As you may have noticed, things have been pretty quiet around here recently.  We've been working hard on some big changes that we will be unveiling over the next month.  Here are some of the things you can expect:

- Portfolios for anything game related.  Artists, musicians, writers, and anyone else who has something to contribute to game development will be able to upload their work to their own portfolio pages.  Developers can link art, sound, 3D models, or even code to the games they make.  People can look through these files to get a peek into the development process.  

- Instant play for downloadable games.  Players will be able to download, install, and launch downloadable games with a single click from the site.  Now Flash games won't be getting all the plays!

- Better community tools.  The forums, profiles, friend system, and commenting system will be getting an aesthetic and functional overhaul.

- More articles.  Indie news, development articles, and tutorials will be posted regularly.

- New points system.  This new system will reward active community members with prizes.

- And of course: more contests!  We've got even bigger prizes for our upcoming contests and giveaways.

These features will be unfolding over the upcoming weeks, and will mostly all be released by early April.  We will also be doing a lot more to increase our visibility, so this is a good chance for developers to reach a big audience and for players to experience a wave of great new games.  Let us know if there's anything else you'd like to see!  We want to make 2BeeGames the number one place to be for indie game developers and players.

Here’s a great megainterview of Grand Prize Winner, TwO Bros games. I combined our interview along with Joystiq’s.
 

What is TwO Bros Games? Are you really brothers ;p?

Yes we are brothers, Tim is 23 and Orion Arata is 20.

Which brother was initially responsible for starting your work as game developers? What are each of your roles?

Tim: I come up with all the ideas. In making this game, I came up with the concept, game design, and I designed all the levels. Basically, I tell Orion what to do.

Orion: I deal with all things technical. I really enjoy making all the art in the game, but I also do everything else: I did all the programming, graphics, sound, animation -- basically I get bossed around by Tim.

Tony: Ouch, tough deal you got there Orion! ;)

We have been kicking around different game projects for a few years, but this is the first one in awhile that we've been dedicated to.
Our only other completed game was "Bloo Land", we finished 2 years ago.

This might seem like a silly question, considering the game's title, but, what exactly is the goal in Climb to the Top of the Castle?

The goal in the game is obviously to climb to the top of the castle and die a lot!

Tony: Yes and die a lot we did! The game is brutally hard!

The game is simplistic by design, so what's its defining attribute?

As far as what makes the game stand out, besides the visuals, there just aren't many classic 2D-style games out there, it's kind of like with Shadow Complex: the game innovates with old ideas.

Tony: I love the hand drawn art style!

Name some inspirations for the game's design.

There where a lot of inspirations for Climb to the Top of the Castle. I guess the main reason was the desire to make an old-school-style platformer with a persistent goal to reach. A few games that influenced the idea were Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Braid, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

As far as people we admire in the industry, you have to start with Shigeru Miramoto, also Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, among others. And in indie games, Jonathan Blow is inspiring. As a whole, we think the indie game industry is pretty exciting right now.

We built the game with Game Maker, and other tools we used were Photoshop, Audacity, Blender, Pencil, Paper ... Some of the sounds we recorded ourselves, the rest we got from freesound.org

I think our love for games started when we got the N64, with games like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Fox 64...
We where instantly inspired and where coming up with our own ideas.
Recently we really enjoyed Batman Arkham Asylum, and look forward to playing other big Holiday releases.

What console platforms are you targeting? What changes might we see in the console version?

I think the best platform for the game would be the PS3 (thanks for nothing, 360 D-Pad!). Maybe even the PSP. One of the changes we would like to make is to respawn you when you die.

What key challenges do indie developers face today? What kind of advice can you offer them?

I think it's a pretty good time to be an indie developer right now. It's important to be very creative, but not necessarily with a really crazy concept. I think something like Assassin's Creed is just as creative as something like Katamari, just in a different way.

bonus points for the rad TMNT and marvel stuff on top of the pc!

Whats next for you guys?
Right now we are busy working on this game, but we always have ideas for future projects.

Anything to say to your fans?
We would really like to thank everyone that played the game!

