We did the third Philly Game Jam over the weekend, which is pretty much a 45-hour game development competition. We were given the theme “mothers” and began to conceive and develop our beautiful creation: Duck It!
We also earned the WTF! Award, which is, let’s be honest, the best award ever.
You play as a mother duck trying to reach her young and barf pixels on to them. It’s procedurally-generated, uses HTML5/JS and BLAST PROCESSING!
This was a really fun Q&A by the good people at Square Enix Music Online. We discussed the contrast between writing original albums and scoring video games, as well as how I met my wife through video game music, my approach to the Return All Robots! soundtrack, and my music production setup.
Definitely check it out if you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a professional composer and producer. Square Enix Music Online has a ton of other great features too, including interviews with numerous famous Japanese game composers like Yuzo Koshiro (a personal hero, composer to Streets of Rage and many others.)
On March 3rd, some of Drexel University‘s best and brightest students competed in the robo-arena, with Return All Robots as the battleground! Sponsored by Drexel’s IEEE Student Branch, the competitors were given a set period of time, and let loose upon fresh installs of the game. Whomever completed the most levels within that time would be crowned the victor! The competition was fierce, with several students even discovering the hidden SECRET LEVELS that had NEVER BEEN ANNOUNCED HERETOFORE!
It’s been an awesome journey, and wouldn’t have been possible if everyone on the team didn’t crank out 110%, as cliche as that sounds. Thanks to everyone who’s tested it and given us feedback, encouragement, advice and beer. You guys rock.
Now, seriously, go over to www.returnallrobots.com and check out the game, tell us what you think, and grab the soundtrack for free (or the deluxe version if you love us)! With your continued support, we hope we can keep doing this and blow your mind for our next endeavour.
Yours truly,
xoxo,
J
From returnallrobots.com:
Return All Robots!, the debut release from Philadelphia-based game developer Space Whale Studios, is an action-puzzle game for the Xbox Indie Games and PC platforms. The player takes the role of “The Intern”, a hapless, green-haired recruit at a major technology corporation as he is caught in the middle of a mysterious disaster that has unleashed hundreds of robots throughout the facility.
Armed with only a remote control, the Intern must rescue the good robots while avoiding (or destroying!) the bad ones in over 45 levels with hazards and obstacles ranging from liquid nitrogen, lava, conveyor belts, tesla coils and acid to ice blocks, laser turrets, deadly fans and more.
The blend of old-school gameplay inspired by classics like Lemmings and Bomberman with modern twists and depth will instantly resonate not only with retro gamers, but casual players and hardcore puzzler fans alike. Each level offers a multitude of solutions, and in-game stat tracking constantly challenges players to create more efficient (or more destructive) approaches to every puzzle.
With an 80′s kitsch art style, electro-pop soundtrack and light-hearted story, Return All Robots! fills you with nostalgia you never knew you had!
Super ultimate post. Get ready for the Return All Robots! epic trailer.
Also, Andrew made a video showing off the gameplay without all that razuhmuhdaz and epic-movie-trailer-guy-voice:
So close to being finished! We were also luckily enough to have a chance at showing off our game and talking a bit about ourselves at the monthly Philly chiptunes dance party extravaganza, 8static! Got some new players interested, great feedback, and rocked out to George and Jonathan’s cover of one of our tunes, which we’ll upload soon and you will subsequently have your face melt into pixels, promise.
Also, Aaron is a badass and made a Minecraft skin of our intern? Interested?
Hey guys! We recently shot a series of trailers with Electric Palm Tree for Return All Robots! coming out next month! So check them out, spread the word, and if you dig it, subscribe and we’ll keep it up! Check out RAR! in the weeks to come! Keep in mind, robots are no laughing manner.
Since we’ve only had two live events (at Betascape and IGDA Philadelphia), we’ve had many people who’ve been interested in what we’ve been up to and the progress on our game but were unable to catch us when we set up shop, so we made a quick video of walkthroughs for two of our levels so people can check out the basic idea of the gameplay of Return All Robots! Check it out (and subscribe to the channel!)
Andrew Aversa (zircon in the OCR circles) set up a remix contest on OverClocked Remix looking for submissions to put remixes on the RAR! OST. Check out the post on OCR and contribute or listen to some tunes in a few weeks! Looking forward to see what these guys come up with!
Well, Baltimore rocked. We set up shop in the Betascape booth and had somewhere between 150 and 200 people play our game and give us awesome feedback. Our purpose there was pretty much to get our name out and see what people thought who’ve never played our game and don’t even know us. In addition to finding out what parts of our game were fun and which parts were not fun, or even frustrating, we also got several stamps of approval that we were on the right path whenever someone would sit down and play for 30 minutes. “One more level, Mom!”
Kids were laughing and cheering, some significant others stormed away when their partner wouldn’t stop playing, and there was some mad shit-talking going on during the multiplayer. And over a hundred email sign-ups to be notified when the game launches. I couldn’t be happier! Mad pix too.
Gamer: “So why are you guys called Space Whale?”
Me: “Well, what’s cooler than a Space Whale, hm?”
Gamer: “..A Space Whale with an axe.”
One of the best parts of this event was how much data we pulled in about people playing our game. While Zynga’s obsession with metrics to dictate their game design might draw a lot of hate from other developers, metrics can (in moderation) be very useful to a small company like Space Whale. That’s why we recorded as much information as we could while people played the beta version of Return All Robots! I’d like to share our findings here, as they provided us some excellent insight that will help refine our game for its final release. Check out the info that Andrew compiled!
So we got invited to display our work at this year’s Artscape, America’s largest free art festival! We’re gonna have some demo levels for attendees to play and some other goodies, in addition to interfacing with beautiful artists and developers such as ourselves. If you’re in the Baltimore area next weekend, it’s free, it’s going to have something like 350,000 people there, there’s going to be art bursting out of the ground and tearing forth from the sky, so, c’mon. We’ll see you there!
Location: Mount Royal Avenue & Cathedral Street / Charles Street / Bolton Hill neighborhood & Station North Arts & Entertainment District
We’ll be at the BetaScape area, I’ve been told! Get all the deets on the Artscape page!
America’s largest free arts festival, Artscape features 150+artists, fashion designers and craftspeople, including DIY/new wave crafters; visual art exhibits on and off site, such as outdoor sculpture, art cars, photography and the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize; incredible live concerts on four outdoor stages; a full schedule of performing arts including dance, opera, theater, fashion, film, experimental music and performances by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; family events such as hands-on projects, demonstrations, jazz vocal and combo competitions, children’s entertainers and multiple street theater locations; and a delicious, international menu of food and beverages available throughout the site.
Local Philly badasses Cipher Prime‘s latest game, Fractal goes live today! The follow up game to their wildly successful Auditorium, Fractal is a.. well, I’ll let them describe it as “A fierce intersection of fractal gameplay, dynamic audio, and kaleidoscopic visuals, Fractal is the new musical puzzle experience from Cipher Prime. Combo, chain, and cascade your way through a pulsing technicolor dreamscape that reacts to your every move.” Pretty hot.
The Cipher Prime guys had a wild release party last weekend where friends, fans, gamers and developers gathered to celebrate, drink, and play, with Dain laying down some mad dance moves. Awesome dudes and an awesome game, check out the trailer below and give the demo a try and pick it up if you’re down with the MULTIBLOOM + EXPLODE + CHAINREACTION, because honestly, who wouldn’t be down with that.
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