MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
What’s your game?
We are making Impulse Revolution, a frantic, physics-based racing game with an emphasis on local multiplayer. Players race pucks through a neon-cyber world using a simple, challenging control mechanic. It’s a bit like Asteroids mixed with air hockey, but with four-player multiplayer, weapons, mini-games and even more chaos.
There are four racing modes as well as six mini-games with free-for-all and team versions of each game mode. You can play single events or set up custom tournaments for party sessions. The game supports four players on one keyboard as well as controllers.
What has the Dare experience been like?
It’s been pretty gratifying and exciting so far. We’ve been developing our game since October last year and to now get through a competition like Dare is important for us and the game.
Being a part it involves us in a wider aspect of the games industry which is ultimately what we’re trying to do with this game. We’ve enjoyed working on it and want to be able to keep developing in the future and Dare is helping us do just that.
What have you learned from Dare?
We’ve learned a lot about our game, having had it objectively judged and from getting feedback from the judges. Going through that process was the first time we learnt about what impression people will get of our game without necessarily playing it or having already met us, so we’ve been able to make some changes to the game itself and how we promote it from now on.
We’ve also got to see what other students are producing and what the standard for a student game is. You can be in a bit of a bubble just seeing what people are making in your university and locally in Northern Ireland, but being in an international competition and being able to compare will be important for the game and (hopefully) our future careers.
Are you looking forward to ProtoPlay?
We’re certain we’ll enjoy it at the time but the stress of getting the game ready can kind of get in the way of excitement. Also, standing at a booth all day can get a little bit grim, and there’s four days of it at ProtoPlay!
Really though, that’s not the stuff we’ll remember when it’s over and we’re expecting it to be one of the best experiences we’ll have all year.
What are your ambitions after Dare?
We are planning to release Impulse Revolution on PC, Mac and Linux at the end of August / early September. We put the game through Steam Greenlight in June and should have the game almost finished in time for Dare. After that, we try our best to get the game out there and getting played and then return to our studies come the end of September.
We’d like to be able to take the game further by keeping up development and support and maybe sometime in the future release on consoles, but our degrees may get in the way of that for another year at least.
Follow Mandlebar on Twitter @mandlebar and Facebook to learn more about their game.
Dare ProtoPlay and Indie Fest is on 13th-16th August in Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square, with all 16 Dare student games on show, indie games, talks, workshops and more. http://www.dareprotoplay.com
Team members:
- Ewan Rice, Programming, Art, Design – Queen’s University Belfast
- Chris Craig, Programming, Design – Queen’s University Belfast
- Ryan Cochrane, Programming, Art, Design – Queen’s University Belfast
- Stewart Reaney , Programming, Design – Queen’s University Belfast
- Andrew McGurk, Music, Sound – Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education
- Amy McConkey , Art – De Monfort University
