The game did surprisingly well at Rezzed:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-09-rezzed-2012-eurogamers-game-of-the-show
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/18/rezzed-our-and-your-game-of-the-show/

This week it's available to play at QuakeCon. Hoping to have the finished version ready for release this month 

Can you give us some more info on the game.

The core gameplay sucks, which is the main reason we haven't been working on it. We have some perspective on it now and know how it could potentially be fixed.

Last time we worked on the game it was basically a huge mess of fetch quest after fetch quest over vast distances of randomly generated levels that were extremely monotonous to navigate. What is fun in the game is trying out the different weapons and leveling up, some of the enemies are moderately interesting and the boss fights are OK, the rest needs an overhaul.

Basically, the biggest mistake with the game was trying to put in lots of "cool" things instead of elements that made the game fun to play. Simulated behaviors that saw enemies interacting with each other was only cool for a few seconds, we should instead have tried to make enemies that provided unique challenges and that complimented each other in a good way. We should have also gone for a lot more pre-designed content level wise, and have the random elements more toned down instead of the messy garbled layouts we ended up with.

We'll look into the possibility of down-sizing the scope of the game and fixing the problems that we can see quite clearly now. There's a lot of usable content in there already so it shouldn't be a humongous project to do.

I guess kicking peoples head is already in so... what about grabbing the head and smashing it against the floor until there's only a pile of blood?  

Got that covered too actually

I've already said that I am a fan of the setting (I wanted to do a 90s miami game myself one day), I want to say that you have a big responsibility in not ruining the game with inappropriate music. I would be fucking pissed.

We're actually using chiptunes in the game, the music in the trailer is something different entirely... 

Yeah I'm just kidding. We actually have a great soundtrack to the game by various artists and I'm really excited about it. When it's 100% set in stone I'll talk more about that.

American History X's curb stomp

Don't tell anyone but I actually closed my eyes during that scene
Makes me wish there were curbs in my game...

Haven't seen Breaking Bad yet-

6. Footstomp in guts, dude vomits everywhere.

That's a good one!

Love the clash of styles in the visuals. Looks very unique and attractive

Thanks guys!

Let me know if you have any good ideas of how to kill unconscious people lying on the ground. It's a big part of the game

HOTLINE MIAMI

Me and my friend Dennis Wedin have been working on an ultra violent overhead shooter with a bit of stealth elements the last six months. Finally got around to announcing it. It looks like we'll have a killer soundtrack too, but I can't talk more about that right now.



Trailer here:




Not sure when it will be out, one or two months probably!
We also set up a garish website so that we're ready for future collaborations:
http://www.Dennaton.com/

But when does that experience become too deep and meaningful?

This is worded completely wrong in my opinion. An experience can never become too deep or meaningful. It's like saying that something can be too good (meaning that it's so good that it at some point starts being bad).

Where does artistic start to drift into forced and pretentious?

When the artist isn't delivering what he promises. I've played my share of terrible (pretentious) art games, and all of them have one thing in common, and that is that the people who make them have no idea what art is. They've seen other art games, but they haven't understood what makes them art games, so when they try to make their own art games they have no idea what they're doing.

I don't think I've ever said that any of my games are "art games", I just want to create games that feel different and make people who play them feel like they've played something that feels a bit new to them. I'm not sure I could make an art game because I'm not sure I completely understand the concept of art to begin with. The more I think about philosophical ideas and messages that I could express through games, the more I feel that I'm not wise enough. Making art games is not only hard to pull off but it can also mean big responsibilities as you have no idea how people will react to what you express to them.

Doing this!

At first I thought it looked pretty nice, but the physics looked a little odd. Then I saw the bots you could ride and things started looking pretty cool. And then the bosses showed up. This game looks badass

I guess this will be my GDC substitute 2012

I actually like that the explosions don't match the rest of the graphics. Keeps the game from looking too smooth, and gives it a slightly edgier feel.

Love the sound effects when the game glitches, the "normal" sfx is good, but not on the same level. Graphical effects are ace. Something bugs me slightly about the main character's design, might be the over-saturated colors or the super meat boy-shape.

Level design looks interesting, which is rare for platformers these days I think. Good job dude

I think the trailer you did for the indiegogo campaign is not doing its job very well. I stumbled upon your campaign when looking into crowd-funding options in europe, and after viewing the trailer I wasn't impressed so I didn't read the description you had written. I then saw the game posted on indiegames, and recognized your name so I took a look at the topic here. The game looks a lot more playable and fun in the videos where you can tell how the gameplay is actually paced.

The trailer makes it look like you run through pretty flat levels not really having to worry about enemies at all, just blowing everything to bits. The scrolling shooter segments look like a mess of randomly generated enemies and particle effects, you don't really see why these bits would be fun to play.

I think you should put up a video that shows a fully designed level, with the nice menu you already have and talk about what you want to do with the game while playing it. Then you can end or start with the trailer you already have as a fun opener/closer. From what I've seen of your previous games, level design has been the only weak aspect, so that might be something you should give an extra push?

I'd back this project if my creditcard hadn't expired which means I don't have access to my paypal account at the moment. If I can get that sorted soon enough I'll remember to slip you something though

Hope this gets made. Good luck!

I've had trouble recording fluid videos of my games since Game Maker is slow and my computer even slower. But I found a way to achieve some really nice output and I made this little example:
http://cactusquid.com/misc/vcap.zip

It uses a dll that can capture video from within GM so that you get a perfect playback rate no matter what resolution your game has. Speedwise it's not very fast, but the results are perfect aside from the player acting robotic due to how you play when the framerate is very low. There is also no sound support, so you'll have to edit that in or play some music over the video you record.

GMC topic where the dll was posted by its creator Frostblade:
http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=479697

The example is commented and the DLL is extremely easy to use as there are only four functions written for it. If you're new to coding this might not be the first thing you want to think about though. And make sure to extract all the files to the same folder before trying the example.

The experimental part in VVVVVV is the level design. The game utilizes the gravity flipping in a number of different ways and keep changing (or at least modifying) how you play as you progress. If the levels all contained the same kind of traps and mechanics as the first part or so, then the game should hardly be called experimental, but playing through the whole game anyone should be able to tell that Terry has experimented and explored tons of ideas to keep the main mechanic interesting through out the whole game.

If you for instance compare VVVVVV to Donkey Kong Country, you'll see that DKC resorted to introducing new player mechanics constantly to keep the game interesting. As far as I remember Terry kept the game interesting without ever really altering how you control your player character, which is a big accomplishment imo.

Added a cancer beam that makes the enemies swell up and pop like popcorn, after which they turn into fleshy bombs that explode.

Was asked to do a picture for a testicle themed website.

(click for full res version)

Working on some prints for a magazine.