Our EB Expo Experience
If you’ve been keeping up to date with our news you’ll know we’ve been pretty busy lately. Not only have we announced our new game, Blast ‘Em Bunnies, we’ve also been working with 2 other Australian developers to publish their games on consoles. We bringing Cubemen 2 from Melbourne studio 3 Sprockets to the Wii U. We’re also bringing ORBITOR, developed by Canberra based Evil Aliens, to console(s). Hopefully we’ll have news on which one(s) soon. If there is a specific platform you’re keen to see ORBITOR on let us know in the comments section below or send us a message via Facebook or Twitter.
The recent EB Expo video game convention in Sydney was a perfect opportunity for us to get all the developers together and showcase this trio of tremendous titles. Expos like this are a great chance for developers to talk directly to consumers, for us to show where we are in the development process and get direct feedback from the gaming public. It’s also a chance for us to spread the word via the games media who attend the event. This year’s EB Expo was also the first time we’ve had a game on a console manufacturer’s stand at a major expo with Blast ‘Em Bunnies showcasing on the PlayStation stand as well as the Nnooo booth!
Nic celebrates at the PlayStation stand
We were invited to PlayStation’s press event the night before EB Expo opened its doors to the public and were delighted to see we were featured in the IT section of The Australian (a national newspaper) the next day.
The Nnooo booth was in the Homegrown Gaming area of EB Expo and we were flat out for the whole weekend. We gave out around 1,000 flyers and had hundreds of eager fans lining up to play all 3 games.
The PlayStation 4 version of Blast ‘Em Bunnies will have the option to use the gyroscope controls of the DUALSHOCK 4 controller to aim and the expo was a great opportunity to see how easy it was for people to use the controller in this way. We switched off the analog controls so players had no choice but to use the gryroscope. Most loved the experience but some were completely thrown by the sensitivity in the controls. Just watching people play gave us a valuable insight in what we need to do to tweak the gyroscopic aim for the game. For those who would prefer to aim using more traditional analog controls don’t worry, there will be a choice of gyro or analog in the finished game.
Seon Rozenblum, founder of 3 Sprockets, made the trip from Melbourne to showcase Cubemen 2 on the Wii U. The 3 Sprockets team have made great progress on the Wii U version of the game and we’re pleased to say Cubemen 2 plays really well using the Wii U GamePad to direct and control your Cubemen army. Seon assures us he’s still on target for a late 2013/early 2014 release date on Wii U and we can’t wait to play it! Cubemen 2 is currently available on Steam, the App Store and the Mac App Store.
Seon presents Cubemen 2 on stage
The Evil Aliens team showcased ORBITOR at last year’s EB Expo and many people who came by the booth recognised the game. In fact last year’s show is where we first saw ORBITOR too and we thought it would look great on console. It wasn’t until only a few months ago that we started talking to Evil Aliens about publishing the game. It was great having Dale Ward of the Evil Aliens team on hand to talk fans through the ORBITOR experience. The game also has an awesome soundtrack (written by Dale) which you can listen to on SoundCloud. ORBITOR is currently making its way to the top 100 on Steam Greenlight. If you would like to see Evil Aliens publish this great game on Steam you can vote for it now.
Our booth also received plenty of press attention. Digitally Downloaded interviewed Dale on game development and the challenges of Kickstarter, Esperino interviewed Seon about Cubemen 2 and what’s next for 3 Sprockets and Blast ‘Em Bunnies was previewed by Digitally Downloaded and The Otaku’s Study. Nic was also interviewed by Esperino about Blast ‘Em Bunnies. and the Bunnies were also featured in last week’s episode of Player Attack TV (at 05:37). A friendly bunch of local YouTubers called From the Mind of Klink (and Friends) went round the Homegrown Gaming area and recorded 26 video interviews with indie developers, including us. What a feat! Finally, Blast ‘Em Bunnies and ORBITOR both featured in Digitally Downloaded’s Top 10 Games to Look Forward to.
The best part of showing our games at an expo is seeing the reaction of players. One kid, who was there with his dad, played our Blast ‘Em Bunnies demo, turned round and said “Dad, this is the best game I’ve ever played.” Hearing this response makes all the late nights, the long bug fixing sessions, the endless polishing all worthwhile. It’s the best feeling ever, ask any developer. It was capped off with another kid wandering over to our booth with his mum. “I don’t want to play anything,” he said. “I just wanted to thank you for making Spirit Hunters Inc. It’s my favourite game.” Oh man, that’s enough to melt the hardest developer’s heart. And that’s why we make games!
Tags: 3 Sprockets, Blast 'Em Bunnies, Cubemen 2, Dale Ward, digitally downloaded, DUALSHOCK 4 controller, EB Expo, Esperino, Evil Aliens, Mind of Klink (and Friends), ORBITOR, ORBITOR soundtrack, Player Attack, playstation, PS4, Seon Rozenblum, The Otaku's Study, Wii U