Unity flash and me (FluffyCraft flash edition!)

Unity has just released the beta version of the long awaited Flash plugin of it's own engine and I ported faster than light my Unity game FluffyCraft.
I was working on its port from Android to iOS but I couldn't resist... so... enjoy FluffyCraft flash edition here

The porting itself wasn't too much difficult considering that this Unity plugin is still a beta version with some bugs.

what I'm up to lately

I have not made any post for a while (barely some tweets), well I think it's time for a recap.

I'm actively working on several fronts: I'm developing a brand new game for Gameccino (my own company), porting some Android games on iOS (see my latest post on the Gameccino dev blog) and I have almost finished an huge 3rd party project. The last one was very stimulating and complex being a reconstruction with augmented reality elements for iOS of an etrurian archelogical area, soon more details here and on the Gameccino's website.

It's enough? Not. I'm learning also learning the basis of the Kinect SDK just for fun and considering if develop or not a second version of an XBLIG games of mine.

:D

XBLIG Avatar Ragdolls heads to iOS and Android

Running Pixel is very happy to announce that one of the Running Pixel's most downloaded Xbox Live Indie Games Avatar Ragdolls is on its way to be ported on Android and iOS devices (including tablets and iPad).
Avatar Ragdolls actually features on XBOX360 the Xbox Live Avatars and real rag-dolls physics plus a multiplayer gameplay.
The mobile port will not feature for obvious reasons the Xbox Avatars but on the other hand will feature gestures, accelerometer and several new gameplay elements.
Avatar Ragdolls is one of our preferred and most successful Xbox Live Indie games and we think it fits perfectly with the casual gaming on the mobile devices.
The game is being ported using the multiplatform tool Unity3D. The release is planned for this December.

link to the game on the Xbox marketplace

Gameccino published another awesome android game, Stackerz Touch!

Give a try, is free as usual...

published video and screenshots for FluffyCraft [Android/iOS]

between yesterday and tomorrow I published several screenshot and an early footage of my mobile game FluffyCraft.
Check it out!

play (free) XBLIG games under the Hurricane Irene

I don't know how bad are things under the hurricane Irene, if everybody is safe and if there's electricity or internet connection; so hoping everybody is safe and you're just in your home under an heavy rain I have some codes of my Xbox indie games to give away and I think they could be a perfect way to spent some time and have some fun under the rain waiting for Irene to pass.

It's easy
1) choose  a game
2) tweet exactly the message below (*)
3) follow @runningpixel to let me send you the code and to know if there are left codes
4) cross you fingers and hope I still have a code left for the game you've choosen

(*)
 for Avatar Ragdolls tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox AVATAR RAGDOLLS for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

 for Bouncing Avatars tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox BOUNCING AVATARS for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

for Crystal Crush tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox CRYSTAL CRUSH for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

 for Bricks4Ever tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox BRICKS4EVER for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

for The No Button Game tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox THE NO BUTTON GAME for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

for Kozu tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox KOZU for the play XBLIG under the #hurricane #irene #giveaway http://bit.ly/mWBk9w

a new deal for WP7

Some months ago here there was a big debate about our #xblig games and the opportunity to port them into WP7; because we develop for living it is important that every minute spent developing have a return. Unfortunally this is hard with WP7 right now if you don't have a Xbox Live Arcade deal (and we haven't) so we migrated to other platforms leaving our #xblig and #wp7 development in a standby phase.
But wait... I have an idea! We still do like porting our XBLIG games to WP7 and the main problem is funding them... so.... here's a deal between you and me:

"if any of our games surpasses the 100000 copies sold (80 mp each) we will port all of our Xbox Live Indie Games to WP7 and give them for free."

In other words we raise fund for our wp7 ports with the xblig marketplace incomes (or with the donate button on this page)

How can you help out? Retweet this post, download our games and tell friends with an Xbox to make the same, share on facebook, spread the voice!

here's a list of our games:

Crystal Crush (shiny and innovative action puzzler)
Bricks4Ever (the best bricks breaking game available on the Xbox, amazing!)
The No Button Game (the first hands free game released before kinect)
Kozu (the dual karma shooter, multiplayer too!)
Avatar Ragdolls (because everyone loves falling hopeless rag-dolls)
Bouncing Avatars (the Xbox answer to iPhone's Doodle Jump but with avatars into, multiplayer too!)

big big big BIG summer giveaway

EDIT: this contest is over, thank you for partecipating!

Yes, to celebrate this hot summer I'm giving away all the codes left for all the Running Pixel's Xbox Live games.

I have more than 100 codes to give for these games:

Crystal Crush (shiny puzzler)
Bricks4Ever (the best bricks breaking game available on the Xbox, amazing!)
The No Button Game (the first hands free game released before kinect)
Kozu (the dual karma shooter, multiplayer too!)
Avatar Ragdolls (because everyone loves falling hopeless rag-dolls)
Bouncing Avatars (the Xbox answer to iPhone's Doodle Jump but with avatars into, multiplayer too!)

Not enough?
I also have a dozen of copies of Cocktails: shake it up! the most cohomprensive cocktails database app available on the Xbox.

