I did not update this blog in years. Many projects were almost done, many of those were abandon. Many learnings, a lot of fun and fustration.
However, not that long ago I launched Arena Arcade Fest in Steam (Arena Aracade Fest in Steam). It contains 30 mini games to play as a party mode (1-4 local or CPU players) that are based on classic games. The game also contains custom game so you can customize the experiences of the games.
The post below is the "Why this game?" post I have posted on Steam before the release of the game. If you decide to try, I hope you have as much fun as I had developing it!
------
Hi all,
I've been always, on my spare time, prototyping and making different games with different technologies. Since last time I had made a very rough of concept of a space colony sim, a bullethell/adventure/tower defense (where my main goal was to cram as much as possible enemies without slow downs in complex maps, around 3000 in steam deck was the result, it was a fun challenge), and not that long ago, a multiplayer game x4 games that was about escaping the solar system.
However, I never finished them. Most of the time is the scope, or that when is not fun to try new things, and you need to polish and do boring stuff (like UI) is not worth it anymore.. or sometimes although seems good, the game has a design failure that can't be fix, so at the end, is not fun to play.
It is fun?
Fun, that is the idea right? So, when I was coming back from a long trip by plane, I realized that this plane did not have a socket and the USB was not enough to charge my Steam deck. Playing Baldurs Gate III would deplete my battery in no time, so I play simpler games like Spelunky, that does not need much power to run. It also true that I could not share these games with my wife, sitting near me, as she prefers to watch me than to try those kind of games (that can be frustrating without practice).
That is what the idea of Arena Arcade Fest came. Fast mini-games, one after another, with a basic scoreboard between games. And is not a novel a idea, I remember playing these kind of games 20 years ago on some arcade (apart of party games, but those have boards and make the game slow (for me at least)=. Mini-games that are rooted on the classics, most of people knows them, easy to learn, hard to master, and because the idea is speed, you can try again and again and learn without the sensation that playing another game would take too long.
30 mini-games included, I might add more in the future, and 13 custom modes (and definitively I will add more of those) for when you don't want a small short timer.
Steam deck split mode
However, the main feature I had in mind for the game is not included at the moment. I wanted to be able to play this game with 2 players on the same Steam Deck, splitting the controls in half for those long plane trips. It... does not work as good as I would like. It is clearly that the right side with the buttons is more manageable that with D-Pad, so I've decided to hide until I do a full revision of the system. I might need to disable some games for when this is activated, but after the last polish pass to the current version of the game, I'm more confident of making it available for selected games later on (games with direction and no buttons or only 1 buttons are the prime candidates).
Ideas?
I'm always open to ideas on new minigames, let me know on the discussions. The major limitation is the art, so games that are grid based usually are easier to manage on my end. However, happy to listen.
Thanks all
