Demo station

I have been busy going ahead and building the demo station, even though i did not get financed by Kickstarter. It was already half built anyway. Today i hope to get my Xbox inside it and maybe the top connected to the bottom.

So the new news, and why i am writing this post is that i chatted with the manager of my local Gamestop today. He was very nice as always and was trying to be helpful. However his hands are tied in respect to my wishes. So he kindly gave me a couple of phone numbers to contact the corporate offices of Media and store operations. I hope that phoning them this week will allow me to get in store asap. We shall see.

The game is nearly ready for playtest again, what i hope will be my final playtest, but one never knows. The only real issue i have currently is that the intro video has decided to start playing at 1/4 screen, very very odd. It never did this before, and it makes the rest of the screen green for some odd reason. Most weird. ahh well...

Laters

E3 and work to be done

If you are one of those lucky people that is preparing something for E3, then ya might wanna look at the clock. It officialy starts tomorrow or in about 11 hours from now, and you should be done already.

Unlike me, as i am not yet done. Due to some unforseen issues and a deadline that was tonight of all things, it now falls into the late category. I hate being late with anything, even if it is not my fault. I am fortunate however that what i am working on is for a private showing and not a public one, so i can get away with it this year.

That has not always been the case. Usually ridiculous requests come in for demos at a late date, and somehow you are being asked to produce a showable demo or level of your epic game. I do not like this kind of thing. I am always that type that says look ahead, is there something that you might want, like a demo for any of the gaming cons around the globe etc. Somehow producers do not seem to think this sort of thing is too important till it means you are gonna have your team there crunching for a freaking demo, Grrr.

Magazine demos also fall into this category. Organised it isn't hard, late request it is a royal pain in the rear.

Here's hoping you are all adequatly prepared.

G'night.

Been playing Games all day

It is amazing. The day seems to have gone too fast. It is not very often i play games for too long nowadays. so much to write and design and market etc. Anyone readin this blog will know i am busy on all these fronts. However today i got my wow account restored. so i spent a good while dealing with that. Then moaning about how they did not sort out my sons linked account. To be done i am sure.

So anyway, i sort that for a bit, and try to play some wow with me friend Jeff. We just got into an instance when he was cut off. Then he was unable to sign back in. This bummed me out for a bit, but figured his internet will be sorted once more this coming weekend. We can have soem happy trails then i am sure.

Well i was also playing my new Indie games, apple jack, and Murphid. Both very nice games. Both well put together with nary a hint of being rushed to market (my usual complaint of course for Xblig games!). These are both great games. One is more up my alley than the other and that would be Apple Jack, right from the first jump ya know this game is aok. Murphid is good but not being a match 3 puzzle kinda guy i bought it for the wife and then proceeded to play for like 30 minutes myself, haha! I had to kill myself so i could go fetch my son.

Then.. it was the good stuff..
Me and Lucas went off to one of the Gamestops near where i collected him, well we went after getting some Taco Bell grub. This was my first foray into the Tapo Rd Gamestop. They had 3 staff and no customers. i was in there browsing for 10 minutes and only 1 lady came in to collect Bioshock for her son. I never found the game i was after for me Xbox and so left. Intrigued. .. Is it usually that dead on a Sunday at 12:30pm.
Then me and Lucas headed off to the other Gamestop in Simi valley. This one is in the Simi mall, and i like the manager there. He has helped me market my game Pellmell in the past. This place was quite busy, in about a 10 minute span they must have had a dozen customers and i also found the game i was looking for 'Sonic's Ultmiate Genesis Collection'. As a bonus i also found that Lego 'Indiana Jones 2' was only 20 bicks. SCORE!! So of course i bought them both.
This journey was of course to scout out Sundays as possible days for me to Demo my game. Get feedback and the works. Talking to the managers will be happening very soon i think.

The only issue was.. when i got home, i got to enjoy a bunch of the game from the Genesis and also i started playing with both my children on Lego Indiana 2.. ARGH! then the day was gone...

Finally ended the night watching the last episode of 'Spartacus of Blood and Sand' on netflix on me Xbox. This has been one epic series. One of the most enjoyable mature level series i have ever witnessed.  the story was fabulous, and there was lots of nudity and violence for anyone to be sated. Mind it is very graphic, and i am sure some will not get past the boobs to appreciate the story that unfolds.

Tha last thing i can say tonight is that the base to my stand is not ready. Hopefully a picture tomorrow will prove this.. It is BIG, about 4 inches higher than i expected, as i had forgotten to add in the size of the monitor stand, bah!

G'night

Always more is needed

So i am brain dead toady. I need to write up this this document for a surprise hopefully ready in less than a week, if i can get on with it. Only i am unable to write anything today. so i played a little wow, now one of my accounts is restored, sorting out all that inventory is a pain in the buttocks i can tell ya.

