XBLA - Shred Nebula - 800Pts - Sept. 3rd -- Interview on CAG Foreplay!!!!

[MotzCTG]

Updated this thead to follow how other games are set up.

Anyways, my name is Motz, and I am a programmer on Shred Nebula and have been a fellow CAG on a few different user names for a few years now. Also here is another programmer our lead: Wank8734. You can ask us questions and we will do our best to answer... if we can that is.


Latest News:

9/5/08:
Listen to the new CAG Foreplay for an interview with me and your chance to win a copy of the game and a CTG t-shirt!

8/28/08:
Sick new trailer
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39208.html

8/27/08:
New Developer Walk Through of the new ships!
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39173.html

8/27/08:
At the bottom I am adding all of the ships images that are available in Multiplayer!

8/23/08:

Shred Nebula Demo + new info + tournament announcement:
http://www.g4tv.com/prestitial.aspx?r=%2fxplay%2fvideos%2f28037%2fShre d_Nebula_Web_Exclusive_Demo.html

8/15/08:
New Ships are being revealed throughout the week at www.shrednebula.com (http://www.shrednebula.com)

8/15/08:
Developer walk through on Gametrailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38493.html

8/15/08:
ALL Modes outlined on www.shrednebula.com: (http://www.shrednebula.com:)
Single Player
Arcade Adventure: This is the main single player mode in Shred Nebula. The adventure will span 20+ levels of uncharted space (including secret levels!).
Score Attack: In this mode players will come face to face with endless waves of enemies as they try to stay alive as long as they can with the chance of surviving all the way to the “Shred”. Players will have a limited amount of lives to begin with, but can gain more lives they reach score thresholds.
Dual Score Attack (offline): This mode follows the same rules as the single player Score Attack mode, except you now are able to compete with a friend to attempt to get a higher score than your buddy with a original life sharing system that ensures skilled players to not get screwed by their buddy choking (dying a lot).
Score System: Both Single player modes feature a progressive scoring system that allows for multiple play styles such as speed runs, 100% bonus collection or a combination of both for max high scores. Leader boards for this mode are all about the final score! Special Icon beside the score will indicate who pulled this off with just 1 credit!

Multiplayer – Online (only in full purchase)
Death Match: The core of the online play will be the dog-fight death match mode. Will feature up to 8 players in ranked and player matches.
Single Ranked: Up to 8 players, 1 person per Xbox 360 console, will be able to join in an all out dog-fight to the death. Players will pick one of 8 ships (based on unlock status) and duel in a plethora of uncharted space levels. Win rules are based on number of kills required to win. We feel that ranking scoring system is critical to the games longevity and legitimacy on XBLA as a true multiplayer game. Therefore we have included several leaderboard filters to cater to players preference
Most Game Wins: Plain and simple, who has one the most games in the world?
Most Frags: This player may not win the most, but they sure have blow up more ships then anyone else on this planet!
TrueSkill: Averages win/losses and skill of matches to achieve a “TrueSkill” top ranking.
Player Match: This mode is very similar to the Ranked mode except that the results from the dog-fights will not be ranked on the online leader board. Up to 8 players can pick from up to 8 ships (based on unlock status), pick the level they wish to battle in and adjust win conditions, power ups allowed, etc.

Multiplayer – Split Screen
1 on 1 Death Match (offline): Split screen dog-fighting as players can duel it out against each other in a huge assortment of multiplayer levels and select from up to 8 unique ships crafts (based on unlock status). Various tactics can be deployed on different levels, which make for an interesting and long lasting death match mode. This mode is not ranked on the leader boards.
Online Split Screen Guest Player Match! (full purchase only): Shred Nebula let’s players take a guest into Xbox Live battle to see what Shred Nebula is all about!!!




8/8/08
Released first official trailer:
http://www.gamespot.com/video/944114/6195700/shred-nebula-official-trailer-1

8/7/08
Official release date announced Sept. 3rd!

And new website Launched
http://www.shrednebula.com

8/7/08
Going to be on On the Spot in about 30 mins....4pm pst
http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/

WATCH some news going to be announced about it!.

8/5/08:
Team-Xbox has an hands on preview of the game revealing lots of goodies:
http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2073/Shred-Nebula/p1/

7/15/08:
Here is a link to the 1st ever video footage released for Shred Nebula. Enjoy!

www.shrednebula.com/ShredNebula_XBLA_1st_Reveal.wmv (http://www.shrednebula.com/ShredNebula_XBLA_1st_Reveal.wmv) Note: (requires Windows Media Player 9+ to be 60FPS!)
For release date info, you can read more at: www.djamesgoddard.com (http://www.djamesgoddard.com) and www.shrednebula.com (http://www.shrednebula.com)


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37300.html



This is a game that I have been working on for the last year and a half or so enjoy.


Playable Multiplayer Ships:
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_rip_diff.jpg
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_marauder_diff.jpg
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_guardbot_diff.jpg
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_djinn_diff.jpg

http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_railstinger_diff.jpg
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_hydra_diff.jpg
http://shrednebula.com/images/shipinfo_darkwave_diff.jpg

-Motz

[Pure Apathy]

Looks like it'll be fun.

[SpazX]

That looks pretty awesome, can you give away any for free? ;)

[danked]

I played it and really didn't like it.

[MotzCTG]

That looks pretty awesome, can you give away any for free? ;)

We will see what happens once we get closer to launch, I would like to do something with CAG.

[Pure Apathy]

We will see what happens once we get closer to launch, I would like to do something with CAG.

Awesome :)

[fart_bubble]

wish the rumored release date on this week ended up being true, I've been looking forward to this one

[YodaEXE]

VERY nice! I look forward to this! Too bad you can't do some sort of CAG discount or something.

[MotzCTG]

wish the rumored release date on this week ended up being true, I've been looking forward to this one
Yeah would have been really cool, it's an interesting story of what happened really, but I can't talk about it.

VERY nice! I look forward to this! Too bad you can't do some sort of CAG discount or something.

I wish I could, but hopefully I'll be able to give some copies out.

[fart_bubble]

Yeah would have been really cool, it's an interesting story of what happened really, but I can't talk about it.

Didn't expect that you would be able to though the (most likely baseless) conjecture I've read makes it seem pretty shady.


So what did the tournament fighters actually help you guys with? I was thinking balancing the deathmatch but I haven't heard anything about there being different ships (though that would be cool).

[Wank8734]

Didn't expect that you would be able to though the (most likely baseless) conjecture I've read makes it seem pretty shady.


So what did the tournament fighters actually help you guys with? I was thinking balancing the deathmatch but I haven't heard anything about there being different ships (though that would be cool).

Tech Lead at Crunchtime Games here (MotzCTG's boss on this project!). They did help us with balancing and if you look at the video the action from 19 seconds onward is all deathmatch (notice the multiple types of ships). More details on all ships will be coming leading up to the release (but trust me, they aren't just copies of each other).

[fart_bubble]

Tech Lead at Crunchtime Games here (MotzCTG's boss on this project!). They did help us with balancing and if you look at the video the action from 19 seconds onward is all deathmatch (notice the multiple types of ships). More details on all ships will be coming leading up to the release (but trust me, they aren't just copies of each other).

thank you as I've always been curious about that ever since I've heard that you guys were bringing them in.

Hope this game does well for you, though I love the classics (and I do tend to buy quite a few of them) and stuff like the "new" versions of classics, I still love seeing original games on the arcade from the smaller developers. Anyways, 1st day purchase for me.

[YodaEXE]

For those interested in the game, I just found this and thought it was neat. http://www.achieve360points.com/game/shrednebula/

Achievements are up! :D

[Wank8734]

Cool, at least that shows game modes without us having to say anything prior to our press rollout :)

[MotzCTG]

Lol that is pretty awesome. Oh and some of those achievements aren't so easy....trust me.....

[fart_bubble]

damn, 1000 kills in deathmatch.

[Aleryn]

Looks awesome, if it plays as well I'm buying it.

[MotzCTG]

damn, 1000 kills in deathmatch.

Wont be too bad seeing the multiplayer is awesome and you will want to keep playing it over and over. But, Score the Core, now that is a challenge.

[MotzCTG]

Updated with the Team-Xbox Hand's on
http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2073/Shred-Nebula/p1/

check it out.

[fart_bubble]

decent write up (wish he had gone a bit more in depth). So is September when you guys are planning for it to get released or do you guys not want to say anything after the July release thing?

Either way, I'm really stoked to be able to finally check this out

[Viva Las Vegas]

Cool. I hope the game does well for you.

[thrustbucket]

Nice to see other CAG XBLA developers, definitely goona check your shit out.

[thrustbucket]

Edit: Deleted, wrong thread! :)

[Jesus_S_Preston]

Um, what?

[MotzCTG]

decent write up (wish he had gone a bit more in depth). So is September when you guys are planning for it to get released or do you guys not want to say anything after the July release thing?

Either way, I'm really stoked to be able to finally check this out

I'm not going to lie, we have an official official date, which is soon approaching. "Technically" we haven't announced the official date, however the Team-Xbox article has Sept. down so let's just say i put that up there.... :)

Hopefully we will see more write ups on it soon, and a lot more information should hopefully be put out there soon.

[SpazX]

Looks like they enjoyed it, so I still have hopes for it. I'll definitely give the demo a go. What's the percentage that developers actually get from the purchase price now?

[MotzCTG]

Seeing I can't give exact figures, here is a quote from a gamespot article:
"The publicly available information on this is that the distribution fees for bringing a game to XBLA is 35 to 70 percent, depending upon participation by [Microsoft],"

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/marbleblastultra/news.html?sid=6158142

Microsoft has never officially released what they paid out though i don't think, but it is pretty good. I think every game is different though.

[MotzCTG]

Hey guys, I just got word that Shred Nebula is going to be making an appearance on On The Spot on Gamespot in about 30 minutes, so watch it!!!!!!!!

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/

[MotzCTG]

Finally official... Sept. 3rd. 1 month.

And new website Launched
http://www.shrednebula.com

[xeno]

Finally official... Sept. 3rd. 1 month.

And new website Launched
http://www.shrednebula.com

hmm il def have to check out the demo when it hits the market place

[TC]

Cool I'll check it out. Looks like my type of game.

[Lokki]

That looks like fun. I'll definitely check out the demo when it is released and I'll more than likely drop the points on it.

[JamesMc]

Even if the game is good, I might have a hard time buying it coming out between Castle Crashers and Mega Man 9.

[Sinistar]

Motz, great to see this is finally coming out!! I can't wait to frag you guys online instead of just in the studio. :)

[LinkinPrime]

Game looks great, reminds me of an old MMO game with spaceships, they controlled similar, it was a fairly simple game, man...I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, you could pick up different weapons, place mines, you'd have a limited boost...different style spaceships :-k

Anyways, this is looking very good, great job you guys, can't wait to try it out next month.

[mogshaz]

Game looks great, reminds me of an old MMO game with spaceships, they controlled similar, it was a fairly simple game, man...I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, you could pick up different weapons, place mines, you'd have a limited boost...different style spaceships :-k

Anyways, this is looking very good, great job you guys, can't wait to try it out next month.

Armada?

[deszaras]

The game looks great, I can't wait for the demo to hit.

[LinkinPrime]

I just remembered, it was called Subspace Continuum:
http://www.gameogre.com/reviewdirectory/upload/Subspace%20Continuum.gif

It apparently still exists and still has a big following:
http://www.subspacedownloads.com/

[Bretters]

I just remembered, it was called Subspace Continuum:
I used to play that, was very elite :p

[MotzCTG]

Yeah the gameplay is sometimes compared to a cross between asteroids and subspace. Shred nebula I would say has inspiration from those games, but has a lot more to it.

