Don’t forget! AppGameKit users can enter a GREAT COMPETITION to create a game that includes the basic elements of the Tower Defence subgenre. The competition is being run by AppGameKit mods and legends - BlinkOk, Scraggle and Virtual Nomad.

The submission must be a NEW creation made with either AppGameKit Classic or AppGameKit Studio, or Tier 2 and AGKSharp as long as it uses the AppGameKit API for the bulk of the game.

The game is anything you want it to be, free your imagination! But the basic elements of the Tower Defence subgenre must be distinguishable! This is a true Community Competition and ALL levels of experience with AppGameKit are very welcome!

To enter you need to be a registered user of TheGameCreators Forum and the deadline for submissions is 30 January @ 11:59PM UTC.

Full details here!

This month we talk to Christian Muhler of US-based indie game studio One Duck Theory 

Christian has been creating games in one form or another since childhood. He created his first games (just simple point-and-click adventures) in the 1990’s in a small computer lab using MS Paint and PowerPoint. As a teenager in 2001, he discovered DarkBASIC from TheGameCreators and found a whole new world of possibilities. DarkBASIC ignited his passion for coding and he started churning out prototypes at every opportunity. One of his early creations was a 3D version of “Slime Volleyball,” a popular flash game at the time.

He majored in Physics and went into IT after graduating but has always felt an irresistible compulsion to make games. Christian explains, “I continued making prototypes in my free time, but never stuck with an idea long enough to make a complete, polished experience. In December of 2019, I left my job and have pursued indie game development ever since. There have been various technical, personal, and even global challenges, but I’m strongly motivated by my childhood dream to publish original games.”

Christian’s most recent published game, Sudowords, started as an experiment in January of 2013. He made a very rough prototype for it using the original version of AppGameKit whilst in-between jobs for 2 months but then his new job required a lot of time and energy so he did not get to work on the game again in earnest until 2019. “I was amazed that the base code still worked 6 years later despite many updates to AppGameKit and the fact that the game was always built in Tier 2 (using C++).” says Christian. “Initially, I could only make a tiny bit of progress outside my regular job on nights/weekends, but I was able to work on it full-time in 2020 and most of 2021 to bring it to completion. I learned more about the usual aspects of game development as I went, such as making art, music, sounds, supporting programs like a puzzle generator, etc. However, since I also started a small business to dedicate to indie game development, I had to research a lot about marketing, policies/regulations, accounting, and other things that support the pure creative fun of game making. 

I was fortunate that my original vision for the app already had an established target audience – there is a big overlap between fans of Sudoku and Crosswords, so a brand-new fusion should ideally appeal to both groups! I’ve also discovered that market research for a target audience is purely about general trends, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see my game enjoyed by a wide variety of people.”

We asked Christian where next for you and Sudowords? “I have updates planned for Sudowords that I hope will help a bit with its success. The ability to easily integrate Google Firebase/Analytics with AppGameKit has been a blessing – I’ve isolated some key areas that cause a drop-off in players. Specifically, I hope to streamline the game’s tutorial and make other minor changes before attempting a big ‘marketing push’. Even if the game does not succeed financially, I still consider it a triumph to have finally achieved my dream of publishing a finished game.

To be honest, I’m not yet sure what will come after Sudowords. I have so many ideas in so many genres. One of the greatest challenges in game dev seems to be just picking something and sticking with it. Regardless, I plan to keep making original games – it’s a passion that I hope to keep forever.”

Sudowords combines the logic of Sudoku (left brain) and the creativity of Crosswords (right brain) for a whole-new, whole-brain challenge - and you can find Sudowords free on Android and iOS