Hidden in Plain Sight -- published and roundup...

I hit the Publish button late on Thursday evening. I'd advertised a Friday release date, but there is a lag between pushing the button and seeing it show up on the Xbox Live servers, and I really wanted to watch it show up.

So, late Thursday night, there it was. Another game, published for the masses to see.

On Friday and Saturday, a few reviews showed up online:

http://www.1uporpoison.com/xblig/hidden-in-plain-sight/

This is one of the most enjoyable and unique multiplayer games to come out of the XBLIG channel. It forces players to mingle with and behave like the NPCs walking around the screen in order to inconspicuously meet some goal. Depending on what mode you’re playing, this goal could be assassinating the other players, collecting coins, or racing to the finish line. My favorite modes are those that split up players into two teams, where one team consists of snipers trying to figure out who’s an NPC and who’s a human. These matches become incredibly tense (and hilarious) as the non-snipers get closer to winning. But because this is restricted to local multiplayer only, part of the challenge is first figuring out who you are without everyone else noticing. Sometimes, five minutes will go by, and I still don’t know where I am! That doesn’t necessarily ruin the game, though. In the right company, every moment—from the initial confusion to the winning move—is a thrill. So if you have someone to play with, get this. Hidden in Plain Sight makes for a very fun party game.

http://indies.onpause.org/2011/11/hidden-in-plain-sight.html

Pros:Amazingly fun multiplayer with tons of replay value - Cute graphics - Fantastic price
Cons:Would love to have more game modes ;)

So far, so good!

I was also a guest on the weekly GameMarx podcast. You can listen to it here if you're so inclined. I'm getting over a cold, so I apologize in advance about the sniffing. Ugh.

I was really prepped and had a lot of stuff I wanted to talk about on the podcast, but sometimes it was hard to get a word in, and the conversation didn't always go in directions I anticipated, but it was a fun experience and I'm honored to have been a part of it.

On Friday evening, my in-laws were over for dinner, and they wanted to see a demo of the game. So I fired it up, and walked them through a couple game modes. What we quickly discovered, though, in Knights vs. Ninjas, was that some debug code was left in the game. This means that players always start in the same location, rather than randomly spread around. Serious bummer. I'm pretty pissed about it, but there's not much I can do now, aside from fix it and send it in for another Review and get it patched. I'm giving myself another day or two to see if anything else pops up. It just sucks to put it so much effort to get everything just right, and then make a last minute change and mess things up. Oh well.

No sales figures yet. I'm really not expecting anything big by any stretch. Seeing the positive reviews and that email have been super rewarding as it is.

Fan email...

Hidden in Plain Sight went live on Thursday evening. Check put this email I got this morning. It really makes the whole process worth while.

Mr. Spragg, I just want you to know that my wife and I just so happened to stumble upon your game yesterday in the X-Box indie store, decided to try it out, and couldn't stop playing it all day. In fact, by the end of the night, a group of about 8 of us were gathered around the TV taking turns playing it. Thanks for trying your best to keep local multiplayer alive. I cannot tell you how grateful I am. Probably the most fun I've had with LM since the days of Mario Party. And thanks for giving me a reason to invest in that 4th xbox controller. I'll be downloading your previous game Bad Golf today, and am expecting great things. You brought a lot of people together last night that wouldn't normally play video games at all. It's fantastic. I'll be recommending it to friends. I trust that anyone else that stumbled upon it last night had a similar experience. HIPS is brilliant in it's simplicity. We'll be playing for weeks and months to come. Thank you!

Squeeee!

Ready to drop...

Hidden in Plain Sight has passed Peer Review!

I'm setting Friday, November 18th, 2011 as the official release date. I might actually push the button late Thursday night so I can watch it hit the market.

I've set some marketing wheels in motion, so we'll see if that does anything. I still remain skeptical that it will make a difference, but here's hoping.

I tell you what, it's hard to have a game that's all ready to go and not push the Publish Now button, but I really want to see if I can manage to generate some buzz before releasing the game.

Yay.

IGF

Hello IGF friends...

I know, I know... I have no business entering my little game in your contest, but my boy Andy said it might have a chance. So what the heck, it's only $95.

