Monday, August 31, 2009

Lumpy’s Guilty Pleasures – Defying Gravity

Lumpy has a fascination for space travel. He’s interested in all types of news and documentaries about how the people on Earth are reaching for the stars.

He’s intrigued by our primitive means of space travel, and he has lots of respect for the astronauts, engineers, and scientists who work on Earth’s space programs. He’s currently following the Space Shuttle Discovery’s mission along with the test firing of the Constellation’s rocket system that might take Earthlings back to the Moon or Mars. He’s really not too sure why Earthlings make such a big deal about such short travel distances.

Lumpy’s also been watching a documentary called Defying Gravity recently. He’s looking forward to this documentary, as they’re on a 6 year mission to explore the Solar System. But he's wondering why it’s taking the team 6 years to travel the system. It should take way less than 6 seconds to travel that far on low power impulse drive…

At any rate, he likes this documentary because the crew of the ship Antares have interesting personalities. And the mission has been exciting so far. The episode that was shown this past weekend was pretty scary, as there was an accident aboard the ship, but everything turned out okay in the end.

He doesn’t understand what or who this Beta thing is tho’. He hopes it’s not related to the tazer, as there has been talk around the office about it being “in Beta.”

Monday's EP2 Update - The Tazer Strikes Back!

Game building has its challenges. Trying to get everything to fit is sometimes an exercise in fitting way too many items into a suitcase. During those times you hope there are things you can leave behind … or that you can get something big like an elephant to squash things down so they’ll fit.

Recently, Yas posted stolen pictures of the tazer … even though it is still in test. I was even more horrified since he also posted them before I discovered the tazer wouldn’t work on the actual device (curse you Yas, I’ll have my revenge!).

Our PC and iPhone Simulator builds worked fine. But upon selecting the tazer on the actual device, it either crashed immediately or slowed the app down to a crawl and then crashed. The problem was texture memory. During development we often use 32-bit textures for all our new pieces. This allows us to quickly swap in new assets without having to spend time finding the right amount of color reduction versus visual fidelity while we’re testing the new parts. This has the unfortunate side effect of bloating texture usage.

The good news is that I fixed the problem. The bad news is it set me back a little over a day in resolving the problem.

Now that the tazer’s short-lived tantrum has been contained, the finishing touches on it can continue. Let’s just say Lumpy should be afraid … very afraid!

Remember today is the last day in the Name the Tazer Challenge. Poke on over to our thread in Touch Arcade to post your suggestions! Or Lumpy will get to give the tazer a kinder and more gentler name like "Lil' Non-Hurting Sparker".


Sunday, August 30, 2009

Oh Snap! Lumpy Not Cute Enuf for Cute Overload?

Lumpy enjoys surfing the interwebs during his breaks. There’s one site that he enjoys in particular called Cute Overload. Lumpy really really likes cute, fuzzy animals. He’s such a fan that he asked his Agent to see if there was some way he could reach out to his fans through their site. Lumpy’s Agent suggested that he try and be included in their 2010 Calendar. Allegedly, meetings were held, photos were taken, and negotiations started.

During the focus testing of the calendar, Lumpy apparently tested well on his cuteness, as seen on the photo to the left. Rumor has it that he was cute enough to be featured as a Cutie of the Day, but not quite cute enough for the flagship position of being a Rule of Cuteness or the Cover Cutie of the calendar.

It was supposedly a tough decision. In the end, it appears Lumpy lost that coveted placement to a panda, as seen on the photo below. When notified of this, his Agent allegedly pulled out of the rumored negotiations.

When asked to comment, the Agent simply stated, “My client’s image has value and intrinsic cuteness. If he’s not cute enough to be a Rule of Cuteness, then we’ll have to take his cuteness elsewhere. The people at 2n really ‘get it,’ and Episode 2 of QuitIt! will showcase even more of Lumpy’s intrinsic cuteness.”

Lumpy was allegedly a bit disappointed when he heard the news, but in the end, he was okay with it.

Besides, the panda does look cute.


Saturday, August 29, 2009

Daily Dish - Lumpy the next American Idol?

…as a judge?

It seems that our blobby blue friend has found himself yet another guilty pleasure: American Idol.

Sources close to Lumpy’s Agent have passed on the word that Lumpy is “extremely interested” in becoming the next judge for American Idol and may be in line to be the next guest judge for American Idol after Kristin Chenoweth.

Negotiations with the Fox people have allegedly been underway for some time.

According to a source not so close to Lumpy’s Agent, the major sticking point in the negotiations has been the Fox execs’ concern about how Lumpy would potentially upset the on-air chemistry of the judges on the show.

