New games that're a bit like old games, but better.
31 Mar 2009
30 Mar 2009
Clover - New Screenshots
There's a load of new screenshots featuring the newly redesigned Sam being sent out today.
So here they are, followed by the press release.
So here they are, followed by the press release.
London, United Kingdom – Monday 30th March
Political Platform Puzzler 'Clover' – New Screenshots, Character Redesign
Binary Tweed Ltd. today release new screenshots of début title Clover (featuring a newly redesigned lead character Sam) and also announce a revised release window of April. Clover is to be released via Xbox LIVE Community Games for 400 Microsoft Points.
The screenshots feature new artwork, new locations and a new dynamic sky-blending system that means that the player's view of the game world is constantly changing. Lead character Sam has been given an overhaul based on community feedback.
Clover features so much artwork that some is destined to be left on the cutting room floor, after the game hit Microsoft's mandatory 150mb maximum size limit imposed on Community Games. Gamers anticipating Clover's release can now follow Binary Tweed on Twitter and the Clover Facebook Group.
28 Mar 2009
Community Games Sales Figures Available, Positive Feedback
Download data has just been made available to CG developers with titles already out to market. Initial indications are not favourable, which is somewhat concerning.
Clover has been in playtest for a while now, and the critical bugs are few and far between. Had some very useful feedback from one chap who said:
"Bummer you haven't released the end of the game yet, I was checking back here every few hours hoping for a fix so i could finish the game =D (It's fun!)"
Nice to see people enjoying the game, especially as this dude spent many hours testing it in his own free time. Community Games playtesters, I salute you and your efforts!
Clover has been in playtest for a while now, and the critical bugs are few and far between. Had some very useful feedback from one chap who said:
"Bummer you haven't released the end of the game yet, I was checking back here every few hours hoping for a fix so i could finish the game =D (It's fun!)"
Nice to see people enjoying the game, especially as this dude spent many hours testing it in his own free time. Community Games playtesters, I salute you and your efforts!
27 Mar 2009
Best Issue Ever
In my development career, I've come across my fair share of voodoo (as anyone from CMC Markets will attest to). We once found an issue in Apache Tomcat that had the best minds we had, and the entire inforweb, stumped.
This one takes the biscuit though. Every other build I do takes twice as long for graphics to load. I've tested this about 15 times on the trot now, and it's remained consistent. Do a build; graphics load in 19 seconds. Do another build without changing any code or content; graphics load in 55 seconds. Do another build; graphics load in 19 seconds.
I'm sure there's some rational explanation for all this, but by crikey it was fecking annoying until I figured it out.
This one takes the biscuit though. Every other build I do takes twice as long for graphics to load. I've tested this about 15 times on the trot now, and it's remained consistent. Do a build; graphics load in 19 seconds. Do another build without changing any code or content; graphics load in 55 seconds. Do another build; graphics load in 19 seconds.
I'm sure there's some rational explanation for all this, but by crikey it was fecking annoying until I figured it out.
25 Mar 2009
Plot Thickens
Just a quickie. Would just like to say hello to our visitors from United States Army Information Systems Command Headquarters!
Honestly, first the CIA, now USAISC... Anyone would think the US intelligence services have web spiders crawling for terms like "Guantanamo Bay". That, or my possession of a moustache has highlighted me as a terrorist...
Honestly, first the CIA, now USAISC... Anyone would think the US intelligence services have web spiders crawling for terms like "Guantanamo Bay". That, or my possession of a moustache has highlighted me as a terrorist...
OnLive - Unlikely
Having made a mountain of progress on Clover, I've got the time to ramble.
A few respectable industry analysts and commentators are getting all excited by OnLive, a new gaming proposition that is effectively a thin client/server setup. All rendering is done on the serverside, and a video stream is encoded and send back to the user.
I'm very dubious that this is going to work for realtime, live action games. Considering at CMC Markets it was a challenge to distribute live pricing information (which is merely compressed numbers stating the value at which an instrument is trading at) in a timely fashion I can't see that a whole video stream, no matter how compressed, is going to get around the net quickly. Not to mention the lag of input hitting the server. For heaven's sake, it takes 6ms for me to ping my own router.
