Novastrike invades PSN this week

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Kevin McCann President and Creative Director, Tiki Games, Inc.
91 Author Replies

Hi there. I’m Kevin McCann, director of development at Tiki Games in (mostly) sunny San Diego. I’ll go ahead and start off with some undeniably fascinating information about me:

  • Favorite Game Genre: 1st person shooters
  • Favorite Game of all time: DOOM (the original – for me it was just the most ground-breaking title I ever played)
  • Favorite Movie: Jaws
  • Least known game that I worked on: Tanarus (as lead designer)
  • Game you may know of that I worked on: PlanetSide (as lead designer)

And now that you know everything about me (and okay, maybe it wasn’t all that fascinating), I’ll move onto the better news. We just received word that our first game – NOVASTRIKE for the PLAYSTATION 3 – has been approved for release on PSN this upcoming June 5th. So I figure this is as good a time as any to make an appearance on PlayStation.Blog (thanks to the courteous folks at PlayStation.Blog).

NOVASTRIKE is going to be the first self-published game available on PSN so we’re pretty pleased with that. I’d also like to thank SCEA for all their assistance in making that possible. For you gamers that might understandably not mean much, but for any independent developers that are currently developing a title for PSN or thinking about doing it – we’re proof that you can self-publish a game on PSN.

I suppose I should probably give a little overview of the game now. NOVASTRIKE is a free-roaming top-down arcade shooter where you’re flying an advanced fighter and combating the Draelus invasion. Yes, aliens are pretty single-minded in that regard. Airborne enemies consist of fighters, aces, kamikazes, bombers and capital ships, and you’ll also need to deal with enemy ground installations.

Fortunately the ship you’re flying – the Scythe – can acquire and upgrade weapons over time. And there are nine weapons total, each with three additional upgrade states, to aid you in sending the Draelus to the great beyond.

I know that’s a pretty short description, but I just want to start off by briefly introducing myself and the game for now. Feel free to read more details on the game at our website, and I’ll also be responding to questions here (NOVASTRIKE-related or otherwise).

inside playstationnovastrikeplaystation games

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82 Comments

91 Author Replies

  • Fersis
    June 5, 2008 at 5:02 am PDT

    Oh and i forgot to tell you Kevin.
    Im gonna bought NovaStrike next week.

  • juuken
    June 5, 2008 at 6:07 am PDT

    Interesting game. Think I’ll check it out when I get a chance.

  • zeebob
    June 5, 2008 at 6:18 am PDT

    Good News! I love that kind of shooters. Can’t wait until it comes to the european PSN Store!
    Good luch and hope you will sell tons of it!

  • narde15
    June 5, 2008 at 8:06 am PDT

    looks gr8 how many missions currently? will you add missions via DLC in the future?

    thx

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 8:16 am PDT

      Hi narde. There are seven stages (which you could think of as each being an overall \”mission\”), but each stage has multiple objectives you need to complete, and can take 15 minutes (or more) depending on how you\’re doing. But don\’t expect to progress through the game on your first try (not even on RECRUIT mode).

      Learning the weapon systems is pretty vital – you can go a ways using the default weapons (vulcan against anti-air and shredder against ground targets) since they become pretty powerful as they\’re upgraded and have unlimited ammunition, but once enemies start piling on you\’ll want to switch weapon systems on a regular basis to clear them out faster.

      And yes, we definitely plan on adding a mission pack later, but first we\’ll be working on a free update to add some features and address some things that we want to see tweaked.

  • neohecubus
    June 5, 2008 at 9:01 am PDT

    Congratulation on self-publishing!
    I just wanted to know if you used PhyreEngine and a PS3 debug kit to create Novastrike. I remember Sony talking about it at GDC to lower the barrier to publish games on PSN. So I thought you would be one of the first devs to take advantage of this initiative. Thanks!

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 9:13 am PDT

      Thanks.

      Per your question – no, we developed our own engine for NovaStrike (although we do use Havok for physics). But we definitely had to develop on a couple PS3 development kits – there\’s no way around that currently.

      By debug kit I\’m not sure if you mean the cheaper Test kits that are also available (we have those for playtesting, but not for debugging) – and you really couldn\’t successfully make a PS3 game using the cheaper Test kit.

      Overall the middleware selection is definitely growing from Sony, and I do believe that offering engines like the PhyreEngine is useful (as well has Havok) can definitely aid small developers.

      We mostly developed our own engine because we had already been working on our own tools and engine technology for a while (and my lead programmer has a lot of experience with working on engines), so it made more sense for us to do our own.

  • Fersis
    June 5, 2008 at 9:12 am PDT

    yeah that PhyreEngine…
    im still hoping some post on the blog about the PhyreEngine.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 9:18 am PDT

      Since we\’re not using PhyreEngine I can\’t directly comment on how good it is. I did ask Sony to see if they might be able to have a developer that\’s currently using the PhyreEngine post their own blog entry on the experience using it – hopefully that becomes the case so you can find out more about it directly from an end-user.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 4:21 pm PDT

      Hello again, Fersis. I spoke briefly with my account manager and he mentioned they will be unveiling more information about PhyreEngine over the Summer. I wish I could be more specific, but they do plan on pushing it more as a development platform for independents and such. It might be closer to E3.

