Every game in the top 5 deserved its place- they were all stylish, professional, and fun as hell. I played each of those games and totally dug them. I didn't really get the Mastermind game at first, though- then I actually watched the Mastermind movies, and then it all made sense.

That said, Luis, BoMToons, and Coaly, the artists behind Castle Crashing The Beard, have decided to pass their monthly prize for that game down to me for Drunken Masters.

Seriously.

That's just about the most amazingly bad ass thing anyone has ever done, and I'm so stoked about it, I can barely type. I can't thank them enough for this- it's seriously awesome.

If you liked Drunken Masters, I guarantee that you'll enjoy all the games that made it into the monthly top five. Pillage the Village, CCTB, and Boxhead are my personal favorites, but that's just because I'm not into puzzle games. Shift has a brilliant game mechanic, and Mastermind, well... if you can play the game without laughing out loud, then you've got no soul.

Thanks again to BoM, Luis, and Coaly- and thanks to everyone that's played Drunken Masters!

So the new version of Drunken Masters is up today, and most of the bugs that you guys found have been fixed. Some of them affected the gameplay- it's harder to keep a bottle balanced for like 30 seconds than it was before, and promotions happen once every 2 or 3 shifts now, instead of every shift.

I also noticed the score dropped a bit today, and I'm not too freaked out about it (many of the other top-scoring submissions that it was submitted with have gone down quite a bit, too). So the question is, what do you guys think of this version? Is it better, worse, or did you not even notice bugs in the original?

Again, I want to thank all of you guys for being so supportive of the game- I seriously spent so much time play testing it that I didn't even think it was fun anymore, and when my friends playtested and told me that it was fun, I thought they were just telling me what I wanted to hear. It's really great to know that you guys like it.

Last thoughts: what do you guys think about an NG edition (for Pico Day, maybe?) featuring some of the NG characters as customers? Would that be worth a separate submission, or would it be a waste of time?

Thanks again!

Thanks for all the Drunken Masters feedback- I never expected such an overwhelming response! Naturally, a game this large is going to have a few issues that slip through the cracks. I've got about 15 items to track down and fix, ranging from the VS. mode bug to the misspelling of "Oakland" on Stunna's Character Description. I'll be updating within the week. In the meantime, don't let it stop you from playing. 95% of players won't experience any bugs at all- those that do, I apologize and I'll get right on them.

You can track the progress of the next version at www.availds.com!

-Dan

Drunken Masters was finally approved for release, and it just passed judgment. God damn, I feel like I just railed 10 lines of blow.

Whether you've been keeping track or not, the production was fuckin intimidating: 6 months of work, 7 days a week, 10 hours a day. 2500 symbols, too many lines of code to count. And I managed to squeeze that bitch into 7mb. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

If you haven't played it yet and you've got some serious time to kill (it's fuckin huge), go check it out.

If you have played it, and you're one of the people that helped bump that score up past 4.20, you really made all those long nights of coding worthwhile. Seriously, this game took a lot out of me, financially, emotionally, and physically. It's so fuckin nice to have it out on its own and doing well.

Hope you guys have as much fun playing it as I did making it. If you REALLY like it, hit www.availds.com for more good Drunken Masters stuff.

So what's next? For the time being, I'll be cleaning up the Deluxe edition of the game so I can squeeze a little more rent money out of this baby before I put the source files away. Then I'm thinking about a new game... with dragons in it. OoOoOoOo. That's all I'm gonna say for now, but it'll be an action/shoot-em-up kind of deal. Probably. I'd like to keep pushing the envelope, so hopefully it'll be another good one.

Either way, it's gotta be a little smaller than this. I almost went to prison for this game. I'll write up the whole story for the website, but it's a pretty good one.

Here's some Drunken Masters trivia for you:

Drunken Masters is complete. Finally. As soon as I get a sponsor to short-change me for the ridiculous amount of work that went into this bastard, I'll upload it to NG for all you degenerates. Thanks for all the support, Newgrounds.

Good news and bad news...
The good news is that I got a job making Flash banner ads and I'm gonna be pulling in some pretty decent cash over the next few months. This will allow me to take even more time refining the game and making it extra sexy.

The bad news is, I can't work on the game full-time anymore- maybe 4-5 hours a week, instead of 40-50. So... the release is pushed back indefinitely, but I think it'll be ready by the new year.

We will see...

If you were expecting a new game to drop today, I am proud of you- you're keeping better track of things than I am. I'm still putting in work, 8-12 hours a day (except Labor Day weekend, I got shitfaced and floated down the Sacramento river a few times). Everything's looking and playing better than ever, but the release date is now 9/31. That's the last time it's being pushed back. Seriously. I drew up a design schedule, and that's what it looks like, anyway. So this is officially the longest project I've ever put together, and I know you guys are gonna dig it.

Not that anyone's keeping track, but if you are-
The new game was supposed to drop today so I could make it out to Burning Man and commit horrible acts of depravity for a week. But it's gotten a little out of hand, and should take another two weeks to wrap up. Dammit.

The good news is, it's sexy as fuck. But you won't see it till it's ready.

New release date:
9/10/07

Which pushes the We Are Legend sequel back another couple weeks, but I may come out with an extended edition, a 1.5 if you will, if I can find someone to pay my bills while I work on it.

If you played my last game, you know I like to pay attention to detail. This next project is coming along, and looks sexy and plays like a dream. I've got voice talent lined up, and the game development is nearing a playable build. The game is meant to be a little humorous- not goofy or silly, but funny all the same. The only problem is, I'm only one man. That's where you come in. The game takes place in a bar, and there will be several dozen non-player characters. And they're really the stars of the show. I need dialog, because there's only so much I can do myself. If you've got flash work out right now, and it's funny, and you wouldn't mind developing a character or two for in-game credit, let me know. This is gonna be a great game- it'll blow We Are Legend out of the water. (And We Are Legend's already at 500,000 plays this month.) I've included a screenshot of the character select screen, which is about 75% complete.

Let me know, and I'll send you more info, along with some demo builds.
-Dan
P.S.- If you don't have work already on Newgrounds, I'd appreciate it if you sent me some links to something you've done/written. Thanks.

Hahaha. So the next game was gonna be rad. TOO fuckin rad for my ass. After a lot of thinking and some desperate scripting, I've decided that a side-scrolling shooter sexy enough for me to be interested was just going to take too fuckin long. So, that project is on hold, for as long as it takes for me to find a way to make a living off of something like that.
The next project is top secret, because it's never been done before (at least not in Flash, and not this well), and because I'm trying to do it first.
It'll be done by the second or third week of August (at least it fuckin better be, I've got to get out to Burning Man).

And while I'm on the subject of making a living- I encourage all my fellow designers to look into MochiBot and MochiAds. I'm thinking about putting together a wiki/bbs/whatever for flash designers, but I'm thinking that it's gonna get flooded with requests for basic AS tutorials and all the other bullshit that makes finding good, advanced flash advice for experienced developers such a pain in the ass.

For now, it's just a thought. If you're into it, let me know.

UPDATE- Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback, it looks like a sequel to We Are Legend is gonna have to happen. We Are Legend: Revenant Angel will probably be three or four times longer than this game, with a lot of other enhancements. But it's not coming out for at least two or three months.