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Everyday Shooter Hits PSN On Thursday

Posted by Zonk on from the one-guy-one-garage-for-the-win dept.

The title Everyday Shooter isn't just special because it's a pretty good game, blending Geometry Wars-like gameplay with great music. It's also the winner of numerous accolades from last year's Independent Games Festival, and as of this week it will be headlining on the PlayStation Store. "The $10 game may be coming into a market clogged with dual-analog shooters, but I don't think it will have a hard time fitting in. 'Some days I would spend all day tweaking a level, sleep for a few hours, and then go back and tweak some more,' Mak told me at E3. 'The challenges I faced in this game were creative, not technical.' The sense that someone slaved over this across many, many sleepless nights comes through pretty clearly. This is one to watch, and keep the name Jonathan Mak in your head. I doubt this will be the last thing we see from him." For more on the background of this unique title Gamasutra interviewed Mak, the game's sole creator, prior to the IGF last year.

39 comments

  1. Gate 88 by 10Neon · · Score: 5, Informative

    While not everyone has the PS3 needed to play Everyday Shooter, Mr. Mak's last game, Gate 88 can be downloaded for a few different OSs. http://www.queasygames.com/gate88/

    --
    The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
  2. Congratulations to Sony... by Shaterri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...for all the egregious mistakes they've made in marketing the PS3, they're doing one thing that neither Nintendo nor Microsoft (XNA aside) has really managed: luring fantastic independent and artistic game developers onto the platform. Titles like Everyday Shooter, Jenova Chen's flOw, and even stuff like Calling All Cars are really making a PS3 a temptation, as absurd as it seems to spend $400 on a system to play $5 games on. Microsoft took some good initial steps with games like Eets and Alien Hominid, but they've slipped dramatically since then; more and more it's looking like the PS3 will be the primary platform for fans of the indie scene.

    1. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Alzheimers · · Score: 1

      As absurd as it seems to spend $400 on a system to play $5 games on.

      I wonder how many Xbox360s games like Geometry Wars and Online Uno have sold.

      I totally agree with the luring independent developers part. I wonder if we'll ever port of a "game" like Hotel to the PS3.

    2. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It does feel silly, but I have not purchased a single disc title for my PS3. Yet I've had as many hours enjoyment with it as I have my Wii, so I have no regrets...

      Admittedly, I'd likely not have purchased the system (yet, anyway) if I didn't have an HDTV, if it didn't play BluRay movies, if there weren't any announced exclusives that I wanted, and if it didn't upscale PS2 content. However I think that Nintendo is really missing the boat. Platform specific content can be downloadable. There's no reason to make us schlep to the store and pay over $30 for what are pretty basic games. Now if only Sony can stop shooting themselves in the foot for long enough that people actually get a chance to notice the system's positives...

    3. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they're doing one thing that neither Nintendo nor Microsoft (XNA aside) has really managed: luring fantastic independent and artistic game developers onto the platform.
      Actually, Microsoft has managed that consistently for going on 25 years, and that's how a fair number of today's established heavyweights got started in the industry.

      They haven't managed the same on their deliberately-closed XBox platforms, but Windows is as open as DOS was before it, and fantastic independent artistic game developers are thriving.
    4. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Osty · · Score: 1

      However I think that Nintendo is really missing the boat. Platform specific content can be downloadable. There's no reason to make us schlep to the store and pay over $30 for what are pretty basic games.

      In order to download games, you need to be able to store them somewhere. The Wii has 512MB of internal flash storage, which is not very much when you consider that all of your VC downloads and game saves have to be stored there (the SD card slot is only for archival purposes, as you can't save games or run VC titles off of an SD card). Had Nintendo included a hard drive, they never would've been able to hit their $250 price tag.

    5. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Osty · · Score: 1

      They haven't managed the same on their deliberately-closed XBox platforms, but Windows is as open as DOS was before it, and fantastic independent artistic game developers are thriving.

      Have you looked at XNA? Check out the winners from the Dream-Build-Play contest, the top four of which should be making their way to XBLA soon.

      Microsoft's XBLA and Sony's PSN are roughly comparable in terms of attracting indie developers, but once Microsoft figures out what they're doing with XNA you can say goodnight to Sony's network. The 360 will be the place to be for indie developers.

    6. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by powerlord · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, it may be silly, but it makes sense, even from the point of view of the consumer.

      If there is a large and diverse catalogue of on-loine games to keep me interested, along with a few disk-only titles, then the lower cost of the on-line titles means I'll either:

      a) spend the same exact amount of money on more games

      b) spend less money overall on games (since the on-line titles are "cheaper", in the bargain-bin range usually)

      Heck, for the consumer, if they end up following choice "b", they might even spend LESS over the life of the system despite the initial greater cost for the unit (not saying thats going to happen, just pointing it out as a possibility).

