New Star Blog

Blog move!

2009-04-30T13:56:00.002Z

I have decided to move my blog from here to the New Star Forum. The simple reason for this is so that visitors that are interested in the blog will also get to have a look at the forum. I spend a lot of time on the forum so hopefully it will be easier for me to post updates more regularly as I can do it from the comfort of the forum rather than logging into blogger.

The other great thing about the forum blog is that all forum members are able to have their own blog. I hope to see more career stories as a result of this, so if you ever fancied telling the world your New Star story now is the time to do it!

Don't forget you can also keep up to date with New Star developments via Twitter. There are also Facebook pages for New Star Soccer 4 and New Star Grand Prix.

The new blog can be found here:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/blog.php?b=1

New Star Grand Prix is out now!

2009-03-30T20:18:00.005Z

Well, it was a bit of a mad rush but NSGP did go on sale on Saturday 28th March, before the first race of the F1 season which was my unwavering deadline. I have made a few adjustments since then, mainly to the difficulty settings which are hopefully more reasonable now. If you haven't already you can pick up the trial versions here:

Download the PC trial version

Download the Mac trial version

License keys to unlock the full version are $9.99 / £7.49 / €7.99. To purchase a license head over to this page... Buy Now

The initial response has been very positive. It feels a lot like the time that I released New Star Soccer 3 with a similar buzz around the game. I guess it's the retro style combined with real-life team data that is getting people excited about. That and the fact that the gameplay is just plain good fun, even if I do say so myself. I've been so busy tweaking things that I haven't had much time to play my own career, but I'll be putting some hours into now that it's out. I'm sure there will be some more updates to the game over the coming days/weeks though. Let me know your thoughts on the forum.

Go, go, go!

2009-02-23T16:08:00.003Z

If you're an F1 fan then it's time to start getting excited. I'm racing ahead (oh dear) with the latest title from New Star Games. It's a top-down racer and goes by the name of New Star Grand Prix! Here is your first glimpse of the action:

The game will feature all the tracks, teams and drivers from the F1 2009 season and you will be able to take part in a full career mode. Currently only the first track is ready to drive and the career mode still needs a lot of work but I am confident that I can release this game in March, just in time for the start of the season in Melbourne.

It is already great fun to play and you have to be quite tactical with refuelling and tire changes. You have complete control over which tires you use and how much fuel you take onboard during pitstops. When the heavens open up and the rain comes the track gets steadily wetter and the spray from the back of the cars gets quite intense. You'll soon start slipping all over the place and need to change to wet tires which will give you grip but bring down your top speed. It is also possible to damage the cars by colliding with your opponents or the track wall which will start affecting your speed and require a pitstop.

I've also uploaded a few screenshots on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newstargames/sets/72157614259747617/

As you can see you can zoom the action right out to view the entire track so you can race at whatever zoom level you like. There will be a beta version soon so stay tuned to the forum for more info.

Latest news, views, Barney, McGrews...

2009-02-11T12:30:00.006Z

I managed to complete my free web-based minigame, New Star Soccer Trials a couple of weeks back. If you haven't seen it you can check it out on the main page of the website:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com

It seems to be quite popular but I will probably remove the ads as they only generate about $1 a week and I would rather the game looked professional without the annoying start up ads. I will consider doing some more web games in the future but right now I need to focus on improving NSS4 and reaching more people.

Sales of NSS4 have slowed down in the last couple of weeks so I've decided to try a 25% off campaign to see if we can give them a boost. I'm trying to decipher whether it is because of the financial crisis, if gamers are getting their footy fix elsewhere or simply that the game is not as appealing as it could be. The gaming scene has changed a lot since NSS3 was launched (in October 2005) with downloadable games becoming much more prolific and of a higher quality than ever before, especially from the independent developers. Then of course there are the console download channels, and let's not forget that free web games are chewing up a lot of our free time. It's most likely a mixture of all of these things but the fact that NSS4 is selling less than the previous version did at this stage is a worry. In order to market the game better and indeed improve it I need to get a clearer picture about my target audience and their feelings about NSS4. With that in mind I have created a short questionnaire which you can find via the newsletter or on the forum here:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?p=88362#post88362

Please take a few minutes to complete it as I would like to gather at least 100 responses.

Work on the new project is still progressing quietly in the background and I hope to get some screenshots up soon followed by a simple demo of the game engine. My focus for this game is more on the fun aspects of being a sporting hero rather than trying to simulate the real world. That said, the game will feature real-life opponents, teams and venues. I guess that is a little clue towards the type of sport it is based on although 'venue' is not really the right word. Stay tuned to Twitter for regular development updates.

http://twitter.com/newstargames

I am aiming for an April/May release for this after which I intend to tackle another sport aside from football. I'm now a firm believer that the most effective way to survive long-term as an indie is to build up a stable of quality titles rather than having one hit game that gets updated every couple of years. This doesn't mean the end of New Star Soccer, far from it, it just means that New Star Games will be known for more than just football games.

50% off and other strategies

2009-01-20T12:11:00.010Z

Today you can purchase New Star Soccer 4 at half price. Check out www.gamedujour.com for more info.

It's been a while since I last blogged but I have been working really hard to try to get NSS4 out there and heard about. Sales are doing ok but there is definitely room for improvement and whilst the review from FourFourTwo was nice it hasn't had a massive impact. So I decided to start an advertising campaign through Google Ads. It's really easy to sign up and get your adverts going but actually understanding the statistics and results is altogether a different matter. At first I was bewildered by the amount of information available and struggled to make any sense of it. "CPC = 12 pence, is that good?" "CTR = 0.04%, what does this mean???" Without doubt the worst aspect of this learning period is that it feels like you are throwing money away. Initially the idea of spending over £100 per month seemed ludicrous to me, but as I looked into it more and started to understand the figures I realised that advertising is a necessary evil for New Star Games.

Our website averages just over 1,200 visitors a day. Now if you take into account that we are selling around 10 games a day (just!) that’s a percentage of around 0.8%. I make around £10 per sale, so we can see that for Google Ads to be beneficial we need over 110 visitors for every £10 spent. I decided to test the water and spend £10 per day on an image campaign and see how it pans out. Initial reports show that the CPC is £0.06, so for my £10 I am getting approximately 160 clicks. That’s 160 new visitors to the site everyday. The problem here is that it is impossible to track how many of those visitors download and purchase the game. If it is just 1 a day then the ads pay for themselves but that's it. If it is 3 every 2 two days then the ad campaign is working and making money for New Star Games. It may be possible to see the real effects over time but for now I'm going to concentrate on getting the cost-per-click down and thus get more visitors for my 10 quid. Quite how I go about achieving this I’m not sure, but I'm learning as I go along here.

Another issue is that if I run the ads from midnight to midnight the £10 daily budget actually runs out by lunchtime and the ads will stop being served. I recently got an email from Google suggesting that I up the daily budget to £50 to maximise the number of clicks I get in a 24 hour period. £50 a day! They must be joking. That's £1500 per month and until I am convinced of the effectiveness of Google ads I won't be taking a plunge as deep as that! In the meantime I'm scheduling the ads to run from 9am till midnight to see how that affects things. I mean, does it make any difference if someone visits the site in the early hours of the morning, during the day in the office, or after eating fish fingers for tea in the evening? As far as I can tell, a visit is a visit is a visit!

