Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Summary:

Porting Tunnel Lords for use on the Windows App Store and adding touch screen input.

Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Brett208 26 May 2017 17:07

Overview

My entry is porting Tunnel Lords to the Windows App Store, Try #2. This will include builds of Tunnel Lords for tablets (touch enabled) and PCs (Desktop and Laptop). Tunnel Lords is an existing game that I started during Competition #4 and completed during Competition #7 (Work occurred outside the competitions as well). You can check it out at TunnelLords.com.

During the last competition (#10), I completed porting Tunnel Lords to MonoGame, added mouse support, added support for storing game settings within UWP framework, and started adding touch screen support. I also submitted Tunnel Lords to ID@XBOX. Unfortunately, my application was denied, halting my development for Xbox ONE support.

I’ve partially added support for Windows Universal Platform (UWP). UWP runs on .NET Core instead of .Net Framework. Since I still want to support a non UWP PC build of Tunnel Lords for non-Windows 10 machines, I’m working through supporting 2 versions of Tunnel Lords. One version using .Net Core and one version using .Net Framework 4.X. The solution I’m working towards is using .Net Standard, but it is not completely working yet. I've found myself surprisingly having many difficulties getting a multi project solution that can use either framework to work. For more information on the trials of porting the game to .Net Standard, you can read through the last competition’s forum posting here: http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/forum/t-2086154/tunnel-lords-on-the-windows-app-store.

Tunnel Lords is already available Xbox 360 for and for Windows PC through itch.io.

Tunnel Lords trailer

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Background

Tunnel Lords has been available on Xbox 360 Indie Games since 7 January, 2016. I’m very pleased with the results, with a ranking of 4+ out of 5 stars. She was programmed over the course of 1 full year (Jan 2015 – Jan 2016). I worked part time consistently the entire year. For content, my brother composed the music and half of the sounds. My wife drew about 80% of the graphics. I did all the programming and the remaining sounds and graphics. The game was completed on a shoestring budget (unless you include our time costs, which were very high), with us spending about $200 outside of purchasing the XBOX 360 for testing and deployment. Tunnel Lords was programmed in C# using XNA 4.0.

Development History

• Competition 4: Project start through first demo
• Competition 6: The long slog of game improvements and balancing
• Competition 7: Completing Tunnel Lords and publishing on Xbxo 360 Indie Games
• Competition 8: Porting Tunnel Lords to itch.io
• Competition 10: Porting Tunnel Lords to the Windows App Store, First Try

Initial Tunnel Lords screenshot from first month of programming

Current Tunnel Lords screenshot

The Challenge

Unfortunately, the Xbox 360 Indie Games Marketplace will cease to exist in September of 2017 and we would like the game to live on past this. Because of this, we ported Tunnel Lords to itch.io for Windows PC. We see very little traffic through itch.io, and still receive most all of our downloads through the Xbox 360. So, in general the itch.io port has been a bust. However, I did learn A TON about how to properly bundle compiled code into an installer, handle multiple screen resolutions, and where/how to save user data properly on a computer.

We did attempt to publish on Steam Greenlight, but have not received a warm reception. If interested, you can check it out here: Tunnel Lords on Steam Greenlight. Still waiting to hear what the final word is for Steam Direct.

We kept searching for where we wanted to port Tunnel Lords. After considering the Razor Forge TV, or a Linux port, we settled on the Windows App store. It has the benefit of not requiring porting Tunnel Lords to a different operating system while still expanding availability to tablets. After being rejected on the Xbox One, we are focusing only on the Windows App Store release for tablets, laptops, and desktops.

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High level Road Map

• Finalize touch screen control
• Get full support of both .Net Core and .Net Framework through using .Net standard
• Determine/comply with Windows Universal Platform specific release requirements like game content ratings, E&O insurance
• Finish supporting full screen vs windowed mode in UWP
• Get games saving properly within the UWP framework
• Design/format new box art, screen shots, video trailer (if needed?)
• (Optional) Add an in game instruction screen

Last edited on 05 Jun 2017 07:02 by Brett208 Show more

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Brett208 30 May 2017 08:56

Sprint 0: Sorting .Net versions and Touch Screen Testing

For the first weekend, I spent a lot of time getting re-acquainted with Tunnel Lords. The new .Net paradigm is still beating me up pretty badly. It is humbling to have so much difficulty with part of the code that is supposed to be somewhat transparent; referencing .Net. I think it is close to being resolved. I certainly have a better understanding on it now than a few months ago.

Initial Touch Screen Testing

I completed my first test of the touch screen code. The good news is it works. The bad news is it has some major bugs in it. Since my dev computer doesn't have touch screen enabled, I may break down and buy a touch screen monitor or a new laptop. Right now I'm pushing the application to my wife's computer for testing. But since I don't have VS installed on it, testing is difficult.

I am finally consistently setting dependencies properly in MonoGame's content.mgcb file. Now my UWP build is properly compiling content again. I think I may be ready to drop down to one content builder for both projects. Right now there is a separate one for the .Net Framework and the UAP versions of the application.

Dot Net standard

I finally figured out what version of .Net standard to use. My library code is using .Net Standard 1.4, which is compatible with both UAP 10 (used for the Windows App Store) and .Net Framework 4.6.1. Any currently available versions of .Net Standard are apparently not available for use with UAP 10. It sounds like when .Net Standard 2.0 comes out, it will be though.

The UWP version of the application now runs fine.

