feed.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>Blog</title>
    <description>Write an awesome description for your new site here. You can edit this line in _config.yml. It will appear in your document head meta (for Google search results) and in your feed.xml site description.
</description>
    <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/</link>
    <atom:link href="https://whiteseeker.github.io/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:41:24 +0100</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:41:24 +0100</lastBuildDate>
    <generator>Jekyll v2.4.0</generator>
    
      <item>
        <title>Redcon</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;Time to test &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hexage.net/redcon/index.html&quot;&gt;Redcon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, from Hexage one trusty indie studio doing great games like &lt;em&gt;The Reaper&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Radiant Defense&lt;/em&gt;. If you like strategy and warfare, but also big guns, lasers and nuclear bombs, &lt;em&gt;Redcon&lt;/em&gt; is made for you.&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As you guessed &lt;em&gt;Redcon&lt;/em&gt; is a mobile game for Android and iOS. You are the commander of a base, and fight of enemy’s base in a long range artillery fight. You base has a layout of cell, each cell can be assigned:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weapons&lt;/strong&gt; a wide and fresh selection is available:
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Classic artilery&lt;/em&gt; shooting different kind of shells, anti-personnel, neurotoxic, stunning, fire, …&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Big guns&lt;/em&gt; oversized artillery weapons taking multiple cell in your layout, but having a devastating effect on the enemy !&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Energetic weapons&lt;/em&gt; : lasers, EMP bombs, etc&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mortars&lt;/em&gt; similar to the artillery section except that the curve of the shell is different and well … it matters a lot.&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;More to discover in game&lt;/em&gt;, I won’t spoil all the surprises (^_^)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Utilities&lt;/strong&gt; : 
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Energy central&lt;/em&gt;, including nuclear reactors for the crazy !&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ammunition factory&lt;/em&gt;, but care when it’s destroyed it exploded with fire ^^&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Infirmery&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;And much more: radars, kinetic shields, intelligence services, …&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Active defensive weapons&lt;/strong&gt; : a selection of weapons that target and destroy enemy shells in the air as harmless bubbles !&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You’ll also have to manage your crew in the base, to make the repair, decrease the load time of your weapons, etc.
Lot’s of strategy involved : from choosing the layout of your base to choosing the weapons and then manage the fireing order, and your crew.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usually Hexage bring a well balanced title, with a solid artstyle that bring a nice vidual with and easy to read interface, so you always know what’s happening with a quick glance. It also come preloaded with cloud save which is super cool if you play on multiple devices like me ^^.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My 3 wishes:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moar achievements&lt;/em&gt; : Achievement for exploring weird fortress configuration (fire 7 lasers at the same time, shoot 3 nuclear bomb in 20 seconds, destroy enemy fortress without fireing any projectile, …)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;An &lt;em&gt;infinite mode&lt;/em&gt;, the solo campaign is super long (I haven’t finished it yet and I’m around 60% after playing quite a few hours). But I love infinite mode. Maybe you could fight against increasingly harder enemy fortress, with the same layout and no rebuild between fights, until you eventually loose. (Please no procedural fortress, better a long succession of fortress made manually designed as you do so well ^^).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;A &lt;em&gt;referral reward&lt;/em&gt;, I invited 3 friends in the game and at least 2 are hooked,I wish I had a reward for that ^^&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hexage.net/reaper/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Reaper&lt;/a&gt;, Redcon is free to install, and has a one time in-app-purchase unlock. You can unlock the full game with a choice of 3 versions:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Redcon 3: full game&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Redcon 2: Redcon 3 + some exclusive weapons&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Redcon 1: Redcon 2 + more exclusive weapons&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I said Redcon is made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hexage.net/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Hexage&lt;/a&gt; an indie studio based in XXXXX. You can follow them on twitter here !&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
        <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2016 11:42:16 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/05/12/redcon.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/05/12/redcon.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>PWA: Progressive Web App</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;No game this time ! Over the last few weeks I tried to make that website a “PWA”. Curious what it is, or how to do it ?&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;whats-a-pwa-&quot;&gt;What’s a PWA ?&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;PWA aim to make a website look and behave like an application. As vague as it is it generally means:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Have an icon user can click on to launch the app&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Work offline&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Access the same features as an app:
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Notification to tell you about new stuff going on in the PWA.&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;In App Purchases&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Access to hardware features: GPS, camera, accelerometer, …&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Integration with other app (Sharing through system intent on Android &amp;amp; iOS for instance)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;None all of it is figured out yet, but some already works surprisingly well.
