Download I MAED A S0NG W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1

Because I get asked quite a bit, here it is:

James Silva – I MAED A S0NG W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1

(Probably want to right-click, Save As…)

I think I finally got the mastering to a “respectable” level, but no promises!  Also, the first thing I noticed upon revisiting this mp3 was that without the game going on, the song is… empty.  But hey, whatever, it’s free, so enjoy the heck out of it!

Update: Some wonkiness is afoot; if you can’t get the download working, just navigate to http://ska-studios.com/files/epicopus.mp3 and choose Save As… (unless QuickTime snarkily tries to play it in-browser!)

Update 2: I put it up as a zip too, that might be a better bet.

Z0MB1ES is #1 on Major Nelson’s List!

Title says it all, we’re #1! (top rated, too!)

And holy roundup, Batman:

• Kotaku would pay $1 just for the theme song
• Destructoid calls it this year’s “Still Alive”
• Joystiq thinks it’s “astounding”
• GameGirl is hooked
• GamingAngels was blown away by the awesomeness of the game
• TheXboxDomain liked the awesome music, addictive qualities, great replay value
• IndieGames.com thinks it’s way too much fun for its own good

50,000 downloads, 6,237 ratings and an average score of 4.75, these are freaking excellent numbers.  This was exactly what I had in mind when I heard Microsoft was rebranding XBLCG as Xbox Live Indie Games and switching the price points to let us sell games for $1.  It’s indie! It’s a dollar! It’s the type of thing that would’ve seemed like a really bad idea if you were trying to describe it to someone you wanted to borrow money from!

And to think that Joystiq’s Andrew Yoon just declared that XBLIG is “floundering” (qualified by a 5-month old article, no less).  Guess we can chalk that one up to Playstation fanboyism!  Of course, if Sony created some sort of zero-entry-barrier developer-friendly platform (think XNA), maybe my PS3 could be more than just a protein folding Blu-Ray player… burn!

High! Priority! Press! Release!

For Immediate Release:

Ska Studios LLC today announced a truly epic title in the true tradition of epicness with its latest video game entertainment product release, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1, set for release August 16, 2009 on the Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 Microsoft Points.

Presenting a familiarly themed, engrossing and stylized “game universe,” then adding zombies to that world, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!1 aims to completely revolutionize the videogames industry, destroy it in fire a thousand times, and resurrect it as a phoenix sitting on a unicorn atop a shiny city of golden gumdrops.  As we say at Ska Studios LLC, “our games will pique your interest and defenestrate your cats.”

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!1 represents a culmination of years of intensive psychological research, bleeding edge engineering, and artistic collaboration by over two dozen internationally recognized art houses that may or may not exist, using such technologies as the HYPERMAGIC 3.0 engine to power never-before-seen eye candy and the MEGACORE X parallelization processor for smooth-as-glass presentation.

“You can make a game,” said Ska Studios Lead Engineer Gato Maria Hernando Rodriguez-Rodriguez in an exclusive interview with Chairman Meow Magazine, “but what happens when you put zombies in it?  Nobody knows, but they’ll find out soon.  We’ll all find out soon.”  And, with Xbox Live Indie Games interest flagging under reports of poor sales, difficulty locating the section in the Dashboard while inebriated, and super-smart people saying super-smart things on web forums, the game couldn’t be released at a better time.

“We were following trends and noticed that most people were buying Xbox360s for the DVD player, the Xbox Live Vision Camera, and the Calculator app on XBLIG, but not for games,” Gato continues, “I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES!!1 will change that.  You’ll be playing our game.  It has zombies in it.  Ok bye.”

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 will arrive on Xbox Live Indie Games on August 16, 2009.  It will cost 80 Microsoft Points.

A word about Xbox Live Community Games/Indie Games

I haven’t done much with Xbox Community Games in awhile (this will change soon; I just need a break from Super Secret XNA Project 2.0), but that hasn’t stopped me from reading some fun articles lambasting the service for promising wealth, fame, and Princess-Bride-caliber true love, only to turn around and steal candy from orphans.

The main criticisms, as far as I can tell are:

• Microsoft hasn’t done enough to market XBLCG
• Microsoft has not made Community Games visible enough in the dash
• Stupid apps are taking all of the sales

So put your money where your mouth is.  If XBLCG is such a tragic platform, why not release on Windows?

Here’s why:

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: