Thanks a bazillion-million for making Z0MB1ES the overwhelming success that it is and for supporting the Xbox LIVE Indie Games platform. You ROCK!

Final PAX Push
In roughly six days we’ll be waking up at a ridiculously early time, gulping down as much coffee as possible, stumbling onto a plane and cruising at jet speeds to Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo. I know I don’t have to sell you on the event (seeing as the expo is basically sold out), but I feel obligated to remind you about all of the Ska Studios “awesome” that’ll be taking place at PAX next weekend: We’ll be giving out free buttons, free syringe pens, free game advice, free high-fives, free autographs, free low-fives and 100% free hands-on time with the latest build of The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Now, if that doesn’t get you excited, then you are broken. Emotionally.

Disconnected
With all the craziness that’ll be taking place prior to and during PAX, I will not be be able to post a Good Morning Gato next week *collective disappointed sounding sigh*. That said, we’ll be at PAX! So, be excited for us, stop by booth #3010 if you’re attending PAX and wish us luck as we attempt to conquer Seattle.

Schenectady, NY – August 23, 2010 – The highest-rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 has had overwhelming success this past year. Gamers from across the globe have spent over 24.6 million Microsoft points on Z0MB1ES, which have accounted for game sales of over 308,000 copies since its release last August. To celebrate this achievement, Ska Studios is excited to reveal that the legendary Z0MB1ES theme song is available for purchase off of the Rock Band Network music store and that retailer Hot Topic will be selling a new Z0MB1ES t-shirt exclusively through HotTopic.com.

Over the course of a year, the Z0MB1ES theme song has gained an enormous following among the gaming community. So much support that fans have openly demanded that the tune be made available for play on Rock Band. Today, those demands have been answered with the release of I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 to the Rock Band Network music store for play in Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360. This nine minute and forty-five second epic song of epicness only costs a dollar and is 56 megabytes of concentrated fun. Additionally, those who purchase the track are encouraged to upload their Z0MB1ES Rock Band performances to YouTube with the tag “RBN-Z0MB1ES”. Throughout the next few weeks, Ska Studios will watch all tagged videos and award prizes to a few of the most entertaining and highest scoring performances.

No celebration is complete without fancy new wearables, which is why Ska Studios partnered with the folks at Hot Topic to sell Z0MB1ES t-shirts through their online store including an exclusive new design. This new tee – designed by Z0MB1ES fan Aron Mayo – features the game’s signature angry face and is almost guaranteed to attract both attention and admiration. Z0MB1ES apparel including the exclusive t-shirt will be available for purchase from HotTopic.com later this September.

For more information on I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1, please visit us online at www.ska-studios.com, follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/skastudios or “like us” on Facebook www.facebook.com/skastudios.

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Download ‘I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1′ via Xbox.com

Monday, August 23rd is Z0MB1ES celebration day, so keep your eyes on the interwebs.

Breaking News! PAX Is Two Weeks Away!
This is our weekly reminder where we say that PAX Prime 2k10 is happening and that Ska Studios will be there in full force. And now we’re only TWO WEEKS AWAY! Yup, only 14 days until Vampire Smile awesome invades Seattle with all of it’s awesome awesomeness. You should also know that Mr. James Silva will be a part of the “Going Indie” panel which takes place on Friday from 6:30-7:30PM at the Serpent Theatre. Visit the official PAX site for more information.

Farewell For Now
Short, but satisfyingly sweet.

I’ll leave you with this, a picture of Yuki being all “don’t mess with me or I’ll cut your body into four equal parts.” Have a great week.

With that said, we will not be celebrating the anniversary today *gasp!* Why? Well, it’s because our “super awesome surprise” has taken longer to prep than we expected and requires another week of baking time. Instead, we’ll be waiting until next Monday, August 23rd to party and at that time will cut into the cake, break out the party hats and be officially celebrating Z0MB1ES‘ success. But if you can’t contain your excitement for another seven days, we won’t hold it against you.

Thanks for the support and watch for a surprising Z0MB1ES surprise next week on Monday, August 23rd.

Update: Check out the nom’tastic looking Z0MB1ES cake that Nate Sieko made!

So, in case you thought we were bluffing about this whole PAX Prime thing, then this is your proof that we’re serious about going. Blam!

Z0MB1ES B1R7HDAY
Monday, August 16th will be the one year anniversary of I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1‘s release to Xbox LIVE Indie Games. While we would absolutely LOVE to celebrate the occasion this coming Monday, we’ll be containing our excitement until the following Monday, on August 23rd. Odd? Yes, but I can’t get into specifics otherwise I’d ruin the … “surprise”. I can confirm that our planned birthday cake consumption and celebratory dancing will have to wait until then.

And don’t worry. The extra week of waiting will make our exciting surprise all the more enjoyable and will also give you some extra time to go out and buy us a card

The move shouldn’t be too difficult seeing as the new homestead is just across the river, a few miles away, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on our relocation effort. For now, I say goodbye old apartment studio and hello new, house-sized version of Ska Studios!

ZP2KX Got Playtested
All last week, a handful of helpful XNA Creator’s Club members downloaded the alpha build of our upcoming Xbox LIVE Indie Game ZP2KX and played the heck out of it. Now, post playtest, is the time where James takes into account all the feedback that he received, fixes a few lingering bugs and gives the entire ZP2KX package a silky smooth spit shine. And while I’m well aware that you’d love to have more information on the game, to know when it’ll make its release and if there will really be pterodactyls included, I can not yet comment. All in time, friends. All in time.

What I will say is that there’s a good chance of another playtest and further development on the title, so its release will not be anytime in the super immediate future. Oh, and yes, there will be actual pterodactyls in the game

A Z0MB1ES “Did You Know?”
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 is celebrating its birthday on August 16th and just like The Dishwasher earlier in the year, this will be its first birthday EVAR! And here at Ska Studios, we don’t take birthday celebrations lightly, especially first birthdays. That is why we have a few exciting surprises planned. Stay tuned.

A Ska Studios “Goodbye”
We have an apartment to pack up and a stressed Gato to comfort (she does not like moving.) Talk to you next week.

Check out the Z0MB1ES talk at around the 1:20 mark in the vid below. And Kevin, if you would like to chat with “the guy” who made the game – our own James Silva – just have your people get in touch with our people and we’ll show you some of our new indie hotness that will melt your face.



Milestone Status: Complete
Remember that Vampire Smile milestone that we wrote about last week? The one that was kind of a big deal and forced James to quit tinkering and get to finalizing? Well, that milestone just expired and we slid into home plate at the very last moment. Needless to say, James’ slide was called “safe!” and the crowd cheered. Major milestone number one is in the books. Complete and conquered.

That’s, Uh … About It
Gato is in need of some attention. With that, we’re out. Enjoy the sunny July weather and wear plenty of no-burn sun screen.

Thanks everyone for voting!  Thanks everyone for playing!

“The background in Diamonds looks good, but it’s not CD-ROM graphics.”

“You know a 1 MB image will look just as good if it’s on a CD as it will if it’s on the hard drive?”

“Well, it’s still not CD-ROM graphics.”

When the term “Flash Games” gets thrown around to describe anything on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel (and, ugh, yes, The Dishwasher, which, for the last effing time, is an Arcade title, thankyouverymuch), I am reminded of Andrew and CD-ROM graphics.  It’s basically the guy who has seen one thing, seen another thing, and, with scant knowledge of, well, anything else, has decided that they are the same.  Adventure game on a CD?  That’s CD-ROM graphics.  2D small scope game?  That’s a Flash Game.

The more logical aspect of the argument is that Flash games are free, so why pay for Xbox Indie Games of [apparently] equal or lesser value?

Well (obvious setup here), they’re not of equal or lesser value.  Content aside (and sure, there’s some questionable quality on XBLIG), let’s talk specs:

• I don’t like playing games on a keyboard, unless it’s a mouse+keyboard shooter.  XBLIG means you’re using an Xbox360 controller; Flash means you’re using a keyboard and/or mouse.
• XBLIG is multiplayer-friendly.  Most games that can support 4-player couch coop (like Z0MB1ES!) do; some support multiplayer on Xbox Live (like ZP2K9!).  I can’t speak for all of Flash, but couch coop is out (no-brianer) and when there is a multiplayer effort, it seems like it’s part of a larger business effort, which means we’re going to be paying that value in one way or another (advertising, sneaky advertising, and maliciously sneaky advertising)
• XBLIG games get to use Xbox360 hardware.  Z0MB1ES in Flash?  Not possible!  Not all things that take place on a 2D plane are created equal; to port Z0MB1ES to Flash I’d have to cut a bunch of stuff and the game would still run poorly on lower end systems (and, let’s face it, do the God Box builders really make their systems to play Flash games?)
• XBLIG games don’t play in a little box in the middle of a browser surrounded by banner ads.

(And where’s the outrage at having to spend $3 on a Flash-to-iPhone port that crashes all the time?)

Of course, I don’t hate Flash.  I made my site with it.  Heck, I was once technically a professional Flash developer.  I just prefer XBLIG to Flash as a games platform.  XBLIG is a platform that can offer gamers much, much more.

Also, I keep forgetting the definite possibility that all of the “Indie Games = Flash” sentiments are from PS3/PC fanboys and/or disgruntled XBLIG developer hopefuls who gave up because it was “too stupid.”  In which case I shouldn’t care.  Because there are insecurity issues at hand which I am not adequately trained to help with.

And please, someone, slap me a few times the next time I start to read Internet comments.

And holy roundup, Batman:

• Kotaku would pay $1 just for the theme song
• Destructoid calls it this year’s “Still Alive”
• Joystiq thinks it’s “astounding”
• GameGirl is hooked
• GamingAngels was blown away by the awesomeness of the game
• TheXboxDomain liked the awesome music, addictive qualities, great replay value
• IndieGames.com thinks it’s way too much fun for its own good

50,000 downloads, 6,237 ratings and an average score of 4.75, these are freaking excellent numbers.  This was exactly what I had in mind when I heard Microsoft was rebranding XBLCG as Xbox Live Indie Games and switching the price points to let us sell games for $1.  It’s indie! It’s a dollar! It’s the type of thing that would’ve seemed like a really bad idea if you were trying to describe it to someone you wanted to borrow money from!

And to think that Joystiq’s Andrew Yoon just declared that XBLIG is “floundering” (qualified by a 5-month old article, no less).  Guess we can chalk that one up to Playstation fanboyism!  Of course, if Sony created some sort of zero-entry-barrier developer-friendly platform (think XNA), maybe my PS3 could be more than just a protein folding Blu-Ray player… burn!