Interview with 'Falchion Games'

We speak with Ben Burns Co-Founder of 'Falchion Games' on there new upcoming game 'Go To Hell Dave'.

'Go To Hell Dave' is a comical, retro point and click adventure game where the player takes control of the character Dave. You will take Dave on a tour through Hell's 9 floors on this hilarious adventure that cannot be missed. We find out more about the game and why you'll want to explore the not so familiar depths of Hell.

1. Go to Hell Dave as described is a retro point and click adventure game, but how did the this concept come about and what is the story line for the game?

Go to Hell Dave is all about a guy called Dave who crashes his car into a lamp-post whilst driving to the supermarket with his girlfriend. He wakes up at the gates of Hell, but this isn’t hell as anyone knows it. His girlfriend is missing, Satan is nowhere to be seen and Hell has become a dilapidated mess, filled with housing estates, strip clubs and all manner of bizarre and wonderful things.
The concept came about when we decided to start up our own studio and basically just wanted to make fun of British society. We had always had a lot of love for point-and-click adventure games and their naturally comedic tendencies were a logical choice for lampooning an entire country.


2.What do you think it is about Retro games that people love so much?

I can only really speak for myself, but I often find that the nostalgia factor plays a huge role. There’s something almost comforting about playing something that reminds me of my childhood; a simpler time when I didn’t have to take out the trash or pay council tax.


3. It is said that the game will have a lot of British humour throughout, what style of comedy inspired this within the game?

We’re big fans of classic British comedy such as Red Dwarf, Monty Python and Blackadder. British humour can often be quite surreal and at times, a little dark. But we also love American comedy, particularly some of the awesome animated shows such as Archer and the Boondocks. So we’ve mixed it up a bit and tried to be imaginative whilst also using references that people (particularly geeks and gamers) will chuckle at.

4 As its said to be British comedy do you think this type of comedy is universal to more than just the UK?

I’ve always felt that humour is universal. There are certain elements of human life that anybody, anywhere experiences. This is especially true in an age when we’re all constantly connected. Comedy is certainly subjective, but I think that when you have compelling characters and cool locations to explore, the humour comes organically from within the context of the setting.



5.The art style for Go to Hell Dave is a very nice cartoon style, was this to fit in with the comical type of game that it is?

Absolutely. The cartoony art-style juxtaposes really nicely with the often harsh locales that one would expect when exploring the underworld and enables us to maintain an overtone of humour, without sacrificing on the badass.


6. On the prototype videos the character of Dave does have voice acting, will all other character within the game have voice acting and, if so, are you looking to get a number of people doing them or do you plan to do it yourself?

Yes. We are currently in the process of casting all of the NPCs and we have already got some excellent talent on-board, including professional actors who have performed in box-office hits such as ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Jack and the Giant Slayer.’

7.There is mixed views on how it can be a difficult process in creating a game independently, how do you feel about development cycle in creating your game?

It certainly isn’t a walk in the park. We’ve had to sacrifice a lot just to keep working on the game and we still haven’t paid ourselves a salary. But we’ve had a lot of support from friends and family and (perhaps most importantly) from the gaming community. When you know people are excited about your game and you know that you have a fun game in the works, that is more than enough to drive you onwards.


8. Except from the obvious point and click aspect of the game will there be any other game mechanics in the game the player can look forward to?

We have some cool ideas in the works. I don’t want to say too much at this early stage but we intend to implement RPG-style combat, but not in the way anyone would expect and it will be purely optional and not even slightly serious.


9. Go to Hell Dave will also have 9 levels of Hell, What kind of level design and places will the player have to explore?

The nine levels will include a council estate, a country club, a Pokémon-style world of stamp collecting and battling and a boring sewer level (because every game has to have one.)

10. The game will be available on Steam, will it be available for any other type of platform in the future?
We hope to port it to Mac and Linux and we would love to get it on PSN or XBL. We’re also looking into the possibility of Android and Ouya. At the end of the day, we just want people to have access to our game and have fun playing it. So any platform that makes that happen is a possibility for us.


11. Go to Hell Dave will be going on to Kickstarter soon, if funded what is the money going towards for the game?

Amongst other things, the main bulk of the money will go towards paying our artists and voice actors, upkeep of our office and any publishing expenses. Pretty standard stuff really.


12. Some Kickstarters have numerous Tiers in which someone can give more money to back the game, have the team looked into what the Tiers will be like and will there be any benefits of backing more?

Yes. We intend to have some pretty cool tiers ranging from basic game packages that may include t-shirts, soundtrack or art-books. Right up to tiers that will enable you to send us pictures of yourself to be drawn, animated and put in the game as an NPC.

And Thats everything we have today from 'Falchion Games' be sure to check out the progress on the game with videos, art and more about Dave below:

From the office of Falchion Games: Go To Hell Dave

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=109393605&searchtext
Fb: http://www.facebook.com/GoToHellDave
W: http://www.gotohelldave.co.uk/

T: https://twitter.com/GoToHellDave

Thanks very much for Reading

ZebruhGaming

For more updates on Gaming new, Reviews and Indie Games follow me on twitter and more

http://zebruhgaming.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact.html

Premier Disaster

Premier Disaster was my first ever creation. My 1st year project consisting of myself, and 2 programmers. I created all the art work and Steven the programmer helped a lot with the the videos and trailers to make the game intro's etc look awesome.

 Premier Disaster is a Tower defence game that was to be created to the specification of a cinema based game. We decided to create the whole game cinema themed. The player is the key in defending a premier of a film where all the best actors and idols in the world are gathered. The famous names included are Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris,  Morgan Freeman and Justin Bieber. As you may have noticed the artwork for the characters are on the outside of this text. The player must use the popcorn shooters and more to stop crazed fans and paparazzi that are trying to get to the biggest celebrities. There are three    levels of the game and the fans get faster and stronger

 meaning you need to use  the towers efficiently to make them most effective. 

