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!
February 9, 2008
It turns out I wasn’t the only one who got a kick out of that last video. It got picked up by some pretty high profile gaming blogs and news sites.
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!
November 8, 2007
I just thought of another game that could’ve used more repetition: God of War 2.
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.
October 8, 2007
I made some nice shiny high res wallpapers!
Enjoy!
Rooftops 1280 1024
Rail 1280 1024
September 12, 2007
JR at i-luv-games.com writes to say that he’s given ZSX3 the indie review treatment! From the review:
If you’re a fan of space combat / space trading games and are open minded enough to stray from the mainstream formula, you’ll probably find yourself enjoying this imaginative, truly unique, and satisfying space rock opera.
Read the full review!
September 4, 2007
It’s been a fun week since the big news, and I’ve been loving all the notice I’ve gotten from the webs. Here are some good ones:
TeamXbox:
Earning a master’s degree in Computer Science is no small feat, and neither is creating a highly-polished video game han-solo-style in only six months. Yeah, James is one the smart ones, but his humble beginnings as a dish hand inspired the chaotic elements found in his winning entry The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.
Kotaku:
One of the winners of Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play competition, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai will be making its way to an Xbox Live Arcade near you in the coming months. This XNA Game Studio Express hallmark was the fruit of James Silva’s labor, a stylish, two dimensional action shooter with all the right shoot ‘em up standards.
Gamespot:
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a side-scrolling action game featuring over-the-top violence and a main character that uses an array of blades and guns to mow down adversaries.
Check out the buzz!
Also, thanks a ton to Epsicode for the good press!
August 21, 2007
