Work all night and no play

I have been diligently working on the Reviewer Excel file that Chris has sent me. I have added  bunch of new reviewers and emails etc. This is good, however it has taken me several hours up till now. Ouch!

I have not been doing much since working on this apart from doing a bit of editng to my A shooter Promo video, but i haven't spent long on it. Which as it just so happens is what Peers have done with the game in Playtest. I think i might just move it over to Review and save everyone the Reviewing fatigue. Might work out better that way.

Once never knows eh :D

G'night

Sometimes ya gotta take a breath

Last night i worked real late. I was tired and fixing some bugs and little things in A Shooter.

Then i made the ccGame i wanted to for the Xbox Playtest. Instead of immediately uploading it to MS i decided to download it to my Xbox an give it a final test. I always try to do a final test. Then I look less like an idiot when the version goes up and the first person to test it finds something horibly wrong right away.

So luckily for me i did this as i noticed i hadn't redone the default high score setup, DOH!
5 seconds later that was done and i had a new ccGame. It was however at this point i realised how tired i was at nearly 2am. I also realised that i would not be able to really objectively test the ccGame on the xbox either. I reckon i would miss something. So instead i went to bed... and slept like a baby.

This morning while i was eating breakfast and regaling the wife with my tales of working while tired into the early hours of the morning. It became apparent my wisom of the earlier session was to hold true. As just eating breakfast made me realise that i had not removed the level jump cheat, bah!

So glad i waited, maybe tonight i will get it right and then into playtest.

Laters

A Shooter is ready

I think i have it all sorted now.

Tonight i have stayed up stupidly late and...

1. Made the save faster by making it save so much less xml, down from 2MB to 64KB.
2. Fixed a bug my friend Ben told me about with the stars that fall from the bosses.
3. Made it so local profiles cannot be entered into the Global scoreboard. I believe i have left silver in there, but i am not sure about the privilage call i checked.
4. I have corrected an incorrect error message when a none signed in player attempts to 'Tell a friend'

Oh, i think that is it. I will have to give it a proper once over tomorrow before i put it into playtest, but i think it is ready at this early hour of the morning.

Wish me luck :)

G'night.

Working with my Peers

Xblig is an interesting place, full of stuff. I say stuff cos i am not sure what some of the things are. It is also full of developers of every type and persuasion.

Last night i deigned to do nothing on my own game and instead look through the Peer review list and also the Playtest list. I was primarily looking for games that some of my Tweeple are working on. Strangely enough i feel very connected to these other devs that i have not yet met in real life. Instead i have grown to know them a little better through 140 character limit posts in twitter. The one thing i like about these peers is their dedication and determination (dang, thats two thnigs already, argh!). They want to produce a nice product fit to be proud of and do it in the hopes that people will notice it and play it.

So browsing through the review list first nabbed me an odd game from Stegersaurus games. Some strange twist of a game with Massage in the name. Very funny i thought when i saw it and tested it. I couldn't find anything really wrong and so passed it. Not quite my cup of tea but my kids liked it.

Then with no other name being known to me on the Reiew list i headed off to the Playtest area. This is where i spend a lot more time, as playtesting and giving back worthwhile feedback is a longer process than Peer testing a review game.I found two games here Old School Adventure and Blazin Balls Xtreme Edition. I have to say i had a rather good time with both and ended up writing many words for the developers, but that isn't the point of this writup. In fact what is the point is the way they took the criticism. That not only read and commented and asked questions about what was said by myself and a few others (Bob Taco Ind and QuimbyRBG). They did it in such a professional way that it warms my heart to think that i am actualy working with these people. Yes, i feel that connected to their product in some small way.

I thank these devs for treating me and my other Peers with such respect, even when we say stuff that isn't very nice. And to all those devs that get so annoyed and aggravated with playtest reviewers, please learn some decorum!

I now look forward to my next delve into the wonderful world of Xblig playtest and Peer review.

Laters

Experimentation time

So i have decided that while i am working on gettting my kickstarter.com project funded i shall also do some research. The first research i am gonna work on is Avatars. I just need to check how they function etc. This should keep me amused for a while. I do have several designs for games that include them, and also game designs that are suitable for th WM7 platform (not that i have looked at that yet).

My main focus i decided this morning is to do some more Xblig playtesting and reveiwing. YAY! It has a been a while and now i have some time, and i also have some more inclination. My inclination tends to wander when i do reports to te devs and they ignore all i have to say. I know they don't have to listen to me, but ignoring me just makes me not wanna do it. If they said they did not want to put in one of my suggestions, then fine. If they want to discuss why they aren't or don't think they should do a certain thing in the game, then fine, i love that kinda thing. Just me spending an hour on their game to have them just pop it over to peer reveiw anyway bums me out.

