Notices

Update: I'll add the final post in this thread here for more visibility:

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Hi again,

I need some help testing the demo version of Nanoparticles and was hoping that maybe some of you in the community with an N9 could help me out?

There are some reviews in Nokia Store about the Nanoparticles Free version going straight to the end-of-demo screen after level 1. This should happen after level 10, not level 1, so the reports are worrying. Even more so, I'm unable to reproduce this problem on my own phone, so I could use some help from you to see if you experience the same behaviour with the demo.

You can download the demo here.

The demo uses the same config file as the full version, so issue this command in the terminal before testing the demo if you already have the full version of Nanoparticles installed:
If you could also try to run the game from the terminal to see if the output gives any clues about this bug, I would be very grateful. The command to run from terminal is
After testing, you may issue this command in terminal to get your original settings back:
I'm very grateful if you have the time to help me debug this problem.

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Nanoparticles 2 is out. You can download it for N900, N950, N9 and more now:

Download from Nokia Store

Version 2.0 of Nanoparticles brings in a new party mode with particles that can repel your enemies, enable time dilation and teleport you to new areas of the level. Thanks to the user community here for bringing up these great ideas!

In addition, thanks to the great efforts behind Qt and Necessitas, the game is now available for Android tablets and phones as well, should you wish to try it on your tablet as well:

Download from Android Market

About Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles is a physics based game I have been working on and entered the MeeGo Coding Competition with, where you control a green charge in its quest to avoid the purple ones. The purple charges will destroy the green one upon touch, so you’ll have to keep them away from each other.

Behind the scenes are the laws of physics at work. Coloumb’s law and Newtonian physics predicts the movement of each particle. Of course with some modifications for the sake of entertainment.

You can push around the green charge using the red charges to repel it and the blue charges attract it.

The game is available for Maemo in the Ovi Store as well as Symbian. It will soon be released for MeeGo.

Download it here (Price approx. 1 €)

Open source
Nanoparticles is completely open source, with all components released under the GNU GPLv3. The source code can be browsed and downloaded here.

Nanoparticles is built using Qt in C++, with some parts made in QML. To build the source code on any platform, it should be enough to run “qmake” and “make” – or just install Qt Creator and open the project file from there.

Screenshots







Why does it cost money when it's open source?
Because I wanted to give the commercial way of making open source applications and games a try. I see no reason why something cannot be libre, open source software and have a price tag at the same time. If you don't like this idea, you could still download the source and build that for free. In a way I'm just charging you for the ease of downloading the game from Ovi Store. (In fact, it would probably be easier to download it from Maemo Extras, but I can't put a price tag on it there, so that option got left out...)

I hope you guys enjoy it! And don't hesitate to speak up if you have any comments or suggestions. This is hopefully just the first of many physics based games I'll work on for Maemo and the other Qt-platforms.

More games to the N900!
Thanks!

Love that people make games and apps for the Maemo os!
Same goes for these guys:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=74493

Excellent game, just purchased, got to level 15, but as I see, I could finish and re-try any level as many times as I would like and it would still be interesting, thanks for developing!
PD: I will be waiting for those physics games, jeje (I'm physicist)

do as you please, of course, but let me suggest yet another way of monetising on open source: one could let the download/distribution of the game be easy/free (such as through maemo extras) and let people pay what they want through flattr.

I really like this game. (By the fact that I like physics... And can play with QPhysics for a whole hour...)
It's also silky smooth and good-looking. You've done a great job with this.

Glad to hear you liked it! I'm really impressed if you get past level 20. That's when things really are heating up.

Thanks! I've tried my best to keep it smooth running on mobiles. Thanks to Qt using OpenGL for drawing graphics in an effective way, that was an easy task.

I'm a big fan of doing things this way too. There is just the problem that you'll have to make people notice the fact that you have a flattr/donate button somewhere. I don't like popups and advertisement within applications, and I'm not sure how many will read the about text looking for a flattr-button. When distributing over the web, it's possible to have the donate button visible upon download. Sadly, there is no such option within Maemo Extras - or any other repository browser, for that matter. In fact, it would be a great improvement to have donate buttons within browsers such as Maemo Extras, Ubuntu Software Center and alike.

But of course, I bet both methods work. I just don't know which is best (or the one that results in most income) and will probably try both over time. I'm already considering doing this for the desktop version, with a "pay-what-you-want" solution.

Just got past level 20 !!
After level 17 it slows down if you add a lot of particles, I guess that's expected... anyway, you must keep the number of particles low in the next levels or you will finish with a 'hot' gas, very hard to succeed. Nice game!

Well, people who develop software for a living, like most professional software developers can't depend on donations for their time and effort. Maybe this is the main reason many developers left out the N900 and hence Maemo lacking apps or the reason why most apps have an unpolished feel.

Open source is great for people with passion to the platform and hobbyists who wish to work on a platform. Here, most open source software developers do not expect anything in return for their work. Not even donations.They work on a platform because they have the passion to develop for the platform. They never depend on it for a living or income.

Hence, while its great to have open source applications, its nice to know that some developers are still developing commercial applications for a plaform which was declared "dead" by its own father.

EDIT: failed to notice this application was open source. Oopsl Sorry!

cheers!

Congrats! I haven't even gotten past level 20 myself on my N8. I think I should blame it on the lack of a stylus But I've of course cheated and tried some higher levels Your description of finishing off with a hot gas is very fitting. I find it best to move ahead slowly and make adjustments far away rather than bursting in a lot of charges.

Hehe, no problem

Personally I really like the idea of commercial, open source software. When creating open source software you are able to use other's code for functionality you might need and also work within an ecosystem with lots of code examples available. This gives you a boost in creating applications, while you are still enabled to make money off what you do.

If you get paid to make the software I see no reason not to open source it. That way you can make it with less costs by building upon other open source frameworks.

If you get paid by selling the software you have to be the best provider of it (the NRKbeta Doctrine). The other places your content is available matters less if your distribution channels are more available, easier to use and prized reasonably. In my case it is easier for most users to download the game through Ovi Store rather than to download the source and compile it. Even with a compiled .deb on the web, I still believe that users would buy it through Ovi Store.

And should someone create their own version of the game, I'll be happy to continue building on top of that in good spirit of the GPL.