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Hey Playblog readers! Today we’re announcing the awesomesauce that is Sideway, a unique adventure platformer set in and around the oh-so-gritty streets of New York City. The characters and story have been birthed from a fantastic world created by the quasi-evil geniuses at Fuel Industries and W!ldbrain.

If you happen to be at the New York Comic Con on October 8th, we’re officially inviting you to Room 1A21 at 2:15pm where we will officially announce the title as a Sony Online Entertainment exclusive to the PlayStation Network. Yes, that means that I am announcing the announcement here, which I guess makes this a “pre-announcement” announcement!

We are in sooper-deep development at the moment (please send pizza and beer), which means that the belts are coming off and we’re settling into our coding chairs for winter in order to get things all sparkly for a 2011 launch. We’re not ready to spill the beans on some of the really cool features and unique gameplay elements in the game just yet, so until then, take a gander at some early concept pieces and composites from the game that should give you an idea of the world you will be tooling around in as an underground street artist in NYC. It will be an awesome game and we’re excited to be making it.

Keep your eye on playbrains.com/sideway for updates, and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/Playbrains if you want up-to-the minute news on concept art, development updates, and to learn what Canadian celebrities we are standing behind in grocery store lines.

Hi folks,

We’re pleased to announce that Madballs in…Babo:Invasion is coming to Macs everywhere – today!

When we were designing the BrainCandy engine that MiBI is built upon, we always had Macs in mind – which is why we built in low-level support for *both* DirectX and OpenGL.  Of course, when it came time to actually publish Madballs, we ran into a roadblock – no Steam on the Mac (and thus really, no multiplayer gaming infrastructure on the Mac at all!)

Needless to say, we were excited when Valve announced they were bringing Steam (and their games to the Mac) – and have been working hard to make Mac MiBI a reality.

Features of the Mac/Steam version of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion:

• All game modes – single player, co-op, survival and versus
• All gameplay features – characters/classes, weapons, abilities, etc.
• All DLC - support for all downloadable skins, unlocks, etc
• All mission types – support for personal and community missions
• All Steam community features – steam cloud, achievements, leaderboards, etc
• SteamPlay – if you bought MiBI for the PC, you already own the Mac version!
• Plus…  PC+Mac players play together! Co-op or versus, doesn’t matter if you’re on PC or Mac, play with/against your friends on all peer-to-peer or dedicated server games!

Now, there are a couple of small limitations in the current implementation – they won’t keep you from playing with your friends and having a great time – but the game will get even better on the Mac when we address these in the future:

• Babo Crash not included – As you know, we added a free embedded version of our mobile game, Babo Crash, to the PC version – we haven’t yet had time to port it over yet
• Advanced shader support missing – We don’t yet have our advanced shaders working under OpenGL…  the game still looks great though and graphics performance is top-notch…  there will be additional eye-candy in the future once we enable this
• Controller support – we don’t support the Xbox 360 controllers natively in the Mac version yet
• Slower map load times – older Mac’s may experience a 10-25 second black screen at the tail end of our map loading process (this happens while we load all the textures into memory).  Furthermore, this delay *might* occasionally cause you to be disconnected from the multiplayer server you were attempting to join. If you get disconnected, just attempt to re-join the server – it will be faster and you should make it in.

Anyway, we happy to provide a new arena for the ongoing battle of Macs vs. PCs!  See you online folks!

To pick up Madballs for Mac – click here!

Paul.

Hi folks,

We’re finally ready to announce the prizes for our Madballs Fan Video Contest!

First of all, we’d like to do a big shout-out to the Bumpatrol.org folks for doing such a great job organizing things!  And of course, to all y’all for entering – thanks a bunch!  It has certainly been fantastic to see the love the community has for the game, and the creativity that’s been brought to creating the videos is awesome!  We wish we could give prizes to everyone!

To determine the winners we put together a panel of Playbrains employees who reviewed all entries — we came up with a short list of our top 5 – and then we voted on the rankings of the top 5 videos.   The results may surprise you

Oh, a quick reminder (and apology) regarding our interim winners!  As you may or may not recall, we extended the contest deadline when our Free Week-end got postponed – but some folks had already got there entries in, and we figured they deserved bonus prizes ($50 US) since they’d have to wait longer…  Those winners are arramus, finderhome, tukamalight and aprone — and the apology part is that we haven’t sent those prizes yet, but we’ll send them out with the full prizes next week.

