As you can imagine, it's not terribly difficult to stroll around the web and see what folks are saying in response to news, and that includes news Medaverse itself has generated.
However, there's one very, VERY key issue which we at Medaverse noted early on in the development of Gravitronix: you can barely find a discussion about Wiiware ANYWHERE on the internet which doesn't turn into a discussion about storage issues.
In light of this, our lead programmer, Robin Larson, decided it would be necessary to build a highly space-conservative engine, a decision which lengthened our development time and a decision I supported. This leaves us with a tentative release date of June/July for Gravitronix, but that could still change depending upon how long it takes to fine-tune the gameplay.
We apologize for not having Gravitronix ready for the launch of Wiiware, but we can assure you that it will take up less space on your Wii because of the extra time spent in development.
The Medaverse programming staff has been toiling away behind closed doors, but I've been busy right out in the open with a whole slew of interviews.
Lately, I've done an article for Developmag,an interview for VC-Reviews, an interview for Radio Ninty and one for BusinessWeek, as well as a BusinessWeek article which features all of the Medaverse founders.
A special thanks to all of the journalists who have taken an interest in Medaverse and our foray into the gaming industry. I hope we've offered some interesting content for your sites/publications.
If you're interested in an interview with one of our staff, please drop us an email via our contact page.
It's been a while since my last update, but I've decided to show off the "weaponry" in Gravitronix along with some explanation behind how each will function in the game (credit for these goes to lead artist Mike Lockhardt Jr.):
The Sphere
The "basic" projectile with average size, weight and speed. Due to its basic shape, the sphere is predictable and can be used to deflect other spheres in the arena into your opponents' territories, similar to lining up a shot in billiards.The Cube
The most massive of the projectiles, the cube is best used to deflect other projectiles and ram through an opponent's defense. The cube's slow speed is its primary drawback.The Pyramid
Slightly lighter and faster than the sphere, the pyramid is specifically used to attack territories adjacent to yours. After being fired, the pyramid will arc in the direction of your closest foe.
The Shard
The lightest and quickest of the projectiles, the shard is the ideal weapon to launch at an unprepared enemy.Each projectile will have different strategies revolving around it. Also, we plan on allowing the player to change the properties of the projectiles, but I'll elaborate more upon that later.
In MY day, when we wanted to develop games, we had to trudge to our office through THIS:
Not there, apparently. Not that I'm blaming you, the reader, personally, but Suda-san deserves better than this.
All you needed to tell me was that I'll be playing as an otaku with a lightsaber trying to climb his way up the ranks of assassins and I was sold. Having watched the preview videos, I was even further sold: the gameplay looks fun and the character development looks amazing and hilarious. The hero, Travis, also has a pet kitten and I'm a sucker for kittens.
Continue reading Suda was there. Where were you?.
After doing a few Google searches, it was immediately obvious that Grav would find its audience in multiple regions and languages.
Thus, we're making it a point to cover as many linguistic bases as possible. We'll do the best we can to bring as much information out in as many languages as possible, but it's not the kind of thing I can promise up front.
Continue reading International support.
We haven't said much on Grav lately and that's largely intentional.
As I've said in the past, we don't intend to present the game until we have ample amounts of information and media to provide. Also, we don't want to jump any guns and promise planned features which have yet to be implemented. Even though I understand the development cycle now more than ever, as a gamer, it still irks me when I read the promises of a game in development and find that the game doesn't deliver in practice.
You probably won't hear much until we're ready. Frankly, that's the way I want it to be: silence all the way up until the day we come out of nowhere and bombard the gaming media with trailers, screenshots and information.
As I've said in the past, we don't intend to present the game until we have ample amounts of information and media to provide. Also, we don't want to jump any guns and promise planned features which have yet to be implemented. Even though I understand the development cycle now more than ever, as a gamer, it still irks me when I read the promises of a game in development and find that the game doesn't deliver in practice.
You probably won't hear much until we're ready. Frankly, that's the way I want it to be: silence all the way up until the day we come out of nowhere and bombard the gaming media with trailers, screenshots and information.