Of course, advertising is not the only way to get the game noticed. We still have some magazine reviews and cover-disc appearances to come which is great because it is free, but unlike the reviews of NSS3 it doesn't seem to be having a big impact this time around. Could world's financial situation be the main problem? One way of combatting that is through special offers, such as today's 50% off deal. Another way is to reach out to other countries by localising the game. Thanks to some dedicated fans, NSS4 is now playable in English, Italian, Dutch, Polish and Bulgarian, with more still to come.

Another idea I'm exploring is to create some free Flash mini-gamesand get them on as many Flash portals as possible to promote my download games. I'm quite excited by this strategy as some of the numbers I've heard of Flash game players is quite astonishing. You can see the early stages of my flash game campaign on the front page of www.newstargames.com. Once I start getting some portal appearances and player numbers I will report on them in the blog, so make sure you subscribe in a feed reader!

Goal of the Month - December 2008

2009-01-02T16:50:00.003Z

I have selected 6 contenders fot the NSS4 December goal of the month competition. You can see the goals here:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/goals.html

Then you can vote for your favourite goal on the forum:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?p=86911#post86911

I also uploaded some stills to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newstargames

It was a difficult task picking the final 6 and I was impressed with the overall quality. If you missed out then don't give up as entries for January are now being accepted. Winners will receive an item from the New Star Shop and a license key if they need it.

More love from GameTunnel

2008-12-31T08:46:00.004Z

Yesterday GameTunnel.com announced their top 10 games of the year and New Star Soccer 4 came in at number 6! This is an improvement on NSS3 in 2006 which scraped in at number 10. Naturally I am extremely pleased, especially when you look at some of the other titles in the list; Multiwinia, Everyday Shooter, World of Goo... Check out the full list here:

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=705

Of the other titles I have only purchased Everyday Shooter myself and a cracking game it is too. On the surface it is a simple shooter but what really caught my attention were the guitar licks that play out as you shoot your way through the levels. I've always been a massive My Bloody Valentine fan and love bands like Sigur Ros and Broken Social Scene, so hearing these phazy, drawn-out guitar loops made it an instant purchase for me.

Other than that I have only had a chance to play the demos of Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble, which is um, interesting, and World of Goo which I'm sure I will pick up at some point on the Wii. There are plenty of games on my wanted list at the moment; Braid, Portal, Fallout 3, GTA IV... I just don't seem to find the time to play anything and when I do I keep thinking that I should be working on NSS4 or the new project. I guess the truth of the matter is that I get more enjoyment from making games than actually playing them. And with that, I'm off back to work!

New Star Soccer 4 - Christmas Competition!

2008-12-22T15:02:00.001Z

New Star Games are giving away 10 license keys as a special Christmas gift for 10 lucky people. If you want to enter simply send an email to admin@newstarsoccer.com with the answer to this question:

What was the first ever game released by me, Simon Read?*

*All the possible titles are listed on www.newstargames.com. Which was the first?

Entries must be in by 1pm GMT on the 24th of December 2008. Include your player name in the emailand 10 winners will be chosen at random on Christmas Eve and will get their code on that day.

If you already have a license you can still enter and give the key to a friend if you win.

Good luck!

Momentum

2008-12-19T09:22:00.004Z

New Star Soccer 4 continues to gather pace as we see its first appearance in a UK magazine. MicroMart reviewed it last week awarding it 8/10 although I have yet to get hold of a copy. It should also be appearing on the MacWorld cover disc which is out this week in the UK. There will hopefully be reviews in the football magazine FourFourTwo as well as PC Gamer in the coming weeks, so I'm looking forward to those. Mac sales have definitely picked up which I'm attributing to the fact that the game is now listed in Apple.com's game section, so all in all I'm feeling very positive going into the new year. There are no Ferrari's on the horizon but as long as I can survive the dreaded "credit crunch" then I'll be very satisfied.

I have spent the last few days revamping www.newstargames.com which I felt didn't have the warm welcoming feeling of the site from the NSS3 era. Hopefully I've addressed that now, going for a simpler pastel style with lots of whitespace and colourful game buttons. It's amazing how many skills you pick up in areas that you don't expect to when you just get your hands dirty and work towards an ideal. Designing websites is not something that I have ever been very interested in but when you're an indie developer you need to have a large hat rack to keep the costs down. Marketting is another area in which I have no expertise whatsoever and in fact find it a bit depressing but it's a necessary evil if I want my business to succeed. I have designed some advert banners that I hope will soon be appearing on various gaming sites, so look out for those. Speaking of advertising I decided to start hosting ads on my forum (and possibly the main site). I am loathe to do this but it does actually generate a few dollars a day and goes towards the hosting costs.

In terms of development I am gathering all the suggestions for NSS4 and whilst most of the bugs have now been squashed there will be a few more updates in early 2009. The more weighty requests will have to wait until NSS5 which is in the pipeline but it's not going to happen anytime soon obviously. I'd like to break away from releasing my NSS games right alongside FIFA, Pro-Evo and FM. It's simply too much competition for a minow like NSS and the only reason it has happened in the past is purely down to unlucky timing. As for future projects, I have started working on a new game in my spare time, not football related, but part of the New Star series. I won't tell you the sport as yet so you can post your guesses on the forum, but I'm very excited about the progress I've made so far considering that I'm only putting in a couple of hours here and there. It'll be a 2D game but will utilise lots of code from NSS4 (primarily the casino and relationship sections) and it will have a much more streamlined lifestyle element to it. Once I stop updating NSS4 I'll be able to ramp up development on the new project and I'm aiming to have it finished by May.

New Star Soccer 4 Scoops Prestigious Award!

2008-12-07T22:54:00.002Z

Yes, I'm proud to say that NSS4 has won the GameTunnel.com Sports Game Of The Year 2008 award. I was a little worried that the game had come out too late to be entered but thankfully it was considered and (he shoots, he scores!) it's number one. This is a very pleasing award as I consider GameTunnel to be the best indie game review site out there and their opinions are always well measured and generally spot on. (Of course, I would say that but it's true!) Even more pleasing is that NSS4 has achieved the same award as NSS3 did in 2005. Was it really that long ago?! At least you can't argue that the New Star Soccer series only offer incremental updates every year unlike some football games I could mention... Ahem. GameTunnel will be putting up a full review on December 20th I think, so I look forward to reading that, but you can read their opinion on the top 5 sports games of 2008 here:

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=724

They will be announcing the winners of the other categories; puzzle, action, strategy etc over the run up to the new year so keep an eye on those, and you never know, NSS4 might just squeeze into the top 10 games of the year like NSS3 did. I shall wait with baited breath!

