Hey guys!
How's it going?
We have just launched a new blog which should have a couple surprises for you all.
Why don't you head over to Laughing Jackal Blog to check it out! You know you want to! :)
Steven.
Brand new Laughing Jackal Blog
(39 posts) (10 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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I can confirm Ace Armstrong is a minis title!
Any other questions just give me a shout!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Prices will be:
Cubixx – $3.99
Stellar Attack – $4.49
Vibes – $5.49Posted 1 year ago # -
volcane
MemberHi Steven - the slapstick humour and b-movie sci-fi references sound fantastic!
Ace Armstrong reminds me of Zapp Brannigan from Futurama. Will the game be influenced by Futurama-style graphics and humour? That would be sooo awesome! :-)
There are some great hints on your blog regarding how the game will play. I'm really looking forward to playing Ace Armstrong vs the Alien Scumbags!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I will try get some screen shots up soon so I will keep you posted!!
Posted 1 year ago # -
PS I love Futurama! :P
Posted 1 year ago # -
Carson
MemberI am sorry you werent able to get stellar attack out this week,
hmmm..... you guys posting an exact date for one of your Minis to be released, and then it gets postponed for whatever reason..... thats never happened before, eh Steven? :)PS I love Futurama! :P
you get one sale from me just for that :Doh, and speaking of that, will the release date of Ace Armstrong be the same (or near) in NA as it is in EU now that you guys are getting your games out here?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Heyy,
The Recycl-o-Ray works pretty simply. Basically when you shoot an enemy that has a gun more complex than a traditional 'shoot bullets straight ahead' weapon, they leave behind a swirly cloud of alien stuff.
At that point, Ace can use his Recyl-o-Ray (which pops out of the front of his ship) to suck up the stuff and recycle the alien weapon (which will have limited ammo before it runs out).
During this time Ace can still fire his basic gun and can dump the currently recycled weeapon if he sees one he likes better.
Hope that's enough explanation until more screens emerge! ;)
Posted 1 year ago # -
For all our minis we set a time scale of about 6-8 weeks, so around that kinda time.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Carson
Memberhttp://blog.laughingjackal.co.uk/post/more-news-in-the-exciting-adventures-of-ace-armstrong
looks like AA is turning out to be a pretty fun game.although just glancing at that first boss description its looking like it might be a little more mature humor than I expected, with: "[the Mother Ship] firing gloop-covered newborn Scumbags from her nether regions" and the "fearsome chest laser".
Posted 1 year ago # -
6-8 weeks, wow that's fast. How many developers have you got working on a title on average if you don't mind me asking?
Posted 1 year ago # -
One programmer, one artist and some test time etc.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Speedy fellows. I'd love to be able to turn something around that fast.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ah, so that really is fast, as I had thought. I figured that I had no frame of reference and so must be wrong thinking that was a fast cycle. The only thing I knew was that Game Atelier's side-scrolling shooter Mini, The Flying Hamster (which, as far as I know, is their only current project), was announced late last year and finally went into beta in early June. Speaking of which, I'm kind of surprised their latest trailer hasn't shown up here. Do they not even know about this website?
Regarding development cycles for small games, I remember being told that the plug-n-play games from Jakks Pacific (32-bit Sunplus/Winbond hardware, if that gives you developer guys a point of reference) usually had 6-8 months--though those were generally collections of 3-5 games, rather than 1 game taking that much time. Team sizes seemed to be in the mid single digits.
From the Laughing Jackal blog post, the note about having to watch out for asteroids during the boss fight against the Asteroid Eater immediately made me think of the Gradius V Stage 5 boss fight . . . which is chock full of moving asteroids and a very difficult boss. I would die lots of times. Man, that game is killer.
Incidentally, has anyone gotten the recent PS3 PSN bullet hell shooters, Gundemonium Collection? I'm considering getting the PC release (physical disc + bonus goodies).
Posted 1 year ago # -
volcane
Memberhttp://blog.laughingjackal.co.uk/post/more-news-in-the-exciting-adventures-of-ace-armstrong
looks like AA is turning out to be a pretty fun game.although just glancing at that first boss description its looking like it might be a little more mature humor than I expected, with: "[the Mother Ship] firing gloop-covered newborn Scumbags from her nether regions" and the "fearsome chest laser".
Marvelous! :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Correction to what I said earlier: the numbers I've seen for development time on a Jakks Pacific TV Game title have been 5 and 6 months, the former of which was a) believed to be a project with extra time allowed and b) an early TV Game; I assume the more recent titles, based on more advanced technologies, take longer.
How on Earth is Laughing Jackal pulling off such a fast cycle? Do you guys start crunch time the same day as project start? :P Or is there some sort of TARDIS hot tub involved?
Posted 1 year ago # -
volcane
MemberAl has a new post over on the Laughing Jackal Blog outlining some of the enemy alien scumbags that Ace Armstrong will face!
Another exciting day in the dev cycle of Ace Armstrong!
This game is looking awesome! I'm really really looking forward to it! :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
volcane
MemberAnother week, another exciting post about Ace Armstrong development over at the Laughing Jackal dev blog! :-)
Sounds like Ace Armstrong is going through the final stages of refinement prior to launch:
we’re hoping to submit Ace Armstrong to SCEE QA by the start of next week, with a US submission coming as soon as we’ve got our ESRB age rating organised.
What with the shoot-em-up thread that FuturLab started recently and the forthcoming Ace Armstrong from the team at Laughing Jackal, it sounds like there are some awesome times ahead for shooter fans! ;-)
We’ve taken quite a hardline approach with Ace in terms of difficulty. As this is a mini we weren’t able to create loads of polished levels, so we’ve really tried super hard to make sure that the levels we have created are as tight and rewarding as possible to give the player the most bang for their buck.
Part of the difficulty balancing comes from using the recycl-o-ray to select the right weapons for different situations and placing those weapons intelligently within the levels. It’s really important to pick the right weapon for the job, for example the last level is really claustrophobic so you don’t get much time for direct fire on your enemies. In this situation the laser – which can fire through terrain - is hugely valuable as you can be hurting enemies before they get right in your face, saving you lives (which are scarce as it is) and earning more points to win extra lives.
We’ve spent a lot of time balancing this one when compared to our other minis, so I hope the end results are worth it. I’m very confident that fans of the old-style challenging horizontally-scrolling shooters will be very happy with the results. The halcyon days of memorising attack waves and button mashing until you can’t feel your arms anymore are making a comeback at last! ;-)
Sweet! ;-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
That note about the laser which fires through terrain immediately reminded me of the wave cannon from DariusBurst (which can shoot through walls/terrain). It's a feature most useful in Burst Mode, which is the mode where you can switch weapons; in Arcade Mode, the wave cannon is just the last level of weapon power-up.
Heh, I'm also reminded of the time I fired a Farsight through walls in a multiplayer game of Perfect Dark and got a triple kill. One shot, and three bots collapsed. Sweet!
Ironically, I read that Laughing Jackal blog entry yesterday, then came here and saw your post, volcane, about 20 minutes after you had written it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Quick heads up:
We'll soon have an epic trailer of Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags for you guys to check out, showing a fairly decent mix of settings, weapons, bosses, etc. from the full game.
Not sure exactly when this is going to be ready, but I think we should have something final by this time next week at the latest.
Thanks!
Al
Posted 1 year ago #
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