Shred Nebula, a top down Asteroids style shooter, was released on XBLA in September of 2008. I worked for CrunchTime Games Inc. for several months, doing marketing and web development. The January after Shred Nebula's launch, I was given control over the expansion and title update. The most notable addition is the game's new mode and new control scheme/menu. The content of the expansion and title update are not finalized yet and are still a work in development. Here is a quick video showing some of additions.

The new game mode in Shred Nebula started as something slightly different than what it ended up being. Originally the mode was supposed to be waves of enemies in formations with more enemies on the screen than other modes. We ran into some issues early on with making the mode fun, so a second objective was introduced. The player now had a target to defend, which the enemies attack. This allowing the player better control of how many enemies they face, as enemies only attack the player when provoked with the changes. As development progressed, the second objective became more important and we introduced the idea of turrets.

The resulting game mode plays a lot like a tower defense game with some major differences. The player has a higher interactive role in the game, instead of passively waiting for enemies to pass by turrets, you now assist the turrets. The player must also collect crystals to help build their power. Loosing isn't based on a set number of enemies getting past you, but instead by them destroying what you're protecting. It is important to note, that the object you are defending is so large you cannot defend it from one position and must rely on turrets. Turrets are dropped at any location and are not bound to a grid. In addition the mode can be played with 11 different characters with their own abilities and unique turrets. The last notable difference is the player's power level, which passively upgrades their primary fire. The power level also upgrades the turrets on the map and power is spent to buy turrets.

Power can be earned through various actions at every point in the mode. Killing enemies is the easiest way to build power, even if your turrets do the killing. This can be improved by using the games existing combo system, killing enemies in rapid secession. Enemies also drop crystals when destroyed, the number of crystals depends on the size of the enemy. These crystals are used to increase your power, and the player must pick these up quickly before they disappear. You can quickly gain power by picking up a turret. This lets you move and reposition turrets.

At the end of the level, your stats are displayed. Different bonuses are rewarded depending on your play style and actions. In one example if you let your turrets do a bulk of the killing, a bonus is rewarded. The health of your defended object also rewards a large bonus. These points are carried over into a cumulative score as the player is taken from level to level. If the defense object is destroyed, the level ends, and the player's score is tallied and they continue onto the next level.

The Shred Nebula expansion was already set to introduce new playable ships to the game before I was put in charge of it. I decided we were going to create our own unique ship to be added the cast of playable characters. J.D. Cerince and I went back and forth on the design of this ship. We took one of the most popular ships, the Marauder, and infused it with dark technology, creating something unholy and powerful. The Dark Marauder was born. One of the early concepts is shown below as well as the final render.

I decided the ship should be about extremes. I played around with several ideas for rushing attacks, because the claws on the front of the ship were begging us. We ended up not going this route for several reasons. I felt there were issues balancing a rush attack in a game about guns. A lot of the time ships end up close to each other, and a rush attack would not be telegraphed as much as a bullet, allowing for no reaction time to shield. This caused a problem as it would be too easy to hit others, giving the ship an unfair advantage. I played with the idea of the ship's rush attack dealing more damage if he started farther away from the target, making a close attack would be near pointless. This was also something I eventually rejected, because it would be harder to show and explain this, visually, to the player, as no other attack in the game is this complex. I ultimately rejected a rush attack in favor of giving the ship a greater speed burst than most others. We made the ship one of the slowest in the game, with the ability to turbo over a short period at much greater speeds than other ships.

This idea of extremes was carried over into the weapons on the new ship. I wanted the attacks, in the right conditions, to have the potential for high damage. Three attacks were crafted that gave the ship a different feel from anything else in the game. The primary attack is a fast firing machine gun, with weak damage per hit. The secondary attack is a modified version of the Marauder Claw Blast, but instead of a single big fiery heat seeking blast, Dark Marauder shoots two smaller weaker homing blasts that do minor AOE damage on impact. Both blasts can target individual ships, and are based on the player's position. If both blasts hit the same target, the damage is a little higher than the Marauder Claw Blast, dealing AOE to a small area as well.

The third attack for Dark Marauder is something completely new to Shred Nebula, a giant beam weapon. The player has to charge the attack, draining their special meter. While charging they have limited movement, and can no longer defend themselves or use other attacks. When released, the attack fires a beam whose size and power is based on the amount of special drained into the attack. The player who is charging the attack has several visual cues. The claws of the ship spread while charging, hinting at the size of the beam and they also glow with increasing intensity as the attack reaches max power.