Determinance screenshot

Archive for August, 2009

Frozen Synapse running on the Mac!

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

frozen-synapse-running-on-the-mac

Because of the awesomeness of JamesU, we now have a Mac build of Synapse running!

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Frozen Synapse on Gamasutra!

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

frozen-synapse-on-gamasutra

My piece on indie game marketing can be read on the gigantic news / comment behemoth here!

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The Meaningless Diary of an Indie Game Man – Part 3

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Wow, I was not expecting these humble updates to become the unbridled CULT PHENOMENON that they clearly have.  It turns out that our struggles to make an indie tactical game, welded to my insightful musings have produced an unstoppable juggernaut that only the titanic weight of centuries could ever halt.

I tip my hat.

They say success breeds success, but, I would suggest, this is only after it has fucked failure.

And now, a picture of our game:

An early version of the

This game mode is called “Secure” and it is utterly fucking awesome.  It’s a 1-on-1 multiplayer mode.  Here’s how it works…

1.  A level is generated by our magical generator, and both teams are dealt a “hand”, meaning that their units are selected for them.

2.  The playfield is divided up into squares.  Each team makes a bid of how much territory they think they can defend, given the layout of the terrain and their hand.  They can see the possible start points for the attacking team, as well.

3.  The player who bids the largest area of territory wins the bidding, and will be defending that territory.  The other team has to attack the territory, and get a unit into it for 3 seconds.

This is the core of the game as Ian first envisaged it: you have to evaluate the map, figuring out the best areas of cover, then deploy your units accordingly.  It’s amazingly tense if you bid stupidly, because you’ll frantically try to defend your territory and then get pounded in the ass with rockets, grenades and other such tomfoolery.  Trying to sneak a guy into the area and keep him there for 3 seconds is genius – I managed to successfully do this to Ian yesterday to his great chargin, by distracting him while sending a sneaky shotgunner around the back.

I really think people will go for this game mode big time – we’re already working on usability and tweaking it so that it’s clear what’s going on.  It’s a tad complex compared to simple attack and defend missions, but once you get the hang of bidding the whole thing really takes off.

We have had our graphical update, but our artist is busy tweaking colours, sorting out lighting, adding animation and doing bullet and explosion effects, so I’m keeping all that back for now until it looks really badass in screenshots.

Right, that’s the serious stuff out of the way, now back to the philosophical CORE of these updates…

Last week, I did some preliminary work on sound.  I will write properly about this at some point but I wanted to introduce you to something:

This is a Mackie HR824 monitor.  It is badass beyond ALL belief: great, tight bass response; clear highs, not stupidly expensive, reliable, lovely.  These monitors are among the best products I own, and if you are a musician or sound designer I cannot recommend them enough.

This is my Emu 0404 USB soundcard.  My thumb is in the middle here, indicating its middling performance.  It is ok, but has developed a couple of annoying problems with the main out and headphone out.  I probably just need to clean them.  This is an average-to-good sound card.

This is the FAMOUS bell we use for Village.  People complain whenever it’s not present, so I brought it with me to the office for mini-crunch and it is now sitting happily on my desk.  I thoroughly recommend this bell – it is a good bell.

This is a list of sounds from Sound Effects Library.  Those poor individuals among you who follow me on Twitter will have noticed me ranting about it.  It is INCREDIBLY hard to find good stock audio on the internets, despite the abundance of sites puporting to sell it.  We used to use Sonomic, but their prices make me cry.  Audio Micro seems to be quite a nice site.  I’m thinking of just buying one of the large sample libraries and then farming myself out as some kind of skanky indie game sound effects whore.  This will probably happen after Synapse is done.

After all that sound work, I had to leave and go to the office for mini-crunch.  Here is a picture of the vending machine at Leamington Spa station that once had some money left in it that I used to buy a Cadbury’s Caramel:

Thank you, benevolent vending machine deity.  Your provision of a sweet chocolate nectar bar will not go unnoticed by your followers.

Leamington Spa station is a bit shit – I will post more pictures to illustrate this fact shortly.  I feel dirty taking photos at train stations, lest people believe that I am insane or some kind of banality-fetishist.  I should just say, “YOU’RE GOING TO BE ON THE MEANINGLESS DIARY OF AN INDIE GAME MAN!!!” and expect them to whoop and cheer as if I’d just said Beadle’s About or something.  For those of you who are American, Beadle’s About was a fucking hateful UK TV show from the 80′s where a snarling, troll-like golem would dress up as a hideous parody of a woman, sneak up on fat, dole-laden idiots and pretend to smash their car or something.  It’s the kind of TV a cruel, demented Nazi would commission: how fitting that it was on ITV in the 80′s.

