Thanks to everyone who attended the first live broadcast of 2021 and I hope you enjoyed listening to the plans we have to make the GameGuru MAX development transparent and produce solid builds that you can rely on to 'do what it says on the tin'.


And here are the answers that I did not answer during the broadcast (it will save me some time, and gives me more coding time):

Q> Has the classic map importer improved?
A> There has been no improvement on the importing of Classic FPM levels since Beta Three. When we release the first update for 2021 you can test the build and use the bug reporting system if you find one of your levels has issues. A question in return, would you be happy for an option which zips up your level and non-stock assets into a package to attach to the bug report (only sent to TGC in confidence, not posted publicly)?

Q> ​Can you add a paysafecard payment option to buy the engine? Please add a way to create with max RTS Game. If you add that it will have more people buying the engine?
A> No plans to add PAYSAFECARD option at this time, but certainly, post a link with details and a thumbs up if anyone wants to see this.

Q> Any progress on the EBE debate?
A> Yes, the structure editor forum thread definitely proved there are enough users who want to keep the Structure Editor within MAX, and perhaps in time see some features added. We have decided, however, to move it to an advanced section of the software and away from the eyes of brand new beginners. It's not as easy to use as it could be, and between now and release we may have more input on the best course for the creation/importing of structures.

Q> ​When will the next beta be available?
A> We want to get the tiny installer, auto updater, existing bugs, and a bug tracking system in place before we release the first update in 2021. Hopefully, these tasks will go smoothly and we can reveal the first 2021 build in a future live broadcast.

Q> ​Will it be easier to make a custom GUI/UI for games?
A> Yes, we have put a lot of work into making sure you can craft all aspects of your standalone game, including its menus, in-game menus, HUDs, and other elements that have traditionally been locked or hard to reach.

Q> ​Will it be possible to give a character effect in max like dizziness?
A> There are no plans to add a dizziness behavior for the player, or shader effect at the moment, but we are going to be conducting some deep gameplay reviews for all three game types, and if dizziness is determined to be a critical effect for shooter and RPG game play then we will add it.

Q> ​Can I make many levels/maps in one game? Attached with portal or gate to go to?
A> Yes indeed. Our design allows a game to comprise of MANY levels, and you can use portals and other mechanisms to move the player around those levels in whatever order you require. Simple games would progress such as level 1, 2, 3, end, but other games might require levels to represent towns or locations that the player can move amongst while retaining all their stats, items and attributes.

Q> Can you change the installer to allow the 'GameGuruApps' folder to a custom location instead of my documents?
A> Good suggestion. When the new bug tracking system is up, there will be a separate section for suggestions and I think this is one we should add. Perhaps in the SETTINGS dialog in the advanced section so you can change the default location of where all your writable files are placed. This folder could get pretty big and I agree it makes sense to allow you to place it where you have a huge hard drive.

Thanks for all your questions during our live broadcast, see you next Wednesday 4 PM GMT

Only if this is none optional, could be an issue with large levels entirely made out of custom assets weighing in 100mbs, so really should be optional for random bug reports at least.While zip format is easy, the compression ratio is quite poor, 7zip is open source as well as tar( tar has about the same compression ration as zip even gzip is the same), 7zip which offers much better compression then zip format 17% - 25% better. rar would be best but that isn't open source.

zip shouldn't be used it doesn't stand up to file sizes well these days.Since only tgc will make use of the files, none standard file compression format shouldn't be an issue.

But the short answer is no, I will no be willing to send possible 100mbs of data, especially having capped internet as do many people else where, so should be optional or select what media to send.

I wasn't able to catch the live broadcast. I was there (Youtube and forums...) at 5 minutes early, until 5 minutes past.
Just wondering why I couldn't see a live broadcast about to start-- or how to be sure to get in on the questions... !
Mysteriously I got logged out of these forums yesterday which has never happened before, but internet glitches and getting a second computer hasn't really helped me stay directed in one place! ? (all those passwords to keep track of!) lol

Questions posted here, are they often responded to?
Anyhow, maybe MAX is 8-10 months away?

Happened to me also.

Coulda shown at least something in-engine lol.

@Cobbs: well there was a thumbs down from someone, was it you ha? In fact, there were 8 thumbs down, hmmm curious I must admit I turned off when questions started to get answered.

