Category Archives: Blog

Aquarium Sim is Live!

October 24, 2016BlogAndroid, Aquarium Game, Aquarium Sim, Google Play, Mobile, ReleasedAdam Berent

I am happy to announce that after months of work Aquarium Sim for Android is now live on the Google Play store.

Aquarium Sim is an interactive virtual Aquarium for your phone & tablet. Sit back, relax and enjoy a variety of marine & freshwater fish swimming about in a colorful coral reef habitat. Setup your aquarium by choosing from 82 fish and 9 environments. Interact with your pets by taping on the glass and feeding them.
Aquarium Sim Features:

– 82 highly detailed fish species Including (Clown Fish, Puffer Fish, Sting Ray, Sea Horse)
– 7 intricately detailed coral reef scenes
– 2 Freshwater Scenes
– Realistic Swimming behaviors and appearance
– No in-app purchases, all fish & environments are free

Working on an Aquarium Game

September 27, 2016Blog, NewsAquarium Sim, Game Development, Indie Game DevelopmentAdam Berent

Recently I started working on a new Aquarium Simulator game (at least while the next Train is being built by my 3D Artist for Train Sim).

As usual the game is going to be free and have no in-app purchases. It will feature both a freshwater aquarium as well as a marine (saltwater) one.

So far I have the Fish AI complete. They swim within the bounds of their aquarium along with avoidance of their environment. Currently you can also feed the fish, as well as tap the aquarium to watch them follow your finger.

Currently I am working on a screen that will allow you to setup the fish in the aquarium and provide you some information about each of the fish. This is actually a challenge to do, as my screen has too many buttons and is currently not intuitive. Maybe I have to divide it into 2 screens instead.

Follow me on Twitter to receive more in-progres screenshots.

Analytics Live View Showing Train Sim Players

September 9, 2016BlogAnalytics, Train SimAdam Berent

Here is a neat little video I captured using Unity Analytics Live View feature that shows Train Sim users starting Train Sim on iOS & Android at around 5PM EST. At that time you can see more activity at Eastern Americas and less in Europe & Asia where people are sleeping.

Kids Car Racers

August 23, 2016Blog, NewsAndroid, iOS, Kids Car Racers, UpdateAdam Berent

Kids Car Racers received a much overdue update last week for Android & iOS. Update, now live! Including a New Fantasy Themed Scene and a much improved GUI that is more intuitive to kids. I also picked a more friendly main menu theme music.

Train Sim New Trains and Menu

August 9, 2016Blog, NewsAmazon, Android, iOS, iPhone, Train Sim, Update, Windows StoreAdam Berent

Although I had the Acela Express model ready for a while, I did not get a chance to ad it to Train Sim in the last update . Adding the Indian Scene was already a huge story and I wanted to make sure I limit the amount of changes in a single release.

So over the last 2 weeks I focused on adding the Acela Express & the Southern Pacific 4449. to Train Sim. I think you will agree that the quality of these Trains is really awesome!

I also spend some time improving the Main Menu for Train Sim. The important change here is that the scenes are now represented by text and picture, making it far more kid friendly. (This has been on my backlog for a long time.)

These changes are now live on Android & Amazon, and waiting for review on iOS. I should have the Windows Store & Phone version live within the next week or two.

Send Poke Balls!

July 19, 2016BlogFun, Pokemon Go, ProductivityAdam Berent

We are fighting a wild Pokemon Infestation. Productivity is down & we are low on poke balls, send help!

Recent Updates

July 5, 2016Blog3 Jeweled, 3 Jewels, Dinosaur Sim, Flight Sim, Train SimAdam Berent

Its been a busy month, lots of updates and work in progress.

First I added 2 new Dinosaurs to Dinosaur Sim. Pachycephhlosaurus and Argentinosaurus are now playable Dinosaurs. I still have at least 2 more dinosaurs to add in the near future including the requested Pteranodon. Although I already have an animated pteranodon I need to first add a larger playable world (so you can fly further) and implement flying (which is not easy)

After that I did some much needed updates to 3 Jewels. This was a major overhaul to the game-play system. Originally 3 Jewels only had 1 mode of play I call endless mode. This meant that you could play for hours until you run out of valid moves, which was mainly up to luck. Now on top of the existing endless mode, 3 Jewels also has over 50 challenge levels that allow you to compete with a limited number of moves. This update also came with new game-play features such as Jewel Bombs, Blocks and Slide to Move.

