Nullstar: Solus Kickstarter Date Announcement!

from the Nullstar Dev Team

Hey everyone we are here with an exciting announcement! Nullstar: Solus is running a Kickstarter that goes live on the 23rd of November 2024!

So, why Kickstarter? Nullstar: Solus is a self-funded passion project being made by 8 people. This Kickstarter is to support our team members further and involve the community with the end product through our Kickstarter rewards as well as help us make Nullstar: Solus the best game it can be.

How can you get involved? To prepare, we have our launch page ready (click here) which you can follow to be alerted as soon as it goes live!

From early beta keys, to a digital soundtrack and art book we will have a variety of tiers that you will be able to choose from to help out. We also have some huge announcements lined up for the course of the campaign including some great stretch goal plans (which may or may not include some highly requested features)

Also we will have social goals, some streams and a few fun things planned throughout the campaign. So, we look forward to sharing this all with you in November and thank you again for all your support!

The PAX Aus 2024 Debrief

from the Nullstar Dev Team

It’s October, you know what that means! Smash Attack heads back to Melbourne for Melbourne International Games Week and PAX Aus! This time we are bringing an all new guest: Nullstar: Solus.

As always, we want to thank Screen Tas, Screen Vic and all parties involved who make GCAP, MIGW, Play Now and PAX Aus possible. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to travel to such amazing events. So from all of us to all of you thank you! Now onto the debrief!

Only a week and a bit after Level Up Tasmania, the team hit the road once again to showcase Nullstar: Solus. This marked the second time we had shown the game publicly in Australia and was our largest showcase for the game. Arriving on the Wednesday before it all went crazy, Dean caught up with fellow developers at the PAX Aus institute that is Boatbuilders Yard and got a breakdown of all things GCAP.

Before long, it was back to the hotel to prepare for our first event: Play Now 2024. Play Now is an initiative put together by Screen Vic whose main goal is to get locally made games in front of publishers. You have to apply prior to the event and thankfully we were successful in being chosen.

“Luke cleary excited for Play Now”

The event was a huge blast that resulted in many friendships, amazing talks and interactions with some personal heroes. From the team at HUMANOIB and our monitor shenanigans to meeting Michael Hing and chatting games with various devs and publishers we have only interacted with online, it was truly an amazing experience that culminated in Dean losing his mind meeting long time hero Shuhei Yoshida, former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment and now head of their indie division.

Having the game in the hands of many industry legends and pillars helped us know we were on the right track. Feedback was super positive across the board, ideas floated around and we were going into PAX being like: “Dang, we got a pretty fun game here”. From Play Now, Dean and Luke met up with the rest of the team to help set up.

Being Nullstar’s first major appearance, it was great to see the team eager to get it into people's hands. With a new level, new mechanic and a team ready to go, we were suddenly at the first day of PAX Aus and what a day it was! Feedback to the new level and mechanic was extraordinary. For work that was only implemented in the week after Level Up Tasmania, the team was incredibly proud of what they accomplished.

To breakdown all of PAX would be to write an update a gazillion lines long so we are going to cliff note it below with some photos:

Networking Night - The Friday night networking night on the showfloor at PAX is always a highlight but this year was truly special as Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA, introduced us to Tim Watts, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was on site checking everything out. Having him play and enjoy Nullstar was a great honour and we thank anybody who throws their support behind our industry.

The Card Vending Machine - An odd highlight but almost every night we visited a TCG vending machine that had the latest Japanese set but it was broken every night.

Hanging Out with Devs - The yearly catch up is always great from Liz and the Ailuri team to Julian and the Cult of the Lamb team and everyone inbetween it is always a pleasure to catch up, talk about life and just overall see how we are all doing in this crazy time.

MegaDave - Screw MegaDev, MegaDave is where it’s at! As always the end of PAX party is a great event and after the team dispersed it was good to relax with many faces I didn’t get to catch up with over the PAX week.

Team Bonding - The best part of PAX, for a lot of the Smash Attack team this was the first time meeting Lily, Morning and each other. Spending time with each other and just overall being a bunch of crazies enjoying each other's company was truly the highlight of the entire trip.

We have jumped back into work since we got back, changing from demo-focused to milestone-focused. We have some amazing updates coming your way about the game. But for now, feel free to keep up to date here, follow and wishlist on Steam as well as get notified when our Kickstarter goes live!

Thanks for reading!

Smash Attack Studios and Level Up Tasmania!

This post covers a few things from ShapeVS to Nullstar: Solus and the event so strap in!

The Tasmanian game community is the best in the world! That’s the whole post! We are truly blessed here with not only talent but also a system that believes in us and it’s this system that resulted in the creation of Level Up Tasmania. The event was the first ever video game showcase in Tasmania

This event couldn’t have come together without the amazingly talented team at Screen Tasmania (more on them later), our local government and Screen Australia. Level Up Tasmania showed exactly what Dean, Smash Attack Studios owner and Game Director, had known after years of being a part of the scene: That there are some truly talented and passionate creators just needing that extra hand getting into the spotlight.

The event began with some local media

So before we gush about our fellow creatives, let’s look at what we got up to at Level Up Tasmania!

Nullstar: Solus and ShapeVS were in attendance and, wow! What a reception. For ShapeVS, this had been its first convention since PAX Aus 2022 after its release into early access. To see people to this day still enjoy and love the game (despite Dean’s conflicted relationship with it) was an awesome sight to behold. A huge thank you to Emma and the volunteers team for helping us and everyone else showcasing at the event. Without them, we truly couldn’t have achieved what we did.

Oli guides the masses!

Nullstar: Solus was our main attraction, fresh off the Gamescom press and into local events with PAX Aus 2024 being only a week and a bit away at the time of writing. I guess the easiest way to write this is to echo the above sentiment of ‘Wow! What a reception!’. We were blown away by the positivity and comments that resulted in a huge bump in wishlists and follows (which if you haven't done you should totes go do).

Aside from a few bugs, which we managed to solve whilst at Level Up, the feedback was great from players as young as 6 playing to as old as 60+. It was amazing to see such a wide spread of players not only play the game but also enjoy it, get the hook and understand what we are aiming to accomplish. A true highlight came on Friday when two school kids came and raced each other for nearly 20 minutes trying to outdo each other. It's moments like those that make us realise why Nullstar: Solus is not just special to us but also the people we are making it for.

There was always a line of pilots ready to go

Now on to the soppy stuff and deepest of thanks to those who have helped us out! Firstly Oli, Alex, Emi, Emma and names that are swirling around our heads that we forgot to mention from Screen Tasmania. Thank you! This would not have been possible without you. Those who believe us developers are what made this event come to life would be sorely mistaken. Without Screen Tasmania and believing in developers across the state, a lot of us wouldn’t be here today to have a showcase. All the prep in such a small amount of time to achieve what they did was truly incredible.

The esports showcase was an amazing success

Also, a big thanks to Screen Australia for their grant as well as the Tasmanian government most notably our minister for arts, The Honourable Madeleine Ogilvie, and everyone from that side who was involved.

To our speakers who traveled down, I am blessed to be able to call you friends and co-workers in this amazing space! Liam, Merry, Jacob, Josie, Amelia and Dakoda all do such amazing, inspiring things in the game space in Australia. To be able to have that knowledge shared locally was truly something special.

To the over 2000 people that attended the actual event, the 100+ people who registered and attended for the industry day, the esports showcase participants and more, just thank you, from all of us.

There were some truly amazing talks

I am sure we missed some things but I didn’t want to make this too long. We have some news about Nullstar: Solus coming soon at PAX (updated demo woohoo!) and more. Thanks for reading and look forward to sharing more soon! And remember, be faster and hit that wishlist and follow button!

Smash Attack at Gamescom 2024

From the Nullstar Dev Team

And we’re back! Jetlagged, tired, and sore but overall back! Over the past couple of weeks, Dean and Ryan have been in Germany attending Gamescom 2024 as part of the IGEA Australian booth, alongside other Australian studios, showcasing the team’s new game, Nullstar: Solus, to the international audience in attendance.

What was a crazy non-stop ride of support and encouragement has now settled and we are eager to share a brief overview of the event as well as our goals for Nullstar moving forward.

Ryan eager to see the masses!

Our main goal for Gamescom was to get the game's name out there. After finishing up with Broken Roads, Ryan, myself, and the team were eager to showcase the game that we all came together to make because we loved working together.

To see the passion the team has put in over the past 2 months was awesome. From many publisher chats to even more Kolsch we are happy to say we achieved what we came to do. High numbers of traffic for the game, wishlist numbers, playtesters, and more has really shown us what type of game we have and want to make and the fact they line up with what some people in the industry are looking for feels really good! However it wasn’t all business!

Kolsch and Currywurst!

Thankfully during the event the team got to do some browsing of Gamescom as well as spending time with other developers and industry professionals. From watching Alien Romulus in a small local cinema to checking out the local currywurst and talking about games over beer, it was a great trip to get an idea of what the industry is currently doing and our place in the puzzle.

The true highlight of the trip - Dean

Dean got to play Terry in SF6 and Monster Hunter: Wilds and didn’t shut up about them so I guess it was a win for him no matter what! Ryan got to experience a bit more of Gamescom and, alongside other Aussies, spent a good long time in the indie area seeing what the world is cooking and there is some really good stuff on the horizon!

So before we finalise some things in this post we want to thank Jens and IGEA for the opportunity to be a part of the stand and showcase Nullstar: Solus. A huge thank you to Screen Tasmania for assisting us in getting here and showing the world just what Tasmania has to offer.

See you next year?

Another big thank you to the Griffiths University students who assisted us whilst we ran around like headless chooks. Shoutout to their patience with us as Gamescom can be hectic and at some points we were completely lost in meetings.

And finally shoutout to everyone who took their time to chat with us, hang with us, play games, and overall just be part of this amazing experience. From publisher chats to other developers in other countries showcasing their local talent. We are in awe of the indie side of the industry and are eagerly awaiting where your story takes you.

There was some intense speedrunning sessions going on at the booth!

