InstantAction - Garage Games

[MrHat]

So, just got the prebeta? email to this today.

http://www.instantaction.com/

Looks like a casual game portal/platform w/ 3D games, 'Action Points' which I assume you use for microtransactions. Also, chat client w/ friends who are on, apparently to aid in getting you fired from work.

From what I can tell they have a Tribes-a-like, Marble Madness, an Atari Tank game and some sort of coop puzzle game that I can see in the ads. 

I'm very curious about whether it will work from work, as I LOVE me some procrastination tools.

Also, I get sexy points pyramid-scheme style for sending out invites, so PM if you want one.  I'd assume you can just sign up @ the site though.

Edit:

From their "About Us":

About InstantAction

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

InstantAction is bringing next gen gaming to the web. Through its unique platform, InstantAction will deliver fully 3D, console-style games in a browser. Web gaming is also about social gaming -- taking your party from one action game to another.

What makes InstantAction unique is that it is not tied down to a specific gaming console, distributor or retailer; creating an accessible place for gamers to play great games.

Extra Edit: Wait, Zepp already told us about this a while back didn't he?  -Yes he did: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11112.0 (but it's in that smarty forum).

[NiX]

Zepp tells us everything. Even things he shouldn't.

[Stephen Zepp]

I intentionally don't tell much anymore :P

My marketing folks wanted me to lay back so we could see how the viral messaging goes on this, but yes, we have a semi-private beta incoming very shortly.

Currently there are three games available in the beta:

Marble Blast Ultra (enhanced from the XBLA version with several new levels)
ScrewJumper -- same as the XBLA version
Think Tanks -- a team/solo pvp game in a cartoony theme

In addition, we just recently announced Fallen Empire: Legions, our first person shooter which will be on IA as well. There is a pretty good interview on ShackNews with the Project Manager as well as our CEO, as well as a video.

[MrHat]

Cool.

I'm probably most interested in trying out the tanks and tribes ones.  Look forward to seeing how it goes.

[schild]

I intentionally don't tell much anymore :P

My marketing folks wanted me to lay back so we could see how the viral messaging goes on this, but yes, we have a semi-private beta incoming very shortly.

Currently there are three games available in the beta:

Marble Blast Ultra (enhanced from the XBLA version with several new levels)
ScrewJumper -- same as the XBLA version
Think Tanks -- a team/solo pvp game in a cartoony theme

In addition, we just recently announced Fallen Empire: Legions, our first person shooter which will be on IA as well. There is a pretty good interview on ShackNews with the Project Manager as well as our CEO, as well as a video.

Viral marketing only works if someone starts the virus.

No one started this virus. A beta email is not viral marketing. ^_^

[MrHat]

Shit.

Does this make me the mole?

[Stephen Zepp]

I intentionally don't tell much anymore :P

My marketing folks wanted me to lay back so we could see how the viral messaging goes on this, but yes, we have a semi-private beta incoming very shortly.

Currently there are three games available in the beta:

Marble Blast Ultra (enhanced from the XBLA version with several new levels)
ScrewJumper -- same as the XBLA version
Think Tanks -- a team/solo pvp game in a cartoony theme

In addition, we just recently announced Fallen Empire: Legions, our first person shooter which will be on IA as well. There is a pretty good interview on ShackNews with the Project Manager as well as our CEO, as well as a video.

Viral marketing only works if someone starts the virus.

No one started this virus. A beta email is not viral marketing. ^_^

Actually, it's the ability beta testers will have to invite friends directly to the beta test--I just didn't want to hype it on my own initiative here--wanted to see if forum action happened on it's own :)

[Margalis]

Stephen is there some technical info available on this stuff? It looks intriguing but I haven't been able to find out much about the underlying technology. Like is it a custom plugin, what is the API or programming language, etc etc etc.

[Stephen Zepp]

Stephen is there some technical info available on this stuff? It looks intriguing but I haven't been able to find out much about the underlying technology. Like is it a custom plugin, what is the API or programming language, etc etc etc.

We're really not releasing technical details, mostly due to the vast amount of competition that suddenly announced intentions within weeks of our initial announcement. That being said, here are a few bullet points:

1) It's an API that interfaces a game engine (any) to a browser, and includes both the operating system level events (input, rendering, etc.) as well as a set of community features that you would expect from a "software console" environment--friends list, party management, etc.

2) Currently works in IE 6, 7, and Firefox.

