Three point one lives

I was scared to make the change to XNA Game Studio 3.1 merely because ... who knows what could happen? I've been waiting a while to upgrade just to make sure the kinks were worked out and thankfully everything went rather smoothly.

For those developers still waiting to upgrade from 3.0 to 3.1, the only issues I had were the following:

• It asked that I uninstall 3.0. When I went to Add/Remove Programs it also showed I still had GS 2.0 installed. It never asked to uninstall that, and I never did... so I guess that's good? Uninstalling 3.0 requires a reboot.
  
• As I installed 3.1, it 'got stuck' on installing Games for Live Redistributable stuff. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and the progress bar never moved. After that didn't work I started shutting stuff down via Task Manager. I then restarted the installation, and it jumped past that point. Everything seems to work, so again... I guess that's good.
• At first I forgot to actually upgrade it since the 3.0 to 3.1 shift is not automatic--silly me! Here's the helpful article on that.
  

Other than that, it was very smooth and I'm glad its finished. It does take a little while... maybe 20 minutes total. Or 30. To wait through all the updating and installing and such.

After that I made sure Grapple Buggy still runs on the Xbox 360--and looky there--it does!

Okay, so this is my standard-def-test mega TV. It's huge, ugly, and blurry, but this helps me figure out what text is unreadable to us 'second class' TV viewers that haven't upgraded to HDTV. The faint red lines in the middle of the screen are actually debugging text for framerate, objects updating, and other programming stuffs. (But the orange-red, sausage thing to the right is really in the game and looks pretty interested in the buggy.)

Thankfully I have recently acquired a smallish HDTV to do further testing, so hopefully Grapple Buggy won't come out all stretched on rich bastard TVs like Weapon of Choice woefully did/does/dain.

Detailed Files

As work continues on Grapple Buggy, I thought I'd plop in a design for one of the levels. For those Weapon of Choice fans, the levels in Grapple Buggy will be quite different and much more in number than what we've done before. This particular level is sandwiched between others, and will be encountered as you're exploring later through the opening area of the game.

This is a technical illustration of the level, with the slightest pixel conveying intense meaning and intentional direction.
Okay, I'm kidding, it's a really loose sketch that serves to guide the construction of the level. The final level won't end up exactly like this so I'm trying not to spoil too much by showing it!

And finally say hello to a hearty bin of Grapple Buggy shirts on their way out to the lucky winners. Congrats shirt winners!

Everyone Wins!

Giveaways are fun.
What's more fun than giving one shirt away?
How about giving one to everyone that participated!

That's right the shirt Giveaway is over, and after reading all the funny comments, and checking my mega-stash of Grapple Buggy shirts, I decided everyone that made an effort would get a shirt!

I'll be emailing the comment-writers soon, and I hope everyone enjoys their prize.

In Grapple Buggy development news, I will be working on getting the game to work using Game Studio 3.1 so everyone hold their breath! Assuming anyone's still alive, I'll do an update when it's okay to release said breath.

And speaking of Game Studio 3.1--it seems like Christmas in July has come early because apparently Xbox Live Indie Games will be getting user ratings!
(You know... this news is like a Christmas gift... but in July. I have no idea when they'll actually implement the user ratings.)
User ratings--wow! Finally, a way in Xbox Live Indie Games to separate the wheat from the chaff... but without all the chafing.
Now if we can just get a simple path for finding the games on the dashboard. What do you think Microsoft--maybe something for Christmas in December?

Story time & T-Shirt Giveaway

Hooray, E3 is over and it was spectacularly not sucky! Great job guys!

I took a super-special demo of Grapple Buggy to the show and managed to wrangle a few daring members of the press to take the titular (giggady) buggy for a ride.

And guess what--no one died! They also seemed to like the game. Hooray for hummus!
Here's some of the stories:
http://kotaku.com/5278854/grapple-buggy-hands+on-swingin

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/990/990398p1.html

http://www.destructoid.com/nathan-fouts-grapple-buggy-impressions-135318.phtml

I wore and handed out fancy new Grapple Buggy T-shirts at the show. The shirts look similar to this but more 3D in person:
Grappley, eh?

Well I'd like to give one away at random to those that play along!

