Firework show

We really should have done this at the end of last week in time for the Fourth of July, but hey, we didn't. This is Ben testing the Special Effects pack (what we used to call the pyros pack, but it's been renamed because it contains more than just things that go bang).

OK, you all know the chorus. Sing along...
"When's it released?"
"When it's ready!"

Soon, my friends, soon you too will be able to blow things up! (In a safely controlled environment, of course, with no danger to children, pets or property.)

You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain

I use Moviestorm every day, often running through the same few test sequences each time. Although I love it, it's sometimes hard to get excited or inspired when I'm so familiar with Moviestorm that I regularly dream about it and see the interface swimming in front of my eyes when I wake up in the morning. Nonetheless, every once in a while something I've thrown haphazardly together to test a bit of functionality will remind me that, actually, Moviestorm is a storytelling tool above all else.

Here's a bit of silliness that started as a test of the Pyro pack and ended up as quite a cool short sequence.

I know it doesn't fit on the page, but dagnamit, it's so pretty I don't want to butcher it into a smaller size. Watch the full version on my Moviestorm page.

I've no idea who the hooded pyromancer might be, or why he's attacking the cameraman in an art gallery, but that doesn't matter: from such initial fragments are big stories woven.

Now then. The disclaimers. I know we always throw in the usual "when it's ready", "development code", "your mileage may vary" disclaimers, but in this case I really do have to emphasise: the mobile fireballs are something that we're trying out at the moment and they still have some bugs. You - hopefully - won't see any in this video, but that's more by good luck than good management. Rolling balls of fiery flaming death might not make it into the Pyro pack at all. Certainly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were only static objects by the time the pack is released, with mobile fireballs scheduled for a future update. We'll try and get them ready, but I can't promise that we'll manage it.

Don't worry. They'll still be balls, they'll still be great, and they'll still be - most emphatically - of fire.

Carrying a torch for Love(craft)

We know it's been pretty quiet around here recently. We're sorry about that - as Matt says, it's all Daves's fault (and yes, the pluralisation there is correct).

We're as busy as Santa's favourite elf on Christmas Eve here at Moviestorm Towers, putting the final touches on Moviestorm version 1.1.5 as well as working on several forthcoming Content Packs. We've already teased you with footage from some early development code for the Pyro pack - remember the rain and the fireworks? - but Julian, Ben and Chris have just shown me some new developments, also coming in Pyro, which were so pretty I had to share them with you. Ready for some Lovecraftian exploration?

View the high-quality version at Moviestorm.co.uk

"And when tales fly thick in the grottoes of tritons, and conches in seaweed cities blow wild tunes learned from the Elder Ones, then great eager vapours flock to heaven laden with lore; and Kingsport, nestling uneasy on its lesser cliffs below that awesome hanging sentinel of rock, sees oceanward only a mystic whiteness, as if the cliff's rim were the rim of all earth, and the solemn bells of the buoys tolled free in the aether of faery."

P.S. It's been brought to my attention that I should probably issue a public apology for the dreadfully tortured pun-laden title of this post. I hereby do so, unreservedly.