31/05/2009 by admin.

Hello,

  Hope you are all well.

Sorry for not posting last week, but last week / weekend was just a mess, everything has been all over the place, but I think things are starting to get back to normal again now.

  This will be a pretty short post as I’ve got a huge amount of work to try to get through this week and every second counts, so without furtherer to do, let me tell you what’s been done.

Weekending 31/05/09

Solitaire Siege:

  The big news is that I’ve finally got my license for the iPhone Apple development kit.  So I can now test Solitaire Siege on the real hardware.  It took me two whole nights to get everything set up correctly and to be able to send the game to the iPod.  Most of this was because I rushed straight in and I had to download in total about 5 Gigs worth of stuff to get everything going.  It was a lot more complex then I expected it to be to be honest, but I guess there’s a lot of security involved to stop developers from been able hack other peoples phones.

  So anyway, the good news is that the game can now be played on the iPod Touch (I had to upgrade to the Beta of OS3 and I didn’t want to risk losing all my contacts on my phone if anything went wrong, so I used my iPod and lost all my movies which I have to stick on the MAC now to get then back onto the iPod).  It runs a bit slower then on the PC/MAC build, but it’s still playable except that there’s a strange bug where the cards don’t get update, but I’ve been told what could be causing that and it should be a fairly quick fix to do.

  Isaac has also been having a rough couple of weeks, so things have slowed down a bit, but the game is almost there I think.  Isaac did start to do some mini games for the game while we were waiting for the license and to take a break from bug hunting which I no doubt will end up in the game in a later update (I want the first version to be nice and clean for the Apple submission, so nothing goes wrong).  We do have plans for some interesting updates for the game but we want to make sure that the basic game is fun for every one first and then we can build on it.

Shuffle Blocks:

  Dave has been secretly hammering away at the XBOX version of Shuffle Blocks and he thinks the game could be finished by the end of next month, all been well.

  Tommy has done another couple of tunes for the game which I’ve been told are really nice (after all, everything he does is really nice) and I’ve been starting to convert the gf/xs to the strange resolution the XBOX 360 uses (1280 by 700).  This is causing a lot more hassle then I expected it too.  So much that I’ve had to redesign the in game playing area and I’m going to have to redraw all the gf/x again which will take at least the rest of the week to do at the very least, but I don’t want to hold Dave up as the game will be really nice when it’s finished and fingers crossed, should do well on XBOX Live (the community games bit).  I’ll post some gf/x for it during the week (if I have time so you can compare the differences the change in screen size makes).  The other plus point about this is that the PC version will benefit from the upgraded gf/x, even if I can’t use the new layout.

Right I better get back to work I guess.  Have a great week and I’ll see you next week.

Take care,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Solitaire Siege, Shuffle Blocks, Current Game Development, Blogroll | 2 Comments »

18/05/2009 by admin.

Hello,

  How’s everything going?

Sorry for the late post, but I’ve been having Internet trouble and trying really hard to get all the gf/x finished for Solitaire Siege =)

  I’ve also knocked up a couple of little iPhone / iPod Touch reviews in the forums for you to have a quick look at, if you get a spare couple of minutes.  There’s a few reasons for doing this, one of the main ones been that I’ve bought a huge number of games for my iPhone, some been really good, while others been really, really bad; and that’s even after reading a couple of reviews.  Another reason is I’ve had the forum sitting there for a while now and it seemed like an easy way to start to use it and hopefully other people will start to post review on there (I need to sort out some basic rules / guidelines for that, but I don’t see any reason not to allow other people to post reviews as well).

  My reviews are based on generally playing a game for about an hour or so (some times longer if the game is good, shorter if it isn’t) and it’s just the general feel I get for the games and as every ones tastes are different, I don’t expect every one to agree with me, but you are more then welcome to leave your comments on the forum.  You do need to register on the forum to be able to post of course, or else it will get full of spam and links to gambling and porn sites.  I do recommend you trying the two games I’ve reviewed as I did enjoy them a lot.

  Work wise this week has been a bit hit and miss (getting called out at 2:30am was a major highlight of the week), but I was able to get my head down and do a fair bit of work during the end of the week and I think I’ve finished all the graphics now for Solitaire Siege, at least until I can see it on the real hardware and then I’m hoping it will just be minor changes.

Weekending 18/05/09

Solitaire Siege:

  Isaac thinks he’s almost gotten rid of all the bugs now in the game and now it’s a case of adding the other little details in the game (effects for the weapon attacks and the like).  He’s also been adding various sound effects and other audio into the game as well (thanks to the new engine), the only downside is that you can’t hear the MP3 audio unless it’s on the real hardware which is annoying to say the least.

  I’ve just finished all the particle effects for the game and I think it will look really nice in game (I particularly like the Flame Thrower effect and the rocket launcher, just hope that it runs okay on the real hardware).  I’ve also finished all the other screens in the game like the Statistics Screen for the end of each level, help screen, credits screen and cleaning up various other screens.

Shuffle Blocks:

  Dave got married on Friday, so Congratulations to Dave and his better half and I wish you all the best.

  Dave is aiming to do a Xbox Live Community game version of the game, which means I need to redo all the gf/x for the higher resolution (current gf/x where aimed for a lowly 640 x 480), so they will have a lot more detail in the new version and I guess the PC version will also get a big boost out of the updated gf/x now as well.

  Tommy is writing up some new tunes for the new version as well.

So as you can see, it’s all go again last week and I’m expecting this week to be just as busy =)

  So I think that’s everything for this week, but if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch and please let me know if you think the game reviews are any good or a waste of time, or if you want to post a review yourself, just ask.