The recent revelation about the friction between the Lumpster and the RPattz earlier this year on the set of the Twilight sequel may have made the suits over at Fox nervous.

Perhaps they don’t want a repeat performance between their star Simon Cowell and Lumpy? Or could it be that Mr. Cowell has been voicing concerns about being upstaged by Lumpy?

When asked to comment on the situation, Lumpy’s Agent said, “Look, I can’t confirm or deny any of my client’s potential projects at this time. But I can say that Lumpy enjoys watching American Idol and Episode 2 of QuitIt! is coming in September.”

Friday, August 28, 2009

Name the Tazer Challenge!


Work is progressing on EP2, and new stuff like the tazer is really coming together. For developers like us, it's really exciting for us to see our ideas come to life and move around on the screen.

But there’s one problem with the tazer tho’. We don’t have a name for it!

We’ve been busy dealing with all sorts of dev stuff, so we haven’t had the time to come up with a name for the thing.

So, here’s where you come in. Help us name the tazer!

Here are the submission rules:

  • Please go to TouchArcade and post your submissions directly our “Green Room” thread.
  • Post as many names as you like. We’ll keep track of your submission.
  • We’ll accept submissions until midnight, Pacific time on Monday, August 30.
  • The name needs to be “Safe For Work.” Please use common sense and not submit nasty stuff.
  • The name cannot include the words “tazer” or “taser.”
  • IMPORTANT: The name CANNOT be longer than TWO WORDS of 20 CHARACTERS per each word.

After submissions are closed, we’ll select 5 of your submissions and then create a poll so you can vote for your favorite tazer name!

Allrighty then, let the naming begin!

Lumpy’s Guilty Pleasure – The Oprah Winfrey Show

When Lumpy isn’t occupying his time surfing the net or eating pho, he watches a lot of daytime TV. Lately it’s been reruns of Oprah.

Lumpy claims he’s just doing research to try and get closer to his fans on Earth by understanding them more.

We’re all convinced he’s addicted to Oprah. Whenever it gets near the time of her show, Lumpy gets restless and wants to get off the stage set. Just in case he can’t get off the stage, he makes sure that one of the interns Tivo’s the show for him. He’s also been looking at past episodes on YouTube as well.

The Lumpster says he can’t wait for the show’s season premiere on September 14th. He’s really looking forward to Oprah’s interview with Whitney Houston.

Lumpy really identifies with Whitney because she’s had a tough showbiz life, just like Lumpy back on Zgrunturos. His eyes well up with tears when he says that he’s so glad that she’s gotten away from Bobby Brown…

It’s a bit scary tho’ to hear Lumpy’s devotion to Oprah. In fact, he’s saying “Today on Oprah…” more than pho recently…

Stolen from Ben's lab - Tazer pic (EP2 Update)

Hey everyone, I want to share another photo that I snagged from Ben the other day.

Looks like it’s a pic of the tazer going through some experimental testing.

Just by looking at the pic, I think I can almost smell the ozone in the air caused by the electrical arcing.

Mmmm, I love the smell of ozone in the morning; it smells like… epic fun. Mwahahahaha.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Daily Delish- Coffeecake

As Lumpy gets used to living here on Earth, he’s enjoying Earth’s simple pleasures, like breakfast.

He’s now getting into a daily routine of scanning the celebrity news sites, checking up on who the guests are on Oprah, etc. while noshing on breakfast foods.

One of our production assistant interns bought some raspberry peach coffeecake from our neighborhood bakery for the staff breakfast, and Lumpy gobbled up a few of them. He eats a lot.

As he was devouring the tasty cakes, he remarked that he was puzzled why it didn’t taste like coffee, an Earth beverage he has grown used to drinking by the gallon.

Lumpy’s verdict? “Delish.” He said that while he enjoyed the tasty cake, he’s contractually obligated to say that it isn’t quite as tasty as Lumpy-Ohhs.

From his daily morning web surfing he’s also learned that pho is eaten for breakfast in Vietnam. Now he’s saying that he wants pho for his breakfast.

“Lumpy wa pho wo asa gohan ni tabetai.”

Upon hearing our pho-crazed star’s latest demand, a visibly unnerved intern submitted her resignation.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Friend or pho...err...foe? (EP2 Update)

Thanks to the hard work of Ben and our artists, we’re going to be introducing something new in Episode 2 that we think you’ll like. For now, we’ll just say that it has something to do with Gifts. Anyone want to take a wild guess???

But before I go into more details, I thought I’d share this with you first. I was walking around the studio today and saw that Lumpy left his iPhone in the Green Room. I wasn’t going to violate our Star’s privacy and snoop inside his phone, but just as I was about to leave the room, his phone rang so I just had to see who called him.

I got a shot of the caller ID so I thought I’d share it with everyone. I’m sure Lumpy won’t mind, as he wants to share his life with all of his fans.

So let’s see, Lumpy’s pho wallpaper is a nice touch. Hmm, and the picture ID shows someone I haven’t seen around the studio.

I wonder who it can be? Is he a friend or pho…errr foe?

I think I’m going to have to do a bit more investigation on this. I wonder if this has anything to do with Episode 2?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Anatomy of a Tazer 2

There's been some inquiry as to the status of our trusty new Poker the Tazer. We last left you guys with a peek of the wireframe of the contraption.

Well, here is an updated image of it.

Should have some pics up later this week of it zapping Lumpy!

Lumpy's lookin' FREAKY! (EP2 Update)

We have some new update news to share with you today. Or more like new beauty shots of Lumpy…I think.

Boy, Lumpy looks like he’s having a bad hair day. Wait, Lumpy doesn’t have hair. So what kind of a day do Zgrunturians have when they wake up on the wrong side of the hyperbaric sleeping chamber??

Well, at any rate, Lumpy looks all sorts of weird. A bit disturbing in fact.

So where did I get these pics? Well, when I walked by Ben’s desk this morning to check on the dev progress on the Tazer, he tried to shut off his monitor. I think he didn’t want me to see what he was working on. Heh. But I still managed to swipe these pics off of his desk before he hit the power switch.

When I asked Ben why Lumpy(?) looks so weird, he told me that he’s just fine. But he was giggling uncontrollably as he said that, so I’ll take his comments with a chunk of kosher salt.

Hmm, maybe I should have a word with Lumpy’s Agent to ask him if there’s something we should know about Lumpy (I heard he’s finally back from “questionings” at the MNU).

Anyone have any idea of what’s going on with Lumpy?

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday's EP2 Update

I just wanted people to know that the production for EP2 is still moving forward!

This past week was pretty intense as we have a large amount of art assets under production. We're still maintaining the overall art quality level of the app. But unfortunately it takes a bit of time to produce. I've been mostly spending my time getting in assets as well expanding the infrastructure to ensure we can dynamically load all the parts on the fly.

We're hoping that by the end of the week or very early next week we'll be getting builds to the Beta testers. For the people we talked to about Beta testing, we'll be hitting you up for you UDIDs if we don't have them already.

Curious about being a Beta tester? Then hit us up. For this first update we're only using a small set of testers. However moving forward, we will increase the pool. Especially once we introduce networking and global scores!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Anatomy of a Tazer

Making a game is hard work. There are moments when you can finally sit back and enjoy the results from all of the sweat and tears. Like seeing the tazer come alive!

In our Design a Poker Challenge, the tazer was selected as the poker of choice from the Audience. Admittedly, we've had this bad boy running in our lab for a few days, but thought that now would be a good time to give you guys a partial peek.


Seeing it in action has brought giggles of delight from some. Lumpy has recently been showing some concern over the attention people have been paying to it. And with batteries slowly disappearing ... one has to wonder if he's really worried.

But that Lumpy is one cool character. "Bring it" is all he says whenever anyone mentions the word tazer...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Da Lump is back!

Our wayward alien buddy Lumpy is finally back, after freaking out about the MNU coming after him.

He’s managed to elude us over the weekend, only staying in communications via texting.

We had reports of him slipping into the grand opening of New People in San Francisco over the weekend, but other than that, he’s been quite elusive. We started to wonder if he brought another kind of alien tech from Zgrunturos besides his food replicator. Like a cloaking device.

Well, in the end, we needed no high-tech doodad to lure the Lumpster back to our studio.

Our bait of choice to capture the Lumpster?

A nice hot bowl of pho, natch!

We did, however, set up a little trap for the Lumpster as seen in the pic here.

So, here’s how it went down. We sent him a text yesterday telling him that we have a nice bowl of steaming hot pho at our studio.

We were waiting for him to come through our studio doors, but Lumpy somehow got into the studio unnoticed (hmm, cloaking device???). We realized this when we saw that our trap had been sprung.

In the end, it was all good. We got our star back. And Lumpy was happy(?) because he got his favorite delish. But judging how mellow he was after eating the pho, you’d think the hubbub with the MNU was all a sham. Hmm…maybe it’s the mixture of herbs and spices in the pho’s broth…

We definitely knew everything was back to normal when Lumpy started saying, “Lumpy ha motto pho tabetai,”* much to the horror of our production staff.

Now, all we need is to get back Lumpy’s Agent to translate for us…

*「ランピー ハ モット フォー タベタイ」

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Episode 2 is Coming!!

We want to apologize for the wait, but we assure you it's for good reasons!

During our development of QuitIt!, we knew that much like a wacky game show, we wanted to provide increased entertainment though successive episodes. So when we first released QuitIt!, we wanted to be able to get suggestions and feedback from you, the Audience! So after taking time listening to suggestions and feedback from the iTunes App Store, our forum threads in Touch Arcade, and direct user feedback, we went into full production of EP2 (title to be announced soon).

Moving forward, we plan on maintaining a posting dedicated to each Episode. Consider it a place to go when you want to find up to date information on the status of the current Episode in production.

So, to start things off, here's a sampling of what's coming in EP2:
  • 2 minigames.
  • 7 new types of wacky user room themes to buy.
  • 8 pokers, including the zaptastic Tazer.
  • And there's more stuff to be revealed later!
I'll add information on the update to this posting as well. You can always find this posting by clicking on our reporter Lumpy icon in the sidebar to the right.

Also, Lumpy and the production staff here at 2n love comments! So feel free to leave suggestions or feature requests in these postings!

We're really excited about EP2 and hope you will enjoy it too!

Here are some posts we've done that are related to EP2!

Monday's EP2 Update Added 9/7/2009
Friday's EP2 Update Added 9/11/2009
Monday's EP2 Update Added 9/14/2009
EP2 Shock and Oww Icon Added 9/15/2009
EP2 Icon Added 9/16/2009
Monday's EP2 Update Added 9/21/2009
Wednesday's EP2 Update Added 9/23/2009
EP2 Submitted! Added 9/25/2009
EP2 Screenshots! Added 10/1/2009!
EP2 Video Goodness! Added 10/2/2009!

Monday, August 17, 2009

QuitIt! review and promo code giveaway at the APPera!

Hey, wanted to give everyone a heads up that the guys at the APPera have posted their review of QuitIt!

They’re also running a promo code promotion for free downloads of QuitIt!, so if you haven’t bought QuitIt! yet (shame on you! – just kidding!), this is your chance to get Lumpy to entertain you on your iDevice for FREE!

Poke on over to the APPera for more deets!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The search for Lumpy continues!

Lumpy is still nowhere to be seen. We heard earlier this afternoon from our informants that Lumpy may have been over at San Francisco Japantown, hanging out at the newly opened New People shop/cafe/art space/theater/hotspot that's dedicated to all things J-Pop.

Kinda makes sense, as Lumpy was researching Japanese culture, gameshows, and language before coming to Earth. Being the hipster that he is, Lumpy's a sucker for new and shiny things...even when a shady organization like the MNU may be on the hunt for him. He probably couldn't resist the urge to immerse himself in übercool Japanese stuff...

Lumpy's Facebook friend who went to New People today didn't see him, so she either missed him or maybe he's doing a good job hiding somewhere in the building.

Lumpy's Agent hasn't returned yet either after being picked up by the MNU peeps this afternoon, so we're kinda getting worried here at 2n HQ...

Daily Dish SHOCKER – Da RPattz on da warpath!

First the revelation that Lumpy was allegedly canned from the new Twilight sequel, and now this.

A source close to People Magazine sent us this magazine cover from an issue that was yanked at the last minute by Twilight star Robert Pattinson’s people.

The article in the kiboshed issue focuses on the on set tensions between RPattz and Lumpy, highlighting RPattz’s feelings of insecurity about a new competitive threat to his stardom. A quote from the now unpublished article has him saying, “Look, this Lumpy bloke had the attention of all the girls on the set, including Kristen. You see, that’s f*****g unnatural, them cavorting with some alien from another planet. Is he even vaccinated?”

One of our fans brought to our attention this video, which shows that the RPattz has a rivalry with his former Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe as well. So it looks like Lumpy is not the only victim of RPattz’s jealousy-driven wrath.



Lumpy and his Agent were unavailable for comment. An MNU van stopped by earlier this afternoon at the production office and picked up Lumpy’s Agent for questioning about food replicator operating instructions.

Daily Dish SHOCKER – Lumpy dropped from the Twilight sequel?!

Our celebrity sleuths have uncovered information that Lumpy had a semi-starring role in the Twilight movie sequel New Moon! But the shocking revelation here is that Lumpy’s role in the film is now on the cutting floor!!

According to sources, everything was apparently all hunky-dory earlier in this year, with principal filming progressing swimmingly, as can be seen from the exclusive still photo from the movie presented here. Lumpy was cast to play a secret member of the Volturi coven. But alas, Twilight production insiders say Twilight heart-throb Robert Pattinson went ballistic, Christian Bale-style due to increasing on set friction with the Lumpster.

