I’m in the middle of joining together my blog etc… into one site, so apologies for the mess around here.

I’ll still be popping back onto social media every so often, just a hell of a lot less than I was

So, I’m gonna take a huge step back away from social networks for a while I get my head down to get a big chunk of The Hit Squad done. I spent a lot of time online during the Kickstarter campaign, but I’ve now got to use my time in the most constructive way possible,

So I’m gonna be keeping myself to my self for a little bit and chipping away at this big rock that is The Hit Squad movie. It’s moving along better than I could have hoped for and I’m trying my best to ride the wave of productivity I’m having! It’s been a humungous task, but I’m immensely proud of how it’s turning out and I want to do it without compromise. Anyway, I’ll still be popping back onto social media every so often, just a hell of a lot less than I was.

If you do want to get in touch, send me an email at chris [AT]  ilovethehitsquad.com

Take  care, be nice to each other and I’ll speak to you very soon!

BUT as you can see above, we have the first official screenshot of The Hit Squad, with plenty more fun stuff to come along the way! Dont forget to keep in contact with us on Twitter!!

1. It wont go viral. No, it won’t. Do not under any circumstances think that you will go viral. Like, at all. This is the first mistake everyone makes. It won’t go viral. It will take a shedload of convincing people that your project is worthy and that you’re working hard for it.
2. Make a great video. Your video needs to be short, quality (not just a webcam) and to the point. If you can’t put together a simple video, how will people trust you to handle thousands of their money?
3. Is your project just an idea or is it a well thought out plan? Some people put out campaigns far too early, before they had even realised their idea fully. Sort out all of the nitty gritty of your campaign, pass it round to others, get feedback, tweak. There isn’t room for low quality any more.
4. Don’t ask for too much. Yeah it would be wonderful to get £50,000 for two people to spend 6 months makimg a game/movie/book. Do you think other people will believe that’s what you need?
5. Why should people care? There are so many Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns, why would people pledge to yours? Dont assume that because people like videogames that they’ll donate to your game, or because people buy Elvis songs that they would crowdfund a documentary on him.
6. Spamming is worthless, conversation is gold. If you want people to listen to you, speak to them about something they’re interested in first, before trying to sell them something. I get asked for Twitter Retweets for crowdfunding campaigns from people who don’t even follow me. Show effort, speak to people first.
7. Ask people for money: AFTER you’ve spoken to people, ask if they would take a look at your campaign, ask for feedback. If they seem positive about it, straight up (politely) ask them if they’d like to donate to it. If they can’t/won’t, thats fine, thank them for taking the time to look at it anyway.
8. Speak to new people. I started off in March with 300 followers, by the end of the campaign for The Hit Squad I had 1300 followers, I had tweeted over 7,000 tweets. I spent around 10 hours per day on Twitter speaking to new people. D’you know what? It actually made things more enjoyable.
9. Speak to press, but dont rely on them. Getting press coverage is awesome, but to be fair, they’re inundated with crowdfunding campaigns every day, they can’t include them all. Yours is unlikely to make the cut, press/blogs help raise awareness, but you have to complete the sale.
10. Read EVERYTHING you can on crowdfunding. There are tons of articles full of great crowdfunding advice, Kickstarter and IndieGoGo usually run really good ones on their own sites. Read them all and take it in!
11. The most important thing about crowdfunding is the people you meet. During The Hit Squad’s crowdfunding, I made friends, colleagues, enemies and more. This has lead to freelance work, friendships outside of Twitter, game buddies and people who would stick up for me if I were to ever be arrested for throwing a dead body out a hotel window.
12. It wont go viral. Seriously. Stop thinking that it will.

This is it ladies and gentlemen, the official teaser trailer for The Hit Squad movie.

We’ve been soldiering away in the background getting this one ready for you and it should give you a little more of a taste of what to expect from The Hit Squad movie. We’re still not giving much away at this point but we at least give you the summary of the plot:

The Hit Squad follows Roddy Stones and his washed up 80s band ‘The Hit Squad’ as they try to win back their fame, fortune and recording studio, which is being taken over by their infinitely more successful rivals ‘Scourge’.

Follow the band on a journey of sex, skullduggery and synthesized music at they battle to save the only thing they give a damn about: their studio.

This movie is a completely indie movie which we crowdfunded for in March 2012. We raised $10,000 to make the movie, however we still need more to keep production going. If you would like to preorder for the release in 2013, please head to the official website http://ilovethehitsquad.com

Wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with having big ideas, wanting to be top of your game and do something amazing. But the way that everything comes to fruition is hard fucking work. I’m talking every-spare-minute-you-have hard work, not where you work for an hour and then meet friends down at a bar for the rest of the night. I believe that people can be what they want to be and ‘wanting it really badly’ is part of that, but the work behind it is whats gonna get you there.

The news is filled with stories of record breaking Kickstarters, viral videos, X Factor contestants, little guys making millions. What we often don’t read is the long arduous journeys behind those overnight successes, the failures, the ‘back to the drawing board’s, the learning, the long hours and the sacrifice people make to make it happen. I see hundreds of Kickstarters die, people filled with disappointment because their idea didnt go viral.  Its heartbreaking.

One person who has inspired me a lot recently is Canadian entrepreneur (and awesome backer of The Hit Squad) Steven Dengler. It took him 4 years 12 years before his currency website XE.com started making any money, it now hovers around the top 250 websites in the world. When was the last time you stuck at something for 12 years?

Dream big, but spend most of your time planning, learning, writing, working long hours, persisting. Then you’ll get to where you want to be.

I’ll leave you with the phrase “Dreams don’t work unless you do”

They had disappeared. Technically they were there on the recorder (a Zoom H1, fact fans) but with a file size of 0kb. I tried loading them into the audio software, but nothing would load them. After around 5 hours of panicking, futile attempts at recovery and wonderful help from Twitter followers, I gave up.

Hours of work had been thrown down the drain, never to be heard again. The pragmatic side of me kicked in and the next day I found space to record, updated the firmware on the recorder and spent two days locked in a room with a bottle of whiskey (gargling it helps to keep the throat disinfected) the script and pints and pints of water.

It was a very physically tiring few days, but after hearing the results, I’m confident that they’re better than the originals, both in audio quality (I upped the quality to 96khz, 24 bit) and performance quality (experimented a little more with Roddys voice, think I had an epiphany).

So, refusing to pander to the temptation of moping about the loss of the first batch of recordings kinda worked out for the best. Now the monumental task of editing it all, and directing the other actors dialogue and organising that is a different story!

Are you tired of feeling tired when youre tired? Are you one of the cool kids who plays electronic video games for months on end? Do you disregard societies rules on what sorta crap you put into your body? Then you need Super Pixel Brothers Electro Gaming Juice.

Developed by a real-life Japanese scientician, Electro Gaming Juice helps you stay awake during those long hours of playing popular video games. We crammed in over 8 grams of clinical cocaine, 2 kilos of iron ore and a bulls heart. There’s so much energy inside that we didn’t have enough space to add liquid. Its simple, add coffe, stir and watch your life improve under 100%. Perfect to stay awake during those long sessions of “World of Minecraft”, “Super Bario Cuzins” “Yarn Ville” “Pikmin: Arkham City” and “The Artist: The Text Adventure”

We’re so confident you’ll like Super Pixel Brothers Electro Gaming Juice, that we’re offering a 100% guarantee. That’s right! If you’re able to sleep within 2 weeks of drinking a can of this stuff, we’ll give you some of your money back, 100%.

Super Pixel Brothers Electro Gaming Juice. Not available in non-metallic flavours.

Firstly, “pixel animation” isn’t really a thing. It’s something that we kinda used to describe the style that we’re using. But basically, a low resolution style which has a retro vibe to it. Initially we described the movie as 8 bit, which, is partially true, pissed off the purists. The foundation of everything in The Hit Squad is made in 8 bit colour, meaning we draw everything with a palette of 256 colours, no more.

 So, why did we bother chasing this pixel dream for a movie? Well, initially through necessity, then through choice. Chris wasn’t/isn’t very good at drawing by hand (seriously, you should see the storyboard) and when he started developing the project 5 years ago had initially planned to use characters made with a character generator for RPG Maker.

Because The Hit Squad is about an 80′s band, the pixel style kinda reflected a style of the era, so it stuck. Over the years, the style developed more and more, pixels got added, the style developed further and became more advanced, but still keeping the retro look that is so prevalent. Just take a look at the top image to see how the style is starting to look compared to how it started in the image below.

The style has been something that has stow we’re using  HD animation with lighting and 3D sets, but underneath it all, the sprites and textures are all 8 bit colour, just like Chris made them 5 years ago.

We’ll talk more about the style and process as we move further along in production.

Don’t forget,  you can still get yourself in the movie by donating towards production. Head to ilovethehitsquad.com to pre-order and more!

Come sit with Jordan and Chris as we talk about the Summer In The City, OnLive, Slender Source, Aero Orange, Super Mario and other geeky goodness.

19th August 2012 #superpixelcast

• iTunes podcast link
• Listen to podcast

We wanted to make a vlog about how awesomely The Hit Squad is coming along… So we did. Take a look at the video! Dont forget to subscribe to us on Youtube!

Come and join us on Twitter, where we spend most our time!
Twitter: http://twitter.com/superpixelbros/ & http://twitter.com/jordyfuller