Flash Game Blogs

Free Game News: Poopo – Escape 6

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:33:33 +0000

Escape 6 is the latest Japanese Room Escape game from Poopo where you find yourself trapped on a first floor terrace. Have fun!

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Armor Games Blog: Siege Hero currently FREE on the App Store!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:31:38 +0000

It won’t be FREE for much longer so download your copy now and enjoy the newest level pack ‘Age of Pirates’!

Download Now!

Armor Games Blog: Silverado Apocalypse Blaster is Chevy’s Epic ’2012′ Game!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:19:15 +0000

Congrats to Juicy Beast and all those who rated Silverado Apocalypse Blaster. Get on it gamers, before the Big Game consumes your night!

Play the Game Now

Jay is Games: Analogue: A Hate Story

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:40:50 +0000

[Platform: Download (Mac, Linux, Windows)] After thousands of years, the Mugunghwa, sent into space to establish the first interstellar colony, has been found floating dead. You're sent after it to discover what happened to its crew with the help of two very different AIs, but the truth is vastly more complicated than you might think, and nowhere near black and white. In Christine Love's debut commercial visual novel release, take part in a captivating, clever, and emotional story that deals with love, politics, forgiveness... and hate.

ForTheLoss: Platformer Progress

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:32:05 +0000

This week I didn’t get too much done other than some relatively minor tweaks and optimizations to the collision detection. On Saturday, I spent the majority of the day figuring out the best way to construct levels using a mix between the Flash IDE and Tiled Map Editor. As a result, I began drawing some art for the game (which will be re-drawn for the actual game, everything here is just a placeholder to help me get an idea of what levels will look like).

Check out what I have so far here. To move, use the left / right arrow keys, space to jump, shift to run, and push against a wall to slide down / wall jump. These controls will be remapped for the actual game, as I’ve worked in mouse control so I’m going to have to abandon the arrow keys for a WASD-based control scheme.

Today I intend on implementing the Starling API, which is a 2D API built on top of the Stage3D API introduced in Flash Player 11. If you didn’t know, Stage3D is a new feature in Flash Player will allows for programmers to harness the power of the GPU and create more stunning visuals with little to no impact on the CPU. (This means be on the look out for some really amazing 3D Flash games in the coming months.)

I generally dislike working with APIs for two main reasons. One, I like to know what things are doing and why they’re doing it, and there’s no better way to know this than actually coding the classes yourself. The second reason is because of the possibility for lots of unnecessary overhead and lack of optimization (again, I pretty much don’t trust anyone to do anything right, except for me – sometimes). Since Starling was actually developed by the same team that actually work on Flash Player, I’m very comfortable with using it.

Alright, that’s it for now. I’m seriously going to try to get more posts out than these minor once-a-week things. It’s easy to say that now, on a weekend, but once the week begins it’s a different story…

Okay go away now.

We are Multiplayer: Weekly Roundup: Contests, meth addiction, and the Superbowl

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:00:02 +0000

This week was surprisingly quiet for new, once developers stopped leveling accusations of plagiarism at each other, so we’re starting with news of two contests.

FlashGameLicense have announced a 48 hour developer competition starting on the 17th of February, with a top prize of $500. Details are here.

And on a smaller scale, the developer led ‘Game in Ten Days‘ on Kongregate is offering K+ and $30 in Kred tips to the winner (that’s a value of around $60 total). The contest is already underway, with the theme ‘Only One Level’.

Kongregate itself badged Several Journeys of Reemus, Mission in Space, and This Is The Only Level 3. The same three games also finished second, third, and tenth respectively at Newgrounds.

Addicting Games is aiming to traumatize its young audience with a game about the dangers of meth addiction, currently promoted on their frontpage. While we’re in favor of drug awareness education, it’s surprising that Nickolodeon, a station you could watch for a week and never once hear the word ‘meth’ used, allowed the game.

MiniClip’s featured game this week is White Water Rafting, another 3D Flash game. It’s pretty solid, but more like a tech demo than anything else.

Bulletproof Arcade sent word that their Flash RPG Dungeon King has been updated. Included in the update is the addition of ‘click and hold’ attacking, something we felt the game needed when we reviewed it.

And finally, Silverado Apocolypse Blaster won the voting at ArmorGames to become Chevy’s official SuperBowl game, in time for the actual game today. Who are you rooting for?

hugolarcher.com: UITextField allowing only decimal characters

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:55:42 +0000

If you need to limit user input on a UITextField to decimal characters only, either for currency or something else here’s a bit of code that accomplishes that. There’s lots of ways to do this even with the use of NSNumberFormatter and/or NSScanner.

First of all you need set the UITextFieldDelegate on your View Controller and then set the View as the delegate for your UITextField. You do this by changing a line in your View Controller’s .h file to:

@interface MyViewController : UIViewController <UITextFieldDelegate>

and then either set the UITextField’s delegate in your View Controller’s .m file in the viewWillAppear method for example like:

myTextField.delegate = self;

or in Interface Builder by selecting the UITextField and in the Connections Inspector drag from the “delegate” to your View Controller.

Then you can implement the following delegate method:

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string 
{
    NSCharacterSet *nonNumberSet = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789."] invertedSet];
 
    // allow backspace
    if (range.length > 0 && [string length] == 0) {
        return YES;
    }
    // do not allow . at the beggining
    if (range.location == 0 && [string isEqualToString:@"."]) {
        return NO;
    }
    // set the text field value manually
    NSString *newValue = [[textField text] stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:range withString:string];
    newValue = [[newValue componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:nonNumberSet] componentsJoinedByString:@""];
    textField.text = newValue;
    // return NO because we're manually setting the value
    return NO;
}

As you can see from the code’s comments we allow the user to delete characters, check if the separator is not at the start and removing any non decimal characters that user types or pastes.

You might also want to set your UITextField to use a decimal keyboard by doing this:

myTextField.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeDecimalPad;

Beware it only works on the iPhone (iPad doesn’t have this keyboard and it will default to the normal one) and only on iOS 4.1 or greater.

Hope this helps, happy coding!

FlashMush: Proke Flash Game ReviewLink:

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Link: Proke
Developer: PouchMouse
Genre: Action/Educational/Puzzle
FlashMush Rating: 8/10

I feel that typing games are always fun. When I learned to type I learned by playing little games and quizzes in flash game format that really encourage and help kids in their typing. I've carried this thought into my adulthood and still love typing games. Proke, while may not sound like a typing game, is one, albeit an unconventional one.

