Flash Game Blogs

Armor Games Blog: Irvine, Best place to Live (& Work) in America

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:18:18 +0000

Money Magazine recently came out with an article of the 100-best places to live in America. Number 4 on the list was Irvine, which is where the Armor Games offices are located.

If you are an experienced Flash Game Developer or talented Graphic Artist and want an exciting job making games for a living, check out our jobs page and send us your resume!

We look forward to hearing from you.

-The Armor Games Team

Gaming Your Way: Day 3

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:49:07 +0000

I didn't touch GMM yesterday, so to keep up the constant supply of development highs and lows I thought I'd write up today's instalment whilst it's still fresh.

Today's objective was to be able to move from one screen to another, and joy of joys, you can. It was quite straight forward, took a little while to keep track of all the sets of coords I've got to use ( The local map position, ie the tile at 0,0 on the screen, the local player position within the current screen and the player's position within the whole map ) but nothing too painful. Messed up the re-positioning of the sprite a few times ( You leave the screen at the far right you should be repositioned on the left of the next screen ) but that was where the coords above were just not clicking into place in my head.

Once that was working it needed a quick and simple transition from moving from one screen to another. A quick use of draw(), and a tweened mask and it was all done and works nicely ( Same way as the transitions are done in both Fuel-Factory and Toxic Shock. Grab a bitmap of the current screen, attach a mask to it, run the effect ).

Finally I tried adding the big ass tree tiles. These bad boys took a while, but only 'cause I'd got the keyframe order out of sync ( The tiles are old school, laid out on keyframes like the good old pre-bitmapData days ).
Once that was working they went in there a treat and with no depth sorting issues with the player ( I'll have to be careful where I position the "wall" tiles around them though, as they are huge and it could cause problems, but nothing a little bit of forward thinking won't fix, and a million times easier than splitting the tile up into 32px wide strips ).

And I think that's it. Doesn't sound like much, but it's coming along nicely. Weekend off so Monday will be spent adding the exit to the maze and testing for it, so it should almost be a game then. If by day 5 all the level progression, game over, game complete stuff is done I'll be really happy and bang on target.

Also early next week Olli should be posting about a new complete project that he's been working on for a super sexy huge name client who we're obviously really pleased to be working with.

Squize.

MochiLand: Flash Game Friday Winner: Banana Dash World 2!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:45:00 +0000

You’ll love this week’s FGF winner, Banana Dash World 2, especially if you enjoy the rush of a timed game.

Be sure to congratulate MochiAds community member johnnytwoshoes on his win in the forum thread.

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Game Producer: 72 Insiders Now (and ‘Launch’ of the Game Market Research Ebook)

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:57:38 +0000

Today we got a new member to Insiders. There’s now total of 72 Insider members: individuals, companies, indie game developers, people who work at AAA companies, game trainers and you name it. I remember when we started with the private forums (where first me and Mr. Phil talked alone :)), and now we’ve grown into having the press release service, tons of information and ebooks about game selling, members privately talking about marketing, traffic, development, and other good stuff.

I’ve just created a new ebook for Insiders only and wanted to say a bit about it. It’s a game market research ebook and gives information about what game market research is (thus the name…) and how to actually a conduct a research. It contains some juicy tips on how big portals for example figure out games that sell well.

That’s for Insiders only.

Less sales pitch talk tomorrow.

P.S. Those of you who want to enjoy free goodies should get on the mailing list - there’s good free stuff there too.

Hero Interactive: Microbe Kombat Video

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:38:20 +0000

Jared’s been fighting off a cold for the last week so this is real treat! He’s put together a video for Microbe Kombat just for you! Don’t you feel special?

It’s looking really great…enjoy!

8 Bit Rocket: 9/5/2008: Nick Bilyk's Optimizing Actionscript Artcile

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:29:09 +0000

New Required Reading Blog Entry By Jeff Fulton:

Free Game News: Rabbit and a Tortoise

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:03:59 +0000

Here is your weekly Minoto’s Point’n’Click Adventure game! Today, Rabbit Tortoise!

If you enjoy this game, don’t forget to check out Insect Diary, Medal Gets, Bon Dance, Pleasant Festival, Break a Watermelon,ce Fireworks of the Summer, A Couple of Milky Way, Frog Prince, Treasure of Ogre, Three Attendants, Hyokori from a Peach and many more by the same author!

Have fun!

Free Game News: Sun City Chronicles - Chapter 1: Cataclysm

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:51:16 +0000

Sun City Chronicles - Chapter 1: Cataclysm is a new Point’n'Click adventure game in which you play Nick Maldrive, a detective in the SCPD. “Is this case just another usual suicide case? You’ll have to play to find out. Speak to people, pick up items and use them on people and stuff to advance the plot.” Have fun!

