Posted in Geon, Wii on 12/04/2009 11:38 am by Simon
We are extremely pleased to announce that our Wii version of Geon is out to buy in US stores right now. We really enjoyed working on this version – the Wii is a great little machine to play games on and a joy to develop for. This version has all the great stuff we crammed into the PlayStation3 version, including 4-player last-man-standing and team-geon modes for those of you who like a bit of competitive action in the living room!
GRAB YOUR CUBE IN THIS PSYCHEDELIC, PICK-UP-AND-PLAY ACTION PUZZLE GAME OF RAPIDLY CHANGING TACTICS, BRIGHT COLORS, POWER UPS AND FRENZIED SPEED TO SEE WHO IS THE UNDISPUTED GEON MASTER!
Frantically race against your opponents playing as one of eight Geon emoticon cubes as you collect pellets and score goals, while preventing them from doing the same! Utilize unique power ups as you go back, forward and upside down in this easy-to-play-hard-to-master title!
We couldn’t do a reboot of the 80s arcade genre without fruit bonuses – lots and lots of fruit bonuses. But the fruit in Space Ark does more than just give you bonus points because the key to a good arcade game is depth within simplicity. You get fruit as a bonus for creating Combos and collecting the fruit gives you points – simple. But fruit also increases your power meter (show on the left of the screen in this screen shot).
The meter has multiple levels and each level you reach multiplies the points you get from collecting DNA, combos and any lives remaining at the end of a level. This means that fruit has an impact on every other scoring element of the game and is an essential part of your Space Ark game play strategy if you want to achieve mega high scores.
But beware – gravity is a harsh mistress. The good work you do collecting fruit can be undone if you let your Arkonaut hit the ground. The level meter will drop one level every time you drop your Arkonaut (and you will lose one life as well.)
A new selection of screen shots have been added to the Space Ark page and can also be downloaded from the new Space Ark media page. The media page also includes previously released assets such as videos, company information and copies of previous press releases.
The concept we started with for Space Ark was simple. We want to bounce something into the air in order to collect stuff. What do we want to bounce? Cute characters – gotta be cute characters cos all decent arcade games have them. What are the characters collecting? Coloured bricks containing DNA that will be used to repair damaged planets. Now bouncing and collecting alone don’t make for a really fun game – a great arcade game needs a simple core concept but it also need other things layered on top of that concept to make it fun. A big part of the fun in game development is trying out different things to see what works and the real pleasure is when something you try suddenly transforms the game. That is what happened when we introduced Combos.
Originally you just needed to collect all the bricks in a level to complete the level. It was fun and cute but there was something missing. There was no on-going challenge during the level. This is where the Combo feature came in. Space Ark levels have rows of coloured bricks. Collecting three or more of the same coloured bricks in a row generates a Combo and every level has a minimum combo score necessary to complete it.
Like the bouncing and collecting this Combo system is very simple but of course we have added more depth to make it challenging and fun. Firstly there is a reward for generating Combos (in addition to you being able to complete the level). Each level of Combo (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…. upwards) that you create generates a different bonus fruit. Collecting the fruit fills your power meter, which in turn multiplies your score. This means that if you want to generate a really big high score you need to try and collect as much fruit as possible rather than just focusing on collecting the bricks. Secondly you have to keep bouncing your character (your Arkonaut) without dropping them. If your Arkonaut hits the ground they drop the combos (rather like losing rings in Sonic) and you have to try to recover them before they drift off screen. The result is much more entertaining game play as you are both challenged to meet your combo quota and rewarded as you do so.
At the moment we have a couple of bugs in the Combo system. If you look at the screen shots you can see the Combo trail (the line of numbers) following behind the Penguin. For some reason they keep disappearing or randomly appearing on screen in odd positions. Gotta keep testing to find out what is happening so the guys can fix it. Will try to pop back soon to talk about the level designs.
The guys have put together a video that shows the latest work in progress on our XBLA game Space Ark. The video shows one of the beginner levels on the Ice Planet as well as several of the more manic advanced levels.
We will be self-publishing the game on Xbox Live Arcade later this year.
Posted in News, Turbo Duck on 07/24/2009 04:50 pm by Dan
After a rather prolonged journey through Apple’s approval process the updates for our iPhone title Turbo Duck have now been released.
The updates include the launch of a free Lite version, and an update to the main app (with a special offer price of 99 cents.)
Full App updated to version 1.1
The game, which has users race against the clock to guide a rubber duck around a pool, avoiding hazard and collecting flags, has been updated to version 1.1 which includes:
* Global high scores – post your scores to see how you compare against everyone else
* Freeplay mode – play with the water, double tap the screen to feed your duck
* Improved Duck controls and bug fixes.
* Special offer price of 99 cents
Free Lite version launched
The free version contains:
* 3 levels of watery fun plus
* Freeplay mode – play with the water, double tap the screen to feed your duck
* Turbo Duck now even more turbo charged!
* Even more special price – Free
A busy week at Strawdog central. Everyone is busting a gut to get to the next milestone on Space Ark as well as finalising an update for our iPhone title Turbo Duck (iTunes link).
We are going to be launching a free Lite version of the game so that people can try it out, as well as adding some updates to the main app. More details on what is coming and when as soon as it is nailed down.
We are currently preparing to post our latest Space Ark video which should be ready in a few days. Just so you have something to compare to I thought I would post the very first Space Ark visualisation trailer to our Youtube channel. This video was created when the game had the working title Bounce.
This video was produced as part of the Microsoft pitching process. The video, along with various documentation, was submitted to MS in order to get approval to publish Space Ark on Xbox360 Live Arcade.
The unofficial finally becomes official with the announcement that our newest original game Space Ark will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in Q3 2009.
Space Ark, which was formerly known under the working title of Bounce, is a fun homage to the bright and bouncy arcade games of the late 80s such as Rainbow Island and Arkanoid, with an added mix of Pinball.
A wandering black hole has passed through the galaxy destroying planets and leaving others damaged and desolate in its wake. The Arkonauts – a team of space traveling animals – have been dispatched in their Space Ark on a mission to terraform the damaged worlds, and bring life back to the shattered worlds. You must aid the Arkonauts in their quest by bouncing them into the air to collect DNA (which helps to heal the planets) whilst also collecting bonuses and power-ups.
The game features 180 levels, split across 5 worlds, of ‘Arkonaut’ bouncing entertainment with 24 selectable Arkonauts, five mini games, bonus levels and a host of powerups.
For more info and screen shots check out our games pages – Space Ark game page
Just spotted the first review of Turbo Duck to hit the net at Gamedroid. Now obviously they liked the game but the thing I really like about the review is the fact that they obviously paid attention to what they were doing. They didn’t just play through the game and say what they did/didn’t like. They clearly paid attention to the details as you can see from this quote…
“For example: every time a submarine re-surfaces and creates a wave, that wave will change your ducks direction when it hits it.”
The submarines aren’t in every level and yet the reviewer has picked up on what is actually quite a small feature. None the less it is a feature that the team worked to include in the game and as a developer it is always nice when someone notices those things you have worked hard to include.
We are extremely pleased to announce that our Wii version of Geon is out to buy in US stores right now. We really enjoyed working on this version – the Wii is a great little machine to play games on and a joy to develop for. This version has all the great stuff we crammed into the PlayStation3 version, including 4-player last-man-standing and team-geon modes for those of you who like a bit of competitive action in the living room!
The unofficial finally becomes official with the announcement that our newest original game Space Ark will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in Q3 2009.
but the thing I really like about the review is the fact that they obviously paid attention to what they were doing. They didn’t just play through the game and say what they did/didn’t like. They clearly paid attention to the details as you can see from this quote…
