I am very excited about getting this alpha going as soon as possible, but in reality it looks like we are not going to be making it in October since ironically the pre-order stuff will not be ready until the very last of October. But its not all bad cause I love to polish stuff! I will be working like a beast in the meantime to make the alpha as enjoyable as possible.
While we await the “days of alpha”, I would like to take this opportunity to find out some stuff about who you are but more importantly, what your hardware is! this thread!
If you have questions about the game, please use our Reddit page
Furthermore, I (thewreck) will be idling in the IRC-channel #Cobalt on esper.net. Cya there!
We plan to open up pre-orders in October. Everyone who pre-orders gets access to the alpha which starts at the same time, as well as all versions leading up to the final release.
This will be an opportunity for you to try the game out early, but most of all we are doing this because we need your help in getting the game done. We need input, suggestions, criticism, play-testing, mapping, bug reporting and even more feedback. Basically, Cobalt is not done, so we are asking our community to help us move the game in the right direction.
The alpha will lack features as well as content on top of being buggy, but it will be available to anyone willing to pre-order.
Pre-ordering will be offered at a reduced price compared to the released game.
The alpha will most likely only be for windows, with more platforms coming later.
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
Development is sometimes painful and hard but most of the time it is pure fun! The past couple of days we’ve been hard at work with getting the demo up to date in time for our GDC appearance.
There’s been some major changes to the core concept of the game and for the first time in a while it feels like we’re making some great progress!
I’ll try to set aside some time for a write up of the current state of the game, but for now you’ll have to make do with a play testing video.
We’re speaking Swedish in the video, but hopefully our reactions are sufficient to understand what’s happening!
Cobalt has been nominated as an Independent Games Festival 2011 finalist in the Excellence in Audio category! So incredibly well-deserved nomination (in my not so humble opinion), thanks to the great work by anosou (music tunes and jingles) and thewreck (sound effect engineering). With help of friends, of course The jury’s motivation:
The soundscape in Oxeye’s Cobalt was also praised for “giving it the amount of life it has”, with “immersive sound effect work that absolutely sells the atmosphere,” and a soundtrack that “stays away from melodic motifs to let the overall ambience take center stage.”
Cobalt also received honorable mentions in Excellence in Technology and Excellence in Visual Art!
A lot of people commented that they couldn’t really see what was going on in the teaser, so we thought it might be nice to really introduce Cobalt in this video.
For people who’ve played a lot of platformers before it might be a bit too detailed, but hopefully you can get a feel for the awesome platform flow we’re striving for.
In this first of hopefully many dev videos for Cobalt we demonstrate some of the features for the map editor.
Also you get a unique (ones in a lifetime) opportunity to hear my soothing voice (/Kinten).
Check it!
Edit:Should have looked at it before uploading. I promise, it’s not as dark ingame
Why hello there, let me introduce myself. My name is Mattias (also known as anosou) and I’m the composer responsible for the music in Cobalt. While this mainly means I’m composing the music for Cobalt I also have a lot to say about the musical direction and help take decisions regarding how the music is handled in-game. Nothing fancy really but incredibly rewarding. This also makes it logical for me to talk about the music of Cobalt and that’s why I wrote this post you’re reading! So, I suggest hitting the jump below for some inside info on the Main Theme of Cobalt!
Crunchin’ is not like surfin’ – not as cool and far less enjoyable. For some.
To us it’s a lifestyle. Crunching (intense working that more often than not leads to bloodshot eyes and veins being popped) is what we love – and crunching to get the IGF demo ready is what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks.
Quick update about alpha
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.
The jury’s motivation:
