New Star Soccer
Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Projects/New Star Soccer
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| This is coming along nicely. I still have a fair bit to do but I would appreciate your comments... Latest version: http://www.newstarsoccer.com/nssmobile.php |
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| It's looking good, even if it's not my sort of thing. I did find during the trial that I kept mistakenly tapping the ball then had to choose a direction with no power (and when I did this during a quick match, the ball rolled slowly off screen and stayed there -- I was then stuck on that screen). I would perhaps check that the user has dragged the arrow out from the initial tap-area by a small amount before moving on. |
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| i tried to pick a league but it wouldnt let me, also the fps was about 3 |
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| Same as druggedbunny. The game got stuck on the ball screen once it rolled off. Cheers Charlie |
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| This isn't working for me in Chrome nor Firefox. Maybe I have the wrong version of the Flash player? But I have no problems with other embedded Flash items... :-/ |
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| I selected Barça as my team in the Spanish league, but it has some unicode issues with the Ç letter, wich is a bit weird. |
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| Works well here in Firefox 7.0.1 and Flash 10. I like the way a match is played, you have to think and act quickly even though it is not a full action game. |
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| Had a quick play... and lost the first game 5-1 LOL! It plays pretty decent and I like the action parts, nicely done :) |
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| Dammit... Dammit dammit dammit... Played until the tyne-wear derby, got beat off smelly Newcastle 2-1, really annoyed just after half time Newcastle were in on goal 6 times off the trot and scored twice before I had a chance to do anything in the final minutes! Other then that (You'll probably understand why), cracking little game! :) Dabz |
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| Thanks for the comments guys. I have improved a few things... -Ball won't be kicked unless player sets sufficient power and direction -Added text to most buttons -Added ability to view other league and cup competitions -Added ability to view other clubs fixtures -Increased icon resolutions I still have a lot to do with regards to relationships and match action but the content is 95% there. :) c.k. are you sure you are waiting long enough for it to load? It takes a while (11mb) and I'm not sure how to do a Flash splash yet. The frame rate is a bit of a worry. Lots of text slows things down immensely and I'm only getting around 10-20fps in iOS. This isn't a major issue in the menus but the match action definitely needs to be smoother. Flash runs it very nicely on my system whilst HTML5 is unplayable (sub 10fps). |
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| I'll try again tonight and wait a little bit longer. :) Thanks! |
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| It loaded fine tonight! Weird. Good stuff! It feels a little out of my control, mostly. When the other team is scoring 3 points and I can't do anything about it. I guess it's more about management? Or about doing my part as a player? I was hoping to play New Star Soccer 5. :-) |
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| Yeah, I still have some work to do on how the match plays out - you should be able to influence it a bit more. Right now I'm not sure that Monkey is capable of a full match engine a la NSS5. :( |
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| Well, after I read the intent of the game, it makes more sense. I'm only going to be able to affect some of the game, since it's a single-person simulation. So, it works fine for its description. No worries there. I would like more opportunities to score, though. heheh :) I thought NSS5 was with Monkey! :) What did you program it with? |
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| Right now I'm not sure that Monkey is capable of a full match engine a la NSS5. Why? What is missing? Performance wise it should! |
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| You reckon? I guess it may cut it in GLFW but the iOS version (3GS) struggles with 30fps even though there is no AI, no scrolling/zooming pitch, barely any player animation, no stadium, no animated fans, no rules etc. And the lack of pixmaps means the player kits need to be drawn in 3 stages (skin/hair, shirt/socks, shorts) effectively doing 3 times the work per player and with limited colours (no choice of skin/hair, no kit styles etc). Aside from the match engine, I'm having to use only 10% of the NSS5 database to stop the game crawling to a halt. There's a 1mb limit on the save file anyway, so even if it could handle the database I wouldn't be able to save the fixture data. Anyway, you get the picture. NSS5 may look simple but there's a lot going on there that is just not possible in Monkey. c.k. - NSS5 was made in BlitzMax. |
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| Well, I don't know what you are doing, but ... I have a game here, running on a 2nd gen IPOD. one 480x800 background scaled to the devices canvas and it has 8x11 animated objects (40x40). Each of these objects can have up to 4 hidden hild objects for collision checks. Without any collision checks it runs fine around 55-60 FPS. Once collision checks (circle to circle) kick in, I still don't get lower than 40 FPS. Are your images all on different source images or do they share a sprite atlas? If you use several sprite atlas, do you avoid many state switches? Means not drawing an image from atlas #1, then atlas #2, then back to #1? There is a lot to optimize in the drawing logic when dealing with mobile devices. About your matching engine? Sounds like you do a lot of file operation each frame. After all we are not talking about interpreted code here. That is why I don't get it. Anyway, you are convinced that a game like yours isn't possible in Monkey. That's fine with me. Graphically I don't see much in your game that should bring it done. But what do I know! |
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| I do still need to collate some images on to one sprite sheet but the animations are all on 1 sheet. (Is there a limit to the sheet size? Currently 1024x1024 doesn't quite fit everything.) The thing is I can't even get anywhere near 60fps in the menu screens when all it is doing is displaying the gui. Check out the league table screen and then turn the text off (press T to toggle text, S to toggle shadows). The fps ramps up. Maybe I'm doing something fundamentally wrong, but I'm pretty sure that it is something to do with the fact that there are 1000s of match fixture objects being checked by the GC every update (which is particularly harsh on iOS). |
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| Wow this is impressive :D Good job! |
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| Currently for Monkey I found it better to actually have the images with the Text on them for the GUI items, eg a button with the text "New" would only be one image, whereas if your draw the text on top of the button it would be 4 images... |
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| If your game uses text and you can't use therevills' suggestion because of the amount of text or a need for dynamic text or translations then you should really look at implementing render to texture yourself. All the platforms can do it. |
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| Heheh. Had a little play with the flash page. Still plenty to do, and I need to sort out the speed issues. :( |
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| it's starting to look great :D |
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| Looks good. Just played an entire season as Maiwan (Afghanistan), which is odd cos I can't stand football. If I were to criticise anything, I'd like a bit more involvement in defence and/or goalkeeping. |
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| Yeah, I'd like to include a tackling game. Any ideas for how this might work gladly accepted! |
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| I think i'd settle for a little control of goalkeeping. Simple left/right reaction test, maybe? |
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| Yeah, I'd like to include a tackling game. Any ideas for how this might work gladly accepted! Opposition player with the ball runs towards player, player runs towards opposition, 3 choice, left, middle, right, the player must tap one of these to slide in the respective direction... Choose the wrong direction, and the opposition runs through... But, the tackle must be timed to perfection, too early and the tackle is completely missed, to late and its a free kick, I'd make all the players involved run at different speeds, the faster they run, the longer the slide, and as such, will change if a player slides in late or not! Just an idea! :) Dabz |
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| I've made loads of improvements and added some new features... |
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Bug Report: When I go to enter my name, all the text on the screen disappears (button labels and in the text box itself). |
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| Oops. That's because your name as a T in it right? That's my key for turning text off. :P Press it twice to bring it back on and delete the 2nd one. :) |
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| I've updated quite a lot in the past month. Please check it out again... Thanks. :) |
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| That's a pretty addicting game - can't wait to see it on iOS!!! |
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| Quick bug report, when I was playing the Career mode after I did the tutorial I clicked Play, and the game froze... (using IE9) |
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| I think I've fixed the 'crash when clicking play' bug. Also wrapped with MochiAds so you get a nice loading bar (and ads) at the start now. |
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| Yep that fixed it :) A small thing: When you are entering in your first name you cant click on the second name without hitting enter, and you cant continue from the second name without hitting enter too... |
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| Will look into that. It's the same with the onscreen keyboard on a phone/iPad which is a bit annoying, so I need to fix it. |
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| Hey that's a brilliant concept for a mobile game :) I hope you do well from it |
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| I could be wrong, but I think after contract negotiations instead of saying wages have been increased to [NEW VALUE] it says wages have been increased to [OLD VALUE] |
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| Thanks Chris, I'll check that. |
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| I'm not sure on the team names being abbreviated. I understand why you've done it but names such as GUISEL and HALIFX may not make much sense to somebody who has never heard of Guiseley or Halifax. A small suggestion when negotiating new contracts, I'd like it to tell me what the current offer is, rather than what the team has increased it by (given that at one point, I didn't know what their original offer actually was because I forgot to look). That aside, I think I'd buy the iPad version of this. |
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| I just played arcade mode so far, but it's a very fun game - really shows what one can do with a simple idea! |
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| I will have to think about the names thing. Maybe I could use the full club name at the start and for contract offers, but I don't want to incur the wrath of the IP police. I will also update the contract negotiation screen to show the current offer. And I want to allow the player to swipe between their current contract and the new offer. Oh and it plays sweet on the iPad. :) |
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| I've played this quite a bit and I think it could do very well for you. A few comments: * In the passing mini-game, it's unclear if there's any advantage in attempting a difficult pass to an attacking position rather than a simple sideways or even backwards pass. All passes are just declared as "good". It would add a lot if the passes were ranked and you got more commentary/star-player credit for making a difficult but valuable pass. Perhaps make this explicit so that players don't get frustrated by having to guess what the game thinks is a good player to pass to. * If the passing game included passing into movement for even higher ratings and/or strategic advantage I think it would add a huge amount. Right now the way that the AI just runs at the ball often makes no sense from a football perspective. * When shots rebound the player AI just ignores it. Having the ball bounce off a post and land in front of a team member and an empty goal mouth to no response is annoying. * In the intercept mini-game it is often very difficult to pick out where the ball is over the ground in order to place the player. I imagine this is worse with touch controls. Perhaps a stronger shadow and/or maybe a wider collection zone? * The skill upgrade games seem a bit uneven in difficulty. Could just be me though. * I found myself not really caring about the lifestyle stuff. I can see the happiness scale but that doesn't seem to affect anything. If the idea is that they're collectables then a tick next to them doesn't really float my boat. If a Civ throne room sort of thing is too much work/resource then perhaps a weekly description of how the player spent their time: "You rode to the high street and watched TV through a shop window. You try not to feel down but know that it affects your game." -> "You went on a cruise with your girlfriend in your yacht. You feel great heading into the next week."? * Sponsor money isn't counted in the total post game. It is included in the overall total though. Just seems odd. |