Whereas most typing games you type words that you see or sentences that appear. Proke is different. I guess it technically isn't exactly a typing game but rather a quick, word puzzle type game. Basically you are given a suffix and prefix. It is your job to type words that match one or the other. So if the suffix given was -ing and the prefix was re-. You can either type something like walking or could type something like reborn. It's an either or situation. After you type one then you can either type another word that fits that suffix/prefix for a string/combo bonus, or type a word fitting the new suffix/prefix given.

To further make this game have a longer replay value you have objectives and ranks which are sort of like challenges. If you complete the challenges you move up in rank. Unfortunately Proke is not that visually appealing in my opinion. The gameplay is rock solid but graphics are lacking and do distract from the main point.

Free Game News: Curse at Twilight: Thief of Souls

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:59:30 +0000

After being summoned to a mysterious manor, you must unravel the story of an ancient evil and discover your destiny before it’s too late in Curse at Twilight: Thief of Souls! Unlock memories from the past and solve intricate puzzles to break the webs of a curse. Explore a magical world beyond your imagination that [...]

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Free Game News: Mouse Quest

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:40:27 +0000

Mouse Quest is a puzzler within a puzzle arcade game. Use your mouse movement skills to complete more than 25 mini games in 12 levels! In Mouse Quest, to complete a level you must first master the mini game challenge of the Shapemaster. He is no pushover so you’d better keep on your toes! Have [...]

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Free Game News: Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 6

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:39:06 +0000

Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 6 is the sixth Point’n’click Adventure game in the Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade series from Selfdefiant. Sneaky is still on his crusade around the globe in search of ancient gold statues. Have fun! Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 2 Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – [...]

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Free Game News: Bad Memory Escape 2

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:38:08 +0000

Bad Memory Escape 2 is a Room Escape game from Gongtats. After testing your memory at Bad Memory Escape X, here’s another chance to test your memory. Have fun!

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Vortix Games Blog: Performance vs Error Checking

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:55:11 +0000

Hi everyone, Vlad here!

Seems like on a thing versus some other thing rampage with Application Design vs Game Design shortly followed by this post. I guess that’s a good thing, it means there are challenges and doubts and that we need to research.

This post is also inspired by some books I’ve been reading lately and that I highly recommend: The Productive Programmer that was influenced by The Pragmatic Programmer.

Problem #1

We are writing code and there’s not such thing as writing code without bugs. Sometimes our oldest, most used code, that code that we trust each of our games with gets into a specific spot where a hidden bug appears and we spend hours and hours figuring out what’s happening.

Solution #1 is Problem #2

There are several solutions to this. Writing code that includes testing is in my opinion the best. The problem with this, game development wise and specifically in scripted languages such as AS3, is that this makes the code much slower. The solution was checking for inconsistencies and not performing operations instead of throwing errors and exceptions.

I ended up creating conditions for use. For instance our blit package uses three different types: the core, the object and the texture. The core keeps the state of the whole system, the object keeps the state of what and where to render and the texture keeps the state of BitmapData. If the object did not have a texture it would simply not render. Sounds pretty cool, right?

To be honest… wrong…

Problem #2.1

First problem was the times where the position had NaN value instead of a Number. This rarely happened but every time it did it was a huge headache to identify why and then track the source of the bug down. While this seems unrelated, the fact was the it looked like the texture did not exist. So I had to check if the texture was created, if it was passed, if it was there at all and the worst part was that if the texture was there as it should, where the hell was the problem?

Problem #2.2

Performance wise checking if there is a texture is absolutely dumb! 99% of the times there is a texture present. More, the object class has a visible variable. If the object does not have a texture why is it visible in the first place?

So while apparently I solved a problem by checking if the texture was present and not performing any blit operation if it wasn’t, the truth is that both performance wise (not that serious by the way, it’s just a if statement) and the unwanted problems it induced in the code backfired from time to time.

I spread this type of behavior through the code. While one if statement does not have a large impact in performance, a lot of checking piles up and I had a lot!

Solution #2

A short story and a riddle both taken from those books that explain my thoughts on the ‘final’ (we’ll see about that!) solution for these problems.

The first one was when one of the authors was hired as a consultant for a development project where the coders sent broken code to the version control system. What he did was to create a routine where the version control server would compile the code that was pushed. Every time the compilation didn’t work the server would send an email with the error. With the amount of mail with errors constantly piling up on mailboxes, one of the coders asked if there was a way of not getting that much email. The consultant replied: “Sure, don’t push code with errors!”

The riddle is… what code takes not time to be executed? The one that is not compiled.

So the solution is to write code that allows zero error tolerance while not compiling it. The way to achieve this is with conditional compilation which can be used in several way but these are the ones I believe the most useful is to use code blocks, like this:

private function someFunction():void {
	CONFIG::debug {
		// Development code
	}

	CONFIG::release {
		// Final code
	}

	// Both dev and final code
}

Inside the same function, different code is compiled depending on the current configuration. We can have several checks with exceptions and errors being thrown and then have a ‘don’t check at all’ version in the release configuration.

This is a two stage solution really. On one hand every time I do something stupid, I get errors so my code has to be perfectly implemented at least when it comes to our framework. On the other hand the same code that make me code as best as I can is also the code that does not run in the final version.

Jay is Games: Midnight Mysteries: Haunted Houdini

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:00:01 +0000

[Platform: Download (Windows)] The three modes of play make the game attractive to a wide variety of hybrid enthusiasts, the story is intriguing, the gameplay amusing, the visuals stunning, and the overall experience is one that freaks out and delights in equal measure. Midnight Mysteries: Haunted Houdini proudly carries the series banner forward and provides great entertainment at a reasonable price. Give it a try and prepare to be both entertained and enlightened.

FlashMush: Porcupine Pop Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Link: Porcupine Pop
Developer: booblycCom
Genre: Action/Physics/Puzzle
FlashMush Rating: 7/10

Popping balloons. Haven't we seen that before? Yes, that is true. In fact, while I linked to Bloons Tower Defense 5, the whole Bloons series is devoted to this idea. However, Porcupine Pop wanted in on the action and actually did make a game that didn't directly copy Ninjakiwi.

The idea is the same, however. There are balloons and you pop them. However in Porcupine Pop you fling porcupines at the balloons instead of them shooting darts or something. It is in this way the the difference comes into play. In fact, a lot of people were making snide comments about the similarity between this game and Bloons but in my opinion that is moot and actually fairly untrue. This game is more a cross breed between Angry Birds and Bloons but not Bloons entirely.

