Ludometrics

A Secret Project Update

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:30:00 +0100

We finally remembered to start a blog, and what better way to introduce it than by giving you an update to the oh-so-secret project we announced a few weeks back (that's the browser-based game we're working on in conjunction with our friends at Denki, for those who don't know).

Early answers to some presumed questions you might have about the project at this stage:

No, we can't reveal the name of the game yet.
No, we can't show you anything of the game yet.

That said, some lucky folk may get a chance to play the game real soon now. Today we're finalising our latest build of the game (#39, created over the last 9 weeks stat fans), and I can exclusively reveal that the game is indeed fun.

Stay tuned, as we'll have more to say in the very near future.

Secret Project: Phase 2 Complete

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:30:00 +0100

So it's been almost three weeks since our last/first update, and you might be wondering exactly what's going on here at Ludometrics central.

We just finished what is being referred to by those in the know as "Phase 2" of the secret project (one whole day ahead of schedule, for those keeping track), and this tweet from yesterday pretty much describes the scenes this week:

The leaderboard on [REDACTED] is now so competitive certain people are photoshopping their scores. Others are just hacking the source.
— Ludometrics (@ludometrics) October 17, 2012

Although we're all feeling reasonably smug with our high scores reaching into the millions (apart from me, who's losing, again), we know that as soon as this thing appears in the wild those scores will be ranked about 1,673rd in the world (and lower). Such is the nature of making games.

"And when will this hitherto unseen game appear in the wild?", I imagine I hear you asking aloud. I don't have a specific answer to that, but "soon" is probably the right ballpark. Before Christmas 2012, certainly. We think. Probably.

We're Twitching

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The newly-minted multi-award winning games site Hookshot Inc. has recently started a lovely podcast. I listened to Episode #2 over the weekend, where the four Hookshotters tackled the word 'twitch' (as it relates to games, rather than the ornithological hobby).

As it happens, 'twitch' is a word close to the hearts of everyone toiling away here in the Ludometrics Lounge for reasons which will become obvious. The podcast itself (which has an eminently reasonable time requirement of about 23 minutes) is well worth a listen, so I won't talk too much about it here, although I do like the definition of twitch games having a sort of purity of play.

What I will do, however, is add my own definition of what twitch gaming is to me: you have one thing to do, so you'd better start doing it really well if you want to climb the leaderboard. As it happens, that's exactly what [REDACTED] relies on. Just as with Canabalt, the one thing you had to do was jump, so it will be with this game. No jumping in our game, though. Or perhaps there is?

Anyway, listen to the podcast and you'll have a good sense of where we're heading.

Winter Update

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

We recently promised an update on each of our games before the end of the year, and lo! here it appears. Let's take each in turn, shall we?

Matching Set: We've been working on adding some new achievements for all you avid matchers in the world, and this update should see the light of day in January 2013.
Pet Store Panic: This game has been suffering from what might be colloquially referred to as "technical teething troubles". It looks like these are all close to being resolved, so look for this finally being released early next year via the fine people at Big Fish Games.
Quizball: Since this game was a tie-in with Euro 2012, we're not doing anything with it at the moment.
REDACTED: Can we talk about this yet? Maybe, soon, perhaps. Maybe that's why we've been so quiet.

Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter here, find us on Facebook here and of course sign up for our elusive newsletter at the bottom of the page. You never know what might show up...

Say Hello to Bips!

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year, and welcome to the future (again)! We'd also like to welcome you to Bips!, the new game we've been working on with our friends at Denki.

Some of you perhaps noticed that we've been testing it over the New Year period, but now we're throwing the doors open to the uh... open beta of the game.

Bips! brings classic arcade-style play to Facebook (at least in our opinion!), and is very much in keeping with Denki's post-core philosophy: in other words, it's designed for people who love to play games, but don't have a huge amount of time to actually devote to games (for whatever reason). People like me.

The game relies on reflexes and your skill, just like the classic arcade games that inspired us. There's only one direct control, which will allow you to travel down the screen rather than up. And the aim of the game? Collect the treasure for high score. As simple as that. And if you top the leaderboard amongst your friends, you'll earn more tokens with which you can play the game.

This is just the beginning, of course. There's no shortage of ideas here about what to add to the game, and we'll be pushing out regular updates over the next few weeks (the best way to find out when we update is to like the game on Facebook here).

