we are still humans. we have a plan.

January 25th, 2012 | Posted By: emil
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Well, we sort of missed the ball on getting a year-end review post up in any reasonable time. So what’s been keeping us so busy lately you ask? You asked right? Well it’s basically been BattleBlock Theater.

You remember our next game BattleBlock Theater (BBT) I hope? Hell yeah! We do too and it’s pretty fun to play. I guess you’ll have to take our word for it right now since we don’t really have a release date yet. Rest assured though that our professionally trained staff of humans are hard at work smashing their collective brains against BBT.  A long time ago (2006) in a very similar geographic location, we were working on Castle Crashers for the GameCube! We decided it was cool but NOT COOL ENOUGH. Here’s what it looked like:

We didn’t feel like that was quite right. It’s actually pretty embarrassing to look at. So anyway, this is why we took it back to the drawing board. We needed to tweak stuff and add awesomeness on top of it. This is essentially what’s happening with BBT right now. Some of the largest steps forward have occured recently and we’re so glad we didn’t just settle on something that wasn’t quite ready yet (and at the same time ready to explode from the excitement of handing it over). The good news is that our latest set of changes have saved us a bunch of time while making the game even more awesome than before.

So let’s talk about Castle Crashers a little now. As of about a few minutes ago, there are currently over 2.6 million players listed on our leaderboards! If that’s not awesome enough, this year we will see that number reach 3 million! Hopefully all of this happens before Mayan spaceships descend on our planet at the end of the year. To top it all off we’re still the highest rated arcade title for all of XBLA! This of course has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with you. Yeah, you! Want to know what else you’re responsible for? We were voted Best PS3 Downloadable Game in the annual PlayStation Network Gamers Choice Awards. So much love!

We haven’t made a giant pile games in our short 8.5 years as a company; but the one’s we have made seem to have a lasting impact. We are proud! These games are our children. We raise them, teach them things, and then release them out into the world for a price? (ok maybe that last part sounds sorta creepy) Since our games help us so much we are able to do more things than ever before. We’ve opened up our own in-house test team (aka Testopia), hired a full-time plushie designer (AnnaTheRed!!), developed two iOS games (Super Soviet / PDA Games), hired our first full-time artist to help Dan and do awesome things (I know crazy right? We have 2 artists now) and even built our very own usability lab (no name yet, but I’m calling Labtopia) where we monitor people’s reactions to our developing children. As we finish BBT, work on new games, make a bunch of cool merchandise, we are always reminded that it’s because of all of you that we are still around to do any of this. Respect!

RESPECT.

-The Behemoth

 

Shuffle Blocks: A Bear’s Delight

December 23rd, 2011 | Posted By: Christine
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I’m sure by now you’ve seen that quite popular, and polite waving bear on YouTube, right? Well, call it timing or whatever you want to call it, but we’ve got a creepy bear in our video this week!

Prisoner #10322… is polite too. But mostly cuddly. Our friend’s favorite block type however,  is not so much. We can imagine the nonsense that goes on in a bear’s head… “Oh Shuffle Block, how you tease me and play with my emotions! You’ve got a mind of your own. You do what you want, when you want. But please come back to me, I need you sometimes, you know?”

Shuffle Block ain’t all bad you know. Sometimes it’ll protect you from laser beams and ammo from enemies…sometimes even drop enemies into the waters of death!!

A Special Dev Story…

During the beginning stages of game inception, the shuffle block was one of the first blocks ever made! It was also the first moving block we created! Its purpose was to supply variation in our levels,  to take a static level and make it an ever-changing level.

When this block type is featured, it will make sure each experience is different every time!

The Shuffle Block likes its space. But it will not infringe on yours. Though this block is completely chaotic, sometimes you can get it to do what you want. How that works is that you must occupy the space opposite of where you want it to go. So if you want the block to move right, you’ve got to take up the space on the left side! With a little coaxing, it might work. Who knows, the block might move up instead of left!

We must say this block is pretty special…and always exciting! 

Words from Aaron, BattleBlock Theater Level Designer…

Once upon a time, the Shuffle Block was one of the only moving Blocks in the game…but whenever we tried to design part of a level around them, we could never predict where they would go! Were we making a level easier for players by giving them more Shuffle Blocks to stand on, or were we giving the Shuffle Block more opportunities to betray the player? And what if the Shuffle Blocks decided to shuffle off entirely?

We finally realized that it was no use trying to make the Shuffle Block your friend or your enemy–it does what it wants, when it wants. Instead, we tried setting them loose in other parts of the game to liven things up…and that’s when they started to shine. You may think you know how to get through a level, but next time your Shuffle Block buddy may be dropping you into those spikes instead of blocking that laser.”

Enjoy the Prisoner Video.

Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year from The Behemoth!!

 

<3, Your Favorite Pink Knight Christine

 

Reddit IAmA – Right now!

December 13th, 2011 | Posted By: emil
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Hello . We are participating in a IAmA (Q&A) with the Reddit community today. If you want to ask some questions and engage with our staff head on over to the link below.

Reddit IAmA

Thanks,

Emil