Our insiders say that the RPattz couldn’t deal with Lumpy’s star power on the set, claiming that the Lumpster was allegedly “sabotaging my scenes, man. It’s f*****g unbelievable. I’m trying to do my scenes with Kristen, and this blue alien bugger is knocking over lighting rigs and doing whatever to break my concentration. I don’t even think he’s a member of SAG!”

After one too many on-set altercations between the Lumpster and the RPattz, the producer apparently gave the blue one the heave-ho.

When asked to comment, Lumpy’s Agent said, “This has been a difficult ordeal for all of us in Lumpy’s camp. We even had an awesome co-promotion campaign planned at the recent Comic-Con in San Diego to promote Twilight with his groundbreaking iPhone game show QuitIt! What am I going to do with all these energy drinks, t-shirts, vampire teeth, and posters now?”

Lumpy was not available for comment. He's apparently hiding from the MNU.

Friday, August 14, 2009

NEWS FLASH: Is the MNU gunning for Lumpy?!

Lumpy let us know that he saw a new documentary film called District 9, and he said that he was disturbed by how poorly the aliens were treated in the film.

He was also saddened by all the fighting between the humans and the aliens shown in the documentary. Zgrunturians resolved their conflicts amongst their own people and other alien species long ago. He said, “Why can’t we all just get along?” through his Agent in our production meeting earlier this morning.

Lumpy’s also been muttering obsessively about this evil paramilitary organization called MNU over and over. He says that he’s concerned that they might come after his food replicator. While it doesn’t require Lumpy’s DNA to operate, it’s still got some advanced whizbang technology from his homeworld, so he’s a bit freaked out. More so as we’ve discussed our technical problems with it in past posts here at Lumpy’s Pad.

Lumpy is currently AWOL and presumably in hiding from this MNU organization. We’ll need to start checking all the bathrooms here at the studio…

Have you seen our blue buddy? If you have, please hit us up at support (at) quititthegame (dot) com.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

RIP Les Paul

As a personal aside, I'm saddened by the passing of Les Paul- guitarist, inventor, and legend.

Every musician owes a debt to Les for what he's done during his lifetime.

Where ever you are Les, hope you're having a great gig!

Recount update: Tazer C wins by a LANDSLIDE!

Yes, we have a winner!

Now that we’ve had our recount of sorts for the Tazer design selection, design C wins with a landslide victory of 29 votes!

We know for certain that Lumpy didn’t tamper with the voting results this time, as he was too busy chilling with Miley Cyrus. Or was it the Hudgens? Hmmm? Ms. Green M&M?

In any event, Lumpy’s Agent has also assured us that our blue buddy was nowhere near a net connection yesterday. Or a chad for that matter. We know Lumpy was partial to design B, so we’re pretty sure he didn’t mess with the votes. We've also absolved Yas of any vote tampering, so he's off the hook (for now).

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the voting- especially the crew over at TouchArcade!

Now we can really get down to bidness and make Tazer C do its thang! :D

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Poll Update: Tazer C in the lead! C FTW!

So I checked our poll to see how myyyyyyy precioooooousssss C was doing in the voting, and I was surprised because it was suddenly in the lead (27 at the time of this post!). ZOMG!

Earlier in the day, I was resigned to the possibility that B would win again (sob). Oh, the humanity! But looks like C’s supporters are legion and know a good Tazer when they see one (yes!). To all C lovers out there, I salute you!

And no, unlike some blue Zgrunturian who’s starring in his own game show, I didn’t rig the vote! The guys in the office are throwing suspicious looks in my direction tho'. Well, it wasn't ME!

Speaking of poles…or was it polls? The earlier post about Miley Cyrus reminded me of something…

Daily Dish - Miley Cyrus Lovin’ Lumpy?!

One of our fans Ben (no, not our Ben) submitted a photo of Lumpy hangin’ out with Miley Cyrus. Ben claims Miley was loving the Lumpster. Sheesh, our blue buddy really gets around!

Judging from the picture, it appears Lumpy was photog’d while he was in a really excited state. We’ve never seen him like that (yet) on the stage set. Who knows, maybe it’s just bad lighting.

I’m sure we’ll hear about this again. The Hudgens was unavailable for comment. Hmm...We wonder if Ms. Green M&M is going to call up Miley too now.

PS: Seen Lumpy around town? Let us know where and when! Better yet, if you've snapped a pic, send it our way at support (at) quititthegame (dot) com. Or if you’re Lumpy’s friend on Facebook, post the pic on his wall!

OFFICIAL: Lumpy is HAWT! Da Blue is back?!

Loyal fans of Lumpy have spoken and voted him as being officially HAWT over the Blue M&M! Sorry Blue, maybe next time! Lumpy would like to thank his supporters for their votes, and asks them to ignore the slanderous accusations that he rigged the Tazer poll. Lumpy says he’s asked his Agent to hire some PI’s to get to the bottom of this.

On related news, Green and Blue were seen noshing a hot dog together in Midtown Manhattan yesterday, so looks like rumors of Green and Lumpy were just that – rumors. Or were they? When questioned about Lumpy, Green quipped between nibbles of sauerkraut, “Lumpy and I were just friends. Vanessa should call me up. We girls gotta talk about her new blue friend.”

Oddly enough, Lumpy’s Agent notified us earlier this morning that the talks for Lumpy becoming Blue’s stunt double have officially ended. Blue could not be reached for comment.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

QuitIt! Twitter Promo Code Giveaway @ Slide to Play


Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up that Slide to Play is giving away a promo code for a free download of QuitIt! Poke on over to their website for more deets!

In-depth interview with Ben at The Career Gamer!


The Career Gamer has posted an in-depth interview with Ben about how we brought Lumpy to Earth in his own game show. If you want the inside scoop on how QuitIt! was made, you definitely want to check this article out. Lumpy sends out a big thanks out to Tito A. Belgrave from The Career Gamer for featuring us!

Poke on over to the Career Gamer for the deets!

The Public has spoken- RECOUNT!

After an outcry of “foul” regarding the suspicious voting results on the Tazer design for the upcoming update of QuitIt! spearheaded by ImNoSuperMan at TouchArcade, we’ve decided to reopen the voting again. The poll can be found to the right on our sidebar.

We’ve looked into our server logs, and it appears the voting was rigged by the Lumpster himself! He’d been muttering, “B is a kinder and more gentler design,” during the past week, so everything makes sense now. When we pressed him about him hacking our servers, Lumpy hopped away and locked himself in the bathroom!

If you’re a fan of design C (or any other design), have your voice be heard! Poke, poke, poke! …Errrr, we meant vote, vote, vote! Let the rigging...we mean voting begin!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Tazer Smackdown Results!

Ding ding ding!

The results of our poll for the look of the tazer that will be included in our next update are in. And after a tough battle between versions 'B' and 'C' of the tazers, 'B' pulls off a win by a narrow margin (26-24).

While we have some disappointed fans out there than 'C' couldn't cut muster, worry not. Yas, after knocking over a few bookshelves and demanding to know which interns voted for 'B' suggested we could potentially add 'C' later.

The endless world of possibilities!

Oddly enough, Lumpy seems quite happy with the results. Muttering something about 'B' looks like a friendlier, more gentler tazer.

Feeling cheated about the vote? Want 'C' to make a debut in a later update? Are happy with 'B' coming on top? Leave a comment and let us know!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Daily Delish - Mul naeng myun

Dealing with Lumpy can be like dealing with a little kid at times. We’ve also discovered that Lumpy is quite the picky eater.

We’ve yet to recover from the mishap of Lumpy forgetting his microfusion powercells for his food replicator. We tried to MacGyver the thing to run on 120V and 240V, but no dice so far. We may need to escalate our efforts and get the Energizer Bunny or the Geek Squad on the case. Where’s Mr. Fusion when you need one?!

In the meantime, despite the early debacle of the Burrito Incident, we were hoping that Lumpy would be receptive to all types of food. While we’ve had some success with some kinds of food, we’ve found that for now, there’s one food that the Lumpster relishes- ph.

And now he asks all the time for the dang dish. As he can’t really speak English and that he is a semi-star (Lumpy needs a posse), at least one person on our production staff has to TOFTT-it* and dine with him at each meal.

This wouldn’t be bad if we had to deal with Lumpy’s meals if he only had three squares a day. But no such luck for us. You see, Zgrunturians tend to eat a lot. Which means Lumpy has to eat a lot. When mealtime comes, the staffer’s faces turn sullen with the look of fear and dread.

During our latest production meeting, instead of discussing the progress of our next update, an intern blurted out, “Yo, like this is totally pho’d up, man. Look, I can’t grab another meal with the dude. Don’t get me wrong, bro, I love him and all… but… But man, I’m all pho’d up.”

This was greeted by nodding heads followed by a murmuring chorus of, “Pho sure.” And then an uneasy silence.

An intern broke the uncomfortable silence and said, “Well, Super Nanny says you can maybe get a kid to eat something new if you have something similar to the food they like.” Everyone stared at him.