So what’s next for Nullstar Solus? Well, the next event you will be able to catch the team at will be Level Up Tasmania down in Hobart at PW1 from the 27th of September to the 29th. You can learn more about it here: https://www.premier.tas.gov.au/latest-news/2024/june/level-up-tasmania-video-games-showcase.

After that you can catch the Nullstar team once again at PAX Australia 2024 as part of the PAX Rising indies from the 11th of October to the 13th. We will have some more coverage on the game as we get closer to the events.

We want to thank you for all the support since the game's formal announcement in July. We only started this prototype in early June and implemented art in July so to have such colossal feedback that has universally been positive is a huge boost for the team.

Dean once again is the Gamescom Smash champ!

We will aim to post more updates as development progresses but for now you can wishlist and follow the game on Steam, follow us on social media, and join our Discord channel.

Until next time, pilot!

Nullstar Dev Team

Nullstar: Solus - Announcement and Team Reveal!

from the Nullstar Dev Team

Today we are happy to formally announce the next major release from Smash Attack Studios! Nullstar: Solus, a precision platformer taking inspiration from titles such as Lunar Lander, Super Meat Boy, and Disc Room.

Execute the Nullstar Protocol! Fly through the world of Nullstar: Solus, a sci-fi platforming adventure with stunning visuals and audio. Explore a world at its end and scavenge fragments of a broken world's powerful nullstar.

Nullstar brings our team’s love of speedrunning and precision platformers to life in our take on a dystopian sci-fi world. And speaking of team, some new and old faces have joined us to help bring the world of Nullstar together.

Dean Baron (Smash Attack Owner/Lead Programmer) returns as game director and lead game programmer. Bringing what he learnt from his time on ShapeVS and Broken Roads, he is also joined by some friends from his time on Broken Roads with Drop Bear Bytes.

ShapeVS was released in early access in 2022 and fully released in 2024.

Ryan Gee joins the team as the game’s art lead, lending his creative talents and VFX knowledge as well as a love for world-building to Nullstar. Ryan has worked with Dean to create a FromSoft-esque approach to the world by channelling the ol’ “show, don’t tell” style of storytelling.

Ryan did alot of the VFX work for Broken Roads

Luke Dorman also joins the team coming from Drop Bear bringing his years of level design expertise to the field. Luke has already jumped right in and started reworking old levels and giving them a second look so they can bring the right level of challenge and speed.

Luke handled helped build the world within Broken Roads

And lastly we welcome Alec Shea to the team as the audio lead. Alec brings his years of talent on projects such as Corpse Factory, Primordial Legends, and more. Being from Tassie himself, Alec and Dean have teamed up to help bring the Nullstar world to life.

Alec has worked on many games and brings his years of talent to the team

Returning to the team are Stella Beech and Mitchell Pomery, bringing their previous talents and work from ShapeVS and other Smash Attack titles. We believe the team we have here is one that is backed with passion and a love for creating. Nullstar started as a prototype in late April and quickly came together with a clear vision for a precision platformer with a unique twist on movement.

We plan to launch Nullstar: Solus in 2025 and are currently planning to release the game with 80 hand-crafted levels over five worlds with some other secrets along the way. Our first major event will be at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this month, and closer to home with Level Up Tasmania and PAX Aus 2024 later in the year!

Smash Attack Studios returns to Germany in 2024

We will be providing some dev logs and other content on the game soon but for now you can follow us on our socials as well as wishlist the game on Steam. We look forward to sharing more with you over the coming months of development.

If you are from media or a content creator and want to learn more about the game or are just keen on Nullstar you can join our discord and have one of the team be in touch.

Thank you again, and we look forward to seeing you out there, pilot!

FIST is coming in May 2024!

Broken Roads hits the front page!

ShapeVS has launched on Itch!

from the dev team

It’s been a long time coming, but today we hit one of our goals: the Itch version of ShapeVS. Due to the small nature of the team, we had to look at how we best wanted to handle this and reached out to some industry friends and veterans to help us with this decision.

We have decided to have a “pay-what-you-want” option for ShapeVS. We understand that not everyone thinks the game has the value for what we need so this is a chance to test the game and pay what you believe the game is worth.

The main difference between the Steam and Itch versions will be that the Steam (fully paid EA version) will be the main focus and receive updates first whilst the Itch version will receive updates down the line. We are committed to following through on our early access promises and want to thank those who took an early chance on us.

We look forward to continuing this journey and allowing us to take these smaller steps into the gaming world. We will be rolling out a patch to the Steam version this weekend to align with the Itch version that is live. To access the game see the “our games” section for the link!

More updates coming soon!

Down Tilt are ABC Trailblazers for 2023!

from the Down Tilt Team

It’s been hard to keep wraps on this but it’s out in the wild now and we can share that the Down Tilt Esports community was chosen to be one of the select ABC Trailblazers for 2023. For those who don’t know, the ABC Trailblazers program is for communities (members ranging between 18 and 28) in regional Australia that are doing things to impact and change their respective communities.

Funnily enough, while Launceston does not count as regional Tasmania, the whole of Tasmania counts as regional Australia! So we were very fortunate to get in. We lodged a submission last year, went through a vetting and interview process, and were selected. And I must say, we suffered from significant imposter syndrome.