Okay, without further ado…  here are our winners…

#5 – winning $100 US -> Montage, by Blaze

We liked the tunes, the camera angles and transitions – and the wide use of characters and loadouts…

#4 -winning $200 US -> Madballs Evolution Part 1, by eccod

Great quality scans – game looks great.  Also, “Best Cinematography” !

As for the top 3 videos – something very unexpected happened.  The top 3 videos all got the same number of votes from our panel…  it’s interesting, because the 3 videos are each very different in tone, content and approach.  The panel spent some time debating, with proponents of each arguing for top placement of their favorite.

In the end though, we’ve decided to let the votes stand, and evenly split the pooled prize money amongst the top 3!  [So each winner gets 1/3 of the top-3 prizes ($1000 + 500 + 350), or $617]

Presenting our three-way tie for first!

Babolon TV, by Sonic4Ever – $617 US

A super creative Machinima effort – we love it!

Madballs Damnation, by Benetti32 – $617 US

Awesome music, great pacing – good mix of SP and MP footage!  This is really the best gameplay video – and really shows off our game!

Requiem of Guns, by Tornis – $617 US

Super-catchy tune created from MiBI sound effects – we can’t get the tune out of our heads!

Next steps

Okay, now that we know who has won – winners (including interim winners again), I need you to contact me via private message via the Steam community forums.

We’ll need the following information to start:

- Your real name
- Which video was yours
- Your e-mail address
- Your mailing address

Thanks a bunch folks – and congratulations to all of the winners!

Paul.

Hi folks,

Co-optimus

Our good friends over at Co-optimus are organizing a Madballs Co-op night to celebrate our first free weekend!  And they’re even giving away some MiBI skin codes to some lucky participants.

So – we know y’all were going to play this weekend anyway – so lets join up with them and make Saturday night all about MiBI Co-op!  As you know, with both B*D*I and Scorched Campaigns, and the Night of the Chompiis’ Survival Mode – MiBI has tons of co-op fun to be enjoyed!

So, to join in with us:

• Step 1:  Join the Co-optimus Steam group here.  It’s the best way to learn about all the cool co-op events that they organize
• Step 2:  Sign up for the Madballs Free Promo play event here.

Here’s a bit more info… link.

See you online on Saturday!

Paul.
[PS - Any many thanks to our friends at Co-optimus, who've always been big supports of Babo and all its associated madness ]

Hi folks,

Free Weekend

We’re pleased to announce that at long-last, our Steam Free Weekend is a go!

For those who don’t know, this is a week-end where our game is completely free to play on Steam for anyone to try!  Sure, we’ve always had a free demo for MiBI – but it’s limited to single player.  On a free weekend, everyone gets access to the full-game – full-campaign and full multiplayer!

There’s no better chance to try our little indie hit Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (79 Metacritic), and it will be on sale too (75% off!) – so there’s no better time to buy it either!

The free week-end is *this* week-end – April 16th – 18th.

To ramp things up this week, we’ve got new missions for you!

• Community Maps – in addition to the Pinch Point map that you guys are well on the way to unlocking, we also have the new Refinery map
• New skins – and we continue with 3 new Clan skins to earn: Clan Robo, Clan Magmor, and Clan Eidolon!

As a special request/favour, we ask that anyone who has hosted dedicated servers before consider hosting one for this week-end…  if things go as planned, there will be tons of folks trying out our game this week-end – and we’d like as many of them to be able to play as possible!  Thanks a bunch!

Anyway, we thank all of your for your continued support of Babo:Invasion…  we hope that this free week-end adds tons of new Cubes for y’all to play with!  Be sure to tell your friends!

Paul.

Pinch Point

Pinch Point

Teams from the B*D*I and Scorched factions wind up as finalists in the Gazinators’ Interstellar Championship Games; an infamous televised blood sport of action and carnage. The Gazers promise a prize of Terracite ore so vast, it is sure to shift the war in the winning faction’s favor. With nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run, the only way to survive is to attack the enemy head-on – at the Pinch Point.

Refinery

Refinery

In a desperate but vital move, the Scorched invade a steaming hot, slag-filled, BDI food processing plant. If the Scorched can wrest control of the facility they will be able to feed their army of baby Moltoks into an unstoppable crushing army of Colossal Magmors. But what they discover is truly terrifying: Soylent Green is Babos!

