I know it’s been a long time since I posted anything, but believe me the Downsized hands have not been idle. Things went from zero to eighty-eight in twelve parsecs after the last time the online websites picked up on BulleTrain, and we’ve been struggling to keep up since. All things considered, it was a real wake up call for us, and we doubled down to make the game everything we promised it could be. So now, a year after Pandemic Studios was sent to the gallows pole, I can proudly announce…

The BulleTrain is finally pulling into the station!

Have your tickets in hand, stow your bags in the overhead compartments, and set your tray tables for fun! (I’ve never been on a train, obviously… unless you count those monorails, or the subway).

It’s been a long road to get here, certainly longer than any of us anticipated, but it has been an awesome experience. We got to work on something we all enjoyed, and we learned a lot more about game development than the years we spent as cogs in the machine. We’ve gotten a lot of good advice, as well as some terrible suggestions (mostly people telling us to shut up and to stop rocking the boat), but we pulled through and we are proud to finally have something out there we can call our own. BulleTrain may be an irreverent metaphor of the video game industry, but it’s a work of love aimed right at the heart of the industry we love. Take that as you will, but we here at Downsized are thankful that we have the opportunity to make fun and entertaining games for a living, and we hope things work out so that we can continue to deliver.

We hope you all enjoy the ride, and take the BulleTrain to the top of the charts. Check out the trailer video below and then go download and rate BulleTrain! I promise we will never become “The Man” no matter how many times you give us a five star rating.

Purchase BulleTrain on iTunes for iPhone

Purchase BulleTrain on iTunes for iPad

~ Manny “The Man” Vega

PS: If you are one of those intertube reporters, send us a email and we’ll send you a download code so you can review BulleTrain.

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So I’m having lunch with Andrew, basically the same thing we did almost every weekday, except this time it had been two or three days since EA shut down Pandemic Studios leaving most of us without anything to do. I don’t think it had sunk in yet, but it was strange that we finished eating… and then just sat there wondering what to do next. You can only send out so many resume’s before you need to let the job postings refresh. We started talking about how messed up the entire situation was. Over 200 people laid off, and all looking for jobs. The same jobs that we were looking for at that. It was at this point we decided that we would become hired assassins who got paid to eliminate the competition in the job market. Sure we’d have to kill some friends, but for the most part we’d get to finally put a bullet into some of those damn smug programmers and designers… not to mention those art guys who are so damn proud of their tree texture they just won’t shut up about it. Anyways, we drew up our plans (both secretly plotting to kill off the other once the cherry jobs became open) and made plans to buy some guns, and maybe make T-shirts with cool logos of a gas mask with X’s over the eyes. Luckily before the bloodshed began Ariel called me and said, “Hey, wanna make an iPhone game?” The rest, as you see, is history.

On a totally unrelated topic, did you know that you can not return a rifle or ammunition after you purchase it?

~Manny

downsizedgames.com has finally gone live.