Wednesday, December 27, 2006

TYLER Interrupted

A belated Merry Chirstmas to everyone!

I'm in wine country, Napa Valley, now. I've been Internet deprived for a few days and I didn't have time to really come online on Christmas Day anyway. Ironically because I'm in the US now, I'm probably the only one in TYLER who can really access our servers here in the US.

That earthquake in Taiwan damaged the undersea cables providing the Internet connection to Singapore. Thank goodness our dear Empress Pumpkin left Taiwan (and she is now safe and sound back in Singapore) just a few days before the quake.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed your Christmas! Right now I need to figure out how to get a crate of wine shipped back to Singapore.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Greetings from Fog City

Hi Guys,

Greeting from Fog City, San Francisco. I just touched down about 24 hours ago. Managed to hand over the 90% done intro screen with credits to TY before I left.

First meal here was a really BIG breakfast this morning at Sears fine food(not the department store) on Powell Street off Union Square. The hashbrown was 4 times bigger than the ones we get in Singapore. Breakfast was expensive but then again it's the really nice and nostalgic atmosphere of the place that you're paying for.

I skipped lunch walking about the Pier.

Dinner was at the very nice Fog City Diner. Pricy again but then again I always like to have a good steak for my first dinner in a US city, and it was good.
As for desert:
"It's called the 'Sky High' Lemon Meringue pie.
When you see it you'll know why."


There was a minor tremor just now. Other than that not much else to talk about until after I meet with the VC and the results of the Nokia web2mobile competition. Hope we get into the finals then I have an excuse to fly to LA end of January.

I don't suppose anyone reading this knows a good place where I can get some DVDs in this town?

Friday, December 08, 2006

Tis' The Season to be Jolly!!!

It's that time of the year again! Yummy Kushinbo company lunch and gift exchange ceremony- Yippy!

The Guest List includes:
1. Leonard
2. TY
3. Ron
4. Derek
5. DZ
6. Malc
7. Carrie
8. Jocelyn
9. Laura
10. Jezreel
11. Vincent

Date: 15th of Dec (next Friday)
Time: 11.30am
Meeting Place: Suntec City Level 3- KUSHINBO!

*Please remember to draw lots for the gift exhange, the lottery box is in Tyler office.
** Please note that the cap for the gift is $15.
*** Please remember to bring your gift and yourself!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our company has served its 1 millionth customer as of 2 Dec 2006"

Yep. It's official. Thanks for all the support folks. More than a million MAW pilots have started the quest to save Sios since 07 July 2006.

You can check out the Mobile Weapon population counter here.

Anyway exams are over, holidays have started, my main character in FF12 is level 27 and it's time to get back to makin' games @ TYLER! Stay tuned for announcements in the next couple of days.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Mobile Weapon BETA v0.5+ FAQ

Q1) How do I get into the ruins? It's still blocked even after I've been to all the other places.
Ruins is a premium only quest. You get another party member who has some special skills in the ruins quest.


Q2) The generators still don't work :( What's capacity for anyways?
Capacity is the maximum charge the generator can hold. Recharge rate (energy) is the amount added to the charge every cycle as the generator powers up. The percentage shown is precisely that, a percentage. So if you upgraded to the Steam Generator which gives +30 capacity you can use weapons which require up to 130 energy. Your EP bar will now charge by the your MAW's base energy +1.5 from the Steam Generator.

For example, the Avenger with no generator charges at 3% (3/100) per cycle. With the Steam Generator equipped the Avenger now charges at 3.5% (4.5/130) per cycle, hence you get your turn faster.

In general, upgrading your generator lets you use more powerful weapons and increases the rate at which your EP bar charges.


Q3) Defense position doesn't take less damage
Defending adds 35% to your defense. So it gets more useful when you have more defense. Useful fights against powerful bosses.


Q4) Is there any difference during the day and night?
You will encounter more enemies in outdoor areas like the jungle at night. Other that that the high/low tide cycle is affected by time. Rest 6 hours if the tide is high in the tidal caves and you should be able to cross.


Q5) What phone models will be supported for the phone version?
We're still doing testing and development for the phone version. We'll have a full list of supported models when mobile version is offically announced. Chances are if you're using a smartphone, you will be able to play the game.


Q6) How much will the premium version cost?
We'll have to work that out with the publisher. We'll announce the price and where to get it as soon as we can.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Mobile Weapon: Ep 1, BETA v0.5+ Released!

Hi guys, sorry for the delay. Thanks for waiting. And here's what you've been waiting for: Mobile Weapon: Ep 1, BETA v0.5+. The game is now officially completable (though the December release will have a better ending and premium will have an alternative ending).

We put in a good 36 hour day to get here. Let us know if there are bugs. Enjoy.

BUG reports and fix updates 12/11:

BETA v0.52
- Better looping of title music
- Strange monster in Calisto's house fixed
- Multi-hit bug recurring with Lazlo mines boss, increased delay as a temporary fix until a more permant one can be done after Monday.
- Lazlo mines boss damage lowered

- Removed "rare item" drops for gearfly and brass clock monsters because it halved the probability of them dropping gear and gryobolts. The drop rates are now 60% for both. Hope this helps with your augmenting efforts.

- Generators have been BUFFED. This may make the game imbalanced but at least you'll be able to see if they are working or not. New stats for the generators are
Steam engine +30 capacity, +2 recharge
Dyanmo generator +100 capacity, +5 recharge
Induction engine +50 capacity, +10 recharge

- Removed "Not connected to server" message





Friday, November 03, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #40

Avenger Super #1: MEGA-STRIKE!

After working with TY for about 45 minutes we came up with this animation for the Avenger MAW's first super attack (charged to 125%) move:

Mobile Weapon Episode 1. Copyright TYLER Projects 2006.

