PAX East and the Chamber of Secret Projects

2D Game developer Mommy's Best Games will be showing off a brand new game at PAX East March 11-13 2011!

If you're going to PAX East, make sure to check the map for the Devolver Booth (I-16) to find us! We will be in the "Indie Alley" near Ska Studios, and Aksys. 
If you are near the Nvidia, Ubisoft, or Rockstar booth you're getting close!

The new, hardcore, PC-centric, blood-pumping, jive-talking game will have a playable demo, so make sure to come by the booth to taste the future of kick-assery.

Here's a few hints: It's not Grapple Buggy (but you already knew that didn't you? Geez, when is Grapple Buggy coming out?... When we have enough money to keep working on it! Gotta pay the bills, because I don't like sleeping on dirt.), and it's not Explosionade PC, though if you're really nice, I may show you a super-special preview of Explosionade PC at the show as well. Ask nicely, bring donuts, and I'll show you cool games! Okay, I'll show you cool games anyway, but bringing donuts would be super chumly of you.

Oh, and we've got another secret project in the works as well (seriously, how many people work here, a million?) but we're only handling the code and helping with design for that one. It's up to the primary developer to reveal that game, but it looks super sexy as well. Seriously, if I had thought of that game, I would have made it myself. It's pretty awesome. And I honestly don't know when that game will appear, probably not GDC, nor PAX East, but maybe E3?

Let's hear it for secret projects and paying contracts!

High Score Shake-up

What do you think of me resetting the scoreboards for Explosionade with a new update that makes it harder?

A giant new version of Explosionade is in development for the PC, and eventually we'll get to reveal all the cool features for that new edition. While developing the PC version, I've been making improvements to the player controls, player motion, grenade physics, and enemy A.I. that I'd like to bring over to the XBLIG version that's already out.

While the XBLIG version received plenty of butt-kicking reviews and high marks, one of the complaints was the game was either too easy for people, too slow, and/or too sluggish. The PC version will definitely take care of that, but I've been thinking about bringing the new improvements to the XBLIG version. The most controversial change would be to make the game more difficult with tweaks to the player mech and enemies. From what I can tell from gamers' emails and forum comments, I'm sure my special changes will make Explosionade more difficult but also more intense, satisfying, and fun to play. And of course Chilled mode and slowing down gameplay will still be options for those wishing for more relaxing destruction.

The XBLIG version has online scoreboards (Explosionade uses a peer-to-peer implementation courtesy of Spyn Doctor Games). If the game is more difficult on XBLIG, this will obviously skew all future scores that people are getting on the online scoreboards.

Which brings us back to the question at hand, what do you think of resetting the scoreboards with the new update? 

Are there any precedents for Xbox LIVE games of any flavor, with regards to resetting scoreboards?

Explosionade fortunately has filled up all 1,000 high-score slots a while ago, but the top 20 or so places haven't changed in months. I feel like totally clearing the scoreboards will give new players a chance to enjoy jumping into the game and getting somewhere. And gamers who played it originally and ranked high should honestly not have too much more trouble getting back up to the top if they accept the new challenge.

I'd definitely like to make the default, Normal difficulty tougher and play faster, as I think player's are ready for it. If we leave the scoreboards as they are, pretty much no one will ever get to the top ranks. So I guess the question is, will anyone who is already ranked high notice or care that their score was wiped? Or will they be good sports about it and understand?

Note: The proposed adjustments for Explosionade on XBLIG won't be that much higher, and won't feature any of the changes mentioned for the upcoming PC version. But I feel it will be tough enough to make original high scores feel nearly unreachable.