Delays and all that has got to be one of the most depressing parts about game development. I’m really looking forward to getting the alpha out so people can start digging their teeth into the game!
However, the fact of the matter is that the alpha is not possible to deploy yet =(.
We are working to release the alpha as soon as possible, and to avoid unnecessary speculation, I will not guess about any ETA.
Crunchin’ is not like surfin’ – not as cool and far less enjoyable. For some.
To us it’s a lifestyle. Crunching (intense working that more often than not leads to bloodshot eyes and veins being popped) is what we love – and crunching to get the IGF demo ready is what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks.
This is just a small update on the matter that I will be working at Mojang this winter and onward. Mojang, and especially its founder Markus Persson (Notch), is pretty famous for the game Minecraft, and I really look forward to helping them out! This feels like a perfect match to me. I’ll be able to do what I feel I do the best, and Mojang is a successful company that has the “indie spirit.”
This will not change matters for Oxeye very much, either. Project B is mainly developed by thewreck and Kinten, and if anything it could even help Oxeye a little since I will need to move to Stockholm, where they already live
About Project B, we will be announcing its new name very soon!
Our little fellow Blueface has been a little low lately. All alone and working every day… Summer has been cold too, and all we’ve got is the grim darkness of the Swedish winter to look forward to.
But then, from beautiful California, there shines a light at the end of the tunnel! Spelunky and Meat Boy are hanging out and seem to have a great time. Blueface just had to send a big…
Long time no see! We actually have a lot of stuff to tell, such as we are now working with anosou for music in Project B and that there’s more info about the game online now, but these news will have to wait just a little bit longer
We just came back from No More Sweden 2010 in Skövde. We had a great time and met a lot of really cool indie developers. During the event we also created a 48-hour game called The Dubai Grand Prix Scandal.
It’s a game intended for two people using two game pads, but we’ve added keyboard support as well (using ESDF and IJKL for main controls, check the readme for the other keys).
I usually try to avoid posting more than once per day, but I nearly forgot which date it was today… it’s the 5h of March! That means we have two birthdays to celebrate!
First up is Pontus Hammarberg, our own very cuddlesome artist who is trying to save mankind, one life at a time He has turned 26 today. Give him a cheer! (And in case you were wondering, Pontus goes by the internet alias “Kinten”, you may have seen him around.)
Second up is Harvest: Massive Encounter that is 2 years old today! It’s crazy how long time that has passed since its release, and how different things are now compared to back then.
To celebrate this we are going to give you a present! We are going to send out postcards (real, physical postcards) to anybody who wants one. All you need to do is to give us your home address (we’ll not use it for anything else, don’t worry), and maybe suggest a name for Project B! Anything goes, but obviously we prefer actual usable game names over “Cheesemaster of Death 2000″ The best name will receive an extra present… I think.
In any case, suggesting a name is optional, so to receive a postcard all you have to do is to go here:
We’ll gather addresses for about 2 weeks. I’ll post again later. (We may not send a postcard to everybody in case this becomes unexpectedly popular, since I have to write all of these by hand… so if that happens it will be first come first served.)
/jeb
UPDATE: Remember to write your NAME with the address! Our divine senses can only stretch so far…
Two times a year for six years, that’s how often the Nordic Game Program is choosing projects for their development support grant. The program is intended to promote game development in the… uhm… Nordic countries, and focuses mainly (but not only) on games for younger audiences. Today (first of march) is the deadline for the first round of projects during 2010.
Nordic Game Program’s managing director is Erik Robertson, a really nice guy. You should head over to their GDC booth and have a chat if you get the chance. Here’s his NGP presentation from the last grant ceremony:
We have applied for the grant almost every round since it was started (2006). We missed one round because I didn’t know it was twice a year (I thought it was only once). In total we have applied with 5 or 6 different projects, I think… This time we applied with Project B (again). We still haven’t been selected for the grant, unfortunately, but it would obviously help us a lot. At least we could pay thewreck more than $3 per hour, hehe.
There are some noteable NGP recipients in their funded games list. Of course, being independent is a requirement to seek the grant, but these are the names that you may recognize:
Limbo
Limbo, one of the current IGF finalists, has received the grant two times (once in 2006 and once in 2007). Both grants were 300,000 DKK.
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Petri Purho received a grant of 100,000 DKK in the round after winning IGF.
Boingo
Black Drop Studios received 300,000 DKK in 2008 for their platform game Boingo. (I just realized when visiting their site that they have disbanded! That was a surprise )
When we had our Harvest holiday sales on Steam we were contacted by the nice guys over at Immortal Machines (a part of the Colony of Gamers network). They wanted to know if we would be interested in participating in one of their nice podcasts, but because of time zones (and lack of confidence in speaking English live) we settled for a text-based interview instead.
The interview is mainly about Harvest, but we also talk a little about games that we like, and the future. You find the interview here:
A few weeks ago somebody gave me a link to an interview with Ira Glass on YouTube. I had never heard of Ira Glass before, but I found this part about having good taste to be very inspirational:
I think a lot of game developers have this kind of problem. They know what they want to create, but the finished product didn’t really turn out as they had thought. It can still be a good game, but it’s missing something. It’s nice to hear a solid reason why you should keep on going, and not just empty phrases like “believe in yourself.”
The other parts of the inteview are interesting as well.
The good news is that during the weekend I filled our wiki with a lot of DaisyMoon info! I think I added over 20 new articles about methods in the API.
The bad news is that our host decided it was a good idea ™ to upgrade our PHP to 5.3.1. Unfortunately that version of PHP contains a bug that breaks MediaWiki, so it’s currently not possible to edit pages on the wiki. We don’t know if or when our host decides to revert the upgrade, or upgrade again to PHP 5.3.2, so we will have to wait and see…
Cobalt Alpha Plan Update (again)
(And in case you were wondering, Pontus goes by the internet alias “Kinten”, you may have seen him around.)
The best name will receive an extra present… I think.
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