8 Bit Rocket: 9/5/2008: 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #4: Top-10 Predictions Plus More...

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:00:12 +0000

New Podcasts Blog Entry By Steve Fulton:

Jay is Games: Link Dump Friday

john@bardinelli.com (JohnB) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:15:00 +0000

This week on the official LDF Paragraph of Miscellany, I would like to discuss an advertisement poster I saw in a mall over the weekend. Pictured was a fancy hotel room with every amenity you could want, and just below, this simple phrase was printed: You see a room. I tried typing "enter room" (you know, in my mind), but apparently the door was shut, locked, and the key hidden so well no amount of drawer opening could uncover it. Darn.

Free Game News: xWUNG

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:01:25 +0000

xWUNG is a kind of a shmup developed by Lo-Fi Minds, but you can’t actually shoot!

You play by moving the mouse to swing a ball and the ball is attached to a wire: both of them kill enemies on contact. Be careful of the debris as it’s deadly.

There are bosses that appear with regular intervals. Make large combos to get good scores.

Wow, this game is incredibly hard!

Have fun!

Jay is Games: Bucketball

jbibby@gmail.com (Psychotronic) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:16:30 +0000

Bucketball is a brand-new physics-based game from Arseniy Desrosiers and Florian Himsl. If you've already guessed that the general thrust of the gameplay has something to do with "buckets" and "balls," then congratulations, your amazing brain is way ahead of the curve. It's a simple idea game of skill, but to complete the game is anything but simple.

Gaming Your Way: The morning after the night before ( II )

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:49:38 +0000

I did write a great entry, quite possibly the greatest prose ever written, but I / the blog messed up and it was lost.

Instead you'll have to make do with the usual shit quality of writing.

Where did day 2 take me with GMM ( That's it's code name from now on ) ?

I added in all the "surround" tiles. In a usual iso game the playfield is a diamond shape. To fill this up a little and to keep it more inline with the look & feel images I've filled this area in with tiles that will be on other screens ( If that makes sense ). Hint of blur and darkened up a little and it looks pretty damn sweet.

Next up was the player. He's in. He walks. He stops at walls. All good.

After that, the dreaded nasty depth sorting. It's not something I'm usually very good add, I always struggle to get it spot on, so I had a bit of research around how other people do it. I found the way I normally do it, ie depth=mc.x+mc.y*playField.width, and a really nice looking way which calculated the z-depth correctly.
My solution was to do something totally different.
All the tiles have a big healthy gap in their depths so I can drop sprites in-between them without there being any sort of clash of depths ( as2, no depth management here ). The player sprite finds out which tile his on, gets it's depth, and make sure his depth is higher. As simple as that.
When moving the player sprite looks at the next tile and grabs it's depth, so it's always at the correct depth ( I wish I could find a way to explain this without using the word depth so often ). There was a slight issue when moving in directions which would mean the next tile would have a lower depth than the one he's standing on ( ie, moving up, or NE ), that was fixed by only updating his depth halfway through the walk cycle.

It all seems nice and solid so far, and quite simple to do. I'm just hoping it doesn't trip over when there are bigger / taller tiles in there.

Then there was a slight bug with the actual movement. He'd drift off course ever so slightly every move, which meant that after no time at all he'd be quite a way off the tile he was meant to be on. Olli came up with the fix, which is another simple one, the player just finds out which tile he's on when he's finished his walk cycle and then aligns himself to that. Piece of piss.

I think that's it. I'm sure I wrote a lot more first time, but it's never as fun second time around. Today has been spent working on an old project which is like an albatross hanging around my neck, so no new update tomorrow ( I know I've only lasted 2 days, but to be fair I'm not missing a day out as such ). Maybe I'll post some trite eye-candy here to fill the gap.

Squize.

Free Game News: Remote Escape

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:47:30 +0000

Remote Escape is a new Room Escape Game created by Marc Baldwin (Lost Memory). “You have lost your keys, and now you are locked inside a room. Can you figure out a way to escape?” Don’t forget to press the spacebar to put items away. Have fun!

Update: Remote Escape walkthrough in comment #27 (thanks J!)

8 Bit Rocket: 9/4/2008: Domino Multiplayer by Lorenzo Nuvoletta has been added to our Retro Showcase!

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:14:08 +0000

New Required Playing Blog Entry By Jeff Fulton:

8 Bit Rocket: 9/4/2008: R.I.P Jerry Reed, "East Bound And Down", Smokey And The Bandit

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:14:08 +0000

New diatribe Blog Entry By Steve Fulton:

8 Bit Rocket: 9/4/2008: 8bitrocket Diatribe - Dynamic Sprite Sheets and What's on Jeff's DVR

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:14:08 +0000

New diatribe Blog Entry By Jeff Fulton:

Blog.Sokay.net: Design Documents Released for All!

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:13:16 +0000

Shred Nebula for Xbox Live Arcade

Gamasutra reports that CrunchTime Games has released design documents for the newly published Xbox Live Arcade title, Shred Nebula. It’s a space adventure game played from an Asteroids-style perspective.

The two documents released are a pitch/design document and an overview of the first 60 seconds of gameplay, both written in 2006. I’ve taken a quick look at both of them and I admire how the gameplay is detailed. This is the level of depth I want to achieve for my design documents. This drives me to push myself further!

Jay is Games: Aether

tyywhun@yahoo.com (Stacey) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:39:25 +0000

Aether is a gloriously imaginative and atmospheric puzzle game in which you swing through the stars to reach several different planets, each with a unique puzzle to solve. The designers have made a truly compelling experience, and it's a fantastic artistic endeavor. You can also just spend some time flying through space or the clouds, the music and movement are so relaxing.

Free Game News: Bounceroid 2000

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:41:45 +0000

Bounceroid 2000 is an interesting arcade game created by Sid Woos.

The goal is to bounce the falling balls to the side of their color: green balls to the left, blue balls to the right and grey ball to any side.

To do so, move your special paddle with your mouse and click and hold down the left button to charge your paddle and push the balls harder.

If a ball hits the wrong side or falls on the ground, you lose a life. Depending on where a ball hits a side, you will score more or less points. Each time a ball bounces, its score multiplier increases, up to 5 times.

A few power-ups appear in later levels, but I won’t spoil the fun by telling you what they are.

Bounceroid 2000 is a simple game, but it becomes quickly addictive. Nice!

Have fun!

Free Game News: Mandarin Orange Room Escape

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:31:45 +0000

Mandarin Orange Room Escape is the latest Room Escape game created by Parallellove, the author of Grape Room Escape, Watermelon Room Escape, Moon Jelly Room Escape, Cow Room Escape, Beatle Room Escape, Glowfly Room Escape, Pegasus Room Escape, Dinosaur Room Escape, Panda Room Escape and many more.

You are trapped in an unknown room, and you will have to collect several oranges today…

Have fun!

Game Producer: I Wonder If Players Are Better Assigning Priorities Than Producers

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:09:30 +0000

I’ve seen two types of producers when it comes to assigning priorities. The first type of producer has learned the lesson’s from Dilbert books: “rate everything ‘top priority’ except ‘personal life and hobbies’”. The other type of producer really understand that marking everything ‘top priority’ really solves nothing, they gotta be decisive about what tasks are more important than others.

Today I went through some Dead Wake zombie game ideas suggested by the community members. There were several pages of them. There were some really good ideas. Some ideas would require little resource, while some might not be possible to do with an indie budget.

I started pondering how to decide which ideas were the most important ones to consider, and I got this idea about rating the threads feature that’s in the forums software. I wrote a brief entry and welcomed members to give their ratings.

I don’t know if players will want to rank everything ‘5 stars’, and don’t know if this experiment produces anything worth using, but at least I decided to give it a go. If it doesn’t work, we can forget the ratings and try something else.

Anyway, now the zombie game community members are ranking ideas and we’ll see if they do a better job than some producers…

Hero Interactive: The HI Office

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:26:14 +0000

For those of you who were wondering, this is where it all happens. This is where the finishing touches of Bubble Tanks 2 were completed and this is where all the genius of future games like Microbe Kombat originates. This is (DUH DUHDUH DUUUUUUUNNNNN!) the Hero Interactive office.

There’s a bit more that’s not in the picture (Eric’s station), but this is bulk of it. Yes, that is Uma Thurman on the walls TWICE (representing the awesomeness that is both Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill).
This is the new office since we moved…the other one was equally sweet but put together a little differently.

Also, a quick update about Microbe Kombat: the game is in final production stages. There are now viruses that can infect cells. The music and sound effects need to be added, and there needs to be lots of testing done on it, but other than that the game is VERY close to completion. Jared says he’ll try to get a video up for you to watch and he’ll let you know when the release date is going to be.

Stay awesome, everybody! And don’t forget about the BT2 contest mentioned in an earlier post. We’re really excited to read what you’ve come up with!

Jay is Games: Conceptis Puzzles

artbegotti@hotmail.com (artbegotti) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:22:50 +0000

Conceptis offers a variety of logical challenges at its website available to anyone. Eleven different puzzles await the intrepid solver, including familiar puzzles like Sudoku, Picross (here called "Pic-a-Pix"), Kakuro, Slitherlink, and a variety of puzzles that might even be new to logic puzzle lovers.

jmtb02 Studios: Looking For A Home

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:27:49 +0000

Hi Everyone!

As I hold off trying to update this site and keep redesigning the new site, I have come to realize that my new site would pretty much be impossible without a new host. In other words, I need a new webhost or at least a higher-up service for webhosting.

My current website runs on php and text files to keep things low power. My ultimate goal was to get everything on mysql and php, but with my current hosting solution I am sitting on a shared server with tons of other people trying to crank data at the same time. This means that mysql is definitely out of the picture... you can see the forum speeds are a good indication of this.