This is a big-ass truck that we got stuck behind on my way from the train station.  Ian commented that it looked like something out of Red Faction 3.  He was correct.  It was slow.

Here is Ian playing Synapse, the game that he designed, and also playing Bridge Baron in another window.  As you will know if you listen to the podcast, Ian has a worrying and utterly unfettered commitment to Bridge Baron.  He thinks he is like Warren Buffet because all he drinks is coke and he likes bridge.  This clearly true, and obviously akin to the way in which I am like Stephen Seagal, because I am an idiot and I like blues guitar.  Nodody calls me the Mojo Priest, though.

Oh god here is a picture of a cat again.  You can tell I am flagging…

One day I will take a picture of office dog Jasper, but he never stands still long enough.  It’s like a zoo here.  VERY MUCH like a zoo.

I have decided never to repeat myself in an email again.  People shouldn’t require that.  Instead of me doing so, I will simply send this image:

Finally, here is an upside-down picture of Retro Gamer, possibly the UK’s best print gaming mag:

Buy this!  For it is good.

I shall return!

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Lego Animation Awesomeness

Monday, August 24th, 2009

lego-animation-awesomeness

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Pure Unadulterated WTF

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Um.  Thanks Binster.

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The Meaningless Diary of an Indie Game Man Part 2

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

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As I mentioned last time, we were working on a set of five short missions for the beta part of the single player.  Thanks to Bin’s supreme efforts, we have ended up with six.  The first two are incredibly basic, the next two are reasonably normal in difficulty, number 5 is hard and number 6 is a kind of demonstration mission featuring all the units in a giant gang-bang.  We think this should give us, and our select group of testers a good overview of what the SP experience is like.

A close-up shot of the prototype

I had hoped that we’d have new graphics in by now, but some CVS problems meant that we didn’t have the correct version to hand at time of going to print.  Next week, during mini-crunch, I’m hoping to get some video of the current state of play so you guys can take a look.

And now, as requested, further updates on Life…

I feel it’s appropriate that we start with this picture of Bin.  Bin has been working on crafting our levels – he is the man behind the cool architecture you are witnessing in the screenshots.  He is big and has a beard.  He also owns The Proton…

Here we are driving along in The Proton.  The Proton is a phenomenal vehicle which has something new wrong with it every single time you encounter it.  When I was taking this photo, Bin pointed out that you won’t get the full The Proton experience without the rattling and clunking sounds it emits.  We love The Proton.  Bin very kindly uses it to pick me up from the train station sometimes.

Right, we need to rewind a bit now and get to the important stuff…

I know many of you have been wondering about this, which we have christened The Baster.  The Baster was present when this photo was taken (Thursday 20th August) but on my way home on Friday evening…

OH MY GOD!  WHERE IS THE BASTER!  WHAT KIND OF OMEN IS THIS!  I promise this was not staged in any way: The Baster is gone.  No more.  I looked around the field for it to see if it had merely been dislodged, but no Baster.  People, we must mourn its loss.  We now need a new mascot for these updates.  I’ll get working on it.

I thought I’d do you a little tour of the office, but it was in a shocking state when I arrived and we don’t want to appear shoddy.  So here are some edited highlights…

This is Ian’s solar-powered ferris wheel.  It…is…powered by the sun.  It makes a godawful noise.  I’m both intrigued and horrified by it, as you might be by an unusual poo.

This is some, um, debug information from a Super Sekrit Projekt that our uber-freelancer Thom is working on.  It’s not a game, and I’m not going to tell you anything about it.  Ian probably has already.  Ask him.  Actually don’t bother.  Thom is about 250% cooler than the rest of us – he can beat us all at tennis and is going on some kind of epic alchohol-fuelled world tour after he has finished his stint with is.  I have not shown his picture here because he will get a massive ego, and I forgot to take one.

This is a really completely pointless photo of a spider that was in the bathroom…

…this image alone cannot convey its size.  I don’t know why I took this, I don’t know why I’m sharing it with you.

So, after my time at the office I went back to Leamington through Oxford town centre.  I saw this…

Seriously wtf is up with the colour-schemes here?  Red and black is not something I would have imagined fired every woman’s romcom synapses but clearly there is some demographic INFORMATION to be gleaned here.  I told my girlfriend that I was NEVER watching The Proposal, but that I would watch The Ugly Truth with her if I was allowed to be drunk for the entire movie.  She accepted this proposition – she is wise.

So, after musing on that I had to stand around Oxford train station for fucking ages.  I bought a Mars Milk – WHY??? I put it in this bin…

You can see it at the top there.  Thank god they have bins on train stations now – they realised that the IRA aren’t going to leave bombs in them and run away.  All we have to worry about now are people blowing stuff up in ways which can’t be predicted or prevented.  Political.

