mattkain

Is anyone going to attend California Extreme this weekend? We're going to be exhibiting two of our studio's retro-styled Xbox/PC games (Washington's Wig and Fist Puncher). Anyone attending the show should stop by our table and play some games, talk shop, or just say hi.

That sounds about right. One of the other XBLIG developers was joking with us and said that we would now become "dozenaires" just like all the other XBLIG game developers.

Has anyone been following the Microsoft Dream.Build.Play competition? It's an MS sponsored contest for indie devs making Xbox or Windows Phone games. We submitted our game Fist Puncher and I'm really impressed by some of the other entrants. There are some really cool retro-themed games that will be part of the competition and coming out later this year on Xbox. Obviously I'm plugging my game a little, but there are some amazing looking games that were submitted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Zzg-wXyBk&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxLIlo5ICyI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jopRHhEnlVI And, of course, our entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQiL83nO0Nw

For anyone that enjoyed The Next Game Boss or likes retro-styled games with dogs wearing wigs, we released Washington's Wig on Xbox for 80 MSP ($1). http://marketplace.x...8550b5d?cid=RSS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itDU38hXiCw&feature=youtu.be

That's a brilliant quote! River City Ransom is one of our big influences along with Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Renegade, etc. It has some modern influence too. I think people will definitely see some Castle Crashers in there. Speaking of River City Ransom, I only learned recently that there were sequels. Have to get my hands on them and give them a try.

For anyone interested in retro brawlers, we're doing a Kickstarter to try to get the final funding for our game Fist Puncher. We're hoping we can get some fans of old school beat 'em ups to give us a hand. Pass the link on if you know anyone who might be interested. Thanks! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/928099324/fist-puncher-old-school-beat-em-up

Next Game Boss finale time. It's my team (Team Fist Puncher) against Team Mechamagizmo. A wig-wearing canine vs. a carrot bouncing stars. Only in the world of videogames.

Robot Wants Kitty - fun little puzzler. Memohuntress - sort of a find the object adventure game with really nice visuals.

And here's episode 5:

Sorry for the delay, life has me backed into a corner. There are 2 new episodes. Here's episode 4:

Episode 3 (with a twist): http://youtu.be/jf03m4xTqxw

Thanks for watching! That challenge was absurdly intense. I wish the show would have captured more of the stress that each team went through during those nightmarish 3 hours. Going in, only 1 or 2 of the teams had any Unity experience. So for most of us, we were trying to learn Unity on the fly *and* prototype a game. Now add in the fact that we couldn't use the internet, couldn't use cell phones, couldn't use labtops, couldn't use any external content whatsoever, and had cameras and lights in our faces while a big clock counted down, and you have 3 hours of developers pulling out their hair. I have to admit, I was pretty bummed after the challenge that our core mechanic was just barely there and pretty rough around the edges. However, looking back, I'm happy that we were able to stay focused and learn just enough Unity in 3 hours to be able to actually present a working demo. In fact, hats off to all the teams. It's harder than it looks. MK

Episode 2 is up. I haven't watched it yet, but I think I'm going to look kind of silly in this one: http://youtu.be/hknam3TLnPc

It's too late! I already lost it! Seriously though, the challenge in the next episode is intense. Stay tuned.

moycon: I *think" there are going to be 6 episodes, but I'm not exactly sure. Each one is put up Tuesday at noon Pacific time. ComputerSpaceFan: I think it was just the way they edited it. Both Daemon and Naomi seemed pretty enthusiastic about and involved with the show. We didn't get to talk to them too much (since we were contestants and they were judges... I guess they didn't want us to be tempted to slip a 20 into Daemon's pocket to try to sway his vote), but overall they both seemed like pretty cool down-to-earth people. And there was a Tron machine in the cafeteria?! They only had Tekken and NFL Blitz up and running when I was there. Dang!

For anyone that's interested, I competed on a reality show called THE NEXT GAME BOSS as part of IGN/YouTube's new START network. The show was an elimination competition where teams of indie developers faced off in a series of challenges with the ultimate goal being to design and implement a game in a short period of time. I competed with my brother as TEAM FIST PUNCHER and we did our best to represent retro gaming (since that's the only kind of games us old timers know). Overall, the show was a complete blast and all the people we worked with and competed against were amazing. Episode 1 debuted on Tuesday. Check it out (and feel free to laugh at me since, come on, I'm on a flipping internet reality show about video games): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUijn7tGIUQ&feature=sh_e_top&list=SL

Similar to the Android question, I'd love to see a Windows phone version. Any chance that will see the light of day?

I'll give Community a chance - sounds like it has potential.

Looking forward to it! How long did it take to develop? MattKain

I'm out of the loop on Community - only seen a couple episodes. I guess I'm more of a Parks & Rec/30 Rock guy. Is there a videogame reference from Community or is it something specifically with the name "Fist Puncher"? MK

Are those the actual C64 screenshots in the link above? If so, looks terrific. I wonder if the gameplay will be as smooth as it is in Flash... MattKain

Dead Pixels on XBLIG looks pretty great. I played the demo about a week ago and was pretty impressed. Has anyone else out there picked this one up yet? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeY7sU3S1Mw MattKain

Ha! Join the club! That's what I say to myself every night. MattKain

Has anyone else here played Canabalt? http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/ I first heard of it this past weekend at IndieCade. It's got a really vintage look with smooth, simple gameplay. Anyone know any similar games? MattKain

Thanks for the kind words. The first beta release is in testing now, and we're going to submit Fist Puncher to the Independent Games Festival next spring (submissions are due next week). Right now we're working out a few kinks (anyone know a game with great jump kicks?) and tightening some of the storytelling. The gameplay is most similar to Double Dragon with more storytelling and unique level design (and a 4-player mode). Yie Ar Kung-Fu would certainly count as an influence though - who doesn't love that game? MattKain