After a few last minute bug fixes, Stupid Survivor is now finally available on OUYA. As I mentioned in my earlier post the OUYA port is a customized version of the Android version, however, with added support for OUYA controllers (and third party controllers) and a more TV-friendly UI. If you’re happy to own a OUYA console you can try it out right away by clicking the button below or by searching for Stupid Survivor in the Discover-menu on your OUYA console. The game is free to try and includes five levels in the free version (of a total of 20).

Happy gaming!

Download Now!

It’s been a month since we released our first game Stupid Survivor for desktop and Android devices now. Let’s just say that the reception has been moderate so far. We have thought a lot about what we could do to add some more value to our title and one of the ideas was to port the existing Android version of the game to an Android game console, namely OUYA. For those of you who are not familiar with the OUYA console, I recommend reading the Wikipedia article.

As of today, the game is moving very close to release on OUYA. Support for the standard OUYA controller as well as third party controllers (PlayStation, Logitech, Xbox) is included and the UI has been remade to better support the TV environment the game is supposed to work in. The game will be free-to-try and fully unlockable with a single time purchase of $3.99.

The remaining work is likely to be finished this week, thus meaning the release is to be expected somewhere around the turn of the month.

Thanks for your support!

It’s here! Our first game is out now. If you have missed, go to this page to try out the free demo or buy the full version. You’ll also find links to the Android-versions of the game on Google Play Store on the same page.

This is a rather short release announcement. And that is because I’m so tired right now after all the hard work we have put down during the last weeks. But we made it. Our first game, Stupid Survivor, is finally finished.

Thanks to everyone who supported us during our hard time producing Stupid Survivor!

Big news, people!
We just launched our Steam Greenlight campaign for Stupid Survivor! We kindly ask all of you who want our game to be available on Steam to go in and vote on us:

We need all the support we can get to be picked up by Steam and be able to sell our game on Steam in the future! We will be closely monitoring and answering all feedback that we get through Greenlight, so please leave a comment there as well!

The Greenlight campaign does not change our plans for release. Stupid Survivor will be released right here on our website and on the Google Play Store on February 23rd. Hopefully, if the Greenlight campaign goes well, we will be able to add Steam as a place where Stupid Survivor is available in the future.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Greenlight, here is a short explanation on what it is and why we are on it.

Steam is an online game store where selected game titles can be purchased. Greenlight is a function on the Steam Store where new game developers can submit games that they want to sell on Steam. Everyone in the Steam community will be able to view information about the game and upvote any game that they would want to buy if it was available on Steam. If the game gains enough votes, Steam will include it in the store.
Although our game will be available for purchase here on our site, Steam is the biggest marketplace for games online. We will be able to reach a really big crowd on Steam and that is why we are doing this Greenlight campaign.

Hope to see you there!

Three weeks have gone and the wait is over. Here it is, the official trailer of our first game, Stupid Survivor. Please take a minute to enjoy our creation and feel free to leave a comment on what you feel about it.

We also promised to release some more info and screenshots about the game. Well, so we did. Those of you alert enough might already have noticed some new material on our Games page, where you will find screenshots, a description of the game and a short FAQ.

We have also set a release date for Stupid Survivor. The date you need to mark down in your calendars is February 23rd. That day the game will go public on Google Play Store and on our website. The game will be released in two versions, one free and one paid. The free version can be downloaded and run on your device if you meet the system requirements specified on the Games page. The full game can be purchased using the Humble Widget for PC and Mac while Android users can get the full game on Google Play.

If you don’t like waiting another three weeks for the release, we could use your help in the mean time. We want to release the game on Steam, but doing so requires the game to be greenlit first. In order to do so, we need you to vote Yes on our upcoming Greenlight submission page, where enough votes will guarantee the game being available on Steam as well. So please feel free to share our trailer to your friends and relatives. We appreciate all help we can get in spreading the news about our upcoming game to as many people as possible.

More info on our upcoming Greenlight campaign will be posted in the near future.

No, it’s not a countdown to the launch of yet another space rocket. Rather, this is the countdown to something far more important. Soon, the long wait will finally be over. That feeling of emptiness in your lives will be replaced with a wonderful sense of fulfillment and meaning. The dark curtains of ignorance will be drawn back, and you will be bathed in the wondrous light of information. Truly, this is the next step for mankind (succeeding the one Neil Armstrong took). Yes indeed, in a short while we will open the gates and let the world behold our creation. We promise you that on February 2nd, all of your most secret and cherished dreams will come true. Because that is day when we will tell you everything about Stupid Survivor.

On February 2nd 2015 we will release a trailer for our upcoming first title Stupid Survivor. Not only that, we will also provide you with additional information, such as screenshots and perhaps most importantly, a release date for the game.

Now, some might feel that we are overselling this a bit. And that might be true. But in all honesty – it’s probably not.

Put the date in your calendar, people, because you simply do not want to miss this event.

No more secrets, no more waiting. Tune in at your local YouTube.

A few days ago winter finally arrived here in Vaasa and with it the holiday spirit. The snow, the thousands of Christmas lights, the songs, the food, everything combines to create that perfect atmosphere that is so intimately associated with the holidays known, by many, as Christmas. Make sure you take some time off and enjoy them in a way that best suits you. I also hope you can find some time to relax and be ready for the next year, a year that we at Aware Games are very much looking forward to with the pending release of our first game title (and maybe also more than that…). So, good people, let’s have ourselves a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2015!

For those of you who are happy enough to have read the articles on us posted in local papers Vasabladet [1] and Österbottens Tidning [2] a few weeks ago may have noticed how we expressed our desire to complete and release our first game Stupid Survivor before the end of the year. However, as time have passed and we’re closing up on the last month of the year I’m sorry to announce the postponement of the release of Stupid Survivor until a later date, most likely sometimes during early 2015.

