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Making games when you're dead broke: The story of Ragtag Studios
After a dozen or more years apiece kicking around the AAA side of the games industry, the three men behind Ragtag Studio embraced independence. They've spent the last two-plus years working on Ray's the Dead, a cartoonish zombie adventure that is about to conclude an already-funded Kickstarter campaign (which ends Sunday), but going indie brings new challenges and necessary sacrifices. For all three, that's meant a long span without salaries. But for co-founders Chris Cobb and Matt Carter, it's also meant moving halfway across the country from Chicago to Dallas and combining their families within a single rented home, which now houses four adults, the Carters' infant daughter, the Cobbs' corgi, and the Ragtag office. It's a premise fit for a reality show-but in fact, it's simply their reality for the next year or so, at least. Call it a Hail Mary of a life change, done in an effort to finish the game following a taxing year-plus that saw a first Kickstarter attempt flatline, family members arrive and depart, and development slow to a crawl. But can this grand gamble really bring Ray's the Dead to life?
Ray's the Dead heading to Vita with Cross-Buy support
Ray's The Dead will seek new brains to eat on PlayStation Vita, Ragtag Studio announced via PlayStation Blog today. The game will be Cross-Buy compatible, so those already planning on picking up the PS4 version will also have access to the game on Vita. The developer said it plans to "fully support for the upcoming PlayStation TV" as well. Ragtag Studio's "action-stealth-puzzle" game will debut as a PS4 console exclusive, as revealed during Sony's E3 2013 press conference last year. The developer's first Kickstarter project was canceled prior to the news, and is currently live again and reaching stretch goals with its second project. The crowdfunding campaign for Ray's The Dead will end on September 21. Reward tiers that promise a copy of the game start at $15. [Image: Ragtag Studio]
Ray's The Dead making 'console debut' on PS4
Ragtag Studio's Ray's the Dead was one of several indie games just revealed to be making its "exclusive console debut" on PS4. As revealed at Sony's E3 conference, the self-billed spiritual successor to Stubbs the Zombie recently took to Kickstarter to fund a launch on PC, Mac, and Linux at the end of this year. The fundraiser was canceled on May 29 in light of "great" upcoming news - and the zombie kitty would seem to be out of the bag now. %Gallery-190997%
Ray's the Dead partially resurrects Stubbs the Zombie on Kickstarter
Ray's the Dead is more than an action zombie puzzler – it's a feat of electrical engineering. As a twice-removed successor to Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse, Ray's the Dead offers 1980s undead-centric gameplay inspired by Pikmin and, most adorably, a main character with a glowing lightbulb on top of his head. Yes, his name is Ray. Ragtag Studio – composed of former Wideload, Disney and Ensemble Studios developers, including one who worked on Stubbs the Zombie – needs $75,000 from Kickstarter backers to add audio effects, music and quality writing to the game. They want to hire out these positions to Jake Kaufman (Double Dragon, Shovel Knight, DuckTales soundtracks), Ben Crossbones (Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Organ Trail sound design), Matt and Ed (Twisted Pixel writers) and a larger curated team. Ragtag can finish the game without the Kickstarter funds, but that would result in a pared-down version of Ray's the Dead, Ragtag co-founder Chris Cobb tells Joystiq. "With many Kickstarters, they promise additional features that can potentially lengthen the development cycle of the game," Cobb says. "With ours, we have specifically tailored the Kickstarter campaign to help us add features that do not affect the development cycle in a negative way, and in many ways will make it more likely that we can make our target release date. We planned out the scope of the game itself a while ago, and didn't feel it would be wise to add or remove gameplay features, levels, characters, etc., based on the failure or success of our campaign. "We haven't had any funding, but we can continue working on the game for a good long while as we are all being supported by our wives right now. Without funding, anything we can do ourselves will be done, but things outside of our skill set will have to fall to the wayside. And none of us are musicians or writers."
Stubbs the Zombie devs on quasi-spiritual successor, 'Ray's the Dead'
Matt Carter and Chris Cobb, two former Wideload employees, started Ragtag Studio to create a game that they can almost define as a "spiritual successor" to Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse, called Ray's the Dead.Ray's the Dead is a PC game that might migrate to mobile eventually, where players control a group of 2D zombies in a 3D environment, with two storylines told through playable events rather than cutscenes, Cobb tells Polygon. Cobb can only almost call it a Stubbs the Zombie successor because he doesn't own the Stubbs license, and for an indie studio, navigating that grey legal area can be tricky.Ray's the Dead will focus on controlling the zombie horde and using different undead abilities to solve puzzles. It draws from games other than Stubbs, with Pikmin as a notable shout-out, and the main character, Raymond, has a lightbulb on his head. We're not sure why that last detail is relevant, but it certainly is cute.
