"He's good enough for one thing, I should judge -- he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county."
-- Mark Twain, The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County
TCFH, now with ROBOT FROGS.

Deadly Rocket-Assisted Robot Frog, Actual Size

Froggy went attackin' a giant robot and he did ride, uh-huh...

Yes, we've finally implemented Weird Weapons, which include ROBOT FROGS, superheroes, and fire-breathing llamas. ROBOT FROGS appear in units just like tanks do. They hop (naturally), belch fiery plasma balls and are a menace to any giant monster. ROBOT FROGS, people. What more could you ask for? Besides the game actually being finished, that is.That's all for the amphibian news. Here's the -- well, we originally called it the Monster Garage a few years ago, but then that TV show came along and, well -- I don't need Jesse James coming over to kick my ass, so lets just call it the Monster Customization Screen. The background of this screen is a shot of Istvan MacGuffin's Special Effects and Auto Body Shop in Los Angeles, where many of effects for Harold Haxton's movies were created. Besides his work in the film industry, Istvan often repaired Haxton's Studebaker, as Harold was as bad a driver as he was a director.

Click for bigger

And finally, here's a shot of the Monster Customization screen with the monster customization stuff on it. After picking a monster body type, you can customize its abilities, weapons, and defenses. At top left is a headshot of the monster, its name, buttons to change the monster's color and use the autonamer (let the computer name your monster). Below that are the monster's core attributes, like strength, speed, health and energy. Under that is the energy generation block, which defines what your monster eats, absorbs, etc. in order to create and recharge its energy pool (which is used for moving, attacking, weapons).

In the top center column are abilities, such as force field, regeneration and invisibility. Clicking on these will open a pop-up box where you can customize the ability. Below is the monster's mental/control block, where you set how easily your monster loses and regains control when its angry, hungry, damaged or scared.

At the top right are two weapon slots. Clicking on these opens a pop-up to select and customize the weapons. Below that are defenses, which are broken down into various fundamental attack types. Each monster has a multiplier (from immune to 10x damage) and a base resistance for each damage type. Base resistance is the minimal amount of damage that must occur in a single hit to cause any damage.

Now we're off to E3! More updates when we get back.

" People, People who need people, Are the luckiest people in the world..."
-- Barbara Streisand
As promised, we have a few new screenshots showing some of what we call the "victim variants". Yes, besides your everyday soldiers, SWAT teams, scientists, and folks on the street, we've got prisoners, cops, businessmen clutching their tiny briefcases, and little naked desert revelers. Monsters are leaving footprints now, too -- here's Newtrino swimming and making friends with some scientists.

We were tweaking the effects of bomb forces and, well, this small bomb dropped on the Incendiary Guy Festival packed an unexpectedly hefty punch. Also note how the green Porta-Potties stay fixed to the ground, despite the blast. Who woulda thunk it? Gotta fix that. (Hit "reload" to relive the oh-so-magical-animated-gif experience again)
In the event of an A-10 attack, seek the nearest Porta-Potty.This month's Computer Gaming World mentions us in their Digital Underground (p.47). Guess they didn't notice this screenshot featuring their offices being menaced by a giant pea (the blue-green glass building on the left)...