Hello all, hope you’re all good!

I’ve been beavering away at another Air Supply game!

Hurrah!

Sam is back, this time running round whole planets, trying to get to ‘The Void’ where he can pick up an Infinity Cup!

Here’s a work in progress screenshot:

Gameplay is simple. The basics are:

Jump over aliens.
Tap anywhere to jump.
Double tap to activate a Smart Bomb (I think, therefore I am).
Don’t forget your AIR IS RUNNING OUT!

There are unlocks a-go-go, and an awesome soundtrack by that genius Yerzmyey, who writes his music on retro computers (the tracks were written on a ZX Spectrum/ZX81 with an AY chip).

No trailer as yet, but I thought I’d post a ‘Music Teaser’ video that should whet your aural appetites:

I’m hoping this one will be a universal build, with GameCenter leaderboards and achievements

Thanks for tuning in! I’ll try and keep you updated on what’s happening.

QS

I thought I’d write a quick opinion piece on the recent mauling of Microsoft’s Xbox One by Sony’s PlayStation 4 at E3.

Mainly, I think, because if you’ve followed me on Twitter the last couple of days, it may come across that I’m biased against Microsoft. It seemed a little lop-sided to me, especially from someone that actually has all three ‘current’ gen machines under the TV and also plays on iOS, Mac and PC.

I have to say, that my experience with Microsoft in general, as a developer, has been overwhelmingly positive, at least in my dealings with them for Windows 8. They’ve been receptive, friendly and helpful, and you’ll see some Windows 8 games soon! (promise!)

And may I just say that I don’t understand the seemingly negative reactions for Windows 8? I really like it. I have it on my Samsung slate thingy, and on a partition on my Mac. No problems with it at all really (especially when you discover the desktop!).

I was even hoping that I might be able to self-publish on Xbox thanks to the ties to Windows 8 development (alas this does not seem to be the case).

So I’d argue I’m not biased against Microsoft… just biased against stupidity 😉

The Xbox One stuff turned out to be pretty damn scary. The restrictions (which I won’t go into here) seemed draconian in their nature, as opposed to the status quo. The status quo being, you can sell your games online, or trade them in, or lend them to a friend. Without restriction. Without the need to be online.

And for what? There seemed to be little, if any, benefit to consumers for all the upheaval that was planned.

The Xbox One plans seemed unintuitive to say the least, and a further sign of how the industry I love is becoming less likeable, to me at least (e.g. In-app purchases, adverts in games, games as a ‘service’ etc etc)

I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t care, or just don’t feel these things are a problem or important. Indeed, it would hardly affect me as I buy all my games new (being a collector!).

But it’s the principle of the matter. Games should be games, nothing more. You pay for one you feel might be interesting. You lend it to a friend if you think they might like it. At the end of the day you own the disc the game came on, and should be able to do what you want with it.

There are digital stores that really aren’t comparable to what Microsoft is trying to do with Xbox One. I won’t go into those here.

So, going into the E3 conference, I had real fears that Sony would follow suite, and we’d see the start of something a bit more than just insidious spread across the whole industry.

But what Sony did was amazing.

In that they did nothing at all, yet because of Microsoft’s plans, turned out to be the hero of the hour!

Being $100 cheaper was the killing blow I think.

Then, from a developer point of view, there’s the option to self-publish on PS4. I may never take advantage of that, but hell, the door’s open if I want to go that way!

I think hubris is the enemy here. Success does not give you a pass to do completely stupid things. Yet all these companies (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft) have gone crazy in the past after huge success.

I guess it must be hard to stay humble. But it’s something a company should strive for, in my opinion.

Every person that enjoys one of my games is a gift. A GIFT.

Big companies forget that. Then remember after a fall. Then forget after another success. And the cycle continues…

Steve Jobs is often quoted as saying ‘Stay hungry’.

I couldn’t agree with him more.

QS 😀

Hello lovelies, long time no see!

So Unity for mobile dev is now free.

