You Got Xbox 360 in my Nintendo

Newest Pre-order Spot

Great news! Before the funny story about porting the game to the Switch, I'm happy to say Game Type DX on pre-order right now for the Switch!

 Here's the link to the North American store.

And the linke to the European store.

(And is also on pre-order for Xbox One.)

 

Making a Game For The Wrong Consoles

Game Type was inspired and heavily references the Xbox 360.
When creating the upcoming DX version for it, things got pretty difficult considering we're releasing it for the Nintendo Switch and the Playstation 4 and 5. 

Now the worst possible thing to happen would have been for Nintendo and Sony to simply not allow the game in its present form, or to request a complete overhaul before we could release it. That would have stopped all work for the game. I was happy to create some new content for the DX release, and incorporate each platforms achievement and leaderboard systems. But to redo everything would have not been possible. The great news is, Nintendo and Sony are letting us release it!

However, both Nintendo and Sony sure didn't let our game in easily, or seemingly even understand what the game is about. I guess a "documentary style game about a competing game console" IS a pretty unusual concept!

RGB

Not surprisingly each platform, including the Xbox One, has rules about advertising a competitor's platforms. Plus, you have to adhere to each consoles naming conventions. Our game gets pretty "meta" though, because we have a made-up console in which you are playing the game. That console is called the "MediaBall" and its interface is a direct reference to the Xbox 360. To that end, I would have liked to have use terms such as "Dashboard", and "Game Marketplace" to complete the connection to the Xbox 360. 

"Switch Red" variant dashboard color

 But unfortunately for the Switch and Playstation, those terms and several things were required to be changed or removed. Even the number "360" in one of our fake ads got nixed! We also couldn't use the green color from the Xbox 360 Dashboard. In some ways we did end up with some pretty cool changes. Now each platform has it's own version! The Nintendo Switch version has "Switch Red" for the menu. And the Playstation has their blue for the menu tiles. 

I guess what puzzles me is that the Xbox 360 is completely off the market and not a true direct competitor any more, so it surprised me how much they pushed back on every little thing references it. Maybe it's more a long-standing brand concept than one console. I don't know!

You're on the Naughty List

Here is an incomplete list of things we had to change when adapting to Sony and Nintendo (I can't get too specific with the details as they are very touchy about mentioning their internal rules to the public).

• Can't use term "Dashboard" as this is the Xbox 360's term. I chose "Control Panel".
• Can't use term "Xbox 360". So I chose "Certain Game Rival's console" and made sure to print it in green. :D
• Can't use term "Game Marketplace", so we picked "Game Store". 
• Can't use green menu blocks. Green! Okay, they didn't say can't use green exactly, they just said the menu system looked too close to the Xbox 360. So change it some way.
  That's where the red and blue colors came in.
• Can't show a cartoony controller that is even vaguely like the Xbox 360. So I dropped the other stick.
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  Microsoft on the left, Sony on the Right
  

  
   
• Can't say "Control Stick". Um... what? I think that was more of a "must use our term" thing but it made me laugh. 
• Can't say "360" or "Rumble" action. So I went with "720" on the fake ad name and "Deep Tissue action" in the text description.
  
  
  
  
  When you click on the fake controller massage ad, you get these texts.
  
  
  
  

All in all, it really wasn't that bad to make the changes. I think it was just funny how it didn't seem like they noticed what the game was doing or what it was about. But I'm thankful we get to release it on all consoles! 

Release in September

Game Type DX is coming out September 8th!
It's ready for pre-order on Switch and on Xbox One.
(PS4 is tough to get a pre-order for it, but that's a whole other story!)

Weapon of Choice DX Out Now!

I'm proud to say that the remastered "Weapon of Choice DX" is out now on all consoles!

Here are all the store links:

Xbox One and Series X (Worldwide)
Nintendo Switch (North America)
Nintendo Switch (Europe)
Playstation 4 and 5 (North America)
Playstation 4 and 5 (Europe)

Way back in 2008, I released Weapon of Choice, my first indie games as "Mommy's Best Games". That was after working in AAA games for 10 years!

A lot has changed, and Weapon of Choice is so old (how old is it??) it was first released in 4:3 aspect ratio, with many gamers playing it on a CRT TV!

The new DX remaster has lots of improvements over the original, and surprising one to need was "16:9 widescreens support"! I didn't just slap some bars on it though, the actual level design and layout was changed to properly support a widescreen play area. In addition the game now blasts along at 60 fps!

There's lots of new changes from the old Xbox 360 release as well, including hidden MBG pies to discover, 7 total difficulty settings, and of course Trophies/Achievements to unlock! 

So grab it this weekend on your favorite console for only $5.99, and let's blast some hideous aliens!

Thanks for all the years of support and happy shooting!

Switch It Up

Pig Eat Ball on Nintendo Switch

The big news is Pig Eat Ball is coming to Nintendo Switch!
Yes, along with PS4 and Xbox One, you will get to play the biggest, weirdest, craziest action-adventure game on any console you want!
(Okay, not Ouya, but hey, we got the big 3 :)

FEAST your eyes on the Nintendo Switch gameplay reveal trailer for Pig Eat Ball!

We don't have a release date yet, but are working hard to secure it.
What stands in it's way?
Console testing!
Yes, for all 3 consoles, there are rigorous in-house testing and requirements set for all games.
The great news is--we have passed Microsoft Xbox One certification!
That means it's ready to go.
But before we can set a date, we want to get PS4 and Switch tests done as well.

Certification Agitation

Both Nintendo and Sony have issues with the game.
Like what issues you make ask? Crashes? Bugs? Level design problems?
Heavens no, it's silly little things, but hey, fixing these details will make a more polished game for you in the end.

For instance, for the PS4 version, when allowing you to remap the controller buttons, we didn't correctly refer to the X button as the "Cross" button.
And for Nintendo Switch, when the game tries to log your score to the global Leaderboards, if it can't connect to the internet, instead of our simple message telling you there's not internet connection, we are supposed to display the specific Nintendo error code telling you, that you can't connect.

But the BEST had to be when we found out we had unregistered UGC. As in "User Generated Content". Now keep in mind, we don't have the level editor on the console version. That's only available in the Steam version.
So how was anyone able to "make" anything on the console versions?
LEADERBOARD NAMES! Yes, because we have global leaderboards for each level, and because you have a username that gets shown, this is now technically "User Generated Content" in 2019.

So yeah, it's stuff like that!
So we're fixing it all, which takes some time, and then sending it back into review takes a lot more time.

 In the meantime, enjoy how cool Pig Eat Ball looks on a real Switch!

Summer Vacation

But fret not!
We are very, very close and have hope to secure a release date soon!