Version 1.0 and LIVE is right around the corner

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but we've been really busy getting everything in place to finally move out of BETA and into LIVE!

The date is set! Sometime on Monday November 8th we'll transition over to LIVE. As a reminder:

• All Player's Bankrolls will be reset to 2,500
• All Player's Achievements will be reset
• All Player's Statistics will be reset

Get in on the action and score some extra chips with our Early-Bird special. For a limited time 125,000 chips will be on sale! Become a VIP and support the development of your favourite poker game.

Your beta version will automatically update to 1.0 – However, you can also download it from AppWorld.

Here are some Beta Highlights!

Our beta started on September 21^st. We’ve had over 13,000 players log-in and player and we’ve played over 110,000 hands! The average length of a hand is 70 seconds.

Here are the Top 20 Bankrolls as of November 3^rd:

#	Player Alias	Current Bankroll
1	elks7718	2,024,537
2	dan1960	2,013,673
3	shonuf	1,625,075
4	latalante	1,549,351
5	bigyin52	1,281,848
6	packmanx	1,247,750
7	imbryanman	1,159,990
8	tief	1,155,387
9	tomcollins	1,130,404
10	jeffbacon	1,035,091
11	gbacam5	1,015,366
12	gt3143	959,602
13	miadonz	870,022
14	angi420	841,459
15	jif613	694,806
16	boniek26	677,552
17	fasttaz	666,674
18	djIIB	659,167
19	alspanama	617,071
20	Pseven7	603,081

Once again we thank everyone for their participation and we hope to see everyone online Monday!

The beta servers will still be available throughout the weekend. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Pseven7
THK Live Product Manager
Magmic

0.9.27 Update Notes

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days, we've been really busy pumping out some new features and fixes.

Here's what's new in "27" - This should be made available to all of our users on Oct 21

Folded Hand is now Displayed

• Now when you fold your cards, you'll still what you had, just faded out.

New Thank-You Message

• A special beta thank-you message will be displayed each time you start the game reminding you this is beta, and it's almost over.

Full Touch Users can now create accounts

Lots of other minor tweaks and fixes

0.9.25 - Update Notes

Quick update tonight. Here are the changes:

More Connection Improvements

Faster Winning Animations / Declarations

• The End of Hand Winner Announcements are 50% faster now

More Chat Log

• The chat log now stores 200 lines of text, instead of 20

Player Turn Timers reduced

• You now have 25 seconds to act, instead of 30

Chat Box Position Tracker

• We've brought back the Chat Position Tracker

0.9.24 - Update Notes

Hi Everyone,

We're releasing 0.9.24 tomorrow, here's what's new:

Connection Improvements

• We've made some considerable changes to help improve connections, especially for users that typically "idle" or time-out / freeze frequently. Let me know via the in-game feedback if you're your issues have improved, or gotten worse.

Double-Pot Bug

• We've fixed the error which displayed you winning twice the size of the pot, even though it would properly adjust itself before the beginning of the following hand.

"Idle" Display Bug

• We've fixed the bug that was preventing the red idle label from being displayed properly

Player's Names (Coming in 0.9.25)

• Player's names will now display correctly, and will scroll rather than shrink to display long names

We're sending out another wave of invites tomorrow, so expect to see some new faces online.

and...

Here's a look at our "High-Roller" table theme!

Thanksgiving and 0.9.24

Hi Everyone,

Us "Canucks" had our Thanksgiving this weekend and it was great. Some of core team members were stuck working away, and many others were at the tables.

We're looking to release 0.9.24 later today which will include some networking improvements, as well as some minor bug fixes and UI changes.

For a complete list of changes, check back after the update has gone live.

Version 0.9.23 Update Notes

Hi Everyone,

We released 0.9.23 yesterday evening, it was a quick update to address a lot of the issues with .22. Connections should improve for all users, continue to use the feedback system if you're having trouble. We're spending a lot of time and resources trying to permamently resolve the problem.

Also, some users are noticing that the auto-update message flashes on the screen and then they're dumped to the home screen. It should work after the second or third try, otherwise e-mail me at THKLiveFeedback@magmic.com. We'll have this resolved for the next version.

Announcing Open Beta!

We're pleased to announce that we've moved into Open Beta.

For now, we're keeping the features, the lottery and the tables the same, but anyone can download the build and create an account.

www.blackberrycool.com has more information.

