2nd in AppsFire competition

Just a quick message today. We have come second in the AppsFire iPhone app competition!

Hopefully another post soon about the (now) nearly complete level editor - which should allow us to make the game prettier and more fun !

Whistle Training #2-4 (Levels 1-3)

Well after much filming we finally got some good takes of "How to play levels 1-3 using whistling". The videos are all on You Tube and can be accessed via our You Tube Channel.

There were some comedy moments during filming and when things settle down we will review all the footage and come up with an out take video.

Whistle Training #1

You can see how whistle training works on the iPhone:



Coming soon we will show you videos of playing the Beta levels using whistling alone.

Whistling is here!

We've been working hard, and a new version of the beta is now available here: http://www.extremesheepdog.com/beta.htm. The game is similar to the earlier version except that control by whistling is enabled. Before you play the game you probably ought to practice your whistling - so have a go on the Whistle Training screen first. Each command is made up from 4 different phonemes. You can click on a phoneme to practice it, and then click on a command to practice whole commands. Also, note the volume bar which turns green when it detects you are whistling. Once you think you've mastered it, have a go at finishing a level by whistling!

There are two things you need to know if you are encountering problems. The quality of the microphone on your PC greatly effects how accurately the whistles are recognised. Also, when playing the game, try to have the microphone away from the PC speakers, as the sound effects from the game are sometimes interpreted as whistles! Neither of those two problems happen on the iPhone as it has a better quality mic, and an acoustic echo canceller.

Have fun, and let us know what you think!

First Promo Video

After much debate over music, game content, live content and the script - we have finally put together the first promo video for the game. Check it out:

We've been busy

We've not been in touch for a while as we have been busy...we've been working on:

• A video for a competition - we'll show a preview soon.
• Whistle training - so anyone can learn to whistle like a shepherd and control the game using whistling.
• A level editor - to make it easier for us to produce levels for the game.

We will bring updates on each of these over the next few weeks and will also start adding some videos of levels so you can see how we do them.

Early feedback on the Beta

Many thanks for the feedback we have already received. While we address all the reported niggles, we thought it worth highlighting some of the more important ones, and how they are solved:

• Q: How do you Pause/Restart a level?
  A: Pressing escape will pause the game, and then allow you to either go back to it, restart it, or go back to the main menu.
• Q: The sheep keep getting caught against a wall; how do I get them off?
  A: Tell the dog to move round the sheep in a circle, by pressing one of the circle buttons. Then increase his speed (by repeatedly clicking the circle button), until he is fast enough to get in behind them. You probably need to be ready to press the stop button once he has moved them off the wall.
  FYI: We are thinking of making the sheep have a tendency to not get too close to the wall so that this aspect of the game is easier.
• Q: The window is very small on my PC, and it's hard to see the game.
  A: The size of the window is the same size as the iPhone screen. However, we are thinking of making it possible to have the window bigger on your PC. Obviously if you make it too big it will get a bit pixelly, but it will be easier to see. We think this won't be a problem on the phone, as people are used to holding the phone at bit closer to their eyes.
• Q: On the "Flock Exchange" level, I get the sheep in the circle, but the level doesn't end?
  A: Have you got all the blue sheep in the blue circle, and all the red sheep in the red circle, simultaneously?

Please continue to pass on the word, and get more of your friends playing the game...

Beta 1 Release Imminent - but why is it for Windows?

Beta 1 for Extreme Sheepdog Trials is about to wing it's way to our eagerly awaiting Beta testers. However you may ask - why is the Beta a Windows .exe and not an iPhone app?

There are two main reasons:

1. By default an iPhone user cannot install an app from a 'random' web site. There are some good reasons why you might not want to do this as a user, however it makes the Beta process more complex for a developer. To get early feedback prior to Apple approvals (or our planned Betathon) we have released on Windows.
2. We have from the start of the project ensured we can always build on two platforms, iPhone and Windows. The reason for this is to ensure our portability code is working when we carry out the (what should be) fairly simple port to Android using the Android SDK and NDK. Hence given this - it seems logical to get some early feedback on this platform.

The Beta is probably available now - and if you click the Blog title you can try it and download it for yourself. All feedback welcome.

Which dog should we use in our logo? Please tell us

After all the feedback about the poor sheep being scary - we've decided to:

1. Use a dog - after all the dog is the star of the show in a sheepdog game
2. Draw two different dogs (a bit fluffier and cartoon like) and let people pick

The first image shows the dogs on their own:

The second shows how the current game logo might look with a dog instead of the (now scary) sheep:

Please comment on Facebook or against this post and let us know which you prefer.

Is the Sheepdog icon/logo too scary?

We have received feedback that the sheep pictured in our logo is scary. Believe it or not, the logo comes from a real sheep, here he is:

So is the poor fella scary? Should we change logo to a cuddly cartoon dog?

Please post comments below indicating what you think, and whether or not we should look into changing it?

Should it now be free?

The development of the game continues a pace and Beta tests are about to start and hence about time we had a blog. With all that is going on it was good to see some news relevant to us on TechCrunch today:

1. Apple have announced that they will allow in app purchases for free applications. This may cause us to the change our release and charging strategy.We were unsure about a lite version, but approving one app which can then turn into the fully fledged game through a (relatively) simple purchase is appealing. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
2. Eric Schmidt was telling the world how Android is about to explode. From the start we've tried to approach the business of writing games in a portable manner in order to take advantage of multiple markets, without a rewrite. It will be interesting to see if (a) we got it right development wise (b) whether it was worth it.