headcaseGames-Blog

Game Development Blog #65

2012-01-27T02:23:00.000-08:00

Game Development Blog #65

"Fancy Blog Title"

What's up there, Planet Earth. Good to see you all once again. Been about a month, so I suppose it is time to settle in for a couple few and do the ol' update routine. Here goes.

Things are alright. Quite busy over here, as they usually seem to be. I am finding myself without too much free time these days, and though it is ultimately a good thing (it means that I am being productive) that also will allude to a certain level of burnout. I really, really need a break from things soon, because I am having some days here and there where it is just getting quite hard to turn out useful work, and to find the raw enthusiasm to throw myself into it. Just the same, my main projects are shaping up fairly nicely, and that's quite a big motivation if anything (momentum often is!) so it's keeping my sails winded, or however you'd say. On that note:

Trapdoor is finally nearing it's end stage of development for Android, a lot of work has gone into this little project in the past couple of weeks and it's gone from a rough little toy to feeling like a pretty fun game, to be honest! When I have something that's at the point where I can play a full session, GAME OVER, and then instantly restart to try again.. and again.. and again, that's a very good sign (and an excellent feeling as a developer/producer). For me, it's the sign that the soul is intact there, and it becomes much easier to envision the other little elements which must be put in place to enhance the existing game experience, less of a case of "hmm, guess we will tinker with X Y and Z to try and see what happens." Honestly, this game just needs a nice shiny coat of UI and it's ready to call it a day, and I am happy to unleash it. Those interested to see a WIP of what I am talking about can find a preview posted on our YouTube page - it's still fairly rough, but you should be able to get the gist.

I am looking to produce an iOS port of Trapdoor as well. If anyone out there can help, please drop me a line! If you want to straight-out charge me for the work, we can talk - but if you'd be interested to profit share, that would make my life entirely so much easier for the time being!

GunHead - The beast continues development! It's been sidelined a bit as TD has taken the fore, but I have still been actively involved in pushing for this game. At the beginning of the month I started on a mad tear to try and burn through asset production; they are coming along very well, but I am far short of reaching my "art complete by Feb 01 2012" goal. Steady as she goes! Meanwhile, the gameplay is still finding it's footing as we wrestle to properly configure the control layout, great strides have been made in the mobile game in the past few weeks and it's required some heavy re-planning on how certain important fundamental elements will work. We're almost through this phase, but not out of the woods yet. My whole purpose of developing this game is that it must play absolutely perfectly on the touchscreen, which is contrary to the case of any other platformer I've seen on the device thus far (insert my usual rant about lazy, crummy virtual D-pads as a weak accepted norm here). I am very anxious to get through this part and onto the next phase, where we can start laying down the actual level structure (this is obviously dependent on the final control setup to be in place, before we can proceed!) and then there's a whole 'nother chunk of development to battle through!

I'll take this aside to mention that I've been really enjoying having a jailbroken device for the course of this iOS development; waiting on builds from the programer, going through provisioning profiles, getting stuff signed, etc - you can easily skip all of that when you have a JB. My coder can just through the latest raw build up on the DropBox, and I can suck it off of there and install straight to my phone, without ever involving the use of a PC! I just figured out how to do that last week, it's wonderful! Android had spoiled me with that and now I have that ease of deployment on iOS as well. For those interested, you need to use iFile (the Cydia app, not the "App Store" one) to synced to your DB account, then (also in iFile) drop the .IPA where Installous can see it - then install from the latter, and that is it. Marvelous.

Hop Cop - I think I have mentioned this game on my blog a time or 2 in the past. It looks like development of this title is shortly to get underway as well, this will be a vastly different endeavor than my usual method of doing things (do I have a usual method of doing things, actually?) - to the point where it's very likely not going to be a Headcase Games release, but a different label for various reason. Don't worry, still me, still my game! In an insane turn of events, this game might make it to market faster than anything else currently in development right now, but as usual, we shall see. Stay tuned.

Other news: Gearing up to go to PAX in Boston this April, which will be an important time for me as I'll have much to promote (and hoping to have it all launched by then!) I am going through the process of trying to secure a speaking panel for myself and some others at the show, hopefully that will work out (I need that kind of exposure). Lots of talking in the background about plenty of other things, a bit of freelance work to pay the bills in the meantime, and really - just trying to keep my S together. There's plenty more to say about all of this and more, but I think I have said enough for now, and so I leave you. Thanks for reading.

Game Development Blog #64

2011-12-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Game Development Blog #64

"Another year, Another Dollar!"

Hahaha! It looks like I have coined a really appropriate phrase for indie development. Think about it.. Anyway, don't think too long, because after nearly 3 years of "independence" I am finally at the point where I am earning some steady, solid money doing this! Let's not get carried away, it's far, far from a valid amount to actually live on, but our game is earning steady money several months after our feature has wrapped up, and it's definitely better than the $20/month I was getting before. Not HUGELY better, but I would wager that we are officially past the majority of people who try to make any money off modern mobile app development. We are getting about $500/month in sales now (after the app stores take their cut). As I said, not a huge amount of money (and I need to split it up) but considering that I'd expect most devs don't even crack $1k in their lifetime anymore, I think it's a very good sign. So long as the numbers don't die out, that is. We'll see..

Anyway, numbers aside, here's your standard Production Update.

GunHead - coming along nicely. This past summer I'd planned to release this game by November - now it is looking more realistic to expect sometime in February, and to be honest there is quite a lot of work to do yet. But what is there, is pretty awesome. Looks awesome, controls awesome, everything is coming together. I am getting some serious thoughts spinning in my head about how to market the game, and honestly I doubt I will spend under a grand on that. For this type of game I'd say it's a necessity, but I expect to make that back easily. Expect there to be some wild/unusual marketing for this game the likes which haven't been attempted yet for a "little mobile game," as usual you need to get creative in how you sell things or no one will ever know it exists!

Android development is a bit stalled currently, iOS has been going strong but slowed as well, and Xbox is actually sitting in the lead for some time now - but overall I am very happy with where progress is on all the platforms. A lot of work rests on my own shoulders right now (pumping out assets and designs, etc). I am purposely trying to keep the game from getting too design-heavy (if you've looked at any of the material I've previously posted about GunHead, you should understand that designing such a game oughtn't be a Herculean task). I am probably going to post some videos shortly in here (within 1 month's time) so keep your eyes peeled.

Trapdoor - as has always been the case with TD, it's still the victim of a lot of start/stop development - but I really like where it is sitting right now, it's just a fun little game, it's different, it's hectic, very easy to get into and get some immediate gratification from, a perfect title for "2-minute play" on a touch screen - and good for any audience. I really need to buckle down and live in the game for a few days to bring it to the next level, I still think it probably has only a couple of weeks of earnest development left to go in it.

Tic Tac Jack - so, this actually released this past week! I don't think I've even mentioned it in the blog at all - it's been sitting in Ben's head for a good year and a half, and we rushed through development full-steam some months ago (granted, a short and small project). Without getting into details, it released "before it was ready" and launched playable, but verrrry incomplete in all facets (whoops!) I don't think it's still up on iTunes, but it should return shortly following the New Year.

What Else is Going On - lots I guess, I mean it is the end of the year and all! Personally, my time and energy have been largely wrapped up with freelance work (as usual, I am fairly close to being absolutely broke, and that is not hyperbole!) Picking up contract stuff is not exactly "what I want to do" especially when my own developments are fairly well-along in earnest production, but I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to earn a couple of bucks during these otherwise very dry times! Anyway, that's all just wrapped up so I am on my own stuff for the time being, although some other opportunities are out there (day jobs) which I need to put some effort into following up with as well - the sort that are "good opportunities which really should at least be attempted," although my main thrust is still on getting these games wrapped up properly and released.

That's all for now, I will try to get a reflective year-end wrap-up post put up before the year's end. Watch for it - and thanks for your support!

Game Development Blog #63

2011-11-23T00:56:00.000-08:00

Game Development Blog #63

"WHERE DID YA GO?"

I WANNA KNOW!

Oh, I am here, alright. Very busy. I was fairly well into the late stages of writing a decent #63 update several weeks ago, when my girlfriend stormed into the apartment and we had a nice little argument about something which made me feel like not really typing in the blog anymore. I think it had something to do with the piles of smelly dishes in the sink, which had been sitting there long enough that I no longer remembered we even had a kitchen..

Well, without digging too terribly far back into the past, let's concentrate on the present, why don't we..

180 - Just kidding! You wanted to hear news, right?

GunHead - ohh, so much is going on with this game, I don't know where to begin! I usually am fairly cryptic (to degrees) about it when I mention in here, so why not start with a couple of screens - which you may or may not have seen elsewhere..

Yeah, so now the cat is out of the bag, and you know all that is to be said about this one! Not even close! Here's some juicy tidbits for you.

- developing for iPhone, Android, and Xbox Live Indie Games
- retro style (duh!)
- release early 2012
- unique new control mechanic unlike any seen before for a mobile platformer

Don't let that last point pass you by, because it really is the clincher. I hate platformers on the touchscreen because surprise surprise, they are horrible. No fun to play at all. If you've played my previous game to any appreciable degree, you might know I have some concern with "how does one design a touchscreen game play to the strengths of such an interface?" There's tons of platformers on mobile, some very nice-looking, and they all have atrocious control schemes that make you wish "oh why doesn't it just have buttons." No more. GunHead will finally "feel" right and not in some lazy-slapped-on way. Even the current prototype feels awesome.

There's certainly a lot more to say about this game, a good amount of which you might be able to deduce yourself between looking at those pictures and having any knowledge about me (a quick scan through my past blogs should say it all really). Stay tuned.

Trapdoor - I was going to post some pics of this as well, but to be honest, I haven't any to show other than some mockups right now! There's an early image floating around on one of our pages though, although I don't think it will really tell you too much. Anyway, here goes:

Trapdoor, as previously mentioned, is actually the very first game I sat down and spec'd out a few years ago, when originally turning my eye to the mobile scene (not counting iFist, although that design wasn't originally my idea anyway). I drew up Trapdoor and 180 came out of my head almost immediately afterward, and I decided to go with the more involved project. As time passed, I've never forgotten "my first" and not for want of "no idea shall be wasted" - it was just a good idea, for several reasons. And especially in hindsight, and consideration of the reception 180 has received. Lots of people like 180, but especially on a mobile platform, it doesn't seem too many have the patience to learn it. With Trapdoor, this is much less of an issue; it really is one of these games where you can fully grok the entirety of the rules within a heartbeat. There's not really a depth of strategy to it, just a tense and building test of reflexes and stamina, and that is fine with me!

As I've plumbed the development of the design, I decided to take many cues from games such as Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja; that title is exactly what a mobile game should be, they really hit all the tenets across the boards. I would love to writeup a breakdown of why that game is so sound on so many levels, but I think I'd prefer to execute such lessons in my own game instead. No, Trapdoor will not play anything like Fruit Ninja at all, but there is certainly some very low-level understanding in the game's foundation going on.

180 - okay, all kidding aside, I do want to mention a bit of what's up with the latest over here. As usual, there is still some reason to talk about this long-in-the-tooth game. We are still using it to chart the path through the various Android marketplaces, and it is enjoying some decent visibility in that regard. We've recently been promoted at the Toshiba App Place (built into their Thrive tablet) and another promotion on another store is not far away either. I am in talks with several other stores to do things there as well, so I am just trying to keep it going as it makes sense to. Mobile markets, and Android in particular, are a very different beast than any traditional way of selling things - once something gets any kind of momentum, it can absolutely keep it's relevance (and grow). Especially with the type of product which isn't necessarily a one-off (and I don't mean for an abundance of updates, necessarily).

We've recently enjoyed promotions on Nook and Amazon, and (to a degree) the new Kindle Fire, although none of this has ended up going much toward my pocket. I am hoping to keep the doors open long enough to introduce my newer products however, and really to keep some more of a steady stream of them flowing through. That's the point of being a small indie!

Otherwise for 180, we still have a very cool Strategy Mode which is partially developed, sitting on the shelf, waiting for a little downtime to be polished up. As I've said, it's different enough (mechanically) to be considered as a whole other game, and I am thinking to sell it as IAP (especially considering the amount of free copies I've already distributed of the base version of the game!)

There's so much else to say in regards to the micro and macro of the industry, but that will have to wait for next time. Thanks for reading!

Game Development Blog #62

2011-10-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #62

"Back in the Day"

Well, this week has shaken the world of Nerd-dom to it's core apparently. The great Steve Jobs has passed onto the Great Beyond, and like so many of my generation, it's caused me to reflect momentarily on what men like him have done and how it's influenced our lives. I've seen more than a couple of blogs or Facebook posts this week where people recount the good (?) old days of their youth, when they first got exposed to the ol' personal computer. Guess here is my time to chime in, likewise.

Born in 1975, I was in grade school by the time the Apple ][+ was making the rounds (hey young whippersnapper, that was how it was supposed to be typed!) This giant beige-grey box with all these crazy ribbons leading out of it, plugging into the crappiest joysticks you ever saw, and the slowest/loudest printer you ever heard. I'm not sure which crossed my path first, computer or video game (I might have scored my Atari 400 at home a little earlier than laying my hands of the ][+ ), but it didn't matter. I was taken with the thing immediately, and started spending every recess cooped up in the classroom with this magical new device while all my peers were out in the schoolyard tossing around the pigskin. This didn't sit well with my teacher, of course, who enlisted the school guidance counselor to drag me away and figure out "what the heck was wrong with me?" (oh, if they only knew!) Regardless, I'll never forget that day in 5th grade when the school principal called my name out over the public address system in the middle of class one day, to come to his office and hook up the computer for him :P

Anyway, I had the bug and soon enough summer came and I needed to get my fix, I'd start "renting time" at the local public library and messing with the machines there. My parents took heed from all of this and ponied up $1k to buy me an Apple //c for my 11th birthday (yeah, I was a bit of a spoiled kid). Green monochrome monitor, Scribe printer.. no mouse (yet). I did finagle with BASIC and such a bit, and enjoyed it, but early on my brain decided that art was my forte much more than juggling with the numbers. I had my share of issues of COMPUTE! and Family Computing magazines, and I typed in plenty of those programs in the back.. but somehow

410 POKE 24,5
415 POKE 38,6
420 GOSUB TELLTO
425 DATA 32,6,2,77,9,33,87,3,84,2,993,26,93,41,942,268,83,247,2,733,8343,7,16

wasn't all that appealing to me inthe long term. Besides, I got my hands on an NES and suddenly the //c looked absolutely primitive by comparison. In hindsight, I guess I shoulda maybe stuck with the programming, shrug..

Game Development Blog #61

2011-09-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #61

"The New Tablet Scene Pt 1"

Howdy and welcome! Time for another (albeit brief) update of what is happening in Headcaseland.

This was our 1st week post-Android Market promotion. 180 Ultra is still being featured on the sub-category page "Brain & Puzzle" (visible on the phone) - to take advantage, I cut the price in half to a measly dollar. Even so, downloads have dropped off dramatically (< $10 a day, or even half of that). Just today I removed the well-rated Free (ad-supported) version from the store to see if it makes any difference, but it seems to do nothing. Ah well, the feature was nice while it lasted, and I learned some valuable lessons if I should be so fortunate to have another in the future (I should have promoted Ultra for free, briefly, and padded the ranks a bit - just 12 ratings, even for a featured game, do not make an easy sale of what looks to casual observers as "just another puzzle game").

On a related note, on the eve of the feature, I put the word out and asked nearly everyone I knew with an Android phone to help out and give a rating (this is people I know is person, though most were casual acquaintances). I was surprised to see that only about 3 people out of ~20 actually responded to that call for action. I am not trying to be whiny about it, so much as to express "this is what you should expect if you try the same." I would expect that anything less than a good 100 or so reviews, bare minimum, looks appealing to a casual observer. I'd hoped that the 250-odd reviews immediately visible on the (likewise 4.5-starred) Free version would help to push things over the edge, sadly it was still not enough (ahem.. "puzzle game, puzzle game!" I know, I know)

Good things to note: glowing reviews finally came in from by big sites Appolicious and PocketGamer, the likes of which I've been wanting for a long time (although once again, it's too little too late).

Also worth noting, I've decided to push things on the Nook front - we've traditionally had stronger downloads on that market than anywhere else, and while it's had nice bursts of sales here and there (consecutive $50 days make me smile fairly wide) it's been steadily drowning into nothingness with the usual numbers that you see everywhere else (a sale or 2 a day). We got great reviews over there, but as I consider the Nook "it's own unique market" (for good and bad) it makes sense to get a little experimental once in awhile - so I cut the price of the Full game to Free for a short spell. They were kind enough to give us a tweet on their feed (they've got about 20k followers) and I did my part to post on a couple of the relevant boards, doing my best not to sound terribly spammy. I should note that some boards (which should be embracing the *&$#@ developers!) will aggressively hunt you down and murder you for posting such things. Also, and probably most importantly, I put up a link on the Nook Facebook page (highly trafficked, I believe they have about 360k followers on there!) which I suspect may be getting me a bit of visibility as well (frustratingly, it is difficult to tell). Posting on someone else's FB fan page can often be tricky, as it might just read as spam and not show up at all.. and in many cases, followers will never see postings by anyone but the admin of such a page. But obviously it is worth a shot!

Anyway we got ~1300 downloads on Nook yesterday, and I'll assume a similar story today. The Nook market is steadily getting completely inundated with garbage apps (like any store), in just a few short months it's become packed like any place else - but relatively speaking, the ratio is still fairly good to get some good product up there and potentially see some steady sales as a result. That's my assumption so far anyway, time will tell (watch this space!)

If you've been paying attention this week, Amazon announced their new Kindle Fire tablet which is due to launch in short order. I am particularly looking forward to this for the usual obvious reasons, not least of which is that we've been featured on their store previously and currently are sitting comfortably nestled with a healthy (if low-ish) set of reviews to show for it. I'll likely pull a similar stunt (put the game free for a bit on their store, try to push our app past the 100-review margin) in time for the new market launch, and hope that it will translate into some decent sales when their market goes live worldwide, which I expect to happen in conjunction with their hardware rollout. I'm still not certain what the plan is, as a lot of things are in flux between our coverage over all of these stores (as you can tell, just trying to maintain a bead on everything can be quite time-consuming) but considering that we've an app out there which is critically reviewing very well and that our primary audience does seem to eat it up when it gets proper exposure, it does feel very worthwhile to be jostling things in this way. There doesn't seem to be much other alternative as a tiny developer, unless one has the necessary hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to make a proper marketing dent. This is the reality these days.

Meanwhile, 180 Strategy Mode looms on the horizon - worth mentioning as it's quite an unusual evolution of the gameplay, and could certainly be worth releasing as it's own app. Development is presently frozen for a few reasons, but there's a chance it will see release by the year's end (especially depending on how the continuing promotions end up). We'll see how it winds up. I am eager to move forward with that, and explore a special Tablet Mode and VS. Multiplayer Mode down the road as well. Fans, be vocal about your frothing demand if you ever want to see this stuff happen!

GunHead is progressing (new build arrived this week!) ad it's finally taking some decent shape. We've got it integrated into a proper engine, screen scrolls, tileset editor seems to be working properly (visual plus ground collisions and such) and the control is coming along nicely. This is all Android, but I am on track to pick up iOS development as well. It's awesome to see it finally getting to the point where I can just unload content into it!

Trapdoor is also progressing nicely, as with GH I have become the bottleneck for both titles (they need content and heavy design work, which is my job). The game is likewise functional but needs a good chunk of work to get it to be "fun," it'll get there though. I just need to sit down and deal with it!

A Card Game is also in the works for iOS, I don't know if I am allowed to say the name of it at this point :) Once again I am the holdup, it should come together quickly once I can return to devoting time to it. Barring unforseen circumstances, all these apps should appear on one platform or the other by year's end. There's a lot of work to do!

What have I been up to? Actually had a job interview recently and spending a lot of time testing for that, and in fact I need to get back to that right now. So many of you people don't like to actually pay for stuff, I need to earn a living somehow :/

Hey! Remember when I actually used to write about Retrogames, on this (ahem) blog interestingly-titled "RetroGame of the Day?" Perhaps I will pick up the pen again - if not daily, then perhaps once a week, sound off if you would like to see that. I had a lot of fun writing those (and easily compiled enough reviews to fill a book, or three) but as they were intended to ultimately help promote my litter operation here - well I just say that I did get a nice chunk of views every so often, but sadly it didn't seem to do much for sales.

Game Development Blog #60

2011-09-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #60

Yep - that is the title of today's blog entry!

What's going on, headsketeers! Time to turn on, tune in, drop out. Or is it sign in, log on, up load? Man, I never can keep up with this stuff anymore.

So then! Lots to talk about, but I am busy, so it'll be brief. First order of business, a week ago we finally, finally got a high-profile feature for 180 on the Android Market. It looked like this:

Not bad! I was proud - it stayed up there on top for a whole week! Sadly, I didn't get the sales I was expecting (not that I was expecting hugeness, but I was expecting better). We are still displayed in a smaller capacity this week, hopefully the momentum will continue. I suspect the promotion will wind down in a week's time, but if we are lucky it will stick around for a bit longer than that. Big, big Kudos to Google for working with us to make this possible.

After all that hard work, I did manage one pretty major oversight on my part which I am sure had some effect on things; we should have prepped harder to get more reviews/ratings for Ultra when this feature campaign began. We showed up with about 10 5-star user rankings, which is nice, but considering that all the other apps on that list had close to a hundred, if not thousands of rankings. I blame myself for that oversight; we got some ranks in once the new downloads poured in, but the system seems backed up and they haven't been displayed for over a week now.

Anyway, more things are still going on with 180, but now the big push is really past for all that I can do. Expect more news when it's ready.

So what else is going on? Sharp-eyed folks may have seen some teaser images for new titles in development - GunHead and Trapdoor, both of which have been discussed here quite a bit. Development is continuing in earnest on both titles, and a 3rd has just begun development as well. Need I mention that it is an exhaustingly busy period? All 3 titles will see release by the year's end, in fact the non-GunHead ones *should* release within a month's time if all goes according to plan.

There's a lot more to say, but really I must get back to business. Thanks for checking in and being supportive!

Game Development Blog #59

2011-09-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #59

"WORK TIMES A BILLION"

Yes, the chips may be down, but that won't stop me from putting out a little update discussing what is going on. Here's the skinny - my home internet connection is offline for about 2 weeks and change (horrors!) Before you make fun of me, it's actually a fairly critical time for that to happen as I am spending a huge amount of time talking to many different people about lots of important business-type dealings right now (selling stuff, ya know). I am regularly getting contracts and agreements, printing out/signing/scanning/reuploading. What used to be fairly easy in the span of 15 minutes now requires that I run back and forth between various physical locations to handle such things (exacerbated by the fact that I haven't a car either). It's nice that the cafe up the street has free wifi, so I can't complain too much. Likewise, as I am in early development on two new titles, this is when I usually am hip-deep in reference digging (something that must often be done while I am fleshing things out at the beginning of a creative cycle). So my work-style has been taking a fairly dramatic hit; I am doing the best I can.

