There be.....

Dinosaurs! or their alien equivalent. The remains of a long dead species or are they, dom dom dom, probably.

So what happened to that Arcade Cabinet?

As mentioned in our first post, our programmer Dazza's is still building it and has a further update on its construction here, part one can be found here.

Ball and Buttons

Spaghetti!!!

Boss

Where would we be without a Boss?

And where would we find him? Probably in its natural habitat, at the end of a level 

He's behind you.....

Animating those legs should be a challenge though

Tweets

Follow Dazza on twitter as he sails the dark seas of C+..... or Pearl or Cobol or whatever he's using. I haven't a clue beyond a few lines of basic, luckily he has so follow him on his adventure here https://twitter.com/executionunit

Outside Looking In

Roof on

Roof off

I thought I’d show today a concept render for the interior of buildings. What we’re thinking at the moment is that the the building’s roof will disappear when the players character enters. Though this like everything else is subject to change, throwing a grenade indoors might be a bit problematic but that's a problem for another day

And a close up of some of the furniture,I think the chair may be a little high for our characters little legs though…..

round and round.....probably should have centered it a bit better

Promo Mug Shots

These are some mug shots of characters and enemies that will appear in Smith and Winston,

Screenshot Saturday 167

Dazza's posted some more shots up on reddit, this time its Screenshot Saturday 167.  We've received some great feedback and thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. Check it out here, you'll have to scroll down a bit to find us.

And Lo there was....

Buildings

Old School Inspiration

Thought I'd do a post about some of the old classics that have inspired the development of Smith and Winston in its current form

First up, the classic Ikira warriors,  a vertically scrolling, shoot 'em up arcade game developed by SNK, and published in 1986.

Next up.....

Heavy Barrel an overhead run and gun released by Data East in 1987, I spent a lot of money on this one as a kid, trying to collect all the the parts to the eponymous 'Heavy barrel', a futuristic super weapon. 
The only arcade game I've ever completed mainly (ok wholly) due to a broken machine giving out unlimited credits.....

We might even squeeze some Space Harrier style Shenanigans 

There are others including many contemporary twin stick shooters, I'll probably stick a few of them in another post. But these are the ones that really kicked off S&W.

Clicking on the links will take you to the game's respective Wiki pages.

Its a Jungle Out There...

Some more concept renders this time its plants

Screenshot Saturday 164

Dazza added a post to reddits 'Screenshot Saturday' find it here, this probably the first place Smith and Winstons been seen out in the wild, and thanks to everyone who commented. 

Early Voxels

Some early concept renders a sort of proof of concept as to what we where going to try with the voxels. Pretty early days, don't look too closely or you'll notice the characters don't even have arms yet.....

Where did it start?

It all started like many things as a conversation down the pub. 'Diocide' that was it, a combination of favourite bands and a homage to a dead rockstar. The programmer was building his own arcade cabinet  fitted with an emulator and inspired by all this nostalgia for games gone by he wanted to do a twin stick shooter. Something in the vein of Ikari Warriors or the lesser known Heavy Barrel.

So born of beer and proving strong enough to survive our hangovers it ran and frolicked free, then dropped dead.

Diocide apparently is a trademarked name for a 'paraben-free, formaldehyde-free, broad spectrum anti-microbial for cosmetics and personal care products.'

And to distance our gun toting, twin sticked awesomeness from this cosmetic gloop we've chosen to use the names of our two main characters, Smith and Winston.

Named after the hero of Orwells classic '1984', just swooped around. 'Smith and Winston’, sounds a bit like a gun our boyish minds thought, and so entirely suitable for a shooty game.

Thus 'Smith and Winston' was shoved into the light.