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Hi folks,

Sure - we’ve got a cult hit on XBLA now, but do we stop there? No sirree!

We’ve just confirmed the date of the PC/Steam release of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion. The official press release will go out in the next few days — but just between you and me, Madballs will be released on PC/Steam on Sept 17th, 2009!

And to celebrate, we’re releasing a free MiBI Screen Saver for your PC ! You’ll find it at the bottom of the More Stuff page on our website. Note: There are two versions of the screensaver - one for 4:3 displays (the 1280 x 1024 version) and one for 16:9 widescreen displays (the 1280 x 720 version).

Uh-oh...

To install the screensaver:

1. Download the appropriate screen saver for your display type (they’re both the same - but there might be a white border outside of the pinstripe border on your machine if you choose the wrong one)
2. Unzip the contents of the .zip file to a temporary directly (if you use a zip viewer, you *can* just launch the enclosed .exe directly - it’s a setup program)
3. Run the MiBI_Screensaver executable to install the screen saver — just follow the instructions. The install automatically makes Madballs your active screensaver.

To preview it:

1. Right-click on your desktop, and select Properties.
2. Select the Screen Saver tab, and then press [Preview].
3. Enjoy! [Note - the preview cancels if you move the mouse].

Note - If you ever need to un-install the screen saver (sniff!), you can go to Control Panels | Add or Remove Programs, choose MiBI_ScreenSaver and then click [Remove].

Hope you like the screen saver folks - and we hope to see you playing Madballs on your PC on Sept 17th!

Paul.

We’re teaming up with CVG in the UK to give a lucky Madballs fan (or fan-to-be) a shot at winning 50,000 Microsoft points.

All you have to do to enter is head over to CVG, become a registered user if you’re not already, and answer the skill-testing question about our multiplayer maps.

That’s it. Answer the question and kick back and think about what you could do with 50,000 points.

Suggestions:

• Buy 62 copies of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion for your closest friends
• Lord them over your older brother so he’ll let you have the controller every once in awhile
• Play a Jenga-like game with a huge tower of points cards
• Load up your account, take a screenshot of your points total and impress your friends
• Equip your bike spokes with cards to sound more lke a motorcycle gang
• Buy pile of new avatar headwear to play as in our arenas as a Clonetrooper, Cog, Cyclops or one of three Big Daddy helmets

I’m sure there are other, somewhat more useful uses for the cards, but I don’t know what they could be.

In any event, what are you waiting for– head on over and enter the contest, fool!

Hi folks,

We’re pleased to announce that our first DLC Skin Pack, the Limited Edition Obsidian Magmor skin, is now available on XBox LIVE Arcade! For FREE!

In addition to giving Magmor a snazzy new look, it also automatically *UNLOCKS* Magmor if you haven’t gotten to it yet (and also preserves Magmor when you throw away your unlocks for the advanced rank achievements!)

This pack was created in conjunction with a Microsoft promotion that’s happening this week - buy Madballs in…Babo:Invasion THIS WEEK and you can download this skin for FREE. This skin is also available for all of you who have *ALREADY* bought the game (Thanks!) - just hit the [Downloads] button from the MiBI main menu, and download your free skin! Or click here and add it to your download queue from the web!

Note - this skin isn’t just *FREE* this week only, but it’s actually only *AVAILABLE* this week as well — so be sure you don’t miss it - you’ll be the envy of the entire Scorched Brotherhood !

Have fun folks - and see you online,

Paul.

Just when you thought it was safe to read the blog again

Hi folks,

We’re happy to announce that the first title update for Madballs in…Babo:Invasion is now available, and will be downloaded automatically to your xbox the next time you play our game.

As you may or may not know, the primary purpose of this update is to address the Visual Stuttering problem encountered by some players (i.e. those with hard drives that are slower than spec for some reason - we’re assuming it was occurring primarily older XBoxes that had fragmented and/or ailing hard drives). In addition to that fix though, we included a few other changes that we had been working on as well.