On the upside of all of that, I am pleased to report that all of this means that things are generally very busy for me. I am finally past active development with 180 in (nearly) any way shape or form - while we are still figuring out the Casual Mode (now called Strategy Mode), it's a bit of a slow process and my role is diminished while the programmer does his part. Meanwhile things have ramped up considerably in production for GunHead as the Android version is finally coming to life a bit, and (at last) I am in the thick of it developing assets. I could go on for pages about asset dev for this game, but I think I will save it until I am a bit further in. it's a kick for real :)

The other cool news is that things are finally getting dusted off for Trapdoor once again. Yes, this is the very first mobile game that I'd ever written any kind of documentation for, and it's been sitting on the backshelf for a long time while other things have come and go. At last, a programmer and I have decided to take advantage of the coming long Labor Day weekend and just do a little "game jam" and attack the thing. It is exciting to work on a small, short-term project, and I am eager to get through the process and see how we fare. I don't expect we'll have a fully-functioning product by the end of the phase, but if we can get a good way through it with more than a bare skeleton, that will be pretty awesome; then a couple of weeks or so to polish it, and (at last) another release to unleash upon the unsuspecting world!

There's a lot more to say, but hey - I have to get back to work.

BONUS: Must-read! "How to do make Media Kits, Retro Dreamer Style!"

Game Development Blog #58

2011-08-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #59

"THE BEAT GOES ON'"

Just a quickie update tonight, since it's been a bit since I've put anything in here.

1st and foremost, we launched the 180 Player's Guide (LINK) at the beginning of the past week. A lot of hard work went into putting this together, and the goal is to help show some of the more casual players the route they can take to get more depth out of their experience with 180. The guide is still considered a work-in-progress, and more tips and strategies will pop up in the near future now that the framework is laid out. So, be sure and check back often to see what else shows up! Be sure to send in your own favorite techniques if you would like to see them appear in the guide.

We had a promotion on the Nook this past week as well, they gave us a mention on Facebook and in their blog, which we appreciate. It's been a very happy surprise to see that our game is doing fairly well in that market, and the sales have been quite strong relative to other markets. I am hopeful that the momentum will keep up! Other developers should certainly consider publishing on the Nook market as well - it's still early and young, and there's a lot of room to shine!

Work continues on our new game GunHead as well. It's very slow and sluggish, but it's progressing. We are considering putting together a fancy-pants trailer to help get some eyeballs on this game; also in the early stages, but the potential is very cool and I am very hopeful that we can just knock it right out of the park with this one. I am working very hard to make it happen!

Not much else to report on at the moment - it's been a very exhausting time lately, and quite a bit stressful as well. Looking forward to smoother and more easygoing days in the future, but for now it's just hunkering down and doing the best I can! Thanks for reading!

Game Development Blog #57

2011-08-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #57

"SOOO TIRED...SOOOO TIRED'"

Strap in once again for another development update! And kiss this huge banner goodbye because it needs to be replaced with a much smaller one.. soon.

180 - "yes I am still talking about this!" Cannot believe we are knocking on the door of 2 years since I first started working on this little game. And now here it is, "all grown up!" Anyway, here's the story on 180 - we've launched about a week and a half ago on the Nook App Store, by Barnes & Noble. If you are an Android developer and you don't know what the Nook is, you are doing yourself a disservice and would do well to quickly educate yourself. I'll say this much - the money I am making from Nook Store sales are really trouncing the sales I've had for this app anywhere else, regardless of platform. I look forward to putting more apps out for their device in the future, it just makes sense!

I am working hard on a "Tips 'n Tricks" strategy guide for 180 which will be available on our in-game store. It's a free guide, just click over to "More Apps" to access it when it goes up - hopefully later this week (there's a lot of work left to do with it!) Also to note, some serious progress has been made with our Casual Mode (probably going to be called Strategy Mode). I can't say when that will release, hopefully the wait won't be much longer. We want to test it enough and make sure it's proper fun!

Otherwise, we do have some other big plans for 180, some things which have been bubbling over in the background for a long time now. I'll keep mum until it is appropriate to say, but I will say that there's a few things and they are quiet big (and good reason to be excited about). I'll also say that it's stuff I and my team have been laboring long hours over, and it's come at the cost of other developments, when you are a tiny outfit you can only produce so much! So in that regard, thanks to our fans for sticking it out and keeping the torch burning!

GunHead - things are picking up speed with this title, which is really intended to be Headcase Games' big release of 2011. Sadly it is quite behind (as mentioned above) and I shoulder the blame for that, but I'd really rather take some time to get it right rather than just hustle it out. I am getting quite excited as the big, important pieces are finally coming together (well, in a pre-production sense) but really I need to take some time and just immerse myself in the project, so it can be guided properly. Don't worry, it is in good hands :) Everyone I have discussed the project with is enthused, and if we nail it, this could be "one of those games" that people have been waiting to show up on the App Store. So keep your eyes peeled. --NOTICE-- I am seeking the aid of a (traditional) 2D animator for some promotional help with this project, you should contact me ron@headcaseGames.com if you can help!

Other Projects - yes, as prophesized, things have slipped further into this "lumped-together" category for the time being, and while somewhat remorseful, it's for the greater good. Don't worry, Trapdoor and Hop Cop are still waiting to be given life, and it's not impossible that at least one will show up before 2012. I've another new game which has recently woven it's way into my head as well, and it's a lot closer to 180 conceptually (well.. no flipping!). I've really not got a good idea for a name yet so it's simply being referred to as "Advance" at the moment, although I think it's a horrible name! And here's a teaser for how the gameplay works - think if Luxor and Push Panic were to have a child (that probably counts as more than a small hint) Otherwise, there's still a few other things I am pursuing, I am trying to toe the line as best I can between finding exciting new projects to undertake versus biting off more than I can chew. That's one of the hardest parts of this job.

Bizdev - sigh. I am so busy with all the things mentioned above, and really business development needs to be brought to the fore for obvious reasons. I've officially reached the point where I need another one of me to keep up with everything; I've got dozens of unanswered emails, potential partnerships between distro and development which are covering up with cobwebs simply because I am too busy trying to devote the needed time to my highest-profile issues. In a way I suppose this is one of those "good problems to have," but it also adds up to a few missed opportunities. I really need to find "the thing" right now which is going to get on the fast track to getting everything in line, but the way this is all set up is that I am really a one-man band between design, asset-production, and management (thank God I don't code, and you'll never hear me say such a thing again!) So for those of you who read this and are wondering why you are still waiting to hear back from me, just sit tight, I am working on it!

What Else is Going On - And yes, all the while the game industry at large zigs and zags and poops all over the place. Not unusually, it's a very strange time for this crazy schizophrenic little industry, and what might have made sense some 6 months ago has little bearing on logic and reality Today. One such case is the blow-up over the Nintendo 3DS fiasco, what looked to be an exciting and promising new-generation portable is... still an exciting and promising new-generation portable, but not without a good few bullet holes lining the side of it's hull, what the heck happened Nintendo? This thing has turned into a mess and 2011 as a whole is becoming quite a stinker year for N to date. I do believe they will close out the year with a "decent"showing at the holiday, the new Mario games will help that along; but they shouldn't have to rely on such a predictable crutch for this thing. Nintendo 3DS titles should be flowing "somewhat" by now, there should be some excitement about what's coming up, new and different game experiences not quite like what we've seen before. 3D is an exciting enough tech that, even when somewhat half-realized as is the case with this device right here, at least a small handful of very enticing experiences should be available to play. I mean, they nailed it pretty rocksteady with the damned 8-bit Sega Master System 3D glasses back in the 1980s. That stuff still feels better than what we are dealing with now. Yes this is apples and oranges but really, it should not be. Anyway, this sudden price drop will tilt the scales in Nintendo's favor, but I can't say how significantly.

Meanwhile, it's a scary time for Sony (another tough battle for them) as their new device fees more potentially stillborn in light of these new developments. I still hold onto my word that this thing is going to tank and Sony is completely misreading the market. Only if they price it to go toe-to-toe with 3DS will it still have some real chance to survive in that increasingly crowded marketplace, but I think we can all safely bet that there is now way that thing will clock in anywhere near $200. Who is going to support this thing - awesome device technically with lots of potential, but really just buy a PS3. I'd say this thing had limited opportunity if there wasn't a smartphone market to compete with as well, but in light of that as well it just feels more troubled.

I'm hearing whispers that next iterations of the HD twin consoles will not likely rear their ugly heads prior to 2014. As more time passes, that does feel more feasible. I suspect Microsoft will once again beat everyone to the punch (Wii U doesn't count as this is not a contender for Next Gen, it's a stopgap) - I would not be overly surprised to see a new Xbox launch by Holiday 2013, but I am not thinking it is likely. Maybe the PS4 will launch the following season? It all feels like gazing into a crazy crystal ball. Current generation hardware just seems very capable enough for the time being, still (despite lots of lazy development and horrible, horrible climates surrounding so many bigger game studios nowadays). I think the next generation of consoles will have a very difficult birth.

Meanwhile over in mobile-game-land, things are happy and steady. The scene feels rich and steady, if extremely uninteresting overall. I am not sure what's got things so stagnant, maybe just as enthusiasm was growing in a big way the rug of novelty got pulled out from underneath. There's always a lot of "gee whiz" software popping up here, there and everywhere, and much of it is worthwhile and interesting, but so much of it consists of these half-baked, strictly bite-sized experiences. I rarely download new apps anymore, it feels like it's been my mindset for about a year-and-a-half now. Again, a lot of very capable, very clean product showing up out there, but it's all so boringly safe and uninteresting. The last thing that made me say "oh wow!" was that AR copter-controller hybrid thing. And what the heck happened to that, it was just an expensive toy anyway. Mobile gaming can (and should) succeed based on it's own merits, playing to it's advantage in a myriad of ways that it's competition can't. People still fight/hate the touchscreen interface, and dismiss "smaller game bursts" in lieu of "I need a whole huge campaign to be satisfied." It doesn't work, it bores me, it's been done to death 1000's of times by now. At the same time, my brain stem drips with "what can be done and no one seems to get" and this drives my own spark for development. Granted it's always way easier said then done, but I am doing my best to bring my game properly.

I guess that's it for now, I have a lot more to say but I need to get productive and tackle some actual work. Thanks for reading!

Game Development Blog #56

2011-07-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #56

"Train Kept-a-rollin'"

Hard to believe it's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a development blog. Time is really flying (July's almost wrapped-up!)

180 - We had our Amazon promotion several days ago, and 180 Ultra was featured as the Free App of the Day. This was interesting, and it meant we lowered the full-price $1.99 app on their store to FREE for 24 hours. It went well: the promotion got our game a nice dose of new publicity, and very strong and numerous positive reviews on their store (LINK). It translated to some sales as well, but as one can tell, we haven't exactly maintained the chart stickiness I'd like.. for now. We decided to boost the promo by offering the original iPhone version for free as well, and it stretched into a 2-day promotion on that platform. We netted 15,000 downloads each day on iPhone with that promo, but as our game is a bit long in the tooth on iPhone, it didn't really get much big reception (unsurprising) - that means no notable coverage on bigger sites, no new iTunes reviews (kinda surprised, for so many DLs!) and of course no real sales on iOS following that. I maintain that if we overhaul the game on iOS to match the Android presentation, it might get a little traction, but the game is just really old now and hard to make press on that platform, no matter how you slice it. Still very fun to play, however!

There is still more excitement to come with 180 in it's various incarnations in the coming weeks and months, it's definitely become this beast which hasn't run it's course (in a good way) so I will do all that I can to shepherd it along so far as things will let me. Android is still growing and looking more promising, particularly with all that's been going on behind-the-scenes. Let's see what happens next! Unbelievably, we have over 300,000 downloads of our little game at this point, between iOS and Android platforms!

GunHead - our next high-priority title is nearing production (right now is still pre-production), and it's been very busy moving along. I've got a very early initial build on Android, and a new one is due to come down the pipe very soon. As far as that's concerned, we are early in the process of massaging the control scheme and figuring out what all we can pack into a game of this scope, between memory and manpower. I am hard at work devising an unusually interesting campaign for this one as well; I've learned that utilizing press connections is huge, so I am doing my best to get a very solid presentation together for when we start showing off the game for real. We are aiming to do some unorthodox things with the marketing of this game, and I believe it will be a much smoother operation than our previous title. As for a release date, it's too early to tell, but I am shooting for late Q3. Also of note, we are dual-developing for Android and iOS simultaneously, which should make for an interesting adventure!

Trapdoor, Hop Cop - it's a often bad sign when multiple projects are lumped together into a single bullet point! Sadly, these two games are sitting a little more comfortably nestled into the back shelf than I'd like them to be. It is still my aim to see both titles released by the year's end, but as development duties on GunHead ramp up (and further follow-though with 180, as well) I want to make sure I am not spreading too thin. This isn't to say they are being shuttered, and if I wanted to truly shift focus away from them I'd not even bring them up (I want the names to be out in the air!) One thing is for certain, they will be a but mothballed for the moment; but don't be surprised if I mention some locomotion in those departments at the next Status Update.

Biz Dev - this is a really busy area right now. Especially following the recent promotion, my phone has been ringing off the hook (err, whatever the email version of that would be). I have so many people contacting me right now about a ton of opportunities "we want to partner with you, to do this, that, or the other thing with your game." It's great news of course - but right now I have more people to talk to than I have time to handle, and I am still just trying to catch up in an orderly fashion. Of course you don't simply want to jump on everything that comes your way (some stuff is a bad match, or a waste of time, or simply requires a lot of research before I know what I am talking about, etc). This is one of the "good" downsides of tiny development I suppose, but you have to be careful to be timely, knowledgeable, and responsible because these can be some of the dealings which can truly make or break you. Also, you don't want that business to interfere too much with getting the other projects off the ground.

What Else is Going On - Not much to say, as usual we have hit the speed-bump of summer and all is quite in the gaming world. Things are out and being talked about, but there's no real hype right now and nothing too captivating with any real immediacy, other than "ohhh, I guess a new game or two is coming out." That's the scene on console and PC, and surprisingly it's matched pretty close on mobile as well. I swear, if I ever get to a proper size, I am going to take advantage of the summer doldrums of software releases and make it my holiday simply because there's never any newsworthy competition anyway!

Comic-Con is going on right now, and of course all the nerds flock thataway for a few days of escapism and celebration. I do wish I could be there promoting, but it's not to be. Likewise PAX Prime (Seattle) draws ever nearer, unfortunately I will not be in attendance for that even either. I suppose the biggest event on the horizon which is relevent is IndieCade in Culver City, and that's a good 3 months and change away. We'll see.

Overall, it's a very busy and hectic time. I am excited about what's next and more than anything I want to throw myself into GunHead development, but it's a step at a time. Otherwise, two things - 1. I am looking for the aid of of an Android coder for a quick gig, I need someone ASAP. Pass the word on if you aren't interested - drop me a line at ron@headcaseGames.com and we can get into the details. 2. If you've grabbed 180 on any platform and you enjoy it, please rate and review it wherever you got it from. We are small enough that "every review counts."

Thanks again and see you soon!

180 for iPhone - FREE for today only!

2011-07-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big day for Headcase Games!

Our app 180 was featured as Amazon's Android App of the Day! We reduced the price to free for 24 hours and got a LOT of downloads! And the reviews are glowing! (LINK)

Meanwhile our iPhone version App is being featured by the kind folks over at Free App Magic, so we will leave that free until the end of the day on Tuesday, July 12. Grab it now on iTunes! (LINK)

Marked down from USD $1.99 for one (more) day only -

Support us and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, and in the forums!

Want a free copy of 180 for Android? Here's a link to the ad-supported version on the Android Market, play it for 10 hours and the ads will disappear - forever!

Hyper-Gameplay awaits you!

What's next on the mobile front from Headcase Games? In development for later in 2011 you can look forward to retro-arcade fun with Hop Cop, frantic puzzle-action in Trapdoor, and oldschool side-scrolling blasting mayhem in GunHead - details coming soon!

About 180:
20,000 downloads on Android! 140,000 on iTunes! 180 is an insane flipping match-3 drop action puzzle game the likes of which you've never seen before. Launch coins into three-in-a-rows to clear the vertically-descending board. Play alternate colors by flipping coins 180 degrees at any time. Create incredible combos and be rewarded with HUGE scores - just don't let the coins touch the red line at the bottom, or it's game over!

About Headcase Games:
Headcase Games is an independent developer whose members’ previous credits include creative development on console/PC titles Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol, Heroes of Might & Magic IV, Guitar Hero, Knights of the Old Republic II, and several others.

Contact:
www.headcaseGames.com
info@headcaseGames.com

PR Kit available at bit.ly/180a_PR

Game Development Blog #55

2011-07-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #55

"Through the Never"

Welcome to another edition of "what's up in developmentpalooza!" Next stop, your Google Reader. Let's get started:

180 - been working hard to go through the motions and get our game up on different stores; this seems key with Android development. Our app has been available in Google's Android Market for months now, and I am happy with the critical reception, but unfortunately we've not got enough downloads to be earning any money (or gaining enough visibility, even). Fortunately, it's done well enough that people opening up different marketplaces have been reaching out to me in various ways. I've been working in the background to move forward with distributing the game through various other outlets, and it's just starting to pop up a little bit now. We've got a presence on MobiHand, on Amazon, and on The9 Chinese store (where apparently "180" translates to "Hawaiin Sensation," according to Google Translation..) This is just the beginning, as I am talking to more places (we've been in submission with Barnes & Noble's Nook for a long time now). More to come, but that's all I can mention for now :)

Of course, just getting on these stores doesn't necessarily mean anything, for a number of reasons. As usual, the important part is figuring out proper promotion and getting any kind of visiblity. Add to that the notion that many of these stores are brand-new, and any kind of "instant gratification" goes right out the window. I look at it thus, "the work to build the game is done for awhile now, let's see if we still cannot get some potential money or use out of it." Of course there's plenty of good reasons not to partner with different stores, but I truly believe that at this stage, the pros easily outweigh the cons, especially with a game/brand which still has yet to make any real impact.

On the side of the actual game 180 itself, further development has frozen to a standstill. There's more I wish to do with it, in fact just this morning I had an excellent idea for a new game mode which should be easy to implement. For now I am content to leave things as they are and push forward with other projects.

GunHead - this app is slowly getting some steam, and I believe we are close to getting an early proof-of-concept ready to pick apart. There's much pre-production yet to be done on this one, but I am excited to push forward with it and am busy writing and maintaining documents to steer it at this early, yet critical phase. I would like to think that a month from now it is possible that there will be something to actually show of it.

Trapdoor - this game is continuing it's legacy as being "here today, gone tomorrow, here the day after that, gone away again some time following that." I've purposefully put it further back in my head as I am quite busy with all the other things that are occupying me these days, but I hope to decide it's fate sooner rather than later.

Biz Dev - as mentioned above, dealing with all the different stores has really been occupying the bulk of my time, and it's not trivial either. Although in the immediate sense it really serves 180, to be honest I want to figure out such things now and then when there's more product to plug, I can just slide them in as they are ready. Meanwhile, I'm still talking about a couple of other interesting things here and there which will come to light as they become more pertinent. There will be some other news to report in the very short term, but I am keeping my mouth closed for the moment.

What Else is Going On - Not too much exciting. E3 has come and gone and everyone's kind of gone back to "business as usual," the summer creeps toward it's middle and all is quiet in the land of industry news, both macro and micro. Some rumblings here and there have led the press to murmur a little bit about "PS4 and next Xbox successors to be shown at E3 2012" which isn't a terribly huge surprise, in the meantime it feels like a lot of what is going on in gaming right now is just rather stale and tired. I can't think of much which is really dominating headlines, I supposed there are the usual "year-end" games to look forward to but glancing across the various news forums and media outlets, it feels very much like "business as usual," very ho-hum on the humdrum. It's rather disappointing, as a year ago we were all looking forward to a rather exciting fall and then holiday season; 2011 will just be a carbon-copy of 2010, it seems.

As for mobile, things are likewise fairly lackluster these days. The novelty of doing this/playing cellphone games really seems to have worn off, and seeing Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds still dominating the top of the charts is no longer something I am merely unhappy about, it's just like looking at a static screen. With all the development and excitement surrounding this scene, why are we still so frozen in time a year later - and what can we do to break free of this? I feel as if there was a lot of enthusiasm and it had such a strong head of steam for awhile, but now it looks like there's not a clear vision/market leader to dictate where things should be, they just stagnate. Games and Apps that released 2 years ago were honestly much more novel and interesting (if limited) than much of what passes through now, and people don't seem to feel one way or the other about it. This is a waste; it inspires me to "fill in the blanks" on my own, between my work and those of other developers I respect, but really the entire scene is still so immature and disconnected that it really cannot happen. Considering that the media (and really, the publishing entities) have such strong and stable infrastructure for controlling the flow of this stuff, it does kind of make me a little disappointed in these bigger establishments for happily "sitting by the sidelines" while things sort of doggie-paddle around.

Of course, this is mainly iOS I am whining about, and the Android scene is even further into the stone ages; however, just because technology and "connectedness" are well in place, doesn't mean any kind of a thorough underlying support system necessarily can be, as well. If nothing snaps in to make it happen, then it must grow organically, and that takes time.

Game Development Blog #54

2011-06-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #54

"Brain Drain"

Been longer than I'd like since I've updated my development blog. What can I say, busy times! Unfortunately that means I will have to keep this one short, but I will also try to make it sweet. And off we go..

E3 was a blast this year. Very exhausting, tons of meetings/discussions/etc. I didn't really get too much opportunity to actually tour the convention hall, and there's quite a lot I want to say about what I did say. Here's my short response, then:

Kinect - don't care (though I am interested to see Child of Eden). Potential is still interesting, but for now they seem to (obviously) marketing this one towards the younger set.

PlayStation Move - saw this for the first time. It looks silly and glowy. Can someone out there recommend to me what is the "must-see" game for this thing?

Wii U - hate the name, but also I am feeling underwhelmed by what Nintendo is trying with this device. It reeks of "Apple is scaring us" and my only thought is "non-portable iPad with buttons." I think they need to go back to the drawing board with this thing.

3DS - what was shown at the show should have been there a year ago, and should have launched with the device this past Spring. Some good games, made me actually feel like "If I had the money I would probably buy a 3DS now" but nothing that really blew me away. Fun fact, 1st time I ever played with a 3DS was at the show this year. Man, that thing is cramped in my adult hands :/

Mobile - nothing to see here, sadly. That's why Headcase Games hosted a meeting of indie and mobile developers on the 2nd day of the exhibition - it was very successful, and I was sad that it ended so quickly before I got a chance to talk to most of the people I had wanted to. That's, of course, better than what could have been the alternative (if no one showed up and nobody to talk to).

180 - our little game has been making the rounds on Android for a couple of months now. We've recently gone live on the Amazon App Store for Android (that's.. such a mouthful) and are not far away from getting on the Nook store as well. It's been a very slow rev-up, but finally there is a little light coming at the end of what's been quite a long and dark tunnel! We are getting probably over 10,000 plays per day between all platform versions of the game, which is great - but more than that people are starting to notice it and I am getting contacted by bigger and bigger people about "what are we going to do with this thing next." In some ways it's a surprise (puzzle game, Android market is typically very unfriendly, the title is "older") but at the same time I've long stood by my beliefs that it is just a really well-assembled product, it's very fun to play for hardcore and casual gamers alike, it's well-suited for the platform. I am happy to finally be getting a real chance to bring it to the masses, but of course that road is still a long one. Developers take note: get on Android. Seriously, start putting your stuff on that market and getting familiar with how that place operates. It's not like Apple, in good and bad ways. They are hurting for even a fraction of the stuff that's up on iTunes, and if you can get some nice product on there, it is a battle but you will actually stand a chance of getting some notice. There is a huge tidal wave of Android right about to break, yes this has been said many times, but it is coming for real and you really want to be there with your surfboard when it comes. "Oh, fragmentation of the hardware.. oh, the marketplace is crappy.. oh, no one actually pays for stuff on that platform" Get over it. If you want a chance to get a piece, you had better be willing to step up; otherwise, be content to keep living under Apple's Tent forever where the competition is unbelievable, and odds are you won't get any lasting interest in your indie-developed productions any more.

Trapdoor - this is almost a fascinating story by now, in it's way, but TD has started to become a truly on-again-off-again project for me. I am still deciding what's the best plan for this title, lately I have been thinking about collaborating with another developer to produce it. An exciting proposition, I will get on it when the dust clears (otherwise it'll just be me and a programmer)

GunHead - I have referred to this project in past blogs, probably over 6 months ago, but only very rarely and never by name. Well, now it's got a working title! Those who have been listening have heard me say that this is a retro-themed side-scroller. I typed up an exhaustive document for it recently (the 1st of a few) and have some people actively helping on the pre-production. If I madk one game this year, this is the one I am most excited to release! I will tease some more info/assets soon. This is actually going to be kind of a crazy project :)

Hop Cop - Another new game, and the first idea I've had for something in awhile that I've actually sketched out a bit. This one will be a somewhat smaller project, and I'll say this.. it's a driver with puzzle elements. Or is it the other way around? This game will be entirely on the opposite end of the spectrum than GunHead in many ways, but somehow I feel the two will coexist nicely and help define what Headcase Games should mean to many people.

Biz Dev - I think I just broadly covered all that is going on, as far as I'm at liberty to talk about. It's nice to be spending a lot of time lately actually having some serious high-level talks about things, and signing some actual contracts. I will be looking forward to setting up an LLC at some point soon, finally :)

What Else is Going On - Otherwise, I am still trying to scare up some freelance work of any sort to get some hands-on money in the meantime. Hit me up if you need "things" (design, assets, etc). I am actually quite busy trying to procure some things along those lines. My personal life is interesting as usual, with the regular weirdness and constant crazy stories that comes from being a citizen in a place like Hollywood. The stuff I can actually remember, anyway.

Anyway, lest you forget, get on Android!

E3 Day One: Hitting the Road!

2011-06-07T10:34:00.001-07:00

E3 Day One: Hitting the Road!

Greeting sports fans! Yep it is Day One for E3 for me (1st day of exhibits, anyway) and I am not long from grabbing a subway ride across town to the Convention Center. Was skeptical of "should I go today?" since there's a bigmeetup to deal with tomorrow, but I suppose I should at least get myself somewhat 1st-person informed so I will know what everyone is talking about when that does happen. Anyway, I'll likely post a video recap of today's experiences this evening, but in the meantime here's a couple of stray pre-show thoughts to wet your whistle.

Conferences - watched these (in different degrees) from home (they are broadcasting lots of stuff here at Gametrailers.com). My thoughts as follows:

• Xbox 360/Kinect I only saw the later part of this conference, so it was all their "casual Kinect-looking stuff." Can I say after 3 years I am tired of hearing MS trumpet about Natal/Kinect so much. I understand it's purpose, and yes it is fun to play for a bit. All that is being done with it is not terribly exciting however (would I love to take a crack at designing a Kinect game? Certainly!") All the kid-based casual stuff makes my stomach turn, but then I guess they really need to compete with that growing marketplace

• Sony Well, they certainly came with a lot of strong 1st and 2nd party games. Everything looks solid, and.. man.. there's a lot of competition in FPS land. Not much really to get my motor roving about, however, and a surprising lack of Japanese support. Whoa. As for their Next Generation Portable, now called "Vita" - I dislike the name, and I think the device is a bit misaligned, but I think it will find it's fanbase. Too early to say. I will rant on this later.

• Nintendo Just finished watching the live broadcast of this conference. I'll sum up my feelings thusly; 3DS looks rad (should have shown this all a year ago and they are paying for it now), and the new console - dubbed "Wii U" - there's a lot of reactionary posts going on right now, and this is one of them. I think it feels like a half-step, personally. This is Nintendo simultaneously trying to argue with both Microsoft and Apple. This thing looks like an iPad with buttons. It doesn't look "bad," and if they can truly come with visuals that (even somewhat significantly) trump the current-gen hardware, then the masses of graphic whores will eat it up. The big-screen as a controller however, that's another story. For so many years N has been all about "gimmick, gimmick, gimmick" and I think it's getting a little tired. The 3DS gimmick is still sort of early to call, and I do think that "personal screen system" would do well in a vacuum - but they are competing against too many successful devices with this thing. All of Apple's products are going to keep pushing, PS3 will potentiallyhave some strong Vita-console crossover, and ironically enough the Wi U could be competing with 3DS!

Anyway there's some initial thoughts to chew on. I'm out to the con right now - watch this evening for a YouTube Wrap-up, and thanks for tuning in :)

E3 2011 Mobile/Indie Developer Meetup

2011-05-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

E3 2011 Mobile/ Indie Developer Meetup

(click flyer to enlarge)

FYI: The RSVP list for this event is nearing capacity. Once it is full, people are still welcome to show up, but it will be a 1st come/1st served situation for the waitlist. Feel free to email me still & I will put you on the waitlist - thank you!

Join Headcase Games & friends for a gathering of independent & mobile game developers at BottleRock in Downtown LA (yelp), across the street from the Convention Center at this year's E3!

Please email me to let me know if you are planning to attend! We need some idea of how many people want to show up so we can schedule an appropriate reservation in advance (it will make things easier!) Feel free to forward this post around, here's an easy shortcut - bit.ly/E3indieMeet2k11

Thanks for your help & look forward to seeing you!

Shameless plug :P pick up our game 180 for Android and iPhone!

.

Retro Game of the Day! Midnight Resistance

2011-05-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Midnight Resistance

Midnight Resistance by Data East, released in 1990 in the arcade and shortly afterward on the Sega Genesis.

I was always surprised that more developers didn't rip-off Konami's über-popular action game Contra in the 1980s and 1990s. It was one of those games, like Mario or Zelda, that everyone had and loved and played over and over - also, the design wasn't particularly complicated (or so it seemed). For the most part Konami had this whole genre on lockdown.

For this reason, when another half-decent run'n'gun showed up, any self-respecting vdeogame fan would take notice. Thus when Midnight Resistance appeared in the arcade, it was absolutely worthy of plunking a few quarters into.

Very quickly, it became apparent that MR was quite dissimilar to Contra. Though the theme was familiar, and it was a 2-player simultaneous game, the gameplay was quite different. Contra was loose and fast, with an emphasis on "plow forward, scavenge for pickups, and dodge/destroy relentlessly." MR was a bit of s slower and more calculated affair; for starters, the input was unusual (similar to the older Ikari Warriors cabinet, there were rotary joysticks which controlled your weapon aiming). This was a unique method of input, particularly considering that this was a side-scrolling platform game rather than a vertically-scrolling top-down where such controls were more prevalent.

Also of note, unlike Contra you had to collect currency (in the form of keys) to "unlock" different weapons between rounds. The most important point to mention is that, owing to the unusual control setup, the entire game plays very differently from your standard side-scroller.

The game showed up (with little fanfare) on the Sega Genesis home console some time later, which was notable as there were absolutely no run'n'guns (straightforward, or otherwise) available at the time. The game looked and was laid-out faithfully enough to the arcade source, but the control setup was less successfully translated than the aesthetic. It was fun, but certainly not the "butter smooth" experience that a "spoiled Contra veteran" would have expected (and they even ditched the 2P feature, come on this is 16-bit!)

Overall Midnight Resistance is a worthy title which has stood the test of time, due to it's unique presentation, cool 80's Action-Hero motif and appreciable alternative to "vanilla Contra." It's a game which many players could still find some enjoyment out of today, and it's absolutely worth a look.

Pick up our popular iPhone app 180, now available for Android - FREE!

Retro Game of the Day - Archives

Game Development Blog #53

2011-05-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #53

"This is a Call!"

Greetings once again and welcome to another edition of "blog" by "Headcase Games!" Not so unusually, I have taken it upon myself to shake things up slightly around here with a new banner and a new feature announcement, as well, so without further adieu I present to you:

That's right! Periodically within this journal, we will take a look at other independent developers, short-form interview-style (focusing on, but not strictly limited to the mobile gaming scene). In the past few years of this operation I've made some wonderful contacts, and it's a very exciting time to pick some of their brains and see how things are going from their POV in the different aspects of development. Likewise it's very interesting to see what people's opinions are of what's going on in the gaming scene lately, both micro and macro.

So! I will be hitting up folks for some dev-on-dev action in the near future. If I do not know you and you'd like to participate, please drop me a line. I've a long-running blog with a decent readership, and this is an excellent way to connect with others in the scene as well as get a little focus on your own products. Don't be shy!

And now, on to the rest of the news:

180 - well, we've just passed our 1-month milestone since Android release. It seems like it's been out a lot longer for some reason :) Anyway, the game is doing alright, as usual there are good and bad things to report. It's still quite early to tell the ultimate result of this particular project, but at this point I am happy with the numbers we've got downloaded (>100 for the $1.99 paid version, >12,000 for the free ad-supported version). By comparison, a year ago we got about 600 or 700 downloads of our paid iPhone version to sell nearly immediately, and our free version (labeled as such) without any ad-support never really moved many units at all, or with any real traction.

The bad side of it is that despite some very nice "launch speed," our download rate has dropped off dramatically. It's still very difficult to compare due to lack of DL data for the first few weeks (a glitch in the system, not our fault) but where we used to get thousands of Android DLs/day, we now are lucky to barely break 100. If this persists it won't be too bad, but if it slows down (as I'd expect it to) then it is not a good sign as it means the app hasn't got "legs" such as it is, and word of mouth is not properly propelling it. Our active install percentage is dropping by degrees (it seems 1 in 2 downloaders delete the app) which means that many people probably are not playing it more than momentarily. This speaks to the "old school" design of the game, which just throws you into the action and expects you to catch-up - it seems many gamers want to have their hands held with clearly-defined goals and constant immediate gratification even if they play badly. That's my off-the-cuff assumption anyway. Still, I appreciate our game for what it is, rather than what it is not, and I still think it is resonating properly with enough people who "get it" that I won't say we were wrong for designing it the way we did.

As an addendum, we are preparing to develop the casual mode update shortly, which might be more digestable for today's mobile gamer, and serve as more of a draw overall. I still haven't touched it since before last I wrote, but hopefully we can turn it around in short order depending on what life will allow.

The good news, on the other hand, is that something pretty fancy is happening with 180 and I am very happy about it. In some ways it's really the best thing that's happened to HCG since this development's inception. I am not at liberty to talk about it for the time being, but unlike many other "positive prospects" previously mentioned in this blog's history, this one has finally moved past a threshold where things are actually in motion and I don't have to sweat it as much anymore. It really is a relief and I am keeping a sharp eye on what's next with that development, and I'll be sure to spill the beans in this journal as soon as I am able.

Trapdoor - unsurprisingly, things are still in a serious holding pattern for this project. There is some preproduction work moving, but the proof-of-concept is what really needs to get into motion, so hopefully this can move forward soon. I've recently decided to to with upgrading this from "release it as simply as possible" to "inject some honest-to-goodness character in it, therefore making it more marketable." It will likely extend the already-overdue production schedule of the project, but it would be nice to make this a game where there's a chance people might actually want to DL it to :) I must reiterate that though the gameplay will be quite old-school and light, it will still be fun and worthy of the HCG brand name.

Biz Dev - well, really only one thing to say in this regard:

That's right! Holy cow, E3 is nearly upon us, it's just few short weeks away. As I live merely a few subway stops away from the convention center, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that I will be in attendance. E3 is a lot of fun but especially for us indies, it's all about the business: be sure to drop me a line (<-email link, of course) if you are a member of the media, another developer, or even a fan of our games and we can make a plan to meet up during the show. It's my goal to talk to as many people as possible, so once again "don't be shy." I've certainly got a lot to say about my present projects and future plans..

That will wrap up today's post, and just in time too because I have a ton of work to do! As usual, HCG needs your help - please watch & spread our "Hipster Game Development Blues" video

And be sure to grab our game 180 as well!

Game Development Blog #52

2011-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #52

"EXHAUSTIPATED"

Greetings, faithful Head-heads! It is time for another installment with Yours Truly. Let's nosedive into the wonderful and weirdo world of app development and kick off with the typical State of the Union:

180 - alright now even I am tired of writing about it! But, I do still enjoy playing this game - I think after all of this time, the very game I made has gone onto become my most-played, ever - and if not, then damn near close to it. That is a little hard to believe. Anyway, here's the latest news on this project: we've finally got a brand-new website redesign to flaunt, which has been a long time in coming (and should really have been completed prior to the Android Launch, but what can you do). I was on the heels of doing some emergency-redesign work for my friend's videogame coverband website, and it helped me get a little kickstart; I am happy with the results. I still need to rework the general HcG and RetroGame websites, but those are fairly low-priority for now.

We've been promoting a YouTube video today, a friend shot some off-the-cuff footage of me talking about my recent release (as he was documenting me doing some deliveries for a document about Los Angeles Food Trucks!) I think the video came out well, it's funny and flows well (if a bit low-budget, which is fine). Please watch the video and share it with your friends if you enjoy it, if we can get some views than it will only lead to good things for 180 and for me.

Progress on further development of 180 is frozen for the moment, but the Android programmer and I have decided to proceed with investigating the aforementioned Casual Mode further. As previously mentioned in this column, the early prototype was quite fun and the mechanics lend themselves wonderfully to a modified experience (without just feeling like a "tweaked game mode"). I'd like to spend a little time to flush it out, so no one should expect it to show up for a little while (maybe a month?)

And now for the moment you are waiting for, what kind of numbers is 180 doing? I am happy and sad, at the same time, to report that while we've passed 10,000 downloads of (our ad-supported version of) 180 on the Android, the download rate has been dropping off considerably. About 50% of our installs are active and that number is slowly deteriorating. What this means is that we have a great starting base, but (as expected) the follow-through longevity is quite difficult. As we've still got very light visibility across the board, it's imperative to find a way to strengthen our brand. I need to do another "pass" at appealing to YouTube and website reviewers, but as mentioned before many of those guys are beyond slammed with requests these days that it becomes hard to get their attention "if they don't already know you" (and often times, even in such a case).

I have spent time familiarizing myself with the workings of AdMob, and surprised to see that we are pulling in a couple of bucks a day (literally) from our ad-support. This is going to be heavily reliant on building and maintaining our active installs, which would ideally be about 2-3X greater than it is right now (for starters). A couple of bucks a day is not bad, but it's tough to consider that a worthwhile profit in the longer term. I have no qualms putting out strictly "free-to-play" but if you have <10k minimum active players, that's really not worth having anything in release. I say all this with the caveat that yes, we are not even a full month into our release yet, and as this platform is still relatively new (and our brand is quite new) that I expect over time these numbers will grow into something more satisfactory. I have much more to say on the whole AdMob monetization system and will touch on it again in the future.

Trapdoor - "the next" title from Headcase Games, sadly, not much progress has transpired since last I have written. Although some solid work has been done, it's still at an early enough state where the project isn't self-motivating yet. Ideally I'd still like to release this game before July of this year, and if it happens during that month I will be fairly happy as well. Hopefully there will be some brighter news to report by the next update!

Biz Dev - I am always putting myself out there to some degree, and the attention that 180 (in its various forms) gets me makes it a little easier for opportunities to find me sometime, as well. As a result, good things pop up on the radar time and again. Sometimes they progress, other times they wind up a goose egg. I've got a couple great-sounding prospects lined up at the moment, but as it's still sitting at a cross-road, I'll keep mum until there is more to tell. This is one of the more exciting parts of doing this business, and even when such deals poof out, I do feel ecstatic to know that I made some really good headway under my own steam!

What Else is Going On - The calm before the storm once again, as the dark looking shadow of E3 slowly winds its way toward our timid little town. Inside of a month, things will be upside down once again. E3 last year was a crazy time, and I can't say I know what to expect this time around. I don't really expect to be out in force heavily promoting anything this time, and as time and money are very tight, I don't think I'll be going too crazy one way or the other. I will be out and try to make some connections though, as it is always good for that. Fans, fellow devs, potential business partners, feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to meet up.

Otherwise, things are quiet. I still would like to get my hands on Portal 2 at some point, and it's been fascinating (in an infuriating way) to watch the fallout from this PSN network outage. I am currently seeking employment in one way or another (to keep paying rent) so wish me luck on that in these dark and dry times!

Retro Game of the Day! Shining in the Darkness

2011-05-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Shining in the Darkness

Shining in the Darkness by Sega and Climax Entertainment (Japanese developer, not the similarly-named UK house) released for the Sega Genesis in 1991.

Those who know me are aware that I was never big into RPG gaming; still when an EGM offshoot magazine called Mega Play published early screens of a game called "Shining Darkness," it was hard to ignore. The screens looked impressive, the game was 8 Megabits (impressive for a cartridge memory size at the time) and there really was nothing else that looked like it on the market at the time. The wave of SNES RPGs was a ways off still, and there hadn't been much at all on the Genesis either.

The game looked (and played) much like a souped-up next generation version of Sega's well-known 8-bit hit Phantasy Star. Two important differences - this was a newer generation software, and where PS was definitely a traditional mange style, SITD had a very unusual art style (particularly for a Japanese RPG) - it felt like a mix of light-manga with a bit of a European-inspired style perhaps, and it looked very out-of-place on the Genesis for that reason, although not to it's detriment.

The game itself was as you'd expect, and in modern consideration it looks and plays out quite primitive; but at the time, it was very fresh. The game was slow, a crawling grind, with very limited options (as many RPGs of the day were) yet it was still quite engrossing with it's charming-yet-dark world and fairly well-written character dialogue. Ultimately, Shining in the Darkness was a title I never got terribly far through, but for me it will always be memorable as an early landmark title on the system and a worthy follow-up to it's source material.

Pick up our popular iPhone app 180, now available for Android - FREE!

Retro Game of the Day - Archives

Retro Game of the Day! Vindicators

2011-05-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Vindicators

Vindicators by Atari Games, arcade release in 1988.

Another somewhat famous title from the masterminds at Atari Games during their heyday in the arcade, this game put you in control of a tank charged with maneuvering your way through enemy "stations" as you blasted everything in your path, collecting keys, stars, and of course fuel.

The gimmick here was the dual-stick control setup - and a very awkward one at that, which ultimately didn't do the game many favors in achieving long-lasting popularity. The setup was neat and certainly challenging, and no doubt it gave the game a very unique feel that was never seen anywhere else (although in some ways, it was reminiscent of a game like Assault) Two sticks, push both forward to move forward, push one to advance at an ark, in opposite directions to spin. Turret controls were independent; overall you had extraordinary control of your vehicle, but few likely had the patience to master them.

The game looked very much like you were cruising around in a Tron-inspired world, appropriately enough, even if the tank designs didn't match so much. Though a strange game top-to-bottom, Vindicators had a cool-sounding name, an intriguing approach, and an appreciable execution from a developer who wasn't afraid to take some chances. An unlicensed NES port surfaced as well, rather long on looks but with faithful gameplay.

Pick up our popular iPhone app 180, now available for Android - FREE!

Game Development Blog #51

2011-04-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #51

"THE WAITING GAME"

180 - Heyyyyynow, it's 2 weeks since we've launched this on Android. What does it look like? Here's what's going on:

- numbers: just shy of 10,000 downloads of our free version, mayyyyybe? It's hard to tell. Google's App Developer Console seems to be notoriously messy when detailing exactly what actual download numbers are like - I have no idea what to think. For those who love math, we've received a good 120,000 (or so) impressions on Admob, which translates to about $2 a day. Perhaps from there you can deduce our install base. As for our paid game, Console says we are 1 shy of 50 sales. I'm fine with that, it's much more important to me at this point that we have a larger growth of our free edition.

- a few updates have released, and substantial ones at that. Nothing really new content-wise (which you could tell), but performance-wise the new build appears to be much more pleasant than the initial release. I am kind of kicking myself for "jumping the gun" and releasing without testing more, but there's a lot of good reasons that we did it when we did. I think our initial release was our first actual "proper" beta test unfortunately (it is extremely hard to find willing testers, most people aren't interested). Regardless, Alex churned out a new edition in record time so I don't think we were to hurt by it.

- marketing was really difficult, in many ways I still feel like I am in the thick of it. It's probably the truly hardest part of development, particularly for a game like 180. I'd hoped our little gimmick would get us some press, and it did get us a little (and no doubt the lion's share of those 10k downloads), but even worse than ever before we were largely ignored by press and calls for reviews. We did get a little, and for that I am thankful (you know who you are) but very disappointed that there is just so little interest in newsworthiness of a decent (at least) Android release, especially at a dead-quiet time in the news. I know, "it's a puzzle game" but on the flip side of it, as I might have mentioned before - we have had really tremendous response from the people who actually have picked up the game, in fact way better than we have ever received with the original iOS version. I am rather disappointed in my media connections as well (people I'd written with/to before) as most of those just ignored us, ad it's not like I have been quiet in the meantime. Again, this just goes to show the state of independent development on Android right now; it's still sort of a quiet place, and this is a shame.

- what's next for 180 - I am tidying up some social business on the promotional side of things, I still have some contacts to reach out to, and I have a "physical marketing" campaign to tend to which should execute as this week wraps up. I am looking at a heavy load of design work and editing before I reach the other end of that. We're definitely on the downward slope of the campaign with this thing at this phase, but it's certainly worth giving a last strong push as it finishes getting launched. The numbers look pretty good (I'd be happy if they were at least doubled) but I'd like to think there's still some room to move that. Keep an eye out for future interesting marketing promotion from us very soon, and if all goes well, a little burst of press if we get lucky.

- future updates for 180 - now that the existing product is in a nice post-launch state of decent function, I am gonna lay off my programmer and let him have some time to cool off (especially as I've other things to deal with). When we pick it back up again (which will happen if things don't go flat) I want to focus on refining the Casual Mode which we started to prototype. Even in an early phase it was quite fun and I think could only make the whole package that much stronger/easier to sell, in fact I think in some ways it would be more well-received by the audience. I think we could realistically turn it around in a couple of weeks, but as we're busy with other things I'll just leave it on the shelf for the time being.

- what about 180 for iOS? Hey, good question! I've packaged up all the new assets and sent them over to the iOS programmer for consideration (different guy than the Android coder). He's looking into a new way to package the graphics on his end (which will no doubt be a bit of work) and this means potential inclusion of the new HD assets (retina display resolution). Likewise we've talked about integrating Game Center, and then the "future planned modes" (Casual Mode et al) As usual I will say if our downloads on the Android side pick up dramatically then there's a decent possibility that a release of an iOS update will occur sooner rather than later; long story short, no one should be holding their breath for this in any near amount of time.

Trapdoor - yay! It's a new IP from HcG! I've bantered about it a little here and there, but now I finally feel it's close enough to becoming a reality that I can start posting official status updates on this project. I've been talking and thinking a lot about TD lately, documents have been written and reviewed, and prototyping is soon to come. I'm still deciding what stylistic route to go, and talking with some artistic collaborators as well; like anything else I do, TD will be an experiment, but I am hoping to keep it a lightweight one so that it can see release in a relatively short window. As of this writing it's definitely going to be an Android product, but I am doing what I can to facilitate release on other platforms as well. I have some pretty interesting idea for how I'd like to handle the production of this game (basically, I want to keep it "open to the public") and if that does happen, you can expect to see a lot of details (and perhaps even freely accessible betas) very soon. It is important to note that this game is intended to be a fairly casual/ligt affair, simpler by degrees than something like 180; that doesn't mean it can't still be a successful, quality product however.

Biz Dev - holed up as I usually am, not really talking with folks too much right now about anything other than all I have outlined above. There's a few important things bouncing around in my head that I'd love to proceed with development-wise, but first things first. I do have 2 different mobile games (unrelated to 180 or TD) that I really want to see go into & through production before this year is out, if that can happen I will be very happy. I have some wonderful game ideas gnawing at my soul and demanding development, and I really want to get busy bringing them to reality as soon as humanly possible. As usual, this depends on a lot of other things to happen first. Otherwise, we've got a bunch of events to look forward to (E3 is a month away) and that is always a very busy time. And to top it all off, I need money so I have to spend some time seeking an income source (and then working if I can actually pick up some kind of gig)

What Else is Going On - yeah, the world of gaming is topsy-turvey, what else is new. this whole PSN mess is unnerving to say the least (umm.. can I cancel my account?) To be frank, hackers really scare me. Not what they've ever done historically.. that I am aware of, anyway.. but the potential they are sitting on, especially as things get more political and more "cluelessly connected." This is just a chilling sign of things to come. Otherwise, Portal 2 has released, my oft-proclaimed "most-wanted game of 2011" and while still true, I am am too busy/broke to pick it up for now. That's fine, I will get my paws on it at some point.

We played Kinect at a friend's house last weekend, it was the first time I have ever seen it. Definitely a very rough-around-the-edges setup that Microsoft have released, it doesn't deliver on some of the perceived promises (no 1:1 from anyone, ever!) but in spite of it all, I still left the experience impressed with what they've accomplished. I can't say I know what the future holds for Kinect (I don't think I'd say it is "bright," it still just feels like a big gimmick), but I definitely would love the opportunity to design games for such an interface someday, the gameplay potential is huge!

This will wrap-up for today's entry! As usual, keep an eye out and do what you can to help spread the word on our game - it means everything, going forward!

Retro Game of the Day! SimCity

2011-04-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! SimCity

SimCity by Nintendo, released in 1991 for the Super Nintendo.

Will Wright's classic creation, and certainly one of the game-changers of the industry back in its day. SimCity appeared years earlier on personal computers, but my first taste of this incredible game was on the Super Nintendo. Alright, let me rectify that - I had a prior glimpse of the game running in all it's black-and-white glory on a Macintosh, but my "spoiled by Nintendo" eyeballs were a little put off by the aesthetic. Besides, the screen was just so full of.. stuff.. how could this be any fun?

Answer: easily! SimCity was one of the first "interactive computer toys" to really enjoy widespread popularity on such a huge scale, and certainly launched one of the most successful and longest-running franchises in the history of the medium (ultimately, The Sims!)

The game tasked you with being the mayor and chief construction officer of a large, empty chunk of land; you were tasked with growing it into a sprawling, self-sufficient metropolis. You needed to lay down all the roads, railways, structures, powerplants, football stadiums, etc. Other responsibilities required the player to zone different areas appropriately (commercial, residential, and industrial) and be sure to position them properly so as to draw inhabitants to your city, to live, work and play. You needed to monitor things like traffic, import/export, taxes, police and fire coverage and of course prevent everything from deteriorating with time. For a Nintendo game, this was unheard-of complicated; but is was presented very brightly and cheerfully, with that usual "Nintendo Charm." It certainly stood in stark contrast to other North American launch offerings, perhaps that was one of the reasons why it was so popular.

SimCity was an incredibly complex game, but it had a certain charm that felt like "Legos for grown-ups" - you built this city (on rock and rolllll) and in just a short time it already started feeling absolutely alive. The game has certainly aged over the decades, but even it's earliest incarnations are still quite fun to just pick up and play from scratch to this day; although it did birth a whole new genre, nothing has ever matched the even keel of simplistic complexity prevalent in this wonderful game.

That's right - our very popular iPhone app 180 is now available for Android!

Game Development Blog #50

2011-04-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #50

"POST-LAUNCH BLUES"

180 - alright, well the cat is out of the bag! After a lot of back-and-forth, we finally released the new rebuilt-from-scratch version of 180 for Android for the first time ever, last week on Tuesday April 12. We didn't make the originally intended "release before the NA release of Nintendo 3DS" but getting out the door before "April 19 - Portal 2" was good enough. Let's take a look at the details of the release.

We've got two versions available on Android Market - 180 Ultra ($1.99 USD) and 180 (Free). Both version are ultimately identical, but whereas Ultra has four gameplay modes and four selectable characters/themes right out of the box, the Free game limits you to one character to start and only the Endless Mode available for play; additionally, Free is ad-supported. The catch is that as you play through the Free game, all of the features will gradually unlock (based on a gameplay-time-release mechanism) charted with a progress bar on the title screen. Play through 10 cumulative hours and you'll get all gameplay modes/characters, as well as the complete removal of all advertising.

It's a bold experiment, this idea had been kicking around in my noggin for a long time now (a year and a half!) I think it could be every successful and the press has taken to it a little bit (generally met with a lot of positive support) as a. people don't like to pay for things and b. people hate looking at advertising. This gives the game a perceived value, and it also gives a choice to those who want to be able to support the developers one way or another. It is obviously too early to tell if this venture will be successful; attaching the monetization method to a game like 180 is both perfect and also difficult (the game is new on Android, but it is still "a puzzle game.")

Very fortunately, the Android community has been awfully positively receptive not only to the monetization technique, but the unique gameplay itself. I do think this game is a better fit for the Android market at this point in it's lifecycle that what the iOS version was to that marketplace when it released; the new HD skin doesn't hurt either. We're a long way to becoming press darlings (we've got a couple of decent-profile mentions), but until a big outlet covers us with a nice review breaking down the game, we are still seeing very light download numbers compared to what we need to be successful and make money. The game has been out nearly 1 week, but it has yet to reach 1/100th of the amount of (paid and free combined) downloads seen on iOS over the course of 9 months. This is just to put some numbers out there, not to set up any sort of expectation just yet; there's still a long way to go.

The Android market is very different culturally than the iOS market, it's simply nowhere near as mature (I don't mean in attitude, rather in accessibility) and therefore is relatively far less friendly to developers of any level trying to promote and make money off their product, in my experience. I expect this to advance slowly but surely, particularly over the course of the next 12 months as the market will certainly become more mainstream and accessible; but it is not an understatement to note that the iOS market has a giant head-start in all aspects of it's culture, pertaining to things like getting word out about one's product and generating/maintaining buzz about an app, from a lay-developer's point of view. Sure, there are many blogs and twitter feeds, and there's plenty of destinations to set up camp where a developer must try to court their audience; but there's simply no dedicated TouchArcade or SlideToPlay where a ravenous and interactive community will embrace interesting productions with relative ease. On the contrary. There are plenty of places where apps get name-dropped, but they all seem to quickly slip over one another and melt into a large "soup," or so I have seen from the research I have done. I do wish I had taken more time to facilitate things in my own case, but as I am part of a very small team, I could only do so much (and it was still a lot of effort on my part).

That all being said, nearly a week out I am still expending a lot of energy courting press, trying to make waves with community, and build up interest with promotions across my social networks in the manner I usually do. It's turning into a lot of clicks for me (which is nice) and a *fair* amount of downloads which is growing at a reasonable, if unimpressive rate. As my main property is free, it is hard to expect that it will grow exponentially without some serious word-of-mouth; I can only hope my "Trojan Horse" (the "free app after 10 hours" gimmick) supported by well-received visuals and top-notch, original gameplay can all combine to weather the early storm of, wait for it, "The Post-Launch Blues."

Meanwhile, I have met with Ben (coder for original iOS version of 180) and discussed going forward with bringing the original title up to speed to match the Android version. It has been alluded to in this column before, and I don't want to make any promises while it is still early; as usual I will say "if Android picks up speed, it will hasten the movement on iOS." Nevertheless, I've bundled up all the HD assets and delivered to him,and he's begun work on investigating GameCenter integration as well as recompiling the project under an updated codebase.

Press -
oldSchoolJunkie interview
androidGuys
giant reddit thread
androidPolice
uncutAndroid
the Portable Podcast!

Bizdev - I've since written up a treatment for a first draft of the Trapdoor design document, it's fairly thorough and has gone from being a simple game concept to something fairly well flushed-out. I've yet to have follow up meetings with Kyle, who'll be handling coding duties, but he seems excited and we should start actual development on the project real soon to the point where there will be a proof-of-concept (1st playable). This is starting life as an Android project as well, although I am courting other developers for simultaneous development on iOS and WP7 as well; since it's "small" it should potentially be reasonable to carry out development on all three, although there's a lot about working in such a manner that is truly unknown to me as of yet so until anything further is nailed down, I'll remain noncommittal. As usual, I do have a "scheme" in mind with this one; aside from "merely" developing between 3 platforms/split teams at once, I am toying with the idea of doing the project completely open: making all of the documentation, and work-in-progress freely available for the public consumption as the project progresses, to the point where all notes and design documentation are available as they come into being, and betas are freely available for anyone's perusal. This should be a very interesting experience for anyone interested in small-time development to watch from the sidelines. I am still not sure if it's a green-light yet, but I think it would be an excellent way to generate buzz as well as sharing something unique with the community. Keep your eyes peeled.

What Else is Going On - not terribly much, I've been working around the clock up to release and following it. In the interest of keeping this blog from becoming terribly overbloated, I've not got too much into the nitty gritty of a lot of things, but mind that I am exhausted and just so happy to see another project "put forth into the world." I still play 180 all the time (yes, really!) and feel it's one of my most important contributions to game culture so far, and feel very thankful for those who've created it with me - as well as those who appreciate the game and try to help spread the word. Keep it up, we need your help more now than ever :)

Otherwise, things are quiet (fortunately for me) in videogameland. Of course Portal 2 releases in a couple of days (tomorrow, technically) and it is "the one game I am interested in playing this year;" though to be honest, that won't happen for some time. I am interested to see the re-imagining of Rush'n'Attack which has just released for digital download, and as always there's a handful of apps i have had my eyes on for some time. I am (sort of?) surprised by how quickly the buzz around the Nintendo 3DS has defused, I still haven't got my hands on one and while I am interested, not really in a hurry just yet (like many say, let's see some good games come around first!) Of course Nintendo just dropped the bomb at last that "a new console is coming" and that E3 will shed some light on the subject, I think (as usual) people are waiting to see what they say with cautious anticipation. It is interesting, especially to see Nintendo taking the tech-lead in such a manner for once; I am surprised, although I can't say it's got me particularly excited just on that word alone.

That's it for now friends, as usual please support us and we will do our best to please you - the best is yet to come :)

180 for Android Launches NOW!

2011-04-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

180 for Android - Available NOW!

Want a chance to win a free app of your choice for your iPhone or Android? We have daily contests - see below!

That's right - our very popular iPhone app has broken through to the Other Side!
The new Android version of 180 is both all-new and very familiar at the same time - we've rebuilt it from scratch, the code is all-new and so are the assets. The game is rendered in beautiful 640x960 resolution, and it looks incredible on a tablet.

Better yet, we've got 2 versions of this great game for Android. 180 Ultra for Android (USD $1.99) features several modes, characters and themes, right from the get-go. However, you can also pick up the standard-issue 180 for Android (FREE). It's got the exact same content as Ultra, you must simply play the game to unlock all the features. Wanna hear the best part? The final unlock removes all the advertisements! Simply play the game long enough (10 hours) and the full game is yours for FREE, with no advertising at all!

180 is an extremely highly-rated game on iTunes and is poised to conquer Android as well. It's a simple pick-up-and-play affair, you'll learn the rules inside of a minute; once you figure out how to play, you'll start to sense the depth of strategy we've designed into this beast. 180 is bright and colorful, but don't be fooled by the friendly looks. This game will make you cry as it builds up your confidence, then crushes you beneath a relentless wall of candy-colored coins. Practice hard and develop strategies and you can easily dominate far into the higher levels, but as the game gets faster you'll have to keep evolving your technique, or you are gonna fall.. hard! The gameplay is quite addictive, so you will learn from each loss and only come back stronger!

.

(Contest currently inactive)

How'd you like to win your choice of any iPhone App from iTunes, or Android App from Amazon AppStore (max value at $1.99)? Here's the opportunity to do that; come back every day for a new chance to play!

To enter, you must satisfy two conditions:

1. follow @headcaseGames on twitter
2. simply retweet this message at least once a day

That's all there is to it! Winners will be notified by a DM on twitter.
-You must live in the USA to participate
-You must claim a prize within 24 hours of notification, or it is forfeit.

Want to win MORE prizes? Follow us on Facebook, where we hold daily contests!

Now, go grab 180 for your Android - Full unlockable game, with ad-removal - it's FREE!

Also available on iPhone!

Game Development Blog #49

2011-03-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

Game Development Blog #49

I guess it is time to drop the "iPhone App-" prefix from the title of this blog, since I'm actively working on Android development now; mind that I am not closing the door on iPhone, just taking a brief respite. Anyway, on with the show.

180 - still working on the new version of this game, here I am at the final days of March and though I projected to have the game wrapped up and launched by this point, it looks like we'll bleed a bit (good choice of words, right?) into April. No matter, the app is looking and playing super and I'd rather take a little time and tweak things to be *just right* rather than scoot it out the door before its' time. After what happened with the iOS version (buggered tutorial mode, poorly-received screenshots, badly designed UI) I'd prefer not to repeat those mistakes. That being said, we're at about 95% of asset completion I believe, though a good bit of stuff has yet to be implemented into the engine (mostly character art and a bit of UI elements). The meat of the game is present and playable, it's all running at wonderful performance where we've tested it (higher end of course :P) and with the higher resolution as well. The one part I am really eager to cinch - other than finalizing the tutorial bits and testing them in the field - is to make sure the "monetization scheme" is setup properly and sensible. This is a big experiment for me and I will say plenty about it when the time comes (at launch), if all goes well I may find myself getting some press out of it; that would be killer!

In the meantime here's some WIP screens to whet your appetites, if you've not seen 'em already on the usual networks:
1
2

I've spent a lot of time recently investigating the forums, something major that I've learned following iOS is that you don't work long and hard in secret and then just release something to the public in hopes that it will take off in an instant. Unless you are sitting on something pretty crazy (read: cost unbelieveable amounts of time, money and manpower to make, looks easily better than most other things on the market) then most of your intended audience will have no idea/concern who you are and what you are selling. Even with these screenshots I get less than a glance, at this point: but at least I have started and can build from here. As I wrap up production, leaning in heavy with the promotion and marketing is of utmost importance in the time leading up to your launch. It can make a huge difference between 100 people seeing your app, or 1,000, or 10,000.

And even then, you have to be good at talking and singing and dancing, give them some reason to know you and why they should even care. A game like 180 is very difficult to sell based on screenshots, name, and "history" alone. It still needs something more. I am working on that... look at my twitter account, look at my Facebook page(s), my blogs.. all this stuff I have painstakingly built up over time (years), now is opportunity to try and make use of these things - and even then, it's still quite an uphill battle with no guarantees.

Here's some forums I have begun looking at, there's a few I've yet to get into as well. My efforts here haven't been met with much consideration, but I'll get started pushing shortly. I list them here in hopes that others will find this info useful as well...

droidGamers.com
androidPolice.com
droidForums.net *
sdx-developers.com *
androidForums.com *
xda-developers.com

(the starred* ones are links to "coming soon" posts I have started - if you want to help foster some discussion in those threads, i could certainly use the help - even if it is just to say hello!)

Bizdev - I was supposed to write up a full draft for Trapdoor this past weekend, but got caught up with the things I've mentioned. I'll try to spit it out in the next couple of days. It's a small and "simple" game in it's current concept, fun (for sure) but a bit light - I'd like to put my brain on it and pull something a little deeper out of it. That's my "thing" and I don't worry that I could do it, I just need to have a little room to get busy with it. It's difficult to execute on a new project when I am still dealing with half-completed issues from the existing (several-years-in-development, officially) project laying around. But then, that is how things usually go, right?

Otherwise, I am looking to possibly pick up some hefty freelance work (non-mobile gaming) to keep the lights on, and that might slam me pretty hardcore in the coming weeks. The timing is rough but I do need to earn a living, so hopefully it will all work out for the best. We'll see what happens!

What Else is Going On - Of course, the new 3DS has finally launched here in North America, and is rolling out in the rest of the world as well. No pickup for me - last Nintendo device I bought was a GBA Micro (which I loved, excellent system!), in fact I've never had a DS (and barely ever played on to be honest). That's part of the reason the 3DS interests me, I admit - but I believe I've gone over it in this blog at length before, games are getting too heady and full of themselves these days, 3DS looks to me like it represents a step back into the realm of things just being "fun" and that is great - it really appeals to me. If they make some oldschool F-Zero and StarFox-style games for that unit, then sign me up straight away!
Otherwise, not much else to report, I have a backlog of things I am interested in and curious to check out. None of my consoles receives any play, at all, anymore - can't say I miss them (too busy!) though there are a few things I want to get on board with. Likewise, I can't say I've been enjoying much on the mobile gaming scene. That's not to say it's not been brilliantly busy, and there's been a steady stream of interesting activity all over the place. Not much that's captivated me however, once in awhile I will dip in and look and be somewhat interested for a moment and then back out once again. I like a lot of what is going on, but I do feel that a lot of developers are still really "missing the point" and making games which are fighting with these new interfaces rather than taking advantage of it, and that leaves me cold. The audiovisual tech of many of these games are on the money - some remarkably so - but when the busted play control is ruined because my finger keeps swiping over the playfield and obscuring everything, it really just leaves me feeling frustrated. Ah well, it is still early.

DAILY 180 CONTEST: Win Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP!

2011-03-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Facebook contest!

Behold, an artistic gaming triumph known only as Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP! It can be yours, son, if you have an iPad and a little bit o' luck!

Simply post a comment in this facebook thread by midnight tonight and you might snag yourself a copy of this wonderful new adventure! US iTunes account only - see full rules here.

Good luck - now get to posting!

Brought to you by 180 for iPhone, coming soon for Android too!

DAILY 180 CONTEST: Win Angry Birds Rio!

2011-03-23T16:40:00.001-07:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Facebook contest!

Want to win a copy of the newly-released Angry Birds Rio for iPhone?

Simply post a comment in this Facebook thread by midnight tonight and you might snag yourself one of THREE copies! US iTunes account only - see full rules here.

Good luck - now get to posting!

Brought to you by 180 for iPhone, coming soon for Android too!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #48

2011-03-17T02:03:00.000-07:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #48

180 - wrapping up Android development of the souped-up version of this game. It's actually been super-busy with that, I have got nearly all the assets rezzed up (still another day or two's worth to do). New UI is designed and being implemented, I am trying my hardest to get the game a decent level more presentable than the previous game (which as I've continuously stated, looks great for what it is but has never been very marketable in screenshots). There's a few funky things going on under the hood for the plan on this new iteration, how it will be marketed and (hopefully) to pull in money. I don't wanna let the cat out of the bag until it's ready, but it might be pretty successful if it catches on. I've never seen this particular strategy used before!

We experimented with a casual mode for the game, and I quite like it. Rather than push forward to launch with it, I am going to pull back and flesh it out a bit more and make it more than just a one-trick pony; the actual development and release of such a mode will certainly depend on the reception following release, but already it's quite fun and I can't wait to get deeper with it. Likewise I have long been planning to make a special "tablet" mode of this game and that will likely follow suit as well, if we get some decent download numbers. These updates could be big and I am excited to produce them! Also on deck is a multiplayer mode, and it would be fairly easy to design that; and it would be super fun to play as well. That's gonna require somee headier tech one way or another, so I am going to still leave that one for down the road as well. Between all these new modes and ideas, we have a case where an already very good game can go onto becoming extraordinary - so, let's see how this plays out!

I intended for the game to launch prior to the NA release of the 3DS; sadly it's not going to happen, but it won't be long now.

Bizdev - regular readers of this blog will recall other projects I have alluded to in the past (the mysterious "3" for example). I've finally begun production on a completely new game, from scratch. It's just barely begun (we are prototyping, and I have to do a full design document pass) but it is underway and I am excited. It's a very "old" Headcase game, in that it's rough design was a predecessor to 180 - but as I am starting out with another new programmer, this smaller project will be a great way for us to begin our collaboration towards bigger things. The game itself is called "Trapdoor," and while it will be a very simple game (less complex mechanics than 180), it will still be quite fun and very accessible. Good old arcade-style and well-suited for mobile gaming. Trapdoor will begin life as an Android title, but hopefully we can get it running on other platforms as well before too long (I strongly believe that iOS is the place to be for games, if one hopes to get real visibility; at least for now!)

Otherwise I was struck by some fabulous inspiration last week and jotted down some notes for a great new game idea, one which had been stewing in a very raw form in my head for several months but always lacking that critical piece that would make it "work" as a mobile game. That element finally came to me, I roughed it out a little on paper, and the project started getting a little life already. I think this game could easily succeed, between the art style, the gameplay, and the interface. It's really one of the no-brainers in that "no one's nailed this genre before" and if properly executed, it should be a shoo-in for being a hit that will sell fairly easily. You have been warned :) Development of this title will commence in some months and could conceivably see the light of day by the 3rd quarter if things go smoothly, but in all honesty it is just too early to say right now. At any rate I am itching to get working on this puppy more than anything else really.

Besides the apps, I am working hard to maintain Headcase Games' social presence(s). Between the various websites, the twitter, the facebook(s), all the contests and routine promotion, it does get a bit bogged down, though after all this time I have managed to get much of it running fairly well on autopilot in a large fashion (I don't have to sink much time/work into many of the parts, but there is still steady enough content being delivered). I haven't covered any retrogame reviews for some ages, although I really intend to resuscitate that in some form or other (at least, on a weekly basis). As I'm just scrambling to oversee the wrap-up and launch of one game while a different one begins it's early stages, it gets hard for me to juggle too much at once, so that is why some things are just quieter than usual.

