Mission Small Business

UPDATE: We've gotten enough votes to enter the contest, thank you all!

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We're working towards a grant from Chase bank and Livingsocial for $250,000, but we need your vote of confidence!

In order to be officially considered, we need 250 votes by June 30th. Please do us the honor of voting for Mommy's Best Games for a chance at this excellent grant funding.

With this funding we would be able to increase the speed of our game development and expand releases to many more consoles and mobile platforms!

To vote you have to visit their site, search for "Mommy's Best Games" and click the "Vote" button.
It's quick and easy as 1-2-3, but it does require a Facebook login <wince> please bear with it!
 
Here's what to do:
1. Visit https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

2. Scroll down and click "LOG IN & SUPPORT" on the lower right. This will require a Facebook login. 

 

3. In the "business name" section (lower left) search "Mommy's Best Games". 

Vote! 

Thanks so much for your help and time, and please tell your gamer friends!

Tech info:
Because the link to searching and voting is behind the FB login, there's no simple way for me to provide a straight link to the vote button. It's pretty obnoxious and we've tried for a while to suss out a link, but there's no way I can see. Thanks a ton for seeing this through!

Serious Sam Double D XXL

We're taking Serious Sam Double D from Steam to Xbox Live Arcade this Fall! I'm excited develop for XBLA thanks to support from Devolver Digital, but the cool part is we're not just doing a straight port--there's a lot more going on.

 
To help illustrate the expanded content and features, and make it easier to keep track of, this new version is called Serious Sam Double D XXL.

One of the new enemies in XXL, the "Torcher Kitty". His belly is filled with love. And lighter fluid.

Here's a cheat sheet to all the cool new stuff.

• Two-Player Local Cooperative Play - Huff will be the second playable character! Not sure who Huff is?? Check this out.
• Gunstacker Upgrades - Shotguns that fire a horde of bees, Prism Lasers, the return of Serious Sam’s trademark Cannon and more!
• New Campaign and Challenge Missions - Take to the air in your very own missile-loaded Pterosaur or roll through your foes on a dynamite-powered unicycle!
• New and Upgraded Enemy Classes - To balance out all this new firepower we're adding new enemies such as the Torcher Kitty (see below) and the Explosion Eater! 
• Reworked Level Design and Flow- And to better frame the new enemies, and Gunstacker additions, there's lots of tweaks to each level and to the flow of the game itself (such as an improved checkpoint system).
• Voice Acting  - Serious Sam's original actor voices Sam, and we have the absolutely bonkers Huff guy, Netricsa to balance out the 'boys', and General Maxilla to add a dash of evil.
• 800 MS Points, Fall 2012

So yeah, the important points are ... XXL has two-player local coop, there's new levels, and we're going from 8 guns to 40! And not like "40 combinations" this is actually 40 different types of guns. Some are more tame, like a Machine Pistol that allows you to glide, but most are full blown new weapons, like the Shotgun with bees (trust me-it's cool), and the Van de Graaff Chainsaw.
We've tried to make sure all the new guns influence and enhance how you think about combining your guns.

Check out some screens (Click to make them "XXL!" :)

That's Huff jumping, firing the new laser rifle. Sam is about to be mauled by Armored Gnaar.

Sam riding the "Lunicycle", his dynamite-powered unicycle.

Sam is fighting a Torcher Kitty (above left) while shooting the new Cannon in a stack.

Huff is firing the Prism Laser and Electrostatic Orb in the upper right in Pompeii, while Sam fires in the lower left.

I'll be detailing lots of the new game here in future posts as well.
Press kit for SSDD XXL

2D Number Justice

8 Bit Horse, the premiere site on the web for all things 2D action gaming, has hit some big numbers recently! Looking at our Google numbers we realized we're closing in on 200k hits since we started just a few years ago!
Tease: Plus there's cool desktop art on the site now (see end of article)

It's great to see this sort of interest in a niche area, and with a unusual article structure. At this point anyone that's visited the site knows 8BH articles are filled with precise and extensive gameplay breakdowns games of now and yesteryear.

8 Bit Horse covers games that are 2D in art and gameplay, and focus on action.
The site is not a daily blog in which topical news pops up then quickly melts from the front page. Instead, each article is an often long investigation of the gameplay in a particular title. Games are organized into lists such as Upcoming, Current, and Heritage. Links for all games are maintained on the front page, making it simple to browse through the lists.
 

In looking at the hits on the site we gathered together bunch of fun stats:

Over 180,000 hits
Over 100 articles
- 21 heritage games featured
- Over 80 current and upcoming games featured
- Over 100 additional games covered in 2D CRED sections (featuring developers' other works), including these notable titles:
- Maestro! Jump in Music, Bitejacker: Secret Base Horror Series 01, Legend of Princess, Noitu Love & The Army of Grinning Darns, Aquaria, Eternal Daughter, Soul, the Johnny Platform series, JoyJoy, Challenge from Kiyoshi, Digidrive, the PixelJunk series, Mirror's Edge 2D, NyxQuest, A Game with a Kitty, Tuper Tario Tros., rComplex, Super Tank Run, the Soulcaster series, Ninja Senki, The Adventures of Shuggy, Insectoid

Most popular article: Demon's Crest - 2/5/2010
- Over 10,000 words
- Nearly 200 images
Biggest article: Wario Land 3 - 3/3/2011
- 14,000 words
- Over 250 images
First article: Jackal - 10/17/2009
- 4,000 words
- 24 images
Most popular feature:
Super Mario Bros. 101: Lessons in 2D Game Design

2D RADAR
- A list of 2D games in development, each with a quick description.
- Currently 68 games on the list 
- 26 updates since it originally went live on 10/27/2010 (near 1 year anniversary)
- Total games listed from the start: 125!
- Original post had 23 games including these notable titles: - Acceleration of SUGURI, Astroman, Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury, Bastion, Capsized, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, La-Mulana*, Monster Tale, NightSky, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Rayman Origins, Retro City Rampage*, Spelunky*.
* Denotes title is still on the list.

The 8BH YouTubeChannel has over 10,000 video views.
- 16 investigative, 2D game developer interviews, including Michel Gagné (Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet), and Team Meat (Super Meat Boy), and Jamie Cheng (Shank)!
- 5 "Oddities in 2D" episodes

And here's some great art for your desktop!  All your favorite characters in their native resolutions, partying down around a remixed Mario level.

Click for original size! SD size on the 8BH site as well.

From AJ and myself, thanks for reading!

Swordfight is Good Art

Swordfight is a new physical game using modified Atari 2600 controllers created by Kurt Bieg and Ramsey Nasser. Each player straps on an adapted Atari controller over their crotch. The goal of the game is to push the other player's button (the button beeps through an custom, internal circuit board). Player's end up moving around, laughing, embarrassed, trying to push their pelvises toward each other and push the button on the other player's controller, but also dodging the other player's stick. I've not played it personally, but after watching some video, the game looks pretty absurd.

At first, after learning about the game on Indie Games blog, I thought it was simply a joke and moved on. But the idea of the game kept me thinking.

A View of Art

One concept of art for me is an expression created by someone else that brings new perspective to my life and things around me. A lot of times intent and context are a big part of things, and art created can also be very personal. Munch's "The Scream" doesn't do a lot for me until I consider it from a point of angst and despair and then I can start to make sense of it. When I look at Rodin's "The Cathedral", I admire how delicate the hands look, yet it's made of metal. It looks like it could be lover's hands coming together or hands of people in a church being to say a prayer together.

What I Like About Swordfight

I see Swordfight as rearranging and changing game industry and societal conventions. The controller with the stick and the button now conceptually replaces the gender of the person playing. Each player is now the same gender. Each player has both a stick and a button (like a phallus and a clitoris). Classic console and arcade games are traditionally played by males. Here, both players are changed into a new, combined conceptual gender.

The players are then guided by the game rules to get close and to touch buttons, but they shouldn't get too close, as that will allow the other person to win. Most people would find it rightly awkward to get so close and poke their friend's crotch (unless of course this friend is your girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse!) But here, the game encourages close contact and the game rules present an equally embarrassing situation for both players. Players now interact in a new, physical way. It is not a hug, a pat, or a tickle (and no, not even sex), but is guided by the game.