Before we continue about the amazing week we had in Canberra, I want to go over the awesome projects that were there as they are truly doing things around regional Australia that deserve recognition (this is taken from the Meet the ABC Trailblazers website, link here):

We highly recommend clicking the link to learn more about each project and see how it might relate to you and your circumstances and how they may be able to help. If we did write-ups for each of them we would be here all year!

So let’s jump into what we did. Jai and Dean left on the 6th of February and spent a week in Canberra meeting with various groups, taking tours, mingling, and learning about what it means to be a Trailblazer.

The big aim for the week was the talk in Parliament House that was happening on Thursday. The week was filled with some fantastic workshops headed up by Taz and Em from Future Isles and the amazing members of the Sally Foundation and ABC who helped guide us along this path.

Highlights were definitely the speed pitching session at the Department of Infrastructure building, team bowling, the coffee walks, and all the time spent together bonding as a group who share the same goal of empowering those around us and changing the outlook of those who may not see what we really do.

Of course, there was a lot, and I mean a lot, of Smash Bros. Jai and Dean was able to secure the common room TV for some practice as well as showcase the game that Down Tilt is built on. This came to another major highlight, attending the Wednesday night ACT Smash Local at ANU.

It was a fantastic tournament put together by the TO’s. We played some great games and talked about the struggles we have as local communities and what we can do together to really put Australia on the map as a place to travel for major events.

The first three days coming were a real treat. Again the various activities and bonding we did, exploring Canberra and attending a Smash local. But it was finally Thursday and the day we came for had arrived. It was an exciting morning but one everyone had been looking forward to. It was our chance to share our story with those who can help us make real change. Now we won’t go too far into detail here. You can watch the presentation here and see some photos.

Thank you again to everyone involved and everyone we met through Trailblazers. We can’t thank you all enough for the support you have given us and we look forward to what we can all achieve together throughout the year.

Til next time!

End-of-Year Recap 2023

From the Smash Attack Team

Hey everyone,

It’s been a hot minute (again) so here we are with our usual end-of-the-year wrap. Going to go over a fair few things here as it has been an insane year for our little collective of idiots and miscreants. As per the past recaps, we will break it down via a quick Studio Update and then into the meat of things with our Game Dev, Down Tilt, and Production teams. So let’s jump right in!

First up is our Studio Update and what a crazy ride it has been for us. For those who know of us, we have been operating just out of Launceston, being a small group who just want to make games, enjoy esports, and have a grand old time. For us to hit the international stage was not something on the 2022 list of things to happen. Gamescom 2022 was definitely the biggest thing ever to happen to the studio and put us on a skyward trajectory for 2023.

From the launch of ShapeVS to the connections we have made, Gamescom taught us a lot about where we are in the international space as well as the Australian space for games. It backed up a lot of encouragement from others telling us that we were going in the right direction. And so here we are, with our first major game out in early access and some awesome collaborations and plans set for 2023.

It also laid the groundwork for new opportunities within the team such as Dean joining the team at Drop Bear Bytes to work on Broken Roads – we will cover this more below but note that he will still be a major player in the studio.

We do want to thank the Another Computer Store team and their owner, Leesa, for everything in 2021 and the beginning of 2022. It was hard to give up the space but we know we made the right decision; it allowed us to focus resources internally and look at expanding in ways we never thought possible.

And with that let’s move on to the Game Dev update!

This is where the culmination of all the studio's work has come to. As explained above we made some choices that helped us get to where we are at the end of an amazing 2022. Firstly, ShapeVS was released, and everything that surrounded the launch of the game. We want to thank Screen Tas, Screen Aus, IGEA, and anyone involved with Gamescom 2022.

That journey alone was what allowed us to get the game out, focus on a launch plan and work with some amazing people for future projects. We also welcomed Woj Beckitt to the team as our new audio designer and expanded upon the foundation laid down by those who have come before. ShapeVS released with an amazing response and exceeded all expectations we set and for that, we can’t thank you enough.

The team is currently working on Update 0.3 slated for the end of the year, give or take a day, and from there hopefully a new step forward for what’s to come. As stated briefly above, Dean did join Drop Bear Bytes to work on Broken Roads but has confirmed with the team he will be doing some Smash Attack stuff on the side, just as a personal development endeavour.

So no worries there, ShapeVS will continue to receive major content updates as well as small projects over the next 12 - 18 months. Next up, Down Tilt.

The Down Tilt team saw a major shake-up in our new collaboration with Optimal Gaming, firstly in March at their location in Kings Meadows and now at their new location in the Launceston CBD. Teaming up with Andrew and the Optimal Team has allowed Max and Jai to really expand and grow the scene. With Smash Ultimate entering its fourth year and having our scene still averaging 12+ has been a huge encouragement for us.

It’s also been great to see our community and the wider Launceston community come together to support such a great business and one that we can’t wait to expand more within 2023. New events, a new Tas circuit, Street Fighter 6 and so much more is on the horizon and we can’t thank our community enough for allowing us to continue doing awesome things!

Now lastly we have our Production team, the Smash Attack Studios podcast, To Be Discussed. It’s funny to think that what started as a way for the team to help get over interview jitters and become more confident in talking into mics has become one of the things we are most known for.

