UK Developers felt some relief from that sharp, stabbing pain in their side, when word recently came down the wire that, despite earlier fears, the government would be taking steps to support their industry. The UK's coalition government had previously axed the tax relief measure promised by its Labour predecessors, prompting outrage from the industry. The revised budget did include some relief for start-up developers, but nothing along the lines of what had been previously outlined. With the UK gaming industry facing tough times in the face of foreign competition -- Canada overtook the UK last year as the third-largest in terms of game development -- this comes as a breath of fresh air. The government hasn't released specifics on the extent of the tax relief, but Alastair Darling (back when he delivered the 2010 budget) had said it would be along the lines of that currently offered to the film industry. Say that you will about giving tax breaks to corporations (friends have been subjected to my rants from time to time), but it's at least nice to see the practice being used in a way that fosters -- or at the very least, sustains -- creativity. So it is with a spring in our step and a song in our hearts that we extend a sincere "Congrats!" to our pals across the pond. We'll be expecting game dialogue replete with witty banter and biting sarcasm in the coming years. I know you won't disappoint.[/p] Source
Well, our team setup is as follows: - I'm the 'thinky guy', I come up with most of, if not all of, the ideas. Everything from the game type, plot, setting, characters, down to the little things like what combo attacks characters can do in our RPG project, etc. However being the ten-thumbed talentless paperwaster that I am, I can't draw worth a fuck so that job falls to... - Amelia, our resident artist. She does the concept art, often adding her own sense of style into my ideas which usually turns out pretty well. She's done some amazing work, most notably the concept art for the lead villain in our RPG which quite frankly needs to be hung in a gallery somewhere. She tends to zone out from time to time and requires a big bag of jelly beans to keep her focussed on the task at hand, but she's ok. Unlike... - Kai, Amelia's brother and our resident techspert. He's meant to be the programmer for our RPG demo, but following a recent cataclysmic relationship breakdown he's usually far too busy chasing skirt at the pub to be of any real use to anyone. He gets punched a lot and has been relegated to 'tea bitch' until he gets his head straight. - Erin is the one who helps put all the work together into a big portfolio as a 'proof of concept' document to be sent to potentially interested studios. She's adding the final touches to the RPG concept folder right now, soon to be sent off to pretty much any studio that has ever made a decent RPG game. IE: Bioware, Square Enix, Tri-Ace, etc. Doesn't hurt to make ourselves known to them, right? Following recent events (see blog) she's not really up to much right now but she insists on at least spellchecking things for us. I admit the chances of this ever turning into a profitable venture are similar to Kai's IQ score, circling the drain just above the crushing abyss of negative numbers, but it doesn't hurt to try. Maybe one day you'll see our names in the credits of a Final Fantasy game, you never know. I also write all the reviews for our soon to be finished website, except for PC reviews as my netbook blows monkey chunks and can't handle anything more advanced than Sonic 3D Blast.
Because it's not active yet. It's still just a free site. When I pay for the domain name the address will change so there's little point in giving it away now. Anyway, I'm still getting it up to speed with a good selection of reviews. There's about a dozen waiting to be uploaded but I'm waiting for the logo to be finished. I'm also working on a way of producing video reviews, I found a video capture device that will work fairly well, hopefully. That way it's not just a page with a shitload of text on it. Incidentally, latest reviews are going to be Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Test Drive Unlimited 2, Hungry Shark from the Android market, a selection of Xbox 360 Indie games, and Lord of Arcana. That should keep everyone amused while I finish off my new copy of Star Ocean Second Evolution on PSP (got from GAME for a fiver, win) 'cause I need a few more days to get through it at least. Once the logo is finished and the domain name will have enough content to be worth paying for, I'll post the link around here somewhere for everyone to enjoy. But as mentioned above our resident techspert is having a bit of an early midlife crisis right now so the logo might take some time
Hm, I thought that you might have already bought the domain by now; you planned to weeks ago, didn't you? Still, the fact that I couldn't see it probably suggests a thing or two. Stay hopeful; maybe it could become successful, and you could well need this helper.
