Art stuffs October 22, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Game Development , 3 commentsThree posts in one day? What’s going on here? 
A little while back, Nick Gravelyn posted about his experiments into pixel art. As it happens, that’s something that I’ve been messing with lately myself.
Meet Blobby:
Yeah, I know he’s rough. It’s programmer art, but I’m working at it. 
I have two different 70% code complete games just sitting around waiting for art. I can’t afford to hire an artist. (I have a four month old daughter. I’m broke.) So I’ve been doodling alot. I got some art books, and I’ve read countless tutorials. There’s all kinds of neat stuff available online. Check out the demo video for one of the Don Bluth dvds.
I’m probably never going to be an artist. But maybe if I keep at it, I can have good enough programmer art to get the job done while I save up to hire a real artist.
Xbox Indie Platformers
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentAnybody who has read this blog knows that I love 2D platformers. I’m also really into fighting games and RPGs, but nothing is better than a good platformer. Lately there’s been an a steady stream of new platformers on the Xbox Indie Games service, and I thought I should take a moment and show a few of them.
Arkedo Series – 01 Jump!
It’s got a strange title, but Jump! is a really fun little retro platformer. There are bombs scattered around, and you have to reach them before the explode. Once you’ve collected them all, a door opens and you can go to the next level. There are no save points or continues if you run out of lives. It’s old school, baby! I really enjoyed this on, and recommend it.
Green Island
This is one of four games uploaded recently by Japanese developer DK Alpha. I don’t read Japanese, so I have no idea what’s going on in the story, but the gameplay is pretty simple. There are objects scattered around the level, and you need to collect them. You can fire out bubbles that you can climb upon. The bubbles only stop when they hit a solid surface, so it’s a puzzle to figure out where to fire the bubbles to get to where you need to go. It gets pretty interesting when your bubbles start getting blown around by fans. I haven’t purchased this one yet, but I’ll probably return to the trial and give it another go at some point.
Ninja Bros
Another one from a Japanese developer. You control (up to) four ninjas at once. If you push left, they all move left. If you push right, they all move right. You can control their jumping independantly, however. Each ninja is assigned one of the face buttons to control his jumping. The jumping feels a bit strange, since you can’t adjust trajectory once you’re in the air. It becomes obvious quickly that it’s necessary because of the puzzle nature of the game, and I got used to it. The goal is pretty simple. Get each ninja to his exit door. However, you’ll sometimes need to have one ninja help another, so the order you exit can be important. It’s a fun little game.
And finally, here’s a early version trailer for a game that’s still in development called Chris Unarmed. The developer tells me the game should be available in around six weeks. It looks fun, and difficult. I’m looking forward to it.
A good month for Being
Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , add a commentEvery few days I still take a look at the sales data for Being to see if anybody is buying it. In the last few months, sales had dropped off to about one sale every day or two. Earlier this month, however, I logged in to find I’d sold nineteen copies on October 11th. I assumed it was some sort of fluke, but then on the 12th another ten copies sold. This left me wondering, “What in the world is going on here?”
I guessed that the game had been reviewed by a magazine or website, and that’s what had driven the traffic, but after much web searching I couldn’t find anything. (Let this be a warning to other developers. Do not use names for your game that are impossible to Google for.) It turns out that Being had been added to the “IGN.com Top Picks” on the Xbox Indie Games section of the 360 dashboard. Sweet! As far as I can tell, there’s no website or blog to go along with their picks, so I just grabbed a shot of the tv with my digital camera to add to my collection of press stuff.
Well, it’s been nearly two weeks since then, and I’m happy to report that Being has seen a tremendous spike in downloads. So far this month, I’m up to 1076 trial downloads, and 137 sales. I’ve almost had as many downloads in the last 11 days as all of the last quarter. Crazy!
The additional downloads have raised the game’s position on the “most popular” charts. Here’s a screenshot I just grabbed from Retronator. (Click the images for a bigger view. The layout of the blog isn’t really suited to wide images, and these versions are pretty hard to read. Sorry.)
Here is a chart I plotted showing Being’s sales stats since launch. There are a few interesting dates to notice. There’s a huge spike around November 21, 2008, which corresponds to the initial launch of the XNA Community Games. The next spike is around July 21, 2009, which is around the time of the rename to Xbox Indie Games, the addition of several new countries, and the price drop to one dollar. And finally, around October 12, 2009, you can see the spike that has me so excited. Whee!
Just for fun, here’s a chart showing the trial downloads. All of the same spikes are visible, but what’s really interesting to me is that the initial spike is so huge it makes everything else look tiny. It’s hard for me to believe that nearly 1400 people downloaded the trial in a single day, but I’ve got the data to prove it. Crazy.
And finally, last quarter’s sales have been tallied, and Being has now earned us over $1000. (That’s after Microsoft’s cut, but before taxes.) That’s pretty amazing for a game that I was expecting to get about 50 sales total.
Being – The Final Level September 9, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , add a commentI recently received an email asking me for tips on beating the last level of Being, and since it’s a rather common occurrence, I put together a Youtube video of me playing through it. I can get through it almost every try, but I’ll admit it took me three tries to get through without getting hit. I had a couple of close calls with the bees, but pulled it off.
The framerate looks a little odd, and I’m not sure why. Might just be a compression artifact, or because Youtube doesn’t like that the video was recorded at 60 frames per second.
I’ve embedded it below, but the blog format is a bit narrow, so it looks a bit small. Click here to watch it quite a bit bigger over on Youtube.
Being reviewed by Small Cave Games August 14, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Being , add a commentAnother good review up for Being.
http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2009/08/being-review.html
I’m really happy that there seems to be a renewed interest in reviewing Xbox Indie Games. Now that the developers have been given codes to give away for our games, it’s alot easier to make that happen. If you have a website (or magazine, podcast, etc.) and would like to review Being, please contact me for a review code.
