Cubes (beta) update! Be a part of the retail version.

[johnnynapalm]

This is an open call! If you want to help design a level for our retail version of Cubes, now's the time to let me know. We have implemented custom level designs via XML, and would love for our fellow players to submit their designs. You don't need to know how to code to do it, it's just a matter of having a text editor like Notepad on your machine, and placing "X"s in the design you want the cubes to be.

We are just about a month away from the final product. I can provide instructions on how the XML works and get you started if you're interested. Get your name in the credits and help propel Android gaming to the next level!

Cubes (Beta) - Cyrket

Official Thread

 

[johnnynapalm]

Ok, we patched the market version to allow custom levels. First thing you will need to do, of course, is get the current version (1.5.2 or later). When you launch this new version for the first time, it will automatically create a new folder on your SD card called "Cubes", and check for this folder on subsequent runs. This is where your custom levels will live.

The custom levels can be created in whatever text editor you prefer, but you will need to name them with a .cubes extension, not .txt or .xml. This is so that, if and when we create a file intent handler, Cubes won't be an option to open .txt or .xml files. Even with them name "whatever.cubes", you can still open and edit them in something like notepad.

Go ahead and download this level pack to get you started. It consists of 3 levels, Luck, ScottTest, and Switchboard. Now, you don't need to be an XML guru to see what's going on in these.

Let's look at Luck first.

"Course name" is what your level will be called inside the Cubes app. "author" is a label just under the course name that will show who created the level. Feel free to use whatever you want to be called, but please put something in this field. It's a nice way to pass attribution around in the community.

The first important thing after this is the very next tag, <SequentialLevelSet>. This is telling cubes to expect a group of <SequentialCubeSectorSet> patterns. You can see that the level colors are defined next, in Hex values of course, as well as the speed of the level. bgColor is background (the ground and sky), fogColor is the fog that the cubes appear out of, and CubeColors are the actual cubes. For Luck, you can see that there are actually two ranges of colors. That means that the game will constantly randomly pick Hex values out of those two ranges. Keep in mind that it's important not to let your cubes be randomly generated the same color as your background. That will lead to "invisible" cubes and piss people off. =)

Now that colors and speed are set, we move to our first <SequentialCubeSectorSet>. The most important piece of this is the * at the bottom of that section. This is the starting position of the ship in relation to the cube field that you are building. You can see we've put it in the very middle. It's very important that you include this is your first section.

The rest of the file consists of <CubeSector> pieces. We can assign certain properties to these pieces by using things like loop and iterate. Those mean exactly what they sound like. So, if we iterate a random cube sector 4 times, that means it will randomly pick a section from that group 4 times and move on.

If you move down the file a bit, you will see how we can then ratchet up the speed, change the color for the next bit, and so on. You just have to be careful to close all of your tags completely.

I know Luck is a pretty complicated example, but it's a good primer for all of the things we allow you to play with. If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, look at ScottTest. It's the easiest of the 3 to play with and see how the sections work.

I hope this is enough to get you guys started. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[johnnynapalm]

Free version of Cubes with ads is out on the market! Paid version coming within days! Please please please tell your friends! Thanks for all of your support so far guys, we're stoked that we made it.