Last year CEO and creator of ByteJacker, Anthony Carboni, hosted the Independent Games Festival. As you know Fire Hose Games is excited to be part of the record breaking number of entries in the 2011 IGF.

Anthony was able to give us a bit of his time and tell us about his experience as a host and as a gamer at last year’s festival.

You were able to host the 2011 IGF awards, what was that experience like?
Awesome. Amazing. Unbelievably great. It was so wonderful to not just meet the people whose games I’d been talking about for years, but also to have some small part in recognizing and celebrating their work.

Why do you think the IGF awards are important to indie game developers?
Well, in a practical sense, there are a cash awards and obviously a lot more visibility. There are fewer marketing opportunities and a lot less money available for indies to get their name out there – something like the IGF awards can really help with that. On another level, one that I think is just as important, after a hugely grueling project, it’s nice to get the recognition and respect of your peers. Plus you can totally meet Tim Schafer there.

What do gamers get out of the IGF awards?
It’s hard to get into indie games – that’s why I started Bytejacker.[Bytejacker is a review show that only reviews games that are available for download only. It often features Indie titles] Having the IGF awards is a highly visible and accessible way for gamers to see what’s out there and get that sort of gateway into what is essentially another entire gaming industry, with just as many choices as the mainstream one they’re used to.

How is the IGF unique from the GDC?
Indies give you less swag but more high fives when they see you.

What are you looking forward to for this year’s IGF awards?
The whole experience was a whirlwind for me last year – it was my first GDC, my first IGF, I had a show to shoot while I was there and a whole other one to host. This year I’m just looking to go and take it slower and have some more fun.

What do you think about Go Home Dinosaurs?
Looks good! Tower Defense can be a crowded place to make your mark, but if I learned anything from Slam Bolt Scrappers, it’s that you guys can weave genres together in some very unexpected ways.

You can read more from Anthony on his site.

Is that a photo of an engine? Nope. Jacques Pena.

Fire Hose artist Jacques Pena has recently been awarded third prize in the Autodesk 3DS Max Design Hero Contest. 

Yes, this does mean that Jacques is officially a hero. A design hero.

The contest asked designers and artists to:

portray inventive concepts or renderings of architectural design, mechanical, or industrial/product designs—from buildings, bridges and vehicles, to furniture and consumer products.

Jacque’s entry, entitled O.E.M., uses automotive design as its base; but there is more to it than that.

“I went to work with automotive because it opened me up to creating something more…” explained Jacques, “something crazy and abstract. I wanted something overzealous, something that you would never see in the real world.”

And it was also to incorporate robots.

“A good majority of the stuff that I do is mechanical and [with this contest] I was able to show off my love for robots.”

For Jacques one of the main challenges was in the preparation; how to best combine the science fiction and wonder or robotics with the cold yet powerful aesthetic of automotive design.

Over one hundred entries were judged on imagination, innovation, and ingenuity. Jacque’s entry is a clear stand out evoking thoughts of both familiarity and the uncanny. It gracefully combines the known imagery of an engine while also being outlandish in design.

Congrats to Jacques for a well deserved win!

Is not a man entitled to his Chance and Community Chest cards?

As reported earlier this week, the BioShock Monopoly board that is floating around the internet was created by someone right here at Fire Hose.

In celebration of its new-found popularity we are happy to announce that the Community Chest and Chance cards missing from the game set linked to by the Kotaku article are now available on the Fire Hose Games Flickr Photo Stream! The Photo Stream includes a larger game board for easier printing, all money and deeds, plus the brand spankin’ new game cards!

Also, we now have a Flickr page!

Let us know if you like the game by commenting here, on our Facebook page, or shooting us a tweet!

The 14th Annual IGF is boasting a record breaking 568 entries into this year’s main Indie Game competition, and of course you know that Go Home Dinosaurs is one of them.

The IGF is like The Sundance Film Festival, but for games. It is held in conjunction with the Games Developers Conference where an Independent Games Festival pavilion is set up to show off the competition finalists.

What does the IGF mean for Fire Hose? It gives us and other indie game developers a chance to give our games a nice spotlight. It also allows us a chance to look at what some other indie studios are up to.

Speaking of other indie studios (slick transition right?) Outer Space Studios caught our tweet about IGF the other day and blogged about it on The News from Outer Space . ^_^

(You are following @firehosegames aren’t you?)