  • Agriel
    June 5, 2008 at 9:33 am PDT

    When this hits Europe you can count on me to pick it up. That Galaxy’s End sounds cool also. You said it was RTS I hope you guys can nail the controls that always seems to be a problem with RTS games on a console/handheld. Good luck with your first game tho, good to see independent studios making a big push like this.
    By the way about how big is the team that worked on this?

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 9:44 am PDT

      Hi Agriel.

      Thanks. As far as Galaxy\’s End is concerned we have a pretty good control system in place for it. I spent a while working on designing the control interface before production even began, and the primary controls (unit selection, movement, menus, etc) are very streamlined and pick-up-and-play oriented.

      And fortunately when we actually implemented the controls they worked pretty well right away (sometimes written design doesn\’t immediately translate to good gameplay without a lot of iterations and/or overhauls).

      As I\’ve stated in other response I\’m really hoping we get to finish that game. It was running well when the PSP was governed at 233 MHz – having the full 333 MHz would allow to do even more.

      Not surprisingly the better NovaStrike does the more likely it is we can finish Galaxy\’s End. But again, thanks for the interest.

  • Agriel
    June 5, 2008 at 9:56 am PDT

    thanks for the reply, again good luck with all that I hope it works out for you.
    Off-topic question: what game/s you playing right now?

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 10:01 am PDT

      Honestly, I haven\’t been playing too many games lately. My wife and I just got a short three-day vacation (decompression time), and prior to that we were really focusing on NovaStrike, and now it\’s time to do so again (but not the crazy hours we were having to put in for a while).

      I have dabbled some with GTAIV, and will probably pick up MGS4. I\’m also looking forward to Battlefield: Bad Company.

      When you\’re really working on games the desire to go home and play a game is lessened. It certainly doesn\’t go away completely (you don\’t stop being a \”gamer\”) – but there are definitely days where you just go home and watch something stupid on TV to unwind. :)

  • ChaosOrder
    June 5, 2008 at 10:32 am PDT

    Kevin and Jeff,
    Your repeated comments show a support and belief in your game and the community as opposed to a drop a game, drop out of sight, mentality game makers of lesser quality stuff usually adopt. Your attitudes may convince me to get NovaStrike before the demo arrives. Good luck with NovaStrike and all your future games.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 10:49 am PDT

      Appreciate the kind words, Chaos. I\’ll still be maintaining a presence here once it\’s out later today. And I\’ll be providing future blog updates when it\’s worthwhile for the readers.

  • StalkingSilence
    June 5, 2008 at 10:40 am PDT

    I think the Havok engine was updated about 3 months ago (?) to include in-game custom music player (mentioned by a PAIN developer on their blog). Since you’re only using that for physics though I don’t know if that’s easy to implement in the future.

    Also, since your earlier replies indicated it’s not a “true” dual-analog shooter – which is fine, I’m a little sick of those – and the right analog would be used for the secondary weapon… you should consider adding remote play functionality. This title looks like it would be SWEET to play via PSP. I think you’d get a lot more technofiles buying the game simply for that feature (look at PixelJunk Monsters and High Stakes Poker, they both have remote play).

    Just a thought! Thanks for reading all these comments and I hope your game doesn’t get lost in the MASSIVE update coming today. I’m going to buy it though simply because you plan to support it in the future with updates to add-in functionality (FREE, too)!

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 10:51 am PDT

      We actually did support Remote Play earlier in development, so it\’s something we\’d like to revisit. Thanks for the interest there.

      And yeah, there\’s a lot coming out today – figures. :) We\’re hoping not to get lost among all the content as well.

  • TouchyEd
    June 5, 2008 at 10:43 am PDT

    Here’s the deal:

    Kevin has stepped up to the plate and contributed to this blog in a manner that we’ve rarely (if ever) seen from a developer since the inception of this site.

    He hasn’t ducked questions. Or ignored concerns. Or posted then skipped town like so many other developers have done.

    That alone deserves respect. And $9.99 is a perfect way of showing that respect.

    But it goes beyond that. As a community, we really need to support the independent developers. They’re the guys with the guts to try new stuff, to deliver new IPs, to break free from the Madden syndrome (Madden 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07…).

    They certainly don’t have the budgets of the bigger companies, so their games may not be as massive or well-known. But what they do have is passion and a willingness to take risks. And I respect that on the highest level.

    When the game arrives in the PSN Store today, you can be damn sure I’m buying it.

    I really hope you all do the same.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 10:58 am PDT

      Hi TouchyEd – thanks for that comment.

      Being independent is pretty difficult – there\’s a nicer sense of freedom from a development standpoint, but you also the very pressing financial reality pressing down at all times.

      Appreciate the future purchase.

  • neohecubus
    June 5, 2008 at 10:51 am PDT

    Thanks for the reply Kevin, I was talking about the $1200 test kits, not the big Reference ones at $10 000 :) I think you can debug over PC with only a test kit with the PhyreEngine tools. Anyway thanks for asking Sony if another dev using it could write on the blog about this. I look forward for your games. Good luck!

