NinjaBee at PAX!

If you're gonna be at PAX in Seattle this weekend make sure you stop by our booth (#3806) and say hi!

This is our first time ever having a booth at the show, so we put together some new NinjaBee gear for the occasion. You like?

If you swing by, you might just get a chance to bring home your very own Kefling :)

Akimi Village Party

To celebrate the launch of Akimi Village we held a little party in the park, NinjaBee style.

The dragon from the game came to life in cupcake form ... and then was devoured by his creators.

NinjaBee in the news

When a video game topic came up in the local  news they turned to the real experts for an opinion.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Utah-reacts-to-ruling-on-video-game-ban/1DC8SND9EEG2wtPItu9vCA.cspx

Video Game Developer Softball Tournament

It comes as no surprise that, generally speaking, we who work in the video game industry aren't the most athletically gifted bunch. But that doesn't stopped us from trying.

Last weekend NinjaBee was invited to a Utah video game developer softball tournament. There's a decent community of game devs located around Salt Lake City, and we get together from time to time for stuff like this.

We finished the tournament with a respectable 2-2 record. We lost to EA and Disney Interactive but picked up wins against Epic's local studio Chair Entertainment (Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade) and Smartbomb Interactive (Snoopy Flying Ace). Therefore: Keflings > Shadow Complex :) Yes? No? I guess we'll let you figure that one out. Hope you like the pics.

Akimi Village Releases on PSN!

NinjaBee is officially on the PS3! Our newest game, Akimi Village is now available to download on the PSN! Check out the trailer and press release below.

NINJABEE AND SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT AKIMI VILLAGE, NOW AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON PLAYSTATION®NETWORK

OREM, UTAH and SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - June 15, 2011 – Akimi Village, the city-building simulation game from NinjaBee, published by Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), is now available exclusively on the PlayStation®Network for USD $9.99.

Those familiar with NinjaBee's previous city-building titles, A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings, will assuredly enjoy the gameplay of Akimi Village. Set on a mysterious floating island in the sky where the tiny Akimi villagers are trapped in the tight grip of the Gloom's thick shadow. Players must help the Akimi by putting the villagers to work harvesting and refining resources, unlocking a huge set of blueprints in order to rebuild their village, spread the light and purify the island from the Gloom's dark power.

"We are extremely excited to release our first game on the PlayStation®Network as we’ve definitely made something special just for PlayStation®3 gamers," said Brent Fox, Art Director at NinjaBee. “Akimi Village is about much more than just building a city; it's about freeing a people and their island from darkness by closely managing resources and securing blueprints to construct buildings, developing land and building a beautiful living city!”

“At SOE we pride ourselves on our ability to deliver immersive play experiences for a diversity of gamers,” said Christopher Sturr, Executive Director of Business Development, SOE. “Akimi Village absolutely accentuates our portfolio and features unique and fun non-combat centric gameplay that engages players regardless of their age or gaming background.”
Akimi Village is rated E for Everyone and is now available exclusively on the PlayStation Network for USD $9.99. Akimi Village is scheduled to be available in European territories on June 22.

For additional information and assets, please visit:
http://www.soepress.com/release.asp?i=417

Puke-Happy Ooga Arrives Today on PC

Steam, Direct2Drive release Ancients of Ooga with free DLC

Like most things swallowed by its strange cast of characters, Ancients of Ooga is about to come up for a second appearance - this time on PC. But when the game finally does spew forth today it will include new downloadable content, "The Forgotten Chapters," for free!

"The PC version comes with the new 'The Forgotten Chapters' DLC we released earlier this week on Xbox Live Arcade - but for free," said John Nielson, founder of Bacon Wrapped Games. "It adds seven all-new levels intermixed straight into the game's main adventure."

In Ancients of Ooga's 50-plus levels players fight to liberate their enslaved Oogani tribesmen and resurrect their murdered chiefs. Each level presents new challenges and puzzles that must be solved in order to unlock and wield the lost powers of the seven Oogani tribes. And, of course, players draw heavily on the Ooganis' ability to eat and puke just about anything they can get their hands on.

In addition to the added DLC, the PC version of Ancients of Ooga has been updated to include new features like extra achievements, while the Steam version also adds Steam Stats.

"Ooga's achievement count more than doubled for PC," Nielson said. "It now stands at 25 - the original 12 from the Xbox and another 13, new for PC."

Ancients of Ooga was developed jointly by indie developers Bacon Wrapped Games and NinjaBee,. The studios consider the game to be the spiritual successor to their previous hit, Cloning Clyde, another platformer that recently released on Steam and Direct2Drive. Both games were previously exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade.

