Thanks for all of the congratulatory posts regarding our news from last week. I really wish I could tell you guys some more, but unfortunately, that cat has to remain in the bag for just a little while longer. All I can say is that this new project is already starting to eat up all of our time, and will continue to do so for months to come. Funny enough, we are managing to put one time sucker to rest in exchange for a shinier one.

It is impacting the series finale (and already affected Episode 13) in a few ways, mainly in that it’s taking longer to make. We’re getting pretty close to being done filming it completely, and as I said before, I’ll let you guys know when we’re about a week away from release.

In the meantime, check out some new screenshots. They contain images of machinima ownage and dudes shooting at other dudes.

Also, has anyone seen District 9? I’m planning on going this weekend and I keep hearing great things. I have a condition where I ache to see awesome sci-fi action, and the movie appears to be able to scratch my itch in a meaningful way.

Exciting news! Hold on to your butts.

Here’s what I can tell you: we just got a big deal to produce Smooth Few Films content. No, it is not TLW. I can’t tell you who we made the deal with or go into more details about it, but trust me when I say it was a pretty crazy moment for us when we found out they were interested.

This means the “band is staying together” essentially, and that all of us (including Daniel) are rearranging some plans so that we can invest ourselves into this project. As a bonus for you guys, it means lots more Smooth Few Films content after The Leet World is over, which wasn’t going to be the case before.

This is a huge opportunity that deserves all of our time. It’s the kind of thing that we’ve been working towards for the last two years. We’re kind of giving it all we’ve got. So it means there are probably going to be some more changes coming soon, and it is partially responsible for the extended time that Episode 14 is taking us.

We’ll give some more information when we can, but our hands are a little tied. Rest assured, you should stick around for all of this because it’s going to be badass.

Texas Summers are like living on some distant star. The boiling, the heat, the humidity (for us Houstonians, anyway)… it just wears a man down to his bones, or whatever other endoskeleton that is used to construct geeks like ourselves. In the midst of all of that, we’re still toiling away at the final episode of TLW, one scene at a time.

Some of you may have noticed that there’s been a bit of radio silence for the last few weeks. There are a few reasons for that. Part of it is that there has been some vacationing going on, and another is something that we hope to tell you about soon. Still another part is that Episode 14 is the Godzilla of episodes. It is obese. All others bow before it. That hyperbole simply means that it is big.

I’d say we’ve got about a third of it left to film, but it’s the hard third (that’s what she said), so take that with a grain of salt. When we’re nearing about a week from release, we’ll let you know. It’s not that time yet, good sirs.

Maybe these screenshots will tide you over, but probably not.

Feel free to speculate. Thanks for sticking around to see this thing through with us, dudes. You’re kind of awesome in that way.

Just wanted to stop in and give a quick update about the progress of Episode 13, part 1 of the series finale. It’s mostly in the can, with post production left in front of it. It should be out next week at some point. Don’t hold me to that, though. We all know how I hate magical binding contracts. Especially when it comes to picking release dates.

In other news, Daniel finally returns this weekend. He’s been living it up and having fun in other places (read: touching butts) while Nick and I slave away at Leet World. But don’t worry, we’re not bitter. Much. Regardless, we’ll be glad to have him back. There might be group hugs and/or beers to celebrate.

Besides all that, we’re already working on stuff for Episode 14, which is part 2 of the series finale and hugely massive. Anywho, here are some screenshots from Episode 13.

Enjoy. Also, if you haven’t been reading Anthony’s Phantasy Star game blogs over at GamerSushi, you are seriously missing out on some hilarious video game writing.

I know I’ve said it before, but the general rule around here is that the more busy we are, the quieter we tend to be. Coming up on the twelfth episode of Season 2 is no exception. With Daniel still out of town and gallivanting around movie sets like some cinema cowboy, we’re left scrambling to finish the season. But it’s a good kind of scramble. Like eggs.

It’s hard to believe there are just a couple more episodes left, but that’s the way we roll, I guess. Thanks to you dudes that have stuck it out so far for this absurd machinima. Anywho, here are some screenshots from the next episode.

That last one is a major tease, am I right?

A huge thanks to all of you TLW-ites who watched and commented on Episode 10, Wake Me Up Before You Go. Some mighty wild things happened in that episode, things we’ve been planning for quite some time. We’ll hopefully get into that more in the next couple of days (once a few more of you have had a chance to watch it), and have some cool character discussions.

Daniel’s out of town right now, but Nick and I have been working diligently to keep the machine moving. Currently, we’re in the midst of several things such as faceposing, Hammer-ing and editing Episode 11. Also, I’m working on getting a final draft for Episode 12. It’s certainly both madness and Sparta, but I think it helps that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The next episode is interesting in that it’s kind of the “Council of Elrond” episode. Lots of information. Maybe you understand that nerdy reference, maybe you don’t. Either way, here are some screenshots.

Spooky, scary. In other news, I plan to get some outtakes done soon, but the last couple of episodes have been faceposer/Hammer heavy, and I figured you would all appreciate me helping get the episodes out faster rather than working on those. And yes, those things are mutually exclusive.

If you follow us on twitter, then you’d know that Episode 10 is shaping up to be a beast of a different sort. Imagine a hulking brute that spits acid and isn’t intimidated by Nick’s beard and then you know what you’re dealing with. It is unruly and grotesque. In a good way.

Anywho, part of the reason for this is that it has quite a humongous action sequence in it, and before I get carried away with superlatives, I will just say that it might own you. We’re big fans of action films (if you can’t tell), so this is always a treat for us. By the way, the picture is from Die Hard, so if you haven’t seen it, I might ban you. Welcome to the party, pal.

Here are some screenshots from Episode 10. I had to work very hard to find ones that don’t give anything away. There’s just way too much to spoil.

Hope you enjoy the tease.

I’d like to thank everyone for the encouraging words regarding our announcement about the end of TLW after this season (and an awesome movie). We’ve been suspecting that this might go down for a couple of months, but it only became set in stone recently. It’s good to have it out in the open, and even better when nobody goes ballistic and throws things at us. You know, like e-rocks.

Since the questions are rolling in, I wanted to clarify a few things:

• Daniel is not leaving yet. He actually won’t be gone for about 5 months or so. In that time our goal is to finish the season, party like man-imals, and then make a sweet movie. We don’t know how long the movie will be, minutes-wise.
• The show is not over yet. We’re still going to do the second half of the season. For those of you wondering, it will be just a bit shorter than last season. 
• Without Daniel, we won’t be continuing Web Zeroes regularly. Since he’s kind of in it and also the director, there’s no way it could happen. We’d still like to do an episode or two before he goes, and there might be an occasional episode if he comes in town for a weekend, but that’s it.
• Nick and I will keep making stuff after TLW is over, but we’re not replacing one crazy big workload for another crazy big workload. Whatever we work on next (be it G.R.I.E.F. or one of our other ideas), it won’t be as regular or as big as The Leet World.

Anything not answered there is something we don’t know the answers to or can’t really address at this point. There’s a lot that we still don’t know, but I thought I’d do my best to answer the things we could. 

Episode 8 will be out at some point this week. I’m excited to start this half of the season. It’s seriously going to be wild.

Production on Season 2, Episode 8 is rolling along pretty smoothly. It’s always funny when we do a big monster episode like Tempest and then things settle down a bit, making the episode much easier to film. The episode itself is going to be a shorter one, but that doesn’t mean it’s not chock full of goodness.

Sometime in the next few days you should expect some outtakes from Episodes 5-7. They will contain a couple of rofls, I hope. While we have gotten better about recording our stuff without many goof-ups, it’s three episodes worth of content, so it should balance out.

Also, here are some screenshots from Episode 8 for you to chew on.

Enjoy!

Today is a very special day for Daniel, director, and voice of Ellis and Adam Sizzler in The Leet World. He turns 28 years of age. Yikes. I hope he doesn’t break a hip or something. Wish him a good one, he deserves it.

Production has started again on the show as of this weekend, and we are slicing that thing up like raptors in Jurassic Park. That is to say, the attack will come from the side, from the raptor you didn’t even know was there. The second half of this season is kind of awesome, so we’re looking forward to getting on with it. I’ll have some screenshots for you dudes later on in the week, I hope.

I randomly watched a lot of Season 1 yesterday, for the first time in several months. While watching some battle sequences, it came upon me to ask you dudes which gunfight/battle you’ve liked best so far in The Leet World. So, answer away. What’s your favorite?