Game Stooge

Everyday Shooter: E3’s Sleeper Hit

• Scribbled on July 19th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
• Filed in Editorial Content, Features, PC, PlayStation Network, Previews, Shooter, Sony PlayStation 3

Amidst the AAA titles of E3 2007, it’s hard to grab headline space when developers have to go against already established juggernauts such as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Killzone 2, and Super Mario Galaxy. One of the games that caught my attention through all the coverage is Everyday Shooter, an indie-developed PlayStation Network title due out this fall.

A winner of GDC 2007’s Game Design Innovation award, the announcement of Everyday Shooter (which was shown on PC) coming to consoles hardly seems like a surprise. Since the launch of the Xbox 360 and it’s instant hit Geometry Wars, in November 2005, we’ve been plagued with the fun, yet somewhat burdened release of dual-stick shooters offered up by the Xbox 360 and PS3’s downloadable services. Super Stardust HD just launched with critical appeal, and proved the genre hasn’t quite run out of juice yet.

What is surprising though, is the dev-team behind Everyday Shooter — or lack thereof. Jonathan Mak is the sole creator behind the game, responsible for all the programming, visuals, and even the soundtrack behind Everyday Shooter’s music-heavy presentation.

After Mak’s impressive GDC showing, he was contacted by Sony, and prepared to frontline the PlayStation Network’s “indie-cred” initiative. Everything went pretty smooth from there, and Mak was able to get the game up and running in no time, at 1080p and 60fps through the PS3’s architecture. Speaking with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal:

After a few days without sleep I had EveryDay Shooter running on the PS3. Of course there were problems, and there are probably still more problems to fix–you should ask me again when it’s all said and done because who knows what QA will find.

That’s amazing and all, but how does Everyday Shooter play? Many sites that have had the privilege of hands-on time with the game are describing it as a wonder-child spawned off of Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s rhythm based hits such as Rez and Lumines combined with the popular formula of Robotron/Geometry Wars-style gameplay.

GameSpot sums up the control scheme pretty well:

If you’ve played Robotron: 2084 or Smash TV, you will have a very basic idea of how the controls work in Everyday Shooter. The left analog stick moves your ship (or in this case, your pixel), while you shoot with the right stick. We say “basic” because developer Queasy Games is obviously going for an experience that transcends simple shooting. Instead, it is an evolving experience in which every shot landed creates a visual and musical idea that is expanded upon as you play.

Shooting the various enemies on-screen plays a different guitar track (also dubbed by Mak) that results in a rhythmic explosion of audio delight, as seen in this trailer:

Everyday Shooter looks to offer a unique and promising take on the “everyday shooters” populating the downloadable market of gaming and definitely looks to lead the way to more indie-games becoming more than just a niche hit.

Everyday Shooter is due out in Fall 2007 for through the PlayStation Network. For more updates you can check out the official website, which is updated to share the progress on the game.