We’re happy to announce that we will be exhibiting Fist Puncher at this month’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) in sunny San Francisco. The exhibition hall will be open March 27-29 and Fist Puncher will be on display as part of the GDC Play exhibition in Kiosk 24. We’re also happy to announce that we were given an honorable mention in the GDC Best in Play competition. We’ll be giving out stickers and trading cards so stop by to grab some swag and knock in some pixelated teeth. With the Fist Puncher release on the horizon, this is THE best chance to play the most up-to-date version of our retro-styled, side-scrolling beat ’em up. We’ll see you there!
GameSpot continues its feature on 5 indie games to watch from the heart of San Francisco. Today Fist Puncher gets the spotlight. We stopped by and talked about the early development of Fist Puncher and some of the silly game projects we did as hobbyists when we were kids. Yes, there was a Max Headroom simulator. We did this all while bashing racists in the face. Check out the GameSpot interview below.
Be sure to check out the previous installments too. GameSpot featured A Virus Named TOM, Sub Rosa, and Super ComboMan earlier this week. The Bay area is poppin’.
As a followup to Fist Puncher being featured on The Greenlight, one half or Team2Bit, Matt Kain, did a short developer interview with Josh from Indie Statik talking about Fist Puncher, Kickstarter, tasing dudes on nude beaches, and bike churches. Check it out below and, in case you missed it, you can scroll down a little further to watch Fist Puncher on The Greenlight.
Don’t miss Fist Puncher on The Greenlight, a new YouTube show by internet superstars Jesse Cox (OMFGcata) and Josh Mattingly (IndieStatik) that features titles that they feel belong on Steam. Ever wanted to see someone’s reaction when they discover an 8-bit version of themselves hidden inside a game? Yeah? Then watch the video. Be sure to also roll over to the IndieStatik channel and watch their companion-piece review of Fist Puncher. We know. That’s a ton of Fist Punching to handle in one sitting. We have faith that you’re tough enough to handle it.
We’ve been holding this one back, but we made a special Fist Puncher Steam pitch video a few months ago and felt it was time to show it to the WORLD (note use of caps to suggest global influence). It was our attempt to show that we’re a couple of classy gents making classy games for classy boys and girls. Believe it or not, we made two versions of this trailer, but after a rigorous debate we decided one version was a bit too… risque? Basically we didn’t want to deal with the almost-certain deluge of hate mail that we would have gotten. Yup, I guess we’re not as controversial as we claim to be. Now excuse me while I go pet a kitten… I mean *punch* a kitten!
By now everyone knows about Ouya. Everyone. Maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. If, somehow, you’ve spent the last year camping, chasing butterflies, hanging at poetry jams, and doing other gross things, Ouya is a next gen console based on the Android OS that was crowd-funded last year through one of the most successful Kickstarters of all-time. Well, over the holidays the Ouya dev kits began shipping. We got ours and so far it looks to be an impressive little package. Two light-weight controllers and a sweet little console about the size of a coffee mug with everything oozing a pretty translucent aesthetic. The controllers look and feel like lightweight versions of the standard Xbox controller with the addition of a touchpad at the top. The system itself is small. Seriously small. We haven’t dug into the console too much (we have our hands full wrapping up Fist Puncher), but with our next project planned as a multi-console release, we’re looking forward to getting our hands dirty with the Ouya and seeing what it can do. For those that hate reading as much as we hate writing, here’s some pics.
It’s been a few weeks since we’ve dropped in with an update, but with 2012 winding down we figured it would be a good time to give a quick Fist Puncher status report. We’ve spent the larger part of the past couple of months tweaking character progression, adding some of the final levels and improving the overall level design (creating memorable boss fights has been an area we’ve been fighting with for months), adding story and cutscenes, optimizing load speeds (we spent most of Christmas week converting hundreds of images to sprite sheets – not the most fun way to spend the holidays), and integrating a few pieces of 3rd party art into Fist Puncher. With some of the remaining Kickstarter funds we were able to hire a cut scene animator, voice actors, and a box artist to really add some extra pop to Fist Puncher. We’re saving most of these as reveals in the final version, but in the meantime, take a look at the incredible Fist Puncher box art.
We’ve also spent a good chunk of time talking with publishers. Along with marketing, finding the ideal distribution path is one of the biggest hurdles that indie studios face. It’s been exhausting, but hopefully we’ll have a clearer picture of Fist Puncher’s release date and distribution platform in early 2013. In the meantime, we’re buckling down to plow through the final stages of development. Yes, personally I was hoping to be done by the end of the year, but obviously that’s not gonna happen. No fear, we’re on track for a Fist Puncher release in early 2013, and are confident that everyone that has waited so patiently will be pleased with the final result. Happy New Year everyone!
A FREE demo of Fist Puncher is now available for download on Desura. Play the first 4 levels, try out 12 of the 14 characters, and, just in time for Halloween, play a special horror survival mini-game. Get your pixel fists dirty as you begin your epic quest and attempt to save a gaggle of beautiful women from the jaws of near-certain death. Punch, kick, and tase your way through hordes of angry zombies, tweaked out nudists, fashionable luchadores, cow-throwing butchers, and more. Did we mention the demo is FREE? Just checking. Click here to get the free Fist Puncher demo on Desura.
