Hello everyone! As 2012 winds to a close, I wanted to send out a small update, mostly simply to say thanks again for all of the support you've shown over the past year. This has indeed been a crazy ride, and it's still sort of unbelievable that Venus Patrol is now something that exists in the world, thanks to you.

FEELING LIKE A PART OF SOMETHING

Earlier in the week, I sent out a small holiday gift to all current members of the site: a new wallpaper set for PC and mobile from comic artist Maré Odomo (pictured above at site designer Cory Schmitz's abode), which I hope you're digging as much as I do.

DISCOUNTED MEMBERSHIPS THROUGH THE END OF 2012

I also made it easier than ever to become a new member of the site, by offering a 40% discount on all new yearly memberships through to the end of the year. If you know anyone that might be interested in becoming a member, or has been on the fence so far, it would be an immense help if you could lend a hand in spreading the word.

The easiest way to do that is via this post that a whole bunch of us probably spent way too long putting together that shows everything you get by becoming a member, including that new art by Maré!

INTRODUCING VENUS PATROL MICRO AND VENUS PATROL B-SIDE

On that note, you'll notice -- if you haven't been following along -- that Venus Patrol has two new branches of the family tree: Venus Patrol Micro, a special Tumblr version of the site that brings all of its content straight to your 'Dashboard' (a feature a surprising amount of you requested!), along with the occasional 'Micro-only' posts, and Venus Patrol B-Side, a home for all of the art, animation, design, music and film that I hope you'll find as inspiring as I do.

BRINGING ALL THAT BACK TOGETHER

With the introduction of those additional sites (and the splintering of feeds), you might find it easiest to "like" the site on FaceBook or follow @VenusPatrol on Twitter, if you haven't already, where we've combined all of the various feeds into one unified stream.

ENTER THE SLAYERS

Venus Patrol also showed the first signs of expanding its purview in the future with the recent release of Slayers, a free downloadable game from local Austin indies and friends of the site White Whale. Slayers is a two-player (or one-player vs. AI) version of the pulp-fantasy action game God of Blades, which they describe as a mix of Robert E. Howard, football, and Bushido Blade.

You can see more about Slayers and download the game by visiting its home page on Venus Patrol -- we'd all love to hear what you think!

FOR OUR COSMIC FRIENDS

Two notes here for fans of #sworcery (just launched on Google Play, and with discounts across the board on both the game and its related soundtracks!) and Superbrothers. First, we definitely have not forgotten about the final exclusive game in the Venus Patrol pack. Those wheels have still quietly been turning under deep cover, and should be on its way to you before too long now. I managed to sneak a quick peek at how it's been progressing a few months back, and suffice it to say that you're going to be very, very pleased.

Second, were you one of the lucky few to receive the ultra limited pink-vinyl versions of the Moon Grotto 7" with your other Kickstarter goods? A few of you dropped a line to say so, but I feel like there are a few still floating around that went unclaimed. Either way, if you did receive one, can you email me (again) at brandon@venuspatrol.com so we can work on getting you your special golden-ticket-type bonuses?

TO THE FUTURE

Though things will be going relatively more quiet for the holiday break, behind the scenes there's no slowing down, as we prepare a ton of new developments and expansions in 2013. I don't want to tip my cards too far in advance, but if even just half of the crazy scheming that's been bubbling around my inbox over the past couple months comes to fruition, it's going to be an unbelievable new year. I can't wait for you to see!

Hope you all have a happy holidays,
B.

And then, like a bolt from out of nowhere, Venus Patrol was launched.

A few important notes on the site:

Missed the Kickstarter? You can now get Vlambeer’s Gun Godz, AdamAtomic’s Capsule & many more of the rewards by purchasing a membership to the website.

This almost certainly doesn't apply to most people reading this right now, but if you know someone who was bummed that they missed their chance to support the Kickstarter, let them know they can now purchase a membership to the site to receive two of the exclusive games, as well as art & music bonuses by Katamari Damacy designer Keita Takahashi, TearAway designer Rex Crowle, PixelJunk Eden designer Baiyon, and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward. All of the details on that are over here.

A note for backers: by now, if you donated to the Kickstarter at $25 or more, you should have already received your login details. If you haven't, send me a message! Also: all backers at every level will be receiving the new launch-day Rex Crowle artwork in a separate email sometime today.

Venus Patrol includes all of the content originally posted on Boing Boing spinoff Offworld.

Just under four years ago, I teamed up with the crew at Boing Boing to launch Offworld, a site about independent videogame culture (and the direct ancestor of Venus Patrol itself) that, if absolutely nothing else, brought focus to my own life that working to bring the best of independent gaming to a wider audience was exactly what I needed to be doing.

While I don’t expect that you’ll want to go back and read each of the nearly 2000 Offworld posts contained on Venus Patrol one-by-one, they’re fantastic context to show the first stirrings of things instantly recognizable today: the first stirrings of Superbrothers before #sworcery was even so much as a twinkle in anyone’s twitter feed, the first output that made Olly Moss one of the most sought-after designers working today, even the very first screenshot of PopCap’s now-flagship franchise Plants Vs. Zombies, before anyone had an inkling of just what a success it would become.

There’s even more yet to come.

As I’ve alluded to all along (and as you can see hinted at to the right), the Venus Patrol website is only Phase One of a multi-faceted future, with more information on further related initiatives coming soon.

In the meantime, feel free to poke around, kick the tires a bit and settle in — there might still be a few last technical hitches here and there to iron out as I get back into the groove I had going in the latter days of Offworld, but this is only day-one of a what I genuinely hope will be a real beautiful future. I hope you’re excited to join us on this ride.

Well, if yesterday's clue wasn't over-obvious enough, let's make this official:

SCNTFC'S MOON GROTTO 7" IS NOW PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL & DOWNLOADABLE MP3

In addition to the Kickstarter-exclusive "bright moon" edition (& crazy rare "pink moons"), Scntfc has become the sole distributor of a limited number of "dark moon" editions of the 7", available now via his Bandcamp page for $10 only (plus shipping & handling). You can also just get the digital edition of the record for as little as $2 and take it for a walk in the woods.

It's also very worthy of note that in addition to making his landmark Saints of Infinity record (the indirect reason the whole Superbrothers + Scntfc + Venus Patrol collaboration would come about) available for a name-your-price download, he's just dug up some long-out-of-print vinyl editions of Saints, as well as a handful of copies of the vinyl+poster edition of Tubes -- a soundtrack to a short by the supremely talented designer & animator Nando Costa (who you may have spotted right here on Kickstarter not too long ago).

Please enjoy the Moon Grotto video above if you haven't already, and I'll leave you with a number of gatefold-glamour-shots taken by Scntfc below! 

KEEP ON DIGGING.