Bad news first: I have suspended all work on In Charge! for now. Considering my budget constraints and many breakdowns over the last 9 months, I would not have been able to complete the game. However, I have not been sitting around idly since the last post. To get myself motivated, I had started a rather simple, but compelling prototype. Since the core mechanics of that game are much less complex, I feel confident that I can complete it until March when my budget ultimately runs out. And this is what it’s all about:

BloodOpera

The basic premise is a shoot of a Hong Kong Blood Opera (a.k.a “Heroic Bloodshed”) style movie action sequence . The player chooses a music track as the background music for the scene. Based on that track, an environment is generated and populated with stuntmen and pyrotechnics. Additionally, the chosen track will be analysed for bass and drum cues. On such cues, the player presses displayed buttons to shoot their guns. In essence, it is a mash-up between the games Max Payne, Guitar Hero and a dash of Audiosurf.

Check out these screenshots to get an impression:

Gas Bottle Explosion

Fire Extinguisher Explosion

Squibs!

If you would like to try it with some of your favourite music (must be MP3 for now), head over to the cTool website’s “Games” category and check the download links (cTool). If you do not know the password for the download, please request it from me via the address provided on that page. Any feedback is appreciated!