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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing: Snapper Rocks

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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing: Yago Dora

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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing: Aileens

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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing

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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing - The Basics Xbox

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Barton Lynch Pro Surfing 2022

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Backside & Frontside camera adjustment

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New Patch & DLC

Hey there,

We’re uploading a new patch shortly. Here’s what’s in it:

·         We’ve adjusted the length of the wave in Ledge Rock round one and the repechage. The previous waves in those levels were too short and consequently a bit too hard for new players. This was really noticeable in our recent testing feedback from new users, so we’ve tried to improve the experience in that first level a bit there. We think (we hope!) we’ve got the balance right on this one.

·         We’ve adjusted default camera position to the near camera, and tweaked the camera a bit to each side of the player surfer when they surf along the wave. Means you can better see your wave moves now and line up the lip in order to whack it properly. Importantly, nothing changed with the airs, floaters or tubes – it’s probably the best camera we’ve had and the extra time it’s taken during this period is probably worth it (we hope). Thanks to an earlier suggestion from Matt Mabarrack for this one.

·         Now that we’ve altered the camera position and improved the view down the line, we’ve dropped the arrow from the surf states and just kept it in place for the paddle states. Not sure why we didn’t do that before, but anyway it’s done now.

·         We’ve added the alpha back to the particles as people quite rightly complained about not being able to see ahead of the action, which is fair enough. So we’ve changed it back to the way it originally was

·         We’ve added a controller screen to the tutorial flow and removed the wave type section at the beginning of the tutorial to allow people to start the lessons earlier and easier

·         Adjusted the planes on the load screens, to ensure they are landing in the level load screens.

·         Added in code to level out the jetski’s pitch when in the air – especially in the new Monsters level as the landings from these massive waves are ridiculous.

·         Lowering the volume of the audio when wiping out.

·         Reduced the animation speed of the frontside layback carve + slide and the backside pivot + slide

·         Fixed problem with music streams occasionally causing crashes when      closing.

·         Fixed some problems with continuing on with a save.

·         Increased the cash amount the surfers start with. This is to pave the way for the Monsters DLC, as you’ll be able to purchase a bit more now. The next thing we plan to add is a customisation surfboard tool so you can shape your own boards.

·         Adjusted the jetski direction display when trying to grab the tow rope to make it smaller.

The Monsters DLC has taken us a lot longer than we expected, but we’re certainly closer now. The Surfer DLC features a brand new location - a big wave location called Monsters, set in Maui Hawaii. It features four different levels, each with massive waves that break from 25 feet up to 40 feet. Surfers are challenged to paddle in to these huge waves using their big wave guns or they can be towed in by their jetski partners. The Monsters location supports both Single player and local multiplayer split screen modes. The DLC also features four brand new jetskis, each with riders from different nationalities including Brazil, the US, France and Australia. Each of these new jetskis are have different power and handling performance ratings. There are also four new tow in surfboards, specifically tweaked to enable high performance surfing in massive waves. The DLC features improved character performance stats, including air rotation, paddle stamina / strength, wipeout stamina and duckdive strength. The final three stats are vitally important to a surfers performance, especially in the bigger surf. We’re planning to submit to Sony again on the 9th, so we’ll be back with more news, some screens and a new trailer soon, so stay locked! 

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The Surfer PS3 The Importance of using your equipment 

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Scary monsters, super creeps Keep me running, running scared...D.Bowie.

Early “Monsters.” Slowly taking shape

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The Surfer Gameplay and Review - PS3 Indie Gaming At It's Best

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The Surfer released on PSN - thoughts so far...

Hey there,

We released the game on PSN a week ago. The experience is all a bit new and we’re feeling our way through this as we travel. We are really grateful for the feedback so far. Now is probably a good time to sift through some of the topics to date.

Credits

While we’ve had a number of work experience interns with us along the way, we are essentially a three man development team. Trying to build The Surfer has been a monumental task. Again, we’d like to take this opportunity thank the people who have come into our studio and worked with us on odd tasks over the years on the PS3. This also includes family and friends who have helped out in various ways over the journey. When you look at our credit list it actually seems like we’re a really large studio and we’re a bit surprised by the volume of credits there. But, in saying that it probably stands to reason that the number of names and thanks we needed to pass on was always going to be large if you consider that we’re talking about a development beginning in 2005 till now. That’s a long time.

In some respects, a Kickstarter campaign might have been easier if we’d taken that leap, but game development (and design) can be so very risky and to us, that just didn't feel right. And when trying to develop an in-depth surfing game, there sure is plenty of design failure to overcome. Plenty.

Graphics

Last year we posted a blog regarding why we took the approach we did with our graphics. We’re often asked ”why the retro look?” or “why didn’t you make the game a more realistic sim like Skate? Simple answer is: budget. It costs a bomb to create high-end AAA graphics for consoles and the truth is we’d love to build a sim and go for that hyper realistic look. It’s feels odd because we actually started out as a simulation developer. Our first prototype was a simulation and our game engine is at heart, is a physics based 3D simulation.

But, as a small studio we had to make a decision early on and the simple proposition for us was this: Question: do we try and compete with the Activision’s, EA, or Ubi’s of the world? Answer: Nope. Question: do we try and build a game that is solid visually but with a focus on physics and gameplay? Answer: Well okay, yes

But in the end the reality was that we didn’t really have a choice. A tiny studio like Bungarra simply couldn’t compete with high-end multi-million dollar graphics tech with the likes of EA and without the money, we knew we shouldn’t try. Choose your battles. So we needed to try a different approach. Our goal was to create a graphic set that would still look good and respect our audience, but with a focus on trying to make our notoriously difficult genre – surfing – both compelling and fun. Suffice to say this is a balancing act. Coming up with an attractive art direction, hard-core physics, in-depth gameplay as well as an effective User Interface, is no easy task. There are plenty of really pretty games already out there with not much going on under the hood when it comes to gameplay. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that the psychology of limitation really did apply to us at the outset of this project and it still does today. That is, you make the best of what you have and sometimes as a result, circumstance simply forces you to become more creative. We had to define what we internally considered to be a rich visual look that could hold sway with a market awash with super high res and realistic graphics. The bottom line is that our art style had to be both nice-looking and meaningful to the surfing community. Our community. However, in saying that, creating even a mildly stylized world like ours is tricky, almost trickier than creating a fully realistic world with all of those real world resources at hand. Each of the characters, environments, props and UI need concepts that are based largely on realism, but with a tiny smidge of ‘toon’ thrown into the mix to give us the effect we were after. We didn’t want to go as far the quite full-on toon look as seen in Shaun White’s Wii version, nor did we think we could achieve a look that Skate achieved on PS3 given our budget constraints – aesthetically at least, we need to land somewhere in between; a bright and clean looking game with a bit of character, minus the real-world gritty realism. We loved those old PS2 games in Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, Transworld and Sunny Garcia and it’s reasonable to consider PS2 retro now, so the idea was if we could create a cleaner, more up to date 720p version with a bit of a look of its own, then why not? With a little luck, we’ll be able to evolve our visual art style again over time.

PS3 vs PS4

Another question we get often is why the PS3 as opposed to PS4? This is largely about principle, money, risk & timing. When we started out on The Surfer, we started on the PS3. We advertised that we would be releasing on the PS3 and so we were committed. The basic principle is that you do what you say you’ll do. The other issue is that once we began and we finally (after a long R&D process) had developed the PUMP system when we finally looked up from our work the PS4 had been released. By that time we were so far into development on the PS3 that it would cost us a fortune to port the code and art across to the PS4 and importantly, then have to spend another fortune on attempting to meet the graphical expectations people (quite rightly) have of that machine. It’s a powerful machine that takes a concerted development effort to compete graphically with the titans of the industry. In a perfect world, if we had the money and resources we would have tried to develop both the PS3 and the PS4 at the same time. That said, having spent most of our development time on gameplay (if) we are in a position to make a little money back on our initial release, then we’d feel more comfortable reviewing PS4 and focusing more on graphics. In practical terms, whether this is a remaster or perhaps a complete re-build we’re unsure at this point. We can do a PS4 version, we really want to do it (along with Xbox and Switch) – but we just can’t get carried away at this point and we simply have to see how things play out first.

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The Surfer PS3 | 720p: How to combo from Bungarra Software Pty Ltd on Vimeo.

View @720p: Old School graphics - nu skool gameplay.

Momentum based surfing. The Surfer PS3 is a physics based surf-fest featuring momentum driven, pressure sensitive moves. Pump is at the heart of the physics based scoring system. In this tutorial we'll show you why mastering the combo is vital to your ability to win.

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The Surfer PS3 | 720p: Surfing in the barrel from Bungarra Software Pty Ltd on Vimeo.

View @720p: Old School graphics, nu skool gameplay.

Momentum based surfing. The Surfer PS3 is a physics based surf-fest featuring momentum driven, pressure sensitive moves. Figuring out out to surf is one thing, but winning a heat is something else in entirely. So in this tutorial we'll teach you how to score in a heat and win!

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THE SURFER PS3: PUMP CONTROL

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The Surfer PS3 | 720p: Surfing in the barrel

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The Surfer PS3 | 720p: Surfing in the barrel from Bungarra Software Pty Ltd on Vimeo.

View @720p: Old School graphics, nu skool gameplay. Momentum based surfing. The Surfer PS3 is a physics based surf-fest featuring momentum driven, pressure sensitive moves. Riding the barrel can be tricky, so in this tutorial we'll teach you how to pump and stall in the tube.