Team Blog

I've recently been involved with writing Baccarat and Roulette for our forthcoming game, Astraware Casino. Unfortunately I had very little experience of either game before this project so I've learnt a lot over the last few weeks.

As a starting point we searched the internet and found Casino Help with a lot of information about the rules for each game and the variations of each.

Once we had a basic idea of how to play each game we organised a games evening for the whole Astraware team so that we could all play some of the games. It was a fun time and really helpful for understanding the mechanics of the games, but to actually write one of the games you also need to understand what people will expect from them.

To get a deeper understanding of each game we researched both the game played in real casinos around the world and various computerised versions.

A major help with information about the different versions of the games was Wikipedia. The articles on both Baccarat and Roulette include a lot of information about the rules of the games and how they vary around the world.

For Roulette we decided to go with a standard American wheel design, including 0 and 00, but the major decision came when deciding what bets to support on the board. Initially we were thinking of simplifying our betting system since a full Roulette board has over 150 different bets and it seemed excessive to try and give the player so many options on the small screens we normally support.

As we looked through the various bets to see which ones were vital to the game it soon became obvious that we would have to include all of them. As a result we have created a system of highlights to allow us to keep the traditional placement for the bets and still make it clear which numbers are included in the bet. We hope this should help make it easy for new players to understand the different bets and more experienced players should have no problems making sure they place the bet they want.

When it came time to work on Baccarat the betting system was much simpler with only three bets. The complication came from the number of variations played around the world, from James Bond's favourite 'Baccarat Chemin de Fer' to 'Baccarat Banque' played by larger groups. After considering the options we decided to go with Punto Banco, also known as North American Baccarat. This is normally played in American casinos for high stakes and is an easy to understand but thrilling game of chance that is perfect for a single player casino game.

A lot of people here at Astraware have worked together on the different parts of creating this game, from designers to developers to artists and we've all tried to keep the fun of a casino and the ease of use of an Astraware game. I hope you like the end results and who knows one day maybe I'll see you around the Astraware Casino.

I had a bit of excitement yesterday morning. A parcel arrived for me containing a Nintendo DS Lite and a game. My reward for a little bit of voice acting I did for Yannis. Yannis is the man who writes the music to go with many of our games and while he was working on a non-Astraware project, he was asked to find a 'female English voice', so he asked me.

I spent two evenings recording my lines (all two of them...) with Yannis 'directing' and Howard recording the two hours or so of me repeating the same line over and over in various ways, interspersed with hysterical giggling and random chatter about children (Yannis has a daughter about the same age as my son). Somewhere in that recording must have been a successful take of the line, as it is now part of the game. So I now have my voice (and name) in a game that will be in games stores all over the english-speaking world! The game is a remake of an old C64 classic - Impossible Mission.

It's exciting, because while I have done some sound effects for Astraware games (I'm the frog in Bzzz! and one of the people clapping and cheering for Astraware Boardgames) none of these are recognisable as me. In "Impossible Mission" it's definitely my voice coming from the speaker. Of course having now played the game I realise I don't like hearing my voice so much. All I ever seem to say is "You have failed your mission" It's not called "Impossible" for nothing...

Why do we provide demos?

We know that many of our customers buy games from us just based on the reputation of the game, or that they've bought from us before and can trust the quality of our software! Some people do buy games before checking to see that they are compatible with their devices - and occasionally find that a particular game won't run on their device. Normally this is because a version hasn't yet been created for the screen resolution of the device (in which case, it may do its best and "scale" the graphics it has built in, but that never looks as good as a "native" version.)

I've always felt that you should know what you're getting before you buy - and so we've always made sure that people can try out our games before they commit to paying for them.

Of course it is a fine balance - we want to give customers long enough to try out the game and see if they like it, that it has the features they want, and works well on their device, but also we've got to put a limit somewhere and remind people to come back and register.

Sometimes we limit how many games can be started, so you might get five "free" plays before it asks you to register, sometimes we put a limit on how many levels or modes are available, but we're always careful to make sure you can get a reasonable feel for what the whole game is like.

