Asteroid Base

GDC 2014 was yet another amazing experience for us here at Asteroid Base. Going in, we didn’t think we could top our stint in the IGF and at Unity’s booth last year, but after five days at the Indie MEGABOOTH and a day in the OMDC GDC Play booth, talking to hundreds of developers, our minds were pretty blown.
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Hey Friends!
Asteroid Base is off to GDC for the week, and we will have a new demo of Lovers in A Dangerous Spacetime for all to play.

What’s new?
Well, if you’ve ever played the game before, we will be debuting loads of new content: New levels, new bosses, new baddies, and a new 1 Player mode where you team up with a loyal space-pet.

The game will be at the Indie MEGABOOTH Showcase all week on the 3rd floor of the Moscone West Hall. For those of you who would like to meet with us, we will be there on Thursday March 20th from 2PM – 4PM.
More info at Indie MEGABOOTH.

Additionally, we will be demoing the game at the Ontario OMDC booth at GDC Play on Wednesday March 19th from 2PM – 4PM and we will also be available then to talk and meet with everyone.

Demo Times:
Monday – Friday: Indie MEGABOOTH, 3rd Floor Moscone West Hall
Wednesday, 2PM – 4PM: Ontario OMDC booth, GDC Play – Booth PL 306

Meeting Times:
Wednesday, 2PM – 4PM: Ontario OMDC booth, GDC Play – Booth PL 306
Thursday, 2PM – 4PM: Indie MEGABOOTH, 3rd Floor Moscone West Hall

If you wish to contact us to arrange another meeting please email us at info@asteroidbase.com

See you there!

So 2013 was a crazy year.

Last January, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime was admittedly a side project, something small that we were planning to tie off quickly, since the three of us were all busy with our paying jobs. And then IGF happened, and then PAX 10 happened, and it was an amazing experience to see real live strangers playing our game and responding to it. Throughout the year, the more effort we put into the game, the more we seemed to get out of it.

It was in the spring, after IGF, that we started thinking that maybe somehow Lovers could one day grow up and be a real game, so we dove back into design work and came up with a more robust spec. As well, we went through all the super fun legal processes to make Asteroid Base into a real company, while still keeping up our other contract gigs.

For a while, this part-time development style worked great, because it allowed us to ease into the whole indie game studio thing. But needless to say, working part-time and rejigging the scope has ended up making the dev process take longer than we originally planned—-sorry about that!

So finally, to ring in the new year, we’re pleased to announce that going forward, we’re going to be focusing 100% of our time on Lovers. All we can say is that we think the wait will be worth it when it’s finally done!

Last week we had a nice long chat with the podcast Guys With Pencils, and the episode is out now! I love their show (they interview artists and animators and game designers and folks like that) so it was super cool to be part of it. We tried hard to avoid talking about our illustrious mayor Rob Ford–find out how successful we were here.

Phew! I think we’re finally recovered from all the craziness that was PAX Prime, so now I’m able to actually write about it. As you may or may not know, our experience at PAX came about because we were selected as part of the PAX 10. It was a really great honour to be picked and shown alongside the likes of Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche, Badland, Escape Goat 2, Gunpoint, Owlboy, Ridiculous Fishing, Rogue Legacy, Sokobond and Towerfall.

Image curtesy Cellar Door Games

One of the best parts about showing at PAX had to have been seeing couples come up to play Lovers. At several points during the weekend we would have a whole lineup of couples waiting to play. The process was all very similar each time: They would talk strategy before they sat down, they would play the game, and they would leave arguing. Mwahaha. Ryan Letourneau (Northernlion)’s PAX @ Home serves as a preview of the arguing that I hope will become the staple.

Another highlight was when James Portnow from Extra Credits surprised us with the Extra Credits Innovation Award. It came with a hefty trophy that is now being fought over by Matt and Adam.

Extra Credits Innovation Award 2013

After PAX wrapped, we had one last day in Seattle, so we checked out the EMP Museum. It was cool to see three of the inspirations for Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime all within 10 feet of each other in the sci-fi exhibit:

And finally, press! At PAX we talked to a bunch of nice press folks, which is always great for an indie studio. Here’s a round-up of some responses people had to Lovers.
Penny Arcade Report – Feature
Giant Bomb Panel – shoutout from Alex Navarro
Games Radar – Best of PAX 2013
Game Trailers – Indie Game Manual: PAX Prime Edition
Sprong – Preview
Warp Zone Paxpocalypse – Best of PAX Prime 2013

We’re happy to announce that Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime has been chosen as an Official Selection for IndieCade’s Night Games programming. The party will start at 8pm in the IndieCade Village and Lovers will take the stage at 9pm.

Quick update–if you’re at FanExpo in Toronto this Sunday, stop by the Bento Miso/DMG community booth to play a bunch of rad games, including Lovers. We’ll be there on Sunday, showing some of the new stuff we’ve been working on, in booth 1941.

And then next weekend we’re flying out to Seattle for PAX, where Lovers is part of the PAX 10!

Okay, back to crunch time.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted any screens. Here are a couple showing some of the planets you’ll discover, populated by happy little animal friends who can upgrade your ship unless you destroy them with lasers (accidentally of course).

And here, the planet of the birdfolk has been occupied by evil drill-foot tanks, oh dear! Also yes they all have the ability to walk on gas planets somehow; it’s the future.

In other news, TowerFall for OUYA is terrific. That, along with the brilliant multiplayer minigames in Nintendo Land, have kept us shouting heartily at each other lately. Long live local multiplayer.

Thanks to IndieCade, we are super excited to be able to announce that we will be exhibiting Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime at E3 from June 11–13.
You will be able to find us at Booth #3035 in the South Hall along with over 35 other great games. Full list below.

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If you’re in Melbourne on June 1st, come out and play Lovers along with Bari Bari Ball, Tower Fall, and Filo Filo Disco.
// Hovergarden