It has been some time since our last post and we have been busy boys. We journeyed to San Francisco to attend the Game Developers Conference, talk at the Flash Gaming Summit and meet with lots of nice people in the games industry. Minions won an award and has been updated what seems like a hundred times. Desktop Tower Defense Pro is now in public beta to be release in the next week. And we have hired a new Flash developer to help us work on our games. yay. We have also been working hard on five brand spanking new games…
First up, a sequel to Minions. Kinda. Minions on Ice started life as a ‘what-if’. What if the tanks in Minions could slide around? Childhood physics 101 - if something can be made to slide it immediately becomes more fun. And it was. By making the tanks slide around out went the controlled, deliberate nature of Minions and in came a sort of ‘omg omg how do I steer this thing shoot fire do something flee flee muhaha I survived!’ mechanic. From that point onwards the game created itself as we replaced the earth and grass artwork for an ice based environment and added some different game modes.
The game is currently in private beta on the CC. The final version will have three modes of play; a death-match / freeze tag mode. A Sumo mode where you have to knock other players off the map (screenshot left). And finally a racing mode! We will also be adding a ranking system and you will unlock Minions units as you level up.
Next up is Dave’s opus magnum, Desktop Creatures. Which is quite simply the largest game we have ever undertaken to make. A combination of DTD, Spore and Travian with persistant worlds that contain hundreds of players and last for weeks at a time. Players control, build and defend their own bases while researching and customizing their own creatures to attack and loot other players.
Various resources accrue over time allowing the player to drop in and out of the game over many days. Attacking is in real-time with hundreds of creeps at your command to help you break in and loot other player’s bases. Will either be the most awesome flash game ever or Dave is going to want 2 months of his life back. Still in development but is due for early beta in the next 4 weeks.
We thought we’d break in the new developer (his name is Ian btw) with a pretty hefty project in it’s own right, The Pirate Game. I know, I know, an original title. But we like titles with ‘the’ and ‘game’ in them as it clears up any confusion. This game has spent over a year in gestation. Quietly going about it’s business, lazing around, not really contributing. But no more, Ian is dragging it kicking and screaming into the light. And it is putting up a fight. This is the first game to rely heavily on AI to create believable enemies and to provide a meaningful challenge for the player. This is an area we have avoided until now and the learning curve is pretty steep. Luckily we attended a few AI workshops while at the GDC to give us some ideas. Ian wasn’t there so we have been throwing him helpful advice like ‘try adding a nav mesh to help route around islands’ or ‘a flocking routine in conjunction with a hierarchical, goal driven, waypoint system may work’. Hey it almost sounds like we know what we are doing.
The next two games we have in the works have been commissioned from two talented outside developers. Splitter 2 is a physics based puzzle game and Push is a retro platformer. Both feature user created content with the ability for players to create their own levels and play others. Both these games will be featured in another blog post, so stay tuned =)
And if you have not already, you should check out the CC Wiki which covers all our games, the site and key members, anyone over level 9 can contribute.
GL&HF
Tags: Desktop Creatures, DTC, Minions on Ice, MOI, Push, Splitter 2, The Pirate Game, TPG, Wiki
April 16th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
MoI images added to the wiki, thanks for the update!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
:O Screenshots!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Oh wow! Desktop Creatures sounds like a ton of fun! Very cool idea, being able to leave and come back to your creature army after a couple days! And Minions on Ice doesn’t sound too bad either. I don’t know how well the “Have-To-Unlock-Minions” thing will go over with the CC, but I think it’s a nice change. I love the site and hope to continue playing for awhile! Oh, and congrats on the Minions award!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
“Luckily we attended a few AI workshops while at the GDC to give us some ideas. Ian wasn’t there so we have been throwing him helpful advice like ‘try adding a nav mesh to help route around islands’ or ‘a flocking routine in conjunction with a hierarchical, goal driven, waypoint system may work’. Hey it almost sounds like we know what we are doing.”
Let me try decoding that. You’re trying to tell him how to get the AIs to actually go where they’re supposed to go, by putting in an invisible layer with special navigational markers (:D) on it. Or by having them stay near each other, “in conjunction with” having them go through “waypoints”, to make them go where they’re supposed to go.
Are you sure you know what you’re talking about? Where do the smarts come from, anyway?
–OJ
April 16th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Sweet. can’t wait
April 16th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
oooo…physics is fun. Keep up the good work Grritters!
April 16th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Just looking at the tiny screenshot of The Pirate Game makes me want to play it. But maybe I’m easily swayed by bright colours.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
lol @ ‘opus magnum’
April 16th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Wow, I didn’t know you guys were still here… I am looking forward to The Pirate Game and DC!
April 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Id love to play em all
April 16th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Sounds awesome!
April 16th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
your website rock but jiggmin ask every one to vote 4 him he sented every one a email to vote 4 him he worked hard because theres like a billion ppl on his website so he should have won not you!!!!
April 16th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Three words:
I
CANT
WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 16th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I lost the game
But seriously, these look awesome!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:02 am
AWESOME!
Looking forward to it!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:59 am
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I LOVE CC!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:55 am
YAY
April 17th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
go minions on ice!!!
April 17th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
wow that is sooooo coool!! man i cant what 4 these games 2 come out it looks awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
“Ian is dragging it kicking and screaming” ?
Seriously?
April 18th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Like yes man, finally.
April 21st, 2009 at 1:41 pm
whens it gunna b released! =D
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 am
Can anyone help me?
When i go casualcollective , they will appear a blank page with log in and register and when i type my user and password , nothing happen!!
HELP ME!
April 26th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I got a idea,
i dont speak english i still hope you understand me.
Well, in minions i think gonna be better if we can shot with clicks
and move with the arrows, and change the weapons or power with the rolling
in the mouse, thanks for your attention.
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 am
cool lol
May 9th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
The Pirate Game looks pretty cool so far. I am thinking a game like Tradewinds ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradewinds_(game) ) would be cool. A game where not only are you hunting pirates/you are a pirate, but you have to deal with the trading/merchant aspect as well.
May 24th, 2009 at 6:58 am
bump, nice updates.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
cool!
May 27th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
OmG MOI Can’t Wait!!! (yes I know this is a late post)
June 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Can’t Wait, And Yes I’m A Little Slow Lol =)
July 1st, 2009 at 4:25 am
Great work on your projects! DTD is fantastic… is there an iPhone / iPod touch version in the works? That would be a must have for me!
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
DTC looks better than DTA.both are goof though.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
good*** sorry tiny keys on this laptop
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 am
ace splitter two. ive been on number one on kongregeat and i cant w8 for number two to come on cc
July 6th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
where is the 1.9 release? :’(
July 16th, 2009 at 9:00 am
AWExOME!
Me can’t wait for all teh gamez to come out ;o
July 21st, 2009 at 5:00 pm
(= OmG, can;t wait for DTC, Splitter 2 and The Pirate Game! =)
July 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Wait…I didnt hear about desktop creatures!
August 1st, 2009 at 11:42 am
The games are awesome!