It’s not clear if the staffers’ reactions were that of horror or salvation.

Without another semi-reasonable option on the table, the comment was acknowledged by nods of approval, followed by everyone staring at the next victims...err…dining companions for Lumpy.

With a deer in the headlights look, they simply wanted to know where and what.

“It’s pretty hot today…why not Korean mul naeng myun? It’s got noodles, soup and it’s refreshingly cold,” someone suggested.

So Lumpy and the staffers took off for lunch to a Korean restaurant so that we could offer up a nice chilly bowl of the famous Korean noodle dish for our ph addicted star.

When the mul naeng myun appeared, Lumpy had a puzzled look on his face at first, but then said, “Pho mitai kamo.”**

Then as the slurping commenced, the Lumpster declared, “Oishii. Kore maji de oishii kamo.”***

And the Lumpster's verdict? It was "delish."

w00t! Smiles spread amongst the staffers’ faces and high fives started going around the table.

But the celebration was short lived as Lumpy said, “Demo, itsu pho tabeni ikuno?”****

The staffers’ smiles were wiped away as fast as you can say ph and replaced with the sullen faces once again.

Lumpy’s Agent could not be reached for comment.

* TOFTT: Take One For The Team

** 「フォー ミタイ カモ。」

***「オイシイ。コレ マジ デ オイシイ カモ。」

**** 「デモ、イツ フォー タベニ イクノ?」

Friday, August 7, 2009

Daily Dish SHOCKER: ZAC-E ON DA OUT? LUMPY ON DA IN?

Oh noes, Vanessa! Haven’t you learned from the first time? Snapping compromising photos of yourself to send to your beau Zac Efron isn’t such a hot idea.

And now what’s this? Word on the street is that those pics weren’t for her boy Zac. Oh noes indeed. According to sources close to the Hudgens, they were taken for a certain Lumpy Hrudkovity! This scandalous news had her PR people and lawyers scrambling to clean up the vast interwebs of every naked pixel.

As if the alleged news of him frolicking with Ms. Green M&M weren’t enough, is this latest shocking photo proof that Lumpy is a womanizing heartbreaker-in-training?

Mazel tov! – Musings by Yas

I was checking our App Store sales data from around the world and discovered something really bizarre.

The Lumpster cracked the overall top 30 paid apps in… (drumroll) …Israel.

We also made the top 5 in the Entertainment category.

Knowing what we know about the Israeli market (it’s small), we were making guesses at the number of units we sold to get up that high on the charts. The sales results for the day were so small that I’m not going to mention it here (it was really small). Let's just say that if I bet Ben on this, I would have lost.

At any rate, we'd like to thank our fans in Israel for becoming a part of our QuitIt! viewing audience! We really appreciate your support!

I also did some non-recreational surfing (haha) and figured out that a review on an Israeli blog probably touched off this latest sales spurt.

Hopefully, this is a good sign that Lumpy has that certain je ne sais quoi, or better yet, chutzpah to become a star here on Earth!

On that note, we would appreciate any recommendations for international iPhone/iPod touch enthusiast websites/blogs, especially in the UK. Based on some info we got from couple of sites that have featured Lumpy and QuitIt!, traffic picks up significantly when our star Lumpy is featured.

Hmm, that sounds like a mutually beneficial thing! Just think, Lumpy’s star power can drive more traffic to your site! If your site is interested in featuring QuitIt!, please let us know!

If you have any recommendations, please poke us using our e-mail form.

Daily Delish - Cupcake

“Lumpi ha pho tabetai.”

“Lumpi ha pho tabetai.”

“Lumpi ha pho tabetai.”

Is what our interns have been hearing at meal times recently. It’s not a unreasonable request, as ph isn’t some exotic food derived from an endangered species or a demand for a bowl of brown M&M’s without any red ones.

In any event, a production assistant intern responsible for stocking up the staff breakroom went out to a local bakery and bought some cupcakes. She thought the Lumpster would enjoy the little sugary frosted delicacy and offered him one that was masterfully decorated with colorful candy sprinkles.

Lumpy approached the cupcake and freaked out momentarily. At first, we couldn’t figure out why he reacted that way to a seemingly harmless snacky cake. Once we paid close attention to the cake, we realized what was wrong.

Our intern thought the little kitty decoration on the cake was cute, and gave it to him. Unfortunately for Lumpy, the kitty reminded him of one of the lovely Gifts on the show. The infamous Colonel Tso’s Chicken.

Once removed, Lumpy devoured it with gusto.

Lumpy’s verdict on the cupcake? “Temporarily delish.”

This moment of gustative pleasure was clearly short-lived.

