blog: developer blog #11

May 26, 2009 Derek Smart

State Of Play

Well, its that time in every project where you get to do tons and tons of tweaks, gameplay balancing etc. With a project of this scope, things are always going to be missed and we’re trying our best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

For example, recently I decided that it might be a good idea to have full fps support with analog and XB360 gamepad controllers. Previously those controllers were only for aerial and vehicular dynamics. Nobody seemed to mind because I guess us PC gamers don’t really care about controllers (which are woefully inferior to mouse+keyboard, not to mention the venerable joystick when it comes to aerial combat). It was during a test session of recent controller related tweaks that it occurred to me that even though a PC game with a controller still had access to the mouse and keyboard, it might be worth the time to implement those controllers in the first person mode of the game as well. I found myself having to put the XB360 controller down each time I left a vehicle or aircraft and took off in fp mode. Most PC gamers probably don’t care enough to even use a gamepad controller for a game like this, but for the six of you out there who actually use a gamepad with your PC games, well, fully support is there now if you want it.

On the assets side, the guys continue to impress and today I’ve released a bunch of shots showing off some of the new textures done for the aircrafts. Of the eighteen aircrafts in the game, only five (three fighters, two gunships) more left to go! The shots also show the new versions of the Terran Elite Force Marine and the Gammulan Elite Guard Marine in action. Just one more character model to revise and those assets are a wrap too. It has been a long – long – process, but finally all the assets will be a wrap by the end of the month.

We’re also probably going to end up pushing the game’s release date to either late Summer or early Fall due to some retail publishing deals we’re currently sorting our way through. Given that it would take quite a bit of time to get a deal done, get the production and localized materials done, do marketing etc this is the only way to go because we simply cannot release the digital distribution version ahead of the boxed retail version. Anyway, nothing is final yet so as of this writing, the game’s digital distribution June release is still on track.

Game Demo!

We’re investigating ways of doing a demo with some form of DRM protection. Traditionally, demos have always been the early entry point to game’s being cracked by hackers. To the extent that most games don’t even have demos anymore for this very same reason. A good hacker can pretty much provide a crack for the demo which can in fact work on the final retail game.

Another problem for us in doing a demo is the scope of the game. How do you effectively do a demo for a game of this scope without ruining the experience by turning off features, assets etc? Sure we did it for our previous games but those were different types of games and with different styles of gameplay. So, funny enough, it was a tad easier to do demos for our previous games than it will be for this new game.

If we can pull this off with ease – and without ruining the experience – then we’ll most definitely do a demo. Otherwise its just not happening.

Consoles – The Continued Saga

After a deal we were working on fell through with the publisher citing “economic conditions” around the time a payment was to trigger, we’ve essentially put the XB360 port on hold. Again. At this point, unless something worth doing (since that would put the PC version on hold so they can both release at the same time) comes along between now and the game’s release, it looks like All Aspect Warfare is going to be a PC only title because releasing it ahead of a console version pretty much kills the latter.

For a self-funded indie studio like ours, it is not financially viable to sit on a finished PC game while running around with publishers trying to secure a deal for an XB360 game. As I’ve said before in an earlier blog update, the reasons for doing an XB360 version are purely financial and have nothing to do with the console. We simply don’t care which platform you play our games on. Even so, at the end of the day, the PC has traditionally provided a much better experience for gaming and no console is even close to replicating that experience. Rampant and wanton piracy of PC games has made it that much harder to recoup investments on a PC only title, let alone turn a profit. So it just made sense for us to at least try to do it. Since you can’t release a retail console title without a publisher coupled with the XBLA issues (game size, game type, pricing restrictions, crazy royalty schemes etc) and Sony’s continued quest to ruin PSN, going either of those routes is not a viable one either.

Until next time!!

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