game news sitie VG24/7 has posted a Eurogamer Expo writeup including Pineapple Smash Crew, check out the article here
Excerpt: “This game provides the most out-and-out fun of those in the indie arcade. Pineapple Smash Crew plays as a fast-paced team-shooter in which you control your mech-suited, cuboid-headed squad members as one close-knit unit”
“It sounds good, because it is.”
w00t, thanks VG24/7! 🙂
My Gf’s been ill stuck in bed, trying to cheer her up 🙂 get well Caz!
Krelith of SarcasticGamer.com has posted a very positive preview of Pineapple Smash Crew. Click Here to check out the article
Excerpt: “One of my favourite things about modern indie game developers is how they often take a nostalgic design principle, and drag it kicking and screaming into the present day. A game filled to the brim with high-res textures and cover mechanics can be great, but no big budget game has evoked a sense of glorious nostalgia quite like the indie crowd has been doing over the last couple of years. And among the many great experiences to be had, one that brings me incredible joy is the forthcoming Pineapple Smash Crew”
PSC now has an Indie Database page, so if you like to track your indie games on IndieDBÂ please head on over!
Something worth bearing in mind when you are designing randomly generated content (eg. level layouts). Often there are certain situations and scenarios you want to avoid with random generation, such as X item appearing next to Y item. Now, before you spend time coding a detailed set of rules to try and avoid scenarios you don’t like: be sure to ask yourself ‘ is it easier to just detect an unwanted result, and re-roll the dice’
Many times it does turn out you should code the fix if the problem crops up very regularly. But other times when the unwanted scenario is rare and your randomization is quick, the answer is usually: yeah, just re-randomize it. Remember that, and don’t immediately try to fix every problem by brute force.
edit: someone pointed out that re-rolling *is a brute force technique. What I was intending to get across is this- don’t always take the problem head on if you can easily sidestep it (by simply re-generating a satisfactory result) instead of spending ages getting the perfect solution every time.
I’d like to start using the blog a bit more to archive ideas and thoughts on game development.. I hope they’ll be interesting to read, but at the very least I want them recorded somewhere so I don’t forget them 🙂
Point 1: Don’t get attached to things in your game just because you’re used to them.
This happens to me quite often. Something (some variable, setting, or game mechanic) which worked well from the very beginning of the game has stayed put almost untouched through development. I’m used to it being there and it’s kind of comfortable to have in. But maybe things changed gradually along the way and sometimes it turns out that the Thing isn’t really relevant any more. Often this comes from playtesting, since it’s hard to recognise for yourself.
Its a tough moment when you understand you need to remove or change something you like, but you need to stop and ask why you like it. Is it familiarity? When you stop back and look objectively at the big picture the answer is probably yes. The change makes your game better, and you’ll get used to the new version just the same as you did with the old. It’s hard not to get attached to things, but recognise the difference between a good feature and a comfortable one…
Point 2: Feel free to go off on a tangent to explore ideas without worry
Ok the title is really vague, but what I mean is with whatever setup you have, make sure it’s easy to save your current project state, make a copy or know that something like SVN can revert your changes, and noodle around without fear of breaking the game. Just do whatever it is you need to do to try out the idea, make a complete mess of the code if need be. If it turns out to be good, *then* you worry about integrating it nicely into the game. If not, just dump the whole lot / revert all the changes and carry on. It’s important not to worry about clean code and bugs when prototyping.
That’s all for now! I hope to make these design notes a more frequent part of the blog 🙂
Had a fantastic time at the Expo and met a lot of great indie supporters!
First of all I want to extend my gratitude to David Hayward, the organiser of the Indie Arcade- He kept everything running smooth as clockwork and the diversity of the games present was fantastic- there was really something for everyone!
And of course thanks to everyone at Rock Paper Shotgun for supporting the event and choosing Pineapple Smash Crew as the winner! It was great to meet everyone face to face after reading and enjoying RPS all these years!
Thanks to Syphus for letting me use his awesome tracks for the expo- see the post below for his details and album!
Thanks to the press and bloggers who stopped by and checked out the game!
Thanks to the great indie fans who came by and checked out the game, and everyone who’s tracked me down on twitter, youtube, facebook and the blog. It was great to meet some of you at the show!
And finally thanks to my awesome girlfriend who kept me company and showed everyone some awesome moves on the dancefloor in just dance 😀
I’m over the moon to announce that Pineapple Smash Crew received the RPS game of the indie arcade award! Mind= blown right now 🙂
I’m heading out right now but there’s many people I want to thank and mention, so look out for an update this evening!
Also, I know many people have been frustrated about the lack of information about availability of the game, I’m really sorry about that. PSC still has a few months of development time left to really make it shine and take on board the fantastic feedback from the Eurogamer Expo. Rest assured I’m working hard to get it into gamers hands!
I’ve had a bunch of people interested in the Music of PSC- It was provided by a fantastic Chiptune artist who goes by the name of Syphus- check out his artist page here
His real name is Brendan Ratliff, and his music production company is called Echolevel – Check him out on Twitter, @echolevel
The tracks included in the Eurogamer version of PSC are but a few of the many awesome tunes to be found on his album pro.tect- available on bandcamp- check it out and buy a copy!