Link Attack has been on Xbox Live for almost a week now, and I have to say I'm very disappointed with the sales data, so far Link Attack has sold 11 copies, which is a poor number whichever way you spin it. I don't know whether people don't buy a lot of Indie games, whether people don't understand how to play it or whether it's just a bad game.
Oh well, nothing lost nothing gained, it might pick up steam over time. Unfortunately it looks like my Press Release push didn't seem to help at all, it was still worth doing though.
Anyway, the forum on xbox.com has been created so feel free to post something here:
Xbox Forum for Link Attack
Time to move onto my next project now, exciting times!
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
It's feel great to be on Live
YAY!
Link Attack is now on the Xbox 360 Live Indie Games channel. Dwonload it from the dash or add it to your queue using the Game Page below.
Xbox Live game page
Man, I'm so excited, I can't wait to hear what people think of it, good and bad. A forum is usually created on the Xbox.com forums, but it looks like it isn't there yet, I'll post when it arrives and then you can tell me what you think maybe.
I was going to have a launch party, but since i'm the only member of the team I thought that was a bit sad, but I'll be going out to celebrate tomorrow. Good times.
Enjoy.
Link Attack is now on the Xbox 360 Live Indie Games channel. Dwonload it from the dash or add it to your queue using the Game Page below.
Xbox Live game page
Man, I'm so excited, I can't wait to hear what people think of it, good and bad. A forum is usually created on the Xbox.com forums, but it looks like it isn't there yet, I'll post when it arrives and then you can tell me what you think maybe.
I was going to have a launch party, but since i'm the only member of the team I thought that was a bit sad, but I'll be going out to celebrate tomorrow. Good times.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
NEW trailer - How not to promote
Yay, I've finished my new trailer, this one features up to date footage. First of all I'd like to apologies, the quality of the video is abysmal, MS don't give you a way to capture video directly from the Xbox like they do with images, instead you have to improvise. A lot of people take the video from the PC build using a program like FRAPS, unfortunately as I'm using avatars which don't render on the PC, I couldn't PC capture. Instead I had to resort to recording footage captured from MY Xbox in standard definition from a TV card in my PC, the quality is standard definition, also known as AWFUL! I also reckon that I didn't configure the capture software correctly either because everything seems far, far too bright. My excuse... I'm a one man band, I've done everything so far, I'm hardly Hollywood quality, I'm just plain INEPT. Happy now?
Anyway, the trailer:
Anyway, the trailer:
Music, Publicity and Superstar Developers
Have you seen Link Attack on XB Indie games yet? No? That's because it hasn't been approved yet. It's really close now though, honest.
It's quite a good thing that it hasn't gone live yet because I still haven't got a new trailer completed for the game, I was capturing the video last night and hopefully this night I'll be putting it together. The new trailer will contain all the gameplay modes including footage of the two player mode and the background music will be the title music, which was written and recorded by me. I'm actually quite proud of the music really, so I'll talk about it a bit more.
Yeah, the Music. When I started the project I wanted to do EVERYTHING myself. John Abbott, the guy who worked with me on The Towers of Cedrick did the music last time, and it was really wierd, but awesome at the same time. I wanted to have something a bit more grounded, but still edgy. I decided to ut my recently bought Mac Mini to use and fired up Garage Band. GB is an excellent piece of software, easy to use but with loads of features, I started throwing random samples in and created an absolute mess, I did this with a few projects and ditched them all. I did it again bit this time it worked, after I got one done I managed to get three more done in a row that I was happy with. And then I got writers block. Two weeks later I went back to the 4 tracks I had and in usual tradition, hated them. I didn't ditch them straight off, instead I tweaked them, removed some samples, added more in etc. I then decided to do something truly insane, I picked up my guitar, I picked it up, plugged it directly into the Mac and then I rocked! After about 34 takes where the timing was out, I had a good take and with all the other noises I had something that sounded passable... I had created MUSIC!
