Dear old Sipwell answered my prayers and tried out Superstar Racing. He pretty much sums it up as “crappy” with graphics bringing him back to the 90’s.

I’ve been in the nineties. I don’t want my games to be the same like then, the nineties are over… we look at the future. The screenshots of PR give me the future.

Well people, there you have it. Seriously though, I agree. I’m not impressed either by gameplay or graphics - or even their somewhat acclaimed “socializing” community part. I just wanna scream “get out of my face!” to those running around the paddock, getting in my way, standing to close. Invasive!

Anyhow, besides ripping that not so great game to pieces he also sent me a picture that proves, once again, the almightyness of my being… I’m not just a mum - I’m also a bot.

And have a great weekend everyone. See you on Monday!

/ Linda

I promised you a sneak peek and here it is:

If you for some reason want the youtube link here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-AiUI56WY0&fmt=18

Puss o kram from the PR people

Take a look at this —–>

Doesn’t it look awesome? A bun, cut into two, with a hole digged into it where there’s “almond icing” (is that even a word in English?) And then whipped cream and a lid with some icing sugar dusted on top. Semla. There are five of them with my name on, in the PC office fridge. My kids will love me today. Who said you can’t buy love? Wrong!

And as usual this has little or nothing to do with game development. I actually started writing a post yesterday that had more to do with that, but then I got busy doing other stuff and now…well, it feels a bit outdated. So instead of a Monday-post I had to write a Tuesday-post and as it’s Fat Tuesday in Sweden I felt the need to say something about semlor (semla in plural).

Moving on. I found another thread in the PS forum on the upcoming release of Power Racing, and the teaser film I was talking about the other day. Someone apparently interpreted my post as if the game itself was ready for release this week. And of course it isn’t. So, I’m sorry if some of you were disappointed when realising I was talking about the film, not the game. Tomas U is working on the film even as we speak, while working on some mockups and the HUD… And they say men can’t do more than one thing at the same time!? I say beluga!

Other things going in here at the moment… We have a master thesis/project student with us - Christian. He started his 15 week Power Challenge project period yesterday and he seems to fit in just nicely. His main focus will be the PR tracks, probably with some special attention to object placement and how to improve that process. He’s more than welcome to the team.

On the scrum boards this week we find stories like “single player: speed race”, “edit badge”, “font for power racing web”, “graphics: race flow”, “default badge”, “be able to save replay data”, “create legend”, “Nice: create curbs” - just to mention a few. The stories are not always split up with a complete sense of logic. For instance, sometimes we lift out the graphical components, making that a story on it’s own. Sometimes that is included in a larger, more all inclusive kind of story. Like “single player: speed race”. That includes everything from data base structure, saving the data, launching the client, starting the race, the HUD etc etc. It varies.

Well, maybe I should go and try to fetch some coffee or stare at an excel file or…something. Or do some laps on Drahmeldorf..?

See you soon. Maybe with some sneak peaks of our super fun game (it all depends on how Tomas’ multi tasking skills are doing)

/ L

Ha! Look what I found…

The Power Racing team photo, about a year ago… Some have left the team, others have taken their place. Still, nice pic!

Anyway, I realise we have to work on ours. Some of the comments made here sort of put Power Racing next to Bigfoot, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Nessie and other believe-it-when-I-see-it objects of our imagination of belief.

However, Power Racing is very much less mythological. I’d say it’s about one hundred percent real.

The reason you haven’t heard from me (or anyone else on the team) in ages is this: we’re constantly working on building the game. And I mean CONSTANTLY, all day, every day, all the time. Believe me, the game is there and it will be released. At this stage there’s a huge amount of time spent on meetings, planning, estimation, retrospections and what have you. I know the guys on the team much rather just get to work, get the code written, the problems solved, the details nailed… bascially do their job. Still they need to put quite a lot of effort into the plan-and-design-process, to come up with some preliminary scope and dates. And if I wasn’t there myself I would never believe how difficult it is and how long it takes.

There are several reasons we haven’t been communicating more regarding release dates, development status etc.

One is uncertainty. We can’t be sure exactly what to release on a certain date. Either the scope or the date has to be flexible. We can’t make any promises, we can just provide estimates based on reality so far.

Another is politics, or marketing strategies. When would be the best time to release this game? Why? How? Business, pure and simple, which is not my cup of tea and someone else’s decision to make.

As this game, product, is being built from scratch we face problems that we don’t have to deal with in Power Soccer. The children’s diseases that only strikes while you’re young. Growing pains, if you’d like. Power Racing doesn’t exist as a product yet, but the game itself does. The people working on it are extremely dedicated and passionate about this becoming the best online racing game ever. This means having opinions on design, how features should be implemented, what solutions would be the best… Discussions and decisions. An entire game has to be thought through, nothing left out. The product managers have to tell us enough but not too much.

Information is a tricky thing. If you have too much it limits you and restrain the creative process. If you don’t have enough you can’t really move forward either.

So, in trying to get the right game out in as short amount of time as possible, we’re walking a thin line that takes us from our product manager’s vision, the producer’s interpretation of it and the developer’s final creation.

And as always I ended up lightyears from the initial subject: is Power Racing just a PR stunt? No people, it’s very much real, happening and coming your way.

