Blue Band, I've been swamped with things to do, which has really slowed down my ability to work on the game. But with every ounce of free time and brain juice I had left, I've finally managed to get Bugs and Bacon to a point where I'm proud to show it to the world.

I'll keep you updated on the status of the game, but until then, I've got math stuff to teach to a bunch of high-schoolers.

For a lot of information on Bugs and Bacon all in one place, click here.

Hey look, a video

Here's a video showing off a lot of the features of Bugs and Bacon. That's it.

Oh, I'll be submitting to Apple for approval soon, I promise. I'm beginning student teaching this semester, so who knows how much time I'll have to focus on development, so I want to wait until I have a better grasp of all of the crazy things that are about to happen.

B&B Progress Update

It's been a crazy couple weeks since my last post, and I haven't been able to work on Bugs and Bacon as much as I would have liked in that time. That being said, I managed to cut the amount of memory the game uses while playing by 2/3, which feels like enough of an accomplishment for that amount of time. It's running at a smooth 60 frames per second at all times on my iPhone 4S, and my friends testing it on their devices are also pleased.

Just about the last thing left to do now is implement Game Center support, which I'm trying to figure out for the first time. I hope to finish soon, as the fall semester has almost caught up to me. I'll be student teaching at a nearby high school along with playing in the Blue Band, so my schedule is about to get pretty hectic for the next few months. However, I won't be ignoring game development the whole time, as I hope it will help me keep my sanity as the pressures of life arise. (These experiences are supposed to build character, right?)

B&B's Icon

I'm trying to make sure I keep this blog regularly updated now that I've revealed Bugs and Bacon, so now would be a good time to show off the app icon that will be representing it. It's the Zen Mantis (one of the bugs you will be capturing) behind a backdrop of bacon.

I think it does a good job of summing up the game, or at least the game's title. Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions for how to improve it. I know some games can become successful despite terrible icons (or maybe some are so bad that they add to the games' successes), but I want to do everything in my power to to make my game as attractive as possible. I've read many articles about the iOS gaming space, and quite a few state that a good app icon can mean the difference between someone checking out a game versus passing it over.

Introducing: Bugs and Bacon

Many of my favorite iOS games are the "simple" score-centric types (like Jetpack Joyride and Ziggurat) that I can quickly play during short waits. Those kinds of games (and my limited amount of time between college semesters) inspired me to develop a game with a similar mentality, albeit one with a unique premise. I present to you:

Bugs and Bacon is a game about taking risks. Your goal is to capture as many bugs as possible inside of bubbles and direct those bubbles (using swipe controls) into a bug zapper to score points. You have a limited number of bubbles, so you'll need to grab as many bugs as you can with each. However, one touch of a bee's stinger (or a number of other obstacles) will pop your bubble, and you'll watch as all your captured bugs fly away!

As you play, you will begin to account for your own limitations. How many bees can I avoid at one time? Should I risk everything to grab one more bug?

Okay, so you're probably wondering, "What about the bacon?"

The "bacon" part of the title is the other way you can score points. While you are maneuvering your bubbles around the screen, strips of bacon will fall from the sky. You can touch them to score some extra points (or capture them in your bubble to be zapped).

This circles back to the whole "risk-taking" aspect of the game. You could simply think of the bacon as a distraction and ignore it—or you could go out of your way to grab every single strip to give your score that extra little boost it needs.

Plus, you're rewarded with a very satisfying sizzle when you touch them. Just saying.

So now you might be thinking, "Why does bacon fall from the sky? That's crazy!" To that I reply, "Why, yes. Yes it is."

One of my main design decisions for this game was to include any ideas that I thought would make it more enjoyable, no matter how crazy or stupid they sounded. In fact, the more crazy or stupid, the better.

This led me to create some interesting bugs for the player to capture, like a praying mantis on a flying carpet that can teleport away if a bubble gets too close. Additionally, there is a handful of power-ups you can use to improve your score.

I'm particularly proud of the "Disco Fever" power-up that replaces the bug zapper with a disco ball. It also prevents bees from appearing for a while, since bees are terrified of disco music. Obviously.

There is so much more that I could say about this game, such as explaining all of the unlockable bugs and power-ups or how many stats the game will keep track of, but I'lll save that for later. Look for Bugs and Bacon on the app store within the next few weeks for $0.99 (and no IAP's).

I'd love to discuss any questions, comments, or suggestions you might have! You can leave a reply here, hit me up on Twitter @mgbesong, or email me at max@cyclonekick.com.

Browser version of Beast Squad is available!

If you want to play Beast Squad but don't have and iOS device or a couple of bucks to spend, never fear! You can now play it from the comfort of your own computer for free! This version has only 45 of the 60 levels, so if you enjoy it enough, why not pick up the iOS version as well? You can play the game on Newgrounds now, and I am prepping a version for Kongregate which will be out in another week or so.

Play Beast Squad now!

First review of Beast Squad

The site Pocketful of Megabytes has just reviewed Beast Squad and gave it a 4 out of 5 ! I could not be more happy about how the reviewer felt about the game, and his constructive criticisms will be very helpful for my future game projects.

Read the review here!