A little news August 12, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , add a commentI found a great review of Being yesterday. The author really enjoyed the game, and went into great detail about it.
The rating system is now in place on the 360 dashboard. If you enjoyed Being, please take a second to go leave a rating. To find it, on your xbox 360, go to Game Marketplace, Xbox Indie Games, Browse Games, All games. Then scroll down to find Being. Press X to bring up the rating box, then press A to add stars. If you haven’t yet tried it, you can download it to your xbox on this page.
Finally, work slowly continues on the next game. I have a good deal of the basic framework code in place, and an artist is working on some concept sketches for the look of the main characters. Hopefully I’ll be able to share something soon.
Being’s world tour July 27, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Being , add a commentWith the latest updates, Xbox Live Creators Club games (now called Xbox Live Indie Games) are available in Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Sweden. And so now too is Being. Also, they’ve changed the pricing tiers and so now Being is available for only 80 Microsoft points. (Around a buck.)
I’ve been (very slowly) working on a new game. Becoming a father has taken just about all of my free time away, though. But I’ll finish another one someday.
Being sales data April 2, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Being, Game Development , 2 commentsIt’s been awhile since I’ve written anything. I’ve gotten really into playing Street Fighter 4, and haven’t felt the urge to write video games lately. I do have something interesting to share, though.
Microsoft gave us access to the sales data for Community Games recently. As of March 30th, 2009, the trial version of Being has been downloaded 9084 times. Out of those, 485 people decided it was worth their money and purchased it. From the data, I had a rush early on, but now I get a sale every day or two.
Here’s a breakdown by country:
Canada: 33 (6.8%)
France: 4 (0.8%)
Italy: 4 (0.8%)
Spain: 5 (1.0%)
United Kingdom: 66 (13.6%)
United States: 373 (76.9%)
Total: 485
For my first game, I have to say I’m totally stoked by these numbers. This isn’t the sort of sales I would need to start a business, but that wasn’t the goal here.
If you haven’t yet given the game a go, you can download the demo to your Xbox 360 right here. If you try it, please tell me what you think.
I’ve got an idea for a new game. It’s time to get back to work!
Review: Chains January 5, 2009
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Chains
Version: Full version
Platform: Windows
Chains is a very surprising little puzzle game. I’ll admit that when I installed the game, I was expecting something like one of those flash games where you click on colored balls and they vanish, with more to take their place, until you either clear them all, or die of boredom. And at first, in level one, Chains isn’t entirely unlike those games, but I noticed something different was happening. When new balls fell into the play field, the old balls were being pushed around. Physics?!? Splendid!
As early as level two, you get to see why this makes the game so much better. The balls are filling up a tank with a detachable bottom. The bottom is held up by a counterweight, and if you let the tank fill up with too many balls, they’ll spill out and you’ll lose them. Lose too many, and you have to start over. In another level, the balls are pouring out onto two sides of a beam. If you let one side grow too heavy, it’ll lean the beam too far in that direction, so you have to clear both sides at the same time. As you might guess, this can become very hectic, and it’s alot of fun.
I did have a little trouble with the difficulty curve, though. Level four is another interesting twist. You are presented with a tube, and balls flow from the top to the bottom, and you need to keep the flow going for five minutes to win. The catch is that there are some unmovable obstructions in the tube, and the balls you are presented with come in lots of different sizes. The big ones just won’t fit. If you don’t clear them early enough (often while they’re still falling) you can find yourself getting into trouble pretty easily. I’d played the level about a dozen times, and didn’t get beyond a minute and a half, and that was on the easy setting. But I persevered, and eventually managed to get better and better until I made it through. I’m glad I did, because the levels just get better the further you get into the game.
Overall, I’d say that Chains is definitely worth your time. Grab the demo!
Review: Kivi’s Underworld December 29, 2008
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Kivi’s Underworld
Developer: Soldak Entertainment
Version: Full version
Platform: Windows, also available for Mac OSX
Kivi’s Underworld is a hack ‘n’ slash game from the creators of Depths of Peril. If you’re a fan of PC role playing games, Kivi’s may immediately remind you of Diablo or Icewind Dale. But after playing for a little while, you’re going to realize that you’re playing something different. Where are my experience points? How do I change my armor? Where is my spellbook? Nowhere! This is a different experience, and it’s really refreshing.
Instead of controlling a single character that you spend hours tweaking and equipping, Kivi’s is built around unlocking lots of unique characters that each play differently. Switching to a new character can completely change the way you play a level, and you’ll need to play each level again to fully experience everything. Upon completing a level, you earn points based on your performance. These points can be used to upgrade your stats that effect all of your characters at once.
The combat system is simple, but includes plenty of strategy. Each character has a unique activated ability, and a special passive ability. Additionally, you will find special powerup items around the levels that can be used to give your characters temporary boosts, replenish health, or attack enemies. Even early in the game, combat is fast and furious. Saving your powerups until you need them, and conserving your mana until need your special abilities is crucial to success.
The game has a great presentation. Screenshots do not do the game justice, because they’ve done a really good job with character animations and particle effects here. (Check out the Youtube video below.) The default graphical settings are tweaked low so that the game will run on a large range of computers, so make sure you increase the resolution and turn on the effects. The sound effects and music are excellent too. My favorite thing is the voiceover while tells the story between levels. We need more voice acting in PC games!
I’m really happy with Kivi’s Underworld. I’m impressed with what Soldak has managed to put together in such a short time period. This is a great game, and an excellent value. Grab the demo now!
