Gravitronix (My First Game)

CapAmerica

CapAmerica

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My Company (Medaverse Studios) just released our very first game, Gravitronix on WiiWare.
I was wondering if anyone has tried it out or not?

We've worked on it for 2 years during our free time since none of us could just quit our jobs and do it full time, but hopefully that will change in the next few years.

We wound up learning a lot in the process, specially how hard it is to work with a file size restriction. When we first started there was no WiiWare tools so we had to build a lot of stuff from scratch. There was no support for the SD card so we wanted to keep the game small so it wouldn't take up a lot of space on the Wii's internal memory and when we started there was a weird pricing situation which dealt with file size which Nintendo has now scrapped. Since it was our first game we aimed at the 500 WiiPoint price point.

So far there has only been 2 reviews out there so far, they are decent, specially when you take into consideration that this was our very first game.

http://www.wiisworld.com/wiiware-reviews/Gravitronix.html

http://www.nintendo-okie.com/2009/10/gravitronix-review.html

I would like to hear what people think about it, so we can get a idea on what we need to improve on in our next game. (we already know that graphics are going to get more attention next time, and with out file size restrictions its not going to be hard.)
 
Who's handling your PR/marketing/communications? If I were you, I'd be much more aggressive with seeking reviews (there's nothing wrong with supplying gaming enthusiast sites with review copies of your game... specifically places like Nintendo Everything, for example) as well as getting videos and a much, much more thorough product page for your game... the separate site is good, but this information should be repeated (but not mirrored, if that makes sense to you) on your corporate site as well. Partnering with community-based sites, such as CAG or Destructoid, for download code give-a-ways not only helps get buzz for your game, but also builds loyalty for a young and upcoming developer.

It seems like with a little help, you guys could be getting much more buzz (especially considering the scope of your game, as an 8-player affair.) I would, however, have your artist strive to be a little more professional with her (?) designs... everything looks a little flat and amaturish, both which can be fixed with more practice designing (and refining) characters using Photoshop/Illustrator.

That said, good job. Let me know when you start hiring for your marketing department! :)
 
Good on you, CapAmerica! It's so nice to hear tales of indie developers working hard to make it in the industry. I haven't fired up my Wii in a while, but the next time I do I'll check your game out on WiiWare. It will actually be the first WiiWare title I'll have ever tried.

I don't know how much of an NDA you are under, but it would be great to hear about the process you went through in developing your first title.
 
Thanks for the comments. ^_^

[quote name='zenintrude']It seems like with a little help, you guys could be getting much more buzz (especially considering the scope of your game, as an 8-player affair.) I would, however, have your artist strive to be a little more professional with her (?) designs... everything looks a little flat and amaturish, both which can be fixed with more practice designing (and refining) characters using Photoshop/Illustrator.[/quote]

We had done some Art work for the game that made all the characters "pop" more, they were well shaded with lots of color, in my opinion they looked 10x better. But sadly we had to drop the color pallet on them (and even remove the animations) to keep the file size down. When we were developing the game we had to keep it under a certain file size limit, and as the game grew we slowly had to start axing stuff with the art. We figured that since the game play was going to be the main focus that we could get away with having lower quality graphics (something I did not agree with at all) so that is sadly why everything turned out looking flat and amateurish. What really sucked thou is that a month (or so) before our release Nintendo got rid of the size limitation on us but at that point it was to late to go back and put the original art work back in.

[quote name='Richard Kain']I don't know how much of an NDA you are under, but it would be great to hear about the process you went through in developing your first title. [/quote]

We had a Developers Blog on our main site (http://www.medaverse.com/) which we talked about what we could about the whole developing process. And I did a big interview over at Nintendo World Report about the developing too.
 
Actually we've been asked that a few times.
When we started making the game none of us knew about Warlords. Mid-way through development someones friend actually said that the game plays a bit like it. We joked around that we should rename it :p
 
[quote name='CapAmerica']What really sucked thou is that a month (or so) before our release Nintendo got rid of the size limitation on us but at that point it was to late to go back and put the original art work back in.[/QUOTE]

Man, that sucks.
 
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