Just like last year!

Hiya readers! This is a post about what we been doing this summer and whats coming up, but first...

RJDE are going to exhibit at the GDC/Gamescom convention at Cologne next week!
Just like last year we will be joining our beloved school in order to show off what we got for you guys. We will be bringing our latest version of Vertigo and are located at the Gotland Untiversity booth. Come check out how the game looks today and play it!

Other news is that we just sent in V. for the competition Dream Build Play 2009. We though, why not, since we are developing the game with the help of XNA, for the xbox 360. So with the latest iteration of our game a new gamemode was introduced, "Checkpoint" which is finally playable.

In short, checkpoint mode is all about gathering time by grabbing checkpoints located along the course. The player who finish the level with most time on his clock, wins! Checkpoint mode is made for the already familiar Vertigo player and will because of this be a bit hard to get through at first if your a beginner. But don't worry, we will be throwing in some easy levels two!

So of course we also want to show what we are talking about so here is a short videoclip showing lvl 2 in checkpoint mode. Now, this is a very early version, we are still fightning with getting the particle effects right. So stay tuned for updated material on how the particle effects chapter is going!

Nothing in this clip is final!


So we know we have a lot of German friends who wants to check us out at Cologne, and we will both be at the GDC and Gamescom showcasing our game. So be sure to check us out if your planning on visiting the event!

Meanwhile developing vertigo goes on, and finally we are starting to see the end. The game is moving quickly now and its not long before you guys will finally be able to play it on your own consoles. We don't want to be promising too much and we wont announce any release date before we definitely know when its going to be. But be so sure, when we know, you will know!

See you at GDC/Gamescom!

Metro Teknik ranks RJDE as one of Swedens top young Game Developer Studios.

http://www.metro.se/2009/06/10/31647/sveriges-15-hetaste-unga-spelforetag/

In Swedish only, though.

Back to work - Summer 2009

Hello world!
The two last weeks we been rehabilitating from the awesome party Gotland Game Awards brings. We have been recollecting thoughts about the project, taking some days off, and preparing for new milestones and goals. So we could say we have been looking back AND foward in order to analyze were we are and what is needed to be done.

Also, we have been on another trip. This time to Swedish Game Awards where we did not win any price, sadly enough, but we meet alot of sweet people from other universitys around Sweden. Our competitors in the category for "best XNA studio 3.0 game" turned out to be a bunch of really nice sweet persons that where really cool to party with! And I think we made a pretty nice impression too.
Nevertheless even if we didn't win, we received tons of feedback and congratulations on having a great product. So with that in mind we continue develop Vertigo!

Gotland Game Awards gave us alot of sweet comments and feedback too, but i think one of the funniest things where that we introduced a new level. *drum roll* LEVEL 3! Level 3 is taking place in a subway. Its a really straight forward level that depends more on trying to pick up powerups in extreme and I mean, extreme speeds, instead of depending on more classic
platform elements(like jumping from one platform to another).


Now what this level showed us was that people really loves to go fast... so fast that they don't even understand what is happening! So fast that our game from time to time lets the player pop through walls and fall until we restart the game! In other words... too fast! For now anyway.
This is an issue that's placed way up on the agenda, trying to fix the holes and the physics. This is a big part of our game, the speed is what Vertigo is very much about. And trying to find a system for it that work flawlessly is critical of curse. So now we have addressed some bugs, lets get to it and fix these!


New milestones and goals.
Our next major milestone as of now is 29Jun. All the artefact's should be in the game and what should be remaining after that is to fix bugs, rehabilitate levels that do not work, play test ALOT, fix graphical artefact's that might look crappy, and play test some more.
As of now that milestone is really tight. And we might have to push it a few days into July. But it is still too early to say. I hope, for my sake, that we make it :).

The trailer is not currently under development. What we want to create this time is a trailer that shows parts from the whole game. And since we don't have all the playable levels for that we haven't been able to put it together. Therefore it is taking time. But as soon as all the artefact's are in, and the final Particle effects are nailed (and I would say that thats the bad guy taking alot of time). We will start building it. But be calm you will still be served Gameplay clips!

Now i'll get back to work!

Gotland Game Awards 2009

Currently Gotland Game Awards is in full motion. We are exhibiting and presenting the latest version of Vertigo! So we have had our hands full of work the past week and its not over yet! GGA is just another milestone and we have much more stuff to do. Also this is our next big event to showcase on! Yeah, in all the chaos that GGA brings, we found out that we are also nominated for Swedish Game Awards 2009. Right now I'm almost falling asleep on the computer because I am so tired of Presenting our game and exhibition all day. And I don't even dare to think about SGA.

