Another server maintenance is due - our site may be down for a little within the next few days.. Don't panic - we'll be back! =P

my nice old nVidia Fx5200, that much of WOF was developed on / for, decided its time to go...

I've managed to get a shoulder injury.. Very painful, and my entire arm is numb like it's sleeping. Because of Easter I can't see a doctor before tuesday. So I'm hoping that it will get better with a few days rest.

Fivemagics is on - much deserved - short vacation, so I guess this is one week we can take out of the calendar..

This weekend we had a lot of feedback on the first test build - and as expected, there were some technical issues, that are currently being dealt with. It is mainly problems with graphic cards and gamepads, which is one of the many pleasures of working with the PC platform...

The responses to the gameplay and control setup are very positive also - for the few negatives, I get the impression that for some it's mostly a case of breaking some habits that stem from years of playing SWOS or KO with a joystick using only one button.

One of the most encouraging comments was from a person who is a leading figure in the sensiblesoccer.de community (I will not reveal his name in case he want to stay anonymous), who told me that this build was already better than the final release of Sensible Soccer 2006 - and he wasn't even able to see the bodies of the footballers (only the hair) due to the aforementioned graphic card issues! =)

If it sounds like I'm bragging or feeling over-confident, I'm sorry, but it was not without a little uncertainty that we 'exposed' our game to outsiders, and that it was received so well was a bit over our expectations.. Not that we didn't have faith in our concept, but it's very nice to have it confirmed also!

For now, Fivemagics will mostly focus on fixing the few issues the test release have revealed, while I'm fine-tuning the Tactic & Formation concept with help from new consultants, that were 'recruited' this weekend..

Work on the camera is as good as done for now. The tools are in place to setup multiple cameras from practically any view that we would desire to use, but it turned out that a very simple approach works even better than anything the many options allows us.

That's how it sometimes works but we have at least exhausted our options and made sure we've covered all bases. Its not always easy to say when good is good enough - the idea that something even better is just around the corner can be too tempting not to try out in practice. However, we're gonna stick with our side-camera as the default view and continue developing gameplay from here.

5M is also close to finishing the system that deals with selecting the best footballer to control at a given time - as good as is it is now it might need further tweaking down the road once AI have been fully implemented.

Next up for our over-burdened code wizard is another go at the 'footballer-ball' interactions. This is a crucial piece of work that we find ourselves coming back to again and again. Its like one good idea leads to another, making a simple setup suddenly complicated.

A new stadium is also close to completion, but even better should be the news that we're not far from releasing an online form of the name-in-game that will make it so much easier for users to register and change settings at will. The one draw-back is that existing users will have to get in touch with us to be able to use it. More on this later.

A select few have been identified as the first closed-alpha testers. We're working hard to finish an alpha preview build for them to get some early feedback on the control and general feel of the game.

There's still some time to go before all this will happen so once again we have to hope for your patience.

So I just got the latest Type 0 Negative album.. and its so very dissappointing. Not recommended.. =(

Here's another sketch.. The satyr is enjoying the ride, but the nymph is not happy..

Here's a little sketch from a private project that I'm continually working on.. It's one of those projects that will never be finished but always remains on my mind, sometimes its elusive and hidden (from me) and at other times almost tangible and so real that I feel I can touch it and smell it. Click Here for a slightly bigger version of the satyr and the nymph

New TON album out on March 13th! Full story at MetalHammer

TYPE O NEGATIVE have raised the bar. "Dead Again" is arguably TYPE O's most ambitious record yet, teeming with fury, sorrow and darkness and delivered with a broader sound palette that's neither contrived nor cloying. "Spacing the records far apart is how you achieve diverse results," says keyboardist Josh Silver. "When you're forced to write an album every year or eight months, you haven't changed — you're still the same asshole you were eight months ago. We've been different assholes every record. We've retained our identity through all the changes." "All of my music is based on what is going on in my life at the time and exaggerating it," reveals Steele. "If I didn't exaggerate it, I'd be writing about what I had for dinner last night." Though early on, he and Silver used to define the band's oeuvre as "gothadelic industrimetal," these days he prefers "Confused dirge-core — the songs go from 40 BPM to 140 within a tenth of a second."