What Else is Going On - oh my god! To be honest it's a little hard to be so wrapped up in all of my work right now when there's such a humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions going on right now. The news is really dominating my mind - it is such a shame, and very upsetting, and it does get hard to concentrate. Living here in Los Angeles, of course all of this does make us fearful of "what could happen over here" (I don't wanna jinx it!), but really there is just so much concern and worry about all the tragedy that is befalling so many of our brothers and sisters overseas right now. Video game development seems fairly irrelevant in light of all of this calamity!
-
Anyway, we send our hope and support to those afflicted, and I want to pass on some links that you should check out if you have the means to help in the relief effort.

iPhone developers supporting here and here

American Red Cross

GlobalGiving

Salvation Army

Convoy of Hope

and more

iPhone App Game Development Blog #47

2011-03-01T00:53:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #47

*knock knoock* anyone out there?

180 - yep, still talking about this game :) Hi-resolution renders for the coins are being generated as I type this. As the Android version is nearing completion on the coding end of things, I am finally making an effort to rebuild the assets at a higher-res to take advantage of the sharper android screen. These assets could conceivably be re-output for a new iPhone build as well (Retina Display, as the kids like to call it) but I've no idea if that will happen - different codebase, different programmer. I'll ask and see if he is interested, and if so, maybe we could get GameCenter implemented as well. Don't count on either of those things happening anytime soon, although if we get any momentum from the Android release that would certainly be a good impetus.

The in-game characters remain in the new version, they've been completely overhauled (re-designed and re-animated) by a longtime buddy of mine, who's been toiling for years in television animation - he's got credits on Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill, as well as plenty of other things - so you know this stuff will look good (you can find an animation still on our twitter and Facebook pages). The avatars still work the same way (merely aesthetic), hopefully in a future game we can involve them more in the gameplay. I am just fine with keeping the current version of 180 with the established gameplay.

A huge thing we are trying to correct with this version of the game is the very beginning - the crucial first-play a new gamer will experience when they fire up the game. In iOS we showed 3 static "how-to" screens which explained gameplay in a simplified fashion, but it's been a harsh lesson that mobile gamers seldom read anything when starting with a game like this; they simply begin laying and if they cannot grasp the mechanics straight-off, they get frustrated and that's the end of it. I am pushing hard to get an animated "how-to" implented in there instead, I think in our case it will show the rules in a way that will be much easier to understand.

Otherwise, a big UI redesign is in the cards. That's next on my agenda following the coin re-renders. The ingame looks good, but the menu screen needs to go! It looks gaudy and amateurish at best, I think a cleaner and slicker presentation will do wonders for us.

That's about all to say for now. I have other ideas about what I'd like to do with 180 for Android, but as we speed to release I am just excited to get it wrapped and shipped, so to speak. We'll follow it up appropriately if necessary ;)

BizDev - I've met with another programmer and stated planning for some further (non-180) development as well. This has been an on-and-off process for me for a very long time, and believe you me it's never an easy proposition when one is in this situation. Programmers usually like to be paid lotsa money up front, and you can't blame them - but having a couple decent games under your belt helps to get their attention and consideration a little easier. Anyway, as 180 Android wraps up I am dusting off some other docs which have been mothballed and seeing what makes sense ot pursue with for development. I have a very simple game which looks like it will be a good contender to start with, and from there some other very solid ideas worth exploring. If all goes smoothly the first of these games might be turned around in as soon as a couple of months (it's fairly simple) I never wanna make promises about this stuff, but suddenly I find myself with a fair amount of time on my hands so I intend to create a lot of assets and design ideas.

It looks like I will be moving away from iPhone for the time being, and concentrating on Android development for these short-term ventures. I still think iPhone has a wonderful scene, and I want to try to steer my efforts back toward it, but it's a fairly difficult arena for a tiny guy like me to exist within at this time. I'm not leaving, just testing the waters elsewhere.

Otherwise, I am spending a lot of time and energy trying to build up and maintain the social networking side of things. I feel like my twitter presence has become rather stagnant (though still looking nice with a fair follower count, although rather small in the large scheme of things). I've been concentrating particularly on growing the Facebook presence for 180, it's been growing slowly but steadily. I have honestly poured serious hours and even some hundreds of dollars into trying to figure out how to best utilize Facebook, I feel that it is one of the best tools for a guy like me trying to spread the word about a product just like this. I am homing in on 500 fans for 180, which still is very small (I think I'd need an extra zero after that for people to even begin to take such a thing seriously), but with a lot of time and energy invested I've started to figure out how to grow it somewhat exponentially. Maybe too early to say that, but I am happy to see it's at least got some momentum and it definitely is getting a relatively large number of views.

What Else is Going On - I have been extremely busy with freelance (non-gaming) work since just before the New Year, and it's been captivating all of my free time up until right now. I am still seeking more work in order to keep the lights on (it's pretty close, uncomfortably so). It's a little wild to think I am at about 2 years into operating in this fashion (independent in many senses of the term!) and it's been a rough, aggravating road, but there's been some good spots along the way. Hopefully all the hard work and investment will pay off with some good news son. Watch this space - and thanks for reading!

Support Us - especially in light of the coming activities, I will really depend on the kindness of others to help get us where we need to be. I have lots of contacts and ideas about what to do to spread the word, but honestly it is never enough. I can never stress this too much - if someone out there follows Headcase and appreciates what we do, if you have any real contacts (media, etc) that can help us to get some spotlight - particularly for our impending Android release - that will be a huge help. Any coverage we can get, the higher profile the better, that's absolutely gold. I know our game is more than good enough to break through to the mainstream and stick around for awhile, considering how it looks and plays. You've seen it by now, either you like it or you don't :) Anyway if you can help in anyway, don't hesitate to drop me a line. Thanks again!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #46

2011-02-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #46

Whewww.. Cruising into February. Another year, same old business. I am going to shake things up a little bit here, and break from format once again. Here we go.

180 - working hard on development for Android platform, the game is actually quite far along. Very playable in it's current state, running excellent, it feels quite weird to have "the same old game" rewritten and running in a whole different operating system. If all goes well, we should see a release before the end of this month. I have a good amount of work on the non-coding end of things to deal with in preparation for the release, and am doing my best to keep on top of it. I have to give big shout-outs to Alex (current Android coder) and Ben (original iOS coder who is supporting) for making this happen! Expect a new game mode or two, and a visual facelift (as wel as some feature polish) to some degree. We will seek support from our fanbase to help spread the word following release!

HcG Bizdev - well, things are always very busy in this regard. I am always talking to whoever I can, to whatever degree - in some ways this is the most important aspect of development. I am determined to release a brand-NEW game this year, one way or another. Keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, I am overloaded-busy with (non-game) freelance work right now, to the degree where I have guilt about stopping to type this. So much is going on!

- Our Facebook page grew nicely recently, helped out by the iOS gamer/dev community and some very nice contests. This is instrumental in the forthcoming Android launch - please support us and Like this page and participate in the activites!

- Retro Game of the Day is on hiatus for the moment, unfortunately. I love writing them, and people love reading them, but I need to find a better way to steer it back towards our brand. I'll pick it up as time allows (especially nearing Android launch)

- FreeAppTracker.com is also going fairly steady, I optimized the website for iPhone display (at last!) Still trying to find a useful way to increase traffic over there as well.

- Podcast! I want to do one! I need some support, I started looking into the nuts and bolts of this but it was a little beyond me. If anyone wants to help out in anyway (editing, distributing, hosting, anything) please contact me. I've a lot to say - I liked doing YouTube's (especially since it is so easy) but the limitations over there really never it useless for what I would prefer to do.

What Else is Going On - ah yes, my impetus to write. There's so much going on in the world of video game news right now.

First up, Nintendo DS - launch is imminent. I have been fairly lukewarm on this device (especially following seeing it last year in my own hands - demo 3D (noninteractive) video), but as time has passed the notion is growing on me. For the first time in countless years (maybe 20!), I am excited to see a new console! I am drawn to this thing not merely because it's "a new Nintendo device" or even as a successor to the hugely successful DS, but because it really does seem like it will be a very cool toy and I think we will see some fairly novel games on there, the likes of which might even bring me back to how it felt being a gamer in"the good old days." Games were less structured, more about novel and gimmicky presentation (although held up by substance) and I have a strong inkling that we may see a fair enough resurgance of such a game on this new platform. The price doesn't seem terrible, and though the tech and battery life are a bit of a concern, I think the pros outweigh the cons. No idea on when I will pick one up (if ever...) but I certainly anticipate the launch!

Sony PSP2 - NGP - call it what you will - this thing confounds me. My feelings on hearing of the announcement of this new device were a mixed bag of disappointment and disinterest. I want to point out that I am no Sony-hater, I really do want them to prosper once again (and I feel that they are doing a good enough job with the PS3 these days) but, to echo what so many others are saying, this new device just feels like such a rehash of the same ideas they had back in 2004 when they were pushing prior to the original PSP release. Yes, it's a nice and competent piece of hardware. Gorgeous graphics, interface looks sturdy (finally), and so forth. I still don't see this properly competing in the handheld market. It's not got any kind of "wow game-changer" like Nintendo's crazy 3D display, and it doesn't seem like it will pose too much of a threat to the growing legions of the phone gamers, especially as they move into their following generations. Sony have an amazing piece of hardware, but it is wrong for this market, it's a niche device and they'll price it into oblivion.

It's actually got me rethinking the philosophy of the much-hated PSPgo - costs a lot, no UMD, but things are different now. The form fact of the go is nice (it's small and "tuckable" in your pocket), tons of games can be had for a song, no more loading issues I'd imagine - and you can snap one up second-hand at this point. It's no competition for the DS at this stage (still), but provides a fairly affordable alternative with some very capable tech. Yeah, I never thought I would be singing the praises of this thing, and if the 3DS wasn't a heartbeat away from release, then the prospect of picking on up wouldn't even seem out of the question any longer.

Anyway, for NGP I predict failure, sadly. For Sony's Android "Playstation Suite"service, I think that is actually more appealing/potential, but I don't see it taking off for a multitude of obvious reasons. I am writing them off again. As for 3DS, it will have an amazing year, but I do think it is actually kind of a stopgap for whatever's next. Nintendo will have to change up their game across the board, down the road, even more dramatically - Wii is old, expensive portable games that AREN'T in your phone are going to go way out of style in a couple of years, if that.

On the general wireless/mobile side, things are still disorganized and messy, the whole marketplace is still a huge huge mess. There's a very steady stream of worthwhile software releasing very consistently, if you are a gamer you are living very high on the hog right now and you have no excuse to be bored; there's a steady stream of excellent product always releasing, with no end in sight. The problem is, novelty has been lost, and people can't appreciate things anymore because of what has happened. I really don't know how we'll dig out of this pit, just wait it out for awhile I guess. The downside is that many developers don't wanna invest time/budget in longer-lasting games, and I think that is holding us back. The audience don't wanna pay anything for them, or even give them a chance, and so the culture does suffer. Fortunately, it doesn't take much, and sooner or later someone (besides EA etc) will step up and reshape things.

Lastly, I want to reflect on the always amorphous video game industry on a broader scale. 500 layoffs between several Activision studios today, it is a shame, but my patience for the whiners has gone beyond thin. Activision is not an evil entity. They make excellent productions, they pay great developers huge amounts of money and give them tons of leeway in crafting their wares. Apparently, as time passes it becomes more cases of them giving devs more rope to hang themselves with, and that is increasingly becoming a bigger problem in big studio production. Riskier development means a blander culture, and while many are quick to attack ATVI and their cohorts, they have been trying really hard to deliver a solid mix of old and new the past few years, a steady flow of quality product. The press, the fanboys (same thing if you ask me) will ignore the positives in lieu of the usual punching bags, but what else can you expect (particularly given the reactionary nature of a nation of net-surfing zombies) I guess no one really cares anyway; that is the point, if people DID care they'd vote with their wallets differently. ATVI can only give people what they want, and as I mentioned they will always spike the punch a bit more often than some of their competitors, and for that I'll give them kudos. In spite of it all, this does really all point to a bigger problem:

The industry here is just very unstable, as ever. Parts of it crest while other parts trough, and this has been truth since time immemorial really. Blame yourselves for having short memory! I've mentioned it many times before and I will continue to stand on my soapbox on the matter until I am blue in the face, our industry is heading very steadily towards another major shakedown. Like it or don't, things in a rapid see-saw field like this one can never stay in one mode for too long, and over the past several years a lot of long-held principles have been falling like dominoes. There's a reason why I (and so many others) are doing what we can to make some noise in the scary new frontier, it's called prospecting and though the initial gold rush might be over, there will be plenty of folks looking to develop beachfront properties in due time.

Digital Distribution, on a large scale, is coming. Cloud computing is coming. Software publishers in their current capacity are becoming dinosaurs, and I think we are going to see some dramatic shifts in hardware likewise. The phone is the new PC, and consoles are going to be gone forever in a few years. Don't believe me? Pull your head out of the ground ad do your homework, get a little schooled on the history of our industry (and tech in general) and pay any kind of attention to the trends and it suddenly becomes quite easy to see where things are heading.

As for the layoffs, lest I seem insensitive, I guess it behooves me to be very clear on this: my heart goes out to those whose careers and livelihoods have been affected, especiallythose of you wo have worked so hard to do a good job. The long nights, the lost weekends, the diminished quality of life. I've borne the brunt of plenty of it all in my own time in this industry. We are past the point where we can just blame greedy executives though. You can't expect a huge company to keep floating all these smaller limbs while they back-and-forth through their development cycles. By now it is fairly well blueprinted how to make a "good game," look at Visceral, look at Irrational, look at Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Bungie, etc. Maybe these are somewhat lofty devs to compare to, but even playing second fiddle to any of them a dev could always do quite well. The risks are greater now, it takes longer to make a game, it requires more manpower, dedication, money. It is senseless to try and keep half-productive studios on life-support when both they and their franchises are flagging, even a lot of the bigger brands really don't make enough money to support such a blood-sucking infrastructure. Yeah, the publisher holds some serious blame, but unless there was some kind of hostile takeover to begin with, the smaller developer really must accept some of the initial responsibility for all of this as well. Both from when they handed over the reigns to a newer/more powerful entity to run things from on high, to how well they did (or didn't) continue to manage things in their own microcosm.

DAILY 180 CONTEST 7: Play 180, Win Dead Space!

2011-01-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Another day, another contest! Up for grabs today is the recently-released Dead Space by EA for iPhone ($6.99) You know you want this!

To win Dead Space, you must play Endless Mode. Again the rules are going to be a mystery until the contest ends - last time we awarded a prize for the median score, what will today bring? Submit by midnight (PST) tonight and we'll award this incredible game to one lucky winner!

IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

Your score must post online! You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab of your OF page showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get to work!

DAILY 180 CONTEST 5: Play 180, Win KosmoSpin!

2011-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Another day, another contest! Up for grabs today is the beautiful-looking Kosmo Spin ($0.99) brought to you by our buddies at Simogo!

Check out this great video of the game :)

The name of the game today is endurance, of a different nature. How many games of 180 have you played already? This is tallied up in the "Total Coins Cleared" category. By midnight PST tonight, the Top 2 Koin-Klearers get Kosmo!

IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

Your score must post online! You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab of your OF page showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get to work!

DAILY 180 CONTEST 4: Play 180, Win Silverfish!

2011-01-27T11:08:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Hear ye! Today's challenge is a test of endurance! You must compete to see who can score best in Drop Attack Mode of 180 (v1.1) and post a pic of the game over screen for a chance to win a copy of the gorgeous-looking Silverfish for iPhone, generously donated by the kind folks at Chaotic Box! (worth $0.99)

Anyone can compete in today's challenge, even if you have previously won a contest this past week! IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

The 5 best-scoring players will each receive a copy of the game, judged after midnight PST. 1st place will get a special bonus prize as well! Oooo mysterious! I'll say this much, you will like it!

Drop Attack plays very differently than the other two modes in 180. The goal is not to clear large chains and combos, but rather to get "through" as many pieces in as quickly a time as possible. You need to develop some very unique strategies to do well in this mode! There's a depth marker on the right side of the screen to help visualize how far you have gone: lower depth = better score.

Your score must post online! You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get dropping!

DAILY 180 CONTEST 3: Play 180, Win Tiki Totems 2!

2011-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! Today's challenge is fairly simple - you must simply play a single round of 180 (v1.1) and post a pic of the game over screen for a chance to win a copy of the Tiki Totems 2 for iPhone (and Tiki Totems 2 HD for the iPad), generously donated by the kind folks at Spokko Mobile Development! (worth $0.99)

You must be sure to favorite 180 within OF so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post)

We've got 10 codes to give away, your choice of iPhone or iPad. First 10 posters who get verified, win the codes. Good luck!

Full rules & info here.

Good luck!

DAILY 180 CONTEST 2: Level 30, Win Dead Space!

2011-01-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! Today's challenge is moderately difficult - you must reach Level 30 in Endless Mode of 180 (v1.1) to win a copy of the newly-released Dead Space for iPhone! (worth $6.99) (Today's contest open to US residents only)

OpenFeint is still acting up so there will be a delay of maybe a day to announce the winner. Also you must be sure to favorite 180 within OF so we can easily verify the score in your game list. If you believe you have won, be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post. First player that we can confirm the achievement, wins the prize :)

Full rules & info here.

Good luck!

180 for iPhone - Daily Contest on Facebook!

2011-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

180 for iPhone - Daily Contest on Facebook!

Now's your chance to win great apps like Dead Space, Real Racing 2, and so many others for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad!

Simply follow our Facebook page and watch for daily contests. Some days you will need to play our game 180 and post a screengrab (how-to) in order to compete. Other days you must simply post on the daily thread to be eligible for a drawing. There's chances for anyone to win!

TODAY'S CONTEST - CLICK HERE!

Any questions, email me here
Any other devs who would like to contribute prizes/cross promote, read this

Good luck Gamers!!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #45

2011-01-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #45

Time for an update - thar she blows!

180 for iPhone - sick of hearing me talk about this one yet? No you aren't! Well I sure have seemingly said all there is to on the matter, but guess what - there's a ways to go! Here's some juicy tidbits:
- installed on a hair shy of 140,000 iDevices
- nearly %30 of v1.0 users have updated to the latest version
- still at 4 stars on iTunes and holding
- still "featured on iTunes" to some degree (though not in any prominent, meaningful way)
- hasn't crashed in months! (sales)
- in development for a different platform, and releasing very shortly :)
- was free for all of December, and for a minute last week. Effects on sales were profoundly minimal (this was expected)

Bizdev - always the interesting part. I am working on a couple of things, I seem to say that a lot. I am actually trying to find the time to advance something int he short-term. I have a programmer and possibly a small staff to help me between the necessary disciplines - I just need to find some time to organize and delegate things. It might actually pick up shortly.

GDC, PAX East are both looming closely on the horizon. While I'd love to attend at least one of these events, it is unfortunate that I am just way too busy and far too broke for either to be a reality. It's more and more important to get out there and be seen, and all of that - but it's a luxury I haven't got right now. To be honest I do feel kinda conventioned-out after all the craziness last year - yeah, still - so I don't really feel much remorse on the matter. I do believe my time will be well-spent producing in the interim, though I can't argue that meeting and connecting with folks in person is essential to growth and success. Well, there is always E3..

What Else is Going On - I was speaking to a couple of literary agents about writing a book (should this come as a shock?) It's something I've been too busy to follow-up with, but I think I might dust off the cobwebs shortly since my journalist brother has some free time on his hands. 3 guesses what it might be about, hint: there's a lot of material already lying around.

I am unbelievably busy with freelance work right now. It's been a very, very long drought and it's so nice to be back in the thick of it, even though it does pull me away from my independent/personal projects. Fortunately, the work is good, I enjoy it very much, and it helps me out in a lot of ways. I am doing the best I can to keep on top of things, but it's a battle at times. I think people going through similar circumstances know what I am talking about.

Promotion - I've long said "2011 will mark the end of my promotion of 180," well it seems not to be the case. I've merely been mixing things up. Gone are the days of forcing my way through TouchArcade, I've looked long and hard at my clicks and the research resoundingly screams "Facebook" so I have been working hard to grow my presence there. It's not easy - especially for such a tiny operation - but it's growing fairly strongly across all that I've been doing. I get several hundred views per day, and it is growing. Mind you, I have several pages spread across my campaign (my personal page with @2200 connections, my HcG page with @500-odd fans, my dedicated 180 page with over 50 fans, my FreeAppTracker page with a couple hundred fans.. I've started experimenting with some Facebook advertising as well. It's costly, and "probably not worth it" but it is something I need to familiarize myself with, and that's just by throwing into the fire. I'll push it further very soon with more aggressive/intriguing promotion and see if that grows anything.

A lot of people say "the game is done, let it go" but I have a very different philosophy and looking at my numbers, it makes sense to go this route (also, I am not telling all of my plans at once...) Anyway we have a good 14,000 active users right now - that we know of - which I consider to be a fairly healthy number, and I want to stoke the embers a little bit in light of what's to come. Besides, in the ensuing follow-up, if it falls flat I can always just cut the line fairly easily. As I see these numbers keep ballooning, it makes sense to keep pushing things.

Otherwise, I am anticipating a very crazy 2011 for the games industry. It's a little bizarre to be sitting here in what feels like the calm before the storm. I felt like last year was one of the quietest in many ways, but what's to come should be fairly earth-shattering. I think mobile is going to start to really disrupt the scene in 2011, unless you have your head down a hole I think many would be inclined to agree. This is just the beginning and if you can hang on and continue to be active and knowledgable, you will get to be a part of it all.

There's certainly a lot more to say and I will do my best to keep reporting it to you who would read it. I still owe a nice "numbers post" and I know there are folks who are interested in that, I will put it out when I have the time to present it appropriately. I think I've pretty much outlined the long and short of things already, but even for my own edification it is nice to present it all in black and white. It will get put together soon.

Lastly, I need help from my community! As usual, I am still the scrappy little guy fighting my way up this giant mountain, and there's still a ways to go! If you haven't already, please do these:

Like us on Facebook
Write a review of 180 on iTunes
Keep our TouchArcade post alive :)

Both of these things are very crucial to our growth. I can't stress that enough.

I want to open up the floor to questions/comments/criticism as well. I have tried this in the forums, I have tried it on reddit, both places are fairly useless for this sort of thing I have found. Please ask me anything regarding this all (my process, my plans, my delusions!) and I will do my best to give you an answer that is satisfactory. I enjoy writing in this blog, but I prefer to have it be open and share with the community, with other developers, with the people who enjoy our games, than just "this is me talking AT you."

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Retro Game of the Day! Donkey Kong GB

2011-01-11T13:02:00.001-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Donkey Kong GB

Donkey Kong by Nintendo for their GameBoy, released in 1994.

Here's an anamoly for you! Released quite late into the original GameBoy's life, DKGB was designed to take advantage of a new peripheral for the SNES, dubbed the "Super GameBoy" - a device that would play the entire library of original black-and-white GameBoy games and pipe them through your SNES onto the television. This cartridge in particular would display in a special "limited-color mode" when played in such a fashion. Mind you, this all preceded the GameBoy Color, which was not compatible as one would hope.

