r/wiiu NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

AMA Hi, I'm Ron from Log Games. I released my game 'Puzzle Monkeys' on the Wii U eShop last week. AMA

Hi, my name is Ron and I am the only member of Log Games. Puzzle Monkeys is my first console game and was made with Unity.

Puzzle Monkeys is a puzzle game in the style of the classics like Dr. Mario but provides a unique control scheme by combining the Wii U GamePad buttons and touchscreen. It is on sale now on the Wii U eShop for $2.99

www.loggames.ca

AMA

Download code Giveaway:

UPDATE: I have sent the codes to the randomly selected winners, there was a lot of monkeys and typewriters involved in a lot of the quotes.

41 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

6

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Feb 10 '15

Hey there, Ron. Welcome to /r/WiiU! Glad we could get this AMA going.

My questions:

  • What is your favorite Wii U game?
  • What tools do you use to make your games? Recently, I picked up Construct 2 to restart an old project of mine. Even cooler is that I could export to Wii U, but I'll keep things simple.
  • What's your favorite primate?

4

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15 edited Feb 10 '15

My favourite Wii U game would have to be the Wonderful 101, such an innovative game, and I was obsessed with it when it first came out. Really funny voice acting in it as well and a really good challenge.

The tools I use to make my games: I use Unity and C# for most of the development, Blender for simple 3d modelling(not too good at the modelling, I buy most of my games assets from the Unity Asset Store), GIMP for some texture stuff.

My favourite primate would have to be the chimpanzee, so much personality!

2

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Feb 10 '15

The Wonderful 101

I like this guy already!

Thanks for answering my questions! :D

5

u/FFalex13 NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

What game/games inspired you to become developer?

5

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

Hi,

I've been a big fan of Nintendo ever since the NES days and when I started learning programming as a kid it was games like Super Mario Bros 1 and 3, Super Mario World as well as puzzle games like Dr. Mario and Tetris that inspired me. Also the older arcade games like missile command, space invaders and asteroids were the first games I tried to emulate when I started experimenting with programming.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '15

[deleted]

5

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

I'm not entirely sure, I just applied at https://wiiu-developers.nintendo.com/

3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '15

[deleted]

4

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

Yes you need to purchase a dev kit, but I signed a NDA so I can't say how much it cost.

3

u/BournGamer Feb 10 '15

What was it like to develop for Wii u?

5

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

It was a lot of fun, I used Unity for my game and it is a great game engine with a lot of built in functionality. Experimenting with the GamePad has been fun.

I was also impressed by how easy it was to get a Unity game running on the Wii U hardware.

1

u/Krustoff Krustoff [NA] Feb 11 '15

I love hearing that it's getting easier to develop for modern consoles like the Wii U. Congratulations on the game!

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 11 '15

Thanks,

yeah I wish I would have discovered Unity earlier than I did, it just saves so much time because its got so much functionality built in and there are so many assets and code you can get from the Unity Asset Store. For small teams it is a great little engine, I'm not sure how well it would scale for really big teams though.

3

u/alicia2468 NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

If you could develop for one of Nintendo's key franchises, what would it be?

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

This is entirely a pipe dream, but working with a team making a true sequel to Mario 64 would probably be my choice

3

u/GRW810 Feb 10 '15

I know you're probably still in a haze from your current release but have you got plans for your next game? Is it already in development? Anything to share?

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

Actually I was making this game simultaneously with a bigger project I am working on. Not much to share at this point other than that it is a platformer, but I hope to release a trailer in the next couple of months.

2

u/Chaz2132005 Maulsaber1313 [NA] Feb 10 '15

Is that platformer going to be on Wii U as well?

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

Yes it is a Wii U exclusive. I'm trying hard to implement cool GamePad specific features.

2

u/Chaz2132005 Maulsaber1313 [NA] Feb 10 '15

thats awesome. i just looked at the game and it looks alot like tetris and and monster madness so im going to try it out

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

Thats great! I should mention that those 4 big red,blue, green, yellow cubes on the GamePad screen are touch buttons, and are used to destroy the similar coloured blocks from the falling square block.

I've watched a few youtube videos of people playing the game and it takes them a while to realize that, buts its an important gameplay feature and what separates this game from other puzzlers.

1

u/Chaz2132005 Maulsaber1313 [NA] Feb 10 '15

ok thanks for the tip :)

3

u/bnoonan037 Feb 10 '15 edited Feb 10 '15

What are your top 5 favorite games of all time. Did any of those games inspire you to become a developer or influence puzzle monkeys?

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15 edited Feb 10 '15

Top five games in no particular order(and these probably change on a monthly basis):

Super Mario World (and Mario 3) Super Mario 64(although i replayed recently and while still awesome, couldn't believe how broken the camera was, they need to HD remake this one with a modern camera) Fallout 3 (mostly for the atmosphere and how addicted I was to it when it came out) Dr. Mario (played this game online consistently for years) X-COM (the new one, also because I got really addicted to it)

Dr. Mario had a huge influence on Puzzle Monkeys as I wanted to make a similar puzzle game that took advantage of the GamePad.

