Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: No Time To Explain]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/17/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-no-time-to-explain/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/17/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-no-time-to-explain/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/17/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-no-time-to-explain/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, the team at tinyBuild take the time to describe their rollercoaster of crowdfunding before it was cool and being Greenlit, with No Time To Explain.

The Joystiq Indie Pitch No Time To Explain
What's your game called and what's it about?

It's called No Time To Explain and is about giant enemy crabs, time paradoxes and jetpack guns. We're fans of the whole wacky concept of time travel and wanted to make a game where we can get away with pretty much anything and make that funny.

How did you find out about being Greenlit and how did you react?

I was obsessively refreshing our Greenlight page for a couple of hours until finally the big green sign, "This game has been Greenlit," appeared. I had tears in my eyes at that point. We were losing hope to get onto Steam, and this felt like winning the lottery. You know the moment where you realize something great just happened and you don't entirely believe it? I called Tom, who apparently threw his dog out of happiness (the dog is fine).

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JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: No Time To Explain originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>greenlightIndiejoystiq-indie-pitchno-time-to-explainpcSTEAMsteam-greenlighttinybuildThu, 17 Jan 2013 21:30:00 EST<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Edge of Space]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/30/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-edge-of-space/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/30/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-edge-of-space/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/30/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-edge-of-space/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, lead game designer at Handyman Studios, Jacob Crane, talks Edge of Space, his space shark exploration game in beta and on Greenlight now.

The Joystiq Indie Pitch Edge of Space
What's your game called and what's it about?

The game we are working on is Edge of Space, and it is a 2D sandbox exploration game. You, one of the ArkCo Recruits, have been dropped into an area where terraforming should never have been attempted. Stranded in an unknown region of space on a busted-up planet where early terraforming protocols have gone horribly wrong, it's now up to you and whoever else you can find to overcome the obstacles ahead.

How is the beta going?

The beta is going very well. It has kept our feet on the ground and really helped us identify issues in the core system early on. Whenever you are developing multiplayer, we think it is key you get it out into the "wild" as soon as you can. We wanted to experiment with a different kind of development style to match our small team. After alpha, we pulled out all but the basic features for beta, and then started adding them back in layers as we found things were stable and the necessary iteration was put in place.

This is very much a bottom-up approach. To ensure our foundations are rock solid is paramount. Even though mod development is not being released right at release day, everything has already been made to support it when we do. This has served us very well. It does come with the drawback of not being able to show everything we want to, but it allows us make the code infinitely more stable.

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JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: Edge of Space originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>betaedge-of-spacegreenlighthandyman-studiosjoystiq-indie-pitchpcreverb-publishingsteam-greenlightSun, 30 Dec 2012 17:30:00 EST<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Humans Must Answer]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. This week, former GSC developer and co-founder of Sumom Games, Eugeny Yatsuk, talks space chickens and shmups with Humans Must Answer. The babies are Yatsuk, co-founder Denis Matveenko and artist Olexa, by Olexa.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch Humans Must Answer
What's your game called and what's it about?

Humans Must Answer. It's a shmup, and one most will recognize as having an old-school vibe about it. You play as the pilot of a scout ship called The Golden Eagle, which is manned by chickens - they like to think they're a higher species of bird than they are.

They're on the lookout for something (we're not saying quite yet) and discover it within the solar system that us humans inhabit. As it is set far into the future, humans have expanded to the other planets and set up a number of industries upon them. They also have a huge legion of robots operating for them around space. So the enemies you'll come across consist of robots and humans. Yes, humans are enemies - there are far too many plots about evil aliens when, in fact, humans are most likely more evil than anything we could fictionalize.

The chickens attempt to contact them in a friendly manner but the humans respond by firing at them, which isn't particularly nice. They live to regret it though because we let you, the player, go on an explosive rampage against the aggressors. There is a purpose behind it other than mere carnage though, but that doesn't appear until later in the game's narrative.

How does working on your own indie project compare to working on a larger series such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

Very different. Faster decisions and far fewer constraints. It's a very good feeling to be the author and be responsible for all aspects of the game, and not just some cogs as part of a big company.

I know some guys who work on bigger projects and ownership of their creations boils down to things like, "I made that table and chair on Level 25." You start to fear for yourself when hearing this and want to avoid ever being in that situation. When I am 40 years old I'll look at what I have created in my life. I hope to be proud of it.

Gallery: Humans Must Answer

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JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: Humans Must Answer originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>greenlightgscGSC-Game-Worldhumans-must-answerigfigf-2013joystiq-indie-pitchpcsteam-greenlightsumom-gamesukraineSun, 04 Nov 2012 22:30:00 EST<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Brand]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-brand/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-brand/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-brand/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, founder and CEO of Nine Dots Studio, talks the craft of customization, XBLIG sales and launching near Diablo 3, with Brand.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch Brand
What's your game called and what's it about?

The game is called Brand and it's about building a sword fit for a king. The game is in 3D, but the gameplay is in 2D. It features three large explorable levels, in a somewhat similar fashion to games of the Metroidvania genre, although a little simpler.

How do you support yourselves, working full-time at Nine Dots with no salary? Is it worth it?

I had saved up about $25,000 before starting the business, and I started doing a few consulting jobs to fill in my pockets a little whenever I can. Some guys work on the side, while others get support from their parents. It's not an ideal situation for anyone, but we try to make the most of it.

We're all young and it's the right time to make these sacrifices. I think it's definitely worth it. The experience is unique, and even if Nine Dots was to fail, we'd still have a very strong portfolio piece, a unique background and we'd be of the very few developers who could proudly say: "We made the game we wanted to make, the way we wanted to do it." Some people have been in the industry for 15 years and can't say that.

Gallery: Brand

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JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: Brand originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>branddesuragreenlightjoystiq-indie-pitchmicrosoftnine-dotsnine-dots-studiopcSTEAMsteam-greenlightxbligxboxTue, 23 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Cloudbuilt]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-cloudbuilt/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-cloudbuilt/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/09/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-cloudbuilt/#comments Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Johannes, Anders, Martin, Poi and the Coilworks team discuss going Greenlight and modern-retro challenges with Cloudbuilt.

The Joystiq Indie Pitch Cloudbuilt
What's your game called and what's it about?

Our game is called Cloudbuilt, and at its core it is all about challenging high-speed action and platforming. We are borrowing inspiration from old-school games, combining it with modern elements and adding some unique twists. We really think that we have brought booster powers to a whole new level with this game.

So what will Cloudbuilt bring in terms of challenge?

We want there to be plenty of room for the player to improve. We don't want to make Cloudbuilt challenging in the sense of simply killing the player. Sure, there are parts of the game where people tend to die a lot, but we make sure it's not because of unfair design. Our goal is to make you feel in control, thus should you fail, it would be due to your own fault. That makes it truly rewarding and when you clear a level, you'll feel like you've improved and mastered something.

Doing several easy tasks at once quickly becomes challenging. Wall-running on its own is not that hard, but wall-running while dodging mines and shooting at enemies, all while preparing to jump onto a new wall, is a little bit harder.

Because we are giving the player access to all abilities from the start, we will be focusing on the player's development instead of a character's. There is no difference in what a player can do in the beginning compared with the end. But there will most likely be a big difference in play style and the player's way of thinking.

Gallery: Cloudbuilt

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JoystiqThe Joystiq Indie Pitch: Cloudbuilt originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cloudbuiltcoilworksgreenlightIndiejoystiq-indie-pitchpcSTEAMsteam-greenlightTue, 09 Oct 2012 21:30:00 EST