Thursday

September 4th, 2008 by Ian

I don’t know why, but “August” feels so much further from November than “September 1st” does.

The deadline for the IGF is November 1st, and we plan on hitting that with a pretty damn good version of Synapse.  It will be a beta, but it will have the following:

- Core multiplayer 100% working
- Single player Training missions
- Small single player campaign (but without much plot, just single challenges)
- Graphics basically there
- Sound in at least competently

Despite the fact that they always spurn us, the IGF Submissions Deadline is a great event simply because it forces us to have something ready at a certain time.  You’ll have read about this before as the “E3″ or more generically the “Demo” phenomenon, and it’s true.

Out plan is to release the closed beta sometime this month, and then to release the open beta very soon after the IGF deadline.

Going back to the beginning of my post, it right now doesn’t seem like we have that much time.  Onwards!

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Wednesday afternoon

September 3rd, 2008 by Ian

Just another normal day in #determinance…

* papple has joined #determinance
* Omroth slaps papple around a bit with a large trout
<papple> IT’S A ME
* nervoustestpilot starts the papple music
<papple>
<Omroth> dee dee dee
<Omroth> de de dee
<nervoustestpilot> gwooooaaarrrr
<papple> that would be “I want to love you tender”
* nervoustestpilot has quit IRC

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Korg DS-10 in Europe This October

September 3rd, 2008 by Paul

This has been all over the internet, but Eurogamer just let me know that the official European release of Korg’s brilliant Nintendo DS music product DS-10 is very soon.

Myself and Thom have both tried this out and agree that it is exceptionally good - by far the best commercial handheld music software in existence.  To my mind, only the homebrew Gameboy trackers LSDJ and Nanoloop compete with it from a technical standpoint, and DS-10 smacks seven bells out of them in the usability stakes.

Something that the average user may not necessarily realise: this has ASS; by that I mean great gratuitous quantities of mother-loving sub bass.  I fired it up through my Mackie HR824’s the other day and nearly blew a hole in the floor.  Get some decent headphones if you’re planning to use it properly - the DS’s speakers, lovely though they are, do not approach the execution or deployment of justice.

Anyway, I will be buying DS-10 ASAP and so should you.

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Tuesday afternoon

September 2nd, 2008 by Ian

I am officially bored of only 5k/s internet at my flat.  I’m working at home today because I had to run a few errands this morning and after lunch I just decided I’d get more done if I worked here (an aside - it is truly wonderful having a powerful laptop as your dev machine.  Total freedom to work anywhere).  In the end Virgin couldn’t give me cheap broadband as they would have had to run a wire accross someone’s house who didn’t want it.  So BT is activating the line (£10 a month) in here and I have to choose between crappy internet (£15/month on top of the 10) or wonderful internet from the wonderful Loud-n-Clear (£25/month and I’ll have to pay for the router).  I’m still trying to decide.

I’ve got a huge distance with the graphics and it’s time for Captain Bobo the concept artist to come in and do another revision.  On thursday evening before the NFL season kicks off (can’t wait) Bobo (not his real name) will come to the office, look at what I’ve done, and in one minute point out how to make it 10x better by changing the contrast or something.  Seriously speaking, we need him to move from the terrain itself to the plan stuff and the gui.

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August 31st, 2008 by Ian

Saturday I continued work on an algorithm to get the walls in Synapse rendering correctly.  It’s a surprisingly subtle algorithm and I’ll post the details next week.

I also watched Babylon AD at the cinema yesterday, the new Vin Diesel sci-fi flick.  It gets really incomprehensible at the end and the conbat is really boring but it has some awesome visuals (including the best bomb explosion I’ve ever seen) and ideas.  I tentitively reccomend it.  And spelling school for me.

Today I chilled and watched a couple of rentals, including an absolutely amazing medieval American Pie-alike called “Virgin Territory”.  Also a pretty good indie film called “In The Land of Women”.  Frankly, the first should have been called “Virgin Territory: In the land of women” and the second something much more sensible.  But there you go.

I’ve decided I don’t like Lumines.  Average games seem to last over half an hour and that’s too long for a puzzle game.  I also dream squares more than usual and that’s boring.

My falcons at 8-6 lost to the Vikings (8-7 also) I think statistically knocking me out of the playoffs.  Great, great first season though.

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Friday afternoon

August 29th, 2008 by Ian

Synapse is starting to look incredible.  Everything’s coming together and it’s really looking special.

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Wednesday afternoon

August 27th, 2008 by Ian

I’m finally getting into the meat of the Synapse graphics system today, having well and truly made shaders and FBOs my bitch.  I’ve got the concept art on one side, and Synapse on the other, and I’m slowly getting the second to look as good as the first.

I can’t tell you how chuffed I am to be writing actual shader code.  I love procedural things and shaders are the epitomy of procedural art.  I fully expect to be using them far too much.

Not much else to report.  Didn’t stay too long at the dinner party last night.  It was one of those work social things where it’s not your workand therefor you don’t understand why it’s funny that person x did incomprehensible thing wrong y, so I exited before too long, but it was good to meet a few more of Lizzie’s work people.

Settling into a routine of playing through one full week of HC before going to bed.  I’m glad they’re fixing the innability to call plays during the two minute warning - I’d initially classed that as a “somewhat silly but ignorable” bug and now I realise that it’s pretty terrible.

The local off-license has started selling somewhat acceptable pumpkin ale.  Nothing over here will ever get to the standards of Pumpkin Jack (hey Dale - how about we do some kind of shipping swap - Banana Bread Beer for Pumpkin Jack?) but this stuff is pretty good.

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Tuesday evening

August 26th, 2008 by Ian

I have to give an absolutely massive round of thanks (and beer) to both Chemeleon and JamesU, who held my hand through getting GLSL shaders into Torque and rendering to an FBO.  Seriously, thankyou.

I’ve now got shaders displaying properly, and I’m good to go on actually writing them now.  I’m pretty excited!  I think I might have some stuff to bring to the table with shaders in 2D.

Going to a dinner party tonight with Lizzie’s work friends… so a bunch of girls who work in an art gallery and their partners.  Should be interesting.

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Tuesday morning

August 26th, 2008 by Ian

Back in the office after a very relaxing weekend.  I always know when I’ve relaxed properly because I start having really good design ideas - I’m hoping one of them proves to be actually good when Bin tests it in Synapse today.

Still loving having a private office to escape to and code.  Really important.  I’ve got to do a lot more hard work on graphics/shaders this week and I need all the help I can get right now.

Wish us luck on Puzzle Catz this week.  Make or break time.

I’ve been playing Lumines for the first time this weekend.  I like it actually.  I do have a bit of a problem that one game generally takes more than half an hour to play, and then my head kind of feels like it’s silted for a while afterwards.  And I don’t much like the art style (I am playing the sequel though, dunno about the first) - I prefered Meteos’.

Saw Hellboy 2 this weekend.  I thought it was ok.  Not edgy enough for my tastes.

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Classic Sierra Adventure Game Post of the Day

August 25th, 2008 by Paul

This will be all.

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