Still need to add in the boosters special effect and code in the enemy sprite.

Mobile Weapon Episode 1. Copyright TYLER Projects 2006

There's a frame before this where the MAW twists and braces before the punch, we spent quite a bit of time getting the animation to be as fluid and "realistic" as possible. There's also some shaking here to show the impact of the punch but can't show it through pictures.

Mobile Weapon Episode 1. Copyright TYLER Projects 2006

Cheesy zoom-in effect!

Mobile Weapon Episode 1. Copyright TYLER Projects 2006

And then the white light emanating from the fist engulfs the screen!

Mobile Weapon Episode 1. Copyright TYLER Projects 2006

Trust me, it looks much better when you view it as an animation. So stay tuned for our November the 10th release*!

In other news, we may be featured in a documentary on "Gaming in Singapore" so that's some additional motivation for us to really make the final release in December top quality. The documentary should be shown in the Gameplay channel on the Voom HD network. Hope you guys have HD cable.

Finally, I'd like to welcome our new associate, Ben a.k.a. Djlarazza who'll be in charge of Sales for Europe. Benvenuti, dude!

*We'll be releasing as a BETA testing version again and making some gradual improvements like we did with the current BETA because Matrix is travelling and I've got many reports due this coming week and an exam too.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #39

New Machine-Gun effect. Stay tuned for more new and improved game FX.






Friday, October 20, 2006

TYLER completes Sony "Vibrant Shots" campaign website

If you live in Singapore, go to www.vibrantshots.com and post a photo. It just might win you a Sony T10 camera if it's "vibrant" enough.

Click here for a larger view of the design

Anyway this is probably the last major project we'll be doing this year. The rest of the time we're going to be working on MW all the way!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

MW Wikipedia = Cool!

Hi guys,

Just want to give a big thank you to Falcon84 who created a wikipedia entry on Mobile Weapon. Check out the forum thread here!

And of course, check out the wikipedia entry at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_weapon

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #38

The following aspects are still W.I.P. for MW Episode 1.

These are of high priority and need to be finished before intensive play-testing takes place:

1) Tutorial Mission at the start
- We're done with it.

2) Weapons vendor at Aceros Terminus
- Done

3) Boss in Lazlo Mines
- Done

4) One more additional MAW
- Definitely Done

5) Visual effects and graphics of Super Skills
- 1 per character for a total of 3
- We've finished one


These are to be done together with intensive play-testing:

1) In-game balancing
- Done, but we're still going over it again

2) Debugging
- Multi-hits bug resolved by removal of interval.
- This is constantly going on

3) Enhancing certain monsters

4) Creation of new weapons
- Done


These are of relatively high priority and can be done during any phase:

1) In-game sound effects
- Sicshot added Menu sound-FX
- All hero and enemy attack sounds also added

2) Fixing any bugs in the Save System

3) In-game music
- In the process

4) Ending screen and endgame credits

5) More weapon visual effects
- Done

6) Possibly a quest status/log screen
- Working on it now


These are of lower priority and can be done during any phase:

1) User interface for MAW painter
- Done

2) Area name displays
- Done

3) Level restriction warning
- Do we have a cap warning (if you play past level 20 the additional XP won't be carried over to Episode 2?) or just have exponential rise in XP requirement beyond recommended level? Both?

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

MW Ep1 (Full) Release UPdate

Remember how we said something about the full version of the game being released in September? Yeah well, I remember that too. To be honest I don't think we can meet our own September deadline.

School's really heavy this semester for some inexplicable reason. There's always the routine contract work. And I'm just trying to do up as much SFX for the games and working with TY on the animations for the supers. I crash everynight at 2am and wake up stoned at 7 in the morning.

Anyway, I don't want to leave you guys in the dark so here's what TYLER's been up to for the past month...

Last week, TY and I did a conference call to Sydney to get our game published with Trymedia. They're going to let us use their SDK to package the premium version of the game.

We got our first big contract from Sony. Unfortunately it wasn't for making a game but a contest webportal rather. Who knows, it might eventually lead us to Sony Computer Entertainment Division.

I also met a guy from the Singapore Lucas Arts Studio last Friday. He agreeded to have a look at the Mobile Weapon BETA. I sure hope he doesn't judge the game by the BETA cos we've got lots more coming in the final version.

Speaking of which I promise I'll post the pictures of one of the supers as soon as we have one completed from start to finish. Just so you know why we're taking the time to do our best work on the full version before we release it.

* Update 22/9
I should be able to get some grant from MDA (Media Development Authority) for our game which should cut our costs in half, and speed up our development. Hopefully I can get that done after my mid-term exams next week and week after.

Realistically, I think end of October or early Novemeber will be the likely release date. I need to take a day to have re-evaluate our production timeline then I can announce the official date.

We don't want to release it too late either because we don't want you guys to miss being able to play it during the school breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Let me just say there is NO WAY the game gets released any later than November.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Ron's Garage 3D Render wallpaper

As requested, here is the 3D render of Ron's Garage. Now available for you as high quality jpeg wallpaper!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #37

We're planning a revamp of the Mobile Weapon website and the new design should be launched together with the launch of the completed Mobile Weapon: Episode 1 game.

Here's a peek at the design already done up by Ron. It's actually been uploaded for quite some time now but I don't think anyone has really found it yet. Anyway this design is just for Episode 1 but the new revamped design will be for the main page of mobileweapon.net.



The new design will have:
- the progression of the story,
- the episodes accessible from a side menu
- the official map (labeled this time)
- the counter showing the number of M.A.W. pilots
- FAQ

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #36




This is one enemy MAW you dont want to fight. :p

More info soon.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Mobile Weapon BETA v0.46+ FAQ

Hi Guys,

Looks like the old FAQ post has been shifted off the blog into achives; here's a new post for you guys to post your issues with the latest build of the game.