Stem Cell Research should and will find ways to continue, with or without your ridiculous ethical disapproval, and I will have great fun watching you come up with excuses to allow yourself to use its fruits once they come to light, and rest assured, they will!

Recently Menace and FiveMagics invited me to join the team to discuss all things football, I hope I can add something as my computer experience is pretty limited.

What's this got to do with Valentine's Day?

Well I have got a love for football and football games, whatever they may be, Subbuteo to PES. For me there is nothing better than striking a ball true and seeing it bend into the goal before the keeper can react, playing a perfectly weighted pass that only requires a poke passed the keeper, or sending in an inch perfect cross for an easy header into an open net.

At the moment I get none of these joys from playing computer games, I know that as I press a button a randomiser is working out if I score or not, whether my pass is good or not, or whether my cross is just right. Yes, it all looks pretty, and if you squint, you might think you were watching a real match, but watching and taking part are totally different things.

I want to go back to the days when I could have a few mates 'round, open the crisps, and have a good laugh, cheering when goals are scored, getting tense and having sweaty palms when things are tight, and chucking the joypad/stick across the room because I lost. Crucially, not because the computer decided I lost, but because I wasn't good enough.

If you take the randomiser to its logical conclusion, what have I got to do to win? Have as many shots as possible and reduce the averages? Have a higher skilled team? And if everything is randomised, so is the ultimate result, I might as well play dice.

This may be slightly unfair to some games but I don't want to contort my fingers to make my player do something that should be simple, or remember reams of moves that I might just need in X situation.

The rest of the team share this vision, a fast, simple game that brings the joy and fun of playing football into your living room/bedroom/study*.

Oh, and have a good St Valentine's day.

* Delete as appropriate

Forum is borked - and its all my fault.. Sorry!! I thought I was clever when I made a new template and tried changing things around.. Sadly it turns out I'm clueless and shouldn't mess with important stuff I can't comprehend.. Lesson learned? We'll see. Hopefully our host will be able to fix it again soon, crosses fingers.. (There's no doubt he can fix it, I just hope we don't lose any postings, since some really good discussions were going on in our 'private chambers')..

Update! Fivemagics came to the rescue, and as a result we were able to make the changes I wanted! Check out our new-look forum!

The new hires versions of the WOF footballer mesh can be seen here. These models are not for use in-game but only for promotional stuff and the like. Having such models in-game is surely not impossible - but then again there's no need for it either. You will never get close enough to appreciate the details, and it will set the minimum required specs much higher, meaning less people would be able to play WOF.. I made them because the lores version didn't work for me up close - and I would like to see them up close for potential covers or desktop images etc.

As some migth know I'm a huge fan of Mike Mignola's Hellboy. Here's a youtube link to a trailer for the upcoming animated movie: 'Blood and Iron'. There's also a great blog/production diary of the Hellboy Animated Projects...

How cool would it be to have one of these babies!? - Very!!

For a long time I've been trying to find a 'global' look that would fit all menu screens, and I think I'm close now..

The challenge has been to keep it uncluttered yet full of vital information and also easy to navigate through using a gamepad and/or mouse. I will not know whether I've been truly succesfull or not until we have it all implemented and tested - and talking from experience there's bound to be some changes. Here's a preview of the menu designs for the 'line up' and 'control' screens:

The green background and the red menu buttons should cancel eachother out as they're at opposite ends of the colour wheel. Together your mind should read them as grey if I've understood the colour theory correctly that is.. (I probably haven't)..

The black bars at the top of each menu-strip is neutral to any colour that might be exposed on top of it, and its also very bold and dymanic - especially combined with the red and orange colours. I initially planned to have a main colour associated with each team (Brazil would be yellow, Italy blue and England white) but I found it impossible to design a colour layout that would fit all these colours - especially if two teams were to have identical main colours...

So, instead I opted for a white/black combination, where white is the team on the left and black is for the team on the right.

I'd love to hear what you think of all this colour theory, hopefully its vibrant and dynamic yet not too confusing to look at and easy on the eyes at the same time..

So its almost Christmas again..

