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Mommy's Best Games asks ESA members to renounce SOPA
You know how we feel about the anti-piracy/pro-censorship bill SOPA (we still think it's borderline evil) but now another developer is speaking out against it, and urging others to do so as well. Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games (Serious Sam: Double D) wrote a blog post asking the Entertainment Software Association to drop its continued support of the bill. "If you work at one of these companies," Fouts said to ESA members, "talk to your boss and get them talking to the ESA! Ask what your company's stance is!" He also wrote to gamers suggesting we, as people being represented by the ESA, should ask the association to drop SOPA support. In addition to this open letter, Fouts has been tweeting at every ESA member with the message, "Hi, checking in with all on the ESA list. Does your company support SOPA? If not, could you ask the ESA to drop support? Thx!"
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Serious Sam: Double D
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 at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, as part of a three-part series, we're featuring the creators of the Serious Sam indie series. Today is Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, talking no-joke gun-stacking in Serious Sam: Double D. What's the name of your Serious Sam indie offering, and how does it play? Serious Sam Double D launches Sam into the second dimension and grants him actually-over-the-top abilities, like the Gun Stacker, which is a suite of robotic arms that allow him to carry all of his guns at once [Ed. note: Or carry all of his chainsaws, a feature added thanks to commenter greyson97 on this Joystiq article, because that's how indie development rolls]. Sam fights Mental's hordes in new temporal dimensions, encountering classic enemies like the evil Kleer skeleton and the headless Kamikaze, but also new, deadly oddities like the jet-packing Chimputee, and the bristling Etanoh Salvo Spider. Sam must disable teleportation beacons placed in each time period before his hordes completely invade and wipe out civilization.
XBLIG facts: Nazi-killing a no-no, revenue a yes-yes
During the Xbox Live Indie Games panel at GDC, a who's who of XBLIG developers (James Silva, Nathan Fouts, Robert Boyd and Ian Stocker) talked about their experiences, successes and failures self-publishing on the service. Perhaps of more use to budding XBLIG developers are some facts about the service, including the revenue split between Microsoft and the developer, as well as some gameplay restrictions. For anyone who publishes an Xbox Live Indie Game, Microsoft takes 30 percent of the revenue, leaving 70 percent for the game maker. Even more interesting are some of the restrictions for games. James Silva of Ska Studios said it's impossible to have an XBLIG title where the player kills nazis, for example. "That's like an inherent human right that's been taken away from us," Silva said. "We grew up on killing Nazis." Silva then went on to provide an anecdote about a game concept he had, about a burly mountain man who hunts people, but it turns out XBLIG isn't murder-friendly, either. We've followed up with Microsoft for some more information on the guidelines of Xbox Live Indie Games.
XBL indie Explosionade from Weapon of Choice dev delayed by last-minute bug
Nathan Fouts, former Insomniac designer and now-head of indie dev Mommy's Best Games, has tweeted that his latest game, Explosionade, has hit a small snag. Originally expected on the Xbox Live Marketplace by the end of the day tomorrow, a last-minute bug discovery has made it necessary for Fouts to resubmit the game for peer review. Fouts told site Nukezilla "the game has to wait at least 7 days before it can resubmit" and that "we're shooting for next weekend at this point," putting the release on (or slightly before) October 3. We can't think of a better way to pass the time than playing MBG's previous XBLIG releases, Weapon of Choice and Shoot 1UP. Xbox.com: Add Weapon of Choice to your Xbox 360 download queue (400 MSP / $5) Xbox.com: Add Shoot 1UP to your Xbox 360 download queue (80 MSP / $1)
Shoot 1UP headed to PSN
Developer Nathan Fouts tells Co-Optimus that his label, Mommy's Best Games, is working to bring Shoot 1UP to PSN. The Xbox Live Indie Game turns the tables on the shoot-'em-up genre by allowing the player to build a mass of ships and basically become a sentient bullet hell, tossing back as many projectiles as enemies are able to dish out. If you think about it, it's not terribly fair that only Xbox gamers have gotten the sweet taste of shmup revenge. After all, Sony fans have been battling through these things since Einhander. When this cosmic injustice is addressed, we're hoping Shoot 1UP can retain its $1 XBLIG price tag.