How to win a code...
It's easy
1) choose  a game or app
2) tweet exactly the message below (*)
3) follow @runningpixel to let me send you the code and to know if there are left codes
4) cross you fingers and hope I still have a code left for the game/app you've choosen

(*)
to win Crystal Crush tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox CRYSTAL CRUSH http://bit.ly/flOba9 for the #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win Bricks4Ever tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox BRICKS4EVER http://bit.ly/crT095 for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win The No Button Game tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox THE NO BUTTON GAME http://bit.ly/jSXsDQ for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win Kozu tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox KOZU http://bit.ly/f1Ncl8 for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win Avatar Ragdolls tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox AVATAR RAGDOLLS http://bit.ly/gZgG3n for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win Bouncing Avatars tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox BOUNCING AVATARS http://bit.ly/hPNZyQ for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD7

to win Cocktails: shake it up! tweet:

I want @runningpixel #xbox COCKTAILS: SHAKE IT UP! http://bit.ly/ljOujr for the  #giveaway rules read http://bit.ly/mUJmD

The contest ends as soon as I'll giveaway all the the codes so... hurry up! Choose your game and tweet now!
Edit: there are still a lot of codes left, keep tweeting and don't worry if I don't send you a code  immediately , I'll keep track of every tweet.

Say hello to Gameccino

Running Pixel ceases to be a XBLIG/WP7 game dev studio, from now on this is just my personal development blog.
The core of the team (me and Benedetta) has founded a new indie game dev company called Gameccino
Yes, sounds like Cappuccino, Frappuccino and Mokaccino but in this case some of the ingredients are the games and the fun. Gameccino will develop mainly Android and iPhone games but also PC and Mac.

Does this mean no more XBLIG/WP7 games?
Yes and no; I have some XBLIG-only unfinished project and I could decide to finish them anytime if I think that they have a single chance on XBLIG or WP7 and if I have spare time.

Why of this decision?
Because it's a new start with new objectives, because the team has been modified in the meantime and because I think that the new name sounds more "casual" and friendly.

So, say goodbye to Running Pixel as an indie studio and say hello to Gameccino (we just announced our first multi-platform game here)

wind of change

In the last two years and an half Running Pixel heavily invested time and resources on the development of Xbox Live indie games (XBLIG) and WP7. In this period we did six Xbox Live Indie Games making this distribution platform our main business and in the last moths we did 3 WP7 apps too. I can't honestly say this was a complete failure but I can't either say it was a success.
XBLIG is a strange world with its own market rules where sometime strange things happens and where good games fail and crappy one make good sales. (When I speak about good games I don't necessarily speak about my own games fyr.)
In this two years I saw heavy bugs affecting sales (the frozen top downloads list for example), a growing lack of interest of MS about their creature (XBLIG), internal fight to reach with unfair methods the top rated list, a very slow growing of the overall sales and some other disturbing things that made me loose my faith in XBLIG and in MS in general.
I think that 30 months are enough to judge a platform and my opinion is that it is a partial fail. I don't say there arent't good developers or good games because they are, but as someone else said xblig looks like a pit, once you're there you can't exit anymore, it is not a launch platform like someone (and me) could expect.

Now let's talk about WP7... well it's a great phone and I was one of the first Xblig developer making a conversion of one of its games for that phone (maybe the first) but in full honesty there are two major obstacles: the first is that there are still too few phones around and it is growing very slow (expecially compared with android or iOS) the second one is that the Xbox Live games are heavily promoted on the WP7, this put your not XBL game in an awkward position, and I have seen what this means with the XBLIG.
Six month ago in my mind the correct path would have been this -> first XBLIG and then WP7, but now I don't see this viable.

That said, I still love XNA and XBLIG but if me and my team still want to make games and live with them it's time to change platform and go for the huge markets and the freedom behind PC/Mac and Android or iOS phones and tablets. This means no more XNA coding and so it will be difficult to release WP7 and or XBLIG games because they would be threated as ports.
I'm excited about this fresh start and I can anticipate you the we're rapidly porting some unfinished but intriguing XNA projects into the new platforms to be released in a month or less. Stay tuned!

BOUNCING AVATARS - the XBOX360 climber

Trapped in a bubble you can only bounce and climb up. Your goal is to rise as high as you can while avoiding dangerous objects, insidious platforms and much more. Play alone for the record or against your friends in a funny multiplayer match!

Price: 80MP ($1)
Platform: Xbox Live Indie Games
marketplace link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585507fd
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNK7ohFrW0

AVATAR RAGDOLLS!!!

While I'm working with Emanuele to complete the awesome SheepNobi, just worked in the spare time (overnight!) to rag dolls merged up with the Xbox Live Avatars.

Here's the result... AVATAR RADGOLLS!

it is in peer review right night so hopefully it should be out and available for download in the Xbox Live Indie Marketplace in some days (or weeks...)

Here a short video showing the gameplay (one player and multiplayer)

SheepNobi News!!! (shurikens and chainsaws...)

After weeks in wich we were distracted by other things I started working again on the development of SheepNobi.

Here's a little preview of the improvements:




It is only a minute of (unfinished) game but illustrates the new direction we got.
As you see the major changes are on the gameplay side, it is a shooter with chainsaws now.

When would it be ready?
Who knows... but I plan to put it in playtest on the next weeks (hopefully)