21
Aug
Wow it’s been far too long since I update this blog (sorry). As always lots of stuff behind the scenes, really taking a long time. Music being one of them that has taken most of my time this summer. Check out my band using the reverb nation ‘widget’ below:
Once the new EP is out of the way (5 tracks) I will finally be able to post some stuff about games again! 
26
Feb
Wow, it’s really been a long time since I updated the blog with any game development news, the new year is still young and I have high hopes to release at least a couple of games this year though so here is the first ‘development’ update of 2008!
The first game (which I will be posting about/previewing later this month - at last!) is on course for release within the next month or two. This is the smaller , so called ’simpler’ game that was originally only going to take 3 months of part time work but has ended up taking over a year of aprox ten hours work a week. Had I been solely working on it full time 8-16 hours a day then it would no doubt already be released. 
I have a couple of choices for the game after that, a few half way finished ideas that I can look at and find the quickest but most fun one to finish next.
There are also going to be some changes with my websites. Atomic Pond will run it’s course as a link site but focus will switch back to Reality Fakers as the main home (and company name) of my game development. The site is doing pretty well (by my standards) and is already used to receiving traffic from game buyers thanks to the affilliate program I have on there.
I also plan to update the blog at least once a week from now on which is good as it keeps my development in check and on target if I have to ‘report’ it to a public place such as this blog. Will also be changing the theme of the blog to something more suitable in the next week or so.
13
Oct
Finally, after years of waiting Epic released ‘teh demo’ (or at least an early version of it). This is a beta demo intended for feedback and bug reports. Straight away the gameplay hit me as tight, fast (though slower than UT99, gamespeed option in full game should sort this), more ‘weighty’ in the characters compared to previous UT games (which is a good thing) and some pretty nice graphics also.
Click the screenshots in this post to see higher res versions!
I believe the beta demo has restricted graphics (no highest resolution textures nor advanced effects) to keep the download size within reason. The full game SHOULD be able to take advantage of faster hardware better and ramp up the graphical quality quite a bit. That said, on a decent system now, even this demo version looks very nice indeed.
For me this game is more about gameplay than looks (even though it looks great!), it’s fast paced with most ‘eye candy’ reserved for out of bounds areas where it won’t block players (something UT2k3/2k4 often didn’t do, much to the annoyance of many players who had been brought up on the ‘pure BSP’ of classic Unreal Tournament). This game feels more like the original Unreal Tournament to me. More dynamic, less clincal. There are many non graphical improvements and tweaks which are bound to cause much debate. All I know is it played well and was pretty much bug free (not bad for a beta!). And the gameplay in general is very good, weapons feel powerful and action is quick and brutal!
The one downside is the demo has restricted the Field Of View to 90 degrees for Widescreen (same as 4:3) which is something I frown on, especially given the much publicised backlash against Bioshock for it’s poor implementation of widescreen in that game. It’s technically known as VERT- and instead of naturally allowing more on the sides of the display horizontally (just like the Widescreen hardware) it keeps the same FOV which essentially zooms in to keep the horizontal view the same regardless of aspect ratio, but this causes the top and bottom to be ‘chopped off’ somewhat. In essence WS users are punished because they get a restricted view compared to 4:3 users. Thankfully it’s not too bad in UT3 because the FOV is @ 90 instead of something ridiculously low to start with, but it’s not ideal and not very good for multi screen users. Hopefully this will be adjustable properly in the full version. Right now you can bring up the in game console and type ‘FOV 100.4′ for 16:10 widescreen monitors to get that ‘natural’ no restrictive field of view. This will need typing in each time you respawn though (unless you can make it stick in an .ini file or bind it to a spare key).
I have put a couple of shots on here showing the same scene with default FOV and with it adjusted to the ‘natural’ 100.4. As you can see there is not much in it but in game it makes a world of difference to ‘feel’ and enjoyability. If you were to compare the ‘vertical’ cut off points of the two shots you would see it’s more about that than the horizontal. The vertical point in the ‘corrected’ WS shots is similar to the 4:3 vertical, in the default WS shots you get the top and bottom ‘chopped off’ (to put it in simple terms) which restricts the vertical view and makes things feel cramped.
All screens were originally taken at my monitor’s native resolution of 1440×900 and resized to 1024x (keeping the 16:10 aspect ration). I have taken them with an uncapped ‘Stat FPS’ command to show frame rates with my hardware (for reference). I also used ‘Ghost’ command to take the shots from unusual angles to show the levels off, mostly in game the frame rates are a bit higher than I have hear because I’m framing for visual quality, in game you tend to not see as much at once so frame rates are naturally higher!
In game my frame rates are between 70 - 190fps depending on where you are, bots, map etc. On average though above 100fps which is good!
