Jason (left) and Matthew (right) in Xona Games offices.
Xona Games Mom. <3
Jason (left; close up) and Matthew (right; behind). Mistake Notice: They point to a close up of Jason and label it Matthew.
Maybe should have mentioned us both! (Hint!)
Quoted as follows:
Matthew Doucette
Math Prodigy, Computer Whiz,
Award-Winning Video Game Developer
Matthew Doucette says the Yarmouth location for his and his brother’s video game company is what has given Xona Games its edge. “In a larger centre, we’d be a drop in a pond. But by staying close to our roots, we’ve managed to stick out enough to get the attention, recognition and support that helped take us to the next level.”
I don't even remember saying this, but I probably did! Credentials shared with Jason Doucette, lead programmer of our games. Link to full NSBI 2009/2010 Annual Report to come as soon as they post it online!
Most mainstream gamers call Duality ZF a "bullet hell", unbeknownst to them it has a Bullet Hell game mode, one of six game modes. Some screenshots (trailer coming soon):
A few visual effects are new.
That lava... it moves.
A few environmental hazards.
Explosions. Yours and theirs.
Spread/Laser Duailty Weapon, a Duality ZF innovation.
Midbosses are tough...
...end bosses are tougher...
...and tougher.
Bullets, bullets, bullets!
Above images:
Duality ZF - Bullet Hell game mode.
(Click for 1280x720 HD screenshots.)
True bullet hell games are not our favorite sub-genre beneath the shoot'em up genre, which is why Duality ZF is not a true bullet hell. This may be a good thing as we are trying to make a shmup game that appeals to the mainstream audience. I believe Duality ZF is a "manic" shoot'em up, although Wikipedia's Shoot'em up article labels it the same as a bullet hell. I do not believe these sub-genres are well defined yet. I believe bullet hell to be more pattern oriented (allowing far more bullets on the screen) and manic to be more random as you can see in the screenshots above. If you know the true definitions, please contact us!
P.S. Don't forget to vote for Duality ZF in the 3rd Independent Game Developer's Competition. Voting is free and ends on August 31st, 2010!
Matthew Doucette of Xona and Christopher “udderdude” Emirzian take their devotion to a higher level and design their own shmups, hoping to shape and sustain the genre’s future. Their fanbase is growing and their attention to their craft has garnered them massive respect. The two have wildly different games in the spotlight: Xona’s Duality ZF and Chris’s XOP Black. We discover below that even in the various shmup sub-genres, successful developers can have strikingly similar goals and opinions.
Duality ZF's Bullet Hell Game Mode 2010/Aug/19 — Matthew Doucette
Duality ZF isn't a bullet hell game, it has a bullet hell game mode. :)
Independent Shmups Fight For Justice! 2010/Aug/18 — Matthew Doucette
Great interview with myself, Matthew Doucette (Xonatron), and Christopher Emirzian (udderdude) on indie shmups.
Living the Dream!!! 2010/Aug/09 — Matthew Doucette
Living the Dream: Developers finding success in Canada's East Coast
Mark Rein's Apology w/ Great Indie Advice 2010/Jul/20 — Matthew Doucette
Mark Rein's apologies to Cliff Harris and includes with it some great indie developer advice.
New Xbox LIVE Indie Games Roundup Show 2010/Jul/19 — Matthew Doucette
Introducing a new Xbox LIVE Indie Games roundup show, in German! They featured Decimation X in their first show.
Google Respect 2010/Jun/18 — Matthew Doucette
Xona Games getting some respect from Google Suggest!
Jalloo Festival to Showcase Duality ZF 2010/Jun/16 — Matthew Doucette
Jalloo Festival of Animation and Gaming is showcasing Duality ZF on June 16-17, 2010.
Imphenzia #1 of 300,000 on Soundclick 2010/May/31 — Matthew Doucette
Imphenzia, creator of Duality ZF and Decimation X soundtracks, ranks #1 of 300,000 songs on Soundclick.
Great Indie Game Developer Advice 2010/May/04 — Matthew Doucette
Great advice from Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games, the indie game developer behind Breath of Death VII.
Xona Games Featured in Open to the World Magazine 2010/Apr/19 — Matthew Doucette
Xona Games featured in Nova Scotia's Open to the World magazine, along with other Innovacorp I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition winners.
GDC Xona Games Interview (Game Connection) 2010/Mar/16 — Matthew Doucette
Xona Games get interviewed by Charles Prémont, reporter for Le Lien MULTIMEDIA / videoGAMEScanada.ca.
Japan's #6 Top Rated Xbox 360 "Shooter": Decimation X 2010/Jan/28 — Matthew Doucette
Decimation X is Japan's #6 overall top rated Xbox 360 "shooter" of all Xbox 360 games (AAA Retail, XBLA, and XBLIG games included). Wow!
Duality ZF Gameplay: Boss Rush 2009/Dec/22 — Matthew Doucette
Duality ZF gameplay footage: 3X multiplayer, multi-directional, BOSS RUSH, in HARD difficutly.
Introducing Decimation X 2009/Dec/21 — Matthew Doucette
Introducing our second game, Decimation X. A 1-4 player intense retro shmup.
MIGS 2009 Wrap Up 2009/Dec/20 — Matthew Doucette
Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) 2009 Wrap Up.
Xona Games I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition Finalist 2009/Oct/22 — Matthew Doucette
Xona Games was announced a round two finalist (top 5 in our zone competing for $100,000, and top 25 in all five zones competing for $200,000) in the I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.
Duality ZF Fan Prediction 2009/Oct/07 — Matthew Doucette
A Duality ZF prediction sent in by a true fan!
Xona Games Featured on CBC TV News 2009/Sep/24 — Matthew Doucette
CBC TV News feature on Xona Games, Duality ZF, and the story of Jason and Matthew Doucette.
Xona Games on CBC News Website 2009/Sep/23 — Matthew Doucette
Xona Games article on CBC News Website, based on the prior CBC Radio One (Information Morning) and CBC TV News interview.
CBC Radio One Interviews Xona Games on Duality ZF 2009/Sep/23 — Matthew Doucette
Ryan Pierce (CBC Radio One) interviews Jason and Matthew Doucette (Xona Games) on Duality ZF's success in Dream Build Play 2009 and future plans.
Duality ZF & Hurricane X2 Make XNA Spotlight 2009/Sep/21 — Matthew Doucette
Duality ZF and Hurricane X2 recognized for being Dream Build Play 2009 Finalists, in the XNA Spotlight.
Duality ZF in Hometown News 2009/Sep/16 — Matthew Doucette
Duality ZF makes our hometown (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada) newspaper!
Xona Games on Facebook 2008/Sep/28 — Matthew Doucette
Facebook fans, please join our Xona Games group.
Introducing Duality ZF 2008/Sep/24 — Matthew Doucette
Introducing Duality ZF, an Xbox 360 2D shooter from Xona Games.
Xona Games on YouTube 2008/Sep/12 — Matthew Doucette
YouTubers, please join our Xona Games channel.
Introducing Xona Games 2008/Aug/28 — Matthew Doucette
Introducing Xona Games, the next big thing to come from Xona.com!
The Science of Getting Rich 2007/Feb/11 — Wallace D. Wattles
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, 1910.
Editing Google Toolbar Dictionary 2007/Feb/11 — Jason Doucette
How to edit Google Toolbar's user dictionary, in case of the addition of a misspelled word.
Ramblings in Realtime 2007/Feb/05 —
These are the articles about how Quake works that I wrote during the period 1995-1997, when John Carmack and I were developing Quake.
IE7: Open Homepage In New Tabs 2007/Jan/30 — Matthew Doucette
Internet Explorer 7 opens a blank page for new tabs. Here's how to open your homepage instead.
IE7: Disable Language Bar 2007/Jan/24 — Matthew Doucette
Updating to Internet Explorer 7 enables the "Language Bar". Here's how to disable it.
Get Rich Books and Greed 2007/Jan/21 — Matthew Doucette
Thoughts on "get rich" books and their relationship with greed.
