New Version Release and some other stuff

Hi Folks, Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I’ve been a bit busy planning weddings and stuff. (I’m getting married in less than 10 weeks, eek!)

Anyway, I’ve just uploaded a new version of SCO, we’re now on V4.4, (version 4.3 for the observant was extremely short lived as I noticed a bug) – Here’s the low down:

BUG FIXED: EEK! – the game wasn’t recording your best lap times, All because I renamed my LoginSystem to “Login System”, yep, that space broke lots of things. I won’t do THAT again. Anyway, suffice to say, I’ve fixed this bug, (I think) and now it should download and upload your laptimes properly. Please please please let me know if it doesn’t.

FEATURE: Glowy brake disks! – woot!, you can’t really see these unless you use the external camera (keyboard key = 3) – and pan round to the left or right of the car, and then do a bit of extreme braking. Cool isn’t it? (or hot) – anyway, just a little effect, FINALLY got rid of those stationary brake disks…

FEATURE: Because of the large amount of spam on the forum, I’ve really upgraded my security, firstly you have to verify your account now, (which can easily be spam-botted around I’ve found) and now it creates your username and stuff so you can play the game, BUT, you can’t post on the forums until you PLAY the game. I suspect this will defeat most of the spambots out there as they surely aren’t sophisticated enough to log in to a unity project and play a lap of a racing game. (but hey, you never know)

OTHER STUFF:

There is now a DONATE button on the main page. (and there is a specific “DONATE” page now for a bit more ‘info’) which will accept PayPal donations. It always feels akin to begging to me, but hey, here goes… Basically, I’m skint, the aforementioned wedding has wiped me out, and I can’t afford to buy a Unity Pro license. I would like a Unity Pro license because it gives me lots of things that I can use to make Stunt Car Online better… I promise, not a single penny donated would go on anything but the development of StuntCarOnline.

What’s in it for me? I hear you ask

A Gold supporter is a person who donates cold hard cash to the cause. I aim to use this cash to buy a unity pro license (currently valued at $1000) – with Unity Pro I can use various new tricks to make StuntCarOnline better, real time shadows, projected textures (mirrors, etc) – and most importantly a profiler so I can monitor performance and improve it constantly.

It doesn’t matter how much you donate, a penny or a thousand pounds, just your support would be welcome – and in return, I’ll make you a gold supporter, which entitles you to……

New versions first: Once I get a few gold supporters, I’ll be uploading new versions purely for them, which will only let “gold supporters” log in, it’ll also rank you on a different leaderboard, (and mark you on the global leaderboard as a supporter!) – bare in mind that new versions will contain new tracks and cars first.

If I can get enough money together, I’ll source a sound effects studio to record some audio for me to implement in the game, and then you’ll get that first too. I’m also planning a downloadable version of the game, again, which only allows supporters to play it.

But most of all, you’ll be showing support for a one-man-development game, and I could really use that!

A silver supporter is someone (and there are already a couple of these) who doesn’t necessarily want to part with cold hard cash, but does want to help out the game’s development, and by golly, I need this too. A silver supporter is someone who goes out into the big bad internet and puts a link to this game, or maybe tweets about it, posts it on facebook, puts it on their forum, links to it on their website. Anything that promotes the game. I’d prefer not to just randomly spam the world, but proper, targeted “Hey guys, this game is cool!” support would be fantastic, and muchly appreciated.

What would you get for being a silver supporter? – Well, you’ll get the game updates at the same time as the gold supporters, and heck, it’ll mostly be the same experience, but you won’t be on the gold supporters league table… And maybe you won’t get the exclusive stuff first, (i.e. the tracks, maybe you’ll have to wait for them)

I’d still love you, but just not as much.

The Future

So what if this all back fires and no one helps me out? Well, I’ll keep plugging away at the game, implementing stuff when I feel like it, so basically nothing much would change, and in reality you have NO real reason to help me out. Then I’ll probably slow down with updates, and maybe start looking at other stuff to pursue, and then maybe Stunt Car Online will become Stunt Car Not Online because I can’t afford the hosting any more, and maybe this game will just disappear into the oblivion of the internet… A shadowy bitter memory,

But I can promise right now, if a single person donates a penny, that won’t happen. Cheers.

Well it’s been a while again since I’ve posted anything (or admittedly done anything) on SCO. I know I know, I blame hunters on the iphone. Anyway.

So I’m currently thinking about how I can turn SCO into a massive game, more cars, more tracks, sound effects, better graphics and all the other bits and bobs it needs. There’s lots to do, but at the moment I’m struggling for the motivation, A few nice comments here and there wouldn’t go amiss-

Because I know the website traffic to the site, I know it’s not “out there” yet, there isn’t enough knowledge, and I know most people won’t have heard of my game (or even 0.00000001% of the words population) – so how do I go about getting the word out there?

I’ve decided I’m going to ask for support on my main page. There’s basically two levels of support,

Gold Support – I’m afraid it comes down to cold hard cash here, basically if you donate some money to the project, I’ll then use this money on a variety of good causes, (such as buying a unity pro license, looking for an audio out source person etc etc) – as well as investing money into the game (and maybe even rewarding my time on the project)

Silver support – doesn’t cost anything but will still help the project in the long run, basically I ask anyone/everyone to just post something about StuntCarOnline anywhere on the internet, i’m not talking spam, just a twitter post, or a facebook post, or in your blog about elephants, Anything. And then send me a URL link to it.

What’s in it for you?

Well, when you become a gold supporter, you are buying a bit of my heart, and you’ll also get first access to new versions, (which will be login-locked, so only gold members can play) you’ll also be able to get the downloadable version (when I’ve got it ready) which will have more tracks / cars and all the other whizz bang things I’m planning, Basically, for the princely sum of whatever cash you have in your pocket, you’ll be buying the game. And whatsmore, I solemnly promise never to charge you another penny again. Donate 50p and get a game that will be forever updated. Can’t say fairer than that?

Silver supporters? Well you’ll get the same as the above, but maybe not as quick, and maybe you won’t have access to some of the massively cool features I’ve got planned. Maybe I won’t let you name a corner of the track (with in game display) maybe I won’t let you have access to the uber-supporters scoreboard..
I still love you, but not as much.

None-supporters – well well well, there’s the thing. Maybe you’ll get nothing but the demo that’s currently online, how about that?

So what do people think? is anyone out there?