May 2010
Hello!
Happy Spring everyone! It's time for a huge Pixeljam blog update.
Let's see..
First, here's a recent in-depth interview with Dejobaan Games on ModDB.com:
Adult Swim has released the last of our 8-Bit Rejects games: aTurbo Granny". This one is pretty goofy, & truly deserves the "8-Bit Reject" title, but hopefully it's entertaining enough for a few minutes anyway...
Glorkian Warrior! We reached our kickstarter funding goal for Glorkian Warrior thanks to all our wonderful backers. 
Thanks so much to everyone that pledged. We'll be sending out our backer rewards some time in mid-late may. The kickstarter project may be over, but if anyone still wants to get in on supporting the game and receiving the incentives, just contact us and let us know. We'll happily honor those pledge levels and incentives, including unique little paintings from James Kochalka, your name in the credits of the game, etc.
The game itself is turning out great, and of course it's much more work than we thought it would be. But we are making progress every day!
And then there's the other stuff we're working on:
Dino Run iPhone: this is slowly but surely making progress. We think it might be finished sometime in the late summer or early fall.
That Snowball game that appeared on our site for a while, but then went away: We've put it on hold until next winter. It didn't seem to make any sense to release a snowy game in march or april.
We have an other project going on in the background, that will probably see the light of day at the end of 2010... it's a program that lets you make little adventure games. More on that later...
Gamma Bros 2: We sure do talk about this one alot, and never show any real progress with it. We've made a commitment to ourselves to get a 1 level demo of this game done by the end of the year. We HAVE to make this game! And we will, eventually
That's it for now. Take care!
Glorkian Warrior!
We've just started a new project with comic book artist James Kochalka, called Glorkian Warrior. We're unusually excited about this, since we've been fans of James' work for a long time. You can get gobs of info on the game here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixeljam/james-kochalka-pixeljam-glorkian-warrior
As you can tell we are raising funds to help the development of the game. We've saved up some money from all the adult swim projects, but it's not enough to fund the entire game. Anyone who helps back the project will get a free copy of the game when it is released. Woo hoooo!!!!
And yes, it's Jame's hand drawn art in the game, but there will be also be pixelly parts to the game starring the Glorkian's pocket pixel robot.
Squawking into 2010
Lots of things coming up... so much in fact that we barely tell anyone about it! Hopefully our new site will allow us to make updates more frequently. At least, that's the idea.
We have a series of 4 small games coming out for Adultswim, called the 8-bit rejects. Sausage Factory and Mountain Maniac have already been released, and the 2 others, Turbo Granny and Cream Wolf will be out soon. Yes, they are supposed to be in poor taste, in case you were wondering.
With our own games, we have been focusing on a few different things. We have an iPhone game coming out in mid-2010, a winter themed pinball game coming up in January or February, and Gamma Bros 2 as well. Regarding GB2, it probably wont be out any time soon. We are taking our time with it an making sure it's as good as it needs to be. We will post screenshots and more info about it as is becomes available.
You may have also noticed that on our new site, Music and Art are not available yet. We are changing around the way those sections work and will make them live when the time is right.
Enjoy the new games and let us know what you think of the new site!
Thanks for reading,
Miles
Hello again
Wow, it's been a really long time since we blogged. Sorry about that, if anyone's missed hearing from us.
Lots of stuff has been going on, we've been very busy, games have been made, we've started to grow a bit & work with more people, trying new and interesting things.. Miles and his wife Janis even had a baby! (Samuel Ian Tilmann). Still, for some reason there wasn't motivation to blog about anything here. One part is we've spent too much time on computers and when we're not making games, we're living life, going outside, interacting with humans, etc. I think another part of it was that we were working on games for others ever since Dino Run was released. We do our best with every game project we work on, including games for hire. We want to love & enjoy them too, but it looks like it took until now to get inspired & feel there was something truly exciting to report... which is, we've begun working on Gamma Bros 2! 
I'm very happy about this. (this is Rich speaking, by the way). So is Miles, and so are Buzz and Zap. They've been restless & look forward to some new adventures. Our favorite chip-tune-master Mark DeNardo is cranking out some really great new music for GB2 as well. the original team (Mark, Miles and I) are on it, plus Wayne Marsh to handle the programming and Graham Lackey to help with additional pixel art, including some of the new environments they will travel to.. Ideas aplenty. we've already scaled it way down from our original plans for it.. We must take care not lose the heart and simplicity of the Gamma Bros universe, and also to plan for a game we can actually produce and finish within a year. so, YAY!!
