SUPERHEROIC STRUGGLE: ON THE SILENCE SURROUNDING IPHONE PUZZLER HEROES & VILLAINS

For a while there, the updates on Heroes & Villains — the superhero iPhone puzzler from Paper Moon creators Infinite Ammo — were coming thick and fast, only to drop off suddenly in the weeks surrounding this year’s GDC.

So, wha-happen? As you can see by the latest video above, the game’s caught in flux between tantalizingly near-complete, but struggling to make that last jump, as Infinite Ammo co-founder Alec Holowka explains:

The main stumbling block with releasing the game is that there are some interface problems. Right now its too hard for most people to pick up and play – which is a required aspect of iPhone games.

There’s also the question of being able to produce enough level content to make the game worthwhile. I wanted to aim for about 50 levels. There’s a fair amount of work involved in that, and I want to be sure that it’ll be worth the effort.

To whit, I’m employing the aide of some of my indie game developer friends – to have them assess, praise or destroy what I have in the game now, and hear how much potential they think it has. I think it’ll at the very least be educational; hopefully it’ll lead to the game improving and eventually being released.

The main reason for Holowka’s dilemma: he’s also putting the majority of his development efforts into the previously teased Marian, the tale of a re-animated puppet who’s “caught in the dream world between life and death,” and a game that was only spoken about in hushed, reverent tones by the Ammos during GDC.

The Ammos are actually taking a community poll to see what players would prefer them to focus on, and I’ve made my own vote, but will also publicly say that for as much as I’d like to see the Marian magnum opus come to life as soon as possible, I’ve been hangin’ on so long for the Heroes that I’d be devastated to see it get the premature axe. Knock that one out of the park and then go full-tilt heads down on Marian from there, please!