We've officially fired up the ol' grinder again and have begun to further hone our righteous, boredom slaying blade known as BATTLE BEARS ROYALE.

In 1.3 you can expect:

• CAPTURE THE FLAG!
• New weapons for Astoria!
• Improved controls!
• And a big FAT surprise ;D

THAT'S ALL I'M SAYING for now. You'll just have to stay tuned to see further progress on it ;D

Speaking of progress, you see these folders?

You know what they're full of? PROGRESS. To be specific, WIL'S FINEST HOUR cut-scene progress. The entirety of the WFH cut-scenes have all been fully illustrated and are now in their final animation stages. We're CLOSE, my pets. So very close. When they're all done, MAYBE we'll let you have a taste... MAYBE... maybe you don't deserve it... only time and I will tell...

While you're all salivating over yourselves, please use these bits of concept art to lightly dab your spittle drenched chins and make yourselves decent for goodness sake!

Congratulations, here's HALF A TROPHY.

It's not even the good half.

SECOND PLACE?! I guess we better start working on the app that attracts benevolent motorists to the street corner we live on now. GOOD THING WE SAVED ALL OF THOSE BOXES AFTER THE BIG MOVE, EH?

FOR CRYING OU- SECOND. PLACE. SECONDPLACE! 

I'm sorry, it's just... I mean, without you guys, our fans, we wouldn't have even had a chance to face such defeating disappointment, you know? Without you, we wouldn't have even been nominated, I guess. Without you all, we never would have beat out Call of Duty, Modern Combat 3, Dead Space AND Infinity Blade... I guess.... So, yeah, thanks a lot.... we all love you and stuff and whatever. We never would have had to suffer in 2ND PLACE without you all, we could have just remained in obscurity forever with no recognition at all and probably never had a chance to make another game so... thanks...

Here's some concept art from BB0, as if YOU ALL DESERVE IT (<3)

BUT FIRST! An announcment. The 1.2.1.1 BBR update that addresses most of the crashing issues will be live in a few hours! That is all <3 

Concept for a Terminal Station in ARCADE MODE!

 Concept for an "Incognito" Wil from a Cut-Scene that as since been CUT! AHAHAHAHA... No really, though, it's not in there anymore, such a shame.

• A new bug has been foundDONT'PANIC, it's a doozy but the good news is that it is quite rare. Players may experience frustration when they find that they cannot damage the opposing team- that is because on very rare instances the system will display you as red, for example, and THINK you are blue. Confusion and sometimes hilarity will ensue. A fix for this was submitted today so hopefully things will level out soon <3
• We have reached out and given the skill system a bit of a tweaking. We've been getting reports of players having problems with it but HANG IN THERE, things should begin to clear up in the next few days as the servers get their act together.

That does it for BBR news, now back to our regularly scheduled BLAWG:

I had a realization a few seconds ago. If you're reading this, you probably have an interest, on some level, in video game development. Keeping this in mind I have opened my eyes to what you all are, an untapped sea of cheap labor potential. It could very well be your DESTINY to work in game design.

Let me be the one to take you under my ween, shelter you from the showers of misinformation that permeate the interwebs and set you on the education path that will govern your posture and spinal wellness (or lack there of) for years to come.

Today's less is VOCABULARY. 

Today's single word is ORTHOGRAPHIC.

An Orthographic, in vidja game terms, is a means of representing a three dimensional object in two dimensions. In other words, a drawing of the character/object displayed from all angles for the neanderthalic poo-brain 3D modelers* to begin sculpting the final model we see in the game.

*just kidding! Love you, 3D team! Kisses.

BELOW we have two examples of final orthographics used in Wil's Finest Hour! I hope you all learned something today! If you didn't, there are several educational grants available to help you find the appropriate learning center. I hear Sylvan is nice <3

An orthographic for the tentatively titled "PLANT BOSS"! (That is to say, a boss who is a plant).

An orthographic for one of the HIP's ready and willing maid bots!

NONE OF YOU KNOW that I am about to share with you the long lost Boss encounter in storyboard form! 

BOOYAH!

Riggs encounters ROBOTICUS.

Riggs soundly defeats ROBOTICUS.

Riggs spends a day in the life of a tennis ball with a rope strung through it as he contemplates his defeat. Also, who wants to make me a gif out of this? Ehh? Ehh?!

We are TRULY sorry we weren't able to complete this boss fight for our incredible fans. In light of this, this is the least we can do <3 I hope it brings even just a little closure to the RIGGS BOSS FIGHT hole in your heart <3

UPDATE! A special thanks to LeafyGuyDS for taking up the gif torch on this one! :D (And also Apothecy who apparently did the same in our forums <3)

EXTRA TRUE FACTS:

Roboticus would have moved and behaved very similar to an overly playful, possibily angry, dog.

Roboticus was built in the H.I.P. *gasp*!

And speaking of Facebook, head over to the icon voting thread if you haven't already! Let us know what you think there, here or in our forums!

If you have not beta tested before we regret to announce we have no avaible testing slots. Stay tuned and eventually we will have another open sign in period for testing!

Please take a moment to add sweat, light cursing and profound constipation to your current mental image and I think we'll be good to move on.

GREAT! Things are busy here, as always, so in the interest of keeping it sho

Arcade Weapon Concept: Black Hole Shot Put

 Concept for a Story Mode Weapon: NAME IS TOP SECRET- can you guess it?! :O

What do you get in return you ask? You mean you want MORE than having your name removed from my "Black Book"? No, not my address book, my BLACK BOOK, the one I write the names of missing persons in BEFORE they go missing.

*HINT*

Fine, I'll jive with you turkeys. If you give us a quick vote I will give YOU information on an update to the very game you've just voted for, further legitimizing the previously asserted notion that BATTLE BEARS ROYALE really IS the Best Action Game of 2011!

"What's in this update exactly?" you wonder silently to yourself like the perfectly behaved, seen but not heard child you are. 

"Why, I'll tell you!" I say only with my cutting looks of disapproval.

In the next BBR update you can expect NO MORE than the following:

1. Friendly fire is gone like Tupac! You can still blow yourself up like a chump, though.

2. The paltry skill system has received a sound overhauling. You will now progress based on the merits of your PERSONAL skill and not of your, let's face it, less than perfect team mates (Life Fact- they think the same thing about you).

3. Spawn shield! Rise from the ashes as an angry and invincible Rambo! You will now have 2 precious seconds of invincibility upon respawing onto the map. Run into the fray and valiantly absorb a hail of gun fire and take out your foes before your inevitable demise or use the time to retreat to a tactically advantageous position, make Sun Tzu proud.

4. All new Guest System! You are no longer required to set up a log in before you're even allowed to play the darn thing. Once you eventually scrounge together the 6 seconds it takes to actually log in, all of your progress made as a guest will be transferred to your account and be forever enshrined in the system. HOWEVER, while you remain a guest in our game, you're own device is solely responsible for your saved data. Play for 12 hours as a guest and then stop a knife attack with your iPhone? Goneskies. Was it worth it?

5. Assist and Kill Streak bonuses! They say 10% of the people do 90% of the work. This is a fact of life you must harden yourselves with if you want to come in first place in the race of life. You know what second place gets? A set of steak knives*. This fact will still hold true in BBR when you're diligently ending the life of your competitor only to have some Leroy Jenkins swoops in on his jerk-sled and knocks out your target's last hit point, effectively stealing your kill. NOW, your point bonus is based on how much damage you deal to an opponent! On top of that, delivering the final blow to successive opponents nets you a fatty natty point bonus we like to call "Kill Streak Bonus"! 

6. Speed power ups work- AGAIN!... What? That's it. They work again...

NOTE: The 1.2.1 update is still in progress. We'll keep you all posted on when we are able to submit!

Look at us! Updating our game like a real developer. Moving the gaming experience closer and closer to pure nirvana (and we haven't even started drilling holes into your skull. Maybe in the next update). 

In the meantime, please enjoy s'more rad art nibblets from BATTLE BEARS: ZERO!

 BB0 weapon concept: The Bubble Gun (Don't worry, the colors are not final)

Top secret EARLY promo image for BB:0 that, like, three people saw. DISCUSS!

*Third place is you're fired.

2012 is nearly upon us and if you haven't freaked out and started planting bananas in your backyard in anticipation of the equatorial shift, you're doing it wrong.

Forget whatever stupid New Year's resolution you were going to make for two reasons: 

1. Even if the Mayan calendar fails to make good on its promised Global Smackdown, I mean, cmon, you really think you're going to go through with it? Like, seriously?

2. The Mayan calendar will make good on its promised Global Smackdown 2012.

3. Your real New Year's resolution is to enjoy the living giblets out of BATTLE BEARS ZERO and all above points are moot.

I mean, just look at his Wil's wittle face, how could you say no?

 What is happening in, above AND below the frame is, for now, entirely up to your imagination. Please don't be all gross about it.

And, because I'm such a good guy, some concept art to top off your disappointing sequence of events known as 2011.

Concepts for Rho, the head of security for the H.I.P. and Wil's unbreathing nightmare in BATTLE BEARS ZERO.

All blog posts will be suspended until next year... (get it? cause that's, like, tomorrow).

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THANK YOU ALL FOR GETTING US THROUGH THIS TUMULTUOUS YEAR WITH THE POWER OF YOUR LOVE, FANDOM AND WALLETS <3

BONUS! Unzip your heart-fly and show some support by nominating BATTLE BEARS ROYALE for best action game of 2011! GO GO GO!