Sadly we have no Xmas present for you in the form of a release date or even a playable demo. I've overestimated our ressources and underestimated the tasks involved in making WOF. When we first launched this project I was confident that it would have been released by now - in fact I thought it would be ready one year ago.. Maybe I'm feeling like Peter Molyneux must have felt when he started to get too enthusiastic about his dreams and ambitions and he wasn't able to deliver on his promises. Luckily we've made no such promises but we're still as dedicated as ever - even more if you ask Fivemagics; he's revealed to me that he's become so attached to this project that its one of his biggest priorities to finish our game.

As I'm writing this once again real life is messing with our plans. We've lost a team-member because he had to get a 'real' (paying) job, and Fivemagics is in the middle of moving house.. I've got some private issues that I'm not going into here, but they're really draining me of energy and thus I've not been able to get much work done lately..

We hope to bounce back with a vengeance in early 2007.. We're not far from a breakthrough we feel and with a little luck it could happen soon!

On behalf of our small team I wish you a merry Xmas and a happy new year while I'm at it! =P

Here's a few pictures of our 'new look' living-room/kimera office..

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inline void i_V_add(const VNT1& v1, const VNT2& v2, VNT3& r) {
i_v_add<VNT1::n>(v1.cel<VNT1::n>(), v2.cel<VNT1::n>(), r.el<VNT1::n>());
}


--- really!! no comment! ----

Its friday morning, I'm at work and not fully awake yet, so bear with me if I talking nonsense, as I'm known to do.. Making a game is like baking a cake, only you know the ingredients but you don't remember or don't have a complete recipe. You know what you want it to taste like but you don't know how much sugar is enough and if three eggs is too much..

So you mix it up and see how it goes.. Maybe you have tried baking bread before so you know the basics - hopefully.. It might turn out right but there's a little too much of something you can't quite put your finger on, so you go back a little, start over and see what happens next.

After a few attempts you end up with something that has potential and you start to get really excited.. start to get a feel for how much flavour you need and start fine tuning it.. then some wiseguy says: 'I bet cinnamon would go well with this..?' and another guy says: 'Yeah, I love cinnamon!'.. So you mix again, and see where it ends.. It might not work, or it might be just what you missed..

I think I've taken this stupid analogy as far as I can now, I hope I haven't embarrased myself too much already - and I might add that I've never baked a cake, but I don't mind eating them..

I don't like going to the cinema. People are too noisy. They talk. They chew their popcorn and sweets too loudly and make noises with their candy wrappings. You don't always get a nice seat, and sometimes you have to fight for an armrest. So I spent a lot of money on a very nice tv and sound system, so I can watch movies at home and still get a bit of that cinema-feeling (minus loud people).

The only problem is, we can't turn the volume up at night because my kids asleep, and the neighbours would probably complain also.. Another thing is when you're at the cinema you sit down to watch a movie and you don't get up until its finished - but at home you can just pause the DVD, make a cup of tea etc. - and you end up seeing the movie in small bites.. So, you end up not getting any value out of the nice surround sound setup at all - and the movie experience is gone also..

Anyway, I'm a bit embarrased about whining over this when I know people are starving and dying all over the world, and I'll just say what I wanted to say when I started to write this blog entry: The fact that I don't go to the cinema anymore, means that I'm a bit late to see new movies - I wait until I can rent them on DVD.. - and I've just recently watched "Kiss kiss bang bang", "V for Vendetta", and "Inside man".. - and I think they're so great I thought it worthwhile to write it here - go rent them now if you haven't seen them! =)

- I hope I haven't bored you to death by now, and that you'll excuse my self-indulgent whine.. =/

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According to this article there will be held no more E3 shows.. In short:

I'm not sure what I think of this.. Having only been to one of the shows - in 2000 which I enjoyed immensely (I worked at Io Interactive and we were there to demo Hitman. We got to see the first batch of PS2 games, and the glorious Dreamcast in action too - and lets not forget the boothbabes..). It seems most of the really big players have their own shows now anyway, and maybe it will also mean that there'll be less disturbance for the developers who are usually called upon to make special E3 demos.. Still, it feels a bit sad somehow, probably because we had plans of one day showing WOF at E3.. =/