News
12.01.2012 : New team member
We recently had an addition to our team: Welcome Jan Steinke, our new backend developer! - Things should speed up now quite a bit. =)
12.12.2011 : Interview with Douglas Burchill
Here is an interview we did a while back with Douglas Burchill from the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA): http://austenculture.weebly.com/interviews.html
15.08.2011 : New Gameplay Features
It's not really big news but I thought to update the >> upcoming site again as we are approaching an increasingly different Matchmaker from what we imagined when we first started out. As you will notice when you read the descriptions of the new gameplay we shifted our focus to make this a more character driven game compared to before where it was rather about managing material goods, tasks and skills. These are still there of course but it has become a little bit more challanging to run ones household now due to interfering personalities.
It was not an easy decision (and one we are still in the process of making) because maybe some of you would rather have it straight forward and controlled then distorted throught this new character trait lense.
But it's also a very important decision (especially for me, Ulli) because it will lead Matchmaker down a path that has not been tried before. You mustn't imagine this to be a sort of tamagotshi game where your characters will get unhappy when you do not meet their plainly stated needs. But rather it will be much more difficult to figure out what exactly it is they want. Most of the time they will not know it themselves. They will react in certain patterns which will not make them completely unpredictable but to determine these patterns will take some time. Some of them you might never encounter, some of them might drive you mad.
To that end we created a new kind of Artificial Intelligence (well, we are still working on it) that leans on a psychotherapy method called >> IFS (Internal Family System). And we call it AFS (Artifical Family System ;) ).
Of course it can still all go wrong. But if it doesn't ... prepare yourself!
24.07.2011 :
So David made a new coach, but I haven't quite figured out how to handle them, yet. ;)
12.06.2011 : Two New Screenshots
Two new screenshots, you can view them as usual >>here in all their glory.
20.05.2011 : Big News Today ...
... though not the hoped for release of the game. Because not only did Ulli quit her job today but she actually managed to get her source code up at github as an open source repository! How unimaginably cool is that! This enormous step is the main reason for this update, but as a side note - it might be nice to know, too, that she now has all her time devoted to Matchmaker.
So.
Be sure to check the code out, because it's just stupendous and will bring a smile to your face for at least 3 seconds! That is, if you are not completely awed by the brilliance of the framework in which case we wouldn't recommend it as you might not be able to sleep tonight!
24.04.2011 : Facebook or Twitter updates
See our facebook page or follow us on twitter for smaller but regular updates.
29.03.2011 : Tiny Demo
As we should have done ages ago: >> here a tiny demo for you to get to know one of your future houses.
19.02.2011 : New Screenshots
A few more screenshots can be viewed >> here. Please tell us, what you think. Another graphics preview should follow soon.
Development has started again though we are still unsure as to which 3D engine to choose. Papervision3D seems to be dead, Away3D makes animations needlessly complicated and almost impossible. Alternativa3D is a good alternative but will propably be free only for this version as a teaser for the upcoming Molehill version. We'll need the extra performance though so it's a tough decision that could cost us weeks in development.
29.01.2011 : Release delay
We are very sorry to say that we'll not be able to release the game in the near future as announced. We'll have to postpone the release at least for some month. We were and are facing heavy constraints on our time an energy. We had to move into another appartement in december and Ulli has now a daily work drive of more than three hours. So unfortunatly she has no time and energy left to develop the game further except for at the weekends occasionally. David though is developing graphics again now that we finished the game design. He promises to update the site now and again with some screenshots. ;)
However having to work at a big game producing company proved to have its advantages, too. Adobe let us have a sneek peak and a working copy of their upcoming Flash 3D engine which will hopefully perform better that the one we are currently using. We've already reached the limit of Papervision3D even on low quality and without any game mechanic implementations.
Working on Farmerama has also taught Ulli the importance of carefully planning a project that will have as many features as we plan to implement. So she is currently working on the main code structure that will hopefully be able to carry all that.
28.11.2010 : Graphics Preview
A short graphics preview of the player's house in Matchmaker is out.
11.11.2010 : Missing Emails
We seem to have a problem with the contact form. We received several empty emails. If you have tried to contact us but did not receive an answer we'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave us a short note on twitter.
02.10.2010 : Matchmaker Development
We changed the number of daughters to one at a time. Players will have an unlimited "amount" of daughters but will "access" their next one only after they married their current one.
It was a big struggle to decide this since it would have been fun to relive Mrs. Bennet's struggle with her five daughters. But in the end we decided it would not only be a huge amount of data (which might have resulted in fewer attributes for the daughters) but also very stressful and confusing to manage so many daughters. We are keeping it open though, maybe there'll be an addon of the sort in the future.
We also decided to create a 3D environment for some parts of the game. This will for now include the players home where you'll have a top down view of your house, garden and stables (much like Sims 3) with a 360 degress real time strategy camera. The house should also feature some characters (it'll limit itself according to performance outcome, Flash is not the best platform for 3D) with basic animations (playing piano, writing, reading, stiching ect.). Here you'll also access most of your inventory (stables, wardrobes, kitchen).
There will be a graphics demo soon.
Also planned is the main village where you'll be able to shop, let your daughter take walks and visit aquaintances.
Some bad news: Ulli had to get a job (found one at >> Bigpoint and currently working on >> Farmerama) which might delay the game somewhat. She's also struggling with 3D issues ... ah well. But she'll keep you posted more often now that the game finally progresses.
15.04.2010 : Welcome Jane Austen Games!
Jane Austen Games went online! The first Jane Austen Game has been released. It contains several solitaire card games. The cards feature characters from Jane Austen books.