Disposable Heroes full launch!

Hey all! I am delighted to be able to announce that after six months in Early Access since the primary release in October, and having worked over that time with feedback from the Steam gaming community to enhance and complete the game, my hack & slash medieval cartoon caper Disposable Heroes will have its full launch on Wednesday, 23 March.

This will be followed by a very special showcase appearance – as I posted last month, we’ve been selected to appear as part of the SEGA Leftfield Collection at EGX Rezzed 2016 in London from April 7 to 9. Having been selected as one of only around 20 from a list of 300 indie games, I couldn’t be more delighted at this.

With a nod to absurd adventures such as Monty Python & The Holy Grail and The Mighty Boosh, Disposable Heroes now has 40 more enemies, 50 additional levels, more weapons, spells, lotions and potions, leading people to describe it as ‘The Binding of Isaac’ meets ‘South Park’ – comparisons which I am understandably delighted that have been drawn.

This was the first time I have released a game in Early Access, and it was something I wanted to do in order to work with the gaming community to enhance the structure, content and playability of ideas that were pouring from my head at quite a rate.

I always wanted it to be something different from the usual fare so working with gamers to get their input was particularly important to me. Six months on from entering Early Access and 18 months on from the initial ideas phase for this game, I’m really proud of what we’ve produced and hope that gamers around the world continue to enjoy this crazy caper.

The game now has over 150 levels for players to navigate, I wrote a little about what’s been included in a previous post. I had quite a lot of people comment on how difficult the game was and I was forced to concede that much to an extent; the very nature of the game is that it’s so continually ludicrous with all manner of weird devilish things trying to slice and dice you or lop off your head or fill you full of arrows, or massive bosses almost too big for the screen trying to flatten you. So to this end I included additional power-ups throughout the arena, from energy-boosting cupcakes to bags of fries and chocolate bars, all of which help players during the crazy combat.

Looking back on the home straight period, with all of the wackiness flying around I guess the principal challenge – aside from bug splatting and checking that controls worked properly – was to package up all of the wackiness into some semblance of structure, so that the journey through the game feels tight, tidy, coherent and balanced. This entailed everything from tightening up the level and screen progression, tweaking gameplay aspects like damage and health, and producing instruction screens to let people know what the potions and spells did, which weapons to use and suchlike. Hopefully I have managed to achieve that, but take a look and see what you think.

There’s also a whole bunch of extra stuff from additional DLC to voiceovers, new soundtrack segments and animations to guide you through the story – and through your quest.

You will be able to download the full and final version of Disposable Heroes from Steam from Wednesday 23 March 2016, and obviously you can keep up with all the latest developments either here on the Disposable Heroes blog site or over on Twitter.

Thank you so much to everyone who has downloaded and supported the game and particularly to those who have provided the invaluable feedback, which has made the final game possible. Particular thanks must go to everyone who has taken the time to play the game and make videos, all of which help to spread the word – you can see these LPs here.

The game has been on show at the Clickteam booth at GDC in San Francisco this week (they’re the people who make the software which I used to make the game); we are exhibiting at Dutch Comic Con in my home city of Utrecht at the end of March and of course at the beginning of April the Evilized team are travelling to London to see what gamers at EGX make of Disposable Heroes. Truly exciting times – thank you again for all your support, I really, really appreciate it.

Until next time then, go forth and be Disposable!

 

Ben

 

P.S. Are you a press type? You can find Disposable Heroes press resources here.

 

Coming To America

As if forthcoming appearances at EGX Rezzed and Dutch Comic Con were not enough, we’re still peeling ourselves off the ceiling here at Evilized Towers following the news that Clickteam – the people behind the software that we use to build the wacky world of Disposable Heroes – are taking the Heroes with them to California next week to show at GDC in San Francisco!

Clickteam are showcasing a number of indie creations made with their software to showcase in the booth at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) from this Monday (14 March) ; the world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2016, GDC attracts over 26,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. You can find full information on what’s on, when and where with a visit to the official website at gdconf.com.

Unfortunately we’re not able to be there in person but if you’re going to GDC and you’re passing by the Clickteam stand – booth number 305 – please stop by and have a game or two of Disposable Heroes. If you can get a photo of yourself playing the game or with the Clickteam guys & gals, then please tweet it to us @DispHeroes & we’ll share it with Disposable Heroes fans across the globe!

 

Join us at Dutch Comic Con 2016

Following the news that our madcap medieval cartoon caper Disposable Heroes was selected as one of 20 games out of 300 shortlisted to appear in the EGX Rezzed Leftfield Showcase in London next month, we’re delighted to be back with another exhibition announcement – we’ll be taking the game to Dutch fans once again at this year’s Dutch Comic Con in our home city of Utrecht on the weekend of 26 and 27 March.

Disposable Heroes fans playing the game at First Look, Jaarbeurs, last year

Comic Con started with comic books and science fiction / fantasy related film, television and popular art, but these days the event covers genres ranging from horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, trading cards, fantasy novels and of course video games.

Come along to the Disposable Heroes stand to play your way through as many of the 150 wacky levels as you can!

Last year’s event was completely crazy and Dutch Comic Con 2016 promises to be an unforgettable experience for everyone. The Evilized Games team looks forward to seeing you at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht at the end of the month – and challenging you to test your warrior skills in the Disposable Heroes arena!

Visit dutchcomiccon.nl for further information and details of how to get tickets.

Let’s continue our journey…

Blimey. Well four months on from the last time I sat down to write about Disposable Heroes, four months on from the game’s first public appearance at First Look festival, five months on from when we sent the Heroes bouncing around the world, seven months from the day we published our launch trailer – and a full year on from when I almost gave up on the game altogether – it’s time to bring you up to speed with what’s new.

During those months, I’ve added loads more stuff to the madcap medieval caper; we’re now up to 150 maniacal levels full of diabolic machinery and deadly adversaries – against whom you must utilise weapons and cunning, together with lotions and potions – and, if you’re brave enough, teamwork (in 2P mode) –  to overcome.

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The updates are coming all the time which will download on demand for everyone who has the game in Early Access. What could be in all these new levels, you ask?! Well, The Orc, Princess, Gladiator and Wizard must now also face some rather nasty rabid rats, an ever-faster-spinning wheel of slicey doom, a demon in a tank and more besides – however they do now have additional assistance from a magical flying goat, rat-a-tat machine gun, petrol cans that you can use as destructive explosives against your opponents and – of course – a mobility scooter. Yep, it’s all as mad as a snake sandwich.

Thanks to your feedback there are now additional health boosts available throughout the game (in the form of French fries and cupcakes), save points, Steam achievements to unlock and also extra story scenes where you get to find out more about the machinations of the evil Lizard King. Oh, and keep an eye out for the clown…

On that note, if it’s an intro to the characters – good and bad – you’re after, you can find the inside story on the four Heroes themselves here and the lowdown on the evil dudes here. Robin ‘Inda’ Hood is still just as useless as ever, of course.

Robin ‘Inda’ Hood – completely useless

I’ve also posted a new page on this site on which you can find all of the LPs to date. It’s really entertaining and rewarding to see people playing through your game. If you’ve not explored the world of the Disposable Heroes yet then check out these Youtubers’ frequently hilarious videos.

We’ve plenty more to share from Evilized Towers as we move towards launch of the full and final game in the spring – including our thoughts on the particularly exciting news that we have been invited to appear at EGX Rezzed in London this April as part of the SEGA-sponsored Leftfield Collection showcase – I really cannot wait to meet gamers in the UK’s beautiful capital and show off the game.

Thanks so much for all your support whilst the game is in Early Access on Steam, it really means a lot and your feedback continues to be hugely helpful in developing the game.

Ben @ Evilized Games

We’re going all Leftfield at EGX!

An artist’s impression of how it might look if that bone-headed Orc were to visit Tobacco Dock

We’re completely honoured and delighted at the news that Disposable Heroes has been selected from almost 300 videogames to appear as part of the Leftfield Collection at this year’s EGX Rezzed!

Organised and hosted by the team behind EGX (formerly EuroGamer Expo), EGX Rezzed is London’s premier videogames event, which returns to Tobacco Dock from Thursday 7th to Saturday 9th April 2016.

The ‘little brother of EGX’, Rezzed features a host of playable pre-release games on both PC and console with a focus on indie titles alongside developer sessions by well-known game designers and the opportunity to chat with developers such as ourselves on the show floor.

Sponsored by SEGA, the Leftfield Collection gives indie developers the opportunity to showcase their games for free at a major consumer event. The Leftfield Collection has a long history of bringing a wide variety of games to public view; from small hobby projects with unique control inputs to beautiful and interesting commercial work.

The Evilized Games team at last year’s First Look Festival

If you would like to come along, play Disposable Heroes and meet the game’s developers, along with all 21 of the other Leftfield game picks and of course all that Rezzed has to offer, click here to find out more from the EGX website.

Appearing at Rezzed will also give us the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the creators of dungeon-crawler Barbara-Ian whose eponymous hero gave Disposable Heroes composer David Burrows a close up view of his mighty hammer last time out…

Make a date in your diary for EGX Rezzed 2016 and we will see you there..!

Ben