Oh, and we just released the first Official trailer, put that on the front page...

I'm not going to lie, I dont' love the trailer...too wordy, but the gameplay footage is very good.

[LinkinPrime]

Yeah the gameplay is sometimes compared to a cross between asteroids and subspace. Shred nebula I would say has inspiration from those games, but has a lot more to it.

Obviously, the game alone from the video looks like soooooo much more than the simplicity of Subspace, which is good. I'm really looking forward to trying this one out. Plus the 800pts price tag is pretty reasonable.

[MotzCTG]

TONS of new info on the front page, all game modes outlined, developer walkthrough, and lots more!!!!!

[Bretters]

TONS of new info on the front page, all game modes outlined, developer walkthrough, and lots more!!!!!
Good luck with your launch, looking forward to it. :)

[LinkinPrime]

Very nice...love the gameplay modes.

[MotzCTG]

Yeah there is a lot packed into the game. It is def a game that you will get a lot of play time out of. The multiplayer alone will suck plenty of time away from your life, especially if you find your perfect ship to control.

What is really cool is that we included a bunch of split screen modes. Score Attack, offline multiplayer, and online multiplayer, which is really cool.

More info coming out this week and next week :)

2 weeks left!

[YodaEXE]

Neat! I look forward to it!

[KaneRobot]

That video has me interested. I liked the combat in Star Control, this looks similar to that but with deeper gameplay/more strategy required/varied environments.

[Chase]

This looks like it could be fun. Hmm...

[Sinistar]

Yeah there is a lot packed into the game. It is def a game that you will get a lot of play time out of. The multiplayer alone will suck plenty of time away from your life, especially if you find your perfect ship to control.


Railstinger FTW. :)

[MotzCTG]

Shred Nebula Demo + new info + tournament announcement:
http://www.g4tv.com/prestitial.aspx?r=%2fxplay%2fvideos%2f28037%2fShre d_Nebula_Web_Exclusive_Demo.html

[lilboo]

This looks neat, but I don't know what to expect. I'll def download the demo though!

[SpazX]

It's cool that it's getting so much exposure, I hope it does well for you guys. Do you get paid according to sales? :-P

[MotzCTG]

I can't really talk about any of that SpazX, but yeah we are having a real push on press right now. We have a large focus on the website of course, but I am trying to get in contact with the ShipWrecks to see if we can do something for you guys.

[fart_bubble]

if the game does well sales wise, will there be continued support after it launches like say.... expansion packs and what not or are you guys getting ready to tackle another game after Shred Nebula launches?

[MotzCTG]

if the game does well sales wise, will there be continued support after it launches like say.... expansion packs and what not or are you guys getting ready to tackle another game after Shred Nebula launches?


I can't talk too much about that stuff either, but as James said in the X-Play interview we are planning on have a huge tournament early 2009. So if that is a pretty good indication that we will continue support.

[Chase]

If this game does well, would you consider developing a CAG game? ;)



p.s. i want to be a power-up; a gong that adds gong armor to Cheapy or Wombat

[MotzCTG]

Added new ship info to the front page for all revealed multiplayer ships.

[LinkinPrime]

Oh wow...those ships are sick! Are there more that haven't been revealed or is that it? Do we have the option to choose a color for the ships?

Also, you say "multiplayer ships" does that mean that there's only one ship for the single player?

[MotzCTG]

Oh wow...those ships are sick! Are there more that haven't been revealed or is that it? Do we have the option to choose a color for the ships?

Also, you say "multiplayer ships" does that mean that there's only one ship for the single player?

There are 8 total multiplayer ships (4 have been revealed):
http://shrednebula.com/ships.html
my favorite hasn't been revealed yet though.

There are tons of single player enemies though that aren't playable though.

The single player arcade adventure is focused around RIP Rocket itself and its mission.


