We’re back and un-jet lagged from PAX East, where the Shogun made his appearance in near-final playable form! Much thanks to all the awesome show attendees who kept our demo stations busy for all three days of the show. You guys are an invaluable source of feedback, and we were delighted to see the wide variety of tactics that were popping up in the dozens of multiplayer matches that went down; some of the last-minute turnaround victories we saw were things of legend.

If you want to check out a match being played, look no further than Kotaku’s playthrough video, which features Jake K battling Colin in a back-and-forth battle for the ages. We also slapped together a quick teaser trailer for the show:

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And as if that wasn’t enough, at the very same time our QA Guru Isaac Dudley was running a full Skulls tournament back in Seattle at the anime celebration known as Sakura-Con. Congrats to winner Frank, who took home the victory (along with a sweet samurai blade in a one-of-a-kind Skulls-branded showcase).

WE ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD with the help of our indie brothers-in-arms this weekend in Boston. INDIE MEGABOOTH will ROCK YOUR WORLD AND EXPLODE YOUR BRAIN.

 

INDIE MEGABOOTH

 

COME SAY HI!!

Oh, and by the way, Skulls of the Shogun will be coming out for Windows 8 (PCs & tablets). Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the launch date for Windows 8, but the game will be coming out on all three platforms (Xbox 360, Windows Phone, Windows around then.

Well, I can’t say it hasn’t been a stressful few weeks of work. Jake, Ben, & I are here at GDC in San Francisco, after crunching the last couple months finishing up the game. Monday morning I gave a talk on the AI in the game. Brandon Justice did a nice piece on the session, including post-mortems on the AI in Kingdoms of Amalur & The Darkness 2, for EGM.

We have been working pretty hard on doing an official announcement/press release about the Windows 8 version. Colin Williamson, who joined us recently, a 10 year vet of Square Enix, was working on an awesome new trailer. Then our shoebox office In Seattle got flooded, and we realized we had to delay a proper announcement. Kotaku covered the unfortunate circumstances, and now the guys up in Seattle have moved next door to some unused warehouse space.

But, I wanted to mention the new platform in my talk so people understood everything I learned from working on the AI came from getting it into a finished state (playable at all the shows we’ve been to, and will be at PAX East very soon).

A less reputable then picked this up saying we had been delayed because of AI and bugs, which is well beyond inaccuracy and basically just a lie. It’s an unfortunate problem for indie devs. Jon Blow (Braid, The Witness), has noted this himself, and Chris Hecker (Spy Party) have run into these issues as notable indie devs, and spoken out about them regularly. Chris gave a great rant on the subject at GDC 2009.

I guess we’ve just been incredibly lucky so far, in that all the journalists we’ve dealt with have been super passionate about their work, getting things right, and care a lot about indie games. And this practice by the bad seeds doesn’t have a big impact on companies like EA or Activision. They haves teams of PR people 10-20 times our entire size just to deal with this kind of problem. (We just have my burgeoning ulcer, apparently.)

Flooded, frustrated, I know this is probably not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but to have someone misrepresent your work is tough for folks like us, on top of everything else that’s happened in the past couple weeks.  (Are there bugs? Sure, but actually not that many compared to most games I’ve worked on at this stage.)

So we just need to keep focusing on the good stuff – we just got back our 9 langauge translations from Jake’s long time friends at 8-4, and they look fantastic. Feels like they really captured the humor in the localization – I kinda want to have them translated back to English! (But I guess it doesn’t really work that way).

Windows 8 is super exciting for us. Playing the game on a tablet is my new favorite way to play, and for all Windows 8 users we really think the new Xbox Live for Windows is a great step beyond Games For Windows Live. We’re big believers in the cross platform gaming future, there’s lots of cool opportunities and you’ll be hearing more from us on that front before we’re done.

Here’s a shot of the tablet in action, along with it’s little baby brother, the Windows Phone (although since technically the phone came first this would make the tablet the child that freakishly outgrew his parents, which is kinda like what we assume Jake’s kids are gonna do, and up even bigger than his towering height!).