But we also know that those who play the game will have their own ideas. We look forward to hearing what those might be, but more than anything, we look forward to you playing the game and having fun!

Play Bips!

Bips! The Two Week Update

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:10:00 +0000

It's been a couple of weeks since we announced Bips! had gone into open beta, so we thought we'd do a quick round up of what's happening.

The most noticable change in the last couple of weeks is the addition of achievements to the game, to help provide an extra layer of challenge for players.

Aside from that, we've been fixing a variety of bugs (thanks to all who have reported them), and generally tidied up the game a little bit based on feedback.

We've also had some very nice coverage of the game from ScottishGames.net, Forbes, and Inside Social Games. Here are some of our favourite quotes:

Bips! is one of the simplest, slickest and most compelling games of recent years.
Even in beta Bips has a lot of depth (and addictiveness) but there’s more to come.
Bips is an excellent game that is simple to understand, enormously addictive and a lot of fun.

We're glad so many are enjoying Bips!; we're continually working on the game and we'll be back with another update very soon!

Play Bips! Now

First Of The New Projects

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:00:00 +0100

It's been rather a while since our last update, but better late than never, as someone once said. Probably.

We've not been slacking, we have a number of new projects that we'll be able to talk about more in the coming weeks.

One such project is a collaboration with author and illustrator Lorna Freytag. This is an iPad book app for kids featuring a brand new character, and it's shaping up really well. We'll be announing more details in the near future, but in the meantime:

Don't forget to play Bips! over at Facebook, or if you prefer your games on iOS, then check out Matching Set. And if you live down under, you never know what you might find in the App Store.

Introducing Gridlock

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 10:00:00 +0100

Last time, we did hint that SockMonster was the first in our new projects, so here we are today to talk about Gridlock.

Gridlock is a game about shooting things. Specifically, about shooting abstract shapes before they crash into your gun turrets. That's a picture of a turret below. You have four turrets, one on each side of the grid, and once they're gone, they're gone.

We've made this game for the OUYA console. Why? Well, despite their various and well-documented miscalculations over the last few weeks, we wanted to make a game that required a game controller. And we wanted to make a game that people could play between TowerFall parties. And the OUYA seemed like a good place to start.

Anyway, we quite like playing it, and we hope you will too. We'll be releasing it on OUYA this Thursday, August 29!

Why We Made Gridlock For OUYA

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0100

We made Gridlock for three main reasons:

It's an idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a long time, and I wanted to play it.
We wanted to try out Unity as a tool.
We wanted to practice making a game that needed a controller (or at least one that felt better with a controller).

Given OUYA and Unity seemed to play well together, it felt like a good combo to try out. The scope of the game is deliberately constrained - job one was to ship something, after all - so we threw out discrete waves pretty early on and made the game continuous. There's no power up system and no online leaderboards. The waves of abstract shapes intent on smashing your turrets are always the same. Making a single player game felt like a good complement to games like TowerFall and the newly-released Gentlemen!, which are designed as multiplayer experiences - something for people to do in between sessions of those games (which are both awesome, in case you haven't tried them out).

The game actually came together really well quite quickly (well, relatively - if we'd been familiar with Unity beforehand the development time might have been halved). Integration with OUYA's system for purchasing went smoothly (testing IAP on the system doesn't involve sandboxing like on iOS, it's kept very simple which I like).

For the purchasing system, you get to play as often as you like, but if you want your game to last more than 60 seconds, you'll have to pay. We made it so you can pay and continue the game you were playing, so if you're on a particularly good scoring run you won't lose the score you've racked up.

Will that model work? I have no idea - it doesn't feel unfair (sometimes I struggle to get 60 seconds into the onslaught), and the price feels about right (we went with $1.99 after some deliberation and examining prices for other games on the platform). We're keeping Gridlock exlusive on OUYA for now, and will report back regarding downloads and sales once we have some data. Our expectations are tempered by the fact we know it's a relatively small audience - in some ways, that's a strong appeal for us - and by the fact this was a learning project for us.

A lot has been written over the past few days and weeks about OUYA's ... miscalculations, shall we say. I'm not going to get into that here, but my experience so far is that the community around the platform is pretty coherent and supportive.

As I post this, I'm making the game live on the OUYA store (it's Thursday in New Zealand, after all). If you have an OUYA, please download and give it a try - would love to hear your feedback on it.