Here we are: the Xmas season, and with it comes a flurry of impulse purchases and the usual holiday rush of games when we've spent the past few months with few releases to draw our interest.
Let me start by saying that, yes, Super Mario Galaxy is incredible, but I implore you: don't turn your back to a shelf of Wii games that include such gems as Mario and Sonic: Olympics, Zak and Wiki, Raving Rabbits 2 and RE: Umbrella Chronicles.
I understand why the industry releases this many games during a period when most Wii owners will be buying 1-2 games each, but that doesn't change the fact that some of these games stand a good chance of being completely overshadowed by a mythical game like SMG.
There's nothing worse than playing a Wii game, loving it and then checking out its sales figures for the week to see that it didn't get even half of the sales it deserved.
How much weight you want to place in my commentary is entirely up to you, but believe me when I say that you'll be robbing yourself of some excellent gaming experiences if you don't give these other titles a try as well. Rent them if you have to (most video stores also carry Wii games these days), but don't let them go by unnoticed. Nintendo fans have complained about a lack of 3rd party support in the past (myself included) but by not supporting good 3rd party games when they arrive on shelves then the blame falls upon us and ONLY us.
M&S: Olympics is a solid sports game package, featuring some excellent motion control and the ability to play with your Mii alongside famous video game mascots from the Mario and Sonic universes.
Raving Rabbids 2 is one of the better minigame compilations I've seen, and it's downright hilarious to boot.
RE: UC is easily the best lightgun game I've ever played, adding a welcome layer of strategy to the genre which was previously absent.
And Zak and Wiki is a throwback to the point and click puzzle games we all knew and loved. It's a fledgling franchise, with no brand recognition to fall back upon like the others, but it delivers a great time for even a room full of people who love to be challenged by clever puzzles.
I'm not suggesting you buy four additional games, but please, give them a rent if any of them sound like they might interest you. I'm confident you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Up until now, I've briefly mentioned in interviews that Gravitronix (our upcoming WiiWare game) will feature hand-drawn characters to represent the players on screen. While character selection will not influence game play, your character will react to your performance in game. As such, characters might seem like a "fluff" addition, but the significance of these characters lies in their origins...
Continue reading Attention gaming news sites: adopt a Gravitronix character!.
I'll address some of the more common concerns and questions regarding Gravitronix...
What is Gravitronix?
Gravitronix is an action/battle game for 1-4 players (possibly 8, and possibly online). You'll be defending your territory from enemy players while trying to assault theirs by using the four different projectiles pictured in the Gravitronix logo.
Why are you being so secretive about how it actually plays?
The short answer? We're afraid of having it ripped off. We're a small team so the concept will take some time for us to create, but if we put the idea out there in totality, it would take a larger development house less than a month to create their own version of it.
Are we being too paranoid? Possibly, but it's also better that players are introduced to it a month before it releases with our full video presentation of Gravitronix than hear small pieces of the game and misunderstand how it actually plays.
What's so special about it? Why should I give a damn about this game?
That's a question I can't answer right now, and it's best that I don't answer it right now, either. The launch of WiiWare is still months off so getting people excited now is rather pointless.
We have something planned to gradually reveal more about Gravitronix, and I'll let you know about that soon.
What kind of plans do you have after Gravitronix?
We have a plethora of game ideas, some more for WiiWare and some others which will work as retail titles. Aside from occasionally writing random ideas down for those games, we're focusing entirely on Gravitronix. We're going to actually release a game before we focus on future games.
Who are you people?
Medaverse was three guys who ran a gaming fan site who toyed with the idea of making a game but never moved toward it until the Wii remote pushed us over the edge. We saw it back in Oct. 2005 and we knew we wanted to develop for it. Since then, we've grown to 8 people and are in the middle of working on our first WiiWare game.
How do I know you're not a bunch of nerdy, DnD-playing, video game-collecting otakus?
You don't.
I'll have another update for you soon...
