Dubious Quality

Gridiron Solitaire #69: Cut Scene

Here's the 99% complete cut scene. I recommend going full-screen to watch it:



Fredrik made that look exactly as I saw it in my head (better, even), and the voiceover is exactly what I heard in my head, too. Perhaps there should be concern over what I see and here in my head, but that's a subject for another day.

DQ Film Advisor And Nicest Guy In The World Ben Ormand watched it late last week, and he said, "Nice job. There are two dead spots."

Okay, I'd watched the cut scene at least fifty times in various incarnations, tweaking little details, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I watched it one more time and---son-of-a-bitch, he was right. At :25, there's a field image on the screen for five seconds without any overlays, and it's ponderous. There's also a stadium image at :36 on the screen for seven seconds, and it has the same problem.

Once seen, can't unsee. So Fredrik is adding a transitional element in both those sections. Other than that, though, it's done.

Of course, nothing is without problems, and not every beta tester can see the cut scene successfully. I've narrowed it down, potentially, to XP users. It may have something to do with codecs or the .NET framework or a million other things. So I'm still trying to track that down. Plus Fredrik made this nifty graphic as an overlay in the lower-left corner of the screen:
I revised the dynamic help that takes place in the exhibition game and it's essentially complete at this point. I don't know why I fought the exhibition game for so long, because it works, and showing help during an actual league game turned out to be much too stressful.

I also fought having difficulty levels for a long time, but it turns out that works as well. It's just a much friendlier introduction to the game.

One of the beta testers said they'd like to see a bigger celebration when they won a championship. I agreed with him, and it's nice to be at a point where I can address something like that. So instead of a static confetti overlay after the Gridiron Bowl ends, there's now a nice falling confetti animation, and instead of just a custom headline, the newspaper background graphic is heavily customized as well. Plus, after you've won the championship, there will be the league trophy by your team name in the Team Hub as a reminder of what you've accomplished.

For one season. Winning one championship is not a lifetime achievement award.

posted by Bill Harris @ 8:00 PM