Determinance screenshot

Archive for July, 2006

Beta event

Sunday, July 23rd, 2006

We’re having a beta event at 6pm BST this evening, everyone with the beta please be there.

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Sword changes

Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

Six people now have the beta, and an email has been sent to the list, so things are moving. The game will be getting updated continuously, and I’ll be posting all changes here. If you’re in the beta, keep an eye on the blog; and if you’re not, drop me a mail or drop into irc (#determinance on irc.maxgaming.net).

It’s been noticed that it’s too difficult to get a good slash connecting in DT, so I’ve loosened up the slash detecting code. The sword now doesn’t need to be going as fast to get good damage.

I’ve also changed the damage system a little. A “good hit” (see above) will do a set amount of damage to different body parts (50 to the head, 30 to the torso, 5 to the hand etc), with a bonus if you’re doing a very heavy slash. The damage system before was, in my opinion, way too complicated. People should now find it easier to predict what damage they’ll do.

Finally, when I started the beta I wasn’t expecting feedback in the form of images.  Archa, as usual, confounds expectations.

That’s it for now, will be back later.

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Best bug report so far

Friday, July 21st, 2006

[Archa] my pc restarts when i swing sword very fast

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Beta commences

Friday, July 21st, 2006

Liveblogging the beta!

I’ve just had a duel arena server up playing with Warpy (from Isreal), and JamesU (from the UK).  Basically happy with the server performance, although some jumping around which needs to be fixed.  Pretty positive that as far away as Israel is working fine, but the UK performance isn’t as good as I’d like yet.  The camera definitely needs to be coded to not jump around when your target lags.

Unfortunately – and I could see this coming approximately eight hundred miles off – the new gameplay elements don’t come accross well just written down; we really need to get the fully featured tutorial back on-spec.

Back to work!

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Beta update

Thursday, July 20th, 2006


The beta will be go tomorrow, with instructions for the testers going up in this very establishment.  We know that we’re going to be in for some gameplay changes now, despite earlier celebrations.  There are a couple of things that we especially have to work on, and I’m looking forward to having some more people playing regularly.

The current lack of tutorial is going to make it tough-going for new testers, and they’ll be asked to be patient getting into Determinance.  I’m currently debating whether to set the beta server as Duel Arena or Free For All.  Both modes have up-sides:  Duel Arena gives more focussed, polished, organised action; while Free For All allows people to fly around, explore and experiment much more.  It’s Duel Arena right now, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

Patience really is a big deal with the testers.  In an unfinished state it’ll take some work before everything clicks, and I hope our fans can handle that.

Talking of fans, today I need to take my hat off to one Tamsin Cox – sister of two of the Mode 7 team – who actually bought a copy of PC Plus (next month they’ll be talking about the increase in female readership) for my esteemed colleague and I to sign.  We’ve arrived.
And now it’s time for me to drink beer and watch the CFL.  I’ve waited until now – at a stage in the post where everyone has stopped reading – to mention a recent tragedy in my life.  NASN, the UK channel which feeds me the American sports I so desire 24 hours a day, has failed to re-sign Pardon The Interruption and Around The Horn.  I can hardly deal with this, and am currently looking for other ways to attain the bottled sports-centric charisma (and lack of it).

The zone is fool-free for the next eight minutes, and then it fills with CFL players.  Good night.

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Website redesign

Thursday, July 20th, 2006

As will now be blindingly obvious to established readers, the blog has been redesigned by the fantastic Simon Collision.  Not 100% finalised yet, but a serious improvement we think you’ll agree.

After some work on the duel feedback today, the beta is very close to being distributed.  Those on the list should be further excited.

Fool-free zone expanding…

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Return

Thursday, July 20th, 2006

Camping was hot and semi-relaxing.  It’s over now.  Ceaseless programming begins again.

The next two days will involve me trying to get this beta happening, so stay tuned people.

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Development: Beta server

Saturday, July 15th, 2006

Our shiny beta server is now up and awake, and seems to be running Determinance just fine.  This means that we will be able to start the closed beta when I get back from camping (more of which later), so by the end of this week the team should be beta-ing.

I’m not entirely sure why I’m going camping when I hardly have time to watch all the CFL I want to, but it’s important to take breaks; and a drinking, poker-playing, DS abusing, Sci-fi reading, drinking camping trip to, er, Newquey (I suspect that’s spelt wrong) might be exactly what I need.  It might not, but it’s organised now.  If you live in Newquey and over-hear a heated discussion about whether Magic Carpet is better than Little Big Adventure, take cover.

Keeping it a fool-free zone… now in the sun.

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??

Thursday, July 13th, 2006

Oh right.

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What am I doing?

Thursday, July 13th, 2006

I’m keeping it to the game.

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