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Since it is still early days here at the esc factory, I have continued to blog the Snowferno stuff over on the Snowferno site.. Ultimately everything will end up here, but for now, I will just drop a link to the post over there.

http://www.snowferno.com/2009/09/23/playhaven-unity-and-snowferno/

Basically outlines exactly what you need to do to get Unity to pop open a UIWebView over the game engine (with code). So if that is your thing, take a look!

Cheers!
-B

So, there was a big ole’ critical issue with the throttle widget. it works very nice now, but it was getting dealloced after you fallout (or meltout) and the touch manager was still trying to access it.. bad. crash.

fixed now!

You should go and get it here: http://sfdev.snowferno.com/current-beta/.

ChangeLog:

• fixed the big critical crasher
• made some cosmetic changes to the score board settings
• fixed an issue on The Wall where you could hit a switch more than once

Hello all you beta testers! Beta 4 (Release Candidate 1) is ready!

You should go and get it here: http://sfdev.snowferno.com/current-beta/.

ChangeLog:

• Added final scene, for those of you who have finished the last level, you can go right there from the world map, the rest of you slackers have to finish before you can see the final scene. Final scene includes it’s own custom music track and a groovy ‘cutscene’ kinda thing, as well as your final game time (all the best level completions added up) and your final game ranking.
• added all sound fx
• Changed the way the throttle works again, so it should not get stuck anymore (again)
• fixed the fire wheel, now you will always hit the platform when shot from the cannon
• added external linkage to the score board settings panel, now you can get to your user account page (which will eventually allow you to change your screen name)
• added external linkage to the score board settings panel, now you can get to your leaderboard page, which shows all your stats
• fixed some issues with the moving boxes, now they stay put better in level 12 when on the moving platform.
• yet more performance tweaks, the internal builds were quite smooth on 3g phones.
• changed the way the ball interacts with the walls to make it less jarring when you roll along a wall (it is still somewhat jarring, but now less so)
• scads of changes and updates to the website. the summary: leaderboards are all working and have lots of cool stats. still to come: account changes (ie change yer screen name)

Cheers! and as always let me know if you have any comments/problems/anything.

-ben

Hello all you beta testers! Beta 3 is ready!

B096 is uploading as I write this. Lots of changes since B094: You should go and get it here: http://sfdev.snowferno.com/current-beta/.

This will most likely be the final beta release. If there are no show stoppers then we will most likely be able to add the final few sound FX and the end of game cutscene and submit late in the week!

ChangeLog:

• Compressed most all textures just a little bit more.
• turned the FPS counter off
• Changed the way the throttle works, so it should not get stuck anymore
• turned down the physics calculation rate (for performance reasons), this affected the way the accelerometer works slightly. I tried to bring it back in line with how it should feel.
• fix the post scores setting, now you can opt-out of posting your scores on the leaderboards (which will be turned on this week – watch this space.
• fixed the Firewheel level so that there is no longer a crash if you get into the flamethrower, and now the wheel is spinning again.
• changed the way the buttons work in level 12 linking rings. now it doesn’t suck.
• fixed level 10 clock, now the exit passage is slightly wider and the middle ring should not get out of sync.
• fixed level 18 Infernal Machine, now the ‘gears’ should always spin fully 90 degrees instead of sometimes getting stuck on the last frame of animation
• fixed the popups so that they are visible again

Also, for those of you who managed to finish level 2 in under 10 seconds, how the hell did you manage that?

Cheers!
-Ben

Had a great week of beta, found a few bugs and lots of good suggestions, keep them coming!

Login now to download the latest build of Snowferno (b0.9.4). We emailed you the login info — let me know if you need it re-sent (or if you want to join the beta program).

b0.9.4 Changelog

• At the end of a level, the scores formatting has been fixed, ranking has been added, screen name has been added, as well as the name of the level. (so now you guys can tell us which leve it was that you hate, instead of ‘ that one level, with the spinny thing in the middle’)
• Added the level name to the main interface, upper left corner. just plain text for now.
• Adjusted the way the snowball reacts with the terrain to make the walls less ‘jittery’. and to make it harder to accidentally roll over raised edges.
• Adjusted the terrain model for level 05 so that you cant get stuck on the first block.
• Changed the throttle control and the clock to match the rest of the interface buttons.
• Modified the terrain model for level 10 Clock so that the narrow passage to the exit platform is not nearly as narrow.
• changed the way that fires and snowpiles work so that they are more performance friendly (ie only doing stuff when you are rolling on them)

b0.9.4 Known Issues

• On level 10 Clock, if you spin the middle ring enough times, it will get out of sync with the other platforms. This will be fixed in the next release. Also, the model modification for level 10 above should help to mitigate this.
• there appears to be an issue with the throttle getting ‘stuck’. We think we have fixed this but could never replicate it consistently, so if you run into this let us know
• On level 12 Linking Rings, there is a bug in the button scripts. If you (or a box) triggers a switch over and over again before the moving platform comes to a stop, then the platform gets out of sync and can go all sorts of odd places. I have tracked the cause down and there will be a fix in the sunday release.

