Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, Yes, I thought that Mach 1 and you say Raceway are first person type games because it is as if you are looking through the windshield of the race car. And as I said, I believe that the Top Speed game is a third person type game. At least to me the point of view is that of from above and behind the car just like in Pole Position. If I am wrong, someone could correct me. BFN Jim Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand? j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Jim, Well, if you take the position of actually sitting behind the wheel, I.E. looking out the windshield, that would be classified first-person as the game is from the perspective of physically sitting inside the car. This is how USA Raceway works, and is in the first-person as it tries to emulate the feeling of actually driving the car while sitting in it. With games like Poll Position they are third person because visually it is from the perspective of looking down at the track from above. You can see most of the track and all or most of the cars from that angle. HTH On 4/3/11, Jim Kitchen wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > Don't know if this is actually a third person, but to me the point of view > in Mach 1 and Mach 1 tts is that of through the windshield and to me the > point of view in Top Speed is that of from above and behind your car just > like in Pole Position. > > BFN > > Jim > > So what if I'm a bit behind. I like the view from here. > > j...@kitchensinc.net > http://www.kitchensinc.net > (440) 286-6920 > Chardon Ohio USA > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, Don't know if this is actually a third person, but to me the point of view in Mach 1 and Mach 1 tts is that of through the windshield and to me the point of view in Top Speed is that of from above and behind your car just like in Pole Position. BFN Jim So what if I'm a bit behind. I like the view from here. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
well I hope there is some sort of package as I play both styles. Hi Thomas, I object to your pricing. If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d for the same price. It would be better if you charged for each dimension. The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 smiles Phil - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1209 / Virus Database: 1500/3544 - Release Date: 04/01/11 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Yohandy, Well, it depends on which version of MOTA you are asking about. As for MOTA Standard, the 2d platformer, I'm just finishing up level 2. I've been tied up with other issues, and am just now getting around to adding the new level 2 to the beta. As for MOTA 3D its got a level from beta 16, but like the standard version I have plans to revise levels 1 and 2 for the 3d version as well. As far as number of levels in all I'm looking at about 10 to 12 levels for 1.0. I want to get this thing done by this summer, if humanly possible, so I'll have at least 10 but no more than 12 with the final release. However, as you pointed out it might be possible to offer paid updates or level packs to expand the basic game in the future. I don't know what I'm going to do about that yet simply because it is too far in the future. I'm litterally swamped for requests for MOTA and Raceway. So getting these two games at least completed and selling is my top priority. After that, if I want to add bonus content and sell updates that's cool, but that's a couple of years off because I'm that backed up. As far as wy developers create there games and abandon them it isn't too difficult to figure out. After you work on a single project for a year or two its time to take a break. I myself am running on absolute burn out. Every time I open Visual C++ to work on MOTA I just want to close the compiler, and never look at the game code again as long as I live. I don't want to write it, I don't want to look at it, I litterally want nothing to do with it. However, since I'm only a few months out from final release it would be sort of stupid to just abandon the game now. However, I'm still sick and tired of looking at the same game day in and day out. I'd rather play a different game and work on something totally different. You know what I mean? Cheers! On 4/2/11, Yohandy wrote: > Hey Thomas, > I've a question: How many levels have you designed in MOTA already? Also how > many levels are you planning to ship with the game? Man I'm so desperate to > get my hands on this game! Oh, I just had an interesting idea. Wouldn't it > be possible to add downloadable level packs at a later date for a small fee? > I really hope developers start considering paid upgrades in audiogames. they > work extremely well in video games. It's a great way to give us extra > content, and keeps the game fresh. all audio games are created, then after a > few months are discarded without any thought. it's a bit of a shame as there > are some great audio games out there. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
quite possibly, though actually sinse the entire point of the cybermen is that they have given themselves so many spare parts that they have replaced everything including emotions that would be entirely corect ;D. Actually the new series cybermen and even the 1980's cybermen are pretty lively when compared to the original ones. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tom. As I've said before, I do have trouble understanding spacial relations and forming mental maps of physical spaces, but I have every intention of playing 3D mota successfully so will be willing to make suggestions when the time comes. As regards audio perspectives I beg to disagree that audio third person is entirely impossible. I would class as third person any game where you do not move relative to the characters position but in an absolute manner related only to a players' overview, where you can here the characters' position by their movements rather than knowing their position by the sound around them, even if this sound scrolls ie, becomes specific slightly to the area of the characters current position though not immediately related to what the character themselves hears. So for instance, games like Treasurehunt, night of parasite, self destruct or the dungeon view of entombed played on a grid style view where you move north sound east and west without turning, where you can here sounds behind the characters' position and where you here a distinct character movement for changes in position such as a stepping sound as third person, albeit that the audio scrolls. In another sense, I'd class alien outback as third person because you judge your own spaceship's position by both the sound of it's jets and the sounds around it, rather than the sounds instantly moving as in troopanum, one reason the play field is rather a lot larger than the sterrio field and you can only center a ship's position when it is close. It probably isn't half as important a distinction in audio, sinse given the smaller field of reference, scrolling sound audio that alters with a third person character movement and first person immediate character audio which represents directly what is around the character aren't too different in informational content generally, where as obviously the difference in visual content betwene seeing only what your character sees and seeing everything around them can be pretty major. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hey Thomas, I've a question: How many levels have you designed in MOTA already? Also how many levels are you planning to ship with the game? Man I'm so desperate to get my hands on this game! Oh, I just had an interesting idea. Wouldn't it be possible to add downloadable level packs at a later date for a small fee? I really hope developers start considering paid upgrades in audiogames. they work extremely well in video games. It's a great way to give us extra content, and keeps the game fresh. all audio games are created, then after a few months are discarded without any thought. it's a bit of a shame as there are some great audio games out there. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 2:13 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Muhammed, As for MOTA 3D you won't need any special hardware to play it. I've recently decided to use 2d stereo by default for the game. The main reasons I decided upon this course of action is A, not many people have the money to invest in a true 5.1 surround sound setup, and B, Streemway currently was primarily designed for stereo audio positioning anyway. I may change this in a later version, perhaps after I get the new Streemway that uses XAudio2, but for now I don't expect anyone to fork over $300 for state of the art sound equipment to make the game sound like a 5.1 surround sound environment. As for hand to hand fighting it is still pretty generic. The game doesn't really allow you to aim for the head, legs, torso, etc. Perhaps someday that might be added, but for now I'm focussing on just making the game playable by a totally blind gamer and details like that can wait until the game is stable. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, Easy. First you can try and center the enemy in your headphones, and second the game has a laser site to target enemies. Its not exactly hard. Cheers! On 4/2/11, Shiny protector wrote: > Hi Tom, > > How will I know if I have got the correct aim to punch or kick? --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tom, How will I know if I have got the correct aim to punch or kick? - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 7:13 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Muhammed, As for MOTA 3D you won't need any special hardware to play it. I've recently decided to use 2d stereo by default for the game. The main reasons I decided upon this course of action is A, not many people have the money to invest in a true 5.1 surround sound setup, and B, Streemway currently was primarily designed for stereo audio positioning anyway. I may change this in a later version, perhaps after I get the new Streemway that uses XAudio2, but for now I don't expect anyone to fork over $300 for state of the art sound equipment to make the game sound like a 5.1 surround sound environment. As for hand to hand fighting it is still pretty generic. The game doesn't really allow you to aim for the head, legs, torso, etc. Perhaps someday that might be added, but for now I'm focussing on just making the game playable by a totally blind gamer and details like that can wait until the game is stable. Cheers! On 4/2/11, Shiny protector wrote: Hi Thomas, I don't know how I'm going to play the game. I mean, I do not have any speakers. Also, with the Three D features, when we select our fists and feet, could we a just that so we could hit better? I mean if its at the leg, could we get our aim even higher and punch or kick to the head? o- --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, Not unless I fully implamented an arcade mode. At the moment there is a save game feature which is good enough for restoring lives. Besides that having thre to five lives is kind of silly in my opinion and is unrealistic. Cheers! On 4/1/11, burakyuksek wrote: > Hi, > I have a suggestion. Can you add a life system if it's possible? > sevgiler saygilar --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Hayden, I think you totally misunderstand how an analog jump system works. You can't simply just jump higher and higher or further and further the longer you hold the jump keys down. There are set restrictions on how high and how far you can jump. The difference here is that you can choose how high or far you can jump with in reason. Let's assume Angela's absolute maximum jump is six feet. If you give the control arrow key a short tap Angela might only jump one or two feet. If you hold it down slightly longer she might jump three or four feet. If you hold it down for long enough she will jump the entire six feet and will land as soon as she reaches the maximum hight and length of the jump. So if you walk up to a chasm that is 10 feet across there is no possible whay she can jump it from a standing position because her maximum jump is six feet. That means she has to either try and run and jump it, use a drawbridge, vanishing platform, or some other means to get across. Nothing has changed, but the jumping is more dynamic. HTH On 4/1/11, Hayden Presley wrote: > Hi Thomas, > The only problem I see with your jumping system is, we lose a lot of the > elements, like drawbridges and such if Angela can just continue jumping > higher and higher. > > Best Regards, > Hayden --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, I wouldn't doubt that any. ESpeak definitely sounds like some robot out of the 50's or 60's B movie. Definitely not one of my favorite voices, but I've grown use to it on Linux since it is the default voice for most Linux access products. Cheers! On 4/2/11, Valiant8086 wrote: > Might sort of be able to duplicate that with ESpeak US speaking slowly > on no inflection lol. > > Sent with Thunderbird 3.1.9 portable. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Muhammed, As for MOTA 3D you won't need any special hardware to play it. I've recently decided to use 2d stereo by default for the game. The main reasons I decided upon this course of action is A, not many people have the money to invest in a true 5.1 surround sound setup, and B, Streemway currently was primarily designed for stereo audio positioning anyway. I may change this in a later version, perhaps after I get the new Streemway that uses XAudio2, but for now I don't expect anyone to fork over $300 for state of the art sound equipment to make the game sound like a 5.1 surround sound environment. As for hand to hand fighting it is still pretty generic. The game doesn't really allow you to aim for the head, legs, torso, etc. Perhaps someday that might be added, but for now I'm focussing on just making the game playable by a totally blind gamer and details like that can wait until the game is stable. Cheers! On 4/2/11, Shiny protector wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > I don't know how I'm going to play the game. I mean, I do not have any > speakers. Also, with the Three D features, when we select our fists and > feet, could we a just that so we could hit better? I mean if its at the leg, > could we get our aim even higher and punch or kick to the head? o- --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Might sort of be able to duplicate that with ESpeak US speaking slowly on no inflection lol. Sent with Thunderbird 3.1.9 portable. On 4/2/2011 6:11 AM, dark wrote: Hi Tom. Glad to here Crystal potentially gets to keep her part after her rather good performance ;D. Actually this is about the only occasion i can think of where a synth would be better than a human for contributing characterization to the game ;D. About the only other instance I can think of is if someone wanted to make a game featuring the original 1960's cybermen from Dr. who, --- who sound almost exactly like Synthetic dave, synthetic andy or any of the other very bad quality synth voices set on monotone ;D. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Dark, Yeah, that's exactly what betas are for. One thing I hope to acomplish with MOTA 3D is not only to get gamers use to a true 3d first-person game, but to work out game mechanics that are almost universally helpful to a blind gamer. Its one thing to look at Shades of Doom and get ideas, and another to build upon that idea and come up with something a little more complex. I am, in a manner of speaking, cutting totally new ground and for that we need to work together to work out the details of how these games will be playable. Once we do that future games of a similar type will be easier to create and I'll know what I'm doing the next time round. As far as third-person games in audio I don't think that is possible simply because the destinction between first-person and third-person is a visual one. In a game like Doom it is a first person game because there is no physical game character on the screen, and at most you see a hand holding a gun, knife, etc walking around. All of the background seenary is designed to look like you are looking at it from a first-person point of view. With a third-person game like Tomb Raider you can see Lara Croft on the screen up close and personal. Plus you can usually see all or most of the room/area she is in as though looking at it from adistance. Kind of like watching a movie. I.E. from a third-person perspective. All of this is very visual, and for a blind gamer such concepts don't really apply. However, I can say our games really by definition are first-person, because the audio is from the first-person perspective. I.E. sounds like you are standing in the middle of the room and the sounds are positioned according to where you are and what direction you are facing. This is first-person audio. Were it third person audio sounds would not change position as you moved around in the game world, and would more or less be like listening to a movie or something. This wouldn't work out too well for us as there is no visual feedback to give us more detailed info what is happening on screen. Cheers! On 4/2/11, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > That is true regarding what has happened in audio 3D thus far, sinse being > strictly logical Shades, Sarah, monkey business etc are first person 2D > titles rather like the original doom itself not 3D ones, though I admit due > to the analogue movement both styles have we have sometimes confused the > two. > > It'll be good to see how the 3D works. In fact I would guess that sinse you > here the environment around angela change and directions are relative to > your movement, it would actually literally be a 3D first person game, rather > like metroid prime, though as i'm not even sure if 3D third person is > possible in audio this is really me just being exacting about deffinitions > ;D. > > There may be some issues with look commands and my sense of space, but > that's what betas are for, though I am hoping your engine is precise enough > to make things easily understandable for me. but heck that's what betas > are for. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
HI Dark and all, All you will need for MOTA 3D is a stereo set of headphones. This is for too reasons. First, as we have discussed on list most people simply don't have the hardware required to render true 5.1 or 7.1 3d audio so making that a manditory requirement will hurt sales if the potential customer doesn't have the necessary hardware. Second, is PB Streemway, while a nice API, currently doesn't have good 5.1 surround sound support anyway. It was mmainly designed for 2d stereo panning and volume. Although, the API does wrap DirectSound's 3d audio I've found DirectSound 8 and Windows 7 don't work correctly together. For true 5.1 surround sound support on Windows 7 a developer really should use XAudio2 which Streemway, at least the version I have, doesn't support yet.So in the end I decided MOTA 3D 1.0 will simply use a stereo audio environment using my own custom 3d calculations to fake a 3d audio environment. Cheers! On 4/2/11, dark wrote: > Hi Muhammed. > > Actually the game will be playable with headphones, at least I very > much hope it will sinse even though I do have a set of 5.1 speakers, I stil! > prefer to play on headphones and in fact play very badly with speakers. > > But, as shades and other games have shown, you can do a lot with virtual 3D > in sterrio, particularly if you've got a good set of headphones. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Yeah some voices actually work well for singing pronounciations. Tim - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 4:43 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 ironically tom i feel the same way in the other direction, one reason I use orphius Alan for my Hal voice (which has great reaction speed), and scansoft daniel for my gaming sapi voice. Hereing something with Zee just doesn't sound right to me either, as far as I, and my synths are concerned, Inform games are written in zed code, Zero from the mega man x series uses a zed saber as his weapon etc. While I wouldn't kick up a real stink about it, I learnt at the age of four when watching sessimy street that zee and zed were the same thing, I know which I prefer when generically reading text. When a character is American or I'm hereing an audio book set in America that is different, (I can't imagine for instance books by a writer like Steven King read in Uk english), but for something fairly passive like menue reading I'd always go for the Uk voice, which rather makes sense given that is the way I speak myself and what I'm used to hereing. For menues in your games, I personally would be happy with an American voice, --- though actually i've been happy with the australian one too ;D. Btw, one rather amusing use I've found for Hal's ability to speak other languages recently is with singing. Last summer I was set something to learn in German, I found the words but obviously, reading them with the Orphius Alan uk voice didn't work sinse it pronounced german spellings in a Uk accent which didn't tell me how to pronounce stuff when singing. So, I switched orphius to German and Vuala! Instant Pronunciation guide! I have done the same thing for Italian as well, which is actually a rather good use for a screen reader. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Muhammed. Actually the game will be playable with headphones, at least I very much hope it will sinse even though I do have a set of 5.1 speakers, I stil! prefer to play on headphones and in fact play very badly with speakers. But, as shades and other games have shown, you can do a lot with virtual 3D in sterrio, particularly if you've got a good set of headphones. Beware the Grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Shiny protector" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 8:52 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Thomas, I don't know how I'm going to play the game. I mean, I do not have any speakers. Also, with the Three D features, when we select our fists and feet, could we a just that so we could hit better? I mean if its at the leg, could we get our aim even higher and punch or kick to the head? o- Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 8:31 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi tom. Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. Ward and your son are now all recovered. on to games. Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so I do understand the reasoning here. in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for staminer points noted as st on the display). All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however there is one title where I would beg to disagree. Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute to the atmosphere of the game. usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the games' immersion far more complete. If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a good thing. As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very much looking forward to both mota games. Also as per my ambience artical, it'll be great to have more music, imho a wonderful way of showing different environments and parts of the underground without having to worry about inserting lots of background details. Beware the grue! dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.or
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