Each ship is highly detailed with multiple maps on it to make them very pretty. We might have added some cool hidden things in the game though.... I can't remember though really :)

[LinkinPrime]

Nice :applause:

Are you guys going to have gamerpics and themes available as well?

[MotzCTG]

Nice :applause:

Are you guys going to have gamerpics and themes available as well?


Yeah I am pretty sure we will, They should be pretty!

1 week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LinkinPrime]

Yes...can't wait.

[MotzCTG]

New walk through video of the Djinn and Marauder!!
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39173.html

[Sinistar]

Lookin' great Motz!

[MotzCTG]

Sick new trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39208.html

also i believe a trailer is up on XBLM

[Sinistar]

Hey Motz, I like the remix of the main title theme there.. Cool trailer. :)

[MotzCTG]

I will be online tonight at 1AM (PST)(I believe that is when they put them up) playing online for anyone that wants to play against me.

[fart_bubble]

I will be online tonight at 1AM (PST)(I believe that is when they put them up) playing online for anyone that wants to play against me.

wish my fucking 360 would finally get back

[LinkinPrime]

So what's the verdict? Anyone play last night or this morning? I passed out before it was up :-(

[MotzCTG]

So what's the verdict? Anyone play last night or this morning? I passed out before it was up :-(


LOL so did I, I'm not going to lie. I will be home in about 2 hours and will be on :)

[lilboo]

I'll be trying this when I get home. Damn Monday being off. I keep thinking it's Tuesday :wall:

[SpazX]

I just played it and it's pretty good. The controls will take some getting used to, but I might pick it up later.

[YodaEXE]

I bought the game and have played a bit. It's pretty neat! I want the theme for it, but I don't wanna spend another 80 points :(

[Rocko]

I'll download the demo in a little bit.

[lilboo]

It's.. neat. But not for me. Feels like too many buttons to push and it feels really sensitive and I was flyin all over the place. Not a bad game, but I won't be purchasing this.

Good luck, though!

[MotzCTG]

If you are just downloading the demo please check out Score Attack mode, a lot of people seem to be drawn to that :)

[lilboo]

I did! I played for a good hour (between the modes). This is a solid title, just not for me.

Do you guys have any plans on other XBLA titles? Hell, even PSN/WiiWare titles in the works?

[paz9x]

Do you guys have any plans on other XBLA titles? Hell, even PSN/WiiWare titles in the works?

does gamesharing on psn influence putting this or future titles on psn?

[Wolve11]

I usually don't buy arcade games due to there being so much junk out there that i'll play for a day or two and never touch again.
Now that I know a CAG worked on it I'll definitely download the trial and give it a shot.
What kind of scores (if any) has this gotten so far?

Good luck and I hope this game will open up the gates for future projects for you.

[TC]

Got my trial will be giving it a play this weekend.

[orntar]

i did not like the controls at all. i can appreciate the work that goes into developing a game, so i would like to say good job to MotzCTG. however, just like lilboo, its not for me.

i do think having one of the devs in the community tames comments down. i think there would be some "man, that sucks", when there is anonymity involved.

[lilboo]

:rofl: No, that's not true. In the Wii Shop Channel thread we had one of the developers who made "Critter Creatures" talk in that thread and people were like "DIS GAME SUXXXXOR!1"..:rofl:

I would have had the same opinion regardless if the OP was a developer or not. It just seems like a good game for certain people; just not me :)

[LinkinPrime]

Tried out the demo a couple nights ago, seems like it could be pretty good but the controls are a bit hard to get used to. Seems like it would work better with a mouse. I didn't delete the demo, I want to give it a full spin later, and If It seems like I can get used to the controls, I'll get it.

[Mrcapcom]

yea same here I didnt enjoy the controls other than that seems like a cool game I don't think ill buy it though

[BackInBlack]

I'll have to chime in with a complaint about the controls as well. Having thurst/reverse on the left trigger/bumper respectively feels backwards when most people aren't southpaws. If there was an option for custom controls this would be no problem, but there are only 2 button combinations that can be switched. I dug the trial, but i only used the right trigger once...at the end! Nothing that you can't get used to, but backwards imo.