Also during all these updates I have also been working on a new version of Train Sim. This new version will feature a new Indian Scene which has been requested by many Indian fans of the game. Work is moving along well although I still have a few weeks remaining to ensure high quality and a nice finish.

Finally I am celebrating 1 millionth download of Flight Sim. This is one of my favorite games and I am so very happy that over 1 million players got to enjoy the value that Flight Sim provides. Most other games ask you to pay for each airplane but Flight Sim gives you 18 free airplanes with no in game purchases. (Like all my games)

Tasks the Indie Way

May 31, 2016Blog, NewsAgile, Indie Tasks, iOS, iPhone, ScrumAdam Berent

There are many frameworks for managing tasks for large teams, such as Kanban, Agile & Scrum and there are excellent tools managing these frameworks. However these tools can be overkill for developers like me, working alone.

In theory you don’t need allot, after all how much does a single developer need to remember. For a while I simply used a word processor on a 1985 Macintosh Plus. (Because I wanted a reason to turn it on)

This however had a disadvantage of not fitting in my pocket so I could not add things on the go. I needed an app.

Since I am a developer I could make that app, one that fits my exact requirements based on standards that I learned during my work on large software development teams, but tailored to the needs of a single Indie Developer.

The finished product is Indie Tasks, an app for recording and managing tasks for 1 Indie Game or App developer. Now available for iPhone & Android. An app made by and Indie Developer for Indie Developers. Tested & used daily by myself.

In Indie tasks you will find standard familiar terms & processes from Scrum & Agile such as:

– Assigning Effort by using Points to Stories using a Fibonacci Sequence
– Calculated Velocity based on last 30 days of Done Tasks
– Statuses such as Doing, Done
– Ability to distinguish between Tasks, Ideas & Bugs
– Backlog Reports and Views
– Twitter Share

I Indie Tasks daily in my workflow and will continue improving it based on user feedback as well as my own experiences.

Trains & Dinosaurs

May 21, 2016Blog, NewsAndroid, Dino Sim, Dinosaur Game, Dinosaur Sim, iOS, iPhone, Train Sim, Train Simulator, UpdateAdam Berent

Its been a busy few weeks. First I updated Train Sim with 2 (yes 2) new Trains; Class 91 & Bombardier Talent. If that was not enough I also added a new Train Selector and fixed a bunch of bugs.

I am proud to say that Train Sim now features 44 Trains. Thats 44 high quality realistic trains with full 3D cabins and custom sounds. This update is now available on Android, Amazon & iOS.

I have to say Train Sim came a long way in just over 2 years, I can only imagine where it will be in 2 more.

If that was not enough I also posted an Update to Dinosaur Sim. Although Dinosaur Sim is a fairly recent addition to my game lineup, it has proven to be very popular. So this week I added 2 new Dinosaurs (Styracosaurs & Kentrosaurus) to Dinosaur Sim. I am happy to say that this update is also already available on Android & iOS with Amazon coming soon.

I am also working on a Windows 10 version of Dinosaur Sim, I may be able to submit it next week.

To keep up to date on what is going on at 3583 Bytes please follow me on Twitter. I try to post every day so you should always know what I am working on.

Updates on Windows 10

April 29, 2016Blog, NewsAdmob, Ads, Ant Sim, Car Crashers, Kids Trains, Vungle, Windows Phone, Windows StoreAdam Berent

Just thought I would post an update on what I have been up to lately.

Over the last few weeks I have been updating several of my games for Windows 10 to catch up to their Android/iOS versions. This is as always a painful process.

The good news is I have also adapted a new monetization strategy and made these games free with ads. Traditionally all my games on the Windows Store have been monetized with purchases $1-2 each. This is because that Google Admob does not serve Ads on Windows Store platforms.

However, recently I saw that Microsoft has partnered with Vungle to provide Video Ads on the Windows Store. I investigated further and found that they have a fairly easy Unity3D SDK. So my quest began.

So far I have managed to update Car Crashers & Ant Sim & both are now free on the Windows Store & I am working on Updating Kids Trains.

Over the next few months I will monitor closely if these games will become more more popular as free games. If it works out, I will continue integrating the Vungle SDK in to my Windows Store games and changing their price to free. Who knows maybe there is a free version of Train Sim in the future for Windows Store!