Kudos Box Art

So slap bang in the middle of releasing Kudos : Rock Legend, the original game is on sale in stores in the US with some truly stunning boxes which are thanks to my buddies at zero G. I love embossed boxes, and these are superb. Click the images for slightly bigger scans:

Legendery game on sale

It's only 10 minutes early. and I'm sleepy after this alcohol.

Kudos : Rock Legend, the game that isn't quite a sequel, but is sort of in the same general area, and lets you manage and star in your own virtual rock band, is on sale.

Website:
http://www.rocklegendgame.com

Screenshots:
http://www.positech.co.uk/rocklegend/images/final_screen1.jpg
http://www.positech.co.uk/rocklegend/images/final_screen2.jpg
http://www.positech.co.uk/rocklegend/images/final_screen3.jpg

Demo:
http://www.positech.co.uk/rocklegend/RockLegendDemo.exe

Buy it!:
http://www.positech.co.uk/rocklegend/register.html

This is a low key direct-sales launch, prior to the game appearing on any portals, or any major press splash about it. I'm going to bed now, Enjoy.

edit:
for paypal orders use this link:
https://secure.bmtmicro.com/servlets/Orders.ShoppingCart?PRODUCTID=28990004

Outdoing Nigel Tufnell

Just getting some forum avatars together and found this:

Demo today, order page, final things

Ok, so I'm working on the demo build today, just finalising the length of it, and seeing what files can be ommited to reduce the size of it. Then I need to uplaod the demo, get press releases together, put together a proper spreadsheet to co-ordinate stuff like uplaoding demos to download sites etc etc.
Plus I need to sort out google adword advertising, and maybe some banner advertising.
Lots to do, but nearly there. I may try and get some fresh screenshots taken as well

Fixing some minor things, dithering about length

Should the game last 5 years or ten?
Originally it was five. This seemed a good length, with lots going on, and a nice point to end. Kudos took ten, but this isn't kudos, its different. Feedback from some publishing types encouraged ten, and I made the changes, but now I'm thinking five again. I keep dithering between the two...
I think the very best games let most people play them to the end, and are so good, they want to do it again. KRL isn't an RPG or an FPS, it has replayability, its more like Civilisation than any other game I can think of. The minute it ends, you think to yourself "if only I'd sacked that bass player earlier" or "I should have taken that record deal".

I'm pretty convinced I'll switch back to five.

In other news, I added the first go at the page that lists some of the bands whose names and song names feature in the game:

CLICK HERE

If you are in a band (and have a cool name), and want to be featured, get emailing (see yesterdays post).

I'm still on schedule for a Saturday morning release, just fixing bugs as I encounter them now, and always playing a release build to track any release-mode only problems. I'm also alternating between my new Vista PC and my old XP one to find compatibility issues.
Not long to go...

Rock Legend Preview

Is up at gametunnel:

http://www.gametunnel.com/gamespace.php?id=368&tab=2

feel free to DIGG this story if you have an account. here's the diggness:

http://digg.com/pc_games/Rock_Legend_Game_Preview

It's an encouraging preview but I have a LOT of tweaking to do in the next seven days. I do not anticipate much in the way of time-off, or possibly even blogging. Play balancing is VERY tricky stuff.

Calling All Bands

Are you in a band?
Are your friends in Bands?
Do they have websites?

If the answer is YES to any of these (err, any of the first two, plus the third..), and you don't mind the name of your band, or some of your songs being in the hot new PC game - KUDOS ROCK LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!! , then all you have to do is email me at cliff AT positech dot co dOt UK, with a link to your website, and a list of song titles, and the band name (helps if you email *from* that domain name, so I know it's really you), and I will

a) put your band name and song name in the game (as long as I like them, and they aren't offensive etc, and they sound the right kind of thing for the game)

b) link to your website from the yet-to-be-done page on the rock legend website which I will set aside for such things.

Cheers!!

Cat : 1, Cliff: 0

Jadzia (my eldest cat) had to go for a booster injection today. Just after 9.30am, i'll put her in the box and drive the short distance to the vets.

HA!

around 9.39, I finally accept defeat, and call the vets to cancel, whilst mopping up most of the blood from my hand and putting a bandage on it.
Grrrr. When are they going to sell one of those guns that they use to tranquilise tigers. I need one of those...

Release date for Kudos : Rock Legend has been set at 26th May. I've revamped some of the GUI and it looks a lot better. I'll be tweaking the appearance of the 'relax between gigs' bit today. I also intend to spend a good few days of solid playtesting to ensure all the numbers are right.

Rock legend Release Delayed

I was planning on releasing the game for sale today, but I've been persuaded to put it back for a few days, probably less than a week. I'm adding some new stuff before release now:

I'll be hopefully arranging for some new artwork, to make parts of the UI better.
I've added 3 more venues, and they will need some testing
I added band managers, and changed some gameplay so you need a manager to book certain gigs, and to get product endorsement offers.
I'll be making some tweaks to the start of the game, giving you some 'cover version' songs to start off, which can't be edited which make the start of the game a bit quicker and more fun.
I may add a few more band member NPCs too.
I'm doubling the game length to ten years, so that will need extensive rebalancing.

This should all end up making the game that much easier to get into, and more accessible, and hopefully give it a more polished feel. The people who have tested it have all said the game is very good and addictive, so I have no worries about the general gameplay, its just tweaking.

Todays rock n roll pinup is....

THOR!

WHEN THERE'S LIGHTNING!

"You know it ALWAYS BRINGS ME DOWN!"

Everyone should playtest games while listening to DIO. It should be THE LAW.
(Ronnie James Dio shown ACTUAL SIZE).

Redid the rock legend website

The old one was a bit pants, I prefer this one, but YMMV

www.rocklegendgame.com

VERY close to the release now, tester feedback is pretty damned good, and I am not aware of any bugs at all. No doubt there *will* be a patch, if only to add some cool new stuff, and I'll certainly spend a day chilling out making new avatars once the dust has settled. Now it's the start of phase II which is marketing the damned thing. I have a ;release candidate' build now... hoping to release it by Friday.

The Dreaded Avatar

Just finished off a hard day doing tedious tweaking and balancing on Rock Legend, and treated myself to a new hair style for Poser. Say hello to my dreadlocked avatar

Each avatar comes in about 6 different flavours, which are just variations on the same image. That way you pick someone you vaguely like the look of, then go through their options. It's not vaguely as configurable as a 3D avatar chooser, but then again, you get very high quality images with no 3D card effort, and given that my game is more like Civ than it is like an MMO, I think a wide, but not infinite choice of avatar is fine.