Heads up! Fist Puncher and the Minibosses, everyone’s favorite NES-loving, headbanging metal band, will team up this weekend at a live show in Cupertino, California. Rock out to the Minibosses and then come play some Fist Puncher. What the hell else could make for a better weekend or a more romantic date? Also playing will the Hard Girls, Gnarboots, and The Blast!. Yes, it will be amazing. The whole thing is being put together by the good people at Grand Fanali Presents and will go down on October 20th (this Saturday) at Homestead Lanes in Cupertino. More details on location, pricing, and the rest can be found here. Stop by and enjoy some great tunes and great games!
2012 has been fucking insane. I consider myself an articulate fellow, but I can’t really think of any other way to put it more elegantly or succinctly. Where do I start? Earlier this year Jake and I appeared on this IGN reality show called The Next Game Boss. Our main goal was to make some new friends and use the show as a tool to promote Fist Puncher, our retro-styled, local co-op brawler for Xbox and PC. But, hell, somehow we actually won the show with a game about a dog wearing a wig, and suddenly we had a lot of buzz and press surrounding our tiny, 2-man studio set in the mountains of Santa Cruz. So we took Fist Puncher to GDC where we demoed with GameSpy and all of these other kickass indie games from IGN’s Indie Open House program (Overgrowth, A Virus Named TOM, Super Comboman, and like 50 games from uber-prolific Cryptic Sea). The same week, the final episode of The Next Game Boss aired. The ball was rolling. We decided to dive into the world of crowdfunding, set up a Kickstarter campaign, and see if we could springboard off of our Game Boss success and get some funding for our throwback brawler Fist Puncher.
So we spent the good part of a month making ridiculous videos, sending out press releases, and doing everything in our power to reach our funding goal. And I’ll be damned, we reached our funding goal. That was 5 months ago. Since then my life has been tossed around, turned inside out, and then, just for good measure, shaken and stirred. I’ll spare everyone the gory details and just summarize the highlights. I was planning to marry my partner later this year, but instead she walked out on me. Yeah, that sucked. In a fit of screw-you-world retaliation I pulled an Office Space and walked out on my job of almost 10 years (two can play that game). I moved out of my place (and in the process rented it to heroin addicts that had to be evicted). I won’t lie – at times I’ve felt totally underwater and completely lost this year. Everything I had 6 months ago is 100% gone: relationship, job, home. All I’ve had left to cling to was this whole I’m-now-an-indie-videogame-developer thing. And for much of this process it’s been the only thing keeping me afloat.
So what about that game Fist Puncher? We MADE that game. Yup, we spent the greater part of half a year building the game that fans from all over the world so generously backed (2 games actually – we also spent about a month polishing and completing Washington’s Wig). When you’re developing a game 7 days a week you start to lose the ability to see the big picture. Am I getting anything done? Are we making any progress? I’ve had a few days now to step back from the development process and survey the end result of our crowdfunded work (some of this self-imposed as I attended IndieCade, some of this externally imposed as I had to deal with the whole heroin addict thing from above). To be blunt, I’m pretty happy. The game is by no means done yet (that’s why we’re calling it an Alpha) – we plan on spending the rest of the year fixing glitches, adding some more levels, cleaning up some of the rough edges, balancing the player progression, and getting feedback from our Kickstarter backers about how we can improve Fist Puncher. Nonetheless, we now have a game that boasts 14 playable characters, over 40 levels (including many new level concepts like a timed subway gas attack and a sidescrolling bike chase), a full level up and perk system, 99 unlockable card achievements, fully revamped bosses (fear Psycho Hans), a new map and level organization system, completely redone sound design and controller vibration feedback, collectible items, game statistics, Kickstarter enemies and NPCs, new in-game signage, and tons more. We’ve played the hell out of the game, and we’re both confident that it’s a damn fun experience.
Moving forward, we also want to work on improving the distribution of Fist Puncher. Making a great game is only half the battle – without marketing and distribution, you’re dead in the water. For starters, we’ve put Fist Puncher up on Steam Greenlight. If you like Fist Puncher and would like to see it get a wide release on Steam, then give us an upvote. We will be working on other avenues for distribution in the upcoming months, so stay tuned.
Thanks again to everyone who helped us get this far. It’s been a crazy journey, and my life has been turned upside down this year. I’m not really sure what comes next, but at least I’ll always be able to say that my brother and I made the first fighting game with a nude beach level, the first fighting game where you can throw cows in a slaughterhouse battle, and the first fighting game where you can bring a gun or a Taser to a wrestling tournament to save an orphanage. Yup, something for my epithet.
Anyway, if you want to hear us ramble on for a bit or if you want to see our scruffy mugs one more time, check out the YouTube update video. And, again, THANK YOU! And to every person that sent us a positive message or gave us props at GDC, PAX or wherever, I’m telling you now from the bottom of my heart that it meant more to me than you can ever imagine.
