Andrew and I have met up a few times, over a romantic burger and beer, to discuss Simon's late projects. Just this weekend he was awarded the grand 1st prize in Creative Assembly's Franco Jam - a Game Jam dedicated to the infamous Simon Franco and his love for all things that level up and go "You Win". Andy also designed the incredibly trophy that was given away as first prize... ... ... ... I see some undesirable spam appearing in Andy's mail this week...
It was incredible to see the guys at C.A. live stream for two days solid and pull their hair out at Gloop Troops and Crimbo in the early hours of the morning. It makes me incredibly proud and honoured to be the brother of someone who meant so much to so many good people, and to know he had so many people around him that cared about him and would take their own weekend, and all of it, to pay their respects to him.
With that said, our limits know no bounds other than my currently dated hardware config which is due an upgrade and we're already steam rolling ahead with more games in honour of the man and legend... Gloop Troops 2? You shall see the light of day. You shall be available to grace the thumbs of many! But what's this? A new adventure game? Shhh..ould I tell?
Okay here goes...
With Andy's blessing. There's a new game in store for you all. Design is finished, art is underway, and boy is it going to mess with your little minds. Simon loved Adventure games, mind you Simon also loved:
Action games
Action Adventure games
Arcade Fighter games
Arcade Shooters games
RTS games
Role Playing games
Simulation games
Strategy games
Sport... Speed Ball is a sport right?
But we've gone with the Adventure game... The mighty adventure game, and it's certainly looking awesome on the forest it's been printed on. What's more, it'll be free, that's right. FREE! As always! And available on PC & Mac, pending any breakdowns, and available next year with the hope to have it available on Simon's birthday, December 13 2015.
Now why am I telling you this all now? Well, we're doing this for charity. Winston's Wish is a charity that helps bereaved children and we could not think of a better charity to put our best efforts forward towards. Simon has two daughters, the youngest, Essy, who he never met and we want to make a small difference by raising as much money as we can during and after the development process through private donations or our certified and completely legit Just Giving page - that way you can be sure we don't squander it on mint condition cartridges and store brand soda.
The website for the game, along with Facebook page and Just Giving page will be up in a few days and we'll be hoping that you can give anything you can, however small or large to Winston's Wish now, or later if you like. This is an on-going project and we'll be posting updates (with no spoilers) on our Facebook page as development progresses. There'll be no pressure to donate during the game play, but we have already factored in to our design a way to let our cause be known, without diluting or breaking the flow of gameplay and to raise as much attention as we can to what we are doing and why we are doing it. No ugly banner ads or nasty splash screens to make you feel any moral pressure! You'll just be: Running, and enjoying. Now that worth a Smiley! :D
Full details will be provided in the next post and then I shall relieve the Little Shop of Pixel's blog of all posts related to our adventure title as it returns to the Gloop Troop sanctuary that it is!
Now go dig out your spectrum, change that fuse in that plug as it's most likely in breach of fire code and whack up that loading screen for it's harmonious chorus of noise! Listen to that beast purr!
David
It was incredible to see the guys at C.A. live stream for two days solid and pull their hair out at Gloop Troops and Crimbo in the early hours of the morning. It makes me incredibly proud and honoured to be the brother of someone who meant so much to so many good people, and to know he had so many people around him that cared about him and would take their own weekend, and all of it, to pay their respects to him.
With that said, our limits know no bounds other than my currently dated hardware config which is due an upgrade and we're already steam rolling ahead with more games in honour of the man and legend... Gloop Troops 2? You shall see the light of day. You shall be available to grace the thumbs of many! But what's this? A new adventure game? Shhh..ould I tell?
Okay here goes...
With Andy's blessing. There's a new game in store for you all. Design is finished, art is underway, and boy is it going to mess with your little minds. Simon loved Adventure games, mind you Simon also loved:
Action games
Action Adventure games
Arcade Fighter games
Arcade Shooters games
RTS games
Role Playing games
Simulation games
Strategy games
Sport... Speed Ball is a sport right?
But we've gone with the Adventure game... The mighty adventure game, and it's certainly looking awesome on the forest it's been printed on. What's more, it'll be free, that's right. FREE! As always! And available on PC & Mac, pending any breakdowns, and available next year with the hope to have it available on Simon's birthday, December 13 2015.
Now why am I telling you this all now? Well, we're doing this for charity. Winston's Wish is a charity that helps bereaved children and we could not think of a better charity to put our best efforts forward towards. Simon has two daughters, the youngest, Essy, who he never met and we want to make a small difference by raising as much money as we can during and after the development process through private donations or our certified and completely legit Just Giving page - that way you can be sure we don't squander it on mint condition cartridges and store brand soda.
The website for the game, along with Facebook page and Just Giving page will be up in a few days and we'll be hoping that you can give anything you can, however small or large to Winston's Wish now, or later if you like. This is an on-going project and we'll be posting updates (with no spoilers) on our Facebook page as development progresses. There'll be no pressure to donate during the game play, but we have already factored in to our design a way to let our cause be known, without diluting or breaking the flow of gameplay and to raise as much attention as we can to what we are doing and why we are doing it. No ugly banner ads or nasty splash screens to make you feel any moral pressure! You'll just be: Running, and enjoying. Now that worth a Smiley! :D
Full details will be provided in the next post and then I shall relieve the Little Shop of Pixel's blog of all posts related to our adventure title as it returns to the Gloop Troop sanctuary that it is!
Now go dig out your spectrum, change that fuse in that plug as it's most likely in breach of fire code and whack up that loading screen for it's harmonious chorus of noise! Listen to that beast purr!
David
... merry Xmas and happy new year /and don't drop the bottle/.
ReplyDeletehi! i want to do an "unofficial" remake of the first gloop troops for amiga releasing it for free.
ReplyDeletecan i make it?
Hi, I've just discovered the first 3 Gloop Troops games and I think they're fantastic, the graphics are some of the best graphics I've ever seen on the Spectrum. Really great work guys!
ReplyDeleteWell, I came here to find out more and was sorry to read about Simon, and it doesn't look like anything is happening with Gloop Troop 2? That's a shame because the screens I saw of it looked amazing.
But really I came here to ask about music: I noticed that the first Gloop Troop game just had the Bubble Bobble tune, and The Lost Crown had no music at all. I think that's such a shame! I'm a Spectrum musician and would be delighted to create original music for a game like this. I also think you should re-release the Lost Crown with music, it would bring it to life.
So I'm here if you need me. Then again, did I read somewhere that one of you has a background in game music? So maybe you've got music in the bag? (Though this doesn't explain why there was no music on Lost Crown.)
Cheers,
Lee