Two Weeks of Gridlock

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 18:00:00 +0100

As promised, here are the results from the first two weeks of Gridlock on OUYA. Others have written about the problems with the store front, so I won't repeat those issues here.

Game	Downloads	Sales	Conv. Rate	Thumbs Up
Gridlock	205	6	2.93%	16

As you can see, that barely keeps us in coffee for a day. In fact, as things stand, we'll never see a cent because we'll never reach the threshold for being paid. As I wrote previously, the project was primarily about learning Unity but Gridlock is also a game I wanted to play, and I still do pick up a controller and play.

That conversion rate isn't too terrible - it's a lot lower than some others I've seen on the platform (see Radian Games, for example) - but it holds up against what I've seen elsewhere. But clearly we just aren't getting the download number high enough (the perennial problem, of course).

That all said, I'm happy that a few people seem to really love the game! It's definitely not to everyone's taste, though. One thing I'm particularly annoyed about is that we haven't been able to include a leaderboard, because OUYA have yet to add the ability to grab the player's account display name to their Unity SDK. We have the code all up and running on the server, but we don't particularly want to be displaying hexadecimal UUIDs on the leaderboard, nor do we want people to have to type in a name. As much as OUYA are misjudging the big stuff, they're also missing out all the little details that are needed to make sure creators can do what they need and want to do.

As things stand though, clearly OUYA doesn't give us a hope in hell of being able to make the next game. That doesn't really surprise me, but it does make me a little sad.

Onwards and upwards, though. We'll be bringing Gridlock to other platforms in the near future. Will we bring anything else to OUYA in the future? If you'd asked me two weeks ago, I'd have said yes, because I still think it's a good platform to experiment on and perhaps we could have built up an audience and fanbase there. Based on what we've seen in the last few days though, I'm not inclined to bring any projects in the future to the platform.

Meet Your Sock Monster

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 10:00:00 +0100

Next Tuesday, October 8th, 2013, the Sock Monster will be unleashed. Don't worry, though: your iPad will act as a safe containment unit. Also, only your socks will be endangered.

Sock Monster is a quirky interactive picture book adventure for kids 5 and under, with original hand-crafted artwork by author / illustrator Lorna Freytag. We created the app itself over the last few months in conjunction with Lorna and her art director husband Daniel, and after much testing with kids, it's ready to release! Sock Monster will cost £2.99/$4.99 (or your local equivalent) on the App Store.

For more info, check out the Junoberry website.

Sock Monster Available Now

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 10:00:00 +0100

He's here! Sock Monster is now available in the iPad store worldwide! Get it now! Then tell your friends! Now tell strangers!

As a reminder, Sock Monster is a quirky interactive picture book adventure for kids 5 and under, with original hand-crafted artwork by author/illustrator Lorna Freytag. Sock Monster will cost £2.99/$4.99 (or your local equivalent) on the App Store.

For more info, feel to check out the Junoberry website, but only after you download the app to your iPad.

Please note, we do not recommend the consumption of socks by humans.

Which Way Is Down? This Way Is.

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 22:50:00 +0100

Another week, another new thing. This time, it's the turn of This Way Down.

This Way Down is a matching game, except for once you get to control gravity (although only within the game, it should be said). Finally.

There are no diamonds, gems or sticks of candy in this game - just good old fashioned blocks of colour. Tap when you see a group of 3 or more blocks of the same colour to score points. Did we mention there's no time limit? The only time limit is how long you can keep the blocks from spilling out of the grid.

Why did we make this one? Primarily because it was an idea that had been bouncing around inside my head for a long time, and I need that space back to focus on other things. Also, I keep playing it on my daily commute, so it only seems fair to share it with the world.

This Way Down will be free to download. If you play it more than 3 times, you'll have to wait a short time for the lives to recharge (or you can just buy a permanent unlock). Oh, and it uses Open Kit, so you can compete against others via Facebook and Game Center. Yowsers.

We're just waiting for the game to come through the app review process at Apple, and we'll have a release date for you soon.

Bodycheck'd

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:50:00 +0000

It's been a quiet start to the year, at least outwardly, but today our cover was blown via the PlayStation blog:

So Bodycheck is a sports game with no rules against foul play, magic powers, and (explicit) corruption. And it will be multiplayer, yes. Did I mention that you can have four-way matches?

Exciting, n'est pas? We think so anyway.

We don't have much to add to what's already mentioned, but we're delighted with the reaction so far!

