iPhone Robots Love Ice Cream

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by burtonposey, Jul 7, 2011.

  1. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    #1 burtonposey, Jul 7, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2011
    Hey guys,

    I wanted to post on here and introduce myself and my company. My name is Burton Posey and I have a company called Addo Games. We've been working on a game for the past several months called Robots Love Ice Cream and we're currently in the process of raising funds to help supplement the costs of its development.

    You can check out our Kickstarter project page here, Robots Love Ice Cream for the iPad .

    The game puts the player in the role of an ice cream truck driver that travels across the galaxy, saving planets from robotic invaders. To defeat the robots, the player launches various ice cream weapon treats at the robots. As we all know, robots love ice cream, so when they get enough, they explode with joy, :)

    The game is heavily influenced by some of the first video games I ever played (Missile Command, Space Invaders) as well as some of my favorites (U.N. Squadron). The look and feel of the game is a 3d in a 2d world with vinyl toy-like characters. The design of the characters is full of Mega Man and Super Mario 3 inspiration.

    For the duration of the KS project, you can download the title song for free from the project page. It was composed by MisfitChris and Disasterpeace (he's the guy doing the music for Fez, the upcoming Xbox Live game).

    I've repeated enough of what's on the KS page, but if any of you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I definitely want people looking forward to the game to be able to help influence it's development and what the final product will have to enjoy!

    Thanks!

    Here's some concept art for several of our weapons
    [​IMG]

    Update:
    Here's our final poster design we have as a reward.
    [​IMG]
     
  2. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    Posted some new screenshots today.

    I've been posting some more in-depth information about development of the game on TIGSource's DevLogs forum. You can find that stuff here.

    As always, would love comments, feedback, and any questions you guys have about the project. We've got twelve days left on the Kickstarter project and still have a lot of ground to cover. If you like what you see, please consider supporting the effort and sharing the game with your friends. Thanks!

    Robots Love Ice Cream - Kickstarter project

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

     
  3. TheCatsMeow

    TheCatsMeow Well-Known Member

    May 17, 2011
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    This aftwork is looking absolutely brilliant, if the quality of the artwork is an indication of the quality of the gameplay, the game will be incredible.
     
  4. TravisR2H

    TravisR2H Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2011
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    Beauty! Any plans for ICade support?
     
  5. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    I'd like to because I think the iCade is a fantastic idea. Right now the game only plays landscape, which is a view mode that the iCade doesn't support at all. Maybe with an adapter or something it could, but I don't see that happening. I'd need to make another game mode just for that device (which I've honestly thought about since it would help the game stick out and generate a lot of buzz).

    The controls would need to be closer to Missile Command where you move the reticle instead of touch the screen. Somewhere in the mix, because the iCade doesn't have many buttons, one of those buttons would need to be held down in conjunction with the joystick to rotate the planet around.

    I think there's some promise there, but I'd need to think about it. First things first though, we need to hit a home-run with the game on the iPad with touch controls. We're a very small studio, so we already have our plates full with work on that iteration.

    Thanks for your feedback. Keep 'em coming!
     
  6. boo7600

    boo7600 Well-Known Member

    Mar 12, 2011
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    When is this game planned to come out?
     
  7. TravisR2H

    TravisR2H Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2011
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    Thanks for the reply. The Icade has a slot to allow the Ipad to sit horizontally, so it shouldnt be a problem. Cant wait to play.
     
  8. Nullroar

    Nullroar Well-Known Member

    Jan 6, 2010
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    Software Rep, Rhyme Guru, Game Editor
    Munich
    Fantastical and awesome. Those are the most fitting two words. It reminds me of Kosmo Spin and Missile Command and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
     
  9. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    Oh sweetness! I'm going to have to get in line for one then! Thanks for the info, this is great news. I made it through at least two sentences without using an exclamation point, but I'm still excited, :)
     
  10. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    Such a long time!

