Update: EB Expo, SHI, eV, GCAP & MK
What, a month since our last update? Let’s go:
Our weekend at EX Expo was a blast. We were blown away by the reception we received for Spirit Hunters Inc and escapeVektor. The days manning the booth were long but it was worth it to see people of all ages playing our games and thoroughly enjoying themselves. We were positioned right in front of the entrance to the pavilion so we had a prime position to attract the crowd. Our new Spirit Hunters Inc banner helped draw people in and to top it all off we had graffiti art of some of the spirits as a backdrop to the booth. We couldn’t have hoped for more!
Bruce talks an excited fan through SHI at EB Expo
There was a great spirit (see what I did there?) between all of the local devs in the Homegrown Developers area. Our friends from Convict Interactive came up from Wollongong to show off the latest build of Triangle Man and they were in the booth next to us. There were a load of other devs from Sydney and a few from Melbourne too, although we were so busy we didn’t have a chance to play many of their games. We never got a chance to visit the main pavilion either, but some of the articles below gave us a great insight into what was happening there.
If you were at EB Expo and stopped by to play our games, we’d like to give you a special thanks. You guys made all the hard work and preparation completely worth it! 😀
Plenty of press pitched up to check out our games and we got some awesome coverage. The Frag did a great feature on the Homegrown Gaming area as did The Indie Game Magazine (Part 1 and Part 2) while Pietriots covered handheld games at the show. The guys from Potaku also dropped by to try out Spirit Hunters Inc took the chance to interview Nic. Nintendo World Report were at the Expo to cover all things Wii U but also dropped by to say hello and covered us in their feature too. We love how each of these features covers EB Expo in a different way. It’s definitely worth taking the time to read them all. They will give you a good feel for what went on over the Expo weekend.
Now that Spirit Hunters Inc is finished we’ve updated the website and are releasing new content on a weekly basis until the launch of the game on November 22nd. We’ve already released 4 new videos and 8 more will be coming over the next few weeks, so by the time the game is released you’ll be fully trained up in the art of spirit hunting. We’ll also be introducing you to new spirit families so have a look around the Spirit Hunters Inc site to get properly acquainted with the game. We’re getting very excited that the release date is getting closer! Hopefully you are too!
If you want to get more of an insight into the game, have a read of this Nintendo Life Hands On feature. Nintendo Life also recently interviewed Nic about working with Nintendo and moving to the 3DS eShop. Well worth a read.
Meet Duece,
an Ice Bleecherz spirit
We’re also focusing a lot of our efforts into completing escapeVektor for both the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. We’re so very close to finishing the game and we’re still focused on getting it out by the end of the year on both platforms. So focused in fact that we’re not attending this year’s GCAP (Australia’s biggest game developer event) in Melbourne. We’ve also turned down an invite to a high profile Sydney based event where we would have shown our new games to the public. Not only that, Nintendo Australia are running a Mario Kart competition in Sydney on November 1st, pitching the Australian games communities against each other. We were asked by Aussie-Gamer to join their team and we’ve had to turn that down too! We certainly can’t be accused of not doing our best to get escapeVektor our this year. Let’s hope we make it!
There are plenty of community sites looking for Mario Kart experts to join their teams for the Nintendo Australia competition. The ones we know of at the moment are Vooks, Aussie-Gamer, MMGN and Kotaku Australia. So if you’re over 18, a Mario Kart expert and can be in Sydney to race on the evening of November 1st, give one of the community sites a shout. You might end up winning a 3DS XL signed by Charles Martinet!
OK, time to go. Vektor is calling!
Tags: 3DS XL, Aussie-Gamer, Charles Martinet, Convict Interactive, EB Expo, escapevektor, gcap, Kotaku Australia, Mario Kart competition, mmgn, Nintendo Australia, Nintendo Life, Nintendo World Report, Pietriots, Potaku, Spirt Hunters Inc, The Frag, The Indie Game Magazine, Triangle Man, vooks, Wii U