New Intro Vid is done

Of course i say it is done. But it is only done if i am not gonna pay an artist to do a good job. Not that i am really complainign about what i have achieved, but it is not really what i want.

Here it is...

So what has changed since the last time you have seen it? Well i started by making some smoke, and then i did a small video sequence of it scaling and  panning. This was because i wanted to have a lot of freedom when it came to transitioning with the logo etc. Surprisingly this method worked really well and i loved the result right away.
You might be wondering why i have the smoke in greyscale. This was a design choice made to allow the logo to Pop out of the screen. Which i think i achieved pretty well. Then i had to choose the transition method of the logo disappearing. This i spent way too long on, as the first one i really liked had a bug in it's sequence (thanks Pinnacle!). So it took me a while but then i got the one i am using and like.

After that it was all about timing. Timing the audio smack and the sorcery name etc. also making sure there was not too much down time in the middle of the video etc. In the end i think it turned out aok.

G'night

Started the new Video

Yes i have been working, but not hard enough or long enough. I have several good excuses, but tbh it has just gotten late and this is currently what i have. Not quite good enough for what i want, but slowly getting there.

So without further Ado, Here is the latest in progress version of my new a Shooter Intro.

So what do you think to my start so far? I think it has potential, but is lacking in several main areas for me. The appearing effect was really supposed to be a way of showing the logo boiling into the screen. This is not bad, but i think i might need an artist to do better.

g'night

Self Videoing

I have to say that some times it is just not possible to avoid being on camera. Now i am not really a camera shy person per se, but i do have some reservations. One of the awkward things about being in a video is also trying to be the one actually doing the recording. Cameraman and actor do not go together well...

So tonight i finally felt like i have had enough practice (rehearsing) for my big appearance on an upcoming video i want to create. This is a special video that i am sure you will all view soon enough, or as soon as it is done hehe. I want to be engaging and joyous and magnanimous all at the same time. Things that in real life i am, but when placed in front of a camera i come off as nervous and grumpy. I know i may not be being very kind to myself with that summation, but it sure feels that way.

Now my outtakes on the other hand are quite funny. I am positive anyone that knows me and a lot of people that do not would laugh at some of the things i say in outtakes. But this video is for a serious reason, it is for my company SorceryGames and so i want it to turn out as good as possible.

So i have setup a nice placement in my spare bedroom where i work on my stuff. I brought flood lights in and have two digital cameras (not actually video cameras), and so i can video from two angles to aid in cutting it professionally. I do have a lot of experience with videoing and editing, so that part i feel great about. The setting is just what i feel is nice and so i started recording what i need to say. I have more outtakes than good footage even after all my practice :S However i think on the whole it went well. I feel like i have enough recorded to edit into something usable. Till i grab it off the SD cards and look at it.

BAH! It is too dark.. I forgot to turn on the Halogen flood lights, what an idiot! all that recording wasted. all i can really say is that i also noted that both cameras were not really close enough, so i would need to redo it all for that reason as well. If i learn't one thing tonight it is that it is hard to video oneself, especially when one is a bit self concsious being serious and not amusing.

We shall see what tomorrows attempt brings..

But if you are gonna video anything, remember to get as much light onto whatever you are recording as possible.

G'night

Need a picture of me stand

I know this is weak sauce, but i cannot take a picture yet of my stand. Well actually i can take a picture.. Only i cannot get the photos off the camera atm.

I am gonna see what i can do abuot this, as i haven't gotten very far, but i have gotten somewhere.

I was a good day today, watching my tenni team win the division and celebrating with them. Even though i cannot play at the moment it was a good time. Then we go to Taco Bell for some grub then back home. A good day, then my kids went off to a friends house wher they played with the two boys there  (mostly castle crashers). Then we went over later and the kids were in the pool for several hours. On the way home much later there was a sobriety checkpoint in Wood Ranch. I have never seen one of these before. Quite interesting. As i had not been drinking at all i wasn't worried.

So now i am back home abnd back to working on the stand flanges. (hmm, great word flanges). Yeah, i did work on them in the afternoon. But i was an idiot... Yeah, ya heard it here first. Don't try and do text layout and design in paintshop packages. Like i spent way too long doing. Instead use a package like word. Well i hope that is gonna work, and i am about to find out.

When i get a picture or two, ill post them up.

G'night.

Well i found a nice SD card reader i had forgotten about, so below are my first pictures of my developing Demo station.

This is the whole demo station. With my bed behind it andscissors and velcro and all that great stuff one needs to have to make anything cool.

This is a Closer view of the Top deck, though you can clearly see in this picture the bottom deck, and that is where the Xbox will reside soon.

This final closeup has the actual maounting board company logo and the XBLIG logo on it. That one is velcro'd on and ready to go. The left side one is the new test printout from the new Word Docx that i made. And yeah, I was dumb and word is so much easier to do this in. Good knowledge. now i have to print the lect one properly and then start work on the right side. Then it is back to more preparing of the stand i guess.

with that... Good Night.

Facebook here I come!

You may have read about my facebook issues over the last months. I hate the place... Well ok, i Hate the stupid interface, the way it hangs barely together. It just seems like so much broken code to me. the design is odd and a lot of the time unintuitive. Basically it is a buggy place without many options. I setup a business page for me company. This was ok till i tried hard to become a friend of another site. It wouldn't let me. I do not know why, still don't... So it's crap. However i am commited to getting the facebook page sorted. Soo here I go again, for the umpteenth time. This time though i am armed with others pages I like, so i just need to emulate them :)

Here are a few pages I wanna link to when I have me page.
Indie-Games
RBG Entertainment
Zeit2
Xbox Arcade/Action & Shoot em up games from $1 (£0.85)
Xbox Indie Games
NXE Wallpapers
Xbox Puzzle and Trivia games from $1 (£0.85)
The Official Xbox LIVE Indie Games Fan Page
KissyPoo
Xbox Indies
LighthouseGames
Dehon Freegame DehonGames

Now i know that must just be the start, So if you have a page I should link with, please let me know. I will add you to my list.

The page will be up and running once i know one thing.....

What kind of page do I create ?

1. Business
2. Brand, Product or Organisation
3. Artist, Band or Public figure

I do not know! I do not understand what they mean. My current page which is broken is a business page. anyone who has any insight i would welcome the advice.

Thanks
Voodoochief

A Shooter feedback #3

Yup, another nice Playtester has spent some time testing out my game in XBLIG land. I am starting to feel more pressure to do more myself and stop with the annoying global high scores coding. bah!


Here is what they wrote:-

1. Graphics are definitely the thing holding the game back currently, though looks like you've got some changes lined up to improve that? Mainly bullet sprites are ugly, could also use more visual indicator when hitting enemy ships, and ships wings tilting when they move "vertically" would add a lot.
2. The limited range of the player's bullets felt off to me. I felt that I should be able to sit at the back of the screen and hit enemies/bosses at the other side of the screen, however I was forced to move closer to hit them. This may be an intended game design choice though.
3. When the trial time period is over, if you select to buy the game, after purchasing the game it resets to the main menu, losing my progress. Would be nice if I could keep playing from where I was after purchasing, though isn't a necessity since it would only be a one time inconvenience.
4. It may just be me, but I could not figure out what to do with bombs. I expected them to damage all ships in my vicinity, but I saw the bomb graphic come up and nothing seemed to happen to the enemy ships. Is there something special I need to do with bombs?
5. Overall the first few levels felt about right challenge wise for my first few times through. Could use some power-ups for the player's gun in those first few levels to make them more interesting. Solid game at the moment though, no bugs/crashes to report.

Lets see what i wrote in reply. I will also add some commentary in a different color.