It’s unfortunate when decisions like this one have be made. The reason for postponing the release of the game is rather simple: lack of game content and quality. Releasing Stupid Survivor in time for the holidays is something we really wanted to accomplish, but forcing the game out on the market at its current state would not be beneficial for anyone, not for us and especially not for you, the gamers.

Even though this is a rather sad announcement, we still feel there’s great potential in Stupid Survivor. The feedback we have got so far have been mostly positive. And as I wrote in another post a while back, the one factor that makes a game truly great is time. More time put into a game project is almost always a good thing and we hope that will be the case with Stupid Survivor as well.

Thanks for your patience!

References:

[1] http://online.vasabladet.fi/Artikel/Visa/42169

[2] http://online.osterbottenstidning.fi/Artikel/Visa/42169

Ever heard of RAD? It’s an acronym for Rapid Application Development which is a software development methodology that focuses on quick iteration of development phases and prototyping. It’s a useful methodology in software development in general, and it certainly has its uses in game development as well.

However, RAD is not the focus of my post. Rather, I would like to introduce you to a completely new concept, one I have yet to find being used by any other game developer – or publisher. Rapid Gameplay is contrary to RAD not a development methodology, but a game characteristic. I would like to use it to describe high-paced games where actions and decisions are based on quick observations and instincts. Think about Temple Run and you have a good idea of what I’m talking about.

Considering the often so hectic society of today it’s a wonder this concept haven’t yet fully been exploited by game developers. If anything, high game tempo is what would suit most peoples’ lives, but quite often the games nowadays focus on something completely different, namely quick stints of gameplay. When focus is kept rather short games must deliver immediately or they risk being dismissed rather quickly.

However, the approach to this, as describer above, seems rather dull to me. Think about it, if you have to make a game that is to be given only a few seconds to convince its users to buy it, would you use that time on a task that takes only a few seconds to complete? Sure enough you get the gamers to feel the satisfaction of actually completing something in a very short time span (though that task is most likely to be really trivial), but is that enough to be convincing for a customer to buy your product?

Instead, why not provide a game that doesn’t run in as short stints, but instead makes use of something that everyone seem to value these days, quick thinking and decision-making. The idea is to drag the gamers into the game by allowing them to make use of their skills, whether they fail or not, rather than completing a simple task that makes the user appear rather dumb. Again I want to emphasize the importance of not underestimating your user base, but to allow them to attribute to the gameplay using highly valued skills and feel much more accomplished once they finish a task requiring these skills.

As many of you would correctly point out, many games of today – especially mobile games – use a business model where progress is accomplished by buying stuff and not by being a particularly good gamer, fitting perfectly for the quick stint type of gameplay. Clever or not, this is not an approach that appeals to most people when said out loud. Thus playing these types of games becomes more of a burden and something a lot of people feel ashamed of. Again, quite dull if you ask me. Getting good reputation on your game is hard, so why make it harder by using stupefying methodologies?

So do I suggest game developers should be more open-minded and embrace the concept of rapid gameplay? Game developers should always be open-minded or they will quickly find themselves with absolutely no-one taking interest in what they do. However, whether using rapid gameplay in games or not is something each one have to decide for himself. I by no means claim rapid gameplay is a fail proof game concept, but maybe a refreshingly new way of inviting the users into the gameplay experience. Perhaps one to make use of in your next game project?

Last weekend producer Emil and I went on to visit the game exhibition “Game On 2.0” at Tekniska muséet i Stockholm, Sweden. We had some great time trying out both old and new game consoles, playing both classics and best-sellers. According to its website [1] the exhibition is for its kind the largest in the world and sure enough, there were more games to try out and enjoy that you could possibly have time for during its opening hours.

For a starter, the first room features a number of historical games and arcade machines. The revisit of Space War, Space invaders and Pong makes you wanna go back to the 70s, even though most of us are too young to have experienced that era of gaming. This is then followed by a number of home game consoles that emerged in the late 70s and 80s, featuring games such as TMNT on Nintendo Famicom, Combat for Atari 2600 and Akumajou Dracula (aka Vampire Killer) on MSX.

Bet you haven’t tried one of these!

If this wasn’t enough there are also top games from a lot of different genres on a variety of different consoles. How does Half-Life 2 on Xbox 360, Street Fighter III on Sega Dreamcast (with arcade controllers!), Ocarina of Time on N64 and Scribblenauts on Wii U sound to you?

My reaction after being 5 seconds at the Game On-exhibition.

There was of course also the portable game consoles-section, the section about marketing and concept graphics from various successful games, the quick pass.. I mean, children’s games, games from different parts of the world, simulation, multiplayer, music, 3D and finally a big room of all kinds of arcade machines. I don’t think I really had time to even look at all the arcade games, you were lucky enough to get through all of the previous rooms. The 3D games included the much criticized Virtual Boy, but to be honest, once you have a good enough rack to put it on it was quite a lot of fun to use.

Emil trying out the Virtual Boy.

Oh, not to forget. We also had the chance to try out the Oculus Rift. While I, like must people, got a bit dizzy using it, I really enjoyed the feel of actually being inside a game. If anything comes close to virtual reality, this gadget might just do it. But they really need to put in some more high resolution screens, the blurred images ruin a part of the experience.

I must conclude that the exhibition is really worth a visit. If you’re in the area or are planning to go to Stockholm in the near future you can still make it. Last chance will be September 28th and the affordable entry fee makes it definitely worth it.

References:

[1] https://www.tekniskamuseet.se/1/5177.html