First Impressions

We took Roy to the VT Tech Jam a couple weeks back. This is what folks had to say about the game

Holy crap it's done!

Roy G Beats [home] has reached Gold and will be available SOON for Mac and PC. Stay tuned for more!

Roy G Beats [home] in the [home] stretch (pardon the pun)

Thanks in large part to those of you who played the Roy G Beats [home] demo at the Vermont Tech Jam this weekend, Roy g beats [home] is close to being complete and will launch VERY soon on Mac and PC! This new version features more levels, more audio, and a new enemy type tat Roy g beats [web] didn't have. More details soon!

~dEv

Roy G Beats [home] debuts at Vt Tech Jam 2011

Thanks to everyone who came by and played the 7 level Roy G Beats[home] demo this weekend at Vermont Tech Jam. Your responses were overwhelming. We'll be putting together a pre-release video that will include footage from the Vermont Tech Jam and especially your first reactions to the game. We're truly overwhelmed by the positive energy and, honestly, some of you guys picked up on the game so quickly it was stunning. Roy G Beats [home] will be available in just a few weeks. It will have more levels, art, sound, and enemy types than Roy G Beats[web]. The iPads, iPhones, and Android devices version (Roy G Beats[mobile]) should be out before years end.
Check back soon for that video!

PC/Mac Version of Roy G Beats to be unveiled at the Vermont Tech Jam this weekend

Seven Days discussed Roy G Beats and its development as a run up for the Vermont Tech Jam this weekend.

This Friday and Saturday at the Vermont Tech Jam the PC and Mac versions of Roy G Beats will be playable at the Jana Media table. it includes new art, new audio, new levels, and a new enemy type. The VT Tech Jam demo will be a shortened demo version and will be playable on both Mac and PC.

Come on down and say hi!

Read Seven Days article here.

Big things still coming

The codebase for the PC/Mac version is complete! New levels, new content, some new effects, and a new enemy type will all be coming your way very soon, indeed. We'll also be showing the new version of the game (playable on both Mac and PC) at the Vermont Tech Jam this weekend!

Running indie Game Ads on Facebook and Reddit

At the launch of Roy G Beats, I placed ads on Facebook and Reddit targeted towards people whose interests include "indie games" and similar markets. The ads were nearly identical in both graphics and text. On a shoestring budget, both campaigns received the same amount of loot in an effort to get some meaningful data. I figured other indie developers would be interested in the data so here I am sharing.
I'm not going to disclose the actual data, but the numbers from analysis from the data and my conclusions.

Ad views: Facebook produced 424.33% more ad views

Clicks: The Reddit ad, while not seen anywhere near as often, produced 242.86% more clicks than the facebook ad. Facebook users clicked the ad only .03% of the time while Reddit users clicked the ad at a ratio of .26%.

This suggests a few things. First off, Reddit users seem more likely to trust and respond to ads on the site. I know my personal experience says as much. Facebook users seem to be much less inclined to click on the ad, but the number of views are astronomically higher.

Reddit seems more likely to produce customers and Facebook more likely to create branding and general awareness.

The ads were for Roy G Beats - a Musical Action Tower Defense game that was recently wrapped. You can play the web version here. Upgraded PC/Mac/iOS/Android version coming this Winter with more levels and a new enemy type!

Roy is online!

Play Roy G Beats on Kongregate now:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/roygbeats/roy-g-beats?sfa=permalink&referrer=roygbeats
(free, btw)

60 Sec intro trailer!

Readme for ver 0.9c2

Roy G Beats
ReadMe - Ver 0.9c2

Description:

Musical Action Tower Defense with special sauce!

The year is 1994 and you're upgrading your 486 system with the new music-based visual operating system - Roy G Beats. It is time to move on from the boring text based operating systems like TenaciOS. Problem is, TenaciOS is jealous of Roy and plants a subroutine that lurks deep within your system and is creating bugs. Defend Roy and retake control of your system using the Sonic File Deletion system to destroy TenaciOS's bugs.