I've seen games on sale where all you see is screenshots on a web page, and that isn't enough to get an idea of the game - you have to try it on the device and see how well it loads, runs, animates and plays. I've even seen an action game that gave you a whole 15 seconds of play (not quite enough to reach the first enemy) before it kicked you out and told you to register - and that just felt mean! We try to be pretty generous with our demos, and give you enough time to be confident that it's a game you'll want to keep playing.

We've always tried to make it as easy as possible to get our games - and now if you have a connected device you can try out our demos directly from your device - I was able to get StarPop® onto a Palm for a friend for his daughter directly from the Astraware website when we were out, without having to go via a PC or an SD card. (Of course, it helps if you have a good data plan - if you pay by the megabyte it can cost quite a bit if you download all of our games over-the-air!)

If you've just bought a new device - and we're coming up to the time of year when plenty of people get new devices - then its wise to check that our games are compatible before you buy them. Because we try to get games right first time (rather than a new bugfix release every other day!), it means that some of our games stay compatible with devices for several years... that is until a new manufacturer makes a device with a different screen resolution, or keyboard type... or any of the other hundred variables they can change. It takes us a while to catch up and update even the major products in our catalog, so its always worth checking. We do try to keep each page up to date with what works on new devices, but sometimes our customers are early adopters and get hold of a device before we do! If that happens - drop a note to our customer support if you find a problem with a device - we might ask you for a little help to make our games work for you too - quite a few of our beta testers started off by getting in touch that way, and now they help to check lots of our games (getting the earliest view on what we're working on into the bargain too!)

We know that many more people try the demo versions than end up making a purchase - that's OK! We like to make sure that you're happy with the games you purchase - and if that means you try lots and only buy one or two that you really like, that's great with us! Some people might keep the demos to show to friends... and we love it when people share the demos - it means even more people get to try out our games... and maybe later look on our site for more for themselves. After all, there's no harm in looking!

I've recently upgraded to my first Windows Mobile device. My previous phone was very basic, but I'm now using a Windows Mobile SmartPhone, the iMate SP3i. It's not quite cutting edge - Windows Mobile 2003SE, a 176x220 screen - but the extra features that it has given me have been incredibly useful!

I always said that all I needed from a phone was to make calls, texts and possibly stretch to an alarm. I've worked with smartphones for the last 5 years, off and on, and I've never been particularly tempted by the extra features. A camera seems nice, a calendar could be helpful, the interface seems okay...but nothing that would really make the change worth while, so, having tried this new phone for a little over a week now, I'm surprised to say that I can never see myself turning back. Little features like Photo Caller ID have kept me interested, but it's actually the extra ability to store useful information that has really impressed me. Calendar and Contacts have both been used a lot, although it will take me a while to get it all as I want it!

Needless to say, one of the first things I did was put some of our games on it. I've got a small collection on there now, with Seven Seas being probably my most played - giving me my daily dose of pirate adventure! Hidden Expedition Titanic and Cubis have also been firm favourites, with their bold graphics a real bonus on the small screen.

I'm really enjoying seeing our games and the devices from another perspective, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Windows Mobile®, as a user rather than as a tester.

Despite working here since June last year it's only in the last few months that Kieren and I have started really talking outside of the project meetings! It all began with an enquiry over the sword class he attends, followed by an offer to take me to one Thanks perhaps to Roland encouraging me to try fencing and my realisation that I'd rather play with a proper sword!

We quickly discovered a shared interest in my cooking and that Kieren's actually quite useful in the kitchen, for a man! Then on Talk Like a Pirate Day after we'd spent the night creating a treasure hunt in the office and, of course, the pirate ship cake, he asked me out!

Since then there's been something of a whirlwind romance, culminating last week, on my Birthday, with a very special proposal We were up at Stafford Castle in the sunshine, cuddled together on a bench enjoying the view, when Kieren gets down on one knee, presents me with a beautiful diamond ring, and asks me to marry him Obviously I said yes, and we've been bouncing around ever since telling everyone, and now you know too!