Remember when I ran you through the way we track our finances? Well you can consider that a warm up to this post. I will be referring to that post regularly so if you have not read it yet, it might be time to do that. Read more →
Last week Nic described how we communicate remotely. This week I am going to discuss how we keep track of our money Read more →
The last couple days we have been doing a lot of admin and not much creative work. So to spice things up a bit we decided to have a random 5minute pitch challenge. Basically it works like this, we each chose a random word and made a cup of coffee. When we got back we pitched our ideas to each other. Here is the outcome.
Paul: DinoZan – Dinosaur has its eggs stolen while a volcano is erupting with lava everywhere. Dino must swing (Tarzan style) through the jungle on ropes while avoiding butter that will make the rope more slippery and ultimately cause Dino to fall off. Player adjust rope length as Dino swings through the jungle. One touch helicopter style control system. Hold to move Dino up and release to move down.
Jack: Nanna’s lil T Rex – Visiting your granny for tea you accidentally let her pet T Rex eat her knitting. The wool gets knotted up inside him and you have to get it out. Shake your phone to untangle the knot, feed the rex butter to loosen the tough spots. Careful you don’t pull the string out too early or rexxy might vomit on the carpet. Even worse, feed him too much butter and the mess will come out the other end…
Nic: The ButterCo transport vessel is arriving at port during a monster attack! The terrifying creature has somehow tangle itself in your anchor chain and is pulling the vessel along the shore and through the city, terrorising residents. It is up you you, Armond T Buttersworth to fling the remaining butter reserves at the beast and free it from the chains to ensure the city is destroyed slightly less. Available on smartphones, players must flick to throw the butter towards the dinosaur.
What do you think? Which game would you play?
Hi, Paul here. So last week you met our bearded wizard Nic. Well now it is my turn to give you a basic 101 – Intro to Paul. Where do I start? Let’s go all the way to the beginning (queue dreamy fade out/in here). I was born in 1989 – wait, that might be too far back. Ok, basic info. I hail from a small town back in South Africa and moved to the sometimes sunny Gold Coast of Australia where I currently live. I work at Well Placed Cactus with my unofficial title being “That guy with the accent”. So when you hear that guy screaming at the screen after dying 500+ times – that’s me.
http://youtu.be/HwbJFEh5ka0
I am a huge fan of movies and games alike. I think there is a whole lot more to any screen media than just sitting back and watching. To make a really great experience for the audience there has to be something to connect with, and I connect most with characters. I mean when I was a kid I used to watch all my super heroes save the day. Now with games, I can be the one saving the day. Take Uncharted for example. Playing as Nathan Drake is freaking awesome. But it’s not just Drake I care about. Sully, what an awesome old guy. When Sully gets shot I felt goosebumps and a tingle down my spine. I didn’t even realise I cared about him until that event. Good characters make a movie or game so much better. Whether it’s to try create a deep emotional connect or just keep the mood light like Mario, characters can add so much to any medium it is hard to overlook them. Would you play through games if the characters were still cubes?
http://youtu.be/QyI9F_5zq6E
That’s what I try and do here at the cactus. I try adding character to the games we make. Not just through character, but the entire game. Not all games require an actual character, in which case the game itself becomes the character and we work to give it a certain personality that ties in with the game. Luckily with Eggolution we had the chickens to work with. So I tried to give then some quirky movements and not just be your average chickens. We only started animating the chicken towards the end of development. As soon as those chickens were moving it added a whole new layer of life to the game. That is my aim for all future games we make, add that extra layer of life.
Chickens are better than cubes.
Mario looks a bit better these days.
PS. I have been asked a couple things about living in South Africa so I figured I would answer then here quick just to clear things up. I did not live in a cave. I did not have a lion as a pet. I did not go to school on an elephant every day. I lived in a house, had a couple dogs and went to school in a car. Although I think having a lion as a pet and going to school on the back on an elephant would be awesome.
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