Either way I do have a problem with the gameplay. The idea as a whole is good and I appreciate the polished graphics/looks and the different types of balloons and physics properties. However, Porcupine Pop is just too easy. So easy that I can look at a level (even 30 levels in) and see exactly what I'm required to do. Not only that but unless I'm going for gold stars, I can just fling the three porcupines haphazardly and still get silver stars. I guess the one thing balancing this out is the idea of integrity if you actually want to go for the gold stars, as well as the large amount of levels. Each level takes like 2 seconds but there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of them to keep you occupied.

We are Multiplayer: NASA Space Race Blast Off

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:00:49 +0000

What do you think of when NASA is mentioned? Spaceships? Moon landings?

How about Facebook games!

That’s right – NASA has launched its own games on Facebook and iOS, and you can play their Facebook game, NASA Space Race Blast Off, right here.

The game is actually a quiz game, so don’t expect to be piloting your own spaceship or fighting off aliens (NASA totally does that). Instead, you’ll be answering multiple choice questions against two other players, with each correct answer propelling your rocket closer to launch.

The quiz questions are mostly based on early high school science, so there’s nothing too difficult here. There’s a 15 second timer per question, and a bonus for answering first, so even if your opponent is Googling every question, they won’t get the advantage over someone who genuinely knows the answers.

Outside of the actual quiz, the rest of the game is less polished. Everything is functional, but many features you’d expect to find in a multiplayer game now aren’t there. Character creation gives you a few premade avatars to pick from. There’s no progression, and no real incentive to play more that once. The ‘lobby’ button is actually a ‘join random game’ button, with no ingame chat. Even the claimed single player practice mode doesn’t seem to exist.

There’s definitely potential in educational games. The problem has always been that too much focus was put on the education, and not enough on the game. NASA Space Race Blast Off is a small step for NASA games, but it’s definitely not the giant leap edu-games need to make.

Zuhair Mehrali's Blog: Thoughts on Air for Mobile and Flex 4.6

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:46:00 +0000

I’ve recently been working, and experimenting, a lot with Flex 4.6 and deploying apps built in Flash Builder 4.6 to mobiles.

Flash Builder 4.6 splash screen

One could say that Adobe’s massive jump into mobile support across various applications (Dreamweaver, Flash) was a necessary one due to the steady, oceanic flow of users using there mobiles and smartphones for an increasing number of functions everyday. This mobile “uprising” has seen the downfall of the beloved AS3 game engine, The PushButton Engine. A special notice on the PushButton Labs website explains how “Mobile has become the centre of the universe, and social games are starting to struggle”.

I’ve released one app on the Android Market, which was a rushed test app (he says), and so I’ve got some experience of the publishing process. Articles and tutorials suggest a more daunting publishing process for sending apps over to the Apple AppStore, but more on that when I actually get round to submitting something to it.

Brief views:

The Good

Those with knowledge of AS3 and MXML can easily build mobile applications which can be deployed to Android, iOS, and Blackberry phones, and more recently, tablets.
Design the app’s layout quickly and easily with skin-able components.
Code the functionality you love with the Flex framework (now open-source).
Native extensions.

The Bad

Flash Builder and Flex 4.6 is still a new player in the mobile game, and so naturally there are limitations to the code’s interaction with native mobile functions.
Relies on the user installing Adobe Air on their mobile device, although the new captive runtime feature allows for this to be looked over, but can add a hefty 8MB or so on top of the app’s size.
Performance still needs to be greatly improved, as a lot of optimisation needs to be done on the apps at the moment.
Loooong load up/initialisation time for apps.

So, in this early review(?) of Flash/Flex-app-building, I can conclude that an exciting future of mobile development awaits, but that future has a while still in development.

We are Multiplayer: OneMoreLevel promoting Flash over HTML5 for gaming

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:53:35 +0000

OneMoreLevel has a neat little infographic up comparing HTML5 to Flash, and it’s been getting a lot of mainstream coverage recently.

The message seems is that Flash is far better for gaming, though as VentureBeat points out, OneMoreLevel is a Flash gaming site and an HTML5 site might take a different view of things.

You can see the full infographic below, or if you’d like a (much) more technical comparison of HTML5 and Flash, PhotonStorm posted an indepth article on the topic a couple of months ago, which you can read here.

Created by: One More Level

Free Game News: Grim Tales: The Legacy

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:42:35 +0000

After being invited to the Christening of your sister’s son, you arrive to find a deserted estate in Grim Tales: The Legacy! After getting married to the love of her life, it seems like a happy ending is right around the corner for your sister. However, all is not well. The sounds of ravenous beasts [...]

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Jay is Games: Weekend Download

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:00:24 +0000

[Platform: Download (Mac, Linux, Windows)] A little bit of looting, a little bit of inverting, and a whole lot of shooting in this edition of Weekend Download. In fact, if you tried to take Weekend Download through an airport security gate, you'd probably find yourself on the receiving in of some nasty stares and/or unusual search techniques.

FlashMush: Cave Explorer Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:39:00 +0000

Link: Cave Explorer
Developer: matakukos
Genre: Action
FlashMush Rating: 7.5/10

Cave Explorer for some reason reminds me a lot of Minecraft or even Minicraft. What I mean by this is it's a fairly simple game that revolves around material collection. In fact, you are essentially a mining company in Cave Explorer. You play as a drill dozer with a base which recharges you and upgrades you.

I threw out some terms like recharge and upgrades that I'll explain now. You start out with a certain charge on your dozer. Essentially each time you drill depletes that charge and you have to move all the way back to your base to recharge. You can also upgrade here which can make you drill faster, move faster, hold more charge, etc. Now, the goal is to collect material which are rocks, metal and diamonds. You can sell these to get money to upgrade yourself. Or, another interesting part of cave explorer, that also goes back to Minecraft, is you can craft things. Things such as teleportation pads so you don't have to make the long trek back to your base.

Now I do realize that to a lot of people this type of game is very slow and boring. I mean it is just drilling into pixelated dirt finding rocks. Doesn't sound too exciting I know. While I am not necessarily one of those people and did find enjoyment in Cave Explorer I do kind of wish it had more dimensions. The crafting aspect was very innovative in a game like this and adding a reason to build rather than just efficiency would have been amazing. I'm imagining either monsters in the caves and building defense structures out of the materials you find or building huge automated mining operations. But alas, none of that exists, maybe in Cave Explorer 2.