1. Yup, Graphics suck. I know. I am so glad they are being worked on now, I feel like the graphics i have in their are so old and tired. They just wanna get renewed. A lot of them will be in the next version. (Although i have written this in one form or another each time i get feedback. The fact it is still being raised means i should be calm and reply to each querry or comment like it is the first. simply because it is the first for this Playtester)
2. The range of the bullets is a direct gameplay element, it make syou have to go into danger to make the enemeies less dangerous (by killing them). This gets more lenient with the firepower upgrades as you progress simply because there is more on the screen and you will need more room to maneouver etc. I hope this makes sense. (Explaining my design choices is aweseom and always gets me excited. This time i chose a fairly short explanation, But i have written a lot on this subject in previous posts, so onwards)
3. Yeah, The game resets currently. I believe that was an oversight by me. In my previous titles I allow you to continue, I see no reason for me not to alter and fix this. Even if it is once. I do not want to start the player who just bought my game off with an , Oh noes! They might feel like it was a bad choice and not recommend it to others. (This is a good find. One i was particular about in previous games. although it happens once. It could make the difference in the persons mind. someone who has bought your game could be it's greatest ambassador, so make em happy!)
4. The bombs are standard smart bombs (smart enough to only effect enemy firepower ??), They only effect enemy bullets and not the enemy ships. Though one type of smart bomb does indeed change the enemy bullets into your own bullets and fires them away from you, possibly hitting enemies along the way. (Not sure what he expected, but it gave me another chance to talk about an aspect of my gameplay, woohoo)
5. Your final comment was interesting. Did you find the powerups for your ship? there is one on each level in 1 and 2 player modes, and 2 in 3 and 4 player modes. It sounds like maybe you did not, as the first upgrade is to Fire faster and with more range. The second levels powerup will add some three way fire to you ship. (When the new graphics go in, I am hopeful that this will be a more obvious powerup delivery system. This note did me take notice that it is at the moment not obvious enough. A Good find, though not a bug, could cost me sales!)

There ya have it. Excellent feedback and gave me lots to say.

Laters

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

First 'A Shooter' playtest feedback

Tonight I thought I would post about something that is now happening with my latest XBLIG game. i have already mentioned that i have put it into Playtest, a place where my XBLIG Peers can check out what i have been busy doing, and give feedback in the forums if they so desire. This is a good place to take your game, anytime especially if you are new to creating games. As these peeps will find some bugs for you, and make suggestions that could greatly increase your chances of success when the game goes live.

Onwards...
On Monday i placed the game into Playtest. About an hour later I realised that I had left the default difficulty at HARD and not Normal. ARGH! I was at work now, so was unable to pull the game. However by the time i got home (late), someone had already given my game some feedback. Now i will not name the Peer that did this, as i believe in their privacy, and i don't want to go around asking permission all the time.

Here is what the FIRST Peer said:-
-I did some testing with memory card pulling and didn't find any issues.

-I noticed one title safe issue. While playing the game the player name is cut off of the screen on my television.
-This is a personal one but the controls bothered me (and my buddy I tried coop with). We really wanted to push A to shoot and kept accidentally using the special.

-Another issue with controls, specifically in coop. At the end of a level both users naturally push A to advance to the next level but what ends up happening is one user's push results in advancing the level and the other user ends up using their special. We ended up needing to designate someone to be the level advancer.
Playing through the trial I found myself wanting to keep playing after the time limit ran up. I think it's definitely hard enough, though that was on HARD, and in coop.
Overall a fun, well polished game. Good luck.
 
Woah, i was so shocked anyone got there so fast. Now let's break this down into what i did about this post.
1. I was very pleased to see no immediate issue with MU pulling. Phew.
2. ARGH i forgot to finish the SDTV screen safe stuff. I have it in the code but never gave it the right coords (so they only use widescreen coords). What an Idiot!
3. Ahh the controls. They feel switched to me also. Having someone remnd me they are the wrong way around is good. Though they are that way because people asked for it in my previous shooter. this time i will deal with this properly.. Thinking cap is ON.
4. Hmm, i have run into this. Stupid wrong firing of the smart bomb. First thought is to not allow smart bombs to be fired in teh first few seconds of a new level starting.. Thinking cap is now getting orangely hot!
5. Woot! they wanted to continue? This is excellent news, though i still feel there is more to go on this front.
6. The final thought was a very kind one. I appreciate this kind of thing, and always try hard to write something positive at the end of a review myself. I hope they mean't it 8D
 