Let’s check how to get an icon, offline support and push notification.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;icon&quot;&gt;Icon&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It’s easy at least for chrome, read that &lt;a href=&quot;https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/increasing-engagement-with-app-install-banners-in-chrome-for-android?hl=en&quot;&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt;. In short it’s 5 steps:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Create a file like &lt;strong&gt;“manifest.json”&lt;/strong&gt; (see content below)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Put a &lt;strong&gt;&amp;lt;link&amp;gt; tag&lt;/strong&gt; in the &amp;lt;head&amp;gt; of &lt;strong&gt;every page of your website&lt;/strong&gt; pointing to the manifest:&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-xml&quot;&gt;    &amp;lt;link rel=&quot;manifest&quot; href=&quot;/manifest.json&quot;&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Have a &lt;strong&gt;service worker&lt;/strong&gt; registered for your website&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Be served over &lt;strong&gt;HTTPS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Visitors must visit your website &lt;strong&gt;at least twice&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;5 minutes or more between the visits&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Et voila !&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
  ​&lt;a href=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/banner.png&quot; onclick=&quot;screenshotOnClick(1);return false;&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;
    &lt;picture&gt;
     &lt;source srcset=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/banner_small.png.webp&quot; type=&quot;image/webp&quot; /&gt;
     &lt;img src=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/banner_small.png&quot; alt=&quot;Screenshot display banner&quot; style=&quot;max-width:45%;&quot; class=&quot;gameScreenshotSmall&quot; /&gt;
    &lt;/picture&gt;
  &lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;a href=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/icon.png&quot; onclick=&quot;screenshotOnClick(2);return false;&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;
    &lt;picture&gt;
      &lt;source srcset=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/icon_small.png.webp&quot; type=&quot;image/webp&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;img src=&quot;/assets/images/pwa/icon_small.png&quot; alt=&quot;Screenshot icon homescreen&quot; style=&quot;max-width:45%;&quot; class=&quot;gameScreenshotSmall&quot; /&gt;
    &lt;/picture&gt;
  &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;offline-support&quot;&gt;Offline support&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Offline support is super easy to implement thx to the “service worker”. It’s just a javascript file in your root directory of your website. When someone visit your website, the service worker is downloaded by the browser, and the browser will trigger some event on it.
You can register on this event and execute code. The most important event for offline support are :&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;install: When ther service worker is first install in your user’s browser.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;fetch: When your website try to fetch anything (html file, javascript, image, etc) it’ll trigger that event, and you can choose to either fetch the ressource from the cache and fall back on the network or the opposite (network then cache) or …&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jake Archibald wrote a lifesaver &lt;a href=&quot;https://jakearchibald.com/2014/offline-cookbook/&quot;&gt;blogpost&lt;/a&gt; about that. Read it ! It’s dense but super easy to read.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;push-notification&quot;&gt;Push notification&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Notifications let you warn your user proactively about new content on your website.
