“I think XBLIG generally has a hard time getting people to take it seriously,” says James Silva, creator of highest rated Indie game, I Maed a Gam3 w1th Zomb1es!!!1. “Unlike Xbox Live Arcade, there’s no bar for quality and people tend to judge it by the lowest common denominator. Getting a reputation for massage games didn’t help either.”

It’s a really positive read about the state of XBLIG.  It’s excellent when stuff like this comes out, and we all know XBLIG can always use a bit of a profile boost.  Thanks, Mark!

Enjoy the announcement trailer for The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, releasing to Xbox LIVE Arcade “when it’s done.” You can also download your very own 720p HD copy over at VampireSmile.com. Release of press after the break.

Schenectady, NY – February 24, 2010 — Ska Studios today proudly unveiled their latest project, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, and confirmed that it will release “when it’s done” exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade, the premier destination for downloadable games. Additionally, it was announced that The Dishwasher fans will be able to experience Vampire Smile at the Ska Studios booth during the PAX East expo that is taking place March 26-28 in Boston.

The followup to 2009′s Dead Samurai, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is a combo-fueled, fast-paced, stylistic 2D action platformer that features the series’ staple gritty, graphic novel-inspired art style, built on a brand new engine that allows for an even more visually gruesome experience. Gamers will wield new weapons like the Violence Hammer, whose business end consists of a section of girder wrapped in barbed wire and random hardware, and the Painkiller, a six foot long syringe. The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile comes with two solo character campaigns as well as a co-op campaign, 50 quick arcade challenges and an endless Dish Challenge.

“Put simply, we are taking The Dishwasher to a bigger, better and more badass level,” said Ska Studios founder James Silva. “Fluid animation, insane combos, disturbing weapons and creeping mental illness are set to collide in a very bad way when this game launches.”

For the latest on The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, please visit us online at www.ska-studios.com, follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/skastudios or become our fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/skastudios.

About Ska Studios LLC
Based in Schenectady, NY, Ska Studios is an indie video game developer that was founded in 2007 by one unnaturally talented individual; Mr. James Silva. The studio got its start developing PC games, like the cult hit Survival Crisis Z, but quickly transitioned to developing for Xbox 360 after winning Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play competition. Ska Studios continues to release games on Xbox LIVE Arcade and Xbox LIVE Indie Games, including The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and the Indie Game of the Year I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1. For more information on Ska Studios, please visit www.ska-studios.com.

SKA STUDIOS TO PRODUCE CHARLIE MURDER VIDEO GAME
Indie Punk Band Sells Out to Indie Game Developer

Schenectady, N.Y., January 14, 2010 – In a move bound to shake up the music scene, punk rock super group Charlie Murder have agreed to license their names and story for an upcoming Xbox LIVE Indie Games title on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
Based on the band’s recent spat with rival metal rockers Gore Quaffer,

Charlie Murder is a four-player arcade beat ‘em up featuring all four  members of the revolutionary punk act. The developer, Ska Studios, known for the breakout hits The Dishwasher and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!!, plans to painstakingly recreate the band’s crusade to
retrieve front man Charlie Murder’s girlfriend, Skelekitten, from their chart topping metal rivals.

“A lot of fans and media might see this as a shameless cash grab and
marketing stunt prior to our new album releasing,” said lead singer and founder Charlie Murder. “They are all absolutely right. These dangerous and largely illegal habits we’ve developed on the road don’t exactly pay for themselves.”

Facing off against hordes of bloodthirsty zombies, lethal ninjas and
other things James Silva can draw, the band will find itself pushed to the brink. Also, I heard there is a level where you throw projectiles at enemy ninjas on motorcycles while you drive down the street. It’s pretty rad.

“Being a punk fan myself this really is a dream come true. Charlie
Murder is band with so much depth and such a wide array of talents I really couldn’t pass up this opportunity,” replied James Silva to no one in particular. “I’d also add that I did not write and record all of the music myself. Unless you like it in which case I did.”

Developed by Ska Studios Charlie Murder is the greatest punk rock beat
‘em up ever. It is scheduled for release on Xbox LIVE Indie Games this March. Probably.

About Ska Studios
It’s this guy James Silva and like a whole team of engineers and
artists and sound designers and marketing dudes. Yeah, write that.

About Charlie Murder
Despite no information on the band being available anywhere online and
no record of their existence outside of this press release, rest assured that they are real and have been producing hit punk rock tracks for a long, long time. Ask around.  More information on Charlie Murder can be found online at facebook.com/charli3murd3r because that’s what punk rock bands do. They get on Facebook.

That release of press is courtesy of Nigel Lowrie of The Moonlight Tower.  Thanks, Nigel!

Want to be a fan of Charlie Murder?  Charlie Murder’s got a Facebook page!

And we’ve got shoutouts!  Destructoid’s got a sweet take on it,  Joystiq wants you to know that we’re establishing a name for ourself, and 1UP is stirring up the rumor mill!  We also caught the attention of DIYGamer, 360Junkies.com, Gaming Nexus, South African site (where a web developer who has registered charliemurder.com lives) Xbox Gaming, and many others.

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.

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.

Also, a trial of The Dishwasher is available to everyone on XBLA for a very short time, here are instructions on downloading it.

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!

From Destructoid:

I’m excited for The Dishwasher because it represents something different on the XBLA horizon. I, for one, have had enough of the standard XNA fare with its miniature graphics, thrown-together “pew pew pew” gameplay, and disgusting overuse of the same red/green/blue/purple color palate. This game is stylish, it’s fast-paced, and it looks challenging and incredibly fun to play. It shows developers out there that a little creativity with XNA can go a long way.

From Xbox360fanboy.com:

How exactly the guitar sections — in which players match button inputs with corresponding prompts — meld with the game proper we have no idea, and honestly don’t care. All we know is it looks like glorious, violent fun.

From XBLArcade.com:

Along the way we have been granted various glimpses into the world of this dishwashing rampage.  And perhaps those earlier videos left you wanting more?  If so a new trailer has just arrived that features more blood, more insane massive damage combos, and more…guitar?

Thanks as always to these great sources for the coverage.  I keep feeds on these sites, so it’s always a bit of a surprise to see The Dishwasher show up in the wild!

Granted, it was an amazing game with some crazy cool parts, but like Halo 3, some of the protagonist’s badassery was dampened by the fact that you would be thrust from one completely unfamiliar situation to the next with no common frame of reference. It’s the classic picture of a vengeful hero who has been going in circles in the west wing of the antagonist’s base because he can’t find the right lever or whose quest of revenge comes to a very non-epic end when he doesn’t notice a particular climbable rock wall during an intensely cinematic moment and plunges with the platform he was riding on into the lava for the sixth consecutive time.

I thought Bioshock really nailed the whole repetition thing. Little variety in monsters, recognizable environment hazards (oil slicks, water, security systems), good level layout and a nice checkpoint arrow.

Also, The Dishwasher was in magazine (an Edge magazine, to be exact). Here’s a cell phone screenie:

The article is mostly on XNA, but it’s nice that they put some juicy screens in there.

Enjoy!

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