Yesterday, Kotaku AU published an article about Black Lab Games. You can find it here

Last week, the iPad rewrite of Star Hammer Tactics reached beta!

I previously put out a call for beta testers and got a decent number of responses – which is awesome. I plan to release the game to testers in stages – as I get feedback, make changes and fix any issues, I’ll release to more testers until a finished product is reached. I’m hopeful that will be in mid-October.

There is still time to sign-up, if you fancy trying out the game before it hits the AppStore.

L8r, Paul

Star Hammer Tactics is nearing beta. That means that all of the features will be implemented, and all that is left to do is fix bugs and polish the game until it gleams.

So, I’m putting out a call for beta testers.

Interested in trying out the game before it’s released? You’ll need to own an iPad (1 or 2), and be willing to spend some time playing the game and filling out forms to help identify problems so they can be fixed.

There is a gameplay video here

If you are interested, please hit up this Google form and leave your details. Thanks!

L8r, Paul

Last week, Simon did a new Star Hammer Tactics logo. Much better than the one I did myself last year.

It pays to work with professionals

I’m hoping to get the iPad version of Star Hammer Tactics to beta in the next week.

Most of the functionality is now up and running. The main battles are completely playable, with all of the intended features working. The various modes : single player campaign, skirmish vs AI and 2-player skirmish are implemented and working.

Main things to get working still : tutorial, achievements and leaderboards via Game Center, AI tweaks, and a few other bits and pieces.

I’ve just put together a new video showing some gameplay from the iPad version of Star Hammer Tactics :

Last Saturday, Lets Make Games hosted a game showcase event called Show Us Your Bits. Perth-based game developers were invited to bring along there completed or work-in-progress games to show to the rest of the game development community, and general public. I was delighted to take along an alpha build of Star Hammer Tactics for iPad. I took the opportunity at the event to get feedback from people that had never played the game, specifically in relation to “usability”, or whether it was easy to play and understand. I even had feedback forms!

Here are some things I learned.

Watch Out For Assumptions

It turns out, when designing the game rules I made a lot of assumptions about what players do or don’t know about games in general. Whether it’s a conscious decision or not, i think my misspent youth playing paper-based role-playing games and tabletop wargames comes through in the game rules in Star Hammer Tactics.

An important concept in Star Hammer Tactics is ‘action points’. Each ship that the player controls has an allotment of points that are spent doing moves. Watching people play, it became clear that the way this system was implemented didn’t make sense to everybody, and causes some confusion. What was completely obvious to me (because of my experience with paper-based games), was not obvious to others with difference experiences. I made an assumption, and it was not correct. Lesson learnt!

Interface

The previous versions of Star Hammer came out on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation consoles. Both used buttons and direction pads to control everything in the game. The iPad has a touch screen, and no buttons. Hmmm.

After watching people play the game, I think there are a few areas where the transition from buttons to touch screen can still use some improvement. Two notable areas are selecting a target for your missiles, and when adjusting the attack/defence ratings of your ships.

Photos

Take photos at these types of events. They make the blog post more interested. Doh!

Overall, I’m pleased to say the response to Star Hammer Tactics was positive. Every feedback form I received ticked ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Do the overall production values match your expectations for a professionally produced iPad game’. I received a number of comments saying the game looked great, so that was awesome. Based on the areas I perceive need improvements, I have a plan I think will immeasurable improve the overall play experience, and make it far more accessible to far more people – and that’s a good thing.

Thanks to my awesome wife Joanne for helping with the showcase, and also to the crew at Lets Make Games for yet another successful event. I can’t wait to show the completed version of Star Hammer Tactics on iPad at the Christmas party!

L8r, Paul

I really think that the iPad version of Star Hammer Tactics will be the best yet. Here is why:

* Touch-based interface. In previous versions, moving ships and selecting targets required the use of buttons and a cursor controlled with a direction-pad. Now, you just touch and drag. Easy, and natural!

* 3D. Although the game retains it’s top-down perspective, all of the objects on the battle field are modeled in 3D (in contrast to the flat sprites of previous versions). This means it’s possible to add real-time lighting effects (such as a flash when something explodes), and other goodness like zooming in on combat between enemy ships.

This is a Nautilid Warrior, and it wants to mess you up!

* Hi-rez. In contrast to the modest PSP resolution of 480×272, the iPad screen resolution is 1024×768. With new high-resolution backdrops and a crisper user interface, this will be far and away the best looking version to date.

* Particles. ‘Particles’ is a graphics technique used to simulate effects like fire, explosions, smoke, etc. This is the first version of the game that’s had a high-quality particle engine available to implement these types of effects – and implement them I am!

* Animation. In previous versions of the game, ships where static images. Not any more. Engines have flickering flames, and Nautilid tentacles wave about. Even missiles have animated trails.

* Hulks. In previous versions, when a ship was destroyed, it disappeared from the field of battle. Now, a dead hulk stays on the field. Hulks can be useful for cover from incoming missiles, or can get in the way when trying to take out the enemy with missiles or maneuver a larger vessel into position to attack the enemy.

* Asteroids. Because asteroids are in 3D now, they can be different sizes and shapes. Not only do they look better, but bigger asteroids are great for taking cover, adding a new strategic element to the gameplay.

* Combat. As with previous versions, enemy ships enter combat when they are located next to each other after one side or the other moves its ships. In the iPad version, the tempo of combat resolution has been increased, and with the new explosion effects is – in my opinion at least – more exciting to watch. The other changes is the duration of combat. In previous versions, when combat was initiated, it would not end until one side was wiped out. Now, there is a timer, so combat resolution could potentially occur over a number of rounds. Again, this adds to the strategic options. For example, hit and run attacks are now possible.

So, whilst the underlying game formula remains largely in tact, the myriad improvements are making for the best version of Star Hammer Tactics yet!

L8r, Paul

This coming Saturday, the 27th of August, Lets Make Games are hosting an event called Show Us Your Bits (2011). It’s a showcase event for Perth-based game developers to show their completed or work-in-progress games. It will be free and open to the public. And there will be a sausage sizzle! (With vegetarian options even!)

I’ll be there showcasing the most up-to-date alpha build of the iPad version of Star Hammer Tactics. I’m hoping to get some feedback about whether the new touch-based interface is good, and also see generally how players react to the game in it’s current state. I think it’s going really well, and is shaping up to be the best version yet, but some other views would be really helpful.

I hope you can make it! Details on the flying above.

L8r, Paul

A quick update on the progress of Star Hammer Tactics for iPad….

Most of the time and effort over the last week or two has gone into redesigning the user interface to make use of the touch screen. When the game was originally developed, it was made for devices with buttons. However I think that a strategy game and a touch screen are a perfect fit, and the new interface is coming along very nicely. I’ve found that designing a *good* touch interface is a little more involved that is appears. Iteration is the key though, so I’ll be interested to see how it goes when more people play it.

Almost all of the gameplay has been implemented.

For the iPad version, I’m planning to use 3D models instead of sprites for ships, missiles, etc. A large part of the reason for this is that it’s being developed in Unity3D and so using 3D models is incredibly easy – compared to say the PSP SDK. I’ll hopefully be able to post some screenshot soon.

L8r, Paul