On Travaille?
20:09 | 2007/03/11
First post of ‘07! Oh yeah!
First post in over six months, too.
We’re actually working on something, though.
N- no, stop laughing! Stop laughing!
We’re making a kind simulation game about fascism. Sims are probably the most difficult and least possible kind of game to pull off in MMF. Probably more difficult than an FPS. So it won’t be too complex. But it will be riddled with less-than-subtle social commentary and silliness.
I’m also, very slowly, making some graphics for a friend’s game. A vertical “bullet hell” shoot ‘em up.
That’s all for now.
Comments: 2
Most reliable game creators EVER
14:29 | 2006/07/20
We haven’t really updated in a while have we? You want to know why?
Come in real close so I can whisper it into your ear.
Alright. Are you ready?
We haven’t worked on shit.
Yep, I’ve been busy working a terrible job so that I can earn a couple thousand dollars that will be promptly thrown into the bottomless pit known as “tuition.” This job has also been depriving me of a fair amount of sleep because I have to work from 5am to noon. Isn’t that just awesome? I think it is. That’s why I wanted to tell you all about it.
Phil’s busy trying to earn money to come to Seattle for PAX. Or at least I think he is. Phil, you best be earning those dollars, ya heard!
Yeah, that’s about it. We’re busy selling our souls to the Man who is sucking out our creativity like so many creativity-sucking mosquitos.
Shit, I should avoid getting metaphorical in the future.
Comments: 0
To all three of our visitors
01:28 | 2006/06/03
Yo. How’re you holding up?
We’ve been quietly working on our new game, which we should probably share something about pretty soon. Yes, it’ll be another platformer. Yes, we do like other types of games (we have another possible non-platformer game in vague planning stages now). Yes, it’ll hopefully be totally ridiculous and awesome. Anyway, we’ll update later with more info on the game as it develops.
In other news, Phil is redesigning his portofolio site after neglecting to finish his last design (which looked pretty damn sexy). If I may say, though, the new design is gorgeous. I’m not sure when he’s going to put it up, but hopefully soon.
Ok, there was one more thing I wanted to say… right! Thompsonsoft pins! We are making no money off those. We just made them so we could wear them to PAX this summer. We decided it would be less whorey than making t-shirts saying “OMFG I AM PART OF THOMPSONSOFT! WORSHIP ME!!!11.” Now, I’m reconsidering. That’d be a sweet shirt. So you can buy the pins singularly or in a pack of ten. They are ridiculously expensive with shipping but that’s the lowest they can sell for so no complaining to us. I’d say they’re still worth it even if you have to mortgage your house. You truly will be the coolest kid on your block. Perhaps even the entire neighborhood.
Comments: 1
We’ll get some actual news soon…
10:22 | 2006/05/08
I’ll be finished with my sophomore year of college in a couple days. This means gamemaking will be back as a major priority without stinking homework to do. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around Leaky Pig-ville.
However, Phil and I are planning on attending PAX in August. This will be momentous because it will be the first time we’ve actually met in real life. Finally, we will be able to consumate our love. It should be really fun!
We’ve also been bugging Derek about coming, too. If he came, I almost feel like we’d have to make “I sold my soul to Thompsonsoft” shirts, except for the inherent attention whoriness of it.
Comments: 1
Competitive “I’m OK” match
15:16 | 2006/04/11
So apparently the Auburn University computer gaming club is having a LAN party where they’ll be playing a competitive match of “I’m OK.” This makes me wish I’d really tested out the score thing in the game. I think the final screen sometimes cuts to the credits before the score finishes adding up. Oh well, maybe they can do time runs.
In other news, Phil and I are busy and haven’t worked on our game. Exciting!
Comments: 2
Oh Jacky, you rascal.
15:35 | 2006/03/12
The ever-irascible Jack Thompson apparently had his Wikipedia article locked, which included a subtantial section on “I’m OK.” In true Jack fashion, he’s threatened to sue them for something or other. His article is the only one on Wikipedia with this status.
In other news, I still haven’t heard back from gamernode.com about the interview with them but hopefully it will be up this week.
