Hurrah, the music is done! The first 14 levels are done! The polish is almost complete! I've just posted the latest build of BBXE for playtesting, and my mind is starting to wander back to the ideas I began exploring in my initial design research for DIVE!, which I put to one side to get BBXE done. But more on that in another paragraph...
The menu music came out of the final "full" track for the game. It's a spacey, spooky kind of tune, again with that kind of dizzy speed which I've been after for all the songs. The levels have really started to come together, and the progresion from the initial 4 or 5 levels of "introductory" difficulty to the tougher, longer levels around 13 and 14 is about right. I'm in the process of fiddling with some layout ideas before I commit them to a test-build, but I would say that a final playtest version should be un on Thursday or Friday this week. I want to get confirmation that the online peer-to-peer scoreboard is working as it should, but that's the only "core" code which could need any real work. So we're in good shape to get our 4th title out on the marketplace by the end of June, which is pretty good - 3 games released in 6 months seems about right to me and I'll be aiming to maintain that kind of pace for the rest of the year.
Anyway World Cup Match Of The Day is on and I want to relax and watch it, so see you later, 'tater!
I'll be making posts with our other vids soon, along with the various game soundtrack files which are hereabouts - tunes from Carrum, Space Pirates and Blazin' Balls. Zoinks!
Not a very imaginative title for a post I know, but I'm knackered. This is, as the title hints, a rough mix of a tune I'm working on for BBXE. As stated before, I'm returning to a song-based music model for this game. Writing the music has been a little torturous, and the level design is going a little slowly too, but I'm not going to rush it. I've got a long blog post to knock together too, so in the mean time why not give your ears a little treat and sample my own take on Drum and Bass / Ambient fusion? It's based on a tune I was kind of involved in the writing with our old pal DJellicon many years ago, but he didn't like the choral chords I tried at the time, so I thought I'd try it myself when he wasn't looking ;) Comments welcome as ever.
Blazin' Balls makes a 69% score in July 2010 issue of GamesMaster!
Written by DrMistry
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 14:32
With thanks to the underground grapevine (?) I've been told that Blazin' Balls has been reviewed by those stalwarts of the printed gamer zine scene at GamesMaster and was awarded a healthy 69% score! In the same issue, Red Dead Redemption gets 88% so I'm very very happy indeed. Projecting forward and compensating for the devaluation of percentiles in the EuroZone, I expect BBZE to get about 132.8% over three years. The review's on page 91 if you have access to a copy, and if not then why not go to WH Smith and buy yourself a copy? Tell them DrMistry sent you - it's bound to get you a blank stare and a shrug! You can also get cut-price Wispa Golds at the till.
I don't know if Future give out vanity copies but I'm going to see if I can find out. I'll let you know what happens!
On another note, I'm close to finishing another tune so expect a little MP3 of the track at some point over the next couple of days. I'm not rushing the composition (or the level designs come to that) because it's got to be right and I think the time spent will pay off in the long term. Well, pip pip for now old face!
More delicious, steamy hot Blazin' Balls XE video action!
Written by DrMistry
Monday, 24 May 2010 23:46
Here at MStar Games, we pride ourselves on being men of repute. Men of letters - letters such as "Dear Sir, My daughter informs me..." But at the same time, actions speak louder than words, at least unless you really, really shout, so I've posted the opening game ident video to YouTube. This is the video that the game plays while it's waiting fror you to press start. It plays in the "scoreboard" screen shown in the screenshots below, and with the camera motion it looks pretty sweet. I'm very happy with the music too.
Speaking of music, I've decided to move away from the "constant loop" model employed in BB and return to the old song-based music format we've used in all our other games. There are 2 reasons for this - firstly you can't smoothly transition between tempos very easily and secondly no matter how much refactoring, optimising and testing I do the music always drifts out of sync eventually. I'm working on the tunes this week, and so far they're a mixed bag - there's a longer version of the theme music used in the video, a kind of drum and bass/electro-ambient tune and some more brash funky stuff too. If I feel like it I'll post a few MP3s later in the week. I'm also working on the levels too, and they're working out to be very different to the old ones. There's much more variety in these ones, with more levels designed with 2-player in mind. The 1- and 2-player levels are all the same actual levels, but dividing the tracks in to 2 possible paths, which cross and interact to present a chance to get heavy with your opponent is great fun as a designer. Anyway enough guff, go watch the video you why don't you eh?
Blazin Balls