The game itself was a spin on the very classic original Donkey Kong formula, aping the original game (I'm so sorry) for the first few levels before launching into the true meat of this quest. Eschewing the whole Mushroom Kingdom canon altogether, this game presented an entirely different take on the whole story which harkens back to Mario's original "Jumpan - rescue Pauline" roots and is quite refreshing for it. Sadly, the game was a true undiscovered gem. Branding the game as simply "Donkey Kong" and starting the game off as a throwback to the original, it looked like the game was simply a port of that much older original game. Those who knew better and played the game were in for quite a feast of a game, among the best the GameBoy would ever offer.

After dispatching the homage to the original levels, the gamer would find a huge and complicated platform/puzzler hidden within, as each "screen" challenged our famous protagonist to seek a key and exit to the next levels. Each world ended with a boss battle, and a longer journey followed through several of the same, all with different themes (Jungle, Pirate Ship, Airplane, The Big City, etc) Mario's moveset was hugely expanded upon, and the game really shines in it's design and execution.

The game can easily be seen as a precursor for the ensuing GBA and DS games such as "Mario vs Donkey Kong" and "March of the Minis,' but in no way is it inferior to any of those titles gameplay-wise. Despite the very dated tech, this game still tops many GameBoy fanatics' must-have lists and is extremely fun to play through today. An overlooked classic worth anybody's time!

Our iPhone action/puzzler 180 is a hit! Fans of games like Tetris Attack and Magical Drop will feel right at home - pick it now up for only a buck on the iTunes App Store!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #44

2010-12-31T00:20:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #44

Arrrgh! It's the end of one of the busiest years of my life! And so as it is the final day of 2010, it is of course time to do some wrap-up. As usual I'd like to jump right into it so here we go.

180 for iPhone - first things first! Our promotion has finally ended, after quite an interesting month (well over 100,000 downloads in just this month alone) we are still averaging hundreds of DLs/day for our game, which is awesome. Tonight (or thereabouts) we'll flip the switch back to paid and see what happens next. Of course I'd love to see the DL rate maintain it's consistency - that would be awesome - but I know better than to expect this. If we can get more DLs/day than we did at the launch of this campaign then i suppose it is successful enough, but honestly 100/day would be incredible. And so, this is all part of the experiment (and don't worry I will share it here). Know this much - prior to the update, we had a Free (limited) version available, which averaged 20 DLs/day. Full was getting less than 10/day.

Bizdev - things have been very busy in the background. So busy that I am going to express my exhaustion! Right now I am the bottleneck, as I have coders waiting on me for stuff but I've been swamped with other work and therefore progress on HcG projects has been placed on the shelf while I try to get on top of everything. Its a bit of a bummer but better than the other way around! Hopefully I can have things on a more even keel in a few weeks; for now I am concentrating on just paing the bills and keeping the lights on. It's been a very rough time getting income the entire year, and the last several months has been the worst, so now that I've got a source I need to do my best to keep it solid.

ETC - Year-end wrapup here we go! Gosh, I dunno where to start. 2010 was such a wild year for me. This was the first year in the entirety of my career where I spent the entire time trying to survive independent. It's been rough, and it finds me now without a penny to my name (almost..literally!), but a lot of credits which I didn't have 365 days ago and never could have otherwise without taking this route. No regrets!

It was a very crazy year for independent gaming, for mobile gaming, and of course gaming in general. Each have thrived and gone through some notable changes and massive milestones in the past 12 months. I am not going to tackle such an enormous subject here as I want to stay focused on the local stuff, so sticking to mobile for now - we've seen growth across the board, WP7 has launched, Android market has been growing considerably, Apple cracked the tablet market, and of course the iPhone 4 has been maintaining a very commanding presence overall. I think we are going to be in for a very interesting 2011 as the other competitors begin to mature.

PSP is fairly dead, lots of talk of PSP2/"the phone" (are they one and the same?) DS has been coasting and of course 3DS is primed to take center stage in a few short months. It's very fair to say that these devices are competing with the phones at this point.

Development-wise, I was a bit surprised how things played out in the iPhone scene. The device has very much become "the modern-day PS2," in that it is the device to develop for as it's on everyone's lips. It's not th emost powerful, but it's more than competent across the board. It's important to remember that the mobile arena is so different than the console arena in countless ways, so things could completely upend a lot quicker and easier than we would expect. All eyes are on the big companies right now to see where things gravitate toward; Apple does have a magnificent head-start and I don't see that changing for many months, unless their competitors make some real waves (spend serious money) to force things.

Scene-wise, I do see companies like EA stepping up in a big way to wrestle away control from the smaller companies (can many of them even be called companies? Maybe just basement studios?) I think EA is obviously making big moves to muscle the top, and it's hard to argue with their efforts - their work is superior, and their brands are smart. There's still so much anti-EA sentiment because of what they represent, but honestly so few can compete with their likes to provide "that console experience" that people really clamor for on the iPhone. They are not working it hard enough though, and it is hard to argue with that - but they are defnitely trying harder than most. Of course the likes of id and Epic are making huge moves to nip at their heels, and I think we'll see a huge second-generation blow from those guys - but they're still moving to slow, too staggered. Gameloft is sort of taking up the rear, the butt of many jokes but they provide a super-steady stream of quality software that no one can really argue with and I think they know full well how to manage in this marketplace. I am always rooting for them because they clearly are working hard, and "somebody's got to do it." It's really remarkable to see such a scrappy company trying so hard and in spite of their (undeserved) reputation, they keep putting out great product.

As for the indies, that's a whole other story. It is hard to talk about that stuff without degenerating into absolute soup - independent games are really the heart and soul of this whole marketplace. It's a victory and a shame at the same time; so much great product is popping up everywhere, and at the same time the market doesn't know how to handle the majority of it and everyone really just suffers as a result (so many games never get any press, devs charge nothing for their work, half-realized crap keeps flooding the marketplace and dominating the charts). Still the spirit is very strong, and a very steady flow of excellent product is consistent. iPhone is a gamers paradise! I think we'll see a new generation of product in the coming year, but safdly I fear that the indie glory days in this market are just about dried up. Of course, I did say the same exact thing 12 months ago..

Overall 2010 was a wild and crazy year, I learned so much, I was hoping it would be the year things would "break" for me after all the set up 2009, but it looks like 2009 was really just the warm-up for the warm-up. This year was huge, good and bad things happened, but ultimately my game released, we got it into countless thousands of hands, and got quite a bead onto where to head next. And so I go forward with my head held up to handle the next phase!

SHOUT-OUTS: Here's where I give thanks to all the supporters, both in the digital realm and in real life, to those who helped get things where they are now (particularly over the course of the last 12 months) Without the help of so many, I would have absolutely been stalled at the starting line. Here goes, thanks to..
Ben Ma, programmer of 180 and my co-conspirator at Headcase Games. There would be nothing without this guy! A great friend, and very wise in the whole mobile game scene. He dragged me into this mad nightmare!!! Pauline Laciste, our musician, and sound FX. She volunteered to help very early into development and I cannot wait to work with her again! Ciji "StarSlay3r" Thornton, she's in the game of course! very instrumental in helping us promote the game leading up to and during the release, and we got huge exposure thanks to her help! Albert Yale, another programmer who I have worked with in the past, who provided some very valuable support during the production and especially up to the last days prior to release of 180. Andy Marchal (my old roomie) for buying me beer and chicken wings, and donating hardware to the project. Mong Skillman and Mandoline Grill for sucking me into the food truck scene, and helping us to promote as well! MVG, Kyle, Alex and the rest of videogame coverband Tanuki Suit Riot for always being supportive of HcG in several ways. Indie Games journalist Jeriaska for always being supportive and helpful, sharing some drinks and giving us press.. Omaha Perez for helping me find some work and hanging out, buddies Joe McGuffin and Paul Scarlata for being sympathetic, funny-guy/super-player sammer_i, Leffelmania and "LOL" Larry Charles for future opportunities, fellow devs Craig and Gavin at Retro Dreamer and of course Tiny Technician, Annie and Brian at DoubleBear for getting me to PAX, SoCal Mike and Steve at GameGavel.com, Mike Selinker, Chip and the crew at B-Team Podcast, Phil, CJ and the other talking heads at my favorite podcast Player One, Aaron at Race to the Moon/Royal Court Games, Eric "Rustysabre," Brett at AppAddict, Jorge at oldSchoolJunkie, gamingbits.com, AndyTHPS and An Endless Sporadic, TJ Slater, my buddy Josh for always helping out when he could, Edwin and Skillz and JeffyM and the other usual guys who will hang out for some drinks and listen to me whine about the state of everything, the helpful posters over at NeoGAF who were kind enough to check out the game, some people who were kind enough to give us some hi-visibility tweets/coverage: Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Matt "Trainyard" Rix, cathlin, KuyiMobile and MindjuiceGames/FreeAppCalender for donating some advertising space & generally being friendly and supportive, William at GameGiveaway for giving away 180, Daily App Dream, awesome reviewers at lootNinja, thinkdigit, noDpad, theportablegamer, appSmile, appTilt, thenakedgamers, geekTechLive, girlgamersuk, all the various folks who were kind enough to give us kind ratings/reviews on iTunes, devs BigBadBrush, KittyCode, SavantGames, Grumpyface, eJayStudios, OneManLeft, all the usual twitterers (CantersTruck, WorkingClassGMR, oldgamereviewer, chrismwaite, LAN_2, GamerGirlsRadio, wblackall, ThumbArcade, magisterrex (thanks for so many RT's!!!!!), MaKUltra, hermanjakobi, chaosdemon,AngryCuban, AnjelusX, DefunctGames, RetroGames, 120Games, SFX360_COM, CocoaGeek,Trevkor,
codemastermm, olajideparis, 2DX ), theAppera, Gamasutra for giving us lots of features on the front page, all the TouchArcade poster crew who kept our thread lively, particularly B34$T, cjsbug, songbird, Haruhi, Goimot, mrUgly, Koone23, cloudcastles, missLashes, JCman7, spyky, brassica, jjjmedia, TAStan, raptor200, JJdaboss, jwcasser, DaveMc99, smes3817, laceDolphin.. Thanks to TA for having a forum and letting me exist there..! Thanks to the LAPD for never arresting me for vandalizing, sindeegee "16 bits of Fashion" for 180 iSnuggies, thanks to my folks for throwing me some dollars when I was about to be on the street, and my girlfriend for the same (and putting up with me in general) and.. whew.. is that it? pant pant.. Thanks to YOU for reading my blog, playing my game, and spreading the gospel!

It's the last day that 180 is free. Spam it out wherever you can :) Happy New Year everybody!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #43

2010-12-20T23:47:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #43

What's up everybody! Just in case you thought I croaked, I thought it'd be a wise idea to check in and drop some blog knowledge on you all. Here goes.

180 for iPhone - it's become rather customary for me to start up any entry by delving into this familiar subject matter. As an aside, it is pretty wild to consider that it's been nearly a year since the game sat 75% completed on my iPhone and I was wondering if (or when) it would ever get completed. So much has happened in the time since.. and scant little in some other ways.

The game has been running through a Free Promotion for about two and a half weeks now, we are just trying to get as many downloads as possible at this point. It's been a very successful campaign overall, as we near 100,000 downloads since the beginning of the month (that's 100,000 on top of the downloads we'd already seen). Personally, I'd have loved to be approaching 250,000 - a quarter of a million - and though we did have a very good opportunity to ensure that possibility, we didn't pursue it (would have cost upwards of a grand, and well - I am giving away my game for free over here, y'know!) 100k+ is not a bad consolation prize, and though I don't expect to see much sales (if any) following the conclusion of the campaign, the desired result has occured (more visibility for us) and for that I am grateful.

Some devs/customers might scratch their heads as they read this "what, are you mad, man?" The point is this - not everything that one does should be seen as a move calculated to turn a profit as quickly as possible. The App Store economy and culture has proven this countless times over in over, in several cases. There are plenty of useful "side effect" opportunities that one can pursue through such a promotion (hell, from an entire project's development). Rather than look at each project/promotion as a money maker unto itself, sometimes it makes sense to look down the road and see what else can happen, "the bigger picture."

Without straying too terribly far off-topic, the game is going to be free for exactly 10 more days. Please help us continue to spread the word, tell people to grab it and check it out while there's still time. You know where to find it :)

Bizdev - Well of course all of the above rambling leads right into this of course. 2010 is just about all wrapped up, and so what does 2011 hold in store for Headcase Games? As usual, I can only provide vague answers ('cause I am an annoying SOB, mind you) but those who've been sharply watching our 180 thread on TouchArcade might have heard me spill a bean or two regarding future events..

One thing which is absolutely certain is that there is absolutely honest-to-goodness development going on right now, after a very long drought. There are two different projects underway, neither of which I've ever alluded to before, and at least one of them will surface in the next couple of months' time. I've been doing a lot of work in the background to make this a reality, and it's very important to the future of this outfit that it is put forth shortly. It's a very exciting time over here, but mind that there have been so many fits and starts during the genesis of this entire operation that I've learned my lesson about letting the cat out of the bag before it's time. needless to say - there's a reason that I've not been writing blog updates (or retro reviews) for some time.

Make that several reasons. I don't like to trumpet it outside of here, but I have been absolutely pounding the pavement trying to get gigs so I could pay rent, buy food, all that good stuff. 2010 has been my biggest money pit of a year possibly since I've had a career (13 yrs now) and while it's been expensive "making things happen," the actual ROI I've seen from the things I've created has been so tiny that it's negligible. This isn't surprising, given how things turned out, and to be honest, I expected worse. I had always intended to supplement whatever earnings I got from HcG with a day job, but it's been terribly rough to land anything for a number of reasons. Thankfully, something did recently fall into my lap (well, hard work and lots of hunting led me to it) and I am busting myself trying to deliver output for it right now (it's a lot of work!) But it's a good gig, it's the type of work I enjoy, and though it is compounding things enormously right now, I am very happy to have found this as it will make everything easier. The downside is that I will have to be pulled back from some of the fringe stuff I usually dabble in (retro game of the day) and perhaps even FreeAppTracker.com, which would be a shame as it's been steadily growing. But something's got to give.

Anyway, to sum up.. I am working on some big things. Keep an eye on Headcase in 2011!

What Else Is Going On - A strange year for me as I've really ignored a lot of the goings-on in console gaming (which spawned me!) It feels like a fairly dull Xmas season. PS Move? Kinect? And what the heck is on Wii? This is the dullest holiday season I can remember in several years! I guess it is all relative, there is a full staple of games to enjoy right now no matter your preference - but nothing feels sharp, unique, special. It feels like such an in-between time for gaming, and I suppose it's not hard to imagine why given the political and economic goings on in big studio development the past couple of years. As they've been going kind of haywire, and things have been pushing conservative coupled with a lot of the bigger franchises (particularly the rhythm games) going beyond stale, we are left at kind of a dead-end of creativity and excitement for the time being. Don't get me wrong 2010 was one of the BIGGEST YEARS on record all told, but it's rather shocking to see one of the pillars of the whole period to be such a void. Anyway, it doesn't seem like anyone really cares, and maybe that's a sign of things too. The hobby has plateaued, if only for a short while. Given the usual build-up/build-up/build-up that gaming usually does through a console generation, this is the period where everyone would start drooling over what lies around the corner (which is usually well-publicized at this point in the cycle). Thing is, there's... nothing. The big guys are playing around with their motion-control gimmicks to avert everyone's attention, and Nintendo is of course putting the final touches on their next portable domination due in the Springtime. Overall, things feel tired, top-heavy, even over themselves.

Even with mobile gaming, where I've been spending the majority of my energy, things seem to be at a bit of a standstill. We have Angry Birds and Doodle Jump and such still ruling the roost, which seems absurd to me. These are inconsequential one-offs, in a way , catapulted to maddening heights of grandeur simply because the industry is asleep at the wheel. EA or Activision should have a stranglehold on the entirety top ten of the iTunes App Store charts by now, and if not them then the new kids on the block (Popcap, Gameloft, Zynga). I know this all takes time and perseverance, but none of this is new and honestly 2010 should have been the year that this fell in line. I am not complaining about it, I personally am proud to see such indie strength making waves up that far and high, but it does point to a bigger issue about where things are, where they "should" be and what the heck can we expect next. This leads into something else:

The App Store is a giant MESS. The indie scene, mobile gaming, XNA, what-have-you, all these structures are just a big endless confusion. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it, between the developers, the media, the distribution networks, and ultimately the audience's expectations and perceptions. It's such a godwaful mess that at times one can get very discouraged. There's a reason the scrappy independents will continue to stick it out, because in spite of all this fiasco there still is a lot of opportunity to seek out, if one can afford to stick around long enough and make some sense of it all. Honestly I am surprised how everyone does seem very short-sighted and nonchalant about the whole of it (again, I am looking at other developers, the media, distributors, etc). This free-for-all spirit that many claim "has passed" has indeed left a powerful energy in its' wake, and this chaos will not settle anytime soon. A year ago, after much research I had expectations that a lot of things would be figured out by now and I am so surprised to see that there's so little momentum on things getting recitfied; I expect the next couple of years in mobile/indie/"alternative" gaming to continue to follow that initial speedy burst with a lot of slow, sloppy, half-hearted follow-up. Ultimately, I feel for the audience; they will receive a lot of interesting, affordable product, and much of it will be interesting and worthwhile, but so much of it will just be glazed over or considered "disposable" at best, and completely ignored at worst.

Alright, well that went on a fair bit longer than I expected it to (shocking!) I need ot wrap-up and get back to the aforementioned freelance work. Thanks for reading, consider what I've said and do your part to spread the word on 180 - our work is not over yet!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #42

2010-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #42

Wow. WOW! It has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. Good stuff happened, bad stuff happened, weird stuff happened. All in all my head is still spinning from all the activity around here, I figured it would be a good time to step back and deliver a status update on things. Here goes!

180 for iPhone - well, the Grand Experiment is in full swing. A week ago, after some buildup, we reduced the price of this game to FREE and let loose with the media barrage. The biggest point was partnering with GameGiveaway, which got us unheard-of exposure. As their iPhone app rocketed to the top, the prominent feature we got by association meant that we got some heavy-duty numbers of downloads, much much heavier than anything we had ever seen. My head is still reeling from this - 100,000 downloads of 180 as of today! (We were at 23,000 a week ago). Yes, the majority of that were free downloads, but to me it is very worthwhile to have my app in so many user's hands. Realistically, 100,000 is still a tiny number in the big scheme of things (and further, a good portion of that number may never even launch the app!) but for a tiny little developer like us who has never got any major-league attention, it certainly is a case worth celebrating!

So what next? We have collected an enormous amount of useful data during the course of this experiment, and while it is not yet over (the app is free for the entire month), the relatively big exposition sure is. Our visibility burst nice and brightly for a moment, and it's steadily been tumbling back into the nether since (we are no longer charting) but the opportunity to showcase our product was wonderful, and it led to some useful developments. This brings about a lot more behind-the-scenes work for me to deal with, as we try to chart the next course of this plan.

Bizdev - As things have been completely wrapped-up with the promotion and all that it entails for so long, a lot of things have been cooling on the shelf. Sadly, they will stay there for the time being as there's plenty of fallout to deal with. It's a busy and crazy time of the year, and of utmost importance for my own well-being is A. finding a way to get paid and B. keeping things running with Headcase in a satisfactory manner. I like to keep it vague on this blog for obvious reasons, but rest assured work is being done now on different productions - and some of them will actually give some yield shortly. I am working hard to follow that up with other sensible steps, and a lot of that requires me being out "in the field" talking and schmoozing and making the necessary connections. I do quite a lot of that, and more needs to happen until I can lock down into heavy production mode once more. It is very gratifying to have enough things moving forward in a positive direction (especially in light of all that's been happening) that I can see more big news to announce in the near future, when the time is right. As I mentioned, I am still in the middle of things - I need to properly organize and display the data we've collected over the past week, it makes for some extremely interesting/useful reading if you've a mind for development and sales. Watch this space, hopefully it will see light within some days.

What Else Is Going On - Plenty! The App Store education continues! True to form, we have good/nasty luck all rolled together as Headcase seems quiet during all the industry's quiet times, and as soon as we decide to make some kinda splash, the rest of the world seems to do the same with everyone else! We just missed the meat of it (and it's surely affected our follow-through, drastically) but anyone who is partially paying attention can sense that right now is probably the busiest period in the entire year, on the App Store. It's exciting and maddening all at once. For my fellow small indie developers who are releasing projects right now, I feel for them, as they are up against a particularly nasty amount of huge-name competition. There's just less and less room for smaller projects to carry any water these days; if you aren't a particularly well-known name and your work doesn't measure up to the higher standards being put out by the Moneybags pubs and devs, then you are in a real world of hurt right now as your apps are just getting utterly lost in the noise. I am so happy we decided to concentrate on being free for this period rather than expect to recoup any sales, because - although I strongly feel that my product is certainly worth some money - with the way things are right now, the odds of getting much back versus the good we can do by continuing promotion are really night-and-day differences.

The App Store is really turning into such an unruly monster, in so many ways, that I absolutely do not want to approach it in the terms it invites people to, anymore. I have learned that there are a few other things you can do (have to do!) to seek success in this crazy market, and playing the traditional game is really not relevant anymore.

Alright, I am really sleepy. There's mountains of laundry to fold, dishes to wash, and plenty of other digital loose-ends to tie up as well. Plus, I will be enjoying a few days away from this madness in Vegas two days from now! Wish me luck - the odds are better than on iTunes!!

Lastly, to sign off I want to note that I have quite the laundry-list (laundry, here he goes again about his laundry) of folks to thank for their help during this promotion. Lots of devs, lots of friends, lots of fans.. we couldn't have got anywhere without your help. If I've not pinged you back since you said something for us, know that I haven't forgotten, I am just catching my breath. I'll hit you up individually very soon, but in the meantime, big thanks :)

Retro Game of the Day! Space Invaders '91

2010-12-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Space Invaders '91

Space Invaders '91 by Taito, released for the Sega Genesis. Do I really have to say what the year was?

Everyone with any knowledge of videogames is well-aware of the original Space Invaders and its contribution to the culture of gaming. Strangely, few words are ever written about its sequels which released in the years that followed, until the franchise became somewhat trendy again in the mid-2000s.
In the late 1980s, competitor Namco released an update to Galaga, their popular Space Invader-inspired title. Galaga '88 was a fresh re-imagining of their original title, which had a healthy following in it's own right (many gamers will agree that Galaga - 1981 version - was the first true "successor" to Space Invaders, and effectively replaced it as the single-screen alien blaster of choice). Galaga '88 stayed quite true to it's roots, with a hefty audiovisual upgrade and some other fancy tweaks to make the old feel modern.

The game was a big success, and many in the industry stood up and took notice. Apparently Taito felt very strongly about this, one way or another, and took the event as an excuse to rip-off those who'd already ripped them off in the 1st place. And so to answer the call of Galaga '88, Space Invaders '91 was created.

Like the other upgrade, SI91 was a reimagining of it's source material which did not attempt to stray far from it's path. The game was made much prettier, as the advanced 16-bit visuals were a far cry from the primitive blocks making up the scenery in the initial iteration. More backgrounds were developed, and new features such as boss battles and cow-protecting bonus rounds were introduced. Most notable was the inclusion of power-ups; shooting a "bonus ship" no longer merely yielded points; rather special weapons, shields, and time-stoppers could be obtained.