Keep an eye on this page, as we're going to be opening up more table types and moving towards a Live testing environment soon!

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

Version 0.9.22 Update Notes

Hi Everyone,

We released version 0.9.22 last night - Here were the changes:

Improvements to "Auto-Sync"

• We defaulted to Auto-Sync being always on, and made a few minor changes for when it triggers.

Update: Auto-Sync in 0.9.22 isn't working as we intended - Fix coming in .23

Frames-per-Second / Animation Improvements

• We've made the animations faster and smoother across all devices.

Improvements to Memory Management

• We've made some improvements to memory manage for lower-end devices. They should see some performance increases.

Table Themes - Beach Teaser

We love Themes!

Here's a teaser image from what our artists are cooking up for future releases. Do you like what you see?

Version 0.9.20 - Notes

Hi Everyone,

We're getting ready to deploy version 0.9.20... Here's what's new:

Auto-Sync / Improvements to "Idle" Issue

• We've made some changes to how the client and server interact, it should be the same as it was in version 0.9.16. However, we've also added an option called "Auto-Sync". Auto-Sync will re-sync the game if you're connection is about to drop. This will prevent a large majority of the idle cases.
  
  
• One warning, if you make an action and see the "sending" if the server doesn't receive your action you'll get a sync event and then be asked to reenter your action.

Achievements Fixed

• We've fixed the achievement system, unfortunately we've had to wipe everyone's achievements. They can now be sorted by clicking on the achievement menu in the profile section.

Feedback Details Improved

• Added even more details / device information to the feedback system.

Split-Pot Cards Fix

• Split-Pot cards will now highlight both players instead of just one.

Enjoy!

Achievements - "Whoops"

Hi Guys,

We removed the "Complete the Tutorial" achievement and it caused some issues with our indexing. Meaning, players were awarded achievements even though they weren't actually completed.

We're wiping achievements now and after the beta anyways.

The proper triggering/order will be fixed in the next update.

As always, we're still looking into the "idle" issue.

Have a good night.

Pseven7

Version 0.9.18 Released

Hi Everyone,

We released 0.9.18 tonight, it added a few new things:

Sending Feedback Improvements

• We now append a few key details about your device, network and connection. It will help us quickly identify common issues across specific devices, networks or connection types.

New Green Names - Identify THK Live Team Members

• Quick change, all THK Live Team Members will have a Green Name.

Scrolling Text

• We added scrolling text to display usernames that were over 10 characters long. There was also a bug with it scrolling "Empty Seat" so we've fixed that as well.

Chat Position Indicator

• We had to remove the chat position indicator, don't worry though it's coming back in the next version. (It was causes some issues on 1 device family)

Improvements to the in-game menu

• We've added the current version, and the current time to the "in-game menu" (accessed by pressing back)

Connection Issues / "Idle" Problems

• This is still our number 1 issue, and we'll continue to make improvements until we can mitigate the majority of these issues. We ask that you bare with us, we have all of our best interests at heart.

I expect version 0.9.20 to hit on Monday.

Have a good weekend everyone and keep that feedback coming!

Version 0.9.17 - Coming Today

Hey Everyone,

We've got version 0.9.17 coming out later today. Here's what's new:

Client-Server Connection Improvement - We've made a considerable change to hopefully improve connectivity and reduce "idles"

Some users aren't getting our Auto-Update Message or the new version, we're working on a fix for that as well - You won't require a new build.

Let me know how these connection improvements work out!

Cheers,

Pseven7

Beta Update

We've been hitting the tables; testing, tweaking and improving the game for over 3 weeks now.

Let's take a moment to talk about it...

First off, I want to give a shout out to our testers, they've been great! They've had to endure unexpected downtime, multiple version updates and have helped us catch some nasty bugs. Keep the feedback coming!

Since we've started the beta we've added:

Major Chat Improvements (more still coming)

Connection / Server Improvements (lots more still coming)

6 Brand-New Avatars

Automatic Updates - Easy-to-install newest version

The ability to turn off Vibration (helps improve performance)

The ability to turn off Animations (also helps improve performance)

and much more...

We're in the process of setting up a brand new server with the intent for opening up the game to a bunch of new users.

We're calling the next stage of testing "OPEN BETA"

During the open beta you'll be able to invite your friends to download the game, and start playing. During this stage of the beta we'll be mimicking the live experience.

