First things first: Sushi Castle is a Binding of Isaac clone.
We totally acknowledge it, and there’s even a link on the game’s page that sends you to Binding of Isaac on Steam so that you can buy it. Our goal was to make a shorter game at a cheaper price, and we don’t think it competes directly with BoI at all, they’re on totally different levels.
We had the chance to work with an amateur artist for some months and we really wanted to play a game like BoI on the Xbox (that’s our main gaming platform), so we though it would be a great experience to make a similar game on it. We think the results are really good being this his first game and doing the whole game from the ground up was a great experience for everyone involved.
We also love Binding of Isaac (and Super Meat Boy too, you can check our Gamerscores) and if you’re a PC gamer you should totally buy it, right now it’s on the Steam sales. Actually, doing this game has increased our respect for Binding of Isaac a lot.
Both Edmund and Florian did an awesome job and they took really smart decisions on a lot of things. For example character design and customization is done in a way that saves lots of frames of animation. We modified those parts in our game because we thought that they were unique on BoI, and we wanted to keep it that way.
TARGET AUDIENCE
We made this game for the people that can’t buy BoI or wants more of that kind of gameplay. There are kids that can’t play the game on PC (they don’t have Steam accounts), and also our game is way less disturbing than Isaac (I like Edmund’s twisted style, but it would be a little too much for a 10 year old to play, I think).
Furthermore, my main computer is a Core2Duo with an NVidia 9600GT and BoI runs fairly bad on it when there’s a lot on screen. It’s totally understandable because it’s a Flash game (and actually it runs well if you consider all that is going on at once sometimes), but we made a game that runs really fluid on the console (60 FPS most of the time), so it’s also an alternative for people that don’t have a PC powerful enough.
GAMEPLAY
We prefer to retain the feeling of the game and add our own modifications to the mechanics . For example, we had to use a dual stick control scheme, because on the Xbox we must use a gamepad, so we decided to remove the bullet inertia. It just felt weird with the dual stick controls.
By doing that the shooting becomes snappier and the battles are faster. The shooting angles were limited to eight, basically because the artist had to draw lots of frames of animation already, so we balanced the enemies and the gameplay in general to account for it.
Two of the bosses are really clones to bosses in BoI (the sumo guy and the samurai) but the other ten were completely designed from scratch. There can be some similarities on those, but they weren’t intentionate. The rest of the game is done in a similar way, many of the first level enemies are mostly clones of BoI, but later enemies aren’t.
The same is true for other things in the game: we started with some clone items to have the game up and running, to be able to test it as soon as possible, but then we added many items that weren’t copied. We also tweaked most things to balance the gameplay and smooth the difficulty curve (although it’s still a difficult game).
We also added some new types of rooms like night rooms or 8-bit rooms, and include improvements like showing the character stats on the main interface (to be able to compare the items’ effects on the player).
DLC PLANS AND PRICING
The DLC milestones are done using our sale estimates, and you can see we weren’t planning to become rich. In fact, we haven’t reached the first milestone yet. Also, all the “DLC” will be released as free updates to the game, as a way to thank the players for their support. It’s not the first time we do that, both Little Racers were enhanced with online modes after they reached a number of sales, but it’s the first time we show the updates on the game itself.
We received some comments demanding that we should have released Sushi Castle for free. You can afford that if you’re doing it as a hobby but we’re trying to make a living of developing games. We can’t even do that, it’s not possible to release free games on the XBLIG Marketplace.
In fact, there’ also people that asked us to increase the price of some of our games, that they we’re too cheap for what they offered. Sadly, we shouldn’t do that, because to be on the “Top Downloads” chart, your best bet is to sell the game at 80MSP ($1). In that case, we recommend people to buy some of our other games to support us.
THE NEAR FUTURE AND CONCLUSSION
Our future plans rely on Steam Greenlight, because our most beloved games (and the ones with more fans, judging by the player response) are sadly not our best selling titles on XBLIG. We have many ideas that we would like to try on new games (we have an internal wiki filled with stuff), but we also think we need more experience before tackling a big and risky project (always within the limits of a small studio).