At the end of the day, you can't argue with the speed of light. As much as we tried to get light to travel faster down the fibre optic cables, it can't be done. If this works for games like Street Fighter IV, I'll eat my hat. And this will be on archive.org, so you can hold me to that too.
Now, if they can use quantum electron pairing for data transmission, then I'll be interested.
A few respectable industry analysts and commentators are getting all excited by OnLive, a new gaming proposition that is effectively a thin client/server setup. All rendering is done on the serverside, and a video stream is encoded and send back to the user.
I'm very dubious that this is going to work for realtime, live action games. Considering at CMC Markets it was a challenge to distribute live pricing information (which is merely compressed numbers stating the value at which an instrument is trading at) in a timely fashion I can't see that a whole video stream, no matter how compressed, is going to get around the net quickly. Not to mention the lag of input hitting the server. For heaven's sake, it takes 6ms for me to ping my own router.
At the end of the day, you can't argue with the speed of light. As much as we tried to get light to travel faster down the fibre optic cables, it can't be done. If this works for games like Street Fighter IV, I'll eat my hat. And this will be on archive.org, so you can hold me to that too.
Now, if they can use quantum electron pairing for data transmission, then I'll be interested.
24 Mar 2009
Approaching Compromise
I've nearly got a working solution that means the game will load in a reasonable amount of time, and we can squeeze more artwork/music in. Let's just hope it works as well on the 360 as it does on my dev machine.
More and more people (possibly the CIA) are wondering about XBLCG sales figures. I get a fair bit of traffic to this here blog from people searching for stats. The CG forums have had quite a few questions about this, and the mods are locking threads as a result. I can understand them trying to keep people on topic and stop them from repeating themselves, but it's a bit much locking the main discussion thread. I wonder if there's a particular reason sales figure discussion might be being muted?
Microsoft have indicated that some figures should be made available by the end of the month, so let's hope they're on schedule with that. Hopefully then I should be able ot figure out if I'm going to make any money, or whether I should be finding myself a nice cardboard box to sleep in.
More and more people (possibly the CIA) are wondering about XBLCG sales figures. I get a fair bit of traffic to this here blog from people searching for stats. The CG forums have had quite a few questions about this, and the mods are locking threads as a result. I can understand them trying to keep people on topic and stop them from repeating themselves, but it's a bit much locking the main discussion thread. I wonder if there's a particular reason sales figure discussion might be being muted?
Microsoft have indicated that some figures should be made available by the end of the month, so let's hope they're on schedule with that. Hopefully then I should be able ot figure out if I'm going to make any money, or whether I should be finding myself a nice cardboard box to sleep in.
23 Mar 2009
Err...
Do you think the CIA has some bored gamers idly surfing at lunch, or can I be expecting America's favourite tour operator to put me up in a Moroccan jail for a few weeks (complete with pub quiz, questions supplied by MI5) before sampling the wonders of Guantanamo Bay?
21 Mar 2009
The State of Indie Games
In my interview with 360 Magazine, I pointed out that the landscape of games consumers is becoming much more like that of music. As the average age of gamers goes up, we'll find more grumpy old men who are stuck in their ways and know what they like, however unfashionable. That's part of the reason why we focus on reinventing new blends of old games, rather than jumping on the latest (and most expensive) new bandwagon.
Another way that games are becoming like music is in the democratisation of the indie scene. Sir Tim Rice mentioned once on an episode of Top Gear that back in the day, if a record found its way to him then it must mean that lots of people in the production chain must've liked it - otherwise the record wouldn't have got pressed. These days, any talentless numpty can bang out MP3s from the comfort of their bedroom (I know this as I'm one of them). Whilst this allows a greater freedom of access to the market, it means that natural quality control filters are no longer in place.
Community Games has come under some flak on various message boards I've been on because there's a lot of mediocrity. As gaming becomes more pervasive (think iPhone, Facebook, DSi) there are going to be more indie developers, and less quality control. There's a good reason why publishers like EA have stringent and tough concept approval processes - because a lot of crap gets suggested.
