Yup, it’s been radio silence over here at Vetra Games. Basically I’ve been lazy, writing a note here, writing a note there… I’m planning on doing two things these summer vacations:
1) Finish the Mac OS ports of Alien Swarmz and Bort the Block.
2) Finish a completely new game. (Yay!) Guess which of the two gets the priority time? 
While I wait for the final Macintosh version of Game Maker to be released, I’ve been cooking something. But first the boring stuff!
1) The Mac OS ports will only run on Intel Macs at launch: sorry.
2) The Mac OS ports will lack stuff like online and extensions: this is particularly annoying for Bort the Block and Alien Swarmz as they are both largely dependent on .dll files. I’m gonna have to rewrite large chunks of both to make them run smoothly.
3) If a PowerPC version of Game Maker is released, we’ll focus on releasing compatible, smooth games (if possible) for PowerPC G3 Macs, running OS X 10.4 Tiger, 10.3 if we can manage.
4) The Alien Swarmz for Mac version shall be based on 1.5.3, due to large bugfixes and optimizations made in this version.
5) You guys should expect the Mac version of Alien Swarmz by September the 9th, assuming that Game Maker for Mac is available then, and that there’s enough time (see below) to develop the game. I’ll release it after I do a fair round of private testing on it. Mail if you’re interested in testing, ugriffin@vetragames.com
6) Bort the Block: Mac, shall come out on its 4th anniversary, November 11th, 2010. The delay is mainly because Bort is much more complex in its code and lots needs to be checked for compatibility.
Alien Swarmz 1.5.3 has indeed been in beta for a very long time. Why?
1) My PC died. Obvious.
2) I have no hardware to test it on.
What shall be done, you ask? I’ll get a hold of PC hardware this summer to make the following changes I believe are VERY NECESSARY to make Alien Swarmz 1.5.3 a “decent” release. The current Beta version is very slow, mainly because of the addition of the Game Jolt achievement system. The code is fast, but their system is slow. Not my fault. What IS my fault is the laggy, choppy user experience you guys get. I’m planning on fixing that, using “Connect to Game Jolt” buttons all across the game. Using the advanced save-achievement system already in place, you can connect to Game Jolt one you’ve finished playing, and wait only once while your data is syncronized. Additionally, you’ll be able to choose wether to load your online save or overwrite it. And we’ll add a “ask for password every time” to keep your data safe. Neat, huh? Naturally, we’re still hosting our stable 1.5.0 release at YoYo so only Game Jolt users know what I’m talking about. A Beta 2 should crawl its way to you the users very, very soon.
Note: Remember that Alien Swarmz comes out of Beta when the Game Jolt system comes out of beta. Again, not my fault. Sorry though.
Side Note: Alien Swarmz is starting to appear on the crap downloads websites. Good. 
I know, I know, the website’s late… 
The delay is because: I suck. There! I said it. That… and my computer sucks, too. 
I’ll see if I can survive a few hours of the laggiest GIMP on earth (that and nicking newer PC’s from unsuspecting friends for short amounts of time 
).
Project… Aanra. 
By now, you must be wondering: “What could it be that ugriffin’s trying to hype again?”.
I’ll admit it. Vetra Games is all talk and no action. Legends of Warlords, anyone? Frankly, we need to churn out a really good game to live up to papa Bort’s expectations!
Which is why I’m “leaking” that a videogame is at a very, very early design stage. Its code name is Project Aanra. And it shall be an action/adventure/discovery game.
This is where PaperCut comes in. It’s Aanra’s graphical style. It’s clean, cartoony, and, yup! Papery!
And here is Aanra’s spoiler word. Anyone should be able to decifer it, feel free to comment your guess. The spoiler word is… “Benzodiazepines”. It’s used in a type of over the counter medicine that’s very common, and that medicine causes something that is very linked to our story. I’ll update more on Aanra later.
Feel free to send in your opinion! ugriffin@vetragames.com
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