Turbo Pascal's 64-bit comp Type 2006/Jul/29 — Jason Doucette
Some history: Exactly what was the deal with Turbo Pascal's mongrel 64-bit integer type, comp, which was handled as a floating point type? Why is its smallest value -(2^63)+1 instead of the expected -2^63 for a signed 8-byte integer?
How do Variable Argument List Functions Work? 2006/Jul/27 — Jason Doucette
How do variable argument list (variadic) functions work? How does printf() know how to deal with both float and double data types for the %f format specifier?
Smallest Positive Floating Point Values 2006/Jul/26 — Jason Doucette
The floating point format allows you to store a smaller positive number than the smallest positive value you think the format can store. Huh? And, if your code does not expect such small magnitudes, then you may be in for some trouble.
Easily Avoid Large C++ Class Copies 2006/Jun/14 — Jason Doucette
Avoid the accidental creation of copies of your large classes, to avoid wasted memory, slow performance, and best of all: avoid manually recreating your own versions of the Copy Constructor and Assignment Operator!
How To Upgrade phpBB 2006/Apr/24 — Matthew Doucette
A simple step-by-step tutorial guiding you on how to upgrade your phpBB bulletin board system to a newer version.
The TI-99/4A Home Computer 2006/Apr/15 — Matthew Doucette
A small tribute to the TI-99/4A Home Computer.
Xona.com Trivia 2005/Nov/10 — Matthew Doucette
Xona.com trivia!
Interested in Writing Tech. Articles For Xona.com? 2005/Nov/09 — Matthew Doucette
Do you enjoy writing articles? Are you enthusiastic about technology? Please read on. Xona.com is looking for motivated authors.
Visual Studio .NET Keyboard Shortcuts Macro 2005/Aug/02 — Jason Doucette
Visual Studio .NET macro that creates an HTML table of all current keyboard shortcuts. Useful for finding key bindings, or for an easier way to browse through them.
Inter.net Violation: Unlimited Account Overusage 2005/Jun/19 — Matthew Doucette
My ISP, Inter.net, is threatening to shut down my "Unlimited Internet access" account if my family members use it more than 1 hour and 15 minutes, individually, per day, on average.
Uninstall Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) 2005/Mar/16 — Matthew Doucette
Sometimes Add/Remove programs will NOT uninstall Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) due to a known bug. This is how to uninstall DAP if this happens to you.
Domain Hacks & Email Hacks 2004/Nov/03 — Matthew Doucette
Background info on "domain hacks" (del.icio.us, blo.gs, cr.yp.to) and "email hacks" (j@m.es, w@y.ne).
Create an MP3 Alarm Clock 2004/Oct/20 — Jason Doucette
Why wake up to the annoying buzzer of your alarm clock, when you can let your computer play one of your favourite songs in the morning?
Google Gmail Invites 2004/Oct/17 — Matthew Doucette
Here are some free Gmail invites, Google's awesome new online email.
Spam Inspector 4.0 Review 2004/Aug/30 — Jason Doucette
A review of Spam Inspector 4.0 from Giant Company Software based on my extensive use - from installing it and using it daily for several months to dealing with customer support.
Anti-Aliased Text: Better or Worse? 2004/Aug/03 — Matthew Doucette
Anti-aliased text is sometimes better, but sometimes worse, than aliased text. Here is why.
Investigate Windows Processes 2004/Aug/03 — Matthew Doucette
Ever wonder what all those processes running on your Windows system are for?
Programming Windows, 5th Edition - Errata Addendum 2004/Jul/01 — Jason Doucette
I created and maintain an extensive errata list of program bugs, text typos, and errors for Charles Petzold's Programming Windows, 5th Edition - the bible of Windows programming.
Visual C++ .NET Standard Edition - Free Optimizing Compiler 2004/Jun/29 — Jason Doucette
How to freely obtain and integrate Microsoft's expensive Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition optimizing compiler and linker into Visual C++ .NET Standard Edition.
Stop Spam Mail 2004/Jun/17 — Matthew Doucette
Here are various ways I stop spam emails without using an email filter.
Monitor Convergence 2004/Jun/09 — Matthew Doucette
Optimize your monitor's convergence to produce the clearest possible image.