For the cybermen either those or willow pond. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Mmm haiden, actually this isn't the case. Angela doesn't have a jetpack that automatically keeps moving her upwards higher and higher while you hold the keys down, rather she has a max jump hight and can jump any distance up to or including that hight but no more. So, say a long press will jump her at most two meaters, a short tap will jump her half a meater, a medium tap will jump her one meater etc. This stil leaves lots of room for draw bridges and unjumplable chasms, but also means jumping reacheable gaps will be far more difficult. to anyone who has ever played pretty much any mainstream side scroller produced any time sinse about 1982, (I can't recall if original Donkey Kong had it, though I know for a fact the first, two player mario brothers battle game certainly did), this design concept will be very familiar indeed, even though for some odd reason it's not been seen in audio yet. Actually it's something which has become quite a fine art in mainstream side scrollers and give the games a good degree of their challenge, imho it's about time someone did it in an audio game. Beware the Grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Hayden Presley" To: "'Gamers Discussion list'" Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 12:29 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Thomas, The only problem I see with your jumping system is, we lose a lot of the elements, like drawbridges and such if Angela can just continue jumping higher and higher. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:57 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Dark, H...Well, you are right about AT&T Crystal. My initial reason for picking her is exactly because with a little tinkering around with Goldwave she sounds like a starship computer. I'll take your suggestion under advisement. Since I have many of the necessary speech clips done using her voice I suppose it wouldn't kill me to continue using her for that specific title since it would greatly add to the over all ambience. As for the analog movement I must say it has greatly improved the game a lot. There are times when jumping I forget to hold the jump keys down long enough and poor Angela falls screaming into a fire, onto some bronze spikes, or flat out misses a rope. My mind and hands are still use to the light tap and jump over opsticles method that I often wind up killing myself before I remember I'm now using an analog jump system. Lol! Smile. On 4/1/11, dark wrote: Hi tom. Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. Ward and your son are now all recovered. on to games. Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so I do understand the reasoning here. in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for staminer points noted as st on the display). All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however there is one title where I would beg to disagree. Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute to the atmosphere of the game. usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the games' immersion far more complete. If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a good thing. As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very much looking f
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tom. Glad to here Crystal potentially gets to keep her part after her rather good performance ;D. Actually this is about the only occasion i can think of where a synth would be better than a human for contributing characterization to the game ;D. About the only other instance I can think of is if someone wanted to make a game featuring the original 1960's cybermen from Dr. who, --- who sound almost exactly like Synthetic dave, synthetic andy or any of the other very bad quality synth voices set on monotone ;D. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Only problem with that Phil, is sinse all games are temporal and played over linear time, your actually already getting a 4Th dimention (or in the case of the 2D game a 3Rd), for free! If we're charging by the demention, then the 3D game should be 42.75 usd. This would be a problem for hyperspacial pan dimentional beings though, goodness knows how much they'd have to pay for a copy ;D. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Phil Vlasak" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 6:48 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Thomas, I object to your pricing. If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d for the same price. It would be better if you charged for each dimension. The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 smiles Phil - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1209 / Virus Database: 1500/3544 - Release Date: 04/01/11 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tom. That is true regarding what has happened in audio 3D thus far, sinse being strictly logical Shades, Sarah, monkey business etc are first person 2D titles rather like the original doom itself not 3D ones, though I admit due to the analogue movement both styles have we have sometimes confused the two. It'll be good to see how the 3D works. In fact I would guess that sinse you here the environment around angela change and directions are relative to your movement, it would actually literally be a 3D first person game, rather like metroid prime, though as i'm not even sure if 3D third person is possible in audio this is really me just being exacting about deffinitions ;D. There may be some issues with look commands and my sense of space, but that's what betas are for, though I am hoping your engine is precise enough to make things easily understandable for me. but heck that's what betas are for. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
ironically tom i feel the same way in the other direction, one reason I use orphius Alan for my Hal voice (which has great reaction speed), and scansoft daniel for my gaming sapi voice. Hereing something with Zee just doesn't sound right to me either, as far as I, and my synths are concerned, Inform games are written in zed code, Zero from the mega man x series uses a zed saber as his weapon etc. While I wouldn't kick up a real stink about it, I learnt at the age of four when watching sessimy street that zee and zed were the same thing, I know which I prefer when generically reading text. When a character is American or I'm hereing an audio book set in America that is different, (I can't imagine for instance books by a writer like Steven King read in Uk english), but for something fairly passive like menue reading I'd always go for the Uk voice, which rather makes sense given that is the way I speak myself and what I'm used to hereing. For menues in your games, I personally would be happy with an American voice, --- though actually i've been happy with the australian one too ;D. Btw, one rather amusing use I've found for Hal's ability to speak other languages recently is with singing. Last summer I was set something to learn in German, I found the words but obviously, reading them with the Orphius Alan uk voice didn't work sinse it pronounced german spellings in a Uk accent which didn't tell me how to pronounce stuff when singing. So, I switched orphius to German and Vuala! Instant Pronunciation guide! I have done the same thing for Italian as well, which is actually a rather good use for a screen reader. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Burak, I don't think Thomas would add a life system. It would be unrealistic for the game. Basically, mota is like a real life, but having two three lives wouldn't give you a real feeling. The game has to be challenging, and two three lives wouldn't make it challenging. - Original Message - From: "burakyuksek" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 11:04 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi, I have a suggestion. Can you add a life system if it's possible? sevgiler saygilar - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 8:59 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Phil, AhemPlease tell me you are joking. Smile. On 4/1/11, Phil Vlasak wrote: Hi Thomas, I object to your pricing. If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d for the same price. It would be better if you charged for each dimension. The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 smiles Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, I don't know how I'm going to play the game. I mean, I do not have any speakers. Also, with the Three D features, when we select our fists and feet, could we a just that so we could hit better? I mean if its at the leg, could we get our aim even higher and punch or kick to the head? o- Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 8:31 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi tom. Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. Ward and your son are now all recovered. on to games. Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so I do understand the reasoning here. in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for staminer points noted as st on the display). All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however there is one title where I would beg to disagree. Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute to the atmosphere of the game. usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the games' immersion far more complete. If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a good thing. As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very much looking forward to both mota games. Also as per my ambience artical, it'll be great to have more music, imho a wonderful way of showing different environments and parts of the underground without having to worry about inserting lots of background details. Beware the grue! dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, The only problem I see with your jumping system is, we lose a lot of the elements, like drawbridges and such if Angela can just continue jumping higher and higher. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:57 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Dark, H...Well, you are right about AT&T Crystal. My initial reason for picking her is exactly because with a little tinkering around with Goldwave she sounds like a starship computer. I'll take your suggestion under advisement. Since I have many of the necessary speech clips done using her voice I suppose it wouldn't kill me to continue using her for that specific title since it would greatly add to the over all ambience. As for the analog movement I must say it has greatly improved the game a lot. There are times when jumping I forget to hold the jump keys down long enough and poor Angela falls screaming into a fire, onto some bronze spikes, or flat out misses a rope. My mind and hands are still use to the light tap and jump over opsticles method that I often wind up killing myself before I remember I'm now using an analog jump system. Lol! Smile. On 4/1/11, dark wrote: > Hi tom. > > Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas > prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore > throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to > resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. > > Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. > Ward and your son are now all recovered. > > on to games. > > Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely > the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as > well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. > > Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc > news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so > I do understand the reasoning here. > > in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of > abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. > > So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my > default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for > staminer points noted as st on the display). > > All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however > there is one title where I would beg to disagree. > > Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek > computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute > to the atmosphere of the game. > > usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one > and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to > me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the > games' immersion far more complete. > > If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair > enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), > you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of > the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a > good thing. > > As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! > make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very > much looking forward to both mota games. > > Also as per my ambience artical, it'll be great to have more music, imho a > wonderful way of showing different environments and parts of the underground > without having to worry about inserting lots of background details. > > Beware the grue! > > dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at htt
