For our latest video blog, Clemens put together a video of his animation process for Heroes and Villains. Check it out!
[Vimeo 3301052]
Also – here’s some new background art from Adam, featuring a more futuristic part of The City:
A few people complained about the lack of animation in our alpha prototype video.
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.
If you folks have been keeping up, you’ll remember that we completed an alpha prototype milestone on Monday for our iPhone/iPodTouch game “Heroes and Villains”. We made an internal video to highlight the features in the game. We Intended to keep it internal, but I figured it would be fun to share it with you here to get some more feedback and to show you guys a bit of what the gameplay is going to be like.
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.
[Vimeo 3153750]
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. 
Howdy folks! Here’s another update featuring new concept art from Clemens – this time for the enemies in H+V. Killer robots, natch.
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.
We’ve switched up the art team on H+V! Now we’re collaborating with Clemens Scott and Adam Saltsman. If you’ve been keeping score, you’ll remember that Adam did 90% of the art for Paper Moon. I tapped Clemens Scott to help out with the game after seeing his awesome work on the TIGSource community project Indie Brawl. Their passion for the game and the joy they find in their work makes H+V a fun project to work on – even though I’ve been crunching pretty hard on it lately.
The game runs really well on the iPhone hardware. Here’s a shot of the current build running on my iPod Touch:
Clemens is tackling characters and animation, Adam is doing up the 3D backgrounds, Ian is developing levels, Chris is creating UI visuals and I’m programming whatever’s needed to support all of that. Chris, Ian and I are also starting to work on some sweet beats.
In other news, we bought plane tickets for GDC! We’re going to be part of a booth called “Game On Manitoba”. If you’re heading down to GDC, be sure to stop by. We’ll be demoing Paper Moon and Heroes and Villains – and we’ll be handing out some cool swag. We always love meeting and chatting with folks about what we do.
Life has been pretty hectic lately. Chris and I signed the Infinite Ammo incorporation papers amid some drama. Fortunately, I’m scheduled to do a talk at the Independent Game Summit about game development frustrations and hurdles. (with my good friend Tommy Refenes, no less) I have some good data to share that will help out other aspiring indie developers.
My game development past before creating Aquaria was not a smooth ride. I worked hard for a lot of projects that didn’t end up going anywhere. For some reason I kept trying, and managed to release something that was ours and that some people love. Based on those combined experiences, and as a build up to the epic IGS talk with Tommy, I’m starting a new blog series called “Bittter Game Developer Hints”. I love game development, but sometimes it can be a total bitch – and these hints should serve as helpful warnings to idealists striving to get into the field. Imagine me: scraggly facial hair, eyepatch, cursing, with Canadian whisky in hand – while you enjoy these tasty nuggets of hard-earned wisdom.
Bitter Game Developer Hint #1:
Vet potential collaborators extensively before you grant them big responsibility:
Intent doesn’t herald results.
Let’s follow that up with…
Bitter Game Developer Hint #2:
Failure is about growing. Take the lessons you can and move on to greener pastures.
While we’re on a roll…
Bitter Game Developer Hint #3:
Painful change is a catalyst for beautiful art.
Heroes and Villains’ deadline is GDC, so we’re going to be crunching on that for the next while. Our Alpha Milestone deadline is Monday, and its going to be awesome.
Wish us luck!
After a couple of weeks of work, I’m finally happy with the Heroes + Villains logo. Woo! And to celebrate, we’ve released a brand new wallpaper! Feel free to gird your desktop with the following:
