Yesterday my tracing clients were annoying me. So i deleted their render code, to write a much nicer version.

The new version is pretty quick! I spent the last few weeks tweaking the insides of the little blighter around, I'm hoping to get a quick diagram up in this space soon to demonstrate the architecture behind the program.

<This space right here!>

I've been running some tests on http://paralleluniverse.intel.com with some interesting results which show how nicely my application scales over physical processors. Im thinking on making the program dynamically scale the client render sizes based on the time taken to render frames, but we will see about that.

I currently have the Tracer running on my iPod, and looking pretty nice if i do say so myself! Now i just need to increase the speed of it.

My aim over the next couple of days is to get the PS3 edition running, and start comparing the versions. Then comes the crazy optimisations!

Watch this space!

Check out the Ray tracing Gallery for more some really cool images!

In the next week, i will be looking at updating Attack of the Smileys to v1.3

Over the last few weeks I have been working with Kane Forrester (http://www.kforrester.co.uk/) on polishing the game to a much higher standard.

In v1.2 we updated the control mechanism and changed a few of the graphics. This seemed to make the game much more appealing, as was shown in the game sales figures!

I can say with enthusiasm, that i believe you will like the newest additions to the Game.

So Whats New?

Audio Effects

Those Bombs actually go "Boom" now, along with new sound effects across the board!

Dynamic Game Boards

The game table in the background before was pretty boring! Now, when bombs explode they deform the background! Blackholes will suck in the background. Theres also more than one background now. Giving you some more eyecandy to look at!

Animated Avatars

Those Avatars just floated around, looking rather bland! Now, watch these guys be a little more lively!

Powerup Balancing

Certain powerups are more likely to be dispensed, That blackhole is now quite a bit more likely to spawn! Powerups have been made more powerful!

Blackhole Love

The Effect for the black hole was pretty pants. The Particles were blown outwards, and the npcs just got dragged towards it. Now, Particles go into the hole and NPCs will be affected by the gravity distortion effect of the Hole! Watch as they are crushed by the gravity well and sucked in!

Bringing Down The Crowd

NPC's used to get stuck on top of each other, you could go round in circles long enough to make the NPC's form a small pillar, allowing you to gain x10 multipliers pretty easily! Its no longer that easy to gain that kind of multiplier :)

More NPC Variety

I was getting quite tired of only having to avoid the occasional Angry and Sick smileys, So I reworked the spawn formula to create a much more varied NPC attack pattern. Sorry LITE users, you are still limited to only the Unhappy Smileys. Why not purchase the Full version to play against more npcs :D

Attack of the Smileys is now available on the Apple AppStore. < Link >

Visit the Attack of the Smileys Page on this site for more information and screenshots of the game! Link v1.3 Artwork and Videos will be uploaded soon!

My next game is coming along quite nicely!

After working on AOTS and other smaller projects, I have a rather nice collection of reusable code which has allowed me to create the prototype for the game!

The new game is based around user content, and once i start looking at it in more detail, users sharing content with other users.

Hopefully, more information and possibly screenshots to come in the upcoming weeks!