Yes, Stair Dismount is nearing completion. It's often challenging to work as a team of feature-creeping perfectionists, but hopefully it's worth it when the game finally comes out. What started out as a small game in the smallest sense of the word has become a bigger project as time went by. Our original scope was nothing but a polished remake of the PC version of Stair Dismount from years back. But as we kept going it was obvious we wanted to make it bigger and better. - It used to be a single set of stairs, now there are multiple scenarios. - We figured it'd be fun to let people use a photo as a face, but even that escalated (more on that later) - Sound effects were all redone by abusing poor helpless vegetables - The user interface has gone through a number of iterations to be finally something we're satisfied with Okay, so it's not a gigantic project, but it's still something that's managed to keep our team busy for months. (And we're still busy with the final stretch!) Will it be liked or ignored? We have no idea. We know it's probably the most polished ragdoll game, and we're quite proud of the quality of our simulation (Stairflight Simulator! Drum roll!). It'll be interesting to go up against the competition. Here's where we are now, hope you enjoy:
Hey frand Two Questions I have been dying to find out - #1 - Will Stair Dismount for the iPod make it out this year? #2 - What the heck ever happened to Cinnamon Beats?
1) We're on the final stretch right now, and hoping to submit soon-ish (developer speak for an undetermined period of time which the managers assume to be shorter than the engineers do). As soon as we've got our submission done, it's really in Apple's hands to see if we make it out in 2009 or 2010 - the number of submissions for the holidays must be huge. 2) Cinnamon Beats would not be a good game, but it can be a really fun toy for making music. But in order to get there, it needs a lot of UI and functionality work, something we will (probably) return to after we see what happens with Stair Dismount and the new Zen Bound.
Okay, thanks I will really be looking forward to the new Stair Dismount and Zen Bound (I assume you are referring to the 3Gs version of Zen Bound - only thing new is graphics?)
Because we love making announcements, we announce the sequel to the prequel! (Pre-purchase of prequel not required.) LEDGE DISMOUNT! The awesome press release. And a tip of the hat to Mobigame and Nalin Sharma.
Alrighty. Submission done and a little breather taken. Now it's a matter of hoping for the best while waiting for the approval process. The official trailer will be making its way to a youtube near you in the coming days. Such an empty feeling when there's nothing left to deny
lol!! Awesome video! The sound effects are really from abusing vegetables? lol (read that here: http://toucharcade.com/2009/11/16/a-look-at-secret-exits-stair-dismount-yes-its-still-coming/)
besides veggies i also used cardboard, pencils, sofa pillows, secret ingredient x and myself. my chest and arms hurt for days after recording the sounds.
You should have heard the raw unedited cut of authoring the sounds... polyfonken first saying "Hit to head", followed by bunch of *thump* *smack* *thud* sounds.. then, a long deeep sigh and voice just continuing with "hit to upper body", and more *smack* *clump* sounds...
Awesome... I can't wait. I'm deleting other games and music now to make room. S.D. Has had a prominent shortcut on my P.C. Desktop for a long while. Can't wait to pay real cash money to the deserving devs. I'll tell you what I'd like to see though...a ragdoll with reflexes. None of my friends would take an involuntary plunge down the stairs without at least covering their heads. Maybe too much to ask...I'm buying this anyway...but what about a consious ragdoll...hands out, flailing, at least until knocked unconsious. So much more satisfying. I.M.O. Cheers!
You are absolutely correct. Even professional dismounters soften the impacts by reaching with their arms... And truth be told, there are some technical solutions out there already to give smarter behaviors to ragdolls. The expensive way is to use Euphoria from Naturalmotion (look it up, the demoreel is really nice), but for our noodle budget it's not really an option Sumotori Dreams is also an excellent example of ragdolls with behaviors. In any case, improved behaviors, improved social features, improved scenarios... all this is possible and something we're looking forward to implementing, but it simply needs support from the gaming community in shape of both feedback and (more importantly) purchases. With the recent stories on iPhone piracy, we'd be lying if we said the months ahead don't look worrisome.
Like I said, I'm ready to shell out my hard earned cash right now. You get wharvyou pay for, eh? Keep up the good work!
toot toot! http://toucharcade.com/2009/11/20/upcoming-game-videos-driver-skater-nation-stair-dismount/
See, our management (me) had a miscommunication with the marketing department (me) who has never listened to those who do the real work (the other guys). This in turn lead to a conflict in the financial department (me) which escalated into a strategic re-appraisal of the launch strategy of our upcoming hit product. After a careful defenestration of the chairman of the board (me) and a rapid ascension to power by the working class (those other guys again) two things became clear and are hereby announced: 1) Stair Dismount is coming out this week. (Yes, Thanksgiving week!) 2) We're already continuing our work on the game. This has been a public announcement by Secret Exit, the company where things happen and games get made.