Tum te tum
Ok, so I’ve taken the best part of a fortnight off from doing pretty much anything since getting Beast Invaders 3 out the door - although no doubt, my idea of a fortnight off is a little different to everybody elses.
Aside from being infinitely cheered up by a collection of rather fine Mii’s courtesy of the RR and Rodent chaps and chappesses, doing a bit of nipping away at JSWO (only one map fix this time round, we’re getting better) and attempting to get an S on that bastard last course on Platinum mode in Excite Truck, I’ve not been sitting at the computer much. Hence, distinct lack of blogging, and only minimal forum swearage over Jets N Guns and Saturdays abomination of Dr Who. (Ok, I don’t think the Dr Who was minimal swearage ;)). Weirdly, I also haven’t had a cup of tea in that fortnight. Maybe there is a direct correlation between amount of caffeine inhumed and amount of development work done?
So, back on the wagon this week then with a couple of things to do. First up on my list of stuff to clear off that doodling I wanted to do - certainly, its not a biggy and probably a day or so’s doodling to get things up to scratch. I have chipped at bits in the past fortnight, but nothing especially substantial. I’ll post a few bits and bobs up as I do them over the next couple of days as and when I finish them.
And proving that my idea of doing very little at the computer is partly kidding myself, I’ve also managed to completely gut the Beast Invaders 3 code ready for what I want to do with it next. If the plan works, then I’m sure there’ll be a few happy people out there with how it goes, I’m sure there’ll be an equal amount of people thinking “cunt” too, but hey ho. I’ve discussed this idea with a few folks now, and it *is* a pretty hefty undertaking, but with GeeKay back on board for the music and a lot of support from the inner circle of RR admin and mod-dom I might just be able to pull this off.
I don’t really want to say too much about it though because there’s a good chance it may not come to fruition how I’m planning. The prototype stuff I’ve cobbled together from the usable parts of BI3 is nice though, so colour me fairly confident that if nothing else, I’ll get a fairly decent game out of it. Wether I can generate enough interesting content though to make it proper is the sticking point.
To which end, I’m approaching this a little differently, but thats for another post methinks.
Mainly though, I want to get these pixels out of the way, get G-Force wrapped after a 2 week project turned into the best part of a year then concentrate on project MFOR. And no, I’m not telling you what that stands for because it’ll completely give the game away 
Right, time to open ProMotion methinks and get down and dirty with some pixels, I’d just like to drop a quick congratulations and a nod to Bill for reaching the 1000 posts mark on The2Bears - a blog which, if you don’t read and you have anything more than a passing regard for shmups then you’re a fool, and a big wave to Rich of Chaos Groove who gets some lovely words said about him by Mike of Blitwise in this months otherwise tedious Indie developer podcast. (Its lucky that Mike has enough character to carry the interview, really because without some spark the whole thing would be a bit of a write off)
Western Shareware Shooters
Well, there’s a title not to be read whilst drunk if ever there was one.
Ok, having once again found myself unable to resist the urge to call Jets N Guns an utter barrage of effluence across two forums after the game being slung out on Game Giveaway of the Day (normal service resumed at the time of writing, with the fantastic Balloon Park being todays giveaway - did I say fantastic? I meant to write “same old shit, different day”) its kinda got me thinking…
Where are they? And I’m not asking this in a come whore your game to me kind of way, because really - if you’re that desperate to get your product splashed across the internet that you’ll leave a “come try my game” comment in my blog then in all likelihood, its probably not the game I’m looking for and I’ll find myself with the irresistable urge to pick at every single fault in it, because I’m a bit of a cunt like that. So, seriously… where are they?
As far as I can see, there’s actually very few even worth giving a second glance at. Jets N Guns, is to all intents and purposes, one of the most horrid games I’ve ever set eyes upon. More so because it looks shiny and it sounds fantastic. Its just so generic, poorly balanced and soulless that I can’t bring myself to even mention it without getting a bout of tourettes. So what else is there? There’s Charlies Bullet Candy which whilst not perfect, its stupidly fun enough that any flaws can be easily overlooked, there’s the old faithfuls of PomPom, which are getting a bit long in the tooth now, there’s Fren-Ze which is wonderful beyond words, Puppygames have a couple of nice games… and… what else? Yup, its at this point I get stuck. I like to pretend that Alawar doesn’t exist because my life is happier that way, I’ve little to no interest in Bugatron et al, and a million and one Asteroids clones on portals certainly do little for me, the Crimsonland style got old real fast - more so with the increasing edge towards RPG-esque upgrades.
I’m looking for purity here, the stuff you can get in droves from the Eastern market with a bit of effort. Why, when there’s so many shooter fans out there are there so few games produced that I think “yeah, I’ll sling some cash your way”. I’m not after top notch production values, a soundtrack by either a cult nerd band or graphics by someone who used to work at Lucasarts (is there any artists out there offering services who didn’t at some point?) - just that pleasurable zone experience.
The freeware market though, its got that thang in droves, sure - some are flawed, some miss the edge they could have had, but when there’s stuff like Clean Asia coming out, some of the stuff that comes out of Shmup Dev is promising too, I’ve got enough to keep me going for a long time - but it still doesn’t explain to me why there isn’t a decent amount of well done games that I can throw my money at.
Instead, am I doomed to eternally download these attractive looking games to find something I feel guilty about wasting the download time on, never mind even consider paying for the bastards? Or… is there some hope for shooters in the shareware arena?
I don’t have the answer, and I guess thats why I’m writing this now…
Unfortunate Revalations
There’s a Q&A with yours truly up over at Auld Games - needless to say, it contains swearing… I’d apologise for bringing down the tone of Scotts site, but I wouldn’t mean it.
If you dig deep enough, you can also find a Q&A with t’other half of Mersey Remakes- Mr Smila also.
Questy
Questy is a nice Retro styled platformer from t’other half of Mersey Remakes - Mr Smila, showing off his roots with some lovely C64 style artwork. Grab it here.
Beast Invaders 3
Coming complete with the this disclaimer a slightly updated Beast Invaders 3. Pretty much the same as the one I fired over to Markie but with joystick control back in and the level 2 glitch fixed. Oh, and bonus points for reaching the end of a phase.
Long road to a proper finish I reckon, but for now its complete~ish and done, I’ll discuss the next update in a future post soon enough - for now I’ve got some doodling to be getting on with. I think the official release is later today, so consider this a sneak preview.
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Latest Games
War Twat: War Twat is a manic arena shooter created for Retro Masters, the Retro Remakes range of original retro styled titles.
Jet Set Willy Online: The award winning Jet Set Willy Online created in collaboration with Ovine and Auld Games.
G Force: Boris Baginski's two dimensional take on Tempest brought back to life with insane effects.
IO: The uber-difficult Firebird shooter gets the remake treatment from Trevor Smila Storey -
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The Gematria Project: Ambient Noodling to break the brain. Musical doodling from my skullbonce.
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