Now I was thinking about all these issues. I hated the idea of other peeps testing it while in HARD mode. So I pulled the game. Then set about fixing my issues. Here is what i did about each one, numbered for your convenience.
2. Setup and tested the screen safe coords for my in game HUD. Looking good.
3. I switched the control to A=Fire. Then i put a new Option in the options to switch to the B=Fire haha! Solved! (thinking cap start to go back to grey!)
4. Solved this by puting the button through onto the X button and removed it from the smart button. Easy and solid. Thinking cap now at blue and cold)
 
These items took me a while, but ALL of them make my product better. This is very important to me.
 
When i get more feedback i will continue to post about what i did and why etc. This may be inetersting to some devs going through the same thing.
 
G'night

Marketing - Something new

I am a big fan of creativity. One of the big reasons i do these Indie games. I get to be creative. Now creativity for me, does not stop at creating games. I try to incorporate creative thiknking in all my walks of life. From helping my kids to housework to erm... Anything really. So what is the point of this post then? I did mention marketing...

Marketing is one of those areas that I feel I can be creative in. I am the first person I know on XBLIG to go to his local gamestop and give them flyers to put in the bags of anyone buying an Xbox game for example. well each time it comes to the marketing section of my game I have to try and come up with something new. Something that could give me an edge, something that will hopefully be informative or just plain fun. Some ideas have not really worked. Like paying for advertising on Xbox sites. A little disappointing, but we ARE the little service that could.

So marketing strats... What is important?
It is important to advertise the Service, the Xbox and also my own Game. Now the order is more interesting, as to which is really the most important ? I am sure most of you reading this think that my game is the most important, but i beg to differ. And here is my rationale. If i advertise just my game, then people might not know abuot the service, and beyond that might not really have a good reason to buy an xbox360. So here is my pecking order and why...
1. Xbox360 - I place this prominantly because without an Xbox I have no sale. So more stuff with the Xbox logo on it must be good for selling more Xboxs and therefore more potential customers for my games.
2. XBLIG - This one is about awareness. We know that a relatively small percentage of those 20 million live users go to XBLIG, we know a lot of people are not aware of it. So once again, growing our customer base is of great import.
3. My Company - Yes, still not the game. Promoting my company could have all sorts of side benefits, from people following this blog to people possibly hiring me for my work. It is also one of the reasons my games have to be of a high quality for the service. Self promotion is BIG, and should not be taken lightly by any company. Ever seen the big boys advertising themselves ? Yes, all the time huh! We need to do the same.
4. My Games - Yup... Last, but not least. Using this games advertising is a vehicle, a vehicle that carries not only itself but also my company and the XLIG service and also the Xbox, which i should include Microsoft as well i guess. But it doesn't stop there, because everyone on the XBLIG service could benefit from my advertising. We are ALL in this Together! Be positive and be Proud.

So here I am nearing the end of another dev cycle on my own game. It must be time to come up with something new to try. I am sure that is really why you are reading this article...

NEW...
I am planning on doing a Live test of my new game at the Local Gamestop. I am intending to setup my Xbox and my 'A Shooter' game at the Shop and let people test it while i watch. This is a great way to grab some info about your game. I will allow people to play my XBLIG game before it is finished, right there in the Shop. I am hoping that i can get some promotion from the shop before i do this, but i do not yet think that is required. Yes it is a 1 dollar game, but the exclusivity is enormous. I will most likely alter my game in some subtle ways after this kind of witnessed playtest as well.
I know you might be thinking that this won't help anything, but maybe the quality of my game. But I believe this will help everyone. You saw my priority list, and this will advertise in exactly that order. What I need is a bunch of stuff ready though. Like my Corporate logo big enough to be seen, an Xbox logo, Game logo etc all on big enough card to be seen easily. Same goes for the XBLIG logo.. Though I am sure I will need permission for that one. So this isn't going to happen next week.
One of the things I will do to promote the game while doing this is having flyers that people can fill out with their name or gamertag or whatever they want. I will then have a special credits screen for anyone who fills out a flyer. This means they will then have a personal stake in the game. hich i hope will at least get them to download it when it goes live. It is also a way for me to get a mailing list for people interested in my games. Everyone should know how golden they are.

Once i get this more formulated and setup i will post again. I am Truly excited about this new campaign idea. I hope you are too.

any Comments? Opinions? Diggs maybe ?

Laters

A Shooter not quite ready on the Xbox

I have been really busy tonight. Trying so hard to get the new game ready for some Peer Playtesting. I also had a busy day solving with the help of my workmates, all the bugs for Sony. Woah, am i a busy guy! I also had the pleasure of having a couple of boys stop over with my kids. They had a riot of a time, and especially loved playing Castle Crashers together. They were cheering and group hugging when they finally beat the game. They have been working on that for quite some time it seems.

Anyway, back to my night. I am working hard on getting A Shooter to peer playtest for two reasons. One is to Lock the name noone else can seriously use it then). The other is to see what happens when Peer reveiwers (well playtesters), are confronted with an obviously artstically sub-standard product. But one that has pretty sound gameplay mechanics.

To be honest i have spent a good portion of tonight re-writing some of my MU pulling code. It is a bit more pro-active now. I hope this version works out. Was sort of fun to do. If this works i shall also have to regress it back into Pellmell. Yeech!

One thing i did tonight was to produce a temporary thumbnail for the dashboard :D

A Shooters Thumbnail

Exciting isn't it. And all my own work, lol. I still have a few quirky problems, like the fact i forgot to write the 2 lines of code to allow you to progress through the game (saves section). This is something that i'll now do tomorrow, as i am tired. Not quite sure what else is needed for Playtest. I guess i'll just do it and see what happens....

Oh, and i also had to change the name from 'ashooter' to what i really wanted 'A Shooter'. Cool huh! haha

Though somehow i am apprehensive. I have always put finished products into Playtest before...

Wish me luck

G'night

It is a Good day

I wasn't sure what to write about tonight, so i figured i would write about my day.

After dropping my son at school and then going to my Physio therapy this morning. I ended up at work (no shock there!). I was hoping to get soem email or other from Sony, but i think in this case, no news is good news. They are busy testing our new submission i sent to then on sunday (yesterday). I hope it goes smoothly and The Midway will be aok to be published on the 29th.

Then i got busy on the minigame for the Playstation home Plaza. Yeah, that's right. We are gonna have a portal directly to The Midway in the Main Plaza area. Woohoo! Well i had to write it, adn today i got it finished. Tested it with 3 people so far and all looks good. I should test it with about 5 people at least befroe i send it to Sony. So by the end of tomorrow i hope it is sent.

Then I got home and had some lovely ambrosia creamed rice, from the Tin, imported from England, yum yum. Then got to work on A Shooter for XBLIG making the Difficulty levels work and also started work on level 12. The difficulty levels are ace. Easy mode is a lot easier, and the hardest mode is most certainly hard, but i played through at least 7 levels before my arm started aching (thats what the physio is for).

So it has been a very successful day, and i am glad i got to remember it here :D

G'night

A Shooter Decision Followup

I have done it. I have made a decision, and one that i am happy with. Or at least think i am at the moment.

I ground down the issue to as few Major questions as i could. Then tried my hardest to answer them truthfully. I had help from other XBLIG Devs (thanks DrMistry, theBigDaddio) and a few friends (Jeff and Paul). So without further ado here are the questions i distilled it all down too.

1. Will people who buy the game feel ripped off with only 13 levels?
2. Will this negatively effect my downloads of the game?
3. What effect will this have on the View of Sorcerygames overall quality?

