UFHO2

After a long time, I am back to work on a project very dear to me. It is the sequel to UFHO, the Flash game I made in 2008 while working at Visual Creative Studio.

This time, with UFHO2, we are trying to build something bigger and better. While the game will retain the basic mechanics, it will be enhanced by the addition of a single player experience complete with AI, a new dynamic soundtrack, leaderboards and whatnot.
Furthermore, it will be published on Facebook, so players won't even have the need to subscribe or create a profile: they only have to add the application! And this also means more social features.

The estimated time of deployment is March 2010 (maybe.. the end of March). I am working on graphics, programming and such, while Alessandro of Visual CS will work on the marketing and promotion, and Francesco D'Andrea will compose the music and the sound effects. We will get the help of another one who will give me support with the AI.

We have setup a development blog , and prepared a teaser for the game. I am very excited to launch into this new adventure, let's hope it turns out as expected!

Braid

I am always against latest fashions, and this happens also for games. Whenever I see a game getting enormous acclaim, I think that it's somehow overrated.
I did the same with Braid, a game by Jonathan Blow, but then I tried the demo all the same. Only one play through the first two level was needed to change my mind. Braid is deserving every bit of the good reviews it already has. Check the demo on Steam.

Froggle

A nifty little game from team HardCode, a group of DigiPen students. Directly from their site:

"You control a small frog-like creature that can use his extraordinarily long tongue to grapple, bounce and swing around a world of beautiful terrariums. Navigate and explore a variety of picturesque environments, complete different sets of entertaining challenges, all while licking flies and flicking other froggles. The interactive cartoon world of Froggle comes to life as you discover where your tongue can take you."



Team HardCode also submitted it to the IGF for the students' showcase...

Back to the roots

Today on the site ArsLudica a guy posted a small article about the fact that SEGA and EA are cutting a number of new IPs in favor of tested franchises. He complained that people writing comments in response to the news didn't understand the situation and only asked for sequels of the storical SEGA franchises.

Part of a comment (in italian) to the blog post says:
"- credit crunch fucked Factor 5: Nintendo blocked the development of Kid Ikarus Wii because she was let down by Eggebrecht & co.'s work and they didn't have credit warranties.
- A massive credit crunch could bring the [videogames] sector to "casualize" even more, killing risky AAA titles in favor of silly games that will put someone like EA or Ubisoft on the same level of a start-up company."

I say, this isn't bad at all. Ok, some people will get fired, and this is sad, but I'm an optimistic person and I think that in the end those ex-employees will find something to do.
What gives me hope is that, if this scenario is realized, all the indie companies will get more power, more sales, and more funds. Games will get better thanks to this renewed competition, and for people like me (small independent aspiring developers) it will be easier to break into the industry with some small concept turned into reality.
Those same people fired by the great companies will try to put up their business and maybe succeed, and get their revenge with some quality games. It would be a great renewal! It would be like in the eighties when individuals coded a game from start to end...
The games industry would only get better this way.

Fly! Clyde!

This being the title of a game for the iPhone I'm working on, with the help of three other guys from the Rome scene of development ;)
It's a vertical shooter set between the two World Wars. It has a comical feel to it, kinda like Metal Slug (I'm not saying it will have that class though!)

I just finished the preliminary work on the blog, we're going to post some things about the development... for everyone interested, here's the URL:

http://flyclyde.blogspot.com

IGF has come and gone, for me at least

Some time back I entered UFHO for the Independent Games Festival. Yesterday the finalists were nominated and we aren't among them. I can't but feel a little disappointed, but after all I wasn't expecting too much. Don't get me wrong, I love UFHO and I still really believe in the concept, but I think it needs a little bit of polish still to get noticed. Oh well...

Anyway at IGF the judges tend to prefer smaller concept games, but this is not a critic! There are wonderful games among the finalists, I just tried The Graveyard by Tale of Tales, a Belgian developers duo. It's kinda poetic.
There's also You Have to Burn the Rope! It's a crazy game, very very long, it takes five months to beat it. Play the game first, and if you get struck read the manual and the complete walkthrough.

World of Goo Level Editor

Today's the day. World of Goo is going to be available on the European WiiWare service. I'll buy it as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, I found out that someone called "nitrozark" started a project for a free World of Goo Level Editor. It's available on SourceForge here: http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/wogedit
The guys at 2D boy know that, and they gave their blessing to the editor. Hurrah!