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Geometry Wars creator talks high scores, particle effects
Stephen Cakebread must be one popular fellow around the Bizarre Creations offices. While his brethren spent their time focused on Project Gotham Racing 3, Cakebread made an old-school shooter with simple mechanics, colorful visuals, and no ending. The result? Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, the biggest reason to own an Xbox 360 and use Xbox Live Arcade (and a game we have obsessed over one too many times). Brian 'ColdForged' Dupuis got a chance to interview Cakebread recently, resulting in some insightful behind-the-scenes commentary on the development of Geometry Wars. Many of the little nuances of the game are discussed here, including the snake's tail and the small purple rectangles ("Satan's Own Miniature Deliverers of Evil and Consternation"). Cakebread expresses delight in his creation, albeit he admits its not perfect (sequel, anyone?). There is talk of the particle effects that, Cakebread laments, with some more time and tweaking could've been prettier and more abundant. Cakebread admits his high score is only 2.1 million, so no advice there...but hey, what can you expect from a guy who openly admits to eating kittens for breakfast? (Scroll down to the halfway point to see the confession.)
Video of #1 Geometry Wars score: 16.6 mln
Prepare to watch your self-worth plummet. Here's a video of current Geometry Wars leaderboard champ K4rn4ge's high-scoring run. It's a twenty minute video--and the recording doesn't even start until 12 million--but there's plenty to learn from them moves. I'm in awe. See also: Geometry Wars: 4.191 million score by xTHeDoGgx Geometry Wars video: 2.1 million score by former world champion, "Striker"
More from Geometry Wars creator
When Geometry Wars creator Stephen "Cakey" Cakebread was interviewed by Bizarre back in December, we found some questions lacking. Fortunately the folks at Eurogamer, who share our love for the game, have come up trumps and found out his high score: 2.1 million. The interview also talks about the popular appeal of Geometry Wars, and goes into some of the development process behind the game. What's entirely lacking, however, is any hint of a sequel. Come on, Cakey, you know you want to.
Geometry Wars sequel wishlist revisited
When we posted our wishlist of features for a Geometry Wars sequel, we knew there would be some things we'd leave out. So we asked you, loyal Joystiqers, to fill in the blanks. Here are best of the rest: Powerups: When all you need is a little hand, ideas ranged from close-range proximity bombs, to temporary 2-second shields, to a Matrix-like time bomb, to recreate the feeling of playing 3 straight hours of Geometry Wars, tanked up on 6 cups of espresso, and watching time s l o w d o w n. Tournaments: How about special events, held monthly, challenging players to specific tasks, and posting a leaderboard for that challenge? You might not be number one, but you were number 42 in last week's challenge to kill only the green squares while avoiding everything else. Replays: This was the number one request. Above and beyond spectator mode, we want to watch the high score runs over and over and over again. The video of Striker's 2.1 million run blew our collective mind, so why not store replays of the top 10 highest scores? No need for full video, just recreate them in engine for the full experience. Throw in voice support to hear the collective "oohs" and "ahs" of your fellow gamers. We want to reiterate that it isn't that we think Geometry Wars is in need of an update; the game is evergreen. We simply want more!
360 crooner: "Maybe a game or two of Geometry Wars"
There's almost no point in explaining the song, so we'll leave it at this. It's called "Archie's Theme -- The 360 Song"...... and it's inspired. The backing vocals especially."The best that you can do / the best that you can do / is run away."[Thanks, InfectedZero]
Top 10 most popular XBLA titles
IGN managed to obtain the official top 10 list of most popular Xbox Live Arcade titles ranked by sales:1. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved2. Gauntlet3. Smash TV4. Bejeweled II5. Zuma6. Bankshot Billiards7. Outpost Kaloki8. Mutant Storm Reloaded9. Joust10. Wik: Fable of SoulsWe all could have guessed that Geometry Wars was going to be number one (it is their Halo after all) but it's surprising to see the relatively overpriced ($15 / 1200 Microsoft Points) Bankshot Billiards coming in as high as it does. Watch out for more $15 titles in the future; it's almost a guarantee that Street Fighter II Hyer Fighting will command a premium. How much are you willing to spend on an XBLA title?
Geometry Wars sequel wishlist
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved has been an unqualified success, not only for its creator Bizarre Creations, and Microsoft's Live Arcade service, but for the entire 360 launch. While right now it's the undisputed heavyweight of the Live Arcade service, with the influx of great new content set to appear, what can GW do to compete? Stephen Cakebread (Cakey) the developer behind GW said certain features never made it into the title, for better or worse, including mazes and multiplayer. In an "interview" (with Bizarre's PR department) Cakey makes it clear he has ideas for a Geometry Wars 3. What we need to know is what those ideas are! Since Cakey's not talking, here are a couple ideas: Spectator mode! If there's a high score being made, people want to watch. Think DDR at the arcade, or the pinball wizards of yore; we can't get enough of watching superhuman feats of gaming. Watch the video we posted, and know the current high score is over 4 times higher! Multiplayer! Let's get another ship (shape) in on the action. Doubles will introduce a whole new level of play: make it cooperative and work as a team to get into the millions score range; or competetive, struggle to get the kills first to get the high score, but watch out for your partner's fire! Play locally or over Live, complete with voice chat! More guns! Like shmups of the past, Geometry Wars could use a more varied arsenal. We don't want dozens of options, and we love the delicate balance of difficulty the current assortment provides, so even minor additions in the weapons department could go a long way. Stats! Bungie had the right idea with Halo 2, let's get the stats flowing with every little ounce of detail available: shots fired, accuracy, average speed, average speed while firing, average speed while firing and hitting target. Really, just get as detailed as you'd like. Gather these stats, compare with scores, and discover, empirically, the strategies of the masters. How many enemies killed? Not as many? Was it the multiplier?! ? There are surely a couple more great suggestions for ways to improve on an already great thing. So what is it Joystiq'ers? How can we improve on a winning formula?
Geometry Wars trial downloaded over 200K times
Greg Canessa, the group manager in charge of Live Arcade, said the trial of Geometry Wars has been downloaded over 200K times and sold nearly 45K copies adding, "Geometry Wars has been our Halo." The article on MTV gets some industry reaction to Microsoft's Arcade service and to GW in particular; Epic's CliffyB calls it "an interactive version of those acid-trip musical visualization devices." Geometry Wars' developer, Stephen Cakebread of Bizarre Creations, originally planned on having mazes and multiplayer functionaltiy in the sequel to the original Geometry Wars, which appeared in Project Gotham Racing 2. (Tip from Cakebread: the game stops getting harder around 5 million points, the only challenge then is staying alive as long as possible!) MTV says, "Developers interviewed for this story estimated that the cost to create a Live Arcade game could run between $10,000 to $100,000." Let's take the extreme example and say Microsoft takes 50% of the sale from the game and that Geometry Wars cost $100,000, Bizarre has still made a 12.5% profit in under two months! Canessa said to expect 35 Arcade titles by summer, with new games arriving each week! I'm calling it: first game to unseat Geometry Wars for most popular Arcade title will be Street Fighter II. [Thanks, m3mnoch]
See a Geometry Wars high-scorer in action
A great way to improve one's gameplay is to watch the experts in action, and even casual games like Geometry Wars are no exception. Joystiq has managed to find a video of Striker, former leader of the high score chart, scoring a whopping 2.1 million points. For those of us who have yet to hit 100K (too much Hexic) it's awe-inspiring.
Geometry Wars video: 2.1 million score by former world champion, "Striker"
In the clip that you're about to see, Striker, the former worldwide champion of phenomenal game Geometry Wars, scores over 2.1 million points. (Striker's high score is just shy of 3 million, but the worldwide leader, TBone2501 has 3.4 million). If you're a Geometry Wars addict, you'll learn a lot from watching this vid, but will you learn enough to unseat the champ? Got a high-score video? Let us know. If it's impressive, we can host it.
Creator of Geometry Wars "interviewed"
Bizarre developer Stephen "Cakey" Cakebread talks about some of the design decisions behind his creation (and Joystiq favorite), Geometry Wars. Nifty. Not so nifty: because the interview was conducted by Bizarre's PR group, no off-beat or difficult questions were asked (bummer). What self-respecting interviewer would let this one slide, for instance? "I could tell you about all the rough edges I want to improve, but that would take too long!" Take too long? You friggin' work at the same company as your interviewer! We're sure you could find the time. Canned interviews are totally insincere. Questions we would ask: What's your high score, Cakey? How will coop mode work in GW3? Has the success of the game taken you by surprise? How many full versions of the game have you sold on Xbox Live Arcade? Microsoft says that developers see more than half of the revenues from such sales. What's your actual cut been? What's the highest known score on the retail version of the game (Xbox Live should capture all scores now, but the retail version was available prior to November 22nd)? [Via John Porcaro's blog]
Scoring with PMS GibGirl: uber tips for Geometry Wars
We interviewed 31-year-old gamer PMS GibGirl with intent to uncover the secret behind her fantastic top-10 score of 1,377,920 points in the Xbox 360 Live Arcade game of Geometry Wars. She dropped a knowledge bomb on us: Take out snakes as quickly as possible - not only are they hard to kill, they block your shots with their bodies. I think they're the #1 most dangerous enemy. Manage gravity wells - you don't have to destroy them all, but make sure to keep the number down, and know where they are so you know where the blue circles come from when you hear one blow. Once the # of enemies increases, your goal should be to look for where on the playfield is safer then where you are, and try and get there - and remember that this is a constant task, you'll always be looking to get somewhere safer. Learn to listen-each enemy makes a distinct spawn sound, and certain ones should be listened for. Especially the red horseshoe-it makes a rumbling before each run across the board. If you hear it, you know it's coming. And finally, practice-learning to "read" the board and react fast enough to make use of it only develops from playing. I just happen to have spent a lot of time playing Robotron: 2084 [since the late '90s] and similar games in the recent past, which has helped. If you're a gaming badass want to share your patent-pending techniques, get in touch with us.
Joystiq is better than Gamespot
Even though the 48-hour gamathon is winding down, that doesn't mean we've given up! Our love affair with Geometry Wars continues even as our rank gets lowered by incoming players. We don't know what will happen this Tueday but for right now the image above speaks for itself: Joystiq has p0wned Gamespot! True, bapenguin from Evil Avatar has managed to best us both... but not for long! En garde!
Joystiq review: Geometry Wars demo
Let me begin with this: we love Geometry Wars! This Xbox Live Arcade offering combines fast-paced shoot-'em-up gameplay (think Ikaruga) with that old-school Arcade style (think Robotron). You control your ship by maneuvering the left analog stick while controlling a steady stream of projectiles with your right analog stick. The control scheme is a little like pat your head/rub your belly and takes some getting used to, but learning curve aside, you're in for some twitch gaming action!