We've also begun working on a few other new Pixeljam games since Dino Run was released, including what may be a fun little Pixel Game Maker, a game about a Llama, a new pinball style game, a new Pixeljam website that will be partly a collection of minimal games in itself. And more games, actually.. The Bee game and Moon game are still waiting to be returned to, but we won't be able to do that for quite a while. Dino Run 2 will probably go into development before either of those, and that's a couple years out I think. But they haven't left our hearts. not mine anyway.. Before it's all over, I really want to make that moon game..
Anyway, in this time we've been growing a bit as a company. We've begun working with great new programmers, and another pixel artist, and collaborating here & there with others on misc projects. Working on games-for-hire has allowed us to (most importantly) stay afloat! I mean, we give our games away for free for the most part, and you think people donate? ha! it would really, really help, but the vast majority of people just don't support in that way.. Some licensing income for our games on some portals helps bring some income in for us, but not nearly enough to keep going. Not yet, anyway. We'll try to do things differently with GB2, have more of a plan going into it.. but we'll likely have to stop in the middle of development and do some more games-for-hire when we're low on money again.
Doing the client work is also helpful because we've gotten a lot of experience, developed great new tools and discovered better more versatile ways of making games. We've been able to "break in" the new people we're working with on these client games (they are all truly angels to us), and moving on to our own games again now will benefit from that. We've also seen more clearly that by not working on the the most treasured & exciting ideas we have, we are not completely fulfilled & satisfied. I even like the games we've made for clients quite a bit, but even just beginning to work on GB2 is a whole different feeling than doing games for anyone else.
This is not to say that we didn't really give ourselves to the jobs we've been doing for others, we do, but in the end, the other companies own the games, the artwork, the names.. and we can't revisit those worlds unless the clients want to, so, even as the games were mostly our ideas, heart & soul, it's like having a baby for another couple.. you can't allow yourself to get too close since they will be taken from your arms at birth. (Kind of an extreme example I suppose)
I know I've already written a lot, but there's much more I'd like to write about now. Just get me going and I start to see all the newsworthy stuff I could report. But, as always, time is limited and I should get back to working on the games themselves. I'll write another blog very soon, with links to the games we've done.. and pictures and things.
Thanks for reading. And of course, feel free to Become a Pixeljam Supporter so we don't have to stop working on Gamma Bros 2 halfway through or sooner.. breaking the momentum will not help.. If you want to send ideas on what might be a good incentive to help people to want to donate, we're all ears. (or eyes, in this case).
Peace,
Rich
PS. We started a twitter account recently (http://twitter.com/pixeljamgames) and use that to post game release news and other stuff now and then. follow us there if you like.
Dino Run is Officially Released!
Hooray!! Our latest game Dino Run is ready to go. Both single player and MULTIPLAYER modes. And it's FREE for all to enjoy! To get started running, go to pixeljam.com/dinorun and play to your hearts content!
In the next couple of days we'll be resolving any issues that arise from high volume play on the multiplayer side, but otherwise the game is good to go. please feel free to share it with your friends, brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, strangers, colleagues, major and minor publications and web sites, everyone!
Dino Run Multiplayer Edition will only appear on pixeljam.com on xgenstudios.com, who's great MMocha multiplayer server allowed us to make this a multiplayer game. (They've also got some other great games on their site that are worth playing, such as Stick Arena!)
The single player version of the game is plentiful, offering quite an array of things to do and achieve, levels of difficulty, special themed "speed runs" to unlock, super eggs to find, abilities to be increased, passwords to be entered and trophies to be earned. In the game, all the bones you collect become your currency to buy things such as Speed runs, features, icons, desktops, mp3's and other secret good stuff. There's even a "night mode" you can unlock, which I think is particularly cool.
There is also an in-depth high score system that you can submit your top scores to and of course gain the notoriety and praise that you so rightfully deserve.
And to top it all off, as you can see in the image above, there's a set of unique hats, helmets & masks that can be worn by your heroic velociraptor, in both single and multiplayer modes! Many more than are seen here. These hats are so much fun! Definitely one of my favorite features of this game. I truly enjoyed creating them and enjoy running with them even more.
