Blooming fixed some more Xna3.1 -> Xna4.0

So i had 28 erros, ALL of them pertaining to the Bloom component. Interesting. I know by experience that this is not the last of the errors. They are just being masked by the current issues. So i was not surprised when i fixed the Bloom to see a new selection of errors, 48 in total.

So fixing the Bloom was easy. I just compared the New 4.0 sample to what i had and copied over the changes. I would have just copied verbatim, but i knew i made several small changes to the Bloom and i did not want to do that again. This process only took about 5 minutes anyway.

So now onto my new Errors which include
does not conatin a definition for 'MinimumVertexShaderProfile'
and
VertexElementMethod does not exist

These are all to do with Roundline which i am actually not using at the moment in this game. I may remove it for now. I will bring it back when i want to use it (gonna be used for the Menu button descriptions I hope!)

So ever forward we go.

Now tomorrow night is my works party, i am sure i will not be posting then :)

G'night

Pellmell needs some loving

Taking what i have learn't over the last year or so and applying that knowledge to Pellmell is my current undertaking. I love the basic premise for my game. I love what i did with all the extra effects and transitions etc. But there are a few obvious shortcomings i wish to address.

So players found it annoying that they kept running out of bullets. Well the game was supposed to be a choice between shooting now or later and dodging now or later. By balancing the two ideas, one can achieve harmony with the game. However this is not wanted. Soo the game will change slightly. It will become more shooter oriented.
* Add Auto-fire and double the refresh of the bullets

Players have complained they can simply push their dude to the right and really run Pellmell down the level. Yes they take hits, but they finish the level. Where i bestow upon them a huge health boost. So nullifying the damage they took running there. This is a tough one, as the levels are balanced with the introduction of new enemies as you get through the levels. Bringing in new enemies into something like the 40th level (off the top of my head). So whatever i do, i cannot make those later levels (where you cannot possibly just run down the level and make it) harder than they are. So i need to fixup the first 20 or so levels.
* Research how many levels to fix. Maybe only refresh you life at the end of the level if it below a certain amount, or maybe i start off giving you nothing and then each level up the amount of health i give back.

Price point is too high? Well i haven't really had any complaints about this. But i would hope that if i made the price point only 1 dollar it get a few more downloads (currently about 20 a month).
* Reduce the size of the ccgame file. This is now easier due to better handling of assets etc.

55MB, not sure i have the space mate. Ok, so it was a bit large, but it has a lot of music in the game. Now with the newer Xact i can compress that way down. YAY!
* Already reduced the ccgame to 19MB, a much more appealing size.

I am not sure what else to do to the game at this point. I will examine some reviews and any feedback i missed in the previous playtests and reviews. So after working on it for 2 hours, it is time to say.

G'night

A shooter Update Now on Xbox

YAY! Thanks have to go to my Peers who got this minor update through in about 4 days or so.

Now there are a number of minor tweaks and fixes, the most obvious one being shooting the Purple Asteroid to retrieve your powerup from inside it. I hope this makes the frist several levels much more enjoyable for new players.

don't forget about the competition ending this Sunday evening, and you can check out my videos for playthru's of both level 5 and 9. although watching them will teach you how to also play the lower levels.

Good luck

Da Voodoochief

A Shooter Update and Competition

Is now in Peer Reveiw. Not bad being about a day late for me. Still i have not made that many changes, and the ones i have made are small ones. Though my testing cycle is very lengthy.

It should be stable and ready to go, i hope it goes through quickly and then players can appreciate how the powerup asteroid was supposed to function. I just wish i had noticed it, instead of accepting it. Hindsight eh!

So any Peers, i would love it if you can check out my Game and push it through asap.

At least this should free up my weekend a bit to actually playtest some games myself. I did get a few done this week, so that's a good thing. Still never gonna be able to do as many as i would like.

COMPETITION - WIN Win win

So I wonder who will Win this weeks Competiton. Event number #2 is now brewing and less than 48 hours left. Woohoo! I am quite excited, and currently Lohengrehn is sitting in 4th place on the leaderboard, behind My co-devfeloper and Myself, and of course last weeks winner. Will someone pass him up for the T-Shirt?

