It’s been way too long since any development updates have been posted. I’ve been busy dealing with some personal issues and have been neglecting certain things, like writing blog posts! I’m hoping to get back into a better routine and post updates more frequently. I might toy around with some dev videos, previews, random videos of me or my friends playing & reviewing games, and other things I haven’t thought about yet. It will NOT literally knock your socks off.
What Be-Rad has been up to for the last 6 months:
Elf Punt was released (iOS, Android, Amazon)
Elf Punt is basically a holiday themed version of Lame Castle with some additions and modifications. Amazon contacted me about making it because Lame Castle did really well during their Free App A Day promotion. They told me they’d promote the game if I made it so I spent the next month working on it full-time. Once the game was submitted and approved I received word that all the promotional slots were full. I thought something funny was up so I had made an iOS build and submitted it to Apple just in case. Luckily Apple approved the game right before iTunes shut down for Christmas break, but since so many games came out the same day (720 or so at my last count) it was lost in the sea of apps. I’m proud of what we accomplished in a month, but financially it was a huge waste.
Now, I’m happy to make a game for a company if they’re willing to promote it, but when something like this happens it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Next time I’ll be a little more careful who I choose to work with.
3 Prototypes
These 3 games might become a trilogy of sorts. Not a typical trilogy where it’s the same game with improvements between each release, but where they share the same universe, characters, events, and story elements. It will be cool for players to experience a world from multiple perspectives, and it will be cool since I can reuse some assets.
Current plan:
Game 1 is sort of a defensive game where you’re fending off enemies who come at you with all they’ve got.
Game 2 will be similar to WarGames: WOPR in the fact that it’s a match-3 RPG. Since the game mechanics are pretty much ready to go I can focus on adding a lot of content and additional dungeon-crawlery elements.
Game 3 is planned to be more of a top-down dungeon crawler. It will have some rogue-like components, some light strategy components, a strong RPG influence, and plenty of discoverability.
This all might change so don’t hold me to it. I’m hoping to show off all 3 of them during GDC, whatever state they’re in.
Game Jam
I spent a weekend making a game with a few friends at the Unknown Worlds game jam. It was super fun to do another jam, the last one was around 3 years ago.
Our game is called LA Shoot 2. You play as a lowly paparazzi trying to chase down celebrities to take photos of their private lives. You drive around LA, weave in and out of traffic, and snap photos.
Just make sure you hit ‘E’ to get in the green car when you start.
2013 has a lot in store and I’m confident some great things will come out of it.
Game Jam Elvis