Just got this from Freeverse, creators of fine Mac and iPhone software:
Freeverse is proud to announce that a member of it’s development team, Game Designer Justin Ficarrotta, has won the uDevGames Mac Game Development Contest with his independently developed space shooter, Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious.
Besides winning the title of “Best Overall Game” for this year’s uDevGames contest, Laserface Jones also received the following awards:
• Best Gameplay – 1st Place
• Best Graphics – 1st Place
• Best Audio – 1st Place
• Best Story – 3rd Place
• Best Presentation – 1st PlaceLaserface Jones was Inspired by the classic space shooters from the 8-bit and 16-bit era, including Gradius, R-Type, and Life Force. It took over 3 months of development, as Justin was working on it while also working full-time at Freeverse.
“Laserface Jones was a labor of love for me,” says Justin Ficarrotta. “I gave every spare moment I had to make a tribute to all the timeless shoot-em-ups I grew up with. I’m so stoked that people are loving the game as much as I do.”
I completely failed to write about the winners of the 2008 uDev contest even though I said I would last week. Well, they’re here! Better late than never.
I have no idea how developers can develop games in such short periods of time. Brian Greenstone from Pangea ported Enigmo from the Mac to iPhone in two weeks. Two weeks? It takes me two weeks to leave the house!
Download Laserface Jones. That’s what I’m doing. Right now. Review in ten years.
Certainly satisfies the need for some retro SHMUP. The hi-res graphics are “epic”, though entering Odious certainly turns the stomach.