Working hard on 0.0.3 which will hopefully be ready by 12:00

We've read through all the posts on Google+  (great thanks to everyone playing the game and posting about bugs and problems) and we think we've just about handled everything. The main focus of the 0.0.3 update is finalizing the game structure.

We've fixed up the health bar to a nice and pretty heart design, courtesy of Nexust. We've redone the music so the device volume will change in-game volume to a more accurate degree. Otherwise, it's mostly just a bunch of fixes and tune-ups. Also, the porcupine now spawns randomly (but biome specific) instead of just appearing on the same spot. It's also now finally possible to delete items in your inventory (we also added an undo-last-trash button incase you lose something important). And lastly, the most painful fix was the shirt. We basically had to re-code the entire armor module to move with the player. The shirt now no longer overlays but modifies the player sprite so it should work fine. This means the shirt doesn't vanish when you mine and fight (although it made it look pretty rambo-ish...)

Well that's all for now. We'll be doing daily blogposts (if possible) from now on so keep an eye on the blog as development should move fast now.

Thanks to all of the alpha testers!

Geared will be getting new sounds!

Geared is based on Epic Inventor but it isn't a clone for Android and iOS, it's not an on-the-go copy of the game. It's the Android and iOS version of the game, a second installment, another way to play - even when there is a PC nearby... Crafting and building have already started to diverge and so will sounds. We've been away almost this entire week and subsequently development was halted temporarily, but at least we found something cool.

I found a few nice Italian gentlemen who recorded a few background songs for Geared. The music style is different to the current ones but fits nicely. The new songs will be in the next update (0.0.3)

While we were away, we figured out a few ways to better the game and fix a few bugs. I can't wait to be back so we can implement these changes. Also, we fixed up the wiki this week! You can check it out on Gamepedia. (geared.gamepedia.com)

This is one of the nice guys who helped us out  with the music (he's from Croatia):

Geared is now available for iOS

Geared is finally available for iOS as well! We decided to release the Android version first and after the first patch, leading in to the alpha, we released it for iOS. You can get it now via the link provided in the group if your UDID is registered. If your UDID isn't registered, please send us an email and we'll add you to the iOS list...

Android release was well recieved and iOS build will be launching soon!

We decided to release the Android version first and it was received well. Over 80 alpha testers initially had access to the game and were able to download it on their Android mobile devices. We have had loads of bugs and suggestions posted on the G+ group and were very happy with the high level of input from the community.


We will release a bug-fix version of 0.0.2 tomorrow and implement some new interesting items. Among the bug fixes and updates will be the addition of the Porcupine and an updated user interface. We have also fixed Yeast and Bread crafting and hopefully removed negative item counts. We also tweaked a few settings and items and hope that most initial bugs like the map defects will be settled now.


We worked on the shirt but haven't fixed it yet. The next update (0.0.3) can be expected after the 16th July. We will also release the iOS version 0.0.1 tomorrow. The first iOS release will be the equivalent of 0.0.2 for Android. We are also working on the wiki and Gamepedia has agreed to help us out. We would love it if you could join in with the wiki creation! The wiki is slowly taking shape but isn't quite ready yet. You can take a look at geared.gamepedia.com


Well that's all for now. Till the 16th, when I return from Europe.

The alpha is live!

The Geared alpha is finally live and working! After two weeks of hard work, blood, sweat and loads of tears, Geared has finally reached the indev-alpha stage. The font doesn't look too great for now and it's extremely buggy and underpopulated, but it's there!

We can't wait to hear what you think! Post your comments in the G+ community.

RIP GreyWolf media

GreyWolf media has been closed down and is done, out of business. Due to many factors, including the recent email problem. But Geared won't be discontinued!

I will still continue development and support of Geared and the site will remain unchanged. I will continue to use the development blog and will be posting regularly to our Google+ community (check under community tab).

The alpha is now completely open and anyone can join! Take a look on the g+ or website if you're interested. Geared alpha will still be releasing on Monday (12:00 PM - New York time)

What a day!

The alpha sign-ups crashed completely! We had to send out an email to complete the verification process as our alpha quota was reached withing a few minutes.

Finally done with the new map!

