Feb 11, 2009 by Alec Holowka
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. 
Feb 7, 2009 by Alec Holowka
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! 
Clemens Scott’ Site
Adam Saltsman’s Site
Jan 18, 2009 by Alec Holowka
Yes, we have a shiny new site! At the same time we’re pushing ahead with our iPhone game:
“Heroes and Villains”.
The art style and game design continue to evolve as we port our prototype to the iPhone hardware. Katie’s been redesigning the art so it’ll look great on the small resolution and Ian has been redesigning the gameplay so that it will play well on the limited hardware and make full use of the ‘Phone’s unique input methods. Here’s a screenshot of a basic test running my ol’ iPod Touch:
Will the final game actually look anything like this? That’s a very good question, and we won’t know the answer to that for a while! 
Dec 17, 2008 by Alec Holowka
Here’s the latest screenshot from our progress on Heroes and Villains!
Chris and I teamed up to put this together. I did some quick ‘n dirty 3d modelling, and Chris setup the scene with me and made some textures and particles. It was intense, because we were trying to finish for a deadline while I was busy with a bunch of Aquaria work! This probably doesn’t represent the final game’s style exactly, but it was still fun to put it together as a milestone.
Meanwhile, Ian was working on gameplay and our first prototype level. Things are progressing pretty quickly, even though we’re all insanely busy.
A big thanks goes out to Adam Saltsman who helped us plan out the best shot we could make based on the very limited assets that we had available. (Katie is lost at sea again)
P.S. There was a new video blog, but it ended up on the bit-blot site. You can check it out here.
As always, your feedback and critique is welcome and appreciated.
