Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hello and Here's My Game...

Hey, folks.  In case you've been one of the people checking back at this blog, sorry I've been kinda tardy (like 7 months tardy).  But I've had a lot going on with me personally, most of it good.  Very good, in fact.

Well, first off, I did find an apartment here in New York, so yeah, that's good.  I'm thankful that worked out.  But enough about that--let me get right into my game (or should I say, games).

While I'm still working on that RPG title I talked about last time (and conceptual development for that continues along), I'm currently working on another game.  While I won't share details about the RPG just yet, I'll go ahead and reveal some details about this game I'm working on now, and my new indie company PolyKhrome.

The name of the game I'm working on right now is called Cyka, and it's a wonderful twist to my favorite gaming genres.  Basically, in Story mode, you play as a robotic being named Cyka who is a commander of a medieval-style alien steampunk robot army of knights (yes, you heard me) in charge of defending his homeland against invading neighboring cities.  Development for this game will take about 15 months (subject to change, and depends on what all I can get done--though my personal deadline is 10 months), and it will released for PC and Mac, and I plan for an iOS/Android tablet release and possibly Linux (depending how much support I get for such).

The gameplay is so highly unique, I'm afraid of sharing some of it too soon here, but I will tell you this much:

  • While the game's single-player Story mode is very fun and in no way watered down, the game truly shines in its online multiplayer modes, which include Versus mode and Conquest mode.
  • The game will strongly appeal to those who like online RTSes and RPGs (in fact, it's defining a new genre, truly unlike anything done before, really).
  • The game is a high-end indie game ("AAA indie game") featuring a highly-stylized realistic style, to be beautifully rendered by the Unity Engine.
  • There is special attention going into the game's soundtrack as well, to truly make the world as fantastic as the game plays.
  • This game will be supported by a Kickstarter fundraiser (which I am currently organizing and I will let you know when it will be available soon), and will be offering special editions of the game to early supporters.
  • In Conquest mode, the game goes on while you're offline and your stats are affected.
  • The game comes with a PC/Mac version of the game, along with an additional iOS/Android version of the game.  This will allow players to transfer their data from the computer version to the mobile device version of the game, and take their gaming on the road and access their Conquest mode game stats online from their mobile devices.  ( A Linux computer version of the game would be supported via Chrome Native Client version of the game.)
  • This game will be DRM-free.
  • This game will be made to look beautiful no matter what you play it on.  Whether you play it on your computer, ultrabook, smartphone or your tablet.
  • There will be online tournaments and I plan to eventually host events at indie gaming conventions around in the U.S. and Canada (I expect this game to be popular with online team gamers and have something in the vein of StarCraft tournaments).
  • I will enter the 15th Annual Independent Games Festival in 2013.  (Even though my game won't be 100% by time for submission, I will still have enough of the game built to showcase it.  I plan to still win something.)
  • After I release Cyka on Steam and Desura, I will release a free browser-based version of the game called Cyka Free that features a unique blended version of the full Cyka game's Versus and Conquest modes.
  • The target release time for Cyka is Autumn 2013.
I'm truly building a game that I want to play other people with, and have a good fair chance of losing.  It's truly that kind of game, and it's going to be one of those kind of games I think that you'll be playing for a long time.  It's an insanely addictive game.

I'll be showing work on this game on my company blog site, PolyKhrome Blog, but I'll show you the logo so far: 



Currently, the company is finishing Cyka's game design document and are working on an early prototype of the game.  I'll keep you updated.  (And I won't leave that long anymore!)  See you back here soon.  Keep exploring!

- Brian