Archive for category Tactics
Star Hammer Tactics for PSP and PS3 is now available in Europe (and Australia/NZ). Also, new video!
Posted by Black Lab Games in Star Hammer, Tactics on July 15th, 2010
Star Hammer Tactics is now available for the PSP *and* PS3. OMG!!!1!!
Presently, it’s out in Europe and Oceania (meaning Australia and New Zealand basically). (A full list of countries can be found here)
If you’ve been looking for a easy-to-learn strategy game that can be played in short bursts, (or extended sessions if your in the mood!), maybe consider checking it out. (If you have Media Go installed, click here)
Oh, and here is a video I made for the miniS release last week:
Coolio.
L8r, Paul
More on automated testing
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics on July 12th, 2010
Recently, I posted about how I used AI to find and fix bugs in Star Hammer Tactics. There are other ways to use automation to ensure that a game is robust, and in this post, I’m going to outline something else I did to ensure that the game was as solid and crash-proof as possible. (Warning: This post may contain terms that only make sense to programmers!)
A test that is often performed to find if a game is robust and stable is random button pushing. That means what is says – somebody just presses lots of buttons randomly to see if the game can handle it…or not. I decided to take this a set further and use code to simulate random button pressing.
Star Hammer Tactics uses an “input manager” class. This means that between the instructions that reads the state of the physical buttons and the code that performs the game logic, there is a class that transforms the raw button state data into “commands”. So, for example, instead of the code that manages missiles having to read the ‘square’ button to see if it’s being pressed, it checks with the input manager to see if the “fire missile” command has been issued. By using an input manager, it means that player input code is in one place, instead being being spread all across the game codebase. It also means that if there is a design change, and the assignment of buttons changes, there is one place to make changes.
I decided to use the fact that the input manager deals in commands to test the robustness of the game code. I (temporarily) disabled the code that interfaces with the physical buttons, and replaced it with code that randomly issued commands. When running the game like this, it obviously didn’t play like the game should – the actions that occurred were completely random. At the main menu, for example, the command to toggle music on or off might be issued many times per second, meaning that the music would repeatedly turn on and off. The advantage of getting the game to generate the command, instead of a human, is that the game can keep the virtual button-mashing up for hours at a time.
I was pretty pleased when the first time I ran the game in virtual button mashing mode, it didn’t crash, and after a full hour I eventually turned it off. Test passed.
Nothing fully replaces humans for testing, but with a bit of thought, it is possible to engineer solutions that take of lot of the manual labour out of testing, in turn leading to more stable and solid games.
Star Hammer Tactics for PSP and PS3 available in Europe and Oceania from July 14th
Posted by Black Lab Games in Star Hammer, Tactics on July 5th, 2010
I’m excited to announce that Star Hammer Tactics for PSP and PS3 will be available in Europe and Oceania from July 14th. That’s next week!
The complete list of countries is:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Ireland
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom.
Star Hammer Tactics will be available via the PlayStation Store, which can be accessed by anyone with a free PlayStation Network account from your PSP, PS3, or via Sony Media Go.
Cool!
Star Hammer Tactics released on Xbox 360!
Posted by Black Lab Games in Star Hammer, Tactics on June 14th, 2010
Today is a pretty exciting day for me! After months of hard work, Star Hammer Tactics has been approved for release on the Xbox 360, via the Xbox LIVE Indies Games channel.
If you have an Xbox LIVE account in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain or Sweden, you can download a trial (or buy the game!) right here.
Cool.
Star Hammer Tactics gameplay goals
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics on May 18th, 2010
A while ago I stated some goals I had for the Star Hammer shooter I was working on last year. I figured it was worthwhile talking a little about what I wanted Star Hammer Tactics to be. So, here goes.
I really like the concept of strategy games. I like the idea of marshalling your resources, devising a plan, and crushing your opponents with your strategic brilliance. The problem I’ve found with most of the strategy-type games I’ve played over the years though, is complexity.
Complexity in a number of forms. Controls that take a while to learn, and even longer to master – whether it’s menus that are nested quite deeply to get to the command you want, or needing to learn a gazillion shortcut keys, or HUD’s that look like they belong in a stock trading system. Complexity in the form of dozens of unit types, with multiple upgrade paths, resulting in hundreds of combinations of unit types to choose from when deciding what to deploy and where.
Now, I’m not saying these things are bad or wrong. Just that I feel that perhaps not everybody wants that much complexity in a strategy game. Sure, a lot of people do want things to be as complex as possible. Fine. Great! You’re pretty well served by the existing games available, or in development.
I wanted to make something that had the feel of a strategy game, with a bit less complexity. Enter Star Hammer Tactics.
In Star Hammer Tactics, there are two sides : the humans of Novus and the alien Nautilids. Each side has a total of 4 units types – a small fighter, a larger fighter, a medium sized “warship” and a larger “destroyer” class vessel. A fleet is usually no more than 10 ships, meaning two things : battles are fairly short, and each ship is individually controlled by the player. Rather than giving “high level” orders (go here, guard this area, etc), you move each ship into position, fire a missiles at a specific enemy, attack a specific ships in close range combat, etc. Each ship has precisely two stats : Attack and Defense. Attack is the firepower of weapons, Defense the power of shields or hull strength.
So, the gameplay goal in summary : Create a strategy game with enough variables to make the experience interesting and compelling, whilst maintaining a simplified control scheme and a rule set that makes the game accessible to players that might not currently play strategy games.
I guess I’ll find out if I’ve succeeded soon enough.
L8r, Paul
Beta, and the forgotten tasks of self-publishing
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics on May 17th, 2010
I’m pretty excited to say that Star Hammer Tactics for PSP has reached beta. All of the games functionality has been written, all of the artwork created, all of the sound effects are making sounds…
So, what now? Well, testing and publishing.
I’ve come to realize over the last few years just how important the publishing part is. As a young plucky coder, I thought that developers did all of the work. We make the games. What else could there possible be to it? Step 1, Game idea. Step 2, Code, Step 3, Release game on unsuspecting public. Right?
Well, not quite.
Publishers in the games industry are generally seen as lumbering giants of organizations, corporate fat cats preying on developers and milking them for all they are worth. (Or at least that’s the view of many developers). Deals are done often in a skewed way that ensures that the publisher takes the least amount of risk, and seemly gets the greatest reward if a game is a hit. (This post I read last week was quite interesting!)
Whether this view is correct or true or fair, I’ve decided that for now at least, Black Lab Games will self-publish through digital distribution outlets. Services such as Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store are moderately accessible to smaller developers, compared with the various retail outlets on offer for boxed games.
Lately I’ve been getting Star Hammer Tactics ready for release on the PlayStation® Store – soon it will be available for anybody with a PlayStation Network account, and a PSP or a PS3. All games on the PS Store require an age rating. That means PEGI in Europe, and ESRB in the US, so I’ve been signing up Black Lab Games to these various organisations, and I’ll have to spend time submitting the game to get is age rated.
At the start of a project, when you’re designing game systems, code systems, presentations of the game etc, tasks like getting the game classified aren’t really on your mind. However such tasks are part of the broad ranging area of “publishing”, and without completing them, the game will never be played by anyone (other than the developers).
There is a lot more to be an independent game developer that just writing code and doing art!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to plan an advertising campaign.
L8r, Paul
Development updates
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics on April 16th, 2010
I thought I’d share the latest word on the various games in development at Black Lab Games:
- Star Hammer Tactics for PSP/PS3 minis has been the main development focus of BLG over the last few weeks. It’s progressing really well. I have to say, working on the PSP is awesomely good fun! Kinda like old times, back in the ’90s when I was in my prime
Most of a re-usable game “framework” has been developed, and most of the game is playable. I’m hopeful that it will be finished in a few weeks. - Star Hammer Tactics for Xbox 360 is “complete”, minus some minor tweaks. It’s been to peer review (a process in which it’s reviewed for technical and content problems) a couple of times, but hasn’t passed yet. Generally the issues have been pretty obscure and minor, but still valid enough reasons not to release the game. When the “minis” version is done, I’ll get back to fixing the handful of review issues and putting it back into the review queue.
- Star Hammer. This project is currently on hold. As the project has developed, the scope and ideas for what I’d like to do with the game has increased a lot. I have a pretty clear vision for what I want the game to be, but I don’t have the resources at my disposal to make it at the moment. Rather than build and release something I’m not completely happy with, I’d rather hold off a bit and tackle it again when the time is right. The project is not cancelled, just “delayed until further notice”.
I don’t like committing to release timeframes, because as a lone developer it’s so easy to miss deadlines when things go wrong or change. It’s not like I can delegate work to somebody else on the team. That said, I’m hoping to have both versions of Star Hammer Tactics out in June. But that’s not a commitment, ok!. Then probably on to something without “Star” in the name for a while.
Oh, and I’ve also been working on a special project with a friend that I’ll probably be able to talk more about in a few months. Good times!
L8r! Paul
Heartbeat
Posted by Black Lab Games in Star Hammer, Tactics on March 19th, 2010
…it’s not very strong yet, but it’s got one!
Photo of the screen of my devtool
Who knows, it may yet live…still lots of work to be done.
Last Week – Vol 2, and musings about QA
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics, weekly update on February 15th, 2010
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.
Last week
Posted by Black Lab Games in Game Development, Star Hammer, Tactics, Weekly News on February 8th, 2010
So, let’s catch up with what’s been happening.
Last week, I commissioned and received new “box art” for Star Hammer Tactics. I’m really happy with it, and I hope it gets peoples attention when they are browsing through the various Indie games available via Xbox LIVE.
I also started working on a game engine for the PSP. Last year, Black Lab Games applied to be an authorized PSP Minis developer, and was accepted. It’s taken a while to get around to it, but I’m finally starting development. Good times ahead, I’m sure!
Finally, Star Hammer Tactics was submitted for peer review for inclusion in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. What this means is that other Xbox LIVE Indies Games developers can review the game, and providing they don’t find any objectionable contents (which they won’t, because there is none), or crashes, it will be available for sale.