This process of recording something, ditching it, re recording it, messing with the virtual amp settings, moving it around, deleting it again before giving up and cracking a can went on for quite a while until I had six tracks. One for each day of the week. I then needed a title track. I handled this one a bit differently, instead of dragging a load of samples onto the track and maybe recording some guitar over it I started with one drum beat, then I put some guitar over the top, then more guitar, then a lead line, then a few picks for effect. As I didn't have a Bass guitar I cranked up the bass and picked away to get a very poor bass effect. After a while I was happy, happy and tired, and maybe a bit drunk. Overall I loved making the music for the game, some people are going to love it, some are going to hate it. Infact during peer review two people have said those two things, including one guy who said one track sounded very Seattle Grunge, which made me very happy. If music be the food of love, then Link Attack will give you a gippy tummy.
But anyway, after the trailer is up I've got to post round a press release, not sure how much interest this will drum up but it's worth a shot, I'll be advertising free review copies so maybe that might interest a few parties into a bit of free publicity but as that's all I've budgeted for it'll have to do.
The other option is to make the game responsible for some horrific crime and hope the media outcry will boost Link Attack to a state of media frenzied hype, and I can't really be bothered with all that, I'm here to make a game damnit, not to become a superstar! Although, an amusing thought. What if games developers were like rockstars with people crowding into huge areans to see them "do their stuff", and after the gig these scantily clad 18 year old girls were like "sign our xbox live points cards Mr Super Developer!!" that would be awful... awfully wierd... awfully wierdly awesome!!
Anyway, things to do....
It's quite a good thing that it hasn't gone live yet because I still haven't got a new trailer completed for the game, I was capturing the video last night and hopefully this night I'll be putting it together. The new trailer will contain all the gameplay modes including footage of the two player mode and the background music will be the title music, which was written and recorded by me. I'm actually quite proud of the music really, so I'll talk about it a bit more.
Yeah, the Music. When I started the project I wanted to do EVERYTHING myself. John Abbott, the guy who worked with me on The Towers of Cedrick did the music last time, and it was really wierd, but awesome at the same time. I wanted to have something a bit more grounded, but still edgy. I decided to ut my recently bought Mac Mini to use and fired up Garage Band. GB is an excellent piece of software, easy to use but with loads of features, I started throwing random samples in and created an absolute mess, I did this with a few projects and ditched them all. I did it again bit this time it worked, after I got one done I managed to get three more done in a row that I was happy with. And then I got writers block. Two weeks later I went back to the 4 tracks I had and in usual tradition, hated them. I didn't ditch them straight off, instead I tweaked them, removed some samples, added more in etc. I then decided to do something truly insane, I picked up my guitar, I picked it up, plugged it directly into the Mac and then I rocked! After about 34 takes where the timing was out, I had a good take and with all the other noises I had something that sounded passable... I had created MUSIC!
This process of recording something, ditching it, re recording it, messing with the virtual amp settings, moving it around, deleting it again before giving up and cracking a can went on for quite a while until I had six tracks. One for each day of the week. I then needed a title track. I handled this one a bit differently, instead of dragging a load of samples onto the track and maybe recording some guitar over it I started with one drum beat, then I put some guitar over the top, then more guitar, then a lead line, then a few picks for effect. As I didn't have a Bass guitar I cranked up the bass and picked away to get a very poor bass effect. After a while I was happy, happy and tired, and maybe a bit drunk. Overall I loved making the music for the game, some people are going to love it, some are going to hate it. Infact during peer review two people have said those two things, including one guy who said one track sounded very Seattle Grunge, which made me very happy. If music be the food of love, then Link Attack will give you a gippy tummy.
But anyway, after the trailer is up I've got to post round a press release, not sure how much interest this will drum up but it's worth a shot, I'll be advertising free review copies so maybe that might interest a few parties into a bit of free publicity but as that's all I've budgeted for it'll have to do.
