Polaris Games Developer Blog

Update on patch, development and other stuff

polarisgames — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:13:28 +0000

Ok, let’s start with the no-so-good news, first of all, I’d ike to apologize for the delay on the patch for the xbox 360 version of the game. Some fellow developers found few issues with the patch and unfortunately Microsoft forces us Indies to wait for an entire week before we can submit our code and start the review process again. It’s a pain!, and while a lot of people argue that this is necessary, I’m disappointed that there is no better process to update our games. Anyhow, I’d like to assure everyone that the patch will make it, just can’t say for sure when .

Nevertheless, I’m still planning for more updates so this won’t be the only patch….

Now on the other side of things, I’m working on a full revamp of The Shadows in the Underworld, called The Shadows in the Underworld – Red Blood:

Menu screen of The Shadows in the Underworld - Red Blood

At the moment the game is targeted for PC’s and will feature brand new gameplay, puzzles, events, music and tweaked story.

With the new content that’s being added and gameplay changes, Red Blood is intended to be a much bigger and complex game than Shadows.

Even thought I’m moving full speed with this title, I don’t have a final release date yet, nevertheless, I’ll keep everyone updated here

Again thanks for your support and remember to always help your indie developers, cheers!

LuisMa.

XBLI Reviews: The Shadows in the Underworld

polarisgames — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:53:26 +0000

Brand new reviews of Shadows!

Follow the links:

ex-hardcoregamer

powstudios

xbox360digest

Cheers,

LuisMa.

The Shadows in the Underworld made it to the DBP’10′s finalists! :-)

polarisgames — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:31:56 +0000

Dream Build Play 2010 Challenge

Free Update for Shadows in MS peer review pipe

polarisgames — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:55:18 +0000

A free update for the game was submitted for review, this update:

- Fixes issues with creature speed in the easier difficulty.
- Fixes issues when playing coop and one of the players becoming “ethereal”.
- Changes how enemies spawn, enemies spawn now closer to the sub but there is a small delay before they fully materialize.
- Enhanced “blood” effects.
- Enhanced how the AI director manages lighting, there is now more flexibility for darker levels.
- Added a new monster for the end levels.
- Other minor bug fixes.

The review process takes usually about a week to complete, but one this goes live players will be prompted to update the game.

Thanks everyone for the support, the reception of the game has been really great!, stay tuned for future updates!

Cheers!

New Patch for The Shadows in the Underworld Xbox Indie coming soon!

polarisgames — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 06:20:38 +0000

A new patch will be released for review in a couple of days!, this patch fixes a couple of issues and exploits, also it adds:

- A new monster for the end levels
- AI director enhancement so it can dynamically change lighting

Hopefully the patch will take only few days to complete the approval process!

Enjoy.

XBOX360 Digest Giveaway!

polarisgames — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:56:22 +0000

Awesome news!, here is your chance to win free copies of The Shadows in the Underworld

The Shadows in the Underworld XBOX360 DIGEST Contest!

Good luck everyone!

The Shadows in the Underworld is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace!

polarisgames — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:48:44 +0000

My first game on Xbox, The Shadows in the Underworld is live on Xbox Indie games for:

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.

I cannot express how thrilled I am with this, I really hope that people will enjoy playing this game as much as I did making it. This is a picture of the box art:

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550498/

Note: During final reviews we found a couple of minor issues, just want to let you know that these have been fixed and the game will have an update as soon as Microsoft let me do it when the patch arrives, the players will be prompted to update the game … Btw, I’m also going to include a bit more content into this patch, just to make things more interesting

Thanks everyone for your support and stay tuned for more updates!!!

Cheers,

LuisMa.

Game Review 66% Complete!

polarisgames — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:15:10 +0000

Still having the game under review and crossing my fingers that it will make it to the xbox live marketplace sometime soon.

Also, in the works is what possibly might be a PC version of the game… Stay tuned for more info later on..

Also, I found an initial concept art of the game, check it out:

LuisMa.

In review :-)

polarisgames — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:35:17 +0000

After a week of hard-work, Shadows is back for review. The changes are great and the game is better than ever. It certainly will be one of the best xbox indie games to date … I hope

Pulled back for review

polarisgames — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:12:37 +0000

Unfortunately, (or fortunately actually ) few users noted some spelling errors and few issues with the game. While the overall feedback was really good. I want to make sure the game shines when it goes live.

This is important since Microsoft doesn’t make it easy for Indies to issue patches and stuff like that. We have to make our games are as bug free as possible… Well, that’s it for now, I will be reviewing game content, make changes, adjustments etc… But will have a build ready for next week!, and I’m sure that will be the definitive final version

LuisMa.