Here's the changelog so far (changes since v0.43):

1) Ron's Macrogen quest completed
2) Added new recruitable party member: Calisto
3) New areas: Iron jungle + Acero Terminus + Costa De Acero
4) Able to paint all party members' MAWs
5) New monsters (monster may be reallocated so we won't give details)
6) Added Malc's store to Azure Cove
7) Random townsfolk in Acero Terminus (see if you can spot some of our forum contributors there!)

System Requirements:
Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, XP SP2
Pentium III 700MHz or faster processor
128 MB RAM
Hard drive space: 14 MB available disk space


Known Bugs:
- None

How many people are playing:






F.A.Q.:

Q0) Where can I play the game?
A: You can play the latest BETA version at http://www.mobileweapon.net/files/mw1/

Q1) How come I can't save my game?
A: You can only save in safe areas (like town) or in boss areas.

Q2) What are Reflex, Accuracy and Technique for?
A: Reflex affects your evasion rate and is needed for more powerful melee weapons.
Accuracy affects your hit rate and is needed for more powerful light ranged weapons.
Technique adds a small bit of damage to all your attacks and is needed for more powerful heavy / special weapons.

Q3) The grass is blocking me.
A: Press spacebar to cut the grass. You might find some treasure hidden in the grass.

Q4) Whenever I save a window pops up asking something about www.theagoraedge.com requesting permission to store information on my computer.
A: That's a browser/flash protection thing. www.theagoraedge.com is one of the official servers we are hosting our game on. If you don't allow storing, your local game will not be saved. Additionally, if you set the allowed size less than the recommended 1MB, your saves will be corrupted.

Q5) After I completed the Plasma rock quest and took the Macro-thingy ma--jig to Calisto... I returned to Uncle Ron and he asks, "Ready for that delivery job?" Then a window will appear at bottom of the screen as if a response will be given by the Main Character. However the conversation is ends without any type of Quest Update.
A: Sorry Guys, this isn't a bug. It's just where the BETA ends. On hind sight we should probably have put a notice but since the full version will be out soon we're not making changes to the BETA. The Full version should be released on 10th November 2006 while the "Augmented" version should be out on 15th December.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #35

Just finished a side project for Mobile Weapon.

Basically a side scroller action version of MW. :p




Play it now at > http://www.mobileweapon.net/files/mwa1/

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #34: New Releases and Updates

We've been getting alot of questions along the lines of: "When's the story going to continue?" and "When's the full game coming out?". I'm just going to share with you guys what our plans are for the next couple of months as well as what we're working on now.
Hopefully, that'll answer everyone's questions.

We're currently working on the full version of MW:1 and aiming for a late September release.

We owe Walden VC and Starhub technical demos so you guys can rest assured we'll definitely be releasing in September.

In Dev updates:
TY's done up a side scrolling shooter mini-game for MW:1; Derek's adding the "super"s to the combat; Ron's working on the SMU Tangram game which may be included as a puzzle mini-game used for unlocking the ruins. I'll leave that up to them to blog about those projects if they want to.

I haven't been active on the forums lately because I've got a ton of work to do. I'll post some screenshots for MW:TC (which you might have heard me mention in the forums) when I have some ready.

Cheers.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

MW:1 BETA closed for now and upcoming plans...

Hi guys, you've probably noticed we're not making any new updates for the BETA. We're going into intensive development to wrap up MW1 and the new additions to the game look great.

I'm not going to make an official announcement about the release date for MW:1 (which should have a proper Episode name by then) just yet but it should be ready about mid-September with ALOT of testing done.

We might have to do some public testing first because there are some yet untraced bugs such as the "multiple hits crashing bug". SicShot has added alot more hits to the weapons but without tracing the bug (which would hang the game when you use a multi-hit weapon) I can't allow the new version to be released.

TY's also been working on converting our Aerial Siege game into a mini-game for MW.

I'm going to be starting work on MW: Tactics Command this weekend after I'm done filing the corporate tax for TYLER.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

TYLER scores 2nd runner up in LKY Global competition

After 3 days of sleeping at 5am+, and months of prior preparations, TYLER snagged the 3rd place at the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition organised by SMU. A big thank you to all our MW gamers and readers for the support on our forum and blog.

We'll post some photos we took during the 3 days. Things were really moving very fast towards the end of the 2nd day so we may not really have gotten very many pictures.

Today, we also played our first game of DOTA in 3 months!!! That was fun!

We'd like to thank Professors Desai from SMU BIG, and Professor Jeff Chi from Vickers Financial for their guidance. Su Ping from Walden VC International for giving us advice on our presentation. Grace and Adeline for organising and facilitating the event.

Well the competition maybe over but the war has yet to be won. As I told Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan when we met him at the Blue Sky evening: "We're not going to let anyone down and we're going to continue working hard."

*UPDATE 28/07: You can watch the Channel News Asia TV coverage of the even through streaming video by clicking here. I'd like to thank Mai Yun from CNA for doing a very nice job creating the programme.

IMPT! Mobile Weapon Server Migration

Hi Guys, we've moved the game file to a server in the US and restarted the MW.net server. Seems like everyone's a little happier now that the forums and website seem to be back to normal.

For you guys playing the BETA:
PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT NOTICE!
Because we moved the game file to a different server, you may not be able to load your save game that is saved in a shared object on your local hard drive. If you cannot load your game you will need to follow these steps:

1) Click the link we provided below to return to the version on the Singapore server.
2) Login to your user account and save your game to the server vault.
3) Go back to (now) default version on the US server and load your game from the server vault.

