Laughing Jackal Blog - Latest Posts

Introducing the all-new “Prestige Mode!”

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:05:01 GMT

Hi everyone. It’s been another busy week here at Laughing Jackal as OMG HD Zombies for the PS Vita has come out of - and then gone back into - submission. While this has been rather frustrating we’re hopeful that we’ve managed to kill off the last few lingering issues preventing the game from being approved. It all seems to be related to the new Mortar Zombie… I shall have my revenge on him come launch day. Mwahaha!

In this week’s blog I thought I’d continue our look at OMG HD Zombies’ awesome new features by talking about the rather unusual Prestige Mode and how it plays into our High Score charts.

Once you’ve gained Platinum ratings for all 100 levels you’ll then be able to select the Prestige icon from the Extras menu:

Once you have confirmed that you would like to Prestige the game, all your upgrades and level progress medals will be reset to zero. However, you will also be awarded a shiny and rewarding Prestige medal! *FANFARE* Here’s a look at all 20 medals in all their glory:

Each Prestige medal will also award you with a multiplier to your Leaderboard scores, which are calculated as follows:

Number of zombies killed

(1 point each)

Number of bullets remaining

(0 bullets = x1 multiplier, 1 bullet = x2, 2 bullets = x3, etc.)

Prestige level attained

(No Prestige = x1 multiplier, Prestige 1 = x2, Prestige 2 = x3, etc.)

TOTAL SCORE

Some examples of how this works can be seen in the following table:

ZOMBIES KILLED	X	BULLETS REMAINING	X	PRESTIGE LEVEL	X	SCORE
50	X	0 (no multiplier)	X	0 (no multiplier)	X	50
75	X	1 (x2 multiplier)	X	1 (x2 multiplier)	X	300
100	X	3 (x4 multiplier	X	10 (x11 multiplier)	X	4,400
150	X	5 (x6 multiplier)	X	20 (x21 multiplier)	X	18,900

Note, you’ll have to play a level again to get the benefit of Prestiging it (although you should be doing that anyway to get to the NEXT Prestige level!)

This means that to get the very highest scores you’ll have to gain Platinum ratings for the game a massive 20 TIMES (o_O) as well as being a master of bullet economising. Good luck out there!

That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week, but until then you can join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages where we will be posting all the news from Laughing Jackal.

OMG HD Zombies! posters arrive at Laughing Jackal

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:05:38 GMT

Hi everyone. It’s been another busy week here at Laughing Jackal, but we have now got the European version of OMG HD Zombies! (Vita) back in submission with Sony. We’ve also been hard at work preparing North American builds of Hungry Giraffe (Vita) and OMG HD Zombies! While they’ve still got further to go than the European builds we are hoping to have more information for all of you soon regarding release dates in both territories.

We also had a rather special treat in the mail today, as two lovely OMG HD Zombies! posters arrived in the office. They’ll be going up on the wall shortly, but before they do I thought you might like to see a couple of photos of them.

First up here is a poster showing the game’s title screen:

And here is the Laughing Jackal guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. This will be displayed prominently in case of zombie assault on the Laughing Jackal offices:

In other news our Senior Producer, Al, made his second appearance on the PlayStation Crowdcast. If you want to hear his thoughts on OMG HD Zombies! and a new unannounced game we have been working on, then you can give it a listen here.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week, but until then you can join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages where we will be posting all the news from Laughing Jackal.

OMG-Z Vs OMG HD Zombies – comparison shots

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:05:44 GMT

Hi everyone. Since we mentioned in our original announcement that we had completely redrawn the artwork for OMG HD Zombies several of you have been asking us if you could see some screenshots of OMG HD Zombies compared to the original OMG-Z.

Please note these images are not full size. To see the full size images please visit our Facebook page here

We’ve worked hard to take advantage of the Vita’s rather lovely OLED screen in OMG HD Zombies and we hope you like the new artwork.

Of course the artwork isn’t all we’ve changed and you can see us detail some of OMG HD Zombies’ new features here and explore the three brand new zombie types here.

