Extreme Gratitude

I struggled last night to create a post regarding the Weapon of Choice launch. I knew what I wanted to convey, but my thoughts were all over the place. I decided to sleep on it and finish it this morning. Well, this morning, I decided to google "Community Games" and "Weapon of Choice." What I found were numerous sites with Community Games forums. I could not stop reading. I was overwhelmed by what I read.

November 19th was a day we look at with excitement and fright; Weapon of Choice would be out there for the world to play, judge, criticize, critique, and hopefully enjoy. It is a little hard to admit, but Nathan and I felt, and still feel, a little naked, exposed and vulnerable. However everything thing we have read online lets us know that the past year was not for naught.

To all the fans who downloaded and purchased the game,
...took a $5 chance to buy the game without downloading it first,
...told their friends (real and virtual) that the game was fun,
...send us an email about your positive WoC experience,
...interviewed us, posted on a forum, commented to a blog, or shouted to the sky...

Mommy's Best Games says,

AND - join us at our events in Atlanta tonight and tomorrow. We are delighted to announce that Blake Edwards, from the Project Owlboy dev team will be joining us.

(Nathan will resume posting soon. Right now, he is busy working on the next game concept art and some holiday goodies for fans of the WoC art style & monsters. Check our Cafe Press store in about a couple weeks.

Shipped--Let's party!

We did it. Weapon of Choice is IN the Community Games Catalog. We're set and ready to go for November 19th launch. Thanks to all for your continued support, encouragement, and for spreading the good word about Weapon of Choice. (Oh, and thanks, in advance, for buying the game! wink, wink.) Also, we decided out price would be 400 points ($5)-- a veritable STEAL!!! If you think we should have charged $10, maybe you should but two copies of the game?

Inspired by the Isabelle's in Tucson who are hold The New Xbox Experience Launch House Party, we decided to do the same thing... except we are now in Atlanta where we do not have a house NOR do we have gaming friends in this area. So, calling upon the powers of the internet, we located 2 console gaming centers to hold our events. Friday, November 21st, we will be at Waba Games in Duluth, GA from 7-9 PM and Saturday, November 22nd, we will be at the Computer Arena in Roswell, GA from 3-5 PM. Attendees can:

* Meet the Developers *
* Play the full version of Weapon of Choice will be FREE *
* Check out other brand new 360 Community Games *
* Learn more about XNA and how to make games for Xbox Community Games *
* Take home free giveaways! *

There are admission fees into the console gaming centers. Admission is reduced by $5 at Waba during the event. These will be exciting and fun nights. Tell your Atlanta gaming friends to come join us.

Also, we have a new trailer. So, pinch your uvula and cross your toes.

Help Peer Review Weapon of Choice!

I'd like to get Weapon of Choice ready for the Community Games Launch but I need your help!

The game has to pass peer review before it can enter the catalog. If you are a Creators Club premium member, you can review the game now! The sooner you can review it the better. It helps us know the process is complete and ensures we are ready for Day One of the launch. Thanks to all who can help!

If you're not a member, consider getting involved. It's easy, plus, in addition to Weapon of Choice you get to check out oodles of other crazy games before they hit the market.

Down to the Wire

So although it is 42 degrees outside, things are heating up inside. The game is up on Creator’s Club catalog in the Playtest category. In the meantime, Nathan furiously continues to work on the last minute things, like what happens when memory cards get swapped out during gameplay and setting up the trial version of the game, with up-sell screen and all.

The great news is, so far no crashes or bad bugs.

If you are on Creators Club, we encourage you to play-test Weapon of Choice and give your feedback. If not, you too shall have your chance to obliterate hideous aliens; Weapon of Choice will be ready for purchase on 11/19.

After a couple days of testing with no crashes, we anticipate getting the game in for Peer Review. (Again, Creators Club members, please Peer Review us)

This is THE week- and as they love to say here, in the wide-open-parts of Indiana...

Gamespot interview

Great exciting press news!
Gamespot just posted an interview with Nathan at the Community Games Launch Party. The trailer shows gameplay features such as Death Brushing. Plus, there is a good amount of time dedicated to the Teat Walker. Check out the video, send it on to your friends, and leave a nice comment on Gamespot...