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
I agreed with you completely Thomas. Tommy - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "The Addictor" ; "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 4:50 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Ken, Well, as far as package deals goes I'll probably eventually have something like that in place, but I don't honestly expect everyone to buy both. Clear back as early as 2008 I remember asking the list weather or not they wanted me to replace Montezuma's Revenge, AKA Montezuma's Return, with a 2d side-scroller or a 3d first-person game. The results were pretty fairly split. Those in favor of the idea were tired of 2d side-scrollers and I think were looking for something a little more advanced than your average audio game, and most were interested in seeing what a full 3d action adventure would be like. Especially, since this would be quite a bit more advanced than something like Sarah or Shades of Doom. At the same time there was the other side who strongly rejected the suggestion claiming that 3d games are too hard, too confusing, and they wouldn't buy the game if I created it as a 3d first-person adventure. A few were upset about the fact I had to cancel Monte in the first place and wanted a triditional 2d side-scroller along the lines of what they paid for. Of course, since then I've read a number of posts were people don't like Shades of Doom etc because they walk around, get lost, run into walls, and just can't figure it out. Obviously, for such people a 3d first-person game wouldn't be a good purchase. So in the end I had to make a personal decision. What I came up with was a compromise which was to do both. I would produce a 2d side-scroller first, release that as the official replacement for Monte, and then go back and create a full 3d version complete with the bells and wistles left out of the 2d side-scroller. Which version a customer decides to buy is largely his/her choice, and I will likely have some sort of deal running where you can buy both for a reduced price. As far as your comment about it being redundant that's not necessarily true. Both games will have essential differences that makes them two distinctly different products, and eventually I'll be adding bonus content etc to the 3d version that the 2d version won't have. For instance, I might choose to add bonus levels, extra trophies, or other content that will hopefully interest people into buying the 3d version. Since the remainder of the Tomb Hunter series will all be 3d first-person games this will be something of a preview of things to come. I've also considered before final release in adding an arcade mode to the 2d platformer version that will have a scoring system etc similar to the Atari, NES, for people wanting a more classic arcade feel. This feature would not be available in the 3d first-person version. So you see each will have some differences that might be selling points for some people. HTH On 4/1/11, The Addictor wrote: Hey, I don't think many people are going to buy both versions unless you have a package deal--say fifty bucks for both. It seems though that to buy both would be a little redundant, as the rookie gamer would prefer the 2d and the advanced the 3d, so I guess you won't have many customers buying both, unless they buy the 2d, get used to that and want to take that next big jump...Ken Downey The Addictor www.TheAddictor.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, I have a suggestion. Can you add a life system if it's possible? sevgiler saygilar - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 8:59 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Phil, AhemPlease tell me you are joking. Smile. On 4/1/11, Phil Vlasak wrote: Hi Thomas, I object to your pricing. If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d for the same price. It would be better if you charged for each dimension. The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 smiles Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Ken, Well, as far as package deals goes I'll probably eventually have something like that in place, but I don't honestly expect everyone to buy both. Clear back as early as 2008 I remember asking the list weather or not they wanted me to replace Montezuma's Revenge, AKA Montezuma's Return, with a 2d side-scroller or a 3d first-person game. The results were pretty fairly split. Those in favor of the idea were tired of 2d side-scrollers and I think were looking for something a little more advanced than your average audio game, and most were interested in seeing what a full 3d action adventure would be like. Especially, since this would be quite a bit more advanced than something like Sarah or Shades of Doom. At the same time there was the other side who strongly rejected the suggestion claiming that 3d games are too hard, too confusing, and they wouldn't buy the game if I created it as a 3d first-person adventure. A few were upset about the fact I had to cancel Monte in the first place and wanted a triditional 2d side-scroller along the lines of what they paid for. Of course, since then I've read a number of posts were people don't like Shades of Doom etc because they walk around, get lost, run into walls, and just can't figure it out. Obviously, for such people a 3d first-person game wouldn't be a good purchase. So in the end I had to make a personal decision. What I came up with was a compromise which was to do both. I would produce a 2d side-scroller first, release that as the official replacement for Monte, and then go back and create a full 3d version complete with the bells and wistles left out of the 2d side-scroller. Which version a customer decides to buy is largely his/her choice, and I will likely have some sort of deal running where you can buy both for a reduced price. As far as your comment about it being redundant that's not necessarily true. Both games will have essential differences that makes them two distinctly different products, and eventually I'll be adding bonus content etc to the 3d version that the 2d version won't have. For instance, I might choose to add bonus levels, extra trophies, or other content that will hopefully interest people into buying the 3d version. Since the remainder of the Tomb Hunter series will all be 3d first-person games this will be something of a preview of things to come. I've also considered before final release in adding an arcade mode to the 2d platformer version that will have a scoring system etc similar to the Atari, NES, for people wanting a more classic arcade feel. This feature would not be available in the 3d first-person version. So you see each will have some differences that might be selling points for some people. HTH On 4/1/11, The Addictor wrote: > Hey, > I don't think many people are going to buy both versions unless you have a > package deal--say fifty bucks for both. It seems though that to buy both > would be a little redundant, as the rookie gamer would prefer the 2d and the > advanced the 3d, so I guess you won't have many customers buying both, > unless they buy the 2d, get used to that and want to take that next big > jump...Ken Downey > The Addictor > www.TheAddictor.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
That's cool! I'm excited! Tommy - Original Message - From: "Charles Rivard" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:14 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hmm. An extra dimension at no cost. How can you beat that? I guess we'll have to wait until it comes out to try. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Lori, Well, if you heard Scansoft Daniel in a trailer that was probably because I was using Microsoft Sapi directly rather than prerecorded wav files. The G3D Engine, like BGT, offers a developer the option to speak status messages using a Sapi voice of his/her choice, or you can use prerecorded speech files. Obviously, for Mysteries of the Ancients I have chosen the prerecorded voice clips option since that allows everyone to use the exact same voice, and I can use them in a cross-platform port of the game rather than having to tie into any operating system specific API like Sapi 5, Speech-Dispatcher, etc. Besides that, while I love Linux I'll freely admit there aren't as many good text to speech engines available for the platform so its a nice idea to record clips from a Windows Sapi 5 voice like Scansoft Tom and simply include it with a Linux based game. As for the 3d version of Mysteries of the Ancients let me just say when writing the G3D Engine I've borrowed a lot of my ideas from the GMA Game Engine, and have based a lot of the in-game functionality on Shades of Doom in particular. I've often found a lot of navigation aids like pressing v to find out if I have visited a spot before or pressing control+v to set a marker incredibly helpful over the years. For that reason the 3d version of Mysteries of the Ancients will definitely have some of those navigation aids available by default. The 2d version doesn't have these features, because I simply didn't think they were needed in a 2d platformer, but the 3d first-person version will include them by default. HTH On 4/1/11, Lori Duncan wrote: > Hi Tom that makes sense about the voices. I'm positive though when I first > heard about Mota, there was an audio trailler before any beta release was > out, and it had Daniel saying the words like "Torch", I remember it because > I was using Guide speach software at the time and that used the Daniel voice > too. It was never in a beta though. I'm loving the idea of the 3-D > version, but I think a marker key would be handy, so if you pass a certain > place again you'd hear a sound or the voice say "Marker" then a number > depending on how many markers you've placed. It would come in handy so you > don't keep getting lost. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
great to know everyone's getting well! - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Lori Duncan" ; "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:03 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Lori, Yes, thank you. Everyone is doing much better. My wife is almost fully recovered accept for a little bit of a rash she is putting cream on. My son seams to have beaten the flu, and I'm pretty much over it as well. We are, all things considered, almost all back to full health. As for Scansoft Daniel, AKA Real Speak Daniel, I don't recall ever using that voice in any of my games. Definitely not Mysteries of the Ancients. I did use Real Speak Karen, but removed it after various American gamers complained they couldn't understand the voice do to the Australian accents. Which makes sense. Which is partly why I decided to use strictly an American voice. In my experience voices with U.K. or Australian accents don't seam to go over well in U.S. markets. Although, both might be speaking English sometimes Americans have a difficult time understanding the Sapi voice if it has a thick Scottish or Irish brogue, or has some other accent that pronounces words differently than American English. For example, here in the U.S. we say "schedule" with a hard k sound like "skedual." In other English speaking countries like the U.K., Australia, etc they say it with a sh sound like "shedule." That's a bit disconcerting if you are use to, and only use to, the way Americans speak words like that. So I felt it made sense to use an American only voice by default. Of course, I could always add language packs with Scansoft Daniel, Karen, etc anything you like in time. Cheers! On 4/1/11, Lori Duncan wrote: Hi Thom I'm really sorry you've had such a lot of illness, I hope your wife is better now, and I hope you are too. I think it's great you've come through it all and can still be cheerful. Mota 18 sounds great, and the 3-D version sounds really amazing. I just wondered why you picked Tom for the voice, because I remember once the voice was Scansoft Daniel, I thought he sounded really good. Sticking to the same voice is certainlly a good time-saver. Thanks for the update. Best wishes from Lori. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
A gamer might not want to always play the same game, and while these are for the most part, the same game, there will be vast differences, and will both be on my PC for that very reason. Other game manufacturers have game series, so I have no problem with a 2- and a 3-dimensional version of the same game. Ever tried to solve a Rubick's cube? How about trying to solve Rubick's Revenge? One is a cube with 9 tiles per side with a central tile that can be turned, but not moved to another side. The other has 16 tiles per side with the 4 central tiles able to be shifted. Same idea, basically the same puzzle, yet quite different. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! - Original Message - From: "The Addictor" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:14 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hey, I don't think many people are going to buy both versions unless you have a package deal--say fifty bucks for both. It seems though that to buy both would be a little redundant, as the rookie gamer would prefer the 2d and the advanced the 3d, so I guess you won't have many customers buying both, unless they buy the 2d, get used to that and want to take that next big jump...Ken Downey The Addictor www.TheAddictor.com - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hey, I don't think many people are going to buy both versions unless you have a package deal--say fifty bucks for both. It seems though that to buy both would be a little redundant, as the rookie gamer would prefer the 2d and the advanced the 3d, so I guess you won't have many customers buying both, unless they buy the 2d, get used to that and want to take that next big jump...Ken Downey The Addictor www.TheAddictor.com - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Phil, AhemPlease tell me you are joking. Smile. On 4/1/11, Phil Vlasak wrote: > Hi Thomas, > I object to your pricing. > If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d > for the same price. > It would be better if you charged for each dimension. > The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. > or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 > Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 > smiles > Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Dark, H...Well, you are right about AT&T Crystal. My initial reason for picking her is exactly because with a little tinkering around with Goldwave she sounds like a starship computer. I'll take your suggestion under advisement. Since I have many of the necessary speech clips done using her voice I suppose it wouldn't kill me to continue using her for that specific title since it would greatly add to the over all ambience. As for the analog movement I must say it has greatly improved the game a lot. There are times when jumping I forget to hold the jump keys down long enough and poor Angela falls screaming into a fire, onto some bronze spikes, or flat out misses a rope. My mind and hands are still use to the light tap and jump over opsticles method that I often wind up killing myself before I remember I'm now using an analog jump system. Lol! Smile. On 4/1/11, dark wrote: > Hi tom. > > Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas > prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore > throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to > resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. > > Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. > Ward and your son are now all recovered. > > on to games. > > Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely > the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as > well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. > > Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc > news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so > I do understand the reasoning here. > > in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of > abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. > > So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my > default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for > staminer points noted as st on the display). > > All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however > there is one title where I would beg to disagree. > > Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek > computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute > to the atmosphere of the game. > > usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one > and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to > me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the > games' immersion far more complete. > > If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair > enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), > you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of > the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a > good thing. > > As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! > make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very > much looking forward to both mota games. > > Also as per my ambience artical, it'll be great to have more music, imho a > wonderful way of showing different environments and parts of the underground > without having to worry about inserting lots of background details. > > Beware the grue! > > dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, I object to your pricing. If 2 d and 3 d are both $35 then the 2d is over priced as you get one less d for the same price. It would be better if you charged for each dimension. The 2d could be $35 while the 3d $52.50. or the 3d could be 35 while the 2d is $23.34 Then you could even put out a 1d version for 11.66 smiles Phil - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1209 / Virus Database: 1500/3544 - Release Date: 04/01/11 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, I will admit I don't really like zed myself. Sounds too out of place with the rest of the alphabet like b, c, d, e etc. It's funny watching my partner shouting the roof down because I say zee. Hahah. Regards, Damien. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 6:33 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi, Yeah, maybe. I just know with the Scansoft voices Emily, Daniel, Karen, and Sorina they use the sh sound for schedule. That drives me a little nuts hearing that because to my ears that sounds wrong. Not only that take the letter z. Here in the U.S. we say zee like that but in most foreign countries they say zed. When typing, writing a letter or something, and when the synth says zed it about drives me up the wall. I have had to go into the Window-Eyes character dictionary to enforce it to say zee no matter what synth because zed just sounds too frickin' weird for me. Smile. On 4/1/11, Damien Pendleton wrote: Hi Thomas, In actual fact I do say schedule with a k sound. I suppose it all depends on area and accent. Regards, Damien. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Dark, Very true. When it comes to 2d side-scrollers Mysteries of the Ancients is really a first in this community. Beta 18 has cut some new gground in the audio games market in terms of 2d platformers, and I've done my best to modernize the 2d platformer by adding features triditionally found in more advanced 3d first-person games to it. In the end what you are getting with beta 18 is a 2d platformer with a completely modern first-person feel and mechanics. Nothing like that has been done yet in accessible gaming. Then, you have the true 3d version itself. It builds upon ideas in the 2d platformer, but with a fully implamented 3d environment. That too hasn't been tried in audio only as Shades of Doom, Sarah, Monkey Business, etc fake a 3d environment, but never actually have used one. For that reason MOTA 3D will be a first of its kind when it is released later this month. Cheers! On 4/1/11, dark wrote: > or, if your me, both! > > My personal opinion is that there is room for both, sinse nobody has yet > created a convincing 2D game in audio anyway so people have not yet seen > what that perspective can do. > > On the other hand, 3D does offer some extra possibilities particularly in > exploration and different fighting moves, so I myself think it's good we > have two alternatives here. > > Beware the Grue! > > dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, Yeah, maybe. I just know with the Scansoft voices Emily, Daniel, Karen, and Sorina they use the sh sound for schedule. That drives me a little nuts hearing that because to my ears that sounds wrong. Not only that take the letter z. Here in the U.S. we say zee like that but in most foreign countries they say zed. When typing, writing a letter or something, and when the synth says zed it about drives me up the wall. I have had to go into the Window-Eyes character dictionary to enforce it to say zee no matter what synth because zed just sounds too frickin' weird for me. Smile. On 4/1/11, Damien Pendleton wrote: > Hi Thomas, > In actual fact I do say schedule with a k sound. I suppose it all depends on > area and accent. > Regards, > Damien. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Charles, UmmmI think you misunderstood me. The games are $35.00 USD each. The standard and 3d versions are being sold separately in order to raise money for USA Games plus cover the expenses of production. I went way over budget with MOTA, and as much money as I can make off the two different versions the better off we will be getting USA Games, I.E. the company, back on a financial footing commercially. That's basically why I'm creating two different versions and selling them separately. I lost more money than I gained when I assumed control of Alchemy Game Studios, and now I'm paying for it by being in the hole financially with James North's games. Cheers! On 4/1/11, Charles Rivard wrote: > Hmm. An extra dimension at no cost. How can you beat that? I guess we'll > have to wait until it comes out to try. > > --- > Shepherds are the best beasts! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas, In actual fact I do say schedule with a k sound. I suppose it all depends on area and accent. Regards, Damien. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Lori Duncan" ; "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 6:03 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Lori, Yes, thank you. Everyone is doing much better. My wife is almost fully recovered accept for a little bit of a rash she is putting cream on. My son seams to have beaten the flu, and I'm pretty much over it as well. We are, all things considered, almost all back to full health. As for Scansoft Daniel, AKA Real Speak Daniel, I don't recall ever using that voice in any of my games. Definitely not Mysteries of the Ancients. I did use Real Speak Karen, but removed it after various American gamers complained they couldn't understand the voice do to the Australian accents. Which makes sense. Which is partly why I decided to use strictly an American voice. In my experience voices with U.K. or Australian accents don't seam to go over well in U.S. markets. Although, both might be speaking English sometimes Americans have a difficult time understanding the Sapi voice if it has a thick Scottish or Irish brogue, or has some other accent that pronounces words differently than American English. For example, here in the U.S. we say "schedule" with a hard k sound like "skedual." In other English speaking countries like the U.K., Australia, etc they say it with a sh sound like "shedule." That's a bit disconcerting if you are use to, and only use to, the way Americans speak words like that. So I felt it made sense to use an American only voice by default. Of course, I could always add language packs with Scansoft Daniel, Karen, etc anything you like in time. Cheers! On 4/1/11, Lori Duncan wrote: Hi Thom I'm really sorry you've had such a lot of illness, I hope your wife is better now, and I hope you are too. I think it's great you've come through it all and can still be cheerful. Mota 18 sounds great, and the 3-D version sounds really amazing. I just wondered why you picked Tom for the voice, because I remember once the voice was Scansoft Daniel, I thought he sounded really good. Sticking to the same voice is certainlly a good time-saver. Thanks for the update. Best wishes from Lori. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hmm. An extra dimension at no cost. How can you beat that? I guess we'll have to wait until it comes out to try. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:11 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tim, The price for the 3d version will be $35.00 USD. Same as the 2d version. Although, I may run a special or something around the time it is released. I'm not sure. I just know that the final price will be $35.00. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: > What's the price of the 3d version. > > Thanks > > Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi, Yeah, but I'm not exactly using the TTS engine itself in the game. All I'm doing is taking a program called Text Aloud, created by Nextup.com, and having it save voice clips from the Sapi voice to a PCM wav file which I drop into the games speech folder. Doing speech output that way definitely has a larger footprint, but is necessary to maintain the quality of speech output as well as make it cross-platform. Anyway, my point being is whatever footprint the TTS engine itself has doesn't matter as the engine is only used to the point of creating voice clips. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tim Kilgore wrote: > Ivona is a really good speech engine but I think it may have a larger > footprint. Not sure though. > > Tim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Lori, Yes, thank you. Everyone is doing much better. My wife is almost fully recovered accept for a little bit of a rash she is putting cream on. My son seams to have beaten the flu, and I'm pretty much over it as well. We are, all things considered, almost all back to full health. As for Scansoft Daniel, AKA Real Speak Daniel, I don't recall ever using that voice in any of my games. Definitely not Mysteries of the Ancients. I did use Real Speak Karen, but removed it after various American gamers complained they couldn't understand the voice do to the Australian accents. Which makes sense. Which is partly why I decided to use strictly an American voice. In my experience voices with U.K. or Australian accents don't seam to go over well in U.S. markets. Although, both might be speaking English sometimes Americans have a difficult time understanding the Sapi voice if it has a thick Scottish or Irish brogue, or has some other accent that pronounces words differently than American English. For example, here in the U.S. we say "schedule" with a hard k sound like "skedual." In other English speaking countries like the U.K., Australia, etc they say it with a sh sound like "shedule." That's a bit disconcerting if you are use to, and only use to, the way Americans speak words like that. So I felt it made sense to use an American only voice by default. Of course, I could always add language packs with Scansoft Daniel, Karen, etc anything you like in time. Cheers! On 4/1/11, Lori Duncan wrote: > Hi Thom I'm really sorry you've had such a lot of illness, I hope your wife > is better now, and I hope you are too. I think it's great you've come > through it all and can still be cheerful. Mota 18 sounds great, and the 3-D > version sounds really amazing. I just wondered why you picked Tom for the > voice, because I remember once the voice was Scansoft Daniel, I thought he > sounded really good. Sticking to the same voice is certainlly a good > time-saver. Thanks for the update. Best wishes from Lori. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Wow! I'm excited. I can't wait! Tommy - Original Message - From: "Charles Rivard" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 2:58 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes to show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, namely, life on the home front. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 2:31 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 USA Games News March 31, 2011 Introduction Hello, and welcome to another edition of the USA Games news letter. This has been, so far, not a good start to the new year for us at USA Games Interactive. My family and I have undergone several health issues that have slowed and in large part prevented us from making steady progress on our active titles such as Mysteries of the Ancients and USA Raceway. Although, we were planning on a quick release for MOTA beta 18 health issues simply got in the way, and everything had to be put on hold until we had recovered from the various illnesses that struck the family. It all began in mid to late February when my wife, Ester, discovered a rash on her forehead. After she went to see the doctor we discovered she had a bacterial infection called Impetigo which is highly contagious. The doctor gave her various antibiotics to get rid of the infection, but unfortunately between the infection and antibiotics she was sick for several days. She slept most of the time, and most of the household chores like cooking, cleaning, etcc fell to me while she rested. Then, if things couldn't get any worse my son, Sean, came down with a stomach flu in March. I'll spare you all the gory details, but suddenly we had two ill people in the house, and one really able bodied person up and about. So that became something of a serious challenge for me. Finally, in late March I myself came down sick with the flu and spent several days in bed sleeping, throwing up, or just reading books waiting for my body to recover. Fortunately, my wife was pretty much over her infection so she was able to tend to me giving me bowls of soup, medicine, etc while I weathered the flu. As I write this I'm far better than I was, but I still feel a bit drained and week from the events of the past week. So in the end do to health related issues we literally lost about a month in development time as one or more family members fell ill, and all of our active projects were put on hold. All the same some work was completed, and it is to these changes, updates, etc I'd like to report. Many of These things were added before the family became sick, and some I managed to work on in my free time throughout the month of March as I found time to do them. So fortunately it wasn't a complete loss. So here is to the good news. New Default Voice Over the past few months of game development I discovered it was extremely time consuming to record, edit, and produce prerecorded wav files for several different game titles at once. We had Accapela Heather for Mysteries of the Ancients, Real Speak Tom for USA Raceway, AT&T Crystal for Final Conflict, etc. It is something of a hassle to record hundreds, perhaps thousands, of speech clips for each and every game especially when in a lot of the cases the messages such as numbers, directions, standard menus, etc are the exact same thing but using a different Sapi voice. So I decided what we really needed to do is decide on a default voice that we would use for every single game. That is to create a large library of voice clips and samples we could literally copy into a new USA Games project and have all the basic work done such as numbers, default menus, standard status messages, etc. All that would need to be added is specialized speech clips for new weapons, characters, extra status messages, whatever which would greatly speed up the development process as well as save me a lot of unnecessary work. So I began looking at all the Sapi voices I own to find out which one sounded the most professional, which one was the most clear, and seamed to have the best pronunciation dictionary. Accapela Heather, although she has a nice voice, really has difficulty with pronunciation. The AT&T voices like Crystal, Mike, etc also sound good but have difficulty with words that often come up in sci-fi and fantasy books. The Neospeech voices while they also sounded good often tended to spell words they couldn't pronounce which made coming up with a correct pronunciation difficulty. In the end the only voices that seamed to meet most of my requirements were the Real Speak voices that ship with Freedom Scientific products such as Jaws and Openboo
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thom I'm really sorry you've had such a lot of illness, I hope your wife is better now, and I hope you are too. I think it's great you've come through it all and can still be cheerful. Mota 18 sounds great, and the 3-D version sounds really amazing. I just wondered why you picked Tom for the voice, because I remember once the voice was Scansoft Daniel, I thought he sounded really good. Sticking to the same voice is certainlly a good time-saver. Thanks for the update. Best wishes from Lori. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 8:31 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 USA Games News March 31, 2011 Introduction Hello, and welcome to another edition of the USA Games news letter. This has been, so far, not a good start to the new year for us at USA Games Interactive. My family and I have undergone several health issues that have slowed and in large part prevented us from making steady progress on our active titles such as Mysteries of the Ancients and USA Raceway. Although, we were planning on a quick release for MOTA beta 18 health issues simply got in the way, and everything had to be put on hold until we had recovered from the various illnesses that struck the family. It all began in mid to late February when my wife, Ester, discovered a rash on her forehead. After she went to see the doctor we discovered she had a bacterial infection called Impetigo which is highly contagious. The doctor gave her various antibiotics to get rid of the infection, but unfortunately between the infection and antibiotics she was sick for several days. She slept most of the time, and most of the household chores like cooking, cleaning, etcc fell to me while she rested. Then, if things couldn't get any worse my son, Sean, came down with a stomach flu in March. I'll spare you all the gory details, but suddenly we had two ill people in the house, and one really able bodied person up and about. So that became something of a serious challenge for me. Finally, in late March I myself came down sick with the flu and spent several days in bed sleeping, throwing up, or just reading books waiting for my body to recover. Fortunately, my wife was pretty much over her infection so she was able to tend to me giving me bowls of soup, medicine, etc while I weathered the flu. As I write this I'm far better than I was, but I still feel a bit drained and week from the events of the past week. So in the end do to health related issues we literally lost about a month in development time as one or more family members fell ill, and all of our active projects were put on hold. All the same some work was completed, and it is to these changes, updates, etc I'd like to report. Many of These things were added before the family became sick, and some I managed to work on in my free time throughout the month of March as I found time to do them. So fortunately it wasn't a complete loss. So here is to the good news. New Default Voice Over the past few months of game development I discovered it was extremely time consuming to record, edit, and produce prerecorded wav files for several different game titles at once. We had Accapela Heather for Mysteries of the Ancients, Real Speak Tom for USA Raceway, AT&T Crystal for Final Conflict, etc. It is something of a hassle to record hundreds, perhaps thousands, of speech clips for each and every game especially when in a lot of the cases the messages such as numbers, directions, standard menus, etc are the exact same thing but using a different Sapi voice. So I decided what we really needed to do is decide on a default voice that we would use for every single game. That is to create a large library of voice clips and samples we could literally copy into a new USA Games project and have all the basic work done such as numbers, default menus, standard status messages, etc. All that would need to be added is specialized speech clips for new weapons, characters, extra status messages, whatever which would greatly speed up the development process as well as save me a lot of unnecessary work. So I began looking at all the Sapi voices I own to find out which one sounded the most professional, which one was the most clear, and seamed to have the best pronunciation dictionary. Accapela Heather, although she has a nice voice, really has difficulty with pronunciation. The AT&T voices like Crystal, Mike, etc also sound good but have difficulty with words that often come up in sci-fi and fantasy books. The Neospeech voices while they also sounded good often tended to spell words they couldn't pronounce which made coming up with a correct pronunciation difficulty. In the end the only voices that seamed to meet most of my requirements were the Real Speak voices that ship with Freedom Scientific products such as Jaws and Openbook. In my personal opinion Real Speak Tom, seamed to fit all of the requirements, as his
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Ivona is a really good speech engine but I think it may have a larger footprint. Not sure though. Tim - Original Message - From: "Charles Rivard" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:38 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Ah. OK. That's a good sign of recovery after all. --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:20 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Charles, Actually, I thought I was a pod person. Grin. P.S. For those who don't get the joke watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I.E. that 1950's sci-fi B Movie. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
What's the price of the 3d version. Thanks Tim - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Charles Rivard" ; "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Charles, Yeah, tell me about it. For a couple of days there I thought I was going to die. You know how when you get a serious case of the flu all you do is sleep, throw up, sleep, throw up, break out in chills, throw up, sweat to death, throw up, etc.There were a couple of nasty days were I couldn't keep anything down. I tried hot tea and chicken noodle soop and that came right back up. I tried taking some medicine and that came right back up too so had to rough it. Let's just say work of any kind wasn't on my mind for a good two or three entire days. It was all I could do to get out of the bed, use the bathroom, and get back into bed. I was so physically drained that I think I was probably sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a stretch. So game programming definitely wasn't too important. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes to show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, namely, life on the home front. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
or, if your me, both! My personal opinion is that there is room for both, sinse nobody has yet created a convincing 2D game in audio anyway so people have not yet seen what that perspective can do. On the other hand, 3D does offer some extra possibilities particularly in exploration and different fighting moves, so I myself think it's good we have two alternatives here. Beware the Grue! dark. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 2:16 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Willem, Thanks. Todays the first day I felt almost human in four or five days. For the past week I've mainly sat in bed with my laptop exchanging a few e-mails, or buried under blankets listening to books on my mp3 player. So its glad to be back with the living again. Anyway, as for the 3d beta I'm pretty psyched about it. I've been playing it off an on for the last few months, but could never find the time to release beta 1. It is quite a bit better than the 2d in my opinion as it is more like the Tomb Raider games, I.E. the 3d Tomb Raider games, than the 2d version is. It is pretty much more like what I origionally invisioned to begin with. So you guys can take your pick weather you want the 2d version created to replace Montezuma's Revenge or you can purchase the version created my way. Smile. On 3/31/11, Willem Venter wrote: Hi Thomas. I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon. All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for the 3d fps beta! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi tom. Having spent the week betwene boxing day and new years day of Christmas prostrated with the flue myself, very irritating sinse I had such a bad sore throat I didn't even want to speak for fear of damaging my voice, so had to resort to a combination of Typing stuff on my laptop and sign language. Eitherway I actually really sympathize at the moment, and am glad you, Mrs. Ward and your son are now all recovered. on to games. Well funnily enough Scansoft Daniel is my default sapi voice for precisely the same reason, and that also counts using winfrotz tts and playing muds as well as games like lone wolf or Jim's. Daniel is of course Tom's british brother, and in fact to me sounds very bbc news (I did find your description of Tom as a newcaster rather amusing), so I do understand the reasoning here. in fact my only problem with daniel is it has preset speaking of abbreviations which (unlike with orphius), you can't alter. So I do have to get used to being told I've selected manuscript sapi as my default voice or that my character has 13 hp 12 mana and two street (for staminer points noted as st on the display). All this aside I do understand your use of Tom in most games, however there is one title where I would beg to disagree. Startrek final conflict, sinse Crystal while not actually! the startrek computer voice, does sound similar enough to it imho to actually contribute to the atmosphere of the game. usually I wouldn't mind a synth voice in games so long as it is a good one and so long as it's just speaking menues and not playing a character, but to me playing stfc, crystal actually seemed to be a character, and made the games' immersion far more complete. If Switching to Tom for the next version of stfc is a must, fair enough, but if (sinse you already have some startrek voice clips recorded), you might considder keeping Crystal just for the startrek games because of the happy accident of her resembling the computer, --- that would imho be a good thing. As you know I'll be looking forward to seeing analogue movement finally! make it into an audio game, and I'm a big exploration fan so will be very much looking forward to both mota games. Also as per my ambience artical, it'll be great to have more music, imho a wonderful way of showing different environments and parts of the underground without having to worry about inserting lots of background details. Beware the grue! dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
go to Ivona dot com. and check it out Thomas. Tomy - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:16 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Tommie, Ivona voice? What's that? I've never heard of that Sapi voice, nor do I have it. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tommy wrote: Hey Thomas! What about Ivona voice? You could use that MOTA too. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Ah. OK. That's a good sign of recovery after all. --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:20 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Charles, Actually, I thought I was a pod person. Grin. P.S. For those who don't get the joke watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I.E. that 1950's sci-fi B Movie. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Charles, Actually, I thought I was a pod person. Grin. P.S. For those who don't get the joke watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I.E. that 1950's sci-fi B Movie. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: > Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? > You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, > dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) > > --- > Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to > heart. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Tommie, Ivona voice? What's that? I've never heard of that Sapi voice, nor do I have it. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Tommy wrote: > Hey Thomas! What about Ivona voice? You could use that MOTA too. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Yeah! Mwa ha ha ha ha! We are the Knights who say...Ni! - Original Message - From: "Charles Rivard" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 7:45 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 8:16 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Willem, Thanks. Todays the first day I felt almost human in four or five days. For the past week I've mainly sat in bed with my laptop exchanging a few e-mails, or buried under blankets listening to books on my mp3 player. So its glad to be back with the living again. Anyway, as for the 3d beta I'm pretty psyched about it. I've been playing it off an on for the last few months, but could never find the time to release beta 1. It is quite a bit better than the 2d in my opinion as it is more like the Tomb Raider games, I.E. the 3d Tomb Raider games, than the 2d version is. It is pretty much more like what I origionally invisioned to begin with. So you guys can take your pick weather you want the 2d version created to replace Montezuma's Revenge or you can purchase the version created my way. Smile. On 3/31/11, Willem Venter wrote: Hi Thomas. I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon. All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for the 3d fps beta! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hey Thomas! What about Ivona voice? You could use that MOTA too. - Original Message - From: "Charles Rivard" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 8:45 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 8:16 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Willem, Thanks. Todays the first day I felt almost human in four or five days. For the past week I've mainly sat in bed with my laptop exchanging a few e-mails, or buried under blankets listening to books on my mp3 player. So its glad to be back with the living again. Anyway, as for the 3d beta I'm pretty psyched about it. I've been playing it off an on for the last few months, but could never find the time to release beta 1. It is quite a bit better than the 2d in my opinion as it is more like the Tomb Raider games, I.E. the 3d Tomb Raider games, than the 2d version is. It is pretty much more like what I origionally invisioned to begin with. So you guys can take your pick weather you want the 2d version created to replace Montezuma's Revenge or you can purchase the version created my way. Smile. On 3/31/11, Willem Venter wrote: Hi Thomas. I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon. All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for the 3d fps beta! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
I'm glad that you and your family getting better Thomas. Tommy - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Charles Rivard" ; "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Charles, Yeah, tell me about it. For a couple of days there I thought I was going to die. You know how when you get a serious case of the flu all you do is sleep, throw up, sleep, throw up, break out in chills, throw up, sweat to death, throw up, etc.There were a couple of nasty days were I couldn't keep anything down. I tried hot tea and chicken noodle soop and that came right back up. I tried taking some medicine and that came right back up too so had to rough it. Let's just say work of any kind wasn't on my mind for a good two or three entire days. It was all I could do to get out of the bed, use the bathroom, and get back into bed. I was so physically drained that I think I was probably sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a stretch. So game programming definitely wasn't too important. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes to show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, namely, life on the home front. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Almost human? Oh my God! And here I was, thinking you're getting better? You're a game developer! You're supposed to be inhumanely evil, ornery, dastardly, all that fun stuff. Not human! (grin) --- Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to heart. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 8:16 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 Hi Willem, Thanks. Todays the first day I felt almost human in four or five days. For the past week I've mainly sat in bed with my laptop exchanging a few e-mails, or buried under blankets listening to books on my mp3 player. So its glad to be back with the living again. Anyway, as for the 3d beta I'm pretty psyched about it. I've been playing it off an on for the last few months, but could never find the time to release beta 1. It is quite a bit better than the 2d in my opinion as it is more like the Tomb Raider games, I.E. the 3d Tomb Raider games, than the 2d version is. It is pretty much more like what I origionally invisioned to begin with. So you guys can take your pick weather you want the 2d version created to replace Montezuma's Revenge or you can purchase the version created my way. Smile. On 3/31/11, Willem Venter wrote: Hi Thomas. I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon. All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for the 3d fps beta! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Willem, Thanks. Todays the first day I felt almost human in four or five days. For the past week I've mainly sat in bed with my laptop exchanging a few e-mails, or buried under blankets listening to books on my mp3 player. So its glad to be back with the living again. Anyway, as for the 3d beta I'm pretty psyched about it. I've been playing it off an on for the last few months, but could never find the time to release beta 1. It is quite a bit better than the 2d in my opinion as it is more like the Tomb Raider games, I.E. the 3d Tomb Raider games, than the 2d version is. It is pretty much more like what I origionally invisioned to begin with. So you guys can take your pick weather you want the 2d version created to replace Montezuma's Revenge or you can purchase the version created my way. Smile. On 3/31/11, Willem Venter wrote: > Hi Thomas. > I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better > soon. > > All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for > the 3d fps beta! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Thomas. I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon. All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for the 3d fps beta! On 3/31/11, Thomas Ward wrote: > Hi Charles, > > Yeah, tell me about it. For a couple of days there I thought I was > going to die. You know how when you get a serious case of the flu all > you do is sleep, throw up, sleep, throw up, break out in chills, throw > up, sweat to death, throw up, etc.There were a couple of nasty days > were I couldn't keep anything down. I tried hot tea and chicken noodle > soop and that came right back up. I tried taking some medicine and > that came right back up too so had to rough it. Let's just say work of > any kind wasn't on my mind for a good two or three entire days. It was > all I could do to get out of the bed, use the bathroom, and get back > into bed. I was so physically drained that I think I was probably > sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a stretch. So game programming definitely > wasn't too important. > > Cheers! > > > On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: >> A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to >> hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes >> to >> show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, >> namely, >> life on the home front. >> >> --- >> Shepherds are the best beasts! > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
Hi Charles, Yeah, tell me about it. For a couple of days there I thought I was going to die. You know how when you get a serious case of the flu all you do is sleep, throw up, sleep, throw up, break out in chills, throw up, sweat to death, throw up, etc.There were a couple of nasty days were I couldn't keep anything down. I tried hot tea and chicken noodle soop and that came right back up. I tried taking some medicine and that came right back up too so had to rough it. Let's just say work of any kind wasn't on my mind for a good two or three entire days. It was all I could do to get out of the bed, use the bathroom, and get back into bed. I was so physically drained that I think I was probably sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a stretch. So game programming definitely wasn't too important. Cheers! On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard wrote: > A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to > hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes to > show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, namely, > life on the home front. > > --- > Shepherds are the best beasts! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011
A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is. It only goes to show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job, namely, life on the home front. --- Shepherds are the best beasts! - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 2:31 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011 USA Games News March 31, 2011 Introduction Hello, and welcome to another edition of the USA Games news letter. This has been, so far, not a good start to the new year for us at USA Games Interactive. My family and I have undergone several health issues that have slowed and in large part prevented us from making steady progress on our active titles such as Mysteries of the Ancients and USA Raceway. Although, we were planning on a quick release for MOTA beta 18 health issues simply got in the way, and everything had to be put on hold until we had recovered from the various illnesses that struck the family. It all began in mid to late February when my wife, Ester, discovered a rash on her forehead. After she went to see the doctor we discovered she had a bacterial infection called Impetigo which is highly contagious. The doctor gave her various antibiotics to get rid of the infection, but unfortunately between the infection and antibiotics she was sick for several days. She slept most of the time, and most of the household chores like cooking, cleaning, etcc fell to me while she rested. Then, if things couldn't get any worse my son, Sean, came down with a stomach flu in March. I'll spare you all the gory details, but suddenly we had two ill people in the house, and one really able bodied person up and about. So that became something of a serious challenge for me. Finally, in late March I myself came down sick with the flu and spent several days in bed sleeping, throwing up, or just reading books waiting for my body to recover. Fortunately, my wife was pretty much over her infection so she was able to tend to me giving me bowls of soup, medicine, etc while I weathered the flu. As I write this I'm far better than I was, but I still feel a bit drained and week from the events of the past week. So in the end do to health related issues we literally lost about a month in development time as one or more family members fell ill, and all of our active projects were put on hold. All the same some work was completed, and it is to these changes, updates, etc I'd like to report. Many of These things were added before the family became sick, and some I managed to work on in my free time throughout the month of March as I found time to do them. So fortunately it wasn't a complete loss. So here is to the good news. New Default Voice Over the past few months of game development I discovered it was extremely time consuming to record, edit, and produce prerecorded wav files for several different game titles at once. We had Accapela Heather for Mysteries of the Ancients, Real Speak Tom for USA Raceway, AT&T Crystal for Final Conflict, etc. It is something of a hassle to record hundreds, perhaps thousands, of speech clips for each and every game especially when in a lot of the cases the messages such as numbers, directions, standard menus, etc are the exact same thing but using a different Sapi voice. So I decided what we really needed to do is decide on a default voice that we would use for every single game. That is to create a large library of voice clips and samples we could literally copy into a new USA Games project and have all the basic work done such as numbers, default menus, standard status messages, etc. All that would need to be added is specialized speech clips for new weapons, characters, extra status messages, whatever which would greatly speed up the development process as well as save me a lot of unnecessary work. So I began looking at all the Sapi voices I own to find out which one sounded the most professional, which one was the most clear, and seamed to have the best pronunciation dictionary. Accapela Heather, although she has a nice voice, really has difficulty with pronunciation. The AT&T voices like Crystal, Mike, etc also sound good but have difficulty with words that often come up in sci-fi and fantasy books. The Neospeech voices while they also sounded good often tended to spell words they couldn't pronounce which made coming up with a correct pronunciation difficulty. In the end the only voices that seamed to meet most of my requirements were the Real Speak voices that ship with Freedom Scientific products such as Jaws and Openbook. In my personal opinion Real Speak Tom, seamed to fit all of the requirements, as his voice always reminded me of an American news caster or sports commentator. So beginning with Mysteries of the Ancients beta 18, USA Raceway beta 1, and sTFC 2.0 beta 1 all of our projects will ship with Real Speak Tom b
