Zombie Deathrace Feeding Frenzy was released in June 2019 after a major development push during the Spring. Unfortunately, there was precious little testing outside of my family and friends, so some things really didn’t get enough of a go-round to make me feel comfortable with investing any money in promotion. Timing was poor as well, as I soon went on vacation out of the country, and the distractions of Summer were well under way. I was however extremely happy with the game and it’s design, particularly the code work, but also because I felt it was a really original idea and concept.
The game felt good to me, but without promotion it was quickly buried on Steam and did not take off. I did however get at least a little feedback, and while it was negative(largely due to a major bug with the Oculus portion of the code and it’s movement), it did mention the potential of what a more polished version might be. That was encouraging, but I was so burned out I just didn’t have the energy or desire to deal with fixing anything. So I gave it a few months or so, and focused my attention to Alien Arena.
I had ideas to spruce it up a bit with some high bang for the buck type visual changes. I spent a couple of weeks working on it, and pushed out the updates to Steam. During this time, the game was seeing a resurgence thanks to that, and even more so by the community putting out map packs and promoting the game. I have to say that I am always very thankful for the guys that continue on with Alien Arena, even though personally I am to the point of moving on to other things.
Alien Arena has been a part of my life since 2003, at times all-consuming. There have been triumphant moments, such as strong popularity from 2007-2012, being featured in movies, great reviews, or just achieving new technologies in the engine. There also were low moments, such as dealing with negativity and watching the inevitable decline of the player base. One thing that will always remain with me are the friends I’ve made, met, and shared memories together all thanks to this game. At this point however, I just have very little to give to the game in terms of development, as I’ve felt for some time that it is a completed work. I have passed on the development torch to community members who have been loyally keeping things updated and going. My focus has been on Frenzy since 2018, and that will continue, but I am, and always have been, will be, very proud of Alien Arena, and the people that became involved in it’s development and community.
The main changes with Frenzy since my last update involved the characters. Hillbilly Willy got some friends – Razertooth Timmy, Jawbreaker Joe, and Bucktooth Bob. These goofy characters are a hoot to look at for sure! The game engine received a ton of updates, menu system, and Steam integration such as a Workshop, rewards, badges, and an in-game editor. It’s been so long since the last update that it is difficult to remember all of the changes, but of course the most important thing was adding VR support. I’m still in the middle of making the VR experience even more fully featured and intuitive, but on a functional level, it works really well.
Currently the first episode “The Ballad Of Hillbilly Willy” is available on Steam for a mere .99 cents. I will also be adding it to the Windows Store, and perhaps some other venues. Two more episodes are planned, and hopefully once I’m finished with the VR menu/HUD, I will start running some promotion to get a player base going. The online experience is really smooth. I continue to explore other pieces to this as well, such as a mobile version, in-game voice chat, and more awards, bonuses, etc. Typically I work on games in “surges” where I push out large amounts of updates during heavy periods of developments in between breaks.