By Nathan Fouts, President of Mommy’s Best Games, Inc. Check out our dev log.

Probably the biggest hurdle in indie game development isn’t coding the best pixel shader, or the most perceptive artificial intelligence, or the smoothest animation—it’s actually completing the entire game that’s the trouble.

You may be thinking “of course that’s the hard part—that’s what I’m working on!” Well, yes, and no. Without sounding too philosophical, you’re working on the *new* version of your game, not the one you started with originally.

That’s a good thing! The game design has to evolve over time, allowing for constructive criticism from friends, family, and fans, but the problem is you have to actually wrap it up at some point. Too much “feature creep” can bloat your game project and make it feel impossible to complete.

I’ve seen, played, and read about too many indie projects that started out fun-sounding and reasonable, but then quickly expanded into the most expansive, most enthralling, realistic, all-encompassing, RTSMMORPGFPS puzzle-fighter the world has ever known. Obviously those projects have stalled. And it’s not just a matter of hyperbolic situations of including too many genres, I know of many games that just have too much designed, even though they’re not huge games, than the developer can ever finish.

I think a lot of indie developers think “I have to make my first game *perfect* or no one will want to play my future games!” The sad reality is that’s true. If you release something that’s not perfect, no one will ever, ever, ever, want to play anything you make and your name will be permanently besmirched.

For Arrested Development fans out there—

Of course that’s not true--if your game is terrible or just mediocre most likely everyone will simply ignore it. When you do make something awesome, they’ll forget about your early stuff (if they ever knew) and still praise you. Look at Jonathan Blow’s home page here. I had no idea he posted those game prototypes so long ago (though they do sound neat). And yet, you, me, and everyone else knows about Braid!

Now you may be thinking “But I don’t want to compromise my artistic integrity”. That’s awesome; you probably don’t need my advice, and will do perfectly fine spending 5 years on your Cave Story. But before ‘Pixel’ made Cave Story he made “Squid Kid”. Not as well-known, and yet he cut his teeth on it, and invariably learned a lot to prepare for CS.

The knowledge and experience gained in every aspect of game development and marketing from actually finishing a game is enormous. Especially if you’re a one or two person group, after you’ve had to create menus, UI, level serialization, character animation, mouse handling, game press contacting, AI writing, screenshot taking, and trailer making, you will literally have transformed into different people from those who that started the project.

Finishing Weapon of Choice was a colossal amount of work. But it’s done, and now I’m working on two new games at once. How it is that possible? The key is scope. As you can read here, I cut a lot of things to finish Weapon of Choice. Was that the right thing to do? Could it have been better? It can always be better, but the important part is, it got finished, it exists, and people are playing it. It’s no longer just in my head, stuck on my computer.

Here in Shoot 1UP the player is controlling 11 ships simultaneously against the ‘Turret Carousels’.

As for my two current games, Shoot 1UP has an extremely focused design: A manic shoot ‘em up in which each 1UP collected instantly becomes a playable ship, allowing you to build entire armada. Short yet sweet, it will be completed by end of this January. Grapple Buggy is a bigger game, but it’s still within reason. I’ve designed what’s needed, adding precious little more, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Plan out your game within reason, and then see it through. Be ruthless about what needs to be in the game. Be ready to cut things from the design. And if you have to cut things, realize this—NO ONE KNOWS YOU CUT IT. Unless you tell them of course, but that’s the trick! Don’t tell them about the RPG-wielding robo-badger in level 3, and they’ll never know what they missed (And when you put it in your next game or deliver an update for the first one, they’ll still love it!) Finish a small game first, and you’ll learn volumes.

I have with me Rocky from Dig Your Own Grave Games here for a short interview. After winning community favorite in the 2^nd Indie Game Competition, he uploaded a bunch of other awesome games! Check them out and give your feedback.

 

So how did Dig Your Own Grave Games come about? Freaking sweet name btw!

