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Dan's DevLog - May 2023

Dan's DevLog - May 2023

Hey everyone! The mobile port of Luck be a Landlord is rapidly approaching completion! It's still a little too early to announce a release date, but I feel confident saying the release date will likely be around August of this year. Let's dive into some topics!

Landscape Mode

After I showed off some screenshots of the mobile version in the TrampolineTales Discord, many players wanted to make sure that the game would be playable in landscape mode in addition to portrait mode.

Rest assured, landscape mode will be in the mobile version of Luck be a Landlord. You'll have to toggle it in the settings due to a technical limitation. Fortunately, switching from landscape mode to reverse-landscape mode can still be done on the fly by turning one's phone upside-down.

Blurry photo, but you get the idea.

You may have noticed that some of the UI elements don't hug the sides of the screen like they do in the desktop version. This is because many phones nowadays have notches and the like that cover parts of the screen. I actually noticed that the mobile version of Old School RuneScape accounts for this as well.

Notice how the UI elements on the left side are moved slightly to the right.

I hate Apple

There have been numerous obstacles with getting the game on iOS. It's no secret that I hate Apple devices, and I'm effectively forced to interact with them to build and test the iOS version of the game.

First off, it's impossible to build a game for iOS without using a Mac to do so. I'm sure there's probably some weird workaround that might work semi-decently, but Apple has such a set-in-stone "No, do it this way" mentality that I would rather begrudgingly play by their rules than bash my head against the wall. It'll hopefully be worth it in the end.

I hate this stupid bar. I can't figure out how to turn it off and it keeps distracting me.

Another example of Apple being Apple is that you can't have more than 100 Game Center achievements in an iOS app. Luck be a Landlord has 186 achievements, so I'm not sure what my solution will be for the iOS version. Does it make sense to just have 100 achievements? If so, which ones make the cut? Should the remaining 86 achievements still be unlockable in-game without Game Center integration? Thanks for the arbitrary limitation, Apple.

I also have to wait 30 business days for Apple to verify my identity for some reason. I'm lucky I started this process now, otherwise I would have to wait an additional month to launch the iOS version, even if it was finished programming-wise.

Is it apparent yet that I hate Apple?

Plenty of Plants

I recently participated in Ludum Dare 53! I made a roguelike gardenbuilder in 48 hours called Plenty of Plants, which you can play for free in your browser right here.

The ratings for the jam were recently released as well, and Plenty of Plants was just barely outside of the top third of compo entries. It also got into the top 100 in the Fun category, which felt great!

Final ratings for Plenty of Plants in out of 491 compo entries.

I'd like to make Plenty of Plants into a full title some day, but it's a little too early to be talking about that right now...

That's all for now, see you next DevLog!

-Dan