So last year, I was an IGF Mobile finalist. This little game of mine stood alongside iPhone favorites like Edge and Fieldrunners, vying for the “Best Mobile Game” award. And if I had won, … well, I have no idea. Even just being a finalist has been great for me, so I’d image it would have been MORE great. 😉 That was 2009, and this is 2010. This year started out as my “low key” and “quiet” GDC....
So hey. Back in December I finished up a 1.0 port of Smiles for Netbooks, and sent it to Intel by their early contest deadline. And hey, guess what? Advice: whenever somebody asks for a photo, send a square one, even if they don’t ask for square. Link here. Second place! That’s awesome. 😀 So hey, what does 2nd place actually mean? Yes, I won a car by making games. That’s just… wow!...
So wow. That’s finally it for 2009. Like doing taxes ever year, I feel a special sort of obligation that I write some sort of retrospective, especially after such an eventful year as this one. Far more awesome than taxes. 😉 I wasn’t sure where to start, so I ended up categorizing aspects of the year. I’ll free form rant about each topic as I come to it. Let’s begin....
First on the agenda, the book is real. As you can see above, my three complimentary copies showed up in the mail today. Word from the Dread Pirate himself (i.e. Lead Author/Tech Reviewer) is the books should be en route, if not already arriving at book stores all over the place. After all, the guy in Canada got his. 😉 – – – – – Next, a Smiles update. Smiles 1....
Crawling out of bed early this morning, I made the weird decision that it’d be a blogging morning. It seems I’ve stockpiled a few interesting things to talk about. I’m nearly ready to start talking about the new project too, but as the title suggests, I’ll be talking about the other stuff today. First thing on the agenda, Ludum Dare. I wanted to follow up that prior post of mine with a brief finale post....
It’s been 2 weeks, and much has happened. As the topic suggests, Smiles Drop and Smiles Zen are now both available. $2.99 each, or save $1 by getting Smiles ($4.99). So yeah, in a way that means I technically have 3 games out. As for blog content, I’m half way through a post on what went in to creating the video. Actually I was half through the Friday of the last post, but got caught up in the fact that I could actually take it easy for a couple days… and I sorta haven’t gone back to finish the post yet....
Part one of my rebellion against the iPhone price drop madness has begun. Smiles Zen, the standalone version of Zen is now sent to Apple. If everything goes according to plan, it will be released bright and early Tuesday morning. This time, I explicitly set the date. – – – – – – – In other news, a new review. http://osxreality.com/…/a-relaxing-matching-game-with-fun-graphics/ OSX Reality – 4 Stars. Incredibly favorable review. Their only beef was that they expect a price drop for it to be competitive....
So I’m still working diligently to assemble my complete press package. Putting the final touches on that video, writing the press release, e-mails, all that fun stuff. But as part of my procrastination routine, I’m hitting my usual list of sites. IndieGames, “The Sauce”, etc. And as I get to the iPhone gaming sites, I’m hit with this euphoric stupor. “Dude! That’s me!” “Duuuude! All them stars be yellow!” http://fingergaming.com/2008/11/smiles/...
It seems I missed the memo. The 2nd Independent Games compilation was released back in September (25th), and that PuffBOMB game I seem to talk about all the time was included. As well, there was a set of concept art included in the package. Said art can also be seen right here. I suppose I should go find a way to acquire a copy, ‘cause I’m not sure what happened to a complimentary one....
In the mag and on the coverdisk of PC Gamer UK’s March 2006 issue. The Puffiest BOMB of them all....