I haven’t written a proper update for a while, so I thought I should…
Recently, we did a media blitz for Maximilian and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds to see if there was enough interest out there in internetland for it to be brought to DSiWare. [glances at the total votes] It would seem that of the 1000 votes we needed, only 374 have come in so far. The game has received fairly decent exposure over the past week, with Go Nintendo kindly allowing Max to take over their site banner all week, and news pieces on IGN, Destructoid, Pure Nintendo, Nintendo Life, and many other cool websites. In all fairness, we should have received more than 1000 votes by now if there were enough people out there wanting Max on DSiWare. I truly appreciate the 374 people (and the other 50 anonymous!), but the forecast doesn’t look good for Max on DSiWare. It makes me feel bad, because of those who do want it. But, it will take a lot of resources for us to bring it to DSiWare, and we’re just a small studio. We have to be very careful with what we spend our time and money on. I’m sure you’ve noticed the many studios that have closed or had lay-offs in 2010. We want to stay in the business of making games, so we have to tread carefully. I’m not saying that Max won’t happen on DSiWare, but so far it looks improbable that we’ll see 1000 votes before the end of the year, which is very sad.
As you know, ATV Wild Ride has been completed. Hooray, and congrats to the team. Here’s a rundown of the team: Gregg Hargrove produced most of the fantastic in-game art, as well as provided the rockin’ music with his band Swift Justice and the Hired Goons. Bob Ives was the lead programmer, handling the core engine and gameplay components. Andrew Brown was a programmer, handling the menus, user interfaces, logic, and particles. Giovanni Acosta was also a programmer, handling the networking/multiplayer component. And, I handled the gameplay, track design, audio effects, menu/user interface artwork, and schedules: a small and very capable team, who produced a great game in a short amount of time. Well done chaps! I am very proud of our accomplishments. There have already been some hands-on previews at Destructoid, Pure Nintendo, and Nintendo Power – all of which had very positive things to say about the game. I expect we’ll see some reviews in January. I do not know the exact release date yet, but it should be January 2011.
We have three other projects in development: codenamed Smoke, Bit, and Face.
Smoke is progressing nicely. It was originally planned to be a holiday release. But, we ran into some issues which have delayed the game. The good news is that it is all in the name of quality. Like I’ve said before, and will probably say again, Smoke is a kid’s game. I am not sure if we’ll go for a big media push like we have with our previous games. The majority of the people who Smoke is supposed to entertain probably don’t read video-game websites. And those players who do read video-game websites probably don’t play these types of games. There may be a small crowd of those who do, but I honestly don’t want to throw this out into a media blitz on the web only to receive a bunch of inevitable “WTF?” comments. I already know that it is NOT suited to those who enjoyed Dementium and Moon, and I don’t need proof in the form of negative comments. Smoke will probably be released sometime in the summer 2011.
Both Bit and Face are rolling along nicely. I can’t say much about them at this stage, but we’re having a lot of fun working on them. :)
Right now, I am working on a bunch of proposals to secure our next project(s). Because, before we know it we’ll be done with our current projects and have nothing new to work on / get paid for. This happened at the end of Dementium II, and I want to avoid that happening again. ;)
I hope you’re having a great day.
Jools
