Abduction Action! Dream Build Play Entry Complete
Last night (way later than I should have been up), I submitted the latest version of Abduction Action! to Microsoft's (semi?) annual Dream Build Play contest. This was not the full release version but it would have to be close enough since the deadline for game submission is today (March 3) and I wouldn't have any more significant time to improve what remains to be done. In fact, I shied away from even attempting a few of the remaining areas of need (global high scores and better in-beam Earthling animations) largely because I didn't want half-complete, possibly buggy features in the DBP build of the game.
Last summer when I entered Nasty into the competition, I fully expected I could win (or at least place very high). I go into this contest with much the same mentality for Abduction Action! but with also knowing I have a better, more polished, and hopefully more fun product. The surprise nature of the March DBP contest (normally they are during summer only) and the addition of an Old Spice Challenge (make an Old Spice related game) have no doubt thinned the crop of games making my chances all the better.
The importance of placing in this contest is huge and could ensure a successful release of Abduction Action!. Contest winners get a coveted spot on the "Contest Finalists" group on the Xbox Dashboard that all but guarantees many more downloads than the standard Xbox Live Indie Game. Nasty is currently doing well in terms of sales percentages but failing because of low downloads... this is a trap I must avoid with Abduction Action! if it is to become successful.
There is not a lot of remaining work left for Abduction Action!. Now that it has been submitted to DBP, I will begin working through the remote high scores and polishing more in-game artwork. I also need to look at more gameplay balancing issues. The army soldiers on the final level for instance shoot way too much, making it extremely difficult to pickup anything on the ground and amounts to huge levels of frustration. You want a game to be challenging but not frustrating and I think at times Abduction Action! can be too much of the later.
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