Contest Results and Launch Party

Hello, Amy here. As the marketing and business side of Mommy’s Best Games, I decided to write this week's entry. Plus, as we shoot for the November 19th launch of Community Games, Nathan has his hands and head full of many other important tasks. As you have read in prior devlog entries, we entered Weapon of Choice into Microsoft’s XNA Dream Build Play 2008 international competition. We were very excited to learn that we earned THIRD PLACE!!!! We are the top American team. Check out the other winners; they all look great and are fun. It is definitely worth your time to check out.

We were also invited by Microsoft’s XNA Team to attend the Xbox LIVE Community Games and XNA Game Studio 3.0 Launch Event in San Francisco on October 29th. What an event! Also in attendance were the Word Soup and Colosseum teams. The room was set up with more than 15 high-def flat screen TVs with ready-to-play Dream Build Play and other XNA games. The press came, and we were ready. Although it was tough in one week to pull off schwag, we rocked it! Through Ebay, I ordered 50 1GB flash drives to create digital press kits. Although we would have desired to have our logo imprinted, it would have taken too long to print, ship and save data before the event. Instead, I created a sticker that had the WoC logo and Mommy’s Best website. The digital press kit included a welcome letter, two game trailers, three tracks of original music composed for WoC, screenshots and concept art, Mommy’s Best and WoC logos, unique gameplay features document, pertinent websites, and a partridge in a pear tree. We also ordered flexible flyers with the WoC title screen imprinted on it, in black, which were tossed around the party by the end of the night. Again, the lesson learned was, 4-color imprint is what is desired; it is expensive, especially when you have a rush order on it. We also provided the community and press with our promotional game cards, game card magnets, and business cards. The trick to getting all of this together so fast really relied upon 3 day shipping straight to the hotel instead of trying to get it here first, then take it with us to the hotel.

Nathan and I were very excited to talk with journalists from Gamasutra, MTV, WIRED, Gamespot, IGN, Joystiq, and Destructoid. Heck- we even have a piece in the New York Times. The press we have already received has been phenomenal.

However, we will still not abandon our original marketing plan: 1) get on as many blogs and websites as possible, 2) get friends and fans to deliver game cards to local game stores, college bulletin boards and any place that gamers frequent. Although, Microsoft's hospitality sure did help boost Weapon of Choice's marketing plan.

So, as high as we feel, onward we go, to finish Mommy's Best Weapon of Choice by November 19th.

Sound Design

My weakest area is in sound design and creation. I always dread having to make sound effects for the game. I end up enjoying it sort of like exercising, though it's tough to get the motivation to start. I like to think positively that it's the easiest area for me to improve in when working with sound effects. Fortunately Hamdija is handling all the music and doing a real bang-up job.

I would love to have someone (other than me) recording each sound effect from nature, or blending natural sounds to get a new sound. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or the budget or the equipment to record each sound effect in Weapon of Choice. I honestly think the sound design is coming along at least satisfactorily, and sometimes really well. Since I'm not recording the sounds, that means I have to get samples from somewhere.

When I first started in the industry over a decade ago, RWS was using 'the General' for sound effects. I think that still stands as a very good option, but since then I've worked for wealthier studios which employ sound designers in-house who often record new, unique sounds for each effect. MBG has neither of those options. While $1500 isn't a fortune for the General, it is enough to force us to consider other options. One of those options I've found while looking turned out to be great.

The site is called SoundSnap and as far as I can tell, it offers royalty free sounds effects for commercial use. To make sure I 'make it mine' I never use a raw sound from their site. I always mix each effect with at least one other sound I get from there, or from some other free site. Because it is 'user-driven' it's sometimes difficult getting a specific effect, but it often has lots of effects for most things, and they're all free. I do find that SoundSnap usually has high quality sounds and can be great in a game once you massage them a little.


For the sound massaging, I like to use GoldWave.
I actually did buy a license for only 45 dollars which I felt has definitely been worth it. The demo version of the program offers most of the functionality if you're interested. The program itself has many mixing features and is fast and simple to use.

To round out this media post, I actually used Windows Movie Maker to create the first trailer of the game. Wikipedia tells me it's been bundled since Windows Me (so you probably own it) but I've never needed it until now. I've found it fairly powerful and easy to use. Since it's free and did the job well enough, I'm sticking with it for now--and the new gameplay trailer which will be available next week!