The new recipe worked. The game felt like an appropriate update for the period, and the original gameplay was strong enough to carry this game. Like Galaga '88, the enthusiasm was short-lived. Both games were notable, but the shadows cast by their predecessors were far to tall to get out from underneath. Space Invaders and Galaga, original versions, were such important and monumental titles that their popularity easily outlasted those of their "superior" sequels. SI91 is a joy to pick up now, it looks and handles well, and a few sessions are easy to lose track of time with - but most gamers will continue to gravitate to the iconic titles from which they spawned.

Our hit iPhone action-puzzle game 180 is available now for FREE until the end of the year! Pick it up while you can!

180 Full Version is $0.99 on iTunes!

2010-12-02T00:55:00.001-08:00

Headcase Games presents 180 for iPhone

This action-puzzle game is shooting up the iTunes charts - grab it now while it's hot!
Currently charting high up in Puzzle and Arcade categories, with well over 100k downloads in the past month!

Full game details available at whatis180.com and on iTunes.

Retro Game of the Day! Alex Kidd in Miracle World

2010-11-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Alex Kidd in Miracle World

Alex Kidd in Miracle World by Sega for their Master System released in 1986 in Japan (a year later domestically).

Yes, the (somewhat) famous Alex Kidd, Sega's answer to Mario several years before Sonic the Hedgehog entered the picture. This is where it all began, as the underdog challenged Nintendo's dominance. Most folks who were there still swear by Alex Kidd's initial outing, claiming it is vastly superior to Nintendo's mainstay Super Mario Bros. Let's crack open this can of works and get right to it!

Right off the bat, Alex Kidd's presentation took Mario's first adventure to task. The SMS had a beefier engine, and therefore the dull, drab aesthetic of the older Mario game contrasted with Alex Kidd's sharper, much-more-colorful Miracle World. The Master System just looked and sounded better right out of the box, that much was apparent. Unfortunately for Sega, the designs of everything (characters, elements, even the music) couldn't hold a candle to what was going on in the Mushroom Kingdom. Even though Alex "had more power," everything in Mario's game just looked much more appealing, even if it didn't pop as much.

The second strike here was the control setup. Mario's designers nailed it - "B" for run/attack, "A" for jump. For whatever reason, this order was flipped in Alex, and to the uninitiated it just feels.. wrong. Yes, you can get used to the switch, but why should you have to, especially so many years after this convention has been established and followed-through? I have seen some emulators/romhacks which auto-flip the controls for this game, to make it "feel correct." A lesser offense is that to access the inventory screen, one must hit the "pause" button on the physical control unit itself. There were no Select & Start buttons on the 8-Bit Sega control pads (an issue echoed somewhat in the original Japanese Nintendo console's design, to a lesser degree - the 2P controller has no Select & Start buttons either, and both controllers are hardwired into the unit).

Enough of the mudslinging - this is just the beginning of the reasons why Alex was never as popular as Mario. What did this game have, and why is it still held in such reverence all these years later? The truth is, the game is quite a departure from Mario in many ways. There is vertical and horizontally scrolling action, there are different vehicles (motorcycle and prop-copter, both very cool), there are stores with a multitude of power-ups you can buy for cash, and there are of course very different worlds for you to traverse. Each level is laid out with interesting and challenging design as well, and the whole game just feels happy and sunny. Miracle World felt like a great place to get lost in.

The designers obviously were going for novelty here, and the game played very differently than any Mario game. Instead of standard boss-fights, there were rock-paper-scissors matches (love them or hate them - and no one loved them!) Alex Kidd was a rich, diverse, and happening game which unfortunately lacked a lot of the cross-cultural appeal enjoyed by Mario, but many old-school Master System fans will still swear by it and proclaim their love for it to this day. Alex Kidd still holds up as a very fun example of an early action-adventure title. It's not without its warts, but it deserves to be remembered as one of Sega's strongest console efforts from the early days.

We are attempting to reach for the stars with reddit! Help us out and "vote up" our cause as we promote our iPhone game '180' (it's going FREE temporarily, shortly!) Support great games and the people who love to make them, register on Reddit and hit that up-arrow!

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Retro Game of the Day! Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge

2010-11-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge by Konami for the GameBoy, released in 1991.

Say whatever you like about Konami. "They've had their day... Metal Gear House... Dance Dance Whatever..." I don't care. For the classic gaming crowd, this was one developer who didn't care what platform they were developing on, whatever effort they put forth was always going to be top-notch. CV2 on GameBoy was the perfect example of this.
The first Castlevania Gameboy outing was excellent for it's time, if a little rushed and experimental. As it was a very early title, many tricks had yet to be discovered that would eventually make gaming on the system less of a chore and more of a pleasure. As a result, the game handled quite clumsily, with a character who dragged across the screen at a snail's pace. This didn't make for optimal gaming, however being able to play any incarnation of Castlevania on the go was quite a treat and so it was forgivable.

By the time the second title was announced, those of us who trod through the first episode were a bit wary "oh, more of the same?" The game was approached with caution, and upon investigation, the game was revealed to be a true gem; certainly one of the top games the system would ever offer! While much of the slow, meandering gameplay was still present (the Gameboy had a passive-matrix display - in layman's terms, "whenever the screen moved, everything smeeeeaarrred" and therefore keeping things slow kept them legible!), the game was much more well-designed to compensate for this fact. The design ranks up there with some of the best console outings of the genre, in fact.

The game took a cue from Mega Man-style games by presenting the player with a stage select at start, and opening up further stages once they'd been dispatched. The usual assortment of expected power-ups and bosses were present, and a decent password system to tie it all together. The real clincher here was the presentation; like the first game, CV2 looked and sounded excellent, and the superior level design (enhanced with multiple paths) made the whole thing a joy to journey through.

Selling a modern audience on an old-school black-and-white game is no easy proposition these days, but any GameBoy enthusiast worth his salt must play through this game if they want to see some of the best that generation had to offer - Castlevania 2 on GameBoy is a timeless classic, and it is still a blast to play through today!

We are attempting to reach for the stars with reddit! Help us out and "vote up" our cause as we promote our iPhone game (it's going FREE temporarily, shortly!) Support great games and the people who love to make them, register and hit that up-arrow!

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Retro Game of the Day! Warbirds

2010-11-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Warbirds

Warbirds for the Atari Lynx (Program & Design by Robert Zdybel), released 1991 by Atari.

Now here was a crazy game. 19 years later this may not look like much, but when I picked it up brand-new it was nothing short of revolutionary. 3D flying games were nothing new on the lynx (Blue Lightning set a remarkable precedent, at the system's launch) but where that game was cut from the cloth of arcade games like After Burner, Warbirds was much more closely patterned after a flight simulator (and a period piece, at that).

So what was so great about this game, then? The immersion! Running a flight sim on anything other than a powerful PC was pretty unheard of in 1991 (and seldom seen on consoles, either). This game plopped you in a "fly-anywhere" 3D environment, fighting a dogfight with your evenly-matched old-tech enemies. No missiles, no radars, no turbo - you had machine guns strapped to your cockpit, and you had your own eyeballs to line up your shots with. Likewise, you could duck into cloud cover to lose your foe, or attempt a barn landing if your ammo was depleted.

The presentation was simple, but everything moved around smoothly and "felt" appropriate. The game was sim-heavy, and therefore the handling of the biplane was clumsy and awkward to say the least - however this augmented the experience, it felt as if the designer really wanted to capture a sense of the feeling of what it was like to careen these woden hulks through the heavens.

Warbirds was remarkable as a 1-player experience, but plugging in a cable to a friend's system was sublime. PVP in this fashion was still unheard of in those days, and dogfighting with a buddy in Warbirds was some of the most fun to be had on the Atari Lynx. An excellent game I will never forget!

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iPhone App Game Development Blog #41

2010-11-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #41

You like how this works? All is quiet for a few weeks and then *blammo* you get slammed with TWO dev updates in just a few days! Hold on tight..

Yup we are jumping on the reddit bandwagon! It's worked for a few others, so we are gonna throw our hat into the ring as well and see how much we can juice this thing. Click here to read all about our big plan! Most importantly - if you don't know what reddit is, think of it as digg 2.0. The thing is, register (easy) and hit the little "up" arrow beside the subject line, comment as well if you like. And oy vey, there are promocodes in there, might be one or two left :)

Of course this is all to promote our game 180 which we have mentioned a few hundred thousand times in this blog. Some (more) big news regarding the app - it's been making the rounds in New & Noteworthy on iTunes, this is pretty big news for us! Finally the Powers That Be are noticing there's something to our little game - it's been recognized in the Puzzle and Arcade subcategories in USA, Canada, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium. A big step for sure, but to get some real movement we need to get a level higher (N&N on the front of iTunes!) In light of this, we've dropped the price from $2.99 down to $0.99, so hopefully that will stimulate some more buzz for us.

What else can you do to help? We need ratings and reviews on iTunes! I say it a lot, but it can never be said enough (it is very hard to get people to write these.. understandably :) Grab v1.1 and write a review on iTunes and that will be very very awesome :)

So what next? There's been a lot of activity for us bubbling in the background leading up to all of this, and there's a lot of loose ends I need to tie up to prepare for whatever might happen next week. Stay tuned - and thanks for your help! And BTW I just nailed the #3 spot on Endless, I don't knowwww if I can get any better than that! It gets too crazy...

More to come - enjoy your long weekend folks!

Retro Game of the Day! Baby Pac-Man

2010-11-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Baby Pac-Man

Baby Pac-Man by Bally/Midway, released in 1982.

In case you were asleep at the wheel, there's a bit of hubbub around All Things Pac right now with the recent downloadable release of Pac-Man CE DX Hyper Mega Ultrachomp Liberace (....) Let's take advantage of the moment with a look back at one of the more notorious entrants into the franchise's lineage - the hybrid videogame/pinball machine unit known as Baby Pac-Man.

A beast of a thing, I first gazed upon this Frankensteinian contraption at my local arcade when I was all of 7 or 8 years old. What deviltry was this? A pinball machine attached to a Pac-Man arcade cabinet, some unholy union, this... blasphemy? Apparently the original Japanese Pac-Man creator (and copyright holder) Namco felt this way, as this (and other "dilutions" of the brand by domestic distributor Bally/Midway, such as Jr. Pac-Man) led to bitter relations between the two. And yet here you had it, the two game worlds merged together in a Freak of Nature.

The typical Pac-Man rules were in play here, at the base - navigate through a maze, eat dots, bonus fruits, pass through warp tunnels, avoid ghosts. You could chomp down on Power Pellets to briefly get the upper hand on your pursuers, but you needed to "earn" the powerups by unlocking them on the physical pinball playfield below. Likewise you could enhance other elements of the game (increase your tunnel travel speed, and level up your bonus fruit). To access the pinball table, you must guide Baby Pac through vertical warp tunnels located at the bottom of the playfield. You get one entry per turn, and then they'll lock you out (unlock if you clear a board, or lose a life).
All of this, coupled with (even for Pac-Man) enhanced unpredictable ghost behavior, made an already challenging game that much more difficult. I think I burned my quarter inside of a minute "what just happened?" Baby Pac-Man has indeed taken a lot of flack from the Pac-loving community, for several reasons; but to me it stands out as a true departure and a bold experiment, and absolutely an item to collect if you are into novelty amusement machines. The game is a rough ride, but the combination actually does make for quite a fun experience overall. Ignore the derision of the namby-pamby critics, Baby Pac-Man is a true gem out of the vaults of classic gaming history and should never be forgotten! Here is a well-made video to see how the whole setup handles!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #40

2010-11-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #40

It's been a little while, folkerinos! Without further adieu, let's jump right into it!

A CALL TO ARMS!

Okay friends, it's time for us to ask a favor of our audience. As some of you may know, our long-time-in-coming update to our iPhone game 180 has finally released on the appstore very recently. I've not been too mysterious about the fact that there'll be a final promotional push happening sometime after that occasion. As that phase creeps ever closer, we need to make sure to get a healthy level of reviews in place for the game. This will make the game a lot easier to promote! Even if you have already rated/reviewed the previous version of the game, the new one has "wiped the slate clean" and all who grab the update are free to give a new review in iTunes (LINK) I ask that you do us a solid and write one, say whatever you like of course (be honest!) but please write something in there. This is a huge help to us, everyone counts, I cannot stress it enough. If you've got friends who have the game as well, please encourage them to do the same, ASAP.

180 Notes - the update is out at last, the new icon is being well-received, and the little changes to the code make for a nicer end-product. What next for 180? Well, the game has been out for a very long time now, and it's time to move onto something else. The programmer is still adding a couple of follow-up features to the game (save state/resume, a new casual play mode) and I suspect those might release sometime early into 2011. Adding a visual upgrade as well as Game Center support are other thoughts, although they are low on the totem pole for the time being. As the final promotion comes, we'll necessarily use the outcome of that to determine what (if anything) else will be done with the game. I'd love to make a full-on sequel, as mentioned several times in this journal, but that's still merely a glint in my eye for many reasons.

Bizdev - 2010 has been a long and interesting year for Headcase Games and the overall iPhone app development scene in general. I will write a cohesive round-up of all things micro and macro in the coming month.. suffice it to say some things went well (our game released!) and others, not so much (no other games got made!) All the while, I am still doing plenty of behind-the-scenes work, trying to drum up business opportunities where I can, and when they make sense. There's always a couple of interesting things brewing here and there. I have my hand in several things that are at various stages of development, although it doesn't look like anything will be bearing fruit anytime in the near future. An interesting exception to this is that we've started to look into Windows Phone 7 development here at Headcase, and it's a very interesting time for that platform/market. We are trying some very different things in that area, it's way too early to know where things will go but right now we are already coding and developing assets, with eyes toward releasing something (small) shortly. As for how that all affects the future of everything, well.. stay tuned!

What Else is Going On - hmm, Thanksgiving is merely days away, usually that's a really happy time (probably my favorite holiday) but this season it's just exhausting and stressful! I am trying to balance many things professionally right now in a way that will make sense (for the record, this is what any game developer will tell you, no matter what is up!) and it is a lot of wear-and-tear on the ol' Central Nervous System. What used to be my happiest time of the year for gaming has become my most crowded time of the year for business! Looking out at the bigger picture (trends in mobile gaming and console gaming), it becomes more and more clear that a huge shake-up is looming in the distance, and everything will undergo some serious changes, in good ways and bad. I have been doing my best to lay down some establishment these last couple of years in preparation for that, as several of the smaller guys will have a chance to surf that wave into something bigger and better! In the meantime, the Game Industry as a whole hobbles along, spitting out a lot of garbage, a strong showing of decent-to-excellent work, a lot of exhaustion and heartache on the production side, and a general sense of wariness about "who is gonna catch that wave."

Thanks for reading, and supporting us! Again, it's very important to get iTunes reviews for 180, so take one minute of your day to pitch in! And watch this space in the coming weeks, as things heat up around here :)

Retro Game of the Day! Stack-Up

2010-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Stack-Up

Stack-Up by Nintendo for the NES, released in 1985.

Many old fogies remember R.O.B., the accessory that was designed to make the NES look like a toy rather than a videogame console. The deluxe NES set was packed with a R.O.B. and a Zapper lightgun, and a game that took advantage of each accessory. Gyromite (the R.O.B.) game was interesting in concept but ultimately unsatisfying in execution, and it was with some curiosity (and apprehension) that I sought out "the other R.O.B. game."

I did pick up a copy of Stack-Up at Toys R Us, only to return it the same day when I realized I had purchased a previously used game, and that it was missing some of the necessary pieces. The box was bundled with several little holsters to plug into the robot's base, and round colored blocks to stack on the holsters. Missing any parts would render the game unplayable, and since they didn't have any other copies in stock, I returned the game decided to pick up Popeye instead (a strange choice, since I already owned this game for my Atari 400).

So then, what was Stack-Up all about exactly? A very different experience than Gyromite certainly, the game consisted of 3 "minigames" involving lifting and moving the blocks to different holsters, often in short sequence (or preventing blocks from all being to one side of the robot). The game was just another follow-through supportive of the robot gimmick, and like it's predecessor does not seem that it was particularly enthralling after the novelty wore off.

Still, for collectors Stack-Up is one of the rarer "must have's" in the NES collection for many reasons. Even now, the image of R.O.B. with the different setups is striking and nostalgic, reminding us of a time when home video gaming was becoming new and different once more.

Do you enjoy our iPhone game 180? Please help us out and download the recent update, and rate & review the game on iTunes (LINK). Even if you've rated the original version, please be sure to do so for the new update as this helps us out very much; we've got a very big promotion coming up shortly, and we need your support! Thanks!

Retro Game of the Day! Wacko

2010-11-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Wacko

Wacko by Steve Meyer, published by Bally/Midway for the arcade in 1983.

This game was sort of an unusual take on Robotron in some ways, although the two games were decidedly very different. Whereas Roboton was a moment-to-moment killfest the likes of which had never been seen before (nearly everything constantly blasted you from all sides of the screen), Wacko was a lot less hectic in some ways (you really just had to dodge enemies). However, there were more complex rules in place as the game stretched on. Enemies must be defeated in pairs, mismatched pairs created "mutants" which would need to be "unmatched" in order to be killed, larger creatures must be killed before smaller ones, etc.

The game was outfitted in an unusual cabinet housing, with a sloped marquee and panel, giving it a very unique appearance (and driving home the point that "this was indeed a zany game"). The goofy in-game graphics, though extremely garish by modern standards, were very impressive - they looked very detailed and colorful in its day.

Also of note was the control setup. Robotron used a dual-stick moving-and-firing system, and Wacko implemented a setup somewhat inspired by this. Movement of the player was controlled with a trackball, and two sticks were presented for 8-way firing (supporting either left- or right-handed players).

Wacko was an interesting, somewhat novel game. Of course it's legacy has not lasted anywhere as long as it's competition, but back in the day this was certainly an attention-grabbing game that provided a high level of challenge which would make even the most skillful players sweat!

Retro Game of the Day! Battletoads in Battlemaniacs

2010-11-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

Retro Game of the Day! Battletoads in Battlemaniacs

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs by Rare for the SNES, released in 1993.

My-oh-my, where to start with this one! Battletoads originally appeared on the NES, and despite being punishingly difficult, was one of the more revered games of it's day. Excellent graphics and effects, interesting and varied design, and an overall unique and novel presentation helped to elevate it above the pack of many of the more forgettable TMNT-knockoffs of the day.

Now, Rare has alwas been an interesting (and often outstanding) developer. Back in the NES days, when - let's be honest - most Western-developed games were sub-par, many of the Rare-developed titles were often as much fun (and good-looking) as their Japanese counterparts. They each had a unique feel, style that was Rare's distinctive watermark, and it colored the entire experience of each title they got their hands on, in a good way.

So then, the leap (pardon the pun) to 16-bit was interesting for Rare, this being their 1st title as far as I could tell on the platform, and especially with so high-profile a franchise as this; the "Rare Style" did not seem to make the transition to the next generation as well as one would have hoped. Yes, this was a proper sequel to 8-bit Battletoads, and the necessary audiovisual refinements were there. But it felt like an uneasy transition, the smoothness, the loving touches weren't as lovingly touched. It felt like Rare was hastily upgrading for the new and the game looked and felt quite rough/uneven for it, at least aesthetically.

That is not to say that Battletoads SNES was a bad game - far from it. Despite it's unwieldy presentation, there was enough raw graphical flourish to sense that there was some muscle in this new development. And the gameplay itself? The first title was such a beast, that it was actually quite hard to want to pick this game up. NES Battletoads was a masterpiece in many ways, but overall it was like having an abusive relationship. The 16-bit sequel was just a question of "are you ready for more suffering?" These games relished the opportunity to kick you in the teeth again, and again, and again.

And yet, through it all, there's a special place in my heart for Battletoads and all of it's sequels. These games are wonderfully crafted for a certain pedigree of player. They are unapologetically frustrating, yet they are so big and feature packed (and just plain fun) that it is hard to deny their legacy. In many ways, this SNES game was practically the siren song of the franchise, but it is still a very playable (and enjoyable) game which is deserving of any honest gamer's time.. warts and all (cough, cough).

Retro Game of the Day! Track & Field II

2010-11-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Track & Field II

Track & Field II by Konami, released in 1988 for the NES.

Early into the lifecycle of the 8-bit NES, Konami came out blasting with a strong lineup of titles. They quickly established themselves as a top-tier developer whose games covered a slightly broad base of themes (mostly sports and action). Their games often featured very strong audiovisual experiences coupled with excellent and varied gameplay, compared to a lot of their competitors.

When Track & Field II was announced, Konami was working through it's "sophomore" series of titles and riding high on the popularity wave brought forth by the previous set. TF2 looked to be one of the more ambitious games in development at the time, with a huge array of events to compete in and some of the best graphics ever showcased on the system. I was never much for sports games, but seeing the previews for a game this huge, content-packed and graphically alluring had me itching to snap it up Day One - and that's what I did.

In that respect, TF2 did not disappoint. The game was far from simulation (many sports titles in the 80s were really just action-fests in different clothes, anyway) The game consisted of a huge number of events, the majority of which involved serious button mashing (you'd need to repeatedly slam the A and B buttons as quickly as possible to perform during a pole vault, high jump, etc). I don't think most gamers felt shameful for using a turbo controller during these events (otherwise, you were in for a world of hurt!). Other events such as archery and hang gliding required you to gauge and react to changing wind conditions and such.

The game was really over-the-top, with such a large amount of events and detailed renditions of athletes to participate in them. These had to be the largest sprites I'd ever seen in a NES game at that point, and perhaps for quite some time. Frame counts suffered as a result, but it didn't matter because the game just looked so much more advanced than much of what else was available at the time.

In hindsight, Track & Field II was rather simple, with a lot of what were essentially different minigames riffing on a few basic themes; but at the time, the game felt like a supreme effort by a masterful developer, and it was just another example of the exciting games that could come out of left field for what was the dominant game console at the time. This game was loaded with so much to do and see, it was impossible to ever feel bored with it!

Retro Game of the Day! Ghostbusters (Genesis)

2010-10-29T15:08:00.001-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Ghostbusters (Genesis)

Ghostbusters for the Sega Genesis, released in 1990 by Sega.

Here is a game I was very skeptical about piking up. After being very excited for (and then disappointed by) the flawed NES title of the same name 2 years earlier, I had my guard up somewhat. However, Ghostbusters for the Genesis had a couple of very good things working in its favor; it was released quite early into the lifecycle of the system (there weren't too many character-action titles released by that point) and the screenshots made the game look like it could be quite fun (and it definitely didn't look anything at all like the Nintendo title). Starving for some new excitement on my Genesis, I rushed down to Toys R Us and scooped the game up.

Happily, I was surprised. Ghostbusters was not only decent, but quite good for it's time. The subject matter lent itself quite well to videogaming, and was done complete justice in this game (even if it wasn't quite 1:1 faithful to the actual license - but that didn't really matter, so long as the gameplay was solid!) The game is basically a run, jump and shoot action/adventure title, where you explore differently-themed buildings (the typical "worlds" of the day.. fire level, ice level, etc). Different minibosses must be sought out and defeated, and then the stronger level boss would have to be taken down as well.

