Hi there! My name is James Sparkman and Ill be keeping you wonderful followers up to date with the Shockwave development. We only have a month to develop a kick-ass game that gets people excited for the Shockwave, Darkside film. Should be easy enough, right? But just what is the Shockwave game? Well, Ill tell you: Shockwave, Darkside, the movie, is a classical sci-fi adventure set on the moon. A band of out-gunned rebels known as The Banished is stranded in enemy territory. Well, stranded says a lot about our game, too. You are a lone soldier of The Banished stranded in the Mare Undarum, The Sea of Waves, a desolate lunar basin that has seen countless battles. With your oxygen reserves plummeting, you must find precious ice caps and tap them for oxygen. Unfortunately for you, extracting oxygen from ice caps alerts dormant enemy drones to your presence. So what to do? Defend your ice caps with TURRETS, of course! Yes, thats right. Shockwave is a survival dual-stick shooter with turret defense tactics! But there is much, much more to come. Keep checking the blog to hear more about the game and the team! We are very excited to be a part of this project, and we think we are going to bring you an experience the app store has never seen before. See you around! Shockwave, Darkside Development Blog!
There are three of us working here in Venice Beach. I guess you can call us Moyo Team 2: First, there is Nate Hansen. He is our talented Unity 3D engineer. His job is to take the game we have in our heads and make it work on the iPhone. And not just work, but work smoothly and efficiently. He's a hard worker and we are lucky to have him. Next we have Justin Stearns. He is our resident 3D artist. This guy loves art, and makes it his personal responsibility to give the player a cohesive world to inhabit while playing our games. It's amazing how he knows exactly what he wants visually. Lastly, there is me. My job is to write down the game on paper to keep our ideas in tact. It sounds stupid, but it is really important to keep all the team members on the same page. (No pun intended, but I'll go with it.) I also get to talk to you, dear reader. I look forward to next time... yes. Yeeees.
No kidding, where are the pizzas and beer??? What kind of development team is this? no posters of Lara Croft on the walls and no playboy calendars. Was this pic staged? I am confused!!!
Give it time. Our first day in the office was on Monday. Within the month it will be a leper colony. You can already see the life draining from our eyes.
Went to your site. Is it going to be similar in looks and gameplay to Shrapnel or Alive 4 Ever? Is month really enough?
This game has two things in common with Shrapnel: 1. It is based on an existing property. 2. It is a dual-stick shooter. Otherwise, Shockwave has a very unique look and gameplay. This is a new team with a new engine. Comparing it to Alive 4 Ever wouldn't be a good idea either. That game is very character and upgrade-driven. Shockwave, although it has some very cool player progression, is more about survival. We offer a challenge to our players: "How long will you survive?" And no, a month is never enough. But we think we've limited the scope of the game enough that it is possible.
Week 2 Begins So here we are on Week 2 of our four week development plan. So far, were on schedule! We had a great pitch to the client over the weekend and everybody was very happy. We should say the movie is based on the game! they joked. I have no argument on this point.
Our artist Justin has completed work on the turret asset. Stick around this week to see what Shockwave is really all about. Meanwhile I have the main character model done and Nathan has turret upgrades working. THINGS ARE COMING ALONG.
So what is this game anyway? I suppose it's time to explain a little more about how the game actually works: As I mentioned before, Shockwave is all about SURVIVAL. But how do you survive? Well, there are three things you will do: shoot enemies, find and gather oxygen from ice caps, and defend those ice caps with by placing automated turrets. I guess you can call it a "Survival Dual-Stick Shooter Turret Defense." Trapped in a crater formation on the moon with a limited oxygen supply, it is up to you to tap into ice caps to replenish your oxygen and live as long as possible. The problem is that whenever you place your handy-dandy ice extractor on an ice cap, you alert your presence to the enemy. Yes, THE ENEMY. See, this ice-rich crater formation you're in is full of dormant UnLight crawler mines. (UnLights are the bad guys from the movie.) So as soon as you start generating oxygen, waves of enemies approach the ice cap's position to destroy it. At first, you'll have to handle them on your own. But as the game progresses, the enemies grow more numerous and more relentless. Luckily you gain turrets as you play that you will be able to deploy, pack up, and upgrade as you see fit. However, deploying and upgrading turrets costs oxygen. So there's a little resource management in there as well. It's a little more complex than your average dual-stick shooter, but in a world of shoot-em-ups we think it's a good thing. We want to take the dual-stick to a higher level of play, and we hope you join us! More to come: turret upgrades, perks, and Game Center. ^This is me dying.
We need beta testers! It's time. This Friday we reach beta. The following week will be time to test and tweak. So, who would like to test Shockwave? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Anybody who would like to test Shockwave should send me a PM with your UDID. Next week we will send you an ad-hoc build of the game you can install with iTunes.
You could say Shockwave is related to Bug Heroes, but it has a much different feel. Shockwave is a more arcade-style experience: faster action, no RPG elements, short game times, and a touch of always-near-death tension.