The video here shows all the towers you can use and what you need to do in the game in a power point format.

OZ

In my 2nd year at Cali we were to create a 2D platform game based on one of the short novels in the book 'SUM' by David Eagleman. Thus 'OZ' was created. Within the short story of “OZ” in the novel 'SUM'  you are given the chance to meet your creator however you must overcome various obstacles including : Fear , Self-doubt and Self-Pity, this gave us the start of our game and we used this concept. We used three characters in the movie OZ; The Lion, Tin Man and The Scarecrow, the player had to switch between characters to progress through the level. For instance The Scarecrow cant defeat enemies due to 'Fear' so you must switch to The Lions to beat the enmies and there are various platforms that character cannot stand on creating a challenging game as you have to know which character to switch to to progress in the level.

As in the Novel this journey is not a pleasant one, all the levels were created to a dark atmosphere to give a sense of terror and that this is a nightmare scenario. The levels were created on tiler and it was a difficult project for the team as it was software that no one had used before but we worked with what we had and the end product was ok to say the least.

Have a look at the video to see our trailer with some gameplay aspects.

Thanks for reading

ZebruhGaming

Interview with 'T-Go Co Games'

Today we speak with Jon Evans the founder of T-Go Co Games creating a strategy mobile game coming soon to IOS and Android. We find out everything about the game and what you can expect when its released. 

1. For the people who don't know, who does T-Go Co games consist of and how did the team come together?

T-Go Co Games was originally just myself with artwork provided by my brother. I started the company while I was finishing university as I had always wanted to make games and the mobile market seemed to have brought back the days when just a few people could work together to make games and actually make a living doing it.

I made my first game (War Machines) just to see if I could make a game. I hadn't done any coding in Objective-C, but I downloaded Xcode and followed a book by Ray Wenderlich called "Learning Cocos2D", and in a few months I had something playable. I wasn't really intending on releasing it, but I decided that it was good enough to warrant having my brother make some art for me and to actually get it out on the app store.

Aside from learning the actual process of creating and submitting a game, I think the biggest thing I took away from this initial experience was that marketing was incredibly important to being successful. I read somewhere that being successful with a game was 1/3 about the game itself, 1/3 marketing, and 1/3 luck. That seems about right to me, yet I still see a lot of indies not marketing their games. It's not necessarily what everyone wants to be doing, but you have to do it if you want to succeed!

This has led me to my current position where I have found talented people to help me make the games that I want to make (and play!), so I can offload some of the development work (and all of the artwork, since I have zero artistic talent!) and spend more time designing and marketing. I've actually spent more time marketing than I had initially wanted to, but I know how important it is so I make sure to keep it up.

The current team consists of myself, Martin Nanni (producer), Ivan Stur (art director), Senshi Antares (texture artist, UI artist), Leandro Wainberg (developer).

2. Diesel Tactics is the new up coming game from T-Go Co Games but are there any other games that have been created in the past that perhaps people aren't aware of? 

As I mentioned, the only game I've made before (that was released anyway!) is War Machines for iOS devices.

3. As i said Diesel Tactics is the new game in development, what is the game about and how did the idea come around?

Diesel Tactics is an asynchronous, turn based, tactical game with an army building component. Wow, that's a mouthful!

The game was inspired primarily by Hero Academy and tabletop games like Warhammer 40k and Dust Tactics.

                               

4. What inspired you in creating Diesel Tactics to be turn based strategy game?

I love tactical games like Hero Academy, but my main issue with it was the random aspect of how you get units and items to use, and the fact that each army had a set deck of those units and items. I wanted a game just like that, but where I could also build my army in the same way that you do in Warhammer and Dust Tactics. I love that aspect of those games (and similarly the deck building aspect of CCGs) as I feel creating your army is like a game by itself and also lets you play the combat portion of the game in a way that you want to.

Something that we want to do with Diesel Tactics is to let players play the game how they want to. They can build a fast, mobile army that can outmaneuver their opponents, or they can make an army of big, tough, hard hitting, but slow units, or anything in between!

5. You discuss on tgocogames.com that you have always had a love for board games bringing the strategy of board games to mobile devices, What created the passion you have for board games and do you have a favourite board game you play?

When I was pretty young I remember being introduced to the board game Talisman, which was a step up in complexity from the games that I was used to playing, and just thinking it was awesome! The fact that the characters were actually different from each other (unlike, say, Monopoly), the idea that you could actually improve your character as you played, and the concept that skill had more to do with things than luck, were all things that made me realize how deep and interesting a board game could be.

I remember after that that I always wanted to modify rules or add new ones to all the games I played, as I often felt things didn't work well (even if it was just the fact that I didn't really understand their purpose as a kid!) and I wanted to make it more like the game I wanted to play.

When mobile gaming came around I saw a real possibility to make games like all the ones that I loved growing up (with my own twist on things of course!), and I think other people are realizing the same thing as so many games are coming out that are translations of board games. I actually had on my list of games that I wanted to make was something like Warhammer Quest since I thought it would translate amazingly to mobile devices, and it turns out I was right!

My current favourite board games are Dust Tactics and a bit of a silly one (but great to play with a few drinks!) called Dungeon Fighter.

6. What happens on a daily development cycle for Diesel Tactics?

Wow, this one really depends on the day! Most days right now are dealing with creating our menus and in game UI system, implementing the code for the combat system, advertising our game through social media (and doing interviews!), finalizing the animations for the units, and a lot of tweaking and changes as we see things come together! I'm basically involved in everything, so my days are generally all over the place, which is nice as it keeps me busy.

