October 2 , 2009

The game I made for Comedy Central, "Secret Girlfriend: When Booty Calls" (based on the TV show of the same name) is now live on their website, www.comedycentral.com. Since I'm in Canada, I can't actually play it or visit that site, it kicks me back to the Canadian comedy network site. So for my American brethren, check it out. If Reemus is my kings quest, and Small Favor is my space quest, then this game would be like my leisure suit larry. Go play and enjoy!

I also put the finishing touches on the last of the artwork for Paradox Embrace today. It should be wrapped and ready for play very soon! Here's a little teaser screen for it...

September 29, 2009

My apologies for my super delinquent postings. I've been dealing with sleep deprivation and dirty diapers. This "Work-from-Home-Dad" business is quite the juggling act.

In the meantime, it looks like you guys rallied together and voted for me! "A Small Favor" won E4's Adventure Game of the Year Award!

Thanks to everyone who voted!!!!

August 31 , 2009

The ugly, evil launch bugs made a nest in the online version of ANOTHER SMALL FAVOR. I believe they've all been destroyed now, so I'm reuploading a new bug free version to Newgrounds. Any one that is currently hosting my game, please update your copy to this new and improved version. You can tell by the fancy new load screen with the green monitors. Special thanks to Newgrounds for giving my loader a sweet facelift!

I'm still pounding away on a game for Comedy Central and tinkering with art for Paradox Embrace. I think both should be out sometime Sept/Oct.

I'm having a lot of idea attacks lately, there's so much I want to do. So expect some major overhauls soon!

Alright, back to work I go...

August 26 , 2009

ANOTHER SMALL FAVOR is now live. CLICK HERE TO PLAY ON NEWGROUNDS!

Read the great review from JAY IS GAMES!

In other news, A SMALL FAVOR was just nominated for Adventure Game of the Year at E4.

Winner is deteremined by public voting, so cast your vote for me! Click the banner to vote!

August 24 , 2009

Official Launch - Wednesday, August 26!

August 13 , 2009

Ok, official launch date for "Another Small Favor" is now set for August 26th on Newgrounds!

It's about 99% bug free at this point, so by the time it launches it should be pretty tight! Thanks for all your help in sniffing out the glitches!

If you still want to try out the BETA, do it now. I'll be closing the BETA site at the end of the week!

In other news, I did an interview a few weeks back for The Ninja vs Pirates Podcast. It's now available! Here me ramble about the finer points of The Several Journeys of Reemus. Check it out...

Ninja VS Pirate Interview

August 4 , 2009

Alright the BETA is loose! Fashionably late as usual, but at least we destroyed a lot of the nasty bugs in it. I'm sure there will be a few stragglers which I hope you will report to me!

For those not on the list, just join with the link on the side panel over there. See it? type in your name and hit GO. It's Free and the BETA link will be sent directly to you. Now go play it!

July 30 , 2009

Ok, well if you haven't noticed the BETA had a small delay. Mainly my wife having a baby on Saturday, ha. Woohoo I'm a dad!

Logan Ziebarth made his world debut on Saturday @ 5:45pm! What a trip!

Needless to say I've been busy. Busy dodging pee streams, inspecting the various colours of poo and waking up every hour to the sound of a baby's demands for food.

Things are slowly getting back on track despite my utter lack of sleep. So bear with me!

I've duct taped a pencil to his tiny hand and have him working on the next game right now to make up for lost time.

The BETA should be out very soon. We've found and killed a ton of bugs, so it should be pretty tight by the time you guys take a run at it. Keep your eyes peeled for it's debut!

July 24 , 2009

Just thought I'd update you all, "Another Small Favor" is still being tweaked. This game has a lot of quests that all interact with each other, so you fix one and the other one breaks. It's the most tedious part of the whole process. blarg!

In other news, I was mentioned in a panel discussion at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle. Sure it's an article on Fatal Flaws in Game Design and I'm mentioned as sucking it for making my Reemus 3 too long. But hey there's no such thing as bad publicity and I got some new Twitter followers as a result. Woot!

READ IT HERE! And for the record I never said that about the game being too short if Liam didn't carry 6 vials across three screens. I don't intentionally pad my game with crap, sometimes I just make crappy puzzles. :)

Depsite that, Reemus 3 was linked on the front page of Adultswim.com as a game they liked. CHECK IT OUT!