I also have to ask why so many devs (nearly all it seems!) put out their first games, and then tell you what parts they never got around to doing. this baffles me as at appears they knew these items were missing or not added. But had to release it there and then, when it wasn't ready. It is an odd admission to make in my opinion.

Well tomorrow i check out the latest from Xblig and Xna land.
G'night

Latest verion of A Shooter

My latest version has come a long way since it was last in playtest. Yet it is about ready to go back in there. This time there are a few more technical additions to my game. Onces that will require people to test them.

They are:-
the Global Hghscore System.
the Presence system.
the Tell a Friend system.

Oh how i have worked on the Xbox version....

I have put a lot of bells and whistles into the Xbox version. Stuff that just will not work on the PC. So now my artist will not be able to see everything properly, which is a pity.

Anyhow, here is the latest update notes i have for A Shooter...

• All graphics are in and working. I believe them all to be done. however I have not done a formal pass over the game, as i will early next week. It has looked great as i have been testing stuff today.
• .New Score animations are in and look great.
• .New pita is in and now i got him animating (oops missed that first time round haha), he looks sweet.
• .Carousel is now in properly under it's own alien name. Again, real sweet.
• .The new boss health bar is simply Rock on tommy! Everyone loves it.
• .New splash screen no longer screams at me for being so different to the title page.
• .Added an option to the title page for telling a friend, this on the xbox brings up the message send requester. However i do not like the fomartting, but love the name. bah! more work to do there i guess.
• .Added 'Shout your Score' button in none trial mode. This allows you to send a message to friends with your score in it at the end of each level or at game over. Great challenge idea.
• .Added presence to various places within the game. It could be sweet to know your friend is playing 'A Shooter' and fighting a boss!
• .Added a whole bunch of player signed in and profile privelage settings for the above two addons.
• .Tweaked a few things, mostly animation timings and of course the new fade out on the scores.
• .Sent messages to myself and friends. they seem to work.. Woohoo!
• .Global highscore sharing is active on the xbox. deactivated on the PC version as it seems to kill the debugger and renderer. Bah!
• .Sped up some rendering routines. Mainly the way they create garbage. so it was a real garbage clean up day haha. I could do more, but if noone sees slowdown, i won't bother.

To Do...

• Still have audio to do. My audio man has been strangely quiet today. Guess i will have to do it myself tomorrow.
• Add a new credits screen for the sponsors i am in hope of getting.
• Pass over everything in the game and make comments. Some comments will be for the future of my games, others will be things i need to fix. Some will be if i am bored, so optional.
• Marketing...
•    I need to get my marketing texts ready for the Xbox description.
•    Need to prepare the pulic announcement. Or press release.
•    Need to get my stand ready for showing off my game.
•    Need to get Marketing and more marketing setup before the title goes out.
•    Get me T shirts made. Then start the competitions (get em ready, rules etc). Once more minimlism as they are so expensive.
•    Get me a nice Sorcerygames hat, for prizes and promotional work. wonder how much they are :O
• Sort out admission to Pax10
• Sort out new Playtest version for Xblig

As you can tell, i have a lot to do. More than i have on this list, but some things will have to wait.

So wish me luck, and Hopefully by the middle of next week i shall be back into Playtest for the 3rd or 4th time.

g'night.

A Shooter Feedback #3

yeah, Another soul has deigned to test my game. Here is what they wrote.

1. Just had a play through and I couldn't find any fail issues.

2. Really great look and feel.
3. One thing I noticed is that my score wasn't updating on the global high scores table, but looking at your comments, you are working on that.
4. Also a suggestion about the high scores - I prefer it if there isn't multiple scores for the same gamer in the table, just the gamers highest ever score.
5. Hope this helps. Drop me a line when you need help testing the glocal scores transfer.

