Final Test Version?

I sent out what I've called "the final test version" to all our testers this afternoon. If there aren't any amazingly stupid bugs in the game then this will be the version that we use to create the demo.

That means you might actually be able to get your hands on the game ready for the weekend. However, holding your breath is not advised as it will kill you.

You can also head on over to SWOS UNITED where the fantastic moderators there have given Addictive Football it's own little sub-forum. Thanks for that guys, much appreciated :)

Last minute changes

Over the weekend I've been playing around with changing the passing routine within the game to make it more realistic and playable. At the moment when you press the pass key the code will try and pass to the nearest player to you. This worked out pretty good but did have it's drawbacks in that you could end up passing back towards your own end if you were running up field.

So, what I've done is for the new pass routine to work out which one of your players' is nearer to the goal you're going for and then make a pass in his direction. This also means that the power of kick for the pass has been increased so that nice long balls can be played. So far it's working out much better but I still need to tweak it a bit.

I've also been adding some more polish to the game and have added sound effects in for when the ball bounces off ad boards or goal posts etc. It's amazing how such a small change like that can really make a difference.

All the detail for every pitch type is now complete (hurray!). I thought we'd never get the concrete pitch looking right but it looks fine now.

Also got the domain addictivefootball.com which will be the official home for the game along with the Addictive 247 website. Just got to build the bloody site now and try and get the game finished!

Will we release the game this week??

The Latest Screenies

Here's a few screenshots showing the game in it's almost complete state.

Opening Menu Screen


Custom Game Mode


Grass Pitch


Indoor Pitch


Medal Tournament

Game Polish

I've spent most of the day working on little things that will just make the game look that little bit better and add some polish. The menu options now slide in on the right side of the screen and theres a few sound effects when selecting an option. There's also some text that pops up on screen explaining what each option or game mode does. It's not exactly rocket science and most people will be able to tell what "Friendly Game" is but it's good to get these things in.

Two bugs were also spotted by one of the testers so I've now fixed them. Nothing too exciting but so far the game seems very solid. I'm still not 100% happy with the concrete pitch detail so Phil's making some changes to the graphics.

Funnily enough today was meant to be release day for the game. Oh well, tough! It will probably be next week now. To keep everyone happy here's a screenshot of the opening menu . . .

. . . The end is Near

Been extremely busy over the last few days trying to get the remaining graphics into the game. All the menu backgrounds are now in and it all seems to be coming together nicely.

The Trophy Cabinet is now included which shows any of the cups or medals you've won in the game. I'm still working on the pitch detail which has become a right pain in the arse. It's difficult to get the right balance of spectators without taking your eye away from the action. The grass and astro pitches are fully complete but I've still got work to do on the concrete and indoor pitches.

The latest beta version of the game went out this morning so I'm awaiting feedback from the testers. I think there'll only be one more test version after this one before release.

So, the end is in sight but we're not quite there yet.

Teaser Trailer

I've just uploaded a little teaser trailer for Addictive Football.

The good quality version can be found at Good Quality Version

The compressed and squashed version on You Tube is at You Tube Version

The menu backgrounds and pitch detail aren't complete yet so some of it's still programmer art!!

Enjoy!

Detail so far

Here's a couple of screenies showing the pitch detail so far.

Below is the Astro pitch. As with most astro pitches it's enclosed with netting all around. I've added some of the crowd detail which you can see peeping over the boards and through the netting.



Next is the indoor pitch. The stands are filling up with people now and more need to be added around the sides. There's also some other props to be added as well.



All in all, it's coming together nicely. The concrete pitch is the one that needs the most work as it's very "empty" right now, with a lot of detail needed to be added. Should get round to that before the week is out.

Crowd Detail and Streakers!

Today I'm working on the crowd detail around the sides of the 4 different pitch types. Phil has supplied me with some small people graphics of varying sorts. As it's meant to be a Sunday League 5-a-side game and not a Premiership match the crowds will be a lot smaller. The indoor pitch will be the most detailed as there are stands on both sides of the pitch.

For the outdoor pitches there's also people stood there with dogs and stuff like that. Much more realistic. Not all the members of the crowd are static either. Some will actually follow the game and will look where the action is.

Last night I also added Addictive Football's first streaker! I've named her Jennie, for no particular reason. She appears in the indoor pitch and runs along the side line being chased by a much slower policeman/security guard. Streakers will appear when certain conditions are met so you might not see them in every match you play. The first streaker is a very simple one but I should have others running all over the pitch causing havoc. I'm not sure whether the game play should pause when a streaker appears or if the game should continue - need to test it out really.

Edit Team Names

One thing that I hadn't included in the game was the ability to edit team names. You can name your team in the Custom Game Mode but that's it. All the other teams keep their original names throughout the game.

