Go, go, go!

If you're an F1 fan then it's time to start getting excited. I'm racing ahead (oh dear) with the latest title from New Star Games. It's a top-down racer and goes by the name of New Star Grand Prix! Here is your first glimpse of the action:

The game will feature all the tracks, teams and drivers from the F1 2009 season and you will be able to take part in a full career mode. Currently only the first track is ready to drive and the career mode still needs a lot of work but I am confident that I can release this game in March, just in time for the start of the season in Melbourne.

It is already great fun to play and you have to be quite tactical with refuelling and tire changes. You have complete control over which tires you use and how much fuel you take onboard during pitstops. When the heavens open up and the rain comes the track gets steadily wetter and the spray from the back of the cars gets quite intense. You'll soon start slipping all over the place and need to change to wet tires which will give you grip but bring down your top speed. It is also possible to damage the cars by colliding with your opponents or the track wall which will start affecting your speed and require a pitstop. 

I've also uploaded a few screenshots on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newstargames/sets/72157614259747617/

As you can see you can zoom the action right out to view the entire track so you can race at whatever zoom level you like. There will be a beta version soon so stay tuned to the forum for more info.

Latest news, views, Barney, McGrews...

I managed to complete my free web-based minigame, New Star Soccer Trials a couple of weeks back. If you haven't seen it you can check it out on the main page of the website:

http://www.newstarsoccer.com

It seems to be quite popular but I will probably remove the ads as they only generate about $1 a week and I would rather the game looked professional without the annoying start up ads. I will consider doing some more web games in the future but right now I need to focus on improving NSS4 and reaching more people.

Sales of NSS4 have slowed down in the last couple of weeks so I've decided to try a 25% off campaign to see if we can give them a boost. I'm trying to decipher whether it is because of the financial crisis, if gamers are getting their footy fix elsewhere or simply that the game is not as appealing as it could be. The gaming scene has changed a lot since NSS3 was launched (in October 2005) with downloadable games becoming much more prolific and of a higher quality than ever before, especially from the independent developers. Then of course there are the console download channels, and let's not forget that free web games are chewing up a lot of our free time. It's most likely a mixture of all of these things but the fact that NSS4 is selling less than the previous version did at this stage is a worry. In order to market the game better and indeed improve it I need to get a clearer picture about my target audience and their feelings about NSS4. With that in mind I have created a short questionnaire which you can find via the newsletter or on the forum here: 

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?p=88362#post88362

Please take a few minutes to complete it as I would like to gather at least 100 responses. 

Work on the new project is still progressing quietly in the background and I hope to get some screenshots up soon followed by a simple demo of the game engine. My focus for this game is more on the fun aspects of being a sporting hero rather than trying to simulate the real world. That said, the game will feature real-life opponents, teams and venues. I guess that is a little clue towards the type of sport it is based on although 'venue' is not really the right word. Stay tuned to Twitter for regular development updates. 

http://twitter.com/newstargames

I am aiming for an April/May release for this after which I intend to tackle another sport aside from football. I'm now a firm believer that the most effective way to survive long-term as an indie is to build up a stable of quality titles rather than having one hit game that gets updated every couple of years. This doesn't mean the end of New Star Soccer, far from it, it just means that New Star Games will be known for more than just football games.