    Hey guys,

    It's been an incredibly long time since my last post on here, but I wanted everyone to know that we've been making great progress on the game. We're currently in alpha and trying to get to beta before the end of August. You can follow a lot of the more incremental updates we've had over the past year over on the TIGSource forums DevLog I've had going.

    I spent a lot of time in the early part of 2012 working to make money to pay the bills and afford some more creative help as our main creative guy has a fulltime job and can't always afford a ton of time for the game.

    I figured I'd show you guys some of our art and I promise to start posting on here regularly again. I've definitely felt a need to keep our cards pretty close to our chest until we were really close to launch. I wanted to make sure no one came in and scooped us on our idea. Now that we are almost that close, we're definitely in ramp-up phase for trying to drum up public interest and hopefully get some game journalism outlets to start writing about us.

    To catch you guys here on TouchArcade up with some of our other creative postings, here's some of the art we've posted:

    Our truck, with the Rocket Pop weapon attached.
    [​IMG]

    This is a paint-over on the final 3d model for our buildings for the first game sector, the Future Sector.
    [​IMG]

    This guy is called Spinston. He's a capturing class of robot. If you see him flying around, you need to watch your buildings, because he's on his way to one to take a Citizen.
    [​IMG]

    And this jolly fella is called Scrambles. He's a turret class enemy. If he sees you, he'll lay down a 1-2 punch projectile that when hit by it, slows the player down and resets your scoring multiplier.
    [​IMG]

    Like I said, stay tuned in the coming weeks for a lot of new content. We're just on the cusp of showing almost all of it. Thanks for following our progress.

    One more note, if any of you are coming to PAX, let me know. My wife and I will be there with our iPads and trying to get the game in the hands of as many people as we can to get feedback and impressions.

    Take care!
     
  11. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
    0
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    Ice Cream Factory Concept & Design Process

    Wanted to share a quick look at the ice cream factory concept we've created for the tutorial planet in Robots Love Ice Cream (RLIC). This picture gives you a little insight into the iterative process we've tried to have consistently throughout the development of RLIC. I also figured I'd write a little bit about our process for honing in on the design we're all happy with for really any of our assets. We try to keep it as open as possible between the three of us that are working as production resources on the project. My goal as the project lead is to make sure that everyone is getting to express themselves in what they are working on, so balancing that need is also very important to making sure the game is as great as it should be.

    Concept
    [​IMG]
    You can click on the image for a full-sized version.

    The building sits on the surface of a planet covered in delicious ice cream and via the conveyor belt you can see on the left of these concepts, it harvest ice cream scoops from the planet. From there, the ice cream is made into a variety of delicious ice cream treats to be delivered to your loyal customers across the galaxy!

    Process
    Usually our main artist, MVT or our contract artist Stanley will come up with an initial design based on a discussion or main talking point. For this level, we wanted to focused on having a planet that was simple so that the points we are trying to convey in the tutorial aren't overshadowed by the environment. One of the only buildings on the entire planet (that is made of ice cream) is the factory. In a lot of our efforts in this game, we've leaned towards forms and flourishes that evoke a nod to the nostalgic. To that end, we wanted to have some cool sort of throwback signage like an old ice cream shop, but we still needed to maintain the rigidity of a building that would look capable of making ice cream. As you can see from #2, we wanted to add in some ice cream, but we opted to make it more structured ice cream and started using a soft serve cone.

    From there, we decided to drop the larger smoke stacks in favor of a few that were still Stanley played with different color schemes We also talked about adding an awning, but dropped it because it was taking too much away from the identity of the building as factory.

    We played around with sugar cones for the smoke stacks, but it was toeing the line a bit too much of a man-made structure and something that had artificial parts being made for man-made purposes. All in all, it didn't feel right, we we started using a more traditional form for the stacks and focused on working with striping of different angles to determine what would work the best. About this time one of the other guys (wish I could take credit) came up with the great idea of putting the ice cream on a swivel. This rotating form will really help the factory pop out in 3d.