Disney, tripwire, massive, ubisoft, starbreeze. They all seemed pleased with the presentation and the first day of GGA turns out to be quite a success. We are looking foward to tomorrow and the epic party at Gutekällaren!

for more information about Gotland Game Awards check out http://www.gotlandgameawards.se/

Fun stuff!

We thought we would post the gameplay clip we sent in to Swedish game awards. It shows some sweet parts from lvl 2 that we will talk more of later this week. Also we want to give you guys 2 versions of the poster we're currently using!

Another milestone is reached

Yesterday were the deadline for Swedish game awards, and we made it! We are very excited about this and hope that Swedish game awards have a fun time playing our game. Also, we made it into this italian podcast, one of the biggest in italy, that we meet at Nordic Game Conference. A short interview about our school, and a very short vertigo ad at 36:54.

The next couple of days will be all about finishing the game mode that we call "Checkpoints". And to also fix some bugs of course and complete 2 new levels. Also, a trailer is coming up, showing the different game modes and some new levels at the end of this week. We hope that the trailer will be done by then, but theres alot of stuff that is going on at the same time that we also need to fix. Presentations and exhibition booths for Gotland Game Awards for example.

It could be fun to actually talk alittle more in depth about what "checkpoints" is, but since its way much cooler to show it instead of describing it through text, I'm going to wait until the end of the week to talk about it when we have video footage! So stay tuned!

Nordic Game Conference 2009

New friends, new experiences, new knowledge, new contacts. We received tons from this years Nordic Game conference. Suda 51, Alex Evans, Starbreeze, Grin, Crytek, Ubisoft and many many more checked out our game and gave us credz and feedback. The whole event that we were lucky enough to be a part of where packed with interesting awesome skillful people who were all really nice fellows that all shared one interest, Games.

The conference for us where a success and an eye-opener, in many ways, towards what we are heading and how we'll get there. Okay we didn't get the "Best new nordic talent" award, but out of all those games submitted we got to the top 5... that's something to be proud of!

So what's next? Swedish game Awards and Gotland Game Awards, are the two main events that we will be participating in next. And after that, all that is left is to release the game, right? We'll it's one thing that we would really love to participate in also. The Dream build play competition. One problem with that is that we might not be able to release the game before that event is over. So then we have to change the release date. But hey, its a long way there and anything can happen!

Now we need to get the last finishing touches on the Swedish Game Award entry. And its about time to give away some screenshots from that, a new video containing gameplay footage from lvl 2 is also in the making.

New Website!

New website is up!
Its not finished yet but its something! Currently working on getting all the news from the old site over to this one instead. But we are at the same time having our hands full at the Nordic Game Conference. Busy times! Hope you like it so far!

As the article on the start page explains, we will be doing some blogging about Nordic Game, post pictures and more! Stay tuned!

Short Game clip

We created a short ingame-clip for the Nordic game guys to put in a showreel for the Awards. And we decided to share this with you, in HD!



Some new gameplay footage from level 1 and nothing is final. But it looks kinda cool doesn't it! =D

We are on the front page of Metro Teknik!

An article about us and our fellow Incubator colleagues was published today in Metro Teknik!

Its in Swedish only, sorry :)
Page 1, 12 and 13

A funny thing is that on the pic we're playing on our little 14" classic-TV. Yeah, we want Vertigo to work on all TV's, not only High Definition 42" LCD screens.

Time to crunch!

Right now, Olof and Daniel behind me in the office is screaming something about the highscore screen that just won't kick in. The stress today is really high since we are about to show our game tonight at a party for all the company's at the incubator we are sitting in. Simply put, we're crunching!

My desktop is filled with papers since I'm taking a break from trying to master Joomla. I'm posting new sprint-lists and updated artifact-lists so that we know what to do and when to do it (in other words, I'm putting up a new schedule!). Stuff like this is crucial for any game development process. If we don't have a up to date schedule, there's no point of having it, right.
And I think you guys can guess why we have a scheme =P

Last week we had the honor to have a quick visit by Peter Stråle! Peter works as a technical artist at Grin in stockholm and been working on numerous AAA titles such as Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter 2 and Terminator Salvation(oh yeah, and Bionic commando). He were over here to give a lecture at Gotland University and check out our graphical stuff. He gave some really nice feedback on what we should think about and what we had done good/bad. More importantly he liked what he saw and since we are so far into the project we are in the position where everything have already been looked over one or two times.
Anyway, it's always awesome to show our game, especially for the pro's and we like Peter, he is a really sweet professional guy =D!

Anyway, back to the website, sprint-lists and the stress.

Mao signing out -

Warning! Currently in production!

So yeah, a break in the blog for a little bit more than a week. Stuff like that happens when you're full of stuff you need to do to actually have something to write about! We are not in crunch, we are just putting all our concentration into creating Vertigo, so therefore, again =P, our face on the internetz gets to suffer.

But as the good 'ol Swedish saying, "if you're waiting for something good, you can never wait for too long"!

I hope I'll be seeing some of you guys on Nordic game conference 19 - 20 May. The game will be on display and at the same time we are going to have new screenshots and a new trailer (my god our current one is almost one year old =0) up on the website for the world to see!
Speaking of the website. My mission this week is about building something completely new from the ground up, with the goal that it should not be as crappy as the current one. So in the end of the week we might have something delicious! That said, we reserve ourself for the possibility of delays.

So until next time! I'm signing out leaving you with a pic from the citynightlevel... yeah, I love cuddly-san^^.

Singleplayer?

When you make a game that is supposed to be a multiplayer experience, and then comes to the conclusion that you need a singleplayer part, you are going to have problems. That is what we are experiencing right now. The whole development process and concept around vertigo have always circulated around making the best multiplayer game possible. And when you start taking Singleplayer into consideration it starts giving you severe gameplay problems.

So, how do you transfer the whole concept of what Vertigo is into a Singleplayer experience that is supposed to be as good as the multiplayer part? I mean, the most central part of a multiplayer game is the other players which you, of course, don’t have in singleplayer.

So a simple solution but a solution that takes a lot of time to do, is to throw in some AI controlled "BOTS". And that’s it, right…?

Noooee, not at all. When removing your social partners you’re also removing the goal in what vertigo is much built around. The Competition. You’re no longer racing against your friends, your racing against AI controlled characters, and mocking a computer is (believe it or not) not the same as mocking your best friend if you manage to win. The goal to beat the computer is not enthralling enough… but… if you make the player feel that he is not playing against the computer, if you make the player take part of something bigger, something more immersive than “ready, start, go”.

Narrative… It’s not by itself a solution. But it’s a starting point. A starting point on which you can build a lot of stuff that will keep the player engaged. Let’s say the computer instead starts mocking the player, by saying you can’t do this or you can’t do that! The situation dramatically changes, and the player starts feeling challenged by the “computer”. And the response to that would be to “show the computer what you’re made of”.

But still, that isn’t enough, because Narrative can only do so much. What a singleplayer experience also is critically built upon is to give the player a lot of stuff to do, Content. So besides the short term goal (beat the computer), and the actual gameplay experience the player need long term goals as to, unlock levels, get new gameplay modes, find new characters to race against. We want the player to be engaged in the game for a long time, it’s not meant to be a 5min experience.

Of course there is stuff in the actual gamedesign/gameplay that we also need to revise. And also to add stuff in there since singleplayer opens up for a lot of cool stuff not possible in a multiplayer game!

But you guys have a lovely Easter holiday! And hope ya don’t choke on any Chocolate Easter bunnies!

PS: The work on the website is moving slowly forward, it still isn’t close to finished yet, but we’re getting there! Cheers!

Monday, and more important meetings!

After a really fun eventful week, we start by having a big Monday meeting! This week will be all about production and now is another time to reflect over the project, look over where we are, and where we want to be.
So it's pretty much the weeks most critical meeting where we all sit down, drink coffee, take notes and discuss goals, game design, and production.

There's a few game design things that it's important we take a closer look at once again, such as the campaign in singleplayer and the themes for the upcoming levels. Without giving too much away, we need to overlook the numbers of levels we're about to have in the final product.

Oh yeah, the press release. So even thought there aren't so much news if your following this blog, the most spectacular statement must be that were planning a release for Vertigo on Xbox Live Community games, this summer!

So thats that... more will be revealed about what we are planning for you! So, check back for updates!

PRESS RELEASE!

Hey, check it out!

http://vertigogame.com/press.html

Its in the details

Not such an "exotic" bug, but its a good example of small stuff that needs to be fixed!



For the untrained eye here's a short description of what happens:

When Max jumps and grabs on to the ledge the character climbs up and shoots itself foward. Basically.
The character should, since Max don't have any speed before he jumps, climb the ledge and just stop on top of the roof.
Pretty simple...

I'm going to shout at Olof tomorrow =D!

P.S: Povel is working on a new level, and it shall be codenamed "Speedy"!