This year the team hit even more listens on Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud as well as being accepted onto Spotify. With Dean’s time being more heavily devoted to game dev, we’ve been super lucky to be able to welcome Oli back to the team in his place.

And that about sums it up, it has been a really good year and we look forward to some more crazy adventures in 2023. Stay tuned for individual updates from our dev team, Down Tilt, and production team as things begin to ramp up in Q1 2023.

Til then, Happy New Year!

Smash Attack Aus Studio Update! Things are Changing!

from the studio

Hey everyone, it’s that fun time again for a studio update. Not necessarily a ShapeVS dev update but those are coming along as are the latest update and fixes. In this update, we want to talk about some internal changes and some goals we have for 2023. Let’s start with the biggest one, Temp/Dean, who is joining the team at Drop Bear Bytes!

Dean will be helping Drop Bear Bytes on some upcoming work around their game, Broken Roads, which you can wishlist currently on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1403440/Broken_Roads/) and is aiming for a 2023 release. While this is a huge update we did want to bring to attention the changes it will have around the development team and ShapeVS.

The biggest thing is that it won’t change how things are going. Drop Bear Bytes are allowing Dean to work on ShapeVS and other Smash Attack IPs part-time out-of-office hours, which if you know the history of Smash Attack is how we have usually made things as we juggle alternate work.

The timeline for ShapeVS content was designed around this so we aren’t expecting too much movement on the pipeline but will keep you all in touch of any large changes. Next up, Down Tilt!

It has been amazing to see the growth of the Down Tilt esports team in our new home at Optimal Gaming and we are looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring with some very big developments in the pipeline.

Other changes are around the introduction of Squad Strike events and the fact that we are also looking at expanding our roster of stages and rulesets to keep things fresh. This comes off the back of another amazing PR from Jai.

We will be looking at some expansions but can confirm that Down Tilt is now beginning the planning stages of a major for North Tas on the scale of something like Big Cheese or Phantom. We have some big sponsors and major players lined up already and are in our design process. That’s all we can say for now, but stay tuned.

On the line of productions, Oliver has re-joined the team, taking the spot of Dean in some episodes. We are currently planning a bunch of new episodes to start recording soon post some personal time away and other ventures (we all do this stuff in the free time we can find).

And that about wraps it up for the studio update. Remember ShapeVS is out now and we will have more ShapeVS news soon!

ShapeVS + Gravity Flux

from Smash Attack and Motley Pixels

We are just over one week out from the launch of ShapeVS and we are going to start the announcements early! We are teaming up with Motley Pixels who are releasing their local multiplayer game Gravity Flux on the same day as ShapeVS!

“As big fans of local multiplayer games ourselves, Gravity Flux is right up our alley!”

That’s right, not one but two new Tasmanian and Australian games going live on Steam on the 30th of September. We couldn’t be more excited for what the future holds for Motley Pixels and like we mentioned earlier we are teaming up with them, which means we will have Gravity Flux playable at the ShapeVS launch party as well.

“Wishlist here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2072520/Gravity_Flux/”

Check our more details here and keep an eye out for more information coming soon.

ShapeVS Launch Date Confirmation

From the ShapeVS team

Hello, testers,

We are happy to announce that ShapeVS, the all-new testing program from ShapeTECH, is launching on September 30th! It’s been a long journey but there are some things we want to keep you in the loop about.

Firstly, The launch version of ShapeVS early access is local multiplayer ONLY! This means up to 4 players can play on the one system, we are currently exploring online options but to make sure we get the core loop of each game down we are focusing on local for now.

Secondly, we are a small team and we have done testing on our machines but some little issues may have fallen through the cracks. If you are an early adopter of ShapeVS you can join Discord here (https://discord.gg/6pS2EVv) and post any issues you may have found.

Lastly, ShapeVS will be attending PAX Australia 2022 in Melbourne this year from the 7th to the 9th of October. We will be there with the launch version of ShapeVS and “fingers crossed” something else!

To those who are early adopters, thank you for everything! We look forward to crafting our little experience and watching it grow with you all.

For the benefit of society!

The Gamescom Debrief

from the ShapeVS team

There is going to be a lot to say here, it’s going to be a hefty breakdown. From all the people we have to thank for what we saw and the future of Smash Attack and ShapeVS. Gamescom 2022 was an experience that we will never forget, this debriefs will cover everything from thanks to our experience and what we got up to. So buckle in for this hell of a read!

“This is a very good-looking group of developers”

Firstly we want to thank Jens and the team over at the IGEA (click here to learn more) for sorting this all out in conjunction with all the states, Aus Trade, Gamescom and no doubt so many more people that were working very hard behind the scenes to get this opportunity for us. There truly aren’t enough words to thank everyone involved.

For us, we owe a huge thanks to Alex Sangston and the Screen Tas team and Tom Knight and the Trades Tas team for allowing us to come. Their support helped us conquer mountains and allowed us to thrive in this crazy event. Tom was on the ground with us and helped in various ways such as looking after the booth when doing meetings to providing advice and debriefings.

Thanks to everyone back home who supported us from friends and family to colleagues and so much more. The love from back home was amazing and really helped the team through the trip.