So right now I am thinking about moving up to a dedicated server for the site. It's quite a bit more expensive at $100 a month, but I think it will ultimately make the site run as I wanted it to. But with $100 a month I suddenly start to realize that things are starting to get expensive.

So that's what is on my plate right now... in one hand the site needs to be updated to facilitate my ultimate goals, but on the other hand $100 a month is about 5-10x the amount I pay for hosting right now.

Any thoughts? Anyone have any cheaper, better hosting solutions?

Gaming Your Way: Dear Kitty

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:10:45 +0000

I started a new project yesterday so I thought it would be a good time to see how long I can maintain a diary of it's development. It's only got 2 weeks ( 10 working days ) allocated to it, so surely I can write something new and interesting every day for 10 days... well interesting is pushing it a little bit.

Starting a project is always a double edged sword. Cool, it's a new project with all the possibilities that go with it. Shit, it's a new project so I've got to set up all my usual classes for the millionth time.

To touch on things without giving anything away, it's an iso maze game. Before kicking off it was agreed it wouldn't scroll as the dev time is so tight, so it's just going to be a flick screen game like the old greats such as Head over Heels and Knightlore.

Day 1 is setting up classes. This game is going to be done in as2 ( Due to the tight deadline, did I mention that ? ) as although I've fallen for as3 at last, it's still a ball ache for a lot of things.
I've already received all the assets ( All of them. Up front. Amazing ) and there's lots of nested animated movieclips, which as2 does well, and as3 doesn't, so that helped swing me towards as2 for this one.

Hello fdt and mtasc, I've missed you bad boys. Still quicker and better than Flex. Things that are tripping me up though are Void ( It took forever to get used to void, and now going back it's taking just as long ) and _alpha, _x, _y etc. Any property with an _ basically.
It's amazing how quickly I've lost the habit of using those.

Code wise we've got the core classes in place ( Player, GameController, Master ( enterFrame mainloop ) ) and I've ripped the map loading routines from Toxic Shock ( External map files are a million billion times easier to work with ) so the game can load in it's data.
The biggest routine of the day after the LevelHandler is the LevelPlotter. I've only ever done 1 iso game before, Fuel Factory, and I'd forgotton what a pain it is to align the tiles correctly.

By the time I called it a day, we have a title screen ( No instructions button yet, and a missing anim, but almost done ), a swf that loads in it's own data and parses it, the game HUD with working timer and a 10x10 grid of iso tiles plotted. Good start to it, and I'm aiming to hit it hard again today.

Squize.

8 Bit Rocket: 9/3/2008: Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: September 3, 2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:44:10 +0000

New Required Reading Blog Entry By Jeff Fulton:

Free Game News: Eskkapee 2

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:18:41 +0000

Eskkapee 2 is the second Room Escape game designed by Eskkapo. You find yourself trapped in a secret room again, and “your mission is simple: try to escape… Are you ready to do the Eskkapee 2 test?” Hopefully, this game isn’t as easy as the previous one! Have fun!

Update: Eskkapee 2 walkthrough in comment #22 (thanks Lala!)

Blog.Sokay.net: State of the Bryson: 9.3.08

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:13:01 +0000

Here are some NPCs from the Sokay Donut game I’ve been working on for forever. These characters are designed by our character designer Ricky Enriquez. I spent a couple days converting the game to AS3 in late May. Since then I’ve been polishing some things and working on getting the NPCs in it. I’ve been concentrating a bit too much on the presentation of the game and have returned to focusing on the gameplay, since it’s still not fully there yet. Right now I’m working on finding the fun, but it’s looking great so far.

This is a background concept I sketched out for a new project we started, a game that Chris is programming. It’s a Western so it’s gonna be a lotta fun.

Beyond this stuff I’ve been reworking the blog — I added the little video jukebox in the top right corner. I’m revising some of the other Sokay sites, experimenting with new ideas. I’m working with David Rodriguez on a more elaborate Luvtank.com as well.

Read on to see what’s been inspring me lately…

Been Playing

I’m not gonna lie, I couldn’t resist buying Final Fantasy IV because of its amazing box art. It’s a bit expensive at $40 but it’s actually worth every penny. It’s a console quality RPG on a handheld, the production value is amazing. I look at this game and I think about it initially being released in 1991. There were definitely some visionaries at Square. Although the transition from FF6 to FF7 seems so epic — it is — by looking at the progression of the series you can see that’s where they were always heading. I never played this as its original release (FF2) but I’m familiar with the music from listening to the Final Fantasy Piano Collections for the last 6 years. So it feels oddly nostalgic. Challenging gameplay with magnificent art and music. I’m hooked on this one.

Mega Man is an incredibly hard game that you’re expected to finish in one sitting. That counts as Triple-OG in my book. I played up until the Wily Stages in this game, which are friggin mindblowingly difficult. This is an amazing game and it’s no wonder that the series has been around for over 20 years. I will make a write up on this title but I want to see if I can finish it without cheating too much.

