http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/ en Copyright 2012, The Pickford Bros Magnetic Billiards is a new video game by The Pickford Bros. Follow its development on this blog. http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=503 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=503 This is the finished Billiards Hall doorway graphic for the intro to Magnetic Billiards, following up from the initial pen drawing I posted yesterday. I managed to rotate the drawing in Photoshop so it was straight, then cut out the ornate carved archwa... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=503#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=502 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=502 As we close in (increasingly slowly) on the completion of Magnetic Billiards, we've been determined to get more non-functional graphics and data in the game. We tend to work on the essentials of game mechanics and balance, at least initially, rather than ... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=502#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=501 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=501 I've been doing tons of drawing for the new game (Magnetic Billiards) over the last couple of weeks. Most of the essential game graphics are complete now - some revisions are in the pipeline, but nothing's missing - so I'm able to work on fun stuff that... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=501#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=498 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=498 Here's another little bit of graphics work from last week. This is what I did last Friday, with an extra hour or so of tidying up over the weekend. I thought it might be fun to show the progression from initial sketch to finished graphic. The little s... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=498#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=497 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=497 After what seems like an eternity spent working on website stuff and back-end server code since we temporarily stopped work on Art of Soccer, I'm finally back doing graphics and design stuff for Magnetic Billiards again. It feels really weird switching ... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=497#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=180 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=180 This is the test panel which appears in (our version of) Magnetic Billiards when we boot it up. It's just a window with links to any windows we're working on at the moment. I'm currently spending most of my time on our new project but I booted up MB t... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=180#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=168 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=168 Perhaps not the most exciting image I've posted but this is what I've been up to this week. For some reason I really enjoy working on this kind of interface stuff. A while back I added a windowing system to Magnetic Billiards. It works with a simple ... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=168#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=152 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=152 Drawing my own hands, again! http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=152#comments Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=147 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=147 We're currently overhauling the tutorial aspect of Magnetic Billiards. Originally, we built the tutorial as a series of individual 'lessons' which were separate from the main game. These have proved unpopular with testers so we've moved to a more dynam... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=147#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=112 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=112 I've recently been adding some new UI elements to the windowing system. We needed a way of inputting text strings and some buttons for various things we are adding to the game. This screen is part of the online leaderboard system. The player creates a... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=112#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=98 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=98 To follow up the picture I posted last week, of an alternate logo for our game Magnetic Billiards, drawn by my youngest daughter, here's another one, this time by my eldest. I like the extra prominence given to Plok! http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=98#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=91 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=91 My youngest daughter walked into my room on Sunday morning, as I was waking up to a bit of Fallout 3, and asked me what my next game was going to be called, after Magnetic Billiards was finished. I told her I wasn't sure what we'd be working on next, an... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=91#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=85 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=85 John got the multiple user system working on Magnetic Billiards today, so players can create local accounts and sign in using different user names, so multiple people can play on the same machine with their own high scores, grand score, table rankings etc.... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=85#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=70 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=70 This is one of the dozens of illustrations I've done for the Magnetic Billiards in-game tutorial. I've still got a few more to do yet, and I'll maybe need to change a few as well, once we go through the feedback from the alpha version and see what's wor... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=70#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=49 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=49 In addition to a full set of tutorial 'lessons' Magnetic Billiards features an always-available help system. To learn about any game feature you simply right-click on the corresponding screen element to bring up a window containing a full explanation. ... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=49#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=42 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=42 This is the new game we've been working on for the last year or so. We're about to release an alpha version for testers. Full release as soon as it's finished. Make sure you check out the video. http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=42#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=9 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=9 That's not a proper copyright symbol. Fail TRC! http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=9#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=6 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=6 This is the first of the Victorian portraits I've done in response to the offer in my blog to do them for anyone who asked. Regular reader Gary was the first to get in touch, and with a handy photo too, and this is the result. I'm not sure I got the ... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=6#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=5 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=5 I can't draw like Ste but I did help to make this. Some of those elements are still likely to change or be re-arranged somewhat. http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=5#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=3 http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=3 This is the original pencil sketch for the Bear picture (inked version yesterday). I always prefer my pencil drawings to the inked versions, but they're usually lost when you ink them in. Thanks to the magic of scanners I get to keep a copy of the... http://www.zee-3.com/magneticbilliards/blog/view.php?post=3#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT