Job: Concept Artist

We are looking for an excellent concept artist for a contract position. Ideally you live in the NYC area, but that is negotiable. Qualities we admire: professionalism, friendliness, and the ability to communicate. Examples of people we think are excellent concept artists: 

http://creaturebox.com/

http://goodbrush.com/ 

To apply please send an email politely introducing yourself and a link to your online portfolio to: jobs.at.smerc.dot.com

Applicants without online portfolios will not be considered.

Follow us on this blog, twitter or facebook to be the first to find out about job openings.

Decades Slays, All The Others Just Stand By In Awe

Check out this review of Dungeon and this review of the new lame for dead promo Left 4 Dead if you need to find out about games and apps that are a little behind the times or just plain confusing. Check out THIS ANNOUNCEMENT if you need to find out that one of the brightest, best, most multi-platform games this year just became available for iTunes, Android, PC and Facebook.

We've JUST announced Decades for all four gaming platforms and that makes the game one of our widest releases to date!!!

If you have any sense in you you'll click over to www.decadesthegame.com to find out more and if you're preferential of one platform over another, here are the separate links for access to each one:

On Facebook: apps.facebook.com/decadesgame

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com/webobjects/mzstore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329690750&mt=8

On Android: www.decadesthegame.com/android

On PC platform: www.decadesthegame.com/playnow 

Decades is brilliant, addicting, and truly truly fun. Enjoy and thank us later!

Warfare Frenzy

We've hastily been trying to avoid reporting on Modern Warfare 2, since it seems like you can't get away from news of it the past week, but, the game has officially reached 1.78 million in unit sales and that is something we can't help but mention.

In a persistently deadened economy, where gaming sales undulate from "staying afloat" to "weakening" status on a weekly basis, MW2 has scored a record sale of $108.7 million (estimate is converted from British currency) in just 7 days. We can't quite wrap our heads around that, but, we won't try to either. 

We'll just congratulate our industry peers on scoring one for the league and hope that the fact that they've scored the highest grossing video game release of all time in an economy such as this is projection of a more positive future. 

Read more at VideoGamer

Getting Hopeful About Zune

Here's something you rarely hear us (or anyone else) mention, Zune. Well, we're going to break that dry spell now and tell you that we've come upon an article via Ars Technica that actually calls the new batch of Zune HD games for the beleaguered MP3 player(/gaming handheld?) "fun". Fancy that.

According to the piece, the fun is actually an important aspect of the new 3D/HD products as the previous set of games boasted painfully slow loading times, simple 2D graphics, and a lacking in captivating plot-points/action. 

The more state-of-the-art concepts load a lot quicker (thanks to a firmware update), have sensually pleasing graphics (and we mean that in the way that they appeal to your senses), and actually have some "replay value".

In reviewing the newest releases, Ars actually called Checkers for Zune "beautiful", citing that its outdoor setting and simplicity made it surprisingly captivating, and even went so far as to pay the "Wii compliment" to Lucky Lanes Bowling, comparing the mobile app to the visual experience of playing on the console.

We really are hoping in our heart of hearts that this isn't the last we'll be mentioning of Zune gaming for a while. With iPhone/iPod Touch carving a new nieche for casual gamers in the market, if Microsoft really steps up the content of their gaming products they could genuinely reap the benefits of what Apple started.

"Face"-ing Up To PS3

Here's some news that we (the producers of three supremely awesome Facebook games) are quite giddy about the possibility of: murmurs in the video game blog-o-sphere seem to be speculating that the PS3 system may soon become Facebook-enabled. 

The gossip has apparently been triggered by three errant images that appeared on PlayStation's website yesterday and that depicted Facebook running on PS3's XCrossMediaBar. Here they are for your own consideration:

Though the snapshots have been pulled down since leaking, Sony UK PR has responded to the snafu by saying that official news on the subject will be arriving "very shortly".

So basically, it seems like the company was giving the images a test run on their web building software and accidentally uploaded the content. Pretty good accident, we think, as it has garnered some unintended publicity for the forthcoming announcement and subsequently given a little heat to XBox 360, who have already officially demoed both Facebook and Twitter for their console.

Clever dealings Sony, clever indeed. You can read a bit more here: GameSpy

A Case For Mobile Gaming

As we had previously mentioned, the iPhone is more surely the biggest driving forces in mobile gaming at the moment. It's sales at the designated point of purchase location, iTunes, trump sales of any other mobile gaming retailer, bar none. But, did you know that the collected mass of Apple mobile gaming venturing may be having a positive impact on traditional console concepts?

We caught an interesting bit via GameDaily today, that was begun as a cautionary tale of the adverse affects mobile gaming may be having on the console/computer gaming market. The piece was eventually concluded with the realization that mobile gaming in fact, boosts interests of the casual/passive game player and make individuals who are not particularly passionate about gaming as entertainment that much more involved in all aspect of it, not just in mobile gaming alone.

Ask about the potential disinterest in console gaming mobile applications may cause, VP of Marketing at GameStop, Tony Bartel, had this to say:

“I really see a lot of growth in both of those areas...they appeal to two different audiences... I've been looking at Madden and Assassin's Creed on my iPhone, and while they're fun to play, they're far from the experience I can get on a console or even on a handheld. So I think in some cases they could lead people over into that (console) area."

Well said, we think and as Bartel himself says:

 "I really see the [iPhone market] as more complementary than competitive at this point.” 

And so do we. Check out our newest mobile gaming entry (Decades) for iPhone/iTunes right here.

Minesweeper Adventure To Be Developed For Charity

Yesterday we hinted at the persistence of simple casual games in the mobile market (specifically on iTunes store), today we've picked up an item about a new development project for Minesweeper, via Joystiq.

According to the post, the utterly addicting Windows OS mainstay is being developed by Charles Cecil (originator of the Broken Sword series) for charity game manufacturer OneBigGame, who's mission is to sell video games in order to create endowment funds for various children needs.

That mission statement sounds great to us, we just hope that the kids don't get a hold of the new game. Lord knows we wish we could get our childhood back after the many hours we spent in front of our old PC trying not to get "mined". We've switched to Mac since. Phew

We're Webbie Almost-Winners

As if getting props from the Android world for our mobile version of Decades wasn't enough, we're also proud to say that for our Nickelodeon-commissioned effort Sponge Bob Soak and Squeeze we've become the only game the kid's channel will be entering for competition into the Webbie Awards.

We're pretty excited, seeing as how the Webbie's are the foremost judging pannel for what's good on the interwebs, so, wish us luck! We hope we win something.