All you need to do, to enter this particular giveaway, is post a comment to this blog post, and include a synonym loosely associated with the word 'grapple'. (In other words, have fun coming up with the word or words.) It could be as a verb, noun, etc. So for instance your comment could be "This game looks so amazing! I can't wait to *grab* it!" Or you could just leave a comment that says something like "clutch" or "clasp" or "seize", for instance.

The drawing will be randomized but you simply have to post a comment here, and email me at nathan@mommysbestgames.com so I have an email with which to contact you, if you win.

Oh, and only one email per entry/comment. You can comment all you want, but that won't effect your chances of winning past your first comment. Play fair, make a comment, send me your email and we'll all keep doing just fine. And I won't be spamming your email something like that. This only for this giveaway. Unless you want some spam--in which case I can forward some your way. Sadly (sorry) I'm only willing to mail a shirt within the Continental 48 states of the US. Finally, I only have medium, large, and XL T-shirts, so I hope one of those will fit you.

To review: make a comment on this post about the game for this post, including a loose synonym for the word 'grapple', and email me so I have your email address to contact the winner. If I can't get a hold of you, you won't win.

Let's say this ends in about two weeks, so some time after June 22, 2009, I'll announce the winner. Good luck!


UPDATE: Looking good everyone, thanks for the funny comments! Keep 'em coming, there's still time before the random drawing.

Crunch the FUN

I'd like to pretend that "crunch time" has finally started as E3 draws near, but honestly that's been going on for about a month now at least. Thus, with all there is still to do, this update will be kept short.
The good news is the Grapple Buggy E3 2009 Press Demo is looking and sounding freaking great!

I added the emphasis on "sounding" because I'm working on sound effects right now and that's about all I can think about. Earlier in the week it was level design. Whenever I saw something I wanted to interact with in real life (like grab a cup or move a chair) I imagined myself box-selecting it and dragging it with my imaginary mouse. It's probably about as healthy psychologically as it sounds.

Now that it's sound effects time, I'm completely in tune (Ha! Not intentional but it made me laugh afterward) with each little, tiny detail of the sounds of every day life. Well, I'm in tune with normal sounds, but I have to imagine them exaggerated.. since most everything to do with the Buggy needs some sweet whooshing or whirring noise associated with it to make it seem more future-y.

I've been to a lot of E3's before but this is the first one that I will personally be showing off my own company's game. I think with the show moving back to the LA Convention Center it could turn out to be as good as the 'old E3'. Either way, E3 is right around the corner so here's to a really big shoe!

Grapple Buggy: Ser Awesome Ut!

We've been fortunate to land some great announcement press for the new game!
Here's a few of the stories:
http://kotaku.com/5251491/gorgeous-grapple-buggy-looks-like-bionic-car+mando
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/981/981942p1.html
http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/05/13/grapple-buggy-trailer
http://www.offworld.com/2009/05/grapple-buggy-nathan-fouts-bla.html

This twitter really made us laugh because we're immature, only speak one language, and thought this was funny to pronounce:
http://twitter.com/farbroratlas/statuses/1793239263

And I'll close with this blasphemous, but great impression of the game:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/05/15/cruncharcade-indie-game-preview-roundup/
"Mother of god. It’s a cross between Blaster Master and Bionic Commando, two of my favorite games of all time. "

Grapple Buggy

We're proud to announce our second game:

Take control of the prototype Grapple Buggy piloted by Nova Commander Javeya, and her alien co-pilot Drozo to explore the newly discovered VALD-END 317. The distant planet seems to house massive amounts of Tetravaldisae, known to its harvesters as ‘Vald’. Used to create fuel for faster-than-light travel, Vald is the single most valuable commodity in the known universe.

The New Homeworld Armada and the Drozo Empire have formed a strained alliance to confirm these portentous readings sending the Grapple Buggy and its team into action for the first time. Can the Drozo Empire be trusted? Has Javeya’s government thrust her into a compromised situation? Will VALD-END thwart both species schemes?

Swing into action with Grapple Buggy!
Features:

• Sumptuous blend of buggy-driving craziness and grapple swinging glee!
• Upgrade your buggy with new wheels, jumping abilities, and devastating new grapple arms!
• Fight or befriend—explore VALD-END to encounter both terrifying xenofauna and sentient aliens!
• Features dynamic decision branching, and multiple, story-driven endings!

And we'll leave you with the image of one of the co-pilots of the buggy itself: Commander Javeya of the New Homeworld Armada.
(Click for the wallpaper image!)