So, what is happening

In the last 3 weeks we (Short Fuze) have been a mite busy.

* - moved into new office (rather nice one, actually, do come visit...)
* - been in deep talks with our (helpful and supportive) investors about the next steps in the life of the company
* - hired a bunch of new people
* - worked with specialist consultants
* - took Moviestorm to see some big and small companies that can help us in 2007
* - totally reviewed the Moviestorm product, all the feedback from beta testers, and our production methods (well, we have a 'team' now, as well as passion and experience)
* - set out a marketing and development plan
* - installed heaps of new hardware and software
* - handled a /lot/ of new art from our fantastic outsource art partners
* - actually been making some new moviestorm movies

Its been a really tough 3 weeks, but we feel sure it was worth it. Early next year the benefits will (we hope) show in Moviestorm. Thanks for bearing with us. Do, please, keep up the comments and criticism (and praise).

Thanks

This is very exciting news. May we see those moviestorm movies?

you know how it is: there are movies you make for yourself to see if something works, movies you make for a few friends and movies you show to the world. I'll find out which catagory they fall into!

Fair enough. I can't wait to see what you guys cook up.

OK, some of the next lot of movies we make will get out. Right now we are not quite happy with way they look, and we are pumping in heaps of art and animations right now (as well as features), so anything we have now will not show the product off to its best advantage. Sorry.

A short delay will also give us a chance to beef up the server and forum features so it can host videos more easily

Hi, so when will the product be avalaible for use. Has the beta testing been completed now?

thanks

hitch wrote:

Hi, so when will the product be avalaible for use. Has the beta testing been completed now?

thanks

Hi Hitch,

We've got our latest beta release coming within the next week, with the public release around April.

Regards.

Eddz is spot on.

We are totally committed to working with the machinima community to test, thrash and refine Moviestorm. We've had to take some big steps to get ready for this, and it took us a fair while to get organised and trained up as a team. Now we are 10 and have a proper office and infrastructure, which is enabling us to do so much more than when we were really just a bedroom startup. Oh, and we are still recruiting fast!

So, we were a bit too quiet for a while, but we are back now.

Over the remainder of this month there will be "proper" notices about the Beta delivery schedule and what we are aiming for. There will also be confirmations sent to a very much larger pool of beta testers, which we are now geared up to handle.

It is hard to tell how long it might take to get to a "Release 1.0" of Moviestorm (or whatever the first full non-beta release is called), until the whole of the community is able to give us more feedback (and movies!) from the first couple of beta versions.

Now, where can we find some more volunteers

(Raising hand...jumping up and down in back of the room)

Oo-oo-oo...me! Pick me!

Office expansion and kit out for new people is now underway.

Beta testing 1.2 in full flow (we still need more - in fact we need about 900 more beta testers over the next 3 months, so form queue.

)

First movie has "escaped" onto GoogleVideo. As if you did not already know.

One of our beta testers has made 9 minutes of Hamlet as a test piece.

Amount of art in the product has gone up by about 500% and is going to increase dramatically over next 3 months as we have the outsource agreements and schedules in place.

New programmers and new people for testing, website functions, production and art are now in place and working as hard as they can.

News about our growth and future plans on this channel before the end of the month.

This is good news.

Thanks for keeping us informed!

DavidB wrote:

First movie has "escaped" onto GoogleVideo. As if you did not already know.

One of our beta testers has made 9 minutes of Hamlet as a test piece.

What, my short don't count?

Anyway....LINK! I can't find it with the searches I did.

arg - no offence, but the first one we were "told" of was http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8693614792520865921 ... so if someone wants to 'fess up

DavidB wrote:

arg - no offence, but the first one we were "told" of was http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8693614792520865921 ... so if someone wants to 'fess up

Yeah, that one is mine. Where is the Hamlet one? Or was that one not put online?

Hamlet's not online.