The PC incarnation of this bizarre, regurgitation-happy platformer lands on Steam and Direct2Drive for 9.99 USD (£7.99 / €9.99) and 9.95 USD (£7.95 / €9.95) respectively.

To download the full or trial version of Ancients of Ooga on Direct2Drive visit: http://www.direct2drive.com/10938/product/Buy-Ancients-of-Ooga-Download

The game will become available on Steam later this afternoon: http://store.steampowered.com/

Ancients of Ooga Gets DLC

The Forgotten Chapters arrives on XBLA for 160 MS Points

Today NinjaBee and Bacon Wrapped Games released "The Forgotten Chapters," a new add-on for their bizarre action platformer, Ancients of Ooga on Xbox Live Arcade.

"The Forgotten Chapters" adds seven all-new levels to the game's main campaign and includes new puzzles to solve, more enemies to fight and extra characters to rescue and recruit. The downloadable content pack continues the story of the Oogani revolt, returning players to each land of the Oogani world where they must use all seven Oogani tribes' unique powers to free their trapped tribesman to join the insurrection.

Ancients of Ooga stars a cast of strange, gremlin/monkey-like characters with a propensity to eat, and puke, just about anything they can get their hands on. Join the revolt with the bizarre Ooganis as they use their ancient powers to free their lands and the seven enslaved tribes with the use of a variety of ancient, mystic powers.

"The Forgotten Chapters" is available for download in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points.

Unlock "A World of Deathlings" Today on XBLA

Unlock "A World of Deathlings" Today on XBLA

Keflings to Bust a Cap

OREM, Utah - Apr. 1, 2011 - It's been along time coming for the happy-go-lucky Keflings. Today, it's payback time. NinjaBee announced that it released a patch today that unlocks the long-missing combat in A World of Keflings, turning your avatar's peaceful tiny helpers into raging 'Deathlings.'

All players have to do to activate the new feature is log into A World of Keflings and perform an in-game emote.

"Really, who wants to play an RTS where there's no combat?" said Brent Fox, Art Director at NinjaBee. "That would just be stupid. Not a lot of people know this, but making Keflings the easy-going game it is now was just a big mistake. We meant the original game to be like Age of Empires, Warcraft or Starcraft, but somebody messed up and forgot to build in the combat. I blame our QA department."

Core gamers eat your heart out.

Get Both Keflings Games this week for 1/2 Off!

Both Keflings Games Featured in Xbox Live Sales

This week Xbox 360 gamers can get their hands on both of NinjaBee's hit Keflings games, A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings, for 50% off! Each game is part of separate week-long Xbox Live promotion that will cut its price in half from 800 to 400 Microsoft Points. That's double the Keflings for half the price!

A Kingdom for Keflings, the first XBLA game to allow gamers to play as their Xbox Live Avatar, is part of Xbox Live's "Extreme Shopping" sale and is available to both Gold and Silver Xbox Live members. The sequel, A World of Keflings, is one of four games featured as part of this week's "Arcade Four-Play" Deal of the Week.

As is Xbox Live's policy, the Deal of the Week program is available only to Xbox Live Gold members. Both sales run from Tuesday, March 29 through Monday, April 4.

Mustache March!

Every year we do a little contest at the studio called Mustache March. Everybody shaves on the last day of February and then turns their 'staches loose - because nothing says 'we make video games' like nasty facial hair.

Here are a few of the best.

The Clydes of March!

Cloning Clyde Arrives on Steam with 15% off sale

Mar. 15, 2011 – Cloning Clyde arrives today on Steam with a coup of a deal! To kick off today's release and celebrate the game’s PC debut, Steam has announced that, for a limited time, users will be able to get their hands on the wacky action-adventure platformer for 15% off the game's regular price!

After the sale has concluded, Cloning Clyde will return to its regular, low price of 4.99 USD (£3.99 / €4.99).

Cloning Clyde was first released in 2006 as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title, but its arrival on Steam marks the first time the game has appeared on any other platform. To help it better integrate to Valve’s digital gaming platform, the game will support new features such as Steam Achievements and Stats. Cloning Clyde was developed jointly by independent studios Bacon Wrapped Games and NinjaBee.

Download the game now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/91800

Cloning Clyde Gets Steam Release Date

Unlimited Clones Available on Steam

Cloning Clyde, the quirky action-adventure platforming game from indie studios NinjaBee and Bacon Wrapped Games will make its PC debut Tuesday, March 15, on Steam. The game will be available for purchase for 4.99 USD (£3.99 / €4.99).

The new version, updated for Steam, includes prominent new features.

"We set out to make Cloning Clyde a perfect fit on Steam," said John Nielson, founder of Bacon Wrapped Games. "So we updated the game by adding new features like Steam Achievements and Stats. We reworked game's achievement set, adding 13 new achievements to the existing 12, making a total of 25 achievements that Steam users can unlock in-game."

A side-scrolling platformer, Cloning Clyde stars an unfortunate hero with multiplying problems. Clyde is the victim of a cloning experiment gone wrong who awakes to find himself trapped in a fortress-like cloning facility.

Players control Clyde and his clone brothers, switching between bodies to solve puzzles and find their way to safety. Though, occasionally players must cross-clone Clyde with monkeys, frogs, barrels of TNT, etc. to overcome obstacles - all while fighting past exploding mutant chickens and security robots.

Cloning Clyde was first released as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title in July of 2006 and quickly became a fan favorite among XBLA gamers. The game's popularity led to its induction to XBLA's "Arcade Hits" collection last year.

Cloning Clyde Coming to Steam

Cloning Clyde will be making its PC debut soon on Steam! Get a look at the game in its new trailer.

Support your local indies!

Some good friends of ours at Fire Hose Games are coming out with an awesome game on PSN called Slam Bolt Scrappers. They released this cool video you should check out. Enjoy!

Dear Jayde

Dear Jayde,

When I heard you had taken the time to speak out about Kefling Rights, I knew right away we would be BFFs! Just like me, you care about hot social topics like protecting the rights of keflings, saving the kelp, and supporting National Pretty Princess Day. Ever since I got squooshed through school, I have wanted to make a difference in the world, but what do you do once you've replaced all the light bulbs in your castle with those swirly flourescent things?

Still, I think you'll be relieved to hear how fair kefling life really is!

It's true that Daddy and I don't join in on chopping wood or jabbing at crystals with pole thingies, but Daddy says governating is already a fullish employance. And I can tell you being a princess is a lot harder than it looks. For one thing, making Executive Princess Decisions like what should be the national ice-cream flavor (Butter Pecan!) wears me out as much as chopping wood. For another thing, is it just my imagination, or am I every giant's favorite kefling to kick around? I don't mind all the attention, but my little princessy backside gets sore in a very unprincessy way.

My point is, everyone does their part. Doug and his brothers carry heavy stuff, The Chief stores things in her pants, my Froggy Prince makes poetry with his eyes, and The Witch creeps everyone out. That's hard work and I, for one, give them mad props!

As far as equality goes, I assure you every kefling is equal, especially the cute ones! Each kefling has the same chance to wear clothes stylish enough to get them invited to my parties, and we all take equal turns giving supportive hugs to the kefling that doesn't have a house because you broke it.

Sure, there's room for improvement. Like you, I would like all keflings to have a voice, except when the Effects Volume is turned up too high, 'cause that'd just be annoying. And like you, I think keflings should stop bowing to giants, because come on, the Ring dance is much more adorable.

We must keep pushing forward, dreaming of a brighter future, fighting for a better world, with only occasional breaks to watch the giants play Ratbeard soccer.

Thank you for caring about us, and for being a shining example of my favorite human rights slogan: "One World, Many Malls".

Sincerely,

The Princess (of the Kingdom Without or Possibly With a Castle, Depending On How Far Into The Story You Are)

Game with Developers

Want to meet the NinjaBee devs? Want to play A World of Keflings with us? Let's do it!

This Thursday, Feb. 3, NinjaBee is the featured developer for Xbox Live's "Game With Developers" event.

How to Play

Come play A World of Keflings between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST on Thursday Feb. 3. We'll be in and out of LIVE multiplayer games. So come find us.

Our gamertags are listed on the Dashboard in the 'Game with Developers' window you see pictured above.

If you don't already know how, here's how to browse through and join a Keflings LIVE multiplayer game: Just load up A World of Keflings and select 'Play Game' from the main menu. Then select 'Join Xbox LIVE Game' followed by 'Custom Match.' Then select 'Any Story.' This will bring up a list of games for you to choose from. Find an available game and jump on in.

See you then!

Doug Kefling: Builders Are Best

Take off! You mean, I get to write a guest blog post, and all sorts of people, including gamer hotties, will read it? AWESOME!

I'm Doug, and I'm a Builder, eh? So uh, that means like, me and my brothers are big muscley Keflings that can lift massive building pieces like they were made of wool. Which, some of them actually are, eh? And my brothers and I think you're SOOOO awesome that we want to follow you around and help you build your kingdom.