The other option is to make the game responsible for some horrific crime and hope the media outcry will boost Link Attack to a state of media frenzied hype, and I can't really be bothered with all that, I'm here to make a game damnit, not to become a superstar! Although, an amusing thought. What if games developers were like rockstars with people crowding into huge areans to see them "do their stuff", and after the gig these scantily clad 18 year old girls were like "sign our xbox live points cards Mr Super Developer!!" that would be awful... awfully wierd... awfully wierdly awesome!!
Anyway, things to do....
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Riding the wave of finished
Ah ha!
Looks like I've finally arrived. Of course I'm not there quite yet. You know that feeling when you are heading back from holiday, you've really enjoyed yourself, met some nice people, added a few new anecdotes to your repertoire and basically had a great time, but all you want to do is get home. Well it's like that, see I've had my holiday, hell, I've even got the plane journey over and done with, but now I'm at the airport and I've got to wait for and get a bus home. That's where I am now, I've finished the game, tweaked it, had fun with it, hell, I've even gotten the arduous testing out of the way. But now I'm waiting for it to go through the approval process, I just want it over and done with. But when it's done, ahhh, it'll be great, I can finally get a good nights sleep in my own bed... Err, sorry mixed up the analogies there.
The bed thing, well, that's post release pleasures such as seeing what poeple think of the game. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, because it's just great to hear what people think of it, to have people playing the damn thing, even if they hate it, is the most amazing thing in the world. People will be playing MY GAME, looking at my graphics, listening to my music. It makes me giddy thinking about it even now.
Beacuse of that, make sure you swing by the Link Attack gamerpage on Xbox.com when it's live and leave me a note, even if you didn't actually buy the game and just enjoyed/hated the trial mode.
Anyway, got to sort out some promo soon.
Byeeeee
Looks like I've finally arrived. Of course I'm not there quite yet. You know that feeling when you are heading back from holiday, you've really enjoyed yourself, met some nice people, added a few new anecdotes to your repertoire and basically had a great time, but all you want to do is get home. Well it's like that, see I've had my holiday, hell, I've even got the plane journey over and done with, but now I'm at the airport and I've got to wait for and get a bus home. That's where I am now, I've finished the game, tweaked it, had fun with it, hell, I've even gotten the arduous testing out of the way. But now I'm waiting for it to go through the approval process, I just want it over and done with. But when it's done, ahhh, it'll be great, I can finally get a good nights sleep in my own bed... Err, sorry mixed up the analogies there.
The bed thing, well, that's post release pleasures such as seeing what poeple think of the game. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, because it's just great to hear what people think of it, to have people playing the damn thing, even if they hate it, is the most amazing thing in the world. People will be playing MY GAME, looking at my graphics, listening to my music. It makes me giddy thinking about it even now.
Beacuse of that, make sure you swing by the Link Attack gamerpage on Xbox.com when it's live and leave me a note, even if you didn't actually buy the game and just enjoyed/hated the trial mode.
Anyway, got to sort out some promo soon.
Byeeeee
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Trailer + More
Have you checked out the official trailer for Link Attack, well, it's here:
Development is going really well now, not far of finishing the game. I've got a new more graphical bits to do, which is quite annoying because I'm not really a graphics man, but there y'go.
Anyway, got to get back on with the game!
Development is going really well now, not far of finishing the game. I've got a new more graphical bits to do, which is quite annoying because I'm not really a graphics man, but there y'go.
Anyway, got to get back on with the game!
Friday, 17 July 2009
Skip to the end
My latest project in XNA has been the recreation of a classic puzzle game originally on the Neo Geo Pocket Colour called Link Pop, the aim being to connect similar colours together to make them dissapear. A lot of people could dismiss it as another "match 3" game which appear to be flooding every indie oulet available, but it's different enough to stay away from being described as a match 3 game.
I actually built up Link Attack as part of another project I'm woking on, before deciding that the idea was strong enough to stand up on it's own. From there it was a case of copying the project to a new folder and ripping out the stuff I didn't need. The advantage of this is that I've pretty much got a new game built on a solid foundation without the need to create another menu system, or another save file handler or another high score table. Wahoo.
