erncon
Latest
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: ErnCon
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Ernest Woo of Woo Games (we wonder how he thought of that name?) talks mobile, multiplayer space combat with ErnCon. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is called ErnCon and it's a multiplayer shoot-em-up for Android supporting up to eight players over the Internet.Does the eight-player Wi-Fi gameplay of ErnCon help it stand out from other Android titles?I believe real-time multiplayer over the Internet (both 3G and 4G) is uncommon enough to set ErnCon apart from other games. I find that many games that call themselves "multiplayer" are only playable over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Implementing true multiplayer gameplay over the Internet was/is extremely hard and not for the faint of heart.One of the most important trends over the past few years has been the increasing prevalence of smartphones with mobile broadband connectivity. Mobile devices are finally powerful and fast enough to support the kind of multiplayer experience that was common on the PC 10 years ago.The most common feedback I received from FRG players was to add multiplayer – I know the demand is out there. I'm making multiplayer mobile games the focus of Woo Games – keep an eye out for more multiplayer games in the future!