The instructions are also show on the game page. If you encounter any problems post them here.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #33: Server Problems

Our server has crashed at least 3 times since we started our public BETA of MW:1. And the time between outages has been getting longer and longer. >_<"

We're really sorry for the inconvenience caused. It just goes to show what I've been saying all along about the game server needing to be seperate from the website server (so the website, forum stay up so we can inform users of server outages).

One additional lesson we've learnt: for versions of the game that we upload to external websites like Newgrounds; we must ensure they have ZERO dependancy on our own TYLER servers. TY has made a completely standalone version of MW:1 Limited BETA and submitted it to NG. Hopefully they'll upload it ASAP before more people start to complain.

We're dedicated to keeping MW free. But if anyone would be so kind as to make some donations we could get a dedicated server to prevent further outages.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

MW: Episode 1 "Limited" version released!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for support and game testing you guys have done for us so far, we really appreciate it.

Anyways, I think we now have to put MW:1 into more extensive BETA testing so we're going to launch a limited testing edition on Newgrounds and other Flash game websites. The full (and final) version will have more areas and one more town.

Do support us by viewing our game on Newgrounds (http://newgrounds.com/portal/view/324963) or wherever you first heard about MobileWeapon and try out the game there!

I created this wallpaper which will also be the start screen for MW:1 Limited Ed.! Click the image to download the wallpaper. I'll do a higher-res and more cleaned up version for when we launch the full version of MW:1.

MW: Episode 1 Wallpaper now for download!

This coming week is our LKY competition finals week! We'll be on TV and staying at the Swissotel: Singapore. It's gonna be like some reality show and we'll post pictures and updates for you guys to have a peak at how we're doing.

Wish us luck!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #32: Patch List for MW:1 for 11 & 12 July 2006

Here are the changes and fixes made as of today:

- Augmentation added (Go to Ron's garage, pay some credits and a gear to increase HP permanently. The cost is based on your MAW's max HP.)
- New Area added > Plasma Mine (only the mine entrance is shown for now. You can only enter later.)
- new inn keeper portrait
- new patron portrait
- improved male char portrait
- added Newgrounds logo
- added credits section
- added hotkeys to combat
- XP gained and current XP now shown in winning screen

Monday, July 10, 2006

Happy Birthday, TY!

Today is TY's birthday. He's been working really hard patching bugs and adding more monsters and areas. And he's even working today on the game though it's his Birthday!

Give him some encouragement will yaz!

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #31: Patch List for MW:1 for 10 July 2006

Here are the changes and fixes made as of today:

- Ron's parts collection quest is now completable! (Unfortunately there's no reward for now but there will be soon)
- New Area added > Azure Cove
- More areas within Great Tiki Jungle
- New higher level enemy > Jungle Spiders!
- New higher level enemy > Hermit Sharks
- Fixed bug with P.launcher hanging the game by removing dual shot effect

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #30: Patch List for MW:1 for 09 July 2006

Here are the changes and fixes made as of today:

- 2 Starting Weapons are automatically equipped at the start
- XP and credits are automatically show after win without needing to click
- You can now sell items dropped by Monsters (e.g. gears, polyboards, etc)
- Added more icons for the items (like repair kits, gears and polyboards)
- XP is no longer set to zero when you level up. XP accumulates
- Bug with more powerful weapons crashing the game has been fixed
- Inventory Items now stack
- MAW and character icons are highlighted at the menu when selected

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Mobile Weapon: Ep1 BETA F.A.Q.

Here's a temporary FAQ for problems you might encounter playing the BETA:

Q0) Where can I play the game?
A: You can play the BETA version at http://www.mobileweapon.net/files/mw1/

Q1) Help! I can't even attack!
A: You have to open your inventory and equip the basic weapons that uncle Ron gave you before you can attack. - Fixed.

Q2) How come my screen freezes when I've defeated the enemy?
A: You have to click before you get your XP and items from a successful battle. We're going to make it automatic like other games. - Fixed.

Q3) How come I can't save my game?
A: You can only save in safe areas (like town) or in boss areas. We'll have to add an alert box to tell players about this otherwise it's not very obvious.

Q4) All my savegames except "new" were deleted!!
A: Clicking quickstart will delete your savegames if you have any. Register and save on the server to prevent this from happening. We're putting in a warning message to ensure your saves don't get overidden like this.

Q5) How do I even save on the server?!
A: Click the blue button to transfer your save to the server. We'll make clearer instructions for this delicate proceedure soon.

Q6) Uhh...I got to the scrapyard. That's all?
A: We've got 4-6 more areas that aren't in yet. It's in the pipeline. We'll be adding one new area on 12th July.

Q7) I can't find the parts that Ron asked me to find!
A: 2 of the 3 parts weren't added in until later. The quest may still be incomplete. Stand by we'll have it fixed tomorrow. - Fixed.

Q8) The Sniper rifle doesn't work!
A: Yeah, it's bugged and it will overwrite some of your other weapons. Don't buy it for now. - Fixed.

Q9) My HP isn't increasing with level!
A: Ok. Remember how your MAW HP used to go up alot in MW:0? Yeah that was our alternative to a levelling system. Now you've got both a pilot and a MAW. Makes more sense for the pilot to gain more XP.

But we've clearly got to do something about the MAW cos the HP is really pathetic if it doesn't increase. We're going to do something like have Ron charge you some gold and a spare part (gear, board, etc) to increase your MAW's HP. Will post an update once we've made the change.

Q10) What are Reflex, Accuracy and Technique for?
A: Reflex affects your evasion rate and is needed for more powerful melee weapons.
Accuracy affects your hit rate and is needed for more powerful light ranged weapons.
Technique adds a small bit of damage to all your attacks and is needed for more powerful heavy / special weapons.
The stat requirements should be implemented by Monday 10th. You'll need to pump the appropriate stats before you can use more powerful weapons.