New updates for New Star Soccer 3 and Sensational Soccer on the way

2008-12-04T11:05:00.005Z

I'm currently working on a system to convert the NSS4 database into NSS3 data. This will mean NSS3 and Sensational Soccer players will be able to update their games and start a career with the 2008-09 club data. There will also be a little bug fix in NSS3 that caused problems for a few players during the transfer window. Hopefully this will all be ready by next week.

In the meantime, make sure you check out the Sensational Soccer webgame. This is the full version of Sensational Soccer and it's free to play whenever you are near Internet Explorer! In theory it should work in other browsers but I can't get it working on my Vista machines. Please let me know if you have any success via the forum.

Of course, I'm still working on NSS4 and will have an update soon which fixes a few league issues, notably the Spanish league. There will also be a good handful of fixes and improvements.

Sensational start

2008-12-01T17:07:00.005Z

New Star Soccer 4 started extremely well, exceeding the first day sales of NSS3 within a few hours. Unfortunately things couldn't stay quite so positive for long and after a couple of weeks sales dipped back down to normal levels. However, we have yet to see any magazine reviews and have had only 1 web review so far, so very few people who weren't on the mailing list actually know about the game yet. NSS3 sales peaked when we had 2 or 3 magazine reviews in the same month, so hopefully we still have that to look forward to. The first web review NSS4 (that I know of) appeared today on unigamesity.com and gave us a favourable 3.5 out of 5. No too bad considering Football Manager 2009 got 4 out of 5! You can read the review here.

So my mind is focused on getting the news out there that NSS4 exists and aside from reviews I hope that the game will feature on magazine cover discs. Macworld are the first to confirm that the game will feature on their January edition (out in mid-December) and hopefully that will be the first of many. NSS4 is currently being translated by some avid fans (apply here) and will hopefully be localised in 16 languages. That should gain us some international interest when they go live. Getting on download sites such as Download.com is another priority although these are not as important as they used to be (and the service of that particular site leaves a lot to be desired). I will also need to advertise on some gaming sites but until I actually receive some money from the game sales advertising funds are low (make that non-existant).

The New Star Socccer 4 Goal Of The Month competition will get underway this month, so make sure you are saving those replays. I will announce more details on this soon but as always there will be prizes for the top goal of the month.

Finally, I decided that a good way to get traffic on the New Star website would be to make Sensational Soccer a free web game. This is Windows only and may only be compatible with Internet Explorer at the moment, but you can check it out here. I'd forgotten just how much fun the game was!

NEW STAR SOCCER 4 – AVAILABLE NOW ON PC AND MAC

2008-11-27T10:57:00.002Z

New Star Soccer 4 is available now on PC and Mac. Developed by New Star Games, NSS4 is all about putting you right in the heart of the action in the most thrilling soccer game yet.

Oxford, UK – November 27, 2008 - New Star Soccer 4 is the latest title in the award winning series from indie developer New Star Games. With an all new interface and game engine this latest instalment looks set to go head to head with even the big budget sports titles out there.

Whether you choose to start out at a premier team or in the lower leagues you will need to prove yourself on the pitch and off it in this football career game. Build your skills in the training mini-games or on in the 5-a-side arena then show the boss what you can do on match day. It’s not all about scoring goals or making last ditch tackles though - you also need to keep an eye on your relationships. Friends, media, girlfriend and more, if your personal life suffers so will your performance. There will be difficult situations to deal with and every decision made will affect the game and the relationships within it. Should you visit your family or spend a few more hours on the training ground? Do you want to spend your last few bucks on an energy drink or have a gamble in the casino? The choices you make will ultimately determine your success.

NSS4 features over 90 leagues from around the world, with more than 3,000 clubs and 30,000 players. The new 3D match engine gives you complete 360 degree control and allows you to view the action from any angle, including the revolutionary player cam. Play roulette, blackjack or the slot machine at the casino, have a bet at the races and even buy and train race horses. Earn up to 11 different sponsorships to unlock new features such as different boot colours and obtain up to 50 achievements, including the illustrious ‘Player of the Year’ award.

Trial versions for PC and Mac are available from www.newstarsoccer.com where you can also purchase the full version for $19.95.

About New Star Games Ltd.
Based in Oxford, UK, New Star Games is a small independent company with a passion for sports games. They pride themselves on giving gamers what they want and can often be found interacting with fans on the forum: www.newstargames.com/newstarforum.

More information about New Star Games and its products can be found on the company's website: www.newstargames.com.

The summit or other

2008-10-21T15:45:00.011Z

A long time ago I wrote something about climbing a mountain. I can't find the blog entry now but basically I was waffling on about how much work I had ahead of me to create New Star Soccer 4. Well, I am nearly at the summit of said mountain and boy is it getting hard to breathe! I'm having sleepless nights worrying about how it will be received by the fans, if I can release it bug free and wether it will plug the hole in my bank account.

Right now I have a small group of testers that are making sure everything works correctly and letting me know what changes or additions need to be made. I think I have squashed all the bugs in the match engine, although there may be one left where players go on a conga dance around the ten yard zone during a free kick. It's hard to pin this one down and it may even have been fixed inadvertently whilst fixing something else, but we'll keep a look out for it.

I've actually been working quite a lot on the match engine trying to improve the gameplay and hopefully it's a big step forward from the public betas I released earlier this year. There is now an option for basic or advanced dribbling. Basic dribbling makes the ball stick to your feet at all times. Advanced dribbling means the ball is knocked forward if you are sprinting. There is also and option that will automatically guide your player to the ball when it is passed to him. This can help quite a lot in the much improved Player Cam view as the camera pans around. Also it can improve the flow of passing whilst playing as the team in a Quick Match - although experienced players will probably want full control of their players.

Nick (JJU) is putting the finishing touches on the database and when he's done we will be able to thoroughly test the Champions League and UEFA Cup competitions. This is the last real concern I have about the game code as the fixture creation and progression is the most complicated area of the whole game. We just need to make sure that every year the correct teams qualify for the right competitions and everything plays out without any fixture clashes. Aside from that it's just a case of playing it now, racking up a few seasons to make sure that sponsorships, relationships with women, having children, loans, transfers and so on all work correctly and don't cause any major issues. I'm sure there will be a few bug fixes and tweaks to be made post-release but as long as people don't have to restart their careers I'll be happy.

So when? I mentioned October on the forum and that is still the plan. That gives us another 10 days of testing and I may even let eager forum members help out with the final testing. For now though I need to get back to work or that mountain peak won't get any closer!

PS For those that may not have seen it, here is the NSS4 Promo Video. There are also some new screenshots here.

Back in the game!

2008-08-26T16:52:00.007Z

Yeah, I know... Long time, no post. The reason for this is simply because Lucy and I went touring around Australia for 3 months and it's hard to find time (or power, or the internet) when you're living in a camper van! Anyway, I'm back in the UK now and working hard to get the game finished, and there's simply no excuse for not working every minute of the day when the English summer is so bad.