Comments: 0
Interview with Gamernode.com
15:22 | 2006/02/27
Derek and I were interviewed by gamernode.com yesterday about I’m OK. This looks like it’ll be the last interview about the game. I think it’ll be a more interesting read than the 4 Color Rebellion because there were a lot of questions and it was by email so I could give fairly lengthy responses.
I’ll put the link up once the interview is online.
Comments: 0
Domain Situation Update
09:02 | 2006/02/23
So… I’m a fucking knob? Yes.
Hello Phil,
We did not take the domain name LEAKYPIG.COM. It is still going through the Redemption Period. Just that it is now in the last stage before it is publicly released for registration.
Once it is publicly released, you will be able to submit your registration request for that name.
Regards,
In2net Network Inc.
So I feel like a total jerk, right? But it’s a happy ending! So this is awesome. Hopefully.
Comments: 1
The Good Fight
15:56 | 2006/02/22
So, the last few months (since December 12th, specifically) we’ve been wondering what to do about our poor handling of our domain registration. Some time mid-January the domain went out of the …”you-suck-with-dates” or something period and into the REDEMPTION period. This was something I’d never experienced. Now, it seems like not all that intimidating a name, but redemption of biblical proportions would not be this harsh. The toll for saving your domain name’s ass goes up to $150-some.
So we figure, hey, let’s just wait till it’s over, ’cause hell if we’re going to pay that much for a freeware site. We are aware that some bastard company may grab it up the very millisecond it becomes available, just to spite/gauge us. We’ll take the risk.
I’ve been checking the whois info daily since we found out about these happenings. At some point I even had to go through security measures to prove I wasn’t a bot because I was checking it a good five times a day.
Today I leisurely click on my “Personal Toolbar” bookmark and was, at first, surprised, almost pleasantly, then frustrated. In2net, a B.C. based hosting company had apparently ripped it from our unwitting grasp. I got on MSN and told Chris. We shared some expletives in regards to In2net, and this:
Raincoatduck says:
the whole system for registering internet stuff is like the fucking wild west
Phil says:
Hahahaha.
Raincoatduck says:
it’s like there’s barely any law, just a bunch of people taking whatever they can get
Phil says:
It is pretty cut throat.
Then we discussed our course of action. My first suggestion, a letter:
Hey you fucking pirates,
How about yet another pound of our flesh if you let us crawl away later with our guts hanging out, but still alive? Please?Love, Phil and Chris
Obviously a joke, but a good… ballpark idea. Write them. So I checked out the contact us page and they have one of those handy scripts to write them an e-mail from the site, like we do. Great. So I run my first draft by Chris:
Well, it appears you snatched up leakypig.com the very instant it was available, something we were hoping to do ourselves. Of course, in our case, it would have been snatching it BACK up.
Domain Name: LEAKYPIG.COM
…
Expiration Date: 12-dec-2005I am the not so very well off former co-owner of leakypig.com. I was wondering what it would take to get it back so that we could continue running our little freeware gaming company from the same old URL.
-Phil Jones
A little surly, as Chris said. A revised version:
Hello in2net.com,
Well, it appears you snatched up leakypig.com, foiling my not-so-brilliant plan of evading the redemption charges.
Domain Name: LEAKYPIG.COM
…
Expiration Date: 12-dec-2005I am the former co-owner of leakypig.com and I was wondering what it would take to get it back so that we could continue running our little freeware gaming company from the same old URL.
-Phil Jones
And it’s off. So, let’s see if we can get our lovely little leakypig.com back for some sorta reasonable price.
In other news, I bought a sweet Logitech MX 5000 and MX1000 wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (respectively), along with a 6×8 Graphire Bluetooth. The same night I received them my computer went apeshit. My friend got it running again, but the sound card is outta whack and the new hardware is not set up. Damnation.
I’m also busy applying to Concordia these days (it really should not take this long, though), as well as getting over horrible vomitty sickness of obscure origins. Consequently, actual work on Get Ready, Go Now! was halted. I’m still thinking about it though. Fun fun.
Comments: 0
4CR Interview
14:58 | 2006/02/16
The 4 Color Rebellion interview is up on their site now. You can learn all about what makes the Thompsonsoft team tick. If that doesn’t interest you, there’s also discussion about bullet-filled hookers. If neither of those interest you, then may I ask why the hell you’re visiting this site?
