Determinance screenshot

Archive for October, 2006

Not-IGC

Saturday, October 7th, 2006

IGC, or rather Not-IGC as the much smaller event is being called, is going very well.  I’ll have a lot more to talk about after the event, so apologies for the lack of updates.

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HOWTO: Play Bullet Candy and Listen to Alek Szahala at the Same Time

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

Performing these actions will cause waves of odd pleasure to caress your body for about ten minutes.
1. Download this.

2. Download this.

3. Turn off Bullet Candy’s horrible music.

4. Play Alek Szala’s lovely music.

This is good for you.

EDIT: I managed to miss out an “A” and an “H” from Mr Szahala’s name.  No punishment is good enough.

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Sam And Max

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

The pricing model for the new Sam and Max games have just been announced: $9 for each “Episode”, but only $35 pre-order for the “first” “Season”, which is a saving of $20.

I like Sam and Max fine. Day Of The Tentacle episodes would be something that would keep me up at nights, but sure, a small developer with a slightly sub-par back catalogue making episodic adventure games with old classic Lucasarts IP and some veteran involvement is at least better than Lucasarts doing it themselves nowadays, and at least some cause for optimism. And $9 is cheap for anything. I really would be surprised if what they came out with was worth less than $9.

But… pre-ordering five games that haven’t even started development yet? Five?? Pre-ordering a game that’s two years into development is fine: the chances of cancellation are about 2%. But the chances of a game that’s only been announced not being released is much, much higher. Five games? From a small developer? Using a new model that hasn’t been tested yet? I don’t think so.

Paying this $35 is basically a donation to the company. And so many people feel so strongly about this Sam and Max issue that I’m sure a lot of them will feel happy doing so. But I think calling it a “pre-order”, when you are “pre-ordering” something that is only just on the drawing board, is a bit false.

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Yreka

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

I’m now in a nice Super 8 motel in Yreka, the northern most town in California.  This is the second motel I visited: both had the problem they only had double rooms left, but only one charged me single prices anyway.

A quick note: there’s an innacuracy in the GameTunnel preview linked below; that the weapons currently handle differently.  On release Determinance’s fifteen swords will be only aesthetically different, with actual different weapon-classes being released later.  Just wanted to get that clear with everyone.
Now onto other things.  The following stuff happened to me on the six-hour drive up here.

  • I saw a big billboard saying “You Are 10,000 Miles From France”.  It turned out to be part of a Casino’s advertising campaign, with the strapline “You’re luckier than you think”.   BRILLIANT.
  • I was listening to a radio news segment about Mark Foley (some US senator who’s sexual emails to young male aides have increased the usage of the term “Page” in TV and Radio by about a million percent).  A guy from some organisation like the “Open Government Aliance” or something said the following: “… this man is a homosexual, and homosexuals are obsessed with sex…”.  After a bit more rhetoric, the anchor says “now, some of our listeners may take offense to your statement that all homosexuals are obsessed with sex.”  The guy replied “Many psychologists, who have had to deal with these people, have reported this.”  Remarkable.
  • I’m listening to a radio station at random when… Garibaldi from Babylon 5′s radio show comes on.  Garibaldi.  From Babylon 5.  He has a political radio show.  And he ran for the house.  Best thing that could happen to you when driving through the Shasta foot-hills?  Yes, I think so.

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Meetings

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006


One of the cool things about being in the Bay Area is that you’re near a very large proportion of new tech companies.  I was having my first conversation with a new networking contact yesterday and he said we should meet face to face, and it turns out he’s thirty minutes drive from me.  That’s where I’m going now, setting off for Oregon later.

Glad to see us getting more previews; that GameTunnel one is very positive.

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Determinance on Digg

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

Gametunnel’s preview has made it onto Digg – please go here and Digg the story to help spread the word about DT!

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Determinance Preview on Gametunnel

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

This one’s a bit…well…awesome.  Go read.

Edited highlights:

“The dated 3-hit combo, and uninspired take-turn back-and-forth fighting scheme, featured in DBZ games are completely out-classed by Determinance. Determinance, and its mouse-to-sword mechanics, brings the fighting standard to a completely different plateau.”

“Adding the lightning fast flying that takes place only makes it better as its high quality fits the high quality of the game.”

“For any player who genuinely wanted to imitate the fighting style of Count Dooku from Star Wars Episode II, it’s actually possible in Determinance.”

We’re finding that some people like William just click with the game straight away – it feels right to them – while others get held back by some of the niggles.  As things go forward, we’ll work to erode the concerns that the second group have by trying to promote the game intelligently and do some ongoing development, while being happy to support the core of people who really get it.

Cheers to William and Gametunnel for their support – it means a lot to us that people who see more indie games than anyone else are willing to praise DT so highly.  It’s a funny game – we’re just glad someone likes it!

If you would like to help us out, please use the links at the bottom of the preview to Digg, Slashdot etc. the page so that more people find it – we’d really like to get the word out about this one.

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Sensual

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

This is rapidly turning into a week in which Mode 7′s fortunes could take considerably bounds.  I can’t really say any more, but everyone keep their fingers crossed for us.

So, I’ve now rented a car to go to Oregon and IGC tomorrow.  The car actually had some hidden costs in the insurance which I’m a little annoyed about, but never mind.  It should take about 9 hours to drive there, and I plan on stopping for the night in Yreka (the northern-most town in California) tomorrow night.  It’s a pity I won’t have a companion this time around, as Bryan has to work, and I can’t think of anyone else suitable.  ‘Suitable’ might describe my esteemed colleague (for once), but his plane fare is better spent on marketing and beer.  I hope the radio, er, works.

I bought Starfox DS today.  They’ve done some pretty weird stuff with this odd “tactical” minigame thing, and I’m not particularly convinced that the touch-screen flight control is any actual improvement over using the d-pad instead.  It does mean that you can fire your lasers with any one of ten buttons though.  Some of it looks nice, and some of the powerups look absolutely terrible.   Basically, if it gets to the point where there are a butt-load of enemies in a level then I’ll probably consider it a success, otherwise not.

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New Website Nearly Complete

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

This page, which links to our main blog, will contain key updates on Determinance’s progress as time goes on.

We’re nearly finished with the website’s structure, barring a few extra sections, and then we’ll be able to start developing things in some exciting directions.  For now, please subscribe to the blog feed, if you haven’t already: it’s the best way of keeping updated.

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National Crisis Over

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006

The nice man at the TomTom US call-centre solved my problem. Something about a reset button.

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