At the moment I am concentrating on the background processing, basically ensuring that the skills for all the CPU players in the database increase/decrease and that their career stats are collected. Making sure this all happens without slowing the day to day flow of the game is quite important. I'm sure you'll agree that hanging around watching progress bars is not much fun. You should be able to include up to 10 leagues in the final version, but the only way to keep the processing times down on low-end machines will be to include less leagues.The leagues you include at the start of the game will be simulated fully which allows you to transfer to that league if you so wish.

The one crucial element that needs work is the competition system. I need to make sure that the clubs are promoted/relegated, advance through cup stages, qualify for European competitions and so on. This is really tricky because errors can occur in two places. One, the game code may be buggy. Two, the competition settings in the database may be wrong. I intend to dedicate some serious time to this issue in the coming days.

One feature that will have to be omitted from the game is the management mode. The game is quite capable of letting you control team selection and tactics but suddenly the lifestyle side of the game doesn't make sense. All the relationship incidents are designed for a young footballer, not a middle-aged manager. Bidding for players and negotiating transfers is also another huge element that will need to be created, along with handling the club finances. I know it's disappointing but I feel that this is a feature too far for NSS4 and will have to come along at a later date.

My only other worry is that the lack of training challenges takes away some of the enjoyment that was present in NSS3. Now that skills range from 1-100 it doesn't make sense to have 100 training levels for each skill. I decided reward the player for making accurate manual passes, shots etc by increasing the relevant skill level. This works very well and is similar to the Kudos system in Project Gotham Racing. However, I cant help feeling that training mini-games would give NSS4 that final element that elevates the game from good to great. They would need to be more general challenges than those seen in NSS3 so that I don't need to create 600 different challenges for each skill level, but they could work in unison with the match-play skill increases. Of course, there is only one drawback to adding mini-games. Time. I don't mind telling you that I am desperate to release NSS4 for numerous reasons. The main one being that it has been in development for over 2 years now and it's simply about bloody time! (Check out the first NSS4 blog entry from October 2006.)

What this means is that I will strive to get every essential element complete in the next few weeks, then consider the training issue. It may simply be that I have to hold training challenges and the management mode back until NSS5 but I can tell you something for sure: there won't be another 3 year wait!

New Star Rising

2008-05-07T01:16:00.003Z

I’ve been cramming in the hours these past few weeks and NSS4 is finally starting to feel like the finished article. I still have some work to do on the competitions, fixing clashes and so on, and you can’t actually get picked for an international match yet, but soon these issues will just be a distant memory (I hope). I must admit it’s getting a bit stressful trying to do as much as possible before Lucy and I leave Melbourne and continue our travels. We fly to Tasmania for 10 days at the end of May then back to Melbourne before heading for the West Coast. How I’ll be able to work during this time is a concern as I wanted the game to be ready for the European Championship. We’ll see…

Feedback from the beta versions I released has been very positive and I can only say that the gameplay will only get better before the final release. I have already made some improvements on the AI and the ball control feels smoother than it did before. I’m hoping to fix any serious compatibility issues with the next beta which will be the last one before the final game is released.

Most of my time at the moment is being spent on the career side of the game and making sure that it all flows nicely. Things like contract offers, the transfer market and the progression of player skills are all hugely important things that need to be finely balanced in order to appear realistic. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I have dropped the training challenges and have made skill progression something that takes place during match play. In addition to your club fixtures you will be able to take part in two types of training matches; full 11-a-side games in an empty stadium or 5-a-side indoor games. These can be selected from the training screen. Notice the custom orange and black interface. Very Half-Life 2...

The indoor games are great fun allowing you to bounce passes off the walls and it helps to increase abilities without expending too much energy running around a full sized pitch.

The outdoor training matches do allow you to set up freekicks, corners and penalties whenever you like though to enable you to improve your setpiece skill. It’s very satisfying seeing your skills chink up at the bottom of the screen when you pull off a nice pass, shot or tackle.

One other aspect I’ve added recently is Achievements. These work in the same way as the Xbox 360 achievements do, recording your progress as you complete tasks like “Score a hattrick”, “Get a sponsorship deal” and so on. The achievement count is currently at 45 but I hope to take this up to 100 by release day. There will of course be some fiendishly difficult achievements such as “World Cup Top Scorer”.

The financial side of the game is shaping up nicely too. Here you can see the finance screen where you can buy vehicles and property and set how much you want to spend on your friends and family each week to keep them sweet. Notice the sponsors panel. Now you can have up to 11 different sponsors ranging from sports wear to cosmetics. Attaining a boot sponsor unlocks the option to edit your boot colours.

Finally, I can't remember if I've shown you any images of the new horse racing section. Here's a brief shot of a race in action...

So for now it's business as usual for me but that finish line is getting ever nearer. :D

Zero To Hero

2008-04-02T05:54:00.004Z

It’s kind of crunch time here at New Star Towers as the match engine is just about done and I'm working hard to get the career mode sorted. All that remains for the match engine is some gameplay tuning and ironing out of any bugs that arise between now and release day. I’m hoping to release a public match engine beta very soon (like in the next 24 hours) so stay tuned to the forum!

What I thought I’d do today is write up the game controls and post them here. This will also serve as the in-game help file. Two birds with one stone, see? The controls are very similar to NSS3 with a few enhancements so pay attention. :) Ok, here we go…

It is highly recommended that you use a joypad or joystick with an analogue control stick to play NSS4.

Attack
Control Stick - Run
Button 1 - Pass
Button 2 - Lob
Button 3 - Shoot
Button 4 - Call
Button 5 - Sprint

Defend
Control Stick - Run
Button 1 - Chase
Button 2 - Chase/Slide Tackle
Button 3 - Chase
Button 4 - Chase
Button 5 - Sprint

Goalkeeper
Control Stick - Run
Goalkeepers will dive automatically
Button 4 + Control stick - Organize defensive wall

Auto-Shot
If you tap the shot button or hold it down before you have control of the ball you will shoot automatically towards the goal.
If you centre the control stick before the player kicks the ball he will perform a chipped shot.
If you pull the control stick away from the goal before the player kicks the ball he will perform a low shot.
If you pull the stick to the left or right your player will shoot to that side of the goal.
Auto-shots are not precise. The direction will be affected by the player’s shooting ability.
Auto-shots cannot be curled.

Manual Shot
If you have control of the ball and you hold the shoot button down you will bring up the shot power bar. Release the button to shoot with the desired power.
Manual shots are precise. They will travel in the exact direction you kick the ball.
Manual shots can be curled by pushing the control stick left or right relative to the direction of the ball. The shot can also be lifted by pulling away from the ball or dipped by pushing towards the ball.

Auto-Pass
If you tap the pass button or hold it down before you have control of the ball you will pass automatically towards the teammate highlighted. If no teammate is highlighted a short kick will be played.
Auto-passes are not precise. The direction will be affected by the player’s passing ability.
Auto-passes cannot be curled.

Manual Pass
If you have control of the ball and you hold the pass button down you will bring up the pass power bar. Release the button to pass with the desired power.
Manual shots are precise. They will travel in the exact direction you kick the ball.
Manual passes can be curled.