I guess it's true what they say, one man's treasure is another man's fatal flaw. Ba dum dum! Thank you goodnight!

July 22 , 2009

"Another Small Favor" is on the horizon. A few nips and tucks and it'll be ready for BETA consumption.

July 18 , 2009

Just a few more tweaks on "Another Small Favor" and it'll be BETA time. Just a quick reminder to sign up for mailing list to get in on the action. Here's a couple screenshots to whet your appetite...

July 15 , 2009

I thought it was time for a quick update . Here's what is currently on the slate...

"Another Small Favor" is almost ready for BETA. Hopefully it'll be appearing in your inbox by the end of the week! Keep your fingers crossed.

I've joined forces with Steve Castro and Caulder Bradford for the Newgrounds Power of Three gaming collab. Our game "Paradox Embrace" is the brainchild of Steve Castro, who's handling all the major game design and coding while Caulder Bradford is rocking the music. I'll be making all the pretty pictures for it. It's currently underway!

I've also taken on a game for Comedy Central, I should be starting that this week. Look for it on their website sometime in September!

In addition to all that, I'm slowly carving out the puzzles for my first full length game. I believe I have the story and characters fully worked out. I'll post more info once I wrap the other stuff.

Finally I've co-created my first human being, it should be ready any day now!

July 7 , 2009

Another Small Favor is sprinting towards BETA. Caulder has been rocking it hard the past few days and he's predicting a BETA version by next week. Crazy! Make sure you're subscribed to the newsletter to get the first play!

In other news, I've started work on my first full length adventure game. I'm hoping to have it ready by Christmas. I have the story worked out but no title as of yet. You can follow my daily struggles with it on Twitter...

http://twitter.com/zeebarf

July 1 , 2009

Reemus Chapter 3 is now officially online! Tell your friends, link to it, steal it for your website. We crushed a ton of bugs thanks to the keen eyes and hardwork of the BETA testing mailing list! Thanks to everyone who sent in bug reports, it helped a lot!

PLAY IT HERE!

I wanted Reemus done by June and we squeaked in just under the wire. It was still June on the west coast :)

Thanks to Jay Is Games for another great review...

READ IT HERE!

Now I turn my attention towards Another Small Favor, art is 97% done on it. I should finish up by tomorrow and then I will hand it off to Caulder to sprint to the finish line. I predict this will be the fastest Zeebarf game turnaround in history!

Look for it sometime this month! As always, join the mailing list for first look and the opportunity to BETA test it for me.

June 26 , 2009

And away we go! Reemus Chapter 3 BETA is now live.

BETA testers send your feedback and bug reports to: admin@zeebarf.com

For those that aren't on the mailing list and are interested in BETA testing the new game for me, join the Free ZEEBARF mailing list and the link will be emailed to you instantly!

Thanks!

June 22 , 2009

Well I didn't get my birthday wish of releasing Chapter 3, but it's basically done. Aaron had to battle a plethora of evil game bugs, but he's emerged victorious!

For those BETA testers on my mailing list, we should have something this week!

I've moved onto artwork for "Another Small Favor". I've finished off 24 of the 26 backgrounds in the game, it's looking good.

June 12 , 2009

Sooo close to being done Reemus! Let's all cross our fingers we have a BETA ready for Monday :)

In other news, after avoiding it for as long as I could I've finally folded and made a twitter account. If you feel like following my ramblings in game design, here's the link..

http://twitter.com/zeebarf

June 10 , 2009

Reemus 3 is almost done, just a few nips and tucks before we send it out to the BETA world. My goal is to get it out by my birthday on June 15th. It'd be a nice present to my self to have it off my plate :)

Join the free mailing list to be the first to play the new chapter!

May 27 , 2009

In just over two weeks A Small Favor has reached 1.4 million plays! Woohoo! A big Thanks to everyone for all the support and feedback.

For those that enjoyed it, good news! We've started work on "Another Small Favor", the 2nd chapter of the favor trilogy. It will continue where chapter 1 left off as our alien deals with the consequences of eliminating a Senator.

In other news, Reemus 3 is hurtling along! I hit a bit of a brick wall with it last week, I wasn't sure how I wanted the game paths to connect and I felt like the ending fizzled out.

So I went back to the drawing board and animated two completely different endings. This will be the first Reemus game where you can play it twice and have a completely different experience.

We should have everything done by the end of the month, so expect some BETA testing to start sometime in June!

If you want to be the first to play it, be sure to join the mailing list!

It's done! Check out the official release of "A Small Favor"!
Play it on Newgrounds.com and collect medals for all your hardwork!

PLAY IT NOW!

The reviews are already coming in, read this amazing review from JIG... CLICK TO READ

May 5 , 2009

A Small Favor is almost bug free and ready for launch. Thanks again to everyone who submitted bug reports, it has really helped improve the game!

I finally took the time to update the CARTOON and GAME pages with my older work. Be warned my old cartoons are pretty edgy and not for the easily offended. I've had a lot of requests for them and it's a part of Zeebarf history, so they're back online! I bundled my old single panel cartoons into a "Best of" EXE file. For those humour site webmasters, feel free to use any of my old cartoons on your sites, just please keep the URL links on them.

I can't believe I started this website 10 years ago! What a ride! Even though it was effectively dead from 2003-2006 while I worked in TV, people still visited. It's a great feeling to have it back with a new life, even surpassing the traffic of the old days. I look forward to cementing the Zeebarf brand as a high water mark of adventure game quality. With your support and feedback we can get there!

If you haven't already, join the mailing list. I'm going to need some critical BETA eyes for the upcoming Reemus 3!

May 2 , 2009

The BETA is loose and the feedback is in. You seem to be really enjoying it! I'm so pumped! Thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports, it really helped us clean up the game. There's still some loose ends we're dealing with but I think it'll be ready to go live next week sometime.

Look for the big official launch on Newgrounds.com soon!

For those that haven't joined the newsletter, don't worry it's not too late. Join now and you'll still get sent the link to the BETA.

April 29, 2009

Well it's finally done! "A Small Favor" Beta is ready for some play testing. Since it's a fairly complex game compared to my earlier work we're going to need some play testers to run through the game and report any bugs or glitches.

If you aren't already a member of my mailing list, join now! Only members of the Zeebarf newsletter will be asked to beta test my new games.

Reemus 3 isn't far behind this, so join the newsletter and be the first to play all my latest creations!

It's easy, just enter your email address into the window at the side of this page ----->

April 22, 2009

Time for some updates! The first build of "A Small Favor" is complete, we're just doing some de-bugging and play testing. I'm feeling good about having it done by the end of month!

Reemus Chapter 3 isn't far behind, the game engine is done, all the art is finished and the first two puzzles are working. If we keep on this pace it should be done shortly after "A Small Favor". Both games are looking great, definitely better than anything I could've coded on my own.

I give a standing ovation to my programmer pals, they've gone above and beyond for me!

April 3 , 2009

So it's April and you want to know, where are the new games? Well they're coming! Riftmaster and I have been hard at work sewing together the final pieces of my space game, which I think will be called "A Small Favor...". I'm feeling confident it could be done very soon, I'm scared to guess a day because that always ends horribly :) But it is very close!

As for Reemus 3, NegativeOne and I are pounding away on that as well. It's looking very cool, the engine he's created has given Reemus and Liam a whole new life.

The thing both games have in common is my attempt at creating a richer experience. Where decisions made in the game actually matter and affect the storyline. I'm excited to see what you think of it!

In other cool news, it looks like Reemus may be coming to the iphone! I'm currently in talks, I'll keep you posted as things develop!

All in all, this could be a great month for Zeebarf games!

March 24 , 2009

After months of nothing it looks like I'll have two games done in April! Programming God Riftmaster is back on the scene coding the ass off of my space game.

So right now I'm riding two totally different ideas to the finish line. Be prepared!

March 19 , 2009

As the art and puzzles come together from Reemus 3, I thought I'd leak a screenshot from the first level to whet your appetite. NegativeOne has been hard at work finishing off the Reemus game engine. I'll keep you updated on the progress..

March 16 , 2009

It has come to my attention that I forgot to update the year on my posts and was still putting 2008 after the month. Oops! Sorry about that, no it hasn't taken me a full year to do Reemus Chapter 3.

Expect Reemus to ride again in early April!