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| Great feedback Muddy! Love the idea regarding the shop items, and everything else is spot on. I'll get to work on those. :) |
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| Glad it was of use. If you want someone to test it out on android I'll be happy to help. I'm curious how your aiming mechanic works out on a small touch-screen. I'm doing something very similar and finding that it's not straight-forward to get it feeling accurate without being twitchy. I think Angry Birds gets away with it by not really allowing you to see the target most of the time and obscuring the most sensitive representation of the aim point under your finger. |
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| Nice game, simple and very 'casual' (tested the Flash version on the web) One point: when you need to type your name/surname you NEED to press return to validate the input, while to me is more logic just click on the screen/another gadget to continue. |
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| I'm curious how your aiming mechanic works out on a small touch-screen. I'm doing something very similar and finding that it's not straight-forward to get it feeling accurate without being twitchy. I think Angry Birds gets away with it by not really allowing you to see the target most of the time and obscuring the most sensitive representation of the aim point under your finger. It feels ok on the iPhone screen. I did have the view zoomed in a bit closer in the early versions but decided that it was better to see more of the pitch, so now it's close to the limit of being playable but still ok. It's quite a simple mechanic; just get the touch co-ords and find the direction to the ball (ATan2(y2 - y1, x2 - x1)). That determines the direction of the shot, and the distance determines the power. :) |
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| That's essentially what I'm doing too. The problem I've found is that subtle adjustments can be difficult and that the release isn't always clean -- causing the aim to wobble as the finger is lifted. It's probably a matter of the specific screen and the qualities of the user's finger. |
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| Nothing particular to note, more just that I am still playing this game! There is something really satisfying about having a shot come back off the bar, hit the keeper and go in :) Now playing for Aston Villa but happy to see Arsenal top of the league and unbeaten ;) Two things happened in a match where the wind was strong (4.9-5.1) and towards the goal. One, I scored, but as the ball was going so fast maybe it passed straight through the "goal zone" so was never noted as a goal. The shot was quite angled and should have hit the inside side netting. Two, I scored a goal (that counted) and I think as the ball was still travelling up within the goal. It seemed like it went over a certain height and the game decided it was no longer in the goal and so shot off the top of the screen (I hope that makes sense!). I am finding that screens with lots of text run really slow on my PC, but am assuming this is just my PC. Finally, are we allowed to share the link to this version? |
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| Thanks for the feedback. Feel free to share the link with friends but the URL may change and it will be updated quite a bit more before it is complete, so I can't guarantee that the save files will continue to work in the future. (Maybe I could use a different url for each new version...) I have been doing a bit of optimisation so it may run a bit quicker in the next update. I will also add a hidden function to turn off text shadows - that will speed things right up. :) |
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| Just playing again but I got a problem. I'm into my second season and before every match I get this message; "@CMESSAGE_SUBFORM". I think it's got something to do with me playing a bit crap for a few matches and I've ended up on the subs bench. |
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| Ah yes, your form is too low. Need to get those match rating up! :) Thanks for letting me know. |
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| Another thing. I transfered to a new team and had to decide whether to keep the boss or the team happy. Can't remember which i chose but all of the bars went way down. None of them went up. i think maybe the bars should have been reset when i did the transfer? |
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| Got another problem! Had a chance at goal and one of my team mates was up front calling for the ball, trouble was he was a mile offside. Passed to him anyway and he took a shot and missed. It didn't get flagged as offside. |
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| The post-match stats don't add up. I get paid $8 per game, I scored 3 goals at $1 each, plus $1 sponsorship so that should be $12. But it says "Total cash $11". |
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| Crikey I'm breaking it good today! Finished my second season and checked out the teams I could transfer to. Didn't fancy any so I stayed where I was (YORK). Clicked on Play to play the first game on the next season, and a screen came up telling me I finished 25th in the league and did I want to check out the teams I can transfer to. I'm now stuck in this infinite loop and can't seem to play any more games. The Fixtures list is empty. |
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| Hmm, is the year increasing everytime it loops? |
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| Yep. [edit] Just transfered to ALTRIN to see what happened, and it's all working again. [edit again] It's all gone pear-shaped. Played the first match, a 0-0 draw, but it says I won 3-1, and the continue button didn't work! Clicked it about 30 times and it worked, and told me it was the end of the ruddy season again, after one game! [another edit] Yep, it's definitely up the wall now. I just played BURTON and beat them 3-1, but the results page says I played VAUXHL and beat them 1-0. |
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| Yikes, will have to fix that! I'll try to recreate the problem. |
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| I wouldnt worry about GfK's bugs... I would say his player has had to many big nights out and can't remember playing the season or the teams he has just played, nor the score of the match :P (BTW I am joking ;)) |
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| Made loads of changes and the content is 99.9% there. Now it's just a case of testing, tweaking and polishing before I submit to the app stores. Let me know your thoughts... http://www.newstarsoccer.com/flashgame/v098/NSS.html |
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| Couple of points on the new version. There seems to be some VERY long periods of absolutely nothing happening. I'd had a few bad games and ended up on the subs bench. I came on at 59 minutes, and between that and the end of the game, the only thing that happened was the opposing team attacking once and failing to score. Second, I cannot see any difference with the new "Work Rate" setting, other than my energy going down quicker/slower. I don't seem to have any more or less involvement in the game no matter what setting I choose. |
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| Nother one (bit picky, tho)... I took a shot on goal and it hit the post. My team mate picked it up for another shot and it flashed up "PASS". It wasn't a pass at all, it was more of a rebound. |
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| Good point. Regarding the long periods of nothing, how high was your team mate relationship? |
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| It's about 60%. |
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| Bug! I got an "NSG Sport Footy News" alert; "GREAT NEWS! FOOTBALLER D K (me!) WAS RECENTLY SPOTTED OUT ON THE" ...on the what?? Whatever I was spotted out doing, my star rating dropped like a brick! [edit] Another. Played through to the start of season 3 and didn't have the 'infinite loop' problem I mentioned in the last version, but after the first game which I won 2-1, I got another news alert saying that Chelsea had won the FA Cup! After the first game of the season??? [edit] Another! Doing the skills training for "vision", I'm up to level 31. I only get two balls, and the layout of the cones means it is impossible to complete with anything less than three balls. |
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| Thanks man. Will fix those pronto. :) |
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| Couple more issues. 1. Playing an FA cup R4 replay and it went to extra time. My energy went down to zero and I didn't get substituted. Should I have done? 2. Was trying to pass and it put another player on my team right next to the ball so I could not (so I thought) pass to anybody else further away as this guy was standing in the way. Did a gentle tap to the player close to the ball and it went right through him and I lost possession! [edit] Another. "Your GIRLFRIEND asked if she take your motorbike for a ride. Do you want to let her drive it?" Should probably read; "Your GIRLFRIEND asked if she can take your motorbike for a ride. Do you want to let her ride it?" |
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| Thanks GfK! I want to list you in my credits if that's ok - what name should I use? :) |
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| GFK wrote: I can't stand football. this is weird |
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| Siread: GfK is fine! Slenkar: why is it weird? Real football is fake, dull and tedious. This isn't. |
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| I dont like football but I cant imagine liking football video games heheh |
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Bit of a text formatting error - the last bracket is missing but I'm not sure whether it's just not being drawn, or the block of colour on the right is being drawn on top of the score. Screenshot: |
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| I got my Free Kick skills to 50 and the progress bar is half full, obviously. Drank a can of NRG and clicked "Free Kick" on the Skills Boost screen, but it stayed at 50. If I can't get it any higher then I shouldn't be able to click the button. |
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| Fixed the score thing already. :) Now testing all the skills at max as a few things like that are cropping up at the higher levels. Cheers again! |
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| Any idea when this will be released? |
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| I hope to submit to the iOS and Android appstores tomorrow, so about a week if it all goes through ok. I'll try to sort out free versions for anyone that helped out in this thread. :D |
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| Finally submitted it to the Apple App Store. Had a nightmare with distribution profiles, and in-app-purchase set up today, but I thinks it's all sorted. Will look into Android submissions tomorrow and keep you posted. :) |
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| Not bothered bout android, just want the ipad version! I'll pay for mine if that's ok? I played/tested it cos i like it, not to get freebies. |
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| Not bothered bout android, I am! |
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| Here is the final version of NSS... http://www.newstarsoccer.com/nssmobile.php By "final", I mean the version I have submitted to the iOS and Android stores. I'm sure there will be some updates in the coming months. I haven't made that page public yet as the game is still 'Waiting for review' with Apple - I expect to hear something Monday/Tuesday. It is however up on the Android Market! I'll send out newsletters and make it all public as soon as Apple give it the all clear (fingers crossed!) I thought promo codes for Android and Apple would be easy to sort, but apparently not! (No function exists on Android, and the iOS version is free with IAPs and as far as I know you can't gift IAPs). So apologies if you wanted a free copy. :( |
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| I don't know if this affects the iOS/Android version but the web version has a bug in it. Click the "about" button on the main menu and the screen fills with garbage text. |
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| Arrrgh! The language file corrupted the day before I submitted it to Apple - accidentally saved it as UTF-7 and any symbols or accented letters got messed up. Thought I'd fixed it but obviously missed that 1 line of text for credits. Oh well, I'll see if Apple spot it and resubmit rather than losing my place in the queue. Can't believe no one else checked the About page. Thanks again Gfk. |
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| Blimey, Apple approved it and the game is live... iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/new-star-soccer/id498973162 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.newstargames.newstarsoccer Flash: http://www.newstarsoccer.com/nssmobile.php I'll be uploading an update ASAP to fix the About page and a few other minor issues. :) |
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| Cool, I'll be snagging this tonight. It will be replacing my daily fix of Angry Birds (which is now getting on my nerves cos the later levels are so bloody difficult). Oh, by the way - I released an update to Crime Solitaire on the day of original release (minor bugs), and the update was approved in 24 hours. |
