Archive for February, 2010

26 February, 2010 | No comments

Jay Is Games: Link Dump Friday

a href=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/02/link_dump_friday_153.phpimg alt=Link Dump Friday src=http://jayisgames.com/images/icon_linkdump.gif align=left width=50 height=50 //a

Games featured this week: strongBloons Super Monkey; Craqua; Fenticore; ImmorTall; Sally’s Cats/strong #8212;

There’re two shooters, two physics puzzles, and a sidescrolling commentary on the intolerance of man on this week’s Link Dump Friday. Sounds like a winning combination to us! Like chips and dip, peanut butter and jelly, or ham and blueberries!strong Tagged as: /stronga href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/blogblog/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/browserbrowser/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/linkdumplinkdump/a

24 February, 2010 | No comments

Jay Is Games: Escape from 5th Door

strongPlatform: Flash #8212; /strong

a href=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/02/escape_from_5th_door.phpimg alt=Escape from 5th Door src=http://jayisgames.com/images/icon_escapefrom5thdoor.gif align=left width=50 height=50 //a

With a nice mix of math, logic, color, and construction, Escape from 5th Door is fun, balanced room escaping that challenges and teases and taunts and eventually leaves you happy to escape. Be prepared for some odd leaps of logic, and laugh at the bad escape when you find it. Just get escaping!strong Tagged as: /stronga href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/browserbrowser/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/escapeescape/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/flashflash/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/freefree/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/gamegame/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/japanesejapanese/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/macwinlinuxmacwinlinux/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/pointandclickpointandclick/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/rating-grating-g/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/tesshi-etesshi-e/a

22 February, 2010 | No comments

Jay Is Games: Mobile Monday

strongPlatform: Mobile (iPhone, iPod Touch) #8212; /strong

a href=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/02/mobile_monday_57.phpimg alt=Mobile Monday src=http://jayisgames.com/images/icon_mobilemonday.gif align=left width=50 height=50 //a

Games featured this week: strongNOBY NOBY BOY; Isaac Newton’s Gravity; Colorbind/strong #8212;

How’s this for a theme: three games that make you scratch your head! Colorbind because you can’t figure out how to do what’s right in front of your face. Gravity because you can’t figure out how to precisely set up a chain reaction to tap a little button. And NOBY NOBY BOY because you have no earthly idea what’s going on (even though you love it).strong Tagged as: /stronga href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/blogblog/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/iphoneiphone/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/itunesitunes/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/mobilemobile/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/mobile-mondaymobile-monday/a

19 February, 2010 | No comments

Grey Alien Games: 10 tips for getting past “the wall”

pa href=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/?pp_album=mainamp;pp_cat=wallamp;pp_image=wall.jpg title=wallimg src=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/wp-content/photos/thumb_wall.jpg class=pp_image alt=wall width=240 height=180 //aemPhoto by: viZZZual.com (licensed under Creative Commons)br /
/embr /
Quite often I see posts on a href=http://forums.indiegamer.com/Indiegamer/a about people who have nearly finished making their game but then they#8217;ve hit #8220;the wall#8221; and seem to have lost all motivation to continue. Their story is often all too familiar: been making a game for two years, been doing all the work on their own, recently come to the realisation that there is still a ton of stuff to do before it can be released./p
pI#8217;ve hit the wall a few times myself, so here are some tips that might help you to climb over or break through your own wall:/p
p1) strongShould you really be finishing this game anyway?/strong Sometimes you might just be flogging a dead horse. Perhaps the best thing to do is ditch the game and begin work on a new one (or give up making games completely, gasp!). There#8217;s no shame in changing projects when you know that the game won#8217;t be financially viable, or you#8217;ve had a much better idea (providing that you don#8217;t have a #8220;better#8221; idea every week and never finish anything) #8211; you#8217;ll have still learned something e.g. how not to do it and how to make your next game faster and better./p
pI ditched a href=http://www.greyaliengames.com/free.phpIron Fist/a and made my a href=http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus.phpfirst match-3/a game and it led onto to a fantastic career in casual games./p
p2) strongMake a To Do list of all the remaining tasks and bugs/strong. Don#8217;t forget to include publishing tasks, which can add up to weeks or months#8217; worth of work. Then add time estimates to all those tasks. This way you#8217;ll get a decent idea of how long the game may actually take to complete. You may then decide to cut features and only include the high priority tasks in order to bring the launch date nearer, or you may decide that it#8217;s not worth investing any more of your time in the project./p
pOne good thing about having a prioritised To Do list is that you have a clear path about how to proceed and can get satisfaction from knowing what to do each day and crossing off completed tasks. The game doesn#8217;t feel so massive once it#8217;s split into discrete chunks./p
p3) strongGet the game play tested (privately or publicly)./strong If the play testers think the game sucks, then maybe you should ditch it unless you really believe that you can still make it great without too many changes. If they think it#8217;s great, then hopefully this will motivate you to finish it and make it even better #8211; especially if they keep asking you when it will be ready./p
p4) strongTell everyone a launch date./strong Once you commit to something publicly, you are much more likely to complete it in order to not look like a fool (or a #8220;sayer#8221; but not a #8220;doer#8221;)./p
p5) strongGet some other team members on board/strong who can help finish it and so you can motivate each other (like going for a jog or to the gym with a partner). Of course getting reliable team members is a whole can of worms in itself#8230;/p
p6) strongGet a publisher or portal interested/strong so you know that you have at least one outlet for sales./p
p7) strongVisualise the goal!/strong Remind yourself why you started making the game. Was it just to have fun? If so, and you#8217;ve stopped having fun, then make another game and have fun again, it#8217;s that simple! If it#8217;s to be financially successful, then see the finished game in your mind looking great and selling bucketloads #8211; and figure out the shortest route to get there. /p
p8 ) strongTake a break./strong Maybe totally away from the computer (go and do something healthy). Or maybe by playing games that inspire you to get back to making your own game. Sometimes taking a break allows you to come back to your game with fresh eyes so that you can make better decisions./p
p9) strongMake a mini-game for a few days./strong This may get your creative juices going again so that you can get back to your original game with enhanced vigor. It may even make you realise that you need to ditch your game in order to make a better game./p
pTips 8 and 9 may work for some people, but part of me still thinks that they are procrastination techniques when you should really just #8230; /p
p10) strongFinish it!/strong Professionals are finishers, and hobbyists/wannabes are not #8211; sorry if that sounds harsh but it#8217;s true. Stop messing around, just knuckle down and finish it. It#8217;s not easy, sometimes it#8217;s a real slog, but you just have to push on through and finish it to savor the sweet joy of launching a game. If you want it bad enough, you#8217;ll do it. So, what are you waiting for? Close your browser and get to it!/p
img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GreyAlienGames/~4/-6ilOh2i_lQ height=1 width=1 /