7. Diesel Tactics is a game you can play against other players over IOS and Andriod, how does this concept work and how will it differ from the offline modes?

Well, first of all, Diesel Tactics won't have an offline mode! Just like Hero Academy (and a lot of other asynchronous games), there is only an online mode.

The game works just like any other asynchronous turn based game (like Hero Academy or Words With Friends) where you play multiple simultaneous games and you have a few days to input turns. The big difference with Diesel Tactics is that it uses a WeGo combat system. This is because the game has a random chance element that a lot of asynchronous games do not. For example, when you shoot at someone you have a percent chance to hit and to wound them. We can't let the player know whether they hit or not until after they submit all of their attacks as they can undo moves and redo them until they are satisfied with their orders. Because of this we let both players input their attack orders, and only then do we calculate who hit who and who died. All attacks from both sides happen at the same time (though the initiative of the units themselves matters!), which is why it's called a WeGo combat system: it's not "I go then you go", but "we go!"

8. There are thousands and thousands of mobile games available in store. How does Diesel Tactics differ from other mobile games to avoid it being overlooked?

I've honestly looked for years and have yet to find a game with asynchronous turn based tactical combat AND army building. Forget about something like that with a WeGo combat system!

Also, as I said earlier, marketing is something that matters so much for this exact reason. There are thousands of apps out there, so you've gotta make sure people know about yours! I put a lot of time into advertising and marketing and I'm hoping that we're slowly getting into the general gaming zeitgeist. I feel that once we have some gameplay videos and a couple trailers that we can really start getting the word out!

9. Will T-Go Co games always just be about mobile games or will it ever venture into any other platforms?

We'd love to get into games on Mac and PC (and maybe other platforms!) soon, and in fact one of the things we want to do for our (possible) Kickstarter campaign is to have Diesel Tactics come out on those platforms as well. The biggest plus of mobile gaming is the low barrier to entry, though that has dropped dramatically for Mac and PC recently, so having our game out on them is a definite possibility!

10. After Diesel Tactics is there any other games that your looking to develop and what is the next step for T-Go Co Games?

Once the game is released the plan is to add more nations (teams) to the game. We're starting with 2 and would like to have at least 4-5.

While we are doing that we will likely begin work on our next project, which I'm not sure what it will be yet, but we have a bunch of ideas on the table!

Id like to thank T-Go Co games doing the interview with myself and you can check out all there social media below:

Website : http://www.tgocogames.com/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/TGoCoGames

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/tgocogames?fref=ts

I hope you enjoyed the interview guys and be sure to check out the company and the development on the game. 

Thanks for Reading 

Check back for more indie developers and other gaming news,

ZebruhGaming

Why gamers love Retro Video Games

Square Pixalated graphics, little to no voice overs, bland story line with little innovation, its a strange affair why us gamers love old games, but we do. There is something about retro games that make us gamers giddy at heart, but why do we love them so much? And why do retro themed titles like Hotline Miami, Super Meatboy and Fez still make it within an industry focused on compelling story lines and outstanding graphics?

Well as i raise this question i understand there is no definitive answer. There are a number of reasons why people love retro games and the spec for classifying what a retro game is can be quite large so it is difficult to cover every aspect. However there are a number of points I intend to cover to why we love these games as much as we do.

                                           (Photo taken at Scottish Game Jam 2013)

 An aspect of why we love retro games is because the amount of passion that actually goes into making them a worthy experience. Now thats not to say that current gen developers dont have a passion for what they're doing. Its a sense that games like 'The Last of Us' will have loads of people working on it, a number of peoples views on the development of the game and they have deadlines to be met with the company they are working for overlooking everything that they do, to make sure its done to there standard. With this there doesnt seem to be a lot of room for personal involvement in creating the game and it can be said what the company care for, are sales and how much money they can make. However with retro games, it is usually a small based team that can put there heart into it and put all there personal feelings into the game. They work for themselves and if there happy with what there doing thats that. With small teams working for themselves there is a bigger sense of risk, they put the things that they will enjoy in the hopes that others will. They know the benefits of the money side of things but create the game more on hobby based terms and sharing an experience with others and this is something that we appreciate greatly. I think a number of people are aware of what goes into creating a game and the difficulties it brings and we appreciate the fact that 2-4 people have came together to create a fun experience for us to enjoy.

Taking a trip down memory lane. There is something about the new retro themed games with there 8 bit graphics, that take us back to a time when blowing on the game cartridge was a legit way to solve any freezing issues and hundreds of tangled wires behind the TV that we gamers miss and love. It reminds us of when we were young and everything that games meant to us. So as games have developed and they keep, in essence, to there roots, we cant help but be in awe as a square man jumps about a 2D platform.

Borderlands DLC out soon; DLC coming to Bioshock; New patch for Aliens: Colonial Marines; Mario Nintendo 64 patch? Not quite. Something that happens near enough with every game is downloadable content that either adds extra to the already 'finished' game, or a patch that is suppose to fix various areas of the game. This is something that gamers have learned to accept, but why? Back in the day when a game released it was finished. It was a complete experience and we would play that over and over again. The next we would actually here something about the game being released was the sequel to the previous one. Thats not to say that with the DLC's that come out for current gen games that we dont enjoy them. Its the patches that are, in my opinion, the most irritating and the fact that games that get released are generally not finished. An example would be The Walking Dead telltale game an amazing game that received a number of awards for being that good. However when released on disc with all the episode, its buggy, at times jumpy and slow and we accept it. Reviews brush by the these facts stating everything amazing about it despite some minor bugs. But why have we grown accustom to these faults in a game?  That is a reason why people love retro games, its finished. Its the experience that the developer intended for you to have with nothing to add. A complete experience for you to enjoy.