Here are a list of the changes that are included in the title update:

• Visual stutter fix! - we’ve addressed the visual stuttering issue that some folks were experiencing. This will ensure that all players get the silky-smooth gameplay that’s the cornerstone of our game.
• Game browser changes - changes to help you find the best matches
  • ping ratings - we’ve modified the behaviour of our game browser to more clearly communicate the ping ratings of all servers
  • sorting - you can sort the list of servers returned by the game browser by pressing [R3]
  • match size filtering - the match size filter (accessed via [RB] button) in the game browser now filters correctly according to the max # of players for the match…
• CTF scoring change - players now get 400 points for scoring in CTF — previously players only got 100 points, which wasn’t enough of a reward vs. simply killing other players.
• Score limit changes - we’ve upped the max score limits for versus matches (have added 10k, 15k and 20k targets)
• *Default* max-players now 8 - changed *default* max players in versus matches to 8 - players with higher bandwidth can set the max players to higher limits (up to 16 players). This was done since some folks don’t have enough bandwidth to host 12-player matches, and if they didn’t change the game size, those matches would sometimes become laggy as a result.
• Quicker spawning - we’ve changed our spawn delays so that players changing equipment aren’t penalized (they don’t have to wait the full spawn time again if they alter their loadout)
• QuickJoin change - our QuickJoin feature will now only suggest games that have friends in them (before it would recommend *candidate* games that sometimes might be on servers far, far away from you - resulting in laggy matches.
• Repeating sound fix - some sounds weren’t being properly cut off at the end of matches - this has been fixed.

Oh, and did we mention that Madballs Avatar Attack mode supports the new Avatar Helmets!!! Suit up a Clone Trooper helmet or as a Big Daddy, and go shoot your friends!!!

We hope that this update adds to your enjoyment of our game — and hope to see you all out there! And for those of you who haven’t tried MiBI yet (or who tried it and experienced the visual stuttering issue), please give it another go — the silky-smooth experience of playing MiBI is something that has to be played to be believed!

Thanks folks,

Paul.

First Contact in all of its Map Editor View glory

I’ll admit it: I’m an adventure/platformer gamer at heart. Mario, Lara, Samus…we’re pretty tight. I like exploration. A break in the action. A little atmosphere.

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake my preferences in designing MiBI’s first level. We had tossed around a few ideas of what we wanted the Campaign to be; I had played a little Gauntlet, shot my way through Contra, and consequently protoyped some mindless blast-a-thons. They were a bit ‘meh’, honestly.

(continue reading…)

Rumble in the (Online) Jungle

The gauntlet had been thrown to the ground, and the date had been set: August 4th, 2009 - the first official challenge issued to the developers by the community.

Cue the entrance music and posse-filled strut to the ring. In one corner, the seasoned veterans of their own game, the MiBI devs. In the other, the brash upstarts that had issued the challenge, the 360 Mafia.

It was an epic clash of titans, but when the dust settled, the 360 Mafia proved that no developer is safe from the community’s wrath.

Read on for the match recap…

(continue reading…)

…and a team from 360 Mafia (”Intimidate. Dominate. Humiliate.”) will be taking on some of the Playbrains crew. The challengers:

• SMOKINBOUNCER - “Only my weapon understands me”
• Fatboy3369 - “You can’t stop the TRAIN!!!!”
• Keibi Suru - “I eat a bowl of Robos for breakfast, and crap out Petts after dessert.”
• JohnsonPhats - “I don’t wear a cup to protect myself. I wear a cup to protect the other team.”
• R0BEN - “My GUN your FACE. Enough said??”
• TAI-X- “It doesn’t matter. We’re gonna win anyways!”
• Dzuraii - “I’m better than you, or did you forget?!?”
• RoninEMS - “ALL YOUR BALLZ ARE BELONG TO US!”

They’ll be taking on a team of devs from Playbrains including reachthejtome, Louard, Daivuk, PB Red Ensign, Playbrains, Something32.

The rules have been agreed to and it all goes down tonight at 6PM EST.

What’s on the line? I think the losers have to “uglify” their avatars for a month and, like, feel shame and stuff.

So check out some of the avatars above tomorrow and you’ll probably know who won (unless you look at PB Red Ensign– he’s pretty goofy-lookin’ as it is).