CRUNCH

The precise nature of how Crust Shmup channels the energy and ethos of Scum through its systems and mechanics is a subject for another post.

But this idea of compression and truncation and the guiding principle of ‘reduce and intensify’ has become a part of the development process itself.

 The clocks went back on Sunday. Meaning Wintertime is officially upon us. I've enjoyed using ‘Wintertime’ as a release date because , as a term, it's generally dark, ominous and , most importantly , very vague. We could royally fuck this up, have to push it back until the end of January, and still be covered within our season-long window.

Not that we have anything to worry about. We look set to be completed by early December. About a month from now. Our crunch time won't even be that crunchy. Which is fitting for a game that features boss fights that last mere seconds and will, from start to finish,  almost certainly end up being shorter than Side A of Scum. 

We have our first (and probably only) play test event tomorrow night. Of course, I realize that play testing is largely pointless with a game like this. I’m quite sure that if we were to assemble a group of ‘average’ gamers , or even ‘average shmup enthusiasts, to play CRUST SHMUP and give us feedback, we’d quickly be advised to change every single thing about it. All the ways in which it largely differs from many shmups will likely be enough to put off most players.  So why play test at all ? Well, It’s the only opportunity we will really have to get , in art school crit terms, a ‘cold read’ of the game. 

I’m curious to observe how people receive it with no knowledge of its mechanics or instructions on how to play it beyond the danmaku maxim of dodge and shoot, dodge and shoot.

How far will they get ? How will they engage with its minimal and clunky systems ? Will we witness a Stage One bloodbath or will the group develop strategies and uncover exploits that result no-hit 1CC runs . Like speed running Dark Souls with DK Bongos. 

Considering all this, we spent a few hours making some minor tweaks to bullet patterns and enemy hit points, and some rearrangements in the level designs. Addressing potential balance issues, yes - but careful not to nerf or nullify the true nature of the experience. Or spend too long in the process. We decided that our time would be best spent painting the games logo onto a bedspread that would be gaffer taped to the wall.  Whilst it was drying we went to get a drink at a local barcade, which I had been wanting to visit for a while. On our way there I spoke about the homogeneity of the barcade scene and I speculated as to what we could find there.

 Old school American games, staples like Frogger, Q*bert, and Miss Pac-Man, Tapper (they always have Tapper. Perhaps people think a bar tending game in a bar is meta), Street fighter II & Mortal Kombat, a bunch of four player fun-time  frat machines like Turtles in Time, the Simpsons, Gauntlet and if we're lucky, somethings surprising and a little out of place that's actually exciting to see.

I was astonishingly accurate, but it's not too surprising. All these games are here for a reason. Because this is what people want to play with friends, beer and wings. I get it. If they filled the place with cabinets running games that I want to play , they would promptly go out of business. 

The weirdo game in this particular venue was one of those mega wide screen Darius Bursts. It’s always struck me how shit the power ups look in that game compared to how incredible everything else looks. You’ve got these 3ft long robot fish that look amazing and then these totally basic colored balls for power ups. 

Mind you, CRUST SHMUP doesn’t even have power ups. And I made all the graphics on my phone.