Wow, it's been an exciting end to the week! Slamjet Stadium launched, as promised, on March 14th and is now available for iPads worldwide for £1.99/$2.99.
Not only that, but I took a look at the US store and saw this: it's been selected for New & Noteworthy!
It's also listed in the New & Noteworthy section of the Games listing, as well as a banner and a listing in their Tabletop Games feature. It goes without saying: I am overjoyed!
There's been some fantastic reviews too.
"This is anarchic, free-wheeling indie gaming at its finest, and shows just how far a bit of innovation can go"
9 out of 10, Gold Award PocketGamer
"It’s impossible to describe how much chaos can be involved and how competitive games can get"
8 bruised, bent and broken thumbs out of 10 CalmDownTom
"Tons of action-packed twists every way you turn, and that frantic addictiveness of a great arcade game"
4 stars GameZebo
Let's hope the game can build on this momentum. Looking forward to keeping you posted!
I talk about how the development process reflected the small nature of my studio (can't get much smaller than one man!) and the important of pushing a message and an ideal in the design. I also give my thoughts on the benefits I have received from making friends within my industry, and how as indie developers we need to help each other out as best we can.
Best of British is an open group of indie studios based in the UK. We originally teamed up to put together a "Best of British" games bundle for iPhone, and have since run two game jams, releasing two collaborative minigame collections for iOS. We meet up on a regular basis and are always looking for new ways to help each other out, cross-promoting each other's work, passing on connections and contributing a regular column to PocketGamer.biz.
BoB is free to join for all UK-based studios and we're always looking to get new people involved - the more the merrier!
Visit the website, or get in touch with Jake Birkett, the current chief BoBBee, if you'd like to be a part of the group.
The Splintered Kingdom is the follow-up to his debut novel, Sworn Sword, and follows Norman knight Tancred a Dinant through the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The book is currently available in hardcover and on Kindle, and the paperback will be available from all good bookshops, supermarkets and online from March 14th.
So if you have a penchant for rip-roaring action or medieval history I seriously recommend you check out his work, because he's a fantastic writer!
A while back I wrote an article listing 10 awesome articles I've read and videos I've watched, and I was eager to list some more. Why? Because they're awesome! I tend to read a lot about game development, and have pulled a lot of useful insight from the experiences of others - so it would be silly not to pass that knowledge on!
Game Design Balancing For Skill (video) - Extra Credits
I really love the Extra Credits video series, and this one in particular is a highlight. It's about balancing the abilities in a game - focusing not on getting the high-level game to be well-balanced, but on creating a game that's equally satisfying for beginners as for expert players. It also deals with making sure that players constantly have reason to improve their skills, rather than settling for the easiest-to-execute abilities. Their video on intentionally-imbalanced systems is also very insightful.
The Puzzle of Designing Puzzles - Toni Sala
Designing puzzles isn't something I do very often. I tend to prefer working on the dynamic, self-generating puzzle-like systems like you see in Greedy Bankers, and that I enjoyed in Triple Town, rather than designed problems with known solutions. This article gives a great reasoning for why players like myself often find designed puzzles unsatisfying, and then goes on to show how great puzzle design can work around these issues. Top stuff.
Writer Leon Osborne, who contributed the first Slamjet Stadium fiction to the blog has come up with some more fantastic work, which really captures the setting I'd envisioned for the game. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have!
A member of the Astro Marines team, as depicted in the game
Part 1
Rikk: Howdy
there Sports Fans. Rikk Slinger and Takei Coates here. It looks set
to be another beautifully brutal game of Slamjet today.
Takei:
That’s right, Rikk. And we’re gonna be here bringing you all the
action for Tyrant TV. Today’s match sees the Fanboys go up against
the Astro Marines.
Rikk: Ha.
There’s gonna be a definite weight advantage going on in this game!
Takei: Too
right, Rikk. Slametric data, stretching back decades, will tell you
that the Marines have won 90% of the games when facing the Fanboys
and have always won on the injury infliction score.
