The Ball
The Game is Released
The Ball available for pre-load and last chance to get the pre-purchase exclusive Killing Floor character!
The game is pulling in new praise from previewers and reviewers every day:
“a lot of gameplay value” – Curse.com
“I'm sold” - Kotaku
“The Ball is an action-packed puzzle game that provides an endless amount of replay value” – Gamerant (4.5/5)
“very cool in execution and very fun to solve” – The Examiner (“Great”)
“huge amount of fun … polished gameplay… great value” – TK-Nation (85%)
“gives puzzle loving gamers exactly what they have been asking for” – Game Rant (90%)
The Ball will launch on 26th October at a price of $19.99 on Steam (17.99 €/£14.99 for Europe). During the pre-purchase period, there will be a 10% discount – so now is the time to buy your copy of this great first-person puzzle game that is attracting so much attention! Head for the Steam store page now!
Developer Friday - Paolo R. Giaiero
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Hiya, folks! This is Paolo R. Giaiero, I'm a specialist of Indoeuropean and Afrasian linguistics, Sanskrit, Arabic and other middle-eastern modern and dead languages. In my spare time I play drums and practice Japanese martial arts. Recently I did the Italian translation of the awesome new cult-game Zeno Clash, of the award-winning Eufloria (a.k.a. Dyson) and of the beautiful, hand-drawn Mesoamerican action-rpg Aztaka. Now, amongst other projects, I'm the one-man-team behind the localization of The Ball (ITA) too, and I was also one of its beta testers!
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I contacted Sjoerd De Jong soon after the UDK Demo came out. One evening, while I was mucking around the Net, I stumbled on a website that was babbling about a crazy game, namely: The Ball. "Let's find out what the heck this thingie is!" - I said to myself. I tried it and... Zap!... Love at first sight! I thought that both the design and the gameplay were really great and therefore that The Ball deserved a fine localization! So... here I am! This has been my modus operandi so far!
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By chance I guess! I think it all started exactly on the 21st of April 2009. The day before I had seen a Zeno Clash ad on my Steam account: it looked good, and since I'm a greedy scrooge I pre-ordered it to get a discount even on a low priced game. Go figure. I enjoyed every bit of it but I thought it was also a pity that the game wasn't available in my own language. I wrote to the ACE Team guys and they entrusted me its localization. That experience has been truly amazing and I decided to go on with this path!
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Now, seriously, I always try to be creative in my translations, whenever possible I use synonyms and circumlocutions a-plenty to avoid any repetition! Italian (like the other Romance languages, thanks to their ancient Greek and Latin heritage) has a huge lexicon to work with, and I spent a lot of time to find the best way to fit together what you are watching on the screen with what you are reading.
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I really think that video games are the10th Art. Nowadays independent developers are the only ones trying something new in the medium; The Ball makes no exception and it's truly a must-have. I won't spoil too much, but you'll soon find out that The Ball is a kinda character on its own, and it does much more than simply rolling on the floor. People who enjoyed Portal and the Companion Cube will know what I mean.
An interview and two reviews!
- The Ball is one of the most promising looking games coming out this month, I took a quick look at it recently and then had a chat with Sjoerd De Jong, Project Lead at Teotl Studios.
Also two more reviews popped up:
Plenty of reviews and previews!
Reviews (8.2/10 average!):
Previews:
Check out our Press page for the full set of reviews and previews!
The Ball now available for pre-purchase on Steam – with bonus Killing Floor character and launch trailer!
“An utterly beautiful game… may well be the next Portal…” – Strategy Informer
“Unbelievably satisfying to crush your enemies… a deep and captivating game.” – PC Gamer
“The Ball is extraordinary” – PC Action
“Portal gets competition” – GameStar
“…don’t let The Ball go under your radar, especially for that price” – Game Guide World
“The Ball is an action-packed puzzle game that provides an endless amount of replay value” – Gamerant (4.5/5)
“The Ball is a must-buy Indie game of 2010… The graphics are simply beautiful… A superb debut title” – MMGN (89%)
“a genuinely fun and challenging game” – Goozernation (4/5)
“I’ve enjoyed the game so much that I think I’m going to play it again after finishing the review.” – Gamers’ Route (85%)
The Ball will launch on 26th October at a price of $19.99 on Steam (17.99 €/£14.99 for Europe). During the pre-purchase period, there will be a 10% discount – so now is the time to buy your copy of this great first-person puzzle game that is attracting so much attention! Head for the Steam store page now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/35460/
More Great Reviews Roll In!
8.9 - MMGM - "The Ball combines the solid Unreal 3 engine with an original concept and some incredible presentation, on both the audio and visual fronts. Little more needs to be said other than it's easy to justify comparisons between this game and Portal."
8.5 - Gamers Route - "there’s no doubt anyone will agree when I say that The Ball offers a very rich gameplay experience."
4/5 Stars - Nerdiest-Kids - "The Ball is just plain fun. Its unique gameplay, multitude of puzzles, and giggle-inspiring enemy smashing has me wondering what other awesome ideas game developer Teotl has in store for the future. This game has lovely graphics, is a good price for what you get, and will keep you very entertained and as a result I’m going to call it a “buy”."
I'll be adding to this list as we find more reviews, so stay tuned!
12 People to go before we give out 10 more keys for The Ball Hero Character, and one key for The Ball itself!
The first review!
A review popped up, the very first one.
- "I’ve enjoyed the game so much that I think I’m going to play it again after finishing the review. Playing an already-beaten game again might not sound much, but as a game reviewer, that’s saying a lot....there’s no doubt anyone will agree when I say that The Ball offers a very rich gameplay experience....Clever level design, mesmerizing visuals and unique gameplay experience."
8.5/10
Developer Friday - Markus Arvidsson
For those of you who are new (the group grew hugely!) - every friday is Developer Friday and we post an interview with one of our developers.
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Hi, I’m Markus Arvidsson and I do a large chunk of the programming work for The Ball. I am one of three people that works full time on the game. My official title is Lead Programmer so I guess I do what a Lead Programmer typically does :). I am also involved in the game mechanics design and final testing. If the game crashes or if you did not get that achievement I am probably the one to blame.
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I joined the team in March last year. I replied to an ad and I got accepted to the team after I had done the very first enemy AI implementation for the game. Originally my intention was just to break away from single person development and be a part of a team and do a larger project. Thankfully we did well and the whole project turned into something else.
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I started out with programming a couple of months into college. I was an engineering student and I wanted to try out graphics programming and game programming so I started to work on it in my spare time. Since then I have done some small personal projects and I also started one bigger project that eventually turned out to be too ambitious.
So far I want to continue in this field. Game development offers interesting challenges in diverse areas and I also like the creative aspect of it. Coming up with a story and a world and having someone experience your creation is really rewarding. Working with a team with diverse background and skill set is also something that appeals to me.
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Finding and fixing all the bugs, big and small, the final few months took a lot of effort. The 'old saying' that the last 10 percent is 50 percent of the work was definitely true in this case.
Working with the Unreal Engine and figuring out how everything fits together was also quite challenging. My experience with Unreal Engine was limited when I started working on the game so I had to digest a lot of information in a short amount of time time, while still finding time for the mandatory school work I had at that time.
Another thing that required some iteration before we got it right was the combat for the boss fights. The various areas where the fights would take place were already done when I started to work on them, so I had to come up with solutions that worked within those existing environments.
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I like the world and the diversity of the levels. The game does not repeat itself and you always look forward to what comes next. Most of the locations are also memorable, something that is rare for games of this size. The game mechanics are a good mix between exploration, combat, and puzzles, and I think most players will find something they like about the game.
Development wise I really like how we managed to improve the game for every release. As a programmer you tend to work mostly in test levels during development. I was always pleasantly surprised to see how much the other parts of the game had improved when the time came to implemented the new gameplay into the real levels. The final release continues in this tradition and I think it is a big improvement over the previous (mod) releases. I hope everyone who plays the game will enjoy it!