Flashbang Studios has built a solid reputation for releasing fun and original games on Blurst.com.
Who Are You?
We are Flashbang Studios. We make games based on stuff we like: physics, dinosaurs, puns, and tentacles. Our interests are always changing, and we're cranking out a new game every eight weeks to release on Blurst.com.
How Did You Start Using Unity?
The tool that we had been using for five or six years was acquired, and the new company started taking it in a direction that didn't work for us so we decided that we had to jump tech. Based on the recommendation of another user, we bought an iMac to check out Unity. This was during the 3DU contest, and we used it as an excuse to evaluate the product and make a game. The short version of the story is that we discovered that Unity does everything that our previous tool did, only better.
On top of that, the people behind Unity are rad. The more we know about them, the more we like them and the better we feel about putting in our lot with them — and that is really what you are doing when you are evaluating a technology, you are putting in your lot with that technology. So this is our future, and we like the answers when we ask ourselves if Unity is going to keep kicking ass and if the developers are going to continue to be around and accessible.
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What Are You Working On?
We really ramped up our Unity use around 2.0. At the time, the terrain system was new, so the goal was to do a vehicle physics terrain test. I think it was Adam and Matt who had the same idea, or a very similar idea. One was like "how about a game with a jeep and you catch raptors?" and the other was like "I was thinking raptors and an ATV". The rest of us just kind of hopped on board and we came up with all this stuff — like a raptor with a monocle and a pith helmet and sending raptors forward in time for delicious raptor meat. It is the kind of game that a 14 year old might make if they had 6 years of game development experience. Not that we are intending to be juvenile, it is just that it is a concept that amused us enough to dedicate eight weeks of development time.
With Blurst.com, we are using this enthusiasm-driven development cycle that started with Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, and we are intentionally cutting off development for each game after eight weeks when the core of the game is present, playable and understandable. Then we will do another one, and another one, and another one. The idea is that we can make the games that we want to make indefinitely, and it becomes this self-perpetuating cycle of awesome that never ends.
What Kind of Reaction Have You Had?
Well, our top 1,000 players have all played over 100 games, and the number one player has played more than 2,100. The game is fixed to four minutes and we don't record partial games, so he may have started and quit many games when he realized he wasn't getting the score that he wanted. So Raptor Safari has had over 800,000 games with 200,000 players. We actually track every stat in the game, and have had over 5,000,000 raptors killed.
Even though those are impressive numbers, there are Flash games out there with millions upon millions of games in each individual portal that they are at. I think that the real indicator of success is the forum threads about Raptor Safari. Because invariably, every single one goes the same way. The first post is like "This is the most awesome idea that I've ever heard of," and then the second one is like "This is the most retarded idea that I've ever heard of (lol, I'll totally play it)," and then third person is like "Those aren't actual raptors, they have feathers," and then the fourth person is like "Actually, the latest velociraptor research indicates that all velociraptors had feathers". It warms our cold paleontological hearts.
