Project Updates: June 10th, 2010
June 10, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzIt’s been pretty unanimous that you guys seem to love the type of posts where I discuss my projects, so here’s another project update post right on the heels of the last one. Let me know if this is still the type of thing that interests you, because as I increase the frequency of these types of posts, the “updates” will inevitably be less interesting.
I didn’t get all that much work done since I published my last post as I had to take care of some personal things, and spent a lot of the time when I was working chatting with various people such as BeckyMarie and the designer for RobotWarz.
My unread e-mails are back up to 202, so I’m going to need to put in some good work hours over the next few days to try to bring that number down.
Anyhow, here are the updates on two of my current projects:
Movie-Vault.com Attends Killers Premiere
Last night, Movie-Vault.com attended the European premiere of Killers which was interviewed by Movie-Vault’s newest interviewer/host, Andy Oliver, in London’s Leicester Square.
Interviews include Director Robert Luketic (21, Legally Blonde, The Ugly Truth) and Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, The Ugly Truth, 27 Dresses). Unfortunately, Ashton Kutcher was not present at the premiere.
You can watch the video below – I like Andy just as much as Claire!
RobotWarz.com User Interface & Helper Bots
I’ve been working with the RobotWarz graphic designer over the past few days, and he’s continued to pump out results at a very nice rate.
We are now all done with the character and weapon graphics, which was the most gruelling part. In the screenshot below, you will notice the debut of the “helper bots”. These are little bots that can be purchased by players through the game’s store/credit system that help your bot fight.
There are several different types of helper bots you can choose from, including repair bots that help repair you as well as little battle bots that go “pew pew”. They’re really quite cute!
I plan on making the helper bots fairly expensive as to make them a rare thing to obtain and see in the game. For those wondering, the game’s store system uses in-game credits, which cannot not be purchased or traded for with real cash. Memberships which offer more fights per day (and thus more opportunities to level up and gain credits, etc.) will be the only option people have in terms of spending money on the site.
It’s possible of course that I may change this in the future, to simply let people purchase credits for cash, but for game balancing issues this is not planned for the initial version.
With the character work all done, the focus has shifted to revamping the user interface to an improved, sleeker look. I actually estimate for most of the UI to be completed by tonight, and then work will most likely proceed to icons.
The programmer will be back to work on the project tomorrow, hopefully implementing the site’s new graphics into the game.
Here are two screenshots of the new user interface so far:
We’re not too far away from a closed beta… perhaps as soon as a few weeks…
Thanks for the plug , advice, and encouragement!
A little plug goes a long way.
It sure does!!!!
what game is the picture you have on the bottom of the post.
The game he’s having developed – RobotWarz.com
RobotWarz.com is in the progress and will be coming soon. That should be a big launch! Stay tuned for the games…
Are you going to try and buy the movievault.com domain name? The guy in the video said it, but if people went to it, they wouldn’t find your website. i know its a bit of a mouth full for him to say movie-dash-vault-dot-com every time, but at least that is your site.
Yeah, I would at least subtitle it when they say movie vault. Or add a watermark the entire video.
Kinda cool that you are able to do this though, what exactly has to be done to get to attend events like this, or can any joe shmoe with a camera do this? 🙂
I definitely agree. If you are going to invest in interviewers & camera crews, you might as well try to get movievault.com. Or as Wesley suggested, put a watermark on the bottom of the screen. With this kind of expense you want to milk it for everything it’s worth. So don’t lose traffic from people who can’t easily find your site.
Really looking forward to see how robotwarz will do.. any ideas on how you going to promote this? needs to go viral for success
I’m interested in this as well. Will be good to see what plan he puts in place for the marketing. I’ll be sure to stay tuned!
Its really a nice habit u have there Tyler that you keep your blog updating with the details of your ongoing projects.
its a sort of encouragement for others to do something that keeps them think something online.
Good to see progress on RobotWarz. Any plans to integrate it with facebook or promote it there? FB can make or break games like this with ease!
Good job listening to your commenters and doing another project update post. Just try to mix it up a bit so that it’s not all the exact same kind of post for weeks straight. Also the other day’s update post was quite long. So maybe it would’ve been split up over 2 or 3 posts. Think about what else you can mix in to keep it interesting.
By the way, the RobotWarz updates look great. The interface looks pretty sweet. Be sure to add plenty of customization options so everyone’s robot can be somewhat unique. Have you considered some kind of prize/award system to get more people interested?
Hi guys,
Thanks for the video. It looks like Killers might be a good movie to see. The video graphics on the video game looks AWESOME!!!
Kind regards,
Sam
X
I like these types of post Tyler and I hope you’ll continue to post about this stuff…
I agree with the other posters here who recommend watermarking your video and/or otherwise ensuring people seeking your site know to put in the dash.
Additionally, the video could use some volume balancing. I had to keep my hand on my speakers’ volume control through the whole thing – turning it up and down periodically. ie. microphone is a 4-6 inches away from the celebrities’ mouths when they talk, but sounds like the interviewer has it half an inch from his mouth, which makes him significantly louder. Other cuts scenes would benefit from balancing out the volume too (kinda starling once or twice).
Aside from that – very impressive, and the interviewer seemed to have some very good questions that even the celebrities interested to answer… ie. not all the same questions everyone else is probably asking them.
Very impressive.
Thanks for the plug , advice, and encouragement!
If you end up running an open beta do let us know – would be great to have a play!
Cheers
Thanks for the plug! This is a great article 😉
Thats so cool that a interviewer from your site was able to go to a movie premiere. It was a great interview of the stars. Also the game looks very promising. I cant wait to play it.
I like these types of post Tyler and I hope you’ll continue to post about this stuff…
Interesting post. Looking forward to know more of your future projects…
Interesting post. Looking forward to know more of your future projects…
Really looking forward to see how robotwarz will do!!