2011 April « A Startling Lack of Banjos

Archive for April, 2011

Rocket Storm is live! And some other things

Published April 21, 2011 Uncategorized 3 Comments

So, the Playbook’s been released, and anyone who happens to own one can download and play Rocket Storm, completely for free! Hooray!

It’s been gathering a good few downloads – more than I thought it would, and overall the store reviews have been pretty positive. A lot of users have identified a bug with the ‘next wave’ banner though – occasionally it hangs around for longer than it should, obscuring the first couple of missiles and making the game harder than it needs to be. I actually fixed this bug a few days ago, but there’s a delay between submitting an update and it getting approved and posted up on the store. I have no idea how the machine handles updating, I hope it’s reasonably well automated.

The reason I don’t know how updating works is because I don’t actually own a Playbook. They aren’t released over here until June, so I made the game using an emulator – I’ve never even seen the actual device, let alone tested my game on one. So I’m in the slightly weird position that thousands of people have played the game, but I still have absolutely no idea whether it’s running at the right frame rate, or the touch controls work ok, or even whether the sound is working! Haha, it’s a complete mystery.

Anyway, There’s now a link on the right sidebar over there to Rocket Storm, which I intend to release on as many systems as I can just as soon as I can. Starting with Flash! You may consider this an official COMING SOON.

Speaking of other systems, my Android experiments have been largely successful, with working Android versions of Small Worlds and Fireflight up and running on my phone right now. They’re both not quite perfect – Fireflight is the best fit, although it’s not yet running at its full framerate. Small Worlds is completable, but has some issues: it occasionally goes completely, insanely wrong (gets confused about which world the player is on, so picks random images from them all), and seems to suffer a noticeable slowdown about one minute into each level. Also touch-screen platformer controls are tricky; I have yet to find a control scheme that isn’t a horrible compromise. Next on the conquerable platform list is iOS. Then, the world! Probably.

Obligatory non-game news: I made a little stop-motion comedy sketch thing that you can watch right now over at BBC Online! Yay! It is the very best work of animation you will ever see. Also, this film here that I made last year with Rathergood has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Animation category! Hooray, it is also the very best work of animation you will ever see. We’re actually up against Aardman in the same category though, so there’s absolutely no chance we’ll win. The Aardman film is really really very good. It is the very best animation you’ll ever oh forget it.

Anyway that’s it for now BYE!

Blimey its April

Published April 11, 2011 games 1 Comment
Tags: android, blackberry, fireflight, flash, game, ios, rocket storm, van hemlock

Hello! Gosh, three months between blog posts isn’t a very good showing, is it?

In my defense, the last three months have been incredibly busy for me – I’ve been working on a series of pretty awesome non-game related projects, which are in various stages of completion/production at the moment. The only one I can really show you yet is these idents we made for the vast and benevolent Crusha corporation, which are airing on Nickelodeon in the UK right now. I watched a bit of Nickelodeon the other day as a result, but I can’t recommend the particular show I saw unless you happen to be a teenage girl. There was a lot of sass. Several characters had conspicuous attitude. I watched through the gaps between my fingers. Possibly I was not of the target demographic.

I’ve also done a stop-motion thingy for BBC online, which I think is going out in a week or so. I promise you it’s the best thing you will ever see apart from some other things. More on that when it’s available.

Also, I’ve been working on a super-secret project for rathergood, although all I can say about it is that I spent the last week constructing a badger.

So! Anyway, game news! Since we last spoke I’ve finished exactly two games! I shall tell you about them right now.

Game one is called ‘Fireflight,’ and it’s the super-secret game I hinted about in my last post.

(click the images to view full-size)

It’s a hand-painted 3D dodge-em-up very reminiscent of an old Spectrum game called Deathchase. I was going for fast and simple gameplay, in a Canabalt sort of a way. Anyway, I’m looking for sponsorship right now, so if you happen to be a major Flash game portal, I can promise you that if you sponsor it then it will definitely be a massive success and everyone in the world will be playing it all day every day for the rest of their lives. Also I accept money electronically, or in the form of sacks of gold bullion left anonymously outside my front door.

If you’re not a sponsor, then you can play the game just as soon as it’s released, which should be very soon now. You will be the first to know. Yes, you personally.

The second game was a bit of fun – for a bit of a bet with myself, I made a game in three days for the new Blackberry Playbook. It’s called ‘Rocket Storm,’ and its a little arcadey reaction thing, where you have to defend a space-station against an endless onslaught of missiles and spaceships.

(Click the images to view full-size)

It came out surprisingly well, so I’m right now this morning having a go at porting it over to Android, with iOS next on the list. Oh, and I’ll do a Flash version too I reckon. I don’t think the Playbook is officially released until the 19th (although some people already seem to be downloading and playing it somehow. Journalists? RIM employees? Time travellers? I literally do not know.)

Anyway if you have a Playbook and you are in the future, you can download it (for free!) from http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/38933?lang=en

Or, you can use this handy magical QR code! IS TECHNOLOGY NOT MARVELLOUS?

Oh! I almost forgot, I did a little guest spot on the wonderful Van Hemlock podcast, in which I talk for a solid half hour about computer games without ever once reaching any sort of point or conclusion. Or remembering to mention the two games I’ve recently written, oops. I am not very good at this.

Listen to my incoherent ramblings over at Consoling Gamers.