After a somewhat tortuous production process – involving initial development from a mobile version, a pesky 6-month full-time contract, and in-game language translations – I’m happy to announce that MECHANIPIG is finally out! Its a launch-style game with the added twist of a physics-based destruction component. Lots of fun upgrades including TNT, piglet bombs and kamekazi pig. Can you reach piggy paradise?
I recently converted a few of my Flash games to Chrome Web Store apps. The process was fairly easy, most of the time was actually spent making the correct size and style of icons. They ended up as basically just a html page that holds the game swf. There’s not a lot of difference between this and playing a game on a portal website, although once installed you can play offline and it’s a nice way to “bookmark” apps in Chrome.
This project was a bit of a whim, and unless Google decides to feature any of them it probably wasn’t a good investment of time (and the $5 developer signup!) Having said that its always fun to see your work in another ecosystem and the icons and game pages look kinda cool, if I do say so myself. The store organization seems strange – there are big scrollable lists in categories, but it’s a mystery as to how the apps are ordered (i.e. your can’t sort by downloads or rating etc) and how users would discover your apps unless they are featured high in the list.
Anyhow, without further ado I present these sweet games as Chrome apps:
Max Damage
Max Damage 2
GlueFO 3
Drop3
irRegularGame of Life
Max Damage on iOS just got an update including a whopping 100 extra levels. The extra content can be unlocked in-game (by getting enough 3 star ratings on levels), or purchased if you want them straight away. The new levels also feature some never-before-seen shot types.
Oh, and did I mention that the game is currently FREE?
A short update on all things irRegular…
Vampire Vision
I recently finished a 6-month stint working at the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington on a game called Vampire Vision. Its a fun game that’s been well received, but the game is actually designed to test learning in visual perception skills. There are other unusual features such as dynamic difficulty adjustment and different experimental conditions (different players get different versions of the game). Check it out.
MechaniPig
The full version of MechaniPig (which started out as a mobile game) is very nearly upon us. Its taken much longer than planned, mainly because I was working on a full-time contract at UW and also because the Sponsor (Agame) wanted language translations which are always time consuming. Its a pretty fun physics-launch style game, coming to an arcade near you shortly.
Max Damage iPhone
We’ve been working very hard on a big update to Max Damage on iPhone. Don’t want to give too much away at this stage but there will be tons on new content and features. Stay tuned.
New game, codename Elemental Puzzler
I’ve just starting work on a new physics puzzle game with an ‘Elements’ (think wood, fire, earth, metal) theme. First step: build (i.e. hack up existing) level editor. Step 2: build some levels and make sure the game will be fun. There will be explosions, so it can’t all be bad. I think its going to work…
I’ve been invited to be on a panel at FGS for its very first appearance as part of Casual Connect. We’ll be discussing Flash game sponsorship, and I’ll be providing the “developer perspective”. Should be fun. If you’re into flash games and missed FGS in San Francisco earlier this year then its definitely worth a look. Here’s the official blurb:
Flash Gaming Summit is making a special appearance at Casual Connect Seattle on July 18th, 2011!
Mochi Media has partnered with Casual Games Association to deliver a special one-day summit based on the sold-out Flash Gaming Summit 2011 conference in San Francisco. The Summit will bring Flash games industry leaders together to share industry insights and strategies on successful game design, development, and monetization. There will be an after-party / networking mixer, which is also the official kick-off party for Casual Connect, sponsored by Mochi Media.
Hot off the virtual press – Max Damage is now available on the iPhone! The game is super fun with 50 levels of physics puzzling, Game Center achievements, and a 3 star rating system. Its a mere 99c US – what are you waiting for?
Max Damage is coming to iPhone/iPod! Check out the trailer:
The good folks at Digital Goldfish have done a super job of porting the game from Flash to iOS. I worked closely with them to design the levels and game features and am very happy with the result – the game looks and plays great. The iOS version features 50 brand spanking new levels, plus some never before seen cannon shot types and targets.
Coming to an iOS device near you very soon…
Flash mobile games
Adobe recently released Flash Player 10.1 which allows people with the latest Android (2.2+) phones to view full Flash in their browser. Flash will be coming to other phone platforms also, although not the iPhone anytime soon. I developed versions of some of my Flash games to run on Android 2.2+ (Gravity Shift, Rubble Racer, and Adventure Ho). These are basically performance optimized and UI-tweaked versions of the standard web originals. I also developed a new game called MechaniPig Mobile which makes what I think is a neat use of the phone accelerometer for pig aiming and launching (what could be better than that?!) One of the motivations for this was the recent Adobe sponsored contests for mobile Flash games – so far I’ve won a few of the smaller prizes. Pretty soon I’ll get around to creating a mobile version of my irRegularGames site also, so browsing and playing the games on an Android phone should be pretty smooth. Oh, there’s also a full PC version of MechaniPig in the works which has a bunch more upgrades, things to break and visual effects etc.
Android apps!
Even more excitingly I’ve now created my first Android apps by making use of Adobe Air for Android. I now have 3 games in the Android Market! That link will only work if you are on an Android phone (there is currently no desktop version of the Android Market). Its pretty fun to see them as Android apps, I made MechaniPig and Gravity Shift free, and am currently charging $0.99 for Rubble Racer just to see how it goes, although I’m not expecting many sales. I read an interesting article outlining some of the current drawbacks of the Android Market. The conversion process from Flash mobile versions to Android apps was actually pretty smooth. The MechaniPig app has a nasty habit of force closing however, and I’m at a bit of a loss to work out why or how to prevent it.
Max Damage on the iPhone
Max Damage is coming to the iPhone/iPod/iPad. Another company is doing the development, I’ll be designing the levels. There’ll be some nice additions from the Flash versions, stay tuned…
Max is finally back, 10 months after he first began damaging stacks of electronics and kitchen appliances with his cannon. This time he is equipped with some exciting new toys like the laser and machine gun. There are new targets to hit too, and other surprises along the way. A bonus game mode has been rumored. <-Right there, I just rumored it.
Go shoot some stuff already…
A quick note to say Max Damage 2 is coming soon to a theater near you! If you haven’t already, you should play the original Max Damage, or read the postmortem. MD2 is very close to complete. It features 50 challenging new levels plus new targets and new cannon shot types. Check out the trailer:
