STM: October Status Update

We've been working hard these past few weeks to assemble our planned updates for the game. Since we've release our public demo last month, we're very excited to announce the following improvements to the game. These new features will be available for you to enjoy once we publish them in the Play Store. Expect it to arrive this October!

Watch the video where I personally walk you through the new features of the game.

If you don't feel like watching the video, you can just read on as I explain the details of the update.

You can expect the following changes and additions that will come with the update:

Character Upgrades

With character upgrades players will feel the sense of progression. We borrowed some elements from the RPG genre and allow the player to power up their character.

Just keep earning EXP and leveling up to unlock ability tiers. You can then purchase the upgrades using the golden bugs you've been collecting in the game.

Continue System

A standard feature of Endless Runner games, the continue systems allow the player to optionally continue his/her run in case his character died or get caught. Continuing the session will require 1 Rainbow Butterfly. These butterflies are acquired as quest rewards. Player can also get more butterflies in the shop.

In-game Shop

Through the in-game shop players can buy convenience items such as golden bugs or butterflies. It is not our goal to tighten the cost of objects to force players to buy stuff, rather, they're here only for those who lack the time for earning the currencies. If you feel the game is getting skewed towards the favor of the shop, let us know!

Items in the shop are bought with real money. Soon cosmetic items will also be sold here.

New Quests

We added 16 new quests for levels 8-10 players. As with before, these are optional missions that provides not only additional goals, but additional sources of EXP, golden bugs, or butterflies.

Improved Power Dash

The Power Dash may now be used as an offensive weapon. At the moment, only the flying eagles can be brought down with the power dash. In the future, many more types of obstacles can be countered by the player not only using power dash, but by other offensive skills as well.

Dodge them or take them on?

The game is still far from what we would consider a finished game. We chose to let the public play the demo with these updates to gather more user feedback so we know where to improve the game more. We've been listening, and we're very thankful for all your support!

-- LJ

To contact the author, just send your e-mail to hobbigames@gmail.com

SuperTiny Monkey is now Playable!

Super Tiny Monkey is now LIVE for OPEN BETA! You can download the Android app from Google Play Store

Meet the tiny monkey with super powers. Leap, dive, glide...survive!

Help our tiny monkey run from poachers. Leap from tree to tree and get as far away as possible. Be careful of spikes and don't fall off! Beat the highest score and tell your friends about it.

We GREATLY appreciate your feedback, suggestions, criticism. As long as it's about improving the game, we're all ears! We wish to hear from you.

To contact the author, just send your e-mail to hobbigames@gmail.com

Super Tiny Monkey: Sidequests

Quests give the gamers a purpose. We believe that by adding quests to our game, you, our player, will enjoy the game more. Quests will give you something to work on, something to aim for -- in case topping the leaderboard isn't enough.

To be able to see your Quest Log, simply tap the PAUSE/HELP button. The Pause window will appear and from there you just tap the Quest Menu button. It's the one that looks like a book.

Second button from the left

The quests are optional missions any player can complete while playing the game. Each quest gives varying rewards, all in the form of EXP (Experience Points), Gold Bugs (Currency for use with power ups and upgrades), and Rainbow Butterflies (Special Currency). Completing quests is currently the only way to earn Rainbow Butterflies at the moment.

Quests have a Level requirement. At the start of the game, during level 1, there are only a handful of quests available to the player. As you gain more levels, you get to unlock more quests automatically. Your new quests will simply be added to the bottom of the Active quests list. You can view the currently locked quests, complete with their rewards. We think that by doing it this way it'll motivate the player to level up and keep on playing.

Likewise, completed quests are kept in a nice list for itself. From here you can review the quests you have completed. Quests are tied to the map you are in. Each map will have its own set of quests. Quests are not repeatable. Once completed, they will always stay completed.

Completed quests

During gameplay, when the player completes a quest, a notification will appear at the corner of the screen. This gives the player a hint that he/she has completed a quest. As more quests are completed the number indicator will simply increment. Pressing/Tapping this icon will bring up the Quest Log Menu.