March 6 , 2009

Newgrounds Game of the Year was announced today. Reemus was a finalist!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/486001

March 5 , 2009

Well I think we all knew I'd never hit that release date right? :)

The art and design is done on my still untitled space game, unfortunately the programmer got swamped with other gigs and didn't have time to finish it. So it'll sit on the TBA pile for a bit longer. What can ya do!

In other cools news I finished the art for an iPhone app. Which will hopefully be done sometime this month or next. I'll keep you posted on availability.

Reemus Chapter 3 is really shaping up. Expect everything you loved in Chapter 2 and then some. Teamwork aspect is back, but now you get to control the characters directly and solve puzzles with either Reemus or Liam. The decisions you make in the game will determine where the story goes, and every puzzle will feature a Reemus way and a Liam way. It's a lofty goal, but so far so good. Not having to worry about programming has allowed me to spend more time on art, animation and game design. I think you'll dig it.

Also because of the cool little game engine my programmer pal, NegativeONE, has made for me we should be able to release new chapters at a more consistent (and faster) pace.

Dare to dream people!

February 18, 2009

Ok I hear ya, February is almost done and where are the new games?!?

Well It's not over yet! I'm still slaving away at my still untitled new game. I'm trying a new approach with this one, having it a little more open ended and exploratory. Let's see if I can bring it home in 10 days!

Once that's launched it'll be straight into Reemus Chapter 3. My Reemus programmer, NegativeONE has been hard at work coding me a game engine that should help to ensure a more timely release schedule for all future chapters. I'm really excited about it!

Listen to some music while you wait. Support Reemus music composer, Mitch Bowden. Buy the debut album from his band, Don Vail....

Purchase Album via Zunior:

Purchase Album via Amazon:

January 30, 2009

The results are in and well, I didn't win! But I did make the top 10 list! Reemus Chapter 2 and the original Reemus adventure came in at 6 and 8 respectively! Pretty solid considering the amazing games I was up against.

As one ends, another one begins. Reemus Chapter 2 has been nominated for Game of the Year over at Newgrounds.com! Woohoo! I really don't foresee a bronze tank trophy in my future considering the other games in the category. But the nomination itself makes me feel pretty good!

Alright enough about the old games, where's the new? Well I got derailed a bit on my ghost game and started working on another idea first, which I'm almost done all the art for. It should be ready to unveil in February sometime. I still don't have a title for it, but here's a screenshot. I don't want to reveal any more details until the programming is under way...

As soon as that's out of my hands, it'll be right into Reemus Chapter 3. I'm actually on track for releasing these in a timely manner, we'll see how long that lasts...

January 26, 2009

Support the music! Mitch Bowden, composer of all the original music in the Reemus games has finally released the long awaited album from his band, Don Vail. I may be biased, but I think it's a brilliant record. Buy a digital download on Zunior.com by CLICKING HERE. OR Buy a CD copy via their myspace page by CLICKING HERE. Keep independent music alive! BUY IT!

January 12, 2009

Well I have an exciting start to the new year, all three of my Reemus games have been nominated for Adventure Game of the Year 2008 at jayisgames.com! Head on over and vote for your fav!

January 4, 2009

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I'd post something since there's been a severe lack of updates lately. Too many Christmas parties!

Right now I'm putting the final touches on my animated shorts for Playboy, amazingly enough they've already sent me a cheque. A rarity in the world of freelance for sure. It felt pretty cool to get a cheque with bunny ears on it signed by Christie Hefner. The shorts should appear on Playboy.com sometime in the near future.

Starting Monday I'll be going into heavy writing mode. I have a bunch of game ideas and I really want to do my best to get them all out there. I'm lucky enough to have two talented programmers that are going to help me realize my visions. This will free up my time to devote more energy into game design and art, which is really exciting!

One of my big 2009 goals is to create a commercial length downloadable game. Something that the hardcore fans can sink their teeth into. My plan is to slowly develop it over the year, and hopefully by next Fall It'll be ready for consumption.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to have my ghost game ready for February and Reemus:Chapter 3 by March.

Thanks for all the support and feedback, it really helps!

Lets set the new year on fire!

December 13 , 2008

Reemus Chapter 2 hit 900,000 plays today. Pretty cool!

I'm just finishing up the game "2008: A Joe Six-Pack Odyssey" for Comedy Central. It should be live next week sometime, I'll keep you posted.

I've also begun writing Chapter 3 of Reemus as well as another unrelated game involving ghosts. Expect to see both of them early next year!

December 4 , 2008

Wow, what a response! Seems Chapter 2 has struck a chord with people. It's already at 350,000 views since Monday and getting great reviews.

I'm so happy that the extra effort paid off! I have big plans for Reemus Chapter 3, so big in fact I'm bringing a programmer on board to help me out. I'm not going to give a release date this time since we all know how well I manage to hit those. I will tell you this, you won't see Reemus again until 2009.

That doesn't mean you won't see another game from me. I'm currently working on a game for Comedy Central that will hopefully be out this month. For those that haven't seen it, I recently did a goofy environmental game for them called "An Inconvenient Webgame". You can view it on their official website, comedycentral.com or for those of you in Canada, comedynetwork.ca. This new game will feature similiar gameplay and is equally as goofy.

In other news, I will also be creating three twisted animated shorts for Playboy. You'll be able to check those in January on their website.

For those in Canada, check out the Cream of Comedy Show on Comedy Network in February. I did the animated opening to the show. For more details check out timsims.com.

Whew, I've been a busy boy, now you know why Chapter 2 took me so long :)

December 1 , 2008

Well it took me two months longer than expected but I did it! Reemus Chapter 2 is finally finished. Enjoy!!

CLICK HERE TO PLAY CHAPTER 2!

Check the GAMES page to enjoy other Zeebarf game titles.

November 27, 2008

The end is near! The new Reemus game is free of bugs (at least the ones I can find) and I'm just finishing up sound design. If all goes well it should be ready by Monday or sooner! Wooot!

November 16, 2008

Aaargh! I think I'll just hire real programmers from here on out. I'd much rather spend my time drawing and designing than doing the glorified math homework that they call programming. I'm still finding game killing bugs as I slowly try to put Chapter 2 to bed. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, pray for me!

Thanks for your patience as I try to tame this beast!

November 9, 2008

Whoa, where did October go? Well as you can tell I missed my self imposed deadline of October for the release of Chapter 2. I'm on the verge of finishing it and I'm crossing my fingers I'll have it ready to go this week.

Why the delay? Well I painted myself into a corner by raising the bar on both the puzzle design and the animation level, so I've been scrambling trying to make everything work and keep the animation quality up. Needless to say it's been really hard.

I'm hoping the effort pays off and people agree the extra time was well spent!

September 25, 2008

Due to popular request, I've finally posted official walkthroughs for both Reemus games and The Visitor in the GAMES section.

CHECK IT OUT...

September 20, 2008

Reemus Chapter 1 has officially hit 1,000,000 plays and zeebarf.com's ranking has broken the top 100,000 websites! Woohoo! Thanks for all the support!

Chapter 2 is well underway, I've raised the bar on animation for this next installment. I got some flak for not having the characters interact with the puzzle objects, so for this next one expect Reemus and Liam to do all the heavy lifting themselves. It's taking me longer to finish the level designs because of all the extra animation but so far it's worth it. All the levels are plotted out, now it's just a whirlwind of coding and animation. I'm crossing my fingers for an early October release! I'll keep you posted...

September 11, 2008

September 9, 2008

Well Chapter 1 has been out for a few days now, it was officially launched today on Newgrounds and Armor Games. I'm hoping to have it live on Kongregate by tomorrow.

According to my stats it's been played over 40,000 times already, which is crazy. My web traffic spiked up, I went from ranking 1.8 million to breaking the 400,000 top websites within a couple days. Wow!

Each game I release is really an experiment for me, I'm slowly teaching myself how to code. I break off a little more each time.

I'd love to know your feedback at what I've done so far and what you'd like to see improved in future installments. Drop me a line and let me know your thoughts... admin@zeebarf.com

September 6, 2008

Welcome to the new Zeebarf.com!

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 1 is complete!

Another chapter in the ongoing saga of Reemus & Liam. Picking up where the prologue left off, Reemus & Liam journey to meet the King, but things don't go as smoothly as planned...

More point and click puzzle action for those that enjoyed the first one. Two possible endings!

I'm hoping to release a new chapter each month. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO PLAY CHAPTER 1!

Check the GAMES page to enjoy other Zeebarf game titles...

LINK TO ZEEBARF!
Help support my work by posting a link to zeebarf.com. Here are some images to use.

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