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 10:55 am PDT

      Hi neohecubus – ah, I wasn\’t aware of that – sorry for the misinformation there. But that\’s certainly a nice incentive. Sony\’s probably viewing me as a bit of a pest right now (asking for what I can post regarding developing/self-publishing, getting another developer to post regarding PhyreEngine, etc :) ).

  • Fersis
    June 5, 2008 at 11:32 am PDT

    @111 TouchyEd
    Right on , im buying it next week.
    Not just to support independent games, also to get some old fashioned good arcade fun :D

  • Genki-Rocket
    June 5, 2008 at 11:55 am PDT

    Wow great job!

    It looks lovely!

    Quetion: is there an ETA for a pal-region release?

    I’m sure you’re ware that many PAL gamers aren;t happy with the the fact that content on the PAL store isn’t timely vs. well, anything else anywhere.

    In fact, it seems like the only people oblivious to the fact that the PAL / Euro store is badly organised and laughable in terms of scheduling is SCEE – who don’t seem able to speak to fans directly… but that’s another story and I may have a small stroke if i get angry about it again. Anyway…

    SCEA FTW!!!

    However, I digress, your game looks great, congratulations.

    I will buy it just as soon as I am able to get it in our region.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 12:53 pm PDT

      Hi Genki-Rocket. Currently I don\’t have a definitive date for Europe, although I am working with SCEE on that. And I do know that PAL-region gamers have less content – if I could\’ve managed a concurrent release I would have, but I had no real choice but to initially release NovaStrike in the U.S. first. So I apologize for that.

      That said, we are working to get it out there. Thanks for the compliments as well.

  • jcasanova
    June 5, 2008 at 12:02 pm PDT

    Hey Kevin! Good work! I’d like to ask how many people worked on Novastrike? Or how many people do you think would be the minimum to develop a game to be published at the PSN?

    Could you comment on how you aproched Sony and what are the things they are looking for in independent developed games?

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 1:04 pm PDT

      Hi jcasanova. Our credits feature a number of folks, mostly artists, but in reality NovaStrike was mainly the work of three people (my lead programmer, my lead artist, and myself). We also had another programmer that helped with tools.

      The other artists listed were a studio that supplied us with some art assets, but again NovaStrike was largely a three-person effort (which is why it ultimately took around twelve months to complete).

      As far as the number of personnel required to do a PSN title – well, I\’d say Jonathan Mak\’s Everyday Shooter is an example of one person doing it. However, that\’s likely not going to be the case for most.

      Team-size is going to largely be based on the scope of your project. NovaStrike was a lot of hard work that I feel rivals larger teams. If you get the right people you can accomplish a lot. But it\’s important to try to set realistic goals – because once you have you\’ll find not even all of those can be met. Being proactive, adaptive, and immediately reactive all while remaining cool is vital for an independent.

      I originally became a licensed developer with Sony for Galaxy\’s End (a project on hiatus). That\’s mostly a matter of filling out application forms and signing numerous NDAs. :)

      But when I had to put Galaxy\’s End on hiatus (which sucked) we refocused our efforts on NovaStrike. I went in knowing that there are numerous top-down shooters already in existence, and we would have to make sure ours wasn\’t redundant.

      One of the early steps for a game that\’s targeting a release on any Sony platform is a Concept Approval. Now here I need to give Sony special mention – if six developers submitted swamp racing arcade games at the same time as concept approvals, Sony won\’t just give one \”Yeah, you can do it\” and then tell the others \”Hey, we\’ve already got one killer swamp racing game, it has crocodiles, yours don\’t – go away!\” No, they\’re really good about allowing multiple titles in the same genre.

      And that\’s important when you\’re developing a game. Because maybe you are doing something you think is unique, but along the way a few similar games appear as well. You don\’t want to suddenly be rejected because there are multiple games of a similar type.

      I\’d say the most important thing about approaching Sony with an independent game is make sure your gameplay is clearly defined when you get to the Concept Approval stage. Don\’t do a back of the box bullet point listing (I\’ve seen a bunch of pitches that looked like back of the box descriptions) – it doesn\’t do you any favors, and it\’ll likely be rejected.

      The more you can describe the game, controls, key gameplay aspects, replayability, and so forth the better. Likewise if you have a prototype you can provide even better. But failing that a well-written document that really details what you\’re trying to do with the game (ideally with conceptual art) can still get you initially rolling.

      I know this isn\’t a terribly detailed response (although fairly long for a blog response), but I hope it helps some.

      And again – team size – it\’s all about the scope of your game. Sony won\’t reject your game because the team is too small or such. It\’s more about is your team size sufficient to make the game you want?

  • Bigomiee
    June 5, 2008 at 1:24 pm PDT

    Good job guys i hope to see more of your work, and hope you put some kind of multiplayer in it and trophy support

  • maluraq
    June 5, 2008 at 1:40 pm PDT

    I’m with TouchyEd — I’ll be buying this mostly because I love top-down shooters (and was addicted to several in the early 90’s that involved very large explosions) but also because the developer has been so open and straightforward with answers.

