Tweet
Now that the dust has settled a bit on this year's release, it seems like a good time fill you in on what's been happening here for the last year or two. We've had a fantastic response to the new game and I know most of you are just happy to see the game back and enjoying your new season. A few people have raised comments about features they'd like to see that are missing though, and it's probably not obvious how much work has gone into the new version. There's also been some problems with graphics drivers, but we've been able to help the majority of users to update those, and we're working through the rest.
The main aims of this version were to build a basis that we could use to improve the game in the future, and to release on multiple platforms more easily. We were actually intending to get the "multi-platform" part done for June 2013, but the conversion turned out to be a lot more complicated than we'd anticipated. We've basically had to re-write every line of code in both the interface and the 3D engine to move over to the new system. The idea was to be back to "base level" last year and we had a range of new features to add this year. As you can tell by the release date, we've struggled to get the game back at-all this year, and we're all extremely happy that Cricket Captain is still alive and kicking after a tough time.
The reason we had to make this change was that we were stuck with a game engine built for the 2007 version written by Atomic Planet. They went into receivership and we were then unable to change as much in the engine as we'd like because we could not access low-level graphics code. We've re-written all of that (thanks to Tick Tock) and now have a unified code base we can run on PC/Mac/iPhone and Android. We can also add new interface code, new highlights and stadiums in the future. We should have the new stadiums pretty soon. All the art has been done, but we had some glitches that would have held us back from releasing on Friday.
New platform code means next year's release should be simultaneous (or nearly) across PC/Mac/mobile. This year we've still got a bit of work to do on these versions, but it's nearly there.
We've got a little way to go with updates this year to get some of the missing features back in. Most of these are minor, but things like changing player names, saving score-cards, and tool tips for batsman preferences are important. We've also got some text scaling issues at some resolutions to sort out, so only the 768 height screens are looking sharp at the moment.
OK. That turned into a bit of a ramble, but the good news is, we're we're set up for adding new features and keeping the game alive for the future now. All suggestions are welcome and we'd love to hear from you (there's a new thread on the forum for this).
As most of you know, this is a labour of love for us, and we make this because we love playing it as much as you do. Cricket management is a bit of a niche in a niche, but with your support we've managed to make games for 16 years now (gulp).
One last request - could some people write reviews on the community section of Steam? We always just get a couple of moaners on these things and it's about time people who like the game made themselves heard. Also worth starting some discussions on there so 'Mr Angry' isn't the only thing people see on that forum.
All the best,
Chris
The main aims of this version were to build a basis that we could use to improve the game in the future, and to release on multiple platforms more easily. We were actually intending to get the "multi-platform" part done for June 2013, but the conversion turned out to be a lot more complicated than we'd anticipated. We've basically had to re-write every line of code in both the interface and the 3D engine to move over to the new system. The idea was to be back to "base level" last year and we had a range of new features to add this year. As you can tell by the release date, we've struggled to get the game back at-all this year, and we're all extremely happy that Cricket Captain is still alive and kicking after a tough time.
The reason we had to make this change was that we were stuck with a game engine built for the 2007 version written by Atomic Planet. They went into receivership and we were then unable to change as much in the engine as we'd like because we could not access low-level graphics code. We've re-written all of that (thanks to Tick Tock) and now have a unified code base we can run on PC/Mac/iPhone and Android. We can also add new interface code, new highlights and stadiums in the future. We should have the new stadiums pretty soon. All the art has been done, but we had some glitches that would have held us back from releasing on Friday.
New platform code means next year's release should be simultaneous (or nearly) across PC/Mac/mobile. This year we've still got a bit of work to do on these versions, but it's nearly there.
We've got a little way to go with updates this year to get some of the missing features back in. Most of these are minor, but things like changing player names, saving score-cards, and tool tips for batsman preferences are important. We've also got some text scaling issues at some resolutions to sort out, so only the 768 height screens are looking sharp at the moment.
OK. That turned into a bit of a ramble, but the good news is, we're we're set up for adding new features and keeping the game alive for the future now. All suggestions are welcome and we'd love to hear from you (there's a new thread on the forum for this).
As most of you know, this is a labour of love for us, and we make this because we love playing it as much as you do. Cricket management is a bit of a niche in a niche, but with your support we've managed to make games for 16 years now (gulp).
One last request - could some people write reviews on the community section of Steam? We always just get a couple of moaners on these things and it's about time people who like the game made themselves heard. Also worth starting some discussions on there so 'Mr Angry' isn't the only thing people see on that forum.
All the best,
Chris
Comment