Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category
Posted on May 18, 2009 - by Eric
App #1 Status Report
The Iphone apps marketplace is wrought with GOTCHAs! and mysteries that releasing something feels like a videogame all in itself. Do something wrong and your app will go down hurtling to the depths of obscurity and its GAME OVER for your awesome (at least you thought so) app.
That is why all the publicly shared sales stats and strategies are very much appreciated and have even give the whole community a sense of comradeship. After reading countless articles and forum posts on countless websites. We have realized that even with our TopTop5 and iLuc (project name) being smaller scoped than most of our app design doc, we need to go smaller.This has to do with Iphone dev being a really really new environment for us and also to minimize risk while we learn to navigate the market.
As a result, both of those apps are now pushed down the pipeline and 4 smaller, newly designed apps are put ahead. These apps are designed with the following points in mind;
- the concept has strong ties to a real world object (so its instantly recognizable and inviting)
- its a wholesome affair (don’t want to restrict ourselves to male demographics) BUT has to have a certain edge to it (we generally don’t like toothless games, they are easy to forget)
- the app’s ELEVATOR PITCH should be strictly communicable in ONE SENTENCE.
These apps while smaller in scope are still built to be fun and are no way something that buyers will feel cheated in terms of value. As a preview, here is the title screen.
behind a frosted glass
Its been that “Ideas are a dime a dozen, good execution is the most important thing”, however, seeing that these apps are pretty easy to clone (and we are still noobs). You can’t blame us for being over protective. Anyway, I hope you stick around. As we are already running prototypes on our devices and there may be more to report on in the coming weeks
Posted on April 29, 2009 - by Eric
Project#1′s Icon
isn't he a standout?
We just moved from pre-production to production on our project. We are still trying some stuff out in Unity and I am designing assets and elements to be used in the game. But at this point there is little to show. And in the literal interpretation of that sentence. Here is a little thing to show as a peek to our Iphone game set to debut in the next two months.
The background color is meant to be different from the majority of the apps. I have observed a light blue commonality amongst casual games’ icon so that was retained. Red is always an attention grabber. The 5 is included to hook the “reading” potential purchaser. We look forward to letting you preview some stuff. Maybe I can show you some 3d model in the next weeks. Stay tuned!
Posted on April 22, 2009 - by Eric
EcoSaviors won 2nd Place!
Can you move over, Balance?
The results are in! EcoSaviors got 2nd place, warts and all. The fine folks at whosegame have excellent taste I’d say, Balance and Hallo were my picks as probable winners and I was spot on. Anyway, we won 2,500 euros and finally have a trophy to our name. Thanks to all the friends and nice strangers who voted for us (we didn’t win the public voting though). This will surely go a long way in making Cavalcade Games stronger and better equipped to make fun games!
Posted on April 19, 2009 - by Eric
The last shameless plug – Vote for EcoSaviors
expiration date imminent
Today is the last day to vote for our game. I have been shamelessly asking everyone to vote for our game as we could use the winnings to totally go full time on developing game. What that means is 100% more time for iteration and 100% more time for polish.
The voting procedure is nothing but simple so I had several friends that just gave up and didn’t vote. But for those who are willing to spend the effort, here it is;
- go to whosegame.com
- sign up for the new account
- fill up the form (and captcha!)
- go to your email address
- activate your account
- go back to whosegame.com
- locate the contest page, vote for 1 game on each column
- press validate button below
Thanks to everyone who voted, especially our friends from FGL.com and the facebook community. We only have several hours left before the public voting closes. I hope we win something.
Posted on March 30, 2009 - by Eric
Introducing the EcoSaviors
A most excellent logo
We are proud to intro our newest game, EcoSaviors! The game is about the importance of telecommunications and eco-friendliness, but don’t close this tab just yet, because these boring subjects are wrapped in an exciting game!
The gameplay is inspired by the Scorched Earth/Worms PC games of yore with the controls brought into the 21st century. Add to it a Peggle style bounce risk-reward mechanic that adds depth and thrill to the proceedings.
EcoSaviors has the player helping people around the world coordinate the reversal of the ecological fortune of planet Earth. Aliens have deemed the human race as useless caretakers of the planet and proceeded to destroy all the man-made stuff then eliminate us. Mercifully, the aliens saw our desperate cries and have given us one last chance to fix the planet. Unfortunately, most of the telecommunication networks have been destroyed. So its up to the player to sort out messages manually by aiming and charging packets to the right person while avoiding stuff that mess up with your delivery.
The game was made to be an entry to Whosegame.com’s Serious Games Contest in which you have to choose between three goals.
- improve your knowledge in the telecommunications field
- be an eco-citizen with the help of telecommunications
- acting against isolation and exclusion thanks to telecommunications
One packet coming up!
Being greedy little SOBs, we designed a game that addressed all three goals and thus EcoSaviors was made. The game is a diorama of the concept of telecommunications (how it helps us become united, coordinated and much more effective) and the message that WE need to get our shit together to fix this planet. So yeah, as far as serious games go, that is f$#king serious. 
The game has representations of world leaders, scientist communities and engineers exchanging data required to put their plans into motion. The players have these stars that stand for reputation, bungle it and the people will not be pleased. Each successful transfer nets you points which you can then use to restore your reputation (bribes! realistic this game is) OR fund the next phase of Earth’s ecological rehabilitation. The bounce mechanic enables players to have micro decisions to shoot directly and get easy scores OR bounce it off to get more points but risk losing the packet.
Concepts of clouds distorting packets, storms totally eliminating packets, satellites, switches, routers, broadcasting, laptop, cellphone, radio communication, etc are all in the game. In it is also the infocards. An openly available set of pop-ups that contain useful researched information about game objects. This is available at all time even in the main menu. There is also the unlock stages found in the story mode’s level select. You can skip ahead and play later stages if you want. We did this with our past game Keyboard ActionHero but it now comes with a developer’s warning. I am somehow against locking content but I am aware of the psychological stimulant that is earning things in game. This is our compromise.
Worth talking about is the project screen and how it evolves the background scenery. Hover over the blocks and you will get information about possible solutions to different aspects of the ecology problem. This took me awhile to research and to tie to the scenery. But its something that added significant educational value to the game so totally worth it.
So without further ado, here is Cavalcade Games’ newest offering EcoSaviors.
If you can spare a couple of minutes, please register at whosegame.com and vote for a game(preferably ours!) and in each category.