Game Release: AQI Zoneout

We have a new Flash game out today called AQI Zoneout. Please take a moment and check it out:

Kongregate Version

NewGrounds Version

I posted it at a bunch of other sites... we'll see what kind of ratings and hits we can come up with. So far, Newgrounds has the most action. It is sitting right around 3.25 after around 700 plays. Kongregate has had only a couple hundred hits and 44 ratings. I think you need 100 ratings before it displays. So please go test the game and give it some love.

The project is an extension to the Knozone website. We worked in tandem with Squize from GamingYourWay as well as FatAtom and MilesDesign.

Miles played the role of Agency. FatAtom worked on the back-end for the high scores and challenge a friend. And then Squize did all the heavy lifting and developing. That leaves the Basement with the concept, art, dev direction, and then some final tweaks and menu updates once Squize handed off his hard work.

It was an interesting setup to say the least. I really did not want to go out of house on this one... I hate giving up games. But at the time we had 5 projects and 3 devs on my team (including myself). soooo yeah. Do the math.

Since I was overseeing multiple projects and even had one I was developing at the time, I was a little scared to use a new freelancer. By new, I mean new to me... new to the Basement. It can be hard to work out those initial kinks in communication, coding styles, schedules... etc. However, Squize has a vast amount of experience making games (far, far more than myself), which made the entire process very smooth. He took our game document and ran with it. I may have harassed him with book-long e-mails from time to time... but for the most part he just did his thing and delivered more than was asked of him.

Squize and I may not see eye to eye when it comes to Composition vs Inheritance (check comments), and you may not agree with his OOP practices, but you can't argue with the cleanness and readability of his code. Point being, that even though we have different styles, I was still able to jump right in and find what I needed. That right there is the one of the most important, if not THE most important thing when it comes to working in teams. Being able to look at someones code and figure it out without hassle is extremely important. Because of that, the development went smooth. The handoff went smooth. The only hiccup that I noticed was the menus and that was more of a scheduling/approval problem than anything else.

Anyways. I just got to rambling. Project was fun. Check out the game. If you are a gamer, give it long enough to unlock hazard mode (beat 4 levels on Normal). I think Hazard is where you will find the replay value. At least I hope...