“But wait John, what’s Gold? Why are you on the road to Gold? Why not be on the road to finishing the game?”

Ah, great question. For those not in the know (or not in the game industry) Gold basically means:

“Gold master is the final game’s build that is used as a master for production of the game.”
- Wikipedia

It means the game is finished and the Gold copy will be used as the final build for replication and retail sale. So yes, we are almost done with the game!

Idea + Vision + Action = Reality

As the designer and producer, I’m responsible for the vision and design of the game. So I make crap, and describe the hell out of what I envision for it, and my team makes it beautiful.

For example, they take my amazing sketches below (They’re my drawings, I can call them amazing if I want to!):

And turn them into this:

Or I attempt to design UI and describe it’s functions in words:

And they make the original look like it was done by a 7 year old:

What’s even more incredible is when I can only use words to describe what I want, and allow breathing room for the receiver to add in their own ideas. This means more back and forth, which equals more time, which equals more money, but it also means that I trust in my team to pull it off. And got damn do they pull it off. This is all I literally said to our illustrator Michael Kessler:

“Would you be able to do something similar to the attached concepts as well? It would be great to have the main character’s back and slight angle of his face to the player, with zombies coming from the front in an expansive city scape + with orange hues. The main character should be in the lower right of the main menu.

I’ve attached some concepts for reference, but ultimately I leave it up to you! The main menu art is very important at the entire portrayal of the game, so please pull out all the guns on this one ”
- John

And after a few revisions and approvals, this happened:

Michael Kessler, thank you my good sir.

Ultimately, working with teams all comes down to trust. Of course, I’d first find and recruit the creme de la creme, the cream of the crop, the potato cream. For the project teams I put together, they have to be talented, diligent in their work, and absolutely love what they do to the point where they’re just crazy. I’ll post about trust later this year when I reflect what it’s like to be in a producer / designer role.

Right now we’re pretty much almost at Gold and only have this much more to go:

• Achievements & achievements screen
• Map screen
• Costume selection menu
• Preloader
• Main Menu Screen (Options, Credits)
• Results screen
• Pause menu
• A few animation fixes
• Tutorial level
• Game flow
• Final Game Balance
• Global Online High Scores (cuz I know all you Zombocalypse fans are competitive)

I’ll be posting more updates as we go, with little leaks here and there of gameplay so keep checking in! For now, enjoy a snippet of Zombocalypse 2′s firepower. Have fun trying to figure out what the weapons are

Cheers!

John

I’ve been very fortunate to work with such a talented team. They work insanely fast and at times I find myself unable to keep up! So quick intro to our roles:

Meet The Zombocalypse 2 Team

You’ll also find this in the About section but whoever looks at that

John Funtanilla – Game Producer, Project Manager
Founder of Ironzilla, creator of Zombocalypse, visionary, notorious workaholic, and gatherer of talented people. Handles the business side of things as well as the design and direction of the project.

Chevy Ray Johnston – Lead Programmer
Veteran programmer and creator of the FlashPunk Engine (and soon to come ‘Flash Punk 2′), the Flash Game Dojo, and GameStorm. Specializes in Flash, Unity, and coding faster than light.

J-P – Lead Artist, Animator
From award winning indie game studio, Juicy Beast, the creators of games like Burrito Bison Revenge Knightmare Tower and other hit titles. He’s here to make Zombocalypse 2 sexy as hell.

Yowan Langlais – UI Artist
Also part of Juicy Beast Studio as the General Manager, psychopath UI Designer, and Artistic Director, with a strong background in Graphic Design. He’s here to ensure Zombocalypse 2′s UI is smoother than ice.

Jimmy Hinson – Composer
Also known to many as Big Giant Circles, Jimmy is a BAFTA-nominated music composer. He has co-composed the scores for Black Ops 2 (nominated best original score at the 2012 Spike VGAs) and Mass Effect 2. Nuff said.

And we just recently got a new illustrator, Michael Kessler! Check his stuff out here: http://www.artmdk.com/

Character Art

Juicy Beast has been doing a stellar job of really bringing the vision for Zombocalypse 2 to life. Here’s a transformation of their work from concept to final art.

Code Galore

Chevy, our programmer who does the impossible daily. Really though, he’s been cooking up a storm and the result is an incredibly smooth game. As a game designer, Chevy makes my life so much easier. To tweak and balance the game for each build, Chevy has setup XML sheets that can be edited. This means I can change how much damage a gun does, how far it can shoot, how zombies precisely spawn on each level, and  much more. Not only is this user intuitive for a designer, it makes balancing and changing variables in the game a cake walk. Below is the game in console view, how many entities exist in the world, FPS, memory used, and an input area to control anything in the gameplay. Beasty programmer fo sho.