b0.9.2 Known Issues

• The number readout in the upper left is a Frames Per Second meter to gauge performance. This is for beta only.
• Settings > Control > “Post Score” toggle does not connect to the online API yet.
• Online account management stuff isn’t ready yet. (Settings > Control > “My Leaderboard Settings” takes you to a placeholder page.)
• There are some text-overlay “story” elements and SFX still missing, but nothing that affects gameplay.
• If you make it all the way to the end, it will be obvious that something fancier will replace the final screen.

Please post your thoughts in the comments section below, or email me at support@benbritten.com.

So, I have been adding all the little fiddly bits today, and fixing the little bugs that Brent and Mike have found in the pre-beta release. Mostly stuff like: I forgot to set the audio clip for an object in level 5 so it crashes out, things like that.

Also I have taken out all the old scratch buttons and put in some super-simple big target squares.

The old scratch buttons were sorta 2.5d arcade style with scratchy, gothy textures on them.. and they looked kinda cool, but didnt really fit with the emerging look and feel of the GUI. (you can actually see them on the ‘Not That Way’ trailer video, when Snowy rolls off the edge of the cliff) The new ones are not very special, just big boxes, nice and easy to hit with my big fat fingers. and while they dont really add any ambience to the GUI they dont really take much away from it either… they are just there..

This is why we need to make scads of money so that I can hire on the very talented illustrators that I know to do these things for me.

Anyway… let’s talk FPS for a moment. On the most recent build, I am seeing frame rates around 22 – 28 on my iPhone 3G, and Brent is reporting similar results on his 3G. This is right about what I expected and not so bad that I feel like I need to hunker down for a few days just optimizing (tho I am sure I will do some of that).. In any case it is quite smooth and playable on the 3G.

I dont yet have a 3Gs to play with, but I did load it onto my Second Gen Touch and boy-howdy! rates in the low to upper 30s on the Touch. I am going to be using the touch to crush all the beta testers in the leaderboards that is for sure..

Astute readers will notice the oddly places ’100.00′ up in the upper left corner of the screenshot. This is the FPS. Visible only for the beta test. And before you freak out, that is the FPS in the Unity editor, not the phone.

Cheers!
-B

So, I have been super duper busy the last few weeks, ever since I got back from WWDC, trying to get Snowferno all ready for beta (and ultimately release). If the in house testing goes well then we will be start the beta testing in just a few days.

If you want to beta test, and have an iphone or ipod touch with OS 2.2.1 or better on it, then sign up right now!

Anyhow, as part of the push to get the beta out the door I have made a few more up-to-date gameplay videos/trailers:

“Beware Of Fire”:

“Not That Way”

Check them out!

We will have these up on the main site soon, so for now, they are exclusive! (well not really at all, but whatever)

Cheers!
-B

Well, I dont want to give it away, so I wont post a screenshot, but I just put the final touches on the final level of snowferno. Just a few more tweaks and she will be all ready for beta testing! (dont forget to sign up if you want to beta test, there is still room).

The last thing i need to do is to go back through and add sound effects to the various items. Luckily, unity’s prefab makes this very easy to do and I dont think it will take me more than a day or two to put in all the sound.

Cheers!
-B

Hey! You! beta-testing people! We are just sorta starting to think about beta testing, (probably wont have a beta-ready version for a few weeks yet) but if you are interested, then email me at support@benbritten.com, with ‘Snowferno Beta Test’ in the subject. It will need to come from a real email address (or I wont be able to tell you where to get the binary) and I will need your device ID.
to get your device ID:

Launch iTunes.
Connect your device to your computer.
Select the device in the Devices list.
In the Summary pane, click the Serial Number label. It changes to Identifier.
Choose Edit > Copy.
Paste your Device ID into an email.
Be sure to include your name and device name in the email.

Cheers!
-B