Greetings from the Happy Sun Planet of Determinance
by Paul "nervous_testpilot" Taylor · 05/04/2006 (9:32 am) · 5 comments
Hail fellow mutants,
All embace the radiant joy of Summer!
Summer has finally come here at Mode 7 Towers, and for that reason production on Determinance was momentarily halted for Ian to destroy my living soul at tennis.
We have been working hard on getting our publicity machine oiled, out of the garage onto the driveway in preparation for the extensive rounds it will have to make in the coming months. It's a fairly odd contraption, consisting of a bit of PR drive by yours truly, coupled by some rickety struts to our amazing Blog of Supremacy.
The blog currently has some Determinance dev updates, and a couple of opinion articles by Ian: the ones on net code and IP in games will probably be of most interest to you guys. We're planning a bit of an expansion in this area, and we'll hopefully be chatting to some other developers soon, as well as doing some mini features.
If you're interested in DT's progress, the blog is certainly the best place to find out info right now. Come over, subscribe and hurl insults at us in the comments thread. It's guilt-free fun. Also, our forums still continue to exist with wanton abandon, so you can mosey over there and hang out with such regulars as dr_pineapple and the ineffable DROR.
We recently had some really nice support from the journalist Kieron Gillen, who, as you probably know, was instrumental in the early success of a certain outfit called Introversion. We're hoping to get the chance to meet up with Kieron at some point soon and give him a preview of DT.
Also, we had a thoroughly worthwhile meeting a couple of nights ago which I will now detail in pictorial form:
On the dev side, Ian and I returned to the sound once again to sort out some levelling issues. This has all been tidied up now and we've properly signed off the sound. We have some problems with openAL (no, surely not) which have been driving us both completely mad, but hopefully we'll find a way out of that particular dark cave fairly soon.
This afternoon, we'll be doing some more tweaking of our dynamic music system so that it responds the way we want, and after that I'll be returning to marketing.
Doing this has given me a serious appreciation for the hard work which a lot of marketers put into their jobs for no thanks whatsoever. Everyone hates marketing and PR, considering them dirty and morally suspect activities. Let me tell you right now, there are almost NO journalists ANYWHERE in the world in ANY specialist field who don't get 98% of the information they use to live and breathe from PR people. If there was no PR of any kind, you simply wouldn't know about any of the cool things you know about and we would all be living in ditches hitting ourselves across the forehead with pebbles.
A final thought - if your game dev isn't thriving right now, go outside and walk around for a bit. It's lovely outside, apart from the wasps/tigers (delete where not geographically applicable).
Also, if you live anywhere near to the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton, UK...in fact, even if you don't, you should certainly go there. There is nothing about that place which is less than awesome.
Keep it street, indie games community.
All embace the radiant joy of Summer!
Summer has finally come here at Mode 7 Towers, and for that reason production on Determinance was momentarily halted for Ian to destroy my living soul at tennis.
We have been working hard on getting our publicity machine oiled, out of the garage onto the driveway in preparation for the extensive rounds it will have to make in the coming months. It's a fairly odd contraption, consisting of a bit of PR drive by yours truly, coupled by some rickety struts to our amazing Blog of Supremacy.
The blog currently has some Determinance dev updates, and a couple of opinion articles by Ian: the ones on net code and IP in games will probably be of most interest to you guys. We're planning a bit of an expansion in this area, and we'll hopefully be chatting to some other developers soon, as well as doing some mini features.
If you're interested in DT's progress, the blog is certainly the best place to find out info right now. Come over, subscribe and hurl insults at us in the comments thread. It's guilt-free fun. Also, our forums still continue to exist with wanton abandon, so you can mosey over there and hang out with such regulars as dr_pineapple and the ineffable DROR.
We recently had some really nice support from the journalist Kieron Gillen, who, as you probably know, was instrumental in the early success of a certain outfit called Introversion. We're hoping to get the chance to meet up with Kieron at some point soon and give him a preview of DT.
Also, we had a thoroughly worthwhile meeting a couple of nights ago which I will now detail in pictorial form:
On the dev side, Ian and I returned to the sound once again to sort out some levelling issues. This has all been tidied up now and we've properly signed off the sound. We have some problems with openAL (no, surely not) which have been driving us both completely mad, but hopefully we'll find a way out of that particular dark cave fairly soon.
This afternoon, we'll be doing some more tweaking of our dynamic music system so that it responds the way we want, and after that I'll be returning to marketing.
Doing this has given me a serious appreciation for the hard work which a lot of marketers put into their jobs for no thanks whatsoever. Everyone hates marketing and PR, considering them dirty and morally suspect activities. Let me tell you right now, there are almost NO journalists ANYWHERE in the world in ANY specialist field who don't get 98% of the information they use to live and breathe from PR people. If there was no PR of any kind, you simply wouldn't know about any of the cool things you know about and we would all be living in ditches hitting ourselves across the forehead with pebbles.
A final thought - if your game dev isn't thriving right now, go outside and walk around for a bit. It's lovely outside, apart from the wasps/tigers (delete where not geographically applicable).
Also, if you live anywhere near to the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton, UK...in fact, even if you don't, you should certainly go there. There is nothing about that place which is less than awesome.
Keep it street, indie games community.
About the author
#2
I'm gonna have to bug keiron too. although he's not doing games stuff anymore is he?
05/04/2006 (11:06 am)
Oooh.. those beers look cooold. Man... I want to drink... must resist!I'm gonna have to bug keiron too. although he's not doing games stuff anymore is he?
#3
05/04/2006 (11:56 am)
Now, come on, just because marketing guys are necessary doesn't mean they're not still morally suspect... 
#4
05/04/2006 (12:36 pm)
Speaking of street, you're driving on THE WRONG SIDE of that one! You're going to have a head-on collision! Man...I don't think I'd do well in the UK, especially after a few of those monstrous (obviously metric) beers!
#5
I have actually got no idea about what Midhir is talking about...*whatsoever*. It must be my (obviously metric) brain.
Here's a funny video of William Shatner - http://www.mode7games.com/blog/?p=35
[EDIT - And, yes, the beers were cold. Colder than a Plutonian icecube...but not a plutonium icecube: that's something else.]
Paul
05/04/2006 (12:43 pm)
I'm both unecessary AND morally suspect pretty much all of the time.I have actually got no idea about what Midhir is talking about...*whatsoever*. It must be my (obviously metric) brain.
Here's a funny video of William Shatner - http://www.mode7games.com/blog/?p=35
[EDIT - And, yes, the beers were cold. Colder than a Plutonian icecube...but not a plutonium icecube: that's something else.]
Paul
Associate Paul Dana