Category: Development Blog
New SBS Teaser Up
WHAT IS THIS? Is it a new teaser with all the awesome juicy bits we are going to be showing off at PAX? I DO BELIEVE IT IS.
This teaser is our first time showing off two of the new co-op campaign levels. The first is the Robot Boss, who is fought high up in the snow covered mountains overlooking Slam Bolt City. The second level is Volcano City, where our heroes battle vicious computer AIs and demon chicken riders above pits of fiery lava. This level has a fun twist but if you want to see what it is you’ll have to come to PAX and play it yourself!
Hop into the comments if you want to talk to us about the new level additions. We’ll have a more detailed write up of the new features after PAX. And of course we hope to see any of you that are planning on going to Seattle this weekend! Remember: SCHWAG!
Oh, and we’re on the Sony PlayStation blog! Nice.
August 31, 2010 | | Comments (0)
Category: Development Blog, News
Tags: boss, city, lava, PAX, robot, SBS, Slam Bolt Scrappers, snow, teaser, video, volcano, youtube
Fire Hose Games at Boston GameLoop 2010
Boston GameLoop 2010 took place this past Saturday, and it was honestly one of the coolest games events I’ve ever been to. Turnout more than doubled since last year, so there was a huge crowd around to enjoy the plentiful food, awesome game talks, and endless demos. Fire Hose Games had a good showing, with both Jeff Ward and myself hanging out with the always cool, Boston games community and chatting about our favorite subject: video games.
While Jeff was being coaxed into giving a talk on XNA game development (even though SBS is a PS3 game – he’s wicked smart), Caroline Himmelman from HubSpot and Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games, convinced me to stand next to them making jokes throughout their talk on indie game marketing. Other highlights were overwhelming support for cut-scenes (WTF?!), some text adventure interactive fiction goodness, and getting pummeled in a round of Skulls of the Shogun – the new game from Haunted Temple Studios. While hanging out between sessions, I whipped out my… computer, and forced innocent bystanders to get their scrap on. Glance up and behold the intense focus brought about by round after round of Slam Bolt Scrappers. Now imagine yourself there at GameLoop 2010. Think about how much fun you’d be having… then think about how much more GameLoop 2011 will rock!
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Category: Development Blog, Events
Tags: gameloop, Slam Bolt Scrappers
Slam Bolt Scrappers will be at PAX!
Just 10 days until PAX in Seattle! We’re getting really excited, we’ll be showing off a bunch of new features including new levels, new characters, and this charming guy up top. We’re talking MADNESS, people!
If you are going to be in town for the show be sure to stop by our booth (#3834, next to Square Enix and located on the lower right hand corner of the exhibitor hall map) and say hi! We’ll have some nice schwag to give out to our fans, and of course we’ll have the game for you to play.
Also I’m on a panel along with a bunch of sexy indie devs (Robin Hunicke [thatgamecompany], Nathan Vella [Capybara Games], Dylan Fitterer [Audiosurf LLC], Andy Schatz [Pocketwatch Games]), and we’ll be talking about all sorts of fun new games worth checking out. It’s called “In(die)credible! The Best New Games You Haven’t Played”, and it’s taking place on Sunday, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM, in the Raven Theatre. Come and check it out!
Oh yeah, and we’ll be taking pictures during the show. Oh yes. PICTURES.
August 24, 2010 | | Comments (1)
Category: Development Blog, Events, News
Tags: Andy Schatz, Audiosurf, Capybara Games, Dylan Fitterer, indie, Nathan Vella, PAX, pictures, Pocketwatch Games, Prime, Robin Hunicke, robot, SBS, Slam Bolt Scrappers, thatgamecompany
Conceptualizing Slam Bolt Scrappers
Slam Bolt Scrappers takes place in Slam Bolt City, but the world containing SBS includes several different environments. One of the discussions we had here at Fire Hose Games was, “How can we create an exciting world full of color that takes place in urban and non-city related environments?” The answer boiled down to identifying exactly which elements were affected by the chaos. Slam Bolt City is a world by itself, your kingdom, where things are influenced by outside events. The rest of the world is a battle ground for events that will tie into Slam Bolt City. This mindset allowed us to create some interesting 2D level concepts.
Below is a concept of Slam Bolt City that was designed alongside our other promotional piece – the Slam Bolt Scrappers wallpaper. It does a great job of using color to emphasize the different environments, hinting at the yet to be disclosed storyline.
We’ve also been putting a lot of thought into the scenery of tutorial levels. Many of the later stages have busy backgrounds that are not really conducive to tutorials. One idea we toyed with was creating a Tutorial Island isolated from the craziness of SBC. This concept shows our try at building a less chaotic environment that still captures the excitement of SBS through its colors.
Check out the full sized images in our Slam Bolt Scrappers gallery.
More to come soon…
July 30, 2010 | | Comments (1)
Category: Development Blog
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Job Opening: Production Artist
We’ve got a new job opening for a Production Artist here at Fire Hose! Are you in the Boston area and looking for a new gig? Drop us a line! Here’s the description (also on our jobs page).
Production Artist: The ideal candidate would have some PS3 or 360 experience though that’s not required. Should be excellent at 3D modeling and texturing both characters and environments. We’re a 3DS Max house, so I hope you’re up to speed on that. Rigging and animation skills a big plus. You should be good at working in a small team and able to crank out amazing, top quality art assets.
