Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #286


1) Exploading ELBOWWWWWAAA!!!
2) Link of the Week
3) Question of the Week


1) Exploading ELBOWWWWWAAA!!!
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We are soooooo close to having something that resembles a fun wrestling game.

This week the striking system was polished to as perfect as I've ever seen it in any
wrestling game. Controls respond quickly and the opponent sells the strike immediately
on impact, no delay. We tried three different strike collision systems and finally
put something together that works the way we want it to. This one almost works a litte
too good though and we want to polish up the collision so that the strike only connects
exactly when we want it to be able to.

We also brought more audio in and what a difference it makes to the way strikes
feel. To top it off, we tested the new particle emitters on the characters that we
put there to make blood drip from the wrestlers eventually. We didn't have any
specific blood effects designed to test so I asked Bill to just throw any effect on
any part of the body to test it and make sure it works. It was a funny surprise Wednesday
morning to see Dane shooting a small exposion from his elbow whenever he threw a punch.
Ok, so I guess that works! In order to get make it work properly we learned there were some
things we needed to optimize in the animations themselves that would require the art team to
re-export a good chunk of the existing animations. More work to do but at least we know the
results will be worth it to people who play the game. By this morning we had a good handle
on the new animation exporting process including getting the particle effects and
audio events triggered on the defender as well as the attacker. So now we can actually
make the sparks fly out of No Cara's head when he gets hit as well as Dane's elbow ;-)

Next week we're going to spend more time on the blocking/reversal system because where
it is now is not going to cut it at all. Also next up is more work on the turnbuckle
grapples, flying moves (our balcony flying move is working but not as well as we
would like), and proper chair shots.

Darrell polished up the Hammerlock even more and Sardeep improved the camera to keep all
the action nicely on screen even when you go up top to the balcony. Speaking of balcony,
last week after I asked what balcony move we should do Tim informed me that he already started
a Shooting Star Press. Two things then happened, the Shooting Star Press turned out to be a
Moonsault which also then turned out not to work properly in the engine. Tim had to go
back to the drawing board and this time he blocked out a really rough Splash to test first.
If it works properly he'll go ahead and do the Shooting Star Press again which is the move
most people asked for.

So yeah, good week for development. To top it off a rep for another publisher called us
about seeing a demo. Very nice call to get. Lot's of options. But what is ultimately more
important as Darrell and I discussed a few days ago? Is it more important to get nicely
paid by a publisher to finish PWX but with no guarantee of royalties or income when it's
complete? Or is it more important to suffer and struggle like we have been and go with
an online publisher that will pay us for every game sold almost immediately? I know we ask
that question a lot, but it gets even more important as we get closer to finished.


2) Link of the Week
********************

Woah. I never saw this coming. ABC News recently posted the results of tests on the brain tissue
of Chris Benoit. They apparently show that he suffered from massive brain damage due to repeated
concussions throughout his career. According to the researchers, he had the brain of an 85 year
old Alzheimer's patient from all the damage which they also say has been linked to dementia,
depression, and suicide.

Read on...

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3560015&page=1


3) Question of the Week
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I've been on an old ECW kick lately. I missed the whole scene when it was actually happening
(No ECW in Canada until TNN) and I just finished the Hardcore History book which made me
really want to see the old ECW shows in their entirety. Is there anywhere you can still
pick up the ppv's or even tv shows on dvd anymore? Does anyone out there have copies they'd
like to donate to our studio? We can never have enough good reference material on dvd.

Damn, I missed some great stuff...

Please email your answers to Dave@WrestlingGamersUnited.com and thanks for the support!

In the meantime and in-between time, that's it. Another edition of
Wrestling Gamers United.

Thank you for your support,
Dave Wishnowski

Well Dave, if you can stand seeing the WWE logo on it, there ARE a couple of ECW Classic compilation DVDs available, as well as watching the ECW matches on "Rise & Fall of ECW", the Benoit DVD, the Guerrero DVD, the Mysterio DVD, the Austin DVD, the R-V-D D-V-D (there IS one of those, right?), et cetera. Any ECW guy in WWE with his own DVD has ECW Classic matches on it in the match section.

Plus, if you want ECW action done with more emotion in the "angles" check out old FMW stuff. The suprisingly real good story-based stuff comes from Mr. Gannosuke and Masato Tanaka, not to mention the hard-working rise to the top of Tetsuhiro Kuroda, rather than simply from Hayabusa, Onita vs. Fuyuki and Funk, and Kudoh and COMBAT Toyoda vs. Shark Tsuchiya. Never mind the fact that Shawn Michaels decided to become "Showstoppa ex Machina" in the Hayabusa/Gannosuke feud...

Dave so after reading the newsletter PWX will be released in 2008 right?

No wonder about Benoit - he has had so many collisions with his head,he can't even count it...
It's too bad... :(
btw PWX has to be released by 2008,or I'll go too crazy and shoot yall...so 2008 or bust...