Our own little Jam - PreLDjam Resluts

As many of you know, Ludum Dare is currently rockin the indiecommunity. Unfortunately I was not able to take part in it this year, because I had far too much going on.

But because I like making little games in a short time, I decided to have my own little jam before LD started. So basicaly a friend of mine came over and we jamed for about four hours.

We actually got something finished in that time and live streamed the process all over the world.

You may see the recording here:


Watch live video from LiveGamingabende mit Obi und Wing on TwitchTV

Since we had quite a lot of fun jaming around live on the internet we will have another short livejame in the next few days(of course after LD has finished). Since this was a PreLDjam the next one will be our AfterLDjam.

That next one will look a little fancier than this(it was our first...).

I will let you all know the exact date and time as soon as I know it.

No for the games:

Blocky Knights

Blocky Knights was my little microgame. You control a Knight and have to battle another Knight. In order to defeat your opponent, you need to behead him. To do this you need to be a little skilled in the use of your Sword and your Shield.
Don't loose your shield...or your head

DOWNLOAD:
The Game:
http://obivanhelgen.webs.com/Games/Blocky%20Knights.rar

You will need this to play the game:

XNA Redistributable 4.0
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20914
.NET Framework
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa569263

Zelda Mini Test

This one was made by the other jamer and friend of mine who's nickname is Wingman233.

Unfortunately it is not completely finished. He was aiming to have a little "onescreen" Zelda with the objective of destroying some onscreen enemies. 

It may be incomplete but it is nontheless very interesting since he didn't used a premade engine or framework like I did. He just coded right away and if you play it, you will agree that it feels really solid. 

He did all of this in about four hours and I personally think that he has done good.

DOWNLOAD:

http://obivanhelgen.webs.com/Games/Zelda%20Mini.rar

As I said, I will tell you the precise day and time, we will have our next little jam as soon as I know them.

I can tell as of now, that the jam will be in the next few days(Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

I would really enjoy chating with you guys during the livestream.

Till then, enjoy LD!

UPDATE:
So, as it seems we won't have another jam this week. That is sad, I really wanted to have one but unfortunately both of us have very little time at the moment and we are not able to find a day where both of us have the time to jam. We will have this jam but I can't tell if it will be next week or the week after that. I will let you know.
If you want to have the newsest updates about SIACTRO and our Games just follow us on Twitter:
 https://twitter.com/#!/SIACTRO

Announcement - A Forest Life

Now is the time to show you what I was working on the last few weeks.

A game I called, A Forest Life.

As I mentioned earlier, this game evolved out of a little mini game idea I suddenly had some time ago.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here you go:

Yep, nothing too breathtaking, right? What you see is what you get, a retro looking Action RPG in a forest.
That alone, of course would be a bit boring so there is more to it, but let me explain step by step.

In A Forest Life, you play as a whit haired guy who is living in a randomly generated forest not much bigger than your average Harvest Moon farm(we are talking SNES/GB size here). You can do all the stuff you would except from an ARPG. You are able to fight enemies(as of now there are four different types), level up your character, get newer and stronger weapons(which you throw at your enemies), solve some quests for a bunch of NPCs and get better armor.

Now for the differences to your typical ARPG:
For starters,the game has a day/night cycle that affects your character. If it is time, your hero gets hungry and you need to find him some food or otherwise he will bite the dust.
You are able to get yourself some foot by solving a quest for a NPC or become a selfmade man and get yourself a fishing pole.

If you succesfully fished yourself something you need to find a fireplace(there are a few in the forest from the beginning) to fry it in order to make it eatable.

As soon as the night falls, it is getting really cold in the forest. To avoid getting yourself hurt through the coldness you should take cover near a fireplace and wait till dawn.

 
Or you could be an adventuresome rebel and wander through the night for some hidden treasures. But beware, for what lurks in the darkness!

It happens from time to time that you will encounter some rain. If this happens all the fireplaces in the forest are getting destroyed and there is no way to fry your fish or be warm in the night anymore.

If this happens you need to make your own fireplace as soon as the rain stops. To do this you must first find yourself some firespells. With those you may throw a fireball at a tree in order to make a new fireplace.

If you want to be a little more foresighted you can get yourself some seeds and plant them wherever you want. As soon as they bloom and carry some fruits, you can easily eat those in order to feed your hunger and regain energy. However it takes some time for them to grow, but at least they won't be destroyed by rain.

Please, keep in mind that all of this is still in an alphastate and some of it may change in the future. At the moment I don't have any budget for this game what so ever, unfortunately. So I use royality free music and soundeffects. The game is planned to be released only on PC at the moment.

I am trying to find a way to fund the game but as of yet, I have not found any.
I may try a crowdfunding site like 8-Bit funding in the near future or something like that., but I am not sure if there is someone out there who would be interested in a game like this.

So if you find something about this game concept interesting or would like to see more of it, please let me know, and please tell whomever you want to about it.

As of now all I have to say is, Thank you for your interest in my games.

Time for something new...

After a long time, I am writing again! Yeais!
Ok so about two weeks ago, Retro Arcade Adventure was released on XBLIG. It is not the best selling game on the service but I never expected it to be. It is doing fine for what it is, our first game.
While I will keep my promise and release it for PC later this year(yep, quite a few really want me to do it, thanks guys : D) , I am working on something different at the moment.
As I mentioned on Twitter I was working on a little "just for fun" game that should have been completed in one night. I did not manage to fully finish it because I suddenly had quite a lot ideas.
Now, this little game is evolving into...well something. I am not sure if it will be our next "big" game or if it will end up as a prototype that was never looked at again. Rather then just keeping it a secret forever because it is unfinished, I decided to show it to world(the interwebz!) and let them decide if it is worth it or not.
All I can say is that I have a lot fun making it at the moment and even if the internet won´t like it at all, it was still really good fun.
Till then, go play some Retro Arcade Adventure on XBLIG.
I need to train my speaking skills a little, I guess.

Retro Arcade Adventure is OUT NOW!

Yep, It is out. Finally, our first game is released on XBLIG. Go here to download the demo or buy the full version:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Retro-Arcade-Adventure/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550ac0

I hope you enjoy it.

Retro Arcade Adventure - Launch Trailer[XBLIG] and Release Date

Yes, Retro Arcade Adventure was Approved.
I can tell you that I am very excited right now as thinks finally start to kick off.
The Release of the game on XBLIG will be next week Thursday(03.15.2012) and to celebrate this I made a little Launch Trailer for you guys and gals.

Peer review!

The moment is here! Finally after such a long time I can say: The Game is done.
Or at least that is what I think it is. The last few days were a real pain because I encountered some problems with the loading of the Content and had to dig deep inside my messy code to find a solution.
I have to admit the solution is not the prettiest one(loading screens...) but it is working and gets the job done.
Hopefully I did not missed anything like a bug or a really big error or something.
At the moment I am on my knees, hoping that there is no Code 4 or anything like that left inside my messy code labyrinth.
All I can say is that I am feeling exhausted but glad and happy. Let us hope the game will pass peer review so I can finally set a real releasedate!

For now, feel free to peer review the game if you have an App Hub membership.

The mistakes with RAA`s Marketing.

No cryptic Title this time. I want to come straight to the point.
In the last few days I realized something. I realized the mistake I made with the marketing of RAA, or in particular the first trailer. 
As you may know by now, RAA is SIACTRO´s first game to be developed and with all "first times" poeple get a little to ambitious if they don´t watch out. That was very well the fact with this game.
Retro Arcade Adventure was never meant to be an epic journey for the player that will continue for hours and hours to come. It was from the very beginning aimed to catch the simplicity of an Atari 2600 game.
However with the first trailer I made a horrible mistake, I got to ambitious. I tried to make a trailer that showed an epic adventure with Dragons, Barbarians, Demons and Heros that will entertain you for hours and just suck you into the world of fantasy...

I failed at that.
Partially I failed because I seem to suck at making trailers and partially I failed because that is not(!) what RAA is all about. The moment I start thinking about a game I really want to make is allways the moment I have a special situation in my mind that just suits the game perfectly in my opinion. Let me explain you the situation I think, RAA is perfectly made for:

 It is Thursday. You just want the weekend to finally start because you are tired of your job/school/normal-day-routine. There is nothing on TV but you feel the need to entertain yourself somehow.
That is where RAA fits in. It is not your story heavy game that you actually need to think about ot get into, it is just there to entertain you. You are able to just start it up and chop your way through enemy hordes. If you are interested in having a motivation to chop them down, you may read the plot that will be told on screen in a typical little textbox system.
You may choose the adventure or the arcade mode to entertain you for the rest of the evening.
And that is what RAA is all about. Nothing more, nothing less, just a little shot of entertainment.

I failed to show it up to this point, but from now on I promise to show you the real Retro Arcade Adventure and not try to let it look any better than it will be in the end.