    Please consider upgrading to full 1080i/p support in the future if you get enough interest and manage to improve your game engine to handle it, it would be much appreciated I’m sure.

    PS, if I were to add my own $0.02 on the self-publishing thing, I really wish Sony would introduce something like Java + OpenGL as a sandbox arena for independent products on the PS3 (loaded from Memory Stick, etc.) I’m a programmer myself and there are half a dozen programs I’d love to write to run from the XMB myself, but I can’t justify a dev kit for it.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 2:29 pm PDT

      Hi maluraq. Regarding 1080p – we\’d like to add support for that, too. Performance at 1080p was just a bit too shaky for our initial release. In certain areas it would hold fine, but under heavy action the framerate hit was too noticable. We\’re going to be addressing performance more, though, which will hopefully allow us to add 1080p in an update.

  • darkwing
    June 5, 2008 at 2:17 pm PDT

    I’ll be bankrupt this week with all the wonderful thingies on the PSN :(

  • Loonknight
    June 5, 2008 at 3:01 pm PDT

    I’ll probably pick this one up at some point.

  • Kevin McCann
    June 5, 2008 at 4:29 pm PDT

    I had a chance to speak with my account manager, and basically I wanted to provide a bit more information about where to direct inquiries for independent development and/or self-publishing.

    First off, you can send an email to the following:

    devrel-scea@playstation.sony.com

    Now there I would just state in the subject specifically what you’re looking for like: “How do I become a licensed developer for the PS3?” And then if you want you can certainly provide some information in the email itself.

    That said DON’T include any documentation like “Here’s my supercool game! You cannot refuse it!” Just start off requesting how to become a licensed developer – you’ll get to say what kind of game you want to make (or are making) later once you’ve signed NDAs and such.

    Keep in mind developer relations at SCEA doesn’t have dozens of people looking at emails – and they get a lot. So if it takes a little while to get a response don’t think you’re being ignored – they have to filter through a lot of email, and some of it is just effectively spam. So avoid subjects like “Feeling inadequate?” Hehe, sorry. Seriously, though, keep it to things like “How do I become a licensed developer for the PS3?”

    You can also visit the following site:

    http://www.scedev.net/

    Now you’re not going to get a huge amount of info from that site until you are approved, but it’s still something to look through.

    That said, I’m still going to be here on the blog, and I’ll try to respond to questions regarding how do you submit games, etc. I’m not trying to brush off responding to inquiries here, but that email is where you can start with looking to become a developer.

  • osirisomeomi
    June 5, 2008 at 4:30 pm PDT

    Hey, thanks for answering my question. It really is much appreciated, and it’s great so see a developer communicating with the fanbase. It’s incredibly important from a marketing and ethical perspective, and something that too often gets ignored. I’ll grab your game, and I look forward to the updates to come – the underlying gameplay mechanics look solid, so i’m interested to see what you come up with in terms of options and modes, etc. Good luck, and I hope you see more games from you on PS soon.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 5, 2008 at 4:32 pm PDT

      Sure thing, osirisomeomi. And I appreciate your future purchase.

      Over the next few days I\’ll still be maintaining a pretty strong presence here. And I won\’t ever just fully disappear. I\’m still recovering from the development cycle, so this is actually a break of sorts to just respond to you guys.

      And I\’ll never just fully \”disappear\” – I want to maintain a presence here, and of course introduce future blog update posts as well. Thanks for your interest.

  • skrysko
    June 5, 2008 at 6:11 pm PDT

    What time is the store usually updated on Thursday’s? I don’t see Nova Strike yet.

  • gamesblow
    June 5, 2008 at 7:21 pm PDT

    Man, I am waiting for the update here, Kevin. I’ll be qued up 1st in line for your gamem when it goes up, that’s for sure.

  • RssV
    June 5, 2008 at 7:59 pm PDT

    Looks like a great job (and I ain’t even considering the self-publishing thing). Keep up the good work on this title, and why not on other ones in near future. PSN really needs this kind of quality stuff from “unknown” (so far) developers.

  • gamesblow
    June 6, 2008 at 2:10 am PDT

    Finally Dling it right now! Thanks, man and I look forward to giving it a go in about 5 mins. I wish you guys major success with it & all your future Ps3 projects.

  • Theossie
    June 6, 2008 at 5:16 am PDT

    DLin… Thanks!!!

  • Kevin McCann
    June 6, 2008 at 6:48 am PDT

    Nice to see the update is up, although I had wanted the trailer on this blog to be what plays when Preview is selected. Oh well. I’ll see if I can get that remedied.

    I’ll be checking throughout the day and responding to any comments, of course.

  • Kevin McCann
    June 6, 2008 at 8:04 am PDT

    Hi guys. This particular post is more for developers looking to potentially get a game on PSN (self-published or otherwise). Think of this post as being a companion to post 120 (which tells you how to go about looking into being a licensed developer for SCEA).

    If you have specific questions about any part of the process of once you’re approved such as what the steps are and such I can try to provide an informed response based on my experience (which is far from all-knowing). It can be daunting the first time you go through it, so I don’t mind trying to help. Again, if all you’re looking for is information on how to become an approved developer for a PlayStation console or the PSP then please refer to post 120.

