A Different Kind of Game Proposal

“Ska Studios Proposal” by Clingermangw
1UP’s “PAX 2011: A Charlie Murder Proposal” video
Postcard from PAX: The Most Touching PAX Moment Ever
IGN Facebook Album
A Gear Fish post
An in-game proposal

Much to the pleasure of those irritated by the other day’s twitter spam about wedding dresses, I won’t bore you with planning details but if something especially awesome and game or zombie related pops up, I’ll be sure to post about it. If you happened to capture video or photography please send it my way to michelle (at) ska-studios (dotcom)!

Mini Link Roundup
I’ll be posting a bigger roundup when more articles come in but for now check out these nifty links:

Giant Bomb Quick Look!
WonderHowTo Article

Adorable factor aside, this is the last Good Morning Gato blog before all of Ska Studios packs up and travels to Boston for PAX East. That also means I have a lot of news and (gamer) pictures to launch into your eyeball holes.

PAX East Is Where All The Cool Kids Hang Out
By now you probably fall into one of two categories: Those who are attending PAX East or those who are not. And even if you wanted to go from the “are not” to the “are” crowd, the show is basically sold out unless you were to win a badge from, say a contest like this one (plug, plug). For those not attending, I’m sorry. I truly am. But I must talk about all the awesome that we’ll be bringing to the show and all the awesome that you’ll be missing out on. For those attending, this is what we have in store for you:

As is obvious by the wall of text you just read, we’re prepared and excited for PAX East. All that is left to do is figure out a way to pack up and transport the life-sized Violence Hammer without injuring ourselves or innocent bystanders.

Yes, There Is A Third Dimension
In non-PAX related news, last week, a bunch of news outlets wrote about Vampire Smile after getting some hands on time with Yuki and the gang during Microsoft’s February Showcase event. You may have read about the game’s just announced 3D support, the all-new, crazy colorful Pretty Princess difficulty or just how bloody-good the experience is. Well, it’s all true! 3D, blood, crazy combos, insane weapons, a rainbow-filled Pretty Princess difficulty and a whole lot more are part of the gaming experience that is The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Hopefully, you’re getting properly excited

Gato, like many cats, furiously investigates any new thing that enters her home. A recent sharp influx of PAX shwag from FedEx has led to a serious upswing in Gato-conducted detective work.  She likes roses too!

Good morning Gato and blog readers! Your usual Good Morning Gato will be presented to you by the newest Ska Studio-er, Michelle. Wednesday evening, Dustin ventured across the country to represent Ska Studios and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile at Microsoft’s Xbox February Showcase in slightly-warmer-than-here San Francisco. Try not to be too upset by the change today; take a deep breath and everything will be just fine.

Convention Comprehensive
With Dustin giving a series of indubitably outstanding presentations of Vampire Smile at the Xbox February Showcase, we got some rad pickup! Joystiq touched on the stereoscopic 3D support and Game Informer gave us a sparkling preview of story and gameplay. While I won’t get into the decision in Good Morning Gato, you can expect a blurb later on the 3D feature of Vampire Smile.

PAX East is 14 days away! We’re waiting on the last few pieces of PAX East supplies for Gato to rub against before we pack them in the van and begin the journey to Boston. I assure that you will not be disappointed by our display and fervor. But don’t take my word for it, visit our booth # 607 and see for yourself! We’ll have a fully playable Vampire Smile, prizes, freebies and good things to buy including a few new shirt designs (created by yours truly).

Local Indie Flavor
This week, all three members of Ska Studios braved the cold tundra of upstate New York to attend a local game industry meetup in Troy. Though the meetup was billed as an impromptu job fair to deal with some pretty unfortunate circumstances, it was pretty cool to see upstate New York’s games industry come out of the woodwork to help out some extremely talented people.

Extra Space for Activities
It’s no secret that Ska Studios is always eyeball deep in projects even though the topics themselves may be a secret. With people happily murdering in ZP2KX and Vampire Smile coming up, we can’t forget about the other work in the pipeline. As well as the games themselves, we have other less digital projects to put the finishing touches on such as the life-size Violence Hammer. At the moment, I’m adding a lot more spiky bits to really make it violent. Here is a sneak preview below but you’ll have to come to the show floor to see it in its full glory. See you there!

But that isn’t all the traveling that’s taking place, because James will be jetting out to San Fran the following week for his GDC shenanigans. He will be one fifth of the panel who will be talking “XBLIG Success Stories – How to Make the Best of Microsoft’s Self-publishing Service“. An entire bushel of knowledge will be dropped on your head and deep indie insight will be shared, so if you’re attending GDC, be sure to swing by the session to give James a high five.

As you can tell, the Ska travel calendar is booked the next few weeks as we set out to acquire frequent flyer miles and tiny bags of peanuts. Bring on the jet lag, crying babies and lack of legroom, because we’re ready!

Studio Sickness
“The Sickness” has taken over Ska Studios! (Quick! Grab the nearest can of Lysol disinfectant spray and unleash germ-killing chemical warfare!) Our newest recruit, Michelle has been infected with “The Sickness”, but thankfully neither James or myself has been tainted. And even though Michelle has been oozing icky from her nose and coughing up a storm all week, she has been making progress on the replica Violence Hammer. Nobody ever said that making a ginormous hammer would be a clean process.

Click to Hammer-size!

After a multi-hour playthrough that encompassed a good chunk of what Vampire Smile has to offer, I downed a few glasses of Future’s finest water, packed up, said my goodbyes and headed back to the London streets. The takeaway here is that you can read all about Future’s Vampire Smile playsession in a soon to be released issue of Official Xbox Magazine of which Z0MB1ES recently made an appearance in.

Zee Pea Two Kay Ex Is Still Alive
ZP2KX. What a dandy-fine game it’s turning out to be. And even though we haven’t talked much about this upcoming Xbox LIVE Indie Games title, you should be comforted in knowing that it’s still in production and in the process of receiving a semi-gloss coating of polish applied to its already smooth exterior. Truth be told, the game had been put on the development back burner because other high priority projects *cough* Vampire Smile *cough* require priority development love. But now it’s ZP2KX’s time to shine as it’s almost ready for another playtest and further refinement. Be sure to keep an eye out for more deets in the near(ish) future.

Zzzz …
We’ll talk next week after we have overcome this jet lag. Laters.