Q11) STUFF DISAPPEARED from my inventory!!?
A: There's a cap of 40 items for the inventory. So if you filled your inventory stuff might get overwritten. We're addding in a warning to tell you when your inventory is full and allow for simple items like repair kits and gears to stack so no matter how many you have it only takes up one slot.

In the case of Uncle Ron's list disappearing. It's because the quest isn't complete. So he removes the list but doesn't give you a reward. We'll fix that soon.
- Fixed.

Q12) The grass is blocking me.
A: Press spacebar to cut the grass. You might find some treasure hidden in the grass.

Q13) How do I get other team/party members?
A: We'll add the first recruitable team member on 12th July 2006.

MW Counter!







Wonder how many people are playing MW:1 with you? Check it out here!

* This counter is no longer accurate! The figure is much lower than it should be because of the server crashes.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Mobile Weapon: Episode 1 BETA is Launched! Yeah!

Click here for the full sized 800x600 wallpaper!

Hi Everyone, I really should let you guys know that we have planned for quite more weapons, areas, party members, etc in MW:1. Mobile Weapon: Episode 1 is officially in Beta for now. We'll try to fix the bugs and get all the content in in the next 3 days.

Tikila Village, your cute and cosy beach resort hometown!

We'll be working non-stop over the weekend to release patches and updates with the new quests, areas and weapons. Don't fret because there'll be plenty of baddies for you guys to hunt to level-up while waiting.

Countdown to MOBILE WEAPON: EPISODE 1

Hello dearest friends and fans!

Mobile Weapon will be launched promptly at 12 midnight GMT+08:00. So keep a close close look out for it.

Do not forget to register at the first available second if you want to be sure of securing the username of your dreams! Don't forget to spread the love and tell your friends about it. There's nothing better than comparing notes and challenging your friends while playing Mobile Weapon: Episode 1.

*wink*

Trust me on that.

We are counting down to the official launch on our very own Mobile Weapon forum at www.mobileweapon.net

So what are you waiting for? Join us at the countdown!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Team TYLER

You can trust team TYLER to come up with the funkiest picture to be sent to a journalist covering our progress in the LKY finals.

*laughs*

Ronnie gives all of us a hard time by behaving all very "ninja" while taking the picture. He won't count to three. When asked to count to three, he just went " THREE!" and snapped the shot. Grrr..... I won't even show you guys the unflattering shots he took of me growling at him. Grrr....

So we are stuck here on a Sunday night working hard for the official launch of Mobile Weapon One on the coming friday (7th of July). WATCH OUT FOR THE GAME!!! It's going to be a blast!

You ready for it?

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Team TYLER now in LKY Finals

TYLER is in the final round for the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition....yay! Check out the other finalists here! TYLER gets the chance to win big prize $$$ for the company so we can continue to make great games and technology!

Now begins the arduous task of convincing people to go for the award dinner. Yes that's right folks, it's MORE difficult to convince people to attend a free 5-course dinner at the Swissotel than getting them to go grab a late night snack with you.


Anyway, wish us good luck for the finals!
*Plays Metal Gear Soild 2 main theme*

"WE MUST SUCCEED!"
HERO-BOY

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Official Announcement! -> MW: Episode 1 is DELAYED!!!

Ok guys, this is an official announcement:

MW: Episode 1 (which we had planned / and announced that we would to release on 1st of July 2006) will be released instead on the 7th of July 2006. Not simply because the date is nice (7/7) but also because it gives us a good work week to do testing and add in more quests /items to the game! :-P

Set your calendars for the 7th!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #29: Preparing for the big day

Before we launch MW:1 in July there's a couple of things we need to get done:

1) Need to get link banners ready.
2) Prevent "leeching" of MW:1 from our server.
3) Ready emailer for SG universities.
4) Figure out how to submit the game to MSN and Yahoo.
5) ??? - pls add

Remember everyone. Our target for MW:1 is 1 MMMmmmeeeellion unique players in 1 week from the launch date! We need to get well prepared before we launch.

Agenda for meeting this Saturday (same time and place):

1) Preparations for launch
2) SGGA www.sgga.net - what to do there and when to act
3) Funding proposals - Creative Community Singapore & MDA -progress and updates
4) Plan and Proposal for SMU Tangram web game

Sunday, June 18, 2006

MW:0 Wallpaper



Here's a new wallpaper for MW:0 I created for use in our Creative Community Singapore funding proposal. Featuring, the Avenger balanced class MAW from MW:0 and our 3D psuedo mascot, Calisto!

Click the image and grab it for your desktop now!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Naming convention

The 3 MaWs:
==========
1. Melee
2. Gunner
3. Female

Currency
Start town
Transport town
Default male hero name
Default female hero name

Where to publish?

I was talking to a friend about Diner Dash. It's like the #1 game for casual gamers right now. And it's something any of us could program in a few days.

Are we not showing our game in the right places?

I think we need to find out how we can submit MW:1 to
MSN games,
Yahoo Games,
Shockwave,
Real Arcade,
AOL Games,
Free Downloads Center, etc.

Here are some publisher programmes we could check out too:
Oberon Media
Game Trust

Friday, June 16, 2006

Gunbot

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #28: Play testing the new combat system

Just a few points about the new combat system (please ammend and update this post as and when the problems are fixed or you have a possible solution or if I made a mistake somewhere):

Gamplay and graphics issues:
1) The monsters and characters should rush forward quickly and perform their attack rather than hover slowly to the target. The forward move phase should be twice as fast as the existing movement, moving back twice as fast as that (almost instantaneous).

2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the player and the monster attack simultaneously. They'll move towards each other and then pass each other and attack the area slightly behind the target. Is this due the algo used? Does it stop tracing the target's location half-way through the attack?

