Deep analysis of the Ashes cricket game

[BigAntStudios]

Barking up the wrong tree. They had all of the previous game's source available to them including art/animation.

I believe that it's all Unity. If extra files are included it's because of being sloppy not because they are being used, like the excel file, not used in that form but in there anyway.

 

[silverthorne]

@Biggs - I'm not sure that works if you compare the two fielding systems:
IC10 - manual throws and manual catching
AC13 - all automated

The new system feeds the old system the input values so the player don't have to do it, then compute the values where the ball, player and batsman should be.


That part is evidently missing in the release version of AC 2013. There are references to some unknown things. The game contains a chat engine, MMORPG parts, PS3, PS4 controller input and even Occulus Rift add-on.


You could plug-in Occulus Rift headset and play the game out. I dunno if it would even work since there is no batting input controller.

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I believe that it's all Unity. If extra files are included it's because of being sloppy not because they are being used, like the excel file, not used in that form but in there anyway.

I am not able to ascertain whether or not they had the source codes for the AC 2009 version or it was sold away and not available to them.

They could possibly have the setup codes - setup the player, load the game graphics in-memory, visual display of the bill-boards, move the player around, but not the cricket game logics.


I do know, is that the game is significantly different where AC 2013 is a complete rewrite, minus the encrypted DLL parts in AC 2009.

Even after analysing the encrypted DLL parts, I can with 60% confidence state that none of the encrypted DLL logics found in AC 2009 is found in the AC 2013 game.

 

[Biggs]

Hmmmm, perhaps I'm wrong with my reverse-engineer theory then. Does still intrigue me why everything got re-written in July though...

and if you look around, government grants too.

Got a source for that? Not doubting, just interested.

 

[silverthorne]

Got a source for that? Not doubting, just interested.

Screen Australia allocates $2.6 million in funding to 21 games | VG247

 

[Langeveldt]

Interesting, so that will explain why, although I am running on a fairly old laptop, I run AC13's menu screen at about a frame every three seconds

 

[silverthorne]

excel file

They use XML instead. The most stupid aspect is they store XML in non-standard format. The non-standard format corresponds to the way how the game loads and stores its values.


Take a look at it. You will chuckle. Arrays of players, Nested XML, there's even NULL XML parts, negative numbers -1, a few more save-games later, it corrupts

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Does still intrigue me why everything got re-written in July though...

The following is assumed and should not be trusted.


They did not want to get sued. If the new AC 2013 contains any old Codemaster DLLs or references, they would be liable to pay royalties or even additional payment, depending on the original contract.


If I were them, I would opt for an updated set of DLLs from Codemasters and then sail along with a correct working AC 2013.


If they got very greedy and stupid, yeah, they would rewrite the game to cut them out from the profits.

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The game stores NO BALL score value as -1, OUT score value as -2.


+1, -2, -1, -2.... you get the idea why the score system is wonkers.

 

[BigAntStudios]

I think supposition needs to be clearly labelled, there are some things above that are assumed by reverse engineering that are not correct.

Please read my posts above, they are 100% accurate from first hand knowledge.

 

[silverthorne]

If @BigAntStudios information is correct, a possible explanation could be:


A new team of people came 6 months ago around May 2013, and re-did the whole game, around 100% in a visual scripting language PlayMaker.


They accomplished almost 100% of the old game and almost zero of the original game logic.


Then instead of blaming themselves, they blame everything else - supposed memory leaks due to using huge graphic files, poor artwork due to using unoptimised models, poor coding on part using a visual scripting language.


Then they disappeared, probably fired or let go. As for whether or not TrickStar games would comment, they probably are lying low to let this event pass.


As for whether or not there would a new cricket game, I don't think anyone would buy it after how incredibly bad it was

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Does any forum member know the names of the pilots... ahem, developers who did this game?

 

[BigAntStudios]

Yes, I know or my staff know them.

They lost their producer in May. The top of the tech team was in place throughout the project.

Consider that the game was in development for three years. The development was in dire trouble way before May, the last six months were nothing more than a screen to bag the cash.

You're probably reading more into it than you need too, refer to above posts, it's merely a smash and grab robbery.

 

[silverthorne]

It would be pointless for other forum members to continue analysing the Cricket App.


It has none of the original logics, a bad start and all the models are oversized or extremely huge memory size.


They would learn nothing about it, maybe except learn how not to make a cricket game


Do not follow what they did.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Agreed silverthorne

So you are a programmer?

 

[silverthorne]

Agreed silverthorne

So you are a programmer?

Yes, I came here to complain about how bad this game is, and share my findings about this game.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Cool. Unity, games?

We use Unity for our simulation apps for police and defense.

 

[silverthorne]

Cool. Unity, games?

We use Unity for our simulation apps for police and defense.

Yes.


Check out the NavPower BabelFlux or PathEngine or Xaitment for crowd control. At least you don't or won't make the same mistakes as the developers who made the Ashes Cricket 2013 did

 

[silverthorne]

The whole game is a collection of demos from:


Apeture Cut Scene Demo
cInput demo or sample code
ExitGames Photon DemoParticle
ExitGames Photon Demos
iTween Demos
MegaFliers Demo
NGUI Chat demo
NGUI Debug Demos
NGUI GUI demo
NGUI Inventory demo
NGUI/Examples/Animation
NGUI/Examples/Chat Input
NGUI/Examples/Drag and Drop Container
NGUI/Examples/Item Attachment
NGUI/Examples/Item Database
NGUI/Examples/Lag Positions
NGUI/Examples/Lag Rotation
NGUI/Examples/Look At Target
NGUI/Examples/Pan With Mouse
NGUI/Examples/Shader Quality
NGUI/Examples/Window Drag Tilt
NGUI/Interaction/Language Selection
NGUI/Internal/Localization
NGUI/Tween/Field of View
OcculusRift/sample
OSCsharp/demos
Photon Chat Demo
Photon Messaging Demo
PlayMaker demos
Prime31 demos
PS3 Joystick Demos
SharpUnity demos
TouchScript/demos
Ultimate Game Tools/Colliders demos
XBOX360 Joystick demo

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The game starts the NGUI GUI demo, then loads and save using the NGUI Item database demo, then pans, zooms and uses the NGUI demo GUI codes...


Then it hooks up to the XBOX 360 Joystick demo codes or PS3 joystick demo codes, then, it uses cut-scenes from Aperture demos, in order to show the joystick configuration, it uses the cInput demo, then loads the Occulus Rift detection demo,

then starts the ExitGames networking MMORPG demo,

then loads the TouchScript demos, and since it uses touch instead of mouse, majority of the users using the PC with a mouse cannot seem to navigate using it,

then it loads the main menus, mostly enhanced NGUI/Examples. To flip a coin, it uses the iTween demo,

then it loads the Megaflier demo to load the rest of the game graphics, then it loads the NGUI item database demo to load and save the game data,

then it loads the bowler, wickets, fielders using Playmaker.

then it shows the NO BALL using Aperture cutscene demo.


since the TouchScript has no mouse demo, the game does not work using Mouse

since the server is off-line, the Chat demo, MMORPG demo, Photon user registration demo is disabled or hidden.



the whole game is just sample codes