Mommy's Best Games, Inc. is an independent game developer founded in 2007. This is a view behind the scenes of our game development and marketing!

Nathan

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Grapple Buggy story trailer

At last it's time to check out the newest game trailer!



The big deal for us, with this trailer, is to reveal the spoken dialog dovetailed with the intriguing science fiction plot. It's ambitious for our tiny studio, but so far it's turning out really well. We're working to create a "big boy" story with room for moral choices by the player, and elegantly present it in a 2D side-scroller.

The player controls the buggy driven by a human and an alien, working together but, because of their natures, at odds with one another. The characters comment on things as they happen, discussing the action and the puzzles, the story itself, all without bogging down the game.

Right now we're still figuring out if the game will be released via Arcade or Indie Games, but it will hopefully show up on the Xbox 360 in some fashion, in 2010.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

New trailer eminent

Begin holding your breath... now.
I'm still balancing the audio levels and fine-tuning the music to line up with the gameplay action.

You'll probably die by the time it comes out some time tomorrow, but it'd be a nice show of support. Tell you what--cheat a little and take a new breath just before you go to bed. Thanks! You're the best.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Trailer construction

With a solid build of Grapple Buggy safely sent to the contest, backed up on stand-alone harddrives, and solid-state CDs now hidden throughout the country, it's time to make a new game trailer.

Yes, I really wish I had created a new trailer before the contest but that would have removed precious time from polishing the game. The contest was effectively more than a month sooner than last year, and Grapple Buggy needed all the love it could get. Fortunately I think the Dream Build Play contest submission turned out great, but I still had to use the original teaser trailer for the contest submission.


I captured gameplay footage today using Fraps and am currently composing a custom animation to fill in the 'story' for the trailer. The trailer's story will actually include an overview for the story for the game itself, but probably one of the most exciting new elements revealed (among several) will be the spoken dialog from the game.

Grapple Buggy features two pilots within the buggy who effectively have a running dialog and comment on the action. They help the player relate to the mechanical buggy but also provide important context-sensitive tips with the action. You've already met Commander Javeya. With any luck I'll soon have the portrait finished of the other pilot.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Locked In

Finally! It was a little close for comfort, but Grapple Buggy is officially entered into Microsoft's Dream Build Play 2009 competition. We submitted the game about three and half hours before the deadline and fortunately didn't run into any problems. Apparently other developers did have some problems at the last minute. While it's not like I want more competition, I hope the contest admins can cut various devs a little slack. The tough part is, there has to be a cut off time drawn at some point.

Regardless, Grapple Buggy is now leaps and bounds ahead of where it was during E3. We now have all sorts of audio and graphical improvements and the game story is completable from beginning to end.

But that's just the half of it! Yes, the game's a little over halfway finished, that is to say, about only half of the gameplay content is completed. While the story is completable there's a lot more designed for aliens, levels, and powerups. There's more story as well, but at least what's in there makes sense.

Currently we're looking to finish Grapple Buggy for some time in the first part of 2010. Sure I could release it sooner, but I'd like a more substantial experience for everyone. I do plan on releasing a new trailer fairly soon to show off some of new fancy features. Some new screenshots will also be forthcoming. In the meantime, enjoy this capture from the contest submission!