A Shooter Video is done.

Yep it is true. After too many hours i have the new promotional video for A Shooter. Check it out below.



I don't think it came out too badly. My only real disappointment is that i am only showing off a fraction of the enemy types that are in the game.

I also noticed that Youtube have not used the default picture i told it too, bah! Now it is a generic frame from the video, that is annoying...
Laters

Promo Video

Tonight i expected to be Peer reviewing a Peers game 'Hypership Out of Control'. But that has not come to pass, as it had already passed Peer review when i finally got home and setup (it is quite late already). so i realized i need to work on some stuff for A Shooter. Currently i have not recived a score from anyone on my mostly running game on the Xbox. This is not a surprise as noone has the time to playtest currently. I am sure it will get a thorough testing once it gets into Peer Review, maybe the end of this week if not sooner.

So i have 3 major things to do on my list, does yours look like mine ?
1. Press release ready to go.
2. Sort out and get the Excel file of reviewer candidates updated.
3. Get the Promo video done and placed on Youtube and Gametrailers.com.

Tonight i really should have done number 2. I was finding it hard to concentrate though and was failing at being able to do this. so i decided to try to work on my promo video. I didn;t expect to get very far, but i am now pleasantly surprised to find i have cut my 5 minutes of video down to 1:20. This is now getting much closer to what it should be. Once i get a couple of video shots that i somehow down't have of some smart bombs going off. I can then do the intro and credits and finalize the order of the set pieces. Then it will be the music and sfx overlays. This all takes so much time, and i am not sure many people really appreciate it.

Still, tonight took me a long way towards getting the video done. I do not believe this will be one of my best, but i hope it at least gets some interest.

G'night

The Promo Video - is it important?

There seems to be two theories on this that i can ascertain from reading blogs and forum posts, and also talking with other knowledgable people.

1. It makes very little difference
2. It will help sell the game

These two are not opposites and can certainly both be true. In fact I personally believe them both to be true. Though there is one aspect to making a video of your own game that goes beyond money. It is 'Worth'. If you believe in your product, then you should have no problem being able to come up with a short Promo video for it. If you do have a problem, then maybe something is missing or just not quite finished yet.

I make videos for all my products. In fact i rather enjoy the challenge of putting al my work into about 1 minute and thrity seconds of video. Adding titles and overlays and transitions as i think will help make it more appealing and palatable.

I now have a basic script for the A Shooter video and have already recorded all i need (or i believe i do). So tomorrow i get to start on editing the video together. Chopping and hacking and splicing a small video together from about 20 minutes of footage. It is a time consuming thing to do, but i am usually proud of what i end up with. as i was especially so with Pellmell.

1. If it makes little difference because noone sees it, then it is what it is. I will put it out there and shout about it the best i can. Publicity for an Xblig product is just hard to find.
2. I think the video if done well will certainly help sales. It will mostly help downloads. Though again, i will need people to see it.

G'night.

Screenshots and Video

So of course i have gotten around to grabbing a buncha screenshots with multiplayers playing. It was actually rather a lot of fun. I got to brin my wife and kids into the game and play several levels. It was quite fun, and i had a monologue going telling each one to avoid the bullets that were chasing them. with my kids laughing and pushing each other around, or racing to be first to a powerup. A lot of fun.

I grabbed 145 screenshots which i have reduced down to a measly 11 now and added them to the games press pack.

While i was doing this i recorded a bunch of gameplay footage with various numbers of us playing. Now i need to go through them and cut pieces that might resonate quickly with the Xbox owners out there that look at such things. I think this is a tough thing to do, as my favourite bits are not nescessarily the bits that would resonate the best with people seeing my game for the first time. For me, knowing it so well etc, it makes it real hard.

Anyway, back to the video editing, in fact i might wait on that and write up what i want in the video. That way i can maybe save on some superfluous video editing time.

Gnight.

Bit of a Poker Video

Mass Media's Brimstone poker table for ya homespace.

Ok, so i know it is only 3 seconds long. but i had enough trouble getting this. We really had nothing very suitable, and we cannot show player names etc. Enjoy...

This one does not show the interface, i have ben told we don't have any footage we can show of that because of player names being present on the screen. We have rules that tell us we cannot do that, sorry. I woudl love to show the interface otherwise.

Maybe today i can find out when it will go live, if not this thursday.

