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NOVASTRIKE for the Playstation 3

K

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
*insert joke about it taking a small, indie developer self-publishing to get a bonafide game on PSN*
 
M

Moray

Member
keyrat said:
What exactly goes into publishing for the PSN? You don't need physical distribution, you don't really advertise. You'd think it'd be easy for developers to make games and put them up.
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I'm guessing there's some localization and QA work that publishers may handle?
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
keyrat said:
What exactly goes into publishing for the PSN? You don't need physical distribution, you don't really advertise. You'd think it'd be easy for developers to make games and put them up.
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1) You have to front the cash for devstations

2) You have to front the cash for development

3) You have to pay Sony a licensing fee (I assume)
 
T

test_account

XP-39C²
I am hoping that Novastrike will be released for the european PS Store tomorrow. I have been looking forward to this game, atleast alittle :)
 
M

Mr. Spinnington

Banned
oh man this game looks totally fun


speaking of PSN crap, how is the pixeljunk series? i've always liked the art style of the games but haven't looked too far into them
 
A

angelfly

Member
Mr. Spinnington said:
oh man this game looks totally fun


speaking of PSN crap, how is the pixeljunk series? i've always liked the art style of the games but haven't looked too far into them
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I couldn't really get into Racers but Monsters is great and addictive.
 
M3Freak

M3Freak

Banned
Aeon712 said:
On one hand I already have Stardust, Everday Shooter and Blast Factor, and on the other hand I really wanna support these guys :(. Here's hoping it's priced good.
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On one hand you're an ass, and on the other, you're an ass. Whadda ya gonna do, eh? That's life.

Seriously though: Novastrike will be mine.
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
Through the blog they replied.

Price: $9.99
Resolution: SD Friendly; 720p.
Trophy Support: None right now
Youtube upload support: They didn't know but will look into it
Online Play: None with the initial release of the game

Being a small team we had to focus on what we felt we could accomplish in our development timeframe, and multiplayer (doing it right) was too risky. So to avoid risking a so-so (or less) multiplayer model we focused on the single-player experience.

That said we do have a list of things we want to address in the future, and multiplayer is definitely on that list. We know a lot of players will be disappointed that the initial release doesn’t have multiplayer - not having multiplayer in our initial release wasn’t something we simply ignored. It was mostly due to resources.
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Presently there isn’t a demo, but it’s something we have on our to-do list. I agree that it’s nicer when games initially have demos, though - we unfortunately had to put all our effort into first releasing the title (being a small team and going through everything that needs to be done to self-publish a game). We will be looking into a demo, though.
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the initial release doesn’t have trophies. It is one of a number items that we’re looking to address in the future.
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It is free-roaming in the fact that you can fly in any direction, however there are always objectives guiding you. In the trailers the objective text is turned off (an option from the ingame menu where objective text only appears at the start of a new objective - by default it always stays on). Likewise there’s narrative text that’s not so important but still gives tips and information as to what’s going on at the bottom.

A primary objective arrow always guides you along, but you’re “forced” in a certain direction. However, you’ll generally want to follow that arrow - especially if it’s defense. While you could fly around for a while you could also lose a Defense objective by not getting to the colony or such in time. There are also other indicators (red arrows for prioritized enemies, green arrows pointing to friendlies) that help you in understanding what’s going on.

As for SD it’s definitely supported. I had to play the game multiple times through in Standard Definition to make sure that I felt it was satisfactory and that the game still played solid while looking good, so I think it does just fine in this catgegory.
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We are working on getting it out in Europe, though.
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Sorry Europe :D

No online gameplay - sorry. We didn’t have the resources to pull this off for the initial release to do it right, but we certainly understand it’s an important feature to most gamers. We do plan on continued support of NovaStrike, and we have a pretty good list of things we want to do, with cooperative play being high on that list.
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There are leaderboards (broken down by difficulty level) and you can toggle between everyone and seeing your friends’ scores (like other games that support leaderboards).
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As far as how NovaStrike differentiates itself from most other top-down shooters on the marketplace - probably the objective-driven gameplay. The environments are pretty large, and you’re not on rails so you can go in any direction, but an objective is always present guiding you along. Some shooters in the past have certainly had objectives, but a number of recent shooters are very “arena-based” - often where the edge of the screen may be the boundary.

We wanted to make the environments larger, and focus more on accomplishing objectives. It’s not just staying alive along as possible while destroying enemies to rack up a high score. In some objectives you’re not even the primary target of opponents, and are instead defending (whether it’s a ground colony, transports, or a capital ship).

I know that’s not a terrifically detailed response, but our goal was to avoid creating a redundant shooter that some other developer already made.

As far as working on other games - initially our focus is to continue to support NovaStrike. We do have another game that I’m hoping to finish someday, and I’m hoping NovaStrike makes that more feasible.
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There are seven stages, but they’re pretty large. Environment-wise it goes across four planets, the first being more temperate-themed environments, then desert, then arctic, then - yes, volcanic. Hey, it’s a shooter - you need lava or your game doesn’t get street-cred. :)

The game also has three difficulty levels. The first (RECRUIT) is actually recommended to get used to the gameplay and weapon systems. SOLDIER is the middle-ground, but can be pretty tough at first. VETERAN is the hardest, and something I wouldn’t say anyone should start off trying, as it’s the most unforgiving.

We even have a short tutorial (accessible from the Main Menu, but 100% optional) that covers objectives, weapon acquisition and upgrades, the ship’s armor and shield, and so forth. But again, if folks get the hang of the game right away then they don’t have to go through the Tutorial. It’s just there for players that might have a tough time starting out
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1. No, we don’t support 1080p - sorry. 720p is the recommended resolution.
2. By default it doesn’t support custom sound tracks (like Super Stardust HD).
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Well, I certainly don’t plan on backing out of PSN - especially with our first game coming out just about now. :)

We’re hoping things work out so we can continue to optimize our engine for the PS3 (and possibly finish another project we have in development). If we can stick to PlayStation development that’s fine with us.
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The first update (which I can’t go into details on the specific contents just yet - sorry) will be free.
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Honestly, the sales of the game will determine the scale of updates we can provide in the future. We definitely will update the game, and if it’s doing well it will allow us to add more features. That’s just the truth.
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No, we’re not currently developing NovaStrike for XBLA. Nor do we have any immediate plans to do so. Our first plan of order is to support NovaStrike on PSN. If we can do well enough to stick with the PlayStation family then we’d like to do that - it’s much easier from a development standpoint, we can have a smaller team, and we really like developing for the PS3 (and the PSP for that matter).
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Some other stuff i skipped out.

Buy game to support the devs.
 
L

Lain

Member
Novastrike seems interesting and I like what the devs said, thus making me want to support them.
Might try and buy it off the US store, if it still accepts my CC.
 
A

acm2000

Member
DMPrince said:
Not buying crap keeps the indie devs away.
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and buying crap encourages them to make more crap :lol

crap games are crap, and shouldn't be bought, no matter who made them
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
FnordChan said:
Looks good. Am I the only one getting a major Raid on Bungling Bay vibe from this?
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No, I thought the same thing. Looks kinda meh to me though. I've basically come to the conclusion that I don't like games like SSD or GeoWars. Now this game doesn't seem as "limited" in the playfield as those games, but it still seems like you are wandering around in these open levels just shooting stuff for the heck of it, looking for a score.

EDIT - I see there are "levels" here but the whole "free roam" wander and shoot thing is still a turn-off. I got bored with SSD really quickly, even though there are different "levels".

Personally, I much prefer a scrolling stage based shooter like Assault Heroes or Omega 5 or the hopefully soon-to-be-released Soldner-X.
 
D

Decado

Member
WTF? There isn't even offline coop...for a top down shooter? Innitial sales? What innitial sales? Even for PSN title this is going to bomb. No coop... *shakes head*
 
A

Azrael

Member
Decado said:
WTF? There isn't even offline coop...for a top down shooter? Innitial sales? What innitial sales? Even for PSN title this is going to bomb. No coop... *shakes head*
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Neither does Geometry Wars or Super Stardust HD.
 
S

Speevy

Banned
KernelPanic said:
I'm torn between this and Commando3.

<3 dual stick shooters

But Commando3 has offline co-op ...

Decisions... decisions
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then get commandos, because novastrike isn't a ds shooter.
 
B

BobTheFork

Member
Azrael said:
Neither does Geometry Wars or Super Stardust HD.
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SSD does. Its 2 player, and an update is taking it to four. But Everyday shooter doesn't, nor Nucleus. Its not really a standard feature, SSD is really the exception in terms of content.
 
M

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
It looks really fun, similar to everyday shooter or SSDHD. I just wish somebody would make a gradius like game or top down shooter for psn.
 
L

LordAzrael

Banned
msdstc said:
It looks really fun, similar to everyday shooter or SSDHD. I just wish somebody would make a gradius like game or top down shooter for psn.
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that would be awesome, but at the same time it seems a little retarded that there isn't a game like that on psn. why the hell not? a little variety would greatly benefit the psn library.
 
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