Gamasutra, DIYGamer, IndieGameMag, Develop

San Francisco, CA, (April 12th 2012) - Partiers unite, Ironzilla announces that Super Ski Runner will release as a “Pay What You Want” game for PC and Mac to fulfill your shuffling and raving needs. Super Ski Runner is a simple euphoric experience — at it’s core you collect pills to stay alive, and avoid the dancing trees and rocks. Dancing trees and rocks? Don’t forget there’s also blaring colorful lights and trance-like music. And then there’s the speed — the game becomes more challenging the longer you last. Think of it as Ski Free meets Bit.Trip Runner.

Super Ski Runner boasts power ups, achievements, unlockable hats, online high scores, and for those willing to donate $5 or more comes the Gold version: 5 secret characters, a digital soundtrack album, an HD wallpaper, Rager Mode, a special extras section, plus your name on the Super Ski Runner web page.

John Funtanilla, the developer of the game and founder or Ironzilla, says, “Originally, I was in talks with several publishers for Super Ski Runner. However many either needed the pills changed and the graphics toned down, or simply didn’t want to take on such a suggestive game. Super Ski Runner just wouldn’t be the same anymore.”

Taking inspiration from business models like indie art game Proun and the Humble Indie Bundle,  John decided to go his own route and find a way so that everyone could play Super Ski Runner the way it was intended, with the hopes that people who love it would support Ironzilla by donating what the game is worth to them.

“The original Ski Runner had a huge and very enthusiastic fan base,” John says. “I knew that with Super Ski Runner, I had a gem, and publishing it as a watered down version would be doing them injustice. It’s a game made to lift you up when you’re feeling down. I want everyone to experience it.”

What better way to enjoy 4/20 than to enlighten yourself by playing Super Ski Runner?

More About Super Ski Runner:

Website: http://www.ironzilla.com/SSR

Trailer: http://youtu.be/G-Ba3JXnDQ4

About Ironzilla:

Ironzilla consists of a one man army, and talented project teams. Games have been our chosen medium for creative expression since 2009, with the design philosophy that simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. Our mission is to create fun imaginative games that anyone can pick up and play for Mac, PC, Flash, and iOS.

Press Release Package:

http://www.ironzilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/SuperSkiRunnerPack1.zip

I found myself enjoying this April Fools joke and scrolling and zooming the map to see if I could find any hidden land marks. The pixel graphics are charming and it just feels like you’re in an RPG world. Make sure to check it out while it’s still up!

Here’s a whole world view:

And here’s San Francisco!

Game Developer’s Conference 2012

I went to GDC (Game Developer’s Conference), and it was pure euphoria. But first, I have to give a special thanks to Aaron (IGN) for connecting me with Steve (Adult Swim). Luck was on my side, and Steve hooked my friend and I up with GDC passes! Both are great guys, and I’ve been trying to pay the karma forward as much as possible.

Back to GDC. It was cray, and please say that in a Kanye West voice. It lasted the whole first week of March and I got to meet developers and entrepreneurs alike, attended lectures by industry veterans, and overall just went on a grand adventure looking at all the cool stuff.

Quick tips for GDC Noobs like myself

- Don’t you dare forget your business cards: The first sin when attending  a networking event. The ability to exchange your information quickly and efficiently is key, especially with all the handshaking you’ll be doing. It’s not what you know, who you know, but who knows you.

- Bring your computer if you’re a developer: People want to see what you’re up to. They want to see how you express your ideas. But mostly, they want to see if you’re talented. They’ll take you more seriously when they see that you’re not all talk, that you’re here to FSU. You never know who you might be showing your game to — a gamer, a developer, a producer, a publisher, an investor? I made a mistake of not bringing mine when I met a key player who I thought could provide input or take the game in a direction I never could myself — business wise and creative wise. If not, at least have footage of the gameplay on your phone or have a trailer of your game’s features. Seeing is believing.

- Don’t think, just do: In a networking event, it’s scary talking to someone you don’t know. Especially if that person just gave a lecture about how awesome they are to five hundred people, or how they made wads of cash.  What’s more important is that they know you exist. These guys can help you out, but they’re always on the go. If you can’t think of something to say to them, don’t let them slip your grasp. Just go up to them. Do it before you never see them again. Do it before your mind can say no. Even if you embarrass yourself — the person will find your humility almost comforting.  If you want to avoid this whole ordeal, know what you’re looking for before entering the playing field. A developer? A partner? A co-founder? The bathroom? Remember, GDC is a place where closed mouths starve fast.

- Be a Lego: You can’t be the one always trying to network. Connect people together! People will appreciate that you hooked up Bob the artist with Joe the programmer. Or Mark with the great idea and Parker the investor. Because someday in the future they’re gonna remember you and shower you with money (not really be you get what I mean).

- Understand the Map: Because you’ll miss a whole half of the conference like we did. Yes, GDC consists of more than one massive building. What the hell is West Hall? Why not name it West Building That’s Across The Street With An Entrance In a Hidden Location Leading To An Underground Fortress Of Stuff More Amazing Than That First Building You Just Came From.

Indie Game The Movie

We watched a special screening of Indie Game: The Movie. It’s about the hardships and struggles indie game developers go through just to make their dreams come true. As a game developer, not only can you feel for them, but you almost feel as if you ARE them. Sacrificing so much because you believe in your cause, your vision, and your dreams. It featured people like Phil Fish, the Super Meat Boy team, and Jonathan Blow. All very talented game developers, and made somewhat famous from the movie. For those not familiar with the indie scene, Indie Game: The Movie is like Rocky for developers. Or Pursuit of Happyness. Very inspiring.

IGN Decompression

The Legendary Halo Room at IGN

Went to a GDC after party at IGN with my buddy Aaron. Surprisingly, they know how to get down. I met with a bunch of indie game developers from IGN’s web series The Next Game Boss, a dev from Frozenbyte (creators of Trine), the creator of the very successful indie game Q.U.B.E., and what do you know…the musical composer for Angry Birds, Ari Pulkkinen! He’s the most listened to composer right now since Angry Birds has been downloaded over 300 million times. Did the usual handshaking here and collection of business cards.

Yetizen

Went to a Yetizen networking event at the Parimosa Innovation Labs. Man these guys mean business. I met so many talented entrepreneurs, developers, and the founders themselves. One of which told me I had the crappiest business card he’s ever seen. Thanks Japheth! And thanks Fedex! And thanks creative business card online that I copied the template from. But really, I found it so memorable and hilarious. Now we’re setting up a meeting some time soon so I can tell him more about my current project. They’re great people, and believe me, these guys are super connectors. Like Lego land connectors. They told me about their Yetizen Accelerator, in which they basically put you in hell for 3 months, pummeling you with knowledge from industry veterans, and connect you to all the resources and people you can imagine. When you come out of it, you’re basically ready to fight the world one on one. And take your start up to a whole new level.

Projects

I have a bunch of projects lined up, but I’ve never been so focused. Prepare to get pissed off too because I’m not gonna tell you any of them in detail:

- I spent my entire spring break compiling a business plan for a future project. About 40 pages in I realized what I really wanted to make was a deck (aka a pitch, something you show an investor). Either way, I killed two birds with one stone. This is for a future project, currently in stealth until everything is prepared and we’re ready to start development (hopefully by mid April). It involves devices with “i” in it, Ironzilla’s fan base, YOU, and a talented team comparable to Seal Team 6. It’ll be my biggest endeavor yet, but the most rewarding.

- Marketing part of the first project. But this is a project that’s so massive it’ll have to be it’s own project. It involves Kickstarter, gaining exposure / hyping our product, Youtube, and taking over the world. I have a really good team for this so I’m looking forward to what they can do.

- Got something really cool brewing with IGN! But of course I can’t tell you what it is [NDA alert].

- Still in talks with a big publisher for Super Ski Runner. Looking forward to the outcome of this. If it turns out good, it’ll be my biggest win yet. I have my fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading this month’s recap. If you made it this far, high five and congratulations. Stay tuned!

Peace!

- John

So I’m the big Two One now, as of February 22nd!

We’re supposed to not remember our 21st birthday. But no thanks, I live for the moments I can’t forget! First few things I did:

Had a nice dinner with awesome people, and attended a networking event in San Francisco at the Grand Night Club (GAME) with over 720+ attendees ranging from entrepreneurs, game developers, venture capitalists, angel investors, CEO’s, — you name it you got it. It was such a thrilling experience networking and chopping it up with so many brilliant people, and doing it with my close knit crew was an adventure in itself.

I even met the creator of Kongregate, Jim Greer. Jim freakin Greer. I’ve seen Kongregate grow from a new website, from beta, to a thriving community of developers. It’s where I first got my feet wet in the world of game development. I was so star struck I forgot to take a picture with him (insert sad face).