There are 4 (ideally 5) steps to display a notification:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Register your user: &lt;a href=&quot;https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/push-notifications-on-the-open-web&quot;&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Send them a push from your server: same &lt;a href=&quot;https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/push-notifications-on-the-open-web&quot;&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;In your service worker: 
 a. Receiving the push
 b. Cache the url and content the push will display if the user click on it
 c. Finally display the notification from that service worker&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For &lt;strong&gt;step 1&lt;/strong&gt; the blog post doesn’t really explain how to register the token in your backend. In my case I choosed to store it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.firebase.com/&quot;&gt;Firebase&lt;/a&gt;. Why ? Because all it takes is:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-html&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;script src=&quot;https://cdn.firebase.com/js/client/2.4.2/firebase.js&quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/script&amp;gt;
&amp;lt;script&amp;gt;
  var myRegistration = new Firebase(&#39;https://luminous-inferno-9971.firebaseio.com/pntokens/&#39;+pushNotifToken);
  myRegistration.set({platform: &quot;chrome&quot;, time_offset: timeOffset, token: pushNotifToken});
&amp;lt;/script&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And that’s it ! Really, no lies, no hidden error catch, no anything …
So now that you have a token store server side let’s see how to send a push.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For &lt;strong&gt;step 3a&lt;/strong&gt;, in your service worker you just register to that event:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-javascript&quot;&gt;    self.addEventListener(&#39;push&#39;, function(event) {  
      console.log(&#39;Received a push message&#39;, event);
      // Now fetch the payload of the push from your server (title, body, url, ...)
    }
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And that’s it !&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For &lt;strong&gt;step 3b&lt;/strong&gt;, caching the url it’s also super easy:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-javascript&quot;&gt;    caches.open(CACHE_NAME).then(function(cache) {
      return fetch(notifurl).then(function(response) {
        cache.put(notifurl, response.clone());
        return response.json();
      });
    });
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And finally for &lt;strong&gt;step 3c&lt;/strong&gt;, displaying the notification:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-javascript&quot;&gt;    return self.registration.showNotification(title, {  
      body: body,  
      icon: icon,  
      tag: tag,
      requireInteraction: true
    });
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can see these 3 steps put together &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/Whiteseeker/whiteseeker.github.io/blob/source/src/scripts/service-worker.js#L26&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.
And that’s it ! Now go make a PWA of your blog / website !&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2016 09:04:33 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/development/2016/05/04/pwa.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/development/2016/05/04/pwa.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>development</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Egz</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Egz&lt;/em&gt; is an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_role-playing_game&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;ARPG&lt;/a&gt;. Ready your spells, sharpen your swords, boost your stats, enchant your equipement, study your enemies and beat the crap out of that dungeon !! If you like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Diablo&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://store.steampowered.com/app/200710/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Torchlight&lt;/a&gt;, the greedy cave is made for you !&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this mobile game you explore dungeon, &lt;strong&gt;try not to die&lt;/strong&gt;, and decimate your enemies ! On your way you’ll:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Increase your attributs&lt;/strong&gt;: Luck, defense, attack, dodge, crit, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learn skills&lt;/strong&gt;: Forcefield, “Slice in two”, Telekenesis, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Enchant equipment&lt;/strong&gt;: Fire/water/dark/[…] attack, penetrate, life/mana regen, extra xp/gold, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;strengthen your equipement&lt;/strong&gt;: increase its natural stats with the black-smith help &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After exploring the (procedural) dungeon you will go back to the town where you’ll have the surprise to meet with other real players (^_^). No &lt;strong&gt;it’s not an mmorpg&lt;/strong&gt;, and you can’t interact with them but you can look at their stats and equipement and it’s actually super useful to give you an idea of combos etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The art style is quite similar to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kleientertainment.com/games/dont-starve&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Don’t Starve&lt;/a&gt;, it’s really pleasant. My only complain is that sometime, as we are in a dungeon, the screen is a bit dark and it make it hard to play in a bright environement. Thank god I live in London, the sun doesn’t come down here too often (^_^).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The game is &lt;strong&gt;free to play&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;no ads&lt;/strong&gt; (apart from rewarded videos) and frankly the current, virtual currency based, monetisation doesn’t require you to pay at all from my experience (and I’m fairly advanced in the game). It’s unfortunate for the game dev that musn’t have that much revenue right now (-_-). I wish the game had more long lasting upgrades. Uou can purchase equipement and short boost of XP/gold etc. But in the end equipment become obsolete (I mean after a couple fo levels you’ll find better equipement) and boost last only for so long. After that I would feel like I just threw money out of the window. I’d rather purchase stuff that is more expensive but last forever.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If I had 3 wishes their would be:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More long lasting upgrades&lt;/strong&gt;! Get me a pet, a new building in town, a glowing aura, dragon blood in my heritage, I don’t care what, but something that last forever !&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Side gameplay&lt;/strong&gt;! Exploring dungeon is great, but in Final Fantasy you had the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfa5Oqy88QE&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;chocobo race&lt;/a&gt; don’t break out of the routine, what about a side game here too ? Plus it could have it’s own leaderboard for competition too (^_^)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referal&lt;/strong&gt; I have plenty of friends that would love that game and while I’ll hopefully convince them to try it, a referal bonus would be great: “Invite a friend, your friend get a starter armor for free and when he reach level 6 you get XXXXX”&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Greedy Cave is made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avalongames.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Avalon Games&lt;/a&gt;, a Chinese studio based in Chengdu. Althought I couldn’t find the credit in the game it feel like an indie game (made with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cocos2d-x.org/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cocos 2dx&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Mon, 02 May 2016 13:21:57 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/05/02/egz.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/05/02/egz.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>The Greedy Cave</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Greedy Cave&lt;/em&gt; is an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_role-playing_game&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;ARPG&lt;/a&gt;. Ready your spells, sharpen your swords, boost your stats, enchant your equipement, study your enemies and beat the crap out of that dungeon !! If you like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Diablo&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://store.steampowered.com/app/200710/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Torchlight&lt;/a&gt;, the greedy cave is made for you !&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this mobile game you explore dungeon, &lt;strong&gt;try not to die&lt;/strong&gt;, and decimate your enemies ! On your way you’ll:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Increase your attributs&lt;/strong&gt;: Luck, defense, attack, dodge, crit, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learn skills&lt;/strong&gt;: Forcefield, “Slice in two”, Telekenesis, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Enchant equipment&lt;/strong&gt;: Fire/water/dark/[…] attack, penetrate, life/mana regen, extra xp/gold, …&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;strengthen your equipement&lt;/strong&gt;: increase its natural stats with the black-smith help &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After exploring the (procedural) dungeon you will go back to the town where you’ll have the surprise to meet with other real players (^_^). No &lt;strong&gt;it’s not an mmorpg&lt;/strong&gt;, and you can’t interact with them but you can look at their stats and equipement and it’s actually super useful to give you an idea of combos etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The art style is quite similar to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kleientertainment.com/games/dont-starve&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Don’t Starve&lt;/a&gt;, it’s really pleasant. My only complain is that sometime, as we are in a dungeon, the screen is a bit dark and it make it hard to play in a bright environement. Thank god I live in London, the sun doesn’t come down here too often (^_^).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The game is &lt;strong&gt;free to play&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;no ads&lt;/strong&gt; (apart from rewarded videos) and frankly the current, virtual currency based, monetisation doesn’t require you to pay at all from my experience (and I’m fairly advanced in the game). It’s unfortunate for the game dev that musn’t have that much revenue right now (-_-). I wish the game had more long lasting upgrades. Uou can purchase equipement and short boost of XP/gold etc. But in the end equipment become obsolete (I mean after a couple fo levels you’ll find better equipement) and boost last only for so long. After that I would feel like I just threw money out of the window. I’d rather purchase stuff that is more expensive but last forever.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If I had 3 wishes their would be:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More long lasting upgrades&lt;/strong&gt;! Get me a pet, a new building in town, a glowing aura, dragon blood in my heritage, I don’t care what, but something that last forever !