News
Momentum
February 4th, 2010
I just wanted to check in. It’s been a while since I posted anything.
So we have shipped our first game, Metal Drift, and it’s been available on Steam for a couple of months now. It feels good to finally finish that sucker. I’ve picked up a mountain of knowledge on the complete development cycle over the last two years. I’ve been making games for well over a decade, but it’s really quite different to be this involved in the process from top to bottom.
Now that the game has been exposed to the unapologetic, honest eyes of the public, I think it’s held up pretty well. Some of the issues we knew about have been clarified, but other areas we thought would be a problem turned out not to be. Given how much we have learned, I think we could really crystallize the vision into something really great on our next pass.
The challenge we currently face is building and maintaining a community. Being game developers, and not community organizers, this has been a challenge. We’re coming to realize how much work it is to get excitement going, and keep it going. We have some amazing community members who love the game as much as we do, and have really stepped up to help us get people interested. But it seems to take an army to raise an army.
I’m really looking forward to getting back to work on additions and changes. I have some exciting ideas about our next level look, and some new level design elements that should push the thrill factor. We’ve wanted to add more jumps, and speed zones to really amp up the energy levels. We’ve also got another weapon in the works, one that has already been implemented in the past, and we’re excited to bring it back. We’ve also talked about adding a new game type and possibly a 3rd person camera view. I’m hoping this stuff will manifest a resurgence in the community and extend the longevity of the project.
Stay tuned for more updates on additions and events. Hope to see you in game soon!
Weston (Electronaut)
Categories: Development Comments: 1
Indie Collaboration Through In-Game Ads
September 14th, 2009
At GDC this year in San Francisco, I met up with a bunch of Indie game developers at the Kongregate building down town. The event was put together by Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler of 2DBoy. It turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know a bunch of top indies and discuss the adventurous non-stop glamor that is indie game development.
Around this same time, Brian and I were trying to figure out how to flesh out the Metal Drift world with a little more life. We wanted to push the sports angle by adding arena ads, but didn’t want to invest a ton of time making up and designing logos for fictitious companies. So it seemed like a natural fit to advertise for our fellow indies instead.
So at the Kongregate meet up I made the offer; free advertising to anyone who wanted it. All we needed in return was the use of a logo. The idea got plenty of interest from the room…so we were off and rolling and ended up with some great companies. The final line up includes:
HotHead - Makers of the ever popular Penny Arcade Adventures.
Klei Entertainment - Makers of the hot titles Shank, Sugar Rush and Eets.
Games Faction - Makers of the beautiful Project Aftermath.
Garage Games - Our illustrious benefactors.
Nimblebit - iPhone domination machine and creators of the super polished Zero Gear.
Fully Illustrated - Our web designers, and just incredible people all around. There are none better.
Torpex Games - Creators of the award winning Schizoid.
Firehose Games - Working on top secret games involving Super Heroes and Love (?)
Ronimo - Maker of the fantastic Swords and Soldiers for the Wii.
It was our job to animate the logos once we got them. So I did some research to hunt down the best looking animated ads I could find. Not surprisingly Japan had the best stuff. I broke down the dominant styles and came up with some basic animations.
After a bunch of trial and error, I managed to throw together animated ads for each contributor. It was a little more work than I had anticipated, but I think it was worth it. Each ad ended up being between 30 to 60 frames, some with overlapping animations. Take a look at the final product:
I think they turned out pretty well. Thanks in large part to the great initial logos and all the folks who participated. We look forward to collaborating with the indie community again soon.
Find more regular updates from me on Twitter.
Weston
Categories: Development, GDC, General Comments: 7
The voices have been silenced…Recording finished.
June 23rd, 2009
A couple of months ago, we embarked on a mission to add some personality and energy to the game, via voice. We had taken the animation and FX as far as we could, and knew that the crucial missing ingredient was some solid voice work. It was clear that voice was going to bring a lot to the in-game world, but I had been putting it off for months. Mostly because I just didn’t know where to start, as I’d never worked with a voice actor before. We did know that we wanted two voices; a booming stadium voice to cover general team related calls, and an in-cockpit computer to keep you informed of tank operation and relative game info.
