The Trampoline http://blog.launchingpadgames.com Launching Pad Games blog posterous.com Tue, 01 May 2012 18:32:00 -0700 Sad news, everyone http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/sad-news-everyone http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/sad-news-everyone

Meme_farnsworth

Here's some of the most disappointing news I've ever delivered: Launching Pad Games is going to have to go on hiatus for now. Why? Ridculously, the reason is just boring old money — we don't have any. The company hasn't been profitable, and we need to be able to pay rent and feed ourselves and families.

We've had some great times; Tristan Clark and James Ellis are the two finest people I've ever worked with. Scarlett and the Spark of Life is one of the highlights of my game development career. I'm immensely proud of our little adventure and the way it resonated with fans (not to mention its critical success).

Mighty Fin, Monster Flip and The Pretender also bring joy to my heart, have their own fanbases (e.g. Mighty Fin's), and all tended to get rated pretty damn highly. I look back on our work of the past few years with delight.

What does "on hiatus" mean in practise? We have a few small projects on the go (Mighty Fin in your web browser, anyone?), but at least in the meantime, we're each going to have to mainly focus on individual contract work in order to get our credit cards and bank balances back under control.

What does the news mean for the Scarlett series? I'm sad to say, loyal fans, that we don't have any projected date for when we'll be able to do a sequel. I do know that we want to do it right: more choices, deeper story, breathtaking art, richer audio and multiplatform support. And more Gherkin! Sounds pretty good, right? And believe me, no-one wants that game made more than we do.

But the big projects will have to wait, for now. We'll still be awake at night thinking about how to make great games, and I know that each of the three of us looks forward to getting together again someday and making those games.

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1042922/Screen_shot_2011-02-23_at_6.49.17_AM.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKio2kOpmqoO Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:56:00 -0700 Making Mighty Fin: The Beginning http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/making-mighty-fin-the-beginning http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/making-mighty-fin-the-beginning
Homepage-banner
Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts about the making of Mighty Fin! We’ll dive into how we answered design questions, how the art style evolved into what you see today, the creation of the game’s music, and much more. But first, here’s a general overview of just how we came to make a game starring a little fish bedecked in dozens of costumes…
 
Going smaller 

Our last iOS game, Scarlett and the Spark of Life, took nine months to develop. And while it was a critical success, it was far from a commercial one — the adventure genre is very much a niche these days, and we couldn’t find the audience we wanted to on Apple’s mobile platform. We desperately wanted to make the second episode in the series (and still do), but the numbers simply didn’t add up.

So at the end of February, we held an emergency meeting that involved lots of scribbled notes and beer. By the end of it, Tim, James and I had determined to make a smaller, 99c iPhone game that would hopefully get the business back on track.

We wanted to approach things as smartly as possible, so we spent nearly two weeks generating tons of game ideas. Most of these were really terrible, and it wasn’t uncommon to go through a whole day of brainstorming without turning up anything decent. But we’re firm believers in wading through a pile of crap to get to something worthwhile — at the end of the process we had 4-5 ideas that we figured were worth prototyping.

 
The next week was spent making those prototypes, which included a few other game ideas we might still pursue some day. A couple were made on the PC, with the others getting whipped up on an iPhone.

One of the ideas was (surprise!) about a fish leaping in and out of the water, collecting bubbles and avoiding obstacles. At least, a fish is what he became — initially you were in control of a very sexy red triangle:

Mightyfinprototype2

Quite a lot of that original prototype made it into the final version of Mighty Fin: the way the fish moves, the random generation of level ‘chunks’ and the multiplier system didn’t change much at all during development.
Mightyfinprototype1
Once all our prototypes had been made, it was time to pick one to make. In the end, we felt the fish game had the broadest potential audience, and could conceivably be made in the short time frame we were giving ourselves.

There were a ton of questions that still needed to be answered, but in a surprisingly small amount of time, we had the basics of Mighty Fin up and running. And eight weeks later, we had a finished product on our hands. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here…

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1055836/5449_145041999304_699154304_3203702_2528079_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKicq3fbuAR4 Tristan Clark Tristan Tristan Clark Tue, 31 May 2011 19:12:00 -0700 Untitled http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/55116876 http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/55116876

Icon512
And we're back!

It's been an intense eight weeks, but we've now finished our latest iPhone game, Mighty Fin. Cue streamers, confetti, fireworks. Find out more here!

Over the next few weeks, we intend to post a series of behind-the-scenes blogs about the making of this cute little game. And in general, actually keep this blog up to date. A seemingly impossible task, I know, but we can do it. No, really.

Mighty Fin started life, as most games do, as an ugly prototype. Fin wasn't the adorable big-headed fish you can see above — instead, he was a red triangle. But this prototype, born at the same time as three other prototypes, inspired us enough to keep at it. And now, eight (nine?) weeks later, we're on the eve of release. After the nine long months it took to make the first Scarlett game, this felt positively speedy.

Initial feedback has been promising, so let's all see if Mighty Fin has what it takes to rise above the murky waters of the App Store and stake a claim in the charts. We'll find out very shortly!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1055836/5449_145041999304_699154304_3203702_2528079_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKicq3fbuAR4 Tristan Clark Tristan Tristan Clark Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:13:11 -0700 The Face-Off http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/the-face-off http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/the-face-off
Face-off

As I revealed in this otherwise rather plaintive post, we'll be unveiling a new iPhone game in April. So, what's this new game all about? I can't tell you, and it's not because I don't want to. It's because right now, we're actually developing four games. Does this mean that we'll be announcing four games in April? Goodness me, no — There Can Only Be One. And that fortunate one can only be selected through a deceptive, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse.

Or by, y'know, playing them all one after the other.

Up until now, here's what our approach has been with small games: Run Boots Run seemed like a good idea, so we made it. Zoo Lasso seemed like a good idea, so we made it. In both cases, we pretty much just worked on the first reasonable-sounding game idea that we thought of. This is all well and good, but what about those five thousand games lurking in potentia, locked away in our subconscious minds? Sure, four thousand, nine-hundred and eighty-one might be rubbish, but there must be a way to access the other nineteen, right?

So, we brainstormed. I mean full-on, nothing is too ridiculous, have-a-beer-hey-why-not-have-a-couple, shout-out-whatever-occurs-to-you brainstorming. And yep, approximately 4981 horrifying, filthy or just plain bad ideas got scrawled on a big bit of paper. But along with them were a handful of others that really did show potential.

From that set of interesting ideas, we argued our way down to four that we would spend time designing and prototyping. We could have argued our way down to one — assuming that all the unsubstantiated opinions flying around didn't damage the paintwork — but the only real way to know if a game design idea has legs is to play that thing. It's been quite the quadrathlon putting together four game prototypes in the course of a couple of weeks, but it sure is easier to discuss the merits of something that actually exists. And we're not far away from being able to pick the victor.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1042922/Screen_shot_2011-02-23_at_6.49.17_AM.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKio2kOpmqoO Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:19:22 -0800 A change of schedule http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/a-change-of-schedule http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/a-change-of-schedule
Delayed2

It's with much disappointment — and after much heartfelt discussion — that we've decided we need to push back the remainder of development for Scarlett Adventures Episode 2 into the second half of 2011. Scarlett and the Spark of Life has been a critical success with solid sales figures, but as of yet the numbers haven't reached the levels we need to immediately fund the development of a continuation. Episode 2 has been shaping up to be an amazing game, but to really do it justice, we'll need to build up our reserves a little.

So, over the next few months, we've got some smaller projects in the works. The very popular online Pretender Trilogy will finally get its thrilling conclusion. Retina display and iPad features are just around the corner for Zoo Lasso. Last but not least, we'll be announcing a brand new iPhone game in April.

It's very sad to have to delay the continuation of the Scarlett Adventures (the series is dear to our hearts), but if you can all bear with us, we think it'll be worth the wait.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1042922/Screen_shot_2011-02-23_at_6.49.17_AM.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKio2kOpmqoO Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:38:00 -0800 Day 03. Art attack!..? http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/day-03-art-attack http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/day-03-art-attack

Boards

For those (everyone) who dont know me I guess its time to introduce myself - I'm James and I am being held at gunpoint and forced to work for Tim and Tristan.

They tell me I have to do arts and make it look good, it just so happens that my job outside of captivity is just that - 'art guy'. So here begins my journey ... quest thing, or something along those lines in which I will endevour to make Scarlett Part 2 the best looking 2d game on the app store! A lofty goal for a guy with 6 weeks to comeplete every art asset in the game. But with the backing of the two coolest guys in this room Im sure we can achieve something pretty special.

