Vector Unit unveils Riptide GP at Mobile World Congress

Game developer bringing console-class water racing to Tegra 2 powered tablets and phones

San Rafael, CA – February 15, 2011.  One of the new Android games optimized for the NVIDIA® Tegra 2 making waves at Mobile World Congress this year is futuristic water-racer Riptide GPTM, the newest title to come out of independent studio Vector UnitTM, developers of Hydro ThunderTM Hurricane for Xbox LIVE® Arcade.

Set against the backdrop of a futuristic Earth, Riptide GP features daredevil watercyclists rocketing through canals and rivers across a dynamic, ever changing surface of glittering water. Riders jump each others wakes and catch huge air off rolling waves as they battle to be first across the finish line. It's Supercross on water, played out on twisting, undulating waterpark racetracks.

The developers at Vector Unit are no strangers to the technical demands and gameplay opportunities of water racing games. Their previous title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, a sequel to the Midway Games arcade classic, was released last year as part of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade and featured gorgeous water visuals and a sophisticated hydrodynamic simulation.

“The thing that's great about racing on water is that the track is always changing,” says Technical Director Ralf Knoesel, the man behind the team's procedural water. “It's not like racing on a static road where every lap is completely predictable. When you're riding over huge swells of ocean waves you have to make decisions about when to carve through a trough or jump a crest – all while battling the other riders for the best line.”

When asked about bringing their next-gen technology to the Tegra 2 platform, Knoesel is enthusiastic. “Until recently it just wasn't possible to create the kind of game we wanted to make on a phone or a tablet. With Tegra 2, we've been able to create a racing experience that combines sophisticated physics simulations with console-class visuals.”

Riptide GP is being developed by Vector Unit in partnership with Flashman Capital LLC.

Prepare to rev up your watercycle and shred the waves Summer 2011.

New game will be announced Tuesday!

Comin' up, pipin' hot and fresh from the ovens!  Vector Unit will unveil its latest game next week, on Tuesday February 15.  

We can't say much about it just yet.  But we can give you some hints:  It's not another Hydro Thunder game.  It is another racing game.  It takes place in the future.  You can put it in your knapsack.  You can also play it on your TV.  It is not un-awesome.  And...let's see....oh, I know, it involves robots, but there aren't any robots in the game.

We've been working our socks off on this for a while, and we're really excited to finally be able to show it off and tell people about it.  

Check back Tuesday for more info and, of course, pretty pretty screenshots.

Android tablets take a bite out of iPad

We're pretty bullish on Android as a gaming platform these days, particularly with the announcement at CES this year of all the new graphically-supercharged tablets and phones coming out with Nvidia's Tegra 2 chipset.

Add to that momentum the report from CNet today that  Android tablets made huge gains against the iPad's market share in the fourth quarter of last year:

In the fourth quarter, Apple's tablet captured 75.3 percent of worldwide market share, easily besting Android-based devices' 21.6 percent share, according to market-research firm Strategy Analytics. However, those figures differ vastly from the third quarter when Apple had 95.5 percent share and Android had just 2.3 percent.

From 2.3 to 21.6 percent share in just 3 months?  That's pretty impressive.  If they can keep that momentum up, 2011 going to be a good year to be an Android developer.  

I'm not saying anything, just, you know...ahem.

Full article:  iPad loses significant share to Android tablets

Get Hydro Thunder Hurricane for 800 points

Hey we realize times are tough, and not everybody has $15 lying around to spend on a totally awesome and completely worth it rocket-powered speedboat game with thrilling waterfall jumps and technologically amazing water physics.

Well, if money is the one thing that's been holding you back from buying Hydro Thunder Hurricane, now's your chance to stop crying about it and break out the virtual wallet.

As Major Nelson has reported, Hurricane will be discounted 33% to 800 points during the week of January 31st.

The discount is part of a "Get Wet!" promotion that also features Hydrophobia and Aqua.  

The existentialism of Hydro Thunder

I don't know about you, but personally I love philosophical ramblings about video games.  We spend so much time talking about high def graphics and multiplayer teabagging and flaming each other about whether Bioshock looks ever so lightly better on the 360 or the PS3.  But what about the deeper truths?  What about the soul?

Well Richard Clark at Kill Screen has turned his minds eye upon the churning waters of Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and has mined hidden veins of meaning that even I didn't know were there.  

In Hydro Thunder Hurricane, as with most videogames, we're never really dead. On the contrary, all human frailty is cast off in exchange for the pure power and mechanical nature of the speedboat. We no longer need to sleep. We don't even need to slow down. If the game has a brake button, it is the rare player who is actually aware of it. There are only two speeds: boosting and not boosting.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane portrays speed in such a way that it seems like a defensive and necessary response to the world.

To be honest, all I heard was "blah blah blah Hydro Thunder is totally awesome blah blah."  But I appreciate the love.

Actually, seriously, I got a kick out of this article, and I highly recommend it.  It's amusing, and actually really well written.  Thanks, Richard!  I'll remember you next time I'm lying awake at night thinking about the ontology of boost.