Features to look forward to in Open Beta:

High Stakes Tables! (8 Different Table Types)

Touch Builds (Storm users rejoice)

Many Server Improvements (We want to limit the amount of times players go "Idle" due to poor connections)

Pretzil Socialize and compete across games with users from all over the world

and more!

Do you have what it takes to be King of the Tables?

Meet the Developers: Stephane Paquette

Part six of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.

Today's THKLive developer is Stephane Paquette! Stephane is Magmic's senior network and tools engineer. He has been instrumental in the server development of THKLive; sharing his knowledge and expertise with the rest of the team. He has been working on improving the performance and stability of the gameserver to ensure that when the game goes live, we can handle as many users as possible. Fun fact about Stephane! He actually worked on Texas Hold'em King 2 (2005), which is now pre-loaded on all new Blackberries.

 Quick facts about Stephane: 

-He has been part of the Magmic team since February 2005

-His THKLive online alias is: domoc 

-His favorite video game of all-time is: Civilization: Call to Power

Check back on Monday when we meet Brad Flood!

Beta is LIVE! Check below for Beta screenshots

We had a few server issues last night, but today the game is online, with A LOT of users playing! Below are some screen shots of the game.

 

Meet the Developers: Ian MacDonald

 Part five of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.

Today's THKLive developer is Ian MacDonald! Ian is Magmic's Tools and Libraries lead. He is responsible for making the developer's lives easier, by developing and maintaining robust and functional tools and libraries. The THKLive team had a list of tools and libraries that were needed for the game, and Ian worked closely with the THKLive team to ensure that they were completed to perfection. Ian is one of Magmic's longest serving programmers and is a excellent foosball player to boot.

 Quick facts about Ian:

-He has been part of the Magmic team since March 2007

-His THKLive online alias is: facetious

-His favorite video game of all-time is: Left 4 Dead 2

Check back on tomorrow when we update the BETA launch!

Meet the Developers: Anthony Trager

Part four of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.

Today's THKLive developer is Anthony Trager! Anthony is the main artist for THKLive, he was added to the project part-way through development in mid May. Anthony joined Magmic as a recent graduate from Algonquin College's Game Development program, and has excelled in his role here. Coming right out of school, Anthony has been steadily improving and THKLive's visuals are a direct result of his awesome artistic talent.

 Quick facts about Anthony:

-He has been part of the Magmic team since May 2010

-His THKLive online alias is: aTrager

-His favorite video game of all-time is: Silent Hill 2

Check back on tomorrow when we meet Ian MacDonald!

Meet the Developers: Joseph René

Part three of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.

Today's THKLive developer is Joseph René! Joseph has been a rock for the THKLive team; he has been developing the network components for both the client and server, making sure the client is never out of sync with the server. THKLive would not be where it is today without Joseph. Joseph has also been researching and implementing new ways to make the server performance better, thus improving the overall gameplay experience.

 Quick facts about Joseph :

-He has been part of the Magmic team since December 2007

-His THKLive online alias is: Marcd_3UP

-His favorite video game of all-time is: Mario Bros. 3

Check back on Monday when we meet Anthony Trager!

Meet the Developers: Conor Nicol

Part two of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.

Today's THKLive developer is Conor Nicol! Conor is Magmic's server developer; he is responsible for developing and managing Magmic's server infasturcture for all Magmic's networked games. Conor is also excited about the THK server development, and implementing new and advanced techniques to make the game silky smooth. Conor busts his hump everyday and does it with a smile on his face!

 Quick facts about Conor:

-He has been part of the Magmic team since April 2008

-His THKLive online alias is: BurnTheWitch

-His favorite video game of all-time is: Civilization IV

Check back tomorrow when we meet Joseph René!

Meet the Developers: Nick Tremmaglia

Part one of 'Meet the Developers' behind Texas Hold'em King LIVE.


Today's THKLive developer is Nick Tremmaglia! Nick is the Product Manager on THKLive; he is responsible for managing the game and ensuring it hits its critical milestones. Nick is also charged with designing the in-game experience, interacting with the developers, artists and any other external resources needed. Nick has a strong passion for gaming and poker which makes him a perfect fit as THKLive's Product Manager.



Quick facts about Nick:
-He has been part of the Magmic team since March 2008
-His THKLive online alias is: PSeven7
-His favorite video game of all-time is: UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves

Check back tomorrow when we meet Conor Nicol!

New Screenshot #2

New Screenshot #1