A Shooter busy day

So i am finally getting into the HD revolution, though i think the revolution happend several years back. I am actually gonna setup a new tv and it is an LCD HD one. Awesome i hope.

Well anyway today apart from setting up my living room for the new TV, i have been working on A Shooter. Taking into account the latest playtest feedback. Mainly from Chris Hughes, who is a top lad and someone i respect for trying hard to do Indie with Honor. So today i added my last piece of music, the commisioned piece by Liam Tarpey that will be SorceryGames theme music. After adding that (you will hear it on the credits) i got to work on the Bosses.

The issue with the bosses is that they all look the same. So people will think they are the same. Even though they are all orignial and evolving. So what to do. Originally (this morning) i asked my artist id he could supply another definition at least. But then i realised i should take Chris's other comment and just see what happens when i tint them. And lo and behold it looks sweet. I have about 8 colors and then just reused a few and i am really surprised at the results. They look really good and i think this has added the missing element to my Bosses.

Then i gave the game a quick onve over and noticed a part of the instructions was erronous, so fixed that up and then added abit about multiplayer. Whammo i feel i am done...

I will let it rest now for a few days (ok, ill keep testing it of course). But what i am mainly waiting for is tuesday. The reason for releasing my game into Peer review on Tuesday is so i can try and make some effort (though it may be futile) to get into the new releases list for friday. Now games usually take longer to go through peer review than a week, but i have a lot of peers that i would call friends and i am hoping they will help me achieve the friday goal. And yes, of course i will publish the succes or not of this adventure. :)

G'night, i have to get up early in the morning to go off roading with my family up at Rowher again. I love off roading on my Honda 450x..

E3 Wednesday was my day

I got to go visit my mates workplace today. I was looking forward to it and it was very nice. Disney Online offices in North Hollywood where he now works. I met some of his workmates and they were all really nice. The offices had lots of cubicles but also lots of nice artwork along the walls, giving it a more relaxed look. Very nice. Then a quick walk and hop on a Metro train to the Staples Center.

We got to walk around the show and see a heckuva lot of people, though most seemed to be standing in some endless line at the Nintendo booth, i think maybe for the 3ds experience. I am not much of a queuer myself, so i skipped all lines. This mean't my swag haul was low this year, but tbh, i am just not that bothered. I got to see Move in Action, i got to witness Kinect in action... I also of course got to see a lot of Wii games. Here are a few thoughts about what i witnessed today, though it is biased by what i think i saw and sometimes experienced.

1. Kinect seemeed to work well with a random background of people behind it. I hope this is true.
2. Eyetoy for PS3 is as bad as seeing you as the old Eyetoy was for PS2.
3. Some games just will not feel right with Kinect (Think tenis etc). Ya gotta have something in your hand.
4. Playing golf with a Wiimote or Move controller is exactly the same. And will not help your golf game.
5. Epic mickey looked... dated. So many polygons, oops, so few i mean't. Gameplay looked great.
6. 3D games are cool. Pity it loked like it could make you very tired very quickly. We shall see.
7. Not much use of 3d, except to show depth is fps games for the most part. Was ok for sure.
8. I never got to see a 3ds... bah! Fang queues.
9. Kinect seems to be ground breaking in some ways, though held back in others.
10. Move is a couple of Wiimotes and an eyetoy.
11. The eyetoy Move games look like games Massmedia did about 5 years ago for THQ
12. I visited Indiecade, and got some info, also a publisher, though only for PC titles.

Man that was a lot of notes eh! You may not agree with some of them, or in fact any of them. They are my thoughts atm, but i hope some can be shaped to be different with experience. I certainly feel let down for some reason on the whole move thing. Feels like i did that before. Kinect, well we shall see just how it works out. I do want Harmonixs Dance though 8D

For  alate lunch i met some workmates and some ex-workmates at the yardhouse and had a hald yard of Firestone pale ale, then followed that up with a turkey melt and pint of Newcastle Brown ale. So yummy. I don't usually drink so much beer in one sitting. But it was ace. The conversation was lively and i love these guys. They Rock!!

When i got home i got the awful news of a bug report about The Midway from Sony. No idea why it has taken this long to get to me, and it's full of bullshit too. I am not happy. We were told we would be going live tomorrow. Was that a freakin Lie?

Oh and one last thought... Sony has Home, a wonderful place filled with so many possibilities, but so far unrealized. MS and Nintendo have nothing close to it.. Yet, in the presentation and in their area, it was hard to find that it existed... Why so short sighted?

G'night

New Boss Health bar

This is my boss from A Shooter. This version thuogh has a brigth green bar stuck in it's nose. This is in fact the boss's health bar. It shrinks from the left to the right and changes color as the health diminishes. In much the same way your ships health bubble does. I am not sure I like this at the moment, but i have put it in to see if it is useful. so far one playtester has confirmed that they liked it. So it might be here to stay. this is a proposed change to the health bar that shows at the bottom of the screen for the boss, but so far i think both might stay. The boss health bar was highly requested and in fact I tend to like it myself. the issues with the one on the ship is that it is relatively hard to see,especially when the ship is moving, also the fact that it is so small means it does not have a lot of granularity per pixel. The big bar is way obvious and has currently 8 times the granularity. I will ponder the situation more.

I am late posting tonight as I have had some people round to chat about stuff and it was a great night chatting with them till 2:30am this morning, WOW how time can fly.

While they are here I managed to get a Four player test in on the Xbox. It went so well i am shocked. We pounded it first try on Easy mode. then I set it to hardest, and this eparated the men from the boys and it killed us all on level 9. this seemed good to me and I never saw a single bug :|  I am shocked too haha. A great fun experience. Now i just have 3 player mode to test :)

G'night.

My Mate Terry

My mate Terry is a great asset to any creative endeavour. He knows stuff, he accepts limits, he comes up with great ideas. He also knows how to draw. I have to admit I love working with people who as well as being talented just Get it. You know, get what page your on, or where ya coming from. They may not always agree with your reasoning etc, but it is great when they understand ya. It can certainly make development easier.

I love the way currently he keeps coming up with simple and yet smart ideas and observations. He will make my product so much better than it is already. Everyone needs a workmate like Terry. Someone who i have not had the pleasure of working with for nigh on 18 years. Good friends, good professionalism and good times.

But I did not write this post just to Brag about how good and professional my friends are. I also wanted to show you shome of his graphics.

Fodder alien

Main fighter

Tracking fighter

This is the New Boss!

The style is there, and along with consistent graphical stylings, this game is gonna look real sweet.

Laters