Press A to open door, Grapple highlighted objects, Follow the yellow brick road. The challenge and mystery within current gen games seems to be lost. A number of people miss the challenge of learning things themselves and a case of not being carried through a story. There is an obvious reason why current gen games do what they do, they want you to follow the story and progress with each cut scene that comes but to do that they may have to highlight various things so you dont fall off track. But some gamers hate that. Most want to be thrown into the world and to learn everything themselves. It gives the player a sense of achievement and takes them through the emotions as they get to there goal. Super Meatboy again a perfect example you play the game you learn and enjoy, similar to Mario and Megaman, you play you learn what you do and enjoy the experience. Even if half way through the experience you lose your shit and throw controllers off walls, gamers are an insane bunch for a challenge. With Hotline Miami you will die a million times before you learn yourself what you have to do to get to your goal, and when you do it there is a brilliant sense of relief and accomplishment. Where as current gen games after failing a few times or waiting about not knowing what to do, you'll probably get a hint of some sort to push you in the right direction which can put a downer on the experience.



All these aspects discussed are purely opinion based. Some people may hate retro games fuck knows why, but there is something special about these old fashioned games that we love and will always have a place in our heart for years to come. Be it nostalgia or the difficulty of the game there are a number of reasons why they leave a print on our lives, whatever the reason there's nothing truer than the fact they mean something to us and they are gems to be cherished for a long time to come.


So why do you love Retro games? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading


ZebruhGaming

You can follow me on twitter and Google + for updates on everything i post.

https://twitter.com/gmasson1


Id also like to thank the people that contributed through my post on Google+ to get a broad outlook of retro games, it is much appreciated.

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Interview With 'The Basement Studios'

Today we have an interview with a Small Indie development team creating a different kind of game that is fun, innovative and most certainly addictive.

The Basement Studios have been hard at work creating Typocalypse 3D and we get up close and personal exploring various aspects of this sure hit coming to www.Kongregate.com. Enjoy.


1. Firstly for those who don't know, who does 'The Basement Studios' consist of and how did the team form?

Hey! First of all I’d like to thank you Gavin for giving us the opportunity for an interview. We’re a very small indie game development team and we need all the support and exposure we can get.

I’m Andreas Grech, the programmer on the game. With me are Cameron Saliba, the artist and Richard Schembri, the website developer. About six months ago, I started working on a prototype for a typing-shooter game in Unity. A week and a half later, I showed it to Cameron and he was really psyched about it! And that’s when our little indie game dev “company” was born. Roughly two months later, I approached Richard who’s an old schoolmate of ours and told him about the plans I had for a website which would store and display detailed player and game session statistics. He liked the idea and came on board to take charge of this site.



2.The current game in development 'Typocalypse 3D' is currently in the beta stage and will be available on Kongregate.com in the future. How would you describe the game for the readers?
That’s correct. Typocalypse 3D is a typing shooter game which will be released in August, 2013. In the game, you will take the role of a soldier who was assigned to single-handedly defend the stranded army barracks in the middle of nowhere.

To fight off the countless waves of zombies (yup, there are zombies), you must correctly type the word above their heads and this will down them. But you must also make use of the powerups that periodically drop in the field. There are currently four powerups in the game; Slow Time, Landmines, Rapid Fire and C4.

The Slow Time powerup slows time itself, allowing you to handle the incoming zombie waves better. Rapid Fire makes the player go berserk, killing the nearest zombies instantly...while also slowing down time. Landmines and C4 on the other hand are explosives which are dropped on the field. The landmines detonate on enemy impact and the C4 are detonated manually by typing the word above the explosive. Both do area damage to nearby zombies. There are three difficulties in the game, varying from a slow typer to a typing wizard, so anyone can take a stab at it to measure their typing skills.


3. 'Typocalypse 3D' isn't the kind of game you usually see today and it is very original. How did the team come about the creation of the game?

Back in 2010, my friend Marc Tanti and I attended a two-day XNA course at our local university, and for the second day the instructor told us to come up with a small XNA game; so we teamed up, rushed to my basement, and in ~15 hours we came up with a typing game we called Typocalypse.

Both Marc and I worked on the programming of the game round the clock to try and get as much work done as possible in the few hours that we had. When the gameplay was finished at ~5 in the morning, Marc recorded the sound effects and ambiance and then we left the basement to go and show off our game to the class. Funnily enough, we were then too tired the following day (we slept in class) and ended up not demoing the game after all...but I digress.

And so, as my first project in Unity, I chose to “rewrite” my old typing game in 3D...and now we have Typocalypse 3D!

4. The development cycle can be a grinding process, but on a usual day to day basis how does your team go about the development cycle of the game?

All three of us have non-gamedev related day jobs and because of that we have to work nights. Stereotypically enough, we “operate” from a basement and thus it was very appropriate to name our team that. Working in a basement has its benefits; for starters, we can immerse ourselves working on the game without any social distractions from the outside. In fact, the only time we need to leave the basement is when we need our coffee fix...but that’s only until I manage to acquire some coffee machine to leave in our room.

We meet round 3-4 times a week and try to get as much possible during this time, especially collaborative work (level design, mechanics tweaks and fine tuning, etc...). We start by jotting down on the whiteboard what stuff needs to be finished by that day and then brainstorm the best way to go around it. After every couple of hours we stop for a coffee break and then carry on with the “work”.

We also have a lot of game design sessions where we sit down together on one computer and collaboratively tweak the mechanics of the game for hours on end to make sure that we get things right.


5. 'Typocalypse 3D' is a unity developed game and with unity it can be put on various platforms. In the future is there any plans to make it available for different platforms?