Game with the developers, February 7!

So you think you got skills because you beat some chumps playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane online?  Test those skills against the people who made the game!  

Vector Unit will host a Game with Developers event on Xbox LIVE, February 7 from 6-8pm PST.  Look for us online during those hours and join in the mayhem!  We'll be playing on all tracks including the Tempest Pack, so be sure to download the full version of the DLC if you want to join us.

We'll post more details as the date draws closer.  Check back for more info!

Vector Unit at GDC 2011

Creative Director Matt Small will be speaking at GDC 25 this year, hosting a 60 minute presentation entitled "Tales from the Trenches: Startup Advice from a Vet".  

The presentation will give an insider's look at the first years of Vector Unit, from our inception as a couple of guys working out of a home office to the development of Hydro Thunder Hurricane and beyond. We'll provide a candid overview of how we got our company off the ground, and provide attendees with a roadmap tailored to established game professionals who dream of some day striking out on their own.

Date and time still to be announced.  Check back for details!

Update on 2011-01-29 01:32 by Vector Unit

The session has been scheduled for Friday, March 4, from 9:30am to 10:30am.  Location is North Hall, Room 130.  

Fan Mail: So good your girl will hate you

From time to time we get mail from people telling us they love Hydro Thunder Hurricane.  Which is no surprise, because we think it's ten kinds of awesome.  But we still like hearing it from other people because we also think Blood Wake was awesome, so what do we know?

But every now and then we get a letter that's extra special.  After reading it we slowly lean back in our seats with a little smile and just let the warmth from the email window expand out and envelop us.  It feels like a Hawaiian sunset.

Such a letter is Parnell Lutz's:

To whom may concern and the entire VU team,

Sorry if this is a long winded story, but I thought I would share my excitement and enjoyment to see a fantastic game brought back and executed so well.

I remember as a young person going into the Arcade and seeing HT for the first time. Blew my mind, and became an obsession to find it at every arcade we stopped at. When the dreamcast was released and HT was available for it, my dream of playing the crap out of the game and beating it could become true! This is one of my favorite games, ever. I was at E3 2010 and got to see the game. My childhood memories and excitement erupted with glee. You know, like when you're a child on Christmas? That sparked my desire to play the original again, in its entirety. I went on a mission, bought a DC w/ HT, and HT for pc. I think I went on a month binge of only talking about HT and had it on a few of my laptops so I could play it, everywhere. Got a few coworkers obsessed too, in the process.

I bought Hurricane very soon after release and I love the freaking hydro out of it. I literally cannot get enough of the game. I have put more time into this single game than any other game I have ever owned on a console. This has been the best $20 (I had to buy the expansion) I have ever spent on a game. My excitement and obsession with this game has made one girl hate me and many friends, and coworkers purchase the game. I'm on a mission to unlock everything, almost there. Recently my coworker and myself have been on a mission to beat each others track times. Even playing the same track 40 times in a row to get .10 seconds ahead of said coworker, still does not bore me with this game. The expansion was great, and has added some life and fun. But I am wondering if VU will release another expansion. I really think more tracks would be perfect addition for 2011. The boat selection is good and vast, so even porting the original HT levels to the game would be fantastic. If you can even give me a hint that more DLC would be out, to hold me over, I would appreciate the tip, but understand if you cannot. 

Thank you again for making such a fantastic game, and I hope you keep supporting it with DLC, to keep my addicted.

Parnell Lutz

p.s. How do you feel about h2overdrive? I played it, enjoyed it, but still LOVE Hurricane more, so again thank you for bringing it to console :)

Ahhhh.  Feels great to get kudos from (a) a fan of the original, (b) a well-written gentleman of letters, and (c) anybody who likes HTH better than H2O.

Thanks, Parnell!  I actually answered him personally.  The rest of you will have to guess the answers.

Can games make you smarter?

Just got back from a conference in Washington DC about language learning and video games.  

I was there along with a number of other game industry peeps to explain some basic ideas about game design and the game industry to government and university language acquisition experts.  The idea was to get everybody in a room together from our different industries and see if by sharing knowledge we could come up with some ideas about ways that video games might be able to make the process of learning a language (or anything else for that matter) more engaging and productive.

Sounds like it could have been kind of dry, but was actually super interesting.  In addition to speakers from the games biz, Dr. David Traum spoke on the research his team has done in natural language simulation at USC, and Dr. Ray Perez of the Office of Naval Research told us about several experiments his group has done to improve training in the US Navy and other branches of the US Armed Forces.

The whole thing got me thinking about "edutainment", which is often treated as a dirty word in game development circles.  But why?  Everybody has to learn; everybody has to go to school.  Surely there must be a way to make games that are fun to play and teach you something in the process.  

Too busy getting ready for our visit to Microsoft next week to blog deeply about this right now, but I'll come back to the topic again -- it's got the little gears in my brain spinning.

Oh, and eventually they're going to post the videos of our presentations online.  I'll update this when they do.