Grabity

Press: The inspirations behind cult Kiwi brawler Grabity

2018-08-07T00:00:00+12:00

The inspirations behind cult Kiwi brawler Grabity

Here’s a really neat article by Adam Goodall for The Spinoff, talking about the crazy mixed-up journey we went on making Grabity :D Thanks for the awesome writeup Adam!

The inspirations behind cult Kiwi brawler Grabity

Grabity Post-release Feedback

2018-06-04T00:00:00+12:00

Grabity Post-release Feedback

Grabity, the award winning game from Team Ninja Thumbs which has just been released on Steam, is getting fantastic reviews.

In this fast-paced, physics-based arena brawler, 2-4 players duke it out using gravity guns to turn nearby objects into lethal projectiles or makeshift shields in intense tactical throw-downs.

‘We love all the classic couch multiplayer games and we wanted to deliver that same vibe with online play too,’ said Steve Salmond, the game’s programmer.

It seems they’ve succeeded. Players on Steam are raving about it:

Grabity is a great title. It’s an arena brawler with loader mechs. Everything in it is quality, from the graphics to the tutorial, it doesn’t miss a beat.

Steam Curator (Check’n Games)

The graphics are artistic, gameplay is smooth and fun! A great game to play with friends!

Steam Curator (Hookups)

A gravity-heavy local multiplayer than I’m falling in love with.

Steam Curator (Notable Releases)

If you are on the lookout for a fun, indie fighting game then this is the game for you. The unique fighting mechanics in this game are so enjoyable.

Steam Review (InfinityDude88)

The developers are committed to making this game the best it can possibly be for the community. They have been listening and working with the community and their feedback, to make what is honestly one of the best brawlers I have played in quite a while.

Steam Review (da stealth)

“After all the hard work on Grabity, its awesome to get this kind of feedback,” said Moritz Schlitter, Team Ninja Thumb’s artist and animator. “Its cool that so many players seem to love it.”

Grabity has already won high praise from the experts, winning the 2016 Kiwi Game Starter competition, was selected for the 2017 PAX Aus Indie Showcase, and was a finalist in the 2017 Chromacon Art Awards and the 2017 Play by Play Awards. The game has already been translated into five languages – French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and te reo Māori.

Grabity Initial Release

2018-05-31T00:00:00+12:00

Initial Release - 1.0.0.0!

Hi everyone, and welcome to Grabity’s ballistic bot brawls!

A couple of years ago we started working on Grabity as a side project. Making this game has been an amazing journey, and we are immensely proud of all the effort that went into making this initial release as solid as possible. We pushed the boundaries of what we thought we were capable of, and can’t wait to share the results with everyone! We also wish to acknowledge our beta-testers on Discord for all the feedback and encouragement that has helped us shape the game over the last couple of months! We are looking forward to growing our community even further and improving the game now that it’s live.

Our sincerest gratitude to everyone who has helped us along the way. We can’t wait to see what Grabity will shape up to be!

Links

Grabity on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/652810/Grabity/

Content creators can request Steam codes via Keymailer, https://www.keymailer.co/g/games/50728. Creating a Keymailer account is free.

Trailer

About Team Ninja Thumbs

Ninja Thumbs is a small independent game studio based in Auckland, New Zealand. We started off doing game jams, but soon realized that we wanted to take on a bigger project together. Grabity is a side project that quickly grew into a serious undertaking when we realized we had a really fun prototype on our hands!

Te Reo meets Robots in new Kiwi game

2018-05-23T00:00:00+12:00

For immediate release

GRABITY, a prize-winning game where robots test out the latest gravity-gun technology, will be released May 31st on Steam. Grabity is being brought to life by two Kiwi game developers. Steve Salmond, the programmer, is a University of Auckland Computer Science graduate who studied Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon in the US, while Moritz Schlitter is the 2D/3D artist, animator and level designer.

Keen to see the game translated into Māori, the team got in touch with Jack Potaka, a student in Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, who is working with Te Whainoa Te Wiata to capture the essence of the game’s language in Te Reo.

Grabity won the 2016 Kiwi Game Starter competition, was selected for the 2017 PAX Aus Indie Showcase, and was a finalist in the 2017 Chromacon Art Awards and the 2017 Play by Play Awards. The game has already been translated into five other languages – French, German, Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

Steve and Moritz are incredibly grateful for the support they’ve received from the Kiwi gamedev community. “It’s taken us a year of intensive self-funded work to get Grabity ready for market, and we wouldn’t have made it without them,” says Steve. “Unlike film and the other creative arts, there’s little public funding available to get a game off the ground, and its tough.”

“This is a clean-green industry, and a huge opportunity for New Zealand. Last year the video game industry made more than $100 billion world-wide – more than music and film combined.”

Links

Website: https://www.grabitygame.com/

Assets: trailer, screenshots and art can be downloaded from https://www.grabitygame.com/press/, or catch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb_uMp38ebA.

For further information or interviews, media should contact Team Ninja Thumbs via press@grabitygame.com.

Please contact reviews@grabitygame.com directly with review code requests.

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/652810/Grabity/

Content creators can request Steam codes via Keymailer, https://www.keymailer.co/g/games/50728. Creating a Keymailer account is free.

