Conventions and Stuff
As I mentioned before the break, Ska Studios will be exhibiting at PAX East! This time we aren’t entirely alone, as we’re grouping up with other indie developers to form a Mega Indie Booth! More details to be revealed in the coming months.

James and I will also be making our way to San Francisco for a visit to GDC. This time, James has a panel all to himself titled DIY XBLA FTW: The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile Postmortem. If you’re lucky enough to be a GDC attendant, you’ll definitely want to make your way to this presentation.

Link Roundup
It’s also been a while since we linked to others talking about us on the internet so it’s time I had a mini link roundup.

• Sunday Sidebar: Meet Ska Studios – A dialog style interview with us!
• James Silva will destroy anyone who gets in his way – A discussion more oriented around the aesthetics of violence rather than the usual “will it destroy our children’s minds” angle.
• Last PAX Prime, James and I were asked to contribute to a sketch book. But not just any sketch book: a sketch book for charity! We said “sure!” and here was the result. We’re under “Indie Bundle 2″. Although only James was credited (AHEM), I contributed the top sketches while James drew the “Funleashed” doodle. Heck, even my name is signed on there. Grumble, rant, grumble. It is for charity so I suppose I can forgive.
• Review: Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne) – Yay, Z0MB1ES!
• Top 5 Xbox Live Arcade Games You Didn’t Play in 2011 – If you didn’t play Vampire Smile, you certainly should now!
• And for a little self indulgence, I’m linking to thisTop 10 Geeky Marriage Proposals . Somehow James and I only made number 9. OK, those other ones are pretty cool but James MADE his proposal! Grumble, rant, grumble. Making it yourself is always number one awesome in my book but I guess that’s why I’m marrying James and not those other 9 dudes. He’ll always be number one to me. < /sappy >
• To finish off this not-so-mini-anymore list: If you are of the proper age and have enjoyed playing, and more often dying, in Z0MB1ES, you may enjoy this drinking game.

Fandom
In addition to the Art Unicorner and our Facebook Fan Art Album, I also have a little Ska Studios Deviantart Group put together. Feel free to join, submit pictures and start a dialog with fellow fans.

Where HAVE you been?
So, what has Ska Studios been up to other than avoiding writing Friday blogs? We’ve been making Charlie Murder and, oh yea, totally finished up Z0MB1ES (on teh phone)! It’s in the chamber and ready to be launched very soon. We can’t say yet when you can expect to find this three-games-in-one amazingness on your Windows Phone but as soon as we know, we’ll let you know.

Ahhhrt, Darling, Ahhhhrt
James wrote a draft rant about KNOWMAD, aka Rug Doom, last November that he may or may not post. It does get rather ranty and can be compared to his last rant on the topic of idealism vs opportunism. This time he tackles modern art and what he thinks about it. He doesn’t hold back. I’m not afraid to admit I don’t 100% agree with him, just as I don’t 100% agree with him on any given topic, but that’s the art school student and BA in Fine Arts in me talking and also the beauty of having separate minds. Perhaps this is a topic I’ll cover on my personal blog one day soon. That being said, I hope he posts it.

There’s a few new pieces of art in the Art Unicorner as well as on our Facebook Fan Art Album. Check them out! Send us those fan arts to michelle(at)ska-studios(dot)com!

D of the W!
James here, with an ultra-deal reminder! You can still get The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile at an astonishing half off (for gold members). If you were one of those people who were all “game looks okay, it’s certainly not worth ten of my Ameridollars, but perhaps five,” you now have absolutely no excuse, you crazy frugalista! Remember: it’s okay to convince yourself that by buying Vampire Smile on sale, you’re actually saving money (bitter economic reality: you’re still out five dollars).

Z0MB1ES Wrapping Up
Between CREATING MAGIC on our punktastic BrawlPG Charlie Murder, I’ve been doing some loose-ends-taking-care-of for Z0MB1ES!!1 (on teh ph0ne). The game runs seizure-inducingly great on Mango, hopefully all you Windows Phone users out there (no jokes about user base, please) will be able to get your mobile Z0MB1ES action on soon!

And if you don’t have a Windows Phone yet, a magical one will arrive in our realm on Monday.  I’m not due for a new phone yet, but you know who is? Michelle. Who wants to get a petition going?

More Dead Pumpkins
As promised, I finished another pumpkin carving:

There’s still time to make yourself a Dishwasher or Charlie Murder pumpkin freehand or using these patterns. Send them to michelle AT ska-studios DOT com! If for some reason you are adverse to carving up live pumpkins, there’s always those Funkin things you can find in craft stores.

A Double Dash of Ska!
You might have noticed some special Xbox placements recently. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 made its way to the Xbox Dashboard this week and you can also find The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile in the Shocktober promotion! This mostly just means more visibility but we’re super excited to see this kind of placement!

Dead Pumpkins
Since posting some Dishwasher and Charlie Murder pumpkin patterns the other week, I have received exactly zero pumpkin pictures. At least I have this one picture I carved myself of the angry Z0MB1ES face.

We’ve also been playing Batman: Arkham City this week. The rest is business as usual.