Anyway, take that Mars Corporation.

Next to the bin, I saw this:

Who is the mysterious Ticket Holder?  Does he hold The Ticket for all of us?  Is he democratically elected?  He has his own exit.  I imagine him to be a bit like Black Rod.

When I arrived in Leamington, I walked through quite a Nice Area but witnessed this:

Whoa.  Ghetto.  Who trashes a car that…conventional?  It’s so prosaic.

Then I went home and ate this:

YEAH!  Domino’s (usually disgusting, only ordered in an emergency) have clearly worked out that people only order meat pizzas.  They have flooded their menu with meat to the extent that they have resorted to meat-oriented puns.  They have a pizza called the Meatzza.  With three z’ds.  All of their pizzas are meat.  I’m surprised they haven’t got one with a meat base and bread on top called the Azzip.

Now, this isn’t America, we’re not as used to pun product names as you guys.  Although where I used to live, there was a grocery shop called Melon Cauli.

THAT CONCLUDES THIS UPDATE.  Hopefully we’ll have those new graphics for you soon.

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Visiting the Village: Episode 24

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

visiting-the-village-episode-24

Episode 24 pokes its head above the parapet only to spot the peasants revolting.  This week, Ian and I talk Champ Man, Dust 514, and porn.  Hoorah!
Check out links from the show on our official Google Reader page.

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Rage of the Gladiator!

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

rage-of-the-gladiator

We mention this on this week’s show (up soon).  It is pretty amusing.

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The Meaningless Diary of An Indie Game Man Part 1

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

the-meaningless-diary-of-an-indie-game-man-part-1

It seems that my gonzo update went down well.  So here is another.

This week I have been working alongside our level dude Bin on trying to get some basic single player levels in place for the beta.  We have been doing reasonably well at this: here is the inevitable screenshot…

Single Player mission attempt...

This was intended to be an assault mission on a small mountain outpost; we were aiming for it to be Mission 1 (or at least Beta Mission 1).  The problem is that assault missions are much harder for new players to get to grips with than defend missions, so it will end up coming later (good job the story is flexible).

After Bin worked on it for a while, it ended up being decent, and we’ve now moved on to doing a couple of other small levels.  It’s hard to convey what’s good about the game while keeping things simple – we have some quite advanced tactical DUELLING mechanics and they’re hard to demonstrate with the AI.  I’m confident that with a few tweaks and a lot of hard work on the level crafting front we should be able to make a great SP experience to bundle with what is essentially a primarily MP game.

And now – what you’ve all been waiting for – a further insight into My Life….

At the weekend I saw this in Homebase.  I don’t know 1.) why the fuck this is in Homebase 2.) who would consider buying this:

That’s enough of that.

Yesterday I had a meeting in town so I decided to walk in.  It’s only a couple of miles across nice countryside.

If you live in the country you have to follow these fuckers – they exist so rich landowners can control the poor:

There are about two of these on the gigantic estate I have to walk through and I once got told off by a man in a Range Rover for going the wrong way.  There are two which point in totally opposite directions but I couldn’t capture this through the medium of photography as they are in different places and any attempt would have resulted in simply a photo of two arrows pointing different ways.  A bit like this, but not as funny:

WHICH WAY NOW.

Anyway, there are some pretty badass trees around here:

I could have done a funny goatse thing with this one but I’m not twelve years old.

After this tree, you have to climb over The Stupidest Stile In the World.  Here it is:

THREE?  It’s really hard to swing your leg over properly when there are three.  It’s not just me – EVERYONE I’ve seen trying to get over this stile hits their balls on the top of the fence.  If they’re male.

Someone has attached this thing to it.  I have no idea why / what this is – IT’S NOT A SCREWDRIVER.  Don’t comment that it is a screwdriver or you will be banned – I checked it – it’s not one.

After this bit you get to walk across this huge open field which is mildly atmospheric:

Then you go down the Ominous Path:

And you end up at the least auspicious place in the universe, Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre!

I think this is probably the most boring photograph of anything I have ever taken but it cannot convey the EPIC feeling of anticlimax achieved when emerging from the wood.

I forgot the sheep from earlier – here they are:

Finally, when I got into town there was this:

I don’t think this is some kind of awesome VST / breaking / ASBO crew who go around drinking White Lightning and then coding extremely well-optimized audio plugins in their spare time, but I dare to dream.

Well, I hope you found this as delightful as me.  I have to go and write stuff for our podcast now.  Join me next time on a trip to our REAL OFFICE to see OTHER PEOPLE and MORE STUFF ABOUT THE GAME WOW.

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A funny thing happened to me while signing up for the APB beta…

Monday, August 17th, 2009

a-funny-thing-happened-to-me-while-signing-up-for-the-apb-beta

ethnic

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