A Day in the Life of Developers

Cook or Be Cooked has made tremendous progress over the past few months. All content has been implemented in some form or another, and now it’s time to polish and tweak and fix until the game is really shiny.

Jeff and Jason pore over a profile of the engine to squeeze out as much performance as possible.

Testers Liz and Mike go head-to-head in a cooking challenge.

Back in Gl33k’s offices, Evan and Matt lay down some mellow, jazzy tracks for the background music of Cook or Be Cooked.

Ricky waits patiently for the Infernal Engine to build pod files so he can preview his latest fixes on the NDEV (Wii developer hardware).

Cooking fun

Cooking fun, originally uploaded by Red Fly Studio.

Everyone is checking out George’s latest level for Cook or Be Cooked. Constructing layers of lasagna in real life can be a little tedious, but thanks to the magic of video games, it’s quite entertaining when done with a Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

User Interface decisions

User Interface decisions, originally uploaded by Red Fly Studio.

Developing video games is an effort of constant iteration and improvement. Our project for Namco, Cook or Be Cooked, is no exception. Since the game relies heavily on its pointer- and gesture-driven interface, presenting options and controls to the player in a clear, concise manner is of the utmost importance.

Go buy Ghostbusters for the Wii!

It’s fun for the whole family…

We’re still making games

We’re still making games, originally uploaded by Red Fly Studio.

With all the great reviews coming out for Ghostbusters, it’s worth mentioning that we’ve got other games in the pipeline, too. For example, we’re fortifying our alpha plan for Cook or Be Cooked. It’s been in production for a year, and we’re at that exciting point where the game can be played through in its entirety. We don’t have a lot of time to upgrade the game from “functional” to “bad-ass”, but we’ve got a great plan to do so.

Nothing to see here

I realize that this blog has been almost 100% links to reviews of Mushroom Men and previews of Ghostbusters lately, But since those projects are wrapped up or wrapping up, all of the projects we’re working on these days are as yet unannounced. So I can’t really show those off until the veil of secrecy has been lifted. I just wanted you to know that we’re keeping busy and learning from each title we produce, making each subsequent title a little better than the last.

Solving problems

Solving problems, originally uploaded by Red Fly Studio.

The team works great collaboratively. The open environment engenders cross-discipline cooperation and idea-sharing.

New year

New year, originally uploaded by Red Fly Studio.

It’s time to ramp back up to full speed after the holidays.

Ghostbusters team meeting

Creative Lead Dustin Dobson reports back to the team after the Atari Live event last week in London. We’ve been very excited about the enthusiasm Atari has shown the Ghostbusters project since they acquired it from Activistion, especially the extra attention they’ve paid to our Wii version.

True Game Headz interview with programmer Jeff Lake

True Game Headz talks to our very own programmer Jeff Lake about video game development and games in general.