"This title was obviously built by folks who are passionate about games. If their awesome logo—an x-ray of an Atari 2600 joystick piercing a skull—doesn’t prove that, then Shred Nebula’s addictive multiplayer should."
- Team Xbox

"... Shred Nebula could be just the game you’ve been waiting for."
- NZ Gamer

"... definitely worth a look for shooter fans!"
- 360 Evolved

"Think Street Fighter meets Asteroids and your beginning to understand the concept."
- Betrothal

"Shred Nebula is a fun and enjoyable shooter. Multiplayer is where it’s really at and is a worthy addition to your XBLA collection."
- VG Reloaded

Shred Nebula today fell under the eye of VG Reloaded. After their detailed review of the game they raved about the multiplayer and awarded Shred Nebula an 8.0 and Good Fun.


Betrothal ran a review today of Shred Nebula saying:

"Let’s dispense with the usual Asteroids or Defender comparisons… It’s an insult to the complexity and dynamics of the game. On the surface it would appear to be similar, however the level of gameplay, detail and interaction is far deeper than any of it’s grandparents."

To celebrate it's launch they are also running a contest to see what you players think.


Game Career Guide featured Shred Nebula, and James Goddard in a article about the release of the desgin documents of Shred Nebula. It goes into depth with some of the intentions of James Goddard and the state of the industry in reguards to students becoming designers. You can get the documents on our site as well here.






Today we released Shred Nebula design documents. This is a rarity in the industry. James Goddard said the following:

In November 2006, the team at CrunchTime Games Inc. had a massive task to accomplish: Successfully pitch Microsoft an Xbox LIVE Arcade game made by a handful of first time programmers and artists (some of which were still students), with only one experienced pro leading the way from his converted garage in Chandler Arizona.

On September 3, 2008, Shred Nebula will launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade servers, completing that goal and dream of the men and women that dared to take on such a wildcard challenge.

Doing a Pitch for a new game idea never gets any easier. It does not matter how much experience you have or if it is your first game idea, selling a concept to others is tough! A major challenge for students and aspiring game developers is finding legitimate reference on how this process works by seeing real design docs from released games. The Game Industry is loaded with NDA's and other secretive philosophies that make it tough for us as an industry to A) Help the future designers/developers have solid reference to learn from and B) Strengthen the trade of "planning/game design" and progress it as a technical art form through sharing and innovation.

I personally have created many detailed design documents and high-end pitches for the games I have worked on over the last 17 years as a Lead Designer, Director and Character Gameplay Programmer - all of which are stuck under NDA blanket and therefore hidden away from those who could greatly benefit from the experience.

Now I own a company (CrunchTime Games Inc.) and the IP, it is my please to finally release this kind of documentation from our game Shred Nebula Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA)! On 9/3/08 in conjunction with the launch of Shred Nebula on XBLA servers, we are releasing the Pitch Document used to get the game green lit for XBLA and a 60 Seconds of Gameplay Essay required for submission and approval. These will be found at www.shrednebula.com

What makes these documents special is the way they are created, using a technique I call "Visual Game Design" that I was fortunate enough to adapt over the years, reflecting on experiences of working with the Japanese early in my career.

CrunchTime Games Inc. is very excited to offer this reference to the vast communities of aspiring developers, students, educators and peer in the industry, showing how we tackled the task of Pitching Shred Nebula (aka R.I.P. ROCKET) back in 2006. We hope this open sharing sets a standard for others in the industry - our game is done, there is no reason to keep these secret at the expense of helping our future developers and sharing some design "know-how" within our industry.

Sincerely,

James Goddard
CEO,
CrunchTime Games Inc.


Shred Nebula has been released on Xbox Live Arcade like promised. Go jump on and get it for only 800 Microsoft Points. Brave the Adventure mode as you explore the galaxy. Surive the waves of enemies in an old school score attack. When you think you got enough game, step up to multi-player with 8 unique ships in dangerous arenas against upto 7 others.



We will be releasing the documentation used to Pitch Shred Nebula to Microsoft and some other top secret design files associated with the title. This will all happen at 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time the day of Shred Nebula's launch on Xbox Live Arcade, September 3rd 2008. Above is a small preview of the documents.


Shred Nebula has been on the horizon for about nine months, but for whatever reason, it hasn't garnered the same kind of advance hype as many other Xbox Live Arcade releases -- this is especially notable since it's planned to be the first Live Arcade title released following Microsoft's blockbuster Summer of Arcade promotion. Some of this could be because of the confusion over what Shred Nebula is; even after last December's lengthy interview with CrunchTime Games president James Goddard, we weren't entirely sure how the elements of this fighter-inspired shooter would coalesce into a playable experience.



The second offical trailer has been released showing more of Shred Nebula due out Spetember 3rd of this year. That is next Wensday!





Today we revealed two new ships! The MARAUDER which is the enforcer of the Drarg Pirates with it's glowing red claws, and DJINN a transformable ship with devestating attacks and a cloak. Also make sure to check out the Video section for a multiplayer battle and developer walkthrough of RIP ROCKET and GUARDBOT as they square off.








James Goddard, CEO of CrunchTime Games will drop a Bombshell tommorow on X-Play at 8:00 PM EST! So Tune in and Listen Up!



The gameplay design behind Shred Nebula is fairly straight forward. There are bad guys, you have to shoot them. It's the little features where the game deviates from the norm. The single-player campaign centers around the player-controlled RIP-Rocket, a state of the art machine outfitted with navigation equipment, a defensive shield and some killer weaponry. Everything on your ship can be upgraded eleven times as you work your way through the adventure mode so the ship you end the game with will hopefully differ from the beginning...



So we redesigned the site to give you more for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy.



Crunchtime Games has informed us that their upcoming space shooter Shred Nebula will hit Xbox Live Arcade on September 3. Shred Nebula ditches the now ubiquitous twin-stick shooter design in favor of more traditional flight combat controls. Utilizing thrust-based flying and aiming akin to Asteroids and the classic PC title SubSpace, we're hoping for some epic dogfights. With two single player modes and eight person multiplayer matches that CrunchTime head James Goddard equated with character match-ups in the Street Fighter series, Shred Nebula at least represents something different. On XBLA that's definitely not a bad thing.



Shred Nebula is featured on Gamespots weekly show - "On The Spot". James Goddard even made a appearence over Xbox Live on the show to talk a little bit about the gamesplay. Besides a few technical issues and a whopping 10 second delay, James made a good appearence from CrunchTime Games. Shred Nebula and James make a appearence 60 minutes into the show.



The top-down shooter is getting to be one of the most popular types of games on Xbox Live Arcade’s stable. The latest to challenge you to some frantic 360 degree shooting action is Shred Nebula, a deceptively complex and deep action adventure game set in space that is set to appear on XBLA in the next couple of months. Created by a new company called Crunchtime Games, Shred Nebula features multiple single player modes as well as support for eight player multiplayer over Live and system link.



Wrapping up the initial reveal of Shred Nebula, 1up.com digs deep into the fighting influence Shred was built on. "From the August hiring of Dave Winstead, another Street Fighter II team veteran, as owner/partner and executive design officer of CrunchTime Games, to the mention that top fighting game players (as well as first-person shooter experts) will be brought in to test Shred Nebula before release, such references populated the discussion. Goddard says their reputation of being..."



In our continued press roll-out, IGN asks some tough questions about Shred Nebula. Here is a sample.

IGN: What is being done to ensure that the multiplayer game isn't just another arena style shooter?

James Goddard: In creating this game, we looked at all the games we like that are 'frag' based and asked the question: Why don't any of these offer unique characters with their own special weapons? Why do all of these primarily share the same ammo/weapon pool? The answer is because it is really freaking hard to make fighting style approach work in frag based games. We have worked through that difficulty and Shred Nebula will provide you with truly unique ships with their own weapons, specials and abilities.



The first in many upcoming follow-ups to the announcement of the game, one of our favorite sites does a Q and A on Shred Nebula!

"We recently got a chance to talk with James Goddard of CrunchTime Games, creators of the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game Shred Nebula. A shooter of a different sort, Shred Nebula is attacking the shooter genre from a different angle than all the Geometry Wars clones (which are really RoboTron clones anyway) to give gamers a new experience."



After 1 year of arrangements, Shred Nebula is finally announced with GameSpot.com! "Earlier this month, we took an in-depth look at indie developer CrunchTime Games, founded by longtime industry veteran James Goddard and staffed by a handful of fresh-faced college grads out of a garage located on Goddard's ranch in Chandler, Arizona. Now we've also gotten an initial look at CrunchTime's first independently produced game, the forthcoming Xbox Live Arcade shooter Shred Nebula."



CrunchTime Games is announced as an official XBLA developer with a top secret game on the way-later revealed to be Shred Nebula! "After years of working as a hired gun on other people's projects, Goddard wanted a change. He began to reshape CrunchTime as an indie studio that would make its own games, as he said, "uninhibited by corporate BS." To help him in that endeavor, Goddard looked specifically for developers who still had a passion for the business, something he feared might be harder to find in veterans that tend to grow jaded with life in the industry."

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