Team Blog

I'm not a new employee to Astraware. Technically, besides Howard and David, I'm the longest-employed Astraware employee. However, I have had two little breaks from working (they're called Maria and Sam!)

I have now been back at the company for nearly two months. Back in the office I can now have adult conversation (well, adult in the "not suitable for children" sense). Faced with the prospect of having to work from home to look after a poorly child, I realise what the best thing about being back in adult company is: I don't have to spend endless hours listening to the same kiddies television theme tunes over and over again!

Other advantages include being able to swear without risking one or other of the children repeating the offending words to their school-mates, being able to eat chocolate without one or other of the children asking, well demanding, a "bite" and of course, Katherine's cakes!

I can't claim huge experience of other offices (I've always been a retail worker) but I think the Astraware office has probably the most fun of any I know about. Plus, my official job description being QA tester, I don't feel as though I'm doing much real work, since all I do all day is play games!

As you can see, it doesn't take much to make me happy! Larry and I are currently working on a couple of new mobile platforms for our games to run on, and this image represents progress...

Several of the really basic technologies behind a game are a screen to display things on (in the image here I've filled the screen with random-colored pixels), a timer that allows us to update the game many times a second (the small squares are being drawn by the timer, though you can't see it ), and finally controls that allow you to interact with the game (here you can see that I've painted some squares with a pen).

On top of these things we'll soon be adding graphics and audio - there's only so far you can get with rectangles - and then we'll have something that looks and reacts like a game.

So what's this running on? That's a secret for now, but hopefully not for too long!

Late last week some of the team came across a fantastic feature on Daily Gadget, that got us all a little excited. Basically, to cut a long story short, the idea is to list the first 10 tracks from the shuffle play on your iPod (or other unamed MP3 player).

Being the music obsessive that I am (and some of the other team members will join me in this fetish over the next few months, I'm sure), this got me quite excited. Therefore, I present... a stolen idea (thanks Doug ), and a great one at that... for your delectation... the semi-official Astraware 'What's On My iPod?' blog-licious featurette.

1. Come Dance With Me - Diana Krall (from the album From This Moment On)
   Krall has a great talent, not just as a singer but as a pianist, too, and is the best self-accompanying jazz vocalist to appear since the late Shirley Horn.
2. Shapes Of Things - Black Stone Cherry (from the album Black Stone Cherry)
   Take a pinch of Led Zep, a shot of Black Sabbath and top up with a large splash of nu-metal Nickelback, and you have this Kentucky four-piece's recipe for a great downhome rock cocktail!
3. So Like A Rose - Garbage (from the album Beautiful Garbage)
   A more mature sounding Garbage, lends this track a brevity not seen before from Shirley and her cohorts.
4. Always - The Answer (from the album Rise)
   The 1970s are back in a big way with this classic rock anthem from this new Irish four-piece.
5. Is It My Body - Alice Cooper (from the album Greatest Hits)
   Do I really need to comment?
6. One And The Same - Audioslave (from the album Revelations)
   Audioslave finally leave the legacy of RATM and Soundgarden behind them, with their most fully realised album to date.
7. Valkyrie Rising - Benedictum (from the album Uncreation)
   Bow down at the golden metal throne of Veronica Freeman and her metal minions!
8. Whiplash - Graham Bonnet (from the album Underground)
   The iron-lunged lord of rock vocals returns with his special brand of big tunes and saucy postcard lyricism.
9. Get Up And Go - Damone (from the album Out Here All Night)
   If you like Buckcherry you're gonna love this!.
10. No Need To Worry - Cactus (from the album Cactus)
    The Vanilla Fudge defectors bring you a little piece of rootsy blues in the grand old bar band tradition.

OK, who's next?

Come Halloween and everyone is trick or treating, dressing up and generally having fun, eating cake, etc. All very well you might say, but did anyone take a minute to think about the poor Chuzzles we have dotted around the office? No they didn't, so I took it upon myself to include them. I decided upon various costumes which started off with a plain simple witch's hat but then escalated to a full blown Freddy Krueger outfit, soon most of the office joined in...

Late last night as Halloween approached I enlisted the help of a couple of ghoulish friends to make some spooky Halloween treats. Before the staff here devours them I grabbed a couple of photos and below you will find recipes for both.

Spiderweb cake

250g self-raising flour
250g caster sugar
250g butter
4 eggs
Green & red food colourings
Raspberry jam
Icing Sugar
Water
Black food colouring

1. Put the butter, sugar, flour & eggs into a bowl and mix until smooth (personally I like to cheat and use a food processor! )
2. Remove about half the mixture and place into a separate bowl. Add red food colouring until you get a nice blood red colour.
3. Then add green food colouring to the other half till you get a good slimy green.
4. In the first cake tin place half the green cake mixture and then on top of that put half the red cake mixture. In the second cake tin reverse the layering, red on the bottom with green on top.
5. Bake at Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F for about 20 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Remove from the tins and let cool whilst you make the biscuits (see below! )
7. Sandwich the two cakes together with a nice thick layer of raspberry jam (ensuring you have the red parts of the cake in the middle so it looks like it has oozed into the cake.
8. Mix icing sugar and water together until you get a good consistency icing (enough to cover the top of the cake), and then spread out on the top.
9. Mix more icing sugar with water & black food colouring and then ice concentric circles on the top (make them about half an inch apart)
10. With a toothpick, or a fork, drag out from the centre of the cake to the edge to create a spider web pattern.

Spider Biscuits (makes 20)

40 round biscuits (I used Shorties, but anything tasty will do! )
Raspberry jam
100g Butter
200g Icing sugar
Black food colouring
40 Matchmakers or liqourice strands each broken into 4 pieces for the legs
40 Silver balls

1. Blend together the butter, icing sugar and black food colouring. Mix for a little longer than usual so that it's a little more runny - this makes it easier to spread on top of biscuits.
2. Take two biscuits and cover one side of each in raspberry jam
3. Add 8 legs, 4 on each side, by placing them on the bottom biscuit
4. Place the other biscuit on top, jam side down Cover the top biscuit with butter icing and then place 2 silver balls on top for eyes