Two days of GO3 down, one to go. It’s been an interesting ride.

I’ve never worked a booth at an expo before. I’d recommend the experience, it’s really good fun, if you are presenting your own creation. I’ve had a build of Star Hammer on show, and people interested enough to walk up to the stand can have a go at it. If I had a dollar for each time somebody had mentioned the arcade classic Asteroids, well, I could afford lunch at Convention centre prices. Being a top-down space-based shooter, I can see the similarity to the casual observer – the fact that their are no asteroids in any of the demo content notwithstanding.

From watching people play, chatting about the game, I’ve got a lot of good information on how to take the game forward from here. I was always planning on adding a weapon upgrade system, but now, it’s not just a TODO list item – it’s a vital feature I must implement soon! A while back, I posted about mixing RPG elements into a shooter. I’m thinking now that the weapon upgrade system will use some of the ideas I had in that area. I think being able to start with a base weapon and tweak aspects of it (like say, damage inflicted vs energy draw) should make the gameplay quite customisable, in an interesting way.

GO3 Booth

What’s also been really gratifying is the positive reaction when people find out it’s a locally developed game. I know that it’s not important where games are developed, because it’s a global industry/cultural form of expression. Still, it’s nice when people say encouraging things, rather than indifference or negativity.