Free Game News: Robamimi – Sound Color R

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:12:09 +0000

After Snow Dance, Tamago, One Scene, Ancient Scripts, Hermit Rabi and Wonder Fountain, Who I Am? 18, Who I Am? R 20, Etude and more, here is Sound Color R, the latest Room Escape game from Robamimi. Have fun! Alternative link Sound Color R walkthrough (thanks Reka!)

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Free Game News: Bad Memory Escape X

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:44:16 +0000

Bad Memory Escape X is a Room Escape game from Gongtats. Have a bad memory? Than you’ll like this game because it gives you hints to where the hot spots are. Have fun!

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Free Game News: SSSG – Adventures of Sneaky

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:40:21 +0000

Adventures of Sneaky is a new Point’n'Click game from Selfdefiant. Sneaky is on an island searching for a mystic flute. This time you have to spend the coins to make your way. Have fun!

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Free Game News: Netbots

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:40:12 +0000

Netbots is a Puzzle game by Malk Halder. You need to connect all the bots using the pattern to the left by drawing a line from one to the next. Have fun!

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Free Game News: Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 5

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:47:58 +0000

Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 5 is the fifth Point’n’click Adventure game in the Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade series from Selfdefiant. Sneaky is still on his crusade around the globe in search of ancient gold statues. Have fun! Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 2 Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – [...]

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MochiLand: Flash Game Friday Winner: Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:30:24 +0000

Winner’s Circle

This week’s Flash Game Friday winner is Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage by Antoine Litzler!

If you are an internet geek, you’ll love this game. Memes and parody abound as Antoine manages to pull in countless familiar characters into one hilarious game!

You are the longcat, and you are definitely on a rampage. You shoot fire and even lasers from your eyes at incoming enemies. As you progress, more and more familiar memes are revealed. Antoine added a directory of the characters he used in his games, and their origins (giving proper credit).

Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage, in movie terms, would be referred to as “An irreverent good time”- congratulations on winning Flash Game Friday, Antoine!

Get to Know Antoine Litzler

Tell me about yourself- how many people are on your team? Where are you based?

My name is Antoine Litzler, but you might know me as my fancy online name “Hyakkidouran”, which is probably the only thing close to cool I will ever get. I am a froggie and am based in Frogland (some call it France).

This might be dissapointing to some people, but I am not much more than a bedroom programmer working alone. I wish I could say I have a dynamic and great team I am working with, but life has not put other crazies like me on my way yet (or a pile of gold to hire crazies), so I have to make do with my own hands.

How long have you been making games? What did you do before?

I think I started about 5 years ago with (what else?) a dress up game. But, even though my games got more complex, this always has been amateur or semi-pro (if that word even has a meaning) work, as I could not make enough money to consider quitting a regular job. Even today, I still have my day job as a computer developer/administrator for a huge cultural association.

I am probably not being original by saying that being able to live from making what I do on my own would be awesome. But I still have to thank my day job for providing me with food and licenses for Photoshop and Flash CS until now. Without this food and software, I would not be making games..

What was your inspiration for “Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage”?

Wasn’t it obvious? Memes.

Internet memes are very diverse and range from being really funny to being pure crap. I really like the older memes in particular, like “Longcat” or “All your base are belong to us”, which spawned pretty funny and interesting content.

But now it seems that young teenagers attempt to artificially create memes for the sake of “internet fame”, which usually results in crap. The good memes were usually born from a natural selection process of something that is actually funny, and that was how it worked in the early 2000′s.

The idea of the game was to adapt the “internet legend” of Longcat, while giving the opportunity to kill some bad memes.

The first Catnarok was kind of a prototype for that idea. When I saw that the prototype did fairly well despite its simplicity, I decided it was worth it to invest the time to get closer to my original vision.

Any major challenges or hurdles during development?

…Everything?

Joke aside, I think the hardest was that I had to stop the project for extended periods of time as my job or other IRL things pulled my leg. Coming back to the code after 1 month of not writing anything was a nightmare.

I also was pretty scared of the potential copyright issues.

Since there are sites out there which make money from referencing memes, I figured that, if I traced/redrew over the meme pictures, I would probably be fine (and I probably am since mochi approved the game), but I admit this worried me through all the development. I was scared that all that work would go for naught if some guy came and said “sorry, this parody, that is like the over 9000 there already are, is copyright infringement because it is more visible than the others”. ?_-

I also can’t do music, meaning I have to rely on the generosity of people online for it (usually throught people on Newgrounds audio portal or classic public domain music). All this creates kind of a legal mess that I am pretty scared of and it might be the greatest obstacle there is to moving to actual commercial game development.

Fair use is a blurry line, and it seems I did not cross it on that particular project, at least to the eyes of the users…this is quite a relief.

What types of games do you like to create the most? What types of games do you like to play the most?

Being a bedroom programmer, I have to create games I can grasp entirely on my own.

This is why I create usually shoot-them-ups or puzzle games. Those are simple enough for my monkey brain.

I have little interest in studying 3D because I think it is out of my reach (for now?), plus I am actually quite the japanese anime fan, and I really love the way 2D looks and feels.

Considering this, you will not be surprised to hear that I am a great fan of Japanese 2D fighters like Guilty Gear, Blazblue or Arcana Heart. In general, I can enjoy anything with good 2D graphics, unless the gameplay really sucks.

I am also quite the fan of Starcraft and Deus Ex. And I also have some very obscure games that I have been loving since 20 years and still play sometimes, like “Ristar” or “Zoom!” .

How long is your game creation cycle? What is your process?

I am that kind of person who usually has 20 funny and unrealistic ideas per minute, so the main part of the process is to filter those ideas by wondering “what can I, with my skill and time currently at hand, actually do?”. Once I can envision an idea that is simple enough to code, but still feels like it will be fun despite my limited ressources, I start working on it.

After that, it usually becomes pretty chaotic, since I am forced to code and draw when I can, with sometimes huge periods during which I can’t do anything on the game. Talking about a “process” would be complimenting this mess really.

Are there any game developers that you admire or consider “rock stars”?

Daisuke Ishiwatari, who is litterally a developer AND a rock star.

I am also quite a fan of the early work of Peter Molyneux on the PC, before he started doing this Fable-RPG thing. Even though I don’t play his games as regularily as the ones I quoted earlier, all of them are really good, intriguing games that qualify as “unique experiences”.

I also admire all indie developers. Period. I realized how much it takes balls to do games, and everyone taking this risk without stable financing deserves respect.

What is it about making a new game that you enjoy most?