Comments: 0
Interview for 4 Color Rebellion and Ramblings
19:16 | 2006/02/11
Derek, Alec, and I just finished an interview for 4 Color Rebellion for I’m OK. Phil wasn’t around for it, unfortunately, because it was a little bit impromptu. Anyway, it should be up on their site within a short while.
Things are starting to get back to normal after the craziness of last week. The whole Thompsonsoft team was ecstatic that there was so much positive support for the game. After Jack Thompson had faded from the spotlight somewhat, we decided we still wanted to release the game, if only as an entertaining shoot’em-up. We ended up getting the kind of attention we thought we had given up by taking four months to develop the game. The game has done what we originally intended and has been a huge success, not just for us, but for groups of four bored, indie game designers everywhere. I’d also like to think that we’ve done something to support the indie game scene and support free speech rights. Most importantly I hope we gave Jack Thompson just enough attention to make an even bigger buffoon out of himself. Although some want to simply ignore him, that’s not going to get rid of him and other people like him. Ignoring him will just allow him to go unopposed. People who enjoy video games need to be able to intelligently defend against the ridiculous attacks he makes because that’s what will truly make him go away.
People like Jack Thompson like to think of themselves as an underdog against some huge conspiracy to destroy their values (Do I need to point out his new website jackandgoliath.com?) but they don’t realize they’ve become a bully in this situation. He has already demonstrated, on numerous occasions, that he does not want a reasonable debate on the subject. The discussion of video game violence has been brought down to an infantile level by him because he seems to only see things in black and white. Jack Thompson = Good. Video games = evil. Anyone who’s read his press releases knows his views on video games are skewed beyond reason. This makes him a dangerous person to be spearheading the anti-video game violence movement because he has destroyed any ounce of legitimacy for the movement, in the eyes of gamers. There is nothing wrong with someone wishing there were less violence in video games (provided one isn’t trying to pass a law to censor it). Even wanting more strict enforcement of ESRB ratings is a reasonable position, although I, personally, feel it gets a little near restricting free speech. That is not really what the debate is about, though.
Thompson recently attributed the rampage of an 18 year old in Massachusetts to video games, declaring their evil influence over teenagers. Although the influence of video games on the killings has been widely debunked, this reveals the true nature of his stance. He’s literally fighting against video games as a medium, because there is no law that could be passed, given the first amendment, that would have prevent an 18 year old from being able to buy a violent video game.
I wish there could be a more intelligent debate about video game violence, because as much as I am personally against censorship, there are legitimate points to be made by those who seek to enforce ratings more thoroughly. I also wish the video game industry could wean itself off violence as the sole draw for a game, as ironic as that may sound coming from the mouth of the programmer of I’m OK. Video games are not a terribly new medium anymore but they seem to be a stuck in a perpetual adolescence, finding too much fascination in the gruesome and the titillating. Violence and sex are easy ways to shock and entertain but I think gamers are becoming jaded by their overuse.
There are perfectly legitimate ways to use these elements to further a story but most big-budget “M” rated games rely solely on these elements, leaving little in which to become emotionally invested. I’d like to see more games that involve a larger emotional spectrum. The average gamer is not a teenager anymore but games are often still dumbed down to appeal to young adolescents. Why can’t games be more respectful to their largely adult audience and stop talking down to them? Some might think of this as sacrificing fun for some higher artistic principle but I think more emotional investment would actually make games more fun and more widely appealing. Games like The Sims have garnered a huge audience because they weren’t simply appealing to the stereotypically male values of independence, aggression, and emotional repression. Among male gamers, The Sims seems to be a game one should feel embarrassed to enjoy, as if it’s emasculating to play a game that doesn’t involve guns and copious amounts of blood. The industry should learn from that example and stop pumping out so much self-described “gun porn” which obviously has limited appeal among the potential gaming audience, especially in terms of getting more female players. Not that there can’t be games like that, because I certainly enjoy them on occasion, but they seem to be highly overrepresented in the industry.
With all that talk against so much violence in games, I should probably address the violence in I’m OK. I defend the violence in the game by attributing it to the mind of Jack Thompson and pointing out that it does serve a purpose beyond shock value. The violence in I’m OK is there to prove that the game will not prompt someone do any of the reprehensible things allowed in the game. We wanted to satirize the things that Jack Thompson apparently thought would inspire mindless, mimicked violence among video game players. The fact that one can urinate on a slain families’ brains is there to point out the ridiculousness of Thompson’s claims. Anyone of a sane mind can separate that which occurs on a screen and that which occurs in real life. Not that I have solid data on the matter, but I hazard to guess that rates of brain urination have not increased as a result of the release of I’m OK.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I think there’s a lot to say about the video game industry and its critics because it is not a simple, black and white issue. Hopefully I don’t sound like I’m spewing a bunch of pretentious bullshit, but I think there are problems on both sides of the video game violence debate which need to be addressed. So with that, I’ll get off my soapbox.
Comments: 6
TV
13:04 | 2006/02/08
The game was shown, for about 15-20 seconds, on G4TV’s Attack of the Show.
Phil says:
But.. I can put this on my resume. I mean, it’s an ACHIEVEMENT. That’s so… wow.
Felan says:
Yeah. “Helped conceptualize and design the most offensive game ever released.”
Comments: 1
More Attention than We Know How to Receive!
20:48 | 2006/02/07
Cody Williams, a fan of I’m O.K. made a video of him playing through the game, from opening logo to end credits. This was the first time I actually saw the ending, as I’ve not beat the final boss yet. If you don’t want to spoil the moments before you reach them in the game, you shouldn’t watch it.
Here’s what Cody had to say:
I am probably one of the biggest fans of I’m O.K., you guys did awesome work. Anyway, in reading comments on Digg a lot of people were saying they couldn’t play it, due to being on mac/linux or having technical issues. I felt that everyone needed to witness this game though, so I made a video of myself playing through it at put it on google video.
What could possibly be next?
Comments: 1
We’ve officially entered the annals of pseudo-history
12:57 | 2006/02/07
Yes, that’s right, Thompsonsoft now receives a paragraph in Jack Thompson’s Wikipedia article. I have no idea who added it but I salute them. They will surely influence history books for centuries to come.
The game is still making its way around various forums and game websites. I’m still amazed at how quickly it has spread with so little effort on our part. Derek posted the game to his website and put up the Thompsonsoft site(which was not even visible to google until yesterday). I posted the game to a couple of freeware/click sites, one of which hasn’t even posted the game. That was it. It just brings a little happy tear to my eye that people enjoy it so much as to post the link for others. Neither Penny Arcade or Blue’s News have picked up news on the game yet but seriously, I think I only care because those are basically the only gaming websites I regularly visit.
But really, let’s give credit where credit is due. Thank you, Jack Thompson. You sir, are a game designer genius. We owe it all to you!
Comments: 3
Spreading like wildfire!
01:21 | 2006/02/05
The whole Thompsonsoft team has been flattered and suprised at how quickly I’m OK has been spreading around the internet. It’s shown up in the forums on Penny Arcade and Something Awful, as well as numerous blogs and gaming sites.
We’re also actually getting visitors to the Leaky Pig website as a result of all the attention. Yes, indeed, our little counter at the bottom actually has to do some tallying.
So, since we’re getting so many new visitors I just thought I’d say welcome and I hope you enjoy the other games in our thoroughly extensive (yes, all two others) catalogue. We’ll keep updating as we get linked on more sites. I’ve got my sites on Blues News and Penny Arcade front pages at the moment. Anyway, please spread the link around if you enjoy the game and perhaps we can even get enough attention to warrant a response from our idol Jack Thompson! And by “response” I, of course, mean a lawsuit! (Not serious Jacky, we love you!)
Comments: 20
Thompsonsoft Kills Competition
19:23 | 2006/02/04
Thompsonsoft, a company comprised of Derek Yu, Chris, Alec Holowka, Doomie, and I, just released I’m OK. It’s a hit! Even VG Cats commented on it. The ultimate goal, of course, is to get Penny Arcade to notice, and that doesn’t seem to be too far off, judging by the speed this has travelled thus far.
Go download it now!
Comments: 7