I had a lot more questions at first, but am very happy now with only three that i care about.

So..
1. I think people will not feel ripped off. They will spend a single dollar and get a game that if they are good they can play through the whole thing in about 35-40 minutes (still gotta test exactly how long). I think this is great value for money, as it will take them some time to get good enough to actually do this. So realastic time this game is worth must be about 3 hours or more.
2. I do not think the number of downloads will be effected by the number of levels. Noone knows how long the levels are etc, so a number is just a random piece of information. Though i do believe that there is percieved value in a higher number. (i have 100 levels etc!). In the end the quality of the gameplay is what will sell this game. As that is what it is designed for.
3. This one concerned me the most and in the end cost me the most sleep. I have decided though that quality can be measured in various ways. For this title it will not be the graphics or the effects all over the place (like my other title Pellmell was). This one is about the pure simple addictive gameplay experience. This is where I believe the game shines. Yes, i have SFX on button presses and i will have other quality type stuff in there, bought music and shared hgh scores etc. So for 1 Freakin Dollar this game is gonna be a great addition to the Sorcerygames portfolio.

So there you have it. I have made my choice. I have already designed level 13 and it is in. It makes me giggle when i play it, so i must like it a lot. Now i just need to create level 12s level aliens triggers, and the levels are first pass done. Maybe i'll get time to look at the leaderboard sharing code soon. Not that i am looking forward to that work, bah! But someone has to do it.

Thanks for the input everyone,
Laters

Making better Blog + A Shooter Decision

I have been quite active over the last couple of months trying to improve my Blogging skills. So far i have introduced Pictures, this i loved, and a picture can speak a thousand words. Then recently i aded my first video. Ok, so these are a bit more time consuming to create, Also Youtube will only allow me so many videos per my account (8 i think), so not sure waht will happen with that when i get really going. In the last and a couple of previous posts i have introduced coloured text. I wasn't sure what it would come off like, but tbh i am quite happy. The effect is much better than i expected. Now i just need to work on refining what i highlight, and with which colours.

So far i hope you would all agree that my blogging is getting better and not worse in the visual department. I am not so certain from a creative standpoint though. Simply because i get no comment reactions, so it is hard to know what to do. Till i have a better direction i will carry on with my meandering writings.


Really Important Decision to be made...

On a more serious note, i am in a quandry over 'A Shooter'. It was supposed to be a 1 dollar game, but the time i am putting into it are expanding this. The gameplay is exactly what i wanted, and i think aweome. The issue i am having is what to do with it. I can see i have a further 9 levels to create, and i am not sure anyone will truly appreciate the work i will have to put in to finish them properly. I still have a lot of work on the overall balance for the existing 11 levels. So my thoughts are... So far there is about 25 minutes of gameplay so far. So if I add just 1 more level, and then maybe do a special Boss for level 13 (seems appropriate), will the game be any worse for it ? I do not think so, and it will have about 35 minutes of gameplay too at that point. I think the sales will be exaclty the same as if i have 20 levels. I can always do a sequel if people love the gameplay and mechanics, but at this time i think i am just overdoing it.
In all Seriousness.... What Do YOU Think?

A Shooter Gamplay Trailer - Level 11

The Advanced Levels. This is where i start throwing more at the player. Make them move around more than before. Further down this article I will describe my design phylosophies to achieve this goal. Firstly though, there is the Video to show you the level. This will help anyone understand my waffle.

There ya go, I Hope you enjoyed Level 11.

Now onto some details. Let's start by getting around some basic facts...
1. I took a hit at the start. Yup, i should have been paying more attention, my excuse is that i was distratced by Fraps :D (always gotta have an excuse ready!)
2. I died on the end Boss. Yup i did. You didn't think i was spoil the Boss for ya now did ya ? I will some time int he future do a real EOLB video compilation. so people can get hints if they want to. Not today though. Or maybe he is just too good for me ?