How can you have this exciting set of dino hats you ask? Well, anyone who DONATES money to Pixeljam will receive a special Patronage Gift Pack with 40+ hats (there are a few you can only unlock in the game), the ability to change your dino colors + some other goodies too. You choose the amount that you'd like to contribute & in turn,you get digital treats & we can possibly stay afloat and make another game! Yes, we want to make more games, such as Gamma Bros 2, which is one of the next we want to work on, but income is required. This is a way for you to help make that actually happen.
Thanks a lot to all of our fantastic beta testers who helped make this game so much better than we could have imagined. Thanks to the amazing people who have helped support us in various generous ways. Thanks to Mark DeNardo for providing more excellent music and sfx for our games, and thanks to Miles Tilmann for working way too much to make this game actually come to life. We're gonna take a little break and possibly in a month or so will begin working on our next game.
That's all for now. Enjoy Dino Run! We'll see you out there in the multiplayer races. May you escape extinction and live to run another day.
-Rich
Dino Run (beta)
Hi!
News: We've got a new game in the works called "Dino Run". A Giant asteroid has crash landed & extinction may just be inevitable. You are a Velociraptor & you should probably start running for your life! Run, jump, catch a ride with a Pterodactyl, eat power-up plants & other things, save all the dino eggs you can!
This game will feature both single player AND Online Multiplayer versions!
We've been working on it since September, are about to begin beta testing. We hope to finish and release it in the beginning of February. We've got plenty more to add to it in the meantime. Thanks to all of our beta testers in advance. And as in our previous games, music and sfx by Mark DeNardo.
Here are some screens of ACTUAL game play: (Click images for larger views)
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That's the big news. We're excited. We hope to have a new game for you in Early February, & then we'll get to work on Gamma Bros 2.
Happy Holidays!
Ratmaze 2 !!
Hi everyone, Ratmaze 2 is here!
Go to http://pixeljam.com/ratmaze2
If you enjoyed the original Ratmaze at all, we think you'll really enjoy this one! For one thing, it's a lot more fun! There's a colorful new maze to explore, some new moves (you can run diagonally), there are a lot more tasty cheeses to eat, apples for speed boosts, secrets, plus some of the biggest cheeses you've ever seen in the bonus areas! There are other new activities involving bouncing balls, holes, and an attractive new female Rat as well. Oh, and you can submit your high scores and compete with your friends and complete strangers!
Here are a few screenshots:
Go play! it's free. Have fun, & Thanks for helping our beloved Rats eat all possible cheeses.
Oh yeah! thanks a lot to Crazy Monkey Games for sponsoring Ratmaze 2, and to all of our beta testers, without whom the game would be buggy and not as much fun!
Ratmaze 2
Programming/visual fx/sound fx production: Miles Tilmannn
Art & Animation: Rich Grillotti
Music, sound fx: Mark Denardo
Speacial thanks to John at Crazy Monkey games for sponsoring Ratmaze 2
Beta testers:
Mike Lee, Bobby K, Matt Jeanes, .tiff, Andy Watson, John West, Nathan Siruta, Kasey Akira, Jason Reinsvold, Karen Cate, Luposian, Emily Lewis, Steve Finkel, John Magnotta, Jenny Pearsall
Squeek!
Gamedev.net/Pixeljam Interview
Hi again! Here's a quick update.. Miles and Rich of Pixeljam Games were recently interviewed by Gamedev.net, and it went live this week. Since Gamma Bros received a nomination as a contender for the 2007 IGF Best Web Browser game category, and we will be attending the GDC and IGF this March, gamedev.net wanted to chat with us. It went rather well, and may be informative for some. Here's a link to it:
http://www.gamedev.net/columns/interviews/pixeljam.asp
Well, we hope it's entertaining! That's all for now. Stay tuned for more exciting developments...
-Rich
New Pixeljam Website!
Hello fellow pixel enthusiasts. We've got some good news. This month we finally managed to complete and launch a new web site for Pixeljam.com!
There are a bunch of sections, including Games, Downloads, Shop, Art, Info, Press, and more! We've also set it up so that we can swap out the main "theme" of the site with new themes. In this launch version, we've got our little moonjumper which you can make jump around for fun, plus you can unlock a download if you figure out the mystery...
