Flash Game Blogs

FlashMush: Canvasser Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:45:03 +0000

Link: Canvasser
Developed by Jackson Lango
Genre: Strategy/RPG/Management
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

A game based on people going out and canvassing an issue...Who ever would have thought a game would or should be based around that. Well, Canvasser, the latest game by Jackson Lango, took this challenging theme if you will and really turned it into something quite interesting.

Yes, at its core Canvasser is a game about canvassing. Canvassing about the proposed clear cutting of a local forest to be exact. You play a character who joins the environmental group to raise money for the cause and your job is to go out and canvass. Here is where Canvasser gets interesting and creative. You are given a minimum goal of money to collect each day and should also aim to collect the most money and talk to the most people in your team. Now to get money you click on a person walking by and then you have various dialogue choices given to you. These choices are such things as talk about the forest, the issue or the environmental group. Each choice either raises the person's care or trust bar (or both). These bars are what dictates how much money a person gives when you finally ask them for money.

That is the gist of Canvasser, very simple dialogue centric flash game where you sort of need to feel out your target and raise that trust and care bars. So with that being said I think Canvasser has a great foundation and extremely unique idea. But there are some issues...mainly I just think Canvasser needs more features to make it more robust. Have an upgrade system of some sort or a more RPG like style somehow. Essentially make the whole thing more detailed. Again the premise is completely sound and the graphics scream retro which is something I love but just feel like more is needed to make a true 10/10 game, which Canvasser has the potential to be in my opinion.

Jay is Games: CastleMine

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:00:01 +0000

Platform: iOS, Unity — CastleMine from Mugshot Games combines tower defense with a little bit of old fashioned digging. Instead of mapping out mazes for creeps to crawl through or building balloon things on green green grass, you get to dig underground one block at a time. Uncover extra gold deposits, additional resources, or even nests of enemies as you attempt to defend your castle from the threat from below. Tagged as: browser, defense, demo, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, mugshotgames, rating-y, tablet, towerdefense, unity

Armor Games Blog: Kingdom Rush Frontiers Blackthorne Video

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:39:08 +0000

A new video for Kingdom Rush Frontiers has released, Ironhide Game Studios showcasing Captain Blackthorne, most fearsome man in the whoknowshowmany seas. He’ll board your ship, take your grog, and plunder your booty!

Preview Video:

Jay is Games: Misadventure

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — The year is 1978. A child has found a video game they've never heard of before. but he doesn't realize that things on the other side of the screen lie waiting for him to play it. Misadventure is an action-adventure horror game by Mike Houser, done in the retro style of a 4-bit Atari game gone horribly wrong, and its atmospheric creepiness more than makdes up for a little directionessless in its gameplay. Tagged as: action, adventure, atari, browser, flash, free, game, horror, linux, lovecraft, mac, mhouser, pixelart, rating-r, retro, windows

Andy Moore Blog: Unity’s License Fees

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50:41 +0000

Anytime I criticize Unity3D, I am quick to point out that it cost me 4,500 USD just to install it. For a poor indie developer, that’s a lot of money, especially considering that all of the tools used to make Monster Loves You! were absolutely, 100% free*. Going from a free environment to one where the barrier to entry is nearly $5K is a bit of a shock.

Still, people get confused – isn’t Unity free?

Well, for most people, yes – yes it is. But Unity has one little gotcha in their licensing terms:

If you are an incorporated entity (I am),
and you have a “turnover” of over $100,000 in the last fiscal year (I did),
Then you must pay $1,500 for Unity plus $1,500 each for Android and iOS (which I need for my cross-platform games).

This brings my total to $4,500, but some of my developer friends have paid over $10,000 per seat because of their specific unity requirements. I hear the console plugins are hella-expensive.

Just today Unity announced that the basic versions of their mobile plugins has gone free-of-charge, which is awesome and enough to get most people started, but the basic editions are missing critical features that most developers will want to take advantage of – then the price jumps back up to $1,500 per platform.

It’s hard to bitch out-loud about this though, because the “$100K turnover” thing implies that I am rich and I should be able to afford it. As soon as I start complaining about this, people start making accusations about why my money-losing business should be a charity or some such. But it’s more complex than that. Here’s the thing: a turnover, specifically, is not profit. As a quick example, Unity doesn’t care if you spend $40K hosting a unity-themed charity game-jam and recoup $40K in ticket prices and sponsorships. Though you are not doing this for profit and just trying to give back to the community, that counts as 40% of your “turnover” right there.

Turnover is a terrible metric for who should get the “indie edition.”

Here at Radial Games, I do a lot of giving back to the community. I get reimbursed (not paid) to travel to schools and speak for students; I put on game jams and pay for them out-of-pocket, with sponsors and ticket sales making up the cost. Last year I ran a local meetup group that met more than twice per month. Sure, I have a few games making a few dollars here or there, but the events I throw for the community dominate my turnover.

Yes, Radial Games’ bank account received $100,000 in gross income last year.

Right now Radial Games’ bank account has $0 in it.

And I, personally, did not make minimum wage. Legally speaking, if Andy Moore was to take Radial Games to court for abusive employment practices, it would be in some serious financial hot water. I’m not counting “my own personal salary was $100K/yr and now radial is broke;” Radial doesn’t have the money to even pay me enough to live (I take on personal contract work to fill the gaps).

I’m not rich. I’m not “lucky” to be “making” so much money. Radial Games is, at this point, more of a facilitator for other people’s success, and I’m very proud of this fact despite the hardships it brings me. I’m confident I’ll be making a modest profit for the first time in this fiscal year, but Unity only cares about last year.

Yes, I can probably restructure my company and make a non-profit division that can use the free edition. Maybe I can sign up for the free edition personally, and not get Radial Games involved in this. Maybe I can just download the free copy and just secretly not tell anyone about it. There are workarounds to this problem, but I like to keep myself on legal solid ground. If I wrote Unity privately, I could probably work something out with them, which goes against my whole ideal of not raising the ladder behind me. And besides, this isn’t my problem, this is Unity’s problem.

So here’s what Unity can do.

Switch away from the “$100K turnover” rule. Make Unity3D cost $4,500 per seat, where each seat owner takes home $100K. Make the rule count for Corporate profit before payroll. Switch it up so that struggling indie developers like myself can use your free product, and not be punished for throwing UNITY THEMED GAME JAMS.

Hell, drop the requirement if you aren’t doing a commercial release! Right now I’m just poking at the thing, yet I still have to pay the full $4,500.

