Comments - Warmfuzzy

Almost forgot: we also do a weekly concall on Skype, which we try to keep under an hour.

Smashball is powered by SVN, Redmine (includes bug/support/feature tracking, wiki, and basic project managent foo like milestones and roadmaps and gantt charts), and Basecamp/Campfire for group communication and file sharing. We allow playtesters to access SVN to receive test build updates, but the "stable" release is available via steam.

We experimented with auto-close features based on commit message content, but it didn't give us sufficient workflow control, so we just have threads in Basecamp that get updated whenever someone commits to SVN.

Builds are done with an unholy union of cygwin/gnu make, msvc++, and valve's contenttool (which replaced the even more unholy automatic installer/updater hacked together with NSIS).

In addition to these systems, I highly recommend that for projects beyond 2-3 people, you put the "producer" hat on someone. Without someone dedicated to herding all the cats in the right direction, your project will flounder and miss planned milestones!

You too SinKing, what made it a horrendous play?

I think as a noob, ending up in a game with Booom and Kamikazemelon can be a bit painful. Is that what happened to you?

Can you perhaps be more specific with what was wrong with the controls the first time out, or what made it so difficult for you to play?

Much art has been added or enhanced in this version.

We are indeed! We will be posting an announcement soon that will allow you to get beta keys in advance of the release next week, stay tuned.

We would agree with you. We've added a couple of things in this next release that should help the learning curve a little bit (Pro Tips and Goalie bots anyone?). Getting good with the hook and turbo does take a bit of practice though.

The next version of forum is much better. All of the specific annoyances that players addressed to us have been fixed (sticky trees, annoying ledges, lips on doorways) afaik. In fact, RS is building a stadium around it at this very moment!

There will also be a couple of new maps in the next release, stay tuned!

In an effort to combat the "raped by a pro" problem with Smashball, which clearly hinders adoption rate, we are trying a few things. Here are two examples:

1) Segregating n00bs and pros as our playerbase grows. We have all noticed that when a n00b joins a server full of n00bs, he has a lot more fun and is more patient with learning the flow of the game and the movement controls. Getting pwnt repeatedly by pro players when you've been playing for 3 minutes is definitely unfun.

2) We have found that the learning curve on Smashball is a bit longer than the average mod, and that the tutorial only teaches basic skills--not how to be competitive in a real game full of pros. We have several pros (folks that have been playing religiously since beta or alpha) who have volunteered to teach Smashball skills to servers full of n00bs. I recommend you keep an eye out for the 'class schedule' and attend one, it will really increase your enjoyment of the game!

-WF, Smashball Labs, Smashball.tv

PS: We're working on the melons, I swear! :P

stonecold23, that was actually a conscious design decision (tbh probably better described as a nifty emergent feature stemming from a design decision). If you fully concentrate on your movement, you can move really fast, but lose the ability to do anything else effectively except perhaps pass or run into the goal.

As a general rule, if hooking doesn't feel fun, you're probably doing it wrong. :D