And then i forget to keep E3 blogging…

We’re two days in to E3 and, pretty true to trends, I’ve managed to forget to blog again. The best reason for this is that I have essentially no wireless Internet at my hotel, so the day is saved only by the fact that I have an iPhone.

Still, I should relate a few cool things that have happened:

- Jeff Gerstmann impromptu interviewed me. I’ve always wanted to meet him, so I gushed like an idiot the whole time. Seriously.

- I realized that El Pollo Loco sells magical grilled burritos that have that power to end all forms of sadness and suffering.

- Walking 1.3 miles to and from the center every day gets old fast, but I still welcome the challenge!

- My experience is completely unlike David Jaffe’s whatever that means.

Fun, fun.

I update on Twitter much more frequently, name is @Jamezila.

Airport Blogging

Hey all, I know status updates have been infrequent (I’m more active as @Jamezila on twitter these days), but may as well pop in for some E3 updates.

Now I am in an airport in Syracuse, NY. It’s 5 AM and I haven’t slept. Little tired, little wired .

Update over.

Twitter Giveaway

I got some Dishwasher codes to give out, so I think I’m gonna send a few out over Twitter!

Follow me!  I’m @Jamezila (just like my gamertag)

Also, Nick Gravelyn launched xblcg.info, an online database for all things XBLCG.  Ratings are in effect, so, if you’re hankering for some cheap Xbox360 homebrew, check it out!

And if you’re going to be at E3, drop me a line.  I’m finally able to fund my own trips, and also I didn’t realize that I get in for free as an “industry professional.”  Is indie pro now?  Eh… can I really care?

Super Feedback Explosion Post!

Dishwasher is #1 on Major Nelson’s list for the second week in a row!  Awesome thanks to everyone who gave it a shot.  It’s been a long, crazy road, fraught with peril and chainsaws, but I think it worked!

Anyway, Dishwasher has been in the hands of merciless reviewers for almost a fortnight.

I’ve noticed a trend: everyone thinks that The Dishwasher is either an awesome game or a button masher.

This leads me to conclude that if you don’t play The Dishwasher like a button masher, you’ll think it’s an awesome game.  If you do play The Dishwasher like a button masher, well, eh… here’s what happens:

• You’ll get bored
• You’ll die
• You’ll get bored of dying
• You’ll write a review about how the game is boring and you die… and, seeing as it involves hand-drawn quirky art, must be compared to Alien Hominid

The Dishwasher is full of tricky, clever strategies that you must use if you want to make it on the higher difficulties.  Play the game like a button masher and you won’t really see what all the fuss is about.  Seems like the world of games journalism is divided into the “gamer” crowd and the “cooking mama” crowd.

So, here’s official word from the developer: Dishwasher is not a button masher!

Thank you.

I got a bunch of emails from indie gaming sites telling me they reviewed Dishwasher and loved it.  Here they are, after the jump:

Dish Challenge

My roommate just reclaimed the #2 spot on Dish Challenge with 573,247,350.  Looks like Spear of Lament is currently #1, with an insane score of 735,225,250.  Meanwhile, I’m at #274 with an uber-pathetic score of 97,542,900, partly because the only time I tried it after launch was Dishwasher Day and I’d already had a few cups of wine, as my mom was keen to point out.  Yes, my mom drove out for Dishwasher Day.

Anyway, maybe we should talk about how the scoring works!  

The Dishwasher Lives!

Fitting heading for a game about a dead samurai, eh?

I just put the flash site up at thedishwasherdeadsamurai.com.  Try to find the secret Neko video (no, not the age gate fail Neko video.  Hint: Sandra Bullock in The Net).

I think there was a bit of a marketing mishap leading into this: several months ago, gamerscoreblog wanted some previously unheard of Dishwasher facts for a post, so I told them about the killer solo minigames and hidden phantom guitar and shadow co-op features.  They posted on this, and somewhere in the shuffle, the secret features became selling points.

So, if you bought The Dishwasher just for killer solos or phantom guitar co-op, you may be disappointed because:

• there are only 3 killer solo tracks and
• phantom guitar is not a selling point.  It’s alright, but, well, there’s really only so much you can do with a guitar controller in an action game.

However, the rest of the game’s not that bad, right?  Well…

• TeamXbox liked it: “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is an amazing game, even if you don’t have any idea of how it came about or about the size of the studio that made it.”
• OXM liked it: “From how Dishwasher bleeds details with its goth-y antihero cleaving chumps in two to how its meaty, crunchy jabs and slashes feel, it’s all incredibly well done.”
• IGN thought it was ok: “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is an enjoyable button masher and a commendable effort considering it’s the work of one person.”
• Teletext Game Central (???) hated it: “It may be a matter of taste but we didn’t like the murky, indistinct graphics, whose endless spurts of blood fail to really titillate.”

What the heck is Teletext Game Central?

Anyway, love it or hate it, it’s here!  Deal with it!

Now, if you are wondering about those special modes:

• The phantom guitar is enabled by finding the Amulet of Phantom Rock.  This is hidden near the start of Ivy Trail.
• The Dishwasher’s shadow is enabled by finding the Amulet of Shadow Skull.  This is near the Killer Solo Amp in St. Crux Cemetery.
• There are 3 Killer Solo Amps spread out in the main game.  There are an additional 3 Amps in Samurai difficulty.  If an Amp has a spotlight glowing on it, that means winning the solo will earn you a Psycho Pick.

