main

EventsGame DesignNews

Indie Prize Asia 2018 Participants from North America, LATAM and Australia

November 12, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

N-America-LATAM-and-Australia-featured-image-960x540.jpg

Games from around the world will be shown at Indie Prize at Casual Connect Asia 2018. And there is plenty of variety in this group of games from North America, LATAM and Australia. When you play these games you may be the hero your town needs or the hero your kitchen needs. You could visit space as a Martian cockroach or visit distant planets as part of a game of dice. There are intense strategic games and relaxing golf games and even a cooperative battle game.

Game Title: Hamsterdam
Developer: Muse Games
Platform: iOS, Android, Desktop Win, Desktop Mac, Console Nintendo Switch, other consoles
Country: United States

Hamsterdam is an arcade brawler with you, the player, as the Hamster-fu Master trying to save the town. Will you be able to defeat Chinchilla Marlo, the whisker twister in chief? Will you be the hero the town needs?

This game was a finalist at 2017 Big Indie Award and a nominee at 2018 IMGA. In 2017 and 2018 it was a runner up at Big Indie Pitch for E3 and Reversed. In 2018 it was selected for the MIX showcase for E3, EVO and Pax West.

ContributionsEventsIndieNews

Meet the Competing Indie Developers from Australia and Indonesia

April 26, 2017 — by Yuliya Moshkaryova

australia-indonesia_banner-960x540.jpg

Eleven games from Indonesia and four from Australia will be showcased at the international Indie Prize showcase during Casual Connect Asia 2017 in Singapore on May 16-18th.

Game Title: Silver Grapple
Developer: Jamie Rollo Games
Platform: Desktop Win
Website: www.jamierollo.com
Country: Australia

Silver Grapple is a 2D platformer about swinging through the air with a grappling hook, exploring the ruins of a disaster struck laboratory and uncovering its secrets.

Silver Grapple was displayed at GCAP 2016 Student Showcase.

ContributionsDevelopment

A “Real” How-to for Unreal Engine

April 12, 2017 — by Industry Contributions

UnrealImage1-edit-960x540.jpg

By: Chris Murphy, Unreal Engine Evangelist and Director of Pub Games

Darkness surrounds you, black as night for what seems like light years away. You’ve seen 16 sunrises and sunsets in the past 24-hours. Suddenly, a lightning flash strikes through the quiet. Your head whips around, searching for more under the spotlight. The flash is reflecting off the shiny solar arrays of the space station, and back to the camera. The gravity (and the lack thereof) of the moment hits you: you’re in a 460-ton platform hurtling toward Earth at about 17,150 miles per hour, and you’re a long way from home….or are you?

Virtual Reality

To prepare and train their astronauts for the surreal experience of living on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA uses a perfect replica of ISS developed in Unreal Engine. The fabricated, three-dimensional environment incorporates many of the tasks and challenges that astronauts will face while in the $150-billion ISS, orbiting 240 miles above Earth. This training is critical to their success and ability to explore space.

USA 2015Video Coverage

Layton Hawkes and Balancing Logic and Chance to Create Compelling Puzzles | Casual Connect Video

December 31, 2015 — by Emily Baker

Layton-Hawkes-featured-image-960x640.jpg

lhawkesUsing examples from the development of Halfbrick’s Bears vs. Art, Layton Hawkes, former Game Designer for Halfbrick Studios, explored the tension between the logic driven and the chance-based, randomized elements in puzzle design. Halfbrick found these elements influenced a player’s perception of difficulty, critical decision-making, and their experience of frustration and achievement. Tune in to his talk from Casual Connect USA and find out how to create more compelling puzzles by balancing logic and chance effectively. One of the ways to do that that Layton described during his talk was in understanding some psychology. “Frustration and aggression increase in what (psychologists) call the attribution of blame. Simply, this is where the blame lies when someone is obstructed or prevented in their efforts to attain a goal.” He advices to find the frustration your users are having and reduce the unexpected failures they often encounter. To learn more, tune in below.

ContributionsPostmortem

Kash Karnival: Evolution from Concept to Outcome

December 17, 2015 — by Michael Moretti of Royal Wins

KashKarnival_1920-960x540.jpg
The thematic and artistic inspiration for Kash Karnival came from travelling circuses, theme parks, the Brazilian Carnival…

Founded in 2014 in Sydney, Australia, Royal Wins is a game studio pioneering skill wagering casino games on the web, desktop and mobile devices. The company’s mission is to radically change the way players experience online casinos. Kash Karnival, a skill and chance hybrid gaming hub, fuses the skill of social games with the wagering of online casinos — providing players with the potential to win much more … the better they are. Kash Karnival is available now on Facebook, Android and iOS.

Europe 2015Video Coverage

Andy Sum: Making Games People Want to Share | Casual Connect Video

June 19, 2015 — by Catherine Quinton

Hipster-whale-high-rez-960x744.jpg
'I had an itch nagging away at me to work on my ideas…I just had to try and build them.'–Andy SumClick To Tweet
Andy Sum
Andy Sum

At the Casual Connect Europe 2015 conference, Andy Sum and Matt Hall revealed their processes, influences and key decisions made during the three month development cycle of their hit game Crossy Road. “Our goal was not to make money; our goal was to make something popular,” says Andy Sum.

Asia 2015Video Coverage

Layton Hawkes: Balancing the Technical and the Artistic | Casual Connect Video

June 2, 2015 — by Catherine Quinton

BearsVsArtLogo-960x697.jpg
'No other medium can completely absorb me in an experience … the way a game can.' –Layton HawkesClick To Tweet

Layton Hawkes explained to his Casual Connect Asia 2015 audience how a new development approach helped Halfbrick double Bears vs. Art’s day seven metrics after a problematic start. “We developed a really core focus on retention,” he says. “And we learned a new approach that eventually led us to global launch.”

logo
SUPPORTED BY