Slybots is the second full title I worked on with my own company, Tiny Colossus. Being a couch multiplayer game, it was a crowd favourite at game conventions, which we used as a testing ground to playtest and improve the game during the years 2014-2015.

The game was initially titled “FATAL ERROR”, but soon we realised that the only fatal error was to name the game that way because it was impossible to Google. So when we partnered with publisher Mangatar to release the game in 2016, it was changed to Slybots: Frantic Zone.

Here’s the launch trailer:

My role

While it was also an indie production like my other game UFHO2, this time I partnered with my friend Ennio Pirolo to make Slybots. I took care of gameplay features, character skills, menus. Ennio was in charge of the enemy AI, which included both pathfinding and aggressive behaviours, and of infrastructure code like the Steam publishing pipeline. 3D graphics, (the few) animations and particles are also by me. The game has been developed using Unity 5.4.

I’m very proud of the mechanics of the game, which merge the frantic shooting action with the ability to hide on screen and surprise other players, even though all players are looking at the same screen.

In retrospect, I wish we had hired a graphic designer, but nevertheless for me it was a fantastic moment for learning 3D modeling, lighting, asset import pipeline, and other aspects However I can’t shake the feeling that with a more unique art direction, this game might have done way differently in terms of sales.

Slybots can be found on Steam.