On March 29th we released Babo Crash, our twisted take on a match-3 puzzle game.  We’re pleased to report that response has been awesome – here’s a quick summary of what people are saying:

“Bejeweled on Steroids!” – AppModo
“Absolute must download” – 94% – Gamers’ Temple
“Visual ballet of gem destruction” – 4/5 – Touch Gen
“Fun, addictive…should not be looked over” – 4/5 – Apple.ism
“Editors Choice Award” – 9/10 – BuyMeAnIPhone.com
“Great twist on the Match-3 gameplay” – 3/4 – Slide to Play
“Surprising and addictive…hard to put down” – Beatweek
“Adds excitement back into the genre” – Touch Arcade
“Kick a*s” “Bejeweled on acid” – iGameRadio
“Loads of fun” – AppShouter
“Not your Grandma’s Match 3 Game!” – Crazy Mike’s Apps
“Graphics are awesome…great departure from the ordinary” – 148apps.com
“Grab it” – TouchMyApps.com
“A very refreshing match three experience…a bargain for only $1″ – Appolicious
“The gameplay is the hammer! Absolutely perfect!” – Apfelbiss

[Admittedly we don't fully understand that last quote (which is a google translation from the original German review) -- it sounds positive to us though! ]

Babo Crash is available for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android. Check it out!

You can also try the PC version of the game – it’s included in Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (even the free demo version!).  Click here to play!

Hi folks,

We’ve got another PC/Steam update for y’all today – and we think it’s a pretty good one.    Here’s the quick summary…

New features

• Russian language support! Welcome to our brothers and sisters from Mother Russia!    [Actually, Babo Violent 2 is very popular in Russia, plus Russian-speakers are the 2nd largest language group on Steam!  Welcome to MiBI!  ]
• Babo missions: Season 2 – we’ve got a whole new season of Character Skin missions (10!) and Community Map missions (4+) starting…  now!  We’ll have y’all hopping straight into June! 
• Clan skins – speaking of skin missions, these aren’t just regular skins – they’re “clan” skins.  What does that mean?  It means there’s a section on each of the characters that displays the logo of your particular clan.  So for example, for us members of the Playbrains clan – it proudly displays our Playbrains logo.  Anyway – it’s a super-cool way for members of clan’s to identify themselves in regular games – and will be very fun in clan matches too.  [Note - if you're not a member of a clan, it just displays the regular B*D*I or Scorched logo].
• Rotate your Babo during character selection – to get a good view of your character skin (and clan logo!) just left or right-click on your Babo during character selection!
• Misc fixes – small fix for icons not appearing in boot camp

Other misc updates

• Free week-end is green lit! - our tech + scheduling issues are all resolved, and we’re pleased to announce that the MiBI free week-end is scheduled for April 16-18!  So set your calendars, tell your friends, and put up your servers!  This is a great chance to introduce more people to Madballs madness! 
• Babo Crash! In case you missed it, we’re introducing a new action-oriented puzzle game for Smartphones (iPhones/iPod/iPad/Android) that features your favorite Babo characters!  Check it out at www.playbrains.com/babocrash.
• MiBI PC now has a metacritic – and it’s a respectable 79!  It’s a very good score for a little downloadable game [we know y'all would rank us higher!] – and it’s extra ammunition for when you’re trying to convince your friends to try this crazy game with a strange name! 
• Video contest deadline extended – we’ve extended our video contest until after the free week-end (which was always the intention).  The new deadline is May 3rd, 2010!  You could win $1000 USD – what are you waiting for?  Details here!

Anyway, that’s it folks…  I’m going to be at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week – drop me a line if you’re attending!

Paul.

[PS - We don't have the download link for the dedicated server on our website yet - for now, you can download it from here.]

Hi folks,

Just a heads up that we’ve decided to [once again, and hopefully for the last time] extend the time for entries to the video contest.

The reasons are simply the business reality that we’re putting up significant dollars in prizes ($2000 USD), and unfortunately we don’t have enough entries completed yet.

We believe the main reason is that we haven’t had our free week-end yet — which we really had assumed would happened before the contest was over.  [This of course hasn't happened, due to a variety of technical and scheduling issues between us and Valve - all of which I am happy to report are now resolved.]

To be clear – we’re now fully green-lit for our free week-end to happen on April 16th – 18th.

So, back to the video event – what are the changes?

We’re setting the new deadline officially to “Two weeks after our free week-end – specifically end-of-day Monday May 3rd)”  Note that if the free week-end moves, we *will* move the contest deadline to match.

Note – we’re very appreciative of those who’ve already put in the effort to complete their entries – and we appreciate that extending the contest deadline isn’t as great for them (since they need to wait to be judged).  It does, however, allow the ensure that the other entrants have time to complete their entries (including our friends in France who are having power problems trying to complete theirs).

