Recently in Gravitronix Category
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.
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.
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...