We'll eventually add some new themes to the site with other characters, environments and challenges, which will hopefully add a fun dimension to the site itself. There is a little bit we reveal about some upcoming games that we've been working on, but of course not too much. In Downloads you can find some good music, in the shop you can buy some Gamma Bros shirts for the time being, and we'll be adding to all of the sections as we go.
You may notice that we've gone ahead and embraced google adsense ads on our site and with our games. We were reluctant for very long time, trying to maintain extreme dignity and all, but we couldn't really afford to have the no-ads philosophy any longer. We could very well be out of business before we get started here if we don't do some things to make money. The good thing about google adsense is that it's all unobtrusive enough, the ads are actually relative to what we're doing, & might actually be a way for us to make a little. The more ways we have to earn small money here and there could eventually lead to us being able to do this all full time. We're still only able to work on our games here and there part time, but we're still accepting donations if anyone wants to try to hurry us up! Also, the shop is selling Gamma Bros shirts until they sell out.
In other news.. Mr. Rat from Ratmaze is a celebrity! Ratmaze was featured recently in Games For Windows magazine. It's for a feature "101 Free Games", in the "10 minute time wasters" sub-section, which is Also featured on http://www.1up.com.
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Well, that's all I've got time to write about today. The IGF awards festival and Game Developers Conference is just around the corner & we're getting really excited about it. We'll definitely have a blog for you in March, for sure. But probably sooner tha that as well.
Don't forget to visit and enjoy our new site!
_Rich
Gamma Bros = 2007 IGF Finalist!!
Hi! It's time again for another deeply sporadic blog from Pixeljam Games! Why do we wait so long between blogs these days? Well, we need to be spending most of our time actually making and conceiving of games, not just talking about them or wasting anyones time with non-information. Plus, we don't have any new releases ready to go yet, and don't want to spoil too much of our exisiting works in progress, so, there you go. On the other hand, there really is a lot to write about!
The main thing I'd like to write about today is the exciting news about Gamma Bros! First and foremost, Gamma Bros has been selected as a finalist in the 2007 IGF (Independent Games Festival) Web Browser Game category in San Francisco in March. This is really, really great news and quite an honor, considering only 3 games are selected in that category, out of all the tens of thousands of web browser games in the world released in 2006.
So, all honors aside, the greatest part is that we get 2 free passes to attend the IGF and the option to upgrade our passes inexpensively to attend the Independent Games Summit conference lectures and classes. Miles and I will be going and are really looking forward to it. We've already got our plane tickets & have a bunch of people we're looking forward to meeting while we're out there. Individuals & companies we'd like to do some game developing with, and make some online multiplayer games with in the future. It's too bad they didn't give us 3 passes so our 8-bit music genius Mark DeNardo could go with us, but at least he's been to some cool events we haven't been to, like playing the Blip Festival in NY recently.
Now, we needed to be able to afford to get ourselves out there, which wasn't looking very good to begin with, and then an amazing stroke of miracle happened! We received word that Gamma Bros won the first big game contest held by the very cool new gaming site Kongregate.com! Gamma Bros had already won $250 in their weekly contest a couple months ago, and then we won an unexpected $1500 more on their Game Contest 0!! Holy crap! That meant we could now comfortable afford to fly out to San Francisco for a week and feed ourselves too! We have some very good friends out there we can stay with, so it's all really falling into place. We'll probably also make a few things to give away as well, and with any luck we'll have a few new micro games completed that we can give out on a promo CD to all interested individuals. Awesome. Thanks Kongregate and IGF judges.
We won a couple other contests too w/ Gamma Bros, but nothing as big as the Kongregate one. If you are a Flash game developer, you should definitely enter your games into the Kongregate contests. They offer great cash prizes, even for Runner-up games.
Okay, I don't want this blog to go on too long, so that's all I'll write for now. I've been wanting to put a blog up with a collection of press links, Gamma Bros reviews, and interviews we've done, but it's a lot to pull together. I'll do my best as soon as I can, but of course making games is priority #1, and there's a massive amount of work to be done there. We've got some really cool ones in the works. If you want to see games from us sooner than later, you can help us out by buying a Gamma Bros t-shirt or donating or something. the less actual paying job work we have to seek out and take on to survive & pay our bills, the more time we can devote and the sooner & more effectively we can make things happen with our games which, of course, will ultimately benefit all of humankind.
-Rich
