Zak OlyarnikOct 20, 20194 minUndersea Odyssey PostmortemThis is my second commercially-released game. I had a few different goals for it; first, as always, I was looking to expand my portfolio...
Zak OlyarnikOct 11, 20195 minPost-Launch Updates (Part I)After the launch of Undersea Odyssey last week, I've been splitting my time between a lot of different endeavors: promoting, working on t...
Zak OlyarnikOct 6, 20193 minAndroid Native AudioAnyone who's done serious work in Unity knows that it's notorious for audio issues. It's basically impossible to get a perfectly-looping...
Zak OlyarnikOct 1, 20191 minUndersea Odyssey is Available Now!I guess updates don't take nearly as long to approve and rollout as alpha builds, because I've already released both Version 1.0 and a bu...
Zak OlyarnikSep 30, 20191 minNow, We Wait...After spending this weekend testing a final few things, today I uploaded the 1.0 version of Undersea Odyssey to the Google Play Store. I...
Zak OlyarnikSep 25, 20193 minIAPsThe second part of my genius money-making strategy is to include In-App Purchases. Also known as microstransactions, they've been the su...
Zak OlyarnikSep 15, 20193 minAdding AdsAnd now, the moment we've all been waiting for: adding Unity Ads to the game so that we can finally start making some money. The concept...
Zak OlyarnikSep 9, 20193 minGoogle LeaderboardsSince we last spoke, I've been working on the mobile app-specific parts of my mobile app, namely integrating Unity Ads and Google Play St...
Zak OlyarnikAug 27, 20194 minThe Worst Part of Game Development...No, it isn't artwork, and it the quirks of Unity, the hours spent bug hunting, or any of the other things I usually complain about. I...
Zak OlyarnikAug 23, 20191 minOnline Demo is Live!Here's a surprise to kick off your weekend: the online demo of Undersea Odyssey is live! I wanted to start promoting this one as soon as...
Zak OlyarnikAug 15, 20194 minHow To PlayI've always disliked when people use "personal stuff" as an excuse for not getting their work done. This problem ran rampant during my c...
Zak OlyarnikAug 2, 20195 minThe Core Gameplay Loop: Collectibles (Part III)It's time for the third installment of my discourse on UO's core gameplay loop, collect treasure. Treasure is the currency of the game, ...
Zak OlyarnikJul 29, 20195 minThe Core Gameplay Loop: Obstacle Gates (Part II)Last time, I explained what a core gameplay loop was, and identified Undersea Odyssey's as "avoid obstacles, collect treasure". The firs...
Zak OlyarnikJul 26, 20193 minThe Core Gameplay Loop: Mechanics (Part I)I have my next few blog posts planned out, but I realized that before I jump right in, there are some vocabulary and concepts I need to i...
Zak OlyarnikJul 20, 20194 minPhone Input (Part II)Last time, we were talking about how to read phone input, and we concluded that none of the motion-sensing tools available in the API wou...
Zak OlyarnikJul 17, 20195 minPhone Input (Part I)If the date stamps on these things are any indication, I've been working on Undersea Odyssey for a month and a half now, and I've only ju...
Zak OlyarnikJul 8, 20194 minThe Behavioral ModelWelcome to another edition of this devlog. Today's topic is the Behavioral Model of coding, which is one of the most personally head-scr...
Zak OlyarnikJul 1, 20195 minShopping for SubsToday, I'd like to talk to you about the in-game shop. The eventual plan is to offer a way to pay for items using real money, but before...
Zak OlyarnikJun 27, 20192 minNew Game Announcement!My latest game project is called Undersea Odyssey. It's my first excursion into the world of mobile gaming, and I'll be making use of th...
Zak OlyarnikJun 16, 20194 minPrefab VariantsThe first thing I did when starting my next game project was update to Unity 2019. It was due, but the biggest factor in that decision w...