I am pleased to say that we’ve finally got Ace Armstrong into QA submission at Sony (and on time too!). It was a close run thing last week, with lots of last minute touches making it in at the eleventh hour - however it all came off OK in the end.
Technically speaking, we’ve crammed as much as we possibly could into a Mini for this one. The game is just a few K under the file size limit for Minis, and there are lots of different graphical elements, tons of animation in the bosses and plenty of other nice touches (check out how the scumbags die in the vacuum of space, for example).
Pleasingly, the game not only looks great on PSP, but upscales to PS3 really well too, so much so that I personally prefer playing on emulation - especially when trying to complete the game on Elite difficulty for the 100th time in a day!
As you can tell we’re proud of what we’ve achieved with Ace Armstrong. I’m someone who gets bored easily and I constantly need new problems and challenges, so for me, the best thing about working on Minis is that you’re so limited with what you can do and how long you can spend working on a game due to the limited returns you get back. This puts you under a lot of pressure to deliver things quickly and in a way which matches consumer expectations, which are invariably very high, even on these faster turnaround products. Even with these restrictions in place, Ace has worked out pretty special (IMHO). :-)
We’re now in that period when we’re waiting for the game to be approved - maybe having to make a few adjustments if the game fails and we have to resubmit. After that it’s the horrible lull when you’re waiting for the game to go live and for voucher codes to be issued in order for the press to get their hands on the game you’ve lovingly slaved over for weeks or months (or even years sometimes!).
Like I was saying last week, we’ve taken the Contra approach to game design with Ace. There are only a few levels in there, and, once you’ve put the hours in and memorised things, a run through the game won’t take long at all. However, getting into a position where you can comfortably play through the game will take many hours - with you learning a bit more each time. This is something I personally really enjoy - and it takes me right back to the shooters of my childhood, like R-Type, Gradius, Darius, Thunder Force, Phalanx, Xenon, Strikers 1945 II, etc., etc. Anyone who’s on that same wavelength should be more than happy with what we’ve done. :-)
Blimey, didn’t realise I was going to write so much! See you next week - maybe then I’ll talk about another game (at last)! ;-)
Al - Senior Producer
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Comments:
That game's art style looks great!
wow, am I ever starting to look forward to this! and is that a new HUD? I really love the look of it compared to the one in the previous screen shots, it really looks sharp. btw while I'm commenting, did that fixed version for vibes ever go live?
Hi Carson, Well spotted - Ace's HUD has been updated; more accurately it had an art pass as the first one was really only for functionality. We've also recoloured the background layers for better bullet visibility. Re: Vibes, yes the fixed version is live and has been for about 2 weeks. Apologies for not updating you sooner! :( Please spread the word about Ace - we went overboard on this one so extra sales would be a nice help! ;)
ah, after I wrote that I realized the other HUD was probably just a filler. the whole game looks fantastic (artwork wise - have yet to judge how everything else looks), you really better have given your art guy(s) a nice pat on the back for this one. actually, being from pspminis.com, I was actually the one that gave you that nice 8.5 (I really loved vibes, I forgot to scold you guys for the heck you put me through when I found that glitch. :) I loved the game, and wanted to recommend it to everyone (especially those who love music games) so I was having a huge debate with myself as to how big a deal I should make out of the glitches. thankfully you posted you had fixed them, so I didn't have to make a deal out of it), I like to think I have been spreading the word already, but still, with all this news you've posted over the weeks, I suppose I had better write an update sometime soon. :) just want to tell you, you guys are one of the better developers of minis out there. in the big picture of minis, theres been quite a few misses out there, thanks for not making them. :)