We are getting so close to Wind Up Robots (WUR) going out the door and onto the app stores. With any game the final polish happens in the last 5% of game development. WUR is no different. The game has become so much more in just the past three weeks as the team has tackled some performance issues as well as added some of the details we have wanted all along. In this update Chris Skaggs interviews most of the WUR team form programing to art. Take a look behind the scenes. (And just to let you know you can get a glimpse of what WUR looks like).
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:02 pm. Add a comment
This has been a week of rediscovering some of the games we love to play. We would like to say that we are regularly involved in all of the game communities we love. Busyness sets in though and many of those interactions fall to the side. These past two weeks we have been revisiting forums and communities. As always as we re-engaged we also get to see the great games other developers are making. Chris mentions a few of our favorites in this weeks update.
So every good tale has a bestiary highlighting the monsters and critters of the tales told. So as we near (only days away) the launch of Wind Up Robots (WUR) we wanted to supply you with all you need to get to know the monster that invade Zach’s dreams. In the game it is your challenge to defeat each onslaught of grisly beasts before the become Zach’s nightmares. Here is the WUR Bestiary but also check out the video where JB and Chris go to where else the Portland Zoo to give us the full preview of each beast in full glorious 3d
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:00 am. Add a comment
Recently I watched the Iron Giant with my kids and something really surprised me. I got all emotional “Super… man”. Yeah it made a grown man cry! There is something that gets us about these mechanical creatures. As kids we were enamored by the likes of Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space to R2D2 in Star Wars. So what is it about them that captures our hearts. In this weeks Flurry Friday episode hear Chris Skaggs talk about his favorite childhood robot and remember how things WUR. Tell us why you love them so.
Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago at 5:00 am. 4 comments
Gavin and I (Gavin gets the glory though since it was his idea) are launching a new blog/news feature called Flurry Friday at Soma where we will share ideas to give our community a consistent update on what we are seeing as cool or useful in the game development world .
The name Gavin picked is a variation of other feature Friday’s like Bungies. The Flurry part comes from my personal brand name John Flurry. I think it fits here too since that name for me is all about how creativity hits us.
1 a: a gust of wind b: a brief light snowfall
2 a: a brief period of commotion or excitement
This week we are furiously pushing toward beta for Wind Up Robots (WUR). Check out the episode and if you have any questions please leave them here or ask us on Twitter and Facebook.
Last here are a few things we would love from you:
1. Let us know what you would like to see in the Flurry Friday videos and updates.
2. Watch for feedback posts. The first one will be our TouchArcade Forum post where we will be asking for ideas for the WUR logo/button art. If you don’t know, Rovio chose red for their Angry Birds logo since there were few red icons on the store at the time. These are the kinds of things we are seeking from your feedaback.
3. On a side note our twin company Code-Monkeys is running a competition with gw-en.com for Bok Choy Boy Game. Post oyu high scores to win a t-shirt.
We’re in the middle of a fantastic but unexpected experience. We were planning on running a promo for our iOS version of Bok Choy Boy with OpenFeint this week but due to some unforeseen complications we had to change horses at he last minute and we swapped G:Into The Rain into the slot. Even though G is over 2 years old now (which is like 407 in app years) the game popped up out of the ranking basement and rose to a high of #23 in puzzles, #38 in arcade and #143 in all games.
Look – I know those aren’t like astronomical numbers, but without any real effort or preparation on our part and a last-miunte promo with OF the game proved to still have legs and we continue to get great reviews from folks who are discovering it for the first time.
The conventional wisdom in the app world seems to be that an app’s shelf life is something like 3-months if you’re lucky. But I think the most compelling lesson of the Angry Birds saga is that they had a hit and then they stuck with it instead of moving on to something else. Perhaps one of the most powerful but generally overlooked aspects of the long-tail economy is the persistence of a product and the ongoing ability for new users to find your game, share it, and become new fans. We certainly never expected G to keep on living the way it has but it’s the app that just wont die…and we kinda like it that way.
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:37 am. Add a comment
We are used to planning for disaster, disappointment, failure or bad news. How often do we prepare to celebrate? Celebration is such a critical part of business and company culture.
Today we are celebrating our Code-Monkey’s title Bok Choy Boys game we made with A&A Global being featured by Apple’s New and Noteworthy section on the iTunes store. Our team was obviously energized and excited about the news. We instantly made plans to celebrate and congratulate all of our friends, collaborators and hard working artists that made this happen.
So why don’t we plan for things like this? Something common to our staff in discussing the topic is that all of them have the experienced the opposite. People opt out of walking when receiving a degree. First steps, words and birthdays are lauded but as we grow older we shy away from them.
So at Soma and Code-Monkey we want to break the mold. We are taking time out to cherish this a bit. If you are near our office we invite you stop by and have some fun. We will have an open house from 1-3 pm this next Thursday June 30th 2011.
And if you find yourself in our shoes take a minute out of your schedule and value celebration.
Posted 10 months, 4 weeks ago at 3:13 pm. 3 comments
It was exactly 1 year ago that we got our first taste of Intel’s AppUp Center when they launched the beta store at CES 2010. It was received with mixed reviews and nobody really knew what to expect from it.
What a difference a year makes.
Note to Intel: Why does this page still say "Moblin?"
Today you look at the AppUp Center and right up front is what must be the biggest runaway hit game of 2010 – Angry Birds. What a huge coup! What a great “I told you so” moment. Congratulations to Intel – Peter, you called it man.
Are you buying family games this Christmas? We are. We bought a few favorites for the kids, but actually took them back in favor of the eVersions. This was a choice my wife made. That really surprised me. Let me just say in our family, she is not the gadget freak the rest of us are. My Kids and I play games on all of our devices (we have many, one of the perks being in the gadget/game/app development business). She has always resisted using them…until now. To set the scene, about two weeks ago the kids introduced her to Angry Birds on the iPad. She was instantly hooked. Then this last weekend the Electronic Arts sale was announced and I grabbed many of the titles for 99 cents that were usually $6.99 – 9.99. One of the games happened to be the same as a boxed game she had bought, Piktureka, as a Christmas present . After playing as a family and enjoying the sounds, unique and enjoyable playtime, she bagged up the boxed version and took it back to the store.
I asked her why, and she said that it just made sense. The iPad version reduces clutter, is more fun to play, you can’t lose pieces, and she really likes the sound effects. And to top it all off this is coming from the least techy person in our house. So there you have it. What games are you buying this Christmas. We are also enjoying Clue Spy, Yatzee, and the kids really like Life, although Life for me feels a bit claustrophobic on the iPad.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 10:00 am. 5 comments
