#notoriousinc

OK! SO! It's been a little bit since we've posted because we've been a couple of busy little birds, so here is a quick update of what we've been up to!

- Our PechaKucha Portland talk went really well! We look forward to possibly giving our talk other places at some point.

- Completed our first collaboration on Solar Max by Pargee! (actual post about that coming next!)

- Chickadee now has an office! We are sharing it with our great pal and collaborator, Tim Aste! It's great!

- The Notorious Inc. web version is now available to play for free at Armor Games! (and don't forget both the iOS and Android versions are only 99 cents!)

- Development on Hamster Clock Super Show is speeding along! Here's a peek, if you didn't already see it on Twitter.

- We stumbled on a small idea that turned out to be pretty fun. We'll be releasing that in a week or two and we think you'll like it!

Hey, for good measure - CUTE, LITTLE SPOILERS FOR OUR CUTE, LITTLE MOBILE GAME AHEAD

Once you hit 100 Notoriety and are made aware of the Master Plan, you can click on the staging area and are presented six options you can go with. It may seem random, but the options you have available to you are based on how you played the game.  So, below is the list things the game tracks.

-Paying at least $500k into the Philanthropy Division activates “Great Wealth”

-Each lab expansion activates it’s own flag; “Aeronautic Knowledge”, “Biology Knowledge”, and “Geology Knowledge”

-Fully expanding your Junior Executive Facilities activates “Fully Staffed”

-Fully expanding your Communications Center activates “Fully Networked”

There is an Master Plan for each of these flags by themselves, and an MP for each combination of these flags. Pay attention to the description in the Master Plan window as it alludes to what is being combined with what. I won’t go through the whole list, though. That’s your job.

Notorious Inc, through just a sort of organic evolution of development, ended up being a bit of a love letter to all the entertainment that Sarah and I have consumed in the last 12 years that made an impact on us in some way. There are nods to other works - shows, movies, games - throughout Notorious, as if they're goofs we're sharing with friends at a party or some such.  I thought it might be interesting to catalog all of these references found in the game, partially because I think it maybe shares something about the kind of people Sarah and I are, and I think it's interesting reading about other developers in that way.  But also because I think it's important to tell artists, developers, writers, etc that make stuff you like that, hey, you thought that thing was really great. So at the end of the day, the people who made all of this stuff can go to bed saying "something I made was partially responsible for the creation of something else".  I don't think we're alone in thinking that's a great way for a maker’s to end a day.  Maybe the best way.  We’ve decided to make a series of posts to share with you every reference to other works found in Notorious Inc!

So without further ado, here is part one!

1) The brand of the tv screen in all the black market shops is "Carnivale", a nod to The Simpsons episode "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield".  Though it's odd, I don't like that episode, I just like that scene. 

2) The image for the opportunity event "Shamification" features a tablet running Notorious Inc.  The brand of the tablet is "Magnetbox", which is another nod to that same scene. 

3) This happened unconsciously, but I think a lot of our color scheme (and general vibe) came from OSS 117, a series of french spy spoofs. Watch "Cairo, Nest of Spies".  Super funny.  And I don't mean that in an annoying, arrogant, elitist kind of "watch this french comedy" kind of way.  It's a movie that's so funny, you laugh out loud reading subtitles.  Seriously.  Guys.  SUPER FUNNY.

4) Consciously, the look is mainly a combination of the general look and feel of Samurai Jack and work by the painter Shag.

  5) The secret agent in the image for the defense event "Spy Hard" is little bit of a nod to Cate Archer, heroine of No One Lives Forever.

6) The general tone and vibe of the Advisor is a combination of bits and pieces of several characters;  Charles Ofdensen (Metalocalypse), Watch and Ward (Venture Brothers), Smithers (the Simpsons) and every 1% American I ever saw in an interview that saw themselves as the victim of the recession.

7) The image for the opportunity event "A Happy Medium" is a riff on the artwork and vibe of getting your fortune read in Animal Crossing. 

8) The rival Junior Executives in the event “Hostile Takeover” were inspired by The Baseball Furies, a gang from The Warriors.

9) The event Corruption Crackdown has the obligatory Star Wars references.  The free option reads “Shut your eyes tight and will this problem away like some kind of executive Jedi.” and if you fail, the end of the paragraph is, “It didn't work. You tried your best, but ultimately there is no try.”

10) The beer in the hand of the former executive in the event, “Severance Irreverence” is Black Hole Brew, the favorite of Coach John McGuirk from the (super great) show Home Movies. 

That's it for this batch!  We'll do another batch in the near future.  In the mean time, you should play the game. Here, I'll even make it easy for you.

Android | iOS

Here is just a little roundup of some places you can currently find our games!

You can play Notorious for free on the web here:

Kongregate

Jayisgames

New Grounds

Chickadee Games website

Armor Games

You can buy the mobile version for only 99 cents (WOW!!) here:

iOS

Android

You can play Grave Rave! for free on the web here:

Kongregate

New Grounds

You can download the free mobile version here:

iOS

Android