Given the textual and typing nature of the game, it is a bit difficult to port the game to a mobile device (small screen, small keyboard etc...) so for the time being we have no plans of porting the game to other platforms.

Then again, we could always remove the on-screen words and add joystick support with a cross hair to turn it into an Action game ;p


6. Is there any specific kind of games that created an inspiration for the kind of genre that you have developed for?

There is no specific game that was of particular inspiration, apart from the original Typocalypse, but after the idea settled we did some research on the current typing games that are currently on the market to see what’s been going on in the the genre. We found some good typing games, but we also realized that there aren’t actually that many games which focus on this genre specifically, especially games that combine typing skills with action elements.

7. There are a number of zombie games out in the gaming industry and it is a very popular genre. What does your game offer that differs from the others currently in the genre?


In it’s essence, Typocalypse 3D is a typing game but what’s particularly interesting about it is that unlike other games of the genre, it takes more than focused typing to survive. See, the game starts easy enough and you will definitely survive with just your typing skills in the beginning, but as the game gets progressively harder, you will need to make strategic use of the multiple powerups you collect throughout your endurance to survive the waves.

There is some learning curve when it comes to using the powerups strategically due to some induced tunnel effect in the game, but every new powerup you collect is presented with a small instruction panel so that the you understand what the powerup is responsible for and how to use it to your advantage.



8. With the beta version of the game out the players can, for now, only take the role of an 'Endurance' level in essence really a survival mode. What can the players be excited for in the 'Story' mode within game and is there any other modes that will be released?

Exactly, the Endurance mode serves as a battle for the highest score with the leaderboards shown on Kongregate.com. On the other hand, what we have in mind for the Story mode is a rail shooter in which the player moves from area to area clearing waves of multiple enemy types, while at the same progressing on the main story.

It is not yet confirmed if we will work on the Story mode of the game or not, and this all depends on the feedback we get once we release the game with the only the Endurance mode.


9. Apart from 'Typocalypse 3D' is there any other games that The Basement Studios are working on or hoping to work on in the future?

Typocalypse 3D will be the our first game, and after it’s released, we will be working on a new game which we’ll submit for a game development competition here in Malta. The competition is tied to a preset theme, so that will restrict us a bit...but I’m sure we’ll come up with something which is, hopefully, both fun to play and interesting as well, whatever that may be.

During a coffee-driven and sleep deprived week, we came up with a Unity joystick-supported local multiplayer coop prototype for the new game, which we’re hoping we’ll be able to use for this competition.


10. Aside from being hard at work in developing the game, how does the team like to relax in their spare time?

When we want to take a break from the game, we usually stop to make some coffee and then either watch some standup comedy or play some games. This gives us time to clear our heads and be able to come up with new ideas for our game (thinking outside the box and all that...).

All in all though, we actually consider the time we spend working on the game as a break from everything else, including the day job and other real life responsibilities. That makes us appreciate more how lucky we are to be working in such an industry.

This is a wee extra for the fans who are already following the development of the game and would like to know more about the people behind the creation. We asked there hobbies, there favorite game and a genre they'd like to see more in the gaming industry.


Andreas Grech, the programmer.

Hobbies: Programming and Music.

Fav game: Uplink

More genre expansion: Local coop multiplayer games


Cameron Saliba, the artist.

Hobbies: Playing games on the PS3

Fav game: Uncharted

More genre expansion: Action-JRPG games.


Richard Schembri, the website developer.

Hobbies: Boxing, drawing and motorcycle riding.

Fav game: No More Heroes series

More genre expansion: RTS on mobile platforms



Id Like to thank The Basement Studios for taking the time out there busy schedule to participate with the interview. Be sure to check out the game you wont be disappointed and who doesnt love shooting zombies?...Exactly!


You can for now play the Beta here : http://www.kongregate.com/games/agnt666/typocalypse-3d_preview?guest_access_key=c76fbfc36958b892437d06fd0746cbd985ac8dab69592fe4e1af134c40da8315


You can also 'Like' and 'Follow' The Basement Studios for updates on the release of the game and future projects :

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebasementstudios

Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xTheBasement

IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/company/the-basement-studios

Thanks for reading

ZebruhGaming

Follow me on twitter for more game news, reviews and perhaps more Indie Development Interviews.

https://twitter.com/gmasson1

PlayStation Plus Games of the month JULY

Before buying my PS plus subscription i found it rather difficult to actually find the games on the web that were available for this month. There were a countless number of websites that gave me previous games that were available but nothing very clear on what the new releases were. So after purchasing, i was very pleased with the games and it will be something that i will be buying more regularly i thought i would do a monthly post of the games to look out for with PS plus and the others that are available.

Each month i will show my two favorite games of the month and the others in a list that come out to keep things short n sweet.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown -

This is by far my favorite of the selection from PS plus this month. Its a type of game ive never played before  and its just brilliant. Its a nice tactical game and anyone who likes hard thinking games where u need to out smart your enemy it is something you should consider playing. A real gem in my opinion.



                                         







                                                                                                              Saints Row the Third -


 Fun, stupid, over the top game play creates a fun game worth checking out. The customization you have within the game i thought was very nice and you can create your character to look basically like anything you want. And for the gameplay its generally fucking stupid, but far too much fun to give it a miss.













The others for the month of July include:

PS3

• Battlefield 3
• Uncharted 3
• Payday - The Heist 
• Little big Planet Gokarting
• Catherine
• Demon's Soulds
• ICO & Shadow of the colossus
• Malicious

PsVita

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• Gravity Rush
• Sine Mora
• Ninja Gaiden
• Unit 13

Thanks for reading and be sure to check my favorite for August soon.

ZebruhGaming

Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/gmasson1

Also if anyone wants to add me on Ps3 you can do so by adding 'Hullmate'

 This Blog claims no credit for any images or videos posted unless noted otherwise. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this blog, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

The Walking Dead Episode 1 / Part 4

"A New Day: The Motel"

We arrive with Carly and quickly find Glenn with ease. He informs us that he has heard a woman crying in a locked room and he wants to save her. We cant leave anyone behind and decide to attempt to save her but it wont be an easy task. There are a number of walkers scattered throughout the parking lot of the garage. Two upstairs covering the door where our damsel in distress is, one lying on a car, another distracted by eating a dead body, one behind a caravan and finally one more next to an Axe. We sit tightly behind a brick wall and consider our options.

We pick up a pillow near the wall incase it might be useful for god knows what. We move along the wall and next to a truck near the walker lying on the car. We run over to the walker with Carly, swiftly put the pillow over its face and one silent gun shot through the pillow kills the walker. One down. We open up the car that the walker was lying on, picking up a spark plug and pulling down the hand brake, we push the car toward the walker next to the Axe and the car crushes it against the wall and trapping it in the process. Two down. We move back to the truck noticing a screwdriver inside on the passenger seat. We use the spark plug to smash the window with little noise and take the screwdriver. We run back to the start against the wall near the walker which is still intently eating at the corpse.  We run as fast as we can before it notices us and smash the screwdriver to the back of the head of the walker. Three down. We run passed and next to the caravan. We whistle to distract the walker at the other side of the caravan to come closer to us and one blow to the body with the screwdriver and another deadly blow to the head. 4 down. We move back up to the walker trapped by the car finishing him off with the screwdriver so we can take the axe. We silently move upstairs and with ease take out the two walkers blocking the door with the axe two clean blows to bring them down.

We shout to the woman locked inside and its clear she doesnt want to be saved. We take the matter into our own hands and burst the door down. She comes out covered in blood. Shes been bitten. She is aggressive from the outset wanting to use Carly's gun to kill herself but we wont let it happen. She jumps at Carly trying to take the gun and the struggle collapses the balcony and we crash to the ground. The gun breaks loose and the woman gets the gun and pulls the trigger. This leads to many walkers surrounding us, so we rush to one of the cars and make our way back to town before its too late.

We return to the town and into the shop and not much has changed with Larry is still hanging on. We have to get those keys to open the door and fast. We speak to Doug who lets us outside behind the gate. Its a tragic scene with walkers everywhere. But we are in, unfortunate, luck as we see our younger brother sadly as a walker trapped under a pole and we know he will have the keys. We use a remote we found earlier in the shop and turn the TV's on across the street to distract the walkers, a few take notice but not enough to get to the keys. We bust open the gate to reach a nearby lying brick. We launch the brick at the TV store smashing the windows the light and noise attract enough walkers for us to quickly make our ways to the keys.

Its a tough encounter as our brother tries to attack us. We have a quick heart felt moment to say our good byes till we reluctantly have to plunge the axe into his skull. We get the keys and run as fast as we can back to the shop as the walkers begin to take notice of our arrival.

As we get into the shop and open up the pharmacy to get Larry's medication the alarm is set off which turns the group into a state of panic. Loads of walkers begin to take notice of the shop and are crowding round to push there way through and into the store. We try and help Doug and Carly to keep the door shut but its too much, walkers are getting in through other sides of the shop. Carly leaves to try and fend some off as does Doug. Clementine passes us our dads walking stick that we put through the door to stop them getting through and jamming the door shut.

"NOOOO"

Doug standing by a window smashes and walkers grab him from behind.

"AAAAH"

Carly at the other side out of bullets is grabbed at her ankle by a walker and cant reach for her ammunition.


Its Decision time. Its either Doug or Carly. Who do we save.

With hardly any time to think we save the person who we owe most to. Carly. We run and hand her the ammo which she loads and shoots the walker at her feet and another walker that was close by. We turn to see Doug pulled through the window and mauled by the walkers. Kenny comes through shouting for us to hurry. We run and Clementine is taken down by another walker. We rapidly kick the walker down to free Clementine and run for the door to leave.

"I dont think so"

Larry blocking the door way smashes a fist down on us knocking us to the ground. Once again groggy on the ground we see Kenny burst through and slam the Axe down by our side right on top of a walkers head.

"No way will i see someone else taken by another walker, especially not a friend like you."

Our loyalty to Kenny pays off as he saves us by the skin of our teeth.


We escape and make our way back to the Motel. The group is scattered and still in shock from what has happened. Glenn lets us know hes making his way to Atlanta to try and find his friends. We know its something he has to do and we let him on his way. We pass through the group and comfort one another. We are then confronted by Larry who informs us that he knows all about what we've done and he knows we are a convicted felon and that we need to stay away from his daughter ... or else.

The group decide to stay at the motel as it has some water and we can use the cars to barricade the entrances. We all think everything will be OK hopeing we can hold out here till the military find survivors. Kennys states he has had worst places to live and as long as we have light from the motel sign we can be OK here as we have the advantage of seeing whats what in the dark. And as the words confidently come out his mouth ... Darkness.

To be Continued Next week on the Next episode of The Walking Dead "Starved for Help"



Thanks very much for reading and i hope you enjoyed the First Episode. And i would like to share the first episode statistic with whoever has read these to see how we compare to others who have played the game.

Honesty: Lied to Hershel? Myself and 37% lied to Hershel meaning a large amount of people told the truth 63% to be precise.

Who would you save?: Duck or Shaun? Myself and 49% of people save Duck meaning 51% save Shaun. How could you let a child die? You heartless people.

Loyalty:  Side with Kenny? Myself and 48% of players defended Kenny. Again more so doing the opposite with 52% not defending Kenny.

