Smiles

3x 2″ binders full of documents. Looks like I have some reading to do. PS: Happy new year. 🙂...

As the title says, Smiles is a finalist for Best Casual Game of 2008 on BestAppEver.com. Visit this link and give it a vote. http://bestappever.com/v/gcas Thanks! 😀 And a reminder, Smiles Drop is on sale for $1.99 (reg $2.99) until the end of the day new years. http://www.newyearappblowout.com EDIT: The Smiles Drop sale is extended until Sunday the 4th. Sunday night though, it’s going back up. Whee. 🙂...

At first glance you wouldn’t think a matching game like Smiles would feature physics, but it does. In several places actually. The most obvious example is the particle effects. Particles were used when ice and rocks break, and also for the tile clearing effect. The tile would be erased instantly from the board, and a particle would be created in it’s place. The particle would zoom in, slow down, then zoom out with a twist....

I kept video of some of my more interesting bugs/glitches/oddities in Smiles. Some more silly than others. The first I want to show is a bug in one of the effects for the game mode Zen. It was supposed to be a “toss a rock in to a pond” water ripple. It didn’t really work as expected. http://www.viddler.com/explore/PoVRAZOR/videos/8/ Here’s what it was supposed to look like. Cool looking, but the problem with this was the effect would make you queasy....

Rather spontaneously, I decided to put Smiles Drop on sale for New Years. So for a limited time (i.e. some time early Jan 2nd morning) you can grab Smiles Drop for the extremely reasonable price of $1.99 (save $1). That puts it in check, so you can buy Smiles Zen after that, and have paid the same price as buying full on Smiles. Well… you might save a penny buying separately, but still....

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....

I just finished up the other half of the game split a couple hours ago, “Smiles Drop”. It needs some testing first, but it should be off to Apple early/mid next week. So here we are. Just over 3 weeks after finishing Smiles. Finished a video, finished a web site, finished a press release, finished contacting the websites, and now finished my releases for the next couple weeks. Wow… I think I can finally take a weekend off now....

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....

One thing lead to another, and I updated the Smiles website. It now has a fancy header, and a bit of a hint at what I’ll be up to in the coming weeks. http://www.smiles-game.com It also seems my press release/pack was picked up by 1up. http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3169760 And that’s it for now....

And that about wraps up marketing week. After finishing and finally getting the video uploaded Sunday night, Monday began my marketing blitz. The day started well, with the almighty Tim taking the first initiative and sharing the video. http://www.indiegames.com/blog/… The rest of the Think Services network picked up on the FingerGaming review as part of the usual syndication. Game Set Watch | GamaSutra And continuing with Think Services, I entered the game in the IGF Mobile....