Auto-Lob
If you tap the lob button or hold it down before you have control of the ball you will play a high pass automatically towards the teammate highlighted. If no teammate is highlighted a short lob kick will be played.
Auto-lobs are not precise. The direction will be affected by the player’s passing ability.
Auto-lobs cannot be curled.

Manual Lob
If you have control of the ball and you hold the lob button down you will bring up the pass power bar. Release the button to play a high pass with the desired power.
Manual shots are precise. They will travel in the exact direction you kick the ball.
Manual passes can be curled.

Chase
If you do not have control of the ball you can automatically chase it by holding any of the kick buttons. If you are holding the kick button when you connect with the ball you will perform an auto-shot or auto-pass depending on the button you are holding. You can also use the call button to chase the ball if you do not wish to kick the ball when you control it.

Slide Tackle
If you do not have control of the ball but you are close to it you can tap the lob button to perform a sliding tackle. The length of the slide is depending on the player’s running speed and his tackling ability.

Sprint
If you hold the sprint button your player will run faster. Notice that there are two bars above your player’s head. The top bar (green) is his overall energy. This depletes as he runs around. The second bar (yellow) is the player’s sprint meter. This depletes rapidly when he is sprinting but will regenerate when he stops sprinting. The speed at which the sprint meter replenishes is dependent on the player’s overall energy.
If you tap the sprint button whilst dribbling your player will knock the ball further ahead than normal. You can also affect the direction of the knock with the control stick.

Player Abilities

Energy
Determines how long a player can run at normal pace and how quickly his sprint tank refills
Stamina
Determines how quickly the player’s energy depletes when running.
Strength
Stronger players can push opponents out of the way
Pace
This determines a player’s maximum top speed
Acceleration
How quickly a player can reach top speed
Control
How well the player can trap the ball
Flair
How much a player can curl the ball
Weak Foot
When a player kicks with his weaker foot only a percentage of his passing or shooting ability is used to determine the accuracy of the kick. His Weak Foot ability determines that percentage.
Positioning
CPU - How quickly they find good positions
HUMAN – A higher positioning ability improves the likelihood of a teammate passing to you

Outfield Player Only

Tackling
How far you can slide and how quickly you recover
Shooting
Affects the accuracy of auto-shots
Passing
Affects the accuracy of auto-passes
Heading
Affects the accuracy of auto-headers. Also jump height and dive length are affected by the heading ability
Crossing
Affects the accuracy of auto-crossing
Dribbling
Determines how closely you dribble the ball
SetPiece
Affects the accuracy of set-piece shots and passes

Goalkeeper Only

Distribution
Affects the accuracy of auto-kicks
Agility
How quickly the keeper recovers from a dive
Aerial
How high or far a keeper can jump or dive
Handling
How well the keeper can hold a shot
Organisation
How well the keeper places the wall
Reflexes
How quickly the keeper responds to close shots
Bravery
How well a keeper can save at an opponents feet

Improving your abilities
New Star Soccer 4 is unlike any other football game (including NSS3) in that your abilities are a reflection of how good YOU are as a player. Manual shots and passes are always 100% accurate in that they travel in the exact direction that you point them with the exact power you choose. Every time you perform a skilful action you will be rewarded with ability points. However, points will NOT be awarded if you perform an auto-pass or an auto-shot, and auto-shots and passes are not 100% accurate.

Physical Abilities
Stamina, Strength, Pace, Acceleration can all be improved through Gym Training.

Technical Abilities
Weak Foot
Make a successful pass or shot with your weak foot
Flair
Curl a successful shot or pass
Control
Centre the control stick before you receive the ball

Tactical Abilities
Positioning
Receive a pass or intercept the ball
Vision
Make a successful long pass

Outfield Player Skill Abilities
Tackling
Perform a successful sliding tackle
Shooting
Shoot on target
Passing
Make a successful pass
Heading
Head the ball
Crossing
Cross the ball
Dribbling
Dribble the ball for an extended period of time
SetPiece
Perform a successful shot or pass from a set-piece

Goalkeeper Skill Abilities
Distribution
Perform a successful pass
Agility
Perform a successful diving save
Aerial
Perform a successful jumping save
Handling
Catch the ball
Organisation
Position the wall correctly
Reflexes
Save a close ranged shot
Bravery
Retrieve the ball whilst the opponent is dribbling

Other Statistics
Potential
Skills are easier to build and maintain while potential is high
Consistency
Reflects your performance ratings during your career
Aggression
Reflects how often you foul opponents
Determination
Reflects how gym training work rate during your career

So that's how it all sits right now. There may be a few changes yet but that depends on your feedback. So I'd better go and get that beta ready!

I can see the peak!

2008-02-13T21:23:00.006Z

It’s been a while, yes, sorry about that. I have to admit that the game went on hold for about one month while Lucy’s sister and my best friend came out to Australia to see the sights and do a little traveling. Lucy and I have also moved to Melbourne and now have a nice little studio flat in St Kilda with a sea view! Unfortunately we are out of money so Lucy is back to working in The Alfred Hospital (she’s a nurse) and I of course am programming every hour that God sends in the hope that New Star Soccer 4 will be finished before we leave Melbourne in three months, but don’t hold me to that! So what’s new? Well today I have at last some gameplay footage to delight your eyes and get that inner footballing genius within you all excited! These are running much slower than normal game speed but that’s due to the video capture software.

Let’s start with a little goal I scored today. The attacker receives the ball and does well to avoid the slide tackle before knocking the ball wide. As the keeper rushes out the 2nd striker squares the ball to his partner who had continued his run into the box and has a simple tap in. If you look closely you’ll see the goalscorer run off and celebrate with his arms outstreched. The 'aeroplane' is one of four celebrations that you can perform after scoring a goal. The others are sliding on your knees, standing with your arms raised, or doing a funky dance. It should be a nice little reward when you score a goal. Here you go…

This next clip demonstrates a nice little passing move I put together before unleashing a shot that the keeper saves. I should have really taken the ball on and looked for the killer pass, but I wanted to test the keeper. Actually I am really happy with my work this week as the keepers are now very very hard to beat. At the moment all the keepers have 100% stats, so when I implement their skills properly, agility, handling and so on, they won’t be quite so super human. This video also shows how versatile the camera is. As you can see it’s a bird’s eye view of the action and old school gamers that fondly remember Dino Dini’s classic Kick Off can actually play in this view if they wish…

This clip shows the computer controlled team crossing the ball and putting the ball in the back of the net with a diving header. Unfortunately for him it was offside, ha! The Com player also uses the “knock” move which taps the ball further away from you than normal dribbling. The AI still needs a bit of work but overall he’s starting to play a pretty solid game and is quite tough to beat.

Here’s one for you defenders out there. A slide tackle to block the pass then send a defence splitting ball through to the forward who scores. It’s a little to easy to get through the back four at the moment so I’ll be working on tactics a bit this week.

So as you can see the match engine is running nicely and is almost complete. I have a bunch of slight glitches to fix and improvements to make which will hopefully be completed this week, then it is back to the career side of the game to complete a few sections like relationships and newspaper reviews before pulling all the loose strings together for final testing. I’m very pleased with the match engine as I’m really enjoying the matches so these are exciting times for me and I definitely feel as though I’m in the final stretch. Keep an eye on my YouTube page because from now on I'll upload anything that I think you might find interesting.

