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[picobots]

Hi, I'm an indie game developer, and I created a retro-style arcade game for iOS called "MS. PARTICLE-MAN." I thought some TIGForums members might be interested in it.

Here's a trailer video where you can see the game in action:
http://vimeo.com/picobots/ms-particle-man-official-trailer

And here's a link to the game in the iTunes App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ms.-particle-man/id500745010



Details:

The game has a 8-bit/retro look, and a soundtrack and sound effects to match. Everything about it recalls the classics of yore from the arcade, Atari, Commodore 64, and NES eras. I was influenced by a variety of games, including Pong, Breakout, Asteroids, Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pitfall!, and Super Mario Bros. And just like all of those great old games, Ms. Particle-Man is FUN and DIFFICULT!

The goal of the game is simple: Discover the Higgs boson. The player controls Ms. Particle-Man in his/her search for the Higgs across three different collider worlds. Each collider ends with a showdown against an elementary particle. The player collides with each boss particle to discover new worlds, abilities, and eventually possibly even the Higgs boson itself.

I originally created the game for an art/science variety show inspired by particle physics and the search for the elusive Higgs boson, and I built a one-of-a-kind custom tabletop arcade cabinet for my game. That cabinet will be on display at a variety of events so people can play the game in true classic arcade fashion. You can read all about at my website:

http://picobots.net/projects/11210599/ms-particle-man

If anybody runs a blog or site devoted to writing about indie games, I will happily provide promo codes for the iOS game if you're interested in writing about the game!

[HernanZh]

Oh man, I love the idea, haha.

[[RM8]]

I played the browser version, it's fun It'd be nice if it makes it to Android.

[BlueSweatshirt]

That was quite the enjoyable game. 

[picobots]

Thanks for the feedback! I would love to port Ms. Particle-Man to Android, and actually, given the tool set that I used to code the game (XNA + MonoTouch + ExEn), it wouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately, I don't have an Android device yet, so for now I'm just waiting to see if I can garner a modest amount of attention on iOS first. If I can get a few hundred people to download it, I'll definitely look into Android

[randomshade]

Tried the browser version and thought it was pretty cool so decided to grab it for iOS. Sadly, it's not compatible with my phone (3G) so I picked up the iPad version. I was curious how you were going to translate the controls to touch and think you did a nice job! I've used a similar control scheme (and was influenced by Mage Gauntlet) in a top down game I was working on.

Anyway, I really like the game  Clever, interesting, and challenging without being frustrating.

[picobots]

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback and kind words

[Udderdude]

I wanted to try this, unfortunately the browser version didn't work for me.  Silverlight appeared to load, but all I got was a black screen.

[picobots]

Thanks for the feedback! A few quick questions:

1. What browser and operating system are you using?
2. What country do you live in?
3. When did you try playing the game? Just a few hours ago? There was a game breaking bug for certain non-US users that I just discovered earlier today. I deployed a couple of new versions of the game, so it's possible you tried to load the game right as I was putting out a new version. (Or it's also possible you were affected by the bug.)

Would you mind trying again when you have a chance? Hopefully it's fixed now, but if not, I would love to work with you to solve the problem if you're willing!

[Udderdude]

Thanks for the feedback! A few quick questions:

1. What browser and operating system are you using?
2. What country do you live in?
3. When did you try playing the game? Just a few hours ago? There was a game breaking bug for certain non-US users that I just discovered earlier today. I deployed a couple of new versions of the game, so it's possible you tried to load the game right as I was putting out a new version. (Or it's also possible you were affected by the bug.)

Would you mind trying again when you have a chance? Hopefully it's fixed now, but if not, I would love to work with you to solve the problem if you're willing!

1. I tried it in Firefox 10.0.2 and Internet Explorer 9.  Both 32-bit versions.
2. Canada
3. It was just a few hours ago, I tried it again after clearing my browser cache, and it still gave me the black screen.

[toad]

Played the first three levels on the browser version and enjoyed it! Very nice! 

[picobots]

Thanks toad!

[JBHemlock]

I played the browser version for a while, it's pretty fun and I love anything inspired by particle physics just as a matter of course.

It was a bit dodgy when I finished, though. I'm using Mac Chrome, and something in the game/silverlight hung my browser for about 30 seconds when I was done.