Topic: Gravitronix back on for October 12th and Q&A session

Jesse Lowther from Medaverse Studios here, and I'm pleased to announce that Gravitronix is back on track for launch on October 12th in North America for 500 Wii Points!

While I'm here, I figured I'd answer any questions anyone may have about Gravitronix or Medaverse. If there's anything you'd like to know, ask away.

We're still not 100% certain what the next project will be, but our programmers are currently busy laying the groundwork for it.

We basically went into Gravitronix without a programming planning phase like this and that resulted in a lot of extra development time. This time around, we'll hopefully avoid that.

We have a lot of ideas floating around but we're holding off on the "next game" meeting until the programmers reach a point where they need to know what kind of game we'll be developing before they can lay any more groundwork.

Is there a single player mode to Gravitronix or is mostly focused on mutli-player? Also are there any possibility for your company to do some DSi software in the future? That service is still young and could use some fresh new titles

Thanks, I appreciate it.

There's a 21 level campaign mode for 1-2 players that starts out teaching you the basics and ramps up to the point where the last level is incredibly hard. It's fun alone but a lot more fun if you play through with a second player, and due to Grav's easy learning curve, you can play it with just about anyone, regardless of skill level.

I will say that you'll get a lot more mileage out of it with friends in the versus mode, though.

As for DSiWare, I'd like to at some point soon but I'm not sure when it would be. We still have plenty of ideas to develop on the Wii first.

Hi J.Lowther. It's good to hear you concentrating on Wii first (since I don't own a DSi)

My questions are:

1. When is Gravitronix coming out in EU?
2. Can progress in single mode be saved?
3. What multiplayer options and modes are there?
4. How much music is in there? "Gravitronix" sounds so futuristic. I hope theres some good trippy electronica in there.

1. As soon as we can afford the fees from the multiple rating boards in Europe and the costs for translating the additional European languages. HOPEFULLY that will be as soon as the game has launched, we've done a fair bit of marketing and I'm able to refocus my energies on tracking down a good translation company. We don't want to leave Europe hanging here, we truly don't, but there are 4 rating boards for European release (counting Australia and New Zealand, who we also don't want to leave hanging) and all of them have fees for processing our game. In the future, when we have the funding to go through all boards at once, we'll do everything we can to get the game out to North America and Europe simultaneously or darn close.

I don't know if it will help, but all vital in-game text is available in English, French and Spanish.

2. There's actually no save data for Gravitronix. After the 10th level, you're given a simple button code to punch in at the options screen (easily memorized) that gives you access to a level select and all of the additional game options. We did it this way because A) we began developing the game with the mindset that Wii owners were strapped for space as it was and every block counts (this was before Wiis had SD card support) and B) this way, you can go to the home of a friend/family member and immediate get access to everything without trying to move an immovable save game.

3. There are 6 special versus modes and over 40 options.

Versus modes:
Casual Mode: All projectiles move quite slowly. A good mode for introducing new players to the game.
Hardcore Mode (yeah, we went there ): Projectiles speed up at a faster rate and have a higher max speed multiplier. Skilled groups of players will probably use this as their default game mode after they get good at the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxFL4FCWMMI
The Flood: 25 projectiles spawn in the arena but your shield pieces will take 20 hits each. It's a battle of attrition as you try to outlast the other territories.
Sudden death: No shield pieces, four shards with a full ring of speed marks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsuT7lhPKwE
Volleyball: A single charged sphere and players can only use their push/repel beams. This one will remind folks of "Pong", no doubt.
Hot Potatoes: Three charged spheres spawn in the arena and players all have a constantly firing push beam. No button presses necessary: just use the push beam to sweep the spheres into the territories of your opponents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDiQGrW1oHA

Sound Options
Music Volume
SFX Volume
Toggle Character Voices On or Off

The Game Options (most of these are on/off, unless specified otherwise. Sorry if some of these seem arcane, but they all serve different functions within the game.)
Cube Game: Play with all cubes.
Sphere Game: Play with all spheres.
Shard Game: Play with all shards.
Pyramid Game: Play with all pyramids.
Max projectiles: the maximum number of projectiles that will appear in the arena (up to 30).
Charge Speed: how fast players can charge projectiles with explosive energy.
Elasticity: the elasticity of projectile collisions.
Starting Marks: the number of speed marks projectiles spawn with (more marks = faster).
Start Charged: Projectiles spawn charged with explosive energy.
Spawn timer: the shortest time between projectile spawns.
Invinci-Shields: all shields are indestructible and the game won't end until you pause and quit. Great to experiment with the physics or introducing new players.
Strong shields: Only explosions damage shields.
Shield Life: the number of hits shield pieces take before being destroyed.
Explosion Damage: how much damage explosions deal to shield pieces.
Pop on Shields: Projectiles are destroyed when they hit a shield piece.
Risky Charging: Projectiles will detonate if hit mid-charge by another projectile.
Volatile Charge: Charged projectiles will explode when they hit non-charged projectiles.
Explosion Push Power: the force with which explosions push projectiles.
Explosions Push: Explosions push other projectiles.
Capture Zaps Charge: Capturing a charged projectile canceling the charge.
Charged vs. Charged: Charged projectiles explode on contact with other charged projectiles.
Charged vs. Shields: Charged projectiles explode on contact with shield pieces.
Explosions Kill Projectiles: Explosions destroy projectiles caught in the blast.
Cube Explosion Radius: the explosion radius of the cube.
Sphere Explosion Radius: the explosion radius of the sphere.
Pyramid Explosion Radius: the explosion radius of the pyramid.
Shard Explosion Radius: the explosion radius of the shard.
Marks Lost: The number of speed marks a projectile loses when it hits a shield piece (can be set to zero).
Mark 1 Multiplier: The speed multiplier of the first speed mark (max of 10X speed for all multipliers).
Mark 2 Multiplier: The speed multiplier of the second speed mark.
Mark 3 Multiplier: The speed multiplier of the third speed mark.
Pull Beam: enables the pull beam to be usable by players.
Repel Adds Marks: Successful repel beam hits add speed marks to the projectiles.
Strong Capture: after X seconds, a captured projectile will be broken from capture when hit by another projectile.
Push Force: the strength of the push beam.
Push Always On: Toggles the push beam being always on for all players.
Revenge Mode: if on, players remain in their territories after defeat and can use their push/repel beams until the next round.
COM Skill: adjusts the skill of the computer players in the game.

4. You can cycle between 5 songs in game by pressing the + button, all of which have a different mood to them. I don't know if you'd consider any of them electronica, but here they are (including the menu theme):

Hope that answers your questions.

Edit: for clarity and weird grammar, added video links for the game modes.

Hi, I was wondering if yall have included an online mode, and if you didint did you ever want to

Sadly, no.

We actually started developing it with the idea of online support, but as development moved on, it was clear that we wouldn't be able to include it. We would've literally run out of funding before we'd be able to get it into the game and working. Doing online play properly requires tons of additional testing.

We do plan to support online play in future titles where it's appropriate, though.

Oh, it should be noted as well for those wondering about options (Hi, I'm Alex, the guy that came in a bit late in the game =) ) that some of the more "cheat-y" options are enabled through a cheat code that you learn after playing the "tutorial" levels of the campaign.... of course, the code itself will probably become common knowledge to players pretty quickly, and any of us will probably disclose it readily if you don't feel like playing through the first 10 levels of the game to get at the more advanced options. =)

Also, the music was one of the things that got finished fairly early on, relatively speaking (by our awesome sound guy Brian!), and we all really liked how it turned out... and I think you guys will too! We have some funny stories about the strange things that happened to said music due to data format issues that I think are entertaining, but perhaps that's best left to a humorous postmortem discussion/thread. =)

Whoa! It's Big Al! How'd you find me?!

You missed where I said, "There's actually no save data for Gravitronix. After the 10th level, you're given a simple button code to punch in at the options screen (easily memorized) that gives you access to a level select and all of the additional game options. We did it this way because A) we began developing the game with the mindset that Wii owners were strapped for space as it was and every block counts (this was before Wiis had SD card support) and B) this way, you can go to the home of a friend/family member and immediate get access to everything without trying to move an immovable save game."

But yeah, long story short, you can mess with just about everything in the game.

lol! When I got your message I started cruising around the web and found this thread =) Ah, I totally did miss that part of your post! Aye! =)

No worries. That was a "WALL-O-TEXT" if there ever was one.

Wow, great to see it has such customization and multiple modes for multiplayer play.

1. Well, English is enough for that kind of game, but I bet people here are willing to help you translate the game to German, Dutch and Italian for FREE. I could translate it for you in German. I mean, Gravitronix doesn't seem very text heavy apart from the tons of options.
And good to know about all this rating board stuff here in Europe (and Australia/NZ). Most people aren't aware of all these localization hurdles game developers have to cope with.

2. Using passwords or even just a code for this kind of game is a fitting option but... (a)

3. Well, that's a freakin lot of customization options you put into Gravitronix. I love experimenting with all those modes until I find my favourites. Should make everyone pleased. (a) But since you can't save, it always goes back to default, huh? We'll see if this is going to be a problem or not. I mean, 500 points for all this content should be fair enough. Personally I think it's more comfortable and convenient to have a save option.

4. Yeah! Giving away the soundtrack for free. And it's is cool too! Reminds me a little of those great C64/Amiga SID-tunes! It's definately electronica! And so far I like "Menu" and "Anger" the best! Menu has a tropical feel and Anger sounds a bit like GoldenEye

1. There's actually a wordy storyline that you get between levels so there's more text hiding in there than you might think.

2&3. True, it does return to defaults, but we did at least fine-tune the game as much as possible to ensure that the standard configuration was the optimal game setup. I personally prefer the hardcore mode because of how dangerous it makes the shards.

4. We found a great composer who was not only good with midi but was willing to wait on payment until after the game shipped. I look forward to working with him for our future games as well. Here's his site if anyone is curious or needs to hire a talented composer: http://www.brianhkim.com/

And if it helps, the defaults don't turn off between actual matches: only if you leave the whole game (Gravitronix itself) and re-open it does it go back to defaults. So if you're playing a long session with friends, you don't have to worry about setting it up every time: just the first time after you open up the game to play.

Bah, I should be in bed... I'm having a bit of insomnia tonight. Apparently even not working late, I find some way to stay up that late anyways. =)

Can you use Mii faces instead of those other ones?

Does the game keep track of any sort of records (or achievements) perhaps for bragging rights?

No. We dabbled with the idea but ultimately decided against it. Not only would it have taken more development time but the characters in the game look unique in peripheral vision whereas not all Miis would. When you're on a team, it's important that you can tell your character in your peripheral vision so as to not lose track of yourself.

Again, something we wanted but didn't include for time reasons.

If you can beat the last level, though, that denotes bragging rights all on its own.

So it doesn't keep a high score on it? As soon as you leave it's gone?