Been Reading

This comic was made for me and I never realized it until I bought this collection of the entire series. 1300 pages of adventure. Princesses and dragons; swords and scary monsters. The stuff I thrive on.

Been Watching

I was super-excited when this was announced; semi-disappointed after finally viewing it. I waited this long to purchase it but it’s every bit as pretty as I remember it. More Maya inspiration. The recap of FF7 that it comes with makes me want to play through it again. I’m gonna need an extra 60 hours to make that happen. haha

Been Learning

I went to Siggraph 2008 a few weeks ago and that was an inspiring experience. I didn’t go the career path of the 3d artist but it’s still an interest of mine, joining the tech with creative. I’ve been in that 3d mindset lately with all of the 3d in Flash stuff I’ve been thinking about so it was double-inspiring to go to a hear a talk about The Making of Wall-E at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

The speaker was David Munier from Pixar, he worked as the Sets Supervisor and gave some insight to how the sets were put together for the film. Maya’s already one of my favorite software packages so the presentation gave me a lot of inspiration for effects that I’d like to experiment with. I’ve been looking for excuses to apply the scripting knowledge I’ve acquired through Flash to MelScript in Maya.

Free Game News: Posttraumatism

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:57:50 +0000

Posttraumatism is a new Room Escape game designed by Carl Herdenberg.

“You wake up in a room, unaware of time or place…”

Posttraumatism was released two days ago and hosted at first on a very - VERY - slow server: that’s the main reason why I didn’t post the game on FGN.

Luckily for us, the game is now also hosted on a much faster mirror server, and it takes only a few minutes to load: hopefully you guys like this one!

Have fun!

Update: Posttraumatism walkthrough in comment #52 (thanks Lala!)

8 Bit Rocket: 9/3/2008: Super Mario RPG: Devolution Is The Best Solution

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:44:08 +0000

New Required Playing Blog Entry By Steve Fulton:

Jay is Games: Weekday Escape

jbibby@gmail.com (Jess) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:13:13 +0000

In this world of change, however, there is one constant. Come rain, come sun, come snow, there will be rooms to escape from. When the glaciers melt and California falls into the sea, there will still be screwdrivers and scraps of paper to collect. And in billions of years, when the sun finally blooms into a red giant and consumes the Earth, we will be here, faithfully, delivering Weekday Escape to you every Wednesday. ...Well, ok, maybe not then. Definitely up until the week before, though. After that we'll be updating from Mars.

Jay is Games: Bloons Tower Defense 3

jbibby@gmail.com (anarky) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:43:49 +0000

Bloons Tower Defense 3 has finally been released after months of anticipation from all the hardcore Bloons fans out there. Picking up where Bloons TD 2 left off, the new game features even more tracks (eight in all!), new monkeys (towers) and upgraded gameplay mechanics.

MochiLand: Mochi in New York City

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:37:15 +0000

Jameson, Carol and I will be heading out from Mochi HQ next week to New York. We will be in New York from Monday the 8th to Wednesday the 10th. If you’re in the area, please send us a line and we can meet up: ada at mochimedia (.) com.

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Free Game News: Escape from Camp Crystal Lake

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:33:46 +0000

Shawn Tanner, the author of the Escape Series has just released a new Room Escape game, Escape from Camp Crystal Lake, that includes over 50 unique areas to explore, puzzles to solve, boss battles, secret areas and items, and more. Warning: you can die in this game. Have fun!

Note: Escape from Camp Crystal Lake contains some adult themes and inappropriate language and is not appropriate for children.

Jay is Games: Globule

mr.m.lofc@gmail.com (Kyle E. Moore) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:54:10 +0000

There's been an accident in the slime factory and now it's up to you to clean up the mess. In each level you must collect all of the puddles of goo and direct them down one of the available suction vents to make it all go away. To do so, you'll have to push boxes out of the way and mind the arrows which allow you to travel in one direction only.

Game Producer: Now I’m a Vista User (2 Tips on Using Vista)

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:06:49 +0000

So, I’ve got my brand new computer parts and have been using the new fancy Windows Vista for about a week. After a friend of mine mentioned that it’s possible to disable the Vista’s in-built User Account Control (or UAC) my life improved drastically. When UAC was enabled, Vista was constantly bugging me and asking security questions. After taking that off, I’m saved! That’s the newbie tip for anybody who is getting annoyed by the frequent questions that are presented as ‘Better Security’. To make Vista using smoother, I disabled the darn thing and now things are much better.

Ok, so that was the first newbie tip.

The second newbie tip is that gadgets are useful. There’s a nice gadget called Notes that let you create post-it notes on your desktop. I started using notes to track ‘promises’ I’m making. Whenever I promise something (such as ‘new sales stats are coming’) I’ll write a short note using the gadget. It’s simple, it’s easy, and I like it.

I even created a very tiny experimental Time Tracking gadget that has two features: you can write one description line and then start the stopwatch. I thought about mixing these two gadgets together: I’d soon have a very simple & nice way to write to do items and track time used on them. I got 700 other ideas when I started to think this, so I decided to stop getting too eager about this fancy project management gadget. Anyway, the post-it notes gadget alone is a great thing.

I’m still learning to use Vista, and so far it’s been a positive surprise (I didn’t expect anything from it, besides DirectX10 support so that I could test to see how Crysis runs…). Vista loads much faster than XP. The Vista’s search is nice. The user interface feels bit more ‘user friendly’ (Don’t know why) and it seems to do some stuff under the hood really well (for example when I first launched my computer, I needed to do just one mouse click to get networking to work - I was amazed: in previous versions I had to install loads of stuff, press buttons, pull hair, summon mystical beasts, pray and plug and somehow things started to work). Last but not least, Vista seems more stable than earlier Windows versions.

I do think Vista is bit like a ‘fancier version of XP’, but at this point I’m not turning back. I like Vista. I like that the security systems can be made less intrusive. The system feels good to use. Crysis runs nicely.

And I like the gadgets.

Nothing to complain here.

Free Game News: Castle Run

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:22:24 +0000

Castle Run is a little 31-level platformer developed by Mateusz Skutnik. Your goal here is simply to collect sepcial coins and keys to unlock doors through the Castle. Use the arrow keys to move and jump. Expect a few minutes only to complete the game. Ideal for a coffee break. Have fun!

Free Game News: Heart Escape 2

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:09:25 +0000

Heart Escape 2 is the second installment in the Heart Escape series created by StrawberryCafe. This one is once again a quick and easy Room Escape game, but unlike the first episode, it is only available in Japanese. That being said, it shouldn’t take long before you escape from this lovely room! Have fun!

Update: Heart Escape 2 walkthrough in comment #16 (thanks Lala!)

Free Game News: Bloons Tower Defense 3

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:36:07 +0000

Bloons TD 3 is live! “After 319 days, 32 Million plays and countless requests for a sequel to Bloons Tower Defense 2, Ninja Kiwi is proud to present Bloons Tower Defense 3.

This time, use the all new towers and upgrades to work your way through 8 all new tracks and 3 difficulty modes to achieve that total Bloon popping satisfaction.”

The 8 tracks (you will have to get at least bronze on tracks 1-4 to unlock tracks 5-8) are a nice addition and add instant replay value to the game.

Bloons TD fans will love it, while Defense games aficionados will enjoy it.

Have fun!

Free Game News: Governor of Poker

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:26:12 +0000

Governor of Poker is a poker game like “you’ve never seen before!”

“Dare to join a tournament or a cash game and perhaps bet ALL IN. Does it satisfy you to totally clean the table of players and win all their cash and even their property. Do you have what it takes to become the Governor of Poker and take over all of Texas.

Play as a male or female character in this totally original poker game developed by Youda Games.

Battle your way in poker tournaments and win it all. Cash, fame , properties, transport assets and perhaps a title. Earn rewards for exceptional skills and achievements. In governor of poker you can really make it, and when you make it make it BIG! From tournaments to cash games.

This game features a simple property management system, a possibility to buy transport upgrades. When you make some name, you might even get newsflashes in the local papers of major events. Youda Governor of Poker brings you a trusted save game option, over hundred of different opponents all with a very sophisticated AI.

Opponents really show different playstyles and act differently and realistic time and time again. This all is packed in a beautiful rendered environment with very appealing graphics.

Instructions on poker Texas Holdem can be found in the top menu while sitting at a pokertable.”

if you don’t like Texas Hold’Em Poker, you should probably pass on this one. But if you like poker games or if you are a Texas Hold’Em fan, give this Flash Demo of Governor of Poker a try or download the full version!

Have fun!

Game Producer: Any Idea Why ‘Big Brother’ Show Is So Popular?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:20:11 +0000

Finnish Big Brother tv series has recently begun, and it has come to my attention that we actually have a possibility to watch the ’show’ for 24/7 (if you order a channel package).

Seriously.

Who the heck are making actually paying for the chance to watch every minute of what some people do in a house?

Jay is Games: Bounceroid 2000

tyywhun@yahoo.com (Stacey) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:36:06 +0000

There is something about Sid Woo's Bounceroid 2000 that makes it so completely JIG-like. Elegantly simple in design, modern, stylish and enjoyable.Bouncing balls against paddles have come a long way, and gone through all sorts of fancy incarnations. This game is back to the basics and has an original take that makes it unique.

Game Producer: You Don’t Want to Miss These Goodies…

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:16:03 +0000

Over thousand people have read the game production cookbook and several hundreds have already got the free guide to advertising. I’m informing my old newsletter subscribers that in order to get these goodies (among other good stuff I’ll be sending every now and then), you need to subscribe to the mailing list.

If you want to know when there’s some special good stuff (such as new game sales stats available) then subscribe to the mailing list and I’ll let you know.