Making games is our dream job, but we still have to pay the bills, so we don’t always get to do the games we would want to do. But we try really hard to make our games as fun and polished as we can. Because when the day is off and we arrive at home, we’re gamers just as everyone else.
As you might think, we would prefer to be releasing a completely original game each month, but it’s hard to keep a young company profitable here in Spain. Some persons even said that we should get killed for cloning games, or even worse. Please try to put youself in our shoes and hope that we get the chance to do more unique games, because we would love to.
Milkstone Studios proudly presents Sushi Castle, the biggest game they’ve ever made! After months of hard work, they have come up with an arcade dungeon crawler like no other (on the Xbox 360)!
Sushi Castle features dual stick shooting on randomly generated dungeons! With more than 25 unique enemies, 12 bosses and tons of equipment, you’ll need at least 5 playthroughs to witness all the content this game has to offer!
Focusing on simple, fluid gameplay and neat visuals, Sushi Castle will get you hooked to your gamepad until you complete your quest – or die trying! Learn new techniques and strategies as you play, to overcome all the challenges this game has to offer!
Sushi Castle is available now on Xbox Indies for just 80MP (That’s $1). But there’s more! We know you will love this game as much as we do, so we’ve committed to improve the game with even more content when some sales target are met.
So don’t hesitate and join the Ninja bloodfest extravaganza!
Milkstone Studios es una joven empresa asturiana de desarrollo de juegos independientes. Con más de 15 juegos publicados para la Xbox en los últimos 3 años, nos enfocamos en desarrollos de juegos sencillos y cortos, asegurando un nivel de calidad y cohesión para destacar en la plataforma Xbox Indie Games.
Buscamos a un modelador/modeladora/grafisto/grafista para encargarse del componente gráfico de nuestros juegos. Se encargará de todos los aspectos relacionados con el arte visual del juego: Personajes, fondos, menús…
En principio necesitamos a alguien capacitado para trabajar tanto en 2D como 3D, aunque si destacas en uno de los dos campos puedes intentarlo también. Si crees que puedes mejorar visualmente nuestros juegos, te invitamos a enviar tu CV.
Indispensable:
Pasión por los videojuegos, tanto a nivel de creador como de jugador. Si no sabes quién es Megaman o qué es un Quick Time Event, abstente.
Conocimientos de Modelado 3D (Lowpoly) y/o Grafismo 2D (Vectorial o Raster).
Desplazamiento a nuestra oficina en Oviedo
Se valorará:
Calidad del portfolio.
Experiencia con Animación 2D / 3D.
Experiencia en Texturizado 3D.
Nociones de diseño 2D (Menús, Logos, Box art …)
Conocimientos de Inglés (Sobre todo Lectura/Escritura)
Ofrecemos:
Contrato indefinido tras periodo de prueba.
Salario bruto: 15.000€ , con bonificaciones según éxito de los juegos.
Libertad de horarios.
Peso en la toma de decisiones de la empresa y sus proyectos.
Ambiente de trabajo relajado: Sin clientes, sin fechas de entrega fijas.
Interesados enviar CV y portfolio a jobs@milkstonestudios.com
The 1.5 update for Avatar Farm got approved last week, but we we’ve been too busy to post it until now.
This update features the following changes:
Updated to the latest engine version, which should bring more performance and stability to the game.
Now you can run if you press the right trigger
When you can’t perform an action (such as trying to plant something too expensive), the reason is shown on screen.
The simulation speed when the game is not running can be reduced, or even disabled, on the settings.
Improved savegame autobackup system (2 backups are stored instead of 1).
The item currently being planted/placed is shown on the top left corner.
