Sombrero - OUT NOW!

Haven't posted in awhile about SOMBRERO because of interesting happenings, a few of which I can talk about now:

Thanks to blind luck at a poorly-attended game expo in New Jersey that took place during a hugely inconvenient storm that almost blew us off the road on more than one occasion while getting there, I had a chance to meet a publisher rep and after months of back & forth, SOMBRERO now has a publisher!

The official, important-sounding press release can be read here:

http://site.pixelmetal.com/for-immediate-release-etc/#more-813

One of the benefits of having a publisher is that they have quite a few more resources to take advantage of - so I'm also in the process of adding online multiplayer (with Photon, which will hopefully lead to cross-platform multiplayer with PC/console releases), which I just wouldn't have time to do without them taking over some stuff like QA/Playtesting and dealing with getting the game into all the various online stores.

Follow the Facebook page to keep up-to-date on various happenings like updates, new features, new characters (including some guest appearances from other indie games) and release dates:

https://www.facebook.com/PixelMetal/

Looks like a really cool and polished game! Congrats on getting a publisher

The development is still under Construct 2? any plans of switching? how is the performance on low end computers? Sorry to ask so many questions, is just that I'm considering switching back to Construct 2 for my next game and I'm curious of how the performance has improved over time.

Looks like a really cool and polished game! Congrats on getting a publisher

The development is still under Construct 2? any plans of switching? how is the performance on low end computers? Sorry to ask so many questions, is just that I'm considering switching back to Construct 2 for my next game and I'm curious of how the performance has improved over time.

Thanks! Yes, it's still in development under Construct 2, at least for the PC builds.

Performance on lower-end PCs isn't great, but I think you'll find that to be the case with most game engines. C2 definitely has its performance quirks that need to be worked around, but so does Unity, Game Maker, etc. If you're doing, say, a low-res pixel art game then C2 will be fine. As soon as you switch over to full HD, performance tends to drop on machines with less powerful GPUs (and GPU power is definitely the main bottleneck in C2 - don't even try high res on an embedded Intel GPU. That really should be looked into by Scirra).

Some of the performance issues can be solved with finding some way to switch the internal resolution (canvas) of the game, more than just a toggle for high quality fullscreen scaling, which sadly C2 does not allow by default (and it really, really should, and it's a huge inexplicable oversight that it doesn't), but that just means it needs to figured out by the developer until Ashley & company get around to implementing what should be a pretty standard feature.

Thanks! Yes, it's still in development under Construct 2, at least for the PC builds........

Thanks a lot for your reply, very helpful and useful it's great to hear experiences coming from a real developer with a complex project.

That's what I was afraid of... I also had performance issues in the past that's why I moved to another engine, but I was hoping things were better now.

People around here will tell you that C2 is perfect and if your game has performance issues is because of you and not because of the engine... and most of the times that might be correct, but from my experiences and now from yours, that's not always the case. Html5 is still very experimental in my opinion... and even more so, if you have to rely on third party exporters.

Too bad... I really love the engine, but I don't want to struggle in the future with performance issues AGAIN, so I'll have to look into better options.

Perhaps when Html5 rules the world, I might be able to switch back to Construct xD

Anyways, thanks again and I wish you best of luck and success!

droxon

I wouldn't count C2 out. All engines are going to have trouble at high resolutions on low end hardware. C2 just makes it more difficult because instead of having an easy way to control the resolution, it involves a lot more legwork on the part of the developer to deal with things like altering the HUD position/scale based on resolution. Having to do it manually feel very old-school and not at all user friendly. The reasons I've seen for the lack of this feature aren't very moving and it seems like it'd be better to add a way to more easily control the resolution instead of base resolution or scaling to the monitor's current resolution. It would be a pretty useful feature for both desktop and console games to help improve performance and allow games to be a bit more scalable more easily for people using C2 so they can reach a larger audience. I guess we need to keep asking Ashley for it .

digitalsoapbox Loving the work. What platforms will this be released on? Looks like you have it on Xbox now?

Hey all! The Sombrero Teaser trailer is now live!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8RxvFEm2t44

digitalsoapbox Loving the work. What platforms will this be released on? Looks like you have it on Xbox now?

Windows for sure, hopefully OSX (though Mac GPUs tend to suck outside of their very expensive computers), Linux. All through Steam. Working on XBox One support as well, and although Ashley has announced C2 has XB1 support, that's not ENTIRELY the case and there's still a lot of work to be done on Scirra's end to make it a viable engine for console platforms (friends lists, integration with XB1 storefront etc.). Fingers crossed it gets better support on XB1 than Wii U, though due to how C2 works on XB1 it's never going to have full access to the hardware because of some artificial limitations put in place by MS on shared app system access that are mostly related to memory limits.

And BIG props to both MadSpy for his work on adding reliable, functioning Steamworks support to C2 and Badmiracle for the full-on Photon multiplayer plugin that allows real cross-platform multiplayer.

Sombrero Teaser on IGN:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/07/19/so ... er-trailer

Dust off your brim, polish your spurs and get ready: Sombrero hits on October 27th!

Press release:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/282741/High_Noon_Approaches__Spaghetti_Western_Party_GameSombrero_Coming_October_27th.php

Teaser:

Animated:

The coming soon page for Sombrero is now LIVE on Steam!

Check it out here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/472690

Looks like a really polished project. Did you use the official multiplayer plugin from scirra? How is your experience having a publisher?

Good luck.

Looks like a really polished project. Did you use the official multiplayer plugin from scirra? How is your experience having a publisher?

Good luck.

Thanks!

I'm using Photon for the online multiplayer. It's much more straightforward to implement, is fully cross-platform with consoles (which the official plugin is not), and with worldwide regional servers, is a better fit for the kind of fast-paced online play Sombrero features.

Working with a publisher has worked out well. While I can't go into any real details because of contractual obligations, having someone who has worked with and can hire translators for additional language support, as well as has an internal QA team and can bring on external QA testers to help squash any bugs, is extremely helpful.

Best of luck!

Congrats on your game.

> Looks like a really polished project. Did you use the official multiplayer plugin from scirra? How is your experience having a publisher?

> Good luck.

>

Thanks!

I'm using Photon for the online multiplayer. It's much more straightforward to implement, is fully cross-platform with consoles (which the official plugin is not), and with worldwide regional servers, is a better fit for the kind of fast-paced online play Sombrero features.

Working with a publisher has worked out well. While I can't go into any real details because of contractual obligations, having someone who has worked with and can hire translators for additional language support, as well as has an internal QA team and can bring on external QA testers to help squash any bugs, is extremely helpful.

C2 games have support for consoles? As far as I know it's just for PC (Windows, Linux and Mac)