&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Side gameplay&lt;/strong&gt;! Exploring dungeon is great, but in Final Fantasy you had the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfa5Oqy88QE&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;chocobo race&lt;/a&gt; don’t break out of the routine, what about a side game here too ? Plus it could have it’s own leaderboard for competition too (^_^)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referal&lt;/strong&gt; I have plenty of friends that would love that game and while I’ll hopefully convince them to try it, a referal bonus would be great: “Invite a friend, your friend get a starter armor for free and when he reach level 6 you get XXXXX”&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Greedy Cave is made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avalongames.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Avalon Games&lt;/a&gt;, a Chinese studio based in Chengdu. Althought I couldn’t find the credit in the game it feel like an indie game (made with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cocos2d-x.org/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cocos 2dx&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Sat, 16 Apr 2016 22:03:07 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/04/16/the-greedy-cave.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2016/04/16/the-greedy-cave.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Digfender</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Digfender&lt;/em&gt; is the best tower defense I played in 2015. It’s not a creative game, it doesn’t have any surprises, but it’s well executed and perfectly balanced. All the towers are usefull, each specialisation has it’s importance, and there isn’t one better than the others. The gameplay is deep and has a lot of variety.&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this mobile game you try to defend your castle against waves of enemies that come from below your castle.
In most TDs I played recently towers are completely unbalanced, or difficulty progression is unfair to make you pay, or game crash or …
&lt;strong&gt;No bad surprises, only a good, and polished, experience&lt;/strong&gt; sum up pretty well Digfender:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Elemental towers&lt;/strong&gt; (electricity, ice, fire, …) with 9 upgrades and 2 different specialisations per tower.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Support towers&lt;/strong&gt;: Increase range/damage/… of towers around&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Plenty of enemy types&lt;/strong&gt; with many variation in theirs powers (Shield units around, resistant to X, healing, when die freeze your towers, when die ignite other units around, …)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Traps&lt;/strong&gt;: Aside with tower traps help you handle these little enemies you haven’t well prepared for.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Main campaign&lt;/strong&gt;! It has &lt;em&gt;A LOT&lt;/em&gt; of levels that also include a lot of variatons in gameplay (due to the layout of the map).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Infinite mode&lt;/strong&gt; to compare your skills with other playes in the leaderboard !&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Global player progression&lt;/strong&gt;: You can unlock improvment for your powers and towers that you keep from one level to another forever.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’m not a super fan of the graphics style but that might just be me, and the gameplay overcompensate that. The good part of the graphics is that they are relatively easy to &lt;em&gt;read&lt;/em&gt; and let you identify enemy types quite quickly.
Also technically I never had a crash or a framedrop which is really pleasant.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If I had 3 wishes their would be:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Add cloud saves&lt;/strong&gt;, Really! I don’t want to loose my save when I switch phone.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moar infinite levels&lt;/strong&gt;! Currently there is one but what about different setup of enemy type, terrain layout, etc (as in the campaign). Like one with more elementals, more sorcerers, less free square space for towers, … This way people can choose to play the way they like in infinite mode and can fight for different leaderboards&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cooperation&lt;/strong&gt;. I first play tower defense in a lan with 3 friends, with some obscur map/mod of Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne and I would love to find in a TD the cooperation aspect that has long disapeared in most TDs … I dunno how to do it really, I just miss it (^_^)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This mobile game is &lt;strong&gt;free to install&lt;/strong&gt;, has some ads but isn’t overloaded by them, and you can make &lt;strong&gt;one IAP&lt;sup id=&quot;fnref:1&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#fn:1&quot; class=&quot;footnote&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; that removes the ads, give you a different castle type with different powers, and also give you a coin doubler (I think for about 4€ if I recall correctly).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mugshotgames.com/games/digfender/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Digfender&lt;/a&gt; is made by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mugshotgames.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;mugshotgames&lt;/a&gt; a 2 guys indie developer company: &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/steve_yap&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Steve Yap&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/mikeyapdesign&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mike Yap&lt;/a&gt;. They are based in Sydney in Australia.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now go play their game! Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class=&quot;footnotes&quot;&gt;