So – to compensate, anyone who has already completed/submitted their video (which by the eBUM status page, are arramus, finderhome, tukamalight and aprone (if he publishes his video – or at least sends to me to see ) ) are…

• being declared interim winners - and being awarded a prize of $50 USD
• and those folks are *still* in the running for the final prizes… [and they're free to continue to edit / improve their videos as well]

Anyway, we hope that folks agree that this is a fair compromise between achieving our contest goals (which are of course to use our limited marketing dollars wisely to help generate buzz for MiBI) and being fair to those entering the contest.

Finally – thank-you very much for those who’ve already entered and/or are hard at work creating videos.  We love your entries, and are sorry that we need to once-again delay the contest.  Hopefully this is the last time!

As always – full details on the contest can be found on the [eBum] site at http://www.bumpatrol.org/index.php?topic=697.0

Paul.

[PS - Arramus, finderhome, tukamalight and aprone - please send me e-mails at paulw@playbrains.com so that we can exchange the info necessary to get you your interim prizes!  Congrats!  ]

Hi folks,

We’re pleased to announce that the Madballs in…Babo:Invasion soundtrack is now available via iTunes and other fine digitial distribution outlets.

The tracks (all written by our talented composer Greg Drover, btw) have all been re-mastered into high quality, non-looping versions…  so yes, they are better than what is already included in the game.  We’ve included all of the major themes, plus a few bonus tracks (including a surprise track that you’ll be hearing a lot more often soon!).

Here are the links to the various stores…  all pricing is Canadian and/or US…  [and actually, for what its worth, we had no control over it - these are just the prices that the service we used set.]

[Note - the easiest way to find the album in any of the stores is to search for "Greg Drover"]

iTunes – http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/mad…on/id355384906

Napster – $9.95 – http://free.napster.com/view/album/i…ml?id=13559894

Rhapsody – $ ? – http://www.rhapsody.com/greg-drover/…inbaboinvasion

eMusic – (12 credits) – http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-…/11819546.html

Lala – $7.49 – http://www.lala.com/#album/230612448….Babo:Invasion

Nokia – couldn’t find the URL (my Mac isn’t supported) – try searching for “Greg Drover”, it’s supposed to be there

Zune – http://social.zune.net/album/fbf70a0…a-0019b92a3933

Hope you like it folks!

Paul.

Hi folks,

We’ve got a Madballs PC/Steam update for you today… here’s a quick summary:

New features

• New Maps! We’ve got 3 new maps for you – Cold Night, Castle and Hyperspace. But they’re not free – you’ve got to earn them!
• Community Missions! Play any MiBI online/multiplayer mode and rack up kills in order to unlock the 3 new maps. Everyone out there in Babo-land will be contributing to a shared pool of kills – so invite your friends and see how fast you can get your hands on these fresh new maps. Any versus or co-op / survival game counts!
• News feed! We’ve added a news feed so that you can stay up-to-date with the latest and greatest in Babo/Playbrains news! The feed is even clickable so that you can get more details (note – it uses the Steam web browser)
• Animate your Babo! Hit the [F5] key to play a facial animation and [F6] to make your Babo wobble. Mock your foes! Chat with your team members! [And cool for creating custom Babo movies - think Red vs. Blue!]
• Movie spectator cam! We’ve added a new console command that allow you to freely move the camera – should be great for folks entering the eBum Madballs Video Contest! Details at the end of the post…
• Better mission time tracking! Our system is now more generous in awarding mission time for the collectible skin missions…

New Maps

Coldnight (10,000 kills) – Scorched commandos surprise a BDI patrol surveying the icy caves near a Terracite production facility. Before the BDI can escape and warn their allies, both groups are blocked in by a sudden avalanche. Will the BDI team survive until rescue arrives?

Castle (25,000 kills) – The BDI detect an unusual power signature hidden below an ancient fortress. As they complete the excavation of a tall central platform in the middle of these grounds, they chillingly realize this was once a sacrificial altar. Suddenly, the Scorched swoop in and attack! Goop will once again be spilled on these ancient rocks and it will seep down and awaken the deadly evil locked below!

Hyperspace (50,000 kills) – A deserted alien vessel enters BDI space and a science team is sent to investigate. Unbeknownst to them, the Scorched have already boarded the vessel and are decoding the ancient knowledge incribed within it’s huge databanks. When the BDI arrive, the Scorched are ready and waiting to devour the confused team.

Movie Spectator Cam

To turn on the camera:

• Open the console (with the tilde ~) key and type
• set cl_enableSpectatorCam true

You will be unable to control your camera while in spectator cam mode.

To go back to the regular camera:

• set cl_enableSpectatorCam false

That’s all folks – hope you like the update!

Paul.