“Demo Lumpi ha mada pho tabetai.”*

“Demo Lumpi ha mada pho tabetai.”

“Demo Lumpi ha mada pho tabetai.”

Could be heard in the studio hallways as he hopped away to the Green Room.

Rolling his eyes, Lumpy’s Agent said, “At least my client is saying something different...”

*「デモ ランピー ハ マダ フォー タベタイ」

Thursday, August 6, 2009

It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock ‘n roll…

As I sneak a look on iTunes, our buddy Lumpy has hopped his way up the charts into the Top 20 in the Entertainment category. It’s been an exciting ride so far since we hit the WHAT’S HOT section of the App Store. It’s also a bit scary- how long can we maintain this momentum?

We’ve managed to pass the fart apps and the disturbing number of girly pic apps that keep popping up in the Entertainment category (you should see the App Store in Japan, it’s even scarier…). We hope our climb up the charts so far means that people are looking for something different and unique that’s actually made with care and love.

For us, we hope this is just the beginning, and we’d like to thank everyone who has helped Lumpy and us get to where we are today.

We’re not cooling our heels either. We’ve been reading all your feedback from the forums and the reviews on the App Store, and we will be incorporating your suggestions in future versions, including new guest stars, mini-games, and online stats. We also hope that you’re enjoying the posts here on the blog, as we want to entertain you with stuff outside the app.

We are already hard at work on our next update, and we’ll be sharing our production progress in the coming weeks. The tazer is just one of the items in the works.

Speaking of which, I think Ben’s working a bit too hard recently. I had to return the favor and taze him earlier today so that the B-man would get some sleep…

The Italian Job – Musings by Yas

Call me a geek, but the speed at which information spreads around the world via the interwebs fascinates me. In the last couple of days, I’ve been surfing the net to find out which countries around the world have heard about QI!

So, when Ben gave me the heads up yesterday that we hit number 89 in the top 100 of the Italian App Store’s Entertainment (Intrattenimento) category, I was puzzled. Sure enough, nestled amongst the girly pic apps and fart apps, was the Lumpster (since then, we've gone down to 100 as shown in the picture). Realistically, this doesn’t really translate into big sales numbers given the size of the Italian market, but how did we get there considering we did zero PR in Italy?

We had lots of silly conspiracy theories in the office about how this happened (…something along the lines of QI! being an app that people couldn’t refuse...), but later during the afternoon, we got some intel from a QI! fan that sort of cleared up the mystery. So, as it turns out, an Italian site called iPhoneItalia wrote a review of our app. The review itself was kinda neutral, but heck, we really appreciate any press that we can get!

Now back to more surfing! Or maybe not…I think I see Ben coming over to my desk with a tazeruiopasdg;la[pgj’/.lasdjs;

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Tale of the Tazer

The crew here at 2n HQ have been busy as of late, what with the tending to an intergalactic star and preparing for the next episode of QuitIt! and all. A couple of days of ago, the balance of power was decided by the click of a mouse. Members of Touch Arcade voted the tazer to be included as a Poker in the next update.

Earlier research by a now ex-intern found this bad boy. But really, is that much zapp-tastic power really needed in an electronic stimulating device? Heeding Lumpy’s sagely advice of “tazing responsibly,” we took it upon ourselves to build our own. A kinder, more gentler tazer. But with an edge.

Behold the results of our endeavors!

We’re running a poll here at Lumpy’s Pad and at Touch Arcade to determine which one of these instruments of high voltage zappery will teasingly taze our pal Lumpy. Note that this tazing taunt is a “Drive Stun” model.

Cast your vote on the poll at the sidebar to the right! Votes will be combined with the votes accrued from Touch Arcade. Sure, this means you can vote twice. But we’re all honest folks now, aren’t we!?

Daily Delish - Phở Gà

Earlier this week, Lumpy suffered from a case of food envy. Whilst eating a bánh mì at a local Vietnamese restaurant, Lumpy kept staring longingly at the ph noodle soup we were slurping up. For the past 24 hours, Lumpy has been muttering, “Lumpi ha pho tabetai.”* Or “I want ph” as roughly translated by his Agent. After having heard this phrase one too many times, an intern shouted out “Alright already! I’ll take you to get some ph!”

Returning back to the local Vietnamese restaurant, the intern ordered up Lumpy a nice steamy bowl of ph. Lumpy’s verdict? “Really delish!”

The only problem now is that he constantly says, “Lumpi ha pho meccha suki.”** Or as his Agent told us “He likes the damn thing a lot.”

*「ランピーハフォータベタイ。」

**「ランピーハフォーメッチャスキ。」