New Kick Shot Pool Demo

Just a note that I have released an updated demo of Kick Shot Pool.

Unlike, the first demo, there are no feature limitations any more. The game is fully playable in all modes, including Leagues, Tournaments, Sharks, CPU Opponents and even Online Play.

You also no longer have to download a full version when you buy the game. You will be sent a serial key to unlock the game and all future updates, which makes it easier for me, and easier for customers to get updates.

The only other change to this version is that the slow, irritating menus are now much faster and less irritating. We had a lot of requests for that, so now you have it.

All registered owners ( of which I know there are at least a few among the Blitz Community ) should have received an email with your serial key. If you do not receive this soon, let me know and I will resend your information.

NOTE: You do not need to update to this version if you don't wish to. Your pre-registered full version download will not expire and the only change registered owners will notice is the faster menus.

seem to play a lot better than the first demo version i tried. One or two things irritated though. The way the balls never quite ground to a halt is the most obvious one. the cloth would have a bit more friction than that in real life.
still finding the aiming really weird in windowed mode.

It would be better IMHO with a shot power meter.
cueing and aiming are the two most important aspects, so you need to get them spot on

it seems at the moment you pull the cue back then let go and you get either a very powerful shot or a shot that is too slow. need more control
If these things were addressed fixed I would really enjoy playing the game

hi, in the demo i saw there was no back/top/side spin.

Have you included these yet?

Great looking game though.

Marg

I don't recall ever releasing a demo which didn't have spin. These features are most certainly included.

Cool! I was going to pick this up at some point ... I really must check out the online play!

excellent :) you seem to have sorted out the sticky mouse problem that was present in the last demo, and it plays much better now.

One thing - the click sound of balls colliding really needs to be played at a volume dep. upon how hard the impact is.

I tried to, yeah, glad you're happy with the improvement.



Yeah, a number of people have noted this. I did experiment with it, but I couldn't get results I was satisfied with. I had many problems getting the sound effects just how I wanted them so I decided to leave them sounding good until I could get the force dependant volume working better. I will try to get it done though.

Any chance of mouse button configurations.
The LEFT mouse button is currently redundant.
I would rather not have to use the keyboard if I can get away with it. Example:

LMB > Shoot
RMB > English
MMB > Move cue ball

* The D line still looks nasty with JPEG artifacts.
* It's possible to move the cue tip a good distance into the cue ball before contact is made.

I quite like it. I've played many snooker/pool games in the past, and this has probably the most realistic graphics and sounds that I've seen and heard. The clacking of the balls is particularly satisfying.

Some things I would like to see added in future versions:

* Better camera options after taking a shot. As far as I can tell, there are two options - auto, which shows you a top down view as soon as you take a shot (quite disorientating), and manual, which just keeps the camera where it is after taking a shot.

I would like to see an option that tracks the cue ball after you take a shot, like in Jimmy White's.

* Axis lock. I would like to be able to lock the y axis when taking a shot, so moving the mouse just spins the camera left and right, and not up and down as well.

* Ability to move the camera further down when taking a shot, so it's like your chin is resting on the cue. At the moment it feels like there is quite a large gap between camera and cue, even when you're as far down as you can be.

Overall though, I think this is a fine game.

Sorry Sybixsus, my mistake.
Marg

Sounds like it's viable. I only added any kind of mouse support as an afterthought, in response to a request for it. I'll have to check it doesn't clash with anything, but it sounds quite reasonable.



Yep, that's already on my list. It's been tricky to track down for some reason.



Michael will be very pleased. I think I drove him nuts with my insistence on having the balls sound just the way I wanted them to sound.



I'll look into that. I was slightly concerned about performance with a moving camera. Any slowdown ( particularly in windowed mode ) is much less noticeable with a stationary camera.



Ok, sounds easy.



Yeah, I'm not sure why I limited the minimum angle of the camera. Assuming there was no important reason, I can do that.

Great fun, it's almost like the real thing. But I agree with Ruz on the friction. The balls always seem to roll a couple of inches longer than you'd expect them to. Very bad when you're trying to line the white up for the next shot.

I don't know if this is doable but in virual pool you could end a shot (via key/mouse click) so you could get on with the next shot without having to wait for the ball(s) to finish moving.
Basically, its a way to fast forward to the end.

How about a speed pool option?
I found that pretty good fun in Arcade Pool.
One of those 'pot 5 balls in 1 minute' sort of thing.

Like that idea.