Don’t make blanket rules and assumptions about how turnover means success.

As a quick side-note, it’s sorta ridiculous that if you DON’T Incorporate and just personally make $100K turnover, you don’t need to upgrade from the free edition. Heh.

*: FlashDevelop + AIR SDK gets you a free compile for PC, Linux, Blackberry, HTML5, Flash, and Android from Windows. I had to buy a copy of OSX to upload iOS builds and compile for OSX targets. Contractors may have used tools such as Photoshop for art in Monster Loves You, but this was not paid for by Radial Games.

FlashMush: Kingdom Rush Frontiers New Heroes

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:22:00 +0000

So with the new Kingdom Rush Frontiers ,aka Kingdom Rush 2 for those who don't know the real title, coming out very soon Ironhide Studios has taken it upon themselves to do a series of teaser trailers showing the new heroes for Kingdom Rush Frontiers. Thus I took it upon myself to share them with you along with some observations.

The first hero announced is Alric, a champion of Hammerhold. Alric seems to control sand as he can summon sand monsters from the ground to attack your enemies which move in damaging tornadoes. Also in the teaser Kingdom Rush Frontiers video it seems there is a friendly Genie in the desert styled levels to help you.

Next is Cronan a beast master from the untamed wild and King of the Jungle. He fights with a whip doing presumably more damage to beast enemies. His powers include rhinoceros stampedes, summoning fighting boars as well as falcons.

Up next is Mirage, a deadly assassin who utilizes shadow clones. Her powers include creating her shadow clones as well as being able to teleport back and forth places and hiding in plain sight from enemies.

Finally the last Kingdom Rush Frontiers hero to be announced (more are to come) is Captain Blackthorne, an obviously scary pirate who sails the seven seas. In true pirate fashion it seems Captain Blackthorne gets extra coins when defeating enemies. He also utilizes explosives, his sword and pistol. He can also create huge pools of water to slow down enemies and release the Kraken!

So there you go. The teaser trailers for all the released new Kingdom Rush Frontiers heroes. Be sure to watch the videos as you may catch things that I missed. I'll also be updating this post for all the new Kingdom Rush Frontiers heroes to be announced.

Jay is Games: Canvasser

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Raise money to save a forest from being cut down. It's a good cause so it should be easy, right? Wrong! Pick up your trusty clipboard and beat the streets talking to people and trying to stir them into donating to meet your goals. But be warned... getting people to open their wallets is harder than you think when your confidence, trust, charisma, and even job is on the line in this unique simulation/arcade game. Tagged as: arcade, browser, flash, free, game, jlango, linux, mac, rating-y, simulation, strategy, unique, windows

FlashMush: ... :D Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Link: ... :D
Developed by Lorgh
For Ludum Dare #26 - Theme: Minimalism
Genre: Puzzle
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 7/10

Haven't done a review on a Ludum Dare game in a while due to the initial influx dying down. Nonetheless I have one for today! ... :D is a rather...pretentious or annoying title for Lorgh's entry but don't let the un-googleable title discourage you, it is a rather nice and simple puzzle skill game.

The best way to describe ... :D is to compare the style to that of The World's Hardest Game (yes I'm going to go that far back) where you basically control a dot in a closed level avoiding other dots and collecting things. ... :D is the same but in a more pixelated minimalistic theme. Also the game focuses more on hitting colored switches in the right order to get to the endings rather than just simply avoiding bad guys and collecting coins.

... :D is a Ludum Dare game and entry so can't really expect too much out of it I suppose. Although I will say that the general idea for ... :D has been done time and time again so no real points for originality on my front. I do like the simplified and retro graphics and overall I suppose ... :D was fairly enjoyable for a bit.

Jay is Games: The Vault

Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Games featured this week: Omega Crisis; Star Relic; Gravitee 2 — Captain's Log: Stardate: 52120.13: The Vault Commander wishes to share some of the greatest space games from the JiG archives. As this is well within the parameters of our five year mission, this week in The Vault, we now present a few classic action, strategy, and physics titles. End transmission. Tagged as: blog, browser, thevault

Jay is Games: Demon Chic

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:00:01 +0000

Platform: iPad — If Beret Applications' Demon Chic were a person it would be a Brooklyn-dwelling record store clerk riding a fixie to a farmer's market while listening to Yo La Tengo. It would be of the species Homo ironicus—in other words, the creature popular culture has dubbed the hipster. Yet, astonishingly, the game is neither as insufferable nor pretentious as this analogy would suggest. Instead this mobile piece of art instead is an entirely successful marriage of action RPG gameplay with an absurd, darkly funny, and frequently touching story. Tagged as: beretapplications, game, ios, ipad, mobile, narrative, rating-r, roleplaying, surreal, tablet

Andy Moore Blog: Random thoughts on Unity

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:26:20 +0000

Lately I’ve been filling my Twitter feed with complaints and questions about Unity3D. It’s a very different beast than any other coding environment I’ve been in, and a bunch of things really bug me about it. I’ve been poking away at it every few days, as a break – just trying to get a quick jam-style-game out.

Here’s some sample complaints I’ve made:

The documentation mentions “Levels” but the IDE mentions “Scenes” and only experience will tell you they are the same thing
The documentation for plane-snapping is flat out wrong (at least vertex snapping works…)
There is no code editor; you must use an external application
Their default on install is to give you a copy of Mono, whose autocomplete is atrocious to the point where I think I’m doing things wrong
All the decent tutorials are videos and it’s hard to find a good written one
My Unity license cost me US$4,500.

I’ve probably complained about a hundred or so of such little “gotchas” in the last week, but each time you learn to overcome them Unity becomes even more usable. I’m sure half my complaints are wrong, unfounded, or based in some “old school” thinking, but that’s what I have to work with and my experience is my own.

One of the most interesting things for me, though, is how quickly you can prototype a 3D game in Unity. Slapping together some primitive shapes, adding physics, putting a bit of keyboard control code in them… whammo, you have your very own racing game, first person shooter, 3rd person runner, or even an isometric RPG. In fact, with my week’s-worth-of-knowledge right now, I could prototype any one of those up faster than I was able to initially get “Hello World” on the screen.

And that’s where Unity really shines – is with the broad strokes and the silhouettes. The borders of your game you can sketch out incredibly quickly, and be playing something that feels really solid, rewarding, and fun really fast.