Uh no, I think asking about that is weird. It's fine to do a podcast and I also think it's fine to say, if you're doing a video, put video content in. Not supposed to be a big deal. Cheers

was me kinda joking. oh well never mind. my occasional weird sense of humour. are you a millenial? ha

First day back for Lee not really much to show having been off.
Some great info though about Weekly builds and how Max will develop. Some good questions answered.
Wasnt really expecting much more to be honest for the first day.

Weekly builds seems a bit unnecessarily frequent to me. They're not really sprints if you're not giving yourself clear goals for each one and enough time to evaluate each sprint and feed the learnings into a future one. Seriously, how much progress do we expect to see in five working days? And some of that will be meetings, status updates, answering emails, doing the live broadcast, so really it's 3-4 days dev work...from one build to the next.

I'm all for frequent updates, but would have preferred fortnightly or monthly updates with meaningful progress rather than this piecemeal approach. Same for the live broadcasts too.

AE

The idea is what you see in the weekly stream gets updated to the build 2 days later.
Of course you do not have to update it i dont think.

There's obviously nothing wrong with a weekly 15 minute update on what's going on with the program. There are also lots of things to show in videos about a new videogame engine.

Yep agreed i already mentioned this before on the Discord .. Its to close together really
Its Thursday to Wednesday for Lee to prepare the next stream and also Consider TGC do not work weekends.
Then add your list above you just cannot expect to see something new and amazing every stream.
In fact i have no idea where he finds the time at all..

Yeah - spend MAX(imum) time on development and give more meaningful updates via the broadcasts once a month would be my preference.

If they are going to give more frequent builds, just provide a change log, so we can focus on trouble shooting any issues with the build that is expected to have been resolved and test features that have been added\changed.

OldFlak....

Actually doing a live stream every week takes less time, then posting a blog post like back in the days of reloaded development, also have the opportunity to have a live QA, some thing you couldn't do on a blog post, only comments and then you have to monitor it to answer any questions asked.

So yeah we might not get to see cool graphics every week. It is more akin to a Podcast and nothing wrong with it that, and perfect medium to answer questions and speak about the product, the more videos there are the better the word of mouth will be. Product streaming is definitely the way to move forward.

What I would like to see is maybe have a product demo streaming every second week, where lee builds a level or does some thing cool with a script or asset or whatever.

Live streaming is easier, faster and has the option of live interaction with users, what is not to like.

I would like to broadcast monthly with quite advances done, anyway, I understand TGC needs to keep the focus on GGMax, and one month maybe longtime.
I also would like to have any idea about what's Mr. Lee had said in the video above.

Incidentally, if anyone's feeling hot, MAX's sprints are now going to be revolving so fast they'll practically be a desk fan

AE

Hi Guys - I haven't posted for a while due to PC trouble, but - I got a new PC and I downloaded MAX, but I can't get it to run - It comes up and lt seems to load but then it goes blank and quits with no Error Msg. I have tried unInstalling the Program and tried reinstalling it - but no matter what I've tried - it does the exact same thing. Am I suppose to install all the Betas at the same time (including Alpha) or just install Beta Three. TY for your help.

Terry Ingalls

@Tingalls - is your new PC the one referenced in your forum signature? If so, it's below the minimum system spec for MAX, which requires Windows 10, and an Nvidia 960 minimum (I think)

AE

I have Win 10 Pro, & GTX 750 Ti - I guess I'll have to upgrade my Graphics Card to something higher
Even though the Regular GameGuru Program works fine.
TI

These are completely different engines. Max uses the Wicked engine.

@Avenging Eagle : The Agile Desk Fan made me laugh! I am sorry the new shiny stuff will be almost non-existent in January, just the way it goes after a new year starts. Should pick up in Feb onwards. The idea of the weekly cadence has some merits as it means anything I talk about is pretty much fresh in my mind and up to date. The more controversial weekly builds can be thought of as weekly nightlies, and it could well be that almost nothing changes between two weeks, but I feel it is important you get to play and test what I am showing in the broadcasts and have a change to check it out yourself and feedback, either through bug reporting, forum comments or even live chat questions the following week.

The target is to make sure the builds that go out are of complete sub-sections of the software (as far as the initial design is concerned). It is highly likely we will have a development iteration to morph the initial design into a better shape, and the weekly snapshots will only contain iterations that have been completed to our satisfaction. If you ever see me put out a build that clearly has a half-baked feature that was declared complete, that is when you can pounce If we deal with one section at a time, keep it away from you until there is little else we can do to it, and then subject you to it, hopefully, it will mean you are potentially testing finished and debugged functionality.

P.S. If my desk starts to get a little windy, I will let you know