From there it was on to creating the extra modes while simultaniously beefing up the core engine, one of the things I love about iherritance. I also started to decide on a graphical style, originally I was going to go for a Jungle theme, monkeys, snakes, lots of green etc. I then decided that would suck! For a while now I've wanted to do something a bit edgy, everyone always complains about the ice, fire, mountain, jungle, sea etc levels in games, so what would be cool and different? In the end I got my inspiration from a Less Than Jake T Shirt i got at Leeds 2004 which features a character coloured in red, black and yellow, the character was called the "commie kid"... BINGO! I started trawling the internet for soviet communist propoganda to get an idea of style then immeditaly started drawing up ideas. Soviet Propoganda was to be the theme.
It was about this point I noticed another game on Community Games was very similar to Link Attack, I was about to pull development until I actually played this game... it was rubbish. "I can do better than that, much better" I thought, my mission was clear, make a better game than that other dude.
So here I am, Link Attack has been in development for about a month now and it's going pretty well, the gfx and sounds are still in progress and the engine still needs work, but things are starting to come together. I started work on the 2 player mode last night and that came on well after a few short hours, so thats looking good. I even started thinking about possibly putting in a 2 player mode over LIVE... but will anyone play it? One to sleep on.
I think that'll do for today.
I actually built up Link Attack as part of another project I'm woking on, before deciding that the idea was strong enough to stand up on it's own. From there it was a case of copying the project to a new folder and ripping out the stuff I didn't need. The advantage of this is that I've pretty much got a new game built on a solid foundation without the need to create another menu system, or another save file handler or another high score table. Wahoo.
From there it was on to creating the extra modes while simultaniously beefing up the core engine, one of the things I love about iherritance. I also started to decide on a graphical style, originally I was going to go for a Jungle theme, monkeys, snakes, lots of green etc. I then decided that would suck! For a while now I've wanted to do something a bit edgy, everyone always complains about the ice, fire, mountain, jungle, sea etc levels in games, so what would be cool and different? In the end I got my inspiration from a Less Than Jake T Shirt i got at Leeds 2004 which features a character coloured in red, black and yellow, the character was called the "commie kid"... BINGO! I started trawling the internet for soviet communist propoganda to get an idea of style then immeditaly started drawing up ideas. Soviet Propoganda was to be the theme.
It was about this point I noticed another game on Community Games was very similar to Link Attack, I was about to pull development until I actually played this game... it was rubbish. "I can do better than that, much better" I thought, my mission was clear, make a better game than that other dude.
So here I am, Link Attack has been in development for about a month now and it's going pretty well, the gfx and sounds are still in progress and the engine still needs work, but things are starting to come together. I started work on the 2 player mode last night and that came on well after a few short hours, so thats looking good. I even started thinking about possibly putting in a 2 player mode over LIVE... but will anyone play it? One to sleep on.
I think that'll do for today.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Suspect Software is Dead... Long live Suspect Software
A while back I used to keep a blog about my endeavours in software development, particularly on the Nintendo DS. Since getting bored developing for the DS for reasons I don't want to go into now, I decided to focus my interest on the XBox and the Community (Indie) Games.
Community Games has been fairly kind to me and so far I've released one game alongside a co-worker, the game, The Towers of Cedrick. Towers was created as a joke posing as a game, hence the lack of the Suspect Software brand, instead The Rampant Mango Collective took the blame for it.
This blog is going to be rarely updated and full of out of date information, but I might try and keep it updated, we'll see.
At least Suspect Software is up and running again!!
Community Games has been fairly kind to me and so far I've released one game alongside a co-worker, the game, The Towers of Cedrick. Towers was created as a joke posing as a game, hence the lack of the Suspect Software brand, instead The Rampant Mango Collective took the blame for it.
This blog is going to be rarely updated and full of out of date information, but I might try and keep it updated, we'll see.
At least Suspect Software is up and running again!!
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