So it looks like uploading this video to Blogspot has severely reduced it's quality, bah humbug i say!!
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Intro Video On the Xbox Issue

I got home tonight and spent some good times trying hard to Code 4 Kris Steeles new game Hypership Out of Control. He just got it through peer reveiw and Bam, one of the reveiwers finds a code 4. This is serious business as it in theory just went onto the new releases list I have no idea how that will lay out, i sure hope he gets it on the list when the game is fixed. In comparison to Kris's problem mine are basic.

So i wanted to get my new intro video onto the Xbox, to see it in all it's glory... Only i had to wait while Hypership was being tested (i think my game was crashing others, so i left it up). The waiting mean't i got some other coding jobs done, so all good there.

However when i got the intro onto the Xbox it was al choppy. ARGH! so i went straight to the video editor and worked on smaller less Mbps Wmvs. In fact i have ended up spending more than an hour and a half, thanks mostly to the export times of Video. sometimes they would generate corrupted stuff. Others they worked great on my PC. Then when i put them, in the game and ran from the solution, they looked choppy and crap. It took me quite some time to realise that when streaming from your PC, it is crap. Only when i decided to work on a trial mode feature and launched my game fram the Dash did i see that the video was in fact alright. which means i have wasted sooo much time tonight :(

So the lesson is,
Don't believe all ya see.
Video running through the debugger will almost certainly look awful.

g'night

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

New Sorcery Intro Video?

Nope

Not got one!

why Not ?

Well... It took me an hour and  half to install my software to edit the new intro video. so now i have no time left to make one tonight Grrrr.

Ya see, sometimes thing does not work out. I felt i had adequate time to build myself a new Sorcery Games Intro video for a Shooter and beyond. But the stupid disks from Pinnacle decided to be flakey. sometimes working and sometimes not. So after fighting with it for way too long, i have finaly got it installed. I then looked around at some of the transition effects etc, and called it quits. No way can i make something nice in an hour, which is all i have left before i need to go to bed. BAH!

On another note, i joined XboxLiveAddicts today. They have kindly given me my own Forum to play with as a developer. I am sincerely hoping that i can enyertain and inform some new Xbox owners. I also hope of course that this will be another way to connect with my Xbox community and maybe get a few new followers for my games.

Now after all my frustration, i am done for tonight.

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

Could this be the A Shooter Art style ?

I know what you are thinking. That it would be a travesty to remove my georgous programmer graphics from the game. The cahrm the loveliness they have etc. But there comes a time, when one must think of the game.

Anyway, Here is a video excerpt from the game using some graphics that me mate Terry has had in his posession now for many a year. I put them into the game in various places. Not that i did a good job, and some of the sprites are being colored still by me. The big red spaceship looks much better in it's natural colors etc.

Other things to note in the video are...
1. My changes to the game via the Feedback from Peer Playtest.
 1a. High score in game
 1b. The popup help at the start
 1c. The more screen safe placement of text.

On with the show


Hope ya liked the video.

G'night

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

A youtube video of Pixels ?

Yeah, i have gone for a strange post tonight, as all i have been doing is solving bugs in The Midway and tweaking enemy layouts for my first 5 levels of A Shooter. Both not realy easy to get across what i have been doing. However someone linked this video, which i think is ace, only not HD, bah!

Video link

Yup, i liked it anyways.

So i have been working on my next gameplay video, but the night has worn on, and i have not finished it, so i am a bit tardy. I have to sleep now cos i have to get up in about 6 hours to go to Physio therapy. Geez, it's a busy time.

Hope you all have a good one, cya tomorrow

G'night.

ps. I am still in mourning for the loss of Captain black :(

A Shooter Boss #10 Gameplay Video

So i figured it was time to bring out the fraps. I just wanted to show one of the bosses i am currently wokring on. It is a tough boss that exists at level 10. This is not the final version of the boss for a few reasons. The main one being that he has not been balanced for his position relative to the previous levels.

Balancing bosses nad levels will take more time, but also means each one must be balacned with the ones either side of it. so this Boss is set up to easily alter his difficulty by changing just a single value.

So i am going to try and link in the video, and i hope it's possible on Blogger, as this is my first attempt.

As a bonus, i also recorded the 3 Smart Bombs that created. I hope you all like what ya se.

Laters