Tuesday 16 March 2010

GDC-gasm and MiniSquadron:Special Edition Levels

Whoops - seems like I only now have time to write a quick post here. I haven't ran away, it's just that as more work is coming up the less time I have to actually write about the work, doh!

Back from GDC a week ago now, was very happy to see lots of love for MiniSquadron and Fox Vs Duck. Big up Jon and Alex from PocketGamer - lovely guys, and also great meeting with Jeff Scott from 148apps. There were also many other people I ran around and met but too many to list here - I should mention Jason Citron and Eros Remininininini (of OpenFeint) as they were pretty fun, just a shame I couldn't hang too long. (Jason has really big hair - it rocks). If I met you or missed you (sorry Keith from Imangi!! and sorry Trevor from AppAdvice!) leave a comment in the blogs and let me pretend I'm still in San Francisco with the crazies!

At GDC itself loads of great lectures and people. Big takeaways were in-app monetisation and "social gaming" in the wider sense of the word. Check out Gowalla and PackRat, social games with real world consequences, that's what really piqued my interest. Also related would be CCP's Eve Online - their talk on the crazy metagames played by people in the real world was both hilarious and exciting. And no piece about GDC is complete without a mention to Uncharted 2!

During the end of GDC I did a quick interview with G4TV - here's a picture taken by Duncan Robson. He was also a lovely man I met whilst at the British Indie Devs meet up. Notice my "thousand yard stare" as I was probably still drunk from the night before (I really wasn't feeling too good then but hell if I was gonna miss being on G4TV!!)




So some new NEWS!! Fox Vs Duck has been out for a while, peaking at a superb position of 14 in Top 25 Paid Apps in UK - mostly down to it being featured in the front page by Apple. Nowhere is it to be seen in the USA though - which is kinda sad. I'll be doing some updates over time for fun as it's such a nice little game, so let's see how dark I can make it as I update..hehe!

MiniSquadron news - I've almost finished the next one, which I think will be called MiniSquadron:Special. It's going through some balance checks and final code bug fixes, and it's still missing some assets, but as a teaser - I want to present tiny pictures of all 8 new levels smashed together in the picture below. WOO! More screenshots will be made available as I get some more time to get them all! (Click through for slightly bigger - STILL haven't figured how to paste in bigger pictures in blogger)



Oh also have a gander at some of the new planes (you may spot some helicopters too!):