I have about close to two thousand people on my old list, and there’s people who haven’t yet renewed their subscription after I switched my mailing list provider. Your email is kept safe (I’m not giving nor selling it to anybody) and you are free to unsubscribe by clicking the link in the end of any email you get from me.

In order to make sure you don’t miss any free goodies, put your name & email in the list. I’ll send you the Cookbook and Ad Trap ebooks as soon as you subscribe.

P.S. I have new sales statistics and top notch producer rountable session coming up. Stay tuned.

Hero Interactive: Poll Of The Week

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:30:20 +0000

Alright so I’m really not satisfied with the answers from the last poll…the numbers are just too darn close for me to make a good decision. So I’m going to leave that one up for a while longer. Please give me your answer if you haven’t already!

Free Game News: Poker Escape

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:30:35 +0000

Poker Escape is the latest Room Escape game from Gamershood. You messed up during a game of poker and were buried alive. Escape the coffin before it runs out of oxygen. You have no idea how to get out of here, but wait… where did you put your cell phone? Have fun!

Update: Poker Escape walkthrough in comment #32 (thanks darkman!)

Jay is Games: Rapid Wars

tyywhun@yahoo.com (Stacey) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:10:18 +0000

Survive as long as you can in Rapid Wars, the new addictive arcade shooter by Jussi Kari of ooPixel. Borrowing the two-fisted Robotron mechanic, and with a nod to Geometry Wars, Jussi creates gameplay that is frenetic, addictive and fun.

8 Bit Rocket: 9/1/2008: 8-bit Rocket's Top-10 Midcore/Casual/Retro Game Predictions For The Next 12 Months

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:14:09 +0000

New Mid-Core Gamer Blog Entry By Steve Fulton:

Free Game News: Three Cats - Zansyo

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:17:56 +0000

Three Cats - Zansyo is the latest installment in the Three Cats Room Escape series created by the author of the Concert series. The Three Cats are sleeping in an unknown room, and the door is locked. This one seems easier than the previous games released by the author. In Japanese only. Have fun!

Update: Three Cats - Zansyo walkhtrough in comment #4 (thanks J!)

Jay is Games: Zombie in My Pocket

matthewbaldwin@gmail.com (Shadowkeeper) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:04:49 +0000

Zombie in My Pocket is the quintessential casual game: quick to play, easy to learn, solitaire and free. But it differs from the usual Jay is Games fare in one crucial respect: the platform on which it plays is not Windows, Mac or Linux, but rather your kitchen table.

Free Game News: P-Sensor

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:47:51 +0000

P-Sensor is the latest Room Escape game created by HILG, the author of K-Sensor, The-Node 01, the Wizard Taro series, Escape to Freedom V.2, U Sensor, B Sensor and C Sensor.

In P-Sensor, you find yourself trapped in an unknown room, and you will have to open several lockers before you can actually escape from this room (rooms?)…

Don’t forget to use the save function in case you get stuck…

Have fun!

Update: P-Sensor walkthrough in comment #68 (thanks J and SuzieGirl64!)

Jay is Games: Azada 2: Ancient Magic Walkthrough

games4us@live.com (Kayleigh Morahan) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:59:00 +0000

We have just finished a massive walkthrough guide for Azada 2: Ancient Magic. This guide will help you through any of the books should you get stuck while playing. Be warned: This guide does contain spoilers, so proceed with caution and use only as a last resort!

Game Producer: How Do You Know That Your Game Is Fun?

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:48:50 +0000

One guy posed a question to the producers of the round table (answers coming next week), and I thought the question was something that could be worth pondering by other people as well. He asked “How do you know that your game is fun?”

How do you know that your game is fun? I think it’s a tough question to answer, and here’s some ideas on how to spot a fun game. In my opinion, a game is fun when:

Your game is fun when you get excited about your game
At least sometimes this can be the case: if you get excited to add a new feature into your existing game or get really excited to develop it more, it’s a sign that your game is getting more fun. The excitment could translate into a fun. I realize that “having fun while developing the game” doesn’t mean a “fun game design”, but I think if developer isn’t excited about his game, why should anybody else?

Your game is fun when when you smile watching the characters walking on the screen or hear the music
Not sure if this is exactly a sign of fun, but I’ve noticed that when you experience some enjoyable moments in your game, and start to smile (and perhaps feel bit proud about yourself), you can tell that you’ve accomplished something. Something good.

Your game is fun when when you enjoy testing it
I think this can be one major sign. When you get to the point when you spend much time testing the game (instead of developing it further), you might have something really fun. When testing the game doesn’t feel painful, it’s a hint that the game indeed provides fun. If you can’t wait to get testing your game, it’s a sign that your game is fun. (Although don’t forget to continue your game development even when testing is fun…)

These were some ideas, and I’m sure there’s plenty of more.

What’s your take on this? How do you know when your game is fun?

Jay is Games: Weekend Download: Dangerous Jump Edition

jbibby@gmail.com (AdamB) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:12:37 +0000

There you are, standing on the precipice. Your pixelated toes hang over the edge. Taking a deep breath you move forward — and fall, cursing the heavens and hoping that the louder you say "But I pressed jump!" will make a difference. Such is the fate of all characters at some point — they fall. Some games take the idea of making that perfect jump and dare you to try hard at every turn in order to make every single jump count, and every miss hurt.

COCAK: The Daily Kong.

noreply@blogger.com (lightsun) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Play of the Day!
The Play of the Day is a daily column where I showcase my personal pick of the best game uploaded the day before.

Ultimate Defense 2 by likwidgames

Tower defense game, with some RPG things. The gameplay is really good, as the graphics, that aren't fantastic, but good enough. I must say that it is only for the ones who likes tower defense games, because it can be frustating.

Controls: The mouse. You click on the unit you can to recluit, and set it. You can also change it's angle.

Kongregate News

Kongregate always has some kind of news, we're in beta! What's going on recently with Kongregate and the Kongregate community.

Well, Kongregate has a lot of new features. Here a list with all of them!:

1st: There is a New comment filtering,
"We’ve developed a system that attacks chain comments and other miscellaneous spam at its roots — by simply not allowing users to post game comments containing certain words or phrases."- Greg said. (Click the link above for more information).

2nd: Now, there is a quick way to report your missing challenges/badges! Click this, and send the feedback:

3rd: There is a room capacity limit now:

4th: Now, you can rate a maximun of 50 games a day, instead of 30.

5th: There is a "recent rooms" feature. It isn't new, but now it works.

Well, that was all for today. Enjoy!

Free Game News: Casual Games Download

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:41:23 +0000

This Week’s Selection:

Azada: Ancient Magic
The wait is over! Big Fish Games is proud to announce the release of Azada: Ancient Magic. Expect more puzzles and minigames in this beautiful sequel.

Farm Frenzy 2
Get a newfound appreciation for Old MacDonald! Feed chickens, collect eggs, stock your warehouse, and ship your goods off to market! Harvest a bumper crop of fun!

Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year
Help Ginger compete for fame and glory in the celebrated Chef of the Year contest! Prepare local specialties in seven countries and put your skills to the test against seven of the world’s top chefs!

Also Recommended:

Jane’s Realty
Help entrepreneur Jane start up her own leasing business! Build up an entire city from putting in the electric power stations, to constructing houses, stores and even a City Hall. Construct your own super modern city now!

Restaurant Rush
Heidi has graduated from Burger Rush, and now she wants to become a famous chef. Restaurant Rush combines Match 3 game-play with Time Management strategy in 80 mouthwatering levels.

Rooms: The Main Building
Discover a 1930s throwback upon your arrival to Rooms, complete with city streets and a surreal Mansion and enjoy one of the mostunique and challenging puzzle games you’ve seen in a while.

If you are looking at great Download Games, you can always check for more information into our Download Games section! We only feature the Best Casual Games available.

Armor Games Blog: Samarost 2

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:02:54 +0000

Continuing the IGF theme, I’m going to talk about one of my favourite web games. This game won Best Browser game in 2007.

Samarost 2!

Designed by Amanita Design (from the Czech Republic) the game mixes incredible artwork with simple point-and-click and physics based puzzles. Its a mixture between Creatures, Monkey Island and Where the Wild things are.

Yeah, you know that book. It has the same spooky alien feel, anyway.

The story is basically - man gets dog stolen, goes after dog, rescues dog, then on the way home gets stranded on another alien planet/shell/possibly living creature.

Its very satisfying to play. Instead the of the character interracting with the objects on screen, you simply use your cursor to play with everything you can see to manipulate the world around you. You might need the character to weigh something down, or carry something, or you might not. Its all part of the puzzle.

This game is a big inspiration to me! But the art is far beyond anything I could ever do. I don’t even know how they did it!

-Dim

8 Bit Rocket: 8/30/2008: 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #3: Family Edition

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:29:11 +0000

New Podcasts Blog Entry By Steve Fulton:

8 Bit Rocket: 8/29/2008: 8bitrocket Diatribe: Separated at Birth: Sarah Palin and Tracy Flick

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:44:12 +0000

New diatribe Blog Entry By Jeff Fulton:

Jay is Games: Azada: Ancient Magic

john@bardinelli.com (JohnB) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000

With just over a year in the making, Azada: Ancient Magic, the sequel to the enormously successful adventure/hidden object hybrid Azada, has finally arrived! Fusing a large variety of unique puzzles with an undeniably intriguing atmosphere, Azada: Ancient Magic puts you in the shoes of a puzzle solver helping the young Titus disarm a magical menace. As you sift through the library of classic literature you'll help legendary characters such as Rapunzel, King Arthur, Dracula and more escape from stories gone awry. Expect some great puzzles and a lot of interesting minigames to come your way in this spectacular sequel.