June 24, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Development Blog, Jobs
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Slam Bolt Scrappers Nominated for Best of E3
On the second day of E3, we found a small, mysterious sticker at our booth. No one seemed to know the details of how or why this sticker was there or what the repercussions were. I was honestly a little worried it was a joke.
But now, the truth is out: Kotaku nominated Slam Bolt Scrappers for Best Gameplay Mechanic at E3 2010! We’re super excited that the good people at Kotaku enjoyed our game enough to nominate it for this awesome award. SBS got some excellent coverage, despite the 20 some odd Sony Moves next to our booth, but this is the icing on the cake. Thanks, Kotaku, you’re making us blush.
More importantly, if you liked the game at E3, your jaw is gonna hit the floor when you see our build at PAX Prime.
June 23, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Development Blog, Events, News
Tags: best of e3, E3, fire hose games, Kotaku, mechanic, Slam Bolt Scrappers
Fire Hose Games and Slam Bolt Scrappers at E3!
We’ve already been showing off Slam Bolt Scrappers at E3 for almost two whole days and have yet to do a single post about it. But not anymore! Here’s the lowdown: Slam Bolt Scrappers is at E3 and the buzz is building to record levels! Gamers of all types have been crowding around our kiosk to partake in as much slamming, bolting, and scrapping as they can. It may have to do with our multiple, awesome locations in the SCEA and SOE booths, but something tells me (by something, I’m referring specifically to the gamers who come by to play) that word has been spreading among the crowd about our game. So, thank you gamers for not only playing Slam Bolt Scrappers and enjoying it, but telling your friends to come by and get in on the fun, too!
And now, here are some highlights from the trip:
- I not only saw a catwoman booth babe, but I also walked in on her changing. Sorry, catwoman!
- A zombie bled all over my Fire Hose t-shirt on day one. WTF, zombie?
- Dance Central by Harmonix looks awesome! Way to go, guys.
- Seven45 has created something incredible with Power Gig. Nice job, Boston devs.
- Random people come to our booth after strangers tell them about how awesome SBS is. Sweet!
- I forced lots of strangers to take pictures of me doing weird things. See above.
Thanks again to all the gamers who came by and played Slam Bolt Scrappers. We’ve been having an awesome time showing off the game and we wouldn’t be here without you.
June 16, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Development Blog, News
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Fire Hose Interview on CouchAthletics Podcast
The awesome team over at CouchAthletics recently asked us for an interview and who are we to refuse an opportunity to share the glory of Slam Bolt Scrappers? Nick from CouchCast was a great host and let us follow all the wild tangents we could come up with. More importantly, we talked about the ins and outs of our game, how we came upon the concept, and got Nick thoroughly excited, as you should be.
You can listen to our interview here or check out the full podcast.
You might have noticed that we mentioned E3. Expect some big news over the next week! In the mean time, bask in the glory of the above picture.
June 9, 2010 | | Comments Off
Category: Development Blog, Events, News
Tags: bruce is drunk, couchathletics, couchcast, interview, podcast
PAX East Madness!
If you haven’t checked out Slam Bolt Scrappers at PAX East please be sure to stop by our booth and do so before the conference ends, we’d love to show you our game! It’s been getting a great response, and I’ve got tons of pictures to upload of people playing (including Dr. McNinja, a giant chicken, and of course the Black Mage).
In the mean time, NEW SCREEN SHOTS!
March 28, 2010 | | Comments (3)
Category: Development Blog, Events
Tags: Black Mage, Bolt, Chicken, east, McNinja, PAX, Scrappers, screen, screenshot, shot, Slam
GGJ 2010: The Most Heartbreaking Laughter
My Team, EL MATADORS: Cole, me, Mike, Nazer, and Matt. You can't tell, but we are each holding little Mariachi band figures that decorate our workspace this weekend.
Global Game Jam 2010 Post #2:
It is 12:30am again. Day two of the 2010 Global Game Jam is in the bag. I planned to post an update in the afternoon, but there was not a second to spare all day. We sprinted through 15 hours of development today, and found ourselves in all three of what I am told are the classic Day-Two moments: a serious talk in the afternoon about what features can be kept and what needs to be discarded for the sake of completing the project, a major technical crisis where the tools broke in the face of our ambition, and reaching a place where the most frustrating and incomprehensible bugs brought laughter instead of tears, where the relief of having gotten this far, and the pleasure in doing this together, won over whether or not the thing we want to call a game ever becomes what we hoped.
And we were not the only ones. I overheard other teams talking about what they could cut and heard heart-rending stories of programmers losing their entire work so far due to a computer error of some sort (even in a 3-day project–or especially in a 3-day project!– a version-safe system is critical). And slap-happy giggles filled the corridors between the MIT Gambit labs in the last hours, developers enjoying after a long day the many interesting ways their games managed to break.
So how is “The Last Bullfight” coming along, you ask? Thanks to the art direction of our good friend Pablo P, in-game art and animation are pretty much complete (at least, sufficiently to show all of the features we planned). The sound work is in good shape, including a powerful song composed by our designer. The code features that have been completed are successfully producing an atmosphere, a sense of perspective and place, and we are happy about that so far. While the back-end code of the basic kill-or-be-killed game play is in, there is no real feedback yet to the player on which is occurring, which we understand is the difference between having a game and having a weird little interactive movie. We hope to have a game tomorrow.
One day left. See you on the other side,
Jason