Plan for Jay Moore
by Jay Moore · 12/04/2004 (10:54 pm) · 9 comments
BE PREPARED TO BE ZAPPED!
Some of the same type of preparation is happening right now with games this year we have Rocket Bowl from Large Animal about to come out, Void War just coming into the garage and early builds of TubeTwist and MiniGolf coming in for play testing. I'm not even going to mention ALL the cool developer stuff coming like Torque 2D and Torque Visualizer (Dave Wyand's uber show tool - development named Looking Glass).
The big rock star at IGC 2004 was Zap! - IGC Player Choice Awards - best Overall & Multiplayer categories. You might think GG stacked the deck with our own game, but the buzz wasn't from marketing it definitely was from the people playing it. Zap! looks to be a dream game for GG. Its set up to be viral at only 500k total size which can easily be emailed, has insanely hot game play (never heard a louder scream factor for any game played at GG) and so totally represents what GG is all about - fun over flash.
Just Action... No Distraction - You'll be hearing a lot about Zap! the game in the next few weeks, but I know the most important thing for getting the word out is having everyone play it and tell everyone they know. It has some deceptive depth in its different play mechanics and it will be interesting to see if the game types and levels we've been wearing out will endure the play and creative additions players will make (yes it comes with a level editor). I know I'm still learning all the load out options for my ship - modules & weapons oh my!.
Of course we wouldn't do anything that doesn't innovate on a number of levels (especially when Mark Frohnmayer is involved).
Zap! is multiplatform and best played with a game pad controller so I'll be getting some of those in for us to have available for sale. Zap! uses the GG member system for authenticating players so Zap! will only be available from the Garage. Zap! is a multiplayer only game so the more online people playing the better (Zap! started its life as a tech demo in a day for TNL made on the way to GDC 2004). We'll still be doing more stress tests, but servers look to be able to handle 128 players and maybe upto 256 not sure what that melee is going to be like with that many players. So while Zap! will play peer-2-peer we'll be welcoming those that want to put up servers and work with the community to create more official servers with high score reporting.
Stay tuned this will be a great game and we know with this great community we'll be having fun for Christmas. There will be lots of new players we hope coming to the garage to check out our games and maybe see what the fun about making games, but either way its another small step forward in the Revolution.
Some of the same type of preparation is happening right now with games this year we have Rocket Bowl from Large Animal about to come out, Void War just coming into the garage and early builds of TubeTwist and MiniGolf coming in for play testing. I'm not even going to mention ALL the cool developer stuff coming like Torque 2D and Torque Visualizer (Dave Wyand's uber show tool - development named Looking Glass).
The big rock star at IGC 2004 was Zap! - IGC Player Choice Awards - best Overall & Multiplayer categories. You might think GG stacked the deck with our own game, but the buzz wasn't from marketing it definitely was from the people playing it. Zap! looks to be a dream game for GG. Its set up to be viral at only 500k total size which can easily be emailed, has insanely hot game play (never heard a louder scream factor for any game played at GG) and so totally represents what GG is all about - fun over flash.
Just Action... No Distraction - You'll be hearing a lot about Zap! the game in the next few weeks, but I know the most important thing for getting the word out is having everyone play it and tell everyone they know. It has some deceptive depth in its different play mechanics and it will be interesting to see if the game types and levels we've been wearing out will endure the play and creative additions players will make (yes it comes with a level editor). I know I'm still learning all the load out options for my ship - modules & weapons oh my!.
Of course we wouldn't do anything that doesn't innovate on a number of levels (especially when Mark Frohnmayer is involved).
Stay tuned this will be a great game and we know with this great community we'll be having fun for Christmas. There will be lots of new players we hope coming to the garage to check out our games and maybe see what the fun about making games, but either way its another small step forward in the Revolution.
About the author
Serial / parallel entrepreneur, insight merchant, sailor and red wine enthusiast. Co-founder of BitRaider, out to change the game. An original partner in GarageGames and hosted Indie Game Con `02-`05.
#2
As for gamepads, can you convince Mark F. to make a Gamepad for MAC resource so other games might benifit also?
12/05/2004 (6:17 am)
I would love a Zap server monitoring system on the site, so we can tell when people are playing. As for gamepads, can you convince Mark F. to make a Gamepad for MAC resource so other games might benifit also?
#4
12/05/2004 (9:00 am)
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#5
12/05/2004 (9:27 am)
Sweet, can't wait to try Zap!
#6
@Anthony - I'll work on it if you promise only to use it for good.
12/05/2004 (11:45 pm)
@ Ted - I'm open to designs. We could do the athletic look with Indie Game Dev. Dept. @Anthony - I'll work on it if you promise only to use it for good.
#7
12/06/2004 (5:08 am)
Jay, Is there a demo or anything for Zap I can download?
#9
12/07/2004 (12:27 pm)
Quote:Zap! uses the GG member system for authenticating players so Zap! will only be available from the Garage.Don't cripple yourselves, if zap is as good as everyone says, get it out there and bring in more customers to the Play Games section :)
Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
Any idea when we can see Jeff's face on Che Guevera style shirts? ;)