I met up with whom I call my mentor Aaron, and he even got a round of drinks for my crew and I as a birthday gift. Not to mention how much of a super connector he is, he introduced me to a bunch of his friends in the industry. A very genuine guy.

This is a very special day for me. Thank you all who have been a part of it, and thank you for supporting Ironzilla! Anyways, I know how exciting the future is but I should really get some sleep now.

- John

Sorry for being so stealthy lately and not posting updates on the game, but I’ve been extremely busy (and I thought I couldn’t get any busier). I’m putting the final touches on the game, and I hope to have it to you ladies and gents by the end of the month while it’s still winter.

Enjoy the screenshots, with graphics / animation done by Jimp, and professional art done by Mike Puncekar. They’re very talented and passionate about the work they do.

On another note, 2012 is looking to be an amazing year, even if all the amazingness is the cause of all my busyness. I’ve met some great people, am starting to get to know the SF game community more, and I’m dabbling in iOS development — currently with the Corona SDK for a huge project. I’m hoping to attend more networking events, and meet more like-minded individuals — maybe even be able to form a team this year!

Check back in a bit!

- John

The crazy color palette couldn’t been seen from a screencast so I decided to record it on my iPhone instead.

Testing out the Rocket Power Up. Most of the things are placeholders, but the game is coming along great!

Enter the Omega Box

My first game of 2011, Omega Box, surprisingly was a huge hit. I intended it to be a small project just to flex some brain and muscle, but it ended up racking 1,000,000 plays. It was also featured on Kotaku, JayIsGames, IndieGamesChannel, and for the first time I got on the front page of Kongregate and NewGrounds, a great achievement for any flash game developer. Much thanks to AddictingGames for licensing and publishing.

The Zombie Apocalypse

Zombocalypse — The best project I’ve yet to work on! I loved working on the new mechanics, and doing all the sound design — I’m very meticulous not only about small details but that the sound is good enough to immerse the player in the world I’ve created. I worked with the very talented Apatheria who did the infamous voice acting for when you pick up weapons, and Mike Puncekar who just blew everyone away with his artwork, and much thanks to Dan for publishing and licensing Zombocalypse into the ArmorGames pantheon.

This game was the pinnacle of IronZilla’s brand, racking up over 3 million+ plays, being featured as the daily and weekly game for NewGrounds (and winning various trophies) and reviewed by JayisGames, hitting frontpage on Kongregate, bringing in over 5,000 likes to IronZilla’s Facebook page, and spreading like wildfire everywhere else. It’s hard to fathom that I created a game that received this amount of love.

Professionalism

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever done has to be pledging and crossing into a professional business fraternity, AKPsi. It’s more of an organization than a fraternity, as people confuse fraternities with hazing, parties, alcohol, etc. All of that is illegal, since it compromises being professional and composed.

I had to keep a professional demeanor at all times, prepare and partake in interviews under a high pressure environment, give speeches and presentations, and manage and interact with groups of people to set up events. This definitely polished my business game, and allowed me to grow in confidence with my leadership abilities. To me, it’s important to be a good developer, but you’ll also need to be business savvy.

A great amount of sacrifice, determination, commitment, lack of sleep, and energy drinks pretty much sums it up! (Big thanks to my brother from another mother Steven Dizon for really urging me to go through with the pledging process)

And Some Goals…

I have a bunch of personal goals, but here’s some I’d like to achieve for IronZilla:

- Make 3-4 games this year, and 1 big sellable game
- Make a connection with the 5,200+ fans on our Facebook page. I’d like to get to know you guys more as John, and not just as some developer who makes these crazy games!
- Keep frequently posting on IronZilla.com, at least 1-2 times a week
- Grow IronZilla’s fan base, and expand the brand
- Set up more collaborations with talented people
- Attend The Flash Game Summit, and if by some kind of divine miracle, attend GDC.

And a BFTY!

Thank you all for supporting me and IronZilla (obviously since you’re reading this post), as well as the 5,200 fans on our Facebook page. It’s been a pleasure, let’s make 2012 awesome!

- John

Yesterday I was on campus at San Francisco State University from 8:30am until 10:30pm. The sad thing is, that’s how most days are for me – with some days far worse. I’m a full time college student, I work for myself and run my own business, and I’m pledging for a professional business fraternity which in itself takes up an extraordinary amount of time, but an investment worth having if it means I’m to become a more polished and better leader.

Simply put, my life is not easy. Nor do I choose for it to be easy. In fact, I believe to reach our full potential, we have to push ourselves past our limits, past our comfort zone. Only then, can we see what we are capable of, and only then can we see how much further we can go.

