Welcome to WGU Newsletter #293 1) Oh yeah...the game 2) Evil 0, PWX 1 3) PWX Uprising pre orders 4) Link of the week 5) Question of the week
1) Oh yeah...the game ********************** Sheesh! In all my ranting and venting last week I sorta forgot to fill everyone in on where our little game project is!
So here's the story. I figure we're no more than two weeks away from beta on Uprising and depending on bug testing a few weeks away from release after that. I have to admit I'm being fairly optimistic. I've never been through a bug testing phase or finalized a game to ship before. I could be wrong. We've been very careful to identify all bugs and glitches as we go along and we have never pushed forward until we've at least felt confident we knew the cause of a bug and how to fix it. So there is nothing hanging over our head that makes us think, "we have no idea why it's doing that so let's just hope for the best." We've got every game mechanic working.
Every type of move works. Some things need to be polished much better (running attacks and flying moves in particular) but we've passed the point where need to do much R&D on anything critical. Of course, that depends on your definition of critical. I'm not overly worried about our ring ropes but, yeah, it could come back to bite us in the ass if they aren't animating properly soon. And the camera angle on the balcony isn't giving the best view but again, is it critical?
We had a game producer from one of the other area developers check out where we're at. He produced two hit games for PC and Xbox. He looked at what we've been able to produce since the new engine restart and he was impressed. In his opinion the game is more than good enough to take to any publisher but he says in his experience we're looking at 2-3 months before we should release it for sale.
He says as good as it looks now you should always we give yourself three times as much time as you think you'll need for bug testing. Shipping Uprising in November is absolutely possible, but if it was his project he would take more time to polish even the smallest details. We'll see if he's right.
Darrell and I had a meeting yesterday (he's the Big Bad Lead Artist you know) and he gave me a list of what he believes we can add to Uprising in four weeks while the programmers finalize everything.
Basically a lot of quality improvements and details that will just give Uprising that much more impact (no pun intended). Uprising is really shaping up to sit in a no-man's land between what is expected of an indy game and what is expected of a big budget game. On one hand it already looks and plays better than anyone would expect from a new indy studio's first title. But on the other hand it can't compare to the look and feel of a $20 Million dollar THQ or Midway game.
We don't have motion capture. We don't have hi-res photo reference of real life wrestlers. Everything was done one frame and one pixel at a time by hand by a crew that has never produced a game before. Yeehaww!!!! To put it into perspective, have you seen the recent pics of the TNA game? Awesome looking stuff. An entire art crew of who knows how many industry vets spent months on each character and they we're allowed to push the console capabilities as hard as they could. However, Darrell and Tim had about four days to do our last character and it has to run well on computers that are at least four years old. I feel bad for our art crew sometimes. They have the talent to produce a next gen looking game but they're restricted by the low system specs we need, time, and most definitely money. I know PWX isn't all about the graphics but it still has to suck a little bit when an artist doesn't have the freedom to show what they're really capable of.
For all the really technical wrestling game dorks like me out there I'm pleased to say the programming team is rockin' hard. A nasty stomach virus has been passing through the crew over the last few weeks (made worse by brutal stress I'm sure) so poor Sardeep was on his own for most of the time. But in that time he improved running attacks, irish whips (but still not perfect), bouncing off ropes, weapon taunts, entering and exiting the ring with a weapon, weapon attacks on lying opponent (we're ahead of KoC2 on at least one thing! Woo!), and weapon attacks from inside the ring to opponents on the apron. I'd like to totally overhaul our selling animations but that will have to wait until other areas are farther along. At the least the proper selling is working. Our other programmer, Bill (in between running to the bathroom) managed to improve rope collision during animations as well as improve rotation issues we've been seeing with lying submission moves. Poor bastard. When your stomach virus is so bad that the doctor tells you not to take meds so the virus craps itself out faster (literally) you know you're in trouble.
So yeah, despite the drama surrounding the business end of things the development is pushing ahead well. With everything being hand drawn and hand animated PWX has a fairly old school vibe to it that I really like. The crew should be proud. They were essentially handed a broken down old riding mower and told to go enter a Nascar race. They don't even have mullets. Looks like they're going to make it to the checkered flag without getting creamed in the process.
2) Evil 0, PWX 1
**************** Last weekend...my god. I'll try to be less cryptic than last week even though I still can't name names or make direct accusations. Here's what was and is happening:
We had financing lined up to see us through the next three months of development. More than enough to finish PWX: Uprising and generate our own revenue. Last Friday I learned that our financing had been pulled. No warning. No real explanation. All I learned was that this investor had decided to invest in a different developer. A developer that apparently was also doing a PC wrestling game with the same engine. The difference being that this other developer has at least a 20 person team, a solid track record, and millions of dollars already in the bank. Awesome!!
So I was...concerned. First, that there was a bigger and better company looking to scoop us and do something like PWX before we could. Second, that we had our cash flow cut off at the source.
Long story short, we're ok. I spent all week trying to solve our cash flow crisis and with the help of previous investors and even my bank we're still in business. Everybody still got paid! Well, except for me but whatever. To their credit, the PWX crew deserves a standing ovation.