17 February, 2010 | No comments

Game Producer: Producers Are Like Cry Babies

div class=tweetmeme_buttona href=http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gameproducer.net%2F2010%2F02%2F17%2Fproducers-are-like-cry-babies%2Fimg src=http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gameproducer.net%2F2010%2F02%2F17%2Fproducers-are-like-cry-babies%2F height=61 width=51 //a/divpAs I have my own baby project going on, and as I#8217;ve witnessed some producers actions (and happen to be an indie one) I came to conclusion that producers are almost like babies./p
table
tr
tdbsituation/b/td
tdbbaby/b/td
tdbproducer/b/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topneeds diapers/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(based on how much bullshit you can pick from his talk)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topsays incomprehensible stuff/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(obvious)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topis the boss/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topis agile/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(at least think his team is doing #8220;agile development#8221;)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topcraves for attention/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topoh, yes i(some even put out public blogs to make them feel important)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topcries for attention/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topeats most of the time/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(lunches, lunches, lunches)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topcries/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(see below)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topThinks that you promised something when you said that #8220;This is only a gut feeling estimation based on total guesswork. In no way this should be used as a promise to anyone. This task might take 3 days, or not. Most likely it won#8217;t. In fact, most likely it will be something totally different I think. I cannot promise that I can get you that toy/feature in time and you should not even think that this can be completed in 3 days.#8221; Yet after 3 days (s)he comes to you crying #8220;but you promised!!!#8221;
/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=topyes i(i#8217;ve witnessed this happening)/i/td
/tr
tr
td valign=topis cute/td
td valign=topyes/td
td valign=tophardly/td
/tr
/table
pBesides the cute-factor, I think the evidence is pretty solid./p
bIf you liked this entry, feel free to a href=http://www.gameproducer.netvisit GameProducer.net/a to read more similar articles./b

15 February, 2010 | No comments

Grey Alien Games: I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 2.9.1

pThe upgrade was seamless, which was a relief seeing as my old version of Wordpress was pretty ancient. Anyway, please keep an eye out for any oddities and let me know if anything is weird (I know that the photopress plugin is a bit broken, so when you click on images they get overwritten by the sidebar)./p
pI also added a Most Popular section to the sidebar, which I#8217;m very pleased with. At some point I want to add a recent posts list too (or popular recent posts). I could even add a Recommended section as the most popular aren#8217;t necessarily the best ones (imho). However, this will just make the sidebar ultra long so maybe a smart way to do it would maybe be with some kind of tabbed control #8211; although I#8217;ve got no idea how to do that as HTML/php is not my forté (perhaps one of you has heard of a plugin for such a thing?)/p
pOther changes are; I renamed Categories to Topics which is a tip I learned from a href=http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/Tim Feriss/a (excellent blog if you#8217;ve never checked it out #8211; also I recommend his book), and I moved my Twitter status down a bit so that people don#8217;t click on it and exit the blog./p
pNow I#8217;ve got to get used to the new Wordpress look and capabilities. Anything really cool I should know about?/p
img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GreyAlienGames/~4/5TFaSraxe8Y height=1 width=1 /

