Wildebeest Games

Location, location, location....

2010-02-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

...in this instance, Ilkley Quarry. Team Wildebeest have been very busy behind the scenes for the last week or so, making some wholesale changes to the Vertigo climbers control methods and AI and also sourcing a library of media from real world locations rich in sports climbing routes.

Firstly, the climbers controls - when we prepared a test version for our beta testers a flaw became apparent which has meant a bit of a re-think. This work is almost complete and we hope to have a control testing version ready this weekend for testers to try. The AI is a whole lot more realistic, with the climber adopting proper poses when you ask him to move over the rock.

In particular, when the climber is asked to reach a hold around a corner, the limb moves much more fluidly instead of the wild flailing which would sometimes happen.

Location wise, we have decided on Ilkley as the likely location for the demo, with fifty plus routes available in a relatively small area it's ideal from a modelling point of view.

Check out some (unrelated to Wildebeest) video here and here of the location to give you an idea of what you can expect to face in the game.

More soon,

Mark

Tricky Tracks 2010 Available to try / buy

2010-01-31T09:25:00.000-08:00

The TrickyTracks 2010 game is now available to try or buy from the wildebeest games website.

If you like your arcade car racing to be technical and demanding then this game is for you.

Set your car up, adjusting the suspension, gearing and brakes to suit the challenging track ahead.

Tracks are built from a library of standard tiles, choose from balance beams, off camber slopes and a variety of tough physics pieces like see-saws and trapdoors.

Try to beat your fastest time over a track, race against the recorded ghost car or sit back and watch the auto-saved replay.

You can create and share your tracks and replays with friends.

If you try the demo, drop us a line and give us your thoughts.

Right, now, on with Vertigo !

cheers,

Mark

Fire up the photoshop ....

2010-01-24T14:32:00.001-08:00

... because we've just explained how to customise the textures and properties of the wall pieces in detonate.

There is now an instruction pack to download (it includes the instructions as well as a couple of files you need) - its been added to the detonate page on the Wildebeest Games site.

The link is right at the bottom of the page, situated next to the 'buy now' button.

I know - shameless, but hey if you don't try !

Have fun with those new wall pieces. Let me know what you come up with.

cheers,

Mark

January (just)

2010-01-24T06:56:00.001-08:00

OK, first update of the year, and only just made it into the first month, not a very good start. Must do better.

Anyhoo, the Wildebeest Games website had been given a thorough overhaul, hopefully making it easier to see everything and find your way around.

There's download links for a couple of free games - Blocks, a simple colour matching affair, although surprisingly addictive and X-Sail the Game.

It's a bit of a niche sport, but the game translates well I think. The main draw being that it's a racing game, but instead of just hitting a button to go quicker there's some skill involved in trimming the sail. Makes it all the more satisfying when you do well against friends as there's no luck involved just raw talent. The real things are wicked fun too.

Also Tricky Tracks has been updated and will shortly be available for the first time through the website in it's new incarnation of, wait for it...... Tricky Tracks 2010.

Yeah, I know, imaginative, but there's quite a lot of new stuff in there like replays, ghost cars and so on. If you get chance take a look at a couple of the videos.

Full on development now of the climbing game Vertigo. After a bit of a break from it it's amzing what fresh eyes spot. The control system needs some tuning for sure. A test version, to get feedback on the controls is the highest priority - watch this space, as they say.

cheers,

Mark

Festive destruction

2009-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

For those kind souls who have made the decision to splash some cash and purchased the full version of detonate, a big thank-you from Wildebeest, it really is appreciated.

There's a new link at the top of the Wildebeest Games website with five new buildings to destroy whilst munching your mince pies*.

Look out for more packs and add-ons for detonate in the new year.

Not much developing going on at the moment, the lure of the hunter is strong, as well as a few sessions on left 4 dead, however there are some excellent ideas on the drawing board which will hopefully make it onto the PC in 2010.

Since there is unlikely to be anybody in a fit state to update the blog over Christmas, this will be the last waffle for a littlewhile I suspect.

Wildebeest would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have given their support over the last 12 months. Cheers !

Look out for the new stuff in 2010.

Mark

* Other items of festive confectionary are available.

Concentrate please ...

2009-12-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

...on just one thing at once.

Truth is - it's something I've never been very good at.

So, with that in mind, over the last couple of days I've been coding better ropes for the climbers in Vertigo - the belays are tricky things to get working right, but I think I'm getting closer. It's a trade off between realistic rope behaviour and 5 frames per second (exaggeration, but you get the idea).

Also we've been creating some new buildings for a free pack due to release next week for Detonate. With that in mind here's a video of the game you may not have seen that I quite like :-

PC-Gamer magazine should have a tiny review of Detonate this month and the demo is on the cover disk as well (if it made the deadline). Hope it's a reasonable review or there may be more beer consumed than usual in the Wildebeest office this week.

And finally I've been revisiting the Wildebeest sailing game for the X-Sail guys (link at top of page). These things are awesome bits of kit. So here's a quick vid of the (free) game available from the X-Sail site :-

More updates shortly, with some screenies of some of the buildings for the detonate pack.

cheers,

Mark

Finally. (but don't expect too much)

2009-12-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

OK so Wildebeest Games now has a blog.
A common complaint we've had is that it is not obvious just what we are working on at any given point in time.
To be honest sometimes we don't know what we are working on.

It's a fair point though, so hopefully these pages will give you an idea of what's (not) happening on a regular basis (once a quarter is regular right ?).

Thanks for reading - if you have any comments let us know.
Can't promise we'll swap what game we're working on, but we will be listening to what you think.

cheers,

Mark
Wildebeest Games Lead Programmer