39w ago - 24 Caret Games Co-founder Matt Gilgenbach announced that Retro / Grade's backwards battle officially begins today!

From the official announcement, to quote: It's been a long journey since our first post about Retro/Grade over three years ago.

We've worked very hard creating the best game we possibly can since then - if you saw the three year old screenshots, you'll notice that it's barely recognizable as the polished product you see today.

Besides all the visual polish we added - like jaw-dropping effects and full HD 1080p rendering at 60 frames-per-second with anti-aliasing - we've added a ton of content.

Although we have a campaign mode, challenge mode is really the star of Retro/Grade. It's where the real meat of the game lies. In challenge mode, you are presented with a galaxy map, and you go through playing various challenges that are based on the campaign levels, but with various twists and rule changes.

For example, in some of the challenges, the music is sped up, which naturally makes completing the level more difficult. We also have challenges that require you to reach certain score targets, have trickier patterns, and plenty more! There are 130 challenges spanning a map filled with secret paths, warps, and rewards.

What kind of...

41w ago - 24 Caret Games Co-founder Matt Gilgenbach has outlined today how to play a reverse shooter as part of some new Retro / Grade tips below.

To quote: We recently announced that Retro/Grade, the first game played entirely in reverse, would be releasing exclusively on PSN on August 21st.

Understanding and developing a game that is played in reverse is tough, so I want talk about how it all works.

Firstly, how did we design a game played in reverse? We worked backwards of course! We started with the idea that it'd be cool to play a game where time is flowing backwards, but we didn't have any ideas on how to pull that off. We did a lot of brainstorming - time reversing is a hard concept to wrap your head around.

We figured for gameplay purposes, undoing your actions would be the best fit for that theme. When undoing, you have to match both the timing and the position of previous actions.

When matching timing, music is the best way to achieve that, so we thought rhythm gameplay would be the best mechanic to build the game around. We figured a 2D game where your motion is constrained to a few discrete lanes would make it easier to match the positions.

A 2D spaceship shooter seemed like a great fit for the theme, so we tried to incorporate elements from...

43w ago - 24 Caret Games Co-founder Matt Gilgenbach is here with a fresh video announcing that Retro / Grade officially blasts off on PlayStation Network this August 21st with details below.

To quote: Hey everyone, good news: We've finished our award-winning rhythm/shoot'em up, Retro/Grade!

The game will be released on August 21st exclusively on PS3, and will provide hours of mind-bending rhythm-based gameplay as you fight through reverse-timed space battles.

We've gotten many requests to make Retro/Grade's soundtrack available, so I'll go ahead and confirm that we'll be selling it on PSN. If you want the game and the soundtrack, there will be a discounted bundle - we'll have more details on pricing soon.

For those who aren't familiar with Retro/Grade, it's similar to a classic Shoot 'Em Up... in reverse! At the beginning of the game you stop a massive alien invasion, but all the destruction damages the space/time continuum, causing the flow of time itself to reverse.

What would have been the final boss is actually the beginning of your backwards journey. You must help Rick Rocket restore the continuity of space/time, before the temporal anomaly rips the universe a new time-hole!

93w ago - 24 Caret Games Co-founder Matt Gilgenbach has shared some Retro / Grade PAX 2011 details alongside a PSN gameplay trailer today.

To quote: We've been hard at work making a must-have PS3 downloadable game for PSN.

If you're like me and you can barely remember your own name, let me refresh your memory about Retro/Grade.

Retro/Grade is an innovative fusion between a rhythm game and a sidescrolling shooter that has received the IndieCade audience award as well as two Independent Game Festival nominations.

The game begins when you have just singlehandedly fended off an alien invasion, but all the destruction damaged the space/time continuum, which caused the flow of time itself to reverse. What would have been the final boss is actually the beginning of your backwards journey.





Since time is going in reverse, you must undo your actions in the space skirmish to protect the health of the space time continuum. This means you have to dodge enemy projectiles returning to the enemies that fired them while un-firing your projectiles as they return to your ship. It is easier than it sounds since everything is timed to the beat of the original retro game inspired soundtrack.

142w ago - Today 24 Caret Games Co-founder Matt Gilgenbach has shared a video of Retro/Grade for PSN, which will be playable at PAX Prime and fans can win a change to be in the video game's credits.

To quote: We've been pretty silent for the past year about Retro/Grade, but that's because 24 Caret Games has been hard at work transforming our prototype shown at the 2009 Independent Games Festival into an awesome PSN title.

As you can see in the screenshots, all the graphics have been redone in order to take advantage of the power the Playstation 3 provides. Retro/Grade will look amazing on your HDTV because it runs at Full HD (1080p) with anti-aliasing at a silky smooth 60 frames per second.

On the gameplay side, we've been very busy working to ensure that it is the most fun possible. After some serious focus testing, any rough spots in the gameplay have been smoothed out.





Our composer, Skyler McGlothlin, has worked hard to improve all our original tracks for the game. We've adjusted the gameplay patterns for maximum enjoyment. In order to help people wrap their minds around our time bending concepts, the tutorial has been...