Hard to tell. What is certain is that the moment your prototype runs well enough, allowing you to play the game from start to finish, do feel really special. The polishing and balancing that comes after that is actually way more tedious (but unfortunately necessary).

Do you have any hot projects you’re working on right now?

Do I! I virtually have a pile of projects waiting that I can’t wait to recede.

I think that the hottest news is that I have been working on creating a completely original license, based on my love for anime. I took a few clues from Mochi’s very own Mr. Shen, and thought it would be a great idea to have a cross-media character that I could use for games, comics, or virtually anything I want.

This character is “Serina, the star guardian”, a character heavily influenced by the magical girl genre, but with a bunch of personnal twists that hopefully will make her unique. Besides expressing my anime love, I am also creating this character for the sake of all the kids in my family, which makes this project even more stimulating and interesting.

Overall, I have great hopes for the future, and maybe this feature of Catnarok 2 will contribute to that extra boost I need to start my own thing into full steam. And if it’s not… well, I am ready to keep doing my dirty things in my bedroom at night. :)

Thanks Antoine, and congratulations again on winning Flash Game Friday!

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BubbleBox Blog: Impossible Quiz: A Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda Situation

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:00:26 +0000

The Impossible Quiz Book is a trivia game that was well thought of as a concept, but unfortunately the execution meets a hard roadblock on the eighth question, which pulls its grade down quite a bit. There is currently no apparent solution to the eighth question, (and I have tried; seemingly every pixel of the [...]

FlashMush: Parking Hooligan Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Link: Parking Hooligan
Developer: Dennatolich
Genre: Physics/Puzzle
FlashMush Rating: 6.5/10

Parking is terrible, especially finding places to park. So what do you do when you can't find a place to park? Ram every car till you fit in, is what! That is the overall theme of this maniac road raged game that is Parking Hooligan.

Of course you do this in typical physics puzzler fashion. Now I know I do criticize a lot of physics puzzle games and it may seem to you, my audience, that I get tired of reviewing them or that I think developers should stop making them. Trust me when I say this is not the case. I criticize a lot of these types of games for being too similar, yes, but that doesn't make them bad. Anyways, Parking Hooligan is actually fairly unique. Although not sure if that's quite a good thing in this case.

Why you may ask? Well, it's cars. One would expect cars to move in straight linear paths. Not in Parking Hooligan. You sort of launch them in angled arcs. Also the car is quite bouncy. When you actually get to playing you'll realize your target parking spot is actually quite small and since the car is so bouncy and slides a lot...it makes this part very difficult. Also the idea of you have to destroy all the cars on the map...it's an interesting idea. I feel I'd much rather have had a game that it was optional and you get bonus points for "safe" parking. But I'm not really hear to explain to you guys what I would have done differently as obviously the developer had an idea in mind. So for now my critiques deal with the gameplay which make it incredibly unnecessarily difficult although it is an interesting concept for a game.

Armor Games Blog: We have a winner!

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:04:02 +0000

We’ve tallied all the ratings for the three “2012″ games and found our winner!

Congrats to Juicy Beast and all those who rated Silverado Apocalypse Blaster. It will be featured online as Chevy’s official Epic “2012″ game during Superbowl XLVI!

Check it Out!

FlashMush: SCGMD4 Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Link: SCGMD4
Developer: Second Impact Games
Genre: Music
FlashMush Rating: 7/10

SCGMD4, what does this seemingly incoherent mixture of letters and one number represent? Well, Super Crazy Guitar Mania Deluxe 4 is what! This is a highly played and loved flash game franchise built on the ever so popular rhythm genre.

Now, like I said in Santa Rockstar 4, I'm not that good at these types of games but I do enjoy them and have played my fair share of them. I open with this line because...even though SCGMD4 has been hyped up and from reading comments on Kongregate and elsewhere it seems to be getting great feedback. I just don't see it. Don't get me wrong. There are some elements I love. For instance the achievement system is great and reminds me of the Achievement Unlocked series. I also love the implementation of boss battles. And in general the gameplay plays very well.

However... while it has everything a good rhythm game should have, it doesn't go the extra mile. The graphics, while polished in their own sense, still felt dated. 3 years old dated. Which is terrible in this fast moving environment we have going. I just feel that they made a good foundation game although since this is the 4th rendition they should have had that already down pat two games ago, but they didn't build anything on that foundation. Boss battles, the cinematic scenes that play while you play, graphics. Everything is good but could and should have been worlds better. But if you are a fan of rhythm games, you will like SCGMD4.

Free Game News: Scale of the Universe 2

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:03:26 +0000

Scale of the Universe 2 by Cary Huang and Michael Huang is basically Scale of the Universe with better graphics, new commentary, and 87 more objects than its predecessor. If you enjoyed the first one, you will love this one! Have fun!

Continue Reading about Scale of the Universe 2

AncientCards: A Survival Room

noreply@blogger.com (AncientCardsTeam) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:09:00 +0000

I know, again three days have passed, sorry. But here it is:

Guy using his new Battle Axe to fight off some Kombies and Zoobs.

I am the solo developer, and a friend, Gabriel Luis (TioPalada) is the game artist, but we are working together on the whole game (story, monsters concept, level design, UI, ...). And another friend Lucas Meneguette is creating to us some amazing tracks and lots of custom sounds, that are incredible.

The game is almost complete, and we will release it soon. See you on the next post with one more news.

Regards!
TadeuBAS

Jay is Games: The Scale of the Universe 2

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Similar in concept to the Total Perspective Vortex, from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Scale of the Universe 2 isn't really a game, but it'll still blow your mind. You start at human scale and can scroll all the way down to theoretical concepts like strings or all the way up to the potential size of the universe. That's pretty big, and you have to scroll for a long, long, long time time to get back to human scale from there. It's kind of terrifying, honestly. Try not to think about it too much.

Free Game News: Surface: Mystery of Another World Collector’s Edition

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:03:19 +0000

After your son, Bobby, mysteriously disappears, it’s up to you to find him in Surface: The Mystery of Another World! A peaceful train ride to the coast goes way off course and now strange occurrences are happening all around you! It seems that there is another world just past your reflection. Use your Hidden Object [...]

Continue Reading about Surface: Mystery of Another World Collector’s Edition

Jay is Games: Porcupine Pop

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Feed some peckish porcupines in pursuit of the perfect Philly "sammich". Strap a porcupine into the slingshot and aim, clearing a stage of balloons using as few rodents as possible. Each color balloon affects your prickly pal's trajectory differently and you'll have to contend with air currents and pesky clouds to boot. Plus, you'll get to brush up on your geography as the porcupines bounce their way across America on their quest to the City of Sammich-y Love.