Really though, they’re not selling points.  They’re fun features, but they’re ancillary.  Awesomely ancillary.

Now for the ugly:

April 1st is Dishwasher Day!

The press release went out, so I can finally open my big mouth!

April 1st is Dishwasher Day!  (no joke)

From the release:

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a 2-D stylistic action platformer for Xbox LIVE® Arcade showcasing fast action, deep gameplay, and a unique visual style. An undead samurai dishwasher in a dystopian universe is on a quest for revenge against the evil cyborg army. To dispatch hordes of zombies, cyborgs, and robots, the Dishwasher has at his fingertips a devastating array of attacks using ancient blades, disturbing machinery, and screen-obliterating Dish Magic. Compete with the rest of the world in a variety of speed run and high score challenges to become the most formidable Dishwasher yet!

• Fresh take on gameplay: Gameplay in The Dishwasher is a fresh take on popular stylistic action combat, taking combo- and timing-intensive combat into a 2-D, blood-soaked environment emphasizing speed, vertical movement, and maneuverability, and player-driven pacing to create a truly unique, fluid and visceral experience, with an appealingly psychotic art style.
• New game modes with guitar peripheral: The Dishwasher has arcade co-op, drop-in solo campaign co-op, and drop-in solo phantom guitar co-op using the guitar peripheral. Phantom guitar players can unload electric death by playing wicked solos, perform basic movement, and use the guitar’s motion control to rip through enemies with a razor-sharp headstock.
• The power of XNA: The Dishwasher is a testament to the power of XNA. The game was created by one guy with no professional game development experience (and a self-described lousy programmer) in about a year and a half.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai releases for the Xbox LIVE Arcade on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 for 800 MS Points. Check out the video trailer by clicking here

Discounted Alien Hominid too!  Not a bad week…

Update: xbox.joystiq.com put in a kind word.  Love you guys!

ZP2K9! Dishwasher!

ZP2K9 1.0.1 is live!  If you still have the old version, delete it and redownload (it’s free!).  It’s currently 4th on Major Nelson’s list.

Seems like I’m competing with myself a bit… but… well… anyone remember The Dishwasher?  Remember it now, for the era of the psycho dishwasher genre is upon us!  It’s going up as part of the Days of Arcade promo.  I can’t say when.  But when I can, I will.  Oh yes.  I will.

Also, I’m working a super-dumb street brawler for XBCG called Charlie Murder.  Expect some media soonish.

Top Ten Again!

Just saw the updated xbox.com popular Xbox Community Games list, and we hit the top ten again!  ZP2K9 is #5!

That’s right, we just barely beat those two awful massage games.

A new version with bug fixes is up for peer review now; hopefully it will settle a lot of the 1.0 silliness.

Particularly notable fixes will include:

• Shows what gamer is talking
• Show gamer names under players
• Numerous CTF bug fixes
• On-the-fly server bot count + game type changes
• Team DM spawns random (like vanilla DM)
• 3 second respawn invulnerability
• Bat ceiling hang bonuses switched to invisibility
• Renamed/reskinned Cheetah Suit to Cyborg Suit

Unfortunately, XBCG games don’t force you to update, so it’s a good idea to check the XBCG New Arrivals queue for updates.  When ZP2K9 1.0.1 arrives, it’ll be up there.  And once most everyone has moved over to 1.0.1, I can start adding more content (maps, suits, etc).  Also, from version 1.0.1 and up, ZP2K9 will be a bit smart about notifying you about updates.  Workarounds, FTW!

Thanks to everyone who helped make ZP2K9 a sudden success!

How Not to Promote ZP2K9

This is too funny…

So, ZP2K9 is on the Community Games marketplace.  It’s a side scrolling multiplayer online shooter.  It’s 200 points.  It’s fun.  I like it.  Some random people like it.  Some people like it so much, they saw fit to promote it!  Harmless, no?

Well, one of my XBL buddies thought he’d spread the cheer to the folks at some Soldat forum, using a highly inflammatory topic name of “Soldat vs ZP2K9” and naively postulating that ZP2K9 was better!  I guess the Soldat folks are not keen on fighting words!

Here are some gems:

• “Your walking all the time = Ur opponents will face you from the same hight = no aim skills required = Soldat is better.”
• “Whatever it is, that game can’t be compared to Soldat – Soldat is way superior.”
• “Not even close to soldat LOL”
• “seems like they are desperate to get soldat on them, even if its just a crappy copy of it”
• “Just judging from the video I don’t think there’s any contest-soldat blows it out of the water in my opinion.”
• “anyone realized that the thing when he goes up is actually pretty same as the prince of perisa climbing?”

Heh.

(Ahem… for the record, I played Soldat like once years ago and wasn’t blown away.  I loved Abuse though!  And RuneQuake!  Yeah, I’m a dork!  So what!?)

(Also, this is the video that is used to gauge how terrible ZP2K9 is; compared to Soldat, can we say they both look a little bit like crap?)

Anyway, I’ve learned two things from this:

1. Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
2. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Is there hope?  Or is this game doomed because it is not like a game that I never intended it to be like?

Well, it’s not all bad!  XNA Roundup liked it a lot, particularly the flamethrower, Chameleon suit sword trick (I might wanna cut this one), and controls.   Video review after the break: