旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � - Shades of Evolution - � � � � Swedish PC-games makers � � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� --- INTRODUCTION Hello! We are a team from Gothenburg, Sweden, consisting of five guys. Four of us have regular jobs in the computer industry, three as programmers and one works with maintenance and support, and the fifth person is studying. During one year and nine months we have been working with this game during our spare time. We hope that this piece of work will inspire others to get going with gamesmaking. It's been tough, tougher than we could have ever imagined, but now when we have reached our goal we feel that it was all worth it. Read about our efforts in the following sections, or just play the game. Thanks for taking the time to read this and we hope you will enjoy Cosmic Ambush! --- HOW TO CONTACT SoE Please tell us what you think of this game! If you would like to get in touch with us, try the following e-mail adresses: patrik.holmsten@mailbox.swipnet.se anders.lindskold@text-tv.tv4.se anders.olsson@mbox200.swipnet.se or the regular postal adress: Anders Lindskold Bjorcksgatan 35B 416 52 GOTEBORG SWEDEN We also have a homepage located at: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/1571/ or come to Halta Lottas Krog on Redbergsplatsen in Gothenburg. Sometimes you will find us there on Friday evenings. Just look for someone talking about computer games and drinking McEwan's or Heineken (pretending it is Foster's). --- THE MAKING OF COSMIC AMBUSH On Friday the 17th of November 1994, four guys gathered at a local pub, the 'Halta Lotta', to have some beers and something to eat. A few of us had never met before, but a couple had known each other for quite a while. We started talking, mainly about computers, as that is and has been one of our major interests for over ten years. As the evening went on, we discovered that we were all sharing the same dream, that of making computer games. We had been coding for ourselves on and off for a long time, but had never before seriously attempted to create something in a group. Instead of keeping on sitting by ourselves, programming merely for our harddrives, we decided to start Neologic. Our main idea was to evaluate whether it would be possible for us to cooperate and produce a PD-computer game during our spare time. We quickly drew up the lines for how our work would progress. The first product would be a very simple piece of programming, something which would be done only to trim the organisation and reveal the problems which might arise during such an undertaking. Expectations were high when the night drew to a close, though tinted with a bit of precaution. Would this be possible to do? Two days later we had our first meeting at the apartment of one of our members. We decided to start with a simple shoot'em up game based on a few classic games such as Galaxians, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Breakout and Centipede. The original idea was that the game would shift from one of these subgames to another at random intervals, such as the bullet suddenly turning to a ball bouncing around the area while the Space Invaders-aliens remained the same, who after a while started moving like asteroids etc etc. A simple yet good idea, everyone thought. Regular meetings were to be held, approximately once every second week. The deadline was set for the 14th of April 1995. We started out as a group of six people: four programmers, one programmer/musician and one graphics artist. After three months two programmers had left, due to lack of time and interest. When the middle of April arrived, we had just started coding the ingame-section of the game, far, far away from completion. What had happened? Suffice to say that we had gravely underestimated the amount of time it would take to complete a project such as this. No way could we have foreseen the amount of design one has to put in even in a seemingly simple idea such as the one we had, nor the amount of code that had to be written, nor the time to draw all the graphics or write the music and convert it to suitable formats. We had agreed to do everything very thoroughly. A code library was to be built, a platform for the PC on which we could base all our productions. This platform was made up of generalized C++ classes, handling all the various hardware aspects such as timer, interrupts, keyboard, joystick, palette, soundcards and blitting. There were also classes made for fontdrawing, graphics-formats, collision-detection, filehandling etc. We broke our first deadline, in other words. We set a new one, this time the 28th of May, which would coincide with the first of many weekends devoted entirely to programming. These weekends were nicknamed 'NITF' or 'Neologic in the field', simply because the first one was planned to take place in a summer-house out in the middle of nowhere (It never did, it was spent in Frolunda, a suburb of Gothenburg). The 28th of May arrived, and we were still far away from being finished. We were now starting to get a bit desperate. In order not to lower morale anymore, we decided on a very long-term deadline, the 10th of August. This would leave us the entire summer to work. The summer of 1995 was very sunny and warm, almost as good as 1994. We didn't see much of this, though, as we spent most of the time inside, slaving away over our computers. Luckily, reinforcements arrived in the middle of June with another programmer and a sound effects technician. In the middle of July we were still convinced that we would make it. We had redesigned the game a little in order to be ready in time. See the 'Advice...' section below. But August came and went, and Cosmic Ambush still wasn't finished. We set up new deadlines, which were broken and yet new ones, which went the same way. By the end of November 1995, the project was in deep crisis. People were making up excuses not to come to the meetings, work progressed very slowly and everything was definitely going down the drain. The morale was extremely low, if at all existing. Two emergency meetings were held. There were two options: either drop everything immediately and never work together again, or try to save the project by organizing a new way to work. It didn't take much to realize that the will to go on was still there, it just needed a push in the right direction. After a few lengthy discussions we decided to start having meetings at a set time every Sunday evening, where everyone took upon themselves a task which they promised to complete before the next meeting. No excuses would be allowed, either you did what you promised or you were out. One of our programmers decided to leave at this point. He felt it more important to take care of his family and regular job. There were no hard feelings because of this, everything went very naturally. The five of us who remained struggled along. The new way of organizing turned out to work. Everything progressed at an incredible speed. Two more NITF-weekends were held. Finally, on Tuesday the 2nd of April 1996 we decided that the game was finished for a beta release. Unless any bugs were discovered by the beta-testers, this would be the finished version. The name of the group was changed to Shades of Evolution, as we discovered that Neologic was already taken. Easter came and went and our game was being thoroughly tested. Two weeks after the release we collected all the evaluations and went through them. A few bugs had been discovered along with a few other opinions which were well worth taking seriously. Back to work for another three weeks. Beta 2 was supposed to be the finished product should no further bugs be discovered. Of course that wasn't the case, we even let it go with a few known bugs, having decided that we could wait no more. This time we only let the testers play around with the game for about a week. When the week had passed no serious bugs had been reported. The release looked very imminent. This was around the end of May 1996. Wham! When it came it hit us like a brick. The weapons system, to put it nicely, really didn't measure up to a reasonable standard. The photon torpedo was too slow and useless, the rocket too powerful and a few other things which we had never had the time to realize before the heavy playtesting began. Back to long discussions again. Several weeks had to be spent implementing and trying out new ways of improving the weapons. It was decided that the weapons could be overheated, which would be indicated by a thermometre-type bar. All weapons were to travel at a set speed, i e our speed-bullet icon had to be removed. The photon torpedo would spread its shrapnel a little differently. These were just a few of the things we changed. Along with this we also optimized a few of our routines a bit further. At the end of June, the weapons systems was to everyone's satisfaction. Holidays now took over and the project went a little on and off for a month. Mostly playtesting and a few adjustments here and there. Everything really seemed to brighten up, finally. A historical moment came at the meeting held on the 29th of July. When asked concerning the status of the game, Holmsten replied with the now historical sentence: 'It is finished.' Halleluja! The only thing left before the release was to fix up the textfiles and find a few good sites to which the game would be uploaded. On the 5th of August the game was released onto the Internet. Thus commences the SoE saga... --- ADVICE TO BUDDING GAMESPROGRAMMERS * Have patience! * Never skip the game-design stages or try to get them over quickly. Work on them for at least a month or two before coding a single row and then, most important of all, STICK WITH IT! This