Free Game News: Minoto – Ugly Ducking 3

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:04:35 +0000

Fans of Minoto, rejoice: Ugly Duckling 3, the latest Minoto’s Point’n’Click Adventure game is live! Have fun!

Continue Reading about Minoto – Ugly Ducking 3

Free Game News: Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Countryside Escape

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:02:03 +0000

Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Countryside Escape is the latest SSSG Puzzle game by Selfdefiant. Your drink has been poisoned, and the antidote is hidden somewhere nearby. Now you must figure out where it is before it’s too late! Have fun!

Continue Reading about Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Countryside Escape

Free Game News: Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 4

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:51:29 +0000

Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 4 is the fourth Point’n’click Adventure game in the Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade series from Selfdefiant. Sneaky is still on his crusade around the globe in search of ancient gold statues. Have fun! Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 2 Play Super Sneaky Spy Guy – [...]

Continue Reading about Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 4

FlashMush: Defender's Quest Demo Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Link: Defender's Quest (Demo)
Developer: LevelUpLabs
Genre: Defense/Strategy/RPG/Adventure
FlashMush Rating: 9/10

I'm sure the first thing you are noticing here is the word, "Demo". Yes, I'm reviewing another demo game. I believe my first was for Kingdom Rush, and look how that has turned out. So while this is just a demo version of Defender's Quest, it has loads of promise.

First off though, this is a long demo. Not your typical one or two levels, this is one or two hours of gameplay. Yeah..you read that correctly. Secondly, this is sort of the Prelude to the whole Defender's Quest series as the full title is Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten. Take note of that last part; Valley of the Forgotten as it's a huge part of the storyline here. But first off I'll briefly explain the gameplay as it's interesting. It plays in typical tower defense style, however your "towers" if you will are actually units and characters of the story. It is in this way that Defender's Quest brings together both defense and RPG worlds. Furthermore you can upgrade your characters, buy them items, etc.

That takes care of a lot of the tower defense features and makes it a pretty well rounded game in that aspect. But what makes it even better is the story behind everything. Of course this is not anything new but the level of detail and some of the story telling is above the average defense game and well above most flash games. Adding on to this, the graphics for everything is superb. In tower defense mode you have a nice retro feel to it but in the cut scenes you have nice hand crafted art and you can tell a lot of work went into it.

The only complaints really is that this is only a demo. However, if you want the full copy you do have to pay for it, but it's worth it!

Jay is Games: ChatChat

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] ChatChat is an online multiplayer game by Terry Cavanagh, creator of VVVVVV. It's a highly intricate simulation involving deep-level behavioral algorithms and calculus-based — wait, no it isn't! It's about being a kitty! The wildest dream of every internet human has come true in this simple little game, giving you full permission to nap, purr, meow, and catch mice to your furry heart's content.

Jay is Games: Adynatopia

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Imagine a dimension not only of sight, but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are imagination. This should help put you in the right state of mind before you venture into Louis (T)'s unique puzzle platformer, where you control a black pawn in 4-dimensional space. Your goal in each of the 14 levels is to touch the grey checkpoints through what looks like some impossible jumping. This game will blow your mind! Or possibly just blow it up.

Jay is Games: Link Dump Friday

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Ponies? Wrestlers? Word magic? Check, check, check, and then some! Link Dump Friday has some very cool news this week about some upcoming games, as well as and interview with recent Game of the Year 2011 winners Ironhide Games!

Andy Moore Blog: Word Game DevLog: Day 7

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:29:41 +0000

Today is day 7! I was really hoping I would have the game finished today, just to say I made the game in a week – but after 7 hours of work I’m having to forfeit. I’m travelling out to see the Indie Game: The Movie screening in Winnipeg early tomorrow morning, so I’ve got to pack and get prepared tonight!

The done stuff

The game is pretty much feature-complete. I took the two divergent core gameplay mechancis and mixed them together into a single, fun unit. There’s all sorts of polish – screen shakes, particle effects, animated (tweened) characters, high scores, game center integration, etc… All the little details that turn a game from a “good mechanic” to a game that actually feels good.

I’ve been playing a lot of the game between builds, which I think is a really good sign. I’m really enjoying how the game feels, and it’s an actual challenge for me.

Sven also got me a set of new art (some of it placeholder, but at least it’s better placeholder than my own stuff!), and I have to say.. it makes the game look completely different. I avoided sharing any screenshots of the game, and was very possessive of who got to see beta copies… Once you see the beta-art, the game is forever stained in your mind, I think. It’s hard to get over that first impression. This new stuff – even half-done placeholders – is way better and I’ll start sharing screens soon!

The not-quite-done stuff

Sven is making some glorious art for the game, and it’s really coming together in a rapid fashion. Unfortunately for me, he has a day job and lives on the opposite side of the planet – so a lot of the assets are still placeholder, and little things like static animations (to make the game really pop) are probably a few days away at the earliest.

But I think one of the worst things, is the game name isn’t settled on anymore. “Word Fishing” was going to be the title, but it’s already a title in the AppStore – time for more brainstorming! (and of course: it’s hard for Sven to do art for the title screen when there’s no name yet).

The official changelog for the day

Local high score storage and ranking
End-of-game best words list with point values
Better GameCenter score handling and timing
New set of art – backdrops, character, tiles. Makes the game feel way different already!
Gameplay balance tweaks to score and combo cooldown rates
Screenshake! Aww yes. Every game feels better with screenshake!
Aesthetic changes to particle effects, their numbers, and their behaviours
Built a system to swap in random art assets for variety
Added the ability to give up mid-game and not lose your score
End-of-game screen does a bit more hand-holding
Lots of little bug fixes and performance optimizations

We are Multiplayer: Dungeon King: Dreadstorm Keep review

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:19:09 +0000

After a slight delay from the announced release date, Dungeon King: Dreadstorm Keep is here. Bulletproof Arcade let us play the full game to see how it stands up, and it’s very impressive.

The game plays similarly to Diablo or Torchlight, in that you run around a dungeon clicking on creatures to attack them before they can kill you. Early enemies are kited all too easily and the first couple of floors involve nothing more than running in circles clicking the mouse button, but gradually you’ll start meeting stronger opponents with AoE or ranged attacks, and this makes for much better battles.