This should get rid, or at least dramatically reduce, the freeze issues many people were experiencing. Note: The engine update has a minor side effect: Due to a change in the game data saving system, Game settings and highscores saved on previous versions are ignored (No effect on actual saved games, don’t panic!). This means you will have to set again Music/Sound volume settings, etc. As for the highscores, they will be reshared once you start playing, so there should be no problem at all.
We have some more ideas for the next update, if the game keeps selling at a steady pace. Until then, have fun!
Firing Range 2, the sequel to the best aiming trainer in Xbox LIVE Indie Games (and probably the game with the best FPS controls of the Indie Marketplace) is finally out!
You can download it directly to your xbox via this link.
Check out the trailer to see some of the new features:
Four different weapon categories with 3 guns per category, online 1vs1 multiplayer, new weapon skins, a completely new training location, many different targets to hit and a fast-paced gameplay makes this aiming trainer a blast to play!
You should totally check this one out, and for just 80 MSP (1$) it’s a steal! Remember to give it a good rating on the Xbox Marketplace to help spread word!
After a long delay, Little Racers STREET 1.2 has been approved and is available for download. It features the following changes and additions:
New feature: Time trial. Now you can practice an event and go for a lap record anytime you like.
2 New Camera modes: Rotating (A bit like cenital, but it always looks in the direction you are going) and Chase (A more typical racing game camera. This is more for show and fun than it is useful though!)
Fixed “Show Gamercard” not working on the multiplayer lobby
Fixed some multiplayer related crashes.
Player count HUD is properly updated when a player leaves
Selecting players in lobby works properly after joining a game in progress.
Now you can’t go back while finding games until the process is finished (could cause some stability issues). A message is shown in this case. We are aware this process can take some time (around 45 seconds), but we can’t do much about that.
Added a time limit of 10 seconds for each race results screen when in multiplayer.
Now games can be hosted/joined even for performance classes you don’t own yet: A stock car can be selected in this case.
Added 12 new tracks (approx. 45 new events), some of them with crosses for increased fun :).
New feature: Multiplayer games will be filled with AI cars if there aren’t enough players (Quick race has a default value of 6). With this, races will start even with just 1 player (he can race against AIs while he waits for people to join).
Custom multiplayer games (the ones created via the “Host game” menu) now require the host to press Start before the first race (this way, he can wait for friends to join before starting).
The HUD hides when you complete the race.
Fixed a crash when a host migration was performed on the lobby screen after a race.
Reworked the background tasks system (Hopefully fixing the P2P sharing freeze issue, and hopefully not creating new issues in the process :S ).
Gameplay should be smoother during P2P score shares.
Fixed a crash when kicking a player under some circumstances.
You’ll be prompted to download the game the next time you launch it.
Note: Multiplayer mode is not compatible between 1.1 and 1.2 : Games of different versions won’t appear when searching. You could be able to join 1.1 games via invites or guide, but it’s not going to work. Please update as soon as possible.
Little Racers STREET 1.2 update has been submitted for approval. It features the following changes:
New feature: Time trial. Now you can practice an event and go for a lap record anytime you like.
Fixed “Show Gamercard” not working on the multiplayer lobby
Fixed some multiplayer crashes.
Player count HUD is properly updated when a player leaves
Selecting players in lobby works properly after joining a game in progress.
Now you can’t go back while finding games until the process is finished (could cause some stability issues). A message is shown in this case.
Added a time limit of 10 seconds for each race results screen when in multiplayer.
Now games can be hosted/joined even for performance classes you don’t own yet: A stock car can be selected in this case.
Added 12 new tracks (approx. 45 new events), some of them with crosses for increased fun :).
New feature: Multiplayer games will be filled with AI cars if there aren’t enough players (Quick race has a default value of 6). With this, races will start even with just 1 player (he can race against AIs while he waits for people to join).
Custom multiplayer games (the ones created via the “Host game” menu) now require the host to press Start before the first race (this way, he can wait for friends to join before starting).
The update should be approved and available for download someday next week.
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