Fun and Games!

Spent the best part of half a day chasing a bug which I thought was to do with the load/save game code. When playing one of the Knockout Cups the game wouldn't let you progress past the first team that you played. It kept on selecting the team for a replay which can only happen if you draw with them. Turns out it had nothing to do with the code but an old button that was hiding behind the "next game" button. If you clicked Next Game it thought you wanted a replay!! I need to keep on top of things now and remove any old code/graphics that are no longer needed.

I also need to speak to Phil about re-designing the pitch side graphics for the concrete pitch. There's a bit too much grey and red colouring going on which makes the play area look kind of busy and detracts the eye. Should be a simple change.

The indoor pitch is almost complete apart from members of the crowd and the advertising boards for the grass/astro pitches are in but are blank at the moment while we think of what to advertise on them. I think it will look quite boring if we just advertise Addictive 247 and Addictive Football, so we're going to do some rip-off names of famous brands or stores. Should be fun :)

More Graphics!

Phil's been working his little socks off this week getting through a lot of the graphics needed.

Here's how the Custom Game menu currently looks. Still work to be done on the actual background though . . .



. . . and heres how the second screen of the Friendly Match looks . . .



I'm currently working on the actual detail around each of the pitch types. Below is the indoor pitch in it's current state . . .



There's still small people to add as the crowd and probably a few other props around the outside. And of course the much wanted and anticipated Streakers!!

On Track

Had a meeting with Phil last night (in the pub!) to go through all the remaining graphics requirements for Addictive Football. We both know exactly what's needed and think we can get the game complete by around this time next month. The graphics that will take the longest will be the short intro scene at the start of the game which shows how each player gets to the match. It's going to be done in a cartoon-style strip and should be a lot of fun. Who says football games have to be serious!

All the different game modes are complete but the final one, called "The Honours Cup" for now, needs a good old test to make sure that the save/load game stuff is working. Hopefully get around to that today.

One of the points brought up from the beta test was that there was no re-define keys option. I've built that part of the game now and just need to make the menu system for it look a bit better. Feedback from the beta test has so far been positive :)

Features

As development of the game is progressing well and it's actually being tested by real humans I thought it would be good to list some of the features of the game. Now some (maybe all!) of these features might change before release but it will serve as good reference for looking back and laughing at some of the ridiculous ideas!

* Old school 2D football game similar in style and playability to
Sensible Soccer and Kick Off. 5-a-side football rules apply.
* Plenty of different game modes for the player - 1 or 2 player friendly; Amateur Knockout Cup; Inter Knockout Cup; Honours Cup; Custom Game mode.
* Custom Game mode allows you to set the skills of the player/computer teams so you can practice your skills. Play against a really tough opponent or give the computer the worst skills possible!
* Choose from 10 different teams to play as. Each team has different skills and abilities.
* Four different pitch types - Grass, Astro Turf, Concrete or Indoor.
* Trophy Cabinet so you can look at all your lovely silverware.
* Streakers and Policemen!!
* Fast gameplay, minimal controls and minimal menus

So, there you have it

It's my birthday today (21 cough, 30 splutter, ok 33!!) so no more work for me. One of my presents was the lovely "New Super Mario Bros" for the DS so I'm off to waste a few hours on it :)

Beta Testing!

Yesterday, Addictive Football went into Private Beta Testing. Thanks to all the people who are involved in this (you know who you are). I'm looking forward to the feedback and the ideas that come back. Hopefully (crosses fingers!) there aren't too many bugs. I think the engine is pretty solid but I'm sure a few things will turn up.

I'm still currently working on the menu design side of things and have been adding some of the graphics that Phil has just recently done. Small graphics representing the computer, players keys and joysticks have been added. Nothing earth-shattering but it's nice to get those things in.

Phil's also working on the advertising boards for around the pitch and the players' goal celebration animations. Hopefully we'll have these in over the weekend. There's still plenty to do and I have a bad feeling that we won't be able to release the game this month. Sometime in October is looking more likely :(

The Arsecast

The Arsecast is a retro and Indie gaming podcast which I stumbled upon yesterday. There's quite a few podcasts out there about games but this is by far the best. The British humour is excellent and the content it covers is very well thought out. A must for any gaming fan!

Pain in the arse Goalies!

I've noticed over the last few days of playing around with the game that the player (and cpu) goalies aren't as good as they should be. It's been too easy to beat the goalie and score. Before I started adding different team attributes the goalies where tough to beat. I then changed it so they were a bit easier.

Now that each team has different skills it's made it hard to make a fair goalie. A lot of the time they'll stand there and watch the ball whistle past them into the back of the net. I think I've now managed to get a good mix of good/bad goalie by playing around with their line of site. However, I've been playing with the game for a few months now so I know all the tricks to scoring. I need to get the game into the hands of some testers so they can give me some feedback.

Grass and Concrete Pitches

So here's a couple of screenshots showing the new pitch types. The first one is the grass pitch. Ignore the green surrounding areas for now as these will have advertising boards, crowd etc in the final version.



The screenie below shows the concrete outdoor pitch. Originally it was going to be grey (like the surrounding area) but it works much better with a sandy style red. Again, a lot of detail needs to be added to the surrounding areas.



I'm also doing some work on the menus and so that it isn't too cluttered there will be 2 menu screens to go through for the Friendly and Custom game modes. Having the Team select, control select, match length and pitch type on one screen was just too much. Now the player selects the team and control on one menu and the match length and pitch type on another.

A Good Graphics Day!

Yesterday Phil was feeling much better so I received some much needed graphics. I managed to get the four different pitch types in as well as the team kits for the menu screens.



I also completed the Custom Game Mode which can be seen in the screenshot (above). Ignore the menu background and a lot of the text. About 90% of this needs to be changed before release and is currently using my crappy "programmer art" so that it's functional. The custom game mode is a lot of fun and it's nice to be able to create a really bad opponent and completely batter them!

Custom Game

Well we're still no further on with the graphics as our graphics guy Phil has been ill over the last few days - get well soon Phil! (we need them graphics!)

As all of the team attributes are set by variables I had a great idea yesterday that it'd be cool if you could design a custom team and then a custom opponent and then battle it out on the pitch. Settings such as player speed, passing ability, shot power, shooting ability etc, etc could all be set with little sliders on a Custom game menu. You could then do the same for an opponent, pick your match length and pitch type and away you go! This would also be useful as people could set up a really bad computer opponent and then practice against them.

Had to go out on the weekend and buy another game pad as I can't find my other one. I just bought a basic 4 button one from GAME which is good enough for testing the pad support within Addictive Football. A friend who came over on the weekend complained that he got beat by the computer opponent because he hated playing with the keys. It had nothing to do with the large quantities of ale we were drinking though! The game plays well on a pad but my personal preference is still the keys.