In Tilt to Live 1, you learned what it felt like to drive a spike shield. In Redonkulous, you’ll learn what it’s like to be on the other end.
As I write this, we’ve got ten weapons mocked up and generally playable. About half of them are pretty enough to ship, the rest are still drawn in crayon or made of construction paper. We may cut the arsenal down if we decide a weapon isn’t really adding anything interesting to the mix. Tilt to Live launched with 8 weapons, so this feels about right.
June has been designated “Boss Fight” month. By July, we’re aiming to have all of our boss encounters finalized, each with an easy Classic Mode version, and a much harder Code Red version. So far we’re still on track to hit our narrow release window of “2013”.
Some more less-circular ideas for Tilt to Live 2 enemies. Again, no idea what (if any) of this will make it into the final game. We’re kind of hovering around the concept of giving the dots some war machines. The battering ram dots are an adaptation of the old big red throwing knives from Tilt to Live 1’s Gauntlet mode. The tank is probably a bit much for a Tilt to Live game, but I like his little general hat.
This was one of the first concept pieces I played with for Tilt to Live 2. None of this stuff is guaranteed to make it into the game, but you can see I’m messing with some alternate enemy types. As much as I enjoy the idea of a big freaky mega dot, it has to fit well with the flow of the game to make it into the final product.
Most of my concept work is just quick sketching thrown around on a big canvas, with some color or grayscale values thrown in occasionally to flesh things out. Nothing super-polished, just enough to make the idea tangible. I’m pretty determined to do more than just draw circles for this game, so we’ll see where that ambition takes us.
I believe that Guacamelee for PSN was made specifically for me. Samurai Jack’s artwork, Smash Brothers’ combat, Metroid’s exploration, and a Mexican theme. I. Loved. This. Game. Download it on your Playstation 3, or at least enjoy the soundtrack and dream about what could have been.
On the iOS space, Year Walk (universal app) is the most recent game to catch my attention. I know it’s been out a while… I’m usually late to these parties. As you can gather from the trailer, it’s a super-atmospheric, dark, exploratory, puzzle game. I’ll admit I had to look some puzzle solutions up, because the designers expected me to be much more clever and patient than I actually am. I think the highlight for me came after I reached the end, because that’s when I started digging through their companion app (which is like a mini encyclopedia for the game) to make sense of what just happened. It’s a neat structure, the whole two-app thing, but it sort of hides the story away outside of the game, and I don’t know if I’m in love with that. All things considered, it engages your brain muscles and gives you lots of neat stuff to look at. Well worth picking up.
These barren screens are early background concepts for a likely iPad version. The arena would be scaled between devices, so you can compete with your friends even if you don’t have the same iThing. Can you tell I was playing DmC when I came up with this Code Red concept? Code Red in Tilt to Live is hard mode, so I really like the idea of making it sort of a Limbo/Silent Hill Otherworld version of Classic Mode.
From a recent meeting: “You shatter the weapon orb and freeze time. Your bomb will detonate in 30 minutes, or for 99¢ it could explode right now!” Tilt to Live 2 is not planned to be a free to play game.
We’re in the weapon R&D phase as I write this, mocking up as many ideas as possible to see what sticks. I’d forgotten how fun Tilt to Live brainstorming sessions are. In a universe of abstract shapes and “burnicades”, almost any crazy thing you can think of fits.
Before there was Outwitters, there were fairly specific sequel plans. Restart the original Tilt to Live enough times and you’ll stumble upon this very old teaser.