Week 1 Press
OK so this game has gotten much more attention than I ever imagined. There’s not much more I can say right now so I’ll just put up some pull quotes.
“I got to say I really enjoyed this one and if you are looking for a top-down action adventure role playing game with a retro look and feel it would be difficult for me to not recommend Soulcaster.”
“I highly recommend action and strategy fans alike to check out Soulcaster, there’s good a reason why it has already shot up into the top 20 rated Xbox indie games.”
“The soundtrack for the game is as amazing as it is fitting and makes me hope this guy is successful just so I can hear more songs by him in his games. The shopkeeper’s song is the most epic 8-bit metal song EVER and yes, I’m kinda serious about that.”
“Soulcaster is completely playable, incredibly polished, nostalgically retro, and insidiously addictive.”
“Well worth the money.”
- Zeboyd
“With a shop to upgrade, multiple paths through each stage, and a ‘hardcore’ mode, this is pretty much the best Tower Defense game on XBLIG OR on XBLA, rivaling even Defense Grid for sheer amazingness.”
- WDesm on xblaratings.comm
And for the ultimate press any developer could ever hope for, still leaving me in a state of shock:
“I caught a trailer for an Xblig called “Soulcaster” that took me a while to parse, but it’s out already, so discerning the truth of it is a straightforward matter. It’s lovely. It plays for all the world like a combination of Bomberman and Tower Defense, and I hadn’t considered it previously, but them’s two things what might benefit from juxtoposin’.”
- Tycho on Penny Arcade
Available Now
Microsoft has officially made the game available for download from XBOX Live Indie Games as of yesterday afternoon. Check out the demo!
So far the Live crowd seems to like it more than GameTrailers users.
GameTrailers users respond to the official trailer. The hype is almost uncontrollable!
“The graphics in this game is OMFG, it’s like OVER-PAINTED PIXELS or what? Disgusting.
Gay(m)play is like ugly breed of Tower Defense and mindless exploration.
Who the hell requested this game to be ever created? Don’t those guys have anything else to do?”
“Tower defense version 354. Nothing new and executed poorly, move along nothing to see here.”
“Well if this isnt a lets make a Quickbuck developer team! If u guys make money off of this Gem… upgrade to Snes platform. Good Luck Guys!”
“retro, sure. but seriously, it looks worse than a cell phone game.
better be cheap.”
“This looks like it sucks big time … even for an indie game. “
The game is approved! It should be on the marketplace within 48 hours.
Soulcaster Page on XNA Creator’s Club Online
Soulcaster page on XBOX Live Marketplace
Soulcaster is on Facebook
Trailer posted
I finished the game last week, and while waiting for it to be approved I’ve been working on some promotional materials. First and foremost is the trailer. The music is from a demo I did a few months back–it was just sitting there so I remastered it and used is as a backbone for the video.
Spriting from Concepts
I have commissioned the incomparable Bruce Glidewell to do some creature concepts for me. I am decent at sprite art, but never was great at detailed characters, especially humanoids. It’s great to have a pro handle this. In fact, this is the only aspect of the game I’ve outsourced yet, and the lion’s share of the game’s budget. I foresee buying a bunch of friends pizza for a beta testing party, and then there’s the fee to join the XNA Creators Club to test on XBOX, but really, that’s about it.
Given the limited budget, I asked only for monochrome sketches of the four heroes and four of the monsters. Bruce went way beyond the call of duty to create an awesome set of hero sprites. Here’s the knight (tank summon):
And here he is reduced to the game’s 16×16 tile constraint:
Current progress: I’ve done all the spriting and animation for the main character, three summons, and two of the four monster types. Very soon, the placeholder art will be gone and the game will have a look all its own. It’s gonna be bad ass.
About Soulcaster
Soulcaster is an action/adventure game for XBOX Live Indie Games featuring Gauntlet-style dungeon crawling and tower-defense mechanics.
It's available as of March 3, 2010 on XBOX Live Marketplace for 240 Microsoft Points.
