Quick update! :D

Posted in News, opinion, Uncategorized on March 31st, 2015 by quantumsheep

Hello all, hope you’re well!

Sheepy here. It’s pretty much April now and I’ve not released anything for four months.

BAD SHEEPY!

Well, I’m not close to releasing anything yet, but I’m making some solid progress. I’m aiming for three games this year, an increase of 1 from last year! Hopefully you’ll find them interesting (if I ever finish any of them!).

You can keep up with me on Twitter if you like – @quantum_sheep is where I live!

I also post things far less regularly on FaceBook.

So yes, I’m keeping busy, trying to get on with things!

Take care! ๐Ÿ˜€

QS =D

Hello! Happy New Year!

Posted in opinion, Uncategorized on December 31st, 2013 by quantumsheep

Happy new year everyone! I’ll see you all in 2014. Which sounds much nicer than 2013!

So, yay! ๐Ÿ˜€

QS =D

Bugged :(

Posted in Air Supply, App, App Store, Apple, News, opinion, retro, sci-fi on November 1st, 2013 by quantumsheep

Hey all, hope you’re well!

 

So, it’s November 1st as I look out the window and I’m wondering where my bloody game is!

 

Oh, you are too? Awesome!

 

Well, it’s finished. I mean really, honestly finished. The unlocks are in, and I just have to add GameCenter to it and it’s ready to ship to Apple!

 

Yay!

 

Unfortunately, even at this late stage, I’m discovering bugs. Like this one:

friendlybug

Scary, eh? But also friendly! It’s saying ‘Hello’ ๐Ÿ˜€

 

So what does this mean?

 

Well, firstly it means that my game’s very friendly and playful, even when it’s throwing bugs at me! ๐Ÿ˜€

 

It also means I’m still testing it, and new bugs are still being found and being fixed!

 

What this is leading to is a slight delay. I’m not rushing this out full of bugs that’ll need to be fixed and will annoy people. That’s not the plan.

 

I’d much rather fix it now than after it’s annoyed someone.

 

Having said all that, the game will be released, and released soon. And despite my best efforts, it will have some bugs in it. All software does!

 

I’m just trying to minimise them as much as sheepily possible!

 

Thanks so much for your support and patience – it means the world to me, and I hope to have something fun for you guys to play soon!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

QS ๐Ÿ˜€

 

 

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E3 ramblings from the sheep

Posted in Games, News, opinion on June 11th, 2013 by quantumsheep

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 Microsoftโ€ฆ just biased against stupidity ๐Ÿ˜‰

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 ๐Ÿ˜€

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