I just want my art to compliment the rad story and clever bastard writing ;)

So a quick post to kick it off, you saw the last post with the hint of a moodbaord coming together - the photo above is progression of said mood board.

The idea here is to build up a visual reference point from which the design of locations and characters can begin. We source images from wherever possible, images that evoke an element of interest be it colour, mood, iconography or even the type of brush-strokes used in a particular painting. All this information influences the final look of the game and helps us develop a wider understanding of the direction we want to head in before the hard work begins. It is an important part of the process and one which I enjoy alot as we all get to explore a range of options over a short period of time.

What may be harder to see is that there is a rough map of the gameplay world under all the images, the images are roughly grouped in areas relevant to the aesthetic they represent in relation to the locations on the map. you will also see the beginings of the character development boards with images that evoke perhaps a personality trait, or we might find an image of a scarf that a character might wear. The aim is to get as much information possible collected.

Today there will be more progress on the boards aswell as some rough sketching to flesh out some locations. more soon!

-J

 

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKykNpysD2Ns James Ellis jameswellis James Ellis Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:16:00 -0800 It begins… http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/it-begins http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/it-begins

Jamesartboard

Well, it technically began a while ago, but now we have James "Don't call me an artist" Ellis on board for Scarlett 2!

To make the graphics for Scarlett and the Spark of Life, James spent two Red Bull-fuelled weekends frantically creating new characters and locations. This time round, he's got a bit more breathing room, and it's going to be awesome seeing what he can do. Expect to see a bunch of posts from James as he ramps up on the art side of things

The above image is… I don't know, what would you call it? An art wall? Inspiration board? Mood map? Whatever it is, it officially looks like Progress.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1055836/5449_145041999304_699154304_3203702_2528079_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKicq3fbuAR4 Tristan Clark Tristan Tristan Clark Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:50:53 -0800 Launching Pad Games blog… launches http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/launching-pad-games-blog-launches http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/launching-pad-games-blog-launches Make that relaunches. Some folks may remember that we kept an occasional blog on our old site, but until today we haven't had anything to stand alongside our new site. No longer! Stay tuned; there's some good stuff coming up.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1042922/Screen_shot_2011-02-23_at_6.49.17_AM.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKio2kOpmqoO Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:13:00 -0800 ‘Scarlett and the Spark of Life’ soundtrack http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/scarlett-and-the-spark-of-life-soundtrack http://blog.launchingpadgames.com/scarlett-and-the-spark-of-life-soundtrack

Gravecloseup
Some folks have been asking after the soundtrack for Scarlett and the Spark of Life. I’ve put together a little something. Enjoy!

Tied Up And Angry by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Start A Fight by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Scarlett And The Spark Of Life by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Welcome To Monteil by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

They're Right Outside! by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

That's… No Firefly by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Good For You by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

The Questions Three by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Gherkin by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

The Bee Joke by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Will You Play Its Sweet Refrain? by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Apologies by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Telltale by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

You're Allowed To Expect The Occasional Rhubarb by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Knoble Pocalcos by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Pun - Ished For His Crimes by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

Scarlett And The Spark Of Life, Slightly Shorter Version by Launching Pad Games Listen on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1042922/Screen_shot_2011-02-23_at_6.49.17_AM.png http://posterous.com/users/hdKio2kOpmqoO Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Tim Knauf Launching Pad Games - Tied Up And Angry Launching Pad Games - Start A Fight Launching Pad Games - Scarlett And The Spark Of Life Launching Pad Games - Welcome To Monteil Launching Pad Games - They're Right Outside! Launching Pad Games - That's… No Firefly Launching Pad Games - Good For You Launching Pad Games - The Questions Three Launching Pad Games - Gherkin Launching Pad Games - The Bee Joke Launching Pad Games - Will You Play Its Sweet Refrain? Launching Pad Games - Apologies Launching Pad Games - Telltale Launching Pad Games - You're Allowed To Expect The Occasional Rhubarb Launching Pad Games - Knoble Pocalcos Launching Pad Games - Pun - Ished For His Crimes Launching Pad Games - Scarlett And The Spark Of Life, Slightly Shorter Version