Notification to your right

After a game session, you will be notified of each quest you have completed, and be awarded with EXP, Gold Bugs, and Rainbow Butterflies according the the description of your quest.

At the moment of this writing we already have 35 quests. We plan to add more, to reach 50 quests for each map.

-- LJ

To contact the author, just send your e-mail to hobbigames@gmail.com

Tiny Monkey: Plot and Characters

Experiment BZ-1538 has escaped, and is on the run. The captors are now after it and are desperate to bring it back alive. On this article we're going to explore the story and characters behind Super Tiny Monkey.

Our hero belongs to a family of primates called Tarsiidae. He was captured in the wilds and became the 1538th subject for an experimental procedure that implants super natural abilities to trained animals. As a result of numerous experiments and medications, he has developed a more human-like awareness and thought process. This advancement gave him the wit enough to devise a plan to escape the laboratory. Being a very valuable experiment, he is now being chased relentlessly by his captors. He is experiment BZ-1538, nicknamed Goggles.

BZ-1538 "Goggles" Concept Art

Goggles is one of the few test subjects that reacted positively to the medication. He exhibited slow but steady development starting with his problem solving skills. Lab results show that aside from the discoloration of his fur to a more reddish hue, he is yet to manifest any form of physical mutation. It has been observed that he moves and navigates around differently than any ordinary primate of his kind. His capability for cognitive learning was duly noted, but no one was aware of the super powers he obtained -- until he broke free and escaped. Goggles was found to be able to produce a protective shield around himself that can absorb some damage before collapsing. He can also summon all the strengths and focus them on his feet to make a powerful kick that sends him almost flying across the air. It was theorized from there on that he will manifest more super natural abilities as he matures.

Enrico Alonzo, better known as the Poacher, was tasked by Dr. Zoo to capture BZ-1538 and bring it back alive. Rico assembles a handful of locals and chases Goggles through the forest. Rico is not very bright, as evidenced by his preference to use a simple sweep net against a super monkey.

Concept Art of Rico the Poacher

When Rico was tasked by Dr. Zoo to capture BZ-1538, he enlisted the help of the local poachers. These locals are remarkably good at climbing trees, so Rico had them hiding on the trees above, ready to swoop down on our unsuspecting hero.

Poacher on the tree

Evil genius Dr. Blight Zoo is the creator of BZ-1538. He is a brilliant engineer, chemist, and biologist, and considered to be a prodigy during his time. Shortly after completing his many accomplishments in various fields of science, he vanished without a trace. Little do people know, he has been spending over 40 years of his life trying to create a stable biochemical formula. With the formula he aims to unlock the full potential of all the living creatures. Over the course of his pursuit he has experimented with over a thousand subjects. Most of his subjects were not able to survive the procedure, and would reject the chemicals injected to their system. With the relative success of BZ-1538 along with a handful of other subjects, he feels he has come real close to success. Up to now he has kept a very low profile and is conducting his experiments in a secluded laboratory he built in the mountain ranges.

Concept Art of Dr. Zoo

Dr. Zoo is a man in his 60's, and is a vegetarian. He is extravagant, can be pompous at times, and a little impatient. It is unknown whether he's striving for the benefit of mankind or just himself.

Goggles was not the only one. There are other test subjects that also exhibited various levels of development both mentally and physically. There are also test subjects that have already undergone training and have become loyal to Dr. Zoo, even prior to BZ-1538's creation. At the time of BZ-1538's escape, a number of yet to be identified test subjects have also escaped. It is unclear if they planned their escape altogether or not. Stay tuned for updates as we reveal their identities!

-- LJ

To contact the author, just send your e-mail to hobbigames@gmail.com

Where Are You Now, Oh Tiny Monkey?

I announced Tiny Monkey for release last month. Unfortunately, the promised date came and went, but no Tiny Monkey appeared at the Play Store. The game was not released and It wasn't because the goal wasn't reached -- it just felt rather unfinished.

All the features, which isn't saying much, that I planned for an August release was already there. The only thing left for us to do for the remaining two weeks was let other people sample our game. However, during the last leg of the weeks that I have been in "Gamedev Hermit" mode, this article, referred by my wife, caught my attention. It made me think twice about going through with the release.

Old screenshot of Tiny Monkey

I am fully aware that Tiny Monkey is just slightly differently dressed, but a clone nonetheless. The article does have a point, and I'm not oblivious to the fates of the multitude of clones of that game. Despite all that I managed to convince myself that Tiny Monkey can set itself apart from the rest of its kind. The important thing was that I had a simple goal, that goal was met, and it was good enough for me. It’s time to play test this with other people and go through with the release, or so I thought.

One sample player just kept on tapping the screen, and it made our Monkey jump and glide erratically. Sure they can reach past the 20 mark line, but it all felt random; like it was just some sort of fluke. Also watching the game being played like that was sort of painful. There was no grace; the sensation I was expecting from watching someone time their jump from one tree to the next was absent. That was when I first had the thought that maybe our game really isn't good enough for a release.

I discussed this with the team, and it turns out they did have the same experience. One feedback we got was that the controls are overwhelming and complicated. I stepped back for a bit to think about it. Were they really overwhelming? Tap to jump when you’re on a tree. Tap to glide when airborne. Swipe right when on a tree to kick. Swipe down when airborne to dive. Swipe up when airborne. I made sure that the information is accessible to players by putting a bouncing HELP button that brings up a multi page visual aid, but it seems that was not enough. Another proof of this was that I had to explain the controls each time I get a new person to play the game. We had to think of a way that can make the information even more accessible and visible to the player. We concluded that a progression system is needed.

Progression system implemented

With the progression system, our players will be slowly introduced to the different controls of the game. At level 1 all the player can do is tap on the screen so that our monkey can leap from tree to tree. Of course that would mean that the trees need to be evenly spaced and reachable with a single leap. This also means that obstacles need to be removed, to be introduced gradually. At level 2 the player will be taught how to perform a kick from tree to tree. On level 3 the player can swipe up to lift our monkey. This goes on up to level 7, where the player would have access to all abilities and super powers that our hero has.

The progression system gave the game a bit of a RPG flavor-- players will earn experience points based on the number of trees it passed by. The Stars awarded to the player also serve as multipliers to boost the experience. With enough experience points, the player will level up, and the process begins again. Excess Exp is carried over to the next level. When the level cap is reached, which will sit at 7 at the time of the beta release, players will stop earning Exp.

With the decision to add a progression system we had no choice but to push the release date to a few more weeks. The initial game was already ready early August, but with this we were aiming for a late August release. But wait a minute, it's already September. Why hasn't the game released yet?

A progression system gave the game a little of the much needed polish it requires. It also added replay value. Tiny Monkey has taken a step to evolution from being a clone into being a game of its own. It was a good feeling, but I was not satisfied. Since we already missed the first deadline, why not extend it a little more and push it back to the next month? Why should we still pin ourselves to an August release when we could do something more for just an additional month? We are not under pressure from anything aside from awaiting fans. "I'm sure they'll understand", I thought. I'm sure you'll understand.

Upon completing a side mission, a notification will appear

So here we are now adding missions. These are optional goals for the player. We believe this can increase the replay value of the game and give us more time while we work on additional content (e.g. new maps, new obstacles, power upgrades, etc.) Some missions are trivial activities that the player will probably complete unknowingly, while some will require skills and dexterity. They reward the player with golden bugs (ingame currency), Exp, and the rainbow butterfly-- a special currency. Once the interface is implemented and the missions are fully tested, we will publish a public beta release for both Android and iOS.

Quest rewards

While we're trying to deliver a more complete game, we're still a very small operation and we do all this work on the sideline. We're maintaining that balance between what we can achieve given our limited time and the quality of our product. In this regard, the game Tiny Monkey has officially changed its release date to "when it's ready". Apologies if you've been eagerly waiting for this. Hopefully you can wait just a little more!

-- LJ

To contact the author, just send your e-mail to hobbigames@gmail.com