Laters

Changes for A Shooter

I managed to borrow a second Xbox again tonight from my friend (thanks Paul). This has allowed me to test my new changes. All minor, but still important to check them over of course.

Changes for the update so far are:-
 1. After loading a save game, reset the sound volumes correctly to loaded settings.
 2. After you have played a game, reset the high score sharing timer to get more instant sharing.
 3. Added a helper sprite to the purple powerup asteroid.
 4. Made powerup asteroids easier to kill. way more fun now!
 5. Now auto saves after actually receiving a high score from someone.

I also played around with a good suggestion of doing a Reply when it is game over. Only i couldn't get the buttonhelp to look right (i have those button defs rather large). I didn't really want to remove my 'shout ya score' so unfortunately it isn't gonna go in, bah!

Not sure i have anything left to fix up for the update. Sooo maybe this will just need more testing and then be ready to go.

G'night

A Dreamland Chronicles Game - Now Cheaper

The update for Dreamland is finally out. I sure hope this will increase sales by a large factor (like 3 or more!!). This game is now finally at the right price point for what i think it is. So maybe from those 500 downloads a week i can grab maybe 50 or more sales. I can hope!!

Along with Dreamland going live onto the marketplace last night A Shooter was of course placed into Peer review. So far a Good guy named Bob Taco Ind (ok, thats not his real name), has sent me an email after testing the game. He brought up several points about things he does not like. I will be posting on them tonight, after i have responded to his email in about an hour. Needless to say i am looking forward to the conversation, Bob Taco works hard on the Xblig channel and i have to say i am a bit of a fan of his. Not that i always agree with his stances on rules etc. But i do not have to agree with everyone on design points etc. That is what makes life more interesting. (this last bit is the point of this post really :)

Laters

PS3 Home - The Midway Update

Today Mass Media Games 'The Midway' update went live. I was personally working on this improved version of The Midway. I am so happy to see it up there and see the annoying bugs fixed. Ok, so most of the bugs i fixed were even noticed by the general populace, but it mattered to us, to me.

The main fixes are generally cosmetic, with spectators now seeing Frog Flinger players frogs being propelled correctly after the player reaches level 5. We also altered lighting on the prize board towers and that makes them much easier to see. They now read much better and I like em. Then there were improvements to the scrolling messages, and that bug fix wil make it so all 5 slots can be changed and not only a select few (bad bug, get squashed!). There are a couple of more major fixes, but again i am not sure anyone really noticed, but if they did i thank you for not raising hell about it.

We made the whole scene more efficient, raising the base frame rate and also making the scene load faster.

Then finally our last fix was for the Freeplay Frenzy. Did you notice how occasionally everyone seemed to know which game was going to be free and already be playing it? Well we had a bug where there could be a disparity between each players timer. This could cause a several second difference in when you saw Freeplay Frenzy being on. So sometimes you would be first easily and sometimes feel like you were last. Every player was however awarded the full minute to be able to try and get into the game. Now the timing issue has been fixed and now everyones Freeplay Frenzy will happen on the same second.

We also added an advertising opster near the entrance to liven that area up. Keep a lookout for future posters coming soon. Also we expanded the Ticket Booth shop to now include all of Mass Medias for sale in the Mall items. Making it more convenient for shoppers of fine virtual items :D

That's about it. I sure hope you are all enjoying your Midway.

Laters

PS3 Home - Poker Again

I didn't realise this would be such a popular subject, but as it is i thought i should do a quick follow up.

There are certain things i cannot say at this time, so i apologize in advance if i am vague about anything you care about.

I will try to grab some video footage later today, but i need to get permission to publish such a thing. I will try however, and i am usually convincing :D

Due to concerns about what can and cannot be done i have some of the Poker team testing that the Voice chat will work with our poker game seemlessly. It will work seemlessly by the end of the day regardless of wether or not it does at present (which we believe it wil).

Info Nugget: If you obtain certain certain criteria in the game you can Win prizes (Here at MMI we love to give out prizes hehe).
Info Nugget:It is a 6 player table and supports Texas Hold-em Limited style poker.

That is all i have for now.
Laters