Where Unity falls short compared to my regular platform (the 2D world) is probably the details; when it comes time to ship a game and you have to put on all the polish. Beyond-game-jam stuff. Making everything gleam.

Texturing things properly might take you years just to learn the proper skills. Making your 3D models look right. Animating run cycles now is better suited to mocap than spritesheets. 3D just makes everything way harder.

But also smaller things, like making Unity’s physics engine do what you want instead of glitching. Making your car controls not sluggish. Getting the AI opponents in your FPS working decently. Making shadows work properly. Making the particle projector actually emit a prefab particle. Installing custom editor scripts so the game executes the correct initialization scene instead of your currently open scene. Tweaking a few variables in a late-game-mechanic. All that stuff is much more difficult in Unity; getting that fine-grained, low-level control is a stumbling block and doesn’t come naturally to Unity.

That’s not to say any of that can’t be done; it’s just abnormally, surprisingly more difficult than the other languages I am used to.

I swear that I can, however, make a greyboxed FPS in under an hour (probably 10 minutes?), and that is phenomenal. That is something to be proud of, and being a visual creature seeing 3D cubes flying around the screen with that kind of speed is very rewarding. There’s a reason why I’m sticking with Unity through all this pain, but damn they could really do with a complete tutorial re-write.

I just wonder if I’ll ever ship anything in this.

Jay is Games: Disaster Will Strike 2

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Disaster Will Strike 2 is the second installment of Anton Koshechkin's physics puzzle series where you destroy prehistoric eggs using landslides, earthquakes, epidemics, and bees. Yes, bees. Tagged as: akoshechkin, browser, chainreaction, flash, free, game, linux, mac, physics, puzzle, rating-y, windows

Jay is Games: Kingdom of Liars 2

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Kingdom of Liars is the second in the series of dark fantasy point-and-click adventures and the plot is only getting thicker in the city of Ashbane. Kingdom of Liars 2 features what Hyptosis is best known for: world-building, colorful characters, humorous descriptions, intriguing twists... and smacking players with a "To Be Continued" just as things are getting good. For a short trip, though, it's an excellent one. Tagged as: adventure, browser, fantasy, flash, free, game, horror, hyptosis, linux, mac, oddfellowfloyd, pointandclick, rating-o, windows

FlashMush: Hired Heroes Offense Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:30:00 +0000

Link: Hired Heroes Offense
Developed by Elite Games
Sponsored by Kongregate
Genre: Strategy
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 6/10

It seems the Hired Heroes are back in town again although this time with a slight gameplay change. Whereas the "original" Hired Heroes was technically called Hired Heroes Tactics where it played like a turn by turn tactical RPG, Hired Heroes Offense plays as a top down linear send units to attack the other side (for lack of a succinct term) strategy flash game.

Now this style of strategy games has done well with crowds, for instance Paladog is of this style. However, I found Hired Heroes Offense to be fairly boring and not a good example of the genre. To play you basically have units on your inventory and can place them on certain spots every certain amount of seconds to combat your enemy doing the same thing and eventually destroy their crystal. Again this concept is fine. But the way Hired Heroes Offense does this just makes the pace ridiculous slow and the difficulty curve upfront seems abnormally difficult.

I suppose I do like the continuity between Hired Heroes Offense and Hired Heroes Tactics although in general I still think the graphics are far too zoomed out and therefore lack better detail. There is an upgrade system in Hired Heroes Offense which is fairly good where you can upgrade stats as well as individual unit types. Overall though I found Hired Heroes Offense to be a slow and repetitive flash game with no feeling of reward.

Jay is Games: Mobile Monday

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:01 +0000

Games featured this week: Last Train to Timbuktu; NonoCube; Sparkle 2; Pudding Monsters — Such a friendly edition of Mobile Monday, this is. Everybody's our friend, especially those who deliver good games to us. We also seem to have a penchant for puzzle games, which are basically brain BFFs. Tagged as: blog, mobile, mobile-monday, news, previews

Jay is Games: Go Home Dinosaurs!

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:00:01 +0000

Platform: iPad, Windows — This barbecue is being crashed by some seriously unruly lizards of the prehistoric sort! Most gophers would turn tail, but you're not giving up your delicious steaks without a fight! Plan strategically and make use of a variety of clever tower types to defend your 'cue against incoming dinos of all sorts, ranging from hordes of sprightly compys to enormous bosses in this indie defense game. Tagged as: defense, download, firehosegames, game, indie, ios, ipad, mobile, rating-g, realtime, steam, strategy, tablet, towerdefense, windows

Jay is Games: Princess Isabella: The Rise of an Heir

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: Mac, Windows — Princess Isabella has been turned to stone by an evil witch, who is now after Isabella's daughter. The witch sends thee spectral hounds to hunt down young Bella and imprison her fairy godmothers, leaving her without protection. Bella must find a way to defeat the evil sorceress and lift the curse which permeates the kingdom in this magical hidden-object adventure. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, casual, collectorsedition, demo, download, game, gogii, hiddenobject, mac, princessisabella, rating-y, windows

Inside Pozirk Games: FGL Ninja Awards 2012

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:48:31 +0000

All-in-One Solitaire won in FGL Ninja Awards 2012:
https://www.fgl.com/other/ninjaawards2012/
Yahooooooo!

Jay is Games: Skyscrapers Light

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Sudoku hits the streets in Skyscrapers Light, another installment of the Conceptis Light series. In this logic puzzle, the numbers on the outside of the grid tell you how many "buildings" are visible from that side of the grid, if each number inside the grid represented a building of that height. Are you streetwise enough to rebuild the city? Tagged as: browser, conceptis, conceptislight, flash, free, game, linux, logic, mac, puzzle, rating-g, sudoku, windows

FlashMush: N v 2 Flash Game Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Sun, 19 May 2013 07:42:00 +0000

Link: N v 2
Developed by Metanet Software
Official Web Version sponsored by Kongregate
Genre: Platformer

N v 2 as you may be able to figure out is essentially N version 2.0. Yes, a 2.0 of the famous N put out as a downloadable game back in 2005. People praised it then and are still praising it.

To be honest I never played the original N when it came out and still really haven't played it all that much. This could be because when I did try and play it I found the controls to be god awful in terms of tightness. People compare N to other hardcore platformers like Super Meat Boy and such but I feel N falls way behind those and even new smaller flash titles like Mini Dash. I will give it to N though it has tons of levels and the level designs are very interesting...just the control issue is too great for me.