The .Net Framework 4.6.1 runs fine until a call is made to System.IO.File. It then crashes and tells me I have the wrong version of System.IO loaded. I'm really unsure what to do here. I pushed a Stack Overflow question asking for an assist, so we will see how that goes. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44257436/when-using-net-standard-1-4-in-a-library-and-net-framework-4-6-1-in-and-applic.

Button Class for better touch screen and mouse support

I designed the first half of a button class that will be usable by the mouse and touch screen inputs. Once implemented, this should allow me to remove the requirement for at least 3 touches on touch screens for some actions. I have a button graphic with 3 states (pressed, not-pressed, and disabled). The artwork needs another pass before being completed, but it is enough for testing for now.

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I'm enjoying everyone's enthusiasm and the large number of participants. Keep up the good work!

Last edited on 30 May 2017 09:00 by Brett208 Show more

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

rbwhitaker 03 Jun 2017 03:19

Good first update. Looks like you've got an answer now to your question on Stack Overflow!

I'm enjoying everybody's enthusiasm too. It's been fun so far.

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Brett208 05 Jun 2017 07:00

Sprint 1.1 Buttons & an organized solution

This week was a little slower than I wanted for development. Work went fairly insane about mid week and consumed much of my life.

Buttons

I managed to code the rest of a button class and then inject buttons on different screens in the game. There is now a delete button for saved games and minimize buttons required screens. This way you can press the button to accomplish tasks that otherwise would require a multi-touch screen or a 2 button mouse (glaring at the 1 button apple mouse).

The button graphics still need a pass from my wife turned artist as my design is pretty ugly.

The button class works well, but I have a few bugs going on with input flow on some screens that will take a bit of time to cleanup. I should also take another pass on the Input Manager classes and clean up some of the new functionality.

Streamlined Solution and Projects

As mentioned in the standup, I finally have Tunnel Lords consistently building both for generic Windows and UWP (Windows 10 App Store)!!!! This has been a monkey on my back for a while.

I managed to link both versions to the same content project. So now I only add content in one place and the associated built project targets the final content for the right system version.

The new Tunnel Lords solution includes:

• 2 library projects using .Net Standard 1.4
• Generic Windows version building with .Net Framework 4.6.1
• A UWP version building with UAP10.

Steam Direct

In case you haven't seen it yet, Valve announced the pricing of submitting a game at $100 per game, refundable after your game makes $1,000. I think this is very reasonable for an Indie Developer. Check it out: http://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1265921510652460726

Up Next

I plan on continuing to clean up the touch screen and mouse code associated with the buttons. Then I need to spend a fair amount of time playing the game in touch screen mode to ensure I'm happy with how it plays.

On Deck is getting saved games working on UWP. I have all the game settings saving properly in UWP, so I'm not too worried about this challenge. The UWP version will place saved games within the app's data directory instead of in My Documents/My Games/Tunnel Lords where they are saved in the generic PC version.

Last edited on 05 Jun 2017 08:37 by Brett208 Show more

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Brett208 13 Jun 2017 08:04

Sprint 2: Continued Button and Touch Screen Work

Week 2 went slow for development. I didn't devote as much time as I would have liked and a lot of time was spent refactoring/cleaning the code base concerning the in game HUD Screen. I also fixed all the known bugs concerning touch screen / mouse input associated with opening and closing different screens in the game.

The button class now accepts an interface called IScreenObject which represents anything that is drawn to screen. So you can populate a button with anything from a static sprite, to text, to an animation. It seems to be working well as I quickly created a button that contains both a texture and some text. Additional buttons now exist allowing opening the inventory screen and title menu to keep from forcing the user to use special mouse or touch screen commands.

It looks like the last place needing cleanup on touchscreen is the inventory screen itself. There needs to be a way to dump either one or all the minerals of a given type with a touch or mouse click. This functionality will require major modification of how the inventory screen displays. I'm not happy about the extra work, but the inventory screen doesn't look great in its current form, so it is a good excuse to improve it.

Glad to see all the progress others are making!

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

Brett208 19 Jun 2017 20:36

Sprint 3: Redesigned Inventory Screen

Despite this week being pretty busy, I did make some progress on Tunnel Lords.

You can now navigate the entire game with either just the left mouse button or one finger touch. We have first draft icons for sell and dump resource buttons on a partially redesigned inventory screen. It still needs another run through to polish, but the buttons are all hooked in properly and dump resources.

Inventory Screen Draft for Selling Resources

Touch Screen Testing

I did some testing of touch screen on my wife's computer of the game. There are 2 major bugs remaining:

• To register a touch as being held, the user must either double tap or hold the screen and then move their finger a little bit.
• When the user resizes the screen, touch input no longer properly lines up with user interface elements.

Up Next

I have some ideas to refactor and improve readability of my input manager class. I need to fix the user input bugs as well. Then on to saving games in UWP compliance.

Re: Tunnel Lords on Windows App Store, Try 2

rbwhitaker 12 Sep 2017 22:57

So Brett, did you ever get this published on the Windows Store?

I'm wanting to try to get my game out to the Windows Store in some sort of Early Access format, though I don't know if that's even something that they'd support.

Or an alternative would be another simple/easy way to distribute a UWP app outside of the store. Since you're using MonoGame, you probably have other ways to handle that (like just compiling to a .exe file).

I'd love to talk with you about what you tried and what worked and what didn't work sometime.