BAFTA Worthy Music

Our soundtrack is being handled by BAFTA nominated composer Jimmy Hinson, who was also involved in the Black Ops 2 and Mass Effect soundtrack. Listen why for yourself, the Zombocalypse Main Menu Music is below!

I’ll be posting more work from our illustrator MDK as we get them!

Oh yeah!

I’m 22 now! My birthday was on February 22nd. Below is me getting my birthday on. This is my first project being in the game designer and producer role of a major project and the learning process has been rigorous but very rewarding. Thanks for checking in and I hope you’re as excited for this project as I am. Stay tuned for more goodies and updates on Zombocalypse 2!

Cheers,

John

Fast-forward a day. It was an early Sunday morning; too early to be up, but too excited to care. I plopped in the quarters at the Raley’s newspaper dispenser just like every morning before. We came to Fairfield all the way from San Francisco just for this very reason. “I doubt it’ll be in this one,” I muttered as I pulled out the paper. It was the mammoth Sunday newspaper, the one mostly read out of the week, but also the one mostly used to kill bugs with. Two words slipped out of my mouth: “Holy shit.” My face was at the very top of the front page. I thumbed through to the Business section. Another bigger picture of my grinning self greeted me, followed by a full page spread. My story had officially made it into my hometown newspaper front and center.

I didn’t see it moving forward, but I saw it looking back. Although it was a small triumph, that newspaper was important to me because it was a sign of hope, a sort of deliverance. An editor who I had not even met in person believed in me. He made me realize that others believed in me too. I suppose I was blind to it because I no longer believed in myself. It wasn’t a big win, but it was a pivotal one. It could have made the difference between me giving up or pushing forward. And by pushing forward, I mean raising $20,000 for our biggest project yet by the means of investors, publishers, and even people like you. But, because I fell short of that goal, I built the strength to pursue greater things.

My 2012 would be better described as a movie like Rocky or Pursuit of Happiness. Or, as my brother and I like to joke, exactly like The Dark Knight Rises. My monumental moments weren’t going to places like Hawaii for vacation (though I did, and I had the time of my life) or shaking hands with someone like Richard Branson (I did that as well). Instead, they were the times where I had to rise to the occasion: giving speeches to classrooms full of students, working a room at networking events, passing out dozens of business cards hoping to get one important connection, walking straight up to that girl I found attractive, pitching investors, and negotiating with publishers.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my fair share of failures, but I knew the faster I failed, the faster I would be to achieving success.  And so, I failed hard. I failed fast. I failed frequently. Often times it would come as quickly as I could read an email from responses like ”Sorry, we’ll pass on this…” or ”Unfortunately…” Most of the time failure would came in the form of silence.

During each difficult moment this past year, I would ask why, much like we all do. Why am I going through this? Why did this happen? Why didn’t this or that work out? Why is everything falling apart when I’m working so hard to keep it together?

Steve Jobs said it himself: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

Here are 5 brief lessons I learned from reconnecting my dots from 2012:

1.  There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind

Sometimes we hold onto things not knowing how much it weighs us down. I realized early on that I have to let go of what I have in order for life to give me something much better. I had to let go of a faulty relationship in order to find someone better. I had to let go of my past failures to be ready for my future success.

In life, people come and go. Never give them the consent to affect your future. Those who deserve to stay in your life are those who help you grow, who believe in you, and who are grateful to have you in theirs. Someone has even said to me, “If you died today, I wouldn’t shed a tear.”  For the people that talk behind your back, that’s exactly where they belong — behind you.

As I moved forward, I learned to experience each moment of life to the fullest.  I learned to let the past be, and to know that the best is always yet to come. And for all the people that have hurt me, I forgive them. I forgive those that didn’t support me, the people that didn’t believe in me, and those who left when they saw I was struggling.

And I don’t forgive them because they deserve forgiveness, but because I deserve peace.

2.  Begin

This one’s simple: Just do it. The best time to start will always be yesterday. You can only plan and prepare so much before you need to start taking action. I wasted no time getting ready to pitch publishers on Super Ski Runner and Zombocalypse. Even though it took a year to land a deal, I started early, failed often, and eventually got it right.

3. Be Grateful

I’ve always been a grateful person, but the ups and downs of 2012 have taught me even more so that things can be taken from you just as quickly as you receive them. Early last year I gathered one of the most talented teams for a game; individuals who have worked for companies like EA, 2K Games, and Marvel. Unfortunately, we were never able to get the project off the ground.

