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:

ZSX4 is Live!

Queue it up!

Right now it’s… well… not the least popular game, but its still getting pummeled in the popularity contest by Garrett the Slug. You don’t have to buy it (though it costs the same as 5 64×64 images), but at least give it a download.  My image is on the line.

Also, xnPlay is all over it.

If anything, I guess this should go to show how easy it is to get a game on XBCG.

It’s as complicated as:

• Make a game that doesn’t crash (bonus: make a game that doesn’t suck!  For pointers, buy my book!)
• Make a box art image, take 4 screenshots, make a thumbnail, make a movie (optional)
• Upload the game
• Wait for it to pass review (as long as it doesn’t crash and doesn’t contain colons, racism, or Nazis, this should be painless)
• Wait for it to go LIVE!

Granted, the first step is the most time consuming, but traditionally in the PC gaming world, the other steps are the biggest hassle (submitting to random portals, setting up payment processing services, etc).  This means that hobbyist game development, a hobby which is traditionally 90% fun, is now 98% fun and console-deployable.  Amazing.  Go nuts!

Editoriffic!

I’ve been working on creating an editor for my free time project, Survival Crisis X, that you use just with an Xbox360 controller, and so far the results are [hate to use this word] pleasing. Here’s a nice shot:

One big difference between the previous shot: it’s 720p, baby!  Survival Crisis Z, by contrast, was good old VGA–640×480, and the previous SCX shot was 800×600 (the XNA default).  Get with the times, James!

Isometric Test!

Here’s an image from some isometric tech I’ve been working on. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the XNA SpriteBatch, which is a basic object in the XNA framework that can be used for all things 2D. I’ve been abusing the heck out of alpha transparency–a computationally expensive thing in the DX7 days, but a relatively cheap tool now–for smooth transition zombification.

This does remind me–I need to add shadows under characters.

To Answer All of Your Questions

Since the The Dishwasher trial went live, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people. At first I did my best to answer them, but now I’ve been so inundated, and I’ve got so many deadlines coming up, that I figure it would be easier to just identify the common thread of questioning and answer that here!

Here are the big ones:

1. How do I make games?
   I’d definitely recommend taking any classes if they’re available, whether you’re in high school or college. Though XNA is all C#, learning C, C++, or Java will still help to familiarize you with the basics of programming.

   Also, my advice to everyone is always this: start small! Not to sound arrogant, but The Dishwasher is basically the culmination of 6 years of hobbyist game development experience; if you’ve only got a week of experience you’re not exactly going to be able to match the caliber of The Dishwasher. And forget 3D altogether if you’re just starting. Basically, if you set out to make something that would’ve been considered cool in the 80’s, you’ve got a fighting chance.

2. Is The Dishwasher coming out for Windows?
   There aren’t any plans currently, for a few reasons. The biggest reason, of course, is because Microsoft is publishing it as an XBLA title, so I’m going to focus on that. Also, the game plays like rubbish with a keyboard, and adding support for multiple gamepads is always ugly in my opinion. The Dishwasher is made for the Xbox360 controller (though I could see the DualShock working). I also think PC piracy is a really, really, really big problem.
3. When is The Dishwasher coming out?
   When it’s done! The XNA team and I are both breaking new ground by adding all sorts of new functionality, and there certainly is a lot to do. I’m 99.9% certain it’ll be out in 2008, but beyond that, I can’t really say anything, because it would amount to nothing more than a politician’s promise.

So there you have it!  I’m always happy to answer questions, so keep ‘em coming!

GameSpot Bit

GameSpot let me do a little Q & A with them.  I felt the need to say something!

From the article:

Far from a typical retail boxed product, The Dishwasher is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up with a penchant for Kill Bill-style blood geysers, shambling zombies, and maniacal robots. Inspired by equal parts jeet kune do master Bruce Lee, poseur Italian restaurants, and Ryuhei Kitamura’s epic Versus, The Dishwasher in many ways acts as a proof of concept for Microsoft’s ambitious service and gives players the chance to channel their inner butcher while bounding off walls and mashing on buttons in the process.

And then I say cool things like:

GS: In terms of ease of use, does XNA have the potential to be the magic bullet for bringing game design and development to the masses? As in, are we going to see a lot of average joes making quality, fun games?

JS: Game development is still an extremely ambitious venture, so depending on your definition of “the masses,” we may never see this type of magic bullet. Otherwise, a guy like me is probably always going to be the best you can hope for as an average joe. I went to school for computer science while working a series of crappy jobs and have always dreamed of making video games but have no industry experience or special game development education.

Then I checked the GameSpot forum on this, and found some excellent nuggets of InterWeb wisdom; some good ones:

1 of the best Arcade games out

I want to buy it now but that not a option. Dam you Microsoft, Dam you.

The one drawback to this game being so amazing

Is that every Wed. until it releases will be a disappointment no matter what comes out.

…and some not so good ones:

This is the most hot topic game in the world.

It might as well be called Johnny the Homicidal Douchebag.

There are a lot more good ones then there are not so good ones, so I’m really pleased (and I’m getting a little better at accepting criticism).  It seems like people are really hungry for some XBLA content that isn’t classic arcade games or cutesy casual games.  Not like there’s anything terrifically wrong with classic arcade games and cutesy casual games (I like a little Boom Boom Rocket and Metal Slug 3, thankyouverymuch), but I think people are pretty agreed about the desire for interesting new content, even if it is “hot topic.”

And for the record, I prefer Salvation Army for my counterculture wardrobe over Hot Topic.  Think I can afford Hot Topic?  I’m still poor, you know.

On How I Managed to Wake Up Famous

I live in a freezing apartment in upstate NY.  Rent is $750 a month.  I buy groceries at Wal-Mart.  I buy clothes at Target.  I drive a 1994 Honda Accord that was a hand-me-down from my sister.  Yet, somehow, this happened:

MTV.com:

“The guy that made this game is nuts.”

Wired.com:

As the sole creator of the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game Dishwasher, Silva found himself the poster boy of Microsoft’s efforts to “democratize game development” at the Game Developers Conference. The Utica, NY independent gamemaker shared the stage with game design luminaries like Tomonobu Itagaki and Peter Molyneux at Microsoft’s GDC keynote.

LA Times:

The 26-year-old from Utica, N.Y., paid his way through college by scrubbing dishes at a diner. That job might help him become the Quentin Tarantino of video games: He used it as inspiration for “The Dishwasher,” in which the title character becomes a ninja and slashes his way out of a kitchen overrun by villains.

Ars Technica:

“James has quit his job… it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.” James Silva quickly became one of the stars of the GDC this year, and the video Microsoft created to highlight his game and one-man-team ethic showed that it knows how cool James Silva is. Microsoft desperately wants a piece of that cool. 

For the record, Microsoft never quite came across as desperately wanting a piece of my cool, but I thought that quote was too good to leave out.  The XNA team are just about the coolest bunch of geeks I’ve ever met; it was awesome meeting up with them for classy San Francisco dining–I got to meet the team behind the tech that the Dishwasher is based on and they got to meet the guy behind the game that shows off their tech.  There was a lot of mutual gushing.

Closure and Pluggage

Well, I finally made it back home Friday morning, after two nights in O’Hare.  The Friday morning flight was even delayed twice–which is what happened with the previous two flights before they were canceled.  Nice little scare to end the trip with!

In other news:

The kind folks at xbox360fanboy.com plugged The Dishwasher again.  From the post:

High in potassium and hella’ delicious. We say good job to you Mr. (XNA all-star) Silva, Dead Samurai looks amazing and the extreme amount of blood and blurring effects makes our eyes water with happiness. We say, bring on the dish washing!

Read it!