      As for "hotel" coming to the PS3 ... wouldn't surprise me. Sony certainly seems open to innovative game design ideas for PSN games.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    7. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by vux984 · · Score: 1

      more and more it's looking like the PS3 will be the primary platform for fans of the indie scene.

      I suppose. At least if you restrict the conversation soley to the consoles.

      The PC has been, and will continue for the foreseeable future, to be the primary platform for 'fans of the indie scene'.

    8. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by JanusFury · · Score: 1

      I'm not really sure if titles published by Sony can really count as 'indie'. If the platform was open to the extent that any indie had a shot at getting a game on the service, then they'd have something... at this point Sony doesn't even have a public devkit equivalent to MS's XNA (unless you count using the crippled multimedia in PS3 Linux).

      flOw and Everyday Shooter are great, but they're not titles that were 'lured' onto the platform, unless handing large stacks of money to indie developers to convince them to make their titles exclusives counts as a 'lure'. Jenova Chen in particular isn't really 'indie' anymore since he's running a studio and has a contract with Sony (great guy, though).

      I suppose this all depends on your definition of indie...

      --
      using namespace slashdot;
      troll::post();
    9. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      ...for all the egregious mistakes they've made in marketing the PS3, they're doing one thing that neither Nintendo nor Microsoft (XNA aside) has really managed: luring fantastic independent and artistic game developers onto the platform. (XNA aside)... Isn't that a pretty big caveat, seeing as that's exactly the point of XNA? Nothing has come to fruition yet, but I think we'll be seeing homebrew games coming to the public at some point. Still, you're point about a lack of original titles is well made, if slightly exaggerated (there have been a number of original games released to Live).

      Do you wonder why you see a lot of ports and casual games on Xbox live arcade? Let's list the top ten Arcade titles:

            1. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
            2. Bomberman LIVE
            3. Frogger
            4. Bankshot Billiards 2(TM)
            5. UNO
            6. Streets of Rage 2
            7. Puzzle Fighter HD
            8. Sonic The Hedgehog
            9. TMNT 1989 Arcade
          10. Worms

      Not an original IP in the bunch. The fact is, as a rule, old arcade game ports are probably going to sell a lot more copies than some brand new, highly artistic / creative endeavor. It's a sad fact that many highly creative, well-reviewed games simply don't sell all that well. Game devs have to eat too, and people's purchases are dictating the direction of future development.
      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    10. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      I don't think that our takes on the situation are mutually exclusive.

      Sony obviously didn't hit the $250 price point.

      I think that long-term the value proposition is probably higher on the PS3 than the Wii due to the ability to provide these downloadable games, and that Nintendo will eventually have to either come out with a USB hard drive add-on, come out with Wii2, or miss the boat with downloadable content.

    11. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by king-manic · · Score: 1

      In order to download games, you need to be able to store them somewhere. The Wii has 512MB of internal flash storage, which is not very much when you consider that all of your VC downloads and game saves have to be stored there (the SD card slot is only for archival purposes, as you can't save games or run VC titles off of an SD card). Had Nintendo included a hard drive, they never would've been able to hit their $250 price tag.

      Yeah, any also some really simple games like high stake poker are 316mb which is 3/5 of your drive.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    12. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by 7Prime · · Score: 1

      How fast is the internet? Seriously, it took me 5 minutes to download Paper Mario over DSL... that's, what, 50MB? Do I really want to start downloading 4GB titles? Not a chance. Music is exceptable with download, movies are GETTING THERE (if only because they can be highly compressed), video games, whose content is already highly compressed to begin with, aren't going to be exceptable for download for a long time, unless you're talking all-night downloads. I don't know if games ever will, frankly. Movies and Music don't grow in data over time. Games are growing as fast if not faster than internet download speeds are increasing.

      It's fine for handheld and retro games, but worth it for full fledged games. I'm trying to imagine a downloadable Bioshock, and my head just exploded.

      --
      Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
    13. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      I know not many places have this yet, but it's expanding...

      I've got 20Mbit down... I routinely get 1.8MB/second from the playstation store. If I wanted to spend $10/month more I could have 50MB/second. 4GB for a game download is no big deal. Especially when the game downloads in the background while you're playing another game. Admittedly if I had to watch Mario hit ? blocks while I was waiting it would be a different story...

