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Team Meat teasing Mac/Linux version of SMB with anniversary celebration
Super Meat Boy is coming up on his birthday, and his two dads are celebrating the only way a dad can mark any milestone: A really great mug. They're $15 and frankly they're just adorable. But friends, we didn't entice you here with promises of new drinkware choices, no, you want to know about the possibility of SMB on Mac or Linux. Fair enough. While teasing the SMB birthday festivities (planned throughout November) Team Meat's Tommy Refenes wrote "perhaps you non-PC people will finally get what you are constantly bugging us for," which sounds an awful lot like the arrival of the aforementioned ports. Usually, we'd have to be pretty desperate to cook up meat that's a week old, let alone a full year, but we'll make an exception in this case. (Other exception: Stew. You put some year-old meat in a pot, add some broth, a potato, baby, you got a stew going.)
Team Meat bashes MS, Zen Studios hits Meat, both have lunch date in Bay Area
The right to a personal opinion is the crux of humanity, freedom and guns, and Team Meat and Zen Studios are exercising their liberties to the fullest. Super Meat Boy's Team Meat has been vocal about its displeasure with developing for Microsoft's Game Feast promotion in 2010, and raised the issue again on the IndieGames Podcast this month. Team Meat say Super Meat Boy didn't receive the promotion it was verbally promised, which was supposed to include a review from Major Nelson and an exclusive launch week. Neither happened, and McMillen promises that Indie Game: The Movie captures much of Team Meat's Microsoft frustration, including what felt like being tortured in a concentration camp (IndieGames Podcast 27:35).
Super Meat Boy UK Ultra Edition revealed, extra meaty
Lace Mamba Global has revealed the contents of its previously announced special boxed edition of Super Meat Boy. The Super Meat Boy Ultra Edition is headed to the UK and Ireland and, along with the game, will also include a 40-page comic and sketch book, a poster and a download of the game's soundtrack. For a few more bones, players can pick up the Ultra Rare Edition, which includes everything from the Ultra Edition to a snazzy Super Meat Boy T-Shirt. The Super Meat Boy Ultra Edition will be priced at £19.99, while the Ultra Rare Edition will run £24.99. Both will hit UK and Irish retail on August 26. %Gallery-128992%
Team Meat's McMillen working on new game, The Binding of Isaac
Edmund McMillen, one half of Team Meat (the dev duo behind Super Meat Boy), has been working on a secret undertaking called The Binding of Isaac. The side project, which has nothing to do with Team Meat's next "feature length" project, finds McMillen working with programmer Florian Himsl (Coil, Triachnid, C word), and a score by Danny Baranowsky (Canabalt, Super Meat Boy, Cave Story 3D). McMillen plans to reveal release date and platforms when the title is finished in about a month. The only hints we get for now are, "It's a play on my favorite game of all time," and that it's a roguelike. He hopes to share more information next week.
Super Meat Boy, Magicka, Darksiders, and more in today's Steam Summer Sale
Still wondering what that whole Super Meat Boy thing is about? It's about $7.50 today, as part of Steam's Summer Camp Sale. Other big games you can get for tiny sums today include Plants vs. Zombies ($3.39), Magicka ($3.39), and Darksiders ($4.99). If you're trying to win "tickets" to earn prizes during the Steam promotion, today's activities have you performing specific tasks in Magicka, Hoard, Jolly Rover, Super Meat Boy, and Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. Surprisingly, the challenge in the last one is more involved than just saying the word "Garshasp" without getting the giggles.
Eat up these scraps from Super Meat Boy's cutting room floor
Though Super Meat Boy is a rather beefy downloadable title by every conceivable definition of the word, there were actually a few more features which didn't make it into the final cut. Team Meat recently posted a cornucopia of these deleted scraps on its blog, including a handful of unimplemented characters, a few deadly traps and a cheeky intro cutscene for Braid's borrowed protagonist, Tim. (Man, what a creepy guy.) Check out all the features on Team Meat's blog, and lament the fact that Cave Story's Quote wasn't added to the final game's roster. Man, that game would have been so much easier with a jetpack and a machine gun.
Super Meat Boy Steam update adds the Unknown
There's nothing random about Super Meat Boy's highly regimented gauntlet of intricate murder machines and carefully measured series of gaps. However, the challenging platformer's latest Steam update has thrown a bit of chance into the mix: Players can now "Enter the Unknown" via the game's main menu, which creates a full 20-level chapter for them to play through using a random selection of levels picked from the Super Meat World portal. The update also adds a chapter recommendation feature, as well as a new navigation option that lets you rank levels based on their fun or difficulty -- two metrics which players can vote on after playing through a chapter. We think these two features will dovetail quite nicely considering our auspicious lack of skill at Super Meat Boy, as we've always wanted recommendations for the title's least soul-crushing levels.
Super Meat Boy level editor video tutorial will teach you a thing or two
Though you might expect the Super Meat Boy level editor to be a complete breeze -- put some blocks there, fifty saws there, and done! -- it's actually a pretty intricate authoring tool. Check out the six videos after the jump for an hour-long tutorial on how to make your very own deathtraps.
Super Meat Boy level editor released, 'FINALLY'
"We always wanted to release a basic level editor" for Super Meat Boy, Team Meat's Edmund McMillen writes in an emailed announcement, "but the idea started to balloon when we decided to buy servers and program a fully automated level portal (Super Meat World) to support these levels as a bonus chapter for the PC version." Needless to say, it's taken a while for the two-man team to complete the free add-on. But ... The level editor is "FINALLY out on Steam!" McMillen rejoiced. Technically, the editor is in beta release -- "and probably will be for a very long time," McMillen notes in a blog post -- so users may encounter "minor issues." Still, with the exception of boss battles and warp zones, the editor can be used to create "anything you see in game," and even package such torturous levels into a complete chapter of pain. "So think of this as a thank you to all the awesome fans who sent us cool shit, nice emails and created amazing levels with devmode," the ever-irreverent McMillen concludes in his post, "if you bitched us out because the free level editor was delayed, you should probably not update your game and burn in hell." McMillen added in his email that Super Meat World would be updated next week to add a few "missing" features and fix some bugs with the editor. "After that we will be closing the book on the PC version, porting SMB to Mac and swiftly moving on to game #2."
Super Meat Boy Ultra Edition coming to Europe and Australia
A recent press release published by video game distributor Lace Mamba Global is ... well, it's the best thing we've ever read. Imagine you've never heard of Super Meat Boy before, okay? It would seem like a pretty cut-and-dry announcement: "Lace Mamba Global is proud to announce that it is bringing the Ultra Edition of the independently developed gaming blockbuster Super Meat Boy to retail shelves in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and the Benelux countries." Pretty normal stuff, right? The presser reveals a Q3 2011 release window, and mentions that the company will announce pricing details in the near future. Okay, makes sense so far. Then, with no preface, it drops this: "In the platforming game Super Meat Boy, people play a boy without skin. His girlfriend, who is made of bandages, gets kidnapped by a fetus in a tuxedo wearing a top hat and a monocle." Hey, press release? Don't try to sneak that in there like it's not the craziest sentence anyone's ever written, okay?
Super Meat Boy figures turn your desk into a deli
Etsy user Voxelous has revealed a set of four two-inch Super Meat Boy figurines, crafted using a 3D printer, super glue and love. You can grab one for $12 (plus shipping), though be careful -- Team Meat reports that upon receiving the toys in the mail, "we both crapped our pants."
Super Meat Boy dashes toward 600,000 copies sold
In an interview with Pocketful of Megabytes, Team Meat revealed that Super Meat Boy has sold 600,000 copies across both Steam and Xbox Live -- quite the jump from the 400,000 figure the game was approaching back in February. Sales on Xbox Live are close to 200,000, while Steam leads with nearly 400,000. Of course, the figure we want most is just how many times that adorable little cube of meat has perished. It's got to be in the billions, right?
Super Meat Boy gets turned into an NES (or vice versa)
Indie game developer (and apparent Team Meat super-fan) Benjamin Braden recently Tweeted a pair of images of a simple, stylish Super Meat Boy-themed NES clone. Check out the image below to see the before and after, and watch that unassuming cartridge slot transform into a horrified meat-mouth.
Super Meat World now orbiting Steam
If you own the Steam version of Super Meat Boy, you're about to be in a user-generated world of pain. According to die-hard developer Team Meat, the free "Super Meat World" level portal is open and serving eight custom-made chapters (comprising about 140 levels) from various players and developers. The entrance will be to the left of Chapter 1 on the menu and will open once you've collected at least 20 bandages. The next step -- due "in a few days" -- will be a wide release of the Super Meat Boy level editor, initially in the form of a public beta. "The editor will allow people to basically create anything they have seen in game and upload it to Super Meat World with the click of a button," said Edmund McMillen via email. "Users will also eventually gain the ability to create full chapters that can be uploaded and rated by other users." Here's the best part: Once the editor is deemed "stable," Team Meat will enable "The Unknown," a free feature that automatically stitches user-created levels into an unpredictable, sadistic gauntlet of meat-mincing grinders. Do try to curb that public display of excitement (your Stockholm syndrome is showing).
Steam offering 13 indie games (including Super Meat Boy!) for 75% off
Rather than go the "make up a fake game/product/service" route that so much of the game industry takes on April Fool's Day, Valve instead put together an indie bundle and heavily discounted it, making those who didn't buy it fools in the process. It's what we like to call "the old switcheroo." Including Joystiq Game of the Year awardee Super Meat Boy, terror simulation Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Gaijin Games' synesthetic masterpiece Bit.Trip Beat, "The Potato Sack" drops all 13 games by 75 percent off their normal asking prices (or 50 percent when purchased a la carte). Considering that all of those games would normally cost around $160 if you bought them individually, you're looking at a savings of approximately $120. Also, you'll do untold wonders for your invaluable indie cred. And hey, if none of that does it for you, there's a potato hat for Team Fortress 2 included. Also of note, each of the bundle's games have been modified with a potato-themed update -- head to the gallery below for a look at Super Meat Boy and Bit.Trip Beat's starchy additions. Update: Added AaAaAA!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity to the gallery, courtesy of NoodleGunshot. [Thanks Joseph Leakey!]%Gallery-120268%
Super Meat Boy's PC level hub is 'days away,' Mac port to follow
In addition to the game's forthcoming level editor, Super Meat Boy devs Team Meat are planning a hub for user-created content: Super Meat World. The hub's launch is set for "very soon, days away even," according to tweets from Team Meat. Aside from allowing Steam players to share and download individual levels, Super Meat World will support sharing of full chapters -- at least those that Team Meat chooses to feature. And once Super Meat World is complete, the team says it'll get to work on the Mac iteration of Super Meat Boy, with a Linux version following that (seriously). As previously noted, Steam users who already purchased SMB won't have to repurchase to play on OS X, as the game features SteamPlay functionality.
Super Meat Boy is good for a LARP
Remember Gary Bigham, the (professional) live-action role-player who took on a real-life version of Minecraft? Well, he's back, this time tackling the evil Dr. Fetus in an all too real version of Super Meat Boy. If you absolutely must try this at home, remember to watch out for warp zones.
Super Meat Boy misses jump to Wii (falls into chainsaw)
Team Meat today finally laid to rest the troubled Wii version of Super Meat Boy. "We really tried hard to make this happen but not one publisher we talked to thought a retail budget title for the Wii would be profitable at this point in the Wii's life cycle," reads a missive on the Team Meat Blog, "and we totally understand that." Initially planned as a WiiWare title, the Wii version of SMB grew beyond the size constraints of Nintendo's digital platform, and so Team Meat began to look into a box-copy release. Perhaps its spirit will live on in the "Ultra Edition" of SMB for PC.
Super Meatmortem: The almost-death of Team Meat
Crunch time is just part of game development. When the deadline is looming, it's not uncommon for developers to pull 12-hour shifts (or longer). For Team Meat, crunch time nearly killed half of the duo. Tommy Refenes (pictured left) told GDC attendees that he would "be dead if we put Meat Boy on everything," explaining one of the reasons why Super Meat Boy has only been released for Xbox Live Arcade and PC thus far. In the two months leading up to SMB's XBLA debut, neither took a single day off, let alone slept for more than five hours a day. Refenes recounted feverish "development dreams" -- a sort of Groundhog Day scenario where he was squashing bugs only to wake and discover more.
Super Meat Boy 'Ultra Edition' comes to retail in North America this April for $20
During a postmortem on Super Meat Boy, Edmund McMillen, the hairier half of Team Meat, gave GDC attendees a lengthy peek at the box art for a special "ultra edition" of the PC game. "Here's the Walmart box," he told attendees as he gave a Skype video call tour of the North American retail package -- it will be available in other retail stores, not just Walmart, as well as on Amazon. Later, the @SuperMeatBoy Twitter account provided an image of the boxart (hop over the chainsaws and past the break to see it in full), a much more crisp and higher-res version of the boxart than seen in McMillen's video call. In following up with McMillen, we were able to secure additional details: it'll launch in April for $20; it includes a 40-page booklet including never-before-seen art, behind-the-scenes info and an extended version of Team Meat's comics, with new pages; the soundtrack and additional audio samples; and a mini-poster of that disturbing Super Meat Boy fan art seen last year. You know, in case you have a room that you need to make sure nobody ever sleeps in. Ever. Hop past the break (mind the chainsaws!) to check out the "Ultra Edition" boxart.
