Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne)

Although we know our teaser site must have left everyone in a state of suspense and confusion because no one could have possibly guessed what our secret surprise was, you may now exhale as we reveal to you Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne)!
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16 Comments June 6, 2011

It's An Indie Games Uprising

There’s an uprising about to place, one whose sole mission is to bring quality Xbox LIVE Indie Games to the gaming masses in a heavily concentrated dose. It’s called the Indie Games (Winter) Uprising and from all accounts “is going to be the best week of gaming the service has ever seen.”

The Uprising is scheduled to take place during the first week of December and will feature over a dozen superb indie games, priced at or below $5, from some of the best Xbox indie developers. Ska Studios’ own ZP2KX is scheduled to be a part of the Uprising, which not only means the game’s release is near (duh!), but that you’ll have more detailed information about the ZP2K9 sequel in the weeks ahead.

Head on over to the official Indie Games Uprising website for more information and keep your ears perked for ZP2KX details. We’re just about ready to let the pterodactyl out of the cage.

1 Comment November 15, 2010

Z0MB1ES Turns One Year Old

On August 16, 2009, exactly one year ago today, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 released to the Xbox LIVE Indie Games marketplace. Over the course of a year, Z0MB1ES has experienced overwhelming success that nobody (not even James) could have ever predicted. A humongous thanks goes out to you and the entire indie gaming community for supporting the game the way you have.

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!

6 Comments August 16, 2010

XNA, Flash and CD-ROM Graphics

I remember a conversation I had in about sixth grade, when CD-ROM was relatively new technology.  My friend Andrew was trying to convince me that “CD-ROM Graphics” was, well, something that only a CD could bring you.  Games like The Journeyman Project and 7th Guest definitely did things that you couldn’t do on 3.5″ floppies, but a graphic is a graphic, whether it’s stored on a CD, hard drive, laserdisc, etc.  Anyway, the dialogue would go something like:

“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.” (more…)

6 Comments December 15, 2009

Z0MB1ES is #1 on Major Nelson's List!

Title says it all, we’re #1! (top rated, too!)

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!

8 Comments August 25, 2009