Moving Pictures

2007-11-20T09:18:00.000Z

Just a quick update to show you some videos of the NSS4 interface in action. First up is an overview of the main screens...

After loading the game it goes straight into the days fixture list, from there it goes into the home page, then the tournament screen, the club screen, the training screen, the relationship screen, the finance screen, the search screen where we look for goalies with 50+ bravery. We finish up looking at a couple of player detail screens. Don't worry about any blank areas in the interface as these will be filled with vital information by release time.

Next up is a look at the casino games. BlackJack, Roulette and the Slot Machine...

The roulette wheel and the slots run a bit slowly, but that's purely down to the video capture method.

Here you can see the interface customization options. It starts off by selecting some of the pre-set colour schemes but then shows how you can change pretty much any aspect of the game; panels, buttons, text and the background. So whatever your team colours you can change the interface to match.

Finally, this video shows the setting up of a quick match between Arsenal and Aston Villa. I created this mode to make it easy for me to test the match engine without having to load up a career. In a quick match you control the whole team, as is normally the case with other football games and of course Sensational Soccer. I will leave this option in for NSS4 but there won't be any multiplayer or online options. However, I am still considering adding an option to let you control the team directly on the pitch when you become a manager, rather than making you just sit back and watch the CPU take over on match day. One problem with the management part of the game is that it cannot ever aspire to the level of detail and control you are given in other games like Football Manager. So by giving you control of the team it would certainly spice it up a bit and help alleviate the fact that the management options are a little sparse.

Also in the video you can see the team run out onto the pitch (or slide out because there still isn't any animation!) and you see how the camera can be adjusted to your tastes; lengthways, side-on, over-head, close-up, far-out... Something to suit everyone! Actually the camera still needs a little work because I want it to be able to keep both your player and the ball in view at all times (if you choose that option). This would enable you to bring the camera right down to pitch level and really put you in the action. Whether this will work or not though remains to be seen.

Don't worry about the green energy meters above the players heads. I'm currently working on energy consumption and need to see how much each player has left in the tank. It might be quite useful to see these in manager mode though, so there will be an option to turn the energy meters on or off in the final version.

As you will see I've cut the video short of the kick off but that's because I want to get the animation working first. It also saves me something to show you in the next blog. :D

By the way, you can keep track of all the NSS4 videos on the new YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/newstargames.

Let it snow

2007-11-07T09:52:00.000Z

Being English, my mind is telling me that November should be cold, wet and grey. Yet, having moved to Australia it should in fact be the opposite, as it is late Spring here. The funny thing is, it has been grey, wet and almost cold here in Sydney for the past two weeks with rain battering down the dull alleyway outside the balcony which is pretty much my office and thunder disturbing the peace every so often. So maybe it's the confused weather that inspired me to add rain and snow effects to NSS4.

For the rain I've employed a similar method to that of NSS3 whereby I overlay the screen with some transparent tiles which have animated rain drops on them. It's a simple method but when I loaded up NSS3 to remind myself how it looked I realised that it's also rather crude and I needed to improve it for the new version. I set about creating better rain tiles and employed a new system where both the rain image and sound gradually fade-in and out. Thanks to the excellent transparency effects in BlitzMax I'm happy to say it looks great! Check out how muddy, miserable and typically English this screenshot looks...

For the snow I have to thank Klaas of the Blitz forums for some excellent Blitz3D code. I needed to convert it to BlitzMax and adjust it for my purposes, but within a few short hours the winter matches felt like an Alpine Christmas. The snow flakes are rendered in true 3D so it actually falls in the game world, unlike the rain which is a 2D overlay. What I like most about it is the way it whizzes by as the camera tracks the match. Just imagine how snow looks when you're driving through it and you'll get the idea. My one concern is that it will slow down the match action on less powerful PCs, but it's possible to alter the number of flakes rendered so it can be cut down to zero if needs be. I've settled for 100 flakes for now which gives a nice effect without looking too sparse. Anything over 300 actually looks too cluttered.

In another flash of inspiration I realised that if I make the snow flakes multi-coloured it produces quite a nice ticker-tape effect which would be great for Cup final celebration scenes. More on that another time though.

Talking of celebrations, one thing many people have requested is the ability to control your player after scoring a goal. Well, your wish is my command because this is possible in NSS4. I've yet to implement the animations but you can run wherever you want during the moments after a goal whilst your teammates chase after you. The plan is to assign 4 celebration animations to the four main buttons (pass, lob, shoot, call) so you can show off to your adoring fans or maybe even run over and taunt the opposing fans. It's this kind of freedom that I'm perhaps most proud of with regards to the NSS4 match engine. For instance, if you are the setpiece taker then you can position yourself by the ball exactly where you want (within a 5 yard zone) allowing you to angle a run-up or simply stand next to the ball for a standing kick. Once in position you set the strength of the kick with the pass, shoot or lob buttons then as you hold the analogue stick (or direction key) the player runs up and kicks the ball. The great thing about this is you can hold the stick exactly how you want to apply the aftertouch and not worry about running towards the ball as the player does that automatically, making it easy to apply dip, loft or curl to the kick. Needless to say, a quick tap of the pass or lob button will pass the ball to the highlighted teammate. A simple thing yes, but it's shocking to think that Pro Evolution Soccer hasn't managed to get short freekicks right throughout the series.

So that's a little update on the state of the match engine and I really, truly hope (and pray) that by the time I next update the blog that it will have properly animated players, because once that is in then the match engine will be 95% complete. At a guess I would say the the entire project is at around 75% complete. Now that's something to be happy about, whatever the weather! :D

Down Under

2007-10-06T00:58:00.000Z

I know, I know, it's been a long time but I have a half decent excuse. Lucy and I have relocated down-under and it's been a mad month or so. We are now living in Sydney and after a couple of weeks of being tourists we have moved into a shared house and have settled into a working routine, interspersed with trips to the beach of course. :)

NSS4 is coming along nicely and I have a couple of new screens to show you. The first is the training screen where you can set how much effort you wish to focus on each of your abilities. This will help you increase abilities at a faster rate than usual, but will obviously cost you more energy. I still intend to have training challenges as in NSS3 but with skill levels ranging from 1-100 now I would be impossible (or at least very time consuming for me and pretty boring for the player) to create 100 different challenges for each skill. Exactly how the whole training element will work isn't quite nailed down yet but I will focus on it some more in the future.

As you can see, you can also purchase your performance enhancing drugs, alcohol and energy drink from this screen from the action menu. And as before you can check into the rehab clinic from here, or not if you're anything like Amy Winehouse. (I said, no, no, no.)

Next up is the relationship screen which is very similar to the old version, but with a few minor differences. There will be more options on the action menus than in NSS3 and I hope to include sub-screens which give you more detail on the relationships. For instance, you will be able to pull up a list of all your team mates and see which ones like you and which ones don't. Or you can have a chat with the boss to find out what he is unhappy with, whether it's your match form or your playboy lifestyle. Well, that's the plan at least.

The pictures are just place-holders at the moment and may or may not be the same in the final release. If such a thing as an unofficial image patch comes into existence then it will show an actual picture of the team boss and hopefully real photographs for girlfriends too. In fact you will be able to replace the default images for family and friends with pictures of your own if you so wish.

The more observant among you may notice that there's another new icon on the nav panel - the dollar sign. This will take you to the finances screen where you can see your income/expenses and spend your cash as you wish. It will also show details of existing contracts with sponsors and so on, but this area is only half finished so you'll have to wait a while to see that screen.

The other major news is that I have a chap working on the animations for the players and will hopefully soon have some players running around, kicking, jumping, diving and so on (diving headers, not Ronaldo style cheating - shame on you PES7). So the next blog should be very interesting, only I promise not to take so long this time. :)

Global aspirations

2007-08-13T21:00:00.000Z

I realise it's been a while since my last post so I'd better have something good for ya. Well, I hope the following pics will prove that I've been working very hard lately. It feels a bit like a battle against the clock at the moment because in 4 weeks time I'll be leaving the small English market town of Bicester and moving to Australia. My girlfriend Lucy and I will be living in Sydney for 3 months, where she'll be working as a nurse and I'll be working on NSS4, then we'll be on the road trying to see as much of Oz, New Zealand and Tasmania as possible. Quite how that will work if NSS4 isn't finished by Christmas I don't know, but hey, it'll be fun finding out.

So then, what have I been working on lately. I'll start with the Search screen, which will be useful when you become a manager in the game. You can search for players by specifying their position, age or value and even add attribute filters to bring up only those players you are interested in.

I've also added a few more player creation screens that allow you to set the specifics of your player such as hair colour, preferred foot and so on. One nice feature is that you will be able to see your alter-ego as you set him up. He will even grow or shrink in size as you edit your height and weight.

Two sections that will of course be making a comeback from NSS3 are the horse racing and the casino. There's still some work to be done on showing the horse race so I'll save screenshots of that for another day, but the stables and betting side of the game are in place. This time around there will be much more interaction with your stable. You'll be able to buy and sell horses and you'll decide when they take part in a race, but you'll have to keep an eye their energy and health as they may fall ill if you overwork them.

Moving on to the casino, I started with the BlackJack game due to a chap called Ragnar Brynjulfsson who allowed me to use some BlitzMax code for free. I had to hack it a bit to fit it to my own needs, but it saved me an awful lot of time re-writing the structure and rules of the game and I particularly liked the way the cards move into position when they are dealt so that stayed in too.

BlackJack was implemented within a day thanks to Ragnar, and so flushed was I with excitement that I decided to tackle the roulette wheel. Unlike NSS3 I didn't want to settle for a simple random number being displayed so I set about simulating a ball being launched into the wheel and coming to rest after a bit of chaotic bouncing. It took a bit longer than BlackJack but I'm pretty chuffed with the results. Not only does the wheel look and behave great but I've also included more betting options as you can see in the screenshot.

With two out of three casino games done nothing was gonna stop me from completing the casino section by adding the fruit machine. This was fairly simple to do, once I'd sourced some fruit images from iStock.com. I still need to improve the background image (budding artists, drop me a line) but the reels spin nicely and as with all the gambling games your bank account is updated, win, lose or draw. A new feature for the fruit machine is the nudges. Basically if you get 2 matching fruits you will be awarded a nudge that you can use or save in later spins. Nudges simply allow you to move a reel on one fruit which allows you to force a win if you can nudge 3 matching fruits.

Had enough screenshots? Well, there's one more to come which shows off the start screen in Spanish. Yes, under the supervision of forum moderator and all round nice guy Fabrizio Gatti, NSS has a large recruitment of translators. If you are interested in translating the game please head over to Fab's thread on the forum. I estimate that the current English file they are working on contains about 90% of the text that will be needed for the interface screens, but the real challenge comes when I start working on the relationship incidents. I plan to create an incident editor soon so that forum members can all add some weird, wonderful and of course mundane incidents that might occur during your career, and all of those incidents will need translating. As it stands we have 13 good guys that will hopefully stick with us through to the end and make NSS4 a truly global game.

Oh, and if you didn't know already, the globe you see there will pinpoint the stadium of your next fixture. Well, so long as the co-ordinates are correct which is not quite the case with Villa Park which appears to reside somewhere out in the Mediterranean!

Mojo

2007-06-21T15:24:00.000Z

Around the time of my last blog I was struggling. Things were moving slowly and coding the game was tough. I felt like I was wrestling with a hefty gorilla, rather than the playful chimp it normally is. I'd lost my mojo. I was out of the zone. I needed something. A spark of some kind.

And then it happened. I scored a goal. Sure, the game engine is far from complete and my players are just rectangular blocks and but I scored a goal of such simplicity, of such elegance that immediately my spirits were lifted. Let me describe it for you.

Having won the ball about 25 yards from goal I looked up and saw a chance to shoot. I let fly with my imaginary right foot (the players don't have legs yet, remember!) and the ball flew goalwards. To my dismay it cannoned back off the left post and a quick thinking defender hoofed it away, up towards the half way line. After a scramble in the midfield the ball breaks loose and finds its way to my strike partner about 30 yards out. I'm standing to the left of the centre backs, slightly behind them but still onside thanks to the slow reactions of one of the fullbacks. A quick tap of the call button and my team mate feeds the ball between the centre backs and I rush forwards to control it. Taking it in my stride I realise that no-one is going to catch me and I'm one on one with the goalie. Despite lacking any real AI, the keeper rushes out to tackle me nonetheless. I quickly assess my options. A quick tap of the shoot button will drive a shot, but the keeper will have a good chance of blocking it. I could attempt a cheeky chip, but the last time I tried that it didn't work at all (note to self - fix the chip shots). I decide to dribble it around him.

So as he closes in, around the penalty spot, I tap the sprint button and knock the ball away to the left of the keeper. His momentum carries him past me so I easily retrieve control of it before he can react. Now though I'm nearing the byline and well wide of the goal. No matter! Keeping a cool head I direct a soft low shot back across the goalmouth and into the far corner from the tightest of angles. The crowd roars (well it would do if i'd programmed any sound yet) and I wheel away to celebrate with my delirious, blocky team mates.

I quickly pressed the replay button only for a message to pop up, "you have attempted to access a null object". Damn. The save replay feature isn't working again. Oh well. The replay itself wasn't important, it was all about the moment. As I said, a simple goal, the kind of goal that is scored week-in week-out all over the world. But that's what made it special. The game is starting to immitate real football and suddenly I was re-invigorated. I can't help but think that this is gonna be one helluva game. I was back in the zone, mojo restored and the boistrous gorrilla is behaving again.

