Just over a week and a half ago, when my friend Nick told me that Apple were accepting iPad app submissions, I didn't think much of it. Sure, it would be cool to be a launch app, but there was a one week deadline. Apple were rewarding people who had started early and anticipated this. For me, it would mean starting something from scratch. With a week's dev time, a full time job to go to, and a family to look after, that would be impossible right? 

Right?

Well yes, it was impossible - this is no story where the battler wins the day against all odds. There was an app made which could theoretically have been submitted to Apple before the deadline, but it wasn't. Telling you that does not give away the ending because, well, that's not the end.

Let me begin at the beginning.

So on Saturday, after dismissing the possibility of writing an iPad game in a week as poppycock, it began to play on my mind. By Monday I had decided that I really wanted to at least give it a try - see what I can come up with in a week, and at the end of that time make a decision on whether or not to submit to Apple. I needed an idea which was simple to implement but had enough play in it to actually be a fun game with some depth. I also wanted something which would play to the strengths of the iPad - a big screen, all that touch real estate. My wife had already remarked that air hockey type games were an obvious choice, so I decided to mix the 'paddle and puck' control method with arcade space action in the style of Galaxian. Development would be in the old Rockethands favourite Cocos2d, using the Box2D physics engine.

So Monday lunchtime I came up with a plan, small parts of which I will reproduce here:

Puxian: A space invaders style game where you control a circular bat, and you destroy enemies by hitting a puck, air hockey style. The sides and top of the screen are reboundable, covered by bright neon bumpers that light up dramatically when hit and fade gradually. They give a cumulative score multiplier when lit up at the same time. Occasionally bumpers will generate a powerup when hit, such as extra health, shield, and multi-pucks. If a puck leaves the bottom of the screen, the paddle loses some of its 'power'. The game is over when all power is lost.

There is a bunch more on how the enemies come down from the top of the screen, and you can hit multiple enemies in sequence to get a chain of hits, which are worth lots of points.

When a player has dealt with all enemies for a level, they face the end of level boss. Only by hitting the boss' vulnerable area and depleting all his power will he be defeated. Defeating a boss brings about the end of level transition - stats on the players points, kills, highest multiplier, biggest chain combos etc are displayed.

This was shaping up to be great! And of course there would be multiple player mode, and a regular air hockey mode, and highscores and..well much much more of course!

I quickly got a makeshift menu up and running, and had many plans for what I would do when I got home. Unfortunately, by the time I got home and did everything I had to do and finally got a chance to do some coding, I fell asleep. It wasn't until Tuesday night that I actually got the paddle and puck on screen with some test graphics.

So by Tuesday night you could move the paddle around with your finger and hit other objects (including but not limited to the puck). I also had a place to display score and multiplier, and for testing purposes you can spawn 'enemies' by tapping 'empty space'.

Not much to look at is it? This will never sell!

The Halogen Dev Diary Part 2 gives the lowdown on what happened on Thursday and Friday - where enemies are asploded, points are awarded, and the first basic art is put in.