It would be nice to show you some new screenshots or an in-game video or something soon. And I know the team would really like to show you our work in progress as well. It’s just a matter of time. So, let’s see shall we, if I can get one of the guys to put together some PR pics or videos soon. But - no promises, just my most sincere intentions.

Do what George Michael would have done, have some faith…

Sincerely yours

/ Linda

Some days I get it all together. I manage to match my current mood with just the right outfit; clothes, earrings, hairstyle, makeup…it all fits. I’m sensing “completion” to some extent.

How things look aren’t unimportant. It matters more than we might realize, or like. But by that I don’t mean that everything should look like it “should”, as the people in the know try to persuade us.

The human body, cars, houses, clothes, dogs and cats, churches, hats…they don’t have to follow the rules of the latest trends. They may very well be the very opposite of what the current fashion regime wants us to believe is the Only Look Possible. But they have to tell us something. Our eyes must feel comfortable resting on them, for some reason.

Sometimes I get the (implicit - or explicit?) feeling that we’re all supposed to find certain things ugly, others cute or beautiful. Like every living creature or dead object on this planet have some built in level of cuteness. A tag that dictates it’s aesthetic value.

Or, what’s even worse, that we shouldn’t really care how things look at all. As if that is below us. Which, of course, is complete and utter rubbish. Looks matter. Let them. But let’s not be narrow minded and boring about it. Let’s like whatever the heck we like.

I like her 

and them

and those 

and him

and her

Sometimes it’s hard to say what it is that gets you going, that makes your heart race, that gives you that endorphin high…  What combination, what pixels, what part of something blended with something else is it that gives you that buzz? And how do you find a combination that works for everyone? We all know that my hangups aren’t your hangups. So is there a magic recipe for a graphical masterpiece? This is extremely relevant for me right now, thinking about design issues in Power Racing. What is right for

1. me

2. you

3. everyone else

?

Most of the Power Challenge crew are back at the office today. Some are home sick (coughing, throwing up, crying…) and some are still on holiday.But most of us are here. And even though things feel surprisingly the same, there are actually some changes taking place.

We started this new year off with a moving-around exercise. We altered the teams, the focus, the desks. So now I’m actually sitting where Powdersnow used to sit! Kind of classic. (but he took his gold medal with him… greedy)

Anyway. As I sort of told you at the end of last year, we’re gonna put some more time, people and effort into Power Racing from now on. We’re NOT letting go of Power Soccer. We’re still keeping a team for soccer and there will still be features developed - we’re just moving some of the previous soccer people over to racing. So instead of one fabulous online sports game brought to you by Power Challenge - there will be two! Isn’t that just excellent news?

Well, just wanted to say hi and let you all know we’re back at work. Back in business, so to speak.

See you out there, on that giant freeway called the interweb.

// linda

We got an early Christmas present from Santa/Bernard at Pole Position yesterday - more car sound for Power Racing! This time for one of the “American” cars (the design, properties etc is inspired by a variety of cars from over there…)

Sounds fantastic, as always, and I’m still amazed with the impact great sound has on the entire gaming experience.

So there was a Christmas party yesterday. We drank, we played, we Spotified, we cheered, we ate, we drank some more, we danced… And here we are, looking awfully bright and perky if I might say so myself. (thank God there is Helena Rubinstein Magic Concealer to cover up the tiredness. makeup is my best friend)

One of the events was a PS cup that Powdersnow - of course - won.

(Sipwell might claim he would have won had he only been invited, but that’s a different story.)

Proud winner of the office Power Racing tournament was… Erik H! Power to the racingteam! My guys truly are the best… And they’re happy too!

(notice the mega cool five of a kind t-shirt that Per S m-a-d-e for the event)

Then there was some Guitar Hero action and for the first time ever I beat Erik in a game, something I guess will never happen again.

(I actually beat Josef too, come to think of it…)

Here follows some random evidence of friendship, joy and beer:

Then we left the office and went to Platå, a restaurant/night club in Linköping where we had some food,  glögg, beer and cocktails.

Quality dude meets code dude.

Code dude happened to grab Emperor of Fun’s nose

Chancellor of Surreal vs. Per “Tropic Thunder” L.

From all of us, to all of you - a very, merry Christmas!

We have meetings. We plan. We discuss. We talk. We consider. We reconsider. We design. We draw. We write. We agree. We disgree. We stand up daily. We retrospect.

We’re finally getting close to having all the bits and pieces we need to get the work done and the game out. Not saying it’s gonna be easy or be done in the flashes of flashes, but we have a Plan and a Product Manager. And extremely talented developers, just waiting to get the green light on Power Racing.

So. We’re one week from Christmas holiday and the focus factor is sort of aiming for zero. Well, that actually depends on how you look at it. We’re all 100 % occupied with thinking/talking/dreaming of racing, it’s just not that easy to focus on the tasks magnetically taped to the whiteboard. We couldn’t be more eager to get going than a whippet on a race track.

We won’t have any spectacular news before Christmas, but trust me, tons of work is being done even as we speak and come January I’ll definetely be able to tell you more on the details of the development.

So - keep your fingers crossed and be nice and Santa just might bring you some excellent presents this year.