If you build a bunch of pieces we builders will pick them up and follow you around until you find a place to build, eh? Then we'll bring you more pieces while you put them together like a giant puzzle of awesomeness!

Oh, and if you're like, putting together something we've already seen you build then we'll know how to finish it for you, eh? Like, if you ever need to build a bunch of houses, eh, all ya gotta do is, like, build the first one by yourself. For all of the rest, just set down the first piece and put some love down next to it. Me and my builder brothers will take care of the rest. That should leave you with more time for your, uh, lady friends, eh? Unless of course you're... a girl, or... don't like the ladies or... something.

Keep in mind though, we can only keep track of one building at a time. So like, if you start building pieces for a bunch of different buildings all at once, we'll get super confused - like that time I watched Yellow Submarine.

Oh, and like, we don't get level-ups like regular Keflings, but you can drink potions that make you more awesome, and the more awesome you are, the more awesomeness rubs off on us.

Somebody as mind-bendingly amazing as you can totally help me find my lost brothers, and they'll start helping out, too!

Anyway, I'm SUPER pumped to help out with your kingdom. It's gonna be a beauty - like if heaven and the X-Games got married and had a baby, eh? So, see ya around.

Doug

Play A World Of Keflings With NinjaBee This Sunday to Unlock 2 New Avatar Emotes

Ahoy. Captain Ratbeard at yer scurvice, I mean, service.

I love to dance a merry jig while singing sea shanties. It be just the thing to lift me spirits before pillaging, I mean NEGOTIATING with another merchant ship. Argh! All you gotta do to jig up a storm is use your emotes in game. YARGH!

To do an emote, just use the D-pad. It be that little grey area on the controller that looks a little like an anchor. Alright, maybe it looks more like a ninja star, but ninjas be pansies, so pretend it looks like an anchor. YAR! If ya press the anchor, the emotes menu will come up. Just choose the first one up and press "A" - you'll start bustin' a move fit to call the kraken! Truth be told, that dance only calls Keflings to yer side, not krakens, but that be just as good.

There be other dances and special moves you can learn too but they be secret, like buried traysure, and the only way to find them is to build up yer kingdom to the fullest. There also be emotes you can only get with friends in local and live multiplayer, and there be emotes that are only unlocked by gettin' achievements in other games! You can learn some pretty sweet moves from those land-lubbers in Band of Bugs, let me tell ya.

Also keep your eyes open for those sneaky NinjaBees. They'll be teachin' people two secret emotes that you can only learn from someone else that knows it. Aye. If ya be playin' on Sunday December 26th around 7:00 p.m. PST (I think that stands fer Pilferin' the Seadog's Traysure...) ya may run into one. They'll be playin' their little hearts out, spreading their viral emotes like a bad case of scurvy.

I think you've heard enough from me, mates. I'm off to swab the poop deck... I mean CLEAN THE BATHROOM. Aye, merchant's gotta keep his bathroom clean. See ya in game.

Capt. Ratbeard.

Get A World of Keflings Early!!!

A World of Keflings officially releases tomorrow!!! We're throwing a launch party tonight in 'A World of Keflings' forums on NinjaBee.com and Xbox.com to count down till release. We'll be there to answer questions and give away some fun prizes.

NinjaBee Forum

Xbox.com forum

But wait... there's more! If you come to the party just ask us and we'll send you an invite to play A World of Keflings - at which point, you'll have the option to buy it early!

Okay, so actually anyone could help you get it early if they already have the game, but for those of you who don't know anyone who has it, show up, ask, and we'll invite you!

See you tonight!

(P.S. We're not sure if you have to be a Gold member or not for the early access to work)

Tick tick tick tick... boom!

Just two more days until A World of Keflings arrives on XBLA!!! We thought we'd wet your whistle with some added info about one of the game's new features - musical cannons.

You've seen this teased already in the trailer, but here's some interesting info about this new feature. The cannons were designed as an end-game feature to extend gameplay possibilities and give players something fun to do in their kingdom once they've finished the game.

To build cannons players must first collect gears they find around the world or receive as rewards for completing quests. Take the gears to the Machinist building and you'll be able to build cannons. By the end of the game you'll be able to build more than 80 cannons.

Different sizes of cannons hold notes for different lengths of time. Each cannon can be assigned a different voice (instrument) to sound when a Kefling fires through it. With more than 80 distinct instruments to choose from and a slew of firing effects, the musical possibilities are endless!

Tip: The cannons in the video that rotate are using counters. They're a great way to make your 80 cannons go further. A counter holds still and let's a Kefling fire through it as many times as you set, and then rotates to send the Kefling through another track of notes. After it rotates it returns to point its original direction.