Saturday, 31 December 2011

New Version Feature Spotlight #10 - Professional Boxing Manager

Professional Boxing Manager is a Knockout. Start the Count..1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9.. 
10..KNOCK OUT!
Like no other Boxing Management game. Made by Boxing fans, for Boxing fans since 2005. 

This is the point where I'd like us to sit crossed legged in a circle for a little chat if you don't mind!

You should know me by now. Whether you know me as Anthony, ProBoxMan, 'support@pcboxing' or whatever. You should know that this game is and always will be, my baby. I have been a hardcore boxing fan since the 1980s and remember (just) those early classic fights with the likes of Tommy Hearns, Iron Mike to British legends like Barry McGuigan, Lloyd Honeyghan and of course Big Frank. Every fight was amazing to me. So much so that I began making my own boxing board games which my friends and I would play for days on end. Yes, I was 'that guy'! The inventive fanatic. As boxing computer games begun to appear on my Commodore64 and beyond, I have played and loved pretty much all of them.

This started my desire to create my first boxing management game 'Ultimate Boxing Manager'. Although it wasn't the 'ultimate' boxing management game it was 100% my work, every single part written or designed by me. Did you play it? Remember the boxing circles? Did you beat it? It's a bit of a legend as not even I managed to become the ultimate boxing manager! I was rightfully proud when the positive reviews and feedback came in and this sparked the need for the follow-up.

January 2006 saw the launch of 'Boxing Manager - Professional Edition' and apart from the office and gym backgrounds was once again made by me. This was a more ambitious version than 'Ultimate' and was also well received until the well documented issues it had staying upright and running! This is a shame as it was a superior game to the previous effort. Being a true boxing fan, when the problems began I didn’t run and hide I thought 'what would it take to make the absolute best boxing management game. To this end I requested feedback from every player of the game for their opinion and every feedback, whether from a real professional boxing manager or casual player was treated on its merits. From this I created the blueprint for the best boxing management game.

And then here we are. This game 'Professional Boxing Manager' is the accumulation of efforts of boxing fans all around the world, the love of my family and support from my friends. I don't want to get into the personal expense this game has cost me or even the effects of lame coders and designers bailing out on me mid project had on my health. It was worth it and whether it’s a success or not, I know this game has the features the dedicated players of the game wanted. Is it the exact vision I had when I started? No. Have there been compromises? Yes. Too many unfortunately mainly caused by the weak hired help and financial constraints. The good news is that even now I already have a massive wishlist of features and ideas which simply couldn't be squeezed into this version. In fact, the team here had to constantly be 'reigned in' as the sheer amount of good ideas threatened to swamp the development. Is this a finished list? Not at all. Not by a long shot. Your feedback helped me then and it will help me now to develop, improve and strive to make YOUR game, MY baby the best boxing management game it can be. True story.

"so what's the question then?" That's simple. The question on your lips, or tweets, or facebook comment is simply "when is it coming out?" The answer? Well, that was meant to be this year but hit a few nasty snags at the end which put paid to that. Now the game is slated for release January 31st. An actual date! Happy? If so, make sure you're signed up here for the discount off your purchase.

Until next time...
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Thursday, 1 December 2011

New Version Feature Spotlight #9 - Professional Boxing Manager

Professional Boxing Manager is a Knockout. Start the Count..1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..
 
9..SUPERIOR QUALITY
Incredible background data processing speed, rock solid stability with a slick & stylish interface. 

Basically, this game works! I cannot stress to you how important this fact is to me. The current game (coded by these hands) was very quickly found out in terms of its ability to run well on modern PCs. In fact it was the advent of Windows Vista that really caused it problems. I'm not technically able to explain in detail but I believe Vista worked in a different way to good old XP and combined with faster processors etc my simple coding was soon corrupted.
 
If you've complained about this you would have received an email from me. Not copied and pasted but written by me personally apologising for it. I'll be honest and say the game 'falling over' personally upset me. I could take a 'this game is rubbish' comment on the chin but not being able to fix the problem hurt and I REALLY tried to fix it! I even hired a third party to fix it but I guess my coding was so contrived he couldn't. He did create a backup database system which allowed for some 'rolling back' (usually to an earlier still corrupted version!) and the legendary 'THIS ERROR MESSAGE HAS BEEN COPIED TO YOUR CLIPBOARD PASTE IT INTO A SUPPORT REQUEST EMAIL' message. Oh how I loved those! :0)
 
"So what’s different this time?"
That's simple, I didn’t write it. Not a single line. Instead I hired professional coders to do the work and a fine job they did too. The result is a fantastically stable platform for a game which is literally a hundred thousand times the size of my little boxing game! The new version also has absolutely fantastic new in-game graphics, again professionally designed and brand new for this version. This also includes a new 3D office environment for you to run and build your boxing management empire.
The result? You get the pleasure of playing with a beautifully designed, solid and reliable game worthy of your time, effort and appreciation and I get to sleep at night! ;0)

Until next time...

 
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