3) Marketing terms are always hard to nail down tightly, but when the articles and interviews you see online say "no download/installs", what they mean is that per game, you don't do anything but say "I want to play XXX" in the browser interface, and it handles the rest. Games are streamed down to the computer you are currently on in chunks, so you don't have to wait many minutes to play. It's all tied to your IA account--if the computer you happen to be on doesn't have cached what it needs for that particular game, it will take care of it.

4) IA is a managed portfolio (just like all other consoles), and is not directly intended as an "all access, anyone can publish" type of portal. That being said, we're extremely interested in all game submissions from any studios (indie, pro, small, large). Concern about the specifics of IA shouldn't in any way slow you down if you want to present, although game designs that take into account the concept of playing within a browser and all that allows you to do.

5) The seamless party concept to me at least is the biggest change from other console experiences--the primary flow is form a party of friends first, and then select the game you want to play. When you get bored with that game, you move the entire party as a unit to the next.

[Stephen Zepp]

Thought folks might be interested in the latest trailer for

Fallen Empire:Legions

[K9]

Thought folks might be interested in the latest trailer for

Fallen Empire:Legions

Aside from the truly horrible music that actually looks like an awful lot of fun. Reminds me of Tribes and some other game thats on the tip of my brain.

[Azazel]

Yeah the music sucked balls. Gave me a headache. And I'm not opposed to heavy music either. I've been listening to Rammstein and Rob Zombie all morning. Just shit heavy music becomes intrusive (ie if it wasn't a trailer from an f13'er, I'd have clicked it off after 20 seconds).

[Engels]

Aw, come on, the music wasn't so bad. Could improve, but it wasn't off putting to me. I wouldn't even have remarked on it without you guys kvetching.

[Venkman]

This was one of the three things I made time to hit during the whole hour (cumulative) I ended up having to spend at GDC. Played very well, what you'd expect from in-window 3D games that aren't total system hogs. Multiplayer Marble Blast Ultra was awesome

Only question I couldn't get a straight answer on was fullscreen vs windowed support. Everything I played was windowed.

[SnakeCharmer]

That looked like a helluva good time.  No complaints about the music. 

Sign me up!

[Stephen Zepp]

More detailed game play video (actually recorded at the booth from a hand held video cam) at ShackNews.

The main question with full screen is not 100% answered because we're exploring all options. I'm not on either the IA or game dev teams so I don't have the most recent info, but the main issue is how to maintain the social/party features while in full screen, since they are an integral part of the total experience of IA.

It's a hard call, and no one really knows for sure what the final iteration will be, but we're exploring everything from windowed only to user choice to full screen + party features overlay.

[Azazel]

Aw, come on, the music wasn't so bad. Could improve, but it wasn't off putting to me. I wouldn't even have remarked on it without you guys kvetching.

I know we're big on hyperbole here, but I was dead serious about the music being literally painful to listen (it did give me a headache) to and something that would have made me close down the video almost immediately if it wasn't something from Zepp I was watching.

[Stephen Zepp]

Aw, come on, the music wasn't so bad. Could improve, but it wasn't off putting to me. I wouldn't even have remarked on it without you guys kvetching.

I know we're big on hyperbole here, but I was dead serious about the music being literally painful to listen (it did give me a headache) to and something that would have made me close down the video almost immediately if it wasn't something from Zepp I was watching.

Did you have your volume cranked up super high or something?

Not being sarcastic, it's possible there was a codec issue or something, I dunno. I'm not a huge fan of metal myself, but I personally really like the stuff Tim puts against the legions clips. Yes, it's got a heavy beat and drums, but It's not thrash or death metal or anything.

In other news, there is a developer walkthrough available on gametrailers now. The video of the game itself isn't that great (it's another shaky-cam), but you get to hear Tim Aste talk through a bunch of stuff.

[Aez]

A+ for the focus and realistic expectations.  Looks fun.

[Wolf]

Got a beta invite for this, played a bit this morning with a friend. Mostly the tank game. It's fun, but I'm lagging like a mofo. Are all the servers in the states?

[Stephen Zepp]

Got a beta invite for this, played a bit this morning with a friend. Mostly the tank game. It's fun, but I'm lagging like a mofo. Are all the servers in the states?

Like the 360, there are no "servers"--the Party leader is the server for whichever game is hosted, and others connect to him via IA.com.

We're aware of the issues with people getting a bad host and therefore having a bad experience, and the team is working on a couple of different ways to either display the status of a host, warn on joining a particular host, or simply not allowing certain people to host depending on their machine's performance.

They are also looking into dedicated servers for some of the higher bandwidth games, but Think Tanks is really pretty low key bandwidth wise, so I'm not sure it would be given dedicated servers off the bat.

[KallDrexx]

So is InstantAction only for MP games?

[Azazel]

I PMed Mr Hat so he could sign me up on his dodgy pyramid scheme thing for this, and the bastardo never got back to me. Guess I'll sign up on the webpage. Tomorrow. Probably.

Anyone else who wants to send me an invite thingamabob to get their scientology pyramid scheme credit thing running, you've got a day or so.

[Stephen Zepp]

So is InstantAction only for MP games?

It's not restricted to either, although the general nature is designed to support the concept of friends getting together to play games. Marble Blast Ultra, Cyclomite and ScrewJumper all have single player modes, and while Think Tanks can allow you to play by yourself, it's only against bots.

Fallen Empire:Legions of course is MP only (just like Tribes), but it's not in the beta yet. I have no information on any of the other games that are in the pipeline (and from what I understand there are a lot).

[Azazel]

Had a fool around with this just now, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

How much do the games rely on the host computer's processing power/3d card etc to run them? Or could you run these games with any computer that can surf the web passably?

[Stephen Zepp]

Had a fool around with this just now, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

How much do the games rely on the host computer's processing power/3d card etc to run them? Or could you run these games with any computer that can surf the web passably?

It depends on the game--IA is just an interface and rendering medium. The game itself is driven by the underlying engine (can be any engine) that it was written in. All 4 of the current beta games are some form of Torque, but that isn't required by either IA technology, or our publishing division.

For example, we have internal R&D engine builds that support from DX7 to DX10, as well as pure software rendering, so effectively any game can go to any hardware configuration--although of course performance is always an issue when you go to the least common denominator.

[Stephen Zepp]

IA just went into open beta today, so anyone can join up at InstantAction, register, and play.

[Stephen Zepp]

ZAP! (Zero All Productivity) was released in open beta last night on InstantAction.

ZAP! is a retro 2D team based shooter that, according to the marketing guys, "plays like asteroids on caffeine".

I've been trying to figure out how to describe it, and it's pretty difficult, but it's one of the most fun games I've ever played when it comes to arcade style, especially with a good organized team. Fast, furious, and full of different gameplay styles (there are user configurable loadouts for weapon type, as well asprimary and secondary modules for things like boost, shield, repair), and 6+ different game types (CTF, Rabbit, Zone Capture just to name a few).

If you like the idea of multiplayer team based 2D shooters, you should check it out!

[Etro]

Still no support for Safari 

[Stephen Zepp]

Still no support for Safari 

Still in beta!

Although to be honest Safari is most probably one of the last things on their list. There are lots of higher market penetration/size issues (Mac support being one off the top of my head), as well as many others. I'm not on the IA team, so I honestly have no idea what their priority list looks like.

[KallDrexx]

My only feedback so far is it needs to be easier to sort the party list, so we can look for a party playing a specific game.

[Stephen Zepp]

My only feedback so far is it needs to be easier to sort the party list, so we can look for a party playing a specific game.

Aye--the game selection mode is currently extremely bare bones. I can't say for certain, but I'm reasonably sure that's the current functionality upgrade the IA team is working on.

[KallDrexx]

Kinda figured.  It seemed like a no-brainer thing that I would be surprised if I was the first to recommend it.

[Aez]

You guys sure love action.  No puzzle, no strategy, no basic mmorpg?

[Stephen Zepp]

You guys sure love action.  No puzzle, no strategy, no basic mmorpg?

Couple of reasons behind that:

--this is not another casual portal. The main purpose is to basically build a new market niche between casual and AAA hardcore games, what we call "core games". A lot of very smart people (and several with quite a few million behind them in capital) think this is a market that will discover itself in the next year, and grow exponentially.

--it's still very young. As a software platform, IA has only been in development for coming on 7 months (not counting research time--it's been prototyped several ways over the last couple of years). There are actually a couple of different strategy games in the pipeline that have been hinted at publicly (the developer contest we held last month awarded an IA slot to a team based on their RTS, and there is another one that has been announced that I can't remember at the moment).

--as to MMO's? --sorry :(