Be thankful for what you have and be patient for what’s yet to come. Life will give much more to those who appreciate it. Be grateful that you are alive. Be grateful that you can experience all the beautiful things that life has to offer. And, be grateful for the little things because one day you may look back and discover they were actually the big things.

4. Push forward even when it hurts

My mantra: Hard work, dedication! With late nights coding, marketing, managing, or sending out emails, you’d probably be hearing me say this to myself over and over (while sipping on a Rockstar). The reality is that anything worth achieving is never easy. I realized that life is so rewarding because it can be so difficult. When your efforts are met with failure, it means you are pushing beyond your current limits. It means you are fighting for something meaningful that doesn’t come easy.

Overcome resistance and push past your comfort zone. Each challenge is an opportunity for growth. And life becomes more rewarding as it becomes more demanding. If it weren’t for these struggles, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. I wouldn’t have built the strength to face failure over and over on the road to success. You will go through hard times, you will struggle, and you will have to make sacrifices. But, you will not see the light at the end of the tunnel until you walk through the darkness.

5. Bring out the best in others

This has become my life motto:

“When you seek to inspire happiness and greatness in all people, you will not only find it, you will become it.”

I have helped a close friend of mine in all ways that I possibly could. He’s my little bro, and he knows I will always be there for him. Not because I expect anything in return, but because I genuinely believe that he can someday change the world.

This year I helped conceive the name for Level 2 Productions. The cofounders are basically brothers to me, and since day one, I have offered my advice, time, and energy to help them succeed, just as they have helped me. I have no doubt that they will.

I have tried my best to open doors for many people and strive to provide opportunity for many more. Excuse the awkward analogy, but it’s like opening the door for people at the mall. You hold the door open for the person behind you simply because you can.

You may not realize it, but you might be a blessing to someone. There may be people that look up to you, people that are inspired by you. By radiating positivity, you will become a beacon for happiness and hope; that candle in the darkness. What you focus on in life is what you attract in your life. And when you focus on making the world a better place, you make yourself a better person.

I believe life is an echo — whatever you give, you get back. Appreciate others and they will appreciate you. Love others and they will love you. To become rich, enrich others. To become wealthy, share a wealth of knowledge. To become happy, be gracious for what you have. By focusing on all these, you will not only find it, you will become it.

My Final Thoughts

Sometimes we travel far without ever thinking about how far we’ve come. We continue to march forward not realizing what we’ve marched through. When you encounter your struggle, when you reach that point of resistance, remember that you’ve already come this far, and that you have the strength to continue moving forward.

2012 has made me realize how far I’ve come. Connecting these dots backwards, I see that everything that happened to me happened for a reason. I’ve been through hell, and right when I thought I wasn’t going to make it, I made it back.

After several months of pitching and negotiating, I landed a huge deal with Adult Swim to fund and publish Zombocalypse 2. The original Zombocalypse hit over 30 million plays. I’ve met a handful of amazing people and have had many amazing experiences. I assembled an incredible team of award winners, visionaries, innovators, and creators. I’ve moved up to Vice President of Professional Development in my business fraternity. My friends are driven, as passionate as ever, and striving to make their own dreams come true. My family is healthy, happy, and having much success in their own lives.

My goals for Ironzilla this year:

□ Deliver a full featured and polished Zombocalypse 2 on time and on budget (and have it be wildly successful). Who knows, I may see it on TV on Cartoon Network!
□ Bring Zombocalypse 2 to mobile with Adult Swim (also wildly successful)
□ Create 2 new big Ironzilla IP’s / games
□ Grow Ironzilla’s Facebook Fan Base from 10,000 to 25,000+ likes.
□ Grow Ironzilla’s Twitter from 100 followers to 1,000+
□ Post more often on Ironzilla. I always find myself saying this, but really, this time I’ll do it. At least once every 2 weeks, and different types of blog posts.
□ Keep a journal of my progress
□ Continuing establishing and maintaining connections with key partners, game devs, and entrepreneurs.
□ Double my LinkedIn connections
□ Attend more game and entrepreneurship conferences (GDC I’m looking at you)
□ Help and motivate others to realize and act upon their dreams

12 months ago, I never thought I’d be where I am today. I never thought I’d be the person I am. But I always knew what I wanted, I knew how much it meant to me, and I knew what I was willing to sacrifice to get there.

I have too many thank-you’s to give, but each and every one of you know who you are. For everyone else pursuing their dreams, keep pushing. Your strength is an inspiration for many, and as I always say, the world needs more people like you.

2012 was crazy. It has been an incredible journey, but I know it’s far from over. Let’s make 2013 even better.

What has 2012 taught you?