  &lt;ol&gt;
    &lt;li id=&quot;fn:1&quot;&gt;
      &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&lt;/strong&gt;n &lt;strong&gt;A&lt;/strong&gt;pp &lt;strong&gt;P&lt;/strong&gt;urchase is &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; that you can purchase from inside a game by paying with &lt;em&gt;real money&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;#fnref:1&quot; class=&quot;reversefootnote&quot;&gt;&amp;#8617;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
    &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:42:16 +0000</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/18/digfender.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/18/digfender.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>The Quest Keeper</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Quest Keeper&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;THE&lt;/em&gt; cross over between a &lt;strong&gt;dungeon crawler&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/a3pTw0jmxlg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Crossy Road&lt;/a&gt;. You play an adventurer trying to complete quests given by (no surpise here) &lt;em&gt;The Quest Keeper&lt;/em&gt; (^_^). The quests will bring you in various environement full of danger: fire, spiders, traps, flying axes, dead archers, rotating saw, …&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Gameplay is really cool ! It’s not as repetitive as crossy road: there are variation in the element of gameplay, and each quest (except one) has an end. It’s also very challenging and you can feel the learning curve very quickly: Your first 10 runs might end up in a very quick death, but after 50 tries it won’t look so hard anymore. Each quest you complete give you an artifact, and you’ll soon want to collect them all because they make you more resistant and… well, we all want to collect all the artifact anyway!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the gif, it has a retro/voxel style of graphiscs which is pleasant and also very easy to &lt;em&gt;read&lt;/em&gt; so you can analyse the layout quickly and find your path. You can totally play without the music it’s not useful for the gameplay (and the fun of the game isn’t there anyway, you won’t miss it (&lt;em&gt;^.^&lt;/em&gt;)).
The game also has some options: choising your view angle, a 30/60 fps toggle, and 2 graphics configurations to run on most mobile phones.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If Aladdin’s Genie gave me &lt;strong&gt;3 wishes&lt;/strong&gt; they would be:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please add one global leaderboard&lt;/strong&gt; (^_^) One quest is infinite and I wish I knew how far I can go compared to the other !&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And some achievements&lt;/strong&gt; ! There are plenty of stuff to collect there, and many players &lt;em&gt;love&lt;/em&gt; collecting achievements !&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And also cloud saving&lt;/strong&gt; ! Many players have multiple devices and many players change device. Starting over on a new phones isn’t enjoyable.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Quest Keeper is &lt;strong&gt;free to install&lt;/strong&gt;, has some ads but nothing too annoying and you can &lt;strong&gt;remove the ads with an IAP&lt;sup id=&quot;fnref:1&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#fn:1&quot; class=&quot;footnote&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; of ~2€&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://tysonibele.com/about/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Tyson Ibele&lt;/a&gt; is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Man_Army&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;one man army&lt;/a&gt; behing this mobile game. He is a quite amazing game developer / software engineer based in Toronto and working for &lt;a href=&quot;http://makevisual.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Make&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/tysonibele&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;follow him on twitter&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class=&quot;footnotes&quot;&gt;
  &lt;ol&gt;
    &lt;li id=&quot;fn:1&quot;&gt;
      &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&lt;/strong&gt;n &lt;strong&gt;A&lt;/strong&gt;pp &lt;strong&gt;P&lt;/strong&gt;urchase is &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; that you can purchase from inside a game by paying with &lt;em&gt;real money&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;#fnref:1&quot; class=&quot;reversefootnote&quot;&gt;&amp;#8617;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
    &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Thu, 10 Dec 2015 20:37:34 +0000</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/10/the-quest-keeper.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/10/the-quest-keeper.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Monster Hotel</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Monster Hotel&lt;/em&gt; let you run your very own hotel for (cute) monsters. Some monsters like stinky room, others super cold room, some are super angry and just break everything in your hotel… And your goal is to please them all ! So more happy they are the more money they’ll give you when leaving.&lt;!--more--&gt; Moar money =&amp;gt; more rooms =&amp;gt; more monster =&amp;gt; &lt;em&gt;moar problems&lt;/em&gt;. It sounds a bit masochist but it’s a lot of fun !&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once more it’s a mobile game coming from &lt;a href=&quot;https://motion-twin.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Motion Twin&lt;/a&gt; (If you missed it, I already wrote about &lt;a href=&quot;/mobile/game/2015/08/09/uppercup-football.html&quot;&gt;Uppercup Football&lt;/a&gt; from Motion Twin too).
