Over the past few months, we were able to strike a new deal with the band and bring Microsoft on board to publish the Charlie Murder story to the big leagues; the Xbox LIVE Arcade. The terms of the deal are not being made public, but what we can confirm is that the entire Charlie Murder crew is heading to the Happy Times Recovery Center in Atlantic City to complete a mandatory one year rehab stint. You can read more about the announcement as well as Charlie’s reaction to the partnership via this press release.

We also wanted to let everyone know that the transition from Indie Games to Xbox LIVE Arcade means that the scope of the project has changed dramatically. James will be working with the band to create way more content than was originally planned and at a scale worthy of the Xbox LIVE Arcade. The only negative in this ball of happiness is that all of these changes, mixed with the band’s rehab commitment, have resulted in the game being pushed back to 2012. So, if we survive the predicted end of the world, we all will be experiencing the truly epic punk rock story that is Charlie Murder. It’s a long wait, but one that is well worth it.

Amazing $5 Wall Art Is $5!
If you haven’t recently had the chance to virtually window shop the Ska Studios online store, be sure to do so now. We took your feedback into consideration and discounted all posters to $5 and the double pack to an affordable $7. That’s a crazy fantastic deal if I do say so myself. Now most everyone can afford to plaster one or two walls full of Vampire Smile or Charlie Murder poster art. Enjoy.

Dead Samurai Was #1!
As if this week’s Good Morning Gato hasn’t already been full of BIG news, we have one more informative jewel of knowledge to drop on you.

Thanks to your support, the support of friends and Gato fans alike, last week’s Deal of the Week launched The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai into the XBLA sales stratosphere! After the numbers were calculated, we are proud to announce that Dead Samurai claimed the number one XBLA sales spot for the week of April 26th. w00t!

Thanks for your continued support as we know all of the old-school and brand new The Dishwasher fans will absolutely love what we’re doing with the Vampire Smile sequel. Trust that and have a grandtastic weekend!

Additionally, all week long we will be tweeting Dead Samurai redemption codes for those who can’t afford the $5 admission but are ninja-quick at redeeming codes. Follow us at @skastudios and perhaps you can score a free copy.

To recap: One week only. Dead Samurai for $5. Buy it. Thank you.

Vampire Smile Co-op Coding Craziness
This week, James decided to move the studio’s two dev kits over to his corner nook and proceeded to setup two monitors side-by-side. What’s with the re-arranging? Well, co-op support is being added to Vampire Smile and I’ve been informed that it’s easier to add co-op to a game when all the dev stuff is in one area. Go figure.

These past few days, James has been writing magic co-op code for Vampire Smile and testing the heck out of it. A few times I was asked to help with the testing process, but I ended up breaking the game three times in one day. Needless to say, I wasn’t asked to help test again.

The takeaway here is that Vampire Smile‘s arcade co-op is at a very (gory and violent) playable state. Campaign co-op still needs some more dev love, but I’m sure every game feature will need a bit more love before ship date.

Lights Off
That’s it for this week’s slightly light edition of Good Morning Gato. I’m about to flip the switch and turn the lights out … get ready … here we go … and … *flip* Goodbye!

There you have it. A week long, substantial discount on Dead Samurai. Consider this money saving offer The Dishwasher’s belated birthday present to you and the best way to prepare for the release of the Vampire Smile sequel. Enjoy!

Feel free to leave a birthday message below as we’re sure The Dishwasher would enjoy reading your comments and general Dead Samurai feedback. Remember too that The Dishwasher will be back in action in the near future with his upcoming XBLA sequel The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Who knows, maybe you’ll be playing that by the time Dead Samurai‘s second birthday celebration comes.

A ginormous “thank you” goes out to everyone who has showed so much love and support over the year for Ska Studios and especially The Dishwasher. Now, we must go buy a delicious cake to appease our birthday-charged sugar cravings.

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:

There’s a bit of an achievement snafu.  To earn the Master of Arcade Dishwashing achievement, you have to beat level 50 in single player or local co-op.  This came up right at the end of testing; the logic for okaying it was that when you play over Live, you’re playing individual levels, not a continuous track of levels (hence no end credits); however, we should probably address this in a title update.  If we did try to smooth this over at the end of testing, the game could’ve been delayed another month.  Decisions…

Also, Dishwasher is getting a lot of weird comparisons.  Alien Hominid?  It just seems lazy–as if the market is only big enough for one side scroller with stylized art, regardless of the game play.  (I admit both games featuring CIA-style goons is a little suspect, but I had goons in Zombie Smashers X2 years before, and I put them in there as a nod to The Matrix/Reservoir Dogs/Anything Else Involving Guys With Suits and Guns)

Silly reviewers…

But then again, don’t we all know how I feel about game reviews?

We did it!  We passed cert!

Here’s some random (rough) statistics:

• Total development time: 2+ years
• Active bugs closed: 500+
• Builds submitted: 50
• Pre-cert milestone builds passed: 5
• Pre-cert milestone builds failed: Probably 5!
• Cups of coffee consumed: 2200
• Times thought project was doomed: 81020
• Times decided to have faith project would succeed against terrible odds: 81020
• Dev kits red ringed: 1

Amazing!

I don’t know when it will go live (and thanks for asking, all!) and when I do I’ll still have to keep mum, but now that we’re officially through certification, I’m sure your guess will be as good as mine.

Of course, the game now has to pass cert, so I’ll be doing a bit of praying over the next few weeks.

And if we hit any snags, well, it’s not the end of the world.  I’d rather have a clean, delayed final product than a buggy, rushed production (who’s with me on this?)

What’d they give it?

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai – 8.0
+Feels good, controls well, looks lovely.
+ Substantial number of modes and options
-You’re too easily lost amid the onscreen chaos.
? Will there be a Dishwasher: Dead Again Samurai? Hope so!

Freaking awesome.

The being lost amid onscreen chaos point was a concern we looked at, ultimately deciding that the onscreen chaos was an integral bit of what makes The Dishwasher awesome.  It’s like Ninja Gaiden 2′s crappy camera: you hate it, but if we gave you God of War’s super-friendly, super-detached camera, the overall badassery of the game would be reduced to about 5-10% (I did the math).

Not to say I’m complaining.  Especially considering what I wanted to give the game…

Now if I can just fix this one last super obnoxious, cert crippling bug…

I’ve been hard at work implementing netcode and just generally cleaning and polishing, and I’m becoming quite proud of how The Dishwasher is starting to look. I think I’m at a point where I can call netplay on System Link fairly solid (except for a few teeny little bugs–like two machines not quite agreed on whose score is what).

I’m also trying to name my co-op characters–I’m thinking Loïc for the blue guy and Hargreaves for the red guy. They’re obviously not The Dishwasher, but they’re still very fearsome cyborg hunters!