There are some developers we want to thank and we have a big section for that further down. Next up is our experience.

“Look at our little corner of the world”

Where do we even begin talking about our own experience, firstly for us it was the largest event we have ever taken part in. Definitely larger than our own AICon and huge in comparison to PAX Aus here at home. There were crazy numbers being thrown around from 350k to 450k to even 550k people coming through. Whilst we here personally don’t know the truth behind the stats it is crazy to think that, that many people were coming through those massive halls. (But seriously we have no idea how many people came).

Being in the business section of Gamescom was a huge opportunity for us as a team. Despite not having any clear goals and knowing our release plans it was an amazing chance to rub shoulders with some of the very best in the industry from amazing publishers to fantastic localisation teams. It definitely gave us a ton to think about.

Something we will cover later in this post is the plan moving forward, but the near-universal praise and support for ShapeVS were incredible. Being part of the Gamescom showcase on Steam blew us away and the wishlists that kept coming in were a huge boost for us. The presence and love we were shown helped us accomplish some great personal goals as well as crazy things like a Metacritic page.

Like seriously, we have one of these now.

“The validation and the reviews”

It’s crazy to think what has happened for us, from the media coverage on radio and print to speaking to so many different people it was such a crazy turn of events. From experiencing the business side to the consumer side and more Gamescom truly opened our eyes to what these tradeshows can truly be outside Supernova, AICon and PAX Aus.

Though speaking of people, we met a bunch!

From fellow Aussie developers to industry vets and so much more. Gamescom was truly a hub for all things gaming. We met people from Israel, Sweden, France, Germany (of course), America and so much more. Offering things from services to game houses and more.

It’s kind of mind-blowing how big the industry is outside of our little circle here and the offers available. But for us, three people really spring to mind and they are Liam Twose, Chris Wulf and Neil Rennison. These three individuals have done so much for ShapeVS and Smash Attack it is crazy and I can’t thank them enough. We will go over what Liam and Chris have done for us in another post but Neil was the one who helped us without funding and allowed us to start making ShapeVS.

From the bottom of our hearts thank you. And again thank you to everyone we met from those who came by to MeetToMatch and more. It was truly a great opportunity to meet you and I look forward to hopefully working with some of you in the near future.

“This isn’t even everyone”

Now despite everything that has happened and it all sounding very businessy, we did get to have some fun. On days four and five of Gamescom, we teamed up with some of the other Australian devs and had a go around Gamescom. We played games, watched some mad esports, bought a ton of cool things and overall had a blast. Here are some highlights:

Coming into Gamescom I had a singular focus outside the booth and work, PLAY STREET FIGHTER 6, and by golly did I. Teaming up with Josh from ULTIMATE Studios (see Hot Lap League below) we braved the masses and played some Street Fighter 6.

As you know Smash Attack has a big history in esports so to play the next iteration of an all-time classic fighting game series was amazing. Ryu and Luke were my options and Josh and I played to a 1 / 1 draw. We will have to catch up again to finish out Bo3.

Other games I played were some upcoming titles for Switch and consoles, honestly, so much of it was a blur but I do remember playing Sonic Frontier. That is definitely a game, not sure what Sonic Team is going for but this doesn’t feel like it chief.

“It ended 1 to 1, a stalemate”

Another surprising stand out for us was the Brawl Stars championship being held at Gamescom. On day 5 I teamed up with some of the LEET, Earthlingo and Hungry Sky teams to explore Gamescom and we came across this massive production stage for Brawl Stars.

Now I don’t know much about the game but the atmosphere was insane and electric, we couldn’t help but get pumped. I even installed the game to see what it was all about. It does give me plans for what I hope we can one day bring to Tasmania in the form of a fighting game major.

“From the huge stage to the crown and even the flying fox camera, the production value was crazy”

Some of the other really cool standouts came in the form of human claw machines, giant animatronic lego Bowsers, cool merch and so much more. But a massive highlight was learning about Headis and the RC Car Drifting events. Now Headis, is table tennis meets headers from Soccer/Football and it’s crazy. The world championship or such was on and it was some of the craziest back and forth I have ever seen. I have never wanted to know about something so much.

They were ducking, diving and whipping hair all over the place in some insane movement options. And from that to the other side opposite the cosplay village was the RC Drifting area. Mesmerising and crazy is all I can say. The precision these drivers had from the distance they were at was insane. The customisation options, decals and speed made for an extremely entertaining part of the day. Hidden from the masses but crowded nonetheless. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had considered purchasing one myself.

“Nothing beats an Italian man living in Germany making fantastic pizza”

Next up! Food, oh my oh my, what an insane trip for food. From Spaghetti Ice Cream on waffles to Five Guys burgers, from elevated McDonald’s and KFC to some absolutely phenomenal sausage and apple strudel. I don’t know how I came back the same weight I did.

Probably all the walking I did, but no matter, it was a crazy experience for Gamescom and the food alone. From the simple supermarkets to the amazing restaurants. The choices were out of this world and the customer service was always willing to help. Five Guys came out as the clear winner for me, we wait there a total of 5 different times with various groups and each time was awesome.

Ever had fries from Netherlands, Italy and Germany? No, I have and it’s awesome.

and finally a very important story about Currywurst, before our arrival we were told tales of this amazing dish. Curried sausage with a curry sauce served alongside chips and mayo. It sounded wonderful and we had already been treated to such amazing meals as talked about above. But behold, it was even more glorious than foretold and waiting til the last day of Gamescom made the wait so worthwhile.

“THE FAMOUS CURRYWURST”

There were also a lot of Pokemon cards, a few of us went to the German pre-release event of Lost Origin and got some amazing pulls with Josh’s Relaxo being a huge winner for us all. I came back with various pre-release packs, some German Fusion Strike and Astral Radiance. I got some great stuff to show off at the next TCG night at Optimal.

“All hail Relaxo!”

So yeah we got up to a lot but mainly we did some work, played some games and ate some great food I know we covered it above, but again a huge part of the experience was the teams we got to hang out with and meet. Truly Australia is an amazing place for development. Again I can’t thank Jens and the IGEA, Aus Trade and everyone else who was involved enough for the opportunity. Thanks to Screen Tas and Trades Tas again for allowing us to go. Here I wanna break down some of the teams we met and hung out with who helped shape our Gamescom experience.

CONSCRIPT - WISHLIST HERE

CONSCRIPT is a game that I have personally been following for years so to actually meet the developer was a huge fanboi moment (legit, not joking). Jordan was an absolute champion from being my tourist buddy to my walking pal to and from Gamescom it was good to team up with another solo dev and enjoy the show together. As for the game, CONSCRIPT continues to impress and the numerous people who came to play are a real testament to Jordan’s hard work. Follow here on Twitter to keep up to date on development.

Earthlingo - DOWNLOAD HERE

Earthlingo was my surprise hit of the convention, a truly awesome and unique learning experience wrapped in some common gameplay ideas tweaked around learning. When in Germany, learn German and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Earthlingo. Having now downloaded it on my PC and iPhone it has been great as a little time sync. Personally, I am finding I am getting more out of this than something like Duolingo and I can’t wait to see what else the team has to offer. Links and more are available here.

Nekograms - DOWNLOAD LINKS

The ever-amazing two-for-one, Nekograms and Earthlingo being side by side was an amazing personal find. This adorable mobile puzzle game not only has a fantastic art style, and sleek gameplay but also a fantastic team. Lauren and Minh were absolutely amazing people and I am very glad to have met them. Lauren is too kind and chased me down with a code for the game. I highly recommend dropping the cash for this fantastic title. Catch them at PAX Aus 2022 as well! Check out this cute video!

Hot Lap League - DOWNLOAD HERE

The baby sitter game, as Hot Lap League was jokingly called at our time at Gamescom. Whenever someone needed a break you could find them right behind this fast-paced Australian Trackmania. Recently, released on PC. Hot Lap League is all the fun without any of the rubbish. Fast, compelling and built on the one more try drive it is definitely one to pick up either in its premium form on PC or its mobile counterpart which can be found here (iPhone / Android).

Drop Bear Bytes - WISHLIST HERE

Another game I have been following for a long time has been Broken Roads, I had the immense pleasure of meeting his team in 2019 and to see how far they have come has truly been amazing. I have nothing but respect and adoration for this team and what they are doing with an Australian-themed RPG in the vein of Fallout 2, Pillars of Eternity and the like. Being a huge fan of the genre I am so excited to see where this game goes and with a new publisher on board I know that the future is very bright. Well done to Craig and the team. You can keep up to date on the game here.

Toast VR - AVAILABLE HERE

Now I am not usually a huge VR guy, but I must say I had a blast with Richie’s Plank Experience. From throwing cake at birds to falling towards the earth at like Mach 50 (not really). It was a great and unique experience for me. Even cooler is they had an actual plank at the booth. If you are into VR, I highly recommend picking this one up and the team were super awesome. You can learn more about the Toast team here.

TopplePOP - WISHLIST HERE

Unlike Conscript and Broken Roads, I have had the pleasure of knowing Dan through PAX and other ventures and Topple Pop is looking more and more fantastic as time goes by. Dan is just an absolutely fantastic guy always with a smile and support. To see him and his team’s hard work pay off in this awesome game is great. When run off my feet it was great to just watch the CPUs or Dan play. It’s gotta beauty about it and an air of easy to play, hard to master, which always draws me in. You can keep up to date with the game on Twitter.

Blowfish Studios - TWITTER LINK

A staple of Australian game development it was fantastic to meet some members of the team again and just talk industry, games and the future. It was fantastic to see what they are working on from new tech to traditional games and more. Always busy and with friendly faces, it was great to just catch up throughout the convention to have debriefs and chats. Thank you again to Ash and the team for dealing with me in my hyper-stressed state!

Massive Monster - CULT OF THE LAMB HERE!

You’ve heard about it, you may have played it and by golly does it live up to the hype. As a proud owner of Cult of the Lamb and supporter of Massive Monster since meeting the team with their game The Adventure Pals, which I also highly recommend, the success Julian and his team have had is well deserved. Seeing reactions to the game live was something that I can only dream ShapeVS gets like 1% of. The game is fantastic, the team awesome and I can’t wait to jump back into the game once home. You can keep up to date with the game here.

“Julian even put out a cool little shout-out for our streamer friend Jai2go”

Darkweb Streamer - LEARN MORE HERE

DO YOU LIKE SPOOP? DO YOU LIKE COOL-LOOKING GAMES? Well, do I have the game for you! Undoubtedly the most unique game I had the pleasure of checking out was Darkweb Streamer. Seriously, just go look at the itch page in the link above or check out the trailer below. This is 100% one to watch out for. Darkweb Streamer post-Gamescom had my curiosity, now it demands my attention and I can’t wait to see what Chantal and the team manage to accomplish. Follow the development of the game here.

SpaceDraft - LEARN MORE

Lucy Cooke is an absolute weapon, that’s all I have to say. From one overheard conversation she had me sold on SpaceDraft and I can’t wait to implement its design work in the planning of our next project. Interactive Game Design Documentation, that’s it, that’s the pitch and it’s awesome. The team were great and we had an amazing evening on Sunday catching up and eating some Five Guys. Look out for this tool on the horizon, especially if you are doing game development. I finally might get to stop using Canva. Click the learn more link to check it out!

LEET

Now sadly Kane and Nick don’t have many links for me to use but these two absolute legends were some of the best company anyone could ask for at a convention and as we explored Germany. They are working on some really cool VR tech with a custom engine and I can’t wait to see how they evolve.

Secret Lab - TWITTER LINK

And last but not least, our very own Tasmanian team, Secret Lab (not the chairs), came with the amazing Yarn Spinner tool. They are my pseudo-game dev dads who have helped me in so many ways. They continue to amaze with what they are working on and every amount of success they very much deserve. Thank you for the support and check out Yarn Spinner (by clicking here).

“Yarn Spinner is truly something special and so is the team” - Photo by Paris

So after a rousing Gamescom 2022, we are already planning to be on the road again. Myself and some of the team are gearing up for a trip to Melbourne to attend PAX Aus 2022 alongside various other Tasmanian developers. For us, this trip is about catching up with other devs and really engaging with fans, both old and new.

We can’t wait to showcase our “fingers crossed” launch version of ShapeVS as well as some other secrets. It’s going to be a huge event and if you are attending we hope to see you there. Come say hi, play some ShapeVS or just come talk shit.

And that about wraps it up, I did say it was going to be a big one! Thank you again to everyone involved in making this happen. Please click on the links above to see some of the amazing talents that is in our local scene. Til the next update.

“Flavour text!”

Don’t forget that you can wishlist ShapeVS on Steam as well as we count down the days.

For the betterment of society!

See ya!

ShapeVS is going international!

from the game dev team

Why not use #screenshotsaturday to announce that we and ShapeVS are going to Gamescom in Germany It's a super exciting opportunity and we can't thank Screen Tasmania and the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) enough for this! Feel free to reach out to learn more otherwise stay tuned to some posts!

Group Interview + New Cards

from the Group Interview team!

Hey everyone! Just a quick Group Interview update!

We want to firstly thank everyone who has downloaded and played our little side project. It has actually blown us away how many people have asked about it. Today we want to announce a small update that we will be rolling out soon.

“You can download Group Interview here: smashattack.itch.io/group-interview-the-card-game”

This small update will release a few extra cards and some small fixes to grammar and lay outs. The feedback of the game has been awesome and we thank you for constantly wanting to check out the game.

Over the course of it’s life time we hope to roll out small updates and hey, if you want to see something more legit who knows. But for now it’s been a great little side project for the team.

“Sneak peek of a new card!”

Thank you for checking out today’s update, we hope to have some more news soon and look out for some very exciting ShapeVS news coming soon!

From the Desk of Dr. Reginal Pearce

Welcome to Group Interview: The Game

from Smash Attack

It may be April Fools, but this is no joke, we released a card game… THAT YOU CAN PLAY NOW!

Download Group Interview: The Game Here

Dungeons and Dragons meet Cards Against Humanity is probably the best way we can put this. It’s all there to download and play but let’s run over some of the basics. It’s hopefully pretty easy.

Group Interview can be played with up to five people with one taking on the role of the Interviewer (think Dungeon Master or Black Card in CAH) with the rest taking on the role of Prospects (players). The goal is simple:

Get the job and win the interview!

This is done by the players taking on personas via the resumes (or their own ones) and whilst in character answering questions about a job.

“This game came about from real life interview stories from friends and family”

Obviously, there is a fair bit more and we may go over that but if you want to know more the best thing would be to download the game and play it yourselves. We are excited to see what happens with Group Interview as for us it was a fun side project whilst we continue to work on ShapeVS.

Who knows something might come of this but for now download it, check it, gives your thoughts and happy April Fools!

Something different!

from the Smash Attack Team

ShapeVS Wishlist is Out!

from the ShapeVS Team

It’s here! The time has come! The wishlist is here now! After so long, we are one step closer to launch with ShapeVS hitting the Steam store. Thank you to everyone who has supported us this far, we are working to get the game out into early access and then from their build upon the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575750/ShapeVS/

Thank you again!