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61 Frames Per Second

Beat Me Up Too: Open For Business

Posted by Amber Ahlborn



Hey everybody, I thought I'd give you an update on Beat Me Up Too's status. The game is effectively finished. It's currently open to the public for beta testing so if you want to check it out you should head on over to Andrograde.com and take it for a spin! We have a comments section up and running so feel free to share your thoughts. Will especially wants to know about any glitches. If something freaks out while you're playing or level building, see if you can reproduce the glitch and tell Will what you did to make it happen. You can put it in comments or e-mail the web master. Eventually, you'll be able to find Beat Me Up Too on sites like My Space, Facebook, Kongregate, and Addicting Games. Oh, and if you like what you see at our little budding game studio, feel free to share your love through the donate button. Every little bit helps pay Will's rent.

Now that the plug is over, I thought I'd share a little end development info with you. At the beginning of any development cycle, there are a lot of ideas tossed into the pot, but not everything makes the final cut. Sadly, the backgrounds I made for the game can't be used. Will has a really tight budget for the game's file size to assure it loads and runs quickly. My backgrounds just took up too much space for this particular game. Ahh well, here's a sample of what I put together.



Another section of art work that was cut were my environmental objects. In level build mode, players get to literally draw in the environment. Objects can even be made to twirl and swing. In addition to this, I had planned to create pre-made zany objects that could be placed into the levels as part of the environment (I already made a pile of weapons and zany items that can be tossed around). Alas, there wasn't time to insert these sorts of objects into the code, so they were dropped.

When making a video game, developers always need to keep sight of the ultimate goal, that is, actually finishing the game and not letting it hang in development forever. Sometimes this makes it necessary to cut features you really think are cool. But hey, there's always hope that those ideas will make it into a sequel!



Related Links

Developer Journal part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7


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About Amber Ahlborn

Artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

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    John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

    Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

    Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

    Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

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    Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

    Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


    CONTRIBUTORS

    Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

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