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Submitted by , posted on 11 October 2002
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Image Description, by
21-6 Productions has been working hard this last year to start a game
development studio from the ground up. Today we are proud to announce
the fruits of that labor with the release of our first game called
Cyclone! Cyclone is a fun and addictive puzzle/arcade game that the
whole family is sure to enjoy.
You can download a free demo version of Cyclone from RealOne Arcade
using the following link:
http://realguide.real.com/games/?s=game_download&sub=cyclone
Cyclone was built in about 3 months using C++, DirectX, and the
OGG/Vorbis SDK. Much of that time was spent building a re-usable 2D
game engine for our future games of this nature. The team consisted of
a designer, a programmer, and a sound engineer. The artwork was done by
the designer, programmer, and a little help from a friend (on the user
interface skin). One of the biggest challenges in developing the 2D
engine was getting it to run well on really old hardware - which allows
for mass distribution.
The other side of this project consisted of finding a publisher and
getting a good deal. Since it is our first published game as 21-6
Productions, we stumbled a bit in this arena but ultimately decided to
launch with RealOne Arcade. Real Networks offered a complete Beta test
(with 1000 testers), a tech-test on old hardware configurations, a
60-minute demo wrapper, pirate-protection (via their RealOne Arcade
client), and finally they provided a great deal of marketing materials
like an instructional video. Unfortunately, it took about 10 weeks to
go through the whole process and get the game out on the shelves.
Cyclone is really an experiment for 21-6 to see if these mini-games can
generate the kind of revenue which many people believe they can. The
most rewarding part of the project, however, was actually completing and
shipping a game.
We would love to know what you think of our first game so please don't
hesitate to give us feedback on your Cyclone experiences. We hope you have as much fun playing it as we had
building it!
To learn more about 21-6, please visit our web site at
http://www.21-6.com. If you are interested in receiving further updates
on our progress - you can join our mailing list at
http://www.21-6.com/subscribe.asp.
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