Gamma Bros update, Feb 07, 2006

(original post date: February 7, 2006)

Hello Universe,

Welcome back to the Gamma Bros. pre-release news & info blog. I'm not sure really what to call it, but that should do for now. In today's blog I'm going to post first-time-ever screenshots!, as well as talk a little bit more about the game. First, here's a screenshot of the intro/title screen:


Look at those guys work.. they sure are hard workers.
. So, what is the Gamma Bros. you ask?, well as I mentioned in my first Gamma Bros. blog, It's an original Flash based retro style video game being designed & developed by Miles Tilmann & myself, (Rich Grillotti) with 8 bit music & sound fx by Mark DeNardo. It will be free for all to download & play. It's been in development for about 6 months maybe, building on characters and story concepts from our first game, which we've completed about 1/3 of but had to stop because it was a bit too ambitious for a first game & would have taken way too long to complete. "Game 01" was more of a screen by screen adventure game (think Robotron meets Atari 2600 Adventure/NES Legend of Zelda) where Gamma Bros is straight-up action space shooter... (like Gradius, & Robotron somewhat as well). Both are based on a very minimal pixel art style I was working with originally for a series of pixel models for an Art/Fashion exhibition
here in Chicago a couple years ago. You can see the pixel models at http://anything.org/.




Non-stop action! this would be from one of the earlier levels. watch out! those missiles are guided.

So, the Gamma Bros. themselves come from "Game 01" (working title), and in that game they are sort of like mini-bosses of the "wind" stage. Not necessarily bad guys, but making things hard for the main character (Guy) for some reason. Here in Gamma Bros, they are still the same odd dudes, but you control them on their commute from the space station they work at to their homes back on earth. That's the big, glorious goal here. To get home from work. Of course, it's not so easy with waves of enemies attacking the whole way every day, but I suppose they get used to it. Here they are as they appear in this game:

Zap in a fast ship	Buzz in his regular ship
Zap in his Jetpack	Buzz in his Jetpack

There they are, all suited up for space travel. Watch out, if you wind up out of your ship, in your jetpack in space, you'll be very vulnerable. one shot/hit & you're toast! Click those images for larger versions.

Okay, that's all for today. If for anyone would like to use these screenshots in any art or gaming publication or magazine, that's fine with us as we'd like to get the word out, but please let us know (gammabros@pixeljam.com) where it's going to be used & send a link or copy of the publication. Also, please include a copyright notice "copyright 2005-2006 pixeljam.com" for these images. A link should be directed to "http://games.pixeljam.com".

And finally, if you would like to be added to our mailing list, send an email to gammabros@pixeljam.com. We'll make sure you are included in any mailings about our game(s) we send out. And no, we won't sell, give or share your email with anyone else.

Have a great day!
-Rich

Gamma Bros

January 30, 2006

Hello World! I think it's time to start writing about the video game my friend Miles and I have been working on for a while now. It's getting close to completion and I'm starting to think about ways of letting people know about it. So, here I am. If you like free, fun, Quality video games that you can play on your computer, you should read this blog & check back in the next month or so.

About the game:
title: Gamma Bros.
expected release date: Spring 2006
console: PC's, Macs
URL: http://pixeljam.com (once we make a game site for it. just semi-abstract pixel art of mine at present) It's going to be FREE to download for all (as a projector for macs and an exe for pc's). It should work on machines that have been made in the last 3 or 4 years without a problem. might run a little slow at times on computers older than that.
Style: is something along the lines of neo-retro. that's the best way I can put it. old-school style (atari 2600, robotron, galaga, etc), with original, new-school game ideas.
fun: YES! (we think it's a lot of fun, actually)

The game development team:

Miles Tilmann (http://webhole.com), my partner in this, is the Flash actionscript pro. He's making it all work, as well as taking the animations and designs I give him and tweaking them for the game, and making them all function. It's really amazing to watch these things all come alive. Miles creates some artwork for the game too, like the lasers, effects and some other random elements here & there as well. We both get together on ideas of how things should go, conceptualize and brainstorm.

Rich Grillotti (myself, http://rg.org, http://pixeljam.com, http://anything.org, http://sub2600.com)
role: designing/creating/animating all of the characters, ships & enemies, the main intro and ending sequences & locations, and most of the art in the game. It's a lot of work, but it's great fun to do. I'll post some animations and designs from the game soon.

Mark DeNardo: the music and sound fx are being created mostly by 8-bit musician extrordinaire (http://markdenardo.com). He's perfect for this aspect of the game. Miles will also be creating some sounds as well, using the source material that Mark has given us and whatever else he can work out that sounds good. The audio alone ought to be reason enough to spend some time playing.

That's about it for the creative team. I'll be posting some screenshots and stuff eventually. I just wanted to get this blog started and start thinking about getting the word out. We're putting a lot of effort into making a really great, fun, good looking game for people to enjoy, so it would be best if people actually knew about it. We hope to have the game ready for beta testing by end of February, and launch soon after that.

Once this game is complete, we've got many ideas that we're really excited about for some potentially awesome future games, and if we can figure out a way to make a living doing this, they might actually be created.

Donations will be accepted on the site once it's live from kind people that really appreciate what we're doing & want to see/play more, & we're open to other suggestions. I'm also open to ideas on ways to get the word out. feel free to contact me at blog@pixeljam.com if you'd like to help. Thanks!
I'll write and post some images soon. -Rich

Same Blog, New URL

Hello. Welcome to the new Pixeljam Games blog. I've changed the blog URL from http://pixeljam7.blogspot.com to http://pixeljamgames.blogspot.com. I thought that might make things easier, since pixeljam7 seems somewhat arbitrary. I would have preferred http://pixeljam.blogspot.com, but that's already taken.

So, for now the original blog still exists, but I will be bringing all the old blogs over to this one today. The dates of the original blogs might all say today, but don't let that fool you, I've been creating a blog a week for a few months now.

I'll also be writing a new one tomorrow, and it looks like I might just have some excellent news to report!

-Rich