They again bring creativity in Monster Hotel: The gameplay is a new &lt;strong&gt;mix between reflexion/puzzle and builder/fallout shelter&lt;/strong&gt;. And they have a really polished game on many levels:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;The art style is just perfect: It’s cute but not too Kawaii, and it feel like you’re playing in someone’s weird imagination.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Again the gameplay: It not hard core, it’s easy at first but quickly become challenging.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;The monetisation: The game is &lt;strong&gt;free to install&lt;/strong&gt;, with in app purchase. It could be a bad thing but it isn’t. Ads tends to break your immersion, and these in-app-purchases are of 2 type:
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Long term items: Items that you purchase once and keep forever.&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Short term boost.
While I personnaly don’t like short term boost, I enjoy purchasing the long term items because it just feel paying for the full game.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Music ! It’s a &lt;strong&gt;really cool music&lt;/strong&gt; that get in your head. I just wish they add more music &amp;amp; variation!&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Features: &lt;strong&gt;Cloud save&lt;/strong&gt;, achievement, a bit of social/friends but not too much, oh and BTW the game is &lt;strong&gt;playable in your browser&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://monster-hotel.net/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Usually I finish with a word about the dev, but it’s already done in &lt;a href=&quot;/mobile/game/2015/08/09/uppercup-football.html&quot;&gt;Uppercup Football&lt;/a&gt;. I won’t stop talking about them until they got the attention they deserve. It’s really rare to find a game studio bringing such creativity in mobile games.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2015 21:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/04/monster-hotel.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/12/04/monster-hotel.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Thug Racer</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thug Racer&lt;/em&gt; bring &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Run&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Out Run&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on mobile! Driving a sport car, escaping the cops, time limit … One really cool indie game with retro graphics!&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As many good game it’s easy to learn and hard to master. Super simple controls: turn left, turn right and brake. An easy goal: complete 5 stages as quickly as possible. But completing that goal require a lot of practise and skills to avoid other cars, escape police patrols and avoid crashing in the walls.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Monetisation is really good: you can play the game in arcade mode (the main one) for free,with some ads from time to time at the end of a run. You can also do a one time purchase to get a new golden skin on your car, get access to the endless mode, remove the ads, and also help an indie!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thug Racer is made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.supercookie.co.uk/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Super Coockie Games&lt;/a&gt;, two indie game developers from London: &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/spectrumzx128k&quot;&gt;Dan&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/MonsterofCookie&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;James&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:48:53 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/10/01/thug-racer.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/10/01/thug-racer.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Cards and Castles</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cards and Castles&lt;/em&gt; is a fresh mix of &lt;strong&gt;T&lt;/strong&gt;rading &lt;strong&gt;C&lt;/strong&gt;ard &lt;strong&gt;G&lt;/strong&gt;ame &amp;amp; turn-based strategy game. Lately I haven’t been a fan of all the clones of Magic the Gathering that popped up lately on mobile apart from Hearthstone! But Cards and Castles get me intrigued, and pleasantly surprised.&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In C&amp;amp;C you play your cards to create units on a battlefield, or influence them with buff and debuff. Unlike most TCG game, the battlefield is a grid with lots of cells (5*9). Consequently choosing your deck is only one part of the strategy: using your units properly on the battlefield is at least as important. You’ll have to position them, calculate range etc, guess the opponent next move &amp;amp; cards, prepare for area damage, etc. The game has 5 different factions: Vikings, Crusaders, Pirates, Warlocks and Ninjas. Each deck can mix together 2 factions, or just use one faction, as you prefer. The difference between factions and the variety of cards available give you a lot of freedom to create synergy in your deck, and offer a deep gameplay.