Blogs - oointah

From December 22nd to January 2nd Death by Game Show is fighting the Indieapocolypse and needs your help!

Each day we’ll give away a number of game keys on varying YouTube, Twitter, Websites and Steam Groups. The amount we giveaway is completely influenced by YOU!!!!

The more you share, like and retweet the source you found that key the more we’ll give away the next day. It's that simple. So support this network, be loud, be vocal and most of all, earn free keys for all!

And don't stop the fun there, if by the 2nd of January we can get a further 5000 Death by Game Show keys activated we'll give away Steam Cards to those on the leaderboard.

So double dip this Winter and help Death by Game Show out the Indieapocolypse by spreading the word about our mad, end of the world, giveaway antics.

You can find out about keys at Lava U here.

The latest trailer is below:

You can also check out our new trailer on YouTube.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The other day we reached out a guy who’s business card describes himself as “Smoke Blower.” No, really. When we inquired, he told us for a nominal fee that he’d literally blow smoke up our @ss. We exchanged some cash and asked him for his prediction on the first month for Death by Game Show. He told us of a great success in our future, on par with that of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Apparently, our glowing bits, explosions, melee whack-a-mole, a hero dying, comedy quips and droids equal LucasFilm-like business.

Regarding that nominal fee we paid him? It was only like $220 plus all that meat he sold us out of the back of his van. You want a kielbasa?

So with that $1.1 billion opening month prediction we’ve mortgaged the future and started development on our new game which is an UNREAL engine powered 8-bit, open world, zombie-infested, multiplayer only, female protagonist, choices matter, and “whatever-else-is-the-flavor-of-the-day” game. We’re calling it Rocket Bro’s Under the Tale of Her Narrative in the Undead Dying Light. And there will be a Special Edition with a bonus Dinosaur DLC.

So… We got that going for us, which is nice. As well as our sense of humor, which will no doubt confuse some and tickle the fancy of others. Others meaning our kind of people.

Serious for a moment: Launch day is Friday for Death by Game Show. What are we feeling? Mixed emotions, like a politician going over a cliff… In our new Maserati. We’re really excited the game is finally coming out. And we’re really terrified that the game is finally coming out. We’ll keep you updated.

Death by Game Show is heading into the final 100 meters. A sprint where we desperately try to showcase the game to as many people who give-a-sh*t before the Jan 22nd launch.

So how much clout does an unknown developer with an unknown IP without a publisher have? Apparently a little! However we can’t buy coverage on a BIG outlet… But we could buy reviews… Oh the irony of this industry.

So this blog post is for websites looking for a game that's a little off-the-wall, strange and WTF. Yet be warned Death by Game Show is a new mash-up of concepts. It’s not a game you can WIN by headbutting the keyboard. And it’s definitely not a game where you’ve seen everything within 5 minutes. So if you have Attention Deficit Disorder jog on!

With Death by Game Show you need skill, patience, reaction and awareness. A wrong move is often your last move and if you’re a big wimp don’t bother playing as no doubt something said, read or heard will upset your delicate senses.

There, there, nevermind, did the bad man say a rude word…

Death by Game Show, a game for people with cojones.

Yes we changed the title of the game after Greenlight. And?

Yep, iLikeMoney (or, How I Almost Died on a Game Show) is a fun title but it sounded casual, it sounded mobile. We’re neither!

There is a fine line between smart and @sshole and with that title we had to reel it back in. It was simply too much for some people and sometimes being too big hurts. The key thing is Death by Game Show fits our gameplay like a bespoke suit.

So what else is different between our Greenlight and final product? Good question (to myself). I’ll hit you with what we’ve deliberately missed - localisations and multiplayer. Two big things we know…

The simple truth is, until we know if people give-a-sh*t we have to hold back. Our plan is to roll out new features and support the game. Short termisms: localisations, practice modes, fun modes and supporting the customisation tools. Long termisms: coop, asymmetric and competitive multiplayer.

This could prove to be the wrong path but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

...Yeah that title is a big freaking lie! If you’re here for Star Wars, my apologies. I just wanted you to check out our new game. My bad. At least we’re being up front about our clickbait title. So if you have no interest you can move along, as you're not the droid we’re looking for.

On January 22nd we launch Death by Game Show for Win/Mac/Linux. It’s a big deal for us but we know it’s just another indie game for you. So what makes it worthy of your time?

Yes, we’re gamers - blah blah blah. Yes, we love games - blah blah blah. Yes, we’re serving a niche - blah blah bloody blah. That is the usual waffle given from a fresh faced developer. The biggest thing we can say is that, Death by Game Show wasn't built around trends, what publishers say or what analytics dictate.

Our key goal was to be different and we've achieved that!

The question is, is it a bit too different? Will gamers support a game that wanted and tried to be different? We’ll see. Get ready to witness our success or failure next year.

Have a wonderful Christmas and remember, get your wallets out in the New Year… Ho Ho Ho!

My name is Duane Beckett and I am a Swiss Pocket Knife for Oointah Games and I’d like to take you on a journey that starts with a simple question...

• Plunder
• Plunder/p
• I Love Boom Boom
• I Like Money
• iLikeMoney
• iLikeMoney (or, How I Almost Died on a Game Show)
• Death by Game Show

What are the above?

Are they safe words in Madam Oooooh’s House of Pleasure? No, they are the evolution of Oointah’s first game, not just in naming but high concept.

With every journey there is an origin, for us it was Plunder. I believe a name is a first impression. How often do people say “he looks like a Richard?” A name can often describe how someone acts, how something works or a product's quality. The name Plunder instantly delivered meaning that matched our high concept of plundering. It was good but bland!

If Plunder was in a list on Steam would it grab you? It didn’t grab us. It had meaning but no comedy or quirk. We believed both were vital for our flagship game. This is how Plunder/p evolved: we kept the plunder meaning and mashed together derp. To us, it was the perfect dictionary and urban dictionary combination. Or so we thought.

If Plunder was in a list on Steam would it grab you? It didn’t grab us. It didn’t have the comedy value and needed a hint of Mike Judge zaniness for flavor. So without much hesitation Plunder became Plunder/p. Derp being a common internet term that fit the bizzarro of our games Universe. To us, it was the perfect dictionary and urban dictionary combination. Or so we thought.

As quickly as we found the perfect title our prototyping led us down an alternative path. Plunder/p no longer fit. We were back at square one in terms of finding a title that matched our gameplay and humor. We returned to our influences.

One of our main influences is the movie Idiocracy. We love its humour and wanted to pay homage in as many ways as possible. As we prototyped our structure was being shaped by a theme very popular in futuristic movies including Running Man, The Hunger Games, Battle Royale and Idiocracy - The Game Show. With this in mind, we began exploring new titles.

Our first effort “I Love Boom Boom” was pure gimmick but it definitely sounded like a game show catchphrase. It just had too much innuendo and trying to build a reputation on that is unwise. Eventually one of the famed Idiocracy lines, “I like money” was decided upon. It fit the game show structure and was quirky enough to be interesting but it looked awful as text.

We worked on a logo for I Like Money several times over until it finally became iLikeMoney. Using the small ‘i’ looked great on screen but added a huge question, does the small ‘i’ make it instantly considered as a mobile game by passing eyes? Additionally, iLikeMoney sounded fun but it also sounded (and our logo looked) casual. So from Plunder/p which had an aggressive and comedic quality, we become mobile casual? That wasn’t the game we were making…

As time progressed our concern about iLikeMoney grew more and more up to the point where we was close to launching on Steam Greenlight. It was only a few weeks before hand that our next iteration of title took root. We wanted either more edginess to bring back that aggressive comedy or more quirk to distance itself from mobile casual. Step forth a new influence - Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb..

Who in their right mind would call a game iLikeMoney (or, How I Almost Died on a Game Show)? We would and did! In all honesty, this title is great. It’s fun, it’s unique and there is so much of it that the consideration that it’s casual falls away - at least in my opinion. We ran with it via Greenlight and got through in 37 days (average) after a disaster of a start (more on that another time perhaps).

During Greenlight we thought it was our media which was the problem but the game looked fun and interesting. In hindsight and looking at it analytically - if you don’t have people looking in the first place it’s not the media but the initial catchment. Had our title evolved too far from the game itself? Was it not appealing to the masses who still vote on Greenlight?

Internally we felt the problems we tried to hide with the Dr Strangelove homage didn’t work. We needed to scrap the title and start fresh based on the game we had made, not influences or origins. It was ironic that throughout development there was a sentence in the intro which constantly felt right. It matched the difficulty of our game and after months and months of chopping and changing we turned to what felt right - Death by Game Show!

