This post is a little late in its arrival. Zombie Karts 1.3 has been released. Thus far, about 2-3% of all buyers have downloaded the update. Not too shabby for three days or so!

We have a few different things that are going on right now. It's too early to comment on any one. Hopefully, once the dust settles I can get back to work on Xeno Versa, which in the grand tradition of "Xeno" games is taking longer than expected.

While the total revenue for July was better than June, the brutal truth is income was flat if you take the Racing Sound Pack out of the equation. Its income alone made the difference, give or take a few dollars. We're doing about 40% less business this year compared to last (average starting in April for '09). This is primarily due to our lack of new releases throughout spring. It has been a trying year thus far. Updates are taking longer than expected. We've had a few false-starts on projects. Overall, it's a good sign that even when things are going well, the (sliver of) money still comes in. I'm looking toward a solid Fall and Winter to pick up the slack.

Perhaps it was a long time coming, but today I uploaded Zombie Karts version 1.3 to Apple. Among the improvements:

• Locked Game Speed: If a lap takes roughly 15 seconds on an iPod, it will take roughly 15 seconds on an iPhone
  
• Mirror Mode: Taken from the TGB Kart Kit, this allows the player to flip the track for a new experience
  
• New Grand Prixs: Mirror prixs are now available, 5 in total, that offer 100 new OF achievement points each
  
• Better Steering: The steering has been tuned for proper sensitivity and control; easily the best controls yet
  
• New OpenFeint: Version 2.5.1 has been integrated
  
• General Polish: Little graphical and audio touch-ups help update the game

I do have a list of things in mind for a next version (or sequel) including ghost sharing, more racers, more tracks, and so forth. We'll see if that's possible by Halloween. (It would take the suspension of work on Xeno Versa, which I would hate to continue ignoring.) I'm definitely excited to get this update out!

Here's the deal: there's a small collision flaw in Torque2D. It involves collisions between two objects nestled within a trigger (i.e. a kart hitting a barrier within water). It was a known flaw when I first started developing Zombie Karts -- therefore, it is more or less ready to be updated once OpenFeint is reintegrated. Unfortunately, I "fixed" this flaw for Cascadia Kart and therefore designed it with that in mind. Now the fix does not work in iT2D 1.4. Therefore, Cascadia Kart will need its tracks updated to work around the collision flaw as well. Because that game is integral to the TGB Kart Kit, it is also delayed until the game is fixed.

On a personal note, it's been crazily busy for me outside and inside of Cascadia Games. Hopefully, things will get sorted out and stabilized in the next few weeks and some software starts getting churned out.

I didn't want to take a huge break from Xeno Versa, but sometimes other tasks take priority. I am currently updating the TGB Kart Kit for iOS4, TGB 1.7.5, and iT2D 1.4. There's one final bug that I need to hammer out: something changed with iT2D 1.3.1 with respect to collision triggers. I don't know if they fixed or introduced a bug, but a feature / quirk of collisions in v1.2 can no longer be relied upon. Once I smooth things out, both Cascadia Kart and Zombie Karts will be updated simultaneously with the kit. That means Zombie Karts will get mirror mode (and possibly steering tuning) added to its features. Both games will be updated with the same steering tweak.... one that I think offers a better balance of sensitivity and control.

With Halloween looming (yes, I can say that in late July), I hope I can wrap up Xeno Versa before moving onto a holiday-themed project. I have a few in mind -- yes, several with zombies -- that I hope I can start on before September.

There's no way to sugarcoat it. The final June income numbers are in and they are awful. There are two reasons: 1- Xeno Sola has had a dramatic drop in sales.... my guess is due to the Carcassonne release; 2- the TGB Kart Kit had another weak month.

The silver lining is this: an update to the TGB Kart Kit should be out by August, and sales tend to perk up with those releases. The Racing Sound Pack is live and hopefully going to be a winner. Xeno Versa is still moving forward. And I've got a few other things going on that could prove fruitful. It was definitely a rough first half of the year. Here's aiming at a better second half!

Here's a quick update of what we're working on and where we're at:

• Xeno Versa - Single player needs two things to be done: an easy way to make money when broke and all the single player scenarios defined and balanced.
• New Torque Content Pack - Too early to share anything, but it's an idea I haven't see done yet.
• Web updates - I'll be slowly going through this site, fixing things up. The Games and Kits pages will be first.

Once Xeno Versa is complete, the tentative plan is to kick into sequel mode. OpenFeint multiplayer plus the new MiniChess engine would be combined into a new set of chess games. OF Multiplayer makes a Xeno Sola update / sequel a fresh possibility as well. Finally, I've been mulling over producing a Zombie Karts sequel in time for Halloween. All of these projects are attractive because they would take a low time investment.

The Racing Sound Pack has finally zoomed into the Torque Powered Store. The idea for the pack came out of my own struggle to find quality sounds for Zombie Karts. The Internet lacked usable, royalty-free engine loops. No reasonably priced packs existed. To solve my problem, I had to pay a contractor from Mojo Audio -- a person who I luckily had his email address!

Your average indie, however, has enough to worry about with scrounging the web for sounds or crawling forums for sound artists. I happen to be a fortunate exception with talented artist Erhan Ergenekan on-board as a frequent contributor to our games. I asked if he would be interested in putting together a few motor loops into a pack and he went above-and-beyond (as per usual). The end result: 94 sounds for 5 vehicles all in quality OGG format.

Due to my big push on Xeno Versa as well as some time spent on another project, I have yet to put together a demo for the pack. I may go simple with a brief preview MP3, something fancy with full video, or something in between. Nonetheless, if you're making a racing game, I know it will fit your needs!

UPDATE: Demo now available here!

As always, I won't know the kit sales numbers for about 2-3 weeks. But since I keep track of game sales daily, I can comment on how June shaped up: a little better than April, a little worse than March. Most games sold right around their average, with exception of Zombie Karts that virtually tied with its second best month of the year. Who knew Halloween is the holiday that keeps giving? Overall I'm fairly pleased that I can go 5 months without a release and still see a decent passive income trickling in.

I continue to expand the Griz Arcade, which now contains 69 games all played and picked by me. Thus far, it seems to be doing its job of adding a hair more traffic to this blog. Though eventually I'd like to see the site stand on its own merits (ie folks visiting it to find a quality selection of flash games).

Later this year, I'll have another site ready to join this fledgling Cascadia network. StumptownSoccer.com will be dedicated to Northwest soccer fandom. I'm still brewing ideas but plan for it to be ready in advance of the Portland Timbers' first MLS season.

The first draft of the Xeno Versa campaign is about 30% complete at 9 scenarios defined. (I'm aiming for about 32.) There are, at the time of this blog post, 57 playable ships in the game comprised of nineteen unique ships with two upgrades apiece across seven different alien empires. I might pack in a few more.

Before each scenario (ie battle), your opponent will state his/her opinion and thus push the story along. It will be a sparse story and campaign but hopefully a fun one. Here are a some sample shots.