Rikk: Not
that we condone the injury infliction score of course as does no one
else employed by Tyrant TV.
Takei: You
said it, Rikk. Tyrant TV and its associated sponsors promote clean
and family friendly hyper violent blood sports. But we’re well
aware that many fans-
Rikk: And
book keepers.
Takei: -That
many enthusiasts take a keen interest in all statistics associated
with the sport, most prominent amongst them the Tooth Count…
Rikk: How
many teeth a player has lost since his professional career began.
Takei: The
Tooth Fairy Count…
Rikk: How
many teeth a player has knocked out of other players since his career
began.
Takei: The
Bone Breaker Count and the Bone Breakee Count…
I put up this video last night. Actually, it was really fun to do, although it took a while! As I've been developing Slamjet Stadium (from August 2012 to February 2012), I've taken about 350 screenshots - some to use as publicity material, some because of bugs that looked particularly funny - but mostly just to remind me later on of how it had developed.
Then I strung them together, one-by-one into a 70-second montage. The result is below
Below are some of the screenshots from development with a little explanation, to give a taste of how it's evolved.
The following is a fiction piece written by Leon Osborne. Leon is a good friend of mine, one of the testers behind Slamjet Stadium and a very funny guy! He's written this piece about the game and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I hope you do too.
It wasn’t easy being a referee. You were always going to upset somebody with a decision. The problem with Slamjet of course was that the people you upset tended to outwardly express their upset in a graphically violent manner. Gerry Glass had been a chief referee for two years now and had only been shot the once.
A mysterious game from the distant future and is coming to your iPad. What could it be? Why, it's Slamjet Stadium of course! I've submitted it to the App Store and will be going live on March 14th.
For those not yet familiar with the game, Slamjet Stadium is a multiplayer iPad game I've been working on since the summer. Based on an ancient 20th Century sport known as "football" the Slamjet tournament is the hottest event of the galactic calendar. Arenas are filled with deadly saws, mysterious wormholes and ridiculous power-ups, and only the fastest and toughest can win!
Players control a team of characters riding on the titular Slamjet-class hoverbikes. Grabbing a player with your finger and dragging back charges their engines, and releasing launches them across the screen, to bash the ball into your opponent's goal.
Played on a shared iPad, players are free to get in each other's way, steal each other's characters or set off traps to mess their opponent up. It's fast, it's chaotic and breaking the rules is encouraged!
Slamjet Stadium also features a single-player mode where you can take on a gauntlet of increasingly-tough computer opponents in an attempt to become the ultimate champion.
Local multiplayer iPad games have fascinated me for a long time, ever since developing the multiplayer mode for Greedy Bankers vs The World. Watching people get competitive over the board, encouraging them to get in each other's way and play dirty, and seeing the joy this kind of experience created, made me want to explore it further.
One of the great opportunities that the touchscreen offers is the ability to share the whole canvas of play between two players. In the old days, you'd have your gamepad and I'd have mine, and we'd be controlling two separate avatars. But when we have a device where two players can have free roam over the whole space, why split the game into your side and mine?
Slamjet Stadium is about using the whole touchscreen, and getting players to use the whole screen as one big playspace. Instead of worrying about players getting in each other's way, Slamjet encourages them to do so. Why can't my hand be an in-game obstacle? Why shouldn't you be allowed to grab my arms?
Where on consoles shared-screen multiplayer has increasingly given way to online, local multiplayer designers are pushing their medium to show why sharing play is still important. Playing with your friends is a joyous experience. Let's make the most of what this medium has to offer!
As indie developers we need to make the most of what we can do that large companies cannot. In an increasingly mechanised games market it is imperative for us to focus on creating unique and radical content - rather than settling for "reliable" designs and tried-and-tested business strategies.
We need to appeal to hearts and minds, we need to make risky design decisions, and if we don't we risk sinking into the blend. And the blend is an area that large companies can game much better than us individuals.
Of course, we indies are best equipped of all to do this - we're agile, we're aspirational and we can take risks fearlessly.
If you're interested, please follow the link below. I hope you enjoy reading it!
