I'll be exhibiting Clover: A Curious Tale at GameCity Squared in Nottingham next week, along with all the other lovely peeps from Blitz 1UP. There's tons of other cool stuff going on (including curry!), and you'll be able to get your hands on lots of upcoming games. We'll be there Tuesday-Thursday, for gaming chat and beer-related goodness in the evenings.
...Talking of which, you can now sign up to test Blitz 1UP games, getting not only a sneak peek at test versions of games, but also receiving a free copy of the game upon release. Advance look and free copy? Bargain!
New games that're a bit like old games, but better.
22 Oct 2009
12 Oct 2009
Clover: A Curious Tale Q&A
Lisa Konigkramer has posted a Q&A at El33tOnline regarding some of the new features of Clover: A Curious Tale.
In other news, I've been coding up the behaviour of a parrot, and will soon be implementing a seagull. The first round of voice recording transpired on Friday, resulting in over a gigabyte of audio, and we've still got another two to do.
In other news, I've been coding up the behaviour of a parrot, and will soon be implementing a seagull. The first round of voice recording transpired on Friday, resulting in over a gigabyte of audio, and we've still got another two to do.
2 Oct 2009
Clover: A Curious Tale - Animations
Clover: A Curious Tale. It's got some improvements.
One of the first things we worked on was making the game look more alive and less static. The main way of achieving this was by splitting each character into separate components, and animating those.
Characters in Clover: A Curious Tale now have separate bodies, heads, arms and legs. They'll bob up and down when breathing, sway from side to side when drunk, and wave their arms frantically when their house is on fire. Even if the character isn't doing a great deal, the subtle movements add a whole lot to the game.
The fading cloud background no longer just fade, they also move. Expect to see seamless animations of clouds moving towards you!
Boats bob up and down in the sea, cats twitch in their sleep, and spiders do a very convincing job of creeping about the place. Gates and cogs rotate... What, there weren't any gates and cogs in Clover? Well, animations aren't the only things we've added.
We've also added a lot of spot effects. Flames glow, smoke clouds billow and fade, leaves gently fall from trees, water splashes and the odd bird swooshes past. In fact I was very pleased to see that our falling leaves are substantially better than those in Monkey Island: Special Edition.
So there you have it, Clover: A Curious Tale is officially better than Monkey Island (when it comes to falling leaves).
One of the first things we worked on was making the game look more alive and less static. The main way of achieving this was by splitting each character into separate components, and animating those.
Characters in Clover: A Curious Tale now have separate bodies, heads, arms and legs. They'll bob up and down when breathing, sway from side to side when drunk, and wave their arms frantically when their house is on fire. Even if the character isn't doing a great deal, the subtle movements add a whole lot to the game.
The fading cloud background no longer just fade, they also move. Expect to see seamless animations of clouds moving towards you!
Boats bob up and down in the sea, cats twitch in their sleep, and spiders do a very convincing job of creeping about the place. Gates and cogs rotate... What, there weren't any gates and cogs in Clover? Well, animations aren't the only things we've added.
We've also added a lot of spot effects. Flames glow, smoke clouds billow and fade, leaves gently fall from trees, water splashes and the odd bird swooshes past. In fact I was very pleased to see that our falling leaves are substantially better than those in Monkey Island: Special Edition.
So there you have it, Clover: A Curious Tale is officially better than Monkey Island (when it comes to falling leaves).
1 Oct 2009
Clover: A Curious Tale Signed to Blitz 1UP
That's it. That's the announcement up there.
Blitz Games Studios have signed up a new and improved version of Clover, subtitled A Curious Tale, and it'll be coming to PC digital distribution services.
It's hard to think of an area that hasn't been improved, but here's a nice list anyway:
At present it won't be coming to XBLIG as we're now way, way over the 150mb limit. We're also looking at other platforms, and I'd like to take the new version to everywhere that makes sense.
It's fantastic to be working with Blitz and their 1>UP scheme. For those not in the know, Blitz Game Studios is owned by Andrew and Phillip Oliver, who've been massive in the UK games industry since the 80s when their games literally dominated the charts. It's no secret that I'm a massive Dizzy fan and that those games inspired Clover, so as well as being a great professional fit it's also really nice to be working with people whose work I've admired for so long.
I'll write more about this in another post, but I'm particularly pleased that XBLIG development has opened up this opportunity. When first embarking on this venture, this was one of the possible outcomes I identified. Not only is the XBLIG market improving vastly, but the signing of Clover: A Curious Tale proves that XBLIG development can be a gateway to career progression.
Blitz Games Studios have signed up a new and improved version of Clover, subtitled A Curious Tale, and it'll be coming to PC digital distribution services.
It's hard to think of an area that hasn't been improved, but here's a nice list anyway:
- New animations - all characters are articulated, clouds move, flames smoke and glow, water splashes, cats snore (!);
- Completely voice-acted dialogue;
- A new sub-quest, and multiple endings;
- New puzzles, characters, and items (25% more items last time I checked);
- New context-sensitive controls - this means no clumsy inventory menu;
- Completely revised user interface;
- Better player handling, and less annoyingly fiddly jumps;
- Translations in French, Italian, German and Spanish;
- Reworked soundtrack - longer, sexier.
At present it won't be coming to XBLIG as we're now way, way over the 150mb limit. We're also looking at other platforms, and I'd like to take the new version to everywhere that makes sense.
It's fantastic to be working with Blitz and their 1>UP scheme. For those not in the know, Blitz Game Studios is owned by Andrew and Phillip Oliver, who've been massive in the UK games industry since the 80s when their games literally dominated the charts. It's no secret that I'm a massive Dizzy fan and that those games inspired Clover, so as well as being a great professional fit it's also really nice to be working with people whose work I've admired for so long.
I'll write more about this in another post, but I'm particularly pleased that XBLIG development has opened up this opportunity. When first embarking on this venture, this was one of the possible outcomes I identified. Not only is the XBLIG market improving vastly, but the signing of Clover: A Curious Tale proves that XBLIG development can be a gateway to career progression.
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