12 February, 2010 | No comments

Grey Alien Games: This is how beautiful Vancouver is

pI moved to Vancouver in November 2008 to work as a game designer/programmer for Big Fish Games. One of the reasons we decided to move here was that Canada has amazing scenery and Vancouver is in a fantastic beautiful location./p
pI love taking photos and here are some recent ones that I feel capture the essence of our local environment. Enjoy! (click images to enlarge them)/p
pa href=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/?pp_album=mainamp;pp_cat=vancouveramp;pp_image=skyline_1.jpg title=skyline 2img src=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/wp-content/photos/thumb_skyline_1.jpg class=pp_image alt=skyline 2 width=240 height=180 //a/p
pView from our rear balcony (we are seriously lucky to have such a great view)./p
pa href=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/?pp_album=mainamp;pp_cat=vancouveramp;pp_image=nature_1.jpg title=nature 2img src=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/wp-content/photos/thumb_nature_1.jpg class=pp_image alt=nature 2 width=240 height=180 //a/p
pBald Eagles nest here, North West of Vancouver./p
pa href=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/?pp_album=mainamp;pp_cat=vancouveramp;pp_image=islands_1.jpg title=islands 2img src=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/wp-content/photos/thumb_islands_1.jpg class=pp_image alt=islands 2 width=240 height=180 //a/p
pView out to sea from a roadside parking lot, North West Vancouver./p
img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GreyAlienGames/~4/kwUuHsW1oJk height=1 width=1 /

10 February, 2010 | No comments

Jay Is Games: Island Escape: Funky Parrot Redemption

strongPlatform: Flash #8212; /strong

a href=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/02/island_escape_funky_parrot_redemption.phpimg alt=Island Escape: Funky Parrot Redemption src=http://jayisgames.com/images/icon_funkyparrotredemption.gif align=left width=50 height=50 //a

We’re not talking rocket science, here. A kicking intro, a handful of goofy puzzles, one of the coolest escapes ever, and you’re done. Sometimes, though, it’s nice to take a break from cold logic and just have a little fun. Strip down to shorts, put on a funky hat, grab a tasty beverage of your choice, and enjoy the island madness. And the inflatable pig.strong Tagged as: /stronga href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/browserbrowser/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/escapeescape/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/flashflash/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/freefree/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/gamegame/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/macwinlinuxmacwinlinux/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/pointandclickpointandclick/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/rating-grating-g/a

8 February, 2010 | No comments

Grey Alien Games: Games I played this week and IDEs I used

pSomeone called Blitzplotter on the Blitzmax.com forums often asks what games we played over the last week and this time he also asked what IDEs we#8217;d been using. I thought I#8217;d post my answer here as it#8217;s been a fun week with lots of variation and cool times gaming with my boys./p
pOK then, #8220;top 5#8243; games this week:/p
p1) Half Life 2 Episode 2br /
2) Lego Indy 2br /
3) Trine (completed)br /
4) Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (completed)br /
5) Either World of Goo or Lego Batman./p
pAnd that in fact is all I played this week, apart from Facebook games: Treasure Madness and The Warlords, and maybe Bejewelled Blitz. I recommend you check them all out if you like Facebook games (and even if you don#8217;t!)/p
pOh wait, just realised I played a ton of XBox Live Arcade and Indie games (all demos) and some were neat such as:/p
pArkedo Series 01: JUMP!br /
Arkedo Series 03: PIXEL!br /
Miner Dig Deepbr /
Magic the Gatheringbr /
Gyromancer/p
pUnfortunately Alien Breed Evolution didn#8217;t do it for me, too dark and annoying. Shame as I loved the original games on the Amiga. There were quite a few other lacklustre titles too - I can understand that for Indie titles (people maybe just starting out), but not for Live Arcade titles./p
pTop 5 IDEs used this week:/p
p1) Visual Studio 2008 Express with XNAbr /
2) Flex with AS3.br /
3) MS Frontpage and Notepad++ (for my new Aikido website). Yes I know I#8217;m stretching the limit of what an IDE is./p
pAnd that#8217;s it. Sadly I didn#8217;t use Blitz this week. Well I fired up the IDE to answer a question for someone./p
img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GreyAlienGames/~4/j4wRctrsPOk height=1 width=1 /

5 February, 2010 | No comments

Jay Is Games: M-Bot: The Game

strongPlatform: Flash #8212; /strong

a href=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/02/m-bot_the_game.phpimg alt=M-Bot: The Game src=http://jayisgames.com/images/icon_mbotthegame.gif align=left width=50 height=50 //a

M-Bot: The Game is a gorgeous, shiny, frenetic gem of a 2.5D shooter with style to spare, where you pilot M-Bot through the urban ruins of the Newgrounds community to disable spambots and make the world safe for friendly posters everywhere.strong Tagged as: /stronga href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/actionaction/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/arcadearcade/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/browserbrowser/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/flashflash/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/freefree/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/gamegame/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/macwinlinuxmacwinlinux/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/newgroundsnewgrounds/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/rating-orating-o/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/shootershooter/a, a href=http://jayisgames.com/tag/sidescrollingsidescrolling/a

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