EricPeterson
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The man who left behind $78 million to revamp a classic space shooter
Eric Peterson has dedicated 20 years of his life to the video game industry, handling development and production in startups and large studios alike. He has a passion for space games, and in April 2012, he helped found Cloud Imperium Games, the studio building Chris Roberts' massive interstellar simulator Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium has since raised $78.6 million from nearly 900,000 dedicated fans, with more adding to the pot every day; it's the largest and most ridiculous crowdfunding campaign in gaming history. Late last year, Peterson walked away from Cloud Imperium, Star Citizen and that pile of cash. Not because he wasn't into the game anymore; he just didn't want to leave his home in Austin, Texas. "I loved working on the project; I just didn't want to move to Los Angeles," Peterson says. "They're my friends. Look, I built that company with them. ... It's just that, I've made sacrifices before in this industry for games that almost cost me personally with my family. So I'm just not willing to do that anymore. The priorities for me are family first."
Dead Head Fred tries to please fans with violence
Don't you love it when a developer listens to the masses? The developers of the upcoming Dead Head Fred held some focus tests on their game, and found that gamers wanted more violence. And indeed, the developers have provided, as seen in the trailer above. In an interview with IGN, Vicious Cycle president Eric Peterson, revealed some of the violent additions to this head-swapping brawler. "So we gave the people what they wanted and amped up Fred's combo list. We created more kill moves, more decapitations, more melee attacks, more counters and more abilities in general ... You can string combos together to pound on an enemy until they are weak and vulnerable for a kill move or decapitation. You can use head powers in combination with environmental items to create new attacks. For example, you can fill the corpse head with gasoline and then find an ignition point in the environment to create a flame thrower attack." Sounds good to us. We can't wait to get our hands on the game, and try out some moves ourselves. The team shows a lot of enthusiasm for PSP, and making the game solely for PSP -- let's hope they succeed with their ambitions.
Dead Head Fred interview
Dead Head Fred was one of the games I said "you should keep your eyes on." And for good reason: it's an original action game, made exclusively with the PSP in mind. QJ had some time to sit down with Eric Peterson, president of Vicious Cycle Software to get some info on the game. Here are some of the more interesting comments: "Dead Head Fred is a very ambitious game and we plan to deliver on all fronts. We want people to buy a PSP just to play Dead Head Fred." "Currently our load times are extremely fast and we are pleased with the results... the E3 demo that we showed, allowed for 30 min of straight gameplay without the player ever experiencing a load time." "The last thing we want people having to do is fight then camera when they should be fighting the enemies in the game." You acquire new powers by attaching new heads to yourself. Here's a few examples of heads you'll find in the game:"The Mutant head helps you survive radiation fields. The Scarecrow head lets you float on the water. The Stone Idol head makes you sink underwater. The Shrunken Head lets you get into tight spaces and glide along high wires. The Corpse head allows you to inflate with air and hover over obstacles; you can also fill it with water or gasoline to generate different effects and attacks. The Dummy head allows you to interact with citizens without scaring them out of their minds. " The full interview has details on the graphics engine, combat, mini-games, and more. The developers would love to do a downloadable demo for the game, so hopefully we'll see one down the line. The game has still a lot of development time left: it comes out next year.