Stop the world

2007-06-18T11:34:00.001Z

Wow. Time moves too fast, doesn't it? I can't believe it's mid-June already. Week after week is flicking by relentlessly and I edge ever closer to the predicted release date of Autumn 2007. I hate to say it but I'm starting to doubt that I'm going to fulfil that goal. In fact I am almost positive of it. As it stands the game is roughly 50% complete and with just a handful of months until the Autumn I don't see how I can get everything finished and tested by then. It's very disappointing, as much for me as for anyone else but it is vitally important that I maintain the level of quality that I hope I have produced so far. One of the benefits of being an indie developer is that the game isn't released until I say it's ready. I have no official deadline to work to, so if it takes until Christmas then so be it. Rest assured though, I will be striving every day to complete the game sooner rather than later. And just prove that I haven't been twiddling my thumbs for the past 10 months, here's a run-down of where we're at with New Star Soccer 4.

I like to break the game world down into 3 parts. Foundations, Match Engine and Life Style...

Foundations
The foundations of the game consist primarily of the database and the code that makes that database come to life; the progression of time, competitions taking place, the transfer market, players growing old and so on. I am very pleased with what I have done so far but there is still a fair bit to do. I still need to implement club continental competitions such as the Champions League and fix a few issues with various awkward competitions that don't fit the norm. I need to ensure that fixture clashes are avoided either by arranging dates correctly at the start of a season or by re-arranging dates as clashes develop midway through the season.

I need to build a realistic transfer market where every club constantly strives to improve their squad which means they have to target players that might realistically sign for them, and then a process of negotiation ensues. One thing I won't allow is for superstar players to transfer to lower league clubs, or indeed super clubs buying hopeless players.

What I have left to do on the game foundations aren't really major tasks, they're just boring and require a lot of testing. I did hope that the foundations would be in place before development started on anything else but alas I was sucked into the exciting world of the 3D match engine or to give it it's official title:

Sensational Engine 2.0
This section of the game has been consuming most of my time lately and progress is good. As you know from previous blogs players move in formation and they can dribble, pass and shoot. Well now they have a "field of view" which is determined by their 'vision' attribute. Basically the higher a player's vision stat the further he can see and the wider his peripheral vision. Imagine an invisible cone stretching out from the player's eyes, and anything that falls within that cone is visible to him. (If you've ever played Metal Gear Solid you'll know what I mean, although NSS players won't be quite so short sighted as those idiot guards.) Thus a player's range of passing is dependent on his vision, and shooting will require a clear sight of goal.

I've also been working on 3D stadiums with a forum member called "Scrumble". We're pinning down the basic size, the level of detail allowed, and making sure everything looks right. Here's a shot of a very basic stadium.

Not that impressive, I know, but at the moment we're just trying to lay down some rules for future stadium designers. We'll start experimenting with textures soon which should make them much more exciting to look at. I'm hoping that some eager forum members will take up the challenge of designing all the major stadiums from around the world.

Back to the football itself. Basic set-pieces are now in place, so it's possible to have throw-ins, goal-kicks, corners etc. I still need to fix a few positional problems (making sure everyone is in the right place during set-pieces) but that shouldn't be too hard. After that it will be possible to start feeding the match data back from the sensational engine into the game world. This will be a major step forward as it will mean that during development we can actually play out the fixtures and the relevent match stats will be updated in the game world.

One major aspect of the match engine yet to be tackled is player animation. This will come once the underlying gameplay and match rules are all in place, although I think goalkeeper AI might have to wait until I have jumping and diving animations for him to perform.

Another part of the Sensational Engine I will need to implement is the new training challenges. I have some good ideas for new challenges but player skills now range from 0 to 100 so I can't possibly have 100 different tests for every skill. Therefore training will be an altogether different experience from that of NSS3. Expect more details on this in the future.

Life Style
This part of the game covers everything that is not strictly football related. In other words, relationships, incidents, shopping, gambling etc. The stuff that adds colour to the game and provides a distraction from purely playing football. This is the one area of the game that I have yet to make a start on. I'm hoping it will be the easiest section of all to program and it is certainly the least important right now, because without the foundations or the match engine there is no game at all. For these reasons I am leaving it until last, but I expect to enjoy it the most as it will be great fun giving the player a life, with all the pitfalls that entails, and of course, this section of development will be the downhill slope.

So that's where we are right now. Let's hope that by the time I next blog we can tick off another couple of major game elements so that maybe I can stop cursing the fact that the sun sets far too regularly. :D

Action man

2007-05-27T22:27:00.001Z

Since we last spoke I have mainly been working on 3D aspects of the game. Initially I improved the appearance of the globe that will spin in the background and highlight the location of the stadium for the next fixture. Pinpointing the right spot on the surface of the earth proved very tricky, partly because I'm useless at maths and partly because I'm still getting to grips with the 3D module, but after a couple of days I was very pleased with the results. This screenshot doesn't highlight a stadium but you can see the atmospheric haze and the cloud layers. There are actually two layers of cloud which rotate at slightly different speeds and directions to the earth itself whichs give the affect of random cloud formations shifting over the earth.

After a brief spell fixing some issues with the database editor I felt like getting stuck into the match engine again. You may remember from a previous blog that the 3D blocks which temporarily represent the players were sliding around the pitch in the desired formation and they could chase the ball from one end to the other, but there wasn't any passing going on. Well the past week has been all about replicating the control scheme from NSS3 in the new engine. Despite using the same basic principles for kicking the ball (a tap of the button will perform a quick pass or quick shot, whilst holding the button will bring up a power bar so you can measure long passes) when combined with 360 degree control and a new dribbling method the game feels a whole lot different to NSS3.

Players now knock the ball in front of them when they are dribbling - the distance of the knock being determined by the running speed and dribbling skill of the player. In between knocks your player will automatically chase the ball so you can concentrate on holding the joystick in the direction you want to turn when he next connects with the ball. I feel that this is a much more realistic method than in NSS3 and after a while becomes second nature.

I've also included a sprint button which when held makes your player run faster but can also be used for advanced dribbling. By tapping the sprint button before touching the ball you can knock it a few yards in the direction of your joystick (this is more pronounced than the normal dribbling). With a little practice this is great when taking on defenders because you can see where a his momentum will take him and you can flick the ball in the opposite direction and go past him. Seeing it in action I am minded of Didier Zokora going on a driving run through the midfield, similar to this clip in Spurs versus Arsenal...

Also included is the "call" button which allows you to receive the ball from team mates. Getting the auto-pass to play the ball quickly and accurately to a player is one of the biggest challenges in the match engine as often the receiving player will change his direction just as the ball is kicked towards him. Using a bit of clever programming though it's possible to roughly predict where he will be in a moments time and play the ball to that area. The computer players are also able to detect where the ball is heading and move into that position rather than just expecting it to land at their feet.

So despite the fact that the players are just coloured blocks, it's actually starting to feel like a real game of football. Well, almost. I need to work some more on the artificial intelligence so that the computer players don't stick so rigidly to their formation and actively seek out good positions, and they also need to learn when to dribble and when to pass. Once those things are in place I can start working on the set-pieces and various game rules. There's still so much to do that I don't like thinking about it too much, but looking at how far the game has come I can't help but get excited about how great it will be in the end.