Author Archive
From the Cradle to the Grave
Ahhh, back at it again. It’s been a while since there’s been time to hit the blog, but with us wrapping up our first WP7 game, finally we can start to talk about things!
We are still waiting for our final release of “The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit” to get through the xblig review process. What a pain in the ass. Plain and simple. We’re hoping to release soon, and will have news forthcoming once we get through submissions. One of these days, you will get to actually see all the great efforts that came forward to bring a former Indie Game of the Week, to a Game of the Year! We extended this game far beyond its development time, with results that show throughout the game. Before revising the control scheme, we actually reached the final tier of entrants for the Indie Summer Uprising, but did not make the final cut. There’s so much to speak of thats new to the game, we’ll have to hold off until we are ready to release.
Besides all that XBLIG nonsense, we moved forward–by leaps and bounds. In the beginning of December, 2011, we decided it was time to get going, so we started development on our follow up game “Cradle to the Grave”, a sort of tower defense game. Having worked together for 2 years, Simon and I became the machine, and today we stand prepared to release the beta version of the game, just 2.5 months later. While THoM was a much larger game in some ways, our new agile method has turned us into a speeding bullet of development, cutting through all our shortcomings on our first game and allowing us to streamline production in unprecedented ways. Besides making a 50 level game with over 100 craftable items, numerous enemies and even cutscenes, Simon implemented a full backend that will allow us to connect users through social medias like twitter and facebook, as well as our own server to keep up-to-the-minute scoring and interactions. We’re doing it folks, and we’re doing it 100. We don’t know anyway different than to get better, and we can’t wait to unleash our next game, “Cradle to the Grave”, onto the WP7 and other platforms this spring, 2012. Very soon, we’ll be looking for beta testers and players alike, as well as releasing content.
We’ll be continuing to update and drop what content we can, and hope to hear from the community…we’re tired of sitting idly by and watching! We players in this game, and we want the ball!!! Thankfully, we are already seeing great results with “Cradle to the Grave”, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing quite a bit of feedback. MS has sent us phones, there’s some buzz going on, and we’re feeling alright. Being in that final phase of a game is truly painstaking, but shoot, pros execute in that last 5%–when they see the finish line, they start sprinting towards it. That’s where we are, and it’s what we’re doing. Now…where’s that pic I wanted to post…
From Sweden MS WP7 conference…with love
Alright, i’m officially pumped right now. Simon, our master developer and international genius went to the MS WP7 conference today, and got some amazing feedback on our current development. Without giving away too much (before he posts), I can easily say he was extremely effective. I guess being international can certainly have its advantages 
To say the least, we have MS themselves looking at our game–Kinect and Mobile–interested in what we’re doing.
Big, big UPS to Simon for going out and getting it. I couldnt help myself and had to give a precursor here. Pics and much, much more info to come soon. Oh yeah, The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit is in peer review, so if you are on it, please test for us so we can release for the Holiday 2011!
The Hearts of Men PC Release now LIVE!!! And 1/2 off Price!
Today, we’re excited to release our first game onto the PC with “The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit”, and in celebration we’re offering 1/2 off for the PC release. The game, which received 5 stars and XBox Indie Game of the Week during it’s alpha review, has been completely revamped, offering players all new strategies and game modes, including Story, Arcade, and Multiplayer modes.
We’re still waiting on approval from Xbox Live, but soon will also be on the marketplace. If you just can’t wait, it’s time to jump into this Holidays biggest indie title release for a portion of the price on PC. Just click the banner above to go directly to the purchase page!
PC The Hearts of Men Demo Coming
We’re doing some final adjustments but the game, on both Xbox 360 and PC is 100% complete! Done. Nailed it. I need a freaking week off!
To begin the game kickoff, we’re doing a few things, one is gonna be reaching as many people as we can. We’re also offering a bit of incentive for fans, gamers, game devs, and anybody else to follow us on twitter and Facebook. As it stands, our marketing and PR is pretty atrocious, but we want to correct this with our first official, final release of a game we’ve become quite proud of over the last few months.
