EPT![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49867307/GAMEHEART/Blog/Images/header.jpg)
Previous updates:
GameHeart Project, Update #1
GameHeart Project, Update #2
GameHeart Project, Update #3
GameHeart Project, Update #4
GameHeart Project, Update #5
Update -
Hey everyone, sorry for a late update but I have been pretty busy. It won’t be a long update this week but there are a couple of things to talk about and a few things I want you to go test.
Before I go into that though I want to share something that was really exciting for me. Here is TotalBiscuit talking about GameHeart in his recent Shoutcraft post-mortem.
If you're not using Gameheart, you're shooting yourself in the foot
A big round of applause for Gameheart and its developers. Those maps continue to go from strength to strength in terms of their functionality. The ingame scoreboard was a huge timesaver for us and allowed me to reduce the complexity of the production process resulting in less (afaik actually no) production errors. We'll continue to use Gameheart exclusively for any events we run in future and urge other tournaments to do the same. The functionality of these maps is peerless and strong colours imho should become standard for tournament play since it gives a superior viewing experience to spectators. This is particularly true in mirror matchups, specifically ZvZ where the coloured banelings make it much easier for spectators and casters to see exactly what's going on at any given moment in the early game. I've seen some of the upcoming functionality for this map and it's extremely exciting. The sponsor was particularly pleased to see their branding on the map and as a teamowner I've always been happy to see our teams logo there too. Brand awareness is a real thing even if you aren't making money out of it directly, people should see the Axiom logo and know exactly what it is at first glance. Gameheart maps have done a lot to make that happen and they continue to make online matches more viable as promotional tools for teams and sponsors. I honestly have nothing bad to say about Gameheart in its current form and it's only going to get stronger as the new patch brings extensions into play which will allow Gameheart to be used on every map without the team having to individually alter each of them.
A big round of applause for Gameheart and its developers. Those maps continue to go from strength to strength in terms of their functionality. The ingame scoreboard was a huge timesaver for us and allowed me to reduce the complexity of the production process resulting in less (afaik actually no) production errors. We'll continue to use Gameheart exclusively for any events we run in future and urge other tournaments to do the same. The functionality of these maps is peerless and strong colours imho should become standard for tournament play since it gives a superior viewing experience to spectators. This is particularly true in mirror matchups, specifically ZvZ where the coloured banelings make it much easier for spectators and casters to see exactly what's going on at any given moment in the early game. I've seen some of the upcoming functionality for this map and it's extremely exciting. The sponsor was particularly pleased to see their branding on the map and as a teamowner I've always been happy to see our teams logo there too. Brand awareness is a real thing even if you aren't making money out of it directly, people should see the Axiom logo and know exactly what it is at first glance. Gameheart maps have done a lot to make that happen and they continue to make online matches more viable as promotional tools for teams and sponsors. I honestly have nothing bad to say about Gameheart in its current form and it's only going to get stronger as the new patch brings extensions into play which will allow Gameheart to be used on every map without the team having to individually alter each of them.
To be honest I was rather nervous for both Shoutcrafts when TB decided to use GameHeart. I know he is someone who is willing to share his displeasure when he feels something is not as good as it should be, and that scared me because he has so many people who really listen to him. It was a huge relief to me to find that he was very pleased with GameHeart. Thanks man!
Stronger team colors rework -
On Monday I was made aware that a player was requesting that the stronger team colors mod not be used during their matches because they had seen some of the STC textures during a match they had played the day before in a different event. That is a totally reasonable request but it obviously created some concern for me.
Now I am not certain if this problem occurred as a genuine bug or if it occurred because the stronger team colors setting was accidentally set to ‘everyone’ instead of ‘observers’ for that game. Even viewing a replay would not help me because there is no way to know what they set it to in a replay. It was also the only report I have had of that problem. Which reminds me, if you are a player or caster and you find something that you do not think is working the way it should be in GameHeart please do not hesitate to contact me about it. I cannot fix something if I do not know about it.
Well anyways I decided to go and study the STC system for any possible issues and eventually while I was unable to find any problems myself, I did discover a much better way of handling how STC textures were displayed for observers (and not displayed for players). So the system has now been redesigned using the newer method. I believe if the issues I was hearing about were genuine this solution should fix them as well. I have also removed the ‘everyone’ option from stronger team colors to prevent any future confusion.
I went ahead and created a map so that you can go and easily test the STC system in GameHeart yourself. It is called “GHTesting - STC” and it is available on the NA region. Create a game with you as the only player and you will have resources and workers available to build any building or unit at an accelerated rate to be certain that none of them appear to have stronger team colors for you. After you have built enough units to satisfy that you were unable to see the STC textures as a player, go ahead and watch the replay to be certain those textures were appearing during the replay (when you watch a replay you are treated the same as an observer). I believe there shouldn’t be any issues but if anyone can find one I am sure iHeroic will. Get to work buddy!
Notifications -
Good news! The notifications system I mentioned in Update 4 is nearly complete. The MIT Game Lab guys have been working hard to port it over from their Overseer project so that it can function in GameHeart. I will be adding it to all GHLight maps sometime today, but you can test it for yourself right now by searching for “GHMITTest” in the custom games section and launching a game on it as an observer.