My name is Adam Spragg. I'm a life-long gamer, and have been trying my hand at developing games for quite a while now. It wasn't until I discovered the Xbox Live Indie Game platform that I was actually motivated to complete and publish a game. This latest one is my third (after "Bad Golf" and "Battle for Venga Islands"). When I'm not developing games, I'm a dad, husband, and software developer.

In case you don't already know, Hidden in Plain Sight is a local-multiplayer-only game where players are trying to win by accomplishing goals, but also given the means to eliminate each other from the game. This puts the player in an immediate state of conflict: should I try to touch all the statues to win, or by doing so, does that give me away as a player character?

In all game modes, there are a bunch of NPC characters that mostly just wander around randomly. So, kind of like SpyParty, a big part of the game is trying to blend in and look like a computer controlled character.

It's the first game I've made that I think is ACTUALLY FUN, and the first that my friends (playtesters) genuinely seem to enjoy. So I'm pretty excited to get it out there.

Look for it to be published in late November. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Trailer

I made a new trailer video...



Also, since the last time I wrote, Ninja Party has been updated sort of significantly.

The real problem with Ninja Party was that it was impossible to determine who the players were. Players could easily just wander around and look exactly like the NPCs. Basically, you just needed to wait until someone got impatient and start taking swings at everyone, and it just turned into a duel.

So I needed to add something that the players would react to, but that the NPCs would ignore.

I added statues. You can win the game if you touch all five statues. This gives the players something to do, and something to guide their behavior, and therefore something to give themselves away.

The addition, I think, is a good one. It allows for multiple levels of strategy. You could just go for the statues straight away, but that would probably be pretty obvious. You could camp a statue, but you'd have to be careful, or you'd look suspicious.

The statues also have the benefit of blocking the view and giving some cover, so you can hide behind them and spring out at people. That's kinda neat.

I uploaded an official version to the IGF, to the tune of $95 or something. It's almost certainly money down the drain, but who knows. Just waiting on the finish cover art from my boy Eryn, and I'll be good to go. (See, I told you waiting on art would have a silver lining! If I wasn't waiting, I wouldn't have improved the Ninja Party gameplay!)

Hidden in Plain Sight -- DONE

After a few nights of just playing around and testing and tinkering and tweaking, I'm ready to stand back from the canvas and say that I've painted my last stroke on this masterpiece of a game.


The ONLY thing left is to wait for Eryn to finish up the title/loading screen image for me.  As I've said, I'm not in any hurry to release, and this extra time has given me some opportunity to do some extra polishing and stuff.  So that's all good.


I made a YouTube video introducing the game.  It's a subtle game, so just showing silent gameplay footage wouldn't really sell it, I don't think.  The video ended up being 10 minutes long, but I think it does a decent job explaining each of the game modes, and showing why it's a fun game.  I was hoping to get some playtesters together tonight and record some actual game footage, but plans fell through.  Maybe next weekend.


I emailed out some websites with a link to the video.  I have no idea how to do marketing, and the very idea of it kind of makes my skin crawl, but I also want people to know about my game.  I try to convince myself that I'm just making games for myself, and it's neat if people download it, but of course in my secret heart I want the game to go viral and get thousands and thousands of sales.


Anyhoo, here's the video, if you haven't seen it already:

Hidden in Plain Sight progress...

Getting closer!  Am I done?

In the last week or so, I’ve upgraded the menus so that they somewhat match the tiles theme that Eryn introduced in his title artwork.  I also added in the Trial mode stuff (two game modes free with trial, the rest you get with purchase), and a credits screen.  I’m pretty much done, I think.

Eryn emailed me today and said that he has some work and a timeline at his job, so he won’t be able to do more work on the title screen for a little while.  This is kind of a bummer, as I’m eager to get this to market, but also a blessing in disguise.  There absolutely no reason I need to rush anything, and having some extra time for playtesting and tweaking is always a good thing.  So I can put on my QA hat and look for bugs.  I could also try to do some marketing, but I don’t really know how to do that.

I did spam out some emails to gaming sites with a link to a pre-release version of the game.  I think one or two might have downloaded it, but I haven’t heard anything back.

One of the biggest steps I still need to take is put together a good demo video.  And I need the help of friends for that.  So hopefully I can rally a couple people this weekend and record that.