Blog – Vanadium Games

March/April Newsletter

02/05/201902/05/2019
by Joshua Heng

Hi everyone,

In our second bimonthly newsletter, we cover the events of March and April. We underwent changes for our team and logo whilst also making significant progress on our games. We additionally attended an event at the beginning of March where we showcased The Stacks…

Team Changes

In April, another person joined the team – Owen. He’s been doing lots of work for the art of Kedian Interspace and has fitted into the group well.

Harry has temporarily left us as he has been very busy with other projects, but he will join again soon once he has a bit more free time.

We have also started a blog series where each member of the team introduces themselves. There is currently only one out for Josh, but other people will be releasing theirs soon.

Click here to visit Josh’s introduction

New Logo

The logo of Vanadium Games

We decided to create a new logo as we felt that our old one didn’t resemble us well. Morgan took the lead on the task, and we went through several versions before we finished on one that we all agreed on.

We eventually decided on one with a cog – representing game development – and two electrons, representing the element Vanadium.

Morgan wrote about the various stages of design here

Coolest Projects UK

The Vanadium Games team at Coolest Projects UK

The start of March saw us travelling to Manchester for an event called Coolest Projects UK. This was a convention of young people showcasing what they had made with technology, and we had many visitors to our stand.

This was a brilliant opportunity to gain new players of The Stacks. We printed leaflets and produced a slide-show narrating the story of its development.

We also met new people and were inspired by other projects. Whilst we didn’t read the prize for the ‘Coolest Project’, it was still a great and unforgettable experience.

We wrote a blog post about this event here

Kedian Interspace

Concept art for an alien from Kedian Interspace

Our game Kedian Interspace has had significant progress – we have been creating many sprites and developing game mechanics. On the 15th April, Josh and Morgan met up for the whole day to decide some key parts of Kedian Interspace such as the style of all the art and turret design.

Find out more about Vanadium Games Day

Illumination

We have also begun work on a new game called Illumination. It aims to be a minimalistic and simple game where the player has to create circuits to light up certain light bulbs. Some members of our team are working on this in addition as working on Kedian Interspace, which will take a while longer to finish and release.

Social Media

An image of our Instagram account

We have continued posting to our various social media accounts to market our games. We focus on Instagram, as we feel that that is where most of our target audience are active, where we now have over 400 followers

March and April have been eventful months with lots of changes being made. The next two months might see less work being done, with exams looming for many members of the team, however, we hope to still make progress on Kedian Interspace and Illumination.

See you next time!

Josh – Lead Game Developer

Blog

The New Logo

09/03/201909/03/2019
by Morgan Gray

As you may have noticed, Vanadium Games has recently introduced a new logo as we felt that our old logo did not represent our company very well and the red and blue colours were hard to read at a distance.

Our old logo

The inspiration for our new logo began by brainstorming what it should represent: we decided the most important things to signify were the element Vanadium, our namesake, as well as the fact that we make games.

The first idea we produced was a ‘V’ linking to the word Vanadium, encircled by a ring with two dots on it to represent Vanadium’s outer electron shell. We also included our strap line ‘Elevating the World of Gaming’.

The first revision of our logo

After reviewing our logo, we decided that we needed to add something to our logo to represent that we are a games studio. We eventually settled on the idea of using a controller in the centre of the ring. As well as this, we tried adding multiple rings.

The second revision

We concluded that the extra ring was too chaotic and the controller didn’t fit our taste as it seemed too generic and stereotypical.

Moving onward, we decided a different game production related symbol. Eventually, we settled on a cog which linked closely to the development aspect of our company.

The third revision

At this point, we were beginning to like how the logo was turning out. Despite this, we still wanted to incorporate the ‘V’ into the logo, so we decided to make the cog the outside of the logo and enclose the rest of the content within.

The fourth revision

This was the result of our new idea and it was getting very close to something we were happy with. We just had a few small issues, including the size of the teeth on the cog (which were too small) and the fact that the icon consisted of three colours (when most icons today use only two).

The fifth revision

After correcting these small issues, we really liked our design. We decided that changing the purple colour to a different colour could make the logo more vibrant and provide a better contrast ratio to the grey background, making it easier to read.

The sixth and final revision

Finally, after making all our amendments, we reached this and are really happy with how it turned out – we believe that the logo represents our company well and is visually appealing. We feel that it is much better than our old one.

Blog

Preparing for Coolest Projects UK

24/02/201924/02/2019
by Joshua Heng

An image of 4 A6 leaflets advertising The Stacks — Some of our A6 leaflets advertising our game The Stacks

With only a week to go, we have been busy preparing for our stand at Coolest Projects UK in Manchester.

250 A6 leaflets have been printed to advertise The Stacks and a slideshow has been produced with images and details about the development of our mobile game.

What is Coolest Projects?

The logo of Coolest Projects 2019

Coolest Projects is a technology fair for young people which takes place every year. This is the second event in the UK, and we managed to not only obtain our own stand but also win a travel bursary. This year, it is taking place in The Sharp Project in Manchester, next week on Saturday 2nd March.

It consists of many young people who showcase their technological products and ideas. There is also a competition, where each project is judged against others in the same category. The whole event is open to the public from 10am to 3:30pm.

You can find out more at their website, coolestprojects.org

We’re getting excited for this opportunity to share The Stacks, so we will be posting lots on our social media accounts – Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you would like to keep updated, follow us on these platforms.

See you there!

Joshua Heng

Blog

Discord Server Updates

24/01/201924/02/2019
by Joshua Heng

Hi all,

Recently we’ve been working on growing our Discord server, and we’re pleased to say that the work is mostly complete. For those of you who aren’t aware, Discord is an online communication platform mainly used for gaming.

This server is open to everyone, and anyone can message or talk to each other. We are also normally online on there, so if you need any help or would like to speak to us you will normally be able to find us .

Vanadibot (our custom written bot) moderates our server and provides a levelling system. We have moved most of our internal communications to Discord, and Vanadibot tracks the time we spend on each project so we can accurately predict how long things take.

If you would like to join the Vanadium Games Discord Server, go to https://to.vanadiumgames.co.uk/discord

Bimonthly Newsletter

Monthly Review – November

06/12/201824/02/2019
by Joshua Heng

The email newsletter version of this is available here.

Hi all,

The main focus this month was the release of The Stacks on both the App Store and Google Play, and we are proud to say that our target was met.
Because of everyone working on this, not much else was done. Nevertheless, we are pleased with what we accomplished.

The Stacks was officially released on the 19th of November 2018 on Google Play and on the 20th of November on the App Store.

Since then, as the time of writing this, we have had over 10 installs on Google Play and over 110 downloads on the App Store, with very positive reviews. We would be grateful if you could spread the word about The Stacks and encourage people you know to leave reviews.

We are nearly at the end of the journey of The Stacks. We have a few bugs to address (such as the jump butting being temperamental and some adverts not working on iOS), however these are nearly all fixed. Hopefully, by the start of January, we are hoping that we will be able to finally declare The Stacks as a finished project.

This will allow us to develop many more games for mobile, and if you have any concepts which you would like to see made, you can email us at [email protected].

In conclusion, the month of November was focuse on finally releasing all our hard work, and, in the close future, we will begin working on our new games. If you would like to stay up to date with our activity, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks for reading,
Joshua Heng
Lead Game Developer

Blog

Latest Updates & Supporting Multiple Languages

02/09/2018
by Harry Groom

This week at Vanadium Games we have been working on various projects and we are developing a new game, which is set to be released in the relatively close future. It will be an online multiplayer game involving minigames, and it will support multiple languages.

We are also planning to begin support for multiple languages in the near future, such as Spanish and French. It is a good idea to do this as it allows more people from different countries and cultures to play the same game, regardless of their language. This results in a better game for everyone, as well as creates a larger player base, helping our community to grow.

We have been very busy this week developing fun, interesting, and engaging games for you, our customers, to enjoy, as well as focusing on the admin side of things such as setting up our bank account and licenses. You will not be disappointed by the projects that we currently have in development, including a new edition of The Stacks for mobile!

Blog

Starting Young

26/08/201826/08/2018
by Morgan Gray

Starting out with business is very important as this is how people manage to live luxury lives, retire young and go on many holidays. If you have an idea, pursue it!

Take loom bands – these simple elastic bands formed a huge craze. These were incredibly simple to make and made their creators a fortune. Even with just a software or game idea, pursue it! Many business ideas fail the first time around, however, if you pursue your idea enough, it will eventually work. You may be familiar with the phrase ‘If you throw enough mud, some of it will stick’. Think outside the box as any idea can work. Someone somewhere will be likely to want your product!

If your product costs money to produce you can also get investors to help you start up, although this will mean they take some of your profits. However, a good deal will still have you in the bulk of the money. You don’t want a bad deal, such as in real estate deals which have been struck with the person who is making the deal is taking fifty percent profits.

Blog

Company Officially Incorporated

19/08/201826/08/2018
by Joshua Heng

On the 14th of August 2018, Vanadium Games Ltd was officially incorporated by Companies House. Since then, many doors have been opened – this has given us the opportunity to do a lot more things.

We are now eligible to release games on the mobile markets, such as the App Store and Play Store, as well as the Microsoft Store. We will be applying for these licenses soon, once we have games ready to release. The Stacks is likely to be the first game published by us on this store, which will be ported over to these platforms. This will include it’s own, dedicated leaderboard, as the difficulty of the game might differ to the online version.

In addition to this, we are also planning a new game, Tapping Tournament, which may be our second game on the mobile platform, probably releasing this month, or next month (no promises though!). The concept is simple – a networked, multiplayer collection of many minigames, with an overall winner. We are currently at the stage just before we start actually writing some code, where we have many plans and ideas.

All in all, the incorporation of Vanadium Games Ltd has been a huge excitement and may be the start of something awesome yet to come.

Joshua Heng

Blog

Who Are We?

03/08/201826/08/2018
by Joshua Heng

Welcome to the first blog of Vanadium Games! This post aims to answer a few questions that you may have…

Who are we?

Vanadium Games is an indie video game development company, consisting of a group of pupils aged 13-15. We all have a passion for making awesome computer games and are located in East Yorkshire, UK.

So far, we have created 3 browser games: The Stacks, Life of Fish, and Block Runner, however, we hope to make many more in the future, utilising mainly the mobile platforms (such as the Apple Store and Google Play Store).

How are we different?

We believe that we are different from other game development companies because we are the ‘younger generation’, i.e. we were born after 2000 and therefore can cater for younger players. In addition, we all are dedicated and have a passion for making interesting games.

I want more information! Where can I find it?

We have a press site which explains our company in greater detail, at www.vanadiumgames.xyz/press, but you can also find more information in the ‘About Us’ section. Feel free to join our mailing list, to get new updates and sneak previews of our future games.

Thanks for reading,

Joshua