I’ve not been using Unity much as it happens, mainly because I wanted my games to be available to as many people as possible. Which means desktop and mobile publishing would be great.

Now it’s possible with Unity, which is a real coup in my book.

I’m glad I didn’t have the money to spend on a mobile license – imagine the poor devs that paid for it recently! Ouch!

But yes. Games development, in general, can be done on a very limited budget these days. There’s an abundance of tools available these days such as Unity, GameSalad, Xcode, GameMaker etc etc.

But more than the tool is the want, or need, to make something lovely. It’s what drives me on!

If you have an interest in games, I’d recommend trying to make one. It’s incredibly creative, and fantastically rewarding!

It’s also a lot of hard work! And a lot of fun!

Speak soon,

QS 😀

Hello lovelies!

Just a small update on all things sheepy!

There’s a number of projects on the go at the moment.

My friend Jake is working on (and has been for a while) a little game called ‘Red Mist’. I have no idea when it’ll get finished, but it’s interesting and fun, and might be published through me. Yay!

Then I have a few adventure games in various states of completion. They’re very hard to do 🙁

On top of that I’ve been learning to use Unity as I wanted to do some 3D games too. It’s fun and stuff, and the results are pretty spectacular looking. I just have to learn how to use it better. Understand it better.

So I can make sheepy games with it!

Also, I’m trying to port games over to Windows 8, but don’t have a stable testing environment for it right now. Microsoft have been very helpful, but it’s just taking forever it seems.

The projects are pretty varied. You have the adventure games (plain text, choose your own adventure, Myst type etc), a first person shooter with no guns and a 3D on-rails shooters.

So you can see, I’m being pulled in several directions, and have been for a while now.

In some ways, it’s kinda nice and varied. If I hit a brick wall somewhere on one project, I can move onto another for a while pretty quickly and no time is wasted.

One day could be spent setting up movement paths and turrets in 3D, or learning how to edit C# scripts. Another might be spent just writing locations for an adventure game, or touching up some art.

But really I need to focus a bit more. And I am going to really try and do that!

Also, I just hit 600 followers on Twitter (@quantum_sheep) – thank you all, that’s really, really lovely! Sheepyhugs for all! 😀

Speak soon!

QS 😀

Hey all! Another update! Already!

I was up converting .Matrixx for the Kindle Fire when I realised I hadn’t signed up for the android store, otherwise known as ‘Google Play’.

The process only took about half an hour. And half an hour later, I had a version of Gravitrixx submitted!

You can find it here for Android.

Crazy stuff. It also takes just hours after submission to be published. So it’s available NOW!

I need a cup of tea. And some sleep I think…

Hope you Android users enjoy the game, and I’ll get busy bringing more to your format of choice!

QS 😀

Hello all, and a happy new year to you!

Had a productive start to the new year! Currently I’m still working on three projects, but have also been working on porting my current games to other platforms!

Below are Air Supply and Gravitrixx on a Kindle Fire:

.Matrixx is also looking a bit nice on the Kindle Fire too 🙂

Other versions I’m aiming for is Mac for Air Supply, and possibly iPad. Also trying to work out how to get stuff onto Windows 8 Devices!

Busy times ahead! Hopefully you’ll see the fruits of my labours over the last year soon!

Thanks for reading, and here’s to a fun filled 2013!

Toodles!

QS 😀

Hello all, hope you’re well!

I’m still here! Honest!

There are two games still in the works – Air Supply SOS and ProjectSAMMY.

They haven’t gone away, and neither have I!

This year has been mostly spent researching, testing, experimenting… all sorts of stuff! As well as working on the bread and butter games that hopefully brought you here to read these words in the first place!

There are other factors too – time, money, personal issues, discontent with the market, with games in general etc etc – they take away from actually *making* a game sometimes.

I’m not here to give you excuses, though! Work is still ongoing, and developments are always exciting! For example, my good friend Jake is working away on stuff that we can publish through Quantum Sheep. And as stated, work on the two projects mentioned is ongoing, if a little slow!