Anyways, now that version 2.0 is up and you can now play it sans download over at Kongregate, what is new? Unfortunately...not much. The only real change is the addition of a co-op mode where you can have two players play on the same keyboard and play through all the same levels from the original N. Yea...not even online multiplayer or LAN...same keyboard co-op which has its own host of problems. But I guess this is still big news as after over 8 years N gets updated to N v 2 and you can play it online, so have fun!

Jay is Games: Rootwork

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:00:01 +0000

Platform: iOS — The woods are no place to be stranded in. You can lose your way; you can lose your mind; you can even lose yourself. Developed by Simulated Culture, Rootwork is a new strategic card game that drops you into the heart of the deepest, darkest forest and challenges you to make it out safely. However, a stray critter or a thorny bush are the least of your troubles here. These woods are full of dark forces and malevolent spirits, and at the center of the dark maelstrom is "She." Who is She? That's uncertain. But these are Her woods, and if She wants you to stay lost forever the odds are stacked against you. Tagged as: card, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, rating-y, simulatedculture, strategy, tablet

Jay is Games: Rite of Passage: Child of the Forest

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: Mac, Windows — Everyone in town knows to stay out of the forest, but what do you do when the forest won't stay out of the town? Enter this surreal fantasy in Mad Head Game's next hidden object adventure, where only you can save the town—as soon as you can find the pieces to your magic amulet and piece it back together again. Explore gorgeous environments, customize your game settings, and encounter many uniquely logical search scenes and puzzles in an engaging story that is much more than what words can describe. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, casual, collectorsedition, demo, download, fantasy, game, hiddenobject, hybrid, mac, madheadgames, puzzle, rating-y, riteofpassage, surreal, windows

Jay is Games: N v 2

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:10:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Over eight years ago, Metanet Software gave us N, a minimalistic high-difficulty platformer download featuring a ninja hungry for gold and not-dying. That agile ninja returns in N v 2, featuring another 500 levels full of tempting gold ambrosia and enemies out to thwart your not-dying efforts, right in your browser. Grab a friend and discover once again how a tiny ninja in a deadly world could create quite a compelling and tricky challenge. Tagged as: action, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, metanet, multiplayer, ninjas, physics, rating-g, windows

FlashMush: Feed Us 5 Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Link: Feed Us 5
Developed by WebCypher
Sponsored by Gamesfree.ca
Genre: Action/Upgrades
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

It seems I review a Feed Us iteration flash game every month...although I suppose the last one, Feed Us 4, was put out in December so not that often. Either way Feed Us 5 is already here for more bloody piranha action.

Looking back on it I feel I was kind of too lenient for Feed Us 4 as it offered nothing new at all and was fairly riddled with glitches. It did bring targeted attacks and had sort of an interactive cut scene. Well, Feed Us 5 takes that idea and makes it way bigger which is surprisingly well done and feels like an actual new edition to the series. In Feed Us 5 you start out in an aquarium and tasked to escape, this then gives you access to various areas in the game such as the aquarium itself, the lake, the beach and a water park.

Missions are back pretty much the same way as before in Feed Us 5. However, with all the different areas that are available to you the missions are more varied and require more effort than before. Another big change in Feed Us 5 is within the upgrade system. Before you could purchase "seedlings" which were just more piranhas but now you can choose between those piranhas, torpedo fish and puffer fish which have differing effects. Overall, Feed Us 5 finally takes the great but bloody model the original Feed Us had and expands upon it properly.

Jay is Games: Mr. Rescue

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:00:01 +0000

Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux — Mr Rescue! Help! A bunch of people are trapped in a burning building and only you can save them! Now that you're inside, it's time to be a hero. Mr. Rescue is a simple but amazingly charming action game from Tangram Games. You control the well-protected Mr. Rescue himself as you spray water on fires and climb through a burning building to save the innocent people inside. The best part? You rescue them by throwing them out the window! Tagged as: action, adventure, download, free, game, indie, linux, mac, tangramgames, windows

FlashMush: Check Out Super Indie Pals Podcast Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

If you follow some prominent flash game developers on Twitter or Facebook you may have seen talk of a new "super group" podcast called Super Indie Pals featuring indie flash game developers: Chris Jeff, ArtJimp and Jay Armstrong. If you don't know who those are...well I bet you actually do. Chris Jeff is the mind behind the Space is Key series and PlatCore, ArtJimp is most famous for the artwork behind the Sushi Cat series as well as having his unique graphical mark on series from the latest This Is The Only Level to the new Crush the Castle Adventures (still in beta I think?), and finally Jay Armstrong is the guy behind Bearbarians and Super Adventure Pals.

So yeah, three game developers who have made some of my favorite flash games and some of the internet's favorite flash games. The Super Indie Pals podcast has only had two episodes so far with the first focusing on the introduction as well as an interview with the founder of Armor Games. The second episode discusses a post mortem of ArtJimp and Jay Armstrong's new game, Rocket Pets and an interview with Joey Betz (of Crush the Castle fame). So yeah, really just wanted to spotlight this amazing podcast with some great developers! Check out Super Indie Pals.

Armor Games Blog: Armor Games Wallpaper

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:15:47 +0000

Show your Armor Games pride with this wallpaper crafted by game art guru, Jimp. Featuring Kingdom Rush, Sushi Cat, Jacksmith and many other beloved characters, pick your screen resolution below. Can you find all the characters below?

Pick your Screen Resolution:

Gaming Your Way: Spot the difference

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:58:00 +0000

Work's going really well on level 5, only started it this week and it's coming together already.

This is what you guys will see

This is what I see.

I've managed to speed up a lot of the plotting routines this past week or so ( I've moved over to ASC2.0 which is fantastic, it feels like it's not actually compiled any changes it's so quick and it reduces the file size a bit too ) which means I've been able to drop a parallax layer in level 5.
( Also after my previous post I looked at the level construction times. They've been speeded up like a billion percent. Where the larger levels could take up to 5-10 seconds to plot they now take under 2 ).

Also we've got this nice lens flare effect which you can kinda see in the top grab. I guess you could call it a HDR effect and really alters the whole lighting of the level. Maybe I'll try and grab a clip of it as it really is one of those effects you need to see in action.

Ok that's it for today, someone's got to do a million white rectangle collision boxes for this level.

Squize.

