The Latest on ~~ES~~!

May 23, 2013

On Monday, the ~~Electric Shocktopus~~! got its first (minor) debut.  Still very much in the pre-alpha, work-in-progress stages, I brought it along to a local ‘demo night’ to show it off.

I dare you to get all three stars…

What’s a ‘demo night?’  Every few months in Boston, a bunch of indie game developers get together and play the games that we’re all working on.  It’s a great chance to test our games in front of real players, and since many of those ‘players’ make games themselves, you can imagine the feedback is particularly insightful.

So what did I learn?  Well, I found that some parts of the game were working great. People in general enjoyed the game, chuckled at the bad puns, and liked the cute Shocktopus.  The game did turn out to be more difficult than I intended — so much so that I had to quickly go through and tweak some levels as the night went on.  But all in all, people seemed to like the fact that it was a tough game.  Like Super Meat Boy, generally when a player died they were ever-more determined to win.

Beyond all the comments I got at the Demo Night, it was also just a great deadline for me.  In the week leading up to it, I added in a slew of new features to the game, including…

Zoomed in Levels

For intimate gatherings

A Level Editor

To make and change levels quickly

Puns, Puns, Puns

That pun, I do not think it means what you think it means

I’m already working on the next version, trying to take all the feedback from Monday into account.  If you’re one of my helpful, helpful playtesters… I’ll be sending the new version along to you soon.  And if you aren’t a playtester, but would like to be, just send me an email, and I can add you to the list.

-Andy