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News Index: [ LATEST ][ Feb 08-Oct 08 ]
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Further Testing Success
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14th October 2008
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The second round of testing went off on Friday the 10th and, like the first, was a great
test and thoroughly enjoyed by those involved. I (Greybeard) even managed to get in on a
few games myself to see how the new fixes were working. The enhanced ship turning has,
in my opinion, definitely helped gameplay and also made it a lot closer between the more
experienced players and those who have dabbled for the first time. Previously the control
was a little more awkward and some struggled to cope with the turning circles of the ships.
Many of the original bugs were ironed out, but we have now found a new list to tackle, so
it will likely be another week or two before we conduct the next test. So plenty of time
for new testers to put their names forward and join in the next round of carnage. :-)
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Testing Round Two
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1st October 2008
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As posted in the Beta Testing section of our forum, the second round of testing is being moved
back from the 3rd of October to the 10th of October. This will allow us the extra time needed
to ensure that all of the major bugs are completely ironed out of the mutliplayer game. We are
already more than half our way through the bug list we have, but it is becoming clear that we
simply can not complete every bug in time for Friday. So rather than having a second round of
tests where we are experiencing some of the same problems, we want to ensure that the current
list is clear so that any other bugs not previously caught will be more obvious.
We would like to apologise to any of our testers who are already geared up for Friday - but the
wait will be well worth it, as the playing experience will be greatly improved over the last
testing session.
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Testing Success
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23rd September 2008
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The first round of testing was undertaken on Friday and was a great success! While the initial plan had been to
split the testing into several regions - UK, US and Europe, most games ended up sharing players from all these
regions. And though the testing wasn't due to start until 8pm our time, the availability of players from 6pm,
with software already downloaded and itchy fingers... we kicked off early and allowed the first game to start
just after 6pm. Harvey hosted while I sat and monitored the Testing Chat Room and welcomed new testers as they
gradually appeared.
It was a slightly tense affair for us, with the game never having been seen before outside of devs and a few
close friends. But when the first game ended and the players spilled back into the chat room going "Whooooh! Awesome!",
we relaxed a little thinking... maybe this is going to go smoother than we expected. The buzz and excitement
among players... I mean, testers... continued throughout the evening and there was constantly at least one game
running - normally more.
When the chaps from the US started coming online a little later in the evening... perhaps 3 or 4 hours before we
envisaged starting US servers, the buzz ensured that the testing would be starting early. With too few US players
initially involved for a US only server, however, we took the decision to mix it up a bit and experiment with a
cross-Atlantic game. This proved a great success, in no small part to uber-pc used as host server by one of our
American testers, Magnum. The games hosted by Magnum played incredibly well - faster even than some of the LAN
games that we have run in our own studio! More surprising as we had a real mix of players involved from the US, UK,
Europe, Argentina and even New Zealand!
We ran the testing from 6pm until 4am our time, when we simply had to call it a day. I personally had been sat at
my pc for 18 hours straight and my hands were curling up to resemble parrot's feet. Even after the devs had logged
out, however, the testing continued for another 3 or more hours, which gave us a real boost of confidence that the
game was being well received. Some testers even admitted to a transition from tester to player once the games
started as they got carried away by playing the game.
So all in all it was a positive experience and provided masses of feedback for us to work with. Not only bugs, but
also gameplay suggestions and ideas for balancing the game. While most of the feedback is in the testers only section
of our forum and only available to people who have already registered as testers, Magnum was good enough to post a
review of his own testing experience on the Garage Games website, which can be found here:-
Buccaneer First Beta
The next round of testing has been scheduled for Friday 3rd October and we hope to have ironed out many of the issues
highlighted by this first round. Any and all are welcome to join in the testing and the link to get things started is
on the Beta Test Sign Up page of this site.
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Buccaneer BETA Testing
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27th August 2008
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Yes, you heard it, we're currently recruiting shipmates to sail with us on a
spot of BETA Testing!!! All the details you need to sign up are on the
BETA Testing Sign Up page of this site. The initial round of testing will be
multiplayer only and is provisionally set to begin on Friday 19th of September. We have a few
minor bugs we want to iron out before then and it also gives us time to drum up some
interest in the testing itself. So if you fancy getting a first look at the Buccaneer multiplayer
game... then get yourself along to The Scribe and make your mark!
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New Screenshots
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27th August 2008
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One of the reasons for our delayed release was our thirst for good water (no pun intended). Our game
is all about ships and we simply had to have the best looking water possible. It has been a tricky and
timely process but we believe that it has paid dividends and we are now extremely happy with the way
the game looks. We've uploaded a batch of new SCREENSHOTS so that you can
see how the game is now looking.
