Posts tagged with “Dejobaan”

The one man powerful enough to make video games develop themselves, Ichiro Lambe from Dejobaan, needs your help. He’s been involved with some shady business lately, and as of yesterday afternoon, I think it’s finally caught up with him – he’s completely disappeared. Was it the mob? His secret dealings with shadow governments? An alien abduction? Friends, I believe it may be much more sinister than that.

Ichiro’s been keeping me posted on the Valve PotatoFoolsDay ARG, which has mysteriously involved a few of his games (The Wonderful End of the World, Aaaaa!, and 1 2 3 KICK IT).  I’ve gotten plenty of updates from him over the course of this ARG (or is it real?) as he continually linked me to sites reporting new discoveries in his games.  Yesterday, things finally got weird.  He sent me a link to this confidential document begging for help.  I was all, “Go on…” and Ichiro followed up with, “Right bef,” and that was IT. THAT WAS THE LAST I HEARD OF ICHIRO.  Needless to say, I’m very concerned.  He was obviously saying, “Right before…” but right before what? WHAT WAS THE END OF THAT SENTENCE?

Intrigued? You should be.  Jon Myers and Darren Torpey have done a MUCH better breakdown of the whole situation on the Boston Indies site, so have a look and figure out where Ichiro is hiding (or has been taken).  Remember, tweet with the tag #whereisIchiro so I can follow all the developments on Tweetdeck without actually searching for anything.

And we’ll be at Boston Post Mortem tonight so come say hello if you see us.

Hit the jump for a collection of all the Ichiro related image memes I’ve seen on Twitter today (Warning: There is a potentially offensive Bear Grylls image meme, so proceed with caution).

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Let’s check in on what’s happening with some of our friends in Boston, shall we?

Our good friends at Autobahn Games are now accepting pre-orders for their next title, “1… 2… 3… KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby)“. In addition to consistently awesome game naming the DJ ban guys really know how to put together a fun experience, and their latest offering is no different. I’ve been playing pre-alpha builds for a while, and Kick It is kind of like a mash up of Aaaaa!, Rez, and AudioSurf. If you know any of those games then you’ll understand why I’m so excited about this game. Pre-ordering gets you an early playable alpha build now, and then you get constant updates as they come along. If you like being on the cutting edge of games I strongly suggesting picking it up!

But perhaps you aren’t into games about base jumping, and prefer a good old interactive fiction experience? In that case you should stop reading this post now and go play The Warbler’s Nest by Jason McIntosh. It is a very short old school IF game where…. well, you’ll just have to play it. The whole thing can be played in 10-15 minutes and it is super solid. I normally don’t care for the IF genre but after about 5 minutes I got really sucked in and couldn’t get enough, and the ending is absolutely fantastic. Go play it for free now!

Want more free games made by Boston devs? Well ok then! Exanaut is a explorative platformer (or to use the hip slang, “metroidvania-like”) by Matthew Fister. It’s a free download for Windows where you star as a space man with a jetpack and gun searching for… alien artifacts? I dunno, it’s not super plot heavy. The game is a bit rough around the edges as it is one of Matthew’s first games, and it’s pretty damn hard. I wound up enjoying it a lot more after editing the python files and giving myself tons of health, jetpack fuel, and a super high level gun.

Of course, not everything is cheery in Boston Indie Land, and I’m very sorry to announce the folding of one of our flagship indie studios, MacGuffin Games. Founder and local indie hero Scott McMillan wrote a farewell post detailing what happened, with the short of it being that Mustache Mercenaries didn’t perform nearly well enough to keep them afloat. Happily it looks like the MacGuffin team will be moving on to bigger and better things, so while we will be pouring out a bit of beer tonight at our local indie meet up we will also toast to their future success.

I don’t know what’s going on lately but it seems like Fire Hosers and Slam Bolt Scrappers have been popping up in the news all over the place. You probably already heard the good news about our impending release on the PlayStation Network, but in case you missed it here is a sampling of all the other fun stuff out there on the intarwebs!

The Dejobaan guys have a kick ass new website, Indie Superstar, and in their debut Indie Water Cooler features a ridiculous conversation between Andy Moore (Fantastic Contraption), Jeff Rosen (Humble Indie Bundle), and yours truly! Best Quote: “What you produce with your Indie status may very well be shitty, but it doesn’t make you less Indie. You’re just a Shitty Indie. “

Gamespy also has a kick as new column (apparently kick ass new things are a trend?) called the Indie Spotlight, and their first highlight is Slam Bolt Scrappers! Nathan Meunier’s article is fantastic and definitely worth a read. Best Quote: “Fire Hose Games’ debut puzzle brawler is soaked in awesome.“

James Bishop over at DIY Gamer wrote a well written and thought provoking article on a “less is more” philosophy where game developers are sometimes better served by trying to do one or two things well instead of spreading themselves too thin, and used Slam Bolt Scrappers as an example. Best Quote: “Simpler does not equate to worse in any way.”

Rodney Brown over at Mass High Tech put out a nice article on us getting picked up by Sony Online Entertainment, but was that picture of me really necessary?

Oh, and let’s not forget the E3 coverage! Josh Fernandes at PlayStation LifeStyle wrote a nice piece on us about his impressions. The Couch Athletics guys called us one of the 5 games you don’t want to miss from E3, and actually had us in company with Comic Jumper and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2! Wicked.

We’re super psyched that everyone likes our game, thanks for the press! If anyone out there is looking for info on us or our game please reach out to us, we’re happy to chew your ears off.

The good people at Boston Post Mortem will be reprising the PAX East panel, “Indies Will Shoot You in the Knees,” for the meeting coming up this Wednesday, July 14th starting 7PM at the Skellig in Waltham. Eitan, our Fire Chief, will be moderating the panel, so it’s sure to be an interesting night!

Here’s an excerpt from the BPM site:
“Everyone is talking about Indie games ”” titles like World of Goo, Braid, and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! ”” A Reckless Disregard for Gravity are making press and making money. But they’re fighting against games with $200 million dollar budgets and 100+ person dev teams. How do Indies compete? Three Boston-based Indie developers will check their water-guns at the door and tell you why and how Indie games are kicking more ass, taking more names, and chewing more bubblegum than their AAA rivals. You will hear from the Ichiro Lambe (IGF Finalist Dejobaan Games, Aaaaa!), Scott Macmillan (Macguffin Games, All Heroes Die) and ex-Bungie AI wizard Damián Isla, founder of the new indie Moonshot Games. The panel will be moderated by Eitan Glinert, founder of Fire Hose Games.”

The 2010 IGF Finalists have been announced! Sadly, Slam Bolt Scrappers was not among the finalists, but there’s always next year (when we’ll be further along with development, and with any luck will have finished the game). There is good news though! Boston had a strong showing, and three of the finalists are made by locals!

Club Rochiro made AAAAAAAAAAA, the awesome base jumping game in which you get to flip off protesters, kiss buildings, and listen to Ichiro’s sweet, soothing voice while you meditate. Marc Ten Bosch made Miegakure, a mind blowing 4-D (yes, 4-D) puzzle platformer in which you navigate a Zen Garden and try to keep your brain from exploding. It’s a lot of fun! Finally, Rob Jagnow made Cogs, a fun sliding puzzle game with an awesome steampunk style. Yeah, Rob lives in San Francisco and made the game out there, but screw that, he’s an MIT guy and was making games in Boston until recently, I’m claiming this one for our side.

Congrats to all the finalists, these games are all really spectacular! We’ll give next years contestants more of a run for their money