3) The algo that controls how long it takes the character to reach the target has a standard timing? I'd prefer if the sprites moved at a standard speed rather than standard time so they will hit their target earlier if there's a shorter distance to cover. Makes more sense I guess.

4) Let the interface bar flash when it's the character's turn. Don't have the whole MAW sprite flash. Alot of flashing MAWs is just confusing.

5) Positioning of the MAWs / enemies needs to be more spaced out. Perhaps the angle slightly changed. The character sprite on the extreme right is partially hidden.


Interface issues:
1) If I add in the action selection menu and enemy info display I think performance will degrade even further. I can convert some of the vector lines and text into JPG if it will help. I think medium quality is the lowest we can go without the interface distorting too much.


Performance issues:
1) How much additonal load does the jet boosters take up? I suggest the fembot keep her legs and just have the backpack booster from traveling around the map (her legs in the same position as the leg thrusters now). I battle she can stand on the floor. and activate her booster only when she needs to fly forward to attack. That should "boost" performance. :-P

Malc please help to QC the latest version when you have the time and add to this post! Thanks!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

How Original is "Original"?

Some people have been complaining on Newgrounds that our Mobile Weapon series isn't original and we've copied games / anime like Gundam, Gun Griffon, Guild wars, Space trader, etc.

Firstly, I have NEVER watched an episode of Gundam or played any Gundam game. I bought my Xbox in 2004 so I never got to play Gun Griffon. The only multiplayer online RPG I ever played was Phantasy Star Online. And what is Space Trader? I've never even heard of it.

I'm going to get a little philosophical here, but is "anything" truely original? It's quite difficult to imagine any of today's games not being inspired in some small way by some other earlier games. Sure the robot-pilot concept is not new. But we certainly did not look at any other game and say: "Ok that looks good, we'll just copy that since we know it works".

What you'll see in Mobile Weapon: Episode 1 are entirely original M.A.W. (mech) designs and an innovative battle system which we created ourselves. On the surface there will always be similarities to other games, even games we as developers have never ever played.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #27: Single Player Combat System Base

Yes, the base system for combat is now more or less done. This includes the following features:

- Hero Action Bar (we'll have to name this something else)
- Dynamically generated hero sprites
- Dynamically generated enemy sprites
- Hero move and attack
- Enemy move and attack
- Enemy AI attack target picking (currently there are only 2 versions of this)
- Dynamically generated attack effects
- Pop-up damage number
- Hero weapon selection (which changes the attack effects and damages accordingly)
- Enemy and Hero HP and healthbars (Yes they can die now)

Basically the whole flow for an attack goes like this - For any hero whose Action Bar is full, select the hero, click the attack button, select the target enemy, aaaaand... Voila! Hero will pull off attack based on the highlighted weapon in that hero's weapon-select menu.

So sorry that I'm unable to post any screenshots of this though, since all the generated sprites right now are bobbing square blobs of different colours.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #26: RPG Dialogue System

In MW:0 we only had a single level of NPC dialogue. For Mobile Weapon: Episode 1 we're going have a full out RPG dialogue system with multiple answers and depth.

Our Prototype chat system

I was thinking about the best way to save the new dialogue and I decided a tree structure would be best. We can have each character's dialogue saved as an XML document with alternating levels for questions and answers.

some rough sketches

...of the monsters?



some animal - based creatures


plus a colour shot of mech and soldier

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #25

Bulk testing





20 characters = No lag.

50 characters = Slight lag.

100 characters = Major lag.

Well.. until we optimise the walking code, 20 characters seems like a good limit to set on each area.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

LKY semi-finals Proposal Submitted!

Hey guys, thanks for the good work on the proposal! Special thanks to Ron, TY and Carrie who stayed back to complete the proposal yesterday. And to Dz who helped me to vet through the thing today!

Also a big thanks to our fans who have played Mobile Weapon: Zero and helped us to get some good numbers. Keep supporting us by spreading the word about our game and sign-up for Mobile Weapon: Episode 1. Due for release early July 2006!

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #24


World Map draft #1

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #23

Colour Customization




Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #22

Attributes and stats:
Pilot:
1. Reflex: Evasion/Guard
2. Accuracy: Hit
3. MaW Proficiency: Fuel/energy discount
4. Weapon Proficiency:
---Heavy Ranged
---Light Ranged
---Melee

MaW:
1. Base Armor: Damage reduction
2. HP
3. Energy output: Recharge Rate

Pilot Class:
Novice,
can learn- Minor repair
can learn- Block (chance to guard)
Advances to- Fighter/Marksman/Mechanic

Fighter,
can learn-Dual Strike
can learn- Stun
Advances to-?

Marksman,
can learn- Rapid shot
can learn- Aim
Advances to-?

Mechanic,
can learn- Repair(self or party)
can learn- Recharge
Advances to-?

Mobile Weapon: Zero, DE-BRIEF

I realise we haven't had a proper de-brief after the launch of MW:0. Derek is probably going to complain about this. But after much thinking and discussion and consideration; I think we ought to keep the same battle system as MW:0.

Think about it. Fine it's not multi-playable, but it's definitely much faster paced and is more popular with a majority of people. It's also simpler and has wider appeal.

Here's a small preview of what's the come in MW:1. RPG Quality Grass texture!
RPG Quality Grass!!! Done by TY and I.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #21

Things are taking shape. We've got good encouraging reviews from our Newgrounds launch of Mobile Weapon: Zero.

Now the challenge is to get MOBILE WEAPON Episode 1: Tropical Storm (name subject to later changes) ready by July and show the world what MW is about!