Eventually I got around to calling some talent agencies in Portland. We listened to samples of local voice actors, and generally hammered out what sort of voices we wanted. We heard a bunch of clips, but it was hard to tell what we were going to get in the end.
Around this same time, Brian had become an overnight fan of the Portland Trail Blazers. I’d lived in Portland already for a year and a half, and hadn’t been to a Blazer game yet. He suggested that we go to one, to get a sense of what a real arena announcer sounds like. When we finally went, it was thrilling. The Blazer’s stadium was electrified with the constant chatter and cheers of the audience and the commanding voice of their stadium announcer, Mark Mason.
After a couple of games, we knew exactly what sort of mood and emotion we wanted from our voice actor, but were still not sure where to find him. So eventually we figured, why not get the genuine article.
It was only hours after we had the idea to contact Mark that he wrote us back and we worked out all the details. We were scheduled for 4 hours of recording just like that. Now all we needed was a script long enough to fill 4 hours of recording time, no problem!
The second half of our voice talent team came to us from a different avenue completely. It was last fall and I was having beers with friends Dirk, and Sarah. Their friends Erin and Keith joined us and we got to talking about Metal Drift, and what was left to do. I’ve been fielding questions about the progress of the game for a long time now. Usually all I can say is, “we have a lot left to do”. But this time I launched into our impending search for an announcer, and a cockpit computer voice. At this, Erin volunteered for the computer voice on the spot. Only five short months later we were in the studio with her, making a final recording.
I had assumed that the script writing for this whole endeavor would only take a few days. Consequently, I’d put it off until days before the recording session. When I finally sat down to crank it out, I quickly realized that writing enough copy to satisfy our needs was going to be a mountain of work.
The first step was to identify all the triggers that we could hook voice to. Once we had that frame work, I began fleshing it out. Not being a sports fan, I didn’t have a whole lot of on-hand reference to work from in constructing the monologue for our announcer. You guys will have to be the judge, but I think it turned out pretty well. The lines are super cheesy, but I think it fits the mold. For Mark’s part, he knocked it out of the park. There are a couple of lines I’m especially proud of: (BTW, we have team names now; Athalon and Triax).
Erin’s lines for the computer voice were a little easier to put together. There were also a lot fewer of them. We just needed her to comment on the player’s actions minimally and give some alert feedback on the condition of the tank. I started with the basic “Shields Down” stuff and added some goofy variations to keep things interesting. I kept coming back to the multi-click sounds from War Craft that added so much to that game.
The recording session went great. Erin had never done a recording session like this before, but she nailed it completely. After some significant digital processing to make her sound like a computer, it came out pretty great I think:
The recording for Mark was done entirely at the recording studio of our sound engineer David Hughes. David was an incredible find as well. He’s worked on block buster movies for years, including Fight Club, X-Men, Minority Report etc. He’s incredibly skilled and works a few miles from us in Portland. He’s responsible for nearly all the sound FX in Metal Drift, and was a fantastic help on the voice work. He cut up and processed all the voice clips, giving them echoing reverb and digital computer warble. I snapped a shot of his space while he was hard at work:
The recording for Erin occurred primary at the studio of Brian Applegate (of The Punk Group). He graciously offered his space and equipment for free. The whole process was silky smooth, and a whole lot of fun.
There were a whole lot of people who helped pull this whole thing together. It was great to have so much help. I’d like to say thanks to Dirk and Sarah for being our impromptu talent agents. Thanks of course to Erin and Mark for adding their voices to our game and bringing some much needed life and excitement to the Metal Drift world. A big thank you to David and Brian A. for recording and processing all the clips. And thanks of course to Brian R. for all the days of work ahead, hooking all this stuff up to the engine! I hope you all enjoy the final product when you hear it in game!
-W
Categories: Development Comments: 0