The experience here is only possible because of a game. Photos or videos don't do it justice. No amount of reading about it (don't quit reading! :) or watching conveys the full experience, it must be played. Interaction being the defining distinction of games.

The 30+ year old Atari 2600 controller is now sexy, brought into present day and at the center of the game. You're goal is to press the button on the other player's controller. In most games, pressing the button on your own controller is part of the basic gameplay.

Kinect and the Wii may get you up and moving, but here you are physically grabbing each other. Swordfight uses game hardware, but goes even beyond current-gen consoles in terms of promoting physical movement, by repurposing decades old technology. For a group as traditionally un-sexy as gamers (as opposed to say dancers), it's pretty wild to design a game around waving their crotches at each other.

The development duo responsible for the game were interviewed on the indie games blog a few days ago. They point out a lot of the key elements of the game's concept. "It's a very intimate place to have a game, between two people's hips, but the controller acts as a buffer, and the novelty of it allows players to engage with each other in a way that would normally be off limits."

Deep Thrills

While the basic concept of moving around, trying to thrust your hips at your friend is definitely absurd and crazy, I think there's a lot of inventiveness and depth to the concept of Swordfight, beyond mere entertainment or cheap thrills. I think Swordfight is good art.

Sine Mora Feedback

A little while ago a new, very pretty shoot 'em up, Sine Mora, was released on XBLA. It was  co-developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacturing.

I like the game a lot!
I think the graphics are gorgeous and the boss designs are inspired with lots of variety. I also like the music a lot even though it's a little understated. Several of the tunes stay in my mind after playing, such as the disco-like theme for some boss fights.The time-slowing ability is fun to use in a shoot 'em up.

I liked the game so much I want to play it more! Sadly, while I play I get frustrated by several, smaller design elements of the game that would be easy to fix. I decided to detail these in the hope that someone involved with the development of Sine Mora would read this.


I'd love for some or all of these issues to be addressed by the development teams on a subsequent update. In all cases I list possible solutions to the problems, most of which would be pretty reasonable to implement.

Major Issues 

• Problem: Player ships can be damaged by some objects that player bullets pass through. This is the strangest thing I've seen in a long time and it pretty much screws up any sort of reasonable 'discovery' the player can achieve. In a shmup, the player's bullets are like this hands. He uses these to feel out the world and decide what can hurt him and what can't. For instance, the underwater submarine boss turned sideways does not let you pass through it (like when trying to grab powerups) but your bullets and powerups do. In most vertical shmups there is no environmental collision. In horizontal shmups there is often environmental collision. Sine Mora follows that convention, but strangely does not let find out what can hurt your ship until you actually smash into it. Also strange is that some objects block bullets and your ship and some only block (and damage) your ship.





The environment-collision inconsistency hampers the game.



• Solution: If the player ship bounces off things, their bullets and powerups should too, OR if your bullets go through things, don't let that damage the player.
  

• Problem: Objects in the playfield are too easily confused with objects in the background or foreground. Even in levels I've played several times, and with enemies that come in from the background (which is often) I'm not quite sure exactly when a ship is able to collide with me or when I can shoot it.This leads to lots of confused shooting and scrambling to figure out where to be. It's also confusing when a tiny turret stuck onto the background is actually shooting and you, can damage you, and could be shot to recover more valuable time (which acts as health here).



Pic from a different shmup, Mushihimesama, the background is desaturated and you can see the action more clearly.



Sine Mora: Some of those turrets are enemies, and some aren't.

• Solution: Make a clear distinction between objects in the background and playfield, via a fog effect, desaturation (as is already used in the time-slow ability). Could even be an option for the player to toggle in the menus.
• In our own Shoot 1UP we offered several background visual options including the ability to simply turn off the background (full black) to make the game easier to play for people that struggle tracking things on screen amidst all the action.
• The game won't look as pretty, but I think giving the player an option to control how distinct the background is would be a huge help and really increase how much they can enjoy the game. I agree that picture of Mushihimesama is washed out and maybe don't have that as the default in Sine Mora. But after I play with 'full graphics' some, I'd probably want to change it so I can see what's happening better.

Problem: Powerups quickly fly off the screen. From what I can tell the powerups bounce off the environment (this is fine) but they don't bounce off the "screen bounds". This is very frustrating. You end up really under powered with just one slip up and fighting underpowered is tedious. I think it's also fine if the powerups eventually leave the screen, just not immediately.

That red powerup is pretty much as good as gone.

• Solution: Powerups should be bound to the screen, or travel more slowly, or there should be more created.

Problem: It's difficult to discern what parts of the 3D environment you'll crash into and what you wont. This is related, but different than the first point (not knowing what things you can crash into because you're bullets don't hit what you'd expect). This is because the game is in 3D, and has pieces of the environment extending "out towards the player" and has parallax. The ship always emits a vague light on the environment which makes it seem that the developer knew there was a problem, but they didn't go far enough with this possible solution. In most 2D sprite shmups, you can easily discern when you'll crash into the environment. In Sine Mora not only is it tough to tell going up in down in a simple cave setting, but sometimes you're forced to go through a 3D tube while your ship is obscured from view! You can easily bump parts of the tube and be damaged. It's very frustrating.

It's tough to decide just when your ship will hit the walls, especially while frantically chasing down powerups.

• Solution: Make collisions with the environment not damage your ship, like in Einhander, or shear off all graphics to create a cross-section with no parallax, or cast a distinct visual line (like a circle emitting outwards from the ship in a plane parallel to the screen) that collides with environment and shows what the player will hit.

 

 Minor Issues

• Problem: Screen shake is too disruptive and happens often while a big cloud of enemy bullets are about to hit you.


• Solution: Only screen shake at the end of boss fights when the player is invincible, or make the player invincible while the screen is shaking. 


• Problem: Some enemy bullets are extremely similar to your player ship bullets. When lined up, it's hard to tell when something is coming. This is worst on the train boss. The bullets are long red shapes extremely similar to the players.


• Solution: Change enemy bullets to not look like the players through color and shape.


• Problem: Effects cover up things. In the underwater sections, explosion and smoke effects cover up too much of the action.


• Solution: Make sure the player and enemies, and bullets layer on to of effects.

I made this list in the hopes that Sine Mora can be updated to be even more enjoyable, but also for other shmup developers to consider these and other design decisions in your game.
I love the game, keep up the great work developers and please consider these issues--thanks!

Blackberry Pie Chart

Recent primary distributions of my work time, past few weeks:

Most of my time is for something very special and (sorta) secret for Serious Sam Double D 

• Game art 50%
• Promo art 20%
• Administration 10%

We also have two other programmers working on that, but this chart is just for my time. 
A quick readjust for the whole company is more like 50% code, 30% art, 20% everything else (I'd redo the graphic for it, but it was a pain! Probably next time.)

I'm also still doing a little clean up with Shoot 1UP Windows Phone 7

• Final bug fixes 5%
• Promo design 5%

Pie itself was mostly blackberry, with some blueberry. Filling was good, but the crust was a little heavy. Guess I'll try using less flour next time.

Shoot 1UP at GDC 2012

For this past GDC I was invited to attend as a speaker, giving a postmortem on Serious Sam Double D (slides forthcoming). That went great, but what really set the show off for me was getting to play and exhibit all of Shoot 1UP on an absolutely huge TV setup!

This came about quite unexpectedly and fortuitously as I visited the Expo Hall to see Xona Games and their exhibit for Score Rush on the floor. Xona Games had struck a deal with the Nova Scotia government to allow them to show their game in the NS booth space. This looked nice as Xona were showing games on a typical 32" widescreen TV.

Just across the aisle was server company Phoenix NAP, who had a large TV display showing a simple advertisement for their products. Xona Games started talking to Phoenix NAP, striking up a friendship and eventually suggested that PNAP allow Xona to show their cool games on the big screen!

Both quickly saw the benefit, the server company would get a flashy game to attract people to their booth, and Xona would get to exhibit their games on a large scale!

I happened to be visiting when all this started, and played through Score Rush with the Xona crew. After we finished it, they mentioned they had Shoot 1UP already on their harddrive, so they thought it'd be cool to play that together as well!

Lesson learned:
As I suggest in the video, an interesting, sometimes unexplored aspect of expo shows is how dynamic they can be. Make sure to make quick friends of exhibitors nearby, as you never know what benefits you all could reach within a few short days!