Indie MEGABOOTH at PAX East

By Graham Smith April 2nd, 2012, under News

PAX East is fast approaching, and we’re finally able to share the details of the incredible Indie MEGABOOTH with everyone.

16 great indie developers have banded together to take a large piece of the show floor and overwhelm you with 20 games (including Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee!).

Also, as part of the fun, the developers have created a bizarre scavenger hunt called the Indie MEGA Passport which will give you a chance to win a very exclusive collectible button!

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Check out the official website, and follow the official Twitter or Facebook for the latest news!

The Making of a Level

By chrism March 30th, 2012, under News

The Level Making Process – Mutant Blobs Attack

Howdy all, Chris McQuinn here from Drinkbox Studios. I just thought I’d share the process we use when creating our levels, by giving you an inside view of constructing a typical section from the game from start to finish.

Alright, well, it all begins with an idea. And the thing about ideas is that they’re initially pretty bad. Well, especially mine. But don’t lose hope, ideas get better with iteration! First we create a section using the most basic wireframe blocks, some of the boxes are static, and others are moving threats.

This section forces the player to jump up through some crushers followed by a puzzle requiring touch platforms to be moved into lasers in order to create a safe path through.

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After playing this section for a bit we conclude:

- Jumping up through the crushers is good, keep this!

- Puzzle section is a bit too easy, can we make this harder? Spice it up a bit?

Ok, back to the drawing board. Let’s add some complexity to the puzzle by adding a few more lasers. In addition, why not have an optional challenge for players by teasing them with a Blob Friend. The result is below:

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Great, now that we’re happy with general layout of the section, it’s time to add some art so we can playtest. In order to save some time for our artist – the level designers get to do some designer art (gross).

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The above might make some people cringe, but it allows us to make further changes without having to go back to request additional art changes. After a bit of tweaking based on suggestions from guys around the office and some initial play-testing, we then bring in the art! Now the wireframe boxes are adjusted to match the art to be used in-game, resulting in the following:

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Perfect. Finally we polish by adding some lights, including background animations, and hide the wireframes from the player to result in a final product of a typical section from Mutant Blobs Attack:

 

Bring on the red carpet

By chrism March 27th, 2012, under News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time for the Canadian Video Game Awards, and Tales from Space: About a Blob has been nominated! High-fives to all those who nominated us. Just like the Oscars, feel free to make a CVGA pool among your friends to bet on who the winners will be. My advice, if you’re looking to cash in, is probably bet your life savings for AaB to win (don’t do this). What are we nominated for you may ask? Let me tell you:

Best Downloadable Game

Best Indie Game

Best New Character

w00t! The awards take place during Fan Expo Vancouver, so if you’re in the area, make sure to attend with a giant sign for AaB. Thanks in advance!

Blob at Large

By Graham Smith February 27th, 2012, under News

With the game finally released last week, the Blob has been reminiscing about it’s previous jobs, and posting old photographs on Twitter @MutantBlob. Check out some of his most recent posts:

A short career in the military
Made it just in time to New York to ring in 2012
“Give peas a chance!” my agent said……. suffice to say, I ate his head.
Didn’t last long at this job. Kept digesting Pikachu.
One of my 1st jobs back in the 70s.
Sometimes you have to be a corporate sell-out to pay them bills
I got “sick” of this job pretty quick

Blushing with thanks

By chrism February 23rd, 2012, under News

 

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Just wanted to give a huge shout out to all the kind emails, twitters, hand written letters, tattoos, naming of children “Blob”, that we’ve received in just the last few days.

Below is a brief compilation of some of the reviews that have come in so far.

