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Freze-E Frosty's : Developer Commentary - Level 2

11/18/2014

Welcome to the second installment of Freeze-E Frosty's - Developer Commentary. In this video series I will go behind the scenes of the second level of Freeze-E Frosty and share with you my design process and about the original soundtrack.

Freeze-E Frosty's Developer Commentary - Level 2 from Danny Quesada on Vimeo.

Further Notes: Level 2

- You can listen to the games original soundtrack on our indieDb page.
- The idea for the health vent was pitched by one of our environment artist.
- The "Running Man" appears 3 times in this level in the background.
- Traveling through the vents was supposed to be much shorter, but was lengthened after positive feedback from playtests.
- There was supposed to be another section before you exit the vents, but it was cut due to time.
- The Ice Cream T-Rex appears in the background twice in this level.
- This level went through many iterations of environment art layout. The look of the level wasn't finalized till near launch of the game.
- My original intent of this level was to show the dark underbelly of the factory.
- Areas featured in this level are: a warehouse, Cookie Crumbler (where toppings are made) and the soda filtration system.
- In terms of design, this level was redesigned the least.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Divercast Ep. 7 : Graphics, Story or Gameplay?

11/10/2014

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In this month's episode of Divercast Shimmy, Andrew (Crayyon) and Dannylv100 talk about what is important to us in games. Graphics, Gameplay or Story? We talk about what games we feel were successful in merging gameplay and story as well as what games were more successful in storytelling than gameplay.
Time to sit back, relax and dive into Divercast!

Games Discussed in this episode: Call of Duty: Advanced warfare, Call of Duty : World At War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1&2 , Bayonetta, Mass Effect 1&2, Monument Valley, Lost Odyssey, Hatred, Spec Ops: The Line, Borderlands, Destiny, Gears of War, Bioshock: Infinite

Shimi_Rank1's Iphone Game Corner: Shimi recommends, Monument Valley!

Do you have questions, comment or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Indie Arcade: Twin Tiger Shark

11/3/2014

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War is Bullet Hell

Welcome to another installment of Indie Arcade! For this month, I decided to go with something that brought back a lot of childhood memories. This month we take to the skies in Twin Tiger Shark.

Note: All of the images on this page are from the itch.io page of Twin Tiger Shark. I was unable to capture or record any Hi-res images for an unknown reason.

Premise

Twin Tiger Sharks follows in the footsteps of every Bullet Hell game from the arcade era. You take to the skies in your biplane and shoot at everything that isn't you.

There are a wide array of enemy vehicles. Tanks, planes, boats, bigger planes and bosses. No worries, you have the typical arsenal of rapid fire machine guns, spread shot, grenades and lasers. And if that wasn't enough, you can summon a squadron of helper planes to help you completely annihilate everything on the screen.

There are 6 stages, and 3 difficulty settings (Easy, Hard and Insane). By default there are no continues. You start off with 3 lives and must earn more in order to stay in the fight. Once you are out of lives the games ends and you are back at stage 1.

Art and Design

   The art style is a complete throwback to old school arcade games such as the classic Raiden series. Things on screen can get very chaotic, explosions, bullets and enemy vehicles fill the screen, but at no time did I ever feel that the screen was cluttered. Everything is clear and distinguishable. A very important thing to achieve in a game such as this.

   From start to finish the game is a loving tribute to the genre. I have seen a lot of games that claim to emulate the bullet hell genre or other classic arcade games such as Metal Slugs. None of those games come close to what Twin Tiger Sharks has achieved.

It is more than clear that the developers of this game have spent countless hours in the arcades of the early 90's, spending quarter after quarter. Not only does it look good and sound good, it plays extremely well.

   The games features a "Dodge" mechanic that is seamlessly implemented into the game. By moving left or right, your plane tilts on it's axis. Do this at the right time and you can bypass incoming bullets. This mechanic is a wonderful and simple new addition that adds a bit more depth to the typical shoot everything on screen.

Another interesting game mechanic in Twin Tiger Shark is the "Helper Planes" power-up. Once collected, a squadron of planes will join you. They fire machine guns non-stop and follow your lead. Not only do they help you clear the screen of enemies, they also act as shield, absorbing one hit for you before going down.

One thing that also makes this game unique is it's lack of continues. You have one shot to make it through all six stages. Once you lose all of your lives, it's game over. This game is hard and punishing. I consider myself to be fairly well versed in the genre. I mastered the first level of Metal Slug 3 (I can clear it without losing a single life) and I have beaten many other bullet hell games. Twin Tiger Sharks however, I can not pass stage 1-2!

Pro Tip: Bombs are not just useful for taking out groups of enemies, they can also be used to quickly destroy all incoming bullets/projectiles in a small radius.

Cons

   There is one issue I personally had with this game, but most things aren't really issues at all. I have a few things that I would like to see in an update or sequel.

   There was one issue I ran into. I played Twin Tiger Shark on my PC. The game is compatible with a USB controller. For some reason I could not get my controller to work, so i was forced to use the keyboard. This isn't a reason to not like the game, just an issue I encountered. Not a deal breaker at all, just keep that in mind.

Some features that I would like to see is, an option to add continues to your play through, A stage select and a free play mode where you have unlimited lives. Offering up some sort of customization to the way you play can add a lot of replay value. Not to mention it would allow me to practice so I can get past the first stage.

King of the Skies

Twin Tiger Shark is a game that sets out to be an awesome tribute to the arcade era shooters. It however is a much more successful game that blazes it's own trail.

It brought back happy memories of playing games like Time Pilot and Raiden. And for only a buck, Twin Tiger Shark will save you a ton of quarters.

The highest score I got in the first stage (1-1) was 367,700. Think you can beat that?