TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE

Game, Network, and Website Updates in the video-

Thanks!

David

MARCH 12TH TWEAK COMMENTS

Here is a place to comment on any numerical tweaks you feel we should make to TWISTED METAL for this coming Thursday Night's (March 15th) tweak server push.

Thanks!

David

Another Twisted Metal Status Update

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE #4

Little rambly plus the kids stop by but here ya go:



Covers Network connection issues, dropping games, XP tuning, skins, website update, plus a bit more.


ALSO- fantastic Twitter follower @dagimp13 has written the following that MAY aid SOME folks in making TM games easier to join and stay connected to. I am not advocating this as I know NOTHING about this (I'm not the guy to give advice on how to reconfigure your network settings) but I can tell you this guy says it's worked great for him and a number of twitter followers have pretty much said the same thing. Let me know how it affects your experience should you choose to do it.

Thanks to @DaGimp13! Much appreciated, sir! :)


David

Ok, here's what he wrote:

++++++

Ok, so some people have been asking for help in setting up their routers with the PS3 TCP/UDP ports. While a few may have been helped, I'd like to reach the larger audience of PS3 users. Here is a guide on how to do it (generic, mind you. I'm not going to deal with each & every router individually). 

1. open a web browser, be it your PC/Mac/PS3/cellphone, and google Port Forward. the site has a massive list of ports & routers on it, which is to help users open ports on routers. click on router list, and select the manufactuer & model of your router. You'll then find steps on how specifically to add the full PS3 list of TCP/UDP ports.

2. to explain how the list of PS3 TCP/UDP ports works, it's a compiled list of ports used from all PS3 games/programs. All ports are input as 'Ranges' that are opened, whether its TCP/UDP. So individual ports such as UDP 5223 are input as Start 5223 End 5223. Ports listed already as range ports are input as such. Example: Start 990-9980. you'll also notice it wants you to choose a type, either TCP or UDP. Choose accordingly to whichever the input on the list was. Example: UDP 5223 is type UDP. Obvious, right? Also, Start & End port digits are open, so whatever that Start of that range is (TCP 990-9980) the 990 & 9980 are open & any ports in between.

3. If you scan through list of ports on Port Forward, you'll notice the MOST common TCP port is 5223. Do not worry that it is not in the TCP list, as it already is! TCP port range 990-9980 covers this port already, so it doesn't need to be opened twice. 



Now that we've covered the basics on 'how-to', let's bring in the list. this list covers the entire catalog of PS3 games/programs, so enjoy.

Full PS3 list of TCP/UDP ports

TCP: 80-81, 443, 990-9980, 10000-10500, 13505, 14310-14328, 15310-15328, 17502, 18121, 18126, 30350-30400, 42100-42199

UDP: 81, 88, 2005, 3064, 3074-3075, 3478-3479, 3658-3659, 5223, 5730-5739, 6000, 6112, 9570, 9820-9880, 10000, 10500-12500, 14000-14016. 17502, 18126
======================================================================

Hope this helps people connecting with PS3 online, whether it's Twisted Metal or Call of Duty, and anything in between.

@DaGimp13
PSNID: DaGimp13

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE #3

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE #3

Hey all- thanks for hanging in there with me tonite waiting for an update. Crazy day- very busy. Sorry it's coming so late.

Ok, here's what I know:

1. NETWORK ISSUES:

a- a patch left SDQA today and is in format tomorrow. It's POSSIBLE it will hit Twisted Metal tomorrow nite but Sony tells me it will be either tomorrow nit or Thursday morning. Forgive my layman's understanding of this sort of stuff, but the core idea is that we hope the patch will go some/a long/the full (not sure which) way to making it so players connect consistently to online games. The patch will be addressing the following issues (again, forgive my lay understanding):

- Quick match and user created matches will be split so people looking for human created games are not being pulled/put into quick match games.

- The list of matches will be randomized (to an extent) so not every user sees the same game list in the same order (causing EVERYONE to try to pick games off game list page 1 at the same time and the resulting in some of our CAN NOT JOIN ISSUES).

- When a user gets a CAN NOT JOIN error and tries to create his own game, seems there is a bug where not all of the CAN NOT JOIN game is cleared out, potentially creating a new game room that retains elements of the CAN NOT JOIN logic from the first game the user tried to set up. The programmers at ESP and SONY feel this fix could solve a large % of our issues with players connecting and MAYBE even solve the issues of players being dropped mid game. 

- A few other fixes that- we hope- will make big differences to connecting. 

