• Leap Motion,  Wii-U,  Xbox One

    Flight of Light vs Totem Topple

    Flight of Light Last year we ran a competition to rename our Wii U game codenamed “Colour Park”. We received loads of fantastic entries, but in the end opted for “Flight of Light”. We also picked a number of runners up, who along with the winner will get a free copy of the game when it’s released! We’re still aiming for a summer release of the game, but we’ve decided to de-scope the project. In other words, we will release a smaller version of the game than we initially planned, focusing mostly on the local-multiplayer racing part of the game. Depending on how that goes, we’ll release more single player…

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  • Wii-U

    New Year Update

    December was a slow month for us due to team members having various family/personal obligations, but with the new year, we’re now raring to get back to work. Chiefly on our Wii U game, which still does not have a name! We’ve decided to extend the Name Our Game competition through January to give extra time for people to submit suggestions. We’re now working on creating many more levels for the game. As well, there is lots of work to do to improve the game’s graphics and feedback mechanisms. Sound design and creating the UI (menus and options) will also represent a large portion of the work for the new…

  • Games Industry,  Leap Motion

    Leap into Motion

    This week, we’ve been participating in the LeapMotion Game Jam, adapting our game to use the motion control device. It works remarkably well! Whilst we’ve only announced the game for Wii U so far, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get our hands on some cool motion control technology that the LeapMotion provides. On a basic level, the LeapMotion is a little blocky device that detects hands hovering over it, tracking their movement as well as the movement of individual digits and joints. It’s been out for a while, initially being touted as the first half of the cool looking holographic UI’s seen in many a sci-fi movie. Although…

  • Wii-U

    Name Our Game Competition!

    Turns out we’re terrible at thinking up names for our latest game. The working title “Colour Park” was never going to fly. So instead we’re having a competition to see who can come up with something better! Anyone who thinks they have a good name for our game has until 23rd November to submit their entry to our website to be in with a shout. After then, the top 5 entries as picked by us will receive a free copy of the game and go into a public vote to see which of them will forever adorn our game. Enter the competition here: http://www.crystallinegreen.com/competition/ The game itself is an on-rails…

  • Wii-U

    Mixed Opinions: IndieCade Feedback

    Back in June, we submitted a really early version of Colour Park to IndieCade. The game didn’t get nominated as a finalist, but did get feedback from a number of jurors. Interestingly, they all had different things to say. Note, the jury system is anonymised, so I’ve instead labelled them as Juror #1, #2 and #3 respectively: —– Juror #1: This was obviously very early in development, but it shows potential for being something good. It took a few minutes for the concept to click, but once it did, it was easy to get the hang of it. I don’t feel like there’s much meaningful feedback I can give at…

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  • Games Industry

    It’s in the Eyes

    Last week I participated in a game jam using eye-tracking technology. The jam was sponsored by Tobii, who supplied the EyeX eye tracker kits used. Historically, eye-tracking gaming has been decidedly niche. For example, being used by disabled gamers who have limited movement. Interestingly though, Tobii are looking to mass market the EyeX, with a particular focus on core gamers. The principle being that certain parts of a player’s game can be improved using the eye trackers. The example Tobii highlighted was of aiming with the eyes in an FPS, but otherwise using normal mouse and keyboard controls to move around. Not having to physically move the mouse over an…

  • Wii-U

    Insomnia Takehomes

    There’s nothing like testing with real users, and demoing Colour Park at the Insomnia52 Gaming Festival highlighted a number of unforeseen issues Last weekend, I demoed Colour Park at Insomnia 52 Gaming Festival in Coventry. Top of the list of things to test were the colour blind modes. Whilst something in the range of 1% to 5% of men are colour blind (it’s very rare in women), the degree can vary between individuals, all the way from some colours being slightly weaker, all the way to being utterly unable to distinguish between certain colours. Colour.. It’s in the name In the case of Colour Park, and it’s dependency on colour,…

  • Games Industry

    You Can Keep Your Rift On

    I recently attended a workshop at University of Lincoln entitled “Performance and Games”. In this case, performance meant performing arts, which I was a touch apprehensive about, since it was invite only event, and an area where I have no prior experience (not counting my (in)famous dancing when on nights out with friends). As it transpired, I was far more useful for my ‘performance’ than the programming and game development skills I had intended to bring to the table. I’d envisioned something much closer to a game jam, spending a large portion of the workshop laying down code of some description. In fact, we spent the entirety of the first…

  • Games Industry

    Mini Manifesto

    I read about game development and the games industry a lot, and apparently, games aren’t interesting, varied or “innovative” enough. Indie game developers are supposed to be the solution, free to take risks and unencumbered by meddling corporate higher-ups. I don’t think it’s anywhere near that simple. Most indies I know are limited by serious resource constraints; financial in particular. Some turn that around and use it to their advantage, but most are actually very cautious, sticking to technologies, mechanics and themes they know. I’m in the fortunate position of having an independent income, meaning I can (just about) afford to work as an indie game dev full time. Bearing…

  • Games Industry,  Wii-U

    Games Industry and Quality of Life platforms

    I should preface this by saying I’m coming from a purely games industry perspective here. I have no insight into health and fitness industry or related products aside from my own experiences as a consumer. According to recent reports, Nintendo are planning a new “Quality of Life” platform. Quite what that means is a bit vague at the moment, but here are a few examples of the sort of problems/people/products that Nintendo (or indeed other companies in the games industry) can solve in the health and fitness sphere: Elderly In rich, developed countries, there is a huge demographic shift towards ageing populations, and it’s already well under way. The “baby…

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