One small annoyance is that each attack requires a new mouse click. We mention this because fans of other dungeon crawlers are likely more used to being able to click and hold the mouse for repeated attacks on the same enemy, and that’s a feature we’d like to see introduced here.

Aside from that, gameplay is smooth and responsive. Loot only seems to be available from the shop though, rather than collected from monsters, and there’s no crafting either, two features that we miss from other dungeon crawlers. Still, we’re being picky, because everything that did make it into the game is done well.

Graphically, Dungeon King is on a par with the major dungeon crawlers. You won’t find many Flash games with graphics of this quality. That graphical prowess comes with a caveat though – we’d be surprised if the game ran on anything below a dual core CPU with 2gb of RAM.

Ultimately the question isn’t whether Dungeon King is a good game, because it is. The real question is whether it’s worth the $10 price point. It’s difficult to recommend when Torchlight costs the same on Steam, but at the same time compared to most Flash RPGs this is a masterpiece.

If you’re done with Diablo and tired of Torchlight, Dungeon King: Dreadstorm Keep might just be what you need. At the very least, play the demo here (requires Flash Player 11) for a look at what’s possible in Flash now.

Armor Games Blog: Kingdom Rush #3 in App Store!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:31:08 +0000

Armor Games and Iron Hide Game Studios is proud to announce Kingdom Rush is now the #3 paid iPad game in the App Store! We would like to thank everyone who has supported Kingdom Rush and downloaded the game. KR is also on sale for $0.99, get it now while the sale lasts!

FlashMush: Burrito Bison Revenge Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Link: Burrito Bison Revenge
Developer: JuicyBeast
Genre: Action/Upgrades/Distance
FlashMush Rating: 9.5/10

Burrito Bison is back and he wants revenge! I was so happy to have seen this sequel today as if you keep up with my ratings here on FlashMush Reviews you'd know that Burrito Bison (the original) I rated a 10/10 and is one of my favorite games.

Burrito Bison Revenge picks up right where the first left off..sort of. After escaping from Candy Land, the bison realizes his wallet was stolen and goes back into Candy Land to wreck havoc and retrieve it back! You may be wondering what is different in Revenge from the original Burrito Bison. Honestly...not much although it is a launcher game so not much change is expected to happen I suppose. The gameplay stayed the same although the graphics did change which is very humorous. It's the same backdrops as the first but now everything is destroyed. Great continuity there.

A "better" upgrade system is also present. Better in the sense of just more stuff. Although to be fair this is pretty cool. You can now upgrade the wrestlers you are fighting at the beginning of each launch. In the original it was just a Jawbreaker but now it was a Chocolate Chip Cookie, then a monstrous gummy bear dog thing, and so forth. The inclusion of a survival mode is also great as it adds to some replay value. The only aspect that lowers my rating is really...it's the same thing. To some people that may be fine and dandy but I guess I was expecting some large changes, not just the same game with a different look. Still excellent though, hence my 9.5.

Free Game News: Abroy – Artist’s Secret

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:25:14 +0000

After Bachelor’s Mystery, here is Artist’s Secret, the latest Room Escape game from Abroy. “Some of the pieces are gone missing from the picture, try to find all of them by solving puzzles!” Have fun!

Continue Reading about Abroy – Artist’s Secret

Armor Games Blog: Developer Battle Royale!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:49:05 +0000

This developer battle royale needs a winner and today is your very last date to rate which game you think deserves to be featured on Armor Games and Chevy’s social channels during Super Bowl XLVI!

Play all three games and tell us what you think! (Click Here)

Jay is Games: Mission in Space: The Lost Colony

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Mission in Space: The Lost Colony is an extremely customizable turn-based strategy game with an easy-to-use interface and variety of challenges that will please players of any skill level. Plus it has a valuable lesson about the dangers of ventilation ducts. Spoiler alert: they contain aliens.

Jay is Games: JanJan Escape

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Is it a lucid dream by someone highly feverish? Is it a new escape game from Detarou? Well, why the heck can't it be both? It's JanJan Escape, and, as is standard for the genre, there are puzzles to solve and a room you must get out of. Not standard for the genre, of course, is the bed full of spaghetti, the leering koala man, the salaryman-swatting plant creature, and the pot-headed duo in the wrestling onesies. Of course, they're pretty standard for Detarou, as all the hair-pulling but logical puzzles.

Jay is Games: You Are Games: Letters In Boxes #28

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Usually, you'd be greeted to each Letters in Boxes challenge with a warm smile and an equally warm chocolate chip cookie. This week, however, we're telling you to get lost! We've got another batch of homegrown puzzles for you to tackle, all themed around mazes. In each grid, you'll find a way in and a way out, but how to get from one to the other is left for you to figure out.

Free Game News: Tesshi-e – Mild Escape 1

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:14:09 +0000

Mild Escape 1 is the latest Room Escape game released by Tesshi-e, the author of Escape into the Open Air Hot Spring, The Happy Escape, Escape from the brick Room, Escape from Hotel 4, Escape from Hotel 3, Escape from Mr. K’s Room 3, Escape from the Rest Room and many more. Don’t forget to [...]

Continue Reading about Tesshi-e – Mild Escape 1

Free Game News: Shatter Bot

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:31:33 +0000

Shatter Bot is a Action Skill game by Sam Raski. Use your arrow keys to move across the skyline shooting the bad guys. Use your points to upgrade your defenses. Have fun!

Continue Reading about Shatter Bot

Joe Willmott's Blog: How to present our idea

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Willmott) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:23:00 +0000

So our final idea is to have pirate shadow fights luring people up the alley towards the chapel with constant sounds moving with it and stories being told on the way. The alley we are using is Martin's Lane. Now we have to decide how to present our idea to the class and hopefully get voted in the top three to go deploy our idea.

I think an interactive video or basic game would give us the freedom to show off our idea and the different outcomes and also talk through it at our own pace, so I will whip up a demo in flash to show the group before we make an in-depth version for the class. To show how our idea would work you could control a person from a birds-eye view walking down the alley, then when they reach certain points there would be a small window pop up in the top corner and show a video of what shadows were being shown along with the appropriate audio. We could then explain as we play through the game how all these things would be integrated and have pictures of how we would deploy then down our alley.

FlashMush: Hordes of Hordes Flash Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kingmush) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Link: Hordes of Hordes
Developer: Undefined
Genre: Defense/Strategy
FlashMush Rating: 9/10

Undefined, the mastermind behind Quick Quests and the Arkandia Series is back with his crack at a tower defense game; Hordes of Hordes. While tower defense games are immensely popular I'm sure you have your series favorites like Bloons Tower Defense, Gemcraft, Cursed Treasure or Kingdom Rush and may be wondering what is special about Hordes of Hordes. Many things!

