Hey everybody! It has been a crazy month around the studio. Collapsus marches ever forward (we’re almost done, we swear), the studio remodel is going smashingly, and we went to Indy PopCon for our third year in a row and it was out of this world! So, let’s talk about it.
Indy Pop was amazing! Unfortunately, this time around it was just me, Adam, and Mark; but even though our event team was small, we certainly had a blast! Like previous years, Indy Pop was three days long, but unlike previous years, we didn’t get one of those Game Dev tables; we got a full on booth. It was a little more expensive and came with its own challenges, but the extra space was more than worth it. It was also a killer location, right in the middle of all of the game dev action.
Like last year, we got to meet up with our friends from Beyond Board and World Yo-yo Champion Jake Parker. But we also got to meet new friends like Circean Studios and iNightGaming. We were also interviewed by the lovely people at Grandma’s Game Room. It’s always great going to these kinds of shows because you meet so many people who become lifelong friends and colleagues.
One of the biggest things that we had to show off at this show was our brand spankin’ new Collapsus multiplayer Battle mode. The main game build we showed off was not that much different than what we showed off at PAX East, other than a few bug fixes. The big one being that notoriously bad tutorial glitch that we only caught on the showroom floor. If you were there, you know the one. So, with that being properly fixed, it was definitely time to unveil that Battle mode.
We only had it playable for two players head-to-head, even though in the final release it’s available for up to 8 players, both local and online. This was the first time I had even seen the Battle mode in action, as Mark had been working on it until the wee hours of that morning. It was a sight to behold, and people certainly went crazy over it.
We ended up having a big old multiplayer tournament on Saturday, and the turnout was stellar. We had two returning players from last year’s Indy Pop t-shirt challenge (well, we did have more, but none of them ended up receiving the call that the tournament was beginning, unfortunately). Needless to say, however, those two t-shirt winners walked home with 1st and 2nd place in this tournament. Fortunately for us, they both decided to wear their Wraith Games t-shirts. It’s times like this that really make us proud that we’re making the stuff that you guys want to play. The 1st place winner is receiving one of our brand new Wraith Games hoodies, being mailed to him shortly, and 2nd place is receiving one of our new full-color t-shirts.
Speaking of winning, I’m VERY happy to report that this year we took home the player’s choice for Best Game at Indy Pop and the Best Game Concept award from Slickster Magazine. Last year, we ended up getting 2nd place in the Best Overall Game award, after being thoroughly trounced by our friends at Multivarious Games for their wonderful brawler, “No Mercy”. This put us at 7 award wins and 4 finalist positions for Collapsus. You have no clue how happy that makes all of us. A huge thank you to everyone who voted for us!
That was basically it, though. We saw so many wonderful faces, both returning and new; and the reception of Collapsus was so overwhelmingly positive, especially the new Battle mode (and while no one made any complaints, we were able to take so many notes about how to improve that as well). Honestly, though, we were just shackled to our table most of the time. It was hard to get around and take in much of the show ourselves. That’s the sign of a good convention, however. People were so interested in what we had to offer, that there was never a moment’s rest, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
What’s for the next blog post? Not exactly sure. We’re getting so close to the release of Collapsus that it may be the final pre-release post. Probably not, though. Maybe the next one’s a studio post. We’re getting pretty far on that. Something for one of our other projects? Could be. What about Matsuricon? That could be too. We’ve got so much going on around here that we’ll be just as surprised as you. Till next time!