It was a very early Genesis title, and so the screens look rather drab now; but at the time, this was a graphically very clean, impressive-looking game to witness. Creatures were well-designed and animated, the main characters were somewhat of the super-deformed style (which was still novel, and therefore looked rather strange). Bouncy, sometimes haunting music accompanied the action, and there were plenty of cool weapons/pickups and associated effects. It was a very nice package, and bode well for what was to come on the system.

Gameplay-wise, Ghostbusters had a little bit of a Mega Man vibe to it, between the way the game was laid out and the control of the character. It was also rather a difficult game, especially in the later levels: in this game you needed to be patient and skilled to take down your rivals. Perhaps worst of all was the lack of a save for password, in true old-school style you had to make it through the whole game in a solid sitting.

Ghostbusters by Sega was a nice surprise, almost an apology for the NES version and really a precursor for what to expect in other character action games (such as the excellent Castle of Illusion). Most importantly, the game still holds up nicely today, even if it is a little old-looking. A very acceptable use of a prominent license.

iPhone App Game Development Blog #39

2010-10-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #39

Time to spit out another one of these! I feel like I just wrote one, but I guess it has been nearly a week and a half. So then, let's get into it, shall we?

I am going to break from the usual format, for a change, and just sort of spout about what's been on my mind. I like keeping things structured, but the way things have been progressing lately, the usual structure is not so pertinent anymore. And as this is just a blog at the end of the day, sometimes it makes sense to just have a brain-dump.

Things have been awfully interesting on the iPhone development scene lately, in many ways; quiet in several others. Surprisingly, following a tremendous lead-in the first part of the year (GTA, SFIV, lots and lots of high-profile releases) things have really cooled off with the major players dipping their toes into the scene in a manner which has kind of surprised me. They have the manpower, the money, and the wits to take over, and instead it's sort of been sloughing off, and I can't figure out exactly why. I guess there is some disinterest on the part of the heavy hitters now that the novely has worn off, and that's strange; the money is still there (and coming fast and furiously), the user base keeps growing exponentially, and the platform in general is just getting trendier than ever. A good bit of that seems to be rubbing off on the competitors as well (Android) and of course no one seems to care, but now the Windows Phone is available as well.

So what gives? Where is everyone? Why the malaise?

As an independent, I say it is fine, as it gives us a lot more room to have any kind of a profound effect in some fashion or other, and that's been happening to degrees. But it really does feel like this Sword of Damocles situation in a way, there will be this huge throwdown whenever those bigger, established studios decide to stop pussy-footing around, come in and "take over." I have a pretty decent finger on the pulse of this industry, and the only real excuse I can think of it short-sightedness/politics/lethargy. Whatever. The longer they are absent, the better off the rest of us players will be.

For indies, we struck a powerful blow when Matt Rix's Trainyard app suddenly rocketed far up the charts, enjoyed a moment at #2 on All Paid before settling into the lower end of the Top Ten for the longer haul. That was huge, I can't help but wonder if Cut The Rope hadn't yet surfaced if he could have grabbed that top spot, as he'd unseated even the reigning champ Angry Birds! Here's this one guy who made the game all by himself, his singular app released so many months ago (near the time our last one released), and he took over the world for a few minutes there (and obviously is still raking it in). I hope to see his app sitting up there in Top Ten-land for a long time to come :)

Also of note, our buddies at Retro Dreamer have released their new app Linkoidz this past week. Of course I was eager to get my paws on this title, as it is very inspired by a time-honored favorite Magical Drop (which does already exist on the iPhone, albeit in poorly executed form). Linkoidz makes short work of that title and is enjoying a lot of attention right now, I wholeheartedly recommend a pickup if you are a fan of quality action-puzzlers. Simple interface, splendid execution, and quite addictive.

Last bit of scene news will be to mention that Chillingo got bought up by none other than EA, which was a surprise to some and not much to others. For whatever reason, I had them pegged as Activision-bound (I am sure they were talking to everyone, hell everyone is always talking to everyone else) but I guess this was the one that bit. ATVI will get theirs soon enough I am sure. Even more interesting is the fallout from this, as none of Chill's games are coming with.. just their stupendous network. Angry Birds, the crown jewel, has since seen a chart-topping Chillingo-less update (Halloween edition) which has the layman's head scratching "didn't Chillingo make the previous game?" being that it was pretty heavily branded as such.. anyway, everyone from all camps are making out like gangbusters from these deals, so at the end of the day it's hard to feel bad for anyone.

BIZDEV - and what's up on the homefront, you may wonder? A fellow emailed me recently "so, is Headcase still making games?" It's an awfully good question, and while there's the most general of blanket answers available ("yes!") the honest reality which shouldn't be a surprise is, that things are moving so slowly in development that they might as well not be going anywhere. Anyone who is familiar with the ins and outs of any kind of smalltime development knows how this goes, all too well - unless you have a dedicated base, it's nigh-impossible to see something as complex as a full project through to appropriate completion. Even for seemingly small projects, lack of production really is a death knell. This is not trivial! In this operation, it's my job not only to do much of the brainstorming, raw asset creation and management, but also the connection to the outside world (which I've often related is quite a sizable and laborious job in itself). But at the end of the day, shepherding a brand is utterly useless when there's no new product to put out there.

It's very difficult. There's few things I enjoy more, in this world, then being on a development staff (large or small) and making something that's awesome, that makes people happy, that is alive. It's a charge unlike any other that I have experienced in my 35 years. But the big lesson is, it's just not that simple. There's politics to contend with. Personalities, money, hopes and dreams and plans. Until that flow comes in, things sound rad on paper but unless you are that true "do-everything-machine," you are just a half-realized concept. It pains me to see my game out in the world, but know that it's hobbled in certain ways. Products released 6 months, a year ago, and further out are already on such a different playing field than what is coming out now or with the next wave (and the generations pass quickly!)

I don't know what will happen. I have purposefully kept quiet about the deeper, stressful nature of this stuff ("will I get to continue as I'd like to in this capacity?") Bottom line - I am confident in my abilities. I have a head full of great ideas for the future. For the time being, I am doing all that I can to keep myself active in this industry, and work better towards that goal. Thanks for reading and supporting :)

Retro Game of the Day! Stormlord

2010-10-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Stormlord

Stormlord by Hewson, released in 1989 for several computer platforms such as the Speccy and Amiga. Published for the Sega Genesis in the States by Razor Soft in 1990.

Once again, it is time to turn the pages back to the early days of the Sega Genesis. Back when Nintendo had a stranglehold on nearly all 3rd-party licensing, the hardware manufacturer had to look elsewhere to bring in new titles for its powerful 16-bit behemoth which weren't developed in-house. A scant few arrangements were made with some companies, and soon magazines started running advertisements for the "first wave" of Genesis games following the initial all-Sega-produced launch lineup. This was when Stormlord first came into the picture.

Flipping through the back pages of a GamePro magazine, the initial ads for Stormlord looked quite promising. The boxart was impressive and conjured imagery of power and adventure. The name sounded extremely cool. The screenshots were small and dark, but detailed; the text promised a worthy successor to the style of play recently made famous in the king of the recent launch, Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Stormlord was going to be one to keep an eye on, for sure.

And it did finally arrive, but the hesitant were proven to be justified. This game was nothing like the aforemention Capcom classic, it was a totally different style of play. Hope around, avoid obstacles, rescue fairies. Not a bad game, but certainly not of the pace, style, or character of it's predecessor. The character lumbered around slowly and weakly, the animations were devoid of spark, and the questing was quite boring compared to what was being put forth in Japanese-styled action games at the time. This was considered a successful title in it's home territory, but the port more players saw wasn't received well at all.

The most notorious thing about Stormlord was that some of the background graphics were considered to be too risque for a general audience (naked fairy statues climbing out of jars). For the conversion, they were given bathing suits; one wonders how many people bought the game for this reason alone!

iPhone App Development Vlog #5

2010-10-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

Headcase Games iPhone App Development Vlog #5

SHOW NOTES:
transcript at http://luminaria.wordpress.com/2007/0...
"Born into this" written by Charles Bukowski

FreeAppTracker - developer submit

Thanks for supporting Headcase Games!

Want to win ANY Free App of your choice for your iPhone, care of Headcase Games (LINK)

Retro Game of the Day! Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

2010-10-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse by Konami, released in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (a year earlier in Japan, a couple years later in Europe).

It's pretty late into October, which is generally regarded in videogameland as "Castlevania month" for some decades now, and I am just getting to reviewing this hugely classic game now, shame on me!

CV3 was touted as a return to form for one of the best of the earliest 8-bit franchises on the console, the original Castlevania had quite a legacy to live up to as one of the strongest action-platformers on the NES. The first sequel, Simon's Quest was a decent game in its own right, but it failed to properly capture what was so enjoyable about the preceding game.

As a modern gamer, it was a little hard to get very excited about a new Castlevania iteration; 16-bit was in full swing and the shots being shown of CV3 looked extremely dated compared to what was blasting out of the TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis. The game honestly looked a lot like a rework of the 1987 original, which was decent-looking at the time but even leading up to it's release, many NES carts were of a higher graphical standard than this grandaddy engine.

In spite of all of this (and the disappointment of part 2), the magazines fully sold CV3. A huge game, diverging paths, different playable characters (defeat bosses like in Mega Man, and "acquire their powers"). It felt like it was arriving a little late, but I picked the game up and enjoyed it. This was what a proper sequel to Castlevania should play like! The game wasn't perfect, but it was much better than expected and so enjoyable to play through. In many ways, it was the final iteration of the first genesis of the series; aside from the differently-designed GameBoy "side story" titles, the next step was 16-bit which took the gameplay, design, and aesthetic in very different directions. I suppose we didn't really need another 8-bit sequel following this, but they did a very good job of providing just what was needed.

Castlevania III is an excellent and, strangely, often overlooked entry into the series. The design has it's detractors, but overall it's an excellent complement to the first game and a title which still holds up quite well. In some ways it seems like a good candidate for a 16-bit re-style, but honestly I like how it looks and feels just fine. Any fan of the series must play through this game!

Retro Game of the Day! Junction

2010-10-19T18:28:00.001-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Junction

Junction by Micronet, released in 1990 for the Sega Genesis (and later for the Sega Game Gear)

In the early days of the Sega Genesis, there was a nice slew of software released at launch and a small trickle followed afterward. Unfortunately, any head of steam built up was quickly worn down as there was just not much to enjoy once you tired of beating Ghouls 'n Ghosts or clearing Altered Beast for the umpteenth time. Nintendo still maintained a strangehold on the console licensee market and not many third parties were eager to upset the giant and jump into development just yet for the rival consoles; less well-known companies got their chance to step up in the meantime and take center stage with their goods.

Seeing a game like Junction advertised in the magazines at the time was not unusual, then. Just by virtue of its being a 16-bit game, it automatically generated interest (even if it was not a known franchise, and in spite of the fact that it looked like some kind of board game). In face this was quite unusual, as video board games on consoles were generally few and far between. All of these things being the case (and because it made me think of Zoom!), I didn't bother with Junction (though I was always curious about it!)

The game simply puts you in command of a table with a ball rolling over it. Much like those old plastic sliding puzzles which many remember from their childhood, this requires that you manipulate the pieces such that the ball will roll over several special long white pieces in order to clear a board. Mess it up and you lose a turn! The ball rolls of its own accord, although you can speed it up if you like. Several obstacles are in place to help (or hinder) your progress.

In hindsight, the game is really not bad and it is fairly novel and well-presented for what it is. It's easy to see why it flopped on the Genesis (see the reasons mentioned earlier!) but that is a shame as the game was not only different, but well-thought-out and fairly packed with content. It's a game which holds up now and wouldn't seem out of place on a mobile device (I am sure there's "grandchildren" versions of this available). These types of puzzlers have their fans, and it is recommend it based on that merit.

Retro Game of the Day! Shadow of the Beast

2010-10-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Shadow of the Beast

Shadow of the Beast by Reflections/Psygnosis, originally released in 1989.

At the tail end of the 1980s, I was so unbelievably jazzed to get my hands on a Sega Genesis. Finally, gorgeous arcade graphics at home, could this be for real - and could it get any better than this? Sure enough, cracking open the game magazines of the day, it could. If you wanted to have the real deal, you needed to own an Amiga, because only than could you play Shadow of the Beast.

Computer games were often more exotic looking than their console counterparts, but this was too much. A huge color palette, enormous sprites, elaborately detailed backgrounds with multiple layers of scrolling parallax, it seemed like this was a game from the future!

However, Beast did have a knock against it - the game was notoriously hard, even back in the day. It was one of those titles where you needed to traverse large levels in search of every nook and cranny, for if you forgot to pick up a needed implement, you'd be doomed later on in the game with no way to go back and fix your error. To top it off, this was no Mario game (you didn't exactly have a lot of health/lives available!)

Eventually, Beast did find a console release on the Genesis, and it was a decent port, nothing more. It has problems (game speed, hit detection, loss of some graphical fidelity, horrible music) but the game is intact enough to relate to its source material. The game may not have aged too wonderfully, but for a time this was one of the standards by which many other titles were judged!

iPhone App Game Development Blog #38

2010-10-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

iPhone App Game Development Blog #38

Well hi there!! Yes, it's true, I don't get to stick my head in here and say hello as often as I like. Things are extraordinarily busy lately (they're never dull) and it's been murder on getting to things like community discourse. I have been spending a ton of time trying to find some manner of gig or other to pay the bills since I need to pay my rent, between that and keeping the lights on at Headcase it gets really tight at times. But I am still here :)

180 for iPhone - We've been working hard to get our update out the door. As usual I must stress that the game is not going to be a huge departure from the already-existing version, we had some tech issues to address and it's likely that the only really noticeable change for most folks will be the new icon. A new binary just got submitted this past evening, so with some luck it will turn around and we can breathe a sigh of relief! Following the update there will be a huge amount of activity on my end, as there is quite a bit of promoting to do. Our game is not new anymore, but I need to "act like it is" for the last time. It's hard to know what to expect for the fallout from this coming promotion, the details of which will be revealed soon, so I am going to be optimistic - either way I am happy, because following this period I can move on with things and concentrate on something different!

This final 180 promotion will be a big deal for us and I am seeking to recruit help from any interested parties. I need to finish assembling the plan, and will announce it in here shortly (this week?) Any help from anyone is welcome - whether you've got resources that are amazing or merely modest, I can find stuff for you to do :) Details to come.

Bizdev - As noted in the intro, I have been spending a ton of time seeking out some paid work, and my other iPhone development has been sort of crawling along as a result. I have got some time in for the project code-named "3," and I've recently recruited a buddy to help move that along. That project needs to get wrapped up and moved into the promotion & release phase asap so that whatever's next can get underway. I am sitting on a lot of great ideas for projects, but they all stay in the Deep Freeze until their time comes.

FreeAppTracker.com - Our new website is chugging along. I think it's been live for about a month now.. this is taking a good bit of work to maintain as well, but I am happy so far. If you enjoy the site, please mention it to your friends - and if you are a dev with a free app to plug, hook up with us and we can feature it for you (for free) and help you to promote! With the coming 180 promotion I am expecting to get an increase in traffic for this site, so it is something to keep in mind. At some point we will feature ads for other (paid) apps by fellow indie devs, but if you're eager to get on with that then contact me.

What Else is Going On - Ohhh boy, the world's all crazy right now. Lots going on in game news, we've got Cut The Rope finally knocking Angry Birds out of 1st place in the app store. Very interesting, and I wonder how long it will sit there? Supposedly they made $1 Million off this 0.99cent app in a little over a week. This is crazy. Also, fellow indie developer Matt Rix made huge waves when his app Trainyard got some serious steam out of nowhere and blasted all the way up to number 2, where it exhaled for a moment, before getting in comfy at number 3 where it seems to be sticking around for awhile. This is a huge deal for all us little guys with apps that have been sitting out there for awhile, it just goes to show that a well-made production can be discovered and change the world. Of course, there are so many instances out there, that it's hard to expect a similar chain of events could be possible to repeat any time soon.

This brings me to a point I want to bring up, the notion that the app store is such a crazy place right now. It really is, we've all shuffled into this weird new world and everyone wants a piece of it, and most folks aren't gonna even snatch a morsel. We've reached a point where competition is so tense, and systems feel like they are getting pretty figured-out; most little guys will not have much hope of gaining any real ground unless drastic (and expensive) measures are taken. You can not just have a good game to sell anymore. You need to go out on a limb and do lots of other things to promote, and it's becoming more work to do that than merely putting together a nice game. If you've been a moderately successful dev (with a decent body of work and some amount of fandom) then you are probably a bit hooked up and plugged in by now, and you can just keep churning things out and getting some return. But if you are brand new and hoping to strike it rich, and have never dealt with any kind of marketing or networking, then it's going to be a nightmare. It's probably been at this stage for over a year now, realistically.

I think we'll see a lot of the bigger companies finally start to make some real movement in dominating the app space following the holidays, and indie devs will fight for increasingly smaller mindshare. Indie is not going away, but it will become much harder to get noticed as this happens. This will help glaze over some of the usual garbage apps that usually fill up the store, but it will probably also force smaller devs to embark on bigger and more ambitious projects before they are ready (if you've worked in the mainstream game industry, this might start to sound very familiar!) The app store scene has been wonderful, ultimately, as it has fostered this wonderful potential for creator-owned (and controlled) content, and I fear that the days might wind down before they've really been given a chance to shine. We will see what happens!

On that note, Angry Birds released on Android the other day. 1 MILLION DOWNLOADS in a day. Madness.

Retro Game of the Day! Electrocop

2010-10-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Electrocop

Electrocop by Epyx, for the Atari Lynx. Released in 1989.

Here was a game which really polarized players (well, the ones who actually saw it!) This was among the first titles released for the Atari Lynx (semi)16-bit handheld system, which launched in the same period as Nintendo's 8-bit GameBoy. While GB was sporting titles like Mario Land and Alleyway at its launch, Lynx was showing off extremely complicated-looking (and visually arresting) titles such as the After Burner-esque Blue Lightning and this. Aesthetically, there was no comparison - the GameBoy games looked absolutely prehistoric compared to the powerful Lynx titles. Of course, history has proven that it takes more than good looks to win a system war..

Electrocop was a riff on the extremely-popular late-80s Robocop theme, and it worked well. This game was dripping with mood, style, and coolness. Your character felt like he was really navigating in real-time through a mazelike hi-tech complex. The scaling graphics, the immersion feeling, it was all very breathtaking (and that much more so on a portable device!)

Sadly, what the game rocked in cool it lacked in substance. The game was not bad, it was a bit of fun - but it wore thin after a few plays. Your character could pick up some neat weaponry, but he felt rather underpowered most of the time. Moving through the world was amazing, but it often became disorienting and difficult to track. The enemies were plentiful, but they were not particularly engaging or even very fun to battle. The worst problem was the coded doorlocks - a player would have to set up hacks to discover a "secret code," and then pass the time while the hack worked through it's process. This was a cardinal sin, no game should expect you to wait around and keep busy while a timer counts away!

Fortunately, there were several little neat minigames (something unheard-of at the time) which you could keep busy with while waiting for the hacks. Breakout, Asteroids, and others; but really one couldn't shake the feeling that rather than wait and play watered-down versions of real games-within-a-game, they should be enjoying the "real" game world!

Electrocop was an excellent idea followed up with some dynamite aesthetic and ultimately misguided execution. It was an experimental game released during a critical time, and though it was very impressive - and an incredible showcase for the new system it was one - it was ultimately a reminder that a game needs some very solid planning and forethought to be considered enjoyable in the long-term, rather than just relying on gimmicks.

This indie game "Trainyard" is currently tearing up the iPhone charts! An excellent production by some friends of ours, be sure to support and pick it up now!

Retro Game of the Day! Volfied

2010-10-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Volfied

Volfied (or "Ultimate Qix," but really, which name would you prefer?) by Taito, arcade release in 1989 and ported shortly after to Sega Genesis, PC-Engine, and other platforms.

A game nearly lost to time, Qix was part of a very old generation of videogames where graphics were as simplistic as could be, and gameplay was the only leg to stand on. With it's unique "fill the entire screen by line-drawing boxes," Qix stood quite apart from the rest and enjoyed some popularity for it.
The game is still as enjoyable now as it was when it first appeared, but its looks never made it an easy one to sell. With its' legacy, a bevy of sequels followed (some official, most softcore-porn-themed knockoffs) although Volfied was the only "true" follow-up.

Volfied expanded on the original by sticking to what worked, and not trying to complicate things. The super-simple source material was given an appropriate sci-fi facelift, and gameplay was augmented with extra challenge. The game was interesting in that it improved on the original, and yet the two are able to coexist (it wouldn't be fair to say that Volfied is "better" than Qix...)

Retro Game of the Day! Boxing

2010-10-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Boxing

Boxing by Bob Whitehead, published by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1980.

I love those old Activision boxes. While the typical Atari-produced games had much more detailed painted artwork, the ATVI boxes usually reflected a style emphasizing the simplicity of the onscreen presentation, in a tasteful way - with giant rainbows often trailing the moving characters. That part was rather tacky, but it was certainly iconic and distinctive.

Here we had one of earliest known expressions of video boxing. Sensibly, they decided to portray a top-down view and only showed each boxer's head and gloves - to make up for the minimalism, some relatively fluid animations were added to give character to the players.

The game is extremely simple - jab and dodge, jab and dodge. 100 points nets you a win, or whoever is the point leader when the single-round 2:00 clock wears down. Even with such a crude setup, the game was quite fun in its day and remains one of the more accessible games from the period (particularly owing to its multiplayer aspect).

Retro Game of the Day! Hogan's Alley

2010-10-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

Retro Game of the Day! Hogan's Alley

Hogan's Alley by Nintendo, appearing in the arcade originally in 1984 and ported to the NES a year later (launched 2 years later in North America).

A very old Nintendo game, Hogan's Alley was a great one to pick up if you'd recently bought yourself a NES and had grown tired of shooting birds in Duck Hunt. Very simple and straightforward, the game represented a super-simplification of police training maneuvers which harkened back to the older mechanical "pop-up target shooting" games which were quite popular in arcades before electronic video games came in and completely took over!

As noted, very simple gameplay. Cardboard cut-outs would roll into view sideways, and then flip to face you. If it was a gangster, fill him with led. If it's a beat cop, innocent woman, or professor, you'd better not shoot! "Stay alive" by killing thugs and not hitting the innocents.. that's it. As with many of this type of game, it started off quite easily but then ramped up quickly.

The game was pretty nice for it's day, and came with the usual pre-dawn Nintendo bells and whistles (lots of color, bouncy music, several game modes). Ultimately the game is quite shallow and doesn't have "staying power," but when you consider this released during a time when such a thing was revolutionary, all is forgiven. Still, if you are looking for some fun 8-bit blasting, this is a good go-to for that retro charge (that spring-loaded Zapper trigger always felt so gratifying to pull!) Additionally, a "trick shooting" extra mode was included which was quite difficult compared to the rest of the game. No big deal, but a nice touch to round out the package.

Like most of Nintendo's ancient 8-bit lineup, Hogan's Alley is worth a look if somewhat forgettable. Those with an interest in more engaging light-gun content from the period would do well to check out the next step up from this, such as Sunsoft's (slightly) similarly-themed Freedom Force, which is an excellent game for the peripheral.