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Tycho

Okay.

I know that I said that Continuity was over, and then I delivered a backhand to those who leverage its dark power, and here we are today with another Goddamned comic strip that slothfully utilizes a knowledge of prior events to create context and synthesize linear time.  It’s an act of creative cowardice and I’m deeply ashamed. 

The problem is the deep crow though, which we are still obsessed with for some reason after implying its existence last year in the long dormant convex of Power Dome A.  Roosting low where no wind can reach, its clutch of bible-black eggs are warmed by tireless geothermal pumps.  Apparently we weren’t the only ones drawn to this beaked horror, nestled at the corner of Bug St. and Bird Avenue:  here are the stats, if you’d like to roll him into your next campaign. 

I purposefully don’t talk about Rock Band on the site anymore, because when I do I either end up espousing some kind of utopian future, or relating the minutia of a life devoted to the rocking act.  I don’t know that it’s any better than what I usually do, but if you are going to read the site, sigh, and then leave in anger, I want you to do it for a different reason each time.   

The new store is nice, though.  It can’t handle Background Downloads, at least on the 360, which would improve it further.  In general, though, it’s hard to imagine that people ever made do without this new kiosk.  Like chewing leather to make it soft, buying songs the old way may still hold some cache for the DIY set.  In general this new system is worth celebrating. 

To give you an idea about the development process, this kind of in-game storefront was something I saw announced at a GameFest panel in 2006, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone use it on the 360.  Those tools are changing all the time, for all platforms, and I just happen to know about this particular thing because I went into the wrong room two years ago.  I wonder what else is buzzing around in these APIaries.

(CW)TB out. 

  tomorrow, somewhere

Gabe

Sakura-con is coming up in just about a week and Tycho and I will be there as usual. We’ll be doing a panel on Friday at 2:30 and we’ll have a bunch of our new shirts at the booth. You should swing by and say hi if you’re in the area.

Early bird registration for PAX (the only man made convention viewable from space) ends on the 31st which is only ten days away. We’re already getting game independent game submissions for the PAX 10 which is great considering how early it is. We’ll be taking submissions until May 7th and the top 10 will be presented at PAX. For all the details and rules for submitting your game hit the PAX 10 site. Also, if you have something interesting to say to the PAX audience or you know someone who does please hit the panel/speaker submission page and drop us a line.

Earlier this week we announced the return of the Penny Arcade scholarship. This is our second year doing it and I really enjoy the process. Sifting through the candidates and choosing one is ridiculously hard but I feel like the end result is something pretty special. Basically we want you to tell us how you plan on making an impact in the game industry. We’ll give the winning student a $10,000 scholarship. You can get all the details and application forms on the official site located here.

As a funny aside, I actually misspelled scholarship both times I wrote it up there. Turns out there is an "a" in it. Who knew. Anyway, that seemed sort of ironic to me.


-Gabe out