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Skulls of the Shogun Betting Big on Microsoft's Future

The charming, delayed strategy game was aiming for Xbox Live Arcade, but has become much more, including a premiere title for Microsoft's Surface.

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Microsoft’s Surface tablet was mighty impressive looking piece of hardware at its unveiling this week, but when the presentation finished, not only was it lacking a price or release date, but where were the games?

A few moments after the event, however, 17-Bit founder Jake Kazdal got everyone jazzed by announcing the studio’s long-delayed strategy game, Skulls of the Shogun, would also be available for Surface.

(17-Bit used to be Haunted Temple Studios, by the way. That changed a few months ago.)

Microsoft's Surface so far seems like a much more capable laptop in the shape of a tablet.
Microsoft's Surface so far seems like a much more capable laptop in the shape of a tablet.

When 17-Bit signed with Microsoft, it was only for console and PC versions of Skulls of the Shogun. Mobile and tablet versions were not in the cards, but became part of the plan as development progressed, development that has stretched years more than Kazdal expected. He anticipated being on project #2 by now.

“We really wanted to make the game a success,”said Kazdal, “and we wanted to go big, and arguably bit off way fucking more than we ever should have.”

The core of Skulls of the Shogun was created by three developers, including Kazdal. That’s expanded into five full-time employees. How to splinter the game onto other platforms while also finishing the game itself happened organically.

By “organic,” of course, I mean there wasn’t much of a plan. The team has made it work with long hours for months.

“I’ve been working 10, 15 hour days for as long as I can remember,” he said with a mixture of laughter, excitement, and exhaustion, “and I keep telling my wife ‘Oh, we’ll be done in a couple months, and I'll start coming home and hanging out with you and the kids, don’t worry about it!’ And the months just go by and now, whenever I say that, she’s just like 'Shut up, I don’t believe you for a word.'" It’s just been a ton of extra work.”

That extra work has morphed into three distinct versions of the game coming to three different platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, Windows 8, Windows Phone. The tablet version that will also work for Surface (on both versions of the hardware) is an extension of the touch-enabled mobile version, while the XBLA edition has been basically done for a while. The once-flagship version for XBLA is mostly sitting idle while the other versions start to catch up.

The benefit, explained Kazdal, has been unprecedented polish.

“We’ve just been polishing and tuning and polishing and tuning,” he said. “We can, so we are. Most small indie guys, it’s the exact opposite--they’re freaking out, rushing to get stuff done in time, and they’re cutting corners and they’re taking sacrifices they didn’t want to. We haven’t had to do any of that.”

Kazdal was unable to comment on whether players will have to purchase all three versions of the game, or if purchasing one version will open up access to the other ones, ala Universal apps on iOS.

One also has to wonder about the "Skulls Anywhere" mode that was greyed out in the mobile version shown at PAX East. Hmm. (Warp to 1:23 to know what I'm talking about.)

It’s been frustrating for Kazdal to sit on Skulls of the Shogun for as long as he has, a game that’s been making the rounds at trade shows for going on years now. At this point, if I'm at a trade show, I know he is, too. It’s not uncommon for players to approach him at a venue like PAX East and be upset the game still isn’t out yet. A good problem to have, perhaps, but a feeling Kazdal knows all too well. He’s hoping the multi-prong approach will pay off.

“When a new hardware launches, there’s not a lot of stuff available,” he said. “There’s a bunch of interest. They’re going to have this awesome online store, and there’s not going to be much original content. We were in this position where we could be this cool indie title that’s been talked about, people are excited about it, and all of a sudden we’ve got this wide-open storefront--it made perfect sense.”

The benefit of having programmed and fine-tuned several interfaces for Skulls of the Shogun will greatly benefit the player in the end, though. When you’re playing on a Surface, you have the option of playing with a mouse and keyboard, touch controls, or plugging in an Xbox 360 controller via USB. Kazdal isn’t sure if it would be possible to mix-and-match the two, but he’s looking to it.

Still, getting there has been easier said than done. Making the decision to bring Skulls of the Shogun to another platform, despite its unified XNA code base, was easy. Once the game was up-and-running on that plarform, however, it was clear how much work had to be put into each one for 17-Bit to sign off on it.

Even if you aren't into strategy games, you may dig Skulls of the Shogun. It's like Advance Wars.
Even if you aren't into strategy games, you may dig Skulls of the Shogun. It's like Advance Wars.

When asked if he could have ever imagined all this a few years ago, he shook his head. When I asked whether he could recommend this path to anyone considering independent, he emphatically said no.

It’s too late now, though.

“The gamble is that it actually all pays off, and there is a good chance that won’t happen,” he said. “Gimme another six months to see how things roll out, and then I’ll know if I want to go back in time and punch myself in the stomach or not.”

If the explosive response on Twitter to Skulls of the Shogun coming to Surface was any indication, there's an audience. If nobody buys a Surface, though, Kazdal has already covered his bases, and they'll be able to pick up and play the platform elsewhere.

“This is our first time out as independent, so we’re just riding this wild sea of adventure every day,” he said. “It’s like going to war every day. “

Patrick Klepek on Google+

73 Comments

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Video_Game_King

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Edited By Video_Game_King

@patrickklepek said:

Even if you aren't into strategy games, you may dig Skulls of the Shogun. It's like Advance Wars.
Even if you aren't into strategy games, you may dig Skulls of the Shogun. It's like Advance Wars.

Fucking SOLD.

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BlatantNinja23

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Edited By BlatantNinja23

@HumanoidTyphoon: been using windows 8 on desktop for a while now.... have no issues with it

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deactivated-5bd776d92e886

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I played this (for about 40 minutes) at Develop 2011. The entire thing was pretty brilliant, the game controlled really well, their production structure seemed to lend itself to polishing as they went so although they didn't have some features working the ones that were working were slick and bug-free.

Still very much looking forward to this coming to XBLA.

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jasondesante

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Edited By jasondesante

"betting big on microsoft's future" is also known as "getting fucked in the ass" or "getting screwed", also known as "a bad idea"

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BestUsernameEver

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Edited By BestUsernameEver

@kenharkey7 said:

Windows is still windows, whether it be on a tablet, laptop, desktop. They slapped some pretty tiles on it thats about it. Personally i've ran windows 8 dev and release previews and really not impressed. Currently downgraded to xp myself only because steam for linux (thru wine) isnt' quite there where I need it to be yet.

Yeah, so that's pretty wrong. Windows 8 and Windows RT are pretty different architecturally, and the RT version is the tablet push. So windows on one system can be very different than of a tablet, here's another example. Windows phone 8 will be Windows NT, with built in encrypted boot and support for up to 64 cores, windows phone 7 is Windows CE, which is a much more limited version, and does not share the core with Windows RT. You are just looking at the user interface and saying it all looks the same, so it is the same, which is the furthest from the truth.

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kenharkey7

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Edited By kenharkey7

Windows is still windows, whether it be on a tablet, laptop, desktop. They slapped some pretty tiles on it thats about it. Personally i've ran windows 8 dev and release previews and really not impressed. Currently downgraded to xp myself only because steam for linux (thru wine) isnt' quite there where I need it to be yet.

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Jazz_Lafayette

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Edited By Jazz_Lafayette

Oh. I was under the impression that this was coming to PS3 as well. Boy, this is awkward.

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Zereta

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Edited By Zereta

Listening to Jake on the 8-4 Play podcast has made me fall in love with him. I want him, Skulls of the Shogun and 17 Bit to succeed so badly.

SotS comes out on ALL the platforms: Windows 8, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live Arcade. So whichever of those platforms that you have, you can play this game. So stop bringing in Windows 8 complains here.

I own an Xbox and a Windows Phone 7. I don't really like my Mac so sometime in the future, I'll probably be going to the Surface. The Windows 8 ecosystem thingo that Microsoft is building has never been done before and I am buying into it completely. If Microsoft succeeds, it'll be huge. It will be a shift in how we perceive computing.

Part of this plan is gaming and Skulls of the Shogun is pretty much the Halo of this ecosystem: Its the opening shot of the Windows 8 ecosystem.

They need this to work for them.

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avidwriter

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Edited By avidwriter

I didn't read the ariticle but I hope this doesn't mean it's not going to be on Steam.

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Odog4ever

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Edited By Odog4ever

@crajon: True the game selection is behind. But that was due to a lack of native development capability.

Devs pretty much had to rewrite games from scratch to get them on WP7 instead reusing the same assets that worked both iOS and Android (with some additional tweaking). WP8 is leveling the playing field by allowing native code, meaning mobile devs will be able to use ubiquitous game engines like Unity to target iOS, Android, AND WP8.

Also the install base of Windows PC users is way higher than the mobile OSes combined. Even Vista sold a ton of copies despite being hated by geeks.

There are decades long trends suggesting that there will be a huge install base of Windows 8 users meaning the devs will come (if they are partial to make money that is).

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Tanstaafl

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Edited By Tanstaafl

@NekuCTR said:

@Tanstaafl said:

@NekuCTR Though it is windows 8 exclusive unfortunetly.

What? do people consider Windows 8 the XBox as well? people need to stop getting pissed at an OS that isn't even done yet.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, what I meant to say was that on PC it's Windows 8 exclusive, meaning no windows 7 version (the tablets run windows 8 too). It will still be on Xbox as well :-)

I'm just a little bummed out because I don't plan on upgrading to windows 8 any time soon and I was looking forward to the game. I may pick it up on 360 but I use my pc way more then my Xbox.

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1p

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Edited By 1p

I hope the game is a success and Jake gets super rich off of it. Seems like he deserves it.

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NekuCTR

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@Tanstaafl said:

@NekuCTR Though it is windows 8 exclusive unfortunetly.

What? do people consider Windows 8 the XBox as well? people need to stop getting pissed at an OS that isn't even done yet.

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Tanstaafl

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Edited By Tanstaafl
@NekuCTR Though it is windows 8 exclusive unfortunetly.
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NekuCTR

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Edited By NekuCTR

For a second I thought they made it a surface exclusive. That would have been garbage, but whatever. Nothing wrong with some indie devs gettin' payed. As long as it's not at the expense of user enjoyment.

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umdesch4

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Edited By umdesch4

@fidgetwidget said:

@umdesch4: I love the fact that your video (at the time stamp) proves apparently both of our points... cheers :D

Yup, it totally does. That is, in part, why I thought of it. ;)

Oh, and by the way, also a /follow from me, 'cuz I appreciate a well-reasoned argument/discussion.

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Edited By fidgetwidget

@umdesch4: I love the fact that your video (at the time stamp) proves apparently both of our points... cheers :D

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umdesch4

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Edited By umdesch4

@fidgetwidget said:

As to why you would "bolt another start menu" to your task bar in order to quickly access the things you use, when there is ample room on the task bar to "pin" programs, and an entire desktop of space for programs... that just seems like wanting to do something fantastically mundane.

I see what you're saying, and while in theory I agree, I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing a little, because I can't help but think of 7:53 in this video (sorry, can't embed youtube with a timestamp here, alas):

Anyway, this is all completely off-topic, and I don't really feel it worth continuing. I think it's a grey area where we're not going to end up totally agreeing in the end. I get work done quickly and painlessly with my setup, and if I'm forced to change, I'll deal with it...

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McShank

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Edited By McShank

@fidgetwidget said:

@umdesch4: sorry, my "evolve or die" comment wasn't one directed at anyone, only something in the article HumanoidTyphoon had linked to try and make their point.

Certainly there are ways to get at what you want quickly and easily that don't require a "search" field, especially when you only use a dozen or so programs on a regular basis.

As to why you would "bolt another start menu" to your task bar in order to quickly access the things you use, when there is ample room on the task bar to "pin" programs, and an entire desktop of space for programs... that just seems like wanting to do something fantastically mundane. I am all for re-inventing the wheel (if they didn't re-invent it a few times, it wouldn't be round, or use material that provide better traction, be light weight, etc), but calling a more easy to use with less to learn experience more of a "de-evolution" than an evolution is a bit short sighted.

eg. Can you drive a car? Standard or Automatic? Does your car have power steering, assisted breaks, or other inventions that make driving easier? Or perhaps you take the bus or train? What ever your answers, were those "de-evolutions" of the horse drawn carriage!? If you think that, then the computer itself was too!

As for the word "Idiocracy"... that's the name of a movie... about the fact that intelligence isn't a factor in the all too often misquoted belief that evolution is merely "survival of the fittest".

i like you. /follow

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tim_the_corsair

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Edited By tim_the_corsair
@crusader8463

@Dohers: @DeF: @Noizemaze: It's only on Windows 8. You can't play it on any other version of windows. I don't want to play the game anywhere but PC, and Microsoft is now paying developers to lock PC games behind being Windows 8 only to try and force people to upgrade to that abomination of a new OS; of which I want no part of. I have seen no reason to go past Windows 7 from what I have seen of 8, and dick moves like trying to lock games away like this make me want the OS even less.

I felt like that about Windows 98.

You'll cave eventually duder, why fight it?
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christ0phe

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Edited By christ0phe

Holy hell, how is this game not out yet?

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uhtaree

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As someone who will probably go all in on the Windows ecosystem with 8, good for you Skulls of the Shogun, let's hope it works out.

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Edited By fidgetwidget

@umdesch4: sorry, my "evolve or die" comment wasn't one directed at anyone, only something in the article HumanoidTyphoon had linked to try and make their point.

Certainly there are ways to get at what you want quickly and easily that don't require a "search" field, especially when you only use a dozen or so programs on a regular basis.

As to why you would "bolt another start menu" to your task bar in order to quickly access the things you use, when there is ample room on the task bar to "pin" programs, and an entire desktop of space for programs... that just seems like wanting to do something fantastically mundane. I am all for re-inventing the wheel (if they didn't re-invent it a few times, it wouldn't be round, or use material that provide better traction, be light weight, etc), but calling a more easy to use with less to learn experience more of a "de-evolution" than an evolution is a bit short sighted.

eg. Can you drive a car? Standard or Automatic? Does your car have power steering, assisted breaks, or other inventions that make driving easier? Or perhaps you take the bus or train? What ever your answers, were those "de-evolutions" of the horse drawn carriage!? If you think that, then the computer itself was too!

As for the word "Idiocracy"... that's the name of a movie... about the fact that intelligence isn't a factor in the all too often misquoted belief that evolution is merely "survival of the fittest".

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Curufinwe

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Edited By Curufinwe

I@DoctorWelch: I guarantee no one is actually reading all of your overly long, poorly formatted diatribes.

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ladnar

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Edited By ladnar

Really want to play it, not going to make me upgrade to Windows 8. #alreadybeensaid

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DoctorWelch

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Edited By DoctorWelch

@MikkaQ said:

@DoctorWelch: That's how you're supposed to write news articles on the web. It's easier on the readers' eyes to find their place, it allows for easier content cutting on the editor's side, and of course writing for web is all about getting the idea out in as small a space as possible, as people have zero patience. Like you said, it feels like it's being written out like bulletin points. That means he did his job correctly.

Long paragraphs are well and fine for research articles, books and other long-format pieces of writing, but for news this is the standard and accepted style.

Giantbomb has proved this to be a wrong assumption. They have hung their hat on the theory that people's patience on the internet is not short, and they have been extremely successful so far. Also, putting more line breaks in the articles actually does the opposite thing of what you are suggesting. It makes the article more annoying to read and follow because of the lack of any and all logic about where breaks are supposed to go. It also makes the article seem about twice as long as it truly is. If the article was set in paragraphs, the chances of people reading the entire thing would be much much greater because it is simply much more likely someone will stop reading at a line break rather than in the middle of a paragraph. So if there are only a handful of paragraphs the chances of the audience getting more of that content is higher.

Also, these line breaks have should have little to do with cutting of content and editing because anyone who has gone to school for some kind of journalism knows that there are plenty of methods for which editing and cutting can be as easy as cutting off the end. Also, on Giantbomb (as well as any site) cutting content is really not a factor because of the infinite space on a page for text to be displayed. So any and all cutting and formatting that needs to be done to fit print does not apply directly to the internet. The most basic of journalism takes the bullet points and presents it as simple as that, but better, more experienced journalists use more creative methods and structure in order to make their stories feel less like a boring set of points.

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DoctorWelch

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@Curufinwe said:

@DoctorWelch said:

Everyone's going to be like "Stop hating Patrick", but I just want to clarify I really like Patrick. I'm just saying this here because it's the place I post the most.

Anyway, can we please stop with this whole "one line paragraph" thing that is plaguing the internet? Seriously, sometimes I read articles from places all around the web and they are made up of like two sentence paragraphs that are insanely annoying to read. Since when did decades, no, centuries of writing in paragraphs get thrown out the window for pointless extra line breaks to make articles seem longer than they really are. Paragraphs are that way for a reason. I'm not going to go into a 10-page paper of why they are the way they are, but it just seems insane to me that more and more people are deciding to write this way. Don't get me wrong, there's always room for a personal touch or flavor in writing, but arbitrary line jumps to sentences that should be right next to each other is just annoying. It really just makes the writing seem more disjointed like a bullet point breakdown of a story instead of being a piece that flows and is interesting in its own right.

Your second paragraph is hard to read because it is at least twice as big as it should be, and perfectly illustrates how wrong you are.

Reading paragraphs on a website doesn't work the same way as reading paragraphs in a magazine or book.

Yes, but I am not writing an article for a so called "professional" company. Also, dividing that up into two different paragraphs is still not a one line break.

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l3illyl3ob

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Edited By l3illyl3ob

There's really nothing WRONG with Windows 8. The Metro UI can be closed and ignored completely. But the problem is, beyond that, it's just Windows 7 again with only a small handful of really tiny usability enhancements. Why should I spend $100+ for that? I don't think 17-bit is making a very smart move by teaming with microsoft and locking Skulls to Windows 8 when it's a completely inessential OS. There isn't any technical reason why a game for windows 8 couldn't work for windows 7, either. This is a completely arbitrary lockout. I don't have an xbox, I can't get this on XBLA, so they're just saying I'll never play this game.

What's even dumber is that people will probably hack the game to make it work on 7 and pirates will have a field day.

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Dezinus

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Edited By Dezinus

Kinda weird that this 3+ year-old game that looks like a slightly better Flash game keeps getting mentioned everywhere, but ok.

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Boopie

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Edited By Boopie

I don't think this will be the next Angry Birds

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Edited By umdesch4

@fidgetwidget said:

@HumanoidTyphoon: have you used it? I bet you still click "all programs" on the start bar too, instead of using the search field to find the programs you need quickly...

You're a dinosaur, the article you link to even says so... evolve or die.

Normally, I'd agree with you, but you picked the worst example ever. I bolted a secondary start menu onto my task bar that I could organize the way I use things. With a quick registry hack or two, I can access any program on my machine in less than a second, just like I used to in XP. Typing in the search field of my start menu to find stuff in it? This is an evolved improvement over a hierarchical, user-customizable, sortable, and prioritizable interface?

You say evolve or die, I say Idiocracy.

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fidgetwidget

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Edited By fidgetwidget

@HumanoidTyphoon: have you used it? I bet you still click "all programs" on the start bar too, instead of using the search field to find the programs you need quickly...

You're a dinosaur, the article you link to even says so... evolve or die.

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nERVEcenter

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Edited By nERVEcenter

@MormonWarrior: It's a Windows 8 title. That's ANY Windows 8 machine. Being optimized for touch, it's obviously a perfect fit for Surface, but the marketing message seems to imply it's exclusive. Not true.

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Edited By watership

@dropabombonit said:

Cool story but despite the number of platforms the game is coming to, I can't play it because I don't any of them

If you don't have an Xbox 360 I don't feel sorry for you. So many great games you've already missed out on, on XBLA alone, you only have your choice to blame.

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Edited By Xeirus

@Curufinwe said:

@DoctorWelch said:

Everyone's going to be like "Stop hating Patrick", but I just want to clarify I really like Patrick. I'm just saying this here because it's the place I post the most.

Anyway, can we please stop with this whole "one line paragraph" thing that is plaguing the internet? Seriously, sometimes I read articles from places all around the web and they are made up of like two sentence paragraphs that are insanely annoying to read. Since when did decades, no, centuries of writing in paragraphs get thrown out the window for pointless extra line breaks to make articles seem longer than they really are. Paragraphs are that way for a reason. I'm not going to go into a 10-page paper of why they are the way they are, but it just seems insane to me that more and more people are deciding to write this way. Don't get me wrong, there's always room for a personal touch or flavor in writing, but arbitrary line jumps to sentences that should be right next to each other is just annoying. It really just makes the writing seem more disjointed like a bullet point breakdown of a story instead of being a piece that flows and is interesting in its own right.

Your second paragraph is hard to read because it is at least twice as big as it should be, and perfectly illustrates how wrong you are.

Reading paragraphs on a website doesn't work the same way as reading paragraphs in a magazine or book.

hahahaha, someone got served.

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Curufinwe

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Edited By Curufinwe

@DoctorWelch said:

Everyone's going to be like "Stop hating Patrick", but I just want to clarify I really like Patrick. I'm just saying this here because it's the place I post the most.

Anyway, can we please stop with this whole "one line paragraph" thing that is plaguing the internet? Seriously, sometimes I read articles from places all around the web and they are made up of like two sentence paragraphs that are insanely annoying to read. Since when did decades, no, centuries of writing in paragraphs get thrown out the window for pointless extra line breaks to make articles seem longer than they really are. Paragraphs are that way for a reason. I'm not going to go into a 10-page paper of why they are the way they are, but it just seems insane to me that more and more people are deciding to write this way. Don't get me wrong, there's always room for a personal touch or flavor in writing, but arbitrary line jumps to sentences that should be right next to each other is just annoying. It really just makes the writing seem more disjointed like a bullet point breakdown of a story instead of being a piece that flows and is interesting in its own right.

Your second paragraph is hard to read because it is at least twice as big as it should be, and perfectly illustrates how wrong you are.

Reading paragraphs on a website doesn't work the same way as reading paragraphs in a magazine or book.

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crajon

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Edited By crajon

I've been using Windows Phone 7 and it doesn't even compare to the App store in terms of games. They're all way to expensive, and most are of a low quality. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see it being any better on a tablet.

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DrDarkStryfe

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@DoctorWelch: Short paragraphs is something that you find in all print journalism. It is all about hitting the point, and leading very little filler. The same can be found if you open your local newspaper.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/cia-said-to-aid-in-steering-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html?_r=1&hp

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/06/commerce-secretary-bryson-resigns/1#.T-NO6bVYuSo

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/21/judge-throws-out-3-of-51-counts-against-sandusky/

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ballsnbayonets

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Edited By ballsnbayonets

looks SUPER BORING sorry microsoft.

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MikkaQ

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@DoctorWelch: That's how you're supposed to write news articles on the web. It's easier on the readers' eyes to find their place, it allows for easier content cutting on the editor's side, and of course writing for web is all about getting the idea out in as small a space as possible, as people have zero patience. Like you said, it feels like it's being written out like bulletin points. That means he did his job correctly.

Long paragraphs are well and fine for research articles, books and other long-format pieces of writing, but for news this is the standard and accepted style.

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Reluctant_Hero

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Edited By Reluctant_Hero

I played Skulls of the Shogun way back at PAX Prime 2010. Been waiting to play it again ever since. The wait has been too long. But I guess that is the price to pay when MS publishes your game. I hope it all pans out for Jake and 17-bit Studios.

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Rirse

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Edited By Rirse

Cue a year later when they complain about piracy when their game doesn't sell due to being Window 8 exclusive.

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zaccheus

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Edited By zaccheus

@Shookems: Well you implied that this release was doomed to fail. I think a developer would be pretty stupid to do that given the examples you gave, unless Microsoft was basically paying them more money than they would expect to get from a conventional release. So if you are right the developer would indeed be pretty stupid if their aim was to make money... It's pretty logical.

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FateOfNever

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@MormonWarrior said:

Wait, so is this still an XBLA title or is it only coming to Surface? I totally wanted to check this out...

It's still an XBLA title.

That extra work has morphed into three distinct versions of the game coming to three different platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, Windows 8, Windows Mobile.
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Shookems

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@Zaccheus: Not suggesting the developers are really stupid. I'm not sure where you pulled that from. I'm referring to the Vista exclusive releases of Shadowrun and Halo 2 that failed miserably.

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MormonWarrior

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Edited By MormonWarrior

Wait, so is this still an XBLA title or is it only coming to Surface? I totally wanted to check this out...

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prestonhedges

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@Cloneslayer said:

I was sold at "Its like Advance Wars."

It's not, though.

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Tyrax

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Edited By Tyrax

Looks cool to me, I'll probably get it on Xbox, but if the Surface controls work well I could see myself double dipping

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vinsanityv22

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Edited By vinsanityv22

How is this studio still open? Shouldn't have this game come out, like, two or three years ago?

Just ship the XBLA version already. Who cares about a simultaneous release date when 2 out of the 3 platforms will not have a large user base. You wanna ship for Surface and Windows Phone, feel free to do it later. But for f**k's sake, everyone who was ever interested in Skulls of the Shogun has already forgotten about it. It's one of those games like Bionic Commando or Final Fantasy Versus XIII where the audience will have gotten so sick of waiting that they'll just react with a shrug and say, "I thought that came out a year ago". When you delay a finished game for so long, you run a serious risk of making it instantly irrelevant.

Sh*t. Your studio could've been making money and could've shipped 2 more games since the XBLA version was finished.