    However, don’t send me anything regarding the type of game you want to do (especially documentation). If you do I won’t read it – understand that if I were doing a game similar to what you wanted to do and I released it then that would look kind of bad (to say the least). So keep the game idea to yourself which is always a good practice anyhow – NDAs are your friend.

    And also understand that I might not be able to respond right away, but if it is a serious inquiry I will get to it. You can send me an email at inquiry@tikigames.net

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 8:57 am PDT

      I just wanted to add that I\’m going to write a brief document that covers the steps of getting a game self-published on PSN from start to finish. It\’ll be an overview document, and it will contain examples, and I likely won\’t be posting it publically, but instead hopefully sharing it with interested developers.

      I\’ll definitely need my account manager to review it first, and in all fairness make sure it\’s informative enough, but I\’ll try to have it done within the next couple weeks (I have other things to do as well, so it\’s a side-project).

      Sony has a LOT of documentation covering all the steps once you\’re an approved developer, but it can a bit of a \”Holy crap\” moment when you see all the documents, and you want to get a quicker view of the process. So I\’m not going to state what\’s in the documents, but instead detail what needs to be provided at each official step of the way, along with tips.

      Again, I am by no means an expert on this, but I did learn a lot, and even if I\’m opening the door for future competitors I don\’t mind. It\’s seriously tough enough to self-publish a game just from a development standpoint, so if I can make it a little easier by reducing some of the stress by providing useful information about going through the process for other developers then that would be great.

  • Fersis
    June 6, 2008 at 11:02 am PDT

    Absolutely awesome Kevin.
    Thank you very much.
    im sending an email to the ‘Sorny'(Simpsons reference) guys

  • KingTalo
    June 6, 2008 at 12:08 pm PDT

    Hey guys! Hope you’re still reading these because I really wanted to leave some feedback.

    First off, for anyone still on the fence about the game, i’m a pretty big shooter fan myself and it evokes feelings of Wingnuts/2 and Mars/Deimos Rising for the Mac, especially Wingnuts. If you’re not a mac user it’s a little like the Strike series (Jungle, Desert, Urban, Nuclear, Worker ;) or Armada for the DC. If you’ve never played any of those- it’s a free moving top-downer with an emphasis on ground targets and placing you against thousands of enemies.

    That being said it’s good, I really like it. I have a couple suggestions for an update though-

    1. Add a restart option in the pause menu (when you fail an objective right at the start)

    2. Some of the enemy shots like the light blue missiles are hard to track over water, maybe changing the color or lowering translucency.

    3. Spawn protection. At least for a second so you can get out of the madness after losing a hectic fight.

    4. Easier aiming (slight lockon) for the primary AntiGround laser, it’s hard to hit those pesky AA turrets

    5. Straighten out that bent metal on the main menu ;)

    Thinking about trying it out on ‘Easy’ which is usually sacrilegious for me. But i wanna see how big my friendly fleet gets.

    *Imagining possibilities for online*

    Alex

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 12:35 pm PDT

      What? You will play this game as I intended! How dare you provide feedback other than direct praise. :)

      1. The restart option is a good idea – I also have it on the list to add the ability to replay a stage when looking at the Stage Summary (in case you don\’t like your score) – I know it\’ll push you forward presently even if you wanted to replay it again.

      2. Fair observation. I want to do more of an effect pass when we do the update, and making enemy shots more visible (such as missile trails over water).

      3. Yeah, we meant to have temporary invincibility here after respawning, and I\’ll make sure this on the list.

      4. Better auto-aiming for the Shredder? (default secondary weapon) I\’ll check into this more.

      5. No can do. That\’s Draelus metal that\’s bent, and that can\’t be straightened out by anything other than a Draelus blacksmith.

      Thanks for the feedback, though. And yes, we do want to address multiplayer. I can\’t promise that in the first update just yet, though. But it something we really want for the game.

  • Theossie
    June 6, 2008 at 12:51 pm PDT

    I like tutorial.. very cool addition.. and it can be your demo if you put one out..

    I really like the reflections in the water and how ships will crash in the water.. looks cool.. I like the look of the game period.

    Sup with image of the chick on the “street sweeper” BTW..

    Buy it peoples… it’s a winner…

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 1:04 pm PDT

      The chick? That\’s our Bomber Betty. We just thought it was kind of fun to have a mascot for the game – like traditional bomber gal art that were on bombers in World War II. And since the ship is combination fighter/bomber it felt appropriate felt enough. And, more importantly, it got us \”Suggestive Themes\” in our rating. [laugh] For some reason that always makes me laugh.

      Glad you\’re enjoying the game. Have a good weekend.

  • KingTalo
    June 6, 2008 at 2:07 pm PDT

    Thanks for the quick responses!

    To clarify about the shredder, when approaching an island on a steady course i don’t have too many problems hitting the ground targets (though i’ve noticed you have to fly really steady, putting you at risk).

    However when i fly over the center of an island with a significant hill, the shredder does not lock on even though nothing seems to impede it (ie- it doesn’t seem like the hill would block the shots). Hope you understand what i’m saying as the bombs are so limited you can’t rely solely on them.