[LinkinPrime]

For me it was the rotating that was the main issue...trying to go left sometimes made me go right and vise-versa.

[lilboo]

I think I would have appreciated a dual stick controls? Is that what it's called? AKA like Geometry Wars.
Dual Stick + light use of the shoulder buttons.

[MotzCTG]

Hey guys thanks for all the comments, on multiple message boards the main complaint has been with the controls of the game. I tried to defend them and other devs have tried to defend them, but I'm not going to defend them here too much, because they are what they are really. It seems to me like if you can sit down and play with them for about an hour or 2 through training or score attack and realize that this is not a dual stick shooter then maybe that can help.

Welp for anyone else please give it a try out(demo is free, play score attack too), and I hope that you enjoy it. And don't worry just cause a Dev is on the boards doesn't mean you can't trash talk my game, as long as you justify it :)

Don't forget to listen to my interview on the new CAG Foreplay! and enter the contest to win Shred Nebula :) :)

[MotzCTG]

ign.com review - 7.0 which is pretty good.
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/908/908158p1.html
focused a lot on single player and not so much on score attack or multiplayer options.
but good article.

[FriskyTanuki]

Tried out the demo and it's not bad, though I'm not a fan of the zoomed in camera. Seems similar to NovaStrike on PSN, though that game's was a bit too zoomed out or at least the ship was too small.

[RvLeshrac]

I actually joined specifically to post in this thread after seeing more control-bashing.

Believe me, I'm with all of you that dislike the controls - I have my gripes with them as well. I posted on GFAQS with a few criticisms about the game, and even came up with a (IMHO) nice dual-stick controller layout.

BUT (and this is a big one), once you spend a couple hours with the game, you really do get used to the controls.

I think the biggest issue people are having is in thinking the game is Asteroids or Subspace. I almost wish the devs would stop comparing the game to other games, but there's no avoiding it. If you *are* going to compare the game to another, Subspace is really as close as it gets.

A lot of people seem to be having a Rotation vs. Free issue, too. If you move the stick to the left, your ship is going to turn quickly to point left. If you move the stick to the right, etc. etc. Rotation would slow your ship down to a point where the game would be unplayable - there's just too much action to have that type of control scheme.

From what I read, it looks like the CTG team is going to try to work in some more control customization, and I'm really hoping that will improve the way people are perceiving SN.

Really, though, for those of you that grabbed the trial, said 'bleh', and immediately put it down... spend some more time with the game. My first reaction was pretty poor, but once I put some time into it, I enjoyed it enough to buy it.

[MotzCTG]

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1561/Shred-Nebula/p1/
Team Xbox review -- 7.8!

[KaneRobot]

I'll probably buy this in the coming days. The controls are different in that they are sort of old school, but that's pretty easy to adjust to. Nothing really worth complaining about.

[MotzCTG]

Look forward to playing you online! Most of the developers are on every night playing for a few hours. We usually get some nice 4-8 player matches going. Enjoy!

[ArthurDigbySellers]

I played the demo and I too couldn't get a complete grasp of the controls. I know that putting a few hours into the game would probably alleviate that issue, but honestly I have enough games to play that I don't want to spend that amount of time to be able to just play the game correctly.

I appreciate all of the hard work that went into this game. The graphics and sound design are pretty good for an XBLA game. It's just that a game like this, which is going to be compared to other "space shooters" on XBLA, needs to grab you quickly in order to sell. The fact that the controls have such a learning curve is going to turn off a lot of people and discourage impulse buys.

[Wingwright]

I'm enjoying the game so far, but I've yet to play more than a 2 player match.

I've tried a couple times to find a match, but I don't get anything.

I'm gonna keep trying for an 8 player match...

Anyone here want to play sometime?

[dastly75]

Hey people let's play, anyone who has this game send me a FR.