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Kittens Spit Fire When Serious Sam Double D XXL Assaults XBLA This Fall


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Soulcaster developer looking to license his engine

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Taylor Bliss in News, xblig, XBLIG News | 2 Comments

sweet 16 bit graphics

Are you a game designer – or maybe even a want-to-be game designer – with a great idea, but not the time or know-how of how to build and flesh out a whole game engine to support your awesome idea? Well, Ian Stocker, developer behind Soulcaster I & II and the upcoming Escape Goat, may have something that will be pretty handy for you. He’s looking for a designer or developer to put his engine to use while he’s toiling away with Escape Goat. He’s even willing to make some changes to the engine to suit your needs, supposing the change isn’t too great. Stocker has listed all the benefits and capabilities of his game engine over at his website. You can also find the form to fill out if you wish to contact him and get the ball rolling on your soon-to-be-developed game.

Soulcaster creator reveals Escape Goat

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Dylan Martin in News, xblig, XBLIG News | 1 Comment

If you want to know why Ian Stocker hasn’t started work on Soulcaster III yet, he has a scape goat for that—an Escape Goat, to be precise.

The game is Stocker’s third project under the MagicalTimeBean imprint, and it features a 2D Metroidvania style where you play as — you guessed it — a goat. While it’s still in the prototype phase, Stocker has revealed some additional details about the Xbox Live Indie Game, including prototype videos and screenshots.

As a goat, the player must navigate a maze of single-screen rooms and complete physics and platform-based puzzles that can be solved in different orders.

As of the second prototype, the goat’s method of vanquishing enemies is primarily defensive. The goat can activate various switches or send out little mice to entice enemies to attack structures that often cause them to die in various ways. The goat can also send out mice and teleport to any point they reach. Stocker said it’s still to be determined what other attacks and maneuvers the goat might have.

Stocker plans to have a playable beta by the end of the month and said the final game will include an easy-to-use level editor.

Continue below if you want to see some screens of the still-in-development indie.

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GDC 2011: Successful indie developers share insight on Microsoft’s self-publishing service

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Dave Voyles in News | 4 Comments

On the final day of GDC, a bustling, excited room of journalists, students, and fellow developers listened acutely as James Silva, Robert Boyd, Nathan Fouts, and Ian Stocker recounted their trials, tribulations and successes as Xbox Live Indie Game developers. Brandon Sheffield, Editor-In-Chief of Gamasutra and Game Developer Magazine hosted the panel of accomplished indie developers and guided them through the discussions.

One of the largest hurdles for indie developers is exposure. Before releasing I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZoMBIES!!!1, Silva (Ska Studios) put out a press release riddled with nonsense such as “Hypermagic Engine 3.0 and the Megacore X parallelization processor.” This later went on a wiki which he released for his title, but essentially it provided synergy across the tone of his promotional material, as well as the game itself. Most importantly, it allowed the press to refer to something when building details for a story.

“Something as simple as a website can provide essential legitimacy” said Boyd (Zeboyd Games), who also suggested creating YouTube trailers.

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GDC 2011: Interview with Soulcaster creator Ian Stocker

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Dave Voyles in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

sweet 16 bit graphics

Released in March 2010, the original Soulcaster managed to summon a loyal following by fusing RPG and tower defense elements with a retro 16-bit package. When it came time to release its sequel eight months later, developer Ian Stocker decided to reach out to fellow indie developer Robert Boyd to cross-promote their titles, and the Indie Games Winter Uprising was born. I had a chance to sit down with Stocker during GDC to chat about development on Soulcaster, its sequel and the Winter Uprising.

So now that you have Soulcaster II done, what are you going to do afterwards?

So I’m working on a new game engine.

A whole engine?

A whole engine, from scratch. A new project in XNA 4. ‘cause, Soulcaster III will happen, but it’s gonna need the [XNA 4].

Yeah, I saw you had to switch it over a few weeks ago, right?

So, that would be a project in itself, which I don’t know how difficult that would be; it’s kind of a barrier. Another thing is I just made so much content for Soulcaster II that I need to take a break from that. There’s also a bunch of new features that I wanna try in Soulcaster III cause, Soulcaster I to II was kind of a visual upgrade and a little bit of a scripting engine upgrade and was just generally better, but in the third one I wanna offer like…tons of brand new features.

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Zeboyd Games reveals new T-shirt in preparation for GDC 2011

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Dylan Martin in News | Leave a comment

cthulhu saves the world shirt

Though there isn’t any indication on how we can get our hands on one, Robert Boyd just posted two photos of himself wearing a new Zeboyd Games/Cthulu Saves the World T-shirt. He will be wearing one for increased visibility during his visit at the 2011 Game Developer’s Conference later this month.

If you plan on attending the conference, you don’t want to miss the XBLIG Success Stories panel that Boyd will be speaking at. The panel will discuss various questions about achieving success on the XBLIG platform, and the other guests include Brandon Sheffield of Game Developer Magazine, Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best Games, Inc., Ian Stocker of MagicalTimeBean, and James Silva of Ska Studios. The panel takes place on Friday, March 4 at 2 P.M. in the South Hall at Moscone Center.

Check out the rest of Boyd’s post to see the other panels he plans on attending if you’d like to stalk him.

Xbox Indie Review: Soulcaster II

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Dylan Martin in Reviews | 1 Comment

awesome 16 bit graphics!

When the 16-bit-era logo appeared on the screen and the bass-heavy chiptune music began, I almost knew I was in for a “hardcore” experience. But it wasn’t just the look and feel that gave Soulcaster II a tough demeanor. After playing the first eight waves, I knew the game was here to kick my ass. With a little trepidation, I enjoyed it.

Just like the original that was released nine months before, Soulcaster II is an Xbox Live Indie Game that combines RPG elements with the tower defense genre. Though the two genres share similarities, the game executes the concept in a unique and satisfying way.

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