Universal GameDev Challenge Entry

I had a go at Unity's Universal GameDev Challenge last month, with an action/stealth RPG based around the Battlestar Galactica canon. Obviously I didn't make the finals (as I wouldn't be posting about my design otherwise), so I've included my design document here. If you love a flow diagram, then take a look.

Rome Total War on iPhone

Although at least five of the projects I am currently working on cannot be blogged about at the moment (well, I could, but an NDA says I really mustn't), I can at least mention I've been working on Rome Total War for iPhone. 

Retroactive - Interview with Lionheart on Rome Total War for iPad

Where Retroactive = I forgot to blog about this first time around.

After the release of Rome Total War for iPad, Edwin and I (the designers on Rome Total War for iPad) did an interview with Lionheart for his YouTube channel, and you can watch it here if you're so inclined:

My Horse Prince - A Warning From History

Sometimes, fate guides you towards something you should never witness. If fate is a co-worker who sends you a game link and comments in amused astonishment that said game link even exists. This is why I found out about My Horse Prince. The fact I downloaded it onto my phone to investigate can only be blamed on me.

My Horse Prince is, essentially, a shameless cash grab. Stuffed full of microtransactions, it seeks to exploit a specific demographic in order for them to spend lots of money on consumable IAPs. What I can't quite figure out is who that demographic actually is.

Maybe some developers sat in the pub and went 'What do girls like? Well, they like cute boys, and they all love horses. I've got it! Combine the two, and we'll be quids in!' I've heard it's meant to be a parody; I'm not convinced.

I am, however, pretty certain they don't exactly understand what it means when little girls love horses.

GRID on iPad and iPhone

Well, somebody doesn't know how to blog properly.

It's been a while since I've updated this, and since that time, GRID Autosport has arrived on the iOS Store for iPad and iPhone, and we did a Twitch livestream to commemorate the event! Sadly, that was a while ago, but the full stream is due for a rerun in October. Witness Hannah's mad racing skills, and my weird inability to distinguish between the names Def Leppard and Led Zeppelin when under duress. 

Sneaky Peeky

There's been a sneaky look at one of my next projects on Twitter...

I'm just going to leave this here.

iPad Invasion

If you saw Rome: Total War was available on iPad (or you glanced at the post below this one), then you probably saw this coming... Barbarian Invasion is now available as a separate app.

To celebrate this, we drank the blood of our enemies and made a two hour Twitch livestream, which has been retained for posterity.



All our post-release work on Rome to improve those niggling issues went into Barbarian Invasion, so you can enjoy new features such as displaying troop paths and statuses in battle in the first release. It's been fun working on the improvements, and always interesting to see what people find they like (and don't like!) when you let your app out into the wild.

Rome-ing All Over Your iPad

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, as I've been rather busy on a project at work which has finally been revealed - Rome: Total War on iPad. It's been a fun and challenging experience getting the full uncut version of the game onto a tablet, and one we hope people will enjoy. If you like Rome: Total War and you like iPads, this is probably the game for you!

You can see the best bits of the design team (i.e. myself and Edwin) live-streaming a sneak-peek of the game below:



You may notice the best bits are sadly bereft of terrible Rome-based puns, but this might be rectified on the Total War official Twitch channel tomorrow. We're going to be showing the game ahead of release, and we'll try not to wilfully murder our general this time.

A Grimm Journey: Narrative

December's Ludum Dare may be over, but we're still working hard on A Grimm Journey, albeit in dribs and drabs due to our other commitments. While both the Robs have been making loads of improvements (see Rob de Jager's blog post here*), I have been looking into the narrative of our game.

So far, the story has largely been confined to an introduction screen with a rhyming explanation, to fit with the fairy tale feel of the shadow puppetry art design.

Shadow puppet art for 'A Grimm journey'

Ludum Dare: A Grimm Journey - Results

The results for the Game Jam I participated in last month have been released, and here is how our game 'A Grimm Journey' ranked out of 2,640 total entries:

400 Graphics(Jam) 3.48

406 Mood(Jam) 3.17

449 Audio(Jam) 2.85

746 Overall(Jam) 2.92

785  Innovation(Jam)  2.57

866 Fun(Jam) 2.52

890 Theme(Jam) 2.96

That means we made the top 16% to 36% across all the above categories, which isn't bad going. Well done to everyone involved!

Ludum Dare: A Grimm Journey - Post-Mortem

Last week saw me participate in my first ever game jam! Ludum Dare organise one monthly, and teams or solo participants have to make a game in 72 hours. What could possibly go wrong?

The team we had comprised of:

Rob de Jager - Programming (team lead)
Rob Best - Programming
Stacy Lovage - Art
Laura Mitchell (Me!) - Design 

At the start of the jam, we were given the following theme: 

Everything on One Screen

You can see the fruits of our labour here.

Shadow puppets trapped on a single projector screen...

I will largely go through the project from a design point of view; needless to say, the game artwork was amazing and what got coded in 72 hours would have taken me weeks.

