April 25th, 2009 by Sharky

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Hi folks.

Once again I’ve been quiet on the blogging front, but feverishly busy in every other way.

An Update to Air Legends is coming very soon!

I think it will please many, so do read on.

Firstly, I should point out that Microsoft encourage Community Games developers to keep Updates to bug fixes – not features. (I think this is absolutely fair enough too, but I won’t delve into why here.)

In saying that, my update is not so much bug fixes, as addressing a common complaint that must surely be reducing the game’s appeal. So I reckon I’m justified in doing so, even if you could argue the changes are “features”. The core game features are unchanged.

Air Legends has been proving very popular on the marketplace. While it’s clear people are appreciating it, I’ve seen something of a common complaint in good, but not great, Reviews of the game. These boil down to:

  • planes too slow, or turn too slow
  • not everyone appreciates the dogfighting (chase and maneuver, earn the kill) focus of the current game. It seems some would like less chase & more kill, kill, kill
  • some also appear to miss vital controls (like a throttle!), or misunderstand their usage

My update will address these both:

  • new game “Speed” option of Normal, Speedy or MANIC. These will effect the aircraft speed, acceleration, turn rate & increase bullet damage noticably. MANIC in particular should appeal to the more “twitch” gamer types. While Normal is the status quo.
  • New “Flight School” mode for learning and practising the Controls. This is basically a free flight mode with interactive instruction, hints and tips.
  • Lastly, due to popular request I’ve added a 2 second invulnerability after respawning. Something that should always have been there, but I shelved to make my new year launch deadline.

With regards to the new Speed mode. It’s amazing how slow “Normal” mode feels after playing Speedy & MANIC. Normal mode will still be the default however – I don’t want to alienate existing happy customers!

Stay tuned. I hope to have the Update released in the next couple of weeks.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 260 user reviews.

2 Responses to “”

  1. Jeff Says:

    Sounds great man, looking forward to the new version. What’s the theory behind limiting updates to bugfixes only?

  2. Sharky Says:

    Thanks bro.

    I think it’s more about not wanting people to get lazy and release half finished games. You can see how that would get out of hand.

    Your peers in the community review the games – so as a creator you should play fair and put some quality control into it before you release/update.

    How’s NFS going then?

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