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;C&amp;amp;C has a single player mode, but, as for most TCG, all the fun really start when you compete against real players. You’ll have quests, monthly reward for ranked game (custom skin …). Game is really well balanced and devs are very close from the community, listening to feedback and reacting very quickly. The game also have frequent update with new content.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Monetisation is done through pack of cards you can either purchase with real money or with the in game virtual currency (roughly one pack of card every 3-4 multiplayer game depending on quest and victory ratio (^_^) ). However to get the most rare cards you’ll be likely to spend money, and the cards you get are random, with no way to exchange between players. Unlike hearthstone you can’t craft the specific card you need.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This mobile game is made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cardsandcastles.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Bit Mass&lt;/a&gt;, an indie studio of 5 game developers based in San Diego. 
Oh and BTW the game is cross platform Android, iOS and PC (&lt;a href=&quot;http://store.steampowered.com/app/360730/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;steam&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2015 11:27:11 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/09/28/cards-and-castles.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/09/28/cards-and-castles.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
      <item>
        <title>Uppercup Football</title>
        <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Uppercup Football&lt;/em&gt; is an intense &lt;strong&gt;fantasy soccer-ball&lt;/strong&gt; mobile game with crazy rules. Believe me, I’m not usually a fan of soccer-ball and even less in a video game, but Uppercup Football add a ton of fun into it !&lt;!--more--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First it has a super easy control system, &lt;strong&gt;one handed&lt;/strong&gt;, in turn by turn, really perfect for mobile. Second you have some crazy rules, changing each match, like: Rugby balls, electroballs, trees or even mines on the field, etc. Finally there is about 100 levels, all different, with more and more challenges.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can perceive the amount of time and effort spent in polishing the game, the menus and gameplay. The &lt;strong&gt;art and animations are great&lt;/strong&gt;, but I’ll let you judge by yourself as the game is &lt;strong&gt;free to install&lt;/strong&gt; with a one time in app purchase to unlock the full version (restorable on any device). &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://motion-twin.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Motion Twin&lt;/a&gt; is the french studio behind Uppercup Football. Motion has a few extraordinary component:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Every employee has the same share of the company&lt;/strong&gt;. That mean the same salary, same power of decision, same responsibility.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;They have their own open source programming language called &lt;a href=&quot;http://haxe.org/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;HaXe&lt;/a&gt;. It can be compiled into C++, Action Script of Javascript and all their games are made with HaXe.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;They made a &lt;strong&gt;ton of great web browser games&lt;/strong&gt; with a unique gameplay that you’ve &lt;strong&gt;NEVER&lt;/strong&gt; seen anywhere else. If I had to pick one: &lt;a href=&quot;http://mush.twinoid.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mush&lt;/a&gt;, but there are more, a lot more.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;11 frogs. Errrr employees I mean (^_^)
&lt;strong&gt;Go try uppercup football!&lt;/strong&gt; You have no excuse it’s free to install!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        <pubDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2015 07:21:03 +0100</pubDate>
        <link>https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/08/09/uppercup-football.html</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://whiteseeker.github.io/mobile/game/2015/08/09/uppercup-football.html</guid>
        
        
        <category>mobile</category>
        
        <category>game</category>
        
      </item>
    
  </channel>
</rss>