Wonderful eh. Usually I dissect each post and analyse and give my opinion. Tonight is no different.
1. This is always good to hear. It means they tested for Fail reasons like MU pulling and screen safe etc. No fails = No more time wasted on that crap. More time for making the game better.
2. What a nice thing to say. It is alwsy a great thing to get complimients, especially releveant ones. Remember they don't have to say these things. so appreciate them, then add more to the game. this person actually seems to have noticed that I went for a feel to this game. I call it gameplay.
3. Yup, my Global scores are a broken work in progress. Tennis took up my night, so I never got to work on it some more. Again, they show they read my comments. Oh comments, i haven't mentioned them before eh. Each time you put a game into playtest you can add notes that get posted into the forums. This is a VALUABLE thing to do. Tell people what has changed. Tell them what you would really like tested or comments on. Use this to your advantage. A lot of games in playtest are not doing this. And it means their games suffers from less playtesting by Peers and also less focused comments. I have seen the Devs write that they didn't need comments on the saving system or the graphics after a playtester has taken time to write down comments for them. Idiots!
4. This is one i always feel for. But i have a plan. Local scores will record all your scores. The global scores will only record your highest. This should be a great thing for everyone to see their place.
5. Yes, it all helps. I do not care how small the feedback or how large. It all helps make a better product. It is also nice that this developer has offered his services for me to test with. That is a real nice person who seems to understand the difficulties associated with this particular game component.

And that's it for tonight. It has been a hella busy day for me, and tomorrow I will write about the busy day working on the PS3 stuff.

G'night

Second Feedback post for 'A Shooter'

Wow, I am so surprised I have already gotten a second feedback post. Only hours after reposting the game up after my alterations in response to the first post. Last time I used the Playtest I got virtually no input for a whole week. So life is GOOD.

Here is what my Peer said
  "VoodooChief:
  SDTV offsets supported for in game scores and HUD."

1. Not sure if I am missing something, but I do not see any way to change the offsets. On my 36" HDTV the player #0 is cut off at the top of the screen. The Stage: 1 is outside of the recommended safezone of 80% of the screen as well. You have a lot of realestate to work with... it wouldn't hinder anything to move the upper left down and to the right so the text starts at 128x 72y and the lower right text above 648y (those values are for 1280x720)

2. Do I have a life count? I don't see anything to indicate that I do. I blink red after getting hit. Looks like 3 hits and then I die completely, but it's definately not clear if the next shot is going to kill me or not.

3. Would like to be able to change the options from the pause screen without having to end my game to do so (ie to change rumble, change the control scheme, etc)

4. Would like to know that I got a highscore... I end up having to check the highscore table to see if I got the highscore or not when the game is over... and then I have to remember what my score was to see if I beat my last highscore.

5. Would like it if the collected powerups had a higher res, they seem a little jagged... (for example the apple) completely pixelized would be cool or just a higher resolution.

6. Nice variety in enemies and bosses as you progress through the stages (I mean the bosses have the same model but each have a different pattern which is cool).

7. Aside from the title safe issues... I did not encounter any other issues. Yanking out the memory unit, signing out and in of a profile, trying to purchase the game using a guest profile are all handled.

8. Movement of the ship feels a little sluggish, but I can live with that. I tried the game on easy and medium and on stage 6 there doesn't appear to be any difference (do you get more lives or something?)

9. overall a good Shooter. ( I do feel I have died cheaply a few times after using the smart bomb and then running into one of the bullets immediately after, but since I can start back on a stage after losing I can live with that. It seems it only happens if I move the ship to the left so that it goes off screen after using the smart bomb.)
 
Ok, So he was a busy bee and wrote a number of things. I will address each one in turn as I did in the Forum thread, only I will add more of the thought process behind each comment.
 
1. I have it detect 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio and adjust the properties based on that. However i am not sure why your HDTV has screen safe issues of more than 5% or so. Mine actually sees all the borders and is what I work on. I test on a 17" sdtv when i have my main code base ready. So I think I need a bit more info if you have any. I will look into this further though. I might also put an option to alter the position for people to play with if they want. - That was my reply. I do not quite know at this time why on his HDTV and not mine he has such a problem. In the mean time i have taken the precaution of bringing in the Hud elements from the game. Of course i have a lot of real estate, but i do not want my aliens bullets to be residing behind the scores and pop out and kill you, that would feel and be unfair.
 
2. Yes you have a life count. It is the large heart in the middle of the ship, which starts off green, then yellow, then red. It also gets smaller the less life you have (this was especially for colorblind people). You are correct that 3 hits and you are dead. I will be spending a bit more time on this, as a first time player... this is the most importnt thing about your ship. I will make it better, just got too many whacky ideas to sort through. - That was my reply. As you can see i am obviously concerned that the first time player will not notice the ships 'Heart'. So far i have Made the Heart Bigger, and therefore more noticable. I did think of putting an effect on top of it as it changes (also suggested by a friend), but i think that will just hid th Heart even further. Not sure atm, just what else i can do. I am open to suggestions though.
 