So far from our discussion for today we've come up with the following:

Locations:
Starting Town - ??? Name (Ron's Garage, Clothes Shop, Cafe, Inn, Guilds)
Jungle #1 (Ally #1 house)
Jungle #2 (Chasm & bridge, Petshop -> Pets game)
Jungle #3 (Forest Boss)
Beach #1 (Pier -> Fishing game??)
Beach #2 (Fried Rice Stall)
Scrapyard
Mine #1 (Mine Entrance)
Mine #2
Mine #3 (Mine Boss)
Tidal Cave (Bandit Boss)
Transport Town (Airship dock, Armor Shop, Weapon Shop, Bar, Ally #2 house) - ??? Name

Characters:
Uncle Ron - Ronnie
Fried Rice Hawker "Mr. Chow Fan" - Malc
Clothing Shopkeeper - Carrie
Cafe Owner - Derek
Cafe Patron(s) - Derek
Waitress - Laura / Carrie
Weapon Shopkeeper - Daizhong
Armor Shopkeeper - Leonard
Bartender - Leonard
Fisherman - TY
Petshop Owner - TY
Ally #1 "Calico" the Weapon Master - Leonard
Ally #2 "???" the Mechanic - Carrie
Foreman + Miner(s) - Ron
Smuggler (Secret shop)- Derek
Townsfolk - TY
Transport Station Master - TY
Beachbabe (temp character) - Laura
Named townsfolk #1 - ???
Named townsfolk #2 - ???

Quests:
Uncle ron
- Go look for Ally #2
- Search for parts in scrapyard
- Collect Plasma Rock
- Deliver something #1
- Deliver something #2

Clothes Shop
- Find material for clothes

Fried Rice Hawker "Mr. Chow Fan" - Find ingredients
Unlocks -> Fight him for secret weapon!

Unlock Areas Quests (Puzzles)
- lower the bridge
- Gain access to tidal cave by going at the right time of day

Mobile Weapon: Zero is out now!

You didn't hear about it? Must be because we didn't tell you about it!

Mobile Weapon: Zero is out now! Over 100,000+ plays within the first week of the launch!!! Click the image below to play the game on Newgrounds.com now!



Stay Tuned for the launch of Mobile Weapon Mk1 - where the adventure begins!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Nokia unveils first range of next generation mobile games

Nokia unveils first range of next generation mobile games: Nokia News

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer's Diary #20

Feminine Bot preview:

Mobile Weapon Developer's Diary #19

Game Teaser

Uploaded in Newgrounds and various other flash game sites: Link

Reviews in Newgrounds: Link

Monday, May 22, 2006

some drafts

hi everyone
i'm hwang the new comer
this is my first post here...
(leonard told me to blog about my progress if i can ^^lll)
so for a start...
some sketches and designs



this is the first draft of a knight mecha
which evolves to...



plus some other designs





kindly comment ^^

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Mobile Weapon: A new direction?

This morning I've come to a revelation of sorts. I'm sure you guys will also have noticed this but Mobile Weapon: Zero which is meant to be a teaser game to promote Mobile Weapon is actually MORE fun than Mobile Weapon itself.

What I propose is this: We still launch Mobile Weapon: Zero as planned. But we work on created a souped up version of Mobile Weapon: Zero.

A Mobile Weapon RPG that will be release in episodes (because we can't possible complete a whole RPG by next month). This will give use more time to build up the necessary assets (3D models, game codex infomation, graphics, etc)before launching Mobile Weapon: Online.

Advantages of this approach are:
1) Use tested and proven fun gameplay
2) More time to introduce the world of Sios to gamers
3) Introduce the exploratory aspect of the game earlier
4) Still retains the shopping and shops appeal
5) We can actually earn some direct $ by selling the game (only the mobile version)
6) More farming!!!

Characters
The main character can be user created (either male or female) and the game will have 2 characters which can join the main character's party.

Battle
Battles will be tactics style using our existing combat engine but in a turned based mode. We can reuse the old grass background and create some desert terrain for the battle engine.

Episode 1:
You are stuck in your home town (which is some remote beginner island on the Sios map) because some boss or whatever has disabled the train / airship. You will need to find the plasma rock or whatever to power the airship and defeat the boss to get to the next main continent of Sios.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

New TYLER Artist

Welcome to TYLER, ChengYang!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer's Diary #17

Progress is going underway to tweak the game:

In-game statistics

1) Place ratio of hitpoints of melee bots to be 1000, ranged bots to be 700 and specialized bots to be 500

2) Damage ratios of melee/ranged/AoE/healing to be rough ratio of 150/100/70/120

3) Place limited ammunition for AoE and healing items to prevent abuse, setting AoE charges to 4 and healing charges to 2

4) Place limited charges for teleport setting it to 3

5) Place ATB usage of the following actions (movement/melee&ranged/AoE/healing/teleporting) to be the following ratios: 3/4/5/5/5

The following usability changes has been added:

1) Inclusion of a cancel button

2) Feedback on screen scrolling in terms of buttons

3) Feedback when in-game action is performed by the bot, such that the button used is highlighted – However, the unselected icons are too unobvious (too transperant)

4) There is an alternate version with the combo-critical system

5) Feedback on how much gold and experience is earned for every hit (but I think what I did is really ugly for now)

6) Restricted player's movement such that if they overheat, they can only start performing actions after the energy meter reaches 50. Ok I realise, this kinda slows the pacing quite a bit, but it kinda solves the "reverse wind" problem everyone's been talking about. But then there's the trade-off. Can be changed back.

7) The indicator for "Which robot is mine" is more obvious since there's more movement for it now and a bright shade of orange.