  • bigfnrabbit
    June 6, 2008 at 3:09 pm PDT

    just finished playing some of your game its pretty cool keep up the awesome work!multi player comin that would be off the charts awesome!?!

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 4:07 pm PDT

      Hi bigfnrabbit, glad you\’re enjoying it. And yes, multiplayer is definitely high our list of things we\’d like.

  • enewtabie
    June 6, 2008 at 3:56 pm PDT

    Just downloaded the game..and Kevin.
    It’s hard,lol and thats on recruit.I like it though.It’s not just another Shmup like SSHD or Everyday Shooter.You have missions and free movement.

    Hope you can get trophies put into this!
    Love the game..

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 4:08 pm PDT

      Thanks, enewtabie – similar to multiplayer, I really want to see trophies in the game as well, so we\’re going to do what we can to make that happen. Have a good weekend.

  • Kevin McCann
    June 6, 2008 at 4:09 pm PDT

    Not that is seeing a huge amount of traffic right now, but I’m heading out for most of the remainder of day. I will check back late tonight to see if any responses are needed, as well as throughout the weekend. But for now – time to go drinking some. ;)

  • gardea
    June 6, 2008 at 4:41 pm PDT

    This game reminds me of Super Strike Eagle for the SNES.

    Looks good, but no online? :(

    I’ll still try to get it.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 11:29 pm PDT

      Hi gardea. The initial release doesn\’t have online, sorry. It\’s something we definitely want to add later.

  • skrysko
    June 6, 2008 at 5:40 pm PDT

    I find the game very frustrating. The ship turns so fast I just ending up spinning when trying to turn. It is extremely hard to bomb ground objects because if you try and try slightly to aim the ship turns about 25 degrees instead.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 11:28 pm PDT

      Hi skyrsko. When you\’re lining up are you trying to do really subtle heading adjustments?

      We had talked over potentially having a fine-aim toggle (where when active the ship turning speed is reduced to allow for more precise bombing line-ups), but our playtesters felt they could line up pretty well without. That said our playtesters were a lot smaller sampling than our current customer-base.

      I\’ll definitely consider a fine-aim toggle if enough here feel it\’s worthwhile. Naturally it would really only be useful for bombing or strafing (as you want the turning speed when fighting aerial opponents), but again I\’ll be reading this blog regularly to see what the likes and dislikes are. I know this doesn\’t help you at this moment, and I\’m definitely sorry about that – but our goal is to try to improve the game both based on our own list of items we want to address as well as customer feedback.

  • Anubis
    June 6, 2008 at 7:22 pm PDT

    Finally some good games and updates on the PSN. Wasn’t sure which to get first but after seeing the time Kevin McCann took to answer peoples questions, which is pretty cool. I went and got Novastrike first.

    Great game, love the graphics and very challenging. I will be putting many hours into this game. One of the best PSN games to date.

    Thanks for making and releasing a great game and I hope it does very well on the PSN store so we see many more games from you and your team in the future.

  • ky181
    June 6, 2008 at 9:23 pm PDT

    Congrats on a great game. Been playing for a couple of hours and love it but i wish there was a mini map of some type because in level 2 you have a lot of ship flying around you and i always die boosting away really quickly and hit someone that I could never see.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 6, 2008 at 11:36 pm PDT

      Hi ky181 – thanks. We\’ve talked a bit about a mini-map / radar in the past during development. If enough of you want something like that we\’ll give it serious consideration – it would take us a bit of time to get a good implementation of something like this, but again I am listing down ideas and desired features for future updates. Have a good weekend.

  • UntoldDreams
    June 7, 2008 at 12:31 am PDT

    Hey Kevin-

    Congratulations on the game. I’ve been playing it and find it fun…. but for the life of me I think its kind of difficult not to do boneheaded things like shoot my own support transports/fighters out of the sky.

    The screen is so chaotic with bullets and ships its just not possible for me to “stop shooting in case I hit an allied ship”. Its proving frustrating rather than challenging.

    I have pretty decent skills so I can’t fathom how other people are doing.

    I might suggest tweaking an even easier NOOB mode which makes it so your own guys are immune from your own shots or something.

    Just an idea. I’ll keep playing and see if the frustration versus challenge ratio is off for my personal tastes.

    Cheers!

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 9:11 am PDT

      Hi Untold. Thanks for the feedback.

      Regarding shooting down friendlies, yeah – we\’ve considered making an optional friendly fire damage toggle so that players can turn damage off from friendlies (sending or receiving). If this is a desired feature it wouldn\’t be hard for us to implement.

      Regarding the difficulty level – yes, please continue to provide your feedback. Sorry for the frustration.

  • frostquake
    June 7, 2008 at 12:34 am PDT

    Hi Kevin,
    I am still on the fence about purchasing the game, though I am leaning towards buying it. I hate buying games that need patching. Anymore you can buy a game that needs patching, only for the studio to shut down or move on to another project and never get a patch for the game. You talk about “tweaking” the game at a future date, will this be sooner then later? Is there a chance if the game does not sell enough we will never get a “tweaked” version?
    I know that you can’t really talk numbers, but being an independent publisher, about how many copies or downloads do you need to break even or come out ahead? When it comes down to it, its a numbers game, Make “A” and you can move forward, but make “B”, and it was fun while it lasted.
    I want to know that the game I am buying today will be supported tomorrow, and that those “tweaks” you are talking about, really are coming, and not a ” I wished we could have done that.”
    Thanks for all the comments you have been making, I have been reading them with great curiosity and interest. I just wonder, should I wait to buy the game once it is “tweaked”?
    THANKS
    psn:frostquake

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 9:23 am PDT

      Hi frostquake. We\’re definitely working on the update now. Level of sales is a factor that does influence the overall feature set of an update (just being truthful here), but we will release an update. It\’s going to be a little time because we want to address our own list of things we\’d like to add while balancing it against what the players want.

      I can\’t really discuss numbers (as you surmised) to break even, but my goal is to improve the game regardless of initial sales. Just to be clear, though – we didn\’t release a \”beta\” version of the game. If anything we just had to focus on a very specific feature set to make sure we could finish that properly, and that the game was 100% playable start to finish.

      Now I don\’t want this to come across as an excuse, but being independent we had pretty limited resources. I was fortunate to have very good team members, but in fairness even our playtesting sampling probably was less than an established and larger publisher – I\’m talking less aboiut bugs (which I think we did a pretty solid job at having a clean game – at least so far :) ), but just in feedback for \”this is too difficult, etc\”. So that\’s partly why I feel obligated to provide an update no matter what based on the community\’s feedback. And even with a large playtesting team we would\’ve been looking for suggestions.

      Per the last paragraph, I also know that from a gamer\’s standpoint that when it comes to buying a game, there really shouldn\’t be a \”Well, I\’ll grant this $10 game a bit more leniency than this other $10 game because the first one was independent and it was much more of a challenge for them!\” It still is about the end-result no matter what, and I don\’t feel a gamer ultimately needs to balance their view of a game based on the conditions the game was made under, etc.

      As far as the buy it now or wait – truthfully it helps if you buy it now. But I can absolutely understand if you want to wait to see if we do release the update – that\’s completely fair.

  • UntoldDreams
    June 7, 2008 at 2:37 am PDT

    SUGGESTIONS

    Now that I’ve put in a bit more time I’d like to provide some input. Its a good game with good execution but to become (in my opinion) a little better please consider this:

    1) ADD BUTTON CUSTOMIZATION (NOW)

    Not everyone will like your current button layout. Allow choosing the layout… It will go a long, long, long way to improve people’s enjoyment. I want afterburner on the L1 trigger personally.

    2) Game is a bit complex on controls

    Is it really necessary to have an omnicannon & afterburner & primary/secondary fire?

    Either design for the TWIN STICKS like SuperStardust HD (Omnicannon) or don’t bother at all.

    Right now its silly that I have to Afterburner into and out of firefights then move my hand to the Omnicannon to get more firepower. Then Boost back to a Bomb location to drop a bomb. After dropping the bomb I want good firepower for firefights so I put my thumb back on Omnicannon. Then to escape I have to boost again by moving my thumb back to the X button.

    It’s overkill on complexity since I’m already micromanaging the Primary Weapon cycle and the Secondary Weapon cycle.

    3) Cycling weapons is never fun.

    Its a complete and utter distraction from the immersion of the game unless you intend on memorizing the cycle but that’s also difficult since we gain new weapons and run out of ammo altering the cycle.

    I might suggest simply mapping 4 secondary weapon types on the DPAD and 4 primary weapon types on the FACE BUTTONS.

    Then allow BOOST to be on L1.

    If you simply must have more than 4 weapons perhaps the R1 could toggle Weapon set 1 & 2?

    I don’t know.

    *** Ultimately I’m just saying it seems kind of complicated on game mechanics.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 9:31 am PDT

      Hello again, Untold.

      1. Fair enough request. It\’s a bit involved since we need to update art in certain places in the game based on a custom layout, but I\’ll definitely add it to the potential list of updates.

      2. Originally the Omni Cannon was a Rear Cannon – but we found having a directional for it was a bit more useful. That said, I understand your frustration with what you said regarding the Omni Cannon and Afterburner (that it\’s one or the other presently). I\’ll look into this more.

      3. We will be working on improving the interface for switching weapons (since it\’s pretty vital for staying alive).

      I definitely appreciate the feedback.

  • KingTalo
    June 7, 2008 at 8:26 am PDT

    Yeah it could be a little easier to hit ground targets, but i’m getting used to the shredder. It’s kind of spraynpray, but since you’re dodging so much you can’t really try to fine aim it. One thing that works is bombing once, then finishing with the shredder.

    Radar would be nice. Weapon switch could also use some help. Maybe dpad left/right and square/circle for cycling.

    And about the friendlies getting in your way- what about a very rudimentary orders system. triangle to engage my target, triangle again to return to formation. X to take out anyone pursuing me, x again to recall. Dpad up to escort friendly, dpad down to freelance. Again to recall. The orders could be context sensitive so they change based on the objectives.

    This is more of a brainstorm than a serious suggestion- what if instead of just spawning out of nowhere. Whenever you start a level or die you actually launch from a friendly Carrier of some sort, just outside the battle. The carrier would act as your spawn protection. You could have infinite lives, as long as the carrier is still alive (Good idea for online methinks).

    Sorry for the mess of a post, are there forums we can post on somewhere?

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 9:36 am PDT

      Hi KingTalo.

      We\’ll be working on improving the weapon switching.

      As far as friendlies go – we want to improve their logic more over implementing a basic \”squad command\” since the game is more arcade-like. We\’d prefer the player to be focusing on shooting things down and having the friendlies just being \”smarter\” in general as to what\’s going on.

      Regarding forums – right now I\’m just using this as a place to visit and take notes, so to speak. I certainly don\’t mind coming here and reading and responding to posts here.

      Thanks for the feedback.

  • jimmyn28
    June 7, 2008 at 11:45 am PDT

    I loved PlanetSide. Unfortunately, I won’t be picking up this game as it seems there’s still a lot that needs tweaking.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 2:16 pm PDT

      Hi jimmyn28. I\’m sorry to hear you won\’t be picking it up, but glad you enjoyed PlanetSide. Hope you\’ll check it out later once it\’s updated, though.

  • Kevin McCann
    June 7, 2008 at 2:37 pm PDT

    By the way, I know it’s likely frustrating for some of you to not have a concrete list of what we’re planning on addressing in the future, but that’s because we just shipped the game. Again, we have our own list that we want to add to the game, but we’re also looking at feedback from players. And I appreciate the fact that the feedback has been tempered (although even if I get an angry post that has good points we’ll take them into consideration). It’s the Internet, so I can’t expect everything to be friendly. :)

    So what we’re doing on our end is going to be balancing out what we’d still like to see in the game along with what we hear from you guys and making the list from that. And we’re still working on the game in the meantime on items we feel will make a better game, but please understand we’re going to take a bit of time to make a concrete list for an update because we do want more time to see the responses.

    One thing to keep in mind is that we (Tiki Games) need to be considerate to Sony as well in putting together an update. An update still has to go through Quality Assurance as a final submission would, so firing off a bunch of small updates over time really isn’t fair to Sony. Subsequently what we want to do is focus on a bigger update (versus piece-mealing smaller updates over time).

    Again, I stated this earlier, but I want to reiterate that NOVASTRIKE isn’t beta – it’s fully playable. We wouldn’t ship something that required an update. This update isn’t something where “oh, this is stuff we absolutely should have had” – it really is to add some new things and tweak the game based on customer feedback. Is it a perfect game at release? Heck no. And that’s partially why we want to continue to support it. But I feel we did ship a version 1.0 – now we want to make it better.

    I hope this post doesn’t come across as remotely defensive – that’s far from my goal here. And for those of you that are having a hard time with the difficulty I definitely apologize – it’s something we’re watching as an area needing more tuning. I really do want to make sure that folks that buy the game have a mode they can beat it.

  • Helghasp
    June 7, 2008 at 4:07 pm PDT

    Best $9.99 I’ve spent in a while. I LOVE this game! It plays a lot like the old EA Strike games, and it’s just as difficult!

    We need more of these mission-based shooters on PSN.

  • UntoldDreams
    June 7, 2008 at 4:30 pm PDT

    I really like this game in concept and execution. Its well worth $10 although its “old school” in difficulty.

    WHY THIS GAME IS FUN?

    The shields make it so you can take some fire and run away to recover. The armor provides a sense of “damage” without immediately dying when you see the Scythe (your ship) take enough damage to penetrate the shields and go red/smoky.

    The Afterburner makes for a great mechanic to swoop in or out of fire. I really feel the arcade vibe with the afterburner and swooping in to bomb/shoot something. Fighting enemy boss “capital” ships is really just plain cool.

    The art style is good. The weapons are cool. The feeling of really being the Scythe Fighter and your skill being directly responsible for success is definitely there.

    There’s a heck of a lot of things right with this game. The game was built with care as an arcade game.

    NeoGAF has a pretty active community. If you would like to participate please make an account and talk to some fairly hardcore gaming nuts. Here’s the Novastrike link:

    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307068

  • UntoldDreams
    June 7, 2008 at 7:55 pm PDT

    I like this game. People need to buy it.

    Please check out the forum on NeoGAF for more discussion.

    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307068&page=3

  • UntoldDreams
    June 7, 2008 at 7:56 pm PDT

    I like this game. People need to buy it.

    Kevin… Please check out the forum on NeoGAF for more discussion on the game.

    • Kevin McCann
      June 7, 2008 at 9:43 pm PDT

      Hi again, UntoldDreams. I\’ll check the NeoGAF forum out early this week (and in advance of \”finalizing\” our initial update list so I can review the likes / dislikes and such). Thanks for pointing it out. I\’m not sure how much I\’ll be online tomorrow (Sunday – I think I may just relax), but I\’ll definitely read it soon.

  • jimmyn28
    June 7, 2008 at 8:17 pm PDT

    I’ll definitely be getting this game at some point in the future. It looks like you guys could use the support.

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