Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Adobe Air – Why no low / medium StageQuality?

4T2 have just completed our first game to be distributed via Adobe Air. Flash based Games on your Desktop and Start menu– great!

However, I’ve got to question Adobe’s logic in not supporting low and medium StageQuality in Air. We nearly always make our Flash games in low StageQuality mode (no anti-aliasing) so they run faster. So why would Air not support this? If they want people to develop games for this platform it is a crazy choice.

I’d like to publish every game we ever make in Air so that at the end of the online game you can click on a button to add it to your desktop. This would be an amazing feature as it would definitely increase the number of times our games are played as they pop on and off various homepages. We could also then add some further features to encourage this behaviour. It should be easy…

What is even more annoying is the fact Adobe don’t exactly come forward and announce this fact. The key information can be found on this page. Note the reference to Air 1.0 and then ‘not supported’ later on. Thanks for that!

If anyone from Adobe is reading this, can you put this near the top of your ‘to fix’ list please. It would help us massively. And if anyone knows how to get around this I’d be very grateful.

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Samsung Mobile fail to deliver

Yesterday I encountered a great example of placing your final goal before you have engaged your audience, and ruining the whole experience. Thank you Samsung Mobile.

Having received an email about an Easter Egg Hunt where you must solve cryptic clues in order to win a phone I willingly followed the link hoping for some brain twisting fun.


Arriving on the main page there are buttons to “Play” or “Register”. Fine by me, I’ll play, and if it is any good, I’ll register.

But no!

After clicking on play I’m shown the following exciting page…


Being busy, I then went back to reading the rest of my emails. I can only hope that the puzzles are sent to your mobile and that is why you need to log in. Even so, having some puzzles shown on a virtual mobile online to start with may have engaged me enough to sign up for the rest of the game. Alternatively, a "Play as guest" mode would have been good. Then I might have registered to show off my brilliance or claim a prize.

Fun first, message second!

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Computer Futures Update

I think it is only fair to comment that Computer Futures have now contacted me and said sorry. 4T2 have now removed from their records so hopefully no more phone calls or emails.

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Dear Computer Futures....

This is an open letter to the recruitment company Computer Futures as they seem to pay no attention to me, either on the phone, or my responses via email. Neither 4T2 Multimedia or myself have any interest in the services you offer. Zero, zilch, nada.

In recent months I have replied each of your many staff requesting that you stop sending either me, or anyone else at 4T2, any more emails with apparently random CVs attached. For a company who specialises in Computers I can’t imagine that this is very difficult.

On a previous occasion I have gone so far as to replying to your staff stating that should you send me any further CVs, I will use Google to locate the individual in question and email them my opinions of your services. This obviously did not have the desired effect as yet more CV’s keep flooding though.

So when I get another email from yourselves and the first line says “I know another email, another CV when will they stop.........Driving you mad isn't it???” I become even more agitated. Obliviously my response of “Yes it is driving me mad. Thanks for noticing and please stop emailing me." was not direct enough as I got another four CVs from this individual today.

Please, delete 4T2 from ALL of your databases. Imagine we do not, and never have existed.

For the record we work with a great recruitment agency called Fresh Recruits who take time to consider whether we would really be interested in an individual before spraying CVs at random to their database.

And for anyone reading this who would actually like a job in a particular area, my suggestion is to do your homework and identify a selection of companies that you might like to work for. Now send them a noticeable CV (insert imagination here) and follow up with a polite phone call. If you really want the job you could try just turning up at their offices and see what happens. The worst case scenario is that you’ll find out exactly who you should send your CV to, and they will normally give you some clues on what to put into it to impress them if you are polite. When this person now gets your CV they will know how enthusiastic about the position you really are. I’ve won work with several Blue Chip companies doing exactly this to their marketing departments. Two people work in the same office as myself that have used this tactic, and only two people have tried it.

If you still can’t make your mind up on whether using a random recruitment agency is good plan or not think about the following. The chances are that somewhere out there, there is another individual who also wants a particular job and has similar skills to you. They might have applied directly. Do you think that a company, given a fifty / fifty choice on potential staff member will decide to employ an individual that costs them an additional 20% - 30% on top of a wage, or the one who applied directly?

Thank you

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Friday, March 23, 2007

PS3 – Instant and unnecessary disappointment

Recently I had a whinge at Microsoft 360 support, so today, I’m going to even things out a little.

Having waited patiently for a PS3 for many months the big day finally arrived. PS3 – An awesome Hi-Res gaming and DVD machine. So perhaps you might expect to get a lead capable of delivering Hi-Res content to a suitable screen when you purchase said item? We’ll you’re going to be disappointed because you don’t get one. You’ve got to purchase it separately. Therefore before you have even turned the machine on you are disappointed and frustrated.

Am I the only person to think this stupid?

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Why is my Xbox 360 broken and why can’t Microsoft use email?

For the record I would like to state that I think Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is a groundbreaking machine for many reasons. Anyone who experiences Xbox Live to its full potential instantly gets a view of the future. A future where one of your best friends could live on a different continent. A future where children can’t play computer games anymore because their parents are hogging the family console. For a person who works in the viral games industry it is like finding a Holy Grail.

However, mine is broken. And is not just mine. The four people I personally know who own an Xbox 360 have all had the same issue - Three flashing red lights on the front in every position but top right. One broken machine. Design fault perhaps?

So you may think that Microsoft are getting good at solving this issue. They seem to have had plenty of practice. Therefore why can’t they help me?

I’ve phoned customer support four times now (weekday mornings as phoning past school closing time is like trying to get through to the Queen) and they have promised to send me an email with instructions on how to send my console to be repaired. Four times this email has not appeared. I’ve checked our firewall and spelt out my email address so precisely a monkey on Mars could get it right. M I K E @ 4 (number 4) T (letter T) 2 (number 2). CO . U K.

So my question is quite simple. Why can’t Microsoft send me a simple email? If a representative from Microsoft phones my mobile – 0044 7976 624855 – I’ll take you through the process if it helps. I’ll not even put you on hold.

I want to be nice about your product as it is extremely good when it works. Please restore my faith.

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