We're finally over the large part, we've redone the map! Now we can add multiple maps and world types later on in the game... It was better to fix it up now than to have a problem later. We're tweaking the last parts of the resource spawning and will add our friend, the porcupine, tomorrow. We're making huge progress this week!

We think we'll be ready to launch the public alpha on Monday but still have a lot to do before then. We crashed the game once this week as well, but fixed it later xD. We also think we'll replace the font with the same as Epic Inventor uses. AI is working fine and we have a temporary health bar in place (ugly but it works).

Well, until Monday then. Enjoy this cool poster for now:

Erli Bird alpha starting on Monday!

The first real public alpha will be launching on Monday, 29 June 2014! We're only accepting Earli Bird sign-ups for the moment but are very excited to hear what the public thinks of our efforts so far! We'll have a chance to do some in-depth structural tests as well.

If you want to be a part of the alpha, please sign-up with Erli bird to secure your spot, before Monday! You can find it at http://www.erlibird.com/go/geared

After Monday we'll still accept Erli Bird sign-ups but release updates and then add new members slowly. These next 2 weeks are going to be crazy exciting!

We have no power here!

The power was out here for almost two days and our generator stopped working after about twenty minutes. Thus, we haven't been working on Geared at all the last two days. The power is on again though and we'll keep updating as fast as we can. Half of our team is away at the moment so progress is slow but by next week we'll be back at it full speed.

We have finished up crafting in the mean time though and armor works! We have added the shirt as a test model and it fits well. We plan to add one of every type of item and property in the game first and from next week fill up the database and game. We still haven't redone the map but will take a look at it next week. We're busy with the wiki and will soon have it up and running.

We've released a new update to test a few consents but so far it can't be called a game yet. Our dev version looks amazing so far and we think the game will be a very large game, compared to other android and ios games (in size, not in MB).

Here's our new trailer for you guys to check out:
*Three trailers actually

Armour is and in the game and working!

We've slowly been starting to add craftable items to the game and armour works! We still need to redo the entire map and resource spawns but so far the development is going well. Placeable objects such as the Town Hall works and mob AI is finally good enough for us. We're still not sure about implementation of the robot but we've still got room for him if we decide to include it.

Today, we need to figure out what to do with the map!
Cheers for now, will probably post again later...

Working hard before the next alpha update!

Everyone who wants to become a part of the alpha has to sign up on the site so they can registered for the next build. We are working on mobs and their AI although they are really stupid at present. We're unsure how we're going to let them behave but we'll fix it soon!

Behold the mighty porcupine:

Crafting works! Jipee!

It's been a long week with a lot of difficulty. We really though that we weren't going to be able to create a compact crafting system to accommodate the over 100 items we have planned. It's finally been done! We decided to go with a category based scrolling system and add item ID's later when there was a lot of items and it gets hard to scroll through everything.

We also started working on mob AI (which is pretty dumb at the moment). Sorry we haven't been posting lately but it was really a hectic week. We fixed up the bug in the inventory (which shouldn't have been there in the first place) and also added a alpha registration list, visit our website to find out more. We can now directly draw bug reports and see who does what.

The file size will jump around a lot this week as we start shifting items around but should stabilize at about 25-30mb. We expect the entire game to be 40-50mb but no larger than 50mb. We thought of replacing random generation with a teleportation system, then we can add multiple cool maps with their own biomes and weird creatures!

We also started the wiki (which you can find online or on the play store) and you'll be able to search all the items there soon. We added the Town Hall (something new) and placeables work well.

Those are the reasons we didn't post this week xD

Geared alpha is now live for iOS too!

After a long day and hard work, we finally have an alpha dev build ready! It is a few versions behind the Android version but can still (barely) be called a game. It's there, and it's beautiful!

If you want to try the alpha send us an email or use the contact us form on the page. On the development side, we're still working on crafting and how it'll fit together. We're going to need to compact it a lot more seeing as the game is already 20mb but it's going well. We're going to try and fit the game into 50mb but it will be hard to do with everything we want to add.

We'll use the coming week to figure out crafting.

Geared alpha is now live for iOS too!

After a long

Say hello to Geared on iOS too!

