Those who woke up yesterday and couldn’t remember what day it was (fools) will be pleased that the pranks are over.
That said, trouble may still lurk around the corner for those unsuspecting girls who thought (much like we did) that the super-creepy Girls Around Me app was one of those pranks. It turns out that the product actually worked for two whole days, pulling data that is publicly available through Facebook and Foursquare API’s and broadcasting it local stalkers before it’s Russion authors voluntarily withdrew the app yesterday amidst a frenzied media outcry. There’s nothing quite like the smell of irony.
With so many wonderful new product launch and service announcements today, it’s hard to keep up. If you haven’t seen them already, here’s a couple to get your started:
Googlemaps 8bit – wonderful. No doubt this will lead to a reasonable jump in NES sales on ebay.
Hungry Hippos for Ipad - family fun at it’s best (the video is pretty damn good too).
Virgin Volcanic – Branson is looking to strap 3 lucky people into a an oversize corkscrew and then plunge them into an active volcano. It’s not until 2015 though, so there’s still time for us to lobby for a change of crew, ideally Justin Bieber, Sarah Palin and Ryan Seacrest.
Yes… today promises to be very productive indeed.
Wow… the month has gone by super quick. When you’re this busy, it’s hard to find the right moment to stop and shoot the roses from your car window much less stick your nose down there and smell them.
Our next game is about 70% complete and beta testing is just around the corner (big cheer). Given that this will be our first iOs release and a big departure from anything we’ve ever tried before, we really have no idea what kind of reception it’s going to get but we’re looking forward to getting it finished and released.
In the meantime, on Thursday we finally got the green light on from Microsoft to reduce the cost of Attack of the Zombie Horde down to 80 MS points ($1.00). It would have been nice if we didn’t have to wait 3 months to make it happen but better late than never right?
Special mention goes out to Meggierue from the United States for having exterminated a total 314,387 walking dead (so far). We actually did some analysis on the total number of zombies killed by Attack of the Zombie Horde players to-date and it was almost 50 million! Yeah.. we were pretty surprised too.
What’s happening at Krooked Gaming:
Firstly, we’ve been developing a brand new game title for the iOs platform (iPhone, iPad) and we’re really pleased with our progress to-date.
Of course, with this new project well underway, we’ve also had to make a tough choice: to postpone our planned upgrade to Attack of the Zombie Horde. We’d been working on a number of core game play additions which we’d originally hoped to include within the original release (Xmas 2011) but in our efforts to build and test a genuine, quality release candidate it was simply taking too much time. We may return to our AOTZH patch again but at this time we can’t make any guarantees.
We’ll be uncovering more details of our new title in the coming weeks.. however I can reveal this much: there will be no guns AND… no zombies (!!) in this game. Yes, we’re still not sure whether we should laugh or cry but you can rest assured that it will still be a game that we ourselves enjoy playing (that’s the Krooked way!) and make no mistake… this new upcoming title may have paused our Xbox project work but we remain very committed to releasing bigger and bolder titles for the Xbox console/s in the future.
It’s been another busy but productive week at Krooked as we continue to build our next Patch for Attack of the Zombie Horde. We don’t want to give anything away (yet) but we’re pretty happy with our progress so far.
In the meantime, in what appears to be a common theme for the weekends, we’ve jumped straight back up to No. 3 on the UK’s Top Rated (by Users) chart which is always nice to see.
On Multi-player Survival mode: DaNK NuG21, JerpieZ and TripleJop and WrecktalbreecH re-established the covetted No.1 position by finally cracking the £2 million milestone. Nicely done guys.
It’s always a lot of fun to hear from our Xbox Indie gamer fans – the last week in particular has been quite amusing with lots of compliments and great feedback (thanks guys)… and yes – we KNOW that Surival mode is hard (that’s not a mistake in playtesting – we designed it that way on purpose) 
It’s been a busy week here at Krooked – we’ve been putting together some great new development and design material which will ultimately find it’s way onto a big chunky patch that we’ll be releasing in due course for Attack of the Zombie Horde. Despite only minimal reviews and publicity, AOTZH has continued to pull in excellent user ratings (thanks guys – we love you too!)