3. Hmm, the options screen from in game is an interesting one. It is also something i will look into, as it would be nice for it to work that way, but it will not be a fast change within my menuing system (the pause is the same level as the options). - That was my reply. I obviously could do this with work. But i am not sure i want to. Let us look at what it would give us. In game i could alter the control scheme. hmm, something that a person would do once? Maybe twice at most ever. How much development time is that really worth. The next things are Rumble and the Volumes. Well ok, you might want to alter the volumes in game, get that balance of music and SFX just right for ya. However the Rumble is something that people tend to leave on or off. Is it worth me spending a number of hours to get this, rather major change put in and debugged? At the moment I do not think so. I also think this will not alter the perception of quality with my title or effect sales of it at all. so for now, i will not be doing this.
 
4. This was brilliant, no idea how i forgot to put the highscore on the screen, silly me! I will be fixing that.- That was my reply. Well it speaks for itself really. So I have already put the Highscore on the top middle of the screen, in screen unsafe area, mwuhahha!
 
5. The graphics, none of them really (excepting a very few) are finished. My artist is busy moving house, so that part will have to wait. They should be nice graphics soon (i hope). But i have to take exception to ya not liking my graphics, geez. (not really though!). - That was my reply. We all know the graphics need some love. Hopefully soon. Did you notice what i did there though? I added humour and personality ito my reply to him. Not enough to say i am not laughing at you. But hopefully enough to engage the reveiwer. This is done so they might come back and re-playtest or review my game later. And angry tone with Peers giving feedback will get you roasted and ignored. Better to go the other way.
 
6. Thanks for the kind comments on the variety. Also noticing that the bosses were different, even though they ALL look the same (currently that is all 13 of them bah!) - That was my reply. It is always so nice to get compliments. Always acknowledge them, even if they are small or backhanded. Then hope this leads to more.

7. I am glad there no other issues, and thanks a bunch for trying stuff.- That was my reply. This is a HUGE relief so far. The reason is simple. Most games in Peer Review fail for MU pulling reasons, then second on the fail list is the Profile manhandling. Awesome result so far with my rewrite of this stuff.  

8. The movement of the ship is balanced to the enemy bullets, and it can feel sluggish, but the trade off is excellent, as you have a lot of accuracy. Which is better to slip the bullets with..- That was my reply. We all will feel differently about this. But the remark he made allowed me to iterate something about my product.  Something very very important. That is 'I designed it that way on purpose'. This may seem trivial. But some reviewers will totally believe that the ship speed or any other thing just happened to be that speed etc. It is good to show you have actually put thought and design and balance into this work. I love replying to these kind of comments. Makes me feel all proud that i set things this way. We must of course be careful not to be a braggard though :O
8a The easy and normal difficulty settings effect several things.Enemy rate of fire and the number of HP each enemy has are the two main differences. Once again the second part of his comment allowed me to share with the world (ok, XNA world) just what my design goals are and how i implemented them.
 
9. Your final comment was interesting and caused me to look into the smart bomb, i hate people feeling like they have died cheaply. They should know why they died and feel that they can do better next time. So the smart bomb was designed to be smarter than i should have made it. It is now cured (maybe i am) of being so clever. You will not die on it again. What happened was the bullets it linked to were still active for 0.5 of a second after they were smart bombed. Now they are immediately unhittable. - That was my reply. Here i apologise for something not being right. It was my design idea, as previously blogged about of course. But sometimes things are not easily understood. So back to the drawing board and vanquish my silly idea. Ahh well. It is always good to apologize, unless the feedback is getting on your nerves. This is what you signed up for right?
 

I then had some final thoughts. I love my final thoughts, as i try very hard to connect with not just the Peer who gave feedback, but also with other Peer who may look at this thread. What I say now might just influence them to come give me feedback too. In the first sentence you will see I describe myself as trying to give the best experience I can. In the second part I am saying that i really want you to do this more or again, and to please you i am going to get on with it now, look at me work hard at your behest. (of course i am realy doing this!)
"I am glad you liked the pickup and start on any completed stage idea. I feel it is important to give people options if they pay for the game.
Once again, thanks for your time and consideration playtesting this for me. I will get on with fixing all the issues you have highlighted for me. It will get better and stronger thanks to people like you."



Well that wraps the analysis up for now. I think i have explained myself quite well. I also hope you can see that Feedback is not something to be taken lightly. It is also something that should Never be taken for granted. Be self effacing and enjoy the Feedback. Even if it does not Gel with your feelings at first.

G'night