Our Next Project! at 07:28

Good day, joyous readers.

Today, I'm going to post something small about the next game we're working on.

As a young gamer, I often spent a lot of time at a friend's house, where we engaged in long lasting, and sometimes all night, multiplayer game sessions. Not sex, you dirty bastard.  Anyway, there was a particular game which I can remember spending a long time playing constantly one night, and I'm not entirely sure why, as it was only a small minigame from Mario Party 2 on the N64.  This game involved 4 players, and each had their own "bumper car" that had a set of spikes attatched to the front, and a balloon attached to the back.  The game was simple - spike your 3 opponents' balloons whilst attempting to keep yours intact.  Being the last one left won you the game.  Games of this usually lasted between 10 seconds and 2 minutes, which makes the fact we spent about 6 hours straight playing this game even more baffling.  I guess this was before we all started drinking to get through our lives.

With all this build-up, you can see where I'm going.  The friend of mine which owned this Mario Party 2 cartridge had conveniently lost it the next time we decided to dig it out and have a game.  It was over.  For years, we had to suffer without playing this minigame, and all it could be was a distant memory.

But wait!  I have a degree in Computer Games Programming now!  Since XNA is so deliciously easy to work with, Flying Squirrel Games is now working on a clone of this minigame, coming to Xbox Live Indie Games around the January period.  Maybe quicker.  It depends how much I like you at the time.

I'm sure my colleague Mr Brett will post some updates from the artistry side of things, and I intend to regularly keep updating with whimsical anecdotes that I come across while coding.  Things such as how damn awesome XNA is.

For now, enjoy an early screenshot.  This is my xbox avatar, driving the kart - complete with spikes and (to avoid being sued) some petrol cans on the back.  The final game will be 4 players and will involve your own avatars!  How nice.

In other small news, Banana Split is being resubmitted to the XBLIG community this evening.  Extensive tests have proven to me that this build is solid and will indeed pass review.  When I know more about the release, you can find it here.

Till then, au revoir!