For those of you unfamiliar with the notifications system, it is basically a little window that pops up on the right side of your screen to countdown the last 15 seconds or so of an upgrade. It looks like this:
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49867307/GAMEHEART/Blog/Images/MIT_notifications_lrg.jpg)
Please go test it out if you get the chance! I have been playing with it myself for a few days now and everything has worked perfectly for me but maybe you guys will find some problem I could not! My hope is that it will be used for the Naniwa versus Scarlett showmatch this weekend, and it will be unless you guys find a reason for it not to be.
Team colored effects -
More good news! The team colored effects system I said I would implement to make it up to you guys for not doing the notifications system (which I am not doing because the MIT guys were already working on it!) is almost ready for implementation. Please keep in mind like all features in GameHeart, only observers will be able to see these colored effects. To players it will look like a normal game.
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49867307/GAMEHEART/Blog/Images/Colored_Effects2.jpg)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49867307/GAMEHEART/Blog/Images/Colored_Effects3.jpg)
While I have got most of the effects I wanted to working with team colors some do not look very good. And we need to decide which of them should be team colored and which shouldn’t of this group. The following effects have had team colors implemented:
Force Field
Guardian Shield
Time Warp
Psi Storm
EMP
Scanner Sweep
Fungal Growth
Blinding Cloud
I have created a map where you can easily test these effects for yourself. You can find it in the custom games section of the NA region. It is called “GHTesting - TCE”. Please go check it out, tell me which effects you think should not be team colored (I am leaning towards removing it from Fungal Growth) and which colors on each effect you think are too strong or not strong enough so I can adjust this to be perfect before it goes in.
Okay so that’s it for now for the things I would like you guys to go test. Onto some other topics.
Thank yous -
Something I wanted to do this week was thank all of the people who have helped me with this project over the last year and a half. By no means is the project over. This isn’t something I am doing to wrap it up. I just wanted to get this out there so you guys could know more about the people who have been contributing to this project, some of which you may not have been aware of. There have been a lot of people and hopefully I won’t miss anyone.
I am not going to include the IndieGoGo contributors on this list. I am going to do another thank you specifically for them in the next blog update. Believe me I am VERY grateful for the people who have financed this project and enabled me to continue to work on it. This list however will be for people who have directly had their fingers in the project one way or another.
Ahli
Ahli joined this project early this year, but even before that he was answering my questions on the sc2mapster forums. He starting working on his own observer mod for Starcraft, but eventually decided to join me in working on GameHeart so we could produce a single mod that was as good as it could be.
Because he is extremely knowledgeable about UI files I mostly leverage his help when dealing with interface files. But make no mistake, he is a really solid developer of SC2 mods. He is the developer of the Diablo mod for SC2 and was also involved in the Temple Siege II project. Whenever I get stuck on something I go to him first, and often times he points out something stupid that I did almost immediately.
Kevin ‘Cloaken’ Johnson and Blizzard
I am actually going to do a section specifically about Blizzard and their relationship with the GameHeart project after this thank you section. To be honest from my perspective the relationship between Blizzard and GameHeart has felt up and down at times but overall it has been very positive, especially in the last few months.
John ‘The Translator’ Park and the Gom guys
John was a huge part of getting GameHeart into GSTL earlier this year. The amount of testing he did to help me prepare the old version of GameHeart for tournaments was extraordinary. Unfortunately they no longer use GameHeart for their broadcasts, but I hope that with the new version out now they will look at it again someday.
Dreamhack Guys
Dreamhack adopting GameHeart was a huge win for the project. And they have steadfastly stuck with GameHeart for all of their events this year. While I have no retired the older version of GameHeart they were using, I hope they will consider using this new version for their events next year.
They were also a huge part of developing the look of the main GameHeart UI. I worked with their graphic design and producers to find a design that could accommodate them, and it has turned out to be immensely successful with dozens of tournaments and broadcasters now using the same interface.
Adebisi
Adebisi is a pretty cool guy. He has been providing me with input from the perspective of a dedicated observer for over a year. I have made a lot of changes to GameHeart over the last year based on his input.
Heaven and Legend
While I only interacted with them through John both Heaven and Legend did a lot of testing with GameHeart before it was used in GSTL, and I made quite a few changes based on their feedback.
Matt “MegaBuster” Mega
While not a direct contributor to the project anymore, he was part of the original GameHeart team and someone I almost always share my troubles with regarding the project so I can benefit from his sage wisdom. He also created both of the promotional videos for GameHeart. Thanks man!
MIT Game Lab
Awesome dudes. Besides giving me a bunch of money they have developed a huge number of cool spectator tools of their own. The best part? They have agreed to implement most of those features into GameHeart rather than just creating a competing spectator mod so that tournaments can get the best of both worlds!
Thanks Nick and Philip!
