New Games Released from ByDesign!
.: ByDesign Games: Busier than a Beaver
Who Dances All Night Long :.
* New Games Released!
With Make Bouncy Bouncy v1.2 out the door, we’ve finally got around to updating ByDesign Game’s game list with some of the other game work we’ve performed over the first half of 2008; including a multiplayer strategy game prototype and a sports title.
Athough not inclusive of everything we’ve been
working on, check out the latest additions here:
http://www.bydesigngames.com/games
The new games were done for private clients, so are not availabe for your enjoyment (not here anyway), however if you keep your eyes open, you might catch a glimpse of the titles as you make your way out & about this vast tapestry that we call existence. Bet!
.: Disembodied Hand Holding The Sign of Good Things To Come? :.
* Looking Ahead: ByDesign stokes the fires of anticipation!
As you may have heard, Apple has launched the App Store for iPhone. It looks like once again Apple has proven they know how to “do it right” when launching an online, organized & single point of entry for compelling content without gouging both consumers and content providers.
Further judging by their distribution fees, they’ve proven they understand it’s better to keep a market healthy (instead of cannabalizing it), but also how not to undercut the very people who fill the market in the first place; their distribution agreements are fair & sweet! (Are you listening Web Portals? It’s better when we work “fair together”, not against each other!)
We cannot go into further details right now, but enjoy the above teaser image and stay tuned in the months ahead, because ByDesign is poised to arrive on the iPhone in a big way!
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As you can see, things are moving & shaking here at ByDesign Games. If you like what you see, let us know by posting in our forums!
ByDesign Community & Support Forums
http://www.bydesigngames.com/forums
As always, you can further help us spread the word by telling your friends, your family, your colleagues and their pets all the good stuff we’re up to here! Just click Tell A Friend from the panel on the right and you're set!
Until next time, have fun!
"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." [Aristotle -- Greek Philosopher, Student, Teacher]
ByDesign kicks off 2008 with a bang!
* New Designs & Development Projects
From the start of the year, ByDesign has been busy with a new online game prototype, a new interactive installation project, a new game design commissioned for the Wii console, plus various support work on other upcoming projects and opportunities (hint: iPhone!). It’s been crazy!
There is much more coming down the pike, such 2008 is looking to be a banner year for ByDesign Games! Check back here throughout the year for more details as it all develops!
.: v1.2 now available at http://www.bydesigngames.com/mbb/ :.
* Make Bouncy Bouncy gets new promo video, new online retail partners & a new version update!
We've added a video trailer highlighting Make Bouncy Bouncy's atmosphere & showcasing some of the gameplay. Check it out by visiting the Official Make Bouncy Bouncy Website!
In addition to a new & easier to navigate game site (with score leaderboard), Make Bouncy Bouncy has also recently launched with certain new online retailers to help spread the Bouncy Bouncy love! If you shop online, you might come across it, else it is available on the official game site at ByDesignGames.com.
As a part of our on-going plan to release regular updates and extensions to the game, we're happy to make v1.2 available, the game's biggest update yet! Changes include;
- Core play mechanic has a completely new layer to it... Building up your bounce is even more explosive and rewarding!
- Levels now have bouncy objectives, bonus bounces, and score multipliers!
- Added new levels to all Moods; the game now has over 35 levels in total! Will continue to release new levels (for free) for the life of the game.
- Fine-tuned the game’s physics to offer a more satisfying bounce when not making bouncy bouncy.
- Added a new feature that allows players to quickly turn 180 degrees by pressing Right Mouse Button / Down Arrow.
- Added a new pad type, the Turn Pad. The Turn Pad will angle you towards it's arrow whenever you land on it.
- Added a feature to enhance the feeling of vertigo in some levels. To "hear it" in action, play the level Firenze in the Nervous mood (also appears in other key levels).
- Demo users have a new free daily random level button in Mood Select; gives access to an otherwise demo-locked level & changes daily!
- Added Level Select functionality; now you can choose the level you wish to play on, if you've already unlocked that level.
- Added ability to change game resolution to the Options screen; players no longer have to restart to change the game's resolution (old start-up dialog was removed).
- Refinements to the overall visual styling.
- Demo available as a Mac OSX Dashboard Widget. Update: it’s an Apple staff pick today!
- And many more! Details can be found in the game's Version History.
Existing players can download free updates from the Official Make Bouncy Bouncy Website, just click Download!
As always, if you have any thoughts or feelings about Make Bouncy Bouncy, have any comments or questions, do not hesitate to let us know in our Forums or directly via the Contact page. As this update suggests, we are indeed listening!
Stay tuned for more Bouncy Bouncy news in the coming weeks & months!
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As you can see, things are rocking & rolling here at ByDesign Games. You can still help us spread the word by telling your friends, your family, and colleagues all about our work! Just click Tell A Friend from the panel on the right and you're all set!
Until next time, have fun and stay frosty!
"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything" [George Bernard Shaw -- Irish Playwright, Literary Critic]
Extra Extra... read all about it!
Technology: it is sometimes hard to imagine that the human race's use of technology began with the conversion of our surrounding natural resources into simple tools.
.: Technology of the Past : Simpler... Deadlier? :.
From using sticks and bones to help mash up our food, we've continued the path to empower us to create a global communications medium, to take photos from the edge of our solar system, and to build tools that allow us to express anything we can imagine...
Clearly, we've come a long way baby!
* New Site Updates; With the pending release of Make Bouncy Bouncy, we took some time to update various aspects of the site. Among the updates, we've launched a new home page celebrating our extensive game industry experience. Following that, the About Us page has at long last been updated to include details & some images from our past work.
More site updates, the ByDesign Games Forums has officially launched! Players can now give direct feedback, get specific game support, talk about upcoming games and game design ideas with a direct line to the brains here at ByDesign.
Final misc. site updates, we've added lightbox support for linked images, the site should load faster due to some back-end optimizations, and we performed some misc. color usage tweaks to enhance readability. Not too shabby for a single site update eh?
* Make Bouncy Bouncy status; I'm pleased to say that Make Bouncy Bouncy, ByDesign's new casual game with a funny name, is on track for a November release! Soon enough, you'll enjoy to Make Bouncy Bouncy with ByDesign Games! The game's site has yet to fully launch, only the teaser site is in place for now, but keep an eye this space for more updates as we near release.
* Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard; Attention! A Leopard is loose in the wild! That's right, Apple has released their latest operating system cum opus, OS X 10.5 Leopard. Speaking as a designer, Apple continues to amaze with their design priorities; with Leopard, the result is a very usable and rewarding experience all without sacrificing the important base elements of stability and security. From Quick Look (oh it's great!) to Spaces (nice implementation of an old idea) along with over 300 improvements across the board, the final analysis is that Leopard is a worthy update to a stable, secure, economical and all around pleasant operating system. After some very minor 3rd-party software updates, ByDesign is now fully a house of Leopard!
* Unity v2.0 released; Not to be outdone, Unity Technologies (formerly Over The Edge Technologies) has unleashed their Unity Engine v2.0 on the masses. As you know, we've been working with the v2.0 technology for a couple of months, helping it mature, and I can easily say, this update was worth it. In the making for the over 3 years, v2.0 brings much in the way of delicious new features: Terrains, Networking support, the latest rendering technologies, and a whole host of other game developer goodies. Unity is our engine of choice here at ByDesign, and we're just ecstatic that v2 is now available publicly.
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Whew! Well, that's it for this time. Stay tuned on ByDesign Games because... "things just keep getting better & better!"
"In science as in love, too much concentration on technique can often lead to impotence." [Peter Ludwig Berger -- Writer, Theologian]
Time Flies When You're Busy (now with more science!)
.: Time - no longer relegated to the annals of pithy catch-phrases :.
Anyway, this time around we've news on the super secret EA game mentioned in last month's update AND... (wait for it) a brand-spanking-new casual web game!
* Game Design for EA; We've completed our Design Direction with the developer on a new version of a classic & critically acclaimed Electronic Arts console & desktop video game. Sure enough, with so much history at stake, Electronic Arts has decided to hold back on its release until other related platform versions are ready to enjoy. Rest assured, once it's out, you'll hear about it here!
* New Game Announcement;
For generations past, playing games often involved attacking or destroying anything & everything with little reason or purpose. Mindless violence surely has it's place (so much better in game-space than in real life!) but "too much" is definitely not "a good thing".
Here at ByDesign Games, we've created a response to all of that. We proudly present...
.: A new casual puzzle game experience from ByDesign Games :.
What started as a 10-day "for fun" game-design exploration, has born the fruit of goodness such we are on track to release it in the short term, to wrap up our short break from The Late Call. Check out screenshots and more at the game's teaser site!
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Such it is, we're busy bees here at ByDesign... so that be all for this bout. Stay sweet and delicious everyone!
"You must never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it." [Charles Buxton -- Writer, Brewer]
An August Agog at ByDesign!
.: The Joys of Reaching Out :.
Throughout August, ByDesign has worked to convert and extend the The Late Call code-base over to V2 of the Unity engine. Progress has been excellent and the game is already enjoying enhanced stability as well as performance boosts across all target platforms.
If that wasn't enough, in August we also participated in a few new short-term projects for the fun, challenge and interest they bring :
* New Game Design for EA; I cannot say too much about this at the moment, but ByDesign is performing Design Direction with the developer on a new version of a classic & critically acclaimed Electronic Arts console & desktop video game, originally released oh so many years ago. In days gone by, it landed on no less than 13 (that's right, count 'em!) platforms. This mystery game I grew up playing & enjoying as a wee sprout, and so leaped at the chance to help usher in a new version. More about this as it unfolds!
* New Interactive Visualization Toolkit; this project took shape initially to help an existing art client realize their interactivity goals. The end result is a very usable design & development toolkit that enables artists to create interactive visualization applications with no programming head-aches. If such a toolkit sounds interesting to you, you are welcome to email: archviz @ bydesigngames . com for more info.
Both projects have been interesting to participate in and great to work on, but alas, with our resources, they've taken some time away from The Late Call. From the looks of things, they will continue to do for at least a couple more weeks. So it goes...
Don't worry though, the TLC baby will be birthed soon enough! We're obviously taking our time on what is in some respects, a flagship game, in effort to deliver a fun and refreshing Next-Gen CasualTM play experience, hehe. Oh if only we all had more arms like our friend up above!
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So that's most of the excitement happening over here at ByDesign; the moving and the shaking. I hope this finds everyone healthy and satiated by the summer months here in the Northern Hemisphere.
And if you by chance are reading this from the Southern Hemisphere, well... consider this: there exists strong evidence to suggest that in the distant past, the Southern Hemisphere was actually the Northern Hemisphere! :P Just another reminder for us all to hang on tight!
"I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed." [George Carlin -- Humourist]
The Late Call Gets New Tech Loving & Interview
.: Unity v2 Goodness :.
Technology Loving: ByDesign Games is pleased to announce The Late Call will use the very latest Unity technology from Over The Edge.
Previously, The Late Call utilized the 1.x codebase of Unity, but after discussion with OTEE, it became clear that porting the game to their soon-to-be-released v2 engine is definitely worth the time.
The upside is that The Late Call will look better & play faster on many more machines (even many older machines). The downside is that it will take a little longer to wrap it up. We continue to target a Summer release, though the game likely won't be available before the end of August.
So stay tuned and we'll get The Late Call out to you just as soon as humanly possible!
New Interview: Early in July, Joe took a few minutes to chat with Mac Radio & their iGameRadio show about how ByDesign Games got started, The Late Call, how breathing in a game doesn't have to be adult-orientated (zoink!), and why Wayne Gretzky is truly great.
Listen in on the show here!
So that's all for this update! August is shaping up to be a very exciting month for ByDesign Games, so until next time.. have fun!
"Humor is reason gone mad." [Groucho Marx -- October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977]
When it rains... it pours!
First the boring stuff to get out of the way; have added certain usability features to the website, including a clickable "lightbox" for game screenshots plus search via Google. Nothing too exciting, but it should help you better find & navigate to the content you want.
Also of minor note, have added social networking 
buttons to the Blog and The Late Call game pages. Being a smaller developer, ByDesign Games relies on positive "word of mouth" from you, the press & players (yes YOU!). Social networking sites like Digg are a very effective & fun way to get the word out. So, for those of you who wish to help promote the work we do here, go ahead and try it, it helps!
Next up, The Late Call page has been redesigned for better navigation; finding info & content on your favorite upcoming game should be a lot easier. Also updated the game's News page with info on language support (hint: The Late Call will most likely "spreck-en-zee" your lingo!), plus status on last month's beta program; now closed. We've had a great response so far, thanks to all who applied!
What's more, have added some info about a few interactive projects ByDesign Games created this spring. You can check them out on the Games page.
Last thing, we suffered some data loss here at ByDesign due to an unreliable backup medium. Who knew hard disks wear out too!? Apparently everyone that I've talked to, heh. The good news: "most" of the lost data was recovered. The bad news: what was lost has suffered us some minor delays on certain projects (including The Late Call). Nothing too drastic, but enough to mention.
"So it goes..." [RIP Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -- November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007]
InsideMacGames Interview with ByDesign Games Now Online
InsideMacGames interview with Joe (Game Director here at ByDesign Games)
In this interview, we discuss various topics, from the status of ByDesign's upcoming game The Late Call, to pc-mac switching, the (sorry) state of the downloadable games PC market, and downloading games for your mac using Mark's MyMacGames service.
There is every indication that online distribution will be the leading method of game content distribution in a sooner-than-we-think timeframe, and in this interview we discuss some of the pros and cons that are helping shaping this reality.
Check it out! And if you are at all interested in the above topics, leave a comment below or at the InsideMacGames forums to add to the discussion!
Until next time!
ByDesign Games Blog Now Online!
Welcome to the ByDesign Games Blog, the first of future posts to come!
Here you will find news and status on our current video game projects for Mac, PC, and possibly consoles (Wii! Oui!), comments on trends, and very likely wild, late-night musings on this or that mundane topic...
At the moment, we here at ByDesign Games are very busy on current projects, one of which is The Late Call... all the while keeping schedule-eating "new" features at bay with a chair and bullwhip...
So take a look around, take our thanks for visiting, and watch this space for news!