Rocky: Before Dig Your Own Grave I was working fulltime as a software engineer in the games and computer graphics industry. During that time I started the website DigYourOwnGrave.com, where I would post cool things I found on the internet, usually videos, links, and Flash games. As that site started to grow in popularity, and as I started to learn more about the Flash games industry, I realized that I would have a lot more success if I focused a larger amount of time creating my own Flash games instead of just featuring other developers. So I left the fulltime work world behind, took a couple of part-time contracts, and started working towards making Dig Your Own Grave my fulltime gig.

What background do you have in making games?

Rocky: I've been in the games industry for about 8 years now. I’ve worked primarily on PC games, but also spent some time at EA working on consoles, and I now have a little over 2 years experience making Flash games as Dig Your Own Grave. In all of the jobs before DYOG, I worked strictly as a programmer, but now as an independent I wear many hats including designer, producer, crappy artist, accountant, webmaster...

How did you get started?

Rocky: I first messed around with game programming on my dad’s old Apple II Plus when I was a little kid. But that fascination only lasted about a year, and I didn’t return to game programming until my final year of university when I took a course on 3D graphics. That got me hooked, and it’s been all games and graphics stuff since.

I’m not really sure how many games I’ve made to date. I’ve released 6 as Dig Your Own Grave (you can check out some of them in our 2BeeGames profile), but if you’re counting stuff I worked on in previous jobs, I’m probably credited on another 8 or so. The most well known game I’ve worked on would be Madden NFL by EA Sports. And there have also been some titles I worked on personally and professionally that unfortunately never saw the light of day…

T: Sorry to hear that (about canceled projects), but great to hear that you’ve struck out on your own after working for a major firm for so long.

Changing gears a bit – Let’s talk gaming.

What are your favorite games?

Rocky: My favorite PC games of all time are probably Quake III and Civilization II. My favorite Flash game is a little harder… the ones I’ve wasted the most time on are GemCraft: 0 and Bubble Shooter. Console… hmm… Super Mario Bros. 3 or Megaman 2.

Are you currently playing anything?

Rocky: Lately I’ve been pretty absorbed in iPhone games. I try to play most of the new ones, but the one that I keep coming back to is DoodleJump. On the PC side I’ve recently enjoyed Batman: Arkham Asylum and Mirror’s Edge.

What inspired Vector Conflict?

Rocky: The idea for Vector Conflict came from watching an episode of Stargate: Atlantis called "The Siege". Their city was being attacked from all sides by these super-fast fliers called Darts, and the intensity and action was gripping. I liked the idea of a battle where your only option is to defend and weather the storm - where there are no offensive options available and your singular goal is survival. I think that atmosphere removes the feeling of mindless violence that really intense shooters often have, and replaces it with something that feels more purposeful or even heroic.

What tools do you use to make the game?

Rocky: I used Adobe Flash CS3 and programmed the game using Actionscript 3.0. I use Subversion for source control, and TextPad as my text editor. I'm starting to learn Adobe Flex now, which I'll use for all projects going forward.

Do you do all of the sounds and music yourselves?

Rocky: I do all the sound effects myself. Sometimes I'll buy some from SoundSnap and edit them a bit, and other times I make them from scratch using Propellerhead's Reason software and then edit them in ProTools or Audacity. The music in Vector Conflict was provided by a band from California called We Got This Far. The theme is a remix of one of the songs on their most recent album, which you can download for free off their website, right here: http://www.wegotthisfar.com/2009/09/wgtf-does-vector-conflict-the-siege/

What platform would you like to see this game on? And what changes would be needed.

Rocky: I want to port the game to the iPhone, which is something I'll be working on very soon. It will need a totally different mechanic for aiming and firing - probably something along the lines of auto-fire with tap to lock. Rotating the turret could be done with via tilting, or maybe swiping with the finger... it will definitely take some experimentation. I also think the game would be really fun on the Wii – especially with a Wii Zapper - but unfortunately that’s not something I could do myself. Maybe you guys can help out with that? ;)

How do you feel about the state of Indie Gaming today?

