zircon

But as I said, making games and demos for PC is not the same as developing for consoles, especially downloadable titles which have very strict tech limitations. Show me a fan-made engine made with WiiWare dev tools and then I will be impressed. As I said, you can 'fake' something for PC that looks good and plays smoothly because you don't have to worry about any limitations. The problem is being able to take that functionality and put it on a console.

Except no, because a bunch of people doing a PC demo with Unity3D is different than making a full game that meets XBLA/PSN/WiiWare specs, as I said before. I'm pretty sure many hobbyists could make a Flash mockup of Sonic, that wouldn't mean it's a scalable, optimized engine that will function on a console.

What? That makes no sense. The complaint that some people have with Sonic 4 is that they have too much control over the game physics, and that makes it somehow unrealistic or 'weird'. My point was that it was already unrealistic in the original Sonic games, so the complaint that it doesn't obey the normal laws is bogus because the entire topic entirely subjective. If you have a problem with too much control, then why don't you have a problem with unnatural changes in direction and momentum in jump physics for example?

Well... yes, they can. 100% realistic physics are actually not really fun. How would you like having 0 control over your jump, for example? Have you ever played games like Castlevania I-III or Faxanadu? Obviously a real person can't jump forward, and then in mid-jump, start moving backwards, but games like Sonic and Mario let you do this. We enjoy it, even though it absolutely disobeys the laws of physics and momentum completely. But THAT violation is OK, whereas other violations aren't? That's why I'm saying it boils down to preference.

Isn't it fair to say though that whether you want the physics of Sonic 4 or the physics of Sonic 1-3 a matter of preference? I never played the original trliogy much (though I have played them and own S3&K) so I'm not enamored with any particular mechanic. When I watch the original Sonic footage in that review, to me everything looks overly slippery and loose. Yeah, Sonic 4 is overly tight sometimes (playing it, the only thing that bothered me was the loss of momentum in midair) but I don't think one could objectively say the insane degree of slipperiness in the originals was necessarily the gold standard.

I'm just speaking generally. It's really easy to point to a YouTube video of a PC demo of a game done in a completely different engine on a completely different platform than Sonic 4, and say "Look at the differences!" Now, if they did this with WiiWare dev tools AND deployed successfully, people might have a point. Edit: To expand on what I'm saying, it is very very very easy to 'fake' things when you have basically unlimited processor power, memory and your choice of tools. To give you an example, my company (www.spacewhalestudios.com) produced a game in 2 days (with breaks/sleep) using Flash for a competition. The game had several levels and mechanics, a UI, menu system, etc. I would estimate that the amount of time it took to redo that same game using XNA (a 360 dev kit) was more like several months - and we were still missing functionality that the Flash prototype had. Even today, almost a YEAR later, we're struggling to optimize our code and assets so it doesn't take a 360 twenty minutes to load our game. Does that mean we're bad programmers? Obviously not - we made a highly functional, fun prototype in Flash in a very short period of time. But the toolset and platform has an enormous impact on how you work, and making a game that is truly scalable and optimized is very big challenge indeed.

Please read the following and think it over carefully. Making a game demo for a computer != developing a game that fits within XBLA/WiiWare/PSN standards, plays at a normal speed, meets memory requirements, etc. It's really ignorant to suggest that. As a game developer myself, I've seen firsthand that even a VERY SIMPLE game with no physics engine or 3D graphics can run flawlessly on PC and yet fail the tech requirements to run properly on a console.

Alright! So we've just submitted to the IGF. Our game is basically 97% done. We're just working on some final art polish and a couple of additional story sequences to flesh out the narrative. However, all the game's dialog and levels are done and we're definitely excited with where we're at right now. Edit: And our first news piece http://geekadelphia.com/2010/10/19/phillys-space-whale-studios-discusses-upcoming-game-return-all-robots/

Looking forward to this!

For what it's worth, I downloaded the Sonic 4 demo and though that while the 'feel' was not the same as S3&K (the only other Sonic game I own), it was pretty fun.

Of the Civ series, I've only played Civ1 & 2 (loved them) and Civ: Revolutions for DS (loved that too.) Seems like some mixed opinions here on Civ5 though. IMO a big problem with these 4X (4E? whatever) games are that you often can win by focusing on science/technology/research. Is that any different in Civ 5?

I dunno, seemed like you got a good amount of positives in the comments! There might have been a few devil's advocates, but overall, I've seen WAY more hostile comments before. You guys are too awesome for that

Again thank you all for the great response. As soon as our final build is ready we will definitely get in touch with some of you for that. But I am also interested in promoting the game via our trailers and other materials. For example, Super Meat Boy isn't out but there has been tons of promo for it, including multiple trailers. We know that the failure or success of an indie game can depend on more than just reviews, but pre-release buzz. That's why we're also looking for people to check out that stuff now and see what they think (it's all in the link I posted above.) As for getting in touch with Kotaku... we'd love to, but it's much easier said than done

Saying I'm just nostalgic for DotA doesn't make sense, because I've never played DotA. I came into HoN (my first MOBA game) with a completely fresh perspective. I had no idea what I was doing. Also, the argument that denial was an unavoidable artifact of the WC3 engine IS true, but that doesn't mean that it's bad. Mouse control of your hero was also unavoidable, but even though we have more options now (WASD for example) that doesn't mean those other options are better. WC3 only had 3 stats, but that doesn't mean we need more or less than 3. What people don't like about creep denial is that it's a timing game - a pointless, twitch-based mechanic interfering with an otherwise interesting tactical decision. The ability to attack your own forces thus depleting the opponent of XP/gold and drawing in enemy forces is great for strategy. Sometimes you want to do it, other times you want to push the lane forward. Creep denial isn't something that you should always do 100% of the time, because if you did, you'd sacrifice your own XP and your lane might be adversely affected (either due to creep positioning, or your lack of focus on harassing/ganking enemy heroes.) So, what needs to be changed is how you EXECUTE the decision... in other words, it shouldn't be a needless twitch game-within-a-game where you have to estimate your attack power compared to a creep's remaining life and your own attack animation time. The entire decision or tactic shouldn't be removed just because it wasn't done that well in DotA/HoN.

Creep denial isn't a stupid mechanic. The strategy of laning falls into several decisions that you must make constantly; do you try to harass enemy heroes? Go for a kill? Try to get more xp/gold for yourself? Or deny the enemy xp/gold? It's fascinating, tactically. What sucks is the fact that denials and last-hitting is a rhythm game. In the past I've advocated something where instead of XP/gold going to the last hit, that you have to do, say, 25% of a creep's lifebar in damage (or more) to get that credit.

Awesome! To make life easier, I've uploaded all our materials to the following directory: http://relm.spacewhalestudios.com/press/ Start by reading the Press Packet PDF which has 5 pages of information about the game, it's story, mechanics, and the studio. It also has links to all of our video content as well as essentials like price, release date, etc. There are game screenshots, logos and sprites in the /press/ directory as well. This way, we're all on the same page, and you can contact me after picking up all of that stuff if you want further information, an interview, etc.

Space Whale Studios, a game development company I co-founded last year, is close to releasing its first game, Return All Robots!. We've spent almost a year on this XBIG/PC game, and we're doing our very best to get the word out about it so it doesn't get lost in the sea of fart games and rumble massage titles. We put our blood, sweat and tears into making a genuinely fun and challenging game with humor and lots of replay value. I wrote most of the music, served as lead designer and made about half the SFX, but it's the artists and our lead programmer, Aaron, who really put a herculean effort into making this game what it is. So, if you write for a gaming website, have a gaming blog or are in any other way connected to the gaming/indie community, let me know. I'd like to send you some links, screenshots, videos and further information about the game so you can check it out and see if you think it's worth writing about. Plus, if you're interested in actually doing a review of the game, we'll have a 'review build' ready quite soon. The majority of XBIG titles are space shooters, sidescrollers, standard platformers or just silly throwaway 'apps'. I really do think our game goes a step beyond. I know y'all are out there, so drop me a line and help an underdog Philly development team!

Gameplay Trailer!

I guess the issue with this is that achievements are involved, and achievements are basically game components with an online element. The point of them is to show to the world that you've, well, achieved things in game. If anyone can simply cheat to get achievement, then what little meaning they may have had is completely gone.

For various plucked/percussive instruments, check this out - $50 for a big bundle! http://wavelore.com/ You can also check out the ethnic collections that bustatunez and I have recorded with Impact Soundworks: http://www.impactsoundworks.com/

Most if not all of the Space Whale Studios crew will be going and we'll probably have a dealer table showcasing our game Return All Robots!

Nope, don't I have it - and if you're not sure just resend

For anyone who has NOT sent me WAVs, please email them to me! We need them for the torrent release of the album

9.5 and "Editor's Choice" is "not bad, I guess"?

Obviously it's never a waste of time to help ReMixers if you put it that way, but we can't even give timely feedback on the mixes we DO panel. That's why mixes get direct rejected... because we don't have time. A DR is perhaps more insulting than getting a N.O. vote because at least with the latter they're getting at least some more specific feedback. Because this particular mix was so far below the bar, I felt that the two votes it already had were more than enough. After listening to probably 500+ subs I feel pretty good about my ability to know when something should have been in that DR pile. Anyway, since this is more an internal point of contention I'm happy to keep discussing it via IRC