Author: Prudhvi_P

Hey everyone,

August 16th, 2018 marks a bittersweet moment for us at SkyCanvas games. Our time in UOIT ‘s Brilliant incubator has come to an end. It feels like the summer just blew by. I guess that’s just what happens when you’re having fun, or you’re extremely busy, or both; yes both :’)

 

After an exciting summer learning and improving our pitching skills, SkyCanvas Games was able to close out on a high note by placing first in our Brilliant Incubator pitch finale! (Twitter link) Winning a grand prize of $1,000.

 

 

We would like to thank our Brilliant mentors, guests speakers, firefly funders, and esteemed guests for making this possible. It was an honour to showcase all of our progress and hard work. A special thanks to our three judges for volunteering their time.

1. Dr, Steven Murphy, Vice-Chancellor and President – the University of Ontario Institute of Technology
2. Nora Bieberstein -Senior Management, Innovation Partnerships and Engagement – Royal Bank of Canada
3.  Jennifer Osborne – President and CEO, Search Engine People

The finale event was a day to celebrate the growth of this year’s start-ups as well as the success and future of UOIT’s Brilliant incubator program. It was an amazing night and a great chance for us to chat with the organizers, firefly donors, faculty, and supporters all in one room.

Although the above competition was a private event, we will be participating in another public pitch competition held by Brilliant on September 24th. If you would like to attend, please reach out to us.

Thanks for reading!

– Prudhvi Penumetcha

Hey guys,

We at SkyCanvas have been playing a new release by the name of Thunderdogs by Lucky Kat Studios.
Thunderdogs is a top-down shooter with a gorgeous art style, the charming illustrations of aviation dogs are a personal favourite of mine. The controls are straight forward and allow you to jump right into the online PvP arena.

Check out the trailer and enjoy the awesome music!

There are tons of awesome planes to try out and collect, there is a specific plane we deemed as the most OP by the name of Spark. Spark was a hard reference to Spike Spiegel from cowboy bebop. The in-game ship was exactly the same as Spikes SwordFish2 straight from the anime!

When I finallyyyy got spikes rare ship from the gacha-system, I set a strong personal record as top dog. I wrote a strategy post in the in-game community forum, This forum was really sweet and something I hope we can plug into our games at SkyCanvas in the future.

I encourage you readers to try Thunderdogs, its available on both Play Store & Apple Store. Let me know if my tips were helpful and see if you can beat my score as top dawg!

Check out my “How to get kills as top dawg” strategy post.

Thanks for reading, happy gaming!

– Prudhvi

Hey everyone,

For this entry I will be blogging about a mobile game called Tomb of the Mask by developers Happy Magenta. I was initially introduced to the game casually by josh, it was a great and I started really getting into it. My first impression was, whoa these swipe mechanics are really quick. I started to observe and hypothesis on how they got their swipe input to be so damn responsive. As some of you might know, our game Slash Dash Samurai weighs heavily on swiping input. I felt there was a lot we could learn from Tomb of the Mask.

Here is a gameplay video of Tomb of the Mask by someone who is way better than me. Note that any one vertical or horizontal movement of the player is triggered by the swipe of thumb.

Here are some of the initial considerations and their projected pro’s and con’s. Each method is an evolution of the last and meant to solve the biggest challenges of it’s former.

To feel responsive, it is critical to be able to fire the slash within a short distance with no noticeable delay. For our game and playstyle, intermediate players will have to pair multiple swipes back to back with a high degree accuracy and precision. So, it is really important to have a solid algorithm in which users can reply on without fail.
Excited to see how these methods can be applied into our game. I recommend playing Tomb of the mask for those who enjoy challenging mobile games.

Thanks for reading!
– Prudhvi

Update – I ran into another title called Fist of Fury by Happy Magenta, this game was likely the predecessor to Tomb of the mask as its sole mechanic is the quick swipe mechanic.

 

As participants of the UOIT Brilliant incubator we were fortunate to have the opportunity to apply for the Firefly funding grant to help reach our Start-up goals. We worked hard and bootstrapped on how we could stretch funding to grow our business and ensure the long-term stability of our studio.

We are absolutely elated to be granted the maximum firefly funding amount of $3,000 dollars! 🙂
Here are the major expenditures for our firefly grant and the goals they help reach,

• Marketing muscle for Slash Dash Samurai on Google Play store and Apple store
• Improving production quality of Slash Dash Samurai (Better software tools)
• Conducting validation research on our advertisement pricing mode
• Pursuing future funding, grants and investor opportunities
• Incorporate SkyCanvas Games
• Support for minimal operating upkeep

We are so thankful for the Brilliant organizers and Firefly fund donors for this grant. This will kick start and advance us greatly in our early development and initial trails. Donor-supported awards like this are very important to students and young entrepreneurs like us in support and attain our educational and career goals. With a core team of 5 game development graduates from UOIT working at SkyCanvas games, every dollar will be fully contributed in making a difference.

Thanks for reading,
Prudhvi Penumetcha  

SkyCanvas Games had been accepted into this year’s summer cohort at UOIT’s Brilliant Program Incubator!

Brilliant Entrepreneurship is a non-academic incubator that surrounds incubates like ourselves with professional entrepreneurial advisors. Throughout the 4-month summer cohort, Brilliant organizes a variety of guest speakers and networking opportunities to foster and sharpen our entrepreneurial skillsets. The Cohort began with an incredible 2-week opening entrepreneurial crash course which was jam packed with industry speakers and comprehensive workshops. In addition, brilliant provides incubates with a shared workspace located on UOIT, funding opportunities, expert mentorship, and networking opportunities. 

Personally, my experience thus far has been very insightful and extremely encouraging. The advice and connections I’ve made have been catered specifically to the ambitions I have for our studio SkyCanvas Games and our first game Slash Dash Samurai. It’s made the experience that much more valuable.

As a startup developing on our first title SkyCanvas games and no real precious titles to vouch for our team as a reputable studio, I was under the impression that working in the games industry would be difficult since we only our words to convey our games, our team, and our vision. To my wonderful surprise I have found that there are so many opportunities for a studio at your stage of development. With many people such as the brilliant faculty who are extremely positive in propelling our efforts, It has very encouraging and makes us that much more excited for the future.

I will be sure to blog about our milestones and keep you guys updated on our experience as mentees at Brilliant, stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,

Prudhvi Penumetcha