You can check our IGF entry out about half way down the page here!

We just got back from PAX, and the show was AWESOME! We had an absolutely amazing time, and I’ll follow up soon with pictures and stories from the show. But first let’s talk GO HOME DINOSAURS! Or better yet, let’s start off with with a video shot by Stephen Totilo, the rock star reporter over at Kotaku that gives voice to all the small indies with awesome games. Take a look and you can see the game in action!

As you can see we’ve been busy – we’ve already got a few levels and the art style locked down, along with most of the core functionality. It’s been a crazy few months! We’re still going hard, and we’ll be adding in tons more content and features over the months to come. So if you live near Boston now is the time to start bugging us about coming in to try it out!

It was incredible seeing so many people playing and enjoying our game. Especially considering how nervous we were about putting it out at the show too early! We had tons of kids mesmerized by dinosaurs, hardcore gamers who were determined to protect their BBQ, and couples who wound up playing together. SO COOL. I can’t wait to post pictures.

And let’s not forget the press! Here’s what other people are saying about the game:

• Kotaku – Tetris Plus Tower Defense, But Better This Time
• Destructoid – Hands On: Go Home Dinosaurs!
• Joystiq – Go Home Dinosaurs Preview – Steak ‘N’ Shake

Dinosaur fans, rejoice! We’re incredibly excited to announce our brand new game, Go Home Dinosaurs! We’ve been working really hard on this for the past few months and we can’t wait to show it off for the first time next week at PAX in Seattle. Gonna be attending the show? Then be sure to stop by our booth and try it out! We’ll right in Indie Alley and next to the PAX 10 in booth 6408.

But what’s this? You want to know about the game? Well wonder no more! Go Home Dinosaurs! (GHD! to the cool kids) is a fun new take on tower defense where players fit together puzzle piece shaped weapons powered by small, cute mammals to defend against invading, mischievous dinosaurs. Gophers shooting lasers! Pterodactyls attempting to crash your BBQ! METEORS RAINING DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS! Oh, and did we mention that you can level up your character and gain new dino destroying abilities by collecting and trading cards? It’s true!

This game has it all, blending short, simple, easy-to-get-into fun with deep mechanics that keep things exciting and new. Pack your bags dinos, ’cause you’re going home!

He goes on to describe how the state shouldn’t pick winners when it comes to businesses.  That tax benefits have not worked in the past for the green industry, movie industry, or for mutual funds.  Each of these industries is completely different, and the attempt to apply a single rule to all markets is a fallacy.  In fact, there have been incentive programs in Massachusetts that have worked extraordinarily well, bringing in jobs and revenue into the state.  A fine example of this is illustrated in the success of the biotech industry in Massachusetts.

As State Rep. Vincent Pedone (Worchester Dem.) has pointed out in the past, “Twenty-five or 30 years ago, no one in the commonwealth knew what biotechnology was, and it has now become a critical part of our Massachusetts economy. We think the video game design industry has equal potential.”  Rep. Pedone has been a key figure in introducing the legislation that would support video game companies.

Some argue that MA should be more business-friendly in general.  While it’s true that MA taxes are some of the highest around, there are other benefits which help to balance this challenge.  According to CNBC’s 2010 report, Massachusetts is ranked #5 in America’s Top States for Business.  This score is mostly due to the fact that Massachusetts is #1 in Education.  We have some of the greatest minds coming out of the greatest schools in the country.  In the games industry especially, we end up sending that talent away to greener pastures for game development because the jobs are in California, Washington, or Texas.

Here at Fire Hose Games, we are constantly getting inquiries from eager, qualified applicants that could be contributing to the MA economy, if only there were a position for them.  Tax incentives would allow companies like ours to retain our capital for longer so we could employ more people, over longer periods of time.  Jacoby claims that MA games companies want to hire more senior-level people, but it is much more than that.  We want to hire more senior-level, junior-level, and entry-level people.  We want to create jobs here and grow the already flourishing community into one of the strongest in the United States.  We want to keep our talent here in Massachusetts instead of shipping our grads off to California.

The video game industry is traditionally highly project-based.  Development cycles are long, and when capital runs low, layoffs are made.  Again, tax incentives from the State would allow us to smooth the bumps during ups and downs of project cycles so that we would not lose people during downturns.  Furthermore, this model is changing, as the industry increasingly trends toward less project-based cycles and more sustainable, long term revenue cycles.

In grand editorial style, Jacoby goes as far as insulting the game companies that want to help Massachusetts, as well as our own businesses, grow, quoting Pushkin to call us pigs.  He also makes comparisons to rich Hollywood actors and Fidelity Investments.  Those kinds of comparisons are not only completely inaccurate, but they speak to a basic lack of understanding or research about the games industry whatsoever.  According to the 2010 IBISWorld Report on the Video Games industry, the average wage in the games industry was $47k, and the wages/revenue ratio was about 25%.  Not exactly the fatcats you were expecting?  We aren’t asking for Massachusetts to bribe us, we simply want to aid our businesses so we can stay here, instead of having to leave like 38 Studios did.  Already, 17 other states have tax incentives of some form for video games.  Massachusetts is behind the curve. 

Our Fire Chief, Eitan Glinert, had this to say, “If Fire Hose was offered a deal like the one that 38 Studios got with Rhode Island we would leave Massachusetts. To some degree we feel like we’re the only ones missing out; we see the federal government giving out billions of dollars in bailout money to huge business (usually to financial companies that create nothing of value but profit for themselves) while small businesses get the handout shaft. We see other states giving tax incentives or loan guarantees to incoming high tech and media companies. We see foreign governments investing in small businesses with grants designed to help them get off the ground. Here in Massachusetts we get none of these things, and to be frank it feels like we get no government support. A tax break, even a small one, would go a long way to help us make ends meet in an expensive city and keep us rooted in a state we love.”

Video games are a fast moving, technologically intensive industry that is expecting growth rates upwards of 8% in total U.S. Revenues over the 2011-2016 period, as well as increased profitability due to digital distribution.  This is a burgeoning industry in its growth phase with increasing globalization; in other words, a huge opportunity.  Why shouldn’t Massachusetts want to invest in an industry like ours, and enjoy some of that GDP?

It’s been a long wait, but the PSN store is finally back online! SWEET! That means that you can get your two free games, check out a bunch of new content that updated during the outage, and most importantly, you can buy Slam Bolt Scrappers. Yes, life is good.

We know that a lot of people were bummed that they couldn’t get our game this past month, and of course we’re concerned that some former PSN store users my be apprehensive about coming back. To help sweeten the deal a bit beyond what Sony is already doing we’ve decided to drop the price of Slam Bolt Scrappers from $14.99 to $9.99. That’s means you can get a face full of four way multiplayer mayhem for 1/3 less than before. Pretty awesome, amiright?

So go grab Slam Bolt Scrappers in the PSN store now for the new low price of $9.99. If you like it tell your friends and get them to play it too! If you don’t like it tell your enemies and inflict it upon them.  Happy Scrapping!

Hey SBS fans!

We’re excited today to be releasing the original soundtrack for Slam Bolt Scrappers! We’re offering it as a free download over on this page.

The 13 tracks making up the soundtrack were composed and produced just for SBS by me and Jeff Nickel, who’s also responsible for the soundtrack to our thugged out team video. This is the first released game music for both of us — we learned a ton and had a blast getting the tracks ready for the game. We hope you’ve enjoyed listening to them too.

So go download the tracks now, or listen on YouTube to get a taste!

By now you’ve probably noticed the PlayStation Network all over the news, it appears that the service was hacked and user information was compromised. It’s recently escalated to the point where somehow Sony is explaining the situation to Congress!

A lot of people have been asking us lately how the PSN outage impacts Fire Hose Games. Obviously it’s been a huge bummer for us as people can’t buy Slam Bolt Scrappers right now, and we hope the problem is resolved quickly! With any luck we’ll be able to get SBS involved in the Welcome Back program or something similar when the store comes back online.

It’s also important to remember not to blame Sony for this. Near as I can tell this was much more a product of competent hackers than incompetent security. Unfortunately this sort of thing does happen on a regular basis (remember back when Gawker got hacked?), and I think that Sony’s handling of the situation has been pretty decent so far. We also feel that Sony has been a good partner to work with, so we’re trying to keep things in perspective and keep our Zen.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting, those of you who were smart enough to download Slam Bolt Scrappers already can enjoy the awesome non-networked multiplayer in the comfort of your own homes.  I recommend surrounding yourself with friends, cursing each other and swearing vengeance after each match.