Psy

All of our websites and forums are now running off the new server. I had to remove a number of features, particularly from iGTA and iRedDead's front end websites but they should all be working and running a lot faster than they were before. Let me know if you spot any issues. Thanks for your patience.

Hi all, As you may have noticed, I've been away for awhile but I'm in the process of moving all of the websites over to a new (much faster) web server. I'm moving them over one-by-one as they all need a little bit of an update to ensure they work on more modern software but so far https://www.gta-sanandreas.com is up and running on the new server. I'll probably do GTA4.TV next, then iGTA and iRedDead before finishing up with iGTA5.com. I hope to have everything moved across by the end of October, then I will be working on making some improvements before eventually redeveloping some of the websites. Let me know if you spot any issues during the next few weeks. Please be aware that I will not be copying the old forums across (old GTA-SA / iGTA forums - http://www.igrandtheftauto.com/forums/index.php?) because there are gigabytes worth of old uploaded files which are just wasting resources on the server and also it's a potential security issue, so if there's anything in particular you want to save from there, do that before the end of the month. Cheers.

Well you can press the Share button on your controller to take a screenshot (obviously). You can then copy the screenshots from the PS4 onto a USB memory stick. Plug that into your computer and you can upload the screenshots from there. If you have a lot I can give you an FTP account to upload them to which will make it easier for me to grab them. Also what I've been trying to do to make the screenshots look good is: Turn the brightness all of the way up in the game's display settings. Use the cheat to freeze the time at midnight. Die, so that the time is now frozen at 12:00 mid-day. Take screenshots of stuff while it's bright and light. If you want to try and take screenshots of each vehicle that would be useful for me, otherwise just take random screenshots of the missions as you're playing through them. Here's an example screenshot (plus the formatting I intend to use).

If anyone is playing through GTA San Andreas on PS4, would you mind taking some screenshots from missions and stuff? I'm working on redeveloping the GTA-SanAndreas.com website and I want to update all of the screenshots on the site with some higher res ones. I've already captured images for all of the collectables (Tags, Oysters, Snapshots and Horseshoes) and plenty of the first few missions, but anything you can provide might be a big help and save me from having to do it all myself. Cheers!

I can make any additional changes by editing the custom stylesheet. If people provide me with a screenshot of stuff that looks dodgy I can manually override it in the custom CSS.

The forums use a responsive template now. That basically means it scales to fit your device width. Lots of sites do that now as it's much easier to maintain as you only have one website and template to look after. It does mean that you are forced into seeing the mobile view on a mobile though but generally that's a good thing. I'll be rebuilding the front end sites to work in the same way. That said, there shouldn't be issues where buttons don't work so we'll have to look into that.

Most of the ads are based on things you've been looking at.

I don't get paid straight away. I get it in like a month depending on whether I've crossed the threshold of earnings for the month I think.

Invision removed the old Status Update thing and replaced it with this new one. Someone has made a plugin to add back the old functionality but it's $10 a year. I wouldn't mind paying for it but I've just spent the best part of $300 on the server, forum licenses and various other website related tools and software. If all of you go to GTA-SanAndreas.com and click one of the google ads each day then you might make me enough money to buy the plugin. Otherwise I could look at doing it myself but I'd rather not modify the forums if possible because it just makes it a total pain when we have to upgrade again in a month or two and re-create all of the mods.

All done. There will be various tweaks we need to make going forward so please be patient, but everything should be working now.

Not entirely sure, I just know that Apple apps generally average up to 10x the revenue of similar apps on Android. A bit of info here http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/07/which-platform-is-most-profitable-for-mobile-app-d.aspx.

Very unlikely it'll be ported to Android. From everything I've read, it's pretty difficult to make any real money from apps on the android market and it's built exclusively in SpriteKit which is an Apple-only development tool. It would have to be rebuilt completely to be ported to Android. The same thing will also be the case for PSN, however in the event I need to redevelop the game for Playstation, then it's been successful and I'll probably hire other developers to help with it.

There's still a lot of assets which needs to be designed (level backgrounds, random items which can be placed in levels like mailboxes, trash cans etc) and a lot of UI icons for use in the pause menu. I've also done no audio or music for the game at all so far, so all of that needs to be done. Any ideas for missions or mini games would also be appreciated.

Since I left Rockstar North in May last year I've been learning how to develop games for iOS using SpriteKit. I spent the first 3 months or so going through tutorials and a book which I bought and since then I've been working completely on my own game. I've built the whole thing from scratch, from the game engine to the mission script, animations etc. DuPz0r and DiO have done a brilliant job as my graphic designers and we're continuing to make good progress. Ideally I wanted the game finished within 6 months but it's a pretty huge job, especially for 1 developer and 2 part time designers so it's going to take maybe another 6 months but it's coming along well. I've amazed myself by just how much work goes into a game, even something as 'small' as this. I've been keeping a design doc up to date as we go and its coming on for 40 pages so far which gives you some idea of what's involved. It's not your traditional iPhone game (i.e. small levels, pick up and play, good for 2 minutes when you're on the toilet etc). It's a full - almost GameBoy style - platformer RPG. It features a turn based battle system similar to something you'd see in Pokemon and will feature a number of puzzles in each area as well as some hopefully fun mini-games. I'm hoping to have the full story take around 10-20 hours to complete (including all of the battles you'll have to do), which isn't bad for an iPhone game. If it's successful I'd like to re-develop it and release it on PS Vita or maybe the consoles as an indie game. Anyhow, it's yet another zombie apocalypse game. The basic story is that a Scientist wants you to help him find a cure by going out and getting samples from all of the different zombie forms. You'll have to battle them and kill them, then you can search their corpses for a specimen sample. You can also capture them in battle using a Lasso which will unlock additional data. The game is still very much a work in progress and the game engine is still under constant development, but quite a lot has been done so far and there is a lot of functionality coded and working including saving and loading data, an XP and ranking system for the hero, a full inventory system, a full dialog system, collectables, interactable items, containers which can be searched, multiple levels and sub levels, complex multi-layer UI and a pause menu system... I thought I'd let you guys know so you could offer any feedback on the development. I need to do a lot of work just to get the game into a state where it can be considered finished and fully working, but if you have any ideas which would make it a better game I'm all ears. I'm ideally targeting a release in June or somewhere around there, although having done nothing else but this for the past 9 months or so, I am going to eventually need to get a new job so the development might slow down a bit. Definitely want it finished and released by the end of this year. The game doesn't yet have a name, so if anyone can think of a cool and unique name for the game let me know. We have about 50 potential names but I'm not 100% happy with any of them yet. Working title is Not Another Zombie Apocalypse, although it's not completely unique. If anyone with design or audio skills wants to help out I'd be very happy for the assistance. There is potential financial reward for any work you contribute, but I can't guarantee anything until I see if the game makes any money when it launches. You would of course be listed in the credits either way. Here are some screenshots of the first few levels. I'll hopefully have a trailer style video to show off in the next few weeks.

That was good fun. I have a few video recordings I'll sort through tomorrow and upload if someone wants to make some highlights. Mainly of snowball fights.