P.P.S: Your getting sneakpeaks of the new interface! ;)

Nominations and Milestones

So we found out yesterday evening that we were nominated for "The best new Talent" award at Nordic Game Conference this year. This is a huge deal, not only because it gives us a lot of recognition, its because we also get placed next to big names like Avalanche, Dice and Funcom. It places us on the map, a bit, so to say.
So what do this nomination mean, well for starters, we are going to Nordic Game Conference in Malmö 19 - 20 May to show off our game, go to lectures and talk to a lot of cool people from the industry. And also, of course, see how it goes with the award. It’s a huge event with people from all over the world coming to Malmö to talk and share ideas and knowledge about the greatest phenomena of them all, games.
So we are booked and we have taken our bags out of the closet. But before we pack them we need something to pack them with! The idea is that we will showcase our game at the Gotland University booth and for that we really want to bring our fresh demo, strait from the ovens. So lets recall what this monday had for us!

Let’s start with the bad news. We have a lot of tweaking to do. This does certainly not come as a surprise to us which is reliving. It is only natural and as a bonus it’s probably the most fun process (for me) in the whole production chapter since I get to play the game (a lot) and scream at Olof all the time! Screaming is fun! Especially when you have something important to say as a producer!

It is my responsibility as a Producer/Game designer that Vertigo feels right and plays right and if it doesn’t no one can blame anybody else but me. Sure Olof is the “gameplay/physics” programmer, but it is my descriptions on “how things should” be that he is working by. And if something is wrong, it is my responsibility to make sure that it gets fixed!

So the tweaking is ongoing and will be so until we put up our thumb and say “it’s done”.

The next thing is the Interface, which is a mess. We have bugs and a lot of positioning to do. Right now stuff is pretty much all over the screen bouncing and skydiving (?). So the interface is a great deal of pain. However, the interface is today looking a lot better and works a lot better (with no skydiving ;)). So it still needs some polishing but we’re getting there, fast!

Also we have gotten to test the new game design stuff that’s in the GUI. And it turns out it works alright as of now. But we are taking in consideration that the cards could turn and we need to look over the features again.

So let’s talk about the really good news! (Besides the nomination).

We have taken our first play sessions in the new version and we have competed against each other for the first time, so, a bit modest, we have a game! AND you could call it a demo!

So, we kept our deadline! This means that we are in focus and can continue following the schedule and work our way towards the final product.

So, I’ll try to get some screens up as soon as I can, and might also post some video footage!

Stay tuned!

Also; Be shure to check out our Swedish game award Entry!

http://gameawards.se/competition_entries/304

Just in! Nominated for Best New Talent award 2009 by nordic game!

Vertigo is nominated for the new talent award at Nordic Game Convention 19 - 20 may! Right now we're pretty much overjoyed and we'll come back to you with more info when we have started to calm down =D! THIS IS AWESOME!

Here are some links;

http://www.developmag.com/news/31614/Nordic-Game-Awards-finalists-shortlisted

http://www.nordicgame.com/?id=45

Vertigo Dev Blog!

HEY! Check it out! From this day forth we blog about the production of Vertigo!

We figured... everyone else is doing it... Why won’t we!!!

No just kidding. Its a very delicate process developing a game, especially when your just a few dudes with ALOT of stuff to do. Therefore our beautiful face out through the internetz is kinda suffering from a… well, not such a beautiful face. The website has been up for a long time now (since 9 aug 2008) and it still looks like crap and doesn’t really say a lot about us, the production, or how the game is doing.

So in order for us to gradually get something fancier then what we have, we need to go through a step by step process, and right now we’re at the beginning.

So the first thing we try to fix for you guys is the information. It’s really what it’s all about. Get information about the game!
Get information, get hyped and look forward for the final product (hopefully=)). That’s why we right now is starting this blog, and will completely rewrite everything on the website. The information about Run Jump Duck Entertainment, the "about the game" section and "News" is examples of stuff we really need to fix. The news section is also going to work parallel with the blog but act more like a "headline" page where all the "more important stuff that isn’t about Mao writing about how much work he have on his table right now", is going to be.

So with baby steps we are fixing it! But now let us begin with:

THE VERTIGO DEVELOPERS BLOG!

Its milestone time!
Tomorrow we will for the first time have a new demo made with the XNA plattform ready for testing! This means that we will this week play the game, address bugs, tweak gameplay, and address what do absolutely not work and what works brilliantly. And the most important thing of them all, Fix the problems that may occure.

So at the end of this week, we might have some new screenshots for you! And during this week we will rapport to you about what is happening behind the curtains!

So stay tuned!