The following are being looked into and coded:

1) More obvious which robot is the user when game starts

2) Team colors

3) Team speak in chat room and easier ways of viewing the chat

4) Exploring into other forms of communication other than the chat box, example allowing players to ping the map or have fixed and more obvious communication options coded in like ‘charge/retreat/help’

Known Bugs to clean up:

1) On logout from ingame, parts of the ingame interface remains on the login screen, trying to start another game leads to a strangely colored diamond shaped object in middle of screen and hangs the application.

Additional requests:

1) Ensure that all damage/experience/gold messages in-game do not are not generated offscreen

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Mobile Weapon Updates and Objectives

Hi guys,

We've got a demo to Starhub coming up soon although the date has not been fixed yet (week after is a safe assumption, I can't stall for too long). Based on the last demo we did the game needs to be more refined since we'll be facing a tougher audience this time round.

I've got to be outta here in 25 minutes so I can just set some rough objectives we need to achieve before next week.

- Theme Consistancy. Sorry I haven't been able to pin this down precisely for you guys, I promise to work with Ron, TY and DZ more closely on this. But I think the general conclusion from Friday's meeting was more cute, more color and more appeal for girls.

- Add more color to the deck of the airship.

- Female Bot , please try to get her done ASAP, sorry for the rush but it's necessary.

- Animate the pilot's portrait in the controls interface, we need more moving parts to add to cheap thrill factor. Use the new 3D models.

- Explore if the combo-critical system I suggested will be feasible.

- Explore how "SUPER" / "OVERDRIVE" (call it what you will) can enhance the gameplay. Quite a number of our competitors games have a limited or charged super power to add some strategy element.

- Balance the game number range. Find an acceptable range for the HP, damage, etc values. Remember we are only at the beginner phase, wouldn't want damage numbers to reach a few million when we hit the S class series.

By the way, I'm doing up the clothing shop so PLEASE DON'T double job. you guys might also want to leave the garage (MAW parts shop) system revamp for me to do for the sake of consistancy. Read this blog for updates and post your own updates when done. Thanks!

Copyright TYLER Projects 2006

We can all take a few days off and nice holiday when this is over, but for now I really can't stress how important it is to get our demo and launch right better than expectations. Thanks for the hardwork in advance guys.

Well, at least you guys can go on that holiday before me. :-(

Will be missing you guys. See you on Saturday. RAWR!


Cheers,
Leonard

Monday, May 08, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developers' Diary #16

Snapshots of female pilot:










Comments!!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

MANY GIANT LIGHTBULBS APPEAR!!!

We need to change the game dynamics!

GIANT LIGHTBULB APPEARS!

I know what we need to make our game fun liao! RAWR! We need a slider bar that goes up and down then you need to press at the right moment to get max damage!

All other free games have this feature! So we must have it too! RAWR!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Sun Bian

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #15

This should be the finalised logo. Not going to do another one till version 2 comes out. :-P



I realised that the traditional concepts of logo design (must be printable in 2 colors, simple design, etc) don't apply to game logos. You can have them as intricate as you want (sometimes the details, the better).

Saturday, April 29, 2006

The first time you got into it - gaming that is

Feeling abit 'o nostalgia, and seeing how almost everyone in the office have been gamers for a long time, thought I'd pop an interesting question. Just edit this post to add your answers.

Q: Your first video or PC game... What was it about the game that attracted you to play it in the first place?

(Sic)shot - First video game was Shinobi. Watching its boss battles just blew me away. Probably why I love villains so much. First PC game was Eye of the Beholder 2. That one was because of it's presentation. Never imagined I'd get to play a D&D game with beautifully animated enemies that were right-in-your-face.

Her Highness - First video game was Super Mario. First PC game was Pizza Tycoon(?), I don't even know the name, it's this game where you set up pizza houses in different countries and you trade arms to get extra moolah. What can I say? I am not a hardcore gamer. I played these games at friends' place. The first PC game I owe is House of the Dead, and me being the screamer me, always screams when a zombie/monster appears out of nowhere. Heh.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Home entertainment services?

linkety

Yahoo has released a free software that basically turns PC into a DV recorder. sounds likes old tech news with Microsoft and their Win XP Media Center, Apple with their FrontRow. But we can actually see a progression of technology to the living room. I think it's only a matter of time when they combine Xbox and Media Center, Yahoo! Go with Yahoo! Games, and then, perhaps the line between a console and a computer will be blurred, (even now you can play flash games on xbox360).

Monday, April 24, 2006

Mobile Weapon Developer Diary #14

New Mobile Weapon Logos!!! The cog is supposed to be representative of 3 themes: Mechanical (looks like a gear), Mobile (a drive wheel in a tank tread) and Weapon (a cylinder with 3 firing chambers).

Vote for your favourite logo or tell us which parts of the different permutations you like!

Logo 1: Fonts remind me of a certain arcade game
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 2: Made the font colors consistant
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 3: Upgraded the textured feel of the cog. Thanks to Malc for this suggestion
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 4: This is using an original font create by me!
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 5: Changed the lighting angle and had a stroke/glow effect
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 6: Embossed the fonts for a 3D feel
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 7: Shifted the words a little
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Logo 8: Tried making the cog the center piece
Copyright 2006, TYLER Projects PTE LTD

Saturday, April 22, 2006

TYLER Teppan Menu, 29th April

The menu so far...

Teppanyaki -
  • Chicken

  • Sirlion Steak (for those who can eat beef)

  • Squid

  • Mixed Vegetables (Bean sprouts, carrots, green peppers, shitake)
image from google images! Soon to be replaced with our own...

Grill -
  • Sambal Stingray
  • Portabello Mushrooms
  • "Bay Bugs"
Others -
  • Assorted Sushi - Derek
  • Carrie "whatever" Salad - Carrie
Desert -
  • Rum and Chocolate Tiramisu

I may attempt to cook the Korean seafood pancake. Please feel free to contribute more items as necessary. :-P