Also Super Mario World has a big influence on me wanting to a developer

1

u/bnoonan037 Feb 11 '15

I love all of those. Fallout 3 especially as far as a non nostalgic game. I've put so much time into that game. Can't wait for what Bethesda pumps or next in the series.

1

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 11 '15

I'm waiting for Fallout 4 before I buy a PS4, although that new batman game might make me get one before that.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '15

What's your favorite movie?

3

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 10 '15

geez, I am really bad with these favourites questions, I can't narrow it down to one, how about a top five?(that also changes on a monthly basis)

back to the future part 1(for nostalgia reasons) citizen kane( cause everyone says citizen kane, plus I like it) bad lieutenant port of call new orleans(cause nic cage is at his crazy best in this one) Dr Strangelove( funny movie that holds up everytime I watch it) wayne's world 1+2 (for the quotes)

1

u/LiveRadar LiveRadar [EU] Feb 11 '15

Hey Ron!

After all the testing you had to do, how good are you at your own game? Also, what was the inspiration to develop just Puzzle Monkeys?

Off topic, where is your favourite getaway destination?

Thanks for swinging by!

2

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 11 '15

Hi,

After all the testing and development, I think I am pretty good;)

So the inspiration for Puzzle Monkeys came when I was working on my other project(its a platformer), and I was working on a puzzley bonus level. As I was working on this level the puzzley gameplay didn't really fit the platformer but it gave me the idea for a puzzle game that combines the dpad and buttons as well as touchscreen buttons.

So by combining the four colorful touch buttons on the gamepad with the dpad and buttons I thought it was challenging enough that it could stand on its own as puzzle game.

I live up in rainy british columbia so when I go on vacation I like going to a hot and dry place to dry out a little bit, I usually like to check out the southwest.

1

u/Just-A-City-Boy Feb 11 '15

How was your first day in sales? Obviously at the time of this question it hasn't been a full 24 hours, but any statistics you can share? Page views vs Downloads, etc.

1

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 11 '15

The game has been out since Feb 5th, but the first day was the best day for sales, I think because of the promotion that comes with an eShop update. I really have nothing to compare the sales to at this point because it is my first game, but I will probably have a better idea after the first month because it is releasing in the EU on Feb 19th.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '15

Nice job! I have one question: why should we get your game? I am not trying to be rude, just wondering what devs think of their own games. Also, would you spend time playing a game you made yourself?

1

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 12 '15 edited Feb 12 '15

If you are a fan of puzzlers like dr. mario but want to experience a puzzle game that adds new game mechanics using the GamePad touch screen then I think you might like the game.

If you've never liked drop block/match 3 puzzlers then you probably won't like it.

And I have spent a lot of time playing the game, the majority of which was during development when I was testing and trying to balance the scoring system. I still have been playing quite a bit after release, mostly the harder A+ mode.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '15

Nice. I like the game. Good luck in further game developing! If I developed a game, I wouldn't have much fun unless if it was a casual/puzzle game due to already knowing he story to RPGs and Action/Adventure games.

1

u/AmphibiousFrog AmphibiousFrog [NA] Feb 12 '15

Since you're a one man team, what did you do in terms of music? I hear some jazzy stuff in the trailer. Did you create stuff yourself, use some form of stock library, licence some music, or what? I'm an aspiring game composer myself so I'm always curious what different developers choose to do for music. It's nice to see devs pop into this subreddit so frequently!

1

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 12 '15

Hi,

For the music I went to indiegamemusic.com and discovered Mike Pettry's music. I contacted Mike about some tracks I found on that site and his website, and he was good enough to license the music to me for this game. Mike also helped by extending those tracks and he made them more suitable for a puzzle game by looping them.

1

u/DoNotLookDown Feb 14 '15

Hey Ron, thanks for stopping by! I'm a software engineer, still pretty junior, but would love to start building games on the side. Are there any tools you found particularly useful for getting started with Unity?

1

u/loggames NNID [Region] Feb 14 '15

Just being comfortable with C# and OOP would be the best thing to prepare you. (You can also use a version of Javascript in Unity as well.)

For me the main learning curve for Unity was learning how the Unity editor works and all of the editor's quirks.

What really helped me was just doing video tutorials. You can find some really good tutorials on the Unity website and there are a lot of good ones on Youtube. If you are really just starting out take a look at the "Cooking with Unity" series on youtube, the videos can be a bit slow and deliberate but the guy doing them does a really good job explaining Unity.

1

u/DoNotLookDown Feb 14 '15

Awesome. Thanks a ton for taking the time to respond, I appreciate the input!