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Newsletter 52
Welcome to the Wrestling Gamers United newsletter #52
In this issue
1) When it rains it pours
2) Targeted down striking
3) Moving
1) When it rains it pours
*************************
Well this was unexpected. Just days before we're supposed to be
meeting
with an investor we get a call from a game distributor about PWX. A
distributor
generally operates by buying a certain amount of games from a developer
like
us and distributed them around the country, or in this case the world. I
had
been curious about the cost of distribution for the purpose of the
business plan
because I had hoped to get enough money from an investor to produce and
distribute PWX ourselves just because it meant we could easily retain
all
creative control over not only the game but the packaging as well.
A representative from a distributor finally got in touch with us
Wednesday
morning and to say it went well would be an understatement. He asked a
lot
of questions about the project and in fact, thanks again to the fans,
has already
seen the WGU website and was impressed by the hype. As we suspected, he
had a
minor concern about how we could market PWX past the hardcore market and
into
a wider audience. He even asked about the control scheme, which I
thought was a
little weird for a distribution guy, but he was familiar with other
wrestling
games and commented on how important an easy to learn control system
would be.
We had talked to another rep from this company last week and apparently
they
were already seriously considering working with us when we talked to the
other guy
on Wednesday. But when we told him we already had two ex-WWF stars on
board to take
care of the marketability issue he said his company would not only be
willing to
negotiate a distribution deal with us, but they might be interested in
throwing
some money at us, a SHITLOAD of money, if we could deliver PWX for this
Christmas
season.
Were we excited about the offer? Absolutely! But reality set in and
after conferring
with some of the crew the feeling was unanimous, even with a million
dollar budget
it would take a miracle to get PWX done by November and even then we'd
end up with
a product more on par with WMX8 than Fire Pro or No Mercy.
So at the risk of blowing a relationship with the distributor we had
to
decline. But we told them we'd be in touch again real soon because we
we're confident
we'd be in full time production within the next three months and we'd be
ready to
look at a distribution deal then. Much to our suprise, they asked us not
to accept
the investors money. They don't want to loose PWX and they want to talk
about being
the ones to finance it.
To quote John Stewart, "Whaaaaaa?"
So now we're faced with a scenario I never dreamed of in a million
years. We
could be looking at a bidding war over PWX.
Now we're talking!
2) Targeted down striking
**************************
Another fan idea that we'll be using is the concept of targeted downed
opponent strikes, thereby eliminating problems like in No Mercy where
you'd
elbow drop someone's toes. Much like the way your character would move
into
position before applying a submission on a downed opponent the same will
apply to strikes and it will be done a lot more smoothly than how it was
done in Fire Pro. At this point we're planning for three different
strike
options (head/torso/toes) for an opponent lying face up and another
three
facing down, two for a sitting position and three for hands and knees.
3) Moving
**********
This weekend will be brutal for me as I'll be packing up and moving
my
family to a new part of town into a house more suitable for raising a
child in. As you can understand, I won't have any time to answer email
or
stop by the message board unless I really get my ass into gear and get
moved faster than I expect. On the plus side, I get to engage in road
rage
while piloting a big-ass moving truck.
In the meantime and in-between time, that's it. Another edition of
Wrestling Gamers United.
Thank you all,
Dave Wishnowski
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