Happy Thanksgiving to our US friends! We’re grateful for our fans, supporters, and those who have stuck with us along the way. We have some amazing things brewing in the lab right now, so stay tuned!

Rolled out to Dreamforce with the dapper Alpha Kappa Psi networking crew!

I shook the hand of Sir Richard Branson aka rockstar billionaire and entrepreneur. His talk focused on entrepreneurship and how his persistence got him to where he is today. He’s at the helm of a multi-industry super company, Virgin. Overall a very crazy guy.

Then there’s Colin Powell, the original political bad ass. Firm handshake. Nuff said.

And lastly there’s Tony Robbins. I’ve been reading his books and watching his talks since high school. To say he’s influenced millions of individuals just doesn’t do him justice. Even Bill Clinton called this man the day before he resigned. Tony’s seminar was life changing. An experience completely out of this world.

Zombocalypse itself is coming up on its one year birthday and it’s crazy to think a game I released so long ago is still chugging along and getting a ton of love. Makes you feel all fuzzy inside. Check back soon for updates on our latest projects!

- John

Going into this, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I had my list of 2012 goals, and only one desire — to make it all happen. From this vision transpired a chain of events I didn’t even think I was capable of setting in motion. With some help and a lot of luck, I was getting intros, meeting the right people, taking up various projects, recruiting solid team members, and even gaining the support of big players in the game industry. It was to the point where I had to pinch myself just to make sure it was all real.

Then “The Struggle” hit, and as always it hits square on. The struggle is when your work becomes your life, consuming your every thought. It’s when your health is no longer a priority. It’s when you can’t raise enough money to fund your company. It’s when you send out a hundred emails with no reply. It’s when you worry endlessly about the things you can’t control. It’s when success becomes hunger, and failure becomes anger. It’s when people ask you what happened, and you didn’t have an answer. It’s when the people who said they’d help you, begin to desert you. It’s that feeling of guilt when you let your team down.  It’s when you did your best, but still think you’ve failed. It’s when you thought the people who were so proud of you, no longer were.

This kind of pain will consume the weak. It will make self doubt become self hatred. But as Ben Horowitz says, “The Struggle is where greatness comes from.”

Growth requires pain. My struggle, my pain, forced me to grow. It forced me to rise to the occasion. It made me relentless and persistent. It made me a better leader. It made me find my limits, only to transcend them. It made me realize that I am a work in progress, meaning I’ll get there a little at a time, not all at once. It made me the very person that I wanted to be.

The last 5 months were hellish. I didn’t land the various publishing deals. I didn’t get to make a game with IGN. I didn’t raise enough money from our crowd funding campaign.

And I know that the best things in life rarely come easy:

- Steven Spielberg was rejected from USC 3 times and later dropped out.
- Marilyn Monroe’s first contract expired because they said “she wasn’t pretty or talented enough to be an actress.”
- Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
- JK Rowling’s Harry Potter was turned down by multiple publishers for years.
- Howard Schultz was turned down by banks 242 times before creating Starbucks.
- Oprah Winfrey was fired from her television reporting job because they told her she wasn’t fit to be on screen.
- Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by 27 publishers.
- Henry Ford’s first 3 auto companies went out of business.

None of us have the right to fear failure. I failed, much more times than I have succeeded. But I can continue going through the hell that is The Struggle if it means I’ll be closer to my dreams and further along than those who were too afraid to try.

To those who choose to conquer their struggle, I applaud you. To those who dream bigger than their fears and let their actions speak louder than their words, I applaud you. And everyone else applauds you too, because the truth is, the world needs more people like you.

Embrace your struggle. In fact, destroy it. Disrespect it. Show whatever is in between you and your dreams that you’re not afraid to conquer it. From struggle comes opportunity, growth, and progress.

From struggle, comes greatness.

2012′s not over yet. Let’s keep moving forward.

- John

Special Thanks to:

- Aaron Krause for being a great mentor and always providing me with great advice and opportunity.
- Jeff Hangartner and Chris Hill for being there every step of the way. They are talented individuals who I know will go far and have been amazingly supportive and optimistic. Currently we’re all working on our own individual endeavors, but in the case I’m able to pull in funds from publishers / investors in the near future, they’ll be the guys I’ll go to first.
- Nicu Listana and Jesson Balesteros, my game dev crew out here in SF, thank you for your unwavering support and optimism.
- Nicholas Hui & Jared Lee for helping me create a stellar campaign video and making this whole experience phenomenal.
- My friends for not only being supportive, but for being very tolerant and understanding of my absence as I pursued my goals.
- My brother and best friend Patrick Funtanilla for far too many things than I could list.

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