Folks-
The initial reaction to Hercules has been great. Thank you for all your support! We’re doing this because we love it.
You can help us out be going back to the iTunes store and writing reviews and giving us 5 star reviews.
We REALLY appreciate it. Here is the LINK back to appstore.
thanks.
For those of you wondering just how chock full o’ awesome Hercules is the wait is over. You can go download our latest masterpiece which is on sale FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY fro $1.99.
We assure you, the game is definitely worth $2. GO GET IT NOW! You won’t regret it.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/hercules-curse-of-the-hydra/id416471178?mt=8
In anticipation of the release of Hercules: Curse of the Hydra on iTunes, we’ve uploaded a special sneak-peek of the game on Kongregate.com
No iPhone/iPod needed – just use your keyboard to take control of the Son of Zeus and see first-hand what all the fuss is about!
Have fun, and we’ll keep you posted on upcoming Hercules developments!
We’ve submitted the full version of Hercules: Curse of the Hydra to the app store! Amazing! All this work finally about to be set out on the world. World you don’t even know what a good thing you’ve got coming to you.
We hope it gets a smooth pass through the approval process. Fingers crossed!
rundlc.com Hercules preview
The fine folks over at rundlc.com just posted an amazing preview of Hercules: Curse of the Hydra. Be sure to check it out! http://bit.ly/i2nTqx
Mythological themed video games will never go out of style, thanks in part to Sony’s God of War franchise. The developers at SMERC hope to capitalize on our love of all things ancient with Hercules: Curse of the Hydra, launching this year on Apple iOS.
Kratos - God of War
It should come as no surprise that we’re huge God of War fans. I mean that sort of goes with the territory if you’re making a third person 3-D adventure game set in the mythic past. It is sort of THE standard, right?
So we should acknowledge a few similarities.
Yes, our hero has a body tatoo that wraps around him in a way that is reminiscent of Kratos. However, we like to say that the direct inspiration for this was actually the barbarian character in Diablo 2. In his soul, Hercules has more in common with him than Kratos.
Yes, all of Hercule’s family is dead and he ended up killing some of them while he was drunk I think. Yes Kratos killed his wife and family, but honestly, Kratos stole this one from the Hercules myth. Point Hercules.
God of War - Giant Scorpion
Hercules ends up fighting some classic mythological monsters in his time rampaging through Curse of the Hydra. He’s not the first to take on a number of year beasts in video games and I dare say he won’t be the last. We do think that the way we’ve presented a number of these boss battles adds subtly and depth in a way others do not.
Yes, in GOW Kratos fights a large scorpion. Hercules does the same. However, in our game you must aggravate the monster from afar using your bow and the rush in with the spear as he rears up. It’s an action puzzle that requires a lot of nerve
God of War - Medusa
Who doesn’t want to rip the head off of Medusa now and then? God of War 1 and 2 have a couple of great Medusa battles. The first with that giant slug and then other gorgon conflicts throughout the journey. These are brutal attacks though that require force and timing. In Curse of the Hydra, Hercules’ meeting with her has a completely different texture. It is a stealth mission. If you attack Medusa directly you will lose. You must sneak up gem the shapes an attack from behind and then run before she can attack. While both types of play are exciting we’ll let you decide which gets you more tense up in your guts.
God of War - Hydra
Well, it is called Hercules: Curse of the Hydra for a reason. The Hydra is a bad ass of epic proportions. You cut off a head and more grow back? How do you kill this thing? In GOW is a bloody battle ranging up and down lattices as yo try to get a handle on the beast. That battle escalates in a nasty way. In Hercules I think we took an even more grandiose and unorthodox approach. You scale the cliff side as you chop off heads and then face off against the terrifyingly huge and vicious final head. Yikes!
While Hercules as an indie mobile game cannot match the scale and graphic intensity of the PS2 GOW we tried to take inspiration from the game play style. GOW is not a precision game. It is an incredibly good looking brawler with a compelling storyline and an interesting semi ranged base weapon. Hercules tend to feel the same. We pushed the graphics as far as they would go on the phone and tried to add the excitement of adventure and facing down fantastic beats that required cunning and skill to defeat. In the end it feels like something that started as a bit of a homage and became it’s own glorious experience.
What do you think. Is GOW the greatest single player 3-D adventure game of all time? Hercules? 
It turns out that a new Hercules movie is in development, written by Sean Hood (Halloween: Resurrection, Cube 2: Hypercube) and it is to have Brett Ratner attached (Rush Hour series, XMen: Last Stand, etc). Knowing that there is only a 2.43% chance that this will see the silver screen, we’d still like to make a few recommendations for various characters, including the big man himself. We’re hoping that our undying passion for our game, along with the endless hours of blood, sweat, and tears put into it, will give those involved with the film some reason to give our recommendations serious consideration. Plus, we really think we got the right mix here, so there’s that…
Lorenzo Lamas, long-haired, masculine, heroic? Why has Lorenzo forsaken us? Oh wait, he just moved to the SyFy channel, permanently. A perfect choice for Hercules, who after all, was no spring chicken by the time of the telling of our tale. Plus think of all the 50-something housewives we could pull in at the box office!
King of the Gods
Is there anyone better suited to playing an aging playboy of a god with delusions of grandeur and a pronounced persecution complex? We think not. PLUS, he was married to Kelle Lebrock and it ended in scandal and weirdness, so their on set chemistry will be undeniable.
Queen of the Gods, and the bane of Hercules’ life
She’s looking pretty Cruella Deville these days, and Hera was nothing if not mean to Herc. And doesn’t she just fit the part of an Old World Greek matron of a feuding clan? I can see her slapping children and grown men with equal fervor, scarfing down Moussaka and teetering on her absurdly high heels, drinking too much ouzo and complaining endlessly about where have all the good men gone.
If you think about it, those gods were probably pretty rotund. They were immortal, so there was really no incentive to watch cholesterol or anything like that. And you’re a god, so you probably have megalomania and think that you’re amazing, so the peer pressure factor of watching your weight is right out the window too. This reminds me of someone, hmmm, OH, Kirstie Alley! She would add that touch of realism that is always missing from Hollywood epics. The big-boned god of the real Ancient Greece.
Sun God, perfect playboy, and an admirer of Hercules
What can we possibly write here that the picture cannot say? He’s got a gold-infused pompadour and a gold and white Elvis jacket. He IS, in fact, as radiant as the sun. Even his nipple pasties are little sunbursts — he’s practically begging for this Role of a Lifetime. Forget Kris Allen, Adam is gonna make his real debut in 2013.
(I know, I know, she didnt really have a showdown with Hercules, but we put her in our game and we think that Sean should seriously consider putting her in the Hercules The Movie (2013) version. Mostly because we have the perfect candidate.)
Madonna! Think of it, you don’t even have to have any costumes or makeup, you could just set her loose on the set! She’s completely lifelike and believable, plus she hisses at pretty much everything.
This is the kind of film casting that would make David O. Selznick proud. Of course there would be a hefty price tag, but I think you could get a few of them to come along for the Craft Services. And if your looking for additional bit players, we hear that Jeremy London will take parts in exchange for housing…
Hydra Level 2 Unity Screen Shot
Level Building Process:
This document describes the general process which should be
followed in level creation, beginning with importing of mesh objects
and ending with exporting of a Unity package.
1. Open the Unity engine.
2. Create a new project, and DO NOT import the Standard or Pro
packages.
3. Import the .FBX level mesh into the Unity Engine.
- Ensure that the “Scale Factor” is set to 1.0 prior to placing
the mesh into the hierarchy.
- Ensure that the “Generate Colliders” checkbox is not checked.
4. Ensure that identical level elements use the same mesh/prefab. For
example, if the level contains multiple identical pillars:
a. Set up a single instance of the mesh with whatever is
necessary (colliders, etc.).
b. Create a prefab from that instance.
c. Replace all other pillar meshes with instances of the new
prefab in the correct positions.
5. Add terrain/pathway colliders:
a. Rename layer #15 to “GroundLayer”.
b. Assign this layer to any colliders that Perseus can walk on
(pathways).
c. Use box colliders for simple, flat terrain areas.
d. Use mesh colliders for complex pathways over angular, organic
terrain.
6. After setting up the level, make all the level elements a child of
an empty GameObject, and create a prefab from that object. Put the
level prefab into the stage folder (see the package structure below
for details).
- Name the prefab ‘MissionStage#’ (e.g. MedusaStage1).
7. Make sure you are not using any pro assets/shaders/materials that
are not available for Unity iPhone.
- Replace any pro shaders with iPhone shaders.
8. Select the stage folder, and export it and its dependencies to a
unity package. If you see any reference to a pro asset, cancel the
export and change it so that the asset is no longer used.
- Package should be named ‘MissionStage#’ (e.g. MedusaStage1).
9. Post the package into the /workingart/UnityPackages directory on
SVN.
Unity Package Structure (Verify during export).
- [Directories]
- CONTENTS
- [Resources]
- [Missions]
- [MissionFolder] ( e.g. Medusa, etc.)
- [StageFolder] ( folder will be called “1”,“2”, etc).
- MISSION_PREFAB
- [Scripts]
- SCRIPTS
- [Props]
- ALL_OTHER_PREFABS
- [Meshes]
- MESHES (FBX)
- [Images]
- IMAGES
- [Materials]
- MATERIALS
Here’s a fun Herc fact: Hercules’ Twelve Labors weren’t completed all by himself! He had help from his dear nephew, Iolaus. When Hercules faced the dreaded Hydra the first time, he had trouble knocking off all of it’s heads. While he bashed them in, Iolaus burned the wounds with a torch, ensuring the heads would not grow back.
Two heads are better than one
So who was Iolaus you ask? And why isn’t he in our game? Well, answering those questions is like opening up a box of chocolates from that weird guy who lives alone down the street – you really, really don’t want to know what you’re going to get…
Iolaus was a dear friend and gym partner of Hercules (the Theban gymnasium was named after him, and the annual Iolaeia athletic festival was held yearly in Thebes in his honor), and helped him to complete his Twelve Labors (the Hydra being most crucial).
Now, the reason that Hercules performed the Labors in the first place was as penance for murdering his own children (a terrible act he unleashed in a fit of hypnotic rage induced by the cruel Hera). After completing the twelve tasks, he would be able to get up in the morning and move on with his life. However, a big obstacle in this healing process was having to look at the angry face of his distraught wife. Rather than perform another twelve labors just for her, he did what any normal Joe would do – he gave his wife Megara (age 33) to his nephew Iolaus (age 16).
"This is kind of awkward..."
Awkward, right? Perhaps we can bring Iolaus in for a multiplayer sequel to Curse of the Hydra where they work with Dr. Phil on defeating Hercules’ nasty inner demons (this will require a whole lot more than the weapons featured in the current game)….
In building Hercules, one frequent problem that came up was with balancing the game to a degree where absolutely everyone could play it without snapping their devices in frustration. There would commonly be situations where one set of individuals (generally the true testers) were able to fly through the entire game with nary a complaint in regards to difficulty. In contrast, there was always this other group of people who always had problems, ranging from supposedly impossible jumps to apparently unkillable enemies. So what do we do in this situation?
Since this is about difficulty and not bugs, the first thing to look for would be confirmation that other testers were indeed having similar issues. However in a number of situations, those having extreme difficulty were limited to the more casual testers,while the hardened testers had no problems whatsoever.
The simplest solutions for this was to ensure that the different difficulty levels catered to these different classes of players. As a result, there is a rather huge difference in difficulty between “Soldier”, “Captain” and “Demigod” difficulties. The first caters to the truly casual who want to play through without sweat, while latter caters to those who want to die quickly (or who are simply better than I am). “Captain” – in my case – is the happy medium, as well as the game default.
Another thing previously misunderstood was the fact that certain weapons were designed to be ineffective against certain opponents. Case in point, the snake was previously very strong against any weapon other than piercing types (such as the the bow). This was designed to be easy to spot visually in five stages:
- Zero Damage: Enemy neither bleeds nor staggers.
- Minimal Damage: Enemy staggers but does not bleed.
- Medium Damage: Enemy staggers and bleeds a little.
- Heavy Damage: Enemy staggers and bleeds.
- Max Damage: Enemy staggers and bleeds. Impact shockwave is seen.
Again, confusion reigned on the part of some testers who attempted to slay enemies using the very weapons that were not designed to kill them.
Eventually, this was minimized by increasing the effectiveness of previously ineffective weapons against enemies. In other words, weapons that previously did zero (or close to zero) damage against certain opponents now do at least a minimal amount damage. The quickest way to learn what weapon is the most effective against enemies is to simply try them out! Note that this does not apply to bosses. They may still be totally immune to certain weapons.
At the end of the day, I think Hercules fares pretty well in catering to those at different ends of the difficulty spectrum. Taking into account the generally more casual nature of the gamers on this platform, I have no doubt that some will have to put a bit more effort into getting into the swing of things than others. However, it will hopefully be a fun experience rather than a frustrating or boring one.
A Unity 3D Memory Solution
Hercules is out now! Go get it!
Designing a 3D game for the iPhone using Unity
Hercules is out now! Go get it!
Hercules is up on Kongregate!
rundlc.com Hercules preview
danish: please explain what do you mean by empty scene sho...
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great app, su...
KoRoV: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Hercules%3A+...
Gabriel Lim: Good take! I've been having the same issues. Then ...
Brian Wane: Glad you are enjoying the game. 4 out of 5 is pret...