Rocky: I think it's a great time to be an indie developer, better than it has ever been. 10 years ago it was really hard to be a garage developer. But now the Flash game industry is exploding, and the entry point into that field is very low. You don't need years of training and experience to build a fun, successful, and profitable Flash title. On top of that you've got options for making some very real money doing mobile games, in particular on the iPhone. If you're doing downloadable games you've got more casual game publishers out there that are willing to sign smaller titles (companies like BigFish, PopCap, PlayFirst, etc.)

Of course the downside to all this is that there's a lot of noise out there. It's very hard to get a Flash, iPhone, or XNA game noticed these days because there's so many new ones released on a daily basis. It’s not enough just to make a great game; you have to learn how to market your work as well.

T: Very True – that’s where we’re here for. We help develop the games further bringing them to consoles and work on marketing them as well.

What are your role models and heroes in the gaming world?

Rocky: Hmmm… that’s a tough one. Back when I was starting out and mainly interested in graphics, I would live and breathe by the word of John Carmack. Beyond that there haven’t really been any specific individuals I would go so far as to call “heroes”. I’ve definitely had some co-workers that I looked up to and learned a lot from.

What’s next for Dig Your Own Grave Games?

Rocky: More games! My focus will be new Flash titles for the immediate future, though I'm also going to be putting a few iPhone versions of my older Flash games out there to see how they do. If they end up being worth the time invested I'll try having some ported to Android as well.

Any message you want to send your fans?

Rocky: Well a huge thank-you to everyone that voted for the game in the contest! It was incredible to see all the people drumming up support among their friends, sending out Twitters, making posts in their Facebook pages and on their blogs, etc. In most cases these are people I’ve never even met in person, so it was really great to see the loyalty and appreciation for the time and effort I’ve put into my games and communities.

Well thanks for your time Rocky, look forward to seeing more from you soon!

Introducing the team behind 2Bee! Without these awesome boys and girls, 2Bee would not be possible.

You may have met some of us at GDC and the Indie Games Summit 09, E3, GameX or at the regular Ny Gaming Meetups.

In the near future we should be at GDC/IGS 2010, E3, Pax East and some other events so definitely stop by our booths or and feel free to chat with us if you see us walking around in our patented yellow shirts! We'll keep you updated here and of course twitter/fb.

We may be looking to expand the team in the near future so polish up those resumes :p

If you want to know more about us, just ask

Congrats to TwO Bros. Games! Their submission Climb to the Top of the Castle rose to the top of the judges hearts to beat out over 120 other submissions to claim the top prize.The judging was real tough but in the end the platform gameplay and unique look and style won them over.

The developers behind TwO Bros. Games, brothers Timothy and Orion Arata of Arizona, describe Climb to the Top of the Castle as “an old-school inspired action-platformer with one-hit kills and a limited number of lives to make it to the top of the Warlock's Castle and save the Princess.”

Thousands of voters participated in the second iteration of 2BeeGames’ Indie Game Competition, which called upon aspiring developers to submit new and original games on 2BeeGames.com for judging. Once uploaded, the 2BeeGames.com community had the opportunity to play, rate, and provide feedback for each game. Enduring several rounds of voting and eliminations, Climb to the Top of the Castle has emerged victorious and is recognized as the top submission by the judges of 2BeeGames.com.

In addition to the $10,000 in prize money, Zoo Games, Inc. will offer a publishing deal to TwO Bros.Games.

Community favorite, Vector Conflict: The Siege from Dig Your Own Grave Games, will receive $5,000 for its submission.

Our second indie game competition saw an increase in submissions and much greater participation from the community. The developers took the competition to another level, making the judging and elimination process that much more difficult. Once again, the Hive was fantastic in showing its support and love for independent games by showing up in droves to submit games, play,vote and ultimately choose the next great indie title.

Congrats to both winners, I hope everyone enjoyed this competition. We are open to ideas on improving future ones and of course may look to sign other games that didn't win was well.

Last Chance to Vote for Your Favorites in the Final Four!

 

Can Driftmoon hold on to the momentum it sustained the past two weeks? With new versions being uploaded regularly, maybe... Only time will tell! The fans love the effort that went into this.