When I told them what had happened I was honest. I could not guarantee them that I could pull us out of this nose dive and if they had to find work elsewhere I would understand. Without exception they all decided to stay and fight it out for as long as we could. Seems they might actually enjoy a little David vs. Goliath action.
This was my first real experience with corporate greed. I talked to a few people who had some insight into what the deal was and I learned this other company isn't actually developing a PC wrestling game. At least not yet. But they'd sure like one and if they wanted to they could have come to us about partnering together on something. Instead, it would appear they thought they could force into closing our doors and looking for jobs. Hmmmm where might an experienced wrestling game crew get job offers from? Oh I don't know, maybe another developer that wants to make a PC wrestling game with the same engine? The closest I came to confirming this theory was when someone who would know told me, "If they wanted to get a game done as cheaply as possible they would put your studio out of business, hire your hungry crew at a lower wage, and buy all of your art assets and code from bankruptcy. It happens all the time."
So I guess we should be, what, flattered? That what we're doing is worth someone else going through that kind of trouble to get their hands on? Maybe. I just think they should go die and kiss my ass. Any chance of doing business in the future? Forget it.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? I wouldn't say we're necessarily stronger after all of this but it definitely didn't kill us either. I found the financing to keep us alive and the most important thing of all, the game, marched forward uninterrupted.
I will say this, some very wise people with a lot of experience running game companies advised me a lot during this period. I respect them as much as a person can ever be respected. They know they're stuff and they've survived much worse than I ever have. But even those people tried to break it to me gently that we might not be able to survive such a blow. I was advised to consider laying everyone off, focus on raising much more money, and reopen the studio in a few months hopefully with the same crew. I decided not to do that and so far it's proving to be the right move. Things are working out again.
Whew. That was a close one.
Oh, and on top of all that we're in talks with a company that is considering us for a multiple game deal. See, you gotta show up or you'll opportunities like that one. Close the studio and send everyone home? That just didn't feel right even though it might have worked for other people. It may have been intended as temporary but quitting is quitting isn't it?
*************************** Thanks again to everyone who pre ordered PWX Uprising!! The support has been absolutely incredible. We're going to get an official Uprising mini-site and permanent pre order page ready very soon and when we do we're going to promote the hell out of it. We'll let you all know when it's ready and thanks again!!!
4) Link of the week
******************** There has been a lot of discussion on the boards lately about why the way we publish PWX is so critical. This is a great little article that explains exactly how publishers pay (or usually don't pay) royalties to developers:
Great to see you guys pushing through and really building up a loyal crew. God, I swear, anyone else getting this cult like atmosphere around here? I'd probably shell out a grand of my own cash just to help out and I'm dead broke as it is, lol. I love PWX, what it stands for, and now after reading and being updated on the fine fight you guys have/are going through, I'm more pumped and behind this project than ever before!
Awesome news, guys. Once I get some money here in a couple of weeks I will be preordering for sure. Don't worry about the graphics side of the game. For such a small team PWX looks fantastic. You all should really be proud of what you have accomplished. To all of the people I have shown the game to, they have all been shocked as to how good it looks.
I have a couple of quick questions for Uprising. Are you guys including intros for the 8 characters? Also, just in general, how are intros handled in PWX? Long dramatic intros, or shorter to-the-point ones? I would imagine, for Uprising anyway, that they are probably short to save some money seeing as how things are so tight financially right now.
Also, how many moves will be included in Uprising? Overall, and with each wrestler.
Oh, and to answer the question of the week, Dane has to be one of the two available characters for the demo :D Have to represent all the Danes out there.
[quote][cite] Lj.:[/cite]Great to see you guys pushing through and really building up a loyal crew. God, I swear, anyone else getting this cult like atmosphere around here? I'd probably shell out a grand of my own cash just to help out and I'm dead broke as it is, lol. I love PWX, what it stands for, and now after reading and being updated on the fine fight you guys have/are going through, I'm more pumped and behind this project than ever before![/quote]
Thanks! You'd think reading about all the bullshit and drama would be boring to most gamers who (I would assume) are more interested in screenshots and trailers.
[quote][cite] thegreatdaneoc:[/cite]Awesome news, guys. Once I get some money here in a couple of weeks I will be preordering for sure. Don't worry about the graphics side of the game. For such a small team PWX looks fantastic. You all should really be proud of what you have accomplished. To all of the people I have shown the game to, they have all been shocked as to how good it looks.[/quote]
Thats fantastic to hear! I can't wait to show the art crew your comments. They'll really appreciate that!
[quote][cite] thegreatdaneoc:[/cite]I have a couple of quick questions for Uprising. Are you guys including intros for the 8 characters? Also, just in general, how are intros handled in PWX? Long dramatic intros, or shorter to-the-point ones? I would imagine, for Uprising anyway, that they are probably short to save some money seeing as how things are so tight financially right now.
Also, how many moves will be included in Uprising? Overall, and with each wrestler. [/quote]
For Uprising there are no entrances because of the venue type. There's no entrance area in the Hammerlock. But we might do an old school World Tour style pre match taunt intro for matches.
Last count I think we were at 1000 completed animations. I'm not sure how many moves per character will make it into Uprising just yet.
[quote][cite] kireblade:[/cite]Awesome! When do you think we can expect a demo? [/quote]
I say four weeks but the advice we get from other producers is at least 2 months.