To be honest, based off of the tutorial and in a quick glance Hordes of Hordes may seem like an ordinary and maybe even boring tower defense game. However as you play and get deeper and deeper into the gameplay you realize that there is some real ground breaking elements here. First off, if you don't know I like to break tower defense games into essentially two types. You have linear and non-linear path tower defense games. Linear would be like Bloons Tower Defense, Gemcraft, etc. that I listed above. Whereas non-linear is sort of like Desktop Defense where you place blocks and sort of make your own linear path but in general it is pretty open ended. Hordes of Hordes manages to combine these elements. You have a fixed path to start off with but you can alter that path to make it a little longer or what have you. So technically I guess it leans more to the non-linear path side but it does have the appearance of linear paths.

Secondly of what makes Hordes of Hordes so great is the idea of sort of fabricating new traps/units/spells. When you win levels you get random upgrade items. Books, magic gems and spell books. You use these in conjunction with an upgrade system to buy different units from the standard archer, knight and mage. As well as upgrade or invent new traps and spells. Hordes of Hordes does have some short comings though. Mainly in the length factor. Now I am all for lengthy flash games but Hordes of Hordes takes it to a new level. Each level not on endless mode seems to take forever. You have literally hordes and hordes of waves and enemies to deal with and it gets tedious as the difficulty is not that bad either.

Overall though Hordes of Hordes is a great tower defense game and I can see it earning it's place in the "Hall of Fame" for flash tower defense games.

Free Game News: Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 3

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:57:14 +0000

Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 3 is the third Point’n'click Adventure game in the Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade series from Selfdefiant After Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 2, Sneaky is still on his crusade around the globe in search of ancient gold statues. Have fun!

Continue Reading about Super Sneaky Spy Guy – Crusade 3

Jay is Games: Super Crazy Guitar Maniac Deluxe 4

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

[Platform: Flash] Super Crazy Guitar Maniac Deluxe 4 is all about re-imagining the Guitar Hero experience for your home PC. It improves over its predecessors with amusing presentation and a host of new options and features. You can play every song in two difficulty levels, garner achievements for epic thrashing or embarrassing failure, and battle egregious enemy bosses like the diabolical Puppet or the innocent Pizza Guy through the shear power of Rock. Or you can just put on your headphones and sneak a quick jam in a break in your day.

Andy Moore Blog: Word game DevLog: Day 6

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:39:28 +0000

After Global GameJam, I took some time off to recover. Yesterday (Tuesday) I put in about 6 hours of work… My heart wasn’t really into it (I had a really rough sleep) so I started by kinda just poking at things.

The Evil that is Refactoring Code

I’m a big fan of “just get it done,” and doing it as fast (and as messy) as possible. It’s this skill that allows someone to finish a game for a 48 hour game jam… Or heck, even in the 5 Minute Game Challenge I hold at OrcaJam. I think these skills translate very well to managing deadlines (in more structured environments) or actually finishing your game for the indies out there.

Your biggest enemy in rapid game development is that desire to do things right the first time. Over engineering is the devil! There’s time for that later.

For day 6, though, I was really not feeling that creative. Scrolling through my mess of code wasn’t making things better, and I decided I’d spend some time cleaning up. I shuffled out some new classes and moved things around – ultimately, simplifying and marginally speeding things up. I largely look at it as a waste of time, but there is one small benefit I gained: The exercise of cleaning up the code for 3 hours managed to dust all the cobwebs out of my brain, and I was able to actually get some work done for the remaining 3 hours.

Implementing GameCenter Support

Getting your AS3/AIR application to access some iOS-device functions (such as GameCenter, iAds, and in-app-purchases) is really tough. Sarah pointed me towards Milkman Games and their suite of tools for AIR/AS3 developers, and I thought I’d give the GameCenter component a whirl before I implement highscore functionality.

Yeah, it costs money – about $70 for this piece – but I swear I couldn’t find a single thing that came close to free in months of casual web searching. Getting this kind of thing working takes some talent, time, and some core development skills.

I am pleased to say that with about 10 minutes of reading the documentation and typing out the code, I had a complete GameCenter tie-in working (with score submissions and table browsing)… and it worked on my first compile, with no tests at all. (I spent another 20 minutes setting up my Apple Developer account, but that’s because their forms kept timing out on me. *shakes fists*)

MilkManGames did an excellent job of documenting this package, and even covered some gotchas at the end of their documentation, with sample code too. All in all, it was well worth the money and the package was very well put together. It’s not 100% perfect, and integrating it with FlashDevelop has a few minor quibbles, but I hear FD is working on a fix for that (not MMG’s fault).

Some other stuff

I managed to get a nice tweened animation for the main character as you’re playing, which helps give the game a bit of flow. I also settled on a core mechanic and re-introduced certain elements, like combo-multipliers and timer cooldown systems. I also did some work on the end-game to make it a bit less weird (but still retaining that not-so-jarring experience).

All in all, a good day, considering how I felt at the start. :)

We are Multiplayer: Netherlands Judge says virtual items “have value”

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:05:48 +0000

The Dutch Supreme court was recently forced to rule on whether virtual goods have real word value or not, after an appeal by a teenager that stole Runescape items at knifepoint from a 13 year old boy.

The original crime took place in 2007, with a lower court conviction in 2009. The appeal to the Supreme Court was based on the argument that virtual goods are intangible and hold no actual value, which was rejected by the judges on the grounds that they represented an investment of time and money, and held value to their rightful owner.

The victim, now 18, and Dutch taxpayers, will surely be pleased to know that the case is resolved after having dragged on for the past 5 years. Justice was finally served with a 144 hour community service punishment for the 20 year old thief. It’s unknown whether either the thief or the victim still play Runescape at this point, however.

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Download Now!

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MochiLand: Flash Game Friday Winner: Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage

Winner’s Circle

Get to Know Antoine Litzler

Tell me about yourself- how many people are on your team? Where are you based?

How long have you been making games? What did you do before?

What was your inspiration for “Catnarok 2: Longcat Rampage”?

Any major challenges or hurdles during development?

What types of games do you like to create the most? What types of games do you like to play the most?

How long is your game creation cycle? What is your process?

Are there any game developers that you admire or consider “rock stars”?

What is it about making a new game that you enjoy most?

Do you have any hot projects you’re working on right now?

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