Mercy: Gave Irene the gun? Myself and 55% of players refused the gun. Meaning 45% were happy to give her the gun and get it over with asap.

Who would you save?: Doug or Carly? Myself and a whopping 76% of players chose to save Carly. Poor Doug. 

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The Walking Dead Episode 1 / Part 3

"A New Day: The Town"

We arrive at the town with no petrol left in the truck. We depart and move into the town hesitant from the destructive scenes before us. We are quickly met by a herd of walking dead and are immediately surrounded. Duck is grasped and taken down. It doesnt look good,Then BLAM! One clean shot is fired through the head of the walker that was toppled on Duck. A woman to our rescue shoots off another two and another man shouts us to enter a local shop getting us to safety just in time before we're surrounded by more of the dead.


We enter to a very hostile environment with a number of people displeased that theyve opened the gates and let us in not knowing who we are. We reassure them that we have children and there is no need for this hostility. One of the older men is furious with the decision and is lashing out at Duck. He thinks he has been bitten and is adamant that we should kill him. We show our loyalty to Kenny by protecting him and his Son. We get aggressive implying we will kick this old mans ass if he doesnt keep his mouth shut. Conversation is aggressive and emotions are high. We tell Kenny to kick his ass and knock him out. Kenny takes a big swiping arm and lands a sweet hit on the jaw of the older man. He retaliates with a big hook to Kennys face knocking him to the ground with ease.

"AAAAAAH" Clementine, who at this point has been trying to go to the bathroom, is attacked by a walker that was locked in there. We quickly rush to her aid falling in the process, probably due to the fact of our still injured leg. Groggy, we get up as fast as we can and push the walker off Clementine before she is hurt. We crash into a shelf and are toe to toe with one of the walkers. We rapidly try and push the walker off but it is a massive struggle. BOOM. The head of the walker explodes before our eyes. We turn and the same woman who saved us outside and done it again, just in time.

The oldman still furious and shouting falls to the ground. His Daughter comforts him and knows whats wrong. He needs his pills and has a heart problem. We offer to help and look for the medication to ease his pain. This point we are introduced to oldman as Larry his daughter Lilly. They are accompanied by a small fat man Doug and the woman who has saved us on 2 occasions Carly. We are also met by Glen who tells us that he is going to go to a motel  to get gas so we can leave this dreaded town. We pass him a walkie talkie and tell him to get in touch if need be and let him on his way.

We walk around the shop and have to find a way behind the shutters to get to Larry's medication. We wander picking up various supplies of energy bars and speak to each person to try and get to know them a little better. But enough procrastinating and we head for the door to search for a way to get the medication.

More information is clear that the shop owners that are not here are your family. We find a smashed photo of  our self, our mum, dad and brother. Carly enters the room unexpectedly and confronts us. She knows who we are and what we've done. She informs us that we are Lee Everit and that we killed the senit for sleeping with our wife. We keep quiet and inform her we want no trouble and there isnt any need to tell the others. She accepts comforting us that she wont tell anyone and lets us on with our task. We move a desk out the way of the door that leads to the pharmacy behind the shutter, but unfortunately the key for the door is locked. Unsuccessful so far we find out that Glen is stuck at the motel when he was trying to get supplies for the group. We get Carly and make our way to save him and bring him back putting the medication to one side hoping Larry can hold out a bit longer. Will he survive for when we get back?

Find out in Part 4 of The Walking Dead



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The Walking Dead Episode 1 / Part 2

"A New Day Part 2: The Farm"

We leave the house and see two men trying to push a car out of the hectic abandoned road. We approach and are mistaken for the walking dead. We quickly assure them we are OK and do not intend to harm them and are just looking for some help. When questioned by one of the men our relation to Clementine we advise we are a neighbor he takes notice of this, as does Clementine. We greet and exchange names of the two men, Shaun and Ched. Conversation is short as we have to rush to get the car out of the road to get out of the town as the walkers quickly  approach. We quickly help and push the car out of the way and make our way for the truck that we intend to use to escape. A very close call as we jump into the car with Ched leaping into the back as walkers just miss our grasp.

This leads us into the night as we journey with the two men to a nearby farm. We are greeted by Shaun's Father, Hershal Greene the owner of the farm and we are interrogated from the outset of our whereabouts and our relations with Clementine. We choose again to explains we are a neighbor to Clementine which she agrees and tells him She is aware of who we are. Hershal kindly tells us we can stay the night and we will need to be on our way from there. He helps fix our injured leg still with a number of curious questions of our whereabouts and what our business is. We feel we have to lie as first impressions are everything and we dont want to explain that we were in a cop car on our way to jail. We tell him we were leaving Atlanta but mistake in saying we were with no one, Hershal is weary of our presence and it is very noticeable that he does not believe what we have said. Either way he lets us on our way to rest in the barn. One restless sleep later, with nightmares and screams which can be assumed to be of Lee's Wife, we are awakened by Kenny.

Kenny introduces us to his enthusiastic son Ken JR other known as Duck and his Wife Katjaa. We part with Clementine and are asked by Shaun to help with fixing the fence round the farm to protect it from walkers. We speak with Kenny first and learn he has a boat and offer a helping hand with the truck he intends to use to leave the farm with his family. He kindly declines and leaves us to help with the fixing of the fence. We meet up with Duck and Shaun at the back of the farm. Shaun is hard at work with Duck having fun on the tractor. Shaun expresses his opinion on what hes seen so far in the world as is turns for the worst. He tells us he has had to see a kid be shot not knowing if it was a walker or if he was just asking for help. We discuss family encounters keeping most information minimum as it stands.We cut the pieces of wood as Shaun's asks us to do so and leave. Shaun thanks us for the help and lets us know he is glad he didnt leave us behind.

