Novastrike invades PSN this week

First off, sorry for taking a bit longer to be expected to get on to start responding to things, but I just got back from a brief vacation and it took longer to get back to the office.

Anyhow, I\’ll start here. Hi Viper7 – yeah, it\’s another top-down shooter, but like any genre there are multiple \”sub-genres\” and we tried to make sure NovaStrike wasn\’t an identical clone of an existing game (new or old). I certainly agree it\’s good to want all types of games (such as the games you cited), but there\’s a reason that certain genres like top-down shooters see a number of entries on the marketplace – players want these, too. :)

Hi eric316. No multiplayer or trophy support, although we do plan on continuing to support NovaStrike and both these items are high priorities.

There are leaderboards (broken down by difficulty level) and you can toggle between everyone and seeing your friends\’ scores (like other games that support leaderboards).

As far as how NovaStrike differentiates itself from most other top-down shooters on the marketplace – probably the objective-driven gameplay. The environments are pretty large, and you\’re not on rails so you can go in any direction, but an objective is always present guiding you along. Some shooters in the past have certainly had objectives, but a number of recent shooters are very \”arena-based\” – often where the edge of the screen may be the boundary.

We wanted to make the environments larger, and focus more on accomplishing objectives. It\’s not just staying alive along as possible while destroying enemies to rack up a high score. In some objectives you\’re not even the primary target of opponents, and are instead defending (whether it\’s a ground colony, transports, or a capital ship).

I know that\’s not a terrifically detailed response, but our goal was to avoid creating a redundant shooter that some other developer already made.

As far as working on other games – initially our focus is to continue to support NovaStrike. We do have another game that I\’m hoping to finish someday, and I\’m hoping NovaStrike makes that more feasible.

Everyday Shooter was self-developed – hats off to Jonathan Mak for that. But on PSN it was published by Sony (as you see in the initial splash screen).

Hi ky181.

There are seven stages, but they\’re pretty large. Environment-wise it goes across four planets, the first being more temperate-themed environments, then desert, then arctic, then – yes, volcanic. Hey, it\’s a shooter – you need lava or your game doesn\’t get street-cred. :)

The game also has three difficulty levels. The first (RECRUIT) is actually recommended to get used to the gameplay and weapon systems. SOLDIER is the middle-ground, but can be pretty tough at first. VETERAN is the hardest, and something I wouldn\’t say anyone should start off trying, as it\’s the most unforgiving.

We even have a short tutorial (accessible from the Main Menu, but 100% optional) that covers objectives, weapon acquisition and upgrades, the ship\’s armor and shield, and so forth. But again, if folks get the hang of the game right away then they don\’t have to go through the Tutorial. It\’s just there for players that might have a tough time starting out.

Thanks. Hopefully it\’s not too much longer until other self-published games make it onto PSN.

Since Everyday Shooter was published by Sony he probably received it as part of the deal.

But to answer your other question – yeah, expect to pay the full price of the PS3 development kit.

Part of it depends on the route you want to take. In our case we chose to be self-published because honestly we\’ve racked up a larger budget than originally anticipated (and part of this was due to an earlier game we had to put on hiatus). So being self-published gets us the best revenue potential while also risking the most financially if it does poorly over time.

Do you want your game to be self-published (which means you incur greater financial risk and cost), or do you just want to develop the title and have a publisher release it?

As I touched on earlier in another response there are real advantages to have a publisher release your game. Sure, the immediate disadvantage is that you probably won\’t own the IP if they fully fund it, and you\’ll get less return, but at the same time they\’ll be able to market it a heck of a lot better for starters. And you don\’t incur financial risk to your own studio.

For NovaStrike there were a number of factors that led me to choosing self-published. And it wasn\’t to be the first – my account manager was actually the one to let me know that. But in the future we\’re certainly open to being published for other games.

And if you do just want to develop your game then have it published by an existing publisher I highly recommend trying to do a prototype on the PC. If you don\’t already have a PS3 Development Kit (or whatever you\’re targeting) make the prototype on a PC and then approach the respective publisher with it and just make sure they know \”yeah, this on the PC, but we\’re targeting a downloadable PS3 game on PSN!\”

Hope this answers your question.

Hi crystalx3d –

1. No, we don\’t support 1080p – sorry. 720p is the recommended resolution.
2. By default it doesn\’t support custom sound tracks (like Super Stardust HD).
3. Sure. There are a number of fairly straightforward Destroy enemy base or defend human base, and subset objectives (destroying or defend certain structures), as well as destroying capital ships, escorting friendly transports, and the like. Everything is based around destruction (to state the obvious), but the objectives really do help establish some variety. For example, attacking an enemy base makes you the center of attention, and you need to focus on surviving both aerial opponents and ground batteries while destroying the base, while escorting friendly transports you become the secondary target for enemies – this makes it less likely for you to die during this type of objective, but at the same time you need to be aggressive in taking down enemies before too many pile-up. You may even find yourself purposely colliding with a kamikaze or enemy heavy rocket to protect a shuttle (provided your ship has enough shielding and armor to survive the impact).

Hi Bus. I\’m asking Sony what kind of info I can provide here without violating any NDAs and such. I\’ll get back to you soon.

I do want to be able provide some help for interested developers that are looking to make a title for PSN.

Well, I certainly don\’t plan on backing out of PSN – especially with our first game coming out just about now. :)

We\’re hoping things work out so we can continue to optimize our engine for the PS3 (and possibly finish another project we have in development). If we can stick to PlayStation development that\’s fine with us.

The first update (which I can\’t go into details on the specific contents just yet – sorry) will be free.

A survival-type mode you mentioned isn\’t available in the first release, but the approach you mentioned would be the most likely (as the game doesn\’t really suit itself to straight out \”survive until you die\” gameplay – but a mode such as you suggested would work better). It\’s definitely something I\’d like to add to provide additional replayability beyond the Campaign mode.

Honestly, the sales of the game will determine the scale of updates we can provide in the future. We definitely will update the game, and if it\’s doing well it will allow us to add more features. That\’s just the truth.

We want to evolve and improve the game over time, and while I won\’t rule out eventual expansion packs that do cost, I don\’t want to charge for anything unless it adds a lot of content.

And don\’t worry – we\’re not holding back a content pack that we\’re going to release and charge for a couple months from now – our initial follow-up is working on the update.

The left analog does control the direction of the ship, but keep in mind the ship actually has a turning speed – it\’s not instant where you fly north then pull the stick down and you\’re instantly flying south. The ship is agile and turns fast, but again it won\’t be instant.

Most of the weapons are actually forward-firing, as well as a few weapons that aren\’t (electro-mines are \”laid\” behind the ship, and the beam weapon strikes a nearby enemy 360 degrees around the ship). The Omni Cannon is actually controlled by the right analog, and does shoot automatically when pushed in the direction to fire (like Super Stardust). However, this is much more of a backup weapon (as well as a good combination weapon).

There are basically three weapon groups: Primary (right trigger), Secondary (left trigger), and tertiary (the right analog). Four primaries, four secondaries, and one tertiary (the omni cannon).

So you do need to charge most enemies to shoot them down with the vulcan cannon or other direct fire weapons, but you also have some seeking weapons are your disposal where you can get the enemies in front of the ship, and fire and forget.

Umm, what if I told you that the invading Draelus armada was composed of alien zombies? Would that work? :)

No, we\’re not currently developing NovaStrike for XBLA. Nor do we have any immediate plans to do so. Our first plan of order is to support NovaStrike on PSN. If we can do well enough to stick with the PlayStation family then we\’d like to do that – it\’s much easier from a development standpoint, we can have a smaller team, and we really like developing for the PS3 (and the PSP for that matter).

Sony was pretty good for support. If I say anything else they threatened to immediately remove NovaStrike from PSN, firebomb my studio, and kick my dog. No, they didn\’t. :)

But seriously, we were pleased with the overall level of support from Sony; they were particularly helpful toward the end as we were finishing the product.

As for the PS3 – yeah, it presented challenges. Fortunately I have an extremely solid lead programmer that\’s worked on most major consoles in the past, and his background experience combined with overall aptitude really gave us the engineering backbone to make it feasible to do NovaStrike on the PS3.

Hello again, barom.

Tiki Games actually started at the beginning of 2006. And yes, it\’s now two and a half years and we\’re releasing our first game – but this wasn\’t the original game we were developing.

We actually began work on NovaStrike a little over a year ago – but twelve months is about right for its primary development schedule. Longer than intended (which always seems to be the case in game development, even when \”you get to do it your way!\”).

We had some help from an external studio for some art, but the majority of work was actually my lead programmer, art director, and me. We also had another programmer that worked some on tools.

As for the game we were developing prior to NovaStrike that was a game called Galaxy\’s End – a real-time strategy game for the PSP. Personally I\’d still love to finish Galaxy\’s End, but to do it right (full single-player campaign, skirmish mode, and multiplayer) will take some time. But for the time being it\’s unfortunately on hiatus, and I want to make sure NovaStrike is properly supported. But if an opportunity to finish Galaxy\’s End eventually presents itself you can bet I\’ll take it.