Releasing a game is pretty exhausting, especially one that you’ve put a lot of yourself into. So I made the unusual decision (for me, anyway) to take some time off from creating things. I’ve had time to reflect on the game, be thankful for the many glowing reviews, and write a mini postmortem for the IGDA newsletter.

And now, I’m ready to start looking ahead again. As it turns out, I’ve got lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. :}

First, there was the glorious news that Puzzle Bots was selected for the PAX 10, out of more than 100 entrants. I honestly thought we were a long shot, but I hoped the punchline-based dialog would click with the Penny Arcade judges. Whatever happened, we now get our own booth at the amazing PAX conference, and I get to go to Seattle for the first time. Man…I’m so glad I took that chance with Dave’s entrance fee.

Secondly, with the help of Scott Roberts of DePaul University, we’ve started poking at the embers of the Chicago indie games scene. So far we’ve had two meetings of “Indie City Games” (I knew we’d find a great pun, I just knew). Next month we’re hosting our first game jam, and I see good and pixelated things in the future.

Third up, there’s the 3G Summit, where I was invited to be one of 5 panelists (the others are industry notables Mary Flanagan, Tracy Fullerton, Jennifer Jenson, and Susana Ruiz). The premise won me over: I get to spend a day working with 10 high school girls to design a video game. The other panelists all do the same, which means 50 girls get to participate. The winning design of the 5 gets made into a real game by a group of Columbia College students (it’s their final project).

As far as I’m concerned, it’s high-stakes game design boot camp, which sounds like entirely too much fun. Plus, I’ll have the chance to tell these young women personally that if they want to pursue a career in games, they “totes” can.

And maybe if they’re lucky I’ll tell them some long, rambling stories about my marching band days.

Posted in Games, I love my job, Miscellany | 4 Comments »

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to NYC to relax, go to the Puzzle Bots release party, and hang out with some of my favourite games people.

And also Anthony, from Bytejacker.

Believe it or not, this hug took three takes.

I only kid, Anthony is a wonderful person. But he figured out a long time ago that it sure is a lot funnier if he pretends to be an idiot on camera. And so, I practically subpoena you to check out this week’s Bytejacker. I talk a bit about the game, but mostly put up with with Anthony’s hijinx. See if you can spot the parts where I’m not acting.

The episode will hook you up with a wicked-sweet coupon code that knocks the price of the game down by $5. There’s never been a better time to buy the game. Just sayin’!

Posted in Games, Interviews, Puzzle Bots | 1 Comment »

Oh hey! I hate to be the one who’s a few days late to this party, but:

PUZZLE BOTS IS DONE!

Head on over to the Wadjet Eye Games website to check out some new screenshots, a plot synopsis, and even our free demo. There are also some rather aww-inspiring press quotes that are coming in daily.

I couldn’t be happier with the reception the game is getting. I’ll have more to say on this soon, but for now, I’m going to take a much-needed vacation. Thanks to everyone for your support and mad robot love. :}

~Erin

Posted in Games, Puzzle Bots | 4 Comments »

If you’re in the media and you would like a free advance copy of Puzzle Bots, let me know! (I’m @livelyivy on the twitter).

Posted in Games, Puzzle Bots | No Comments »

So I’ve got bad news and great news. Bad news first: Puzzle Bots is delayed, but only until May 7th. To use Dave Gilbert’s words, “We want to be super-extra sure that this game is as perfect as it can be, and the extra testing time will be well worth it.” I don’t think super-extra is a word, but you get the drift.

And here is the great news: If you preorder the game, you get some amazingly rad bonus art done by some of my favourite illustrators. But only until May 7th! And man, you’re not going to believe this lineup:

Hero by Heriberto Martinez, developer of the upcoming game Shades of Violet.

Ultrabot by Harvey James, creator of delicious illustrations for Kotaku, attractmo.de, Vice Magazine, and like a billion other things.

Kelvin by Kevin “Kevbot” Merritt, illustrator, comics artist, and visual merchandizer extraordinaire.

Ibi by David Hellman, illustrator of the comic A Lesson is Learned and a little game called Braid.

Bomchelle by Jess Fink, creator of the fantastic (though NSFW) comic Chester 5000 XYV, and some of the most popular Threadless shirts to date.

To my unending joy and amazement, each of the artists above donated their work to the game. It was especially humbling, as they all use their creative work to earn some or all of their living. Each of the robot portraits sampled above are unlocked as you go through the game, although they are only displayed at the game resolution.

But! If you preorder the game, you get all of their gorgeous high-res art. Plus, you’ll get the full poster art for the game, and an older retro-style poster that we commissioned from background artist John Green. This is your only chance to get the Bonus Art Pack, so if you were thinking of buying the game, now’s a good time!

Posted in Games, Puzzle Bots | 1 Comment »

Ladies and gents, we have set the release date for Puzzle Bots as April 30! It’s almost time to break out the cigars.

The majority of what’s left is bug-fixing, which is not my department. Effectively, I’m just pacing a hole in the carpet like the dad in an old cartoon waiting for the stork to show up.

Once the game goes gold, I’ll be contacting all the names on my “Indie-Friendly Media” list and sending them a copy of the game. If you want to be on the list, let me know! And if you happen to like retrofuture-themed adventure games, do please come back on the 30th! I wasn’t kidding about those cigars.

Posted in Games, Puzzle Bots | 4 Comments »

Given the state of my nerves at the moment, I’d say that the big day has finally arrived. But for the uninitiated:

THE IGF AWARDS ARE STREAMING LIVE TONIGHT(!)

