Last week was full of ups and downs in the Black Lab.

On the not so good side of the ledger, I had to pull Star Hammer Tactics out of peer review. I discovered a problem with one of the single player scenarios near the start of the game. It wasn’t a crash bug or anything nasty, just some data was missing that made the scenario almost impossible to beat. I figured that would possibly lead to bad reviews, so decided to take the game out of review and fix the problem. Although it was a 10 minute fix, there is a rule with the XNA Creator Clubs that games pulled from peer review (whether by the author, or as a result of a failure) cannot be resubmitted for 7 days. Therefore, I’ve had to wait around until this week before I can resubmit.

The time has been put to good use though! I’ve been making some excellent progress on building a game engine for the PSP. I can’t really go into much detail about it at this stage. NDA’s and all that. But I will say that it’s been great fun, and it’s interesting to have to program so “close to the metal” again – just like old times!

Lesson learnt pulling Star Hammer from peer review : Do not underestimate the value of QA (Quality Assurance). I realized that I need to expand my thinking about what “job roles” are important in building a game. My core skill is as a programmer, so obviously I understand the value of programming. I think of art and sound as being important – pretty obvious really, since a game is experienced by vision and sound. Also, there is an important role for marketing and promotion (if it’s a commercial release). This starts before the game is finished, but goes up a few gears when the game is finished. Although I’ve always been very aware of the need for QA, it never really registered how important it is. Developers can get too close to their creations to see problems, or changes to a system in the game can have flow-on effects in other parts of the game. A few years ago, Puzzle Quest on the PSP was released with a bug that caused a bit of angst amongst fans. If people are paying for a game, I think it’s fair to expect it to work and be playable to the end! So, note to self, need to work out a better solution for regular playtesting.

Finally, on a personal note, it was sad to see the implosion of Interzone Games Perth Studio. I have a number of friends who have worked, or until last week, did still work at that studio. I hope it all works out.