Have a good week and take care.

Take care,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Solitaire Siege, Shuffle Blocks, Current Game Development, Blogroll | No Comments »

10/05/2009 by admin.

Hello,

  I hope you are all doing well.

It will have to be a fairly quick blog this week as it’s getting a bit late now and I really need to get to bed because I’ve been up since 5am this morning and I’m half a sleep as it is.

  This week has been all over the place for me.  It’s been full of lot’s of little jobs I’ve had to do, that seem to have taken most of my time up.  You know how it is, you have  a five minute job to do and it ends up been most of the night wasted on doing it and then that causes a few more little jobs and it starts to feel like a never ending circle.

  So anyway, this week I’ve been working on Solitaire Siege again and a bit of work on Shuffle Blocks, which Dave has asked me for.  The new version of iTGB has just come out as well, so that’s going to take a few nights to look at and see what new stuff is in that.

  I’ve also been playing the new PopCap game called “Plants vs Zombies” which is a really nice game once you get into it.  I say that because the demo really doesn’t do the game justice (for some reason PopCap game demos are nearly always a bit dull) as the game doesn’t start to get interesting until about the 90 minute mark.  Basically it’s a simplified Tower Defence style game where you have five lanes which cartoon style zombies come down and you have to stop them from getting to the other side by placing plants in their way.  It starts out really simple and a bit dull to be honest, but the later levels really do start to pick up and it’s a very engrossing game to play and the polish in the game is fantastic and you are going to love “Crazy Dave”.

  Well here’s a new little game advert for you to look at.  It’s just something quick I knocked up tonight so I would have something to show you guys.  The plan was / is to also use the nerdy clone from last week with this Hulk style clone in an advert, but it was taking to long to layout correctly, so I knocked this one up instead and I will finish the planned advert next week.

  Let me know what you think of it and feel free to pass the pictures around if you want to, just don’t alter / modify them please.

Weekending 04/05/09

Solitaire Siege:

  Isaac has sent me a new build for the game which he thinks has nearly all the bugs knocked out of the game, but with the new version of the engine we use coming out, we need to make sure it will work with that as it now supports MP3’s so we can have Tommy’s music in the game and a lot more sound effects.

  I’ve just been working out a few screens for the game just on paper at the moment, but after playing the game, they are a few things that need to be added so it’s as easy as possible for a new player to get in to the game as quickly as possible.  It may be a lot more work then I expected, but it’s definitely something that needs to be done.

Shuffle Blocks:

  Dave has been in touch this week with regards to Shuffle Blocks.  The game is back up and running again now and is nice and solid again.  I’ve got a font done for the game which I need to save out and send to Dave for the timer for the Land Mines in the game.

  Still now sure if we should do a knocked down version of the game for the community games for XBOX Live or just keep on slogging away and get the full, deluxe version of the game out, but at the moment all my time is taken up with Solitaire Siege and the other projects.

Well that will have to be it for now as it’s getting late and I’m up early tomorrow, but if I get a chance I will try to post mid week, but I’m also on call next week (day job) so I don’t know when (if) I will have any free time next week.

Have a good week and take care.

Take care,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Solitaire Siege, Shuffle Blocks, Current Game Development, Blogroll | No Comments »

04/05/2009 by admin.

Hello everyone,

  Hope you all have had a good week.

It’s been a bank holiday here this weekend and it’s actually been fairly nice out side, so I went against my better judgement and went out for a couple of days while it was nice (which is why the blog is a bit later then normal (sorry)).  I basically went along the East coast, visiting a few of the sea side towns.  It was nice and I ate loads of ice cream and I’m still finding sand in my shoes.

  I’m fighting a cold of at the moment so I’m a bit grumpy and I’ve got the attention span of a gold fish at the moment so I’ve been jumping around a bit doing different tasks and just been watching Heroes when I just couldn’t face coming home from work after sitting at a computer screen for eight hours and spending another couple of hours sitting at the computer at home.

  Any way, I’ve started to work on another advert for the game as I want to get at least six done before the game is ready for release.  It’s not finished yet, but here’s one of the cells/renders for it.

  This advert will be about how creating clones is like baking a cake; if you don’t follow the recipe perfectly, you get mishaps.  This picture shows one of these mishaps, a rejected clone.  I actually modelled the character after Bernard from “Day of the Tentacle”, a great little point and click game by Lucas Games (it was one of the first CD-Rom adventure games) and one of the first adventure games I completed without any help.

Weekending 04/05/09

Solitaire Siege:

  I’ve done a couple of things for the game, just graphical touch ups and a new card attack called “The Spy”, which was Isaacs idea for the game.  It works well and is a none violent card for once =)  Most of my time has been taken up with doing more stuff for the adverts.  I think I’m got most of them planned out now I think and fingers crossed, I can use a lot of my old 3D models in these, or at the very least, have a base model to work off from.

  I’ve also been playing the new builds of the game for bug testing, Isaac keeps sending me every other day or so.  I think I played it other the weekend for about 7 hours which isn’t bad considering I was out every day and only got a chance to play it on the night time.  To be honest, even was the few bugs which are in it at the moment, it’s still really playable and it really didn’t seem like I was playing it for that long.  We will need to do some adjustments to the level difficulty a bit I think as it seems a bit too easy at the moment, but we will know for sure when it’s finished and we can test it on new people.

Right I think that’s everything for this week, I know it was a bit short this week, but I’m hoping to have a bit more interesting stuff next week for you.

Take care,

Mike.

www.badbumble.com

Posted in Solitaire Siege, Current Game Development, Blogroll | No Comments »