I think that anyone with an interest or a stake in the future of independent games should watch the awards. Also, anyone dissatisfied with the selection of games at retail stores. Or anyone who suspects that video games have an insane amount of potential as a medium, if only someone could figure out how to tap into that. This awards show is for you.

For my part, I’ll be the one on stage handing out awards to people far more talented than me. I’m co-hosting the awards with Kyle Gabler, who designed World of Goo. I haven’t made my World of Goo yet. But together, we did write a bunch of lame jokes that we hope somebody laughs at.

See you all tonight!

Posted in GDC, I love my job | 8 Comments »

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an indie game dev, boy do I have some slides for you!

These are from my presentation at Indiecade about the fantasy vs. reality of indie game development. They were for a Pecha Kucha-style talk, where each slide was shown for a few seconds before advancing automatically. Most of the other presenters talked about their games, but I misread the instructions and made a presentation about myself. Hope you like it!

And yes, these are all true stories.

Posted in Comics, I love my job | 19 Comments »

You guys!

G4TV’s Electric Playground was kind enough to interview me for a segment about Puzzle Bots. We shot it last July, and it just aired this week. Check it on out! (You might have to wait a few days, if you’re in Canada).

You’re looking at some anime-grade hair shellac, on my part.

Meeting Donna and Leland (the tireless camera guy), was a wonderful experience. They managed to quell my anxieties a bit, even though I hadn’t been on camera since TVO Kids had an open house (hi Ontario).

They even took me out for cake after the shoot, which was like a birthday, but better. It was like a birthday where you get a year younger instead, and then 7 million people watch you talk about pixelated robots because it’s your job.

Posted in Interviews, Puzzle Bots | 5 Comments »

This is Slide 7 from my presentation about the fantasy vs. reality of indie game development:

Slide 9 is about asking your parents for money.

As you may have guessed, I frequently get asked questions about women, women who play video games, women who make video games, and the depictions of women in video games by predominantly male game developers. My immediate reaction is usually something like, “Buhhhh…”

Because, as I see it, anyone who knows how to attract more women to video games (and game development), has already done so and is making a killing at it. I certainly don’t know “what women want” in a video game. In fact, the subject of “what women want” is so fraught with peril that there is an Arthurian legend about it.

However, this is my recent attempt to make sense of that very question, in an interview by Igor Hardy. It sums up what I’ve come to believe about women and games, and I hope it makes sense to my readers at home.

IH: Game design jobs are still pretty much dominated by men. Do you feel that it shows in the games themselves? Are there any concepts that you think would be great to turn into games, but are either completely missed or misunderstood by the male game designers?

ER: I think everyone wants to know why females are underrepresented in both the gamer and game developer communities. But it’s important to remember that even though women make up a smaller percentage, there are still millions and millions of them buying games. So rather than listing specific examples of what I think games are “missing”, I’m going to explain why I think the types of games we play, and the face of game development, is going to change. Warning: anecdote ahead.

When I first told my parents that I wanted to make games for a living, they were very supportive of my decision. My dad saw it as a great opportunity, and he gave me some advice that I’ve taken to heart. He told me that historically, as women became more influential in the decisions involved in buying a house, or buying a car, it led to more women choosing jobs in real estate and car sales. Women could better predict which features of a house or car would appeal to a woman. And I do believe the same thing will happen in game development as more women begin to love games. There are also a good deal of female game developers (particularly in the indie scene) if you know where to look.

As an addendum, here is where to look:

Auntie Pixelante (a.k.a. Anna Anthropy): Indie game developer who specializes in low-fi masocore games like Mighty Jill Off and When Pigs Fly.

Auriond: Founder of Team Effigy, which recently released horror adventure game The Marionette.

Barbara “Babsi” Lippe: Developer and visual artist for Papermint, one of the cutest virtual worlds known to science.

Brenda Brathwaite: Published author and industry veteran, who has worked on more titles than I can list here. I include her on my list of indie devs because of her controversial game Train, among other things.

Cindy Poremba: Member of Kokoromi, lecturer at Montreal’s Concordia University, and documentary videogame maker.

Emily Short: Renowned interactive fiction author, with more than 15 titles to her name (Including the award-winning Galatea). She also wrote the story for the devilishly addictive word game Clockwords, in which I’m already at level 38.

FionaSarah: Freelance web developer by trade, she created the exploration-based Ludum Dare game Scavenger. It was written in Python and it’s about space, so you might feel a nerd-swoon coming on.

Girlflash (a.k.a Sophie Houlden): Maker of the brain-bending Boxgame and highly amusing Linear RPG.

Kellee Santiago: Co-founder of thatgamecompany, which created the stellar PS3 title Flower.

KinokoFry (a.k.a. Rebecca Clements): Accomplished cartoonist and creator of the offbeat adventure game Cirque de Zale.

moboid (a.k.a. Heather Kelley): Founding member of Kokoromi, Montreal’s art/games collective responsible for the Gamma events.

Nanananini (a.k.a. Janina Szkut): Developer for Book Oven, a text-editing site with social gaming elements.

Polycube (a.k.a. Anna): Game design student and creator of cool flash toys like play with my heart.

Robin Hunicke: Game designer and producer, currently working for thatgamecompany.

Supershigi (a.k.a. Laura Shigihara): Wrote that promo song for Plants vs. Zombies (you know the one) and is also working on an adventure/RPG called Melolune.

And we didn’t all spend high school study hall designing text adventures. Just some of us.

Posted in Games, Interviews | 7 Comments »