Ok, let's get on with discussing my design goals here...
1. One goal i have is to make the Advanced levels distinctive. The previous 10 levels could get a bit forgetfull, and that was ok. They were really training, for what is to come.
2. Second goal was to make you move around more, any fool can sit still and shoot something. Though i did today toy with a boss you had to stay completely still to destroy him.
3. Was to make my test graphics as colorful as a set of Smarties :) (or M&Ms)

For the levels to be more Distinctive i am going to choose paterns, patterns of Aliens you will recognize and say 'Woah it's the Big Red Blocker level', or words to that effect. Though if you really say it out loud, people might start looking at you funny. This level is in fact the Big Red Blocker Alien level. They are there to make it harder to shoot the aliens that are your real enemy, the ones that are actively trying to shoot you down. as these blockers move around. It forces you to move around too, especially with all those bullets flying your way.

Making you move around is really part of the last paragraph. The blockers block you from annihilating the weak enemy ships, and therefore allow more bullets to come on screen. The best part is that the longer the small enemies are on screen the more angles they will be firing at you from. Therefore making you move around even more. This same effect can be achieved by putting aliens on the screen from the sides or back (as I have done in a previous level).

Pretty test graphics... Well, i had to be able to tell them apart. And why not make test graphics pretty. The color of the enemies or even their looks does not play in any part of the gameplay. The gameplay will be the same, and just as solid as it is now, when the graphics look beautiful. This is also the same for the boring backdrop. It is only boring for screenshots, cos anyone playing the game won't see anything but the aliens and their bullets, well only that .. if they want to survive.

I hope you can see these easy to use ideas for gameplay mechanics, as they are easy to implement and also can work for platformers and FPsers.

Laters

Level 10 is done for A Shooter

ok, so when i say 'done' i should use air quotes or something. what i mean is it is now in Alpha-Beta state :)

Either way, i now have the first half of the game created. Tonight i solved bugs in the single and multiplayer games. I added some niceties that i probably shouldn't have bothered with, but i like them.

for example.
When you play as a single player game, you start the game in the vertical middle. Seems correct now.
when you play as a two player game, you are both offset from the middle by a nice looking amount.
Three player games are the similar vein. One in the middle and two spread nicely out to the sides.
Well i like it, so i guess that is all that matters. Stupid professionalism. bah! costs me time ;)

Anwyay, i got level 10 in, and then decided to play through all the first 10 levels again. To my dismay i got beaten up on the Boss from level 8 again. This is the 3rd time in a row now he has manhandled me. I may have to change him. Or just practice him, lol.

Maybe i should do anotehr gameplay video of just how nasty he is. He is the one that fires a stream of trajectory bullets that number... 65. Yup, he rapidly fires 65 bullets at you. It's freakin cool!

I really need to sort the audio out better, but i guess it's just on my list. Which is actually quite a short list after tonight. Mostly i have 10 more levels to do. then balance them all together. So far, the first 10 are pretty good.

I'll do another video of what's going on real soon.
G'night.

A Shooter progresses

My friend and co-conspiritor Paul has purchased an Xbox360 Elite today. This makes me very happy, and him also haha. I would also take bets that his two boys will be over the moon!

I am hoping this will allow me to test some multiplayer code soon, though once i have finished this game most likely. and talking about my latest game.

A Shooter now has 9 levels. Ok, so really it has 8.5 levels and 9 bosses, but that is close enough for me to feel good about rounding it up 8D

I am probably going to do a mid-work in progress video for it this weekend, though i have a doubles tennis match to attend, and sadly a going away party for one of my colleagues, who is moving onto bigger things come monday. It is a sad day. But also a happy one.

I must say that i am still finding my new shooter fun. I guess i just love dodging bullets so much. Maybe the video will show you just how much!

G'night.

ps. i hope to start including some new pictures from sunday onwards. I have just been too busy, and not quite working on the right subject matter that is photogenic

Boss Health Bar

I am feeling a bit tired lately. Maybe it is the late nights and early mornings. They call it burning the candle at both ends, but i think i maybe burning the candle in the middle as well. I have a real day job as most will know working for Mass Media, and i have this Indie part time job. I am also a father of two with a wife and other interests, like keeping the house and stuff working :O

anyway, i have been procrastinating for some time now in putting in a heath bar for my bosses. I felt it wasn't retro enough etc. Well i put effects on the boss to show how damaged he is, but still i wasn't satisfied. Here  i got plain lazy. I just didn't wanna go to the hassle of puting up a special health bar for the bosses.

Tonight that has all channged, as i decided i should bite the bullet and put one in. Then see if i liked it or not. and .....

There it is. And i lurve it. LOL. If i had known how much i woulda liked it, i would have put it in weeks ago. Shows ya that although you can resist a good idea, it is hard to really justify not doing it. In this picture you can see the Boss firing a stream of bullets at me and at the very botton you can see my debug text, telling me where i am on a level (great for placing aliens).

Being tired like this i always want to go for short cuts. Not do an effect etc. With this planned as an 80MSP game, i should be taking shortcuts.. But somehow my consience and pride cannot do it. Oh i won't do all i could. That was put into Pellmell, and i know where that went. The way of original and complete games. So this one is complete, but a LOT more obvious what it is...

Could be time for some playtest i think. Even though i have test graphics... or do I ?

G'night all.

A Shooter is really born

I was calling the shooting game sorcerygames is currently working on as 5th Moon. This was an awesome name, and i was gonna theme the game around this.

Now things have changed.

Originally i was going to actually call the game 'A Shooter'. But we liked 5th moon better. However one of the reasons fro using 'a Shooter' was to see just how important it could be to name the games, not something creative, but something obvious... I mean, REALLY Obvious. A lot of the games that get good downloads have obvious names. anything with a Zombie in it is a sort of good example, though not the best. Take Jonny platformer biscuit romp for example. And more if you go LOOK!

So now i am back to the original name. We shall see if this appears to make a difference to downloads. I also believe it do for the iphone apps. iShooter for example. so without more delay, here is the new title page. With more letters in the name it actually looks better too.

the letters bounce just the same way as they did when it had it's other name.

gnight.

An article on Game difficulty

I just read a very interesting article on game difficulty. Is so highlights my own feeling about the fact that computer games should not cheat etc that i thought i would highlight it here.

The Difficulty with Difficulty

When i have new teams mates and we are writing games, i always make it a point to tell them not to cheat. now they can make the AI as good as can be, which would mean perfect... Or at least perfect in the control scheme that is present. That is why they must also make AI's use the same controller inputs that the player uses. This usually helps stop them cheating speed etc. This kind of thing really helps keep players from feeling cheated.

laters

Method Boss Design... Issue

Here I am, having just completed two more bosses for my shooter. I am going with the evolutionary design if you haven't read my Blog before. Which means to evolve the Boss from one level to the next.

Evolving the boss does not mean that you play in the same way with him, and just get faster etc. In fact i am finding to my delight that small changes in the boss can make significant changes in your play tactics.

So what's the Issue i face?
Well it seems i have created a monster, a monster of a boss. He is only slightly evolved from the previous level boss, but this one does a firing sequence that makes you have to dodge his bullets in a rather unique way.. or DIE!

Questions..
Is this bad ?
I do view this as bad, because a player will come to this bos at the end of the levl and have no idea how to survive, as most if not all players will die on his third firing sequence. Nasty huh! Yet i know the secret to defeating him, and it is fairly easy...
Is this Good ?
I do view this as a good thing. It means you will have to think a bit more creatively. It means you will have to even go to video if you fail to figure it out yourself. Old school shooters and arcade shooters had learning curves and boss method learning in them.

Conclusions...
I love this, i dislike this. ARGH! some people will enjoy this challenge, but some will throw their controllers. Which pill should i take ? The red or the blue one ?

I would LOVE some input from the people that read this blog, but as you are all anonymous and also so very quiet i guess i shall have to figure it out myself.

One thing is for sure. I personally love this boss. My partner is gonna hate it, lol

Laters