Features:

~ Action-Based Tower Defense: you'll find no no "set it and forget it" play here. you're going to have to act quickly and engage the system to emerge victorious. Use the Sonic Destructo Pads to fight back against the TenaciOS bugs. Upgrade your pads, launch guided missiles, and use actions such as Health Recover and Force Shield.

~ Dynamic Environments: Things may start out simple and preidictable, but as with most systems, the deeper you get the more complex things are. Compound the use of your actions, pads, missiles, and pad upgrades to deal with the constantly changing challenges. No two games are the same.

~ Procedurally Created Music: The music for each levels is created by your game play.

~ Resource Points, Upgrades, & Actions: Earn Resource points when you kill bugs. Use these to upgrade your pads, launch missiles, use Actions and apply permanent System Upgrades.

~ Actions: These become unlocked throughout the game. They include the ability to activate additional pads, regain some health, use a force shield, and fire an AOE blast. When a new Action becomes available you choose which one to make active at that time. Chose wisely and try a different combination on the next save game to challenge your strategy.

~ System Upgrades: These are permanent upgrades that augment existing Actions. You can upgrade the speed, damage, and reload time of your misiles, the strength of your force sield, and the damage, range, and reload time for your blast.

~ Pad Upgrades: Applied to individual Destructo Pads, these are different for each pad color. Red pads discombobulate enemies, Orange pads increase their range, Green pads deal more damage, and an upgraded Yellow pad fires twice as often. Be careful when upgrading pads, though, as they lose their upgrade when deactivated.

~ Secondary and tertiary play modes: Traverse through tube portals to go deeper into the virtual system to get to the lowest layer. There you can eradicate the last of the bugs and remove the annoying (and boring) TenaciOS for good. Perform well on the memory game between levels to gain bonus Resource Points.

~ Emblems: Unlock and collect Emblems when you achieve a miles stone in the game. Emblems are available for bugs kills, completing all levels in a layer, pads upgraded, missiles launched, memory game streaks, and more.

~ Recursive Resource Points: Need more Resource points to complete a tough level? Go back through your History and play earlier levels to save up more Resource Points. They'll be available for all levels after the one replayed.


-Overview-
Main game play:
Objective: keep Roy Alive until time runs out to advance.
Controls:
Look: Click on Roy and Drag or WASD or Arrow Keys
Activate/Deactivate Pad: left click
Upgrade a Pad: Click on Upgrade button, then the pad to be upgraded (10 resource points)
Use an action: Click on the action's button. Cost in Resource Points is displayed above the button.

Tube Runs:
Objective: Reach the end of the portal tube by passing through the needed number of blue "safeguards". Avoid the red hazards as Roy can only survive two collisions. A Third will restart the level. Each time you pass a blue safeguard Roy's health returns to full as things speed up.
Controls: Move the mouse to steer Roy.

Memory Game:
Objective: Repeat the pattern for as long as possible. Each correctly repeated sequence gives a bonus Resource Point. Can be skipped by pressing X.
Controls: After Roy plays the pattern, click on the floating pads to recreate the pattern.

Check roygbeats.com for more!

Beta 1.8b is up

The light at the end of the tunnel is not only within sight, but is almost upon us!

beta 1.8b is up now (with 1.8c coming later tonight - a few changes have already been made):

http://janamedia.com/roybeta

The beta playable site will be up until 10/1. Please let me know your feedback!

Almost there

Beta 1.4 will be up late tonight/early tomorrow.

Almost everything is in the game. The new additions/changes have been adding what it really needs to approach "complete" and that achievement system is the last thing to be added. I'm working on that now, and it SHOULD be in by the end of the weekend.

Beta 1.2b is here!

Play it here: http://janamedia.com/royBeta

Feature complete Beta1.2c is going live later today. Still in need of some balancing and perhaps a bug or two to be found, but the web playable version will be posted in a little bit. Look out for some new videos explaining the current system of the game soon!

Beta 1.0 is here

WTF?!?! Roy G Beats is still alive?

Hell yeah it is! I needed some space from the project to get some perspective and re-energize and it it juuuuuuuuuuuust about feature complete right now. Check out the first (incredibly imbalanced) beta here: janamedia.com/royBeta

I'm much happier with the current build. Hope you dig and let me know what's up!

Things are not stalling

I know it has been a while since the last post/build, but that is because so much new stuff is going into the game that it isn't ready for testing yet. This Friday there will be a new release with a ton of new stuff. Stay tuned!

Uploading the new build now!

get it here until next Friday(8-5)
[ Alpha 1.1d1 ]
Edit: 40 MB

First off, the new build is a Windows Executable. The web build was causing too many issues and Unity's web player doesn't allow for file streaming which meant I couldn't use save files the way I'd like.

So new in this build - save files - continue where you left off with the continue button on the main menu (show  up after you've completed the first 3 levels which serve as a tutorial).
Also new - GUIDED MISSILES! Yep, you heard that right...
The story is starting to come out now too, but keep in mind the art is still very early. 
The system also saves your resource points to file so they are available the next time you start it up.
So much more awesomeness packed into this build, but WAY more for next week!

Stay tuned...

New Art/UI/better balance in this week's build

Friday is coming up fast and this week's build of Roy G Beats will feature the beginnings of the final touches. New art, the beginnings of a functional and fully features (alliteration anyone) GUI,  save game system, and drastically more balanced levels will all be implemented. Also, much more of the story will be shown.
This week's build will be a download and play executable for Windows as the save-game system doesn't work with a browser-based build (awesome alliteration, actually!) and some folks were experiencing difficulties with the web builds.

Note: the save game system is already tracking data for the achievement system, which I hope to have implemented by the following week!

Alpha 1.0!

At long last... Roy is at Alpha 1.0!

check it out here until 7-29: http://janamedia.com/roygbeats_7-22/

Alpha 0.9c2 test notes

Those on QA did an excellent job once again and the feedback for the Alpha 0.9c2 build was fantastic.

Some of the early reported bugs (particularly on level 3) have been fixed and the playable version has been rebuilt and re-uploaded.

Features coming for the next playable build include the following:

• Toggle 2X Speed
• Level Skip (testing versions only)
• Indicate what level you are on during play
• Show activated pads on minimap
• Skip tutorials
• Skip mem game (receive 0 resource points)
• Mem game resource points are 1 per round, not 1 per correct answer (too many resource points awarded through mem game)
• Only allow shots to target new enemies if within range (when their original target is destroyed before reaching it)

Much thanks again to the contributing testers.

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks so much everyone for the great feedback from the first test build I've already implemented some of the suggestions - most notably making the pads easier to see (see the pic) and drastically simplifying/tightening up the code for the controls in the tube runs. Next week's build will have these features and more so thanks again!

"Broken circles" are the deactivated pads. Larger full circles are activated and upgraded pads look the same as they did prior.

Uploading the new build (Alpha 0.8c2) now

Those of you on the email list will receive a download link to the playable test version in a few minutes. Excited to get your feedback!

New features include - 10 full levels exposing two of the three main gameplay types. Three main enemy types, a working (although shoddy) first pass at a tutorial, new music, new animations, new sounds, mouse over enemies to view their health, and more balanced play.

First playable test coming tomorrow (7-8)

Tons of new stuff in the new build that will go out as the first playable test build tomorrow (Fri 7-8). I'm super pumped about this and if you haven't already, please sign up on the email list and you'll receive and amil with a link tot he build tomorrow at around 3:00 PM EST.
I'm confident that Roy G Beats will be the premiere Musical Tower Defense game with Action, Puzzle, and Shooter elements of our generation... or something like that.
Can't wait to hear/read the feedback and I hope you all dig it!
A new video will accompany the build and will be posted as well. Check out the website for more 411.

Acoustic Demo of the main menu/theme music for the game

Roy G Beats - how the music works in the game

Introducing Roy G Beats