IF Competition: Building the Right Stuff

Back in October, I entered the Interactive Fiction competition. The voting results came through in November, and I managed tied 33rd place out of 42. Not great, but not the worst. If you want to take a peek at my entry, the link is here.

Here's what I learned from the experience.

Marvel at the high quality graphics...

Game Jammin'

I'm currently 26 hours away from the deadline for the Ludum Dare 31 game jam!

Rob de Jager kindly asked me to join his small team in a design capacity, and it's been great fun. 72 hours to make a game; what could possibly go wrong?

I posted an update on our progress on Rob's Ludum Dare blog here, so go check it out. We have just under 26 hours to go.

I'll do a more detailed review after the event (along with a piece about another game competition I entered a while ago, in a moment of madness).

My First Computer Build

As my old computer has pretty much been powered by a tired hamster in a wheel for the past eighteen months, I decided it was time to empty my piggy bank and purchase a new one that could cope with games made in the past four years. After looking at the specs I wanted and the cost of pre-built machines, I decided to build my own. How hard can it be, I thought?

Posing this very question to my friends and colleagues resulted in polarised opinions that fell into one of two camps:

1) Get a professional to do it; you'll fry every component just by looking at it, so leave it alone.
2) It's just like expensive Lego; so long as you don't try to build it in the bath, you'll be fine.

I always liked Lego, so I decided to give it a punt.

It is generally not recommended to add soft furnishings to a computer build.

DP Challenge 30/100 - Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Game: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Ranking: 45/100

Score: 81.94%

Have you ever spent time playing a good old hack-and-slash game and thought, part way through dismembering an enemy, "If only this game contained more beautifully hand-drawn art inspired by Sumi-e paintings?" Then Muramasa: The Demon Blade is the game for you!

Representative of actual in-game art.
(source: ign.com)

8-Bit Retro Doctor Who Fun

When the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who was being celebrated all over, there were lots of unexpected offerings. For example, I didn't expect a multiple Doctor episode to be any good (based on previous experience); yet 'Day of the Doctor' was thoroughly enjoyable. I didn't expect to finally see a Eighth Doctor regeneration. I certainly didn't expect this piece of sheer beauty, and I didn't expect Google to celebrate the anniversary with such gusto.

Hmm. Rather a strange choice of image to go for. I mean, I get that retro is kind of cool at the moment, but... hang on, that Play button looks suspiciously like it ought to be clicked on...

DP Challenge 29/100 - Bully: Scholarship Edition

Game: Bully - Scholarship Edition

Ranking: 39/100

Score: 83.13%

Remember those halcyon school days; the bruised knees, the taunting, the smell of toilet water? Presumably the people at Rockstar had teenage years which smacked more of ‘Clueless’ than ‘Grange Hill’, as they released a game which purports to be a Bully simulator to a demographic which is traditionally associated with being on the receiving end of such treatment. So, get ready to recreate that traumatic experience all over again with Bully: Scholarship Edition.

'Bully'. A title that seems to fit most of the characters in this game.
(Source: wiimmgm.com)

Completed Mini-Game: A Cumber-Adventure!

After yet another hiatus, I'm posting again!

I do have a couple of fairly decent excuses for my absence; I've had exams and started a new job for one. More relevant to the content of this site is the fact that I've technically been busy making a full-length game to a remit. I say technically, because  it's a) more a collection of mini-games under a single narrative and b) that remit is of my own choosing.

Some background on this latest fare; a friend of mine has quite the crush on the actor Benedict Cumberbatch (you may know him as Sherlock in the titular BBC series, or as that actor whose name you won't remember, but you can say almost anything with a similar number of syllables and people will know who you mean) and her birthday was coming up. As I was struggling to find a suitable present for her, the idea hit me: I would make her a game. Not only could I tailor something perfectly to her, but I could try out some new game building software I had acquired*. So, 'Susie's Cumber-Adventure' was born!

The title screen. My friend totally didn't stroke the screen when she first saw this.

Only the names have been changed, to protect the guilty.

Now, this isn't a game for distribution, as it's both a unique gift for a friend (who has graciously agreed to let me write about it) and it breaks all copyright laws of God and man. With that in mind, if you wish to take a peek, the zip file can be accessed here. You need to extract all the files into one folder in order to run the executable.

Mobile Gaming - Stick Cricket Premier League

Otherwise known as 'what I've been helping out with for the past few months'.

Indeed; I've been a Production Intern at Stick Sports for the past two-and-a-bit months. They've made such popular mobile games as Stick Cricket, Stick Tennis and Stick Cricket Super Sixes, and last week they unveiled the first release of their newest addition - Stick Cricket Premier League.

Stick Cricket Premier League. Complete with corporate sponsorship.

DP Challenge 28/100 – Call of Duty: World at War

Game: Call of Duty: World at War

Ranking: 37/100

Score: 83.59%

Well, it’s been a while; I’ve been a busy bee these past couple of months and have only just got around to adding a new post. 

Number twenty-eight on the list of the top 100 rated Wii games is ‘Call of Duty: World at War’. Has war never been so much fun? More to the point, has my Cannon Fodder reference passed everyone by?

'World at War'. If the 'world' consists of the US and Japan.