Posts by Eitan

Got an XBox 360, and want a fun old school platform puzzler for $3? Then go onto the indies channel (XBLIG) and download Escape Goat, the latest offering by Magical Time Bean.

In escape goat you star as an inexplicably purple colored goat who has been imprisoned for witchcraft. Teaming up with a small mouse with a taste for magic hats you have to navigate and escape from 64 puzzle rooms using a relatively simple rule set of jump, dash, push button, avoid fireball. The game shines because the level design is fairly tight and most of the levels are fun and interesting to play, and the few bits of dialog you encounter are relatively amusing.

My gripes with the game are few; the graphics aren’t very impressive, some of the critical elements blend into the background too much, and the game elements all have a similar look and feel (for instance, keys and magic hats look almost identical). However none of these points are damning, and we found ourselves coming back to this for more on a regular basis until we beat the game. The title even comes with a level editor that is surprisingly easy to use and fun to make your own levels.

If you are an indie fan and want a puzzler then this is certainly one to get. And for $3 it’s pretty damn cheap. Go on XBLIG and grab it now!

Oh yeah, and if you like the game’s music (composed by the dev, mixed by Chainsaw of Twisted Pixel fame) then you can grab it for whatever you want here.

We just got back from PAX, and the show was AWESOME! We had an absolutely amazing time, and I’ll follow up soon with pictures and stories from the show. But first let’s talk GO HOME DINOSAURS! Or better yet, let’s start off with with a video shot by Stephen Totilo, the rock star reporter over at Kotaku that gives voice to all the small indies with awesome games. Take a look and you can see the game in action!

As you can see we’ve been busy – we’ve already got a few levels and the art style locked down, along with most of the core functionality. It’s been a crazy few months! We’re still going hard, and we’ll be adding in tons more content and features over the months to come. So if you live near Boston now is the time to start bugging us about coming in to try it out!

It was incredible seeing so many people playing and enjoying our game. Especially considering how nervous we were about putting it out at the show too early! We had tons of kids mesmerized by dinosaurs, hardcore gamers who were determined to protect their BBQ, and couples who wound up playing together. SO COOL. I can’t wait to post pictures.

And let’s not forget the press! Here’s what other people are saying about the game:

• Kotaku – Tetris Plus Tower Defense, But Better This Time
• Destructoid – Hands On: Go Home Dinosaurs!
• Joystiq – Go Home Dinosaurs Preview – Steak ‘N’ Shake

Dinosaur fans, rejoice! We’re incredibly excited to announce our brand new game, Go Home Dinosaurs! We’ve been working really hard on this for the past few months and we can’t wait to show it off for the first time next week at PAX in Seattle. Gonna be attending the show? Then be sure to stop by our booth and try it out! We’ll right in Indie Alley and next to the PAX 10 in booth 6408.

But what’s this? You want to know about the game? Well wonder no more! Go Home Dinosaurs! (GHD! to the cool kids) is a fun new take on tower defense where players fit together puzzle piece shaped weapons powered by small, cute mammals to defend against invading, mischievous dinosaurs. Gophers shooting lasers! Pterodactyls attempting to crash your BBQ! METEORS RAINING DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS! Oh, and did we mention that you can level up your character and gain new dino destroying abilities by collecting and trading cards? It’s true!

This game has it all, blending short, simple, easy-to-get-into fun with deep mechanics that keep things exciting and new. Pack your bags dinos, ’cause you’re going home!

Egg on our face time!

I’ve gotta own up. Last week at the post mortem talk about Slam Bolt Scrappers I misspoke and inadvertently misrepresented the current state of Gamebryo. I said that it was dead, which is not the case – in fact it the engine is very much alive and is still in development thanks to Gamebase Co., Ltd. What I should have said during the talk was that the uncertainty of the future of the Gamebryo engine is what had us concerned.

I apologize for the confusion that my misstatement caused. Working with Gamebryo on Slam Bolt Scrappers was an absolute pleasure and Emergent (and more recently Gamebase) went above and beyond in terms of being a good partner for our studio. I’d definitely recommend the engine to any devs looking for a great cross platform solution for their game.

Whew! I feel better. Time to go play some Mrs. Splosion Man. That game is awesome.

Ever wonder what we think of Slam Bolt Scrappers? What we feel we did well, and where we think we goofed? Well, today is your lucky day! Last night I spoke at the monthly video game developer meet up here in Boston and gave a run down of what went well and what didn’t go well while we were making Slam Bolt Scrappers (what is called a post mortem in the vernacular), and it was really interesting!

In the talk I discuss how we messed up (tutorial problems, too chaotic), how we did well and got lucky (working with SOE, getting the game out early and often), and what was bittersweet (not putting in networked multiplayer, being especially innovative). If you are a SBS fan or interested in how games are made I highly suggest checking it out, it’s a fun watch!

Also, here are the slides if you want to check them out: