The Austin-American Statesman has an story on its site today that's mostly about Austin area game developers; However, it also includes an image that purports to be from Hail To The Chimp, an upcoming console party game from Wideload Games, developers of Stubbs the Zombie and home to at least seven Bungie alumni.
The first image of Hail to the Chimp, which appeared on the website of the Austin-American Statesman that first appeared on Monday, February 12.
When we heard whispers to expect something "soon" from Wideload, I'm sure nobody had this in mind. Translator Dmitri "Goblin" Puchkov, responsible for many of the best quality dubs of Western movies and television programs into Russian, including some hilarious spoof dubs of films like Star Wars Episode One and Shmatrica, a parody of The Matrix, has turned his eyes to Stubbs the Zombie.
GameSpot has an item up that says Wideload Games, makers of Stubbs the Zombie for Mac, PC and Xbox, have applied for several new trademarks that may be connected to as-yet-unannounced game projects:
Wideload Games' Alexander "The Man" Seropian will deliver the keynote address at the Vancouver International Game Summit in May 2007, according to an announcement on MarketWire issued by Reboot Communications Ltd, organizers of the conference. Details on the conference are at the Reboot Conference site.
Stubbs and I, a year ago... approximately (don't tell him I forgot) began a quite intense relationship. It has been good, although in the beginning I questioned his commitment. He has provided me with hours of love, and I, in turn have attempted to explore is world as throughly as possible. Yeah, his 4th level is so disablingly hard that I have to look like an idiot with only 3 levels of a walkthrough completed after a year... but I won't give up. You have to work through some difficulties in any good relationship. Happy (belated) Birthday Stubbs, I hope we have many to come!
Wideload Games, makers of Stubbs the Zombie and currently working on an unspecified number of unspecified projects for unspecified platforms in their sweet Chicago digs, is looking for a Lead Engineer:
With Halo 3 not only stealing the thunder from every other game on the Xbox or Xbox 360, but personally tasked by Bill Gates with submarining the PlayStation 3 launch (guess he didn't know about the proposed $600 price tag, or else he wouldn't have bothered) it's not surprising that a little studio called Wideload that made a funny little game called Stubbs the Zombie might, for at least, awhile, go unnoticed.
Stubbs sold well enough, to be sure, but the gaming press often spoke more about the studio's outsourcing-heavy business model than the game itself. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
So while the hype over Halo is such that Bungie gets taken to task by supposed fans even when they don't say a word (because saying nothing is the best way to hype a game, didn't you know?) then the silence must be deafening in Chicago, where Wideload was actually able to update their website last month without scarcely causing a ripple.
Click 'read more' from the front page for the entire article.
Although two panelists-- Al Lowe, Leisure Suit Larry creator and Erik Wolpaw, better known as Old Man Murray and a writer on Psychonauts were no-shows, attendees at the Game Writers Conference were treated to a few laughs by Wideload Games' Matt Soell and Tom Abernathy of Pandemic, makers of Destroy All Humans!
Making gamers laugh is a serious business, made more serious by the fact that comedy is not as well established a subgenre of games as it is of film. Still, said Soell, comedy has its place:
Excellent online gaming magazine The Escapist has an article called The Wideload Way on Wideload Games this week. Those who have read previous articles focusing on Wideload's outsourcing-heavy business model will find little new here. There's a confirmation that Stubbs sold well enough to fund Wideload's next project, but there's still no information on what that project might be.
We're extremely late in mentioning this article, but Gamasutra did an interview with Wideload Games founder Alexander "The Man" Seropian last month as Part 2 of their Tour of Chicago. Seropian's post-Bungie startup is based there, as Bungie was prior to the Microsoft buyout.
Aspyr has released a patch to bring Wideload Games' Stubbs the Zombie up to version 1.0.2. It addresses some issues related to performance issues caused by a memory leak, problems with saved games and limited user accounts, and audio and video stutter.
So far it seems to be only the Windows version that's getting patched.
Welcome to level 3: The Slammer. Unfortunately, I don't really like this level. It is pretty short, and not too interesting. The parts that are meant to be great fights end up being a little too easy, and retracing steps is always a no no in a game (except for Resident Evil and Tomb Raider... I still don't know why anyone likes them). Here is how to beat level 3, although there is less strategy needed than there is shooting accuracy.
Also, if you notice a lack of lovely 800x600 captured content, my apologies. My capture card is fubar, and to the extent that it likes to drag my whole computer down with it. So for now, no more nice pictures, but if I ever get the chance, I will go back and old ones.
A side note to the rest of you: I hope you read this guide incorectly, and that in doing so, you have trouble beating the level.
The Slammer
Kill all of the prisoners! Once you leave the lineup room, there will be three detectives. I usually just fart, because it is embarrassing to die this early on in the level. Right out of the lineup room, go right twice (into the room for viewing the lineup). Just to the right of the door is the first of what seems to be very few hippos in this level (Commentary 1). Push your zombie army (should be about 6) into the next couple of rooms to help clear out the cops.
Click "read more" from the front page to read the entire article.
The Escapist has the third part in a series by Warren Spector of Deus Ex fame, currently heading up Junction Point Studios. It's not about any specific title, but about trends in the gaming industry; specifically increasing costs. Near the end, there's a bit about Wideload Games:
Early in Stubbs the Zombie, the game's eponymous street-shambler is captured by the police and taunted by Chief Masters, who wonders if "there'll be anything left to dissect" for Professor Wye.
Well, it seems there was.
Alex "The Man" Seropian pulled out the scalpel and put Stubbs and its creator Wideload Games under the knife at GDC, talking about what worked and what didn't work with their subcontractor-heavy business model: