The summer is here!  After a week of 100+ degree days, I think we finally can expect no more freak snowstorms until winter rolls around again.  But beyond the weather, the games industry is heating up too.  All kinds of cool games are coming out soon, and lots more are in development.  At E3, they pinned down a September 28th release date for the (most awesome) ICO/Shadow of the Colossus collection HD remake.  Bluepoint Games did that one, with some help from us.  It’s probably the one game I’m willing to buy a 3D TV to play stereoscopically.  Whereas most developers are uninterested in playing any games they’ve worked on, I always enjoyed SotC and the 3D is particularly good.

What are we up to?  Lots of stuff.  We’re polishing up a new Facebook/web product that we’ve built ourselves over the past 7 months, and hope to release very soon.  We’ve just finished a quick Flash project for the History Channel.  We’ve also just wrapped up a multiplayer NBA licensed project (in Unity) for Cartoon Network, which I hope to be released soon on NBA Hoop Troop.  Finally, we’ve also been doing some hush-hush work for a couple of other partners that I can’t talk about, literally working on all of the current consoles.

What’s awesome about Austin, though, is how quickly we’re rebounding.  Last year was tough for a lot of developers, and signing new projects took a long time because publishers were hurting.  This year, it seems like the little studios are doing a good job of swinging sustainable deals and publishers are more willing to make sub-$1m bets.  Nearly everybody is busy, and those who aren’t are helping shore up other teams.  It’s very much like the Hollywood model has naturally evolved over the past few years, with lots of contractors flowing between projects.  Of course, being in Texas, it’s a lot more wild-west than Hollywood.

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