SeeThrough Studios

We need a new normal

Jun

2013

Today Anita Sarkeesian put out a tweet noting that the XboxOne demo at E3 failed to feature any games with a female protagonist. A bunch of people on twitter sent horrible @replies which Anita documented because they ”exemplify the male privilege and male entitlement endemic in the gaming community today.” As someone who writes for games (including an upcoming title featuring a female protagonist) I feel slightly compelled to give my take on the situation (which to be honest is nothing new.)

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Changing particles: 21 improvements we’ve made to Particulars

by Paul

Jun

2013

Particulars has undergone a lot of change lately. If you’ve already bought the alpha, you should receive an email informing you of the new version. If not, you can grab it here. Some of the changes are obvious, others less so. Today, I’m going to go through everything that we’ve done since the last alpha release and explain why we did it!

(tl;dr – Prettier, better, sounds exist, comics exist, MUCH prettier! Get the new version/join the alpha here)

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Ensuring your project has depth: the Triple Threat test

by Paul

May

2013

Last weekend I saw Iron Man 3, and was oddly disappointed. The movie was fun despite a few flaws, and was really quite entertaining. It took me a couple of days, but I think I’ve figured out why I was underwhelmed by it: because I’m (some might say finally) getting sick of media that’s satisfied with just being entertaining.

The problem is that in the last few years, we’ve had an influx of movies that were incredibly good at just being entertaining (Transformers, Star Trek* and pretty much any Marvel movie comes to mind). The quality bar was raised, and that, for a while, was enough. It’s fine to have movies like that every so often (I still really enjoy them), but now that there’s so many of them, it’s starting to grow stale.

*This article by Rohan Harris describes a similar problem from a very different angle in regards to Star Trek in particular. It’s well worth a read.

Unfortunately, the same trends are true of games. In some ways, our industry is more problematic than film. The mobile sector is completely obsessed with the idea of simply capturing attention for the sake of doing so, and there’s an insidious and pervasive notion amongst developers that if your first goal isn’t ‘fun’ (whatever the hell that means), then you’re automatically a bad developer and your game is going to suck. What results is shallow games, whose existence is fine, but whose sheer numbers are really quite demoralising.

So today I’m going to talk a bit about ambition and depth: specifically, a quick test I’ll make for any project to make sure that it’s going to be interesting.
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7 things that have to work together in a game story

by Paul

Apr

2013

I’m sitting in the SeeThrough Studios office after a rather odd week. I’ve spent a rather large part of last week working on the story of Particulars, both in terms of its plotting and its execution. As a result, the actual design of the game hasn’t moved as far as I’d like (read: sorry alpha testers, no new build for you this week!).

I think that this week, more than ever, has taught me that getting your narrative right is about getting a tonne of things to line up properly. Most of what I worked on was getting a document which outlined what each episode and chapter contained, how it would move the story forward and how it all lined up.

It’s also taught me that house hunting in Sydney is painful, but that’s another story.

So out of this week, I’ve gotten a list of 7 different things that need to “fit together” in a game story. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list – I’d love to hear any extra things you might have to add.

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Why Soft Launches are the Best

by Paul

Apr

2013

As you might be able to tell by the adverts plastered all over the site, the Particulars alpha had it’s soft-launch yesterday (PS. you should totally buy it!). You might not know that we had a softer launch on Monday. Or why we had a soft-launch at all.

After this experience, I’m pretty convinced that soft-launches are the best thing ever.

Why, you might ask? Find out below in a 4-act morality play*.

*replace ‘morality’ with ‘practicality’ and ‘play’ with ‘blog post’. Yep, that’s probably more accurate.

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Adventures in marketing: How not to market a game

by Chloe

Mar

2013

I first became involved with SeeThrough Studios before it existed. I was originally asked by Paul to help with game writing for Particulars (which will have an alpha release available soon! Finally! We mean it this time!) but then life and mostly a thesis got in the way.

I rejoined SeeThrough at the beginning of this year to work as a game writer and somehow* wound up as Social Media and Marketing Coordinator**. While I have worked in marketing and client-side relations before, I had never actually marketed a video game, and just to add more pressure into the mix, the Unstoppabot launch was less than two weeks away!

So check below the cut for a 17 step process on how not to market a game during your first two weeks in a job.

Disclaimer: My marketing was not as poorly thought out as this

*I noticed our online presence was lacking and offered to help. Things kind of snowballed from there.

**I may or may not have given myself a fancy title, fancy titles are the best.

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The 15 Steps of (Particulars) Pre-production

by Paul

Mar

2013

I think it’s fair to say that Particulars has had a particularly long development history: the project started in mid 2011, was put on hiatus while funding was found, continued hiatus while other projects completed and is finally rearing its physics-soaked head again in 2013.