We walk to the barn to speak to Hershel. He grinds us for the lies we told him the night before but doesnt make too much of it and gives us some advise for the future that we will have to trust a strangers judgement and that we will have to make hard decisions to stay alive.

"EUGHHHH"

Screams from behind the house are loud and halt the conversation with the rumbling sound of the tracker within the background. We run quickly to the back of the house where Shaun is lying trapped under the tractor with walkers inches away trying to break the fence. Duck is sitting upon the tractor and is grasped and pulled down by a walker. A split decision must be made. Its either to save Shaun or Duck. With no time for hesitation we run towards Duck and help the child first. We punch the walker twice till it loosens his grip on Duck and he is broken free. Meanwhile Shaun is cluttered under two walkers and is mauled by the walkers, Hershal shoots the walkers that surround him but it is much too late.

Hershal Screams and threatens everyone at the farm to get out and leave him be. Kenny offers us a lift into town which will help us progress in our journey. It is clear that Hershal no longer wants us at the farm with the death of his son. We accept and progress into the town. What other threats will lie in the town and will there be a safe place to lay low for us to survive?

Find out in Part 3 of The Walking Dead: A New Day


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The Waling Dead Episode 1 / Part1

Episode 1: A New Day

The story begins in the back of a Police Car with not too much information on why we're here. Being Questioned by the police officer we play it cool and express our innocence and humour him with pleasantries.

"WATCH OUT"

The cop not paying attention crashes into some ghoul on the road, the car spiraling out of control swerves off the road , tumbles and crashes down the hill. Groggy after the crash we hear screams and wake up not in the best condition with a damaged leg and the cuffs still tightly round our wrist. We see the cop lying, presumably dead, with blood all around his body. We look around the car and smash the side window to exit. We maneuver round the car, passed the shotgun and picking up the loose ammo just in case. Unfortunately our attempt to  pick up the shotgun is unsuccessful with the cuffs still at our demise. We approach the body of the cop and reach for the keys in his pocket. As we open the cuffs the cop awakens and jumps towards us. Startled we fall to the ground and back away from the cop not having a clue what is going on. We back into the police car picking up the shotgun as survival instinct and with no time to think or hesitate ... BOOM. One shot blowing the head right off the cop as he crashes to the floor.

Sitting in shock we see a young girl in the distance and shout for help hoping she will in some way aid the situation. Noises approach behind us and slow dead like figures begin to emerge from the bushes. They look worn down and most of them are crippled and ripped apart with limps hanging from there sockets. Not knowing what these things are and where to go we head for the first house jumping over the fence and into a strangers garden. Luckily gun shots are fired far in the distance which distracts these horrible beings. We approach the house, knock and hesitantly enter. Blood is smeared on the kitchen floor and it seems no one has been in the house for a while with all supplies but a walkie talkie left in the cupboards and drawers. 3 Messages have been left for a babysitter and a young girl called Clementine on the answer machine with each message being darker and darker giving us a bigger picture of the mayhem outside. But still no real details in what is going on.

The walkie talkie begins to crackle and Clementine being on the other side begins to talk. We find out she is an 8 year old girl and she has been hiding in the tree house as her babysitter was attacked and her parents out of town on a trip. We ask if she is safe and notice her in the tree house from the kitchen window. Suddenly she screams as we are attacked by a women who does no seem at all right we rapidly press X to push her off. We run, slip and fall on the pool of blood on the kitchen floor hitting our head of the cabinet. Our eye sight hindered we struggle to direct a boot to the womans face as it grabs at us. We crawl to the back door where Clementine hands us a hammer. One strike to the head collapses the dead like woman and 3 more blows to the head to make sure she wont get up. A pleasant way for a first impression to Clementine. We comfort her and our first big decision of the game is made we advise Clementine we will move quick before it is dark taking the safety of daylight and avoiding the darkness at all costs. Will this tactic be a wise choice?

Find out in Part 2 of The Walking Dead "A New Day"



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What do you want to see?

Ive only been doing this for 2 months really now and trying to do as much as i can with reviews etc but id like to hear some feedback from the little people that read this blog.

I will be putting up a poll and i want you to decide which posts youd like to see. The content would be between the following;

The Last of Us Online -  Ive played a few games of this and its something that im really getting into. There are two game types of Survivor and Supply Raid. The basis of mulitplayer is to create a clan each game you get food and supplies to increase the number of people in your camp to avoid poeple getting sick or hungry and there are also a number of challenge to do within the games 12 week period. Survivor has no respawns and its basicallly 4 on 4 death match and to kill every enemy with a number of round. Supply raid is to collect as much food and supplies to try and grow your clan day by day. So the content il being will be how i play and perform and anything exciting that goes on really.

Fifa Pro Clubs -  I play this a lot and have a team with another one of my friends. This content will have the ups and downs and we try and win cup matches and progress in our leagues to get to the division one. This can contain trolling and screamers and i will try and get as much exciting stuff in as i can. And if possible low quality video of saved goals.


The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series -  This is a beloved game and has had heaps and heaps of praise and its something ive really wanted to get into as ive only played the first episode. It will basically be a walkthrough of each episode and what happens in each but it is definitely something il be getting and it is full of story and twists with a number of choices you can make as a character so it may be something you're interested in.

Other?  Any suggestions from your wonderful self would be appreciated if there anything youd like to see please let me know in the comments and it can be anything for the Ps3 as that is the only console i play. But yeah any suggestions will be considered as well.


As i said i have only been doing this for 2 months and im reasonably happy with the views ive had on the blog counting just over a thousand. So if you do read these please share and post your thoughts on reviews and anything else i do it is as always appreciated.

Thanks for reading

ZebruhGaming

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