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Goscurry! A brief recount
Two months ago, while waiting for Fabian to do the impressive re-styling he’s doing on Stackout, I decided to make a small runner: Goscurry. It was conceived a couple days after the Edge Get Into Games Challenge 2013 was announced, and at the time I honestly had no idea of said contest. In less than a week I had a working prototype, and then things changed: Isak Martinsson from Killmonday saw it and offered to do the soundtrack, while Fabian told me about the Edge contest and pushed me to enter – which I did, since the development time was perfectly on par with it.
5 weeks later
The alpha version of Goscurry is ready and has been sent to the Edge contest. And Isak’s electrobeat music is simply fantastic: it changed the whole feeling of the game, making it much better than it ever meant to be. We are both excited by the result and got some great feedback by our nice betatesters, and want to push it on almost every possible platforms (at least the ones we can afford: PC/Mac/Linux/mobile).
Isak and Natalia play it a lot, and I spend all nights with Jelena – my lady – trying to make a better highscore, and never get tired. It’s adrenalinic, but also relaxing. Sure, being enthralled by your own game is nothing special, but I never spent so much time playing one of mine: it’s fun! At least, personally. Plus, at least for now I got the highscore!
Another 2 weeks later
During these 2 weeks, we get some nice reviews from some Twitter friends: Martina Fargnoli talked about it in her All You Need is INDIE blog, and Ruben Müller wrote a blog post about it.
I decide to make a Goscurry website, and then put it on IndieDB, while Isak creates more of his great electrobeat tracks, and I work on the final version. And that’s where things happen.
Chris Priestman from IndieStatik finds it on IndieDB, and writes a really good review about it. Then Paul Hack from IndieGames.com writes another good review. Then. Nathan Grayson from Rock, Paper, Shotgun writes a great review too! Then Twitter starts mentioning Goscurry, more reviews appear, and we get a lot of players for our small alpha. I hope this doesn’t sound like boasting, but that obviously made us superhappy, thrilled, and excited. It was all unexpected, and frankly it left us dizzy and unprepared. I thought I’d finish Goscurry and then try to get people to notice it, but seeing some reviews appear so soon – and being so good – was like getting home and finding a truly unexpected secret party for your birthday. You are stunned, go around the room saying “thank you, thank you, I didn’t even remember it was my birthday”, and mostly spend the night smiling like an idiot.
Now, I know that it doesn’t mean that Goscurry is the best runner ever, or that we got a smashing successful game, or anything like that. But frankly, getting even a few good reviews always makes you happy, no need to hide it.
Reacting to the hype bubble, and what’s going on
We had no idea how to react to the good reviews and the small hype. Davide Barbieri from GPI pushed us to try and get on Greenlight, and that’s the first thing we did (though we probably rushed it too much – but that’s for another blog post). We also got contacted by various distribution systems and companies, and are setting up a possible pre-order on Goscurry’s website. It will obviously have a small price, since Goscurry is a small game, and will come in 3 forms: a) game, b) game + soundtrack, c) soundtrack only.
Now Natalia will make a cover for Isak’s soundtrack. Isak is composing new electrobeats – I heard one already, and it’s awesome – and I’m adding all the stuff I wanted to add in the final version: more speedfreak modes, a package/mission delivery system, boss fights (kindof), achievements, additional ships, and more.
It was a great week. Thanks to everybody that made it so.
Play & Vote (maybe?)
Play Goscurry here (scroll down to find the PLAY THE ALPHA button)
Vote Goscurry on Greenlight here
Oh, and the alpha trailer, obviously
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