    I hope you guys have enjoyed this little peek into our process for creating this asset. We're still modeling, unwrapping, texturing, etc. the factory in the game, but I'll update this thread with a look at the final realized 3d object when we're there. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback! I should also have Michael Stanley, our contract artist, chiming in a bit on some creative things as well.

    We've got lots of cool new weapons, environments, menus, and more to share over the coming weeks. Stay tuned. You can also follow us at any of the links below.

    @AddoGames
    @burtonposey
    http://www.addogames.com
    http://www.robotsloveicecream.com

    Take care!
     
  12. Snozberry

    Snozberry Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2012
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    The art is stunning! Any estimated release date?
     
  13. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
    0
    0
    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    @Snozberry, thanks for the kind words. I concur that our artists are awesome! I want to get at least one of them on this thread to share things from their perspective in the coming weeks.

    As far as a release date, we don't have a solid date. We're hammering away at it every day. That said we're still getting features in, so we're not to the point where we could even call ourselves beta yet.

    I'll post again a bit later with some more good looking content from our creative guys!
     
  14. burtonposey

    burtonposey Member

    Jul 6, 2011
    12
    0
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    Founder of Addo Games
    Atlanta, GA
    Sorry for the delay on my next post!

    I humbly present, the Galaxy Map!
    [​IMG]

    General Updates - I've written a good deal of information about the Galaxy Map on a post on our blog today, but I wanted to go in a little more depth here about how we want scoring to work in the game. I want to make sure wherever I post about the game, I'm offering that community something special, so this is the only place right now I'm touching on the scoring. Let me know how you guys feel about this. I definitely don't want to copy and paste my articles everywhere I post (unless you guys tell me differently). I try to do everything I do as sincere as possible, :).

    Scoring on the Galaxy Map - The game is part side scrolling shooter, part defender, part missile commander. In other words, it's got scoring in mind as a measure of success and recognition. Each level you play will give you a separate score. We know for sure right now we'll have totals for each sector (group of thematically similar planets) and a total for the overall. We'd do more right off the bat, but we're limited to 25 leaderboards with iOS GameCenter. Plus, we'd like to find a more elegant solution that doesn't require the player to sort through more leaderboards than that! We're still working on the logistics of the scoring rankings per level. Likely as a major update, we'd like to have per-planet rankings that evolve based on the community's play.

    Inspirations for overall scoring mechanic - The scoring mechanics will be a bit similar to the console versions of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (one of my favorite games ever). As you play, you get a ranking(show as a letter grade in Pac-Man, ours will be a medal you can see on the screen) based on how well your score fares against the scores of the community. This really works well because what could be a top-tier ranking one week could get pushed into a second-tier ranking because the rest of the community has risen to the challenge. We feel this is much better than providing a standard from our end that the community could perhaps easily surpass. I think this dynamic scoring measurement, where you are more graded by a standard of excellence set by the community is going to be really fun.

    There's more to the scoring from a gameplay than just this that I can talk about later, but I wanted to explain some of what you see in the concept above.

    We love to hear your thoughts! The implementation of the Galaxy Map is probably about 60% right now. Some things are in and look really great. Others are still missing. Right now I'm working on the Inventory and Store screen, and hopefully I can share some in-game stuff from that in the next 5 days. I think I have another two to three full days on it (it's a beast!).

    Take care,
    Burton
     
  15. Acumen

    Acumen Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2011
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    Kindergarten teacher
    Germany
    the art is really coming together nicely !
    was well worth to be patient on this project :)
    I really really want to see some actual ingame stuff next to see what the game is about. So mystified, still.
     
  16. florendas

    florendas Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2009
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    The art looks really good can't wait to play the game.
     
  17. outqube

    outqube Well-Known Member

    Oct 28, 2012
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    App Developer
    Canada
    very cool design can't wait for to come out!
     
  18. jansein

    jansein New Member

    Oct 30, 2012
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    How about zombie eating ice cream? Sure, "The Walking Dead" is fiction. But zombies, in the strictest sense, are not. Understand how your will and ability to manage your body can be removed!
     

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