Jay is Games: Grand Banda

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:20:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — When your lightbulb bursts, you might head to the store to get a new one, but that's only because you're not nearly as funky and awesome as the two old ladies starring in this point-and-click adventure. Despite suffering from some bizarre leaps of logic, a unique style and fantastic soundtrack make this short game worth checking out. Tagged as: adventure, browser, flash, free, game, kkonwerski, linux, mac, mlachowicz, pastelgames, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, tkuczma, windows

Jay is Games: Tug the Table

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Platform: iOS, Android, Unity — You know what your average tug-of-war game needs? A table instead of a rope. At least that's what Otto Ojola thinks, and he's turned the idea into Tug the Table, a simple yet wonderful fighting game that manages to be reminiscent of Wrestle Jump while still being unique. Tagged as: android, browser, fighting, free, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mac, mobile, onebutton, oojala, rating-y, tablet, unity, versus, windows

FlashMush: Rocket Pets Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:30:00 +0000

Link: Rocket Pets
Developed by Jay Armstrong
Art by Jimp
Sponsored by Nickelodeon Addicting Games
Genre: Launcher/Upgrades/Distance
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 9/10

Here is a dream team come together to produce a great game. That is right, Jay Armstrong (of games such as Super Adventure Pals and Bearbarians) and Jimp (the artistic mastermind behind Sushi Cat) worked together to produce a very interesting and combination launcher/distance game called Rocket Pets.

First off I'll clarify my claim of combination launcher and distance flash game. For the longest time I kind of lumped those two sub-genres together and only recently have I made the distinction in my reviews. So a launcher game is like Burrito Bison and a distance game like Canabalt. So, with that being said, Rocket Pals is both and works in a very interesting and unique fashion. Basically you first launch a rocket pet out of a cannon a certain distance. Then the pet starts walking in a linear platforming world akin to how you move in Jetpack Joyride and you need to use your jetpack to jump which then can overheat and explode.

Now this is where Rocket Pets gets even more interesting. Once a pet's rocket explodes and they die you can purchase other pets which then come in to take it's place. You can have up to five pets and can then upgrade their jetpacks so they don't overheat and a coin magnet. There are powerups along the way to help cool down your jetpack or give you a boost as well as star paw coins which can unlock other levels. As with most games of this genre I found the constant grind to get old after a while although Rocket Pets does a great job at making things varied and the general premise is unique enough.

Jay is Games: Link Dump Friday

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Games featured this week: Dormant Sky; Among the Sleep; Pandora: Purge of Pride; Town of Salem; Alone in the Park; Damned; Road Not Taken; Rom Check Fail; Contraption Maker — Play with a human head! Experience terror as a toddler! Accuse your friends of being murderers before they do the same to you! This week's Link Dump has a little something for everyone... especially if you're just a little bit weird. Tagged as: blog, linkdump, news, previews

Andy Moore Blog: Adobe AIR trouble

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:36:03 +0000

I ran into a bit of trouble putting together Monster Loves You! for iOS, and I’ve been tearing my hair out over it for weeks now.

To put it briefly, the game refuses to run on the iPad2 or the new iPad. For a longer rundown, check out this Stack Overflow question I put a bounty on.

I’ve put the question out to Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and to everyone I could pry a few moments from. Adobe isn’t having much success helping me out either.

By this point I’ve stripped everything out of the game – it is a simple “Hello World” .SWF with no assets, and hardly any code at all. It’s probably the bare minimum a .SWF project can be, and I’m still running into the problem. I’ve tried on multiple machines, and tried with different AIR SDK versions as well.

I’m pretty sure this is a bug with the AIR .IPA creation tool (ADT).

I’ve scraped together this test project in a .ZIP file if you want to take a look. Any help would be super appreciated! You’ll need your own provisioning certificates, and I’ve included a readme file with the command-line stuff I’m trying to pull off.

A beer for whoever can help me!

UPDATE:

FOUND IT. Documented for future bughunters:

The ADT command line has a -C flag to change the current working directory on the command line, which allows you to keep your project better organized and keep the command line a bit more sane. -C can be called as many times as you want when importing assets, and I used it several times. IDEs like FlashDevelop also use -C in the AIR template files so this is sorta standard behaviour. As a quick example of asset inclusion:

ADT.exe [blah blah] assets/icons/icon1.png assets/icons/icon2.png

is the same as

ADT.exe [blah blah] -C assets/icons icon1.png icon2.png

(and, with wildcard use) is the same as

ADT.exe [blah blah] -C assets/icons .

As I have different compiling instruction sets for iOS, android, steam, etc., I had adt switch directories with a variable to the current config and execute from there.

This all works fine and as-documented in ipa-test-interpreter mode. When in native-code mode (ipa-test), however, including the main executable .SWF after a -C command [somehow for some reason] messes up the internal pathing; the file ends up being included but ends up being all “file not found” internally when executed, hence the blank screen and no code executing.

So the fix is simply to include the .swf from the current directory, before any calls to -C. As a quick example of my workaround that just tested a-okay:

copy /bin/flash/game.swf ./
adt [stuff] game.swf -c assets/icons .
del game.swf

I’ve gotten in touch with Adobe about this and hopefully they’ll fix -C so it’s functionality is the same for both compile targets in the future.

(Eternal thanks to @iBrent for pointing me in the right direction on this one. I might not have tracked this down if not for him.)

Jay is Games: Nikko RC Racer

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:01 +0000

Platform: iOS — A lot of kids who grew up with RC cars turned into today's gamers. That's a dangerous blanket statement to make, but you can't argue there isn't some overlap. After all, isn't driving a radio controlled car around the living room kind of like a video game? And didn't playing with RC cars and video games make your parents mad? Looking to bring those two worlds together, Paladin Studios, the team behind Momonga Pinball Adventures, has released Nikko RC Racer, a wild and untamed arcade racing game that's about as close to driving the real thing as you can get. Tagged as: action, arcade, free, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, paladinstudios, racing, rating-y, tablet

Armor Games Blog: Insectonator: Zombie Mode Quests

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:32:23 +0000

Prepare to crush zombies like insects using a vast arsenal of knives and firearms! We’re proud to announce seven new Quests for Insectonator: Zombie Mode. Are you up for a challenge? Kill 7 zombies in single shot.

Links:

Screenshots:

Jay is Games: Snail Bob Space

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — The Earth has become too small for Bob the snail. He dreams of space travel, and what do you know, he gets a call from the snail army, asking him to go on an interplanetary mission. Help Bob stay alive as he battles gravity, aliens, and laser beams in this wonderfully entertaining puzzle game. Tagged as: akovalishin, browser, flash, free, game, hunterhamster, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, snailbob, windows

FlashMush: Web Hangman Site Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Everyone knows how to play Hangman, it is a simple word guessing game that I'm sure we all played in school and for fun while bored. This of course then turned into many developers creating online web versions of Hangman and other educational word games. All of these games have been grouped in one spot over at Web Hangman for your scholarly enjoyment.

Web Hangman has some great Hangman type online flash games but does have much more than that. First off, though, the Hangman games. They have their own very basic Hangman they use for a site wide highscore contest so you should go play and see if you can make the leader boards. However, Web Hangman also hosts popular Hangman games such as Hangaroo, Classic Hangman and Extreme Hangman. Of course they are open to hosting more Hangman games so if you own one then send it on over to them for more exposure and plays!

But like I said earlier, Web Hangman has more games than just Hangman to the contrary of their name. They also host a lot of Word Search online flash games to help curb your boredom as well as Word Scrambler flash games and Crossword flash games. All of these are educational in nature but are human past times and everyone enjoys them!

So if you're feeling bored or nostalgic of past school experience, head on over to Web Hangman to play some of those good ole' fashioned Hangman, Word Search or Crossword online flash games!

FlashMush: Paddy Power Online Games Site Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Time for another online games and casino site spotlight. Been doing a few of these lately and they are pretty fun to do. Today's spotlight out of all the online games sites is on Paddy Power, an interesting hybrid between normal online games and casino betting/gambling games.

Casino wise, Paddy Power has all sorts of your favorite betting games. They feature various games of Blackjack, Roulette, Slots and various table and video poker/card games. So if you like these types of games you'll feel at home on Paddy Power since they have such a large variety. Like I said above, Paddy Power is way different than the usual online casino sites in that it features flash games that well...you wouldn't expect to be games you can play for cash. Just a quick spattering of some of these abnormal games are various Marvel themed games (Iron Man for instance), various chain reaction games and other Price is Right themed games.

Speaking of Price is Right and television, Paddy Power features a whole section devoted to cash games based off of various television game shows. These include Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, The 10,000 Pyramid, etc. Old and new games are now revitalized in online flash form for real cash money on Paddy Power.

Paddy Power also features some other interesting ideas. One such idea is their mobile app so you can not only play some of their games on the go but also there is also a mobile sports betting mode you can do. There are also promotions where you can take your chances spinning roulette wheels or bonus rounds in various games to help you get your maximum payout. Overall, Paddy Power is really a one stop shop for all betting and fun flash games for cash out there.

Jay is Games: Obsolescence

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Ever been attacked by a giant doily from outer space? At the very least, that's how we're choosing to interpret Connor Ullmann's bullet hell shooter Obsolescence. You'll face ten waves of kaleidoscopic bosses with lots of guns and shields to destroy as you blast your way to their cores. Your laser is always firing, so you can focus on moving around and staying alive... if you can. Tagged as: action, browser, bullethell, cullmann, flash, free, game, linux, mac, rating-g, shooter, windows

FlashMush: Obsolescence Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Link: Obsolescence
Developed by Connor Ullmann
Sponsored by NewGrounds
Genre: Action
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 7.5/10

Obsolescence is an interesting game that in a roundabout way takes the definition of the word and makes it the incorporated theme of the flash game. The best way to describe Obsolescence is by comparing it to boss rush games such as Boss Slayer and Bug Slayer where you're goal is to just battle and destroy ten or so bosses straight.

However, Obsolescence takes a different route than the typical bullet hell strategy. Whereas in Boss/Bug Slayer or other bullet hell flash games you shoot bullets and dodge incoming bullets till your enemies are dead. In Obsolescence the idea is the same but different. You do not shoot bullets but instead have a laser beam that is always on which drains and eventually destroys pieces of the bosses "armor". To defeat a boss you need to work your way through all his armor to his core and then destroy that.

The idea is kind of fresh or at least interesting and the boss rush gameplay works well with it. Graphically and thematically Obsolescence is great having a kind of black and white panchromatic retro feel. Things can get pretty hectic like in any bullet hell game but even more so in my opinion, watch out though your eyes will bleed. Overall, Obsolescence is a quick fun game to try and beat once or twice, not much replay value though.

Jay is Games: Luke at the Stars

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:00:01 +0000

Platform: Android — One night, Luke decided to go out and visit the love of his life. But an unfortunate note on the door informs him he's now alone in this world. To console himself, Luke wants nothing more than to stare at the stars. With all the buildings in the way, though, how can he? That's where you come into play. Luke at the Stars is a simple but charming puzzle game that's all about moving buildings out of the way so you can get a good view of the sky. Tagged as: alpacateam, android, demo, game, mobile, puzzle, rating-g, tablet

Armor Games Blog: Kingdom Rush for Android

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:21:40 +0000

By popular demand, Ironhide Game Studio has released a version of Kingdom Rush for all Android devices. Now you have a near complete selections of options to choose from for goblin-smashing needs. When will that Steam version arrive?

Links:

Screenshots:

Jay is Games: Watergate

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — 8-bit-lovers worldwide having been searching for the next lost retro work, and Watergate: The Video Game, could very well be that. Now some may claim that this point-and-click adventure game, was only recently developed by Samuel Kim, which is why things get so hilariously surreal. A wry combination of video game parody, pop culture riffing, and political satire, Watergate tries to be a lot of things, and it generally succeeds. Tagged as: adventure, browser, flash, free, game, humor, linux, mac, parody, pixelart, pointandclick, politics, rating-r, retro, skim, windows

FlashMush: Spent Flash Game Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Link: Spent
Developed by Urban Ministries of Durham
Genre: Educational/Management

I recently saw this post on Reddit about an educational simulation game where you start off as an unemployed single parent with only $1000 left to your name and with the task to survive a month called Spent. Well I looked it up and saw that it was sponsored/developed by the Urban Ministries of Durham in February 2011 and while I know it's 2013 I feel the game deserves more attention, even two years after the fact as it really does a good job at educating you about the choices and problems unemployed and otherwise not well off people have to face everyday.

Spent has a very simple interface where it basically just goes through the month day by day throwing random problems and situations at you. For instance your first issue is finding a job where you can either by a waitress, a temp or some other low wage job. You need to way the pros and cons of each and choose accordingly. Then the real situations get to you. Should you buy insurance? You hit a car, should you pay or run away? Your friend offers you $50 to help him move but it is at the same time as your kid's school play, should you skip it? Should you hire a tutor? The situations go on and on and plaything through a second time gives you different scenarios.