In five years' time, are we going to be inundated with a whole heap of cack games? How long before a nugget of shining goodness comes from a complete outsider? Are the popular indie games of tomorrow going to be the gaming equivalent of Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain, or even worse, the Kersal Massive?
*shudder*
Another way that games are becoming like music is in the democratisation of the indie scene. Sir Tim Rice mentioned once on an episode of Top Gear that back in the day, if a record found its way to him then it must mean that lots of people in the production chain must've liked it - otherwise the record wouldn't have got pressed. These days, any talentless numpty can bang out MP3s from the comfort of their bedroom (I know this as I'm one of them). Whilst this allows a greater freedom of access to the market, it means that natural quality control filters are no longer in place.
Community Games has come under some flak on various message boards I've been on because there's a lot of mediocrity. As gaming becomes more pervasive (think iPhone, Facebook, DSi) there are going to be more indie developers, and less quality control. There's a good reason why publishers like EA have stringent and tough concept approval processes - because a lot of crap gets suggested.
In five years' time, are we going to be inundated with a whole heap of cack games? How long before a nugget of shining goodness comes from a complete outsider? Are the popular indie games of tomorrow going to be the gaming equivalent of Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain, or even worse, the Kersal Massive?
*shudder*
19 Mar 2009
Facebook Group
Owen has rather nicely made a Clover Facebook group that you should all join.
Would love to do a proper update, but have to run and teach people how not to get stabbed.
Would love to do a proper update, but have to run and teach people how not to get stabbed.
18 Mar 2009
Running, Tweeting, Analysing
After some gameplay feedback from the playtest I've added in a running feature to Clover. Such is the nature of the genre, there's a lot of going from A to B, and it was beginning to grate people a little. There's a few more tweaks being added in order to focus more on the puzzle-solving, and less on the traipsing about.
I've jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Being an intrinsically anti-social beast I find it all very uncomfortable and confusing, but 'the kids' tell me that Twitter is 'where it's at'. I did look at it a while back before it was all the rage, but I just couldn't be bothered.
The Joystiq article saw an increase in traffic from Microsoft IP addresses. Hopefully if anyone important there was reading, they read the whole article and not just the headline.
Now that article's out, I might as well give you the exclusive screenshot that shows a nice new backdrop:
I've jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Being an intrinsically anti-social beast I find it all very uncomfortable and confusing, but 'the kids' tell me that Twitter is 'where it's at'. I did look at it a while back before it was all the rage, but I just couldn't be bothered.
The Joystiq article saw an increase in traffic from Microsoft IP addresses. Hopefully if anyone important there was reading, they read the whole article and not just the headline.
Now that article's out, I might as well give you the exclusive screenshot that shows a nice new backdrop:
17 Mar 2009
Joystiq Feature
Joystiq have run a mini-interview about the file size restriction problems that we've run into on Clover. There's a new screenshot on there, showing one of the new sunset backgrounds in action.
In other news we've got the first round of playtest feedback in, and I'm working on improvements like making the camera more slinky. I've also signed up for a Twitter account in a shameless act of band wagon-jumping.
In other news we've got the first round of playtest feedback in, and I'm working on improvements like making the camera more slinky. I've also signed up for a Twitter account in a shameless act of band wagon-jumping.
16 Mar 2009
Clover in Playtest
XNA Creator's Club members will be pleased to know that Clover is now in its first playtest iteration. This means other CC members can download, test and play the first 80% of Clover, all in the name of helping to find bugs.
I've implemented some new code to load maps on demand, and I'm not terribly confident in it just yet. Hopefully I've caught any issues before going to playtest.
Apart from finishing the game, I've also got to start thinking about marketing (guerilla or otherwise) and preparing to support a Clover community. My experience in bands should help with shoe-string marketing... I wonder if street teams will work for video games?
I've implemented some new code to load maps on demand, and I'm not terribly confident in it just yet. Hopefully I've caught any issues before going to playtest.
Apart from finishing the game, I've also got to start thinking about marketing (guerilla or otherwise) and preparing to support a Clover community. My experience in bands should help with shoe-string marketing... I wonder if street teams will work for video games?
15 Mar 2009
It's Too Big To Fit In Here
Yep, Clover is now officially too big for Xbox LIVE Community Games. This unfortunately means that the unlockable artwork gallery is very likely to get the chop, and we might have to make some compromises on the audio side too.
13 Mar 2009
Nearly There
I really shouldn't be saying this on Friday 13th, but we're nearly done. We've only got to do artwork for one more 'room', a few animations, soem palm trees and a plank of wood. Scripting-wise there's only one puzzle and the end sequence left to write. The most painful parts are going to be optimisation and testing.
Clover should be going into playtest next week, and then after that - BANG! Release!
Clover should be going into playtest next week, and then after that - BANG! Release!
11 Mar 2009
Crunch
It's been a bit quiet on here recently, as I've been doing 18 hour's worth of programming a day. We hit a performance snag on the Xbox 360 that meant Clover was taking over two minutes to load, and that simply wouldn't do. It's back in the realms of human tolerance now, but there's still some way to go.
Art work is nearly complete, and the outstanding work can be measured in days. New screenshots and press releases should be going out soon, but in the mean time here's a few of the very lovely skies I was talking about in my last post.
Whilst playing the game, backgrounds like these slowly fade into each other at random, so the sky never quite looks the same from one moment to the next. Trust me when I say it looks awesome!
Art work is nearly complete, and the outstanding work can be measured in days. New screenshots and press releases should be going out soon, but in the mean time here's a few of the very lovely skies I was talking about in my last post.
Whilst playing the game, backgrounds like these slowly fade into each other at random, so the sky never quite looks the same from one moment to the next. Trust me when I say it looks awesome!
7 Mar 2009
The Absolute Sex
With the help of Shawn Hargreaves and some other helpful peeps in the XNA community, I've just implemented a supremely sexy new feature. Whilst playing Clover, the watercoloured sky backgrounds will now slowly and subtley blend from one to another, so the sky never quite looks the same for very long. It works very well, and will help maintain a fresh look to the maps.
We're getting very, very close to being done now. There's only one small room that needs to be added, and then we'll have the game functionally complete. After this it's just a matter f polish and improving things like animation and artwork. In fact, we're so close to being done that Owen is already playtesting the game from the beginning.
We're getting very, very close to being done now. There's only one small room that needs to be added, and then we'll have the game functionally complete. After this it's just a matter f polish and improving things like animation and artwork. In fact, we're so close to being done that Owen is already playtesting the game from the beginning.
4 Mar 2009
Clover Print Interview
The latest issue of 360 Magazine is on shelves today, and features an interview with myself on the topic of Clover.
We're featured on pages 18 and 19. Go and buy your copy now!
We're featured on pages 18 and 19. Go and buy your copy now!
2 Mar 2009
Plot
Despite the gas boiler packing up this morning, we've had a pretty productive day. I've been wrestling with some aspects of the plot that I thought I had already nailed down. There's a lot of elements I'd like to get in there, and it's tricky trying to find the right blend and connections between them.
There's the ever-present danger of me trying to cram too much into a limited medium, but I keep brainstorming until it feels right, and I get excited. Much like songwriting, there's a moment when you just know it's right.
Regardless, I'm comforted by the fact that George Lucas was constantly changing the plot of A New Hope right until filming. Let's just hope I don't go and write my own Phantom Menace though...
Well, my other job title has now been upgraded to Gold Medallist Multi Award-Winning International Martial Arts Instructor. Of course, anyone in The Foundation will know quite how ridiculous that statement is, even if it is true.
There's the ever-present danger of me trying to cram too much into a limited medium, but I keep brainstorming until it feels right, and I get excited. Much like songwriting, there's a moment when you just know it's right.
Regardless, I'm comforted by the fact that George Lucas was constantly changing the plot of A New Hope right until filming. Let's just hope I don't go and write my own Phantom Menace though...
Well, my other job title has now been upgraded to Gold Medallist Multi Award-Winning International Martial Arts Instructor. Of course, anyone in The Foundation will know quite how ridiculous that statement is, even if it is true.
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