Trailer

About Team Ninja Thumbs

Grabity Release Announcement

2018-05-21T00:00:00+12:00

For immediate release

Grabity, the award winning smash brawler with gravity guns, is arriving on Steam on May 31st

Dance the tango of death in a fast-paced, physics-based arena starring combat robots with lethal gravity guns and curiously interchangeable heads

Auckland, 21 May 2018: Team Ninja Thumbs today announced that the award winning Grabity will be available for Windows PC on Steam from May 31st. In this fast-paced, physics-based arena brawler, 2-4 players duke it out using gravity guns to turn nearby objects into lethal projectiles or makeshift shields in intense tactical throw-downs.

‘We love all the classic couch multiplayer games, and we want to deliver that same vibe with online play too,’ explained Moritz, lead artist and co-designer. ‘We’ve worked hard to make sure Grabity’s game modes are fun, the twin-stick controls are fluid and of course that it all plays smoothly online as well as locally.’

‘Plus you can unlock a ton of different heads to bolt on your robot. That’s, um, very important,’ added Steve, programmer for the project.

Requiring both twitch reflexes and a tactical mindset, Grabity demands players outmaneuver and outwit their foes, turning gravity to their advantage, predicting the paths of both projectiles and rivals to secure a brutal hit while snatching their next crate in mid-air. Throughout the frenetic mêlée, the arena evolves kinetically as players smash, grab and loot their surroundings – jostling for the upper hand in a contest of aerial agility, dashing for pickups, hovering momentarily to nail the perfect trajectory and squabbling over the limited environmental ammo.

Game features

2-4 person online multiplayer – or local for maximum couch trash-talk!
Intuitive twin-stick controls for a fluid play experience that’s simple to learn but hard to master – pick up, play, git gud
You can also play with mouse & keyboard if you don’t have a controller handy!
Side-on 2.5D gameplay, fully rendered in 3D with real-time lighting and physics
Special items and pickups such as explosive canisters and EMP grenades add spice to the core gameplay
Custom game modes such as Low Gravity, King of the Crate and Juggernaut
Several custom-designed Arenas, each hosting a unique set of tactical choices
Lots of unlockable inventory items such as guns, jetpacks and, ahem, heads
Grabity won 1st place in Kiwi Game Starter 2016, and was awarded a place at the PAX Australia Indie Showcase in 2017, as well as being finalists at PlayByPlay and Chromacon in the same year.

Links

Website: https://www.grabitygame.com/

Assets: trailer, screenshots and art can be downloaded from https://www.grabitygame.com/press/, or catch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb_uMp38ebA.

For further information or interviews, media should contact Team Ninja Thumbs via press@grabitygame.com.

Please contact reviews@grabitygame.com directly with review code requests.

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/652810/Grabity/

Content creators can request Steam codes via Keymailer, https://www.keymailer.co/g/games/50728. Creating a Keymailer account is free.

Trailer

About Team Ninja Thumbs

Finding the Fun in Physics: Video

2018-01-15T00:00:00+13:00

The NZGDA have uploaded all the talks from last year’s NZGDC to YouTube, including ours!

Finding the Fun in Physics

Slides

PAX Australia 2017 Wrapup

2017-11-01T00:00:00+13:00

We’ve just arrived back in New Zealand on the red-eye from Melbourne to Auckland, after exhibiting GRABITY at PAX Australia - what a total blast! Probably one of the more intense weekends of our lives. Three days of non-stop gaming, chatting, and yelling - interspersed with moments of panic, and a few beers in the mix as well :) Met a ton of cool folks, including our 5 PAX Indie Showcase neighbours. It was extremely humbling to be in the company of these amazing devs:

Here are links to the 5 other games in the showcase:

A massive thanks to everyone who turned up at the Grabity booth and played a round or two with us - you guys were awesome! :D

Mo, armed for battle with 2x double shot coffees

Mo's mum came to PAX too - thanks for the amazing help!

Our first PAX players!

The booth was pumping all three days; craziness :D

Mo jumped on the Alienware stream, demoing Grabity live!

Some nail-biting moments while setting up Grabity for the Indie Showcase panel..

Everything worked out though, and the panel was awesome! :)

Steve and the GitgudTV crew playing Grabity up on stage.

Kicking back at the MegaDev after-party with a couple of refreshing beverages.

Steam Page is Live!

2017-10-26T00:00:00+13:00

Woke up to some great news this morning - the Steam page for Grabity has been approved, and we’re now officially ‘Coming Soon’. If you feel like wishlisting us, here’s a link to the page, hot out of the oven:

Grabity On Steam

Moritz has also updated our trailer, pretty cool - check it out :)

Screenshot Saturday, Sep 17

2017-09-16T00:00:00+12:00

This week, Moritz whipped up a new custom head asset to use for our AI players:

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Custom Controller Stands

2017-09-13T00:00:00+12:00

Something awesome arrived in the mail this morning! Steve’s nephew Luka Ngata designed and made these cool controller stands for us to take to PAX Aus next month.

They are laser-cut from thin sheets of MDF, and you just fold them into the final shape - very clever piece of design, and they work amazingly well.

Thanks so much Luka! :D