The PC used had this spec:
C2D E6850 overclocked to 3.6ghz
Nvidia 8800GTX (768mb ram/slightly overclocked)
2GB DDR2 PC8500 Ram
1440×900
All settings in the demo @ Maximum quality and driver set to ‘quality’.
10
Oct
Totally off topic but as a Japanese car nut i’m very much looking forward to revelations from the 2007 Tokyo Car show which starts in:
Nissan GT-R, NEW Toyota Supra and offerings from Mitsubishi and Honda are what I’m most intersted in. Hopefully some very cool new cars will be revealed so I can start dreaming of yet another Japanese motor making it’s way to the used car market.
6
Oct
Haven’t posted in a while because of being very busy with coding and music , and recently I updated wordpress to the latest version which caused havok with my theme and uploads, ads and what have you.
So for now I have a 3rd party theme but I will be redesigning it along with another streamlining of Reality Fakers (for faster loading and better content) and the new Atomic Pond website in time for the GAME i’ve been working on for so long… hopefully in time for Xmas.
So hopefully things will start picking up again round here soon And I should definitely have some new game shots to show before too long!
31
Jul
It’s been a very busy few weeks for all at Reality Fakers and Atomic Pond (i.e: Me). And more and more quality indie games keep appearing. So here’s a quick mention of the games that have caught my eye over the last few months and ones that you should be checking out too!
Gorgeous looking isometric 3D game harking back to the classic Spectrum and 8-bit era games. This of course uses modern hardware to great effect and was in development for a long time so make sure you try it out! Download
Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery
The Professor is back (again!) and doing what he does best: Pushing stuff out of the way or onto other stuff while enjoying his floating platforms. This looks to be every bit as good as the first game and probably better! Download
The latest in Reflexive’s ricochet series. This looks to be the best yet for this popular series of breakout style games! Download
A casual game, very well produced. Has some extremely nice looking graphics! Download
The latest Pop Cap game co developed with Retro64. Great concept and loads of polish (as is to be expected of Pop Cap). Download
In other news, work on the first 2 atomic pond games is still going on (of course)… hey we all know it takes a long time to make good games worth making in the first place! Updates on those soon (this year at least )
8
Jun
I’m going away for a break in a week or two, get away from computers for a while and recharge my brain. So this week i’ve been updating Reality Fakers (adding more games)…
…and now i’ve finished what seems like and endless lists of mechanical stuff on my cars I can finally get back into working on the upcomming game from Atomic Pond.
After my break I will be working non stop to get a preview video and some concrete info on the game up on this blog and the website. I’ve been on this game around 12 months now (15 if you include gaps of non work) and it’s a very slow process. I definitely feel like i’m getting somewhere now though and i’m at the stage where i’m working on pop up tool tips and in game help, that sort of thing, which means I must surely be somewhere near the end of development? We’ll see.
Also keep an eye out for the new Atomic Pond website / Logo which will be up before too long.
Have fun in the sun (or if you are in the UK: Have fun in the overcast damp conditions with occasion bright spells )
19
Apr
Rack ‘Em Up Road Trip is a Pool game. This Pool game, however, should interest players who may normally be put off trying them because it has pretty easy going gameplay, bright fun graphics and simple controls. It is completely 2D top down which means you have a very good idea of the state of the table at a quick glance and have no need to think about camera angles and what have you. In many ways it reminds me of the briliant ‘Arcade Pool’ on the Amiga (by Team17), this game however is more forgiving.
At first the speed of the table (the resistance/friction of the cloth/baize) seems quite slow, for seasoned Pool players it may feel like playing on a worn out table with dodgy balls because you really have to up the power to make the ball travel around. This is ok but the game does tend to reset your power after each shot to possibly what the built in safety net considers a correct power for the shot or more likely a standard power reduction to protect you from ‘in-offs’ and other over power errors. Basically though I think it does it because the game is trying to help the novice players out too, and so long as you ensure you have the correct power before each shot, you won’t be left dismayed when your perfect shot doesn’t ‘have the legs’ to make it to the pocket.
The game overall has a nice atmosphere, fun opponents, bar style music and of course all the addicitve qualities that any decent Pool game brings over from it’s real life counterpart.
Pool experts will probably seek out more in-depth simulations but for newcommers or intermediate players this game conveys the fun of pull pretty well.
There are 6 modes of play including the usual US 8 and 9 Ball, UK 8 Ball (my favourite) and even Snooker! There is also a 2 player mode, trophy cabinet and a world map based game progression (hence the ‘road trip’ part of the title). Working through the game in this psuedo career mode should keep you busy for some time and is probably a good incentive for those that have never or rarely ever play pool to keep playing, because once you start getting better you start to understand the allure of Pool in general (minus the ‘hanging out in bars, relaxing with friends’ part)
Try Rack Em Up Road Trip, an easy going Pool game with enough modes and structure to keep you busy for a long time.
