I totally forgot about this last week, but I have to give a shout out to the folks at Blue Tongue for the success that de Blob has achieved. Since launch in September, we've sold over 700,000 copies! Not bad for a non-Nintendo title.
Now if I can just find out how Deadly Creatures is doing...
Posting has been light as of late, but I'm glad to say that while Summer is officially over, so is our ridiculous summer in QA. Since, as a company, we try to submit about 90% of our titles between the months of June and September, needless to say, saying it was crazy is an understatement. But it's appears to be finally over. I helped get SmackDown Wii out the door in early August and it passed Nintendo of America first try with Wi-Fi (I don't think too many other publishers can say that). The two other projects I was working on our now out the door as well as of today. August saw us work some crazy overtime but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and Fall should be significantly less stressful.
On the other hand summer was as usual, light on releases, so I was thankful for that. I finally crossed the 15k GamerScore threshold thanks mostly to Civilization: Revolution and Lego Indiana Jones. Civ:Rev was a lot of fun and hope to back to again soon. This is saying a lot because I absolutely loathe real-time strategy games. This game was fun and accessible and did away with a lot of micro-managing. The game was deep enough for me to feel that my decisions, for better or worse, were actually affecting my society without burying me in data and options. Lego Indiana Jones was a blast to play even though I was uninterested in the Star Wars games after playing the demo. A lot of the achievements were a grind but most were cleverly named and the humor throughout the game kept me motivated.
Xbox Live Arcade also saw a lot of releases in August. I started playing Braid and absolutely loved it until a save killing bug popped up and wiped my data. Bionic Commando was awesomely retro and brutally difficult. Castle Crashers is beautiful and humorous, but the same bug popped from Braid and I'm waiting for the patch. Needless to say, I will be returning to all of these games soon.
I just picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, mostly because the original was a guilty pleasure and they priced it at only $40, I could not pass this one up. The game was everything I hoped for: more adorable pinatas, more environments, more everything but the same addicting game play with a few new twists. However, a word of warning: watch out for Hemlock! After cultivating a healthy garden of pinatas (some of whom I had become quite attached to), I became afflicted with a massive outbreak of Hemlock. This weed spreads incredibly fast, attracts pinatas like nerds to boobs and makes them poop sour candy when they eat it. After about ten minutes my entire garden population was decimated; all of my pinatas became sick faster than I could help and when I ran out of money, Dastardos swooped in and killed them all. This was one of the few times I absolutely despised autosave.
In the end, I skipped Too Human and Force Unleashed. I'll probably borrow them from friends, but with the likes of Fable II and Fallout 3 coming out, who knows when I'll get to them.
Oh, and go buy de Blob if you own a Wii. It's awesome and I want to work on more games like this
The original creators of de Blob are at it again. They're bring a "side-scrolling RTS" to WiiWare. While I don't exactly know what that means, you have to give them credit for their creativity and sense of style.
Speaking of de Blob, it should be out soon and I'm still as excited for it as when we first got it in to test. I think we did the original creators proud and it is definitely our best Wii game to date. The controls actually feel useful with the Wii Remote; not tacked on. I just hope that Wii owners go out and buy it. Then, hopefully, we will continue to make more innovative products.
de Blob Intro Trailer I made some promises at last year's PAX that de Blob would be hitting stores early this year. Well the developers made me a liar, but it's for the best. In light of our struggles at THQ over the last year, the devs thought it was best to keep it in the oven a bit longer. The game is shaping up to be the best looking Wii game we have done and is set to do especially well with the gamers of all kinds. This time, I promise, de Blob is coming sooner rather than later.
I'm back from the Penny Arcade Expo! I had a lot of fun in Seattle (my first time visiting) despite my feet and calves throbbing after three days of being up on them, showing off our games. I have to say, I expected the place to be bigger. My only other major expo experience was E3 in 2006. Otherwise, the people were all really cool and the atmosphere was one of a kind. I met a lot of really interesting people, including the folks who were demoing N+ and Kim from Bioware, who was demoing Mass Effect. We got a chance to quickly talk about testing such a massive game
My highlights for the show were playing N+ and Castle Crashers. They are very unique and satisfying experiences that are a perfect fit for Live Arcade. I watched people play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption over their shoulders; it looked amazing on the massive plasma screens they were playing on. I'll definitely be picking this game up if I get a Wii. The Mass Effect demo was amazing. Despite some who were disappointed or not awed, I think it really showed off the little details that are going to make this one of the greatest games ever.
I spent the majority of my time demoing our upcoming Wii game, de Blob. Originally developed by students in Utrecht, it puts the player in control of the rebellious Blob who is acting out against the evil Inkt Corporation by literally painting the city red, or whatever color you want. It was on the inside of our booth, so I don't think as many people saw it who could have, but it still managed to draw a large crowd when they did see it. I even had a few people tell me that it was their favorite game of the show which made me very happy. It still has quite a while in development and test before it hits store shelves, so I hope that marketing can get the word out in the mean time.
I totally forgot about this last week, but I have to give a shout out to the folks at Blue Tongue for the success that de Blob has achieved. Since launch in September, we've sold over 700,000 copies! Not bad for a non-Nintendo title.