 

The game that's always tough to describe did really well earning a place in our finals. The fans are clamoring about amount of polish and production that went into this. Check out his other games as they all have the same high levels as well. A little confusing to start, keep at it and make sure you read the hints/rules. He posted an awesome video introducing himself and showcasing his previous games.

 

The two man team from Full Sail did very well making it this far. They have uploaded new versions of the game so check it out. Try out the new build with an online leaderboard and some other tweaks! Very addictive indeed.

Vector Conflict: The Siege – submitted by Dig Your Own Grave Games

Don't be bummed if the game you love is already eliminated, you can still support it by rating, reviewing and commenting on it.
We are always interested in looking to bring games to other platforms - audience support lets us know which ones are the best.

Want to win some great free stuff and support the community at the same time?

Click here for some awesome giveaways and contests!

Check back at the end of voting to find out who won the voting and user prizes!

Check out an interview and video of finalist, David Galindo of Vertigo Games.

So what is Vertigo Games?
Well basically it’s a “company” consisting of only me, though here
recently I have a music composer and artist that have been adding their
great talents to my games. The company name I came up with a long time ago,
and I’ve just kept it ever since. Too late to change it now, hah.
The focus for me has always been to create something unique. I’m proud to
say that every single one of my games is original and unique, but that’s
not to say every one of them have been successful, in both download count
and/or gameplay wise. I don’t mind falling flat on my face; I learn a lot
that way. And hoo boy have I been learning a lot these last three years!
But I think things are turning around now.
      
What background do you have in making games?
I’ve just been using Game Maker really for the last eight or ten years,
and I had a stint as an IGN writer and was able to interview some of the
great indie professionals like Kellee Santiago of thatgamecompany and David
Jaffe of Eat Sleep Play. But mainly I’ve just been learning as I go.

Which game of yours is your favorite?
greenTech. It’s a game that a lot of people might not like but it’s one
that turned out exactly how I wanted, and can actually play and have fun
with. Some of my games are impossible to do that with since I know all the
solutions, but greenTech is challenging even to me. I still go back to it
every now and then.

Are you currently playing anything?
Been playing some Modern Warfare 2 but got sidetracked with the new God of
War Collection, which is fantastic. And Borderlands, which is the best
splitscreen shooter I’ve ever played. Aside from that, some PSPgo stuff
like PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe has been keeping me busy!

What inspired Kablooey?
A forty day deadline for the 2beegames competition as well as some assets I
had from a previous game that was ultimately canceled. I had a few city
buildings and some backgrounds, and thought... well, what I can I do with
this in just forty days? I finally came up with Kablooey!, which ended up
being a bigger game than I intended, so much so that I had to throw out
most of the old assets I was using and create a whole new graphics package
for the game. I wasn’t going to make the forty day deadline but
thankfully you guys extended it, which gave me two weeks of polishing!

Do you do all of the awesome background chatter and voices yourself? The music is great as well!
Thanks! It was myself and my friend, Alex Carpenter, who got all the voices
done. There was going to be more voicework but ultimately it was
unnecessary.This music was done by Jonathan Geer, and his website is www.jonnyaudio.com

What platform could you see Kablooey on? And what changes would be needed?
I think a Wiiware/DS game would be the easiest thing to port to, as the
cursor/touchscreen controls would work well with the main interface. But I
rather go with XBLA/PSN, and to do that the game would need a bit of a
retooling in it’s interface...and I would love to figure that out. If it
were on PSN/XBLA, it would work better if the user was actually in control
of a person in the city, running around and combining things. That would be
pretty neat!

Whats next for Vertigo Games?
Commercial indie games on different platforms, which I’m not sure how
I’m going to do as I have no knowledge of coding. But there are some
avenues I can take with Indie Arcade and PSN, and I look forward to
exploring those!

Any message you want to send your fans?
First I want to thank the guys at the Vertigo Games forums for getting me
that mug for my birthday that you see in that picture. They are the best
community on the net! And just that I want to continue making original,
full game experiences that are unlike anything out there. I already have
five new games drawn up and ready to go... I just need some funds. Please
vote for Kablooey! and I’ll continue to churn out some fresh indie games!
Thanks!!

Wow 5 games designed already? I look forward to seeing some interesting new games from Vertigo in the future!

We’re looking for a few good bees to help us spread the word about the site!

Help us make this the best indie gaming community out there! In return, we’re giving out some great freebies!

We have prizes such as Nintendo Dsi, Games, swag like Tshirts, and more!

Check out the awesome giveaways we have going on right now!

 

Join our page and become fan on FB to win! We’re giving away tshirts, games and more to lucky fans of ours on facebook!

 

Our twitter page feels lonely, help us get more followers! For every hundred, we’ll give out some great prizes.

It's also the best way to keep up to date with the latest on 2Bee. We'll be doing some lightning giveaways from time to time on twitter.

 

Spread the word! Help us get the word out about 2BeeGames!

FB Users: you can click here to get the FB Fan badge code (as seen in the banner) to place on your page.

Other users can simply use these (or create awesome ones of your own)

Link us to it for chances to win! Just post your site in this thread or msg me with a link.

3 Different giveaways, many chances to win great stuff!

Nintendo DSIs, Games for Wii/DS/360/PC, Tshirts and more!

Voting was fast and furious for the first round as about 1000 votes were cast.

It was a see-saw battle for the top but eventually Driftwood pulled ahead and stayed there. It's going to be a TIGHT battle this week as many games were close in percentage last week. Better keep checking in and vote to make sure your favorites move on!

Here are your remaining 7 finalists!

 

The tough control issues seemed to put many people off initially, but after making a splash on Gamerbytes and some other sites - It managed to uhh climb to the middle of the charts. haha sorry for the bad joke.

(Protip remains the same: Map it to a controller for less agitation! If not use wasd and the right shift/enter - Tony)

 

Updated the game to a never version which should run faster according to Ed. Many current 2Bee developers are rooting for him. Don't let the cutesy style fool ya, the gameplay is very solid and fun. Let's see if he can make another deep run this time!

 

Can Driftmoon hold on to the momentum it sustained last week? With a new version uploaded, maybe... Only time will tell! The fans love the effort that went into this.

 

The game that's always tough to describe did really well in week 1's voting also. The fans are clamoring about amount of polish and production that went into this. Check out his other games as they all have the same high levels as well. A little confusing to start, keep at it and make sure you read the hints/rules.

 

Tower of Heaven did really well at the NY Gaming Meet and has been mentioned on Bytejacker and Destructoid recently. The music, and simple 8-Bit gameplay gets people hooked fast. Does it have legs to go all the way? Is it long enough to sustain the crowd? We shall see!

 

The two man team from Full Sail did very well the first week. They are currently asking if people want a longer version of the game to play. Try out the new build with an online leaderboard and some other tweaks! Very addictive indeed.

Vector Conflict: The Siege – submitted by Dig Your Own Grave Games

Vector Conflict made last week's Attack of the Show on G4TV. The segment was called top flash games you have to try (or something like that). Good stuff guys!

Eliminated Games:

 

Again, I hope the face that this plays best with a 360 controller did not cost it a spot in Round 2. This game is ready for XNA Indie/XBLA and I can't wait to see it hit. Great fun with a simple but deep premise. On later levels, you have to plan out your strategy well or be blasted away.

Daytraders of the Dead – submitted by Mat Groves/ John Denton

This flash game is awesome! Surprised it only captured a bit of the audience. I'm hoping that this smash tv kinda game genre does NOT die out. It can be a great twin stick shooter! With an interesting premise already in place, I think this can go places with a bit of extras content.

Well that’s all 10 of them, and big congratulations to all of the finalists!

Congrats to all entrants as well, there will be other awards given out for some other games as well so stay tuned!

Remember, you only have 1 Vote per week so make it count! The FINAL ROUND will begin on November 22nd and conclude on November 30th. Only 2 more weeks to go!!