Chris ‘ChanmanV’ Chan
Chanman has been really good to the GameHeart project. He has had me on climbing the ladder twice, first to discuss the project and it’s incorporation into Dreamhack earlier this year, and then again to discuss my IndieGoGo campaign more recently. I really appreciate his support.
pzea
Pzea is the developer of the stronger team colors mod and he has been helping create new STC textures for HotS units that I will get into GameHeart eventually. Great dude!
eSports Canada
These guys were the first tournament to take a chance on using the earliest version of GameHeart. Thank you so much! You really helped me at a time when I was struggling to get people to realize the potential of the project.
Zolden
Zolden is an awesome guy. He can usually be found lurking around the sc2mapster IRC channel. I always go to him when I need some custom model produced for GameHeart. The model that I use to display logos on the ground was created by him for example.
Renee2islga
Renee is the developer of the GAx3 mod for SC2. This mod provides a lot of tools that are not necessarily built into the editor to make it easier for other developers like me to build their mods. I have used Renee’s tools pretty extensively during the project. I would also like to note that Renee is probably the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the SC2 editor outside of Blizzard. I don’t think I have ever had a question that Renee was unable to answer.
Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn
Some of you may not be aware but Scarlett was actually a bit of a mod developer back in WC3. After she played in GSTL on GameHeart for the first time I asked to get her feedback on playing with it in a high pressure setting and she was very helpful. Even going so far as to look at my code to help me find problems!
Penny Arcade Forum Community
The PA forums have been really helpful when it comes to testing GameHeart. And I really appreciate all of their help. Especially guys like Kambing who are usually willing to hop in a game with me to test something that he probably won’t even be able to see!
Honestly I am sure there are a lot more people I should be thanking but there are so many that it’s hard to keep track of them all. Thank you everyone who has been involved!
Blizzard and GameHeart -
I wanted to take a moment to thank Blizzard in particular for their help over the last few months. Behind the scenes of this project I have been sending them bugs and suggestions for them to fix/implement in the 2.1 patch and they have been really going out of their way to accommodate me. Here is an example of some of the things that they have already fixed or said that they will fix that I have sent them:
Regional Attribute References
Player Attributes in Mod Files
Broken Attribute References
Corrupt Game Attributes
Default Observer ID
I do the best job I can to present my issues so that they can address them as easily as possible, but I do not always understand why something is going wrong so it can be difficult. Beyond this they have also been pretty supportive in the past. They have fixed bugs I have reported and even at one point looked through my code to find a mistake I made that I had reported as a bug with the editor. After something like that it would be easy for them to disregard problems I send them in the future, but they have continued to support me.
While it’s true that they do not use GameHeart for WCS I think their reasoning is pretty fair. The old GameHeart was pretty bulky and they felt in order to okay it for WCS they really needed to QA it themselves, which would have been a pretty significant task. Beyond that they are also concerned that a mod like GameHeart could open the door to mod developers and perhaps tournaments trying to rebalance the game themselves. It is possible with something like GameHeart to adjust the movement speed or damage output of a unit, which is dangerous for competitive play. I have no interest in doing that and I promise that nothing like that is done in GameHeart. It is open source so anyone can download the GameHeart mod files to see for themselves. I do manipulate data but only to achieve things like swapping textures for stronger team colors, or putting logos on the ground. With the new GameHeart being so much simpler than the previous version I am hoping they will reconsider it for WCS someday.
Sometimes GameHeart feels under pressure when they add features that are in GameHeart to the default spectator tools. But there is nothing wrong with them trying to improve their game, and honestly that pressure pushes me to continue to improve GameHeart and come up with new ideas to keep it ahead of the curve. I hope that GameHeart has also served as a tool for them to figure out what spectator features are worthwhile and are justified in being added to the game itself.
Old discussion topic (team sponsors) -
I brought this up back in Update 2 but after feeling like I did not get much of a response I decided to move away from it. But Liquid Nazgul came around and said that he liked the idea and wanted to see it implemented, and offered any help he could to get it there.
He has put me in contact with people from some of the biggest teams so I can put together a limited test version of this concept. I have sent them a document detailing what I need from them to make it happen, and as soon as they starting sending stuff in I will begin working on it.
Here is the new mockup for how I would like to implement team sponsor logos into GameHeart:
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49867307/GAMEHEART/Blog/Images/sponsorlogos_mockup_sml.gif)
Now before you get too worked up about it being distracting or what have you, be aware that this will only show up for the first 1-2 minutes of the game and then it will fade away. The idea is for it to be there during the “starting in the bottom left” player intros that are common in tournaments, while there is virtually nothing else going on to be distracted from.
Because some tournaments I have shown this to have expressed concern that their sponsors may not be okay with the conflict of showing team sponsors it will be a toggleable option. However I hope that all tournaments will eventually come around and see that we need to generate investment in teams so that they can grow and get stronger, provide better games with bigger personalities to strengthen the esports scene of Starcraft II. And all tournaments will benefit from a stronger SC2 esports scene.
I am also considering some other possibilities for showing team sponsors throughout the game, but right now this is the main concept. Please share your thoughts in the comments below or on the reddit thread for this blog update!
Thanks guys!
-Ryan