We are also looking to recruit for our forums again - after an unfortunate accident resulted in us losing our
last one including all of our registered shipmates! Aye, our previous forum is residing with Davey Jones and
our new, barnacle free forum has freshly scrubbed decks and is set to sail. So please feel free to register
and contact us - we are always glad to hear comments and are also recruiting for BETA testers!!! See post above
for details.
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Buccaneer Update
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27th August 2008
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Well... it has been an incredibly long time since the website was updated. An inexcusably long time in fact.
So we thought an overdue update was in order and you will see a number of changes to the site over the next
few days. And you may be pleased to know that the driving force behind it all is that the game is... very close
to completion. Finally.
"Yeah, yeah" we hear you cry, "we've heard that one before". Yes, there have been a number of occasions in the
past where we rather naively believed that the game was... good enough. The truth is that it simply wasn't and
we wanted to ensure that we were completely satisfied with the experience of playing our game before releasing it.
Since conception the game has been overhauled completely at least three times. This was partly due to us
repeatedly migrating the game into the most up to date Torque Engine from Garage Games, but also because the
game we originally planned has grown into a much more involved experience. We know that all the extra time and
effort has been worth it and that we now have a game that we are proud of and enjoy playing ourselves.
So apologies to all the cut-throats who have followed the progress of Buccaneer from the start and thank you for
your loyalty. And welcome to any new shipmates who have stumbled across this site for the first time. The Golden
Buccaneers are now recruiting!!!
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Online Testing Success
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3rd March 2008
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Over the past few months we have done a number of LAN based multiplayer testing sessions and
refined the game to feel right. We've tweaked numerous aspects of the game and will continue to
do so until we believe that it is as perfect as it can be. It was while we were doing this
testing that we decided to try the game over the internet. This has been broken for as long as
we can remember and has been on our rather lengthy "To do" list.
I set up a server in the studio and Harv tried to connect from home... with complete success. We
were so taken aback by the fact that it worked that all we could do was laugh. How long has it been
working and more to the point... what changed in code to fix it? Who knows and who cares, it works.
Buzzing with excitement at our discovery, we sent word out to some of our buddies that we wanted to
organise an online test as soon as we could and got details of their pc specs. A few days later when
everyone was available I once again set up a server form the studio and sent instructions to everyone
on how to start up the game and to look for my server. After a some frantic phoning to ensure all
were ready and knew what to do we started. Within minutes we had a nice little 3 a side game going.
There was some game slow down, but not enough to ruin the experience. We found a few bugs and issues,
but nothing major and all involved were impressed and itching for a rematch to get revenge on this
person or that.
So all in all a big success and one we shall be repeating again very soon when we have ironed out a
few more of the bugs. Just one step closer to a finished product.
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Shattering the Silence
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17th February 2008
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YAAARRRRR!!!! First posting of the New Year and in fact the first posting for more
than 6 months!!! I'm sure many regular visitors to the site may believe that silence
on the news page is an ominous sign. But not so here shipmates! We have quite a bit
of news to share and will be updating regularly now with weekly postings.
Right, where to begin? Our previous posts from late last year mentioned that we were
working a spot of freelance work to help line the Stickman coffers with some desperately
needed plunder. We were working on site at local game developers who took an immediate interest in
our work on Buccaneer. We organised a LAN based multiplayer gaming session in their studio
and roped in a dozen of their guys to put it through its paces. It was well received and
they were very enthusiastic about seeing the finished game. So enthusiastic in fact
that they have offered us a publishing contract!
This is massive news for us because it means that we will now get the support we need to
ensure that Buccaneer is released to a much wider audience than we originally envisaged.
It has now become a more professional product and as a result we have been adding further
layers of polish to enhance both the look and feel of the game. Check out the latest
Screenshots and Movies to see how the game looks now.
Using the new Torque Game Engine Advanced from
Garage Games
we have been able to achieve some stunning results, that really go to show that you don't
need to spend a fortune on a game engine to achieve that "next gen" look.
Hopefully we may have a video running at GDC this week, but have a sneak peek here too...
Buccaneer Multiplayer Teaser.
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NEW Website!!!
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17th February 2008
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As you may have noticed, we have a new look website. This has been updated to
keep it in the same style as the game, which itself has recently received a major
graphical overhaul.
Some of you have already mentioned that some of the graphics on the new site aren't
displaying correctly. This is probably because many of the new graphics have simply
replaced the old ones and have the same name, so the old ones will still be in your
Temporary Internet Files. If you go through Tools/Internet Options in Internet Explorer
and "Delete Files" from your Temporary Internet Files and then reload the site it will
work fine.
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News Index: [ LATEST ][ Feb 08-Oct 08 ]
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