We'll be attempting to keep you posted about progress as we go along. Feel free to ask questions via Twitter or Facebook - we won't necessarily provide the answer you're looking for, but it's always worth a try!

Bodycheck Interviews

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:50:00 +0000

We've been delighted with the response to the announcement of Bodycheck's existence - lots of positive comments, which is always nice!

On the back of that, we've been interviewed a couple of times since. If you're looking for a bit more information on the game, it's worth taking a look first of all at this piece over at The Vita Lounge. It's actually the first in a monthly series of developer diaries we'll be doing with them, so stay tuned there for more information each month.

GamesBeat have also been in touch, attempting to find out exactly what a "sports game for people who don't neccessarily like sports games" means. Were they successful? You'll have to read the interview and make up your own mind.

Now we just need to make the thing...

Gridlock Comes To GameStick

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 09:00:00 +0000

Gridlock, our game about shooting abstract shapes before they crash into your gun turrets, is now available for another crowdfunded Android-based console, this time the GameStick. That's a picture of a turret below. You have four turrets, one on each side of the grid, and once they're gone, they're gone.

The game is already available for OUYA, and GameStick have been very supportive about bringing Gridlock to their platform. One awesome new addition to the game is the use of GameStick's Leaderboards, so you'll finally be able to directly compare your score to others!

The GDC14 Experience

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:20:00 +0000

For those of you unaware, last week saw the latest edition of the Game Developer Conference take place in (very) sunny San Francisco. I think this was my eighth trip to the event, and I think a good week was had by all (or at least many).

You can read about the various sessions and the main news elsewhere on the webs, so I'm just going to talk about one particular aspect of what I was trying to get out of the trip: feedback on Bodycheck, the game we're working our wee socks off on.

Specifically, I wanted to get some feedback from other designers and developers - especially those that I only see once or twice a year - as to the feel of the game and to make sure we were on the right track. I'm not going to name them here, but suffice to say they're all people I have huge respect for.

I'm not sure quite what my reaction would have been if we weren't on the right track, but I'm happy to report that everyone who played looked like they had a good time (and I'm certain that if they hadn't liked it they would have told me so!). They all gave some incredibly useful and constructive feedback. As ever, some of that was already on my list (the magic system was in the midst of being reconstructed, and isn't balanced at all at present) but some of it opened my eyes to things I'd been missing or taking for granted. And of course, some of the things I expected to be issues weren't issues at all.

The sketch on the menu above (click for larger version) is going to be (at best) meaningless to you. It may well be meaningless to the person who drew it by now. But for me, it's the summation of a discussion about how to emphasise, encourage and support passing the ball between your players rapidly, something that already feels awesome when you get it right.

There were many other discussions, meetings and chance encounters that mean the trip may well end up paying for itself in other ways, but thanks to the chats about Bodycheck in particular, we're getting back to work this week with renewed purpose and conviction about what we're doing.

Dsmvwld vlbl nw

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:20:00 +0100

Our latest iPhone game, Dsmvwld, is out today for a small fee of £0.99. Here's the description:

Dsmvwld s wrd gm bt pttng ths psky vwls bck whr thy blng - btwn th cnsnnts.

The game is all about putting the vowels back in the right place in the right order. Placement is handled by the game, you just have to tap the vowel buttons in the right order to solve the puzzle. As an example, the above description would resolve to:

Dsmvwld is a word game about putting those pesky vowels back where they belong - between the consonants.

The presentation is kept deliberately minimal, and we've found it creates a nice kind of zen state when played. There are a few hundred puzzles in there to start you off.

In the future, we're going to keep adding more puzzles, obviously, and proper iPad support is forthcoming as well.

As ever, reviews on the App Store are welcome, although if you come across any bugs it's best to let us know directly!

Multiplayer Bodycheck

Fri, 09 May 2014 02:20:00 +0100

This time last week there was some chat on Twitter about why indies (generally) shouldn't make multiplayer games, culminating in this article of sage advice from Dan Marshall regarding his experience with the most excellent Gun Monkeys.

Clearly, as a sports game, Bodycheck is inherently multiplayer: there are always at least two teams on the field of play, so it's in our interests to offer some sort of multiplayer aspect. The fact we're targetting PS Vita only helps with our plans for the game, because it has multiplayer support built-in (I hasten to add that it's certainly not "free" to add that support though!).

The primary multiplayer aspect is essentially local multiplayer, with the exception that everyone will need a Vita on the same network or within Bluetooth range in order to play rather than gathering around an OUYA or PS4.

For "true" online play, though, we mitigate a couple of key points from Dan's article through the nature of the game:

We'll only support head-to-head matches across the big bad internet, to alleviate the hanging around waiting for a couple more players to become available.
We're not going to fragment the player base by having lots of different servers (a lesson learned from the original XBLA version of Quarrel).
We'll have some player ability comparison system so that you won't necessarily be paired with someone who is somehow better at the game than you.
Finally, we have to build AI for the game anyway, so if all else fails, we can just drop you into a regular match versus a bot.

Since the game is still in production, all of the above may change to some degree, but I doubt it will change markedly. Feel free to let us know what you think via hiya@ludometrics.com or on Twitter @ludometrics.

Festival Madness

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 08:20:00 +0100

Last week we took Bodycheck to the GoNorth festival in Inverness (thanks to everyone involved for organising the games showcase), where we showed the game off alongside Hidden Armada, Guerilla Tea, Quartic Llama, Hunted Cow, Dave Sapien, Me and the Giants, Team Junkfish, Blazing Griffin and EM Studios.

It was a great event (like a miniature SxSW, mixing all the creative industries together in one small city), and we had some great feedback on Bodycheck from fellow devs and from game-playing attendees.

Next week, it's the turn of ol' London town - Bodycheck will be at the Radius Festival on Thursday 19th June, alongside some games I'm really looking forward to checking out! If you're in town, come along and have a look - the event is free, but you do need to get a ticket. See you there, hopefully!

Bodycheck at Dare ProtoPlay

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 08:20:00 +0100

It seems like only last week that we showed off Bodycheck at GoNorth and then the other day at the Radius Festival.

And now it seems to be Dundee's turn - Bodycheck will be one of the games in Dare ProtoPlay's Indiefest this Thursday and Friday, alongside all the games produced by the Dare to be Digial teams. The event is at Caird Hall, betwen 10am and 6pm. There's lots going on around the games too, including a talk by Richard Lemarchand (of Uncharted fame). It's mostly free, but some things you'll need a ticket for.

We'll have free things(*) to give away, so surely that's as good a reason as any to pay us a visit?

* Subject to availability.

Gridlock now on Desura & itch.io

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 01:20:00 +0100

More news! Gridlock is now available for PC & Mac via Desura and itch.io, if your preference is to use one of those services rather than the Humble widget on the main game page.

If you're looking to review the game, for a website, magazine or your YouTube channel, get in touch!

What We Learned at Dare ProtoPlay

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 04:40:00 +0100

Last Thursday & Friday, we took Bodycheck on a roadtrip to Dundee and its awesome Dare ProtoPlay event (you can see our stand below). I lost track of how many people actually played the game, but it was definitely more than six. Thanks to you all who did play, and were so enthusiastic about it. After being so close to the game for so long, it's good for the soul to see so many people punching the air when they score their first goal.

That's some video of Gridlock you can see running on the monitor. The monitor would also show some four-team insanity action from Bodycheck - many people seem excited at this prospect.

So here's a short list of what we learned from the two days:

Simplifying the game was definitely the right thing to do.
Checklists are awesome - this is the third show we've taken the game to, but the first time I didn't have to run to the shop to buy emergency supplies.
People were very polite, always asking before they played the game or took a badge and postcard.
However, if the game had a big screen and an Xbox 360 controller sitting free, people just jumped on. That worked well for our neighbours at Hidden Armada!
Badges are super popular. Sorry we ran out :(
People like it when they can immediately buy the game they're playing. Noted for future reference.

We now have a list of things we need to do to get to a feature complete version of the game, which will then let us get on and start making it look as awesome as we can. More soon.

Gridlock Greenlight

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:40:00 +0100

There's been a lot of chat recently about where and when Steam will become "open" in the manner of the mobile app stores, allowing anyone who ponies up a fee to publish their game on the platform (amongst many other changes and alterations). The current best guess I've heard is that this will happen in September - we shall see.

In the meantime, however, we've taken the opportunity to put Gridlock, our abstract geometry high score chasing arcade game, onto the Greenlight process - just in case NeoSteam takes a bit longer to release than currently anticipated. You can of course still buy the game on other outlets, but we'd also appreciate your vote on the Greenlight system (you'll need a Steam account to vote).

Thanks!

Dsmvwld vlbl fr Mc

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 05:10:00 +0100

Dsmvlwd, our game about missing vowels is now available for Mac machines via the Mac App Store.

In case you don't already know, Dsmvwld is:

wrd gm bt pttng ths psky vwls bck whr thy blng - btwn th cnsnnts.

a word game about putting those pesky vowels back where they belong - between the consonants.

It's also available for iPhone and iPad, and earlier this year The Guardian called it "a good brain workout". It costs the relatively paltry amount of $0.99/£0.69, and all reviews on the store are appreciated!

Modernising Games

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 18:40:00 +0100

Recently, Ron Gilbert wrote a post about how he and Gary Winnick are going about modernizing the classic point and click adventure for Thimbleweed Park.

How are we going to handle new and modern players? People who have never played an adventure game before? Are we going to hold their hand? Have a tutorial? IAP to buy your way past a puzzle? Is there going to be a hint system?

Obviously, Bodycheck is a slightly different game with very different expectations on it than Thimbleweed Park has. But those are good questions that I'd like to use as a jumping off point to provide some info as we move into the final weeks of making the game.

There's no IAP in the game. It will sell for a flat fee.
There's no detailed tutorial. I always prefer simply exploring the game systems myself, and games that handhold every button press drive me crazy. There is a screen that gives you the basics of playing, but it doesn't necessarily reveal everything.
The game will launch at least in North America and Europe. Other territories to be confirmed.
Compared to previous games in the fictional sports genre, as I'm calling it, Bodycheck is quite fast. It's certainly not turn-based. You don't have a huge amount of time to think. As a result, the game has been kept fairly streamlined.

For example, scoring is very straightforward, mostly because we don't want to have to explain it very much. Here's how it works:

3 points for scoring a goal from inside the D;
5 points for scoring a goal from outside the D;
7 points for completely knocking out an opponent -- this only happens if your player actually lands the knockout blow (physically or magically).

That's it. The points value for knocking out an opponent sounds like a lot, but it works pretty well because you don't always land the knockout blow, and it adds to the tension in the last seconds when you only have a slender lead...

Nothing To Hide

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 17:40:00 +0100

A few weeks back, I went to see Dara Ó Briain at the appropriately nicknamed Armadillo. I don't remember him having a segment about games in the show, but afterwards, I remembered this segment he did a few years ago about unlocking things in games:

TL;DR: I unlocked the content when I bought your game with my credit card.

Early on, the decision was made to basically do exactly this with Bodycheck: everything is unlocked from the start. You can play any team, any tournament or league, or any scenario, or any multiplayer mode, without worrying about beating a challenge or doing a certain task where you know precisely what to do but for some reason your brain simply will not co-ordinate with your hands to let you do it.

I suppose it's kind of an experiment: maybe players will hate it, but that hasn't been the case in playtesting so far. Nobody's complained when told that's how it works. We shall see.

Gridlock + Steam

Fri, 08 May 2015 15:10:00 +0100

The news has been posted to Twitter a couple of times, but in case you missed it, Gridlock is officially coming to Steam!

As promised on the Greenlight page, Leaderboards and Achievements will be added to the game, possibly along with other ideas and features.

No date for release as yet -- finishing Bodycheck takes priority, so follow us on Twitter or sign up for our newsletter if you want advance notice of release dates!

This Week In Bodycheck - May 15, 2015

Fri, 15 May 2015 16:10:00 +0100

Here's a brief review of what's changed this week in Bodycheck - it's all fairly high level; there's the usual balancing and bugfixing and upgrading SDKs and engines in there too. It's presented here without explanatory comments:

Show shrunk players in replay
Shrink now radius effect
Hot Potato only affects other teams
One touch sprinting
Only blocking captains can avoid being barged

I'll try to remember and post a similar list this time next week!

Games Are For Everyone

Fri, 22 May 2015 18:50:00 +0100

This week began with the exciting realisation I'd managed to demerge the code that provides the ability to play the game using the PS Vita's ad-hoc networking (code we'd added to the engine we're using). Didn't take too long to get it all back in place (hurrah for version control), but still not ideal.

But the main event this week was showcasing the game at Games Are For Everyone, held in Edinburgh last night and organised by The Hit Point. Bodycheck was there in all its fully restored local-multiplayer glory, alongside pig-jousting fun in Mutiny!, first-person programmer Glitchspace, brain-melting puzzler Tealy & Orangey and surrealist multiplayer brawler Sluggish Morss: Days of the Purple Sun.

This kind of event is something I've been hoping would happen more often in Scotland (we had Tacos, Bluegrass & Videogames last year, and hopefully that will return too), but of course I didn't do anything about making it happen. Kudos to Andrew Dyce & co for putting in the effort to bring it all together. I'm lousy when it comes to judging how many people are in a place, but ~~I'd guess maybe 70-80~~ apparently it was around 150 over the night. I don't know, but it felt constantly busy from the minute the doors opened at 7pm until I ran away for the last train to Glasgow at 11pm.

What I do know is that there was a constant stream of people playing all the games, lots of people watching people play the games, and much cheering and laughter from every corner as things went horribly wrong for someone (not to mention the occasional wail of despair from imminent Bodycheck victors as they managed to activate the crash that I swear never happened prior to 7pm last night, and isn't really happening today either. Sorry again!).

All in all, I thought it was a great night, and thanks again to everyone who played Bodycheck and gave feedback (even if you thought it wasn't what I wanted to hear!). I'm looking forward to the next one already, and if you're making a game in Scotland, I'd urge you to take it along - people want to play your games!

PS Don't forget to sign up to the newsletter (at the bottom right of this page) or follow on Twitter to find out when Bodycheck will be released on Vita!

Gridlock and Desura

Sun, 07 Jun 2015 17:50:00 +0100

As you may be aware, Gridlock made it through Steam's Greenlight system a few weeks ago, so a new and improved edition of the game will launch on Steam later in the year.

However, given Desura's current issues, I can't be sure that the Desura system for distributing those keys will still be in place when the game does launch. To guarantee a Steam key, you might want to email a copy of your sales receipt or bundle confirmation to us now and I'll send a key to you directly when the game goes live on Steam. Send your email to: support@ludometrics.com

In the meantime, the game is no longer available for sale on Desura - if you bought the game there you can still download it, though. You can buy directly via the Humble widget on the Gridlock game page for now.

The Last Couple of Weeks in Bodycheck

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 17:30:00 +0100

This week, Bodycheck (and Gridlock) will be on display at the awesome XpoNorth festival in Inverness this coming Wednesday (that's June 10th, calendar fans). Last year, when the event was still called GoNorth, Bodycheck was very well received, so hopefully the same will be true this year now that the game looks totally different and has slightly better AI.

If you're in the Inverness area, I think it's still free to sign up, so do that and then you can come and play. There are even stickers and badges available.

Here's what's new (and fixed) in Bodycheck since the last update:

One touch sprinting (no need to hold the button for it to take effect)
Hot Potato only affects opposition teams
Shrink is now a radius effect spell
Shrunken players shown in action replay
Add option for manual player selection
Stop crashing when you use manual player selection
Put AdHoc networked mode back into the engine (important!)
Autoselect system language (English used by default)
Prevent magic when non-upright
Tweak block timing
Check magic channeler not laid out
Kill superheat effect on goal
Two badges for online multiplayer
Fix end of match camera craziness
Disable leaderboard access when not online
New camera positions for replays
Disallow player toggling when auto player selection is used
Fancy hats on all players
Slightly better goalkeepers (TBC)
Seriously, stop crashing when you use manual player selection
Toggle nearest players in manual mode
Intercept a bit further into the future
More goalkeeper tweaks
Fix annoying flame thing
Smooth out networked action replays
Reset badge material on hostee leaving lobby
Add website link to LiveArea
Ensure ball-holding AI player casts spells

On that note, I'm off to do some playtesting of multiplayer mode - four (4!) teams on the pitch at once is as manic as it sounds like it might be. Also fun.

Bodycheck Is Coming

Sun, 21 May 2017 12:00:00 +0100

It's been almost exactly 2 years since the last update on, well, anything, really, but on Bodycheck in particular.

Lots has happened in that time, all in the realm of RR (Real Reality) rather than in the realm of #gamedev, and I can only apologise for not keeping all who were awaiting the release of the game updated.

The good news is that I'm here with a trailer (see below) and a release date. Yes, an actual, honest-to-goodness release date: 30 May, 2017 (in Europe). The game is still going through QA for an American release, but hopefully that will come through soon and a release won't be too far behind.

Hopefully you like the look of what you see above, and the news of an imminent release is of interest to anyone still listening!