hello, i am working on a draft of an in-depth review of shark eaters and was wondering what Simon is in the game. I am aware Bandit being the dolphin we all know and Zoey the orca/killer whale but am completely clueless about what Simon is.
Simon So do you mean species wise ? Simon is a Commerson's dolphin. Very early on (about 3 years ago) when we first started toying with the idea of building a dolphin - I contacted a very well known marine mammal researcher and professor, Dr. Frank Fish http://darwin.wcupa.edu/~biology/fish/ (I know... thats his real name. Who wouldn't go into marine biology if your last name was fish !), who was extremely gracious enough to send me a DVD with all sorts of goodies. One of the top-down camera footage he had showing motion was of a commerson's dolphin. I will try and post some of those videos later actually - they're really interesting and you will really resonate with them more after having played the game (thats a whole other story we have about looping back and looking at the motion of the animal. The most positive feedback we got was from the marine biology community who, after having played, really said we nailed the nuances and "feel" of the animal). We immediately sort of fell in love with it (Commerson's Dolphin) and wanted to include one. They are a beautiful, elegant, and graceful species - and so we wanted one in the game. Ours is slightly grayish but in the wild they are darker - they almost look like mini orcas. So the next update and/or the endless game will have a ton of other species our artist is currently working on and i'm playing with motion for. Its very satisfying when you ask questions like this . More than anything on this project having people now know about this species will bring awareness to their plight. The closely related Hector's dolphins (which we will have in an update) is very very endangered - on the verge of becoming extinct I really look forward to reading your in depth review!
That is some great news for everyone! I'm very curious as to how the Hectors dolphin will feel control-wise. https://koffeeklaud.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/ios-review-experiencing-reincarnation-in-shark-eaters-rise-of-the-dolphins/ The above is the link to the review. Feel free to share it
Promo L9HNXL7WL9N3 and remember the talk today if you're interested - http://aigamedev.com/broadcasts/session-shark-eaters/ Also I'm curious, what would you want to see next with the same animation (or add to the list if you would really like to see another type of animal)? a. Dinosaur b. Cheetah c. Dragon
A land predator that is solitary for real animals. And of course a dragon simulator, A PROPER DRAGON SIMULATOR for once in ios history, don't get me started grrr... But coming from you, any simulator would be top quality, i am 100% sure
Hope you all got a chance to hear the interview today It went very well. http://aigamedev.com/broadcasts/session-shark-eaters/
Me, me. I got it! Thanks so much. This looks like a total one of a kind. Or in dolphin speak: Squee'ek uh'k kk'kkkk squeek eee'eek!
Number 7 on the jump score leaderboards already! This game is wonderful. I do kind of wish there were a free roam where you whizz through the sea and occasionally eat, fend off, or high tail away from, all the big bads in the ocean. I guess that's the old Ecco fan in me- it's still awfully cool as it is!
I'm going to play with some control concepts to see what I can come up with - maybe a different controller for exploring the ocean and then this one when you revert to battle - but that might get confusing to people. The top down version (where you control a shark) is much more suited to have an open world to explore.