So, today I thought maybe it would be cool and players' would enjoy the idea of being able to re-name all the teams. I know other footy games do it so why not Addictive Football. A good few hours later and a lot of code changes and the player can now edit all the team names.



Ok, so it's not the most exciting feature of the game but groups of friends could have a lot of fun renaming the teams to things more meaningful. Although it's guaranteed that people will just enter rude words.

Arse!

The latest edition of The Arsecast has now been released. Check it out Here. Addictive Football also gets a mention :)

Sent out another beta test the other day but then realised there was a bug to do with the players' running speeds. No matter which team you selected the players' all ran at the same speed! Which didn't make it fun at all. I fixed the problem and a new build was sent out.

The game is now nearing completion - hurray I hear you cry! I've now added a "Team Information" page which gives some info so you can work out which teams are good and which aren't so good. I was dead against showing stats for each team as I think it makes it too easy to select the good teams to play as. Instead there is a bit of text describing each team which contains some clues as to how good they are. Much better than having some individual status bars or scores out of 10.

Phil has also just completed the graphics for the different cups and medals that can be won. They look fantastic! We just need to do slightly smaller versions of them so they can appear in the Trophy Cabinet. Next we're concentrating on getting all the pitch details correct and including the spectators/crowd. Busy, busy, busy!

One of my friends, who is also a beta tester, wanted an addition to the game that included tanks, guns and lots of blood! Basically he wants the game to be Speed Ball 2. It's funny that he mentioned it though as I was thinking of re-using parts of the engine and maybe doing some kind of Speed Ball style game. Definately something to think about, although there won't be a Death Match mode to Addictive Football anytime soon!

Latest Screenshots

We've now added some of the advertising boards around the sides of the pitches. Some of them are rip-offs of famous shop names. The screenshot below shows the players running into position at the start of the match.



The next screenshot shows an attack on goal. There's still spectator/crowd details to be added, which will be done last.



The last screenshot shows the menu screen for the Inter Knockout Cup. In this mode the player has to play against 5 different teams of varying ability and beat each one. The actual background is just a place holder for now and will be changed before release.

Lots going on

Been very busy this last week trying to tweak the game after receiving feedback from the beta testers. One of the main things I've done is to alter the speed of the actual game depending on which pitch you're playing on. If you play on the Indoor pitch then the ball will roll and bounce more compared to playing on grass, which makes the game slightly faster.

I've also added in the crowd sound effects for each of the different venues. I think I've managed to get it to sound more like a local football game with a small crowd rather than a stadium full of supporters.

Everything seems to be coming together now. There's still a fair bit of graphics work to do but it's mostly small detail stuff for the pitches or the spectators. Oh and we need to design the streakers!

Addictive Football Rocks!

Literally! We've just added the title track to the game and it's a fast-paced, heavy rock anthem. As always we've used Chris Worth Productions for our music. We've used them since 2003 when we needed a track for our platform game Coin World. Every game released since then has used music written by them. I really can't recommend them enough. The prices are excellent and their customer service is the best I've ever encountered. If you need music for a game or any other type of media then I'd suggest getting over to their website and having a good look around.

The second beta test version of the game went out yesterday and so far everything seems fine. Today I've been concentrating on getting the crowd sound effects right. As there are 4 different pitch types I want each one to have different crowds. It would be dead easy to just put generic football stadium sound effects in, but I don't think they'll really fit as the game is meant to be based around a five-a-side Sunday league and not the Premiership.

Logo is done!

This is the new Addictive Football logo! It's slightly different from the one shown in the screenshots in previous posts. This is the 3rd (or is it 4th?!) design that we've done and we're now happy with it. Get used to it as you'll be seeing a lot of it over the next few months :)

Joystick, Keys or CPU??

Loads of fun today as I've had to re-design some of the menu screens. I'd originally set it so that Player 1 could use the keyboard to play but no Joystick option and Player 2 could only use the joystick but no keys! How stupid is that!!

So now on the menus you can select to play using the keys, joystick or set your player to be CPU controlled. This works for both player 1 and 2. I've also added a configure keys menu for both players' so people can use their own key combos.

A few other stupid little bugs have been fixed. Basically, it's been a day filled with stupidity!

I've also increased the distance from the goal that the CPU controlled teams will shoot from. Previously they were shooting so close to the goal that the goalie had a chance to close the angle down, therefore saving the majority of them. Now the CPU teams can shoot further out making it much more realistic.
Both team goalies are computer controlled even if you're controlling one of the teams. I suppose this is down to my personal preference in footy games as I hate having to control the keeper as well as my own team. It also means that if you lose a game you can always blame the goalie - as in real life :)

OrbitZ is Freeware

Our puzzle game OrbitZ has now been released as Freeware! The game has 65 levels and will require skill, strategy and logical thinking. If you think you're up to the challenge then head over to the Orbitz Homepage for more information and download the full version for Free!