Do you guys and gals remember H+V? Here’s an uncut video of the latest build that never got released to jog your memory, or introduce you to the concept if you haven’t heard of it yet:

(also check out the work Chris and his voice acting friends did for the VAs)

The main stumbling block with releasing the game is that there are some interface problems. Right now its too hard for most people to pick up and play – which is a required aspect of iPhone games.

There’s also the question of being able to produce enough level content to make the game worthwhile. I wanted to aim for about 50 levels. There’s a fair amount of work involved in that, and I want to be sure that it’ll be worth the effort.

To whit, I’m employing the aide of some of my indie game developer friends – to have them assess, praise or destroy what I have in the game now, and hear how much potential they think it has. I think it’ll at the very least be educational; hopefully it’ll lead to the game improving and eventually being released.

For kicks, I’m also interested in finding out what you guys would like to see me spend my time on…

In other news, our very own Ian Holowka has been working on music for H+V. But so has our very own Christopher Lobay. Recently Chris and Ian collaborated on the same track. For your development-blog-following enjoyment, I’ve included both versions so you can get a sense of how the track… changed.

MP3 Download → Ninja Attack (Ian)

MP3 Download → Ninja Attack (Chris)

In sad news, we’ve exceeded the iPhone’s feeble memory barrier with all our wonderful sounds that we recorded last weekend. The result of our efforts are random crashing and rampant frustration. The solution: remove and compress?

I love it when a plan comes together.

City Edict #151.B
Under the “Infinite Expansion Act” of 2023, property may be demolished and reconstructed at any time for efficiency purposes. When you hear the construction bell, please evacuate the area promptly and without commotion – worker bots will be entering to rezone the surrounding area within 15 minutes.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Keep it Clean!

Also – here’s some new background art from Adam, featuring a more futuristic part of The City:

The main reason there wasn’t animation? Because we just hadn’t made it yet! :]

Today, Clemens started to break into animation and managed to get through a bunch of really nice looking WIPs done.

Clemens also busted out some concept art for more innocent civilians:
(some inspired by blog comments)

How many of these will make it to the game? That’s totally unknown at this point.

Meanwhile, Adam conjured up some more background graphics for the city. Later today we decided that we want to take the city’s look in a more futuristic direction, so the final look will likely be a sexy combination of old and new. (as if the new technology was built on top of older infrastructure) This’ll be a really cool way to give the city some implied backstory.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is still an early version of the game. A lot of the art is temporary, and everything in the game is going to be tuned up by the time we release it.

The levels and core gameplay were designed by Ian. (my bro!)

We haven’t been afraid to show H+V with its “pants down”, so to speak. Its interesting to see how a game goes through different stages during its development – things tend to change very quickly. To whit, here is a screen cap with the graphics test level textured a step further:

As always, let us know what you think in the comments.

But who or what is controlling these robots?

More on that later…

We managed to hit our alpha milestone today! The game is starting to come together in a big way.

As always, let us know what you think of our stuff – good or bad! Feel welcome to add your comments below.