      Regardless, I'm not talking about first-tier, content heavy games. I'm talking about little things. The download size for things like GripShift, and Super-rub-a-dub, Stardust, and Flow weren't very big at all. They were worth the price, they took advantage of all the "next-gen" features of the system, and I bet they were big moneymakers for their publishers and for Sony. Don't you think Nintendo could fit something like one of the games from Wii Play into a download in the 20MB range? Now consider if they started sharing resources (3D models, textures, sounds) between some of those downloadables. Hell, they could make you put the Wii Sports disc in while you play and use stuff you've already got... Or store a library of common resources on the SD card. The size could come down dramatically, as would their distribution costs. The only thing going up would be their profit. Now imagine a 20GB hard drive plugged in to the USB port on the back...

      Sure, you'll still be heading out to the store to buy a content-heavy title like Bioshock. But you shouldn't have to if what you're looking for is something smaller. And you shouldn't have to settle for an emulated re-release.

    14. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 1

      Nah, it shouldn't feel terribly silly.... I've bought a few PS3 titles, but I still love the games like Super Stardust and Flow. Usually if there's a non-EA port, I generally try the PS3 first, and if it handles well (I love the Sixaxis, so sue me), I generally don't bother with the 360 version (even with DLC potential for it... because besides Oblivion, most DLC is not all that special to me...)

      I like the 360, and frequently play games on it as well (I am addicted to Burnout, because it makes me feel better about my piss-poor driving in motorstorm...heh) but as for a console I can see myself playing for the long-term, in spite of how it plays out in sales or mindshare is my PS3. It's built better, it has more potential, because it's not locked into overpriced accessories like the 360 (I'm thinking of HDD's specifically), and it can run YDL. That's geektastic. ;)

      I don't hate either console, I despise most, hell..all, corporations, so there's no brand loyalty, but I simply like my PS3... it "fits" better for me. (and my ever-so-slick HDTV).

      --
      It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
    15. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      And, of course, the best part is that you can still get DLC for the PS3. The PS3 is just warming up to DLC, but it does have it... Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band have plans for downloadable songs, for example.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    16. Re:Congratulations to Sony... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a crock of shit. When XBox 360 was not yet out, Microsoft gave hundreds of kits to independent game developers and there are now a ton of independent games on XBox Live Arcade. Sony still to this day will not give dev kits to independent game developers. A dev kit is $20,000, thank you very much, and then, IF Japan likes your game, we MAY allow you to sell it. Do the math. It's not indie games math. It's math for people with publishing deals or VC investors.

      The one, single, solitary exception to this rule is this game. If it hadn't won all the "clone of the year" accolades at IGN it wouldn't have got a look-in. But Sony can see this as their competitor to Geometry Wars so they've stuck "This was written by Sony Computer Entertainment", then "This was written by our Santa Monica studio" before the actual titles and claimed it as their own. In return this developer will see a couple $ per sale if he's lucky enough to sell more than 50,000 units of this tired old formula (which is available in equivalent versions on every major platform of the last 10 years, with the notable exception of PS2 which also didn't allow independent game developers a look-in.)

      The PS3 is not going to be the "platform for the indie scene" based on one IGN winner being ported to the platform by Sony. That would take Sony actually giving dev kits to people and asking them to make games for it. There's a BIG difference between porting a game from last year and letting people loose on the console to do what creativity demands of them. The PC will always rule the indie scene, and maybe one or two of the very best titles might be permitted into Sony's walled garden of content.

      And yes, it is absurd to dump $400 on a system that has no decent games on it except for a couple of $10 indie games. Companies left right and center are failing to deliver their next-gen titles on this platform. The only viable thing it has to offer are rehashes of 80s games because frankly that's about all the Cell is good for unless you're prepared to hire a dozen graduates in parallel programming techniques. It's not the smaller devs either - almost all major devs are slipping their PS3 titles until March, and mark my words, half of them will be slipped to July come the new year. If PS3 doesn't do well this Xmas, these devs are simply going to drop support, and then you'll be wishing that Sony had at least ported MAME to the fucking thing.

  3. ooh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Huh, sounds pretty interesti...

    Oh. PS3. Never mind.

    I guess we like Sony today? Hard to keep track.

  4. Geometry Wars ftw by 40ozFreak · · Score: 1

    Geometry Wars is one of the most addictive yet simple games I own. I play it constantly. Too bad this one is for PS3 since I don't plan on spending over 400 on a console anytime soon.

    1. Re:Geometry Wars ftw by spiderbitendeath · · Score: 1

      It's coming to the Wii and DS.

      http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/26/geometry-wars-wii-ds-details-emerge/

      --
      Sometimes when I'm working on projects things disappear, I suspect gremlins.
    2. Re:Geometry Wars ftw by DrXym · · Score: 1

      Well if you ever do get a PS3, you should find comfort with Super Stardust HD. IMO it's better than Geometry Wars and I've played both. There are also Blast Factor and Nucleus, but neither of those compares to SSHD.