In other OMG HD Zombies news the game has just been resubmitted to Sony. Should this go well we are hoping to be able to announce a PAL release date soon and we are currently working to produce a version for North America.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week, but until then you can join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages where we will be posting all the news from Laughing Jackal.

Exploding Zombies!

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:04:56 GMT

Hi everyone. While we’ve recently talked about some of the more obvious new features in OMG HD Zombies! for the Vita, there have also been some changes that we’ve been keeping under the radar. One of these is the brand new zombie death animations that we’ve been cooking up.

In both OMG-Z and OMG Zombies, each variety of zombie only had one death sequence. Our fiendishly minded artist, Jake, was sure we could improve on that, so for OMG HD Zombies! he has created three new suitably macabre death sequences for each zombie. Let’s check them out:

So when can you get your hands on this zombie-fest I hear you ask? Well, I’m delighted to say that the finishing line is well and truly in sight and we’re expecting to resubmit OMG HD Zombies! to Sony very soon. If all goes well, you can expect us to announce a release date in the next couple of weeks. Hooray! :)

In Hungry Giraffe related news, the four new calorie packs are now available for purchase on PSN, although at the time of writing you cannot purchase them in-game and have to grab them direct from the Store. You can pick up 45,000 calories for £0.65, 450,000 calories for £2.39, 1,350,000 calories for £5.19 and a massive 3,600,000 calories for £10.99.

Purchasing the 450,000 calorie pack for £2.39 would allow you to max out your hard hat storage slots, increase your resistance to poison, pills and dumbbells as well as increase the benefit you gain from chillies whilst still leaving enough calories left over to purchase the mighty “Mecha Giraffe!” (the most expensive skin in the game.)

Please be aware that these packs do not count towards the ‘Consume 3 Million Calories’ trophy. You’ll still need to get that one the hard way. :)

That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week, but until then you can join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages where we will be posting all the news from Laughing Jackal.

Meet the new Zombies

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:05:14 GMT

Hi everyone! So who enjoys blowing up the undead? And who would like to know about the brand new zombies that you’ll be able to decimate in OMG HD Zombies? If you do, then this is the blog post for you, because today I’ll be introducing all three of the new zombies-types that you’ll be able to destroy in your goriest of gory chain reactions!

Say hello to the Mortar Zombie, a regular civilian-turned-zombie but in this sad case his brain has reacted adversely to the fungus, building up enormous pressure inside his skull, giving his head a hideous appearance (even for a zombie :)). When killed, this poor Mortar Zombie’s head will fly up off the screen before landing at a random point in the play area of the level, bursting all over the place.

Mortar Zombies can be upgraded to increase the splash radius around their brain on landing, to increase damage caused by the brain’s explosion and lastly to increase their population within the level.

Despite the enormous destruction it has been responsible for, the zombie fungus remains poorly understood. For example, we have recently discovered a unique reaction which can occur in some female victims of the fungus creating the Runner Zombie. When a Runner Zombie is attacked it will run forwards for a limited distance before exploding in a similar way to regular Civilian Zombies.

Runner Zombies can be upgraded to deal more damage when bursting, to increase their blast radius and to have their population increased.

Another example of this can be found in the Taser Zombie. A highly mysterious mutation of the regular fungal infection, Taser Zombies metabolise the fungus in a wholly different way to their undead brethren, where their bodies become charged with huge amounts of barely-contained energy.

When the Taser Zombie is attacked the explosive reaction of the fungus unleashes this energy in a powerful bolt that is automatically launched in a random direction. If the energy bolt connects with another zombie, a bolt of electrified energy extends between the two and remains there for a limited time. The Taser Zombie and its victim remain locked in position as long as the bolt lasts.

While the two zombies are electrified, any zombie coming into contact with the energy bolt is immediately trapped by it and takes chip damage every couple of seconds, effectively setting up a trip wire inside the level.

Taser Zombies can be upgraded to make their energy bolts last longer, have a greater effective radius and to increase their population in a level.