This is what Steve Jobs did. I read a biography of his life, titled iCon, back in high school. I’ve been a die hard fan ever since. He and Woz were relentless in the pursuit of their dreams. They’d work late into the night — wake up, code, eat, knock out, repeat. Sleep wasn’t an option. Failure didn’t exist. And obstacles were ran over. This kind of work ethic, this kind of passion, truly inspired me, and put my own drive  in perspective. Whenever I thought my life was hard, I’d think how easy it was compared to Steve Jobs. By now you all know who the man is, what he has accomplished, and why his life is so monumental.

Thanks Steve for being an inspiration to not only me, but for countless others. Your story was an extraordinary one, and you proved that from one vision, an empire can be fostered and the world could be changed.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

- John

Download your template here for Flash CS4: http://www.mediafire.com/?0xlcxrgjch1lm4k

Hopefully this is something that can be used as a standard and professionally by the Flash dev community. Of course the ESRB rating is a placeholder for our own type of ratings (it’s most likely illegal to use it) but hopefully we can also set up a rating system, in support of FGL. I know NewGrounds has a rating system (teen, mature, everyone, etc) that should be able to be used on the box.

> John

*puts feet up on desk*

*puts feet back down*

What an awesome vacation, time to get back to work. The next project in development is pretty epic. Not epic as in “OMG 100+ hours of play, millions of weapons, punch enemies in the face and they die -”, but epic as in “This is what all you IronZilla fans have been waiting for.” And apologies for not remaking and perfecting it until now. Major hint right there.

I’ll be working with renown flash animator / artist Jimp on this project, with hit games under his belt like Sushi Cat, Elephant Quest, Zomgies 1 + 2, The Lance, and more. I saw his artwork, and I automatically knew his style was the one! (Glad to have you on board Jimp!).

[Elephant Quest developed by Jmtb02 and Jimp, produced by ArmorGames]

A Zombo Postmortem is due in the near future, explaining what went right, what went wrong, and the development of it all, from conception to product. The project team was extremely talented, and I’ll give Mike and Apatheria a round of applause in advance – great work guys! I’d love to post  it asap, but I’ll have to test my patience so I can get the statistics right when Zombo has gone 100% viral.

I’ll also be working on another project, with the latter involving destroying cities from space. Doesn’t that sound fun?

That’s all ladies and gents! Now, don’t hate me for disclosing absolutely nothing about our next few projects save for a few tid bits here and there. Come back soon for enlightement :]

> John

9/ 19: To celebrate hitting 1,000 Facebook fan page likes, getting a review on JayIsGames, and getting the Daily Feature award and front page feature on NewGrounds, some new cheat codes have been released!

9 / 11: The latest version has been updated on ArmorGames. To play the latest version, you’ll have to erase the cookies / cache then refresh your browser. Sorry everyone, this will delete your saved game. Use the cheats below to recoup your experience even faster.

Secret Cheat Codes

Most of you have found this secret section, kudos to you! If not, then keep looking, it’s really in plain sight. Type in the cheat codes all in lowercase, and click activate to use them.

valkyrie – Kill Combo sets to 100, giving you the Attack Chopper (Once per round)
pantheon – GodHand equipped (Once per round)
doom – MFG equipped (Once per round)
rambo – Minigun equipped (Once per round)
adrenaline – Fully heal your health (Once per round)
super saiyan – +3000 exp points (Once per game)
i am legend – Start the round at 3,000 kills (once per round, no experience gain)

ijohnf – Equip John’s head (restart the round to equip)
wtf – Equip The All Seeing Eye (restart the round to equip)
zombified – Equip Zombie Walker head (restart the round to equip)
team meat – Equip Super Meat Boy head (restart the round to equip)

There are still more cheat codes and head unlocks to come in updates to this post!

HD Wallpapers

These are illustrations handcrafted and made available by the very talented Mike Puncekar. You may have seen him on Kotaku featured for his infamous realistic Super Mario series.

Menu Art: 1780×1024   http://www.mediafire.com/?ng1xoxrlo5iyviu

Game Introduction Art: 1790 x 1024 http://www.mediafire.com/?97kt075u66wdp5y

Come back soon for more extras!

- John

The next few updates will be very important, as we’ll be releasing a teaser image of our next project, and some cheat codes for Zombocalypse. Yeahhh, cheat codes. You love us.

Anyways, check it out tomorrow, and thank you in advance for rating it a 10/10.

> John

FGL Review Information: