Firstly, if you’d like to grab the build of Super Mega Mega that was playable at EBExpo .. go here
Once again it’s been a little while since the last post. I spoke about deciding to focus on the random level generation … which I have now switched to completely disregard and push forward with a more hand crafted approach.
The main problem here is ‘multi-plane’ nature of the levels. It just makes it too hard to get any sort of interesting gameplay when the level is random. Even when using the Spelunky style with hand made segments arranged randomly.
So anyway, I had a exhibition booth for Super Mega Mega at the EBExpo for 3 days. Man it was a long time. I spent most of the time by myself with a little help from the Rizzle (Cheers dude!) and RyanB which helped me stay sane with a couple of breaks to eat and walk around the halls.
What did I learn/achieve from the event? Well at first I was a bit dubious at whether it was worth attending. This opinion didn’t change during the first few hours… there were a lot of very young kids. Totally not the audience for either the Rift or SuperMegaMega. But they still seemed to love it and soon there were more varied ages arriving. I can only remember about 2 time during the whole 3 days (about 35 hours of actual show time) that there wasn’t someone playing the game…… that’s a lot of people.
The hardest thing was extracting a meaningful play test from someone who is trying the Oculus Rift for the first time. Most people are overwhelmed and struggle to learn even the most basic platforming mechanics. There were a few people that really ‘got’ the game almost instantly and destroyed all the levels with ease. That was really encouraging. It also helped me cemented the games focus going forward.
So overall… Awesome event and met some great people. Now to use the feedback to finish off the game design and then get to work on development. If we’re going to release near the Rift’s consumer version then we’ll have to get a move on!
Here’s a couple of photos taken… should have taken more but forgot…
Cheers!
-Ryan