Fantastic Arcade was FREAKIN’ RAD! Fantastic Arcade, part of Fantastic Fest, happened a two weeks ago and was a great venue to play indie games, hang out, and meet lots of great people.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SKULLS OF THE SHOGUN?

Our game was chosen to be one of the spotlight games!  We had the honor of being put into an honest-to-goodness arcade cabinet!!  We’ve been calling Skulls “arcade strategy” for awhile, but seeing it in a real arcade cabinet along with other amazing games was kind of shocking.

Unfortunately I was the only member of the team that could go.  Venturing down to Austin was a must for me as I called it home for a couple years (way back when).  I didn’t know what to expect from Fantastic Arcade, really, as it was open to the public and in an unusual setting.  Unlike many conferences we go to, this did not occur in a convention center and did not have the feel of an industry event.  Put on by Austin’s illustrious Alamo Drafthouse, the arcade was setup at their hip bowling/karaoke/cocktail bar which had a great 60s vibe and a really laid-back atmosphere.  There was an extensive food menu, drinks, old school arcade games… what’s not to like?

When I showed up the day before the event, the Highball was bustling as their team got everything into place, finishing up the cabinets, and troubleshooting the inevitable last minute problems.  I brought an updated build with me with a couple minor tweaks just for the arcade environment, and although there were plenty of reasons to be stressed out, the crew was super friendly, super helpful, and put me at ease instantly.  I updated the build, offered to help (they were total pros, they didn’t need a thing!), and as I headed out, started to imagine how this unusual, exciting event was going to pan out.

The experience was totally unique.  Here, you could actually talk to players – no roaring crowds or jumbotrons cranked to 11.  You could hang out with fellow indies and talk game design.  You could see how players react to your game in the wilderness.  Players could drop in for just a few minutes or hang out all day, kicking back in the comfy booths.  In addition to the arcade cabinets, bunches of laptops were setup with games from their showcase selection, so there was no shortage of games to play!

One of my favorite aspects of the event was the “developer’s commentary” that ran for 3 solid afternoons.  Various game developers were given an hour to talk about whatever they wished.  All of the talks I saw were great, with my highlights being: Lost Mars (some serious SCIENCE was dropped as our friends at Tiger Style gave an overview of current thinking on life on Mars before leading into their fiction and action-gardening gameplay), Radical Fishing (Vlambeer unfailingly entertains, especially when discussing new prototypes like Yeti Hunter), and Octodad (showing a prototype build with perhaps the perfect controller for Octodad… the Kinect!).

(showing off our “senior portrait” / band photo)

I was also given the opportunity to give developer’s commentary on Skulls. I discussed the game’s genesis, how the team came together, and showed some “behind the scenes” screenshots while we worked on various features, before inviting 4 players to duke it out on the big screen behind me.  I narrated the match, informing as they played and pointing out strategic opportunities and risks.  The winner took the nearest player out very quickly, then let the other two duke it out as he powered up his team.  It wasn’t necessary though, as the other player brought his troops closer, he made a fatal mistake, leaving his general exposed next to the pond.  The winner had clearly played Skulls on the show floor at least a couple times, as he used several advanced tactics.  Deservedly, he walked away with the prized SKULL GOBLET.

But you know what’s really awesome?  Even though Fantastic Arcade is over, a staggering number of the games can be played RIGHT NOW in the comfort of your very own bunker!  I’ve made it very easy so… you have no excuse!

• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (buy on XBLA)
• Capsized (buy on Steam)
• Jesus vs. Dinosaurs (free download)
• Octodad (free download)
• Radical Fishing (in browser)
• Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog (free download)
• Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP (buy on iOS App Store)
• Banker’s Dozen (free download)
• Fract (free beta download)
• Owlboy (free demo)
• Salome (free download)
• Bit Pilot (buy on iOS App Store)
• Ute (a game for adults, in browser)

And if you’re looking for games to anticipate, here are the up and coming games you’ll have to wait a bit longer for:

• Faraway
• Fez
• Deep Sea
• Dyad
• Hohokum
• They Bleed Pixels

All in all, a great trip stuffed full of Texas hospitality.  Thanks to Kody and the Highball crew, Dave Idemoto for pictures, and all those who helped make Fantastic Arcade happen.  Don’t miss it when it comes around next year!