Of course the video game goal is to survive the month but really the point is the message Spent conveys and the facts it gives you educating you about the issues. Personally I felt I knew the "right" choices in the game or at least the choices I knew I needed to make to "win" but it was still very interesting to see the facts to back up my choices. Overall I really enjoyed Spent for what it is, a great teaching flash game opportunity.

Jay is Games: Ghostly Me

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — You are a little white ghost – check. You want to be a big, important demon – check. You must defeat other demons to succeed – check. You can only reach them by beating levels where lots of pixels fly around and try to kill you – che... Wait, what? Ghostly Me is a tricky platformer in which you jump over, under and across moving obstacles on your way to fiendish fame. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, pixelart, platform, ppllaayy, rating-g, windows

FlashMush: Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds Service Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:35:00 +0000

If you have a Mac of any kind or any Apple product like an iPhone or iPad you know that they may break occasionally and therefore require fixing. However, you'd also know that sending your Mac products to Apple is timely and costly, two things that you don't want. It is then that you should look to local services such as Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds to help you fix your Mac product quickly and cheaply.

In terms of actual Mac repairs such as MacBook Pros, MacBook Air and iMacs, Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds can help you with screen repair to replace the broken or scratched screen, can replace/upgrade memory, fix hard drives, back lights, optical drives and even help with installation and helping with virus/malware protection. Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds can even help with that pesky data retrieval if you've accidentally lost something.

Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds goes far beyond just simple Mac repairs and goes into more facets of the industry. For instance they have an online shop in which you can purchase Mac products such as cords, mice, keyboard covers and screens. In addition they have a whole section where you can purchase refurbished Macs. These have been tested to work yet are much cheaper than buying new for the same experience. If you happen to be on the other side of that coin you can sell your Mac to Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds and get some cash money for it.

Lastly, Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds delves even deeper into the rabbit hole and has a whole section where they promote great apps for your Apple products as well as high quality wallpapers to help personalize your Apple product. They also have a section for web design where they have experts ready to help you in your online design needs.

So if you need a quick fix for your Mac product or want to purchase a refurbished Mac or other products, Mac Repair Ltd. - Leeds is the place for you!

Jay is Games: Chick Hide and Seek 7

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Join Yuri's chirpy hide-and-seek playing bunch of baby birds in the park playground, where they've nestled into every possible hiding spot waiting to be discovered by you. Your goal is easy: click anywhere you think a baby fowl could fit, pick-up and properly use a smattering of objects, and collect all ten chicks before you can find the exit and escape. Tagged as: browser, escape, flash, free, game, japanese, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, weekday-escape, windows, yuri

Jay is Games: McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:44:25 +0000

Platform: iOS, Android, Mac — Money, or freedom. Which will you choose? McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom uses stark, humorous imagery wrapped around a series of quick puzzles that play on the theme of the uneven distribution of wealth and power in modern society. Even though most of the world's money is controlled by a relative few people, the masses continue to support them with their purchases and actions. McBank forces you to to choose with each level you complete, and the results aren't always pretty. Tagged as: android, demo, download, game, honeytribestudios, indie, ios, ipad, iphone, kindle, mac, mobile, narrative, parody, puzzle, tablet

Jay is Games: Mini Dash

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: iOS, Android, Flash — Move fast! No, faster! No, even faster! Available in your browser or on your mobile device, Mini Dash is a challenging one-hit K-O platformer full of missiles, buzzsaws, daring jumps, and more that will test your mettle over and over. Tagged as: action, android, browser, flash, game, highdifficulty, ios, ipad, iphone, ipod, mobile, platform, playcreek, rating-y, tablet

FlashMush: News: Android Shock Review Contributor

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:57:00 +0000

Just a quick blurb of news that I felt I should share to my readers. I have recently joined the review team over at Android Shock in which they review all Android game apps. I think the experience will be a great one as they have stricter posting guidelines and such will sort of force me into becoming a better reviewer in general which will show in my reviews here on FlashMush. This "job" if you will at Android Shock won't really affect my review rate here but will probably ensure the already flailing death of my side project Mobile Mush.

Anyways, my first review was put up today, a review on Toy Defense 2 so if you want check it out and see if you like that style of writing by me and I could try and bring more of that style here.

Jay is Games: Heroine Dusk (Demo)

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Platform: Javascript — Darkness has overtaken the land, bringing with it unspeakable beasts, but one woman is no longer content to cower inside. In this open-source retro RPG adventure demo made in just one month, go on a classic quest to find the source of the dark infestation and get more powerful along the way. Engaging and addictive but challenging too, it's a simple, streamlined experience you can jump right into anytime. Tagged as: adventure, browser, cbellanger, demo, free, game, javascript, linux, mac, rating-y, retro, rpg, turnbased, windows, yubatake

FlashMush: Mr. Tart Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie Clark) — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:04:00 +0000

Link: Mr. Tart
Developed by Max Glockling
Sponsored by Big Dino
Genre: Platformer/Puzzle
FlashMush Reviews Rating: 6.5/10

Puzzle platformer flash games are everywhere. It seems everyone makes one and there is very little variation and change within. Mr. Tart is the latest one to cross my radar and while it looked interesting, in general it turned out to be fairly lackluster.

A quick glimpse at Mr. Tart and it seems promising. You have a very nice graphical style reminiscent of Making Monkeys that is cartoonish but well done. It also has a nice wit about it so it is fairly humorous. However it falls apart with the actual gameplay...

First off there is only 15 levels, not nearly enough to really capture a following or someone's attention. Perhaps if the puzzles were really hard or the levels were extra long then the lack of levels might make sense but Mr. Tart has the opposite of all of that. All the levels are very short (more than half can be finished in less than a minute) and the puzzles aren't hard. Well...the puzzle ideas aren't hard. What makes them actually extremely hard is the horrific controls that are too touchy making you slide much further than anticipated. Overall, Mr. Tart really only gets the superficial ideas right and not the meat of the game.

