Want so many achievables? They’re yours! As long as you earn them, that is. Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne) has unlockable achievements and online leaderboards so you can compete with your friends (which you will have tons of once you get this game).

Z0MB1ES!!1 (on teh ph0ne) is coming later this year. We’ll let you know when we know. You know? Knowledge!

Check out this gallery!

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.

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!

“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!