Summer's been HOT

 Ahoy Sky Raiders!

    Right now we`re in the middle of a POWER WEEEEEEEKKK. Which mostly means we're consuming half our body weight in caffeine and trying to get as much done as we can before our brains shut off. I`ve been feeling particularly behind, but there's so much to do as we start to combine our puzzles into the main game and for PC. I`ll get you all up to speed with what we've been working on and how busy our summer's been!

    Back in July we were invited to Open Sauce, and well, that was a bit of a surprise to us. We had spent just a week working on a side project using augmented reality to do a space shooter, and had submitted it months previously. With only three weeks to go we got the notice that we had a booth, and we were still a week away from home on a planned trip. So we had to immediately get the game ready for thousands to see in just two weeks. It was close. Russ was literally working on it the morning of the event. 

    Our game we presented was AR-Cade invaders. A simple AR-based shooter, simplicity and fun were the goals, and we had everyone from kids as young as four, to kids as old as their seventies play it together. It's fun by yourself, but it really gets exciting with a few friends who all get to play together.

Try it for yourself - https://rxrgaming.com/invaders

Our booth! I know how it looks, relax, we`re not inside a prison...
  

    Despite the rush, it went over very well! We got hundreds of people checking it out, but it was exhausting after three days, at nine hours each, including setup and break down. On the plus side, we got to refine our pitches to people as well as how we would show our games. In a past life I did some sales work, and though I do not want to go back, it is a skillset that proved itself useful.


    When the talk got around to Empyrean Raiders, we discovered a problem. Our puzzles and plunder game is far harder to describe in an elevator pitch. Short of those who have played YPP before, it's an unfamiliar concept. The puzzles are easy enough to describe, but how they work on the ship, the multiplayer, and the relationship between ratings impact performance, and I can already see your eyes glossing over.

For a game where you swing a tablet around in pure chaos,
very few black eyes!

    It's something I`m working on, though I am exhausted by how so many other games are poorly compared to more popular ones. If I see another damn "Valheim-Like" label....

    After returning from California, we spent only a few days recovering before sitting down to do more work on our primary project. With PAX West at the end of August being our goal is to have what is called a 'vertical-slice', a simplification of the game, for people to be introduced to.

    For our vertical slice, we are aiming to get the basic gameplay loop going. You (and a few others if you`re inclined) will get on a ship from the island tavern, go raid the skies while playing puzzles, and try to judge how far you can get and how much loot you can claim before your ship goes down in a blaze of glory. Returning safely to the island means you count up your booty and aim for the biggest pile of treasure you can make. Maybe there will be a leaderboard and other fun things on the island, but there's a lot we have to get to before that.


    The good news is that this means we`ll also be pushing out the Repair and Cannonry apps as soon as possible! Repair is just refining the power-ups and scoring before it goes out! I`m hopeful it`ll be submitted to app stores for approval (we do not control Apple, who always drags it out) by the end of the week.


    At the end of the week, we should have a better idea of where we`ll end up at. Truly, we aim to have the vertical slice out before PAX, but part of that means we have to submit it almost a week before. Giving us less than two weeks to hit that deadline. Any words of encouragement will be appreciated!

Discord: https://discord.gg/da6JQrWDVd

Website: https://rxrgaming.com/


Yes I know I`m missing the grain bonus!


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