I know it’s been awhile since we’ve updated our blog (sincerest apologies). We’ve been pretty busy with some exciting things, so there hasn’t been much time for blogging. What I’m going to do today is give you all a quick rundown of what has been going on with us.

New Office (again…)

Since our last post we’ve moved our office to a new locale. We are now stationed just outside the heart of Burlington in a significantly better apartment building. No longer shall our development take place in a basement. We’ve skipped the ground floor entirely and moved straight to the 2nd floor. I’ll have Porter post pictures of our new setup as soon as they’re available.

New Server

I just finished transferring EpicShadow.com to our new web server. You may notice a few bugs here and there as a result of the move (the appearance of this blog being one of them). Feel free to point them out if you see them. Our new server also hosts a few other domains that we will be publishing to shortly. Stay tuned.

Traverse

Our latest game, Traverse, was just sponsored via FlashGameLicense by NinjaKiwi. Traverse is a tile puzzle in the style of Dominus Void and features polished graphics, non-linear level progression, and 25 levels of increasingly challenging gameplay mechanics. Play it now on NinjaKiwi!

Tower of Greed (Xbox 360)

Spoiler Alert! We are now registered XNA developers and are hard at work porting Tower of Greed to the Xbox 360 for the Xbox Indie Games marketplace. So far it has been really interesting working with XNA and developing for the Xbox 360. Tower of Greed feels a lot more natural with a controller in your hand. We are considering the possibility of adding local multiplayer to the Xbox 360 version.

Contract Work

A lot of our time has been spent doing contract work for fellow developers and sponsors. Among many other things, we collaborated with Ozdy.com on Dudes and Dudettes, which is now playable on FunFlow. We also did art for another of Ozdy’s games, which is currently in development (more details later). The time for contract work is coming to an end, however, as we would very much like to get back into developing games under our own brand.

What’s Next?

Once Tower of Greed (Xbox 360) launches, we’ll probably begin work on Tower of Greed 2, which we will release both on Xbox 360 and on the Web. We may release it to Windows as a downloadable app as well.

Well that’s about all for now. There are a lot more things in the pipeline for Epic Shadow Entertainment, so stay tuned. I’ll try to update this blog a little more frequently.

Below are some pictures of the new office:

Andrew's Area

Porter's Area

Office Left View

Office View Right

As you can see, it’s not exactly a full blown office, but as we mentioned, we’ll be working our way up. Each work space is equipped with a decent computer, as well as a 22” and a 28” monitor, it’s a rather nice set up.  We’ve definitely got plans to expand, and it’s only a matter of time until our new work space pays off and makes that a reality. That’s all we have to show for now, but I assure you we have plenty in the works. We’ll be entirely active from now on, so you can get updates from the Epic Shadow Fan Page on Facebook, our Twitter page, and of course, here. All in all, I must say we’re enjoying the new work environment, it’s been a new experience, and a new beginning for Epic Shadow Entertainment.

Foundations Are Built

Production on our newest game has begun, and I must say that hopes are incredibly high for this one. I’ve personally been on fire with work pertaining to this project. It’s been incredibly beneficial to us in many ways thus far, and I’m sure there’s more to come. Bare with me being rather abstract for the remainder of this, it’s still a bit early for us to give out details, so you’ll have to do with a bit of suspense.

First off, I will say that I’m proud to announce this will be my first game as a technical member of Epic Shadow Entertainment, or ESE as you may often see in our future posts. We’re doing things a bit different with this next title, and it’s sure to go over well, both for us, and for the public.

We’re finally taking a step away from puzzle oriented games, and diving right into the action. We were never primarily a puzzle group, it’s just that we’re both into using our heads as many programmers are, and puzzles do just that. So without to much detail, I promise that this next title is a full on action game that will surely impress thousands of people worldwide, and I might add that it’s pretty neat to think of at such an early stage. It will use ideas that have been done, (rarely, but have been done) and build upon them in a way that has surely never been done in a game before. As I said, I really can’t give out any details yet, but as we continue to torch through production, have some game-play ready, and some screen shots, I’m sure you’ll get your fix.

As I mentioned above, this game has been incredibly beneficial to us. As a programmer, I’ve finally grasped the importance of Object Oriented Programming, or OOP, and I’ve made incredible strides with what I know as a programmer in just days. I’m an idea kind of guy, and my-god is my head filled with ideas that are now within my grasp of programming ability. Another way this game has brought Andrew and I together as a team, is through motivation. I’m not going to sugar coat the very well known truth that many game designers lack motivation, and don’t work as many hours a day as they would like, there’s definitely some truth to that. However, this game alone has got us so motivated, that we are now easily spending 6+ hours a day on work, and I must say it feels good.

It’s not often I doubt myself on a game idea after production has begun and the idea is flushed out. It’s even more rare that I begin production on a game and realize that there is absoultely no way the game can fail if executed as invisioned. The current project meets such criteria. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this game will be a small internet success at the very least, it’s just not possible for an achievement of lower standing to come of it. I don’t say that as a pompous game developer, I say it from the outside gamer perspective. This perspective is one I’ve forced myself to take on in order to make sure I wasn’t getting too deeply into the idea, it truly will be an amazing flash game.

Expectations and build up aside, the foundations are coming together and the game is taking basic form. We have a lot more work to do, and I mean a lot. We eventually need voice acting, script planning, graphical work, more design work such as  game balancing, there really is a ton to be done. We do however have a large motivation to get this game out and finally give ourselves a well deserved name, so rest assured it will get done.  Motivation is definitely present, and it’s staying for dinner, possibly desert.

Node Engine

Today I thought I’d give you a sneak preview of what we’re working on.

We created this node engine to be used in our latest upcoming Flash game. Though I can’t tell you what exactly we’re using it for just yet, I can explain how it works.

Essentially, our node engine starts with a single node, then loops through the data we provide and creates child nodes to orbit our first node. Then, for as long as it has data to work with, it creates orbiting children on those nodes and so forth. We can easily adjust the pattern the engine creates, simply by playing with the variable data it takes in.

Here is a preview of the engine in its current state:

An engine such as this can be used in a variety of projects, from dynamic menus and particle effects to orbit simulations. You’ll just have to sit tight and see how we implement it in our upcoming game.

Gravibounce

Epic Shadow Entertainment’s first game since Porter joined the team is now live and doing far better than expected.

I affectionately call this game our “weekend warrior” because we had originally planned on creating it over a single weekend.  This, however, was not the case, as we ended up spending the better part of a month polishing it to the state you see now.  We just couldn’t stop ourselves from adding features and visual flair to the game.

For those of you who have not yet played it, I encourage you to do so.  It received exceptional reviews and even earned Daily 2nd on Newgrounds as well as making it to the front page for a spell.

Many thanks to Arcade Bomb for the primary sponsorship.  If anyone is interested in purchasing a non-exclusive license for Gravibounce, you can find our prices in the Game Shop on Flash Game License

We plan on developing a sequel in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled!