You’ve tested your accuracy skills with Cupid’s bow and arrow. But what about your catapult-launching skills?
As part of last week’s Stupid Cupid updates, we’ve added a new mini-game called “Flying Pigles”. In this fun (but slightly mean) game, players stand atop Cupid’s cloud and catapult boars. Tweak your aim and power to hit the targets.
To access the mini-game, simply complete the hazards tutorial level and find it in the mini-games menu.
May Updates
We’ve just finished our first round of game updates, thanks to your feedback. Make sure to keep it coming so we can make Stupid Cupid the best game it can be!
New: - Voicemails can be replayed on Cupid’s computer
- New mini-game: Flying Pigles, available in the mini-games menu after hazards tutorial is completed
- Added game intro for first-time players
- Added game over message after the last voicemail
- Added weather vane to snow levels
Changes:
- Cupid’s office reorganized
- World map now interactive and readability improved
- Bow pivots according to arrow
- Game audio re-balanced
- Bears move around instead of staying still
Fixes:
- Volume options correctly affect volume
- Player can no longer match fox with squirrel in the basics tutorial before squirrels are matched at least once
- Attractive hazards like apples, beehives, etc. will release the animal as soon as the animal reaches the hazard
- Animals no longer wander outside of the game area
Stupid Cupid at GDC 2019
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is held in San Francisco every year and is the world's largest professional game industry event. Shadow Factory—the team behind Stupid Cupid—was super excited to have the opportunity to participate this year for the first time!
We showcased the Early Access version of Stupid Cupid as part of the Hong Kong Game Industry Association's pavilion. For three days, attendees could come to our booth, play the game, and collect Stupid Cupid swag.
We also got to meet hundreds of developers from around the world, experimented with new tools and technology, and attended sessions held by Unreal, Unity, and other software tools. Most importantly, we got a little gaming in too!
The Art of Stupid Cupid
One of the aspects of Stupid Cupid that we’re most proud of is the art. (*Pats self on back.*) How did we develop our adorable 3D creatures and game aesthetic? We started with a mood board of 3D art and animations that were bright and cheery, yet odd and slightly off-putting. Cute and crass, if you will.
The first animal we created was the fox, so we have a special place in our hearts for him (though we love all our babies equally). We wanted all the animals to look slightly awkward or just “not quite right”. One of the ways to achieve this was to give them big eyes that don’t point in the right directions.
Another important design was Cupid’s bow and arrow. He wasn’t going to have a normal bow and arrow—he is Stupid Cupid, after all. We purposely wanted to create a bow and arrows that looked handmade and slapped together to show his personality.
The team knew early on that Stupid Cupid would have a low poly style (3D graphics with a small number of polygons) for many reasons. First, low poly is charming and has a youthful look that is reminiscent of Nintendo 64. Plus, it just works well with this particular game and concept. Second, low poly can still look good while serving the functional purpose of having a faster load time.
The low poly aesthetic has arguably been a growing trend in mobile games but not as much in VR games, when in fact, we feel that low poly is beneficial for VR. Its simplicity makes it easier for the player to understand what to pay attention to and where to go when immersed in a new environment, which can sometimes be confusing when there’s so much going on visually.
What do you think of the art of Stupid Cupid so far? Remember, we’re still in Early Access mode and need your feedback to refine the game before the full version launch. You can always send us your thoughts at support@shadowfactory.io
Get our Stupid Cupid Face Filter
We’re at GDC in San Francisco this week! If you’re attending, be sure to come visit us at the Hong Kong Game Developer Pavilion (P1784) and play Stupid Cupid. #lovewhatwedo
In celebration of the conference, we’ve also created a sweet AR Facebook filter for all you Stupid Cupid fans. This weird and wonderful filter is available on the Facebook app for Android and iOS. Get the link in our Instagram bio: @shadowfactory.io
Stupid Cupid Available for Early Access Today!
Happy Valentine's Day! Wait…it's March 14. Oops. Cupid is late again, but he's finally here!
We’re so excited that Stupid Cupid is available for Early Access today. As this is Shadow Factory's most ambitious game yet, it was important to us to release the game for Early Access and involve the Steam community throughout the development of the game.
So, folks, we need your feedback! Let us know what you love, what you don’t, and how we can improve Stupid Cupid as we finish the full version of the game. You can always reach our team at support@shadowfactory.io
The Origin Story of Stupid Cupid
Shadow Factory is a full-service production company specializing in content development, post-production, immersive media, and digital strategy. While developing consumer games isn’t necessarily our bread and butter, it’s become a very important part of what we do. After all, most of our team are passionate gamers, as are our co-founders. It was only natural for us to start developing and publishing VR games!
So, how did the concept for Stupid Cupid come about? With the game’s Steam Early Access release coming up in less than two weeks, we look back and trace its origin story in this blog post.
The initial concept, in fact, came from a B2B pitch for event activation. We pitched a game called Laser Archer to our client, where players must defend the “Kinetic Fortress” which is under siege, using their trusty “Energy Bow” and an arsenal of powerful “Beam Arrows”.
While the client pitch pivoted, the idea of a VR archery game stayed in our minds. Several months later, we decided to revive the concept and develop a consumer game to be released on platforms like Steam. As we were already developing another cyberpunk-esque game, the VR archery game went in another direction. Drawing inspiration from Happy Tree Friends, we decided to create a game with silly, cute animals juxtaposed with off-beat humor and mild violence.
The name Stupid Cupid and the story of a cupid who has to fix his mistakes came very early on, and has not changed since. The game itself, however, transformed quite drastically.
Stupid Cupid started off as a wave-based game where the animals come in hordes, so the player had to match animals with Cupid’s bow and arrow to distract them. But the team found it challenging to create levels, objectives, and a narrative with this endless mode—it just didn’t feel like a complete game.
Another idea involved matching different kinds of animals that would have interspecies offspring, which was also dropped.
Determined to make this quirky game work, the team settled on the open-space and puzzle matching concept. Playtesters enjoyed the new direction, and we were able to develop different objectives and eventually a full storyline with characters other than the animals, bringing us to where we are today.
We’re so excited for you to try Stupid Cupid and hear your feedback on the Steam Early Access version. Available March 14!
Playtesting Stupid Cupid
Playtesting—testing a new game for bugs and design flaws—is an essential part of the quality control process for any new game. Being a digital agency that specializes in VR experiences, playtesting is always a part of our process—especially because VR is such a new medium.
While Stupid Cupid is Shadow Factory’s third original game release, it’s our first full-fledged PC game, and thus playtesting has been an essential tool throughout the development of the game.
Playtesting isn’t just about problem-solving—it’s also about exploration and seeing what works best. Stupid Cupid originally started out at a wave-based game, where animals would come at the player in hordes and attack. It was through very early-stage playtesting among folks at the Shadow Factory office that the Stupid Cupid team discovered people preferred the open-space and animal-matching concept. This is also what gave birth to the animal personalities, which wouldn’t have worked with the original game concept.
We then brought in some fellow game developers to test the game, where we got great feedback on how cute the animals and their personalities turned out.
It’s not only positive feedback that comes out of playtesting, of course. While it may be a pain to have to go back and change fundamental parts of a game, when we playtest we already have the expectation that things that were obvious to us wouldn't be for others. It provides invaluable insight to game designers and prevents us from bringing a game to market that doesn’t work.
A little over a month before our planned Steam Early Access release date, we started a serious round of playtesting, bringing in people of various ages and gaming experience to test the game. We soon discovered a serious design flaw that we did not have with earlier versions of the unfinished game: people didn’t understand what to do or what the objectives were. Hints that we put in the game completely flew over players ’ heads. In addition, levels’ objectives were just too difficult for most players.
We immediately got to work redesigning instructions and objectives, with the goal of having a game that can be completely understood without our guidance ready by March 14, 2019!