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| Just downloaded it and bought the career mode and pitch/weather upgrades. Great game! Can't rate/review it at the moment because the app store is saying I haven't downloaded it! Stupid iOS 5.1. |
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| I found a bug Si. I was playing in a Cup game in the Finnish league, and I was substituted in extra-time (About 110th minute), and then the game went to penalties and I had to take one. Surely i'm not allowed to take a pen if i was substituted off? |
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| Cheers Brad - that's another (minor) one to slip through the net. Will fix it in the next update. @GfK It's good to know that approving updates it a lot quicker. I hope to have everything sorted in iOS by the weekend. :) |
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| By the way Si, I haven't had that issue with corrupt save/load since I re-downloaded the game. It still occasionally will just quit, but at least I can continue a career now. Just hit my 9th season. Really enjoying the game! |
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| Found a few issues. First, the Furthest Goal and Furthest Pass stats (for this season) don't reset at the start of a new season. Also, this might be an ipad only issue, but often there are players on the left or right edge of the screen but i can only see an arm or their shadow so i don't know whose team they're on. I think its only an ipad problem because of the black bars down either side of the screen. Finally, if i score from a distance out with a volley i guess you'd call it, the ball sometimes hits the back of the net then bounces so high it comes through the top of the goal. |
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| In the Norwegian league, the team "BODO" always start having playing 39 games in the season. i.e, after 6 games, every other team has played 6 games, yet "BODO" will display having playing 45 games with 4 wins and 2 losses (So they have played 6 games in reality). Happens every season on my save file on Android. |
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| Damn, will look at that. Furthest Goal/Pass stats have been fixed in v1.04 (it's up on Android/Flash, but I'm still waiting for v1.03 to go live on iTunes after about 3 days). |
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| Another one.... maybe. I'm colorblind so this might not be a problem as such but, team HYDE, to me, look like they have the same home/away colour (red?). |
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| Regarding some teams starting the season having more games played than should be expected, it seems to occur at random. I did another season in the Norweigan league and at the end of the season they reverted back to normal, but then I transferred to the Dutch 2nd division and the team Go Ahead Eagles started on 18 games played, even though every other team had only started their first game of the season. Another bug I noticed. Their is a cup that runs during the Dutch 2nd division season, and my team (Zwolle) had made it to the semi-final against Willem II, and the first game finished 2-2. However, the second game Willem II won 1-0, and we should have lost 3-2 on aggregate. However, after the game, the news flash came up saying that we would play <whoever> in the final of the cup. I checked the fixtures page to make sure I was right, and I was. We lost 3-2 but still advanced. |
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| Si, considering your NSS Flash version has garned quite a large amount of plays on Kongregate, I was wondering if you were going to implement the Kongregate API into the Flash version, as I spotted greg (The guy who adds badges) actually playing NSS earlier today, however if you dont add the API, you cant get badges. From experience, a game that gets badges often generates much more plays than ones that dont. Just a thought. I have published a few games on Kongregate (a few years ago...) that have used the Kongregate API, and it's very easy to use, and with the usage of Extern classes in Monkey, it would be super easy to add into the game. |
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| Yeah, I want to look at that soon. Just need to find the time! :) |
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| Rare bug in 1.07 ( had it in previous versions too); sometimes when i hit the post and the ball goes in, it comes up 'fail'. It's happened twice before, and once again just now. Playing in arcade mode. [edit] in 1.07, every time the ball goes in off the post, it comes up 'fail'. It was just an occasional thing before. |
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| addictive game, tried career mode and 9 hours later I was still playing and somehow it was morning! I managed to get to English L1 and win the division by the end of the second season. Going for Prem now! Great job, a really original take on a football game... I am not a football fan nor do I play football games (unless my mates are playing them) Im still shocked how much of my evening I didn't notice go by, very addictive! I'll have to buy this asap... and hope I can still find time to do other things :P p.s. I did notice a bug... the ball went in the net from a fairly extreme angle and distance but didn't register as a goal... not sure why |
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| Nice game! I just bought it :) |
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| Thanks fellas. Hopefully there will be more updates in the coming weeks. :) |
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| Outstanding siread and congrats. Is this all done with Monkey? |
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| I got the full version for iOS prior to a 4 hour flight...in a middle seat. Turns out I sat between 2 old dudes, one who downed 3-4 of those little airline sized Scotch bottles and the other an equal amount of Vodka. In between the two of them taking turns talking my ear off and dozing off drooling all over the place, I was able to keep myself more than entertained. The game preserved my sanity, you are a genius siread!. |
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| Tested the false "fail" bug in 1.1 just now and it's gotten worse. Now when the ball hits the post and goes in, it goes straight through the back of the goal and off the screen - and still says "fail". |
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| Bug! In free kick skills training, the keeper never ever stops the ball, goes right through him. |
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| Bit miffed now. Just won the league, champions league and FA cup, not a bit of acknowledgement! Not even an award/achievement! |
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| Thanks GfK. Fixed the keeper bug in the next update and I want to improve news reports and interactions in the future. :) |
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| 44th postion in the UK top grossing chart, higher than Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds! Amazing stuff. I think we can safely say this is the first smash-hit Monkey game. |
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| Thanks! I've submitted the HTML5 version again but I just see a blank screen on Chrome and IE9. Did I do something wrong? |
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| No, I think the browser is just dying as the game code is rather large. |
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| That's odd. Works fine on my own site. http://www.newstarsoccer.com/html5/index.html |
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| @simonh: Yep, it certainly is the first smash-hit. And it made it without support of the publisher. Avalon Legends Solitaire did a bit better on iPad (#19 overall free app, #9 in games, and in grossing #65 overall in the USA), but we do have support of Big Fish Games. Both games prove that Monkey can be used produce high quality and great selling games. |
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| siread - interesting, it must be something with our server. Will take a look. anawiki - wow, great to see another Monkey games doing so well. Another one to add to the featured list :) |
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| siread - don't know if you've spotted it, but NSS is reviewed in today's Sunday Times (assume you are from the UK). It's in the InGear section. It gets a simply fantastic review - 5 stars, and the reviewer enthuses "..so engrossing you'll be playing until your phone battery dies". I suspect this will generate a load more downloads and sales :-) |
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| Yeah I saw it! It was in The Sun on Friday and I had the best sales ever. After The Times review, Sunday was the second best day ever. :) I still can't believe the level of critical acclaim it's getting. I've listed the best reviews on the app store description... http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/new-star-soccer/id498973162 |
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| I am so proud and happy for you, siread! From one of the reviews: "Great combination of fun action and player development. Hope they make other sports too." So, what's the next sport?! :-D |
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| Congratulations siread on the success. Just read your edge interview, go for the Ferrari! |
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| It's all gone a bit crazy. I thought it was mad already, but the game just broke into the top 10 iphone games, all categories. Also got a tweet from Graeme McDowell today (famous golfer). Now if only Wayne Rooney or someone like that would tweet about it... The Ferrari comment was a bit daft really. It would have to be a used car! :) |
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| Just updated to the latest version and still getting false fails when the ball hits the post and goes in. Bit disappointing in Arcade Mode when I'm 50+ goals, and one goes in but doesn't get counted. |
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| Ah man, sorry about that. Keep meaning to fix it but had to deal with critical bugs. Those are sorted now I hope, so I will make sure that gets fixed. |
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| It really is great that you are having so much success! This cements Monkey as a top tool for commercial game development. :) |
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| You're probably going to get a load more sales soon - Euro 2012 starts next weekend! |
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| When I last posted I thought 44th top grossing was amazing. It's now 4th top grossing. Astonishing. Monkey is only a year old but already I'm not sure there will ever be a more successful game made with it. This is to Monkey what Worms was to Blitz Basic on the Amiga. |
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| Haha, thanks Simon. I am equally astonished, it has truly gone viral. I search "new star soccer" on twitter umpteen times a day and there is so many tweets about it. The only thing I will say is that this is still a UK thing only - it is nowhere to be seen on the US or Chinese charts so we're not talking Angry Birds or even Tiny Wings types of numbers here. However, it has been the best couple of months in New Star Games' 10 year history by a long way. :) |
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| I would not say its the best game made with Monkey at this moment in time.It is a good game,but records are made to be broken. :) |
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| I'm not sure there will ever be a more successful game made with it. Oooh! Challenge accepted! Seriously though, congrats siread! Really well done :) |
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| The problem is that here in the US soccer does not have a ton of interest. I was actually thinking that something like this with another sport, perhaps basketball or football(US Version) might do well here. |
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| To build on what the last poster said, creating versions for other sports seems like a good idea. Hockey and Handball (the European kind) could probably be done fairly well with very minor changes to the engine. Basketball could work, too, but there's a depth aspect there, that while not requiring 3D by any means, would at least necessitate a side-on view for taking shots. As for American Football, it's clearly the best idea for an extension of the franchise, as far as monetary potential goes. However, I envision some difficulties within the confines of what New Star Soccer currently is. Namely, in American Football players have clearly defined roles and serve very specific functions, much more so than in Football. I suppose a version in which you would only play as quarterback could be done fairly easily from the current game, but I'm not sure whether that would be as engrossing as New Star Soccer. Certainly, mini-games for all potential positions could be made, but I envision being locked into variations on only one would grow boring really quickly. At any rate, New Star Soccer, apart from that expletive annoying memory lotto game I have to play to impress my girlfriend and sponsors, is the most addictive thing I've played in quite some time. |
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| apart from that expletive annoying memory lotto game I have to play to impress my girlfriend and sponsor I ditched her. Takes away the hassle. Now when they come sniffing around I give 'em the elbow.That game is pretty easy, anyway. I find if I watch a pair of icons that I know match, then 90% of the time it's easy to see where they go when they all move. |
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| NSS reached the top of the table today :) A monumental achievement when you consider the table in question does not contain 10, 20 or even 100 teams, but rather 500,000. Congrats Si, and hopefully this will serve as a huge inspiration to everyone using Monkey. |
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| It's incredible. I'm very happy to see NSS going this far. |
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| Thanks guys. Can't quite believe it, but there it is. (Seems to have hit the top spot again this morning - would be nice to stay there all day!) I have done a couple of interviews lately and I always mention Monkey. I would love to see it getting more and more popular. It certainly deserves to. |
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| Don't know if you're aware but clicking the "game center" button on the main menu makes the game crash in the current version. |
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| "I could buy a Ferrari if I wanted to, but that'd be foolish," I love that :-D!! Congrats on everything, very inspirational :). And considering i don't really like soccer, i do enjoy playing this on my iPhone :). |
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| I'm stating with my brother right now. When I arrived, the first thing he wanted to show me was his NSSM Stats screen. He's pretty proud of his 42 year old player and achievements. He says it's an amazing game. :) |
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| @GfK yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. It was fine in an earlier version. |
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| OK, this just hit the big time for real in my little world. Sat down at work this morning and two guys started waving their iPhones around at each other, talking about "moving up the league" and "selling this and that", raving on for 5-10 minutes about how "it's totally addictive" (heard this 3 or 4 times) and "sucks you in", and I could just make out a green and grey menu system... and of course I was able to guess correctly in advance what they were both talking about -- NSS! That was really cool. |
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| Excellent! Feels so strange to know people are playing it across the land. I would love to spot someone playing it out in the real world. I might have to tap them on the shoulder and say, "I made that". :) |
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| Just started playing this again religiously on my phone having played hours of it a while back in the browser version. Really great game and I am very happy with the success you've had with it! Maybe a small bug: I played a match where I completed 12 passes and didn't receive an achievement. Later on a played a match where I completed 10 passes and I got the "10 passes in one match" achievement. Is the achievement intended to be exactly 10 passes? |
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| Ah yes. Fixed for the next update. |
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| You are featured on pocket-lint! Well done! http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46089/new-star-soccer-review-ipad-iphone-android |
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| Just seen you on this too http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/gameswelike.php great stuff!! |
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| I'm number 1 in the arcade hall of fame again, out of over 160,000 players. Go me!!! |
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| Simon, how are you doing achievements? I mean, how do you manage them? Store them? etc... |
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| GfK is obviously hacking... XD (Get it? Hacking is both a computer term AND a soccer term. I mean "football.") HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA |
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| On Kongregate I use Brad's API: http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=2563#25368 On iOS I use Alex's Gamecenter API: http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=1823 |
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| @Siread: sometimes I get some of the bitmaps on the GUI disapearing (looks like a leak) It only happens after playing for hours (I'm addicted). I thought I had to let you know. |
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| Yeah, it's an Android issue. Happens on some devices, not others I think. I have tried to sort it without any luck as yet. |
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| I'm using a Samsung Gallaxy SII with Android 4.0.3 (I think it's latest) Just in case it helps |
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| I'm using a Samsung Gallaxy SII with Android 4.0.3 (I think it's latest) Just in case it helps |
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| I'm popular all of a sudden! Getting loads of gamecenter friend requests daily since i got to the top spot on NSS arcade mode out of almost 200,000 players now. Currently on 115 goals, 34 ahead of second place. |
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| got to the top spot on NSS arcade mode out of almost 200,000 players Hahaha, do you brag like that at dinner parties? ;) Siread : Another very minor thing, but when you have >= 10,000 money it gets shifted out of place (down a bit) (Android) |
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| >>>Hahaha, do you brag like that at dinner parties? ;) No time for that. Too busy playing NSS. ;) |
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| Text formatting bug! When the hi-score goes to 3 digits, it ends up split into two lines eg: HI-SCORE 115 When this happens, it doesn't fit in the little box any more. |
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| Should be fixed in the update. :) |
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| Today I got my final achievement of 100 international goals and now feel a bit lost. A sense of achievement on one hand and a sense of emptiness on the other because I am finished. |
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| Wow, it's on Metafilter! Way to go! http://www.metafilter.com/119056/How-about-that-youngster |
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| Um, is that good? |
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| How the sales are going now after some months? |
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| I've been a Registered User of the PC version since Alpha, and just tried the iOS version yesterday and bought it after 10mins (career + kits). :) I would have tried it sooner but I thought it was the same as the PC version and didn't like the thought of controlling that on a touch screen, but you've done a GREAT job of making the game just as accessible and immersive as the PC version, it has a real "Footballer of the Year" vibe to it on iOS (and I loved that game back in the day) and "one more go" syndrome - so congrats! It would be interesting if you could comment on the sales numbers in the last 3 months, whether they have declines or been sustained since the great press the game has had (deservedly so!) I look forward to this eating my life away :) |
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| Thanks rLKmAN. Sales are still strong. Had a great Christmas period, and still clearing $2k a day. :) |
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| Simon, thanks for posting. Very inspirational. I know you worked it for years to build your base. I can remember you working on the GUI in Max for the desktop version years ago. So, did you buy that Ferrari yet :P |
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| Thanks for the reply Si :) $2k a day, what an amazing stat - congrats man enjoy it! I hope you are like Scrooge McDuck swimming round in pound coins haha :) Just one other question from me, did you port FryGUI to Monkey or did you roll your own with regards to the GUI? It looks like a bit of both to be fair, but who better to ask than the man himself. I hope your sales continue to do so well - next up the US market, then you can buy us all a Ferrari! :) |
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| Haha, no I haven't bought a Ferrari. I'd like to buy a house first. :) The GUI system is all mine, but I did learn a lot from Fry's GUI. It is a bit of a hack job and is quite resource heavy so it needs some work. At some point I hope to share it. |
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| Wow 2k a day... I was chuffed with 4k for a years worth of Ninjah on XBLIG! |
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| If it makes you feel any better, i've made a grand total of $0 on any of my projects :). |
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| yeah and iv still to even release something lol. I think by the time some of us actually get a game out there that market will already, if not already is saturated with stuff for want of a better word. I think making any kind of profit from here on out is going to be a much harder task than it might have been for some of the pioneers as they had much less competition. |
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| New Star Soccer won a BAFTA tonight for best sports game, beating the likes of FIFA 13 and Forza Horizon. An incredible success story from start to finish - congratulations Si Read! http://awards.bafta.org/award/2013/games/sports-fitness |
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| Looks very funny, the 'simple' graphics from New Star Soccer between all this polished 3D stuff nominees. Great to see gameplay win. |
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| So I guess FontMachine is quite stable then... hahahaha I'm impressed, all I can say is a big congratulations to Simon for making such a great game. I'm still addicted to it. |
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| Wow congratulations!!! |
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| Congratulations! It's really amazing how it kicked the ass of all the other AAA kindof looking games. |
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| Unbelievable, well done Simon. I think it's fair to say that this even eclipses Amiga Blitz's early-Worms fame! Also (like ziggy) I will be using this to brag about having code in a BAFTA-award winning game for ever more! If it turns out you removed the (BAFTA-award winning) AutoFit at some point, I'll thank you very much to just keep quiet about it... Seriously, that's brilliant news, absolutely fantastic and well-deserved. |
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| Congrats! |
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| Weirdly, I didn't see the video before on SiH's link -- so proud that "one of ours" beat the likes of Forza Horizon, F1 2012 and FIFA 13, particularly when you said you were a one-man team -- makes me think of when a lone Amiga programmer could rule the world, and it seems it's still possible! (OK, so you actually have to work for it... cough!) |
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| Awesome stuff! Well done Simon!! |
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| Hahaha! That's amazing :) Very well done |
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| Well done and awesome news! |
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| Great monkey news! |
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| Inspiring. Congratulations on your fantastic victory against all those massive teams with massive budgets. It really shows that the world is changing and hopefully the bedroom coder can thrive again! |
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| I was reading the list of winners today and saw new star soccer but didn't realise it was *OUR* new star soccer. Mark needs to get the new web design uploaded and to make use of NSS success. |
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| Wow! Congratulations!! |
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| Won a BAFTA!?!? That is AMAZING and should inspire a lot of people around these parts, me included! Loved the part in the video where he talked about having an idea and running with it, being a one man team and how anything is possible if you have that idea and a good work ethic. Brings me back to bedroom coding growing up, and those are some of my fondest memories. Well done Si, well deserved! :) |
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| Thanks guys, I am so chuffed and very proud. I don't know how I can ever top this! My one regret is for not thanking Mark and the Blitz guys. It was all a bit of a whirlwind and I wanted to keep my speech short and sweet but I felt afterwards that I should have taken the opportunity to spread the word about Monkey. It is now my life's mission to promote Monkey to the world. :) |
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| Congrats Simon! Monkey FTW! take that glBasic (just kidding)! |
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| Great job on this :) |
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| I'll just leave this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfT55k67Txs |
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| that´s really amazing. congrats for this success. |
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| Simon, what are you using to display your text? |
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| Ziggy's FontMachine. |
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| Wow, Simon, how come no BAFTA mention on www.newstargames.com?! It's possibly a bit of a selling point... :P |
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| Haha, true. I need to refresh the whole lot, website, facebook, twitter, app descriptions. Maybe this week. :) |
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| We know you are too busy counting money to do all of that simple stuff :P |
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..and I see you got some more publicity for free in the Sun yesterday:  Can't hurt, that kind of thing, can it? |
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| It's all good. Shame they have used screenshots from NSS4 and NSS5, and not the mobile version though! |
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