As the story goes, one day while writing up some impressions of upcoming XBLA game Schizoid, I ended up coining the term "sploderific" to describe the game's crazy amazing explosions. Don't ask me why, but I figured "sploderific" best represented my feelings towards those wormy explosions. Long story short, Schizoid's developers Torpex Games came across my blog, agreed it was the perfect adjective and they ended up naming one of Schizoid's achievements after my made up word. Crazy, huh?
After we were informed about the use of sploderific as an achievement, we were promised an exclusive first look at the achievement's artwork since, you know, we helped name it. And today, making good on their word and with their approval, Torpex sent us the finalized and 100% Dustin authorized Sploderific achievement artwork that will appear in final the build of Schizoid when the achievement is unlocked. What are you waiting for? Click towards the break to take in the greatness that is Sploderific's super cool artwork ...
As part of the whirlwind GDC announcement fest that went on yesterday, we sort of lacked the time and energy to organize all the screenshots we obtained from Microsoft's Summer release Arcade press kits. But we've had our beauty sleep, drank our morning cup of coffee and diligently put together new XBLA galleries and added screenshots to old ones. So, if you take a looksy after the break, you'll see new screenshots galore for XBLA games including Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Braid, Schizoid and Go! Go! Break Steady. Enjoy the media as we take a quick break to refill our coffee.
It all began in late 2007 when our own Dustin Burg was so awed by the explosions in Torpex Games' Schizoid that he was forced to invent a new word to describe them. Upon seeing the positively terrific explosions, Dustin combined the terms "explode" and "terrific" to create the perfect word to describe the harmonious combination of explosions and joy. That word is "sploderific." Not long after, we were contacted by Torpex's Bill Dugan, asking us if the company could use our word for an achievement in Schizoid. After a brief and fruitless attempt to work out a royalty system in which Dustin would receive a check every time the achievement was unlocked, we agreed to allow the word's use free of charge.
We caught up with Bill Dugan at GDC today, and we can confirm that "Sploderific" will definitely be appearing in Schizoid. Thus, step one in X3F's plan for world domination is complete. Good work, Dustin. You've made us proud! Stay tuned for our full interview with Bill Dugan coming soon.
Sitting here today, we found ourselves contemplating the existence of the forever delayed and "upcoming" Xbox Live Arcade Schizoid from the crew over at Torpex Games. For whatever reason, we wondered if Schizoid would ever make a release, if 2008 will roll into 2009 without Schizoid just as 2007 went into 2008 Schizoid'less. Then, we came across some recent screenshots that proves Schizoid is alive and well. Alive and well, just not released. So, we threw the new screenshots in their own gallery (after realizing we didn't create one previous, oops) and hope that Torpex will take note. Take note that we care about their co-op XBLA experiment and take note that we're an impatient group who wants a product. Anyway, Schizoid isn't dead ... just so you know.
There's a new Schizoid trailer out today (and a gameplay video posted after the break) that shows off more co-op fun, sexy lasso gameplay and an ever improving HUD. But the new trailer also shows how the game's visuals are progressing along, more specifically, the explosions. Seriously, Schizoid's explosions are so enjoyable that we felt the need to make up a word and call them "sploderific". They're all worm-like, big and well ... sploderific. Actually, that sounds really good. We'll shoot an email off to Torpex Games and tell them to use our word as the game's marketing tagline. Something like ... Schizoid: Dude, It's Sploder'ific!
A new video of the upcoming Schizoid from Torpex Games has surfaced on GameTrailers. The video showcases the game's unique teamwork dynamic, in which players must attack enemies of the same color in order to clear a level. The twist is that running into an enemy of a different color results in death. Hence the teamwork, you see. It's a very interesting idea and looks like it will require some quick thinking. In the video, we see a new enemy that drops dots behind it as it moves, which player can gobble up Pac-Man style. The dots, as it turns out, are the opposite color of the enemy. You see how this could get confusing really quickly? Confusing in a good way though.
Yesterday, Microsoft released a short video showing off a little bit of Schizoid gameplay and, from the looks of things, we can sum it up by calling it color coded teamwork. From day one, Schizoid promised true teamwork where players have to rely on a friend to survive and advance through the game. The clip is short, but we get to see how the game actually works and why it's so "teamworky". In a nutshell, Schizoid is based on red and blue crabs that need killing, but there is no shooting in the game. Instead, you kill these evil crabs by running into them with the blue player ramming blue crabs while the red player rams the red crabs. But the catch is that the blue player can't touch the red crabs or they die and vice versa making the co-op element oh so apparent. If you don't understand our explanation then give the embedded video a watch. If you still don't understand how Schizoid works then go ask 20Q how to play. He knows everything.
Our good friends at The Xbox Domain got a chance to chat with Bill Dugan, president of Torpex Games, creators of Schizoid. Readers may recall that Schizoid will be the first Xbox Live Arcade title built with Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express. Dugan doesn't reveal much about the actual gameplay, though he does boldly claim that Schizoid "is the best co-op multiplayer game on the platform. Or probably anywhere." Could we have another Molyneux in the making? Other subjects covered in the interview include the use of Game Studio Express and Microsoft's initial reception of Schizoid. According to Dugan, two Microsoft reps played co-op for 20 seconds before one claimed, "I've seen enough – I want it."
Will Schizoid really be the best co-op evar? We don't know, but Dugan promises that more info will be made available in the coming weeks. Hit the "read" link for the whole interview.
Among the news from GDC we learned that the first ever XNA created game Schizoid will be coming to the XBLA sometime later this year. 1UP posted some screenshots from the game and talked with a few people from Torpex's dev team to learn a little bit more about the gameplay. Per Microsoft, Schizoid is "a co-op action game in which teamwork matters like never before, as gamers and their friend or AI ally protect each other from barrages of glowing enemies". Presumably, the game is heavy on the co-op gameplay, where each player can only kill their corresponding color's enemies and protect their partner from the evil that they cannot kill. Think top down space shooter, with color coded gameplay, and a little bit of fl0w thrown in for good measure. Make the jump for a few more screenshots and some speculation goodness.
For those of you looking to find information on some of your favorite upcoming Microsoft Game Studios or XBLA games, just take a look at what Xbox.com has to offer. Over on the GDC section of Xbox.com you'll find a bunch of downloads for games like Forza 2, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect and Shadowrun. You can download fact sheets, press releases, and screenshots for those games including XBLA games like Schizoid, Eets Chowdown, and Jetpac Refuelled. So much information, so little time ... but get downloading because everyone knows you care.
As the story goes, one day while writing up some impressions of upcoming XBLA game Schizoid, I ended up coining the term "sploderific" to describe the game's crazy amazing explosions. Don't ask me why, but I figured "sploderific" best represented my feelings towards those wormy explosions. Long story short, Schizoid's developers Torpex Games came across my blog, agreed it was the perfect adjective and they ended up naming one of Schizoid's achievements after my made up word. Crazy, huh?
For those of you looking to find information on some of your favorite upcoming Microsoft Game Studios or XBLA games, just take a look at what Xbox.com has to offer. Over on the GDC section of Xbox.com you'll find a bunch of downloads for games like Forza 2, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect and Shadowrun. You can download fact sheets, press releases, and screenshots for those games including XBLA games like Schizoid, Eets Chowdown, and Jetpac Refuelled. So much information, so little time ... but get downloading because everyone knows you care.