2. CRASHING OLDER PS3S:

No official word but this is what it's looking like: while it's possible we didn't get rid of all of the crash bugs in the game that lock your system (although we didn't let the game go out knowing there was a crash bug so if you've found a genuine, reproducible one, let us know how you did it!…but more and more it's looking like the crashes we are hearing about on the older PS3s  are hardware related. Twisted- like a lot of games- pulls a big amount of power on ramp up and some of the older systems- perhaps because of age, perhaps because of dust inside, perhaps because of a graphics card that is just on its last legs- can't keep up. This seems like it would explain- according to the very smart tech folks who explained this to me- why we are seeing crashes in the first 10sec-5 min of the game BUT without any consistent breadcrumb trails that would indicate it's a software problem (i.e. every time I turn left at this corner and drop the remote bomb and blow up Juggernaut when he's below 30% health, the game crashes). 

Our Sony Santa Monica Producer is going to speak with customer service to see how rampant this issue is. Turns out a number of games have issues like this but it's usually a small number compared to the number of copies of the game out there. Customer Service will allow us to see how frequent of an issue this is and if it's above the norm of this sort of issue, we'll keep looking for what the problem could be. 

As of now though, that's what we know on that issue.

3. SKINS- 

Biggest issue is the skins are too dark. This will be addressed- according to Sony- with a Twisted Metal website update in the next 48 hours. From what they tell me, this is why Tooth doesn't show up except anything but black and bright white cars show up super dark too. We'll see how it improves but I hear a new version is up in the next 48 hours. My understanding is THIS issue is keeping the NOS skins from being made available as well. Will keep checking on that tomorrow and update you on the NOS specific issues- if they are different form this issue- via Twitter.

Better browsing of skins will also hit by Thrusday. 

4. MISC- Aware of a lot of the issues you guys have that are not on this list and they are going on a TO DO/TO PATCH list but as I'm sure you understand, right now getting the connection issues 100% resolved is where 95% of the effort is going. Will update ya'll on the changes/fixes to common requests/complaints as they come in the next days and weeks. 

5. AUTO START IN MATCH MADE GAMES- Long story but right now, the band aid solve is to make the user who is the host super aware by changing the UI so they won't be able to miss the visuals cues that THEY need to hit START. After that gets in and fixed, we'll see if it's still needed to implement a forced launch after X seconds/minutes. Sounds like this change will hit this week as well but I'm not 100% sure.

Ok, so that's what I know right now. More to come- thanks for being patient with the game and with us. It's super, super appreciated. We're very sorry, ya'll.

David 

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE #3

HOW TO GET CUSTOM SKINS IN YOUR GAME/SKIN UPDATE

HOW TO GET CUSTON SKINS IN YOUR GAME:

1. Go to TWISTEDMETAL.COM. Under CUSTOMIZER go to BROWSE (to see skins other people have made) or go to CREATE to start the process of making your own.

2. Once you find or make a skin, hit ADD TO MY GARAGE.

3. Once in garage, find the skin you made/like and hit PUBLISH.

4. THEN hit ACTIVATE once it's done publishing.

5. Load up TWISTED METAL on your PS3 and from the MAIN MENU go to OPTIONS. From there go to CUSTOM PAINT SHOP.

6. IF you are just starting you game, I THINK the game auto checks for new skins and downloads them. If your game was already running when you used the web site to activate the skin, you'll need to hit REFRESH SKINS (grey selection at bottom left of the CUSTOM PAINT SHOP SCREEN). You should see a download bar as the game pulls your chosen skins down from the server.

7. Now you can cycle thru the SKINS selection for the car you want to check out and besides the skins that shipped unlocked on disc and the skins on the disc that you've unlocked, you should see CUSTOM 1, CUSTOM 2 (not sure how high it goes) which are the skins you've pulled from the CUSTOMIZER. You can now use these in your MP games (forget, not sure if you can use them in SP modes too- I THINK you can)...

NOTES:

a- SKINS ARE TOO DARK- we are checking into why it is but for now, when in doubt, go bright with your customs until we figure out what up.
b- PASSWORD PROTECTION should be there day 1 but doesn't seem to be- checking with Sony on what up with that.
c- Not sure what up with the NOS promotions- checking with Sony on that too.
d- Once you publish a vehicle, people saying you can't go back and keep working on it. If that's true, we'll look into it. Doesn't sound right.

David

TWISTED METAL CUSTOM SKIN INTRO VIDEO

TWISTED METAL UPDATE

Also, here's the link on GAMESPOT I was mentioning in the vlog

David

The Last Days Of Twisted Metal #2 (plus random pics from game production!)

Hey all! Here's me heading in for what will probably be my last Twisted Metal visit with the San Diego QA crew!


Tell you what: this amazing QA team been instrumental in the game's tuning and gameplay quality, working tirelessly (and I mean TIRELESSLY- these mofos work some CRAZY ASS hours!) with myself, the rest of the Eat Sleep Play crew out in the Lake Of Salt, and the boyz up at Sony Santa Monica! Thanks Bill, Jon, Gregg, and the whole SDQA staff for helping to make this Twisted Metal the best one we've ever made!

Talk soon-

David

ps. hoping to get some one on one QA interviews for the blog with some of the team who have tested the game and helped us tune it. Stay tuned for those!

pps. oh, some random pics! :)

I have no recollection of how or why this amazing tradition began but DAMN am I glad I get to be on the receiving end of it! :) Every Christmas my amazing GOD OF WAR co-writer Marianne Krawczyk gets me a full on pack of fantastic bubble gum! For a few years running it's been Bazooka but I was just in Santa Monica for our final TWISTED METAL playtest and damn if the woman didn't go and get me a 90 piece pak of the best fucking bubble gum IN THE WORLD: SUPER BUBBLE!!! This is just the kinda gum I got as a kid when I'd get a hair cut and I fucking love it! Thank you MA! Oh, and for those of you not in the know, Marianne was also a writer on ALL of the the other GOW games, as well as this year's mega phenom SKYLANDERS and this summer's sure to be hit game STAR TREK!

My view from the playtest last Thursday/Friday! Always fun to watch the last playtest because- barring anything major (and yes, we did find one dial we wanted to tweak!), the game is done and you can just sit back and watch and see how the game came out! And if you are curious by the way, we had 5 play testers last week and here are the results...

Again, as I've said, we never expect/assume these OVERALL SCORES will= review scores and we also never assume just because they BRPs (Buy/Rent/Pass) answers are all YES that the world- or even these folks- will buy the game. In a play test like this - where they are IN the office of the people who are working on the game- you never know if you are getting a 100% accurate response to the game or if someone is fishing for a job! BUT- all of that said- the scores have been pretty consistent as of late and so, hey, I won't like: these are nice to see! 

Rambling Man Returns! AKA- DAMN this is long!!! :)

Pretty long and rambly. PLUS it's Sunday am and I'm working at home so my kids scamper in and out of the video at the start. If you JUST want some TM info, skip to around 6 min, 7 min...and that's all Doctor Who free and kid free too!



Talk soon- gotta run!

David

My Day With Tim...And Morgan...And Garnett...

...and a whole lotta other super cool, super nice folks!

I hit LA yesterday to pimp our game on Garnett's fantastic WEEKEND CONFIRMED podcast! Here's a crappy pic of my view watching Garnett kick things off:

And yes indeed eagle eyed readers: that IS Michael McWhertor sitting next to me and Garnett. If you don't know, Michael just left Kotaku and is now doing his thang at Gametrailers where he - among other things- writes the biz's newest must read blog: SIDE/MISSION!

I've been a fan of Garnett and his podcasts since the 1up days and it was a real thrill, honor, and blast to sit with his crew (in front of the mikes and in the control booth) and gab games for 3 hours! The time flew by and I had a great time! Thanks ya'll!

So then I headed down Wilshire to the G4 offices where the team allowed me to pimp our baby on one of my fave game shows: XPLAY! I also got to do G4's podcast! Besides getting to talk games and pimp Twisted Metal, doing these shows meant I also got to spend time with the always kind, very talented, and- yes- stunning Morgan Webb!

Here she is hosting the podcast (which will air on/around Valentine's Day...the same day Twisted Metal hits! :)

Oh, and the XPLAY will air end of this month! Please stay tuned for both! 

Ok, so get this: while I'm pimping the Metal, turns out the legendary Tim Schafer was doing some XPLAY too, promoting his studio's amazingly fun Kinect game Double Fine's Happy Action Theater! Check it out if you've not seen this super creative title:


Pretty cool, eh? It hits Feb 2nd and I will be grabbing it day 1 to play with the kids!

And even better, I got to jump into the game WITH its creator, along with Ms. Morgan and fellow XPLAY host (and always super cool) Adam Sessler (who is now sporting a bad ass Picard look, by the way)! Check us out, acting tha fools:

And here's Tom chatting it up on the podcast! I could talk games and the biz with this guy all day and hope I get the chance to soon! 

And yes, that's Xplay's very own Steve Johnson- man of 1000 voices!- in between Tim and me. Very cool, very funny dude! 

