Monday, July 20, 2009
Magic City Man
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Prototype #1 for June
U.S. consumers liked what they saw in Activision's Prototype making the open world action game June's bestselling title by an impressive margin. Last month, its single-console sales doubled those of the game it was often compared to, Infamous.
Labels: prototype
Posted by Goose at2 Comments
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pong Solitaire v0.1
In a recent post I talked a bit about how I want to start doing some more development in my spare time again. And I actually have been working on, what was supposed to be, a really simple game. As usual though, what seemed simple on paper, got quite complex as things progressed.So I've decided to take a break from that project and make something even simpler. And what's simpler than Pong? Over the last two nights I've be working on this little game (found below). It's kind of a mix between Pong and Break Out. It's as mundane as Pong with the Single-Player-ness of Break Out. The goal is just to keep the ball up for as many hits as possible.
I have lots of ideas on how to add to this, and will post updates on this blog as I do so.
You will need to install Flash Player 10 to play it, if you haven't already. Please post any bugs you find in the comments section!
Edit: July 8th, 2009 - Looks like the font didn't get embedded properly and so it shows up as your default system font (probably Times New Roman) on everything but the Press Start screen. I'll put in a fix in the next version.
For anyone who is curious: this was made in Flash 10 with ActionScript 2. The fully commented source can be downloaded here. You will probably need Flash CS4 to open the fla file.
Labels: Pong Solitaire
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Penny Arcade on Prototype
(click for full comic)Prototype was featured on Penny Arcade last week!
When musicians and actors enter pop culture they get spoofed on The Simpsons; for games there is Penny Arcade. This is a pretty huge moment for me!
Labels: prototype
Posted by Goose at1 Comments
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Don't Hate the Playah
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster with reviews today. I made the mistake of checking IGN right before bed and found what has to be one of the most scathing reviews I've ever read (Seriously, 5.5/10 for graphics!?). That really soured what had been an amazing day for me.
Anyway, I want to wait until the dust settles before talking about the reviews in depth, but as a whole I'm pretty blown away by how much of an effect these reviews have had on me, both good and bad. This is the first retail game I've really felt a significant part of. I received a lot of game credits while working on core tech at EA Canada (we made the online lobby systems used in almost all of their sports titles), but never really had a real emotional investment in any of the products. Developing Prototype has been a very different experience.
I definitely feel the sting now when people bash the game, and get a bit of an ego boost when it gets a good review. It all feels very personal this time.
It's really made me realize how kind of ridiculous it all is; to put this amount of time into a single product, just to have it reduced to a score out of ten with just a few hours of playtime. I've spent 2 years working on Prototype, others on the team have been even longer, and most people will basically decide if this game if worth their time and money with a 30 second trip to metacritic.
And really, that's the point of it all, obviously. We send our games to get reviewed with the hopes that the score is high enough to convince someone to invest in it. In the case of Prototype, sitting at a metacritic.com rating in the high eighties, that's all working in our favor for the moment. None of this is really new to anyone; like most, I've had these thoughts long before working on games myself. And I don't think that has to change or anything; that's not my point.
My point is I've spent all my time over the past two years focusing on Prototype, and haven't really don't anything in the way of personal game projects. I have a lot of ideas that have been sitting on the back burner for a while now, and I the last few days have really re-energized me. I don't want to wait another few years before my work sees the light of day.
So starting tonight I'm going to (re)start some personal projects, and use this blog as a development diary. Having a place to post my progress and get feedback should keep my motivation to do these personal projects long after this initial energy surge has passed.
Labels: prototype
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