Quantumsheep presents '.Matrixx' - a trippy avoid/collect 'em up! :D

quantumsheep · July 2011

Hi everyone, hope you're well!

My next game is an iPad exclusive! Welcome to .Matrixx! (pronounced 'dot matrix')

The game sees the player posing as a hacker, piloting an ‘avatar’ within the enemy mainframe, ‘Lothos’, trying to collect blue data spheres while avoiding the enemy red data spheres and picking up powerups!
The enemy data spheres are constantly changing direction, and are later joined by ‘Homer’ and ‘Stalker’ enemies – a challenge for most people!
The pressure increases as time goes on, and the game’s very very simple, but fiendishly addictive (helped no doubt by GameCenter leaderboards and unlocks for your avatar, backgrounds and music!).
Here's a video:

Here are some screenshots:

I wanted to prove you could take a template and make something good with it with a little effort!

(see here: )

I hope I succeeded!

So, .Matrixx uses a heavily modified version of tshirt's iDot template - so heavily modified that literally the only thing left in it is the powerup spawn times! (you got that spot on, tshirt! Nice one!).

So what's different?

*Complete graphical overhaul (in the Tron/Gravitrixx stylee)

*Three Unlockable player avatars

*Four Unlockable backgrounds

*Four Unlockable music tracks (which is awesome, as you'd come to expect!)

*10 Unlockable achievements

*Smartbomb powerup added

*Extra life powerup added

*Repel (blue or red) added

*Player has three lives now, indicated on the actual player itself - no more instant death!

*Two new enemies - a 'homer' (homes in) and a stalker (stays back then moves fast toward you)

*Blue spheres - collecting these is the object of the game - thus changing the whole game with one simple addition - it's more about collecting, as opposed to just avoiding!

*Random direction change - instead of just moving diagonally from the top right of the screen, the red spheres now shift direction every 12 seconds or so (with a nice visual/audio cue to warn you).

*Bonuses that add some strategy - if you get the freeze powerup, and get five blue spheres, you get a bonus - if you pickup the extra life powerup with full lives, bonus awarded again.

*Enemies speed up, but also slow down at certain points (see this thread: )

*No restart load times.

*GameCentre leaderboards

*Extensive use of particles

*X+Y wrap removed, own system put in

*No spawning of enemies in the middle of the screen (as it could kill you unfairly)

*Spawn everything just once at the start of the game (everything is recycled after that)

I'll add a video as soon as I make one!

Cheers for the support everyone!

QS

GamersRejoice · July 2011

Looks cool! Another game to add to my "When I get an iPad" list.

8BitAvrin · July 2011

Looks and sounds great. If I had an iPad I would get this for sure. Has a slight similarity to a game I've been working on, but very different. Good luck with sales and everything!

butterbean · July 2011

I had the pleasure of beta testing this game, and it is pure AWESOME! It's so incredibly addictive, QS you did a fantastic job with this game!

osucowboy18 · July 2011

Wow, well done QS! Take notes everyone, this is what your SUPPOSED to do when you purchase a template

- Alex
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jonmulcahy · July 2011

Looks awesome!!

Yodapollo · July 2011

Can't wait to play this one, QS! I'll be buying as soon as it's live!

--Yodapollo

old_kipper · July 2011

Looking fab as expected. Good luck with your awesomeness and may sales go well. Your link to the pacing thread is interesting to (might want to edit the bracket off the end of the links though).

kipper

entersimon · July 2011

I'm excited to try it out! Congratulations on completion, QS!

UtopianGames · July 2011

Looking great m8, I'm just curious why you got the template in the 1st place with your skills....

Darren.

Dizko · July 2011

UtopianGames said:
Looking great m8, I'm just curious why you got the template in the 1st place with your skills....

Darren.

He said because he wanted to prove a point.

DreamLab · July 2011

Dizko said:
He said because he wanted to prove a point.

Yup here is the thread. don't mean to take this off topic!

Wow QS you really made it look good! Will buy when it comes out!

Krogothic · July 2011

Nice Looks Great ! cant wait to get this one )

UtopianGames · July 2011

I thought i was going mad

wp QS!!!

Darren.

quantumsheep · July 2011

Thank you everyone for the kind words - always *always* means a lot

old_kipper said:
Looking fab as expected. Good luck with your awesomeness and may sales go well. Your link to the pacing thread is interesting to (might want to edit the bracket off the end of the links though).

kipper

Pacing is everything in this game (I hope)! I think there's a nice mix of panic and relaxation thanks to the powerups, as well as the frequency of the extra life powerup (1st at 10,000 - then every 20,000 points after that) and the slowing down of the obstacles at key points (to give you a breather and not incessantly pile on the pressure ad infinitum).

I'd certainly have a read of the thread I linked to - it's a shame more people didn't get involved in that!

UtopianGames said:
Looking great m8, I'm just curious why you got the template in the 1st place with your skills....

Darren.

Yep, as others have pointed out, it was to prove a point. The game took me three weeks to make, building on the foundation of the template by tshirt.

I played the hell out of the template, saw things I didn't like in it, and changed them. Then added a few things to make it really different to both the template and iDot itself (the changing direction of the spheres, the 'collecting' mechanic, the unlocks etc).

The point is, it took me three weeks to do. It would probably take other people a lot less time, and some a little longer.

But at the end of the day, I have a new game that can stand on its own two feet. I'm trying to 'lead by example'. Don't be lazy if you buy a template - make it worth someone's while to download it and play it.

Otherwise, it'll just be template makers that are the ones making money with templates!

Thanks all - will make a video soon so you can better get an idea of how it plays!

Cheers,

QS

osucowboy18 · July 2011

Looking forward to the demo video QS

- Alex
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POM · July 2011

I think the point has proven mate

Great work!
by the way , If you look at darren's tower builder template there are many users that submitted it as their own game with no changes , but if you look at "Loonimals" and "Super Stack Attack" and "Monkey up" (and some more i cant remember) all 3 was made from this template and they are 3 different awesome games .

Roy.

old_kipper · July 2011

YUP! Pacing. I missed that thread, and didn't 'get' pacing's true importance until I had a minor revelation that a mechanic could be elevated to something beyond by pace control. Almost stopped everything else I've been working on to pursue it.

cheers kipper

gamesmold · July 2011

Looks great QS!
Actually, I didn't even know that template (neither did I know the discussion on that dotmon thread, but had a good time reading it btw :-)

I tried to bring such a concept to the iPhone once; actually, that was one of the first experiments when I started to use GS. But then I realized that these games really need the big iPad screen (and as I didn't have that device back then, I just dropped it and went on to Puzzle Dozer...).

So best of luck with it! Looking forward to purchasing that game!

Cheers,
Thomas

quantumsheep · July 2011

I made a quick gameplay vid, as pics don't really do the game justice

Hope you like it!

gamesmold said:

I tried to bring such a concept to the iPhone once; actually, that was one of the first experiments when I started to use GS. But then I realized that these games really need the big iPad screen (and as I didn't have that device back then, I just dropped it and went on to Puzzle Dozer...).

So best of luck with it! Looking forward to purchasing that game!

Cheers,
Thomas

Thanks Thomas - I have to completely agree with you - playing this on an iphone just feels... wrong! Having more real estate screen wise on an iPad really makes a huge difference I think. And the 'feel' of gliding your finger over the iPad screen is just sublime

Cheers everyone!

QS

DreamLab · July 2011

WOW looks GREAT!

andrewm2211 · July 2011

The music is fly, where'd you get it?

quantumsheep · July 2011

andrewm2211 said:
The music is fly, where'd you get it?

I find the best musicians I can, then pay them

DreamLab said:
WOW looks GREAT!

Cheers! I'm glad you like it

QS

osucowboy18 · July 2011

WOW, nice video! Now that I see the game in action, it looks 10x better than the pics. Best of luck with it QS

- Alex
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butterbean · July 2011

I mean to ask you about the voice overs, they are too cool, reminds me a bit of wipeout, where did you get those?

quantumsheep · July 2011

butterbean said:
I mean to ask you about the voice overs, they are too cool, reminds me a bit of wipeout, where did you get those?

They remind me of Wipeout too! In fact, that's what I used as a reference when I asked the musician to make them for me!

/hi5

QS

creativeapps · July 2011

looks very professional. I like how you change the game play angel. left to right, top to bottom and vice versa

butterbean · July 2011

WOW, you have splendid taste in games, and music! I love the voice overs, and I forgot to mention to you that it reminded me of wipeout!

/hi5

Reminds me of the good ol' days of playing wipeout XL, one of my all time favorite racers, you have the best taste in games

lol

jonmulcahy · July 2011

Wow, you were right, the pictures do not do it justice.

Another home run!

quantumsheep · July 2011

jonmulcahy said:
Wow, you were right, the pictures do not do it justice.

Another home run!

Thanks dude, but then that becomes a problem - how do you get that across in just pics?

Not expecting this to sell well at all, despite it actually being as addictive as Air Supply. Reason being there are less iPads in the world, and it's hard to get across how the game plays in just pics (which is all you get in iTunes, obviously!)

But it's all good - I wanted to do it, as I mentioned, to prove a point!

We'll see I guess!

Cheers,

QS

quantumsheep · July 2011

Thanks tshirt!

The whole point is that templates aren't finished games - even those that claim to be!

Not by a long shot!

I actually learned a lot from your iDot template before I took it apart - so thank you!

I should also thank Joe (FMG) for his original Gravitrixx graphics that I re-used and changed up (there's a reason there's an extra 'x' at the end of .Matrixx) and the awesome Basil who stepped in and did some emergency graphics for me (backgrounds and avatars).

Also, my mate Jake who came up with some lovely ideas for the game!

Thanks guys!

I just got a preview from the nice bloke over at arcadelife.co.uk :

It's started...

QS

Quantumsheep presents &#039;.Matrixx&#039; - a trippy avoid/collect &#039;em up! :D

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Quantumsheep presents '.Matrixx' - a trippy avoid/collect 'em up! :D