So I’m just saying “I’m still here! I’m still working! And you’ll have new stuff soonish!”

Thanks as ever for reading!

QS 😀

Someone on a forum asked “What do you make games for?” and made a poll with the suggestions:

1. Money
2. Fun
3. Neither

I chose ‘neither’ but felt I should elaborate on that. It turned out into a bit of an essay, but I thought it might be ok to put it here, hoping to give people an insight into why I do what I do!

So, here’s my answer:

Ever since I was a young boy back in the 70s I wanted to make games. I was introduced to them via the arcades (Space Invaders!) and an early home pong system my dad bought us for Christmas one year!

This started happening in the 80s with the advent of the ZX Spectrum. I tinkered around in BASIC and made my first full game (a maths based educational title) for my ‘O’ level computer studies project.

Machine code was a bit beyond my capabilities so before and after that I looked into game making programs. There was ‘Games Designer’ (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001970) which I found to be fun but a bit limited.

There was also ‘The Quill’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quill) which helped me write a couple of unfinished Adventure games. I found that having the initial idea is easy. Finishing a game is not. Something true even to this day! 🙂

There was also ‘White Lightning’ (http://www.forth.org/lightning.html) which was just way too complex for me. I did end up spending most of my summer that year sitting by a pool with a load of graph paper making characters. I must have been about 14 I think?

Then there was a hiatus of sorts as consoles took over. I could no longer make my own video games so I got into making my own collectible card games (using common cards from CCGs I was playing at the time). There are PC programs now that let you design your own cards, but back in those days I had to photocopy all the art, cut it out, stick it over existing cards to make my own etc etc.

I also got into board games and RPGs. My friends at the time weren’t really into that kind of thing, so I ended up playing out scenarios alone or in my head. I would read rule books for hours, marvelling at the amount of thought that had to go into making a game work.

Late 90s/early 2000s was when things really started kicking off again. I used GameMaker from a very very early stage, and ended up also learning how to make simple WAP games for early mobile phones.

I even tried my hand at a GameBoy Advance game. Alas it didn’t get far!

I was lucky that someone in an actual game company recognised the passion I had for games and gave me my first game design job. That guy is Jake, and he’s one of my very best friends now. I know of no-one else that loves games as much as I do!

So I got a games industry job, but I couldn’t stop making my own games. Later I used Adrift and wrote a couple of adventure games (http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Quantumsheep)

And then came GameSalad. I picked it up straight away, and it has been so much fun to use. It has changed my life because I can now create whatever I want to, pretty much. And thanks to Apple, I can distribute that to thousands of players and hopefully spread some fun around 😀

Making games is, essentially, an extension of myself. I hope my games will reflect that. And while I’m not averse to making money from making games, it’s not the driving force.

None of my projects had money as the core reason for doing them. In fact, for nearly all of them there was no way to actually monetize any of it. It was literally done because I wanted to do it!

It’s all a bit boring I’m sure, but I hope that it shows I do this as a creative exercise to get all the ideas that swim around in my head OUT.

I love games. I love making games. I do this because I can’t imagine NOT doing it.

Is that a good enough answer for you? 🙂

QS 😀

I’m *Still* here! Sorry! 😀

So it may appear that I’ve not been very active recently!

This couldn’t be further from the truth!

Several titles still in development. But you know, it’s just me here, fiddling around, trying to make games!

It’s still fun though, and I hope to have something for everyone soon!

Hope you’re all well, enjoying the weather and, if in London, bearing with it all during the Olympics 😉

Speak soon! 😀

Hey all!

Here’s a quick prototype vid for Captain Obvious!

I’ll let Shaz from Honeytribe Studios fill you in!

Developed during Game Hack 2012, a 24 hour game jam held at Pinewood Studios in the UK April 28th-29th.

Developers:
Quantum Sheep: www.quantum-sheep.com
Honey Tribe Studios: www.HoneyTribeStudios.com
Old Kipper