8 replies to this topic

[Drixxel]

My friends and I at Gigatross Games are very nearly about to release our first Xbox Live Indie Game, Grand Class Melee, a multiplayer battler with gameplay most easily described as Bomberman-meets-Zelda with an RPG job system twist. There's no shortage of content to explore - you're looking at a total of 60 different classes with abilities that rise in intensity as the game proceeds through its 8 rounds, music and randomly generated terrain that shifts with the four in-game seasons and a huge assortment of magic effects & character sprites.

It'll be retailing for $1 (or 80 of those zany Xbox dubloons) with an estimated release of mid-September. The free trial will include the first 3 rounds of the game to give a good taste of the Grand Class Melee experience. Single-console multiplayer is an area of modern gaming that needs more love and Gigatross Games would seriously dig it if you and your friends would give our game a try. Do us a kindness and take a look at a trailer from the late alpha build:

We'll have another trailer ready once the game is ready for launch. If you have any questions about Grand Class Melee or our company, please don't hesistate to ask! We'll be featuring a daily detail of a new character class every day on our (in development) website, www.gigatross.com, and any important updates will appear both there and in this thread.

Your interest is appreciated, AA. Thanks!

[moycon]

Looking good! Love the old school look and random battlefields.
One question, what is that character doing with a bow and arrow at a melee fight!!???

[Drixxel]

moycon, on Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:09 PM, said:

Looking good! Love the old school look and random battlefields.
One question, what is that character doing with a bow and arrow at a melee fight!!???

Thanks for checking out the trailer! If not for the fact that the game runs at a resolution that would make the 16-bit consoles cry out in terror at the mere consideration of, we're definately going for an old school flavour with the visuals. Haha, the presence of projectile weaponry is technically against the melee philosophy, but we're prepared to embellish on the ancient laws of combat for the sake of fun gameplay. Thanks again.

[Drixxel]

Development of Grand Class Melee has wrapped up and, as a result, we've whipped up another gameplay trailer!



Expect to see Grand Class Melee on the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace soon! As always, any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

[Drixxel]

Gaming website MP1st (http://mp1st.com) just posted an interview they were kind enough to conduct with us at Gigatross Games about Grand Class Melee and indie games development. It's the first part of a series where they'll be covering multiplayer indie gaming. Below are a couple choice snippers, but check out the full article here: http://mp1st.com/201...nd-class-melee/

MP1st: When the three of you teamed up to form Gigatross Games, did you set out to specifically create a multiplayer game?

Well, the concept of this game has a history. Being that the dev team grew up together, we played many, many games together. When we got bored of the ones we had, we invented new games and borrowed the best ideas from the ones we liked. The best players will be able to see many different influences from older games in Grand Class Melee. But at the very beginning, GCM was played with pool noodles in our backyard. Over the years it became this Frankenstein that somehow worked as an indie game. Naturally, it’s multiplayer because that was our situation growing up, playing games together. We believe games are at their best when they bring people together, especially into the same room.

MP1st: What were the most difficult aspects of developing a multiplayer title in this sort of context (indie team, downloadable, etc.)?

The ‘indie’ part was probably the most challenging aspect of it. Moments such as telling our friends and parents what we were doing; foregoing well-paying jobs just to have more time to work on this project might seem quite risky to many people, and it is. We know it can be difficult to chase a dream, but we’re prepared to fight for it.
Another obvious challenge for us was balancing the many classes in the game. You never really know how an idea will play until you implement it and test it for yourself. Almost every class in the game went through at least one redesign. But, this was still a fun process for us.

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Grand Class Melee is making its way through peer review and should be out on XBLIG in a few days. Thanks for your interest!

[mattkain]

Looking forward to it! How long did it take to develop?

MattKain

[Drixxel]

mattkain, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:12 PM, said:

Looking forward to it! How long did it take to develop?

MattKain

Is was about a year and a half from start to finish, although we weren't enjoying a sustained level of game makin' productivity. The first weighty chunk of development time was made up of whatever work we could hammer out together outside of pesky responsibilities on evenings and weekends. Work accelerated vastly in the final 3 months as myself (art duty) and our programmer decided to do psychological harm to ourselves.

Thanks for taking an interest! Fist Puncher looks awfully rad, by the way.

[Drixxel]

Grand Class Melee is out now on the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace! We'd love for you to give the trial a spin. Check out our Xbox game profile: http://marketplace.x...15-d802585509a7

All questions and comments are welcome!

[Drixxel]

We've introduced a new system for fans to provide class balancing feedback for Grand Class Melee! If anyone has any suggestions for how to improve the relative balance and/or fun of a class or classes, our website (gigatross.com) now features an easy-to-navigate class list with both a feedback submission form and a detailed synopsis available for each class.

We're getting serious on a full-blown sequel to Grand Class Melee that will include better everything, and more of it. PC & XBLIG versions, online play, double the classes, new gameplay modes, deeper combat, redrawn graphics, etc. -- our ideas are many and, with fan-driven class balancing, we're hoping to get more of them! Official details on GCM 2 will be emerging shortly, but for now, we'd love to hear your class balancing suggestions as they relate to GCM 1.

Your interest is appreciated, AA!