So I put 'A Virus Named TOM' up for pre-order (beta version) and I got an email from a customer that they were having trouble getting the game to run on their computer. After explaining the problem, they ended with:
"If there no solution exept by a new computer, forget and keep the money for creation."
Now I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is (basically we were planning on making the build more friendly to older machines but didn't get around to it), but how awesome is it that they still wanted to help us fund the game, even if we couldn't get it working for them.
This is why I make indie games. For the people out there like Fabrice. There's an awesome community out there that supports us, and I want to make kick ass games that they love to play. Thanks for making my day Fabrice, we'll get you up and infecting soon!
While trying to replicate a bug, David Rosen (pink) snuck around and got an "Infection Domination" on myself, Alex Austin (blue), and Ken Fox (orange). If you watch, you'll see that he's also persistent. I didn't have the audio recording, so I went ahead and added an appropriate soundtrack.
So I said if I got enough replies I'd post the new intro animation to A Virus Named TOM with my voice in there as scratch. People really enjoy me acting like a fool apparently. Lemme know if you think I was born to play a crazy scientist (poll below!). And hopefully you'll like all of Trav's amazing artwork and Ryan's kick-ass animation!
What do you think of my voice?
Friday, November 18, 2011
So the indies at IGN Inide Open House have decided to do a podcast. Justin named it IHAP, or Indie Hot Ass Podcast, and I'm not making a new banner so that's the name! We went into a booth and talked about: - Introduced ourselves - Our Top 5 games (1:30) - Piracy
(29:00) - Cloud Save Games: Diablo 3
(40:00) - Our indie games summarized (50:20)
It's that time again, almost halfway into the month before I update! All areas of the game are picking up speed now as we sprint toward Beta. This update I have to give props to Dev and Audio, who have really started to up the production now that we need them most. But I have to start out with Ryan's first interstitial animation for the game, because it kicks ass.
ANIM:
There's no audio yet, but thanks to some awesome art by Trav and some equally awesome animation by Ryan, we get to see what happens when you take a teleporter that's been infected.
DEV
Jeremy and Eugene have really pulled their weight this moth by getting all the menus from last months update in the game and a bunch more.
Video 1: Showing off the first pass of panning through the billboards, the initial transition into a schematic, and then a faster transition into the schematic (we know you all have things to do other than wait for transitions!). Then we show off a new "barrier" for cooperative play that keeps TOMs segregated (yes that hot pink line is temp art), as well as an animated background and a quick view of some "role" awards that we give out at the end. Credit to Brian for those awesome medals!
Video 2: Turn off the lights, get your glow sticks, and turn on your favorite rave music because Eugene felt the "unmovable" tiles were too subtle in indicating their unmovable-ness!
AUDIO
Ian and lance have been cranking trying to find the sounds and music that will make the game. Here's one of each.
Audio 1: A cool track Ian put together that is now stuck in my head. Catchy and with a nice side of "you're in a circuit"
Audio 2: A great sound effect from Lance for when the drones are respawning and you have 5 seconds to deal with that fact before they're on top of you...
ART
Why the hell did I make Trav draw a bull and a chicken? The people spoke, and so the "hydrator" is in the game. You'll have to scratch your head for now if you didn't vote. We also have a new design for the schematic screens with a mini-leaderboard in there thanks to Holly and Von.
PRESS
With our heads down, grinding toward alpha there's been less time for press, but there are some good interviews that we've done on the press page so check it out!
REST
As
always, Mikes been trying to heard us like the ferrets that we are, and
I've been working with various publishers to figure out what the ideal
launch platforms/marketplaces/dates are for us.
We're inching closer to Beta, so hopefully this time next month we'll be there (minus networking and a bunch of polish). Thanks so much for all
the hard work everyone, it's really showing as this game starts to look like a finished product!
So it hasn't been "formally" announced yet but we've been accepted in to IGN's Indie Open House (round 2)! This means we get free office space in the city at the IGN offices (now our guest room/nursery/office can just be a guest room/nursery), space at their booth to show off "A Virus Named TOM" at GDC, and best of all I get to hang out all day with other talented indies and make them give me feedback!