  5. Another interview by Joedeg · · Score: 1

    Another good interview with Jonathan Mak: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=503 I wish this game was on PC as well. The my bloody valentine-esque music is incredible.

  6. Great Music? by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 1

    I just finished watching the gameplay demo. While the game looks gorgeous and fun to play, I must say, as a non-tone-deaf /.er, the music is crap. The demo video was literally painful to listen to.

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    1. Re:Great Music? by kosanovich · · Score: 1

      That's part of the game.

      It has an all guitar sound track playing, then overlaid on top of the sound track are guitar cords that play due to your different actions. Killing an enemy will play a cord, pickup up a power up, shooting bigger enemies, or any other action will play a cord. The desired result (i believe) is a feeling that you are making "music" while shooting things, but it looks like it often comes out as a very convoluted mash-up of sounds which isn't always pleasant.

      I think it's an interesting idea but i guess this week we'll see how well it actually works.

    2. Re:Great Music? by mypalmike · · Score: 1

      Agreed. It was cool and all, but grating after about 15 seconds.

      --
      There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
    3. Re:Great Music? by Endymion · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that they are actually trying to do the Rez music-game-shooter thing? Rez was a great game...

      --
      Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
    4. Re:Great Music? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The word you're looking for is chord. Cord = thin rope.

    5. Re:Great Music? by Gori · · Score: 1

      If you like the way this game looks, try the games made by Kenta Cho, for example rrootage : http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/rr_e.html

      There are linux ports of them here : http://rrootage.sourceforge.net/

      They are pretty addictive, have joystick/gamepad support and pretty good music.

      Enjoy.

      --
      Complexity is a measure of our ignorance...
  7. Will there be a demo? by Khuffie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I may be inclined to test it out, and if I like it, buy it, but as is I'm not going to plonck down ten bucks on a game I can't try out.

  8. I can name that tune in... by tepples · · Score: 1

    Yeah, any also some really simple games like high stake poker are 316mb which is 3/5 of your drive. You need 316 MB for poker? I could make poker in 316 KB.
    1. Re:I can name that tune in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...And I could make poker in about 20KB.

      Nobody wants to play my text-based poker game from circa 1985, and nobody wants to play your 8-bit color poker game from circa 1995.

      Dude, it's 2007, people want their poker games to have animated cards and players, and jiggling naked women on each of the cards, complete with appropriate music and sound effects. :P

    2. Re:I can name that tune in... by king-manic · · Score: 1

      You need 316 MB for poker? I could make poker in 316 KB.

      They have animated opponents who have "tells". it's sort of fun finding them.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  9. If you want to play this game by UnlimitedAccess · · Score: 2, Informative

    Any people from Melbourne, Australia who want to try this game out can go to the ACMI Cetre (free Video Game Art Gallery) at Federation Square where Everyday Shooter is currently on display for anyone to play (along with many other indy titles [Go Aquaria Woo!]. Its very good, a cross between Rez and Smash TV but instead of Techno its Acoustic Guitars.

  10. But ... he's not wearing any clothes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on people, this is a clone of a clone of a clone. It's Sony's "me too" on Geometry Wars. Sony could crap into a handkerchief and certain people would buy it.

    Jesus, I'd better get going on my Defender clone. If I do it all with circles, and add enough alpha polygons that no-one can see what the fuck is going on, people should lap it up.

    1. Re:But ... he's not wearing any clothes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geometry Wars copied Robotron. I seriously don't see your point. Unless your point was to prove that you are a tit.

    2. Re:But ... he's not wearing any clothes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Robotron and Defender were both made by Eugene Jarvis for Williams, you fuck-tard.

  11. IPv4 or IPv6? Or intellectual resources? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Not an original IP in the bunch.

    That's because you listed ten video games, not Internet Protocol addresses.

    More seriously, why do people say "intellectual property" when they mean only "intellectual resources"? Overuse of "intellectual property" connotes the support of expanded property rights (that is, powers of exclusion) over intellectual resources.

  12. Use case: Ports from Windows? by tepples · · Score: 1

    at this point Sony doesn't even have a public devkit equivalent to MS's XNA (unless you count using the crippled multimedia in PS3 Linux). I think the intended use case is that you finish developing a game for the Windows or Linux platform, and it uses OpenGL and OpenAL, and then you approach Sony and a dozen publishers about getting the game ported to PS3.