Jay is Games: The Vault

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Games featured this week: Tower of Heaven; Never End; My First Quantum Translocator — This week's edition of The Vault is sponsored by... I forget the name. I think it was Opening Science or something like that. Anyways, today we're featuring a selection of Portalesque games. A Portalesque is a puzzle-platformer with a unique mechanic and a sadistic host. There'll be cake after the showcase, I promise! Tagged as: blog, browser, thevault

Jay is Games: Trial of the Clone

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:01 +0000

Platform: iOS, Android — After your rather unceremonious birth, you're sent to the temple of the Silene Monks, where you choose whether to be a medic, a warrior or an engineer. From there, it's up to you to make the right choices to fulfill your destiny and, most crucially, not die. But Trial of the Clone is more than a simple choose-your-own-adventure. Along the way you'll gain stat points, weapons and items, which you can keep track of via a built-in D&D-style Adventure Sheet. These come to play in battles which pop up occasionally and affect the course of the story. Battles are pretty simple: You deal damage to your opponent based on your given stats plus a random number from 0 to 3, and then your opponent does the same — the last one standing wins. Loss in a battle doesn't necessarily mean death; it may just mean being relocated to a different department (say, engineering, where physical strength, ability and charisma are less in demand). Tagged as: adventure, android, game, gamebook, ios, ipad, iphone, kindle, mobile, narrative, rating-r, rpg, tablet, text, tinmangames

Armor Games Blog: New MMO: Dragon’s Call II

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:31:07 +0000

A side-scrolling turn-based MMORPG, Dragon’s Call 2 doesn’t follow the conventional leveling system and avoids constant grinding. Instead, the game introduces allows users to level player characters easily, making it more fun in the process. Start playing today and check out the variety of combat modes and skills!

Links:

Play Dragon’s Call II

Screenshots:

MochiLand: All-New Universal Data Storage Feature

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:37:24 +0000

Re-introducing Universal Data Storage!

Some may remember a nifty feature we used to support called Universal Data Storage. This feature was tied to our login system, which we deprecated late last year. At the time, that meant that it had to go away as well.

We thought Universal Data Storage was actually a pretty valuable feature for developers, so we have been working hard to re-create it in a way that isn’t reliant on any other product or system here at Mochi Media.

I am happy to announce that today we have re-released the all-new Universal Storage feature in the updated Mochi Media API v.4.1.0!

What is Universal Data Storage?

Universal Data Storage is a feature that allows developers to pass keys and user ids to our system to persist your game data.

This is particularly useful for things such as saving player progress in games, and with this new and improved version, it is possible for developers to make your persisted data computer-agnostic (i.e. your persisted data doesn’t need to rely on the player always playing your game from the same machine).

Developer features:

Persist data for your games
Not reliant on any other Mochi Media product or service

Get the Universal Data Storage feature by d ownloading the updated Mochi Media API v.4.1.0!

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MochiLand: Partner post: Explore Platform & Growth Opportunities at Inside Social Apps Conference

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:53:26 +0000

The following is a partner post from MediaBistro:

Explore Platform & Growth Opportunities at Inside Social Apps Conference

If you’re part of the social, mobile, app, or entertainment industries, you shouldn’t miss this June’s Inside Social Apps Conference in San Francisco. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from industry leaders including Deb Liu, Product Manager at Facebook, Travis Boatman, Senior VP of Mobile at Zynga, and Ben Liu, CEO of PocketGems.

Tackle key issues and explore new opportunities facing social and mobile apps and games, including monetization, app and game design, marketing, and growth on established and emerging platforms, including iOS, Android, Facebook, and more.

Sessions will focus in on Trends in Social & Mobile Advertising, Social Monetization and Payments in Games, Mobile App Discovery, How Developers Can Successfully Monetize the Multi-Platform Landscape, and Developing Cross-Platform. Explore the full program here.

You’ll explore ideas and business opportunities with like-minded developers, marketers, investors, brand managers, app publishers, mobile platform innovators, and more during conference sessions, coffee breaks, and a cocktail reception.

Featured session:

Maximizing Player Engagement with In-Game Incentives: This panel is designed specifically for game developers to discuss engagement and design opportunities, including rewarding players. Gabriel Leydon of Machine Zone, Andy Kleinman of Scopely, Scott Prather of PlayPhone, and Arseny Lebedev of Signus Labs will lead the session.

PERK: As a Mochi Media reader, you’ll save 15% off your gold passport to the event when you enter the promo-code: MM15 and register here.

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Inside Pozirk Games: All-in-One Solitaire for BlackBerry Playbook and Z10

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:51:18 +0000

After third attempt, I was finally able to release All-in-One Solitaire for BlackBerry.
There were (still not fixed, as BB Vendor support doesn’t reply) some problems filling Payment Info, and there are still a problem applying Canadian taxes (GST/QST) correctly to the game price.
Here is a nice table, I have, on who processes the payment, when you buy something at BlackBerry AppWorld:

BlackBerry Product and Payment Method	Merchant of Record
BlackBerry Product and Payment Method	Digital River	Bango	BlackBerry Commerce
BBOS App World <4.0 (credit card or PayPal)	X
BBOS App World <4.0 (Carrier Billing)		X
BBOS App World 4.0+ (credit card or PayPal)			X
BBOS App World 4.0+ (Carrier Billing)		X
BlackBerry PlayBook (Credit Card or PayPal)	X
BlackBerry 10 (Credit Card or PayPal)			X
BlackBerry 10 (Carrier Billing)		X

So, while BlackBerry Commerce applies Canadian taxes with no problems, both Digital River and Bango don’t apply anything.
I’m now trying to contact them to solve this problem, if it’s actually a problem, cause they might be not required to do that.

UPDATE:
Reply from Digital River:

Please be reassured that you are not liable for collecting GST/HST on your app sales. From a legal standpoint, BlackBerry is the retailer, so they’re responsible for any sales tax.

Jay is Games: Lost Fluid

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Platform: Flash — Short but sweet, this little platform puzzle game stars a ball of blue alien goop that crashes into a strange and sterile place. You'll need to explore and solve a puzzle or two to find your real purpose, and though it's almost more concept than full game, is still worth the few minutes it'll take you. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, jjwallace, linux, mac, platform, puzzle, rating-g, windows

Andy Moore Blog: Best Pizza Ever

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:26:11 +0000

I made the best pizza I ever made yesterday:

Gluten Free Crust
Base sauce was Nutella
Add thinly sliced Grapple ™
Thinly sliced Asian Pear
Chopped Banana
Lightly sprinkled with Skor chips
Even more lightly sprinkled with Butterscotch Chips
Layered with Marshmallows
Topped with fresh Raspberries

Put in the oven @ 450F for about 10-15 minutes. The marshmallows roast as if they were over an open flame, and the raspberries get nice and soft (along with all the other fruit). Orgasmic. This was all that was left (with sound effects by Brian Provinciano)