was our main mistake. We started 'simplifying' our original design. Things were removed without thought, in a desperate attempt to get less work and be ready in time. This in fact gave us MORE work, as we had to start all over again when we realized after too long that we weren't really sure of what game we were making. Compare the original game design plans listed in the 'The Making...' section above with the game as it looks today. Take a close look at the Space Invaders and Galaxians levels. They are the only things left from our original design. * If you haven't been friends for long, get to know each other well as soon as possible. You have to be able to rely on each other 110% if you are ever going to make it. Don't be afraid to give or take criticism, it is vital that you learn both. * Generalize your routines, you will be rewarded thousandfold by it. * Learn the Bresenham algorithm, it will take you far. --- SHADES OF EVOLUTION DEEPLY THANK: * Ethan Brodsky - for invaluable sound programming advice. * Helene Bankell - for the sparkling laughter. * Anna-Lea Sevo - for wonderful, home-baked muffins. * Maxi - for taking an intimate interest in our jeans during springtime. * Johan Linder, Patrik Olsson, Claes Bostrom, Niklas Melander, Pelle Gustafsson, Peter Bjorklund - for betatesting the nearly finished product. * All the Internet source code and programming documents providers - you have all been a great help, we will try to contribute something of our own work soon. * You - for playing this game! --- FINAL WORDS Anders Lindskold: This has been a truly marvellous adventure. Without a doubt the most inspiring and creative project I have ever been a part of. It has been a great privilege to work with the rest of you guys. This is the beginning of something big, I can hardly wait to go on. I hope you will go along with me. Greetings go to the following people: * Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish, Tim Follin, Chris Huelsbeck, Mike Alsop, Matt Gray, Fred Grey, David Whittaker - the music you composed for the C64 will never be surpassed. * Robert Holdstock - the greatest fantasy writer ever. I am longing to return to Ryhope Wood. * My parents, for being you and for buying that PET 3032 in 1983. * All my friends and relatives. -- Patrik Holmsten: Good Things: 1. Foster's 2. Louise Hoffsten Bad Things: 1. You can't get a Foster's in the joints in Goteborg any longer. 2. Jaques "Duke Nukem -96" Chirac 3. Windows "if it sucks, at least it's good for something" 95 4. Ehh, well, most of life, the universe and everything in general. A final word of advise: If you ever plan to buy a Citro뎝, make sure you check the hydraulic pipes properly. -- Daniel Sevo: Hi, this is Daniel Sevos' personal log... Just as the other members in SoE, I live in Gothenburg and I've been involved in 'computing' for a good 10 years (and at 22, I'm the youngest member)... My career as a GFX artist got a nice boost when I won a monthly GFX competition in a (an -ex) Swedish Amiga mag a couple of years ago.. Yes, that's right, Amiga mag... I am the only member sticking to the Amiga, (and enjoying it). I got involved in this project through Peter Bjorklund, who (ironically) is no longer a member (due to family obligations etc.etc.. (kids'n stuff)). 1.5 - 2 years may sound like a long time for this type of game and it is! But if you consider the fact that most members have full time jobs (er...all of them, except me..) weeks go by very quickly indeed. I've enjoyed being a member of this team,( a bunch of very nice people ) and I hope we can continue doing what we've done, although perhaps in a different way (full time or something...) Now after almost two years it may seem ironic that I'll not be able to play the game at home (you see, I have no PC, just a 060 Amiga )... I would like to send greetings to the following people: * All the nice members of 'Shades of Evolution' - nice working with you! * All the nice engineers at Phase5 that have made it possible to bring my Amiga up-to-date... * Martin Caspersson : for being my trusty old Amiga connection... * Riste Mitrevski : for being kind enough to to make it possible for me to take part of the great old Internet... * My family (thay have nothing to do with this project, but they've all been so nice to me..) * A whole bunch of other people,( Zoran Vucic : for some interesting financial deals) I also wish good luck to Phase5, VisCorp, PIOS and others that are trying HARD to bring a PowerPC Amiga to the world... P.S. Good work ID, the Quake engine is quite impressive... Daniel E Sevo, logging out... (wow!) -- Martin Melander: Without Atari Falcon and Zero-X the world would be a much worse place to live. * Lots of greetings to Peter Segerdahl. -- "Noone can do everything, but everyone can do something. If everyone does something, everything will be done." Shades of Evolution 1996