Repost from June 7, 2014
We just got our things in order and have the certificates and mac’s and gadgets and gizmos for iOS! We decided that we’re going to release the game for both iOS and Android at the same time and not delay iOS as we initially thought. Apple is difficult to distribute on due to initial costs and porting the game but we seem to have bridged most of our worries…
The game will be coming out on both iOS and Android and will recieve the same updates on both platforms. We also took a look at a few independant reviewers who agreed to preview and review the game for us.
Further, our dev team expanded a little more and we’re now 5 working on the main project of Geared, looks good so far!
We’re really starting to ‘Gear Up!’

Achievement Get: "Taking Inventory!"

Repost from June 7, 2014
We’ve finally figured out crafting! Crafting is done and looks fantastic. You can now craft items and we have an easy system to add new items and thier recipe! Seems like we’re really making progress…

Well, I’ll probably post again tonight so cheers for now!

Geared is finally starting to become a reality!

Repost from 1 June, 2014

We finished the inventory (looks great!) and can confirm it works just as well on touch as on PC. The inventory (at this stage) will have 29-slots, including the hotbar. Instead of making the hotbar display differently when an item is selected, we decided to display selected items in top corner of the screen. We did this so your hands don’t get in the way and block valuable information. We also decided to add a pause feature after all and will make crafting display in a seperate window, rather than an overlay, due to space constraints on smaller devices. The game will then pause(it’s better this way…) and you can happily craft away without having to worry about being killed.

Talking about crafting, we have drawn up the consept for crafting and think it’ll be fine for touch. We decided to make it display more information (the reason for pause) and less small gadgets and gizmos to miss-tap on.

We are still in two minds about our friend, the robot… He seems so much a part of Epic Inventor but might over-power the game on android. The amount of items we can add for his storage space might make it worth it to cut him out of the game. His controls also make space difficult and his movement is hard on small processors. The game seems to have so much growth prospective without the little guy and can turn way more to the direction of survival.

If you want to comment or let us know whether you would miss the robit(Futurama joke) please send us an email at geared-alpha@programmer.net or beyleveld@outlook.com

We expect to have the game out of alpha somewhere in the next 3 months and will then run a beta for at least a month or two to make sure everything works. Don’t worry, there won’t be ads and the game will be free. Cheers for now, have to go Gear Up! for finishing the crafting.

Me and me trusty o'le stick!

Repost from May 31, 2014
With the hotbar finally working it’s time to move on, the inventory isn’t quite right yet but we’ll fix that later. For now, we started by trying to figure out how to work around fine mouse clicks and utilise android to its full potential. Already, the game is turning out to be much different from Epic Inventor. It looks the same and even smells the same but everything is different now…
Resource mining will be completely different to Epic Inventor and the tools used to mine will also be a first. The stick (classic) has been added and we fixed up object motion so android knows what to do. The game is relatively simple but we’re making every little detail PERFECT, the coding is really neat and has no useless loops or unused variables. We can grow the game to about double the PC version and still have it use less resources the way we’re going about it.
We got someone to work on map generation and are still thinking about how to do crafting. We might make the wiki in the game with direct crafting or something similar. I don’t see this game being Epic Inventor for android anymore, I see it being an android game like EI.
We’ll let’s start working on the crafting system, Gear Up!

Trying to fix up the inventory, again...

Still not happy with how the inventory looks (Epic Inventor’s standard is too resource intensive to run on all the devices we want to cover), we started from scratch. It took a few hours but the hotbar finally works and items are usable! Now it’s just up to making the full inventory and deciding how to display/hide it.
We figured to use arrays to make item stacking easier and define various craftable objects. We still haven’t decided how crafting will work as we want to make it feel easy and native. Crafting is difficult on a touch device, especially when scrolling and hover isn’t in play. We’ll probably use item tabs and order the items or something. We don’t want to use lists so smaller devices can’t easily touch them.
Still a lot to do…

Geared is progressing nicely and is finally out in Alpha!

Geared is not yet available to the general public and won’t be for quite some time, but for a select group of Alpha testers, Geared is here.

Geared Alpha

The game is progressing nicely and will soon overtake our expectations, we have finished up the inventory system and resource gathering and it looks good!

Started production of Geared today!

We have started an ambitious new project, Geared!It will be an RPG side-scrolling game with RTS-elements, based on Epic Inventor.In essence it will start out as the Android version of Geared and progress from there. We invision this game becoming bigger than the PC version (does that even make sense?)Let’s get started!