See what I did there? Bridge quotes about the future to a reference to Unbound Saga, which then leads to the topic of digital distribution? Yes, Unbound Saga is available for download only. You can’t walk into Gamezoinks, or wherever else you typically buy your disc-based gaming fix, and walk out with a plastic box full of brawling Unbound goodness. You can, however, buy this game from the comfort of your own home, while still in your bathrobe and bunny slippers. Click-click-clack, simple as that. Super easy, and all you need is an internet connection and a PlayStation Network account. And a PlayStation device to play the game on, of course.

But why would Vogster, or any other publisher for that matter, buck the trend and do something as radical as bypassing brick-and-mortar? What do we have against the good people at Gamezoinks? Nothing at all, I assure you (In fact, we just made that name up.). But the benefits of digital distribution cannot be overlooked. For the consumer, digital download offers unparalleled convenience. If you want it, you can have it NOW, regardless of weather, bus schedules, gas prices, etc. RIGHT NOW. In fact, I just bought the first three seasons of Dexter from the PlayStation Store while writing this. My fingers barely left the keyboard. How convenient is THAT?? It also guarantees availability. It would have stunk to drive all the way to the mall for that set of DVDs only to find they were sold out. Well, the internet is never sold out, and it is open 24-7. How ‘bout them apples?

Digital distribution is good for the developer, too. It is easier to get the product onto the market, cheaper to manufacture and distribute, and it bypasses the growing used- and rental- markets that eat into sales. The traditional model makes it that much harder for smaller companies to compete, even those with amazing new ideas and talent. Wouldn’t you rather have more good games to choose from? Going digital gives developers a viable stage to present their products for the gameplaying market to enjoy.

We certainly haven’t turned our back on the tactile satisfaction of holding something groovy and colorful in your hands. That’s why we’re hard at working producing spiffy Unbound Saga comics and sweet, sweet action statuettes to adorn your desktops and Unbound Saga shrines (Check out our Facebook Fan page some nifty pix.). And as DLC becomes available, you’ll be able to hop into the new content instantly, thanks to the uber-convenience of it all!

So yes, the digital download method is relatively new, and sometimes new can be scary. But you survived the change from 8-bit to HD, from 2D to 3D, from cartridge to CD to DVD to Blu-ray. I think we will not only survive the change from disc to digital, but we’ll all benefit from the process. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a rock-solid offer to try it for yourself: FIVE FREE CODES FOR YOUR OWN COPY OF UNBOUND SAGA! (codes are for North America only — sorry Lost Continent of Atlantis!)

Wait, what? FREE?? You bet, but because downloading digital content to your PSP is so darn easy (signed in from the PlayStation Store, select “Redeem Codes”) , we decided to throw in a little extra challenge just to emphasize how easy the actual process is WITHOUT the silly contest challenge. Here are the codes — all you have to do is guess the missing characters. (And yes, there is a pattern related to this posting…)

Have at it, junior G-men!

2F7I-GRB8-*K64
8H*2-EGBE-6XPT
XACJ-8IBI-M2E*
*F9P-5IB2-HAJ8
JIPD-I*BI-38PA

Comics. The best and worst kind of addiction, almost as bad as a good video game habit. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a shameful amount of time inside your local comic shop, browsing the racks of alluring colorful imagery, following the siren song of a thousand different adventures calling you into their vortex of fantasy. You might also have several long-boxes full of your fondest memories stashed away for future revisiting (or for your kid’s college fund, if you used the same deluded justification I did). My addiction was further complicated by a part-time job in a comic shop throughout high school — too much access to too much colorful temptation. It was glorious. The only thing that stood a chance against that beast was video gaming. Together, those activities formed a punch-kick combo that had my parents wondering how I’d ever make a living out in the real world.

Well, like peanut butter and chocolate, those activities proved to be two great tastes that taste great together. In the early days of developing Unbound Saga, we knew we wanted to sprinkle some 2D love back into our 3D brawler, and all of the ideas we came up with reflected back on our 4-color first-love, comics. By this point in our careers, we had managed to build up a decent network of connections in the comic industry, originally as fans, but in many cases as creators, with a fair number of published titles under our own belts. Video games made a great day job, but for some of us, comics provided a nocturnal shot of creative energy that kept our gray matter strong and healthy. It seemed like a no-brainer to roll those connections and energy into the project we would be spending a large amount of our waking life working on for the next year-plus-whatever. So that’s what we did: game-comic-mashup!

Once the concept, story, and characters had been fleshed out, we called up some old friends at Dark Horse Comics to give our fake comic some real credentials. First on board was artist Cliff Richards, who some of you might know from his extensive run on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or DC’s recent Huntress miniseries. He turned our cutscene script into 22 pages of illustrated gold, which were then turned into the various voiced-over motion comics unlocked throughout our campaign. Without a doubt, he brought an authentic style to the story and characters, which we supported with all of the comic-like elements you see throughout gameplay: the visible sound effects, the word balloons, the panel-to-panel layout, etc. We wanted to make this feel like a comic book come to life, and we think the team hit those goals on the nose, or at least somewhere on the face fairly close to the nose. Nothing digital can ever replicate the smell of newsprint or the feel of a nice glossy cover in your hands, but hopefully we captured a good amount of the fun and nostalgia.

But what about that tactile element, that physical comic you can roll up and stuff in your back pocket (gasp) or double bag and backboard in a fine Mylar sleeve (whew)? We wanted that too. I mean, we were making a game about a 30 year old comic book, so it made sense to have an actual comic book out there to support our bogus backstory, right? Rosemary, get Dark Horse on the line! Dark Horse? It’s Vogster! Let’s put this baby on the shelves! Whataya say ta them apples?

They said “awesome”. Well, I donno if that was the exact word they used, but I’d like to believe that’s what they were thinking. They went forth and assembled a collection of rockstar artists to help bring the world of Toxopolis to life. Joseph Michael Linsner (Dawn, Dark Ivory), Leinil Yu (New Avengers, Secret Invasion), Steve Pugh (Hotwire, Hellgate: London), Al Rio (Gen13, DV8), and of course, Cliff Richards. Together they cranked out the first issue (of what we hope will become many issues) of the Unbound Saga comic, on sale July 1st. Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con!

Hey, if you’re planning to attend this year, stop by the Dark Horse booth and get your copy signed by the creators! Then box it away in a climate controlled storage unit so that it might someday put your kid through college! (Disclaimer: Vogster cannot guarantee the investment value of this comic.)

In the next entry, we’ll talk about digital distribution, and our decision to bypass the brick-and-mortar market to reach YOU, the consumer, directly.

Hi, I’m Mike Kennedy, a Senior Producer at Vogster Entertainment, and I’m here to talk about our upcoming brawler for the PSP titled Unbound Saga. Right off the bat, you’re probably thinking “Vogster who?” A reasonable question, considering we’ve only put out one title so far (a critically praised RTS for the Nintendo DS called Robocalypse), but with several more hot titles in the pipeline (including the persistent-world next-gen Shooter CrimeCraft), you should be hearing about us more in the months to come, starting with Unbound Saga dropping onto the PlayStation Network in July.

In a nugget, Unbound Saga is an old-school, arcade-style brawler that puts you in the shoes of Rick Ajax, a surly comic book tough guy trapped in a world of endless trouble. The thing is, he knows he’s a comic book character, and after 30 years of dealing with one ridiculous plotline after another, he’s had about enough. So you get to take him on an epic adventure to escape the pages of the comic in search of The Maker, the mysterious entity responsible for his daily misadventure.

So why make it a brawler? Well, aside from the logical activity perpetuated by the lead character, we frankly couldn’t get enough brawlers growing up in the 8-bit and 16-bit days, and there doesn’t seem to be enough of ‘em coming out any more these days. We were hooked on games like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, TMNT Arcade, X-men Arcade, Captain American and The Avengers, etc. They were colorful, visceral, over-the-top, and tons of fun. The gameplay was easily accessible, with simple to understand controls — Punch, Kick, Grab, Throw — that could be strung together to pull off easy-to-execute combinations. There were no blocks, counter-blocks, reversals, deflections, none of those thorny hardcore fighting game maneuvers. Just the satisfaction of knocking down bad guy after bad guy in rapid succession. Sure, nobody would credit any of those early-90’s plotlines as any sort of attempt at Shakespeare, but that campiness and Hollywood-style machismo is what made them so magnetic. Mohawked street punks and muscle-bound mafia hitmen wandering gutted city streets and other action-movie settings, occasionally having to fight a kangaroo in colorful boxing shorts or a robot zombie or two… it was that sort of over-the-top unpredictability that made us want to keep playing. That and the endless head-smashing.

With Unbound Saga, the team wanted to recapture some of that fun and nostalgia, but with many layers of extra awesomeness. While sticking to an accessible arcade-style control scheme and the fixed left-right perspective, everything has been ramped up with the latest technology: sharp 3D graphics, real-time physics and ragdoll reactions, real-time lighting FX, etc. The gameplay itself has been given some extra strategic depth with the ability to switch between the two main playable characters, either Rick and Lori Machete, on the fly. Each of them has a completely different fighting style, with individual abilities that can complement the other character when things get sticky.

Rick is the muscle, the tank, the heavy hitter who relies on bodyslams and brute smashing strength to get things done. Lori is more about speed, stealth, and her bag of ‘ninja tricks,’ like smoke bombs and gas grenades, to finish the job. Both characters can be upgraded through individual skill trees, allowing the player to tailor their characters with more unlockable powers and moves. Both offer unique gameplay experiences, but you’ll have to take advantage of each one’s strength to get through the campaign.

In the next entry, we’ll talk about bringing the comic book world to life in our game, and how we’ve partnered up with experienced, recognizable industry talent to give our brand some authentic comic-book style.