I think it’s also fair to say that I’m both a little addicted and a little over that particular pun.

So I’m pretty excited to say that this game is almost out of Pre-Production and will be, as of next Monday, in Production.

So what does that mean? Click below for a quick run-down of what we call Pre-Production means and some sneak-peeks on what we’ve made so far.

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Launching the Bot 2

by Paul

Mar

2013

Launching a game is tiring. Launching a game where the launch doesn’t really work is exhausting, especially when those who actually play the game seem to really like it.

I’m currently at my desk with a pile of work to do on Particulars (you’ll hear more about that next week!), but i’m constantly checking Facebook and Twitter for new mentions, checking our analytics for new plays, and googling ‘unstoppabot’ for new press. I keep getting that feeling that ‘I can do more’, but I know that in the end, certain things (like some of the press) will simply take a few days to take hold. Right now, I’ve gotta go design the UI for our next project, but instead I feel the need to write about this moment. Because once Unstoppabot starts doing better (and I’m fairly confident that it will), I’ll likely forget what I’m feeling now. And if we go through this on another game, I would like to remember that this is just a part of the process.

We’ll be doing a post-mortem on Unstoppabot in the next few weeks, and you’ll be sure to hear more about the launch, what went wrong, and what you should look out for if you’re launching your own game. I’m also going to write something about the procedures we’re putting in place to ensure that the development of Particulars is a much smoother ride than this bot that just won’t stop… unless it does and then you launch it (or something).

I’d like to take the time to thank everyone who’s shared the game so far: we had 127 download of the game and over 20 reviews in the first day, which was pretty damned awesome considering that the vast majority of the downloads were from social networks (we didn’t show up as ‘new’ for anyone, but more on that later…). If you haven’t played the game yet, please do! If you haven’t rated/reviewed it, please do that as well – it’s one of the most important things for the game at the moment, and our best hope for getting it to break through.

In saying all this, I don’t want to give the impression that this game has failed. We’re a little down, but definitely not out, and we’ve got some plans that could really turn this ‘never stop unicycle’ around.

Unstoppabot Launched on iOS — World Mostly OK.

by Nick

Mar

2013

Unstoppabot is the unholy hybrid of an infinite runner and a brain-tickling puzzle game.

Out today on iOS, Unstoppabot will make you giggle between sessions of frustration and delight as you maneuver the ludicrously misnamed and fragile Unstoppabot through a gritty post-apocalyptic environment that you can mostly ignore, because holy balls ROBOTS.

An intriguing blend of physics-based logic puzzles like The Incredible Machine, and fast, twitchy infinite runners, Unstoppabot provides an entirely new experience to mobile gaming by making you feel both dumb and slow while you’re on the bus or pooping.

“I like it,” says Game Designer Nick Kolan, who also wrote this thing, “and I have absolutely no reason to be biased.”

“I found other mobile games to be lacking in both the robot and infinite-running-puzzle-game department, and I also felt we should stick it to famously quotable people. So we slapped some quotes haphazardly in there and made fun of them. I am confident you will agree that Zig Ziglar had it coming.”

Unstoppabot features:
-An adorable, hand-drawn art-style
-14 chapters of increasing difficulty
-More than 70 puzzles
-An endless “Infinite Mode”
-ROBOTS!
-Famous quotations and dumb jokes mere moments apart
-Game Center integration
-More modes, bonus stages and unlockables to come very soon

Take a gander at the Unstoppabot trailer on YouTube!

Unstoppabot is available right now on iOS for the low, low price of nothing. For comparison, buying a house is infinity-percent more expensive, requires you to fill out forms, and will feature little to no robot activity. You decide.

For screens, please head to www.seethroughstudios.com/press

SeeThrough Studios is an independent studio based in Sydney, Australia. Last year SeeThrough released the prize-winning Flatland: Fallen Angle, a game about the dangers of being a triangle.

For questions or interview opportunities, please contact press@seethroughstudios.com.

Deja Vu – Flatland: Fallen Angle is now on Desura

by Nick

Dec

2012

Flatland_Desura SeeThrough Studios has finally released Flatland: Fallen Angle! Again! Our officially award-winning game about a vengeful triangle is now for sale on Desura and our website for the low, low price of $2.99, with several improved levels and features, but the same moody narration and shape-slicing goodness!

“But it was free before!”

Yes, but this version is better. Also, we want to make more and better games, and to do that we need money. If you haven’t played Flatland before, try out the free demo. If you have played it, we’d love it if you could head over to the Desura page and rate the game.

“I already paid for the last version because I am a great human being and everyone loves me and my life was vastly improved because of my kind gesture towards SeeThrough Studios!”

Well, wonderful Sir or Madam, please be patient. We’ll get you a Desura code very soon. You deserve it for being the best.

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