Since the last post we’ve been busy with distilling the game, starting our collaboration with Fatshark to bring Cobalt to Xbox and we’ve been to Minecon.
Being a small team with the main focus to have fun, the development of Cobalt has always been a bit haphazard where we’ve added stuff as we go with less focus on the bigger picture and more attention spent on what felt right at the moment. This has led to, in our opinion, a great platformer but it has also resulted in a lot of features that remain hidden to the average player. When a new player starts up Cobalt, he or she isn’t really introduced to what the game is about. There’s nothing to hold their hand and present them with the experience that is Cobalt, especially not as a single player. I’m not talking about a next-gen like dumbing down of game play, but a coherent presentation of the actual game.
What we have now is a whole bunch of puzzle pieces hovering in the air waiting to be placed in the correct spot. Since starting our collaboration with Fatshark we’ve been busy trimming and arranging all pieces in order to put them down in a presentable larger picture and an enjoyable gaming experience from start to finish.
Hello! During the week-end of 19-22 we attended No More Sweden 2012. During this annual event we meet and hang with other indie developers and friends as well as take part of the game jam. The jam hands each team three words of which you are supposed to base a game that should be made within 48hrs. We made Cells based on the words evolution, simulation and one button. The game was completed in 12hrs and turned out pretty cool and addictive.
Besides Cells, we also made another game, headed by Tommaso, called EvoBeat. EvoBeat was created based on the same words as above
Download Cells here, and be sure to read the readme! Grab a friend, play it, have fun and let us know what you think!
Oxeye just attended No More Sweden and made two small games! No more sweden usually offers words to base your game around and we got Evolution, Simulation and One Button Game. You can see screenshots of Cells and EvoBeats and what we are up to now in the gallery down below!
Today we can announce that we are going to collaborate with Mojang (creators of Minecraft and Scrolls) to bring Cobalt to the masses Mojang will help us with marketing, publicity and distribution, while we continue to develop and add stuff to Cobalt. This is more of a team effort than the usual developer/publisher combo, and the first experimental attempt for Mojang to help another indie game developer to launch their game.
We will go with Mojang to PAX Prime to demo Cobalt and take on challengers at our 2-on-2 Capture the Plug booth. If you are at PAX, make sure you pay us a visit. We have launched a Cobalt-dedicated site at www.PlayCobalt.com with the specifics and a brand new Cobalt trailer!
PS. If you want to contact us, send a tweet in our general direction (@OxeyeGames, @vraket, @jeb_, @Kinten or @anosou), or an email to info@oxeyegames.com
I got an email from our Korean friend, Mr. Kwang. He’s the editor of the indie game blog Pig-min, and he asked me if I would mind helping to spread the word about a game called Cut & Paste. The game looks quite cool, so why not? I thought it would be a good time to write about some other games you may or may not have heard of, too.
Cut & Paste
As you can see in the trailer, it’s a flip-book-styled game where you cut things from the world and then re-use them later to solve puzzles. The idea reminds me of Snapshot by Kyle Pulver and Peter James that was nominated in IGF for best game design last year.
Bob Came in Pieces
There are many indie developers in Sweden, especially in the cities with higher game development education. One of these are Ludocity who recently released their game Bob Game in Pieces on Steam. Although I’m not a fan of the ship rebuilding mechanic (they know what I think), there are a lot of people who are, so it’s worth spreading the word.
glorg
Martin Jonasson was the main organizer of No More Sweden last year. He works with flash and repeatedly release new games on his blog. The latest one, glorg, is a one button dungeon crawler made for the Gamma IV event.
We’re alive!
Mojang will help us with marketing, publicity and distribution, while we continue to develop and add stuff to Cobalt. This is more of a team effort than the usual developer/publisher combo, and the first experimental attempt for Mojang to help another indie game developer to launch their game.