I did get my base (box finished for my demo stand. So next up is fastening the stand to the base. Then onto curtaining it and fitting in the xbox etc, quite exciting for me. As i get closer to finishing this i get more excited about being closer to demoing my game.

I also worked a bit on the side panles for the monitor, but now i need new black ink cartridge, bah!

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, hopefully some less brain dead brainwaves...

G'night

The Demo Stand Base

I have done some work on the base for the stand. It is essentially a box. Of course it has to be strong enough to hold the rest of the stand on top of it, also it will need to hold the weight of the xbox and monitor. so it should be strong. I of course used plywood in it's construction. It was tough to cut cos of my shoulder, but with my daughters help i got it done. Here it is so far.

The box.. Plain and simple. It will also be great for carrying my stuff to the demo spot as well :)

This is the top.. erm, bottom of the box. But the stand will rest on this bit. I made a boo boo in my design, and so did not add another 1/2 inch to the width. So i will fix this next time i work on it. The long sides need to be able to take more weight.

So here is a look at the inside. You can see the corner blocks that i screwed into. This is also very strong. You can see in the bottom the extra side pieces i have to put in (they are not done yet).

Next time you see this it will hopefully be painted black as well. I sure hope this turns out alright, otherwise i will have to pay someone to make me a demo stand. Or i can just forget about the idea. Which i don't want to.

G'night.

Demo stand Picture 2

This is the latest pic i have of my demo station. Ok, so i know this is just the monitor, but one thing at a time. The side panel i have created are pretty much what i want, only they are currently just printed paper. I tried to print them properly and my printer refused to work right. It kept printing the main body of black text as grey. this is real annoying, as otherwise i think i would have them created onto the mounting board etc.

Next up is to do the base board for the bottom of the monitor and then start assembling the rest of the actual stand, and locking pieces into place etc. But more of that later...

I did get my joystick pulling code done today for A Shooter, but that was it. I haven't even had chance to test it properly yet. More to do as usual. I may need help or something. Maybe just less Apathy.

G'night

The Demo Stand

I have started on the Demo stand. I am using an old table that i made for my sons room many a year ago, this table was to hold his PS1 and it did it well. Then it moved onto holding his gamecube. Now it is going to be repainted black and have an addition on the bottom (to make it taller). Then a curtain and a monitor on top and ooh, an Xbox 360 at it's heart.!

So this weekend we bought all the bits i would need. Velcro strapps, and a couplea sheets of plywood a can of black spray paint. I am sure we bought more stuff too, but i cannot remember.

Well tonight i painted the stand black. I also redid the top splash baord for the monitor. I didn't like the old one as it looked a bit crap. Like i had just knocked it together real quick. which i guess i did. However this led me to a much nicer top board. Currently it is being compressed to let the glue dry and it stick real wel together. I am not sure if the stand will look great, cos in my excitement i have spray painted it black... In the dark! Yup, i did it at about 11:30 at night, outside, haha! Tomorrow might tell mne a story methinks.

Apart from that i have a monitor and really need to made the 16 inch high box that will be the base of the stand. Then the stand wil be attached to that and finally that will make it high enough for people to stand and play my games on it.

I am rather excited tbh. I am also excited as I fixed the bugs a friend found in the game, but also i added a new type of credits screen. Specifically for Sponsors credits. Here's hoping i get some at some point soon.

I think maybe tomorrow the game can go back into playtest for a week or so. It has a lot more stuff in it now. Ok, i know most is just stuff to make it look nice etc, but it still needs to be tested. And stuff that looks nice is what will probably sell it. I need more good stuff!

Once i get something going with me stand i shall post up some pictures. Yeehaw!

G'night.

Work and Thoughts

So now A Shooter has it's sounds in. Yes it is true, we finally got a few collection sounds into the game. It seems complete, though i am sure there is somewhere that the sound isn't correct. Maybe i will catch it when i do real playthroughs.

uff, my typing is so much worse tonight than usual, and it is never great :S... bah!

The game is about ready to enter Playtest for maybe once more. It is hard to tell how much more i can afford to put into this title. I am ramping up production on my marketing strategies and stuff.. So many things to do and try and get done. Yikes! Still it was too windy today to spray paint my console tower (the one i will use for demoing my game live outside of Gamestop!).

Here is a link i found funny.
Playstation3

I emailed a guys about the possibility of doing me some Company music. I really want a track that reminds people of 'Live and Let Die' from the Bond movie of the same name. time will tell if he can do it, and if i can afford it. Sure hope i can afford it, it will be coolio!

Not quite sure what else to say, except wait and see what i hope to have up my sleeve very soon!

Indie Devs ftw!

g'night