Was it too literal? Was it too obvious? Is it boring? None of that mattered, it fit and felt right. I guess the moral of this story is, if it feels right it feels right. That of, if someone tells you they are going to take you on a journey say no thanks and walk away.

What do you think? Is Death by Game Show the right name, or should have it been iLikeMoney or Plunder/p?

I should have really changed the title of this one but it’s part of a series so, meh. Monday I said we’ll discuss project progress, so here it goes… We’re done!

Granted we have a few tweaks (not twerks) which involve swapping out some demonic SFX, updating statics and getting pad functionality in (which is proving harder than anticipated), but that is it. So over the next few <insert time period here expected to wait on Greenlight> we plan on sitting around doing nothin’…

POW!!! WHACK!! CRUNCH!

It has become clear that over the next two weeks we will fix up the games moddability (I don’t think that is a word but it’s a keeper). What is moddability, you ask?

So you don’t like that G.I.M.P (locker) floating about with you? BAM! Drop that simplified asset sheet into Photoshop and paint that bad boy up brah! That Watu droid needs some bling? BAM! Drop the simplif… Ah you get it! With this you can make your own texture sets, share them and find that blend of aesthetic customization right for you.

Additionally, all text will be accessible. So, don’t like some of the one liners we use? Get rid of ‘em, add your own sense of humor. Even customize it so all the jokes are just for your crowd of friends…

You’re most welcome. Take care and peace out, brah!

The trip alarms screech out! A potential voter has stumbled across our iLikeMoney Indipocolypse hideout. We grab the “please check out our game” nets and race downwind, but it’s too late. They’re repelled by Greenlightitis. There has to be a better way as all this net play is bloomin’ tiring!

You see, iLikeMoney is an Action Tower Defense or Action Strategy game. We know where our audience is but we can’t just go “Hey, check us out!” on relevant game forums. It’s forbidden, and a fast track path to the big No! So what happens is, everyone everywhere ends up flushing information into open channel forums, like some kind of twerk-off in a lights-out club. From our analytics, only a very small percentage find their way to Greenlight… So what’s the point of all this twerking?

Rather than continuing this cycle of hope, we’re going full frontal thrust. We aim to have a demo out next week on both the web (via WebGL) and as a download. After that we’re on full assault to the media. We’ve got product, we’ve got content, let’s see if anyone bites – as Greenlightitus kind of wears off once people realize there is an actual game, not just a trailer.

And if Plan Full Frontal Thrust fails, we have a plan B. Tomorrow we put the net down and focus on game progress… Have a great day, over and out!

Holla from sunny England… Over the next 28 days we’re going to describe our own Indiepocalypse in a series of “please god help us!” blogs describing the panic stricken experience we’re having on Steam HorrorAnimeBoobsFPSSimulatorlight… “Quick! Kill it! A strategy game is getting through!“

We’re into the final death twitches of iLikeMoney’s development and have an army of Lets Play videos patrolling our YouTube channel borders. We’ve tweeted, liked, @ss kissed and stalked forums for any kind of coverage and am about to jump into media territory once our press release/hostage negotiation/ransom letter goes live. Effectively, we’ve done all we can and have as much traction as a fat kid on ice.

So onwards and upwards (we hope) as we dodge the “bundlers”, “key gifting” and “paid reviews” (oh yes they exist) and forge our own territory hopefully built on honesty, integrity and a game that is fun! The Please God Help Us blogs begin next week! Have a great day ya’ll!

There were certainly a ton of games to choose from for our “F” update today, yet in the end we’re going with Fallout. Obviously everyone is all creamy these days as Fallout 4 is on the horizon. The Fallout 4 Trailer, no doubt inspired by Don Draper himself, had some mixed reviews, yet in the end it’s all about game play. Some other games we considered for the update that have inspired us included Fable, Forsaken, Far Cry, and Final Fantasy. Yet in the end, we’re all “jiminy jillickers” with Fallout, boy.

We sent out a beta build of iLikeMoney to a number of people last week to some interesting reactions like “what am I suppose to do?” and “WTF, am I a moron?” Hence, our work this week…

• With feedback the game studio environment is currently being refined to be quicker into a challenge.
• Due to feedback a robust tutorial has been added helping players through early challenges.
• Additional aids include an interactive tips screen upon challenge fail and multiple explanatory signs in the background giving non-evasive direction (the Tularura sign is not an example of this hehe).
• Around 1000 lines of comical dialogue have been added. Inspired by pop culture, movies, music and other games. If you have any suggestions please let us know as we can always add more.