All the Indiecade finalists put together videos for the awards show at the festival, and here’s ours, with a special guest!

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Check out the rest of the finalist videos on the Indiecade site. And don’t forget, if you’re around LA this weekend, check out all the games in Culver City!

Bunch of good news announced in the past week:

We’re in the Fantastic Fest Arcade, the game portion of a film/game festival in Austin next week. I believe we’re gonna be set up in an actual arcade cabinet, the final realization of the dream of “arcade strategy”!

We’re also got picked as a finalist to IndieCade, in three weeks, here in LA.

There’s a ton of awesome games in both, many by friends (and the rest by hopefully soon-to-be-friends), please check ‘em all out!

Budding young artist Oscar Charla expressed his fandom with this freehand rendering of Akamoto. This appears to be a depiction of some of Akamoto’s early work in a popular Japanese-language performance of Hamlet.

Dear Internet,

How have you been?  Had a good summer?  The Skulls of the Shogun family has been very busy and hasn’t had much time to write!  Sorry about that!  You know how it is trying to make a great game… sometimes you have to make a few sacrifices!

But what a summer, eh?  Our pals at Supergiant Games released Bastion, which you should go play right now if you haven’t.  We managed to spend some time with it despite our dedication to the Shogun, and we can honestly say it is a triumph.  Spend your time and money on it!

Not only that, but Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was released by our friends at Shadow Planet Productions!  The game is simply gorgeous.  And it regularly rewards with new weapons, tools, creatures and environments.  Another amazing game worth your time!  I’m tempted to stop writing and go play… but where was I?

Oh yes, so you might be wondering “what’s been going on at the Haunted Temple?”  Well, all kinds of stuff!

• Borut has been working on finishing off remaining big-ticket features.  We can’t say much, but they are coming along swimmingly!
• Jake’s been finishing up our last environment art and completing the last character.  His goal for when you see his latest work, dear internet, is that you soil yourself.  You’ve been warned!
• Ben has been optimizing and then optimizing more… you probably won’t soil yourself, but if you do, that’s ok.
• Paul is prepping for PAX (say that 3 times fast)

Last week Skulls of the Shogun was on the show floor at Gamescom as part of Microsoft’s booth!  We did’t get to have a European summer vacation, unfortunately, so none of us where there.  But we do have proof that it happened:

We recently bid adeiu to our summer UI intern Griff!  It was a bittersweet parting, but we are comforted in the knowledge that he will be joining us at PAX!  And we can once again bathe in his youthful glow.

Speaking of PAX, are you gonna be there?!  If so, you should totally come say hi to us at our booth, #6401!  It would be awesome to finally meet you in person!  We feel it is long overdue.  You can play our game and also check out Kairo by Richard Perrin, who we’re sharing our booth with.  Come check out our swag and chat with any of us because we’ll ALL be there!  The Shogun represents!

Mega <3 <3 <3
The Skulls of the Shogun Family

In case you missed it on our Facebook page or the twitters, we’ve officially been picked up by Microsoft for publishing*. Like Jake says in the news story, Microsoft was one of the few publishers who really got the concept and saw the potential of the game, so we’re very happy to be working with them. We’re also really excited to announce more about the game soon! (Especially for those folks who are all OHNOES XBLAONLY!11!).

In the meantime, you can check out our first official video developer diary, put together with some help by our friends at BOMBCAT.

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* Although the news story mentions us all leaving after C&C 4 finished & the team got laid off, which then some sites seem to imply we all worked on C&C – actually only Jake did, and we all left before that point at different times.

The Develop Conference in Brighton, UK, has selected us to be part of their Indie Game Showcase! You can check out all the finalists and vote on which one you like best at DIYGamer.

Special thanks to Richard Perrin, of Locked Door Puzzle, whose game Kairo is also in the showcase. Richard’s been kind enough to help set up our booth with equipment since we can’t make it to the UK. In return we’ll have his game in our booth at PAX Prime. But check out the trailer for Kairo now!

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