As many of you know, I was out in Irvine California a few weeks ago. I was helping my brother out with his recovery from elective jaw surgery (it was a success!).  Before the surgery I got to hang out at Blizzard (or as I like to think of it: SMASHWORX West) for a few days.  I also got to go to the midnight signing party, which was awesome.  I thought it might be fun to share some pics for all you Starcraft fans.

Here I am being attacked by a very hostile Californian. I think he entered the campus through a portal.

These 2 gents were waiting in line to get their copies of Starcraft 2 signed.  They are entertaining themselves with songs of their homeland: Earth. Those crazy Terrans!

Blizzard was kind enough to entertain us with this Rock Concert style stage… you can’t really see it but there’s a really intense game  happening on the screen.

Anyway, thanks californians, I had a great time and thanks for all the great feedback on Propaganda Lander.  If any of you happen to be in Irvine, CA don’t forget to pass by Alakazam, a great little comic book store (they might still have some Propaganda Lander stickers left). While you’re there do not pass up the crispy grilled “chickin” sandwich at Veggie Grill across from the comic book store.

Now onto some New York news.  After 9 years in Chinatown  and almost 3 years in our current office, we are moving out of Manhattan and into our new Brooklyn office in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).  Though we will miss our roommates at Templar Studios and the delicious asian treats for under 5 bucks, we are looking forward to our own little space and new culinary adventures.

Here’s our new building (it’s the first one right behind that weird parking lot).  A certain wife of mine says it looks like the building of the apocalypse.  I think it’s perfect for throwing watermelons off the roof

Hello friends! Jess here with an update on two new modes for Propaganda Lander: Remix: Survival and Easy Mode.

Remix: Survival is a sensory assault of epic proportions. Players will attempt to survive as long as possible while we throw every nasty enemy known in Rickster’s Universe at them. In order to create this new mode, Tommy has had to re-haul our level editor to offer even more customization. We can now control waves of different enemy types through timing, random amperage ranges and frequency. Therefore, I’ve spent the last couple of days tweaking and testing to create an hyperactive experience. The types of issues I’ve run into mainly deal with offering an experience that has peaks and valleys instead of an experience that amps up only to plateau. What we’ve decided is to offer a sort of three steps forward, one step back mechanic that allows the player to feel like they’ve accomplished a great feat for surviving a particularly hard wave and to facilitate an innate feeling of tension and drama. Also, one other issue I’ve had to deal with is beating Tommy’s high score, but that’s more of a personal policy. The last bits that we have to deal with is optimization for all devices and implementing the soundtrack.

For all you folks that find the Lander to be a little too punishing, we’ve started on an Easy Mode. Easy Mode is exactly what it sounds like, fewer enemies, more power-ups, and less damage make it easier for the casual player to really enjoy Propaganda Lander. I’d have to say that the most difficult part of creating Easy Mode has been striking a balance between making things easier but still retain the challenge. I tend to make levels pretty difficult, look at hardcore mode for example, and it’s been a practice in self-control to really loosen things up a little. We still need to do some testing before we release Easy Mode but I think it’s totally worth it to invite casual gamers into the fold.

So I’m about to head off to GDC again, and it’s a good feeling knowing that we’re reaching the end of Propaganda Lander.  It’s been tons of hard work from this band of dedicated,  crazy, difficult, creative, amazing people we call Smashworx. I feel like we’ve come up with something pretty amazing.  Thank you everybody.

Seriously, total pussy

Now this is a tough guy!

The latest grand debate around the studio these days is who is tougher, Chuck Norris or Clint Eastwood?  Our new freelancer Jelani is giving us the hard sell on old Chuck but come on…  That guy is a total pussy, a pansie, a mamaluka coiled around his mommy’s leg.  Clearly, I’m unabashedly in support of Clint Eastwood.  I think Tommy may be too young to know either of these old farts but my suspicion is that Jess is on my side.  I can’t even see how you can argue against this, just look at Clint Eastwood.  You can scrub pots with that guy’s face.  Not just now that he’s old and wiry but even when he was young and well… wiry.  When Clint Eastwood gives a bad guy the stare down, you just want to crawl under the seat.  When Chuck Norris gives the stare down, well let’s just say he’s like that sad dad that teenagers walk all over like alpha dogs in a hen’s nest.  It’s like saying whose cooler Huey Lewis or Morrissey?  Oh no, hope I haven’t opened a new debate for next week…