With the pc demo coming THIS WEEK and going into XNA submissions, we’re going to do a promo where anybody that likes us on Facebook will get the demo early!
We’re also getting ready to announce our post mortem, and hoping this will take–we’re doing it LIVE!!! Yes, this is kind of new, but its the only way I’ve ever enjoyed a post mortem is with immediate feedback. We are planning on doing this through Google+ Hangouts, so we’ll be doing some tests to see what can actually be handled in such a format. Could turn out pretty cool.
And, we have other big announcement coming, but we’ll save those for later 
Once again tho…After 1.5 years developing this game, we’re DONE! Submitted to Steam and a few other notable Digital Distributors, now waiting on approvals. OH!! The game is going to be purchasable directly from our website too!!! Paypal, credit card…I’m even considering food stamps folks
Clean it up game industry
Finally Finalized–The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit
After over a year and some months, we are proud to announce that we are FINALLY done with The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit. Congratz to us for being able to officially be in final playtesting and debugging, I know we’re all ready to move onward and upward.
Some may recall we had already released The Hearts of Men on the Xbox Indie Games channel, and after some really great feedback we decided we couldn’t leave good enough alone. Since the original design of the game had called for some of these things (upgradable stats, advanced pathfinding AI, destructible spawn points, multiplayer), and Dream.Build.Play was lining up with our estimated timeline, we figured what the heck, why not!? Plus, every game we create is a statement about us, so we can’t do things in a half-assed manner, that’s just not who we are. After reading every review that was written about the game, most seemed to be asking for the same few things. A very exciting aspect of releasing this final version will be the new reviews, especially since we did a pretty solid job on the original release, including an Indie Game of the Week at Dealspwn, amongst other 4 and 5 star reviews!!
Now of course comes the hard part for us, which is marketing our product. I enjoy the idea of marketing something you can stand behind, but it’s such a full time hustle, you almost feel like you are begging people to give you the time of day, and then again trying to sell the game. We’re really hoping our latest strategy will help us along, which includes releasing to the PC and Steam, alongside Xbox Live Indie Games. This week we will be releasing a detailed preview and preparing to release the demo onto PC soon after. Our goal is looking to release the game as soon as possible, so we’re hoping to breeze through the submissions process this type with less issues than we’ve previously dealt with.
And for now, that’s all. I’m excited tho, we’re finally done, and that’s that. After what seems like a lifetime, we’re putting this game on the shelf. We pushed and pulled on this one…and we’re done!
Kickstart The Heart!
COLTRAN Studios is proud to launch their funding initiative through Kickstarter.com—Help Us Succeed!
Chicago, July 6th, 2011 – Come one, come all, and be part of a star being born. COLTRAN Studios is gearing up to launch their first game, “The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit”, in August of 2011. In just a month, gamers with a pc or Xbox 360 will be able to play through this amazing tale, playing with or against each other in a number of game modes. As the game nears completion and is set for launch, we need everybody we know to support our funding initiative, to ensure we can market the game properly, and continue our developments onto our next project. With the help of family and friends, and spreading the word, we can achieve our goals. We also have some great, one of a kind gifts for donators that fans and supporters will not want to miss out on.
Visit the Kickstarter page to view gifts and donate:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coltranstudios/the-hearts-of-men-the-dream-begins
“The Hearts of Men” will launch will a full set of features, game modes, and art to satisfy gamers of all ages. The game is a top down game, where players use a combination of attacks to defeat a horde of enemies, and defeat the castles bosses to succeed the evil overlord on the throne. Players can choose to play the story mode alone, or with 3 other players to help them along the way. There is also an arcade mode, that is also 4 player co-op and sees players pitted against a nonstop mass of enemies to gain the highest score and survive the longest. Another noteworthy addition that gamers will welcome is 8 player online multiplayer matches. Players can choose from classic gameplay modes such as Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, or try all new challenging modes like Onslaught, and the explosive Bomb Run.
The game has been in development for almost 1.5 years now, and over the course of time has evolved. After a great alpha release, and gathering of feedback, the game has been revamped to better suit todays gamer. The inclusion of weapon and health upgrades, a dash/teleportation move, and superb artificial intelligence which will keep players on the edge of their seats for hours. Also, the User Interface has seen a significant upgrade, allowing more flow into the user experience, while using the comic graphics for backgrounds. The sound effects and soundtrack have also been updated to lend a more energetic pacing to the game. And finally, the story has been completely included, with 30 pages of comic art to tell the story of the characters and the outcome of the journey.
Check out more The Hearts of Men developments:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/COLTRAN-Studios/245333015480385?sk=wall
Webpage: http://coltranstudios.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/COLTRAN
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc3xiFx-JBs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO3Jwjy34HU&feature=related
***We can do this but we need YOUR support!***
With the Kickstarter initiative, we’re looking for a small donation from anybody that can, and would be willing to help us. We’ve set the amounts low with great rewards for donations, including getting your name in the game, receiving art from the game, tshirts, and even a first series, one of a kind comic book, signed by the artist. If we reach our goal, we will be able to market this game and gain new equipment necessary for our continued development. We’re asking for 2 things, one is any donation, the lowest is $1. The second thing we need, is for you to spread the word and forward this announcement, Like us on Facebook, retweet us on Twitter, and in general, support our initiative!!! In return we’re giving everything we can, and you can even show your credits in the game to friends and family!
Jason Zielinski
COLTRAN Studios
jz@coltranstudios.com
Youtube + 360 = Indie Game Trailers?
Today, whilst enjoying the grayness and rain that is Chicago, I had a thought. Having recently submitted The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit, I have been looking through all the other (400) submissions, and watching the trailer–for all of them O~o Sounds daunting, but really it’s been fun, even the ummm, “sillier” entries have been entertaining. But, I said to myself, oooh, how I wish I could sit in front of the tv and watch all of these, no downloading, just seeing it streaming in big screen glory. Then, randomly, the youtube mention from E3 struck me, and that’s when I “saw” what could be coming.
It’s a small thing to some, but for indie devs, could continue to push the community more into the core gamers eyesights for the platform, and any and all help is greatly appreciated by all. Here’s to hoping at least
We’re gettin’ our Heart on again
Dream Build Play 2011 also has its heart on…The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit, that is We finished our DBP version, and submitted it about 1.5 hours before the deadline, which was quite thrilling really. We worked through the night cutting videos, sounds, new drawings, and screens to get things ready. Thankfully it all worked out in the end, so now it’s all about impressing the judges!
Besides Dream Build Play 2011, the Indie Summer Uprising is quickly approaching, and we’ll be submitting the title to that as well, trying to earn one of the 8 coveted spots for the event. Starting August 22nd (I believe is the tentative date), 2 indie games will be released per week. After a successful start with the Winter Uprising in December, the coordinators, Dave Voyles and Kris Steele, have stated they will continue to show the power of the platform and the great content coming to the Xbox Indie channel. It’s a great thing they have coordinated, and worth mentioning…alot! You can find more info at Armless Octopus, but once again I want to personally thank these folks, having seen the winter entries, I know they are going to keep bringing more and more quality to gamers attention.
Now, the fun begins! We’re going to polish the game, then polish it some more. We’re going to be playtesting alot of multiplayer, and then start some marketing and see how all these contests turn out. We’ll prep for release (dependant on Uprising results), and then finally–hopefully–get people talking about the game, and get some more 5 Star reviews!!! We liked that last time ;D
NEW ART! 3d fun
It’s good to have lots of art you forget about–and even better when you find it because you kept it Here, we have a nice little 3d model I was working on back in 2009 that I stumbled upon last night whilst making trees in 3d!! How I got from trees, to searching my “sort” folder is still a mystery, but a nice find regardless!
NOW…we must finish “The Hearts of Men” (yes, finish it, for we have great ideas on the way), so that we can jump right into our next game, which will be going back to 3d!