Thanks to everyone in the world (particularly those in America who took the time to write their congressman) demanding an end to the vile turd of a bill that was SOPA. For our amusement, former senator and rich fat-cat Chris Dodd (now the President of the Motion Picture Ass of America and a key player in the inception of SOPA and PIPA) demonstrated that the MPAA is not only corrupt but infinitely stupid as well by making what appears to be an open admission of attempted government bribery. Feel free to sign the government petition in response to this.
In the meantime, , it would seem that ‘Survial Mode Addiction’ has infected quite a few of our AOTZH players…
Xbox gamer and zombie killing supremo:Kagehiro continues to dominate the Solo Multiplayer charts with a new high score of $1,793,419.
Meanwhile, homicidal maniac Akiller4536 appears to be taking breaks only to eat or sleep, gunning down an average of 5,000 to 10,000 zombies per day (!!!) with what can only be described as an obcsene total of 160,667 kills (the numbers rises daily).
Last but certainly not least – it is reasonable to expect that the biggest scores would be on Multplayer Survival and in spite of another record breaking run by DaNK NuG21, TrippleJop and WrecktalbreecH (it was JerpieZ that couldn’t make it this time) a new elite unit has claimed the No 1 spot: top gamers Fli4aWhiteGuy, HaLo, xGARBAGEx and Scrap Monkey slam dunked everyone with their new score of $1,949,830.
Really impressive stuff guys.
As a development team, we’d rather not bore the world with our views on everyday politics… however, today we’re going to make an exception.
If you don’t know what SOPA and PIPA are by now (what planet have you been on?), all you really need to know is this: these two bills/ proposed US laws represent a horrific threat to the internet as we know it, not just in the United States but worldwide. Put simply: they are bad, bad news for all of us.
At this exact moment in time, there are unfortunately several US senators and congressme who are hell bent on controlling and consequently destroying the web as we know it in favour of their own personal financial interests.
So what can YOU do? Tell everyone you know that you want SOPA and PIPA STOPPED. Use Twitter, use Facebook, your blogs, talk about it openly and everywhere.
It doesn’t matter how many new changes and revisions are proposed to these acts – they are fundamentally acts of pure evil.
If you didn’t already know this, well…. you do now.
Whilst it was just under 3 weeks ago that we released our Xbox Indie title: Attack of the Zombie Horde, we’d actually been sitting on the idea for quite some time. You see, we ourselves love playing games and late one night, we perused the Xbox Indie Marketplace looking for some cheap, instant, co-operative zombie-killing gratification, a search that ultimately ended in disappointment.
Oh sure…. we found plenty of titles with zombies in them. In fact, we were hard pressed to find games that DIDN’T have zombies somewhere in them! We even found a couple of basic twin-stick shooters that we thought might do the job before eventually resigning to the fact that no game was available that could truly satisfy our desire for intense and aggressive blasting action.
The seed for AOTZH had been planted… and we got to work not long after, building the game that we ourselves had wanted to play that night.
AOTZH’s continued climb higher up the worldwide Xbox Indie charts would suggest that we were not alone in our thinking and naturally, we’re delighted that so many people are purchasing the game and enjoying it. As we work to complete our next title, the positive feedback we’ve recieved to-date has been a real motivator.
On to the AOTZH chart rankings:
It seemed like it would just be a matter of time, Akiller4536 finally usurped the crown of Bluttbanner for the Most Homicidal chart by slaying 107,766 undead!
Kagehiro retains the no.1 position on the Single Player Survival chart with a mind-boggling $1,625,454.
And then there was three: DaNK NuG21, JerpieZ and TripleJop teamed up again (this time without WrecktalbreecH) to rack up a new all-time high on the Multi-player chart: $1,848,972.
Seriuously – you guys are good (CRAZY good).
With overwhelming consent that Microsoft has laid a gigantic egg with the navigation and accessibility of the latest Xbox console update, we’d always suspected there would be delay before our Xbox Indie title: Attack of the Zombie Horde started to get much visibility.
However, another review has arrived courtesy of OtakuDante: and you can check it out here. We were encouraged that the review appears to be a very positive one.
Ah yes, another New Year – how exciting!
Why?… cus we’re on a roll! Cast your sarcasm aside (you’re getting old!). 2011 has been an astonishing year for most of us. Not always in a good way of course… it’s been one hell of a ride though.
So what resolutions have you been lying to yourself about? Perhaps you will even disgrace yourself further by announcing them tonight or tomorrow, swiftly proceeded by your ‘epic fail’.
Yes, yes: You’re going to stop smoking, lose weight, change your diet, consume less alcohol, stop biting your nails, get out of debt, get a better job, learn a new language, study more often, plan more trips, volunteer for charity work, keep a journal, get more sleep and spend less time playing video games (get the hell outta here) 
Regardless of your plans and your likely inept willpower, the arrival of the New Year is an opportunity not only to invigorate yourself with positive energy and determination but to also to pause and reflect on some of the spectacular moments we’ve shared/ endured over the last 12 months. So in case you’d forgotten:
Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong-Il all took a dirt nap and joined the Dodos.
Sales of hemorrhoid cream have risen to a record high thanks to the oil company’s increased use of our back passages with their all-time sky-high prices (thanks guys!)
Over 2 billion tv watchers were introduced to Pippa Middleton’s perfect 10 backside. Coincidentally, Pippa’s sister Kate got married to Prince William on the same day.
Of course, it’s not all been fun and games: Major civil unrest and some revolutionary uprisings in Africa and the Middle East (Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain etc) have unfortunately led a lot of innocent people to an early grave. A 9.1 magnitude earthquake triggered a horrifying tsunami that would end up killing almost 20,000 people. Torrential flooding submerged pretty much half of Bangkok (Thailand) and millions of people’s homes remain underwater even now.
NASA may have closed the doors on its Space Shuttle program but it hasn’t stopped the US Military from paying SETI to check the newly discovered Earth-like planet Kepler-22b for aliens. It’s only 600 light years away but let’s not leave anything to chance huh?
Never mind all of that! 2011 has been THE YEAR for new games! Incredible: Skyrim, Dark Souls, Batman Arkham City, BF3, COD MW3, Uncharted 3 and Attack of the Zombie Horde !
Leaving the best for last, can anything come close to the post released on the official CDC government website concerning Preparedness for a Zombie Apocalypse on May 16th ? That’s right: the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have been hard at work researching how best to protect our health and best interests and have even put together a recommended emergency kit in case of a zombie outbreak! You don’t think I’m serious? BELIEVE IT
Whilst the offciially recommended kit includes things like water, food, medications, tools & supplies, sanitation & hygiene clothing etc absolutely no where does it list: Chainsaw, handgun, shotgun, land mines or rifles. WTF?!!
Perhaps the next time the CDC consider advising on zombie related matters, they should consult the REAL EXPERTS on such matters. Do I really need to say who??
Right now, it simply has to be: DA808DOLO (from the United States) who has over 3 days killed tens of thousands of zombies and blasted to the top of both the Single Player Survival Chart ($1,385,501) and the Multi-player Survival chart ($1,492,874) with fellow zombie slayers: TouchyGnat4 and WalkedHarbor31. Stunning.
If the CDC were to look for sheer experience though, they would still need to consult with Blutbanner (from Germany) who has now amassed over 85,845 zombie kills in just over a week. Now THAT is serious dedication my friends!!
Whether you’re out you’re out celebrating in style tonight or sitting back comfortably with a controller in your hand – have a fantastic time! 2012 is going to be AWESOME
