I finally had a chance to rework a bunch of recycle. I rewrote all of the graphics exporters since a lot of the old Carbon calls are no longer supported in Lion. I also improved the 'CURS' and 'crsr' exporting so that it now provides the bitmap/pixmaps and masks separately from the alpha combined version. This makes for much better output for cursors that were leveraging the xor functionality of the masks. I am also outputting 'CLUT' and 'pltt' resources.

The new version is only available on the Mac App Store. If you paid for a previous version, then shoot me an email via the contact page here and I'll send you a code to get the new version from the store for free.

Yes, CO2 is still being worked on. The team had to taking a quick paying gig to keep the creditors at bay, but we are back at it now.

We have also been getting a ton of fan mail and offers to help. This kind of feedback really gets up psyched up to get this out the door! We will be revealing plans shortly on how folks can help us out with the project, it should be pretty exciting.

We also want to help the Chaos Overlords community get to know each other and have a direct line to the team, so we caved in to all this social networking crap and started a Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, go there and join the fun!

So, in the process of getting Chaos Overlords stuff together, I found that I needed to extract some resources from the original application (which came out in 1996). If you know anything about development for the MacOS previous to X, then you know that applications stored their icons, pictures, cursor, sounds and other stuff in a resource fork. The concept of a resource fork has been all but eliminated in MacOS X and the tools to work with them have faded away. And so, after a few days of research, hacking and reverse-engineering...out came "rezycle". Just drop an old app or resource file onto rezycle, and it will unpack all the resources and convert them into modern formats to boot. If this makes any sense to you, then you should click on the "code & tools" link on the left or just go straight to the rezycle page.

There have been a bunch of emails coming in that basically say "What the hell is up with CO2?!?" So, here is word on it:

THE TEAM IS TOGETHER AND CHAOS OVERLORDS 2 IS NOW IN ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT!
We have 3 people from the original team working on this, so I'm confident that we will be putting together a game worthy of the Chaos Overlords name.

I'll post updates as I hit milestones, but please don't ask me when it will be done as it will be done when it is good and ready.

I have been quiet for the last few weeks because I have had my nose to the grindstone working on a new project with the folks over at AppWagon and Heavenspot. We have just wrapped up the app, so look for it in the AppStore soon.

Basically, the app is a four track music mixer featuring the vocals of Ziggy Marley and music put together by Moxie Wanderlust. The app design was tackled by Chevon Hicks. I started by designing and building a custom audio engine and then ended up writing the entire app. Check it out, it is a lot of fun.

UPDATE: The app has gone live! Get it here!

We have been banging away on a 1.1 update for Goop on the iPhone recently. Added a new game mode and a couple more niceties. It has gone live on the iTunes store and you can find it here:

Dr Kerthunk's Goop

We also have a new little website put together for Dr. Kerthunk here:

Dr Kerthunk's Website

We are keeping the Dr. kerthunk site a little generic, because knowing Dr. Kerthunk, he will have another scheme for world domination soon.

Goop is a game in the same color-matching style as Same Game, Collapse, and quite a few others. We just took the time to make the game better than the rest.

Look for it soon in the iTunes App Store!

We also have a Mac OS X version close to completion. If there is sufficient interest from folks, we will be releasing that one soon also.

I have been getting many emails per week from folks wondering when Chaos Overlords 2 will be coming out. So, here is the status:

The design document is 90% done. I have all the primary game elements together. I still need to work on the UI design. I have some basic code together, but I am looking at changing how I handle the gangs, item and such. The original was purely stats driven, so it could make for some "special" interactions between items and gangs (like getting bonuses for giving a melee gang a melee weapon verses a ranged one). But in the new version, I am looking to make much more complex interactions possible.

I have recently put a new crew together and we are working on making some simpler products to help get a good working flow together as well as make some money so that we can make this a full time venture. We will be rolling onto CO2 soon, but not before I am certain that we will be able to build it just right. I have also talked to the original Chaos Overlords team, and we will probably have a good portion of the old team helping out as well. I think everyone will be digging the new version and I am anxious to get it out there.

The team has been hard at work on a project we have entitled Dr. Kerthunk's Goop. The initial release will be for the iPhone with a Mac version to follow up shortly thereafter. I'll post more about it very soon. For now, here is the logo to give you an idea of where we are going with it.

Things have been pretty busy around here. Since my last post, I spent the remainder of 2008 in negotiations with a company to build them a mobile games/apps division. While the job was interesting, I just couldn't see myself being a cog in someone else's machine again. I have never been good at playing 2nd fiddle.

So, I streamlined the mob a bit and rolled together a fun and very talented dev team. I temporarily put boogaloopers back on the shelf (I promise that it will be out sometime soon) and spent the last month working on a new title with the team. I'll post more about the game once the programmer art has been replaced with something that won't make people involuntarily vomit into their keyboards.

I have been cranking away for the last couple of weeks helping to finish off an iPhone project at Disney Interactive. It is looking pretty good and I wish the guys there the best with the project and whatever they may be up to afterwards.

I am going to plop myself on a plane to Hawai'i to spend thanksgiving week with my parents, siblings, niece and nephews. And friends of course. A little sun (hopefully), snorkeling and surf.

Afterwards, it is back to the grind. There is still a lot I want to accomplish this year, and time is running out.

Seems like more than a few people are wondering what I am doing. Well, I am not really one to keep my cards close to my chest, so here goes...

boogaloopers 2
I have decided to make an all new version of the Stick Man Games classic boogaloopers. It is actually coming along quite well. I could give you guys a timeframe as to when it will be done, but I know better than that.

Chaos Overlords 2
I started work on this almost 2 years ago now. Unfortunately, I had a personal issue that required me to shelve it for a bit. I am going to get back on it though...I promise.

Some friends and I also have a couple of designs that we are throwing around that look very promising. I'll be sure to post any progress and maybe some screen shots here as they become available.