Tresch > 2010-02-04

Holy crap! This weekend was intense!

We participated in the Global Game Jam; a single weekend-frenzy of game making creativity organized to get the juices flowing of game teams around the globe. To make things more interesting, people host Jam Sites where a bunch of people get together to work on their own projects or form teams on the stop and collaborate with new people. It's like a LAN party, but instead of playing games, you make them!

8 Monkey Labs was generous enough to host us and about 15 other fellows at their awesome office in Cedar Falls, IA. Paul and Ryan arrived early in the evening, and I got there later after delivering some pizzas. It was intense! From Friday morning to Sunday night, I only got about 4 hours of sleep, on couches and floors there at the office.

We had two themes to match to. The primary theme for the jam was "Deception," and then each time-zone got a secondary theme, ours being "A man, a plan, a canal, panama." We went with a top down shooter where you have a decoy that draws enemy fire (deception), and the decoy is a mirror image of your ship (symmetry, inspired by the palindrome). The result is SUPER SYMMETRY!

Download our game and give it a shot! Feel free to rate it at the GGJ site

AmericanPianist > 2010-01-07

MAGFest, the Music and Gaming Festival that brought Cribzero into the new year, is over. Some of us are involved in running departments at the convention and others just wanted to bask in the nostalgic gaming goodness, but we all ended up in Alexandria VA for four days. Four days of games, music about games, panels about games - you get the picture. Oh yeah, it's 24/7 as well. We're exhausted, in the best way possible.

A 60% increase in attendance was good news as Cribzero had the opportunity to show off Robot Toast at an Indie Games Panel. In addition to an official public launch of this website we kicked off our time in front of the crowd with a play-through of the original PyWeek Prototype that Paul had obviously not played in some time. Afterward we gave a sneak peak at the new game editor we're developing.

The attendees really seemed to enjoy hearing about the game and it's progress, and asked a slew of interesting questions - most of which required Erlandr to answer; I know not your coding ways.

The Panel served as an excellent opportunity for us reflect on our past 8 months of work on Robot Toast and make note of things we want to alter and improve this year.

All in all the event was a fantastic way for Cribzero to start 2010. We'll be utilizing all the energy we siphoned from the convention to push us through the rest of the winter. That's right, we stole energy. It involves lots of jars, 7 tubes, 14 straws, and a hammer. It's all very scientific.

Happy New Year, gaming world!

AmericanPianist > 2009-12-04

How does one musically define robots, toast, and the implications of each on our personal lives - all at once?

We've been swapping ideas back and forth about just how we should score Robot Toast. Jazz was a favorite, but Jazz alone just didn't have enough of that magical Audio Sauce to see the game through from beginning to end. Classical was suggested and acknowledged, but it would only work if it was completely over the top, on an epic scale the likes of which gamers worldwide have yet to experience.

Quite a few popular Indie games have gone with soothing piano soundtracks. While that is certainly enjoyable, it's a wagon; the kind of wagon one must decide whether or not to jump on. We don't jump very much here at Cribzero. We're more into skipping and hopping - old school, I know.

Three genres down and set aside for contemplation; where does that leave us? Thank you for asking, I'm happy to answer! Punk; Rock; Folk; Death-metal; Heart wrenching duets between a melancholy didgeridoo and a haunting shamisen. The choices are endless.

In the end, I believe a fusion is in order. But you know what? I'm not going to tell you what we're fusing. It's going to be a surprise. You like surprises, and I am aware of this. You're welcome.

Erlandr > 2009-12-03

After a little bit of programming and a lot of writers block, Cribzero's new home on the web is finally live!