And here's me and Tim in another of my 'me meeting a hero' pics:

With this one and John Romero's from last month (and Shigeru Miyamoto's from a few years back), I'm building quite a collection! :)

Oh check it: me, Tim, and Morgan even made a flick together :)

How cool is that?!?!

Ok- gotta run- lots to do this weekend (including getting the contest finally judged by tomorrow!)- talk soon! 

David 

THE GAME IS DONE (MOSTLY)! + CONTEST UPDATES + MISC. STUFF

Check us out on Gamestats- how cool! Mega thanks to the Twisted Fans (not to mention Sony PR and Marketing!) for kicking us up so high!

And here is a link to the TWISTED METAL forums! Will start posting on there very soon (next few days).

Chat soon- later ya'll!

David

All Things Twisted!

Hey- just a random catch all of some really cool TM stuff that hit this week. Wanted to share!


TWISTED METAL DISPLAYS ARE GOING UP!
First up...twitter buddy @sarshelyam sent me these great pics from a GameStop in Pleasant Hill (up in northern CA). I LOVE the fact that Twisted Metal is started to get this kind of love from the retail stores! Thanks for the pics sarshelyam and thanks for the love Gamestop! 

   

                      






TWISTED METAL PRE-ORDERS ARE PICKING UP!
Next up I wanted to say thanks to longtime twitter follower and super hard core Twisted Metal fan @Needles_Kane34 for showing his faith in the series and the team with a fully paid pre-order of the game! Check it out! 

I've gotten a handful of pics just like this on my twitter and I wanted to say thanks- on behalf of myself, the tireless beasts over at Eat Sleep Play, and the hardworking crew at Sony Santa Monica- to each and every one of ya'll who've preordered the game (not to mention those that have preordered and PAID FOR THE GAME IN FULL!)

That kind of faith and support has gotten us over 100K preorders on the America Pre Orders chart over at VGA! Check it out! 

                   

Now, I know, I know, it's not the 400K of Mass Effect 3 or the 200K of FF, but Twisted has always been profitable but it's never been one of those super main stream titles and I don't expect this time to be any different. So trust me when I say, 100K+ preorders 7 weeks before we hit is something we're damn excited by! Now we just gotta hope those preoders turn into purchases once the game drops (aka- trust me, we're not assuming that a single preorder means a copy sold...but it's a nice indication that we're picking up some good momentum as we head into our launch week!)...

NUMER ONE WITH A POWER MISSILE! 
Ok so moving on...check this out- updated TWISTED METAL game stats:

           

 
Top of GAMESPOT's COMING SOON MOST POPULAR! And ALMOST in the overall top 10 over on Gamestats.com! Granted, these things change like the weather- more so actually- as we've dropped from the top 5 overall games at IGN (but are still sitting at #3 on their PS3 list)- so it's not like we look at these and think it means we're going to outsell all those games under us (not even fucking close)...but at worst it's a fun little things to track that tells us people are becoming more aware of the title and at best it's one of a handful of helpful tea leaves we can read to get a sense of how excited the world is for the game!


WOULDJA FANCY A PEEK AT OUR WEBSITE?!?
So hey- have you been to our updated website as of late?!? Here's a pic!

The Sony marketing and web crew have been going nuts adding all kinds of stuff. So please check it out at twistedmetal.com! 

Now the website ain't done yet, not by a long shot. It's gonna be coming together over the next few months in piecemeal sort of fashion. Here's what's coming up on the site:

• Bug fixes :): yeah, we pulled the trigger a tad early and some mistakes made it in (TLMS supports 2 teams, not 4; Kamikaze is indeed the name of one of our sports cars, NOT Specter;  and 1-2 other factual errors that we'll be cleaning up very soon)

• Twisted Metal University! I'm real excited by this! Sony is putting together a series of deep drive videos to explain how all the weapons and levels and vehicles (and more!) work! These will hopefully hit a major gaming site first and then- after an exclusive window closes- migrate to the blog so by launch, you'll be able to click on every vehicle, weapon, level, and mode and get a pretty great sense of not just the basics but some cool strategies and tactics as well. 

• Twisted Metal Blog + Forum: very soon, I'll be a frequent contributor at the TM blog where we got lots of fun stuff planned. It's not quite ready for all my crazy videos and pics yet but it will be soon and lots of the TM posts that you usually see on this blog (like this one right here) will live either on both blogs or on the TM blog exclusively. TM Forums will also go up soon that you can access from the site. I'll be a frequent poster both before launch and post launch as we make it our defacto location where we'll connect with the community , hear what is working, what needs to be fixed, what weapons may need some balance love,etc. 

• COOL COMMUNITY FEATURES!- Can't speak to specifics AT ALL right now! But this stuff has me very, very excited because I know these features- which will be live by launch- will serve to bring the worldwide TM community together like never before! Stay tuned!!!!

TM + MAJOR LEAGUE GAMING/GAMEBATTLES.COM! 
Speaking of the TM COMMUNITY- check this shit OUT: 

We got a page over at Major League Gaming/GameBattles! 


As a lot of ya'll may know, from the very first design emails, we've always thought of this new Twisted Metal as an over the top, bloody, nasty, super violent E-SPORT! The fact that GB/MLG have given us a shot at proving that out? Well that's some damn exciting news, I can tell ya! Can't wait to watch and see if the game- like we've hoped from the start- inspires a strong, vocal, and passionate community of hardcore vehicle combatants! Hell, when I get some downtime from work, I may just start my very own TM clan! :)


TM MAKING THE BLOG/PODCAST ROUNDS:
Finally- been doing a number of the promised podcasts with the gaming sites out there. So far I've done this one with the always fun and entertaining crew over at PSNation:

Thanks to Glenn and the gang for the opportunity, hospitality, and horrific image of me in children's underwear :). CLICK HERE TO LISTEN! 


I also did a podcast with Doc (who I first met when he was on season 1 of PSN'S THE TESTER) and his crew. That's gonna hit soon and you'll be able to hear it in PSHOME as well as download it on itunes and- I think- 1 or 2 other places.


And then just 2 nights ago I had a really fun conversation with the team at Splitkick, they of the super fun Fall Damage podcast.


Will post links to both of those shows as soon as they go up. And going to try to lure my partner in crime Scott Campbell onto at least a few of these gab fests, so stay tuned! 


And then there's a lot more lined up in the coming 3-5 weeks as we lead up to Twisted Metal. Gonna be sitting down with Garnett Lee and his crew at Weekend Confirmed start of next month; gonna chat with Blair Herter over at X-PLAY/G4 for their great pcast; still hoping to do the Destructoid Podcast with Jim Sterling wherein we discuss/debate Online Passes! Plus, will be talking to other podcasts and blogs as well and will be linking to them here. Also, if you are one of the smaller (and small does not mean small on talent or passion, mind you!) blogs or podcasts I've chatted with over the last 6 months who was promised- or who wants to chat- please reach out to my amazing assistant Q on twitter at @QSincock and we'll get you set up (if I've already promised an interview) and try to get you set up if it's a new request.


'TM SPIRIT'/NEW YEAR'S EVEN CONTEST RESULTS:
Ok whew! That's a lot! I need to take a break then I got a bunch of fantastic, amazing, stunning Twisted Metal Spirit contest entries to judge! If you've entered the contest and are wondering if you've won (same with the New Year's Eve 'Shut Up And Bleed You Motherfucker!' contest) check back with the blog this weekend and I'll have a list of entries as well as the winners!


Talk soon- thanks for visiting the blog! Hope your weekend is going great!


David

Contest Update #2

FYI: New Year's Eve contest winner details + 'Show Your Twisted Spirit' winners coming this week. Been sick, running behind. Sorry :(.

David

Contest Update

Hey all! Been slammed on the game most of the day and have only had time to go thru about 25% of the submissions. Calling it a nite as I'm gonna go do NYE with the family. So- alas:

BAD NEWS: Contest won't be decided tonite. I'll post results tomorrow or worst case Monday.

GOOD NEWS: Holy cow there is some AMAZING stuff ya'll are sending in and hell- since I'm running late- if anyone out there missed the deadline, go ahead and as long as I get it by tomorrow around 3pm California time, you're in!

MORE GOOD NEWS: There's just too much good stuff to give away one prize! The grand prize winner still gets all I promised but I'm prob gonna hand out at least 1-2 other runner up prizes cause there's just some amazing stuff ya'll are sending in!

Sorry I'm running behind on this- my apologies- just not enough hours in the day :(...but I'll get it done in the next day or so, I promise!

Ok- gotta get the night rolling!

Have a safe, happy, and fun as hell NEW YEARS! HAPPY 2012 YA'LL!


David

Bottom the Bottom, to the "Top of the Pops"

I won't lie: nice as hell to see our baby making some waves and gaining some interest! Shit won't last- it never does- so you gotta enjoy it while it's here! Thanks internet for kicking Twisted Metal up towards the top! Ya'll rock! 

David 

The Final Days Of Twisted Metal Part I

My Top 3 Games Of The Year

Hey! IGN posted this piece featuring me and other game developers wherein we gab about our fave titles of the year. Check it out, if you are so inclined!

Talk soon-

David