 

IGN 9/10 Greg Miller

The Varge: Vox Games 9/10 Justin McElroy

Push Square 9/10 Corbie Dillard

Game Informer 8.5/10 Bryan Vore

Kotaku YESSSSSS Kirk Hamilton

PSN Stores HellzYes Chris Kuspis

Playstation LifeStyle 8/10 Anthony Severino

Install errors make babies cry

By chrism February 22nd, 2012, under News

 

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UPDATE: Sony Europe tells us that they are “in the process of refunding users” who ran into day 1 installation issues of Mutant Blobs Attack in Europe

Unfortunately, for *some* of those in Europe who installed yesterday or this morning (Feb 21st, 22nd) they might have run into an install error. If this is the case – you’ll have to contact your regional Sony customer support. Find your appropriate Sony support by:

- Go into the Store on your Vita

- Scroll to the bottom and click on “About Us”

- You’ll go to another screen, click on “About Us” again

- Here you should find information for the Consumer Services Department

Even though the issue was out of our hands, here at DrinkBox Studios we feel REALLY REALLY bad about this. Sad smile Hope it’s not too much of an inconvenience for you to play Mutant Blobs Attack .

We did it!!!

By chrism February 21st, 2012, under News

 

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Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack goes officially on sale today on PSN Stores! Not only are we cheap (the price of a really expensive Starbucks) but apparently people actually LIKE the game!

Check out what our friends over at IGN and Just Push Start thought.

In celebration we’re also releasing the opening cinematic for all to see! A little insight into why our main character has a slight beef to pick with the world. Giddy up!!!

Tweeting Blobs

By Graham Smith February 10th, 2012, under News

That crazy Blob has been at it some more over on Twitter.. We’re not sure how he’s able to use a keyboard?

In case you’ve been missing it, here are some of the things the Blob has been up to over the past couple of weeks:

Finally made it big with a bit role in a major video game!

Trolling the internet pays surprisingly little

I wasn't told you weren't supposed to digest those tasty monkeys till it was too late....

Even the internet needed help during the great lime shortage of '05

I had no idea what this job was, and I still don't :/

I was told I'd get to star in Fruit Ninja.....

Wiiiiiii!

I was the Epcot Centre of attention for a while

Make sure to follow the Blob on Twitter @MutantBlob for all the latest updates!

Om Nom Nomedy: The Humor of Mutant Blobs Attack!

By stephg February 9th, 2012, under News

Hey y’all. This is Steph, the Art Director on Mutant Blobs Attack.

At DrinkBox Studios, we try our best to make more than just the gameplay as fun as possible. So, along with the unquestionably satisfying laughs of rolling up and eating terrified humans, we give players the extra treat of sweet sweet comedy candy to keep them full on their blobby adventure.

Puns!

Love ‘em or hate ‘em; nobody can deny the appeal of a well placed, groan-inducing pun. Here are a few BLOBvious examples of the incredibly sophisticated humor in our game:

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Video game references!

If you pay close attention (and know a thing or two about them vidya games) you might just spot several ingeniously clever references strewn about the blob’s world. Of course there’s everyone’s favorite “ALL YOUR BEER ARE BELONG TO US.” visible right at the beginning of the game:

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But what other side-splitting shenanigans await those brave enough to chew their way through the meat of the game? Being the meta nerds that we are, we weren’t content with just more bad great puns, so we upped our game by making most of the video game jokes FOOD related. Thus echoing the theme of the blob’s unquenchable hunger…. as well as highlighting the multi-layered genius of DrinkBox’s unforgettable comedy styling.

A few tasty examples:

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AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! by Dejobaan Games

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Superbrother’s Sword & Sworcery

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Critter Crunch by Capy Games

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And Yet it Moves by Broken Rules

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They Bleed Pixels by Spooky Squid Games

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N+ by Metanet Software

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Now this last one isn’t food related, but who doesn’t enjoy a playable mini-game inspired by the O.G. hand-held? ;)

Internet memes!

Last, but not least, we have teh interwebs! An abundant source of free comedy, captioned cat pictures, and videos of idiots hurting themselves since 1993. See if you can get these examples of comedy gold:

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If you get this last one, you REALLY know your memes!

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack–Official Trailer

By Graham Smith February 7th, 2012, under News

Hey everyone! We are excited to finally share the official trailer for Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack with you all. You can check it out below:

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack–Official Trailer

We tried to pack in as much awesome as we could into both the game and the trailer. Let us know what you think!