We’re targeting the initial release to be on the MocoSpace social network.  We’re excited to work with them and have been very impressed by their responsiveness and support.  It’s great to also work with other Boston area companies whenever possible so we’re really happy with how things are progressing

Here are a few mockup screenshots we have so far.  bear in mind this is a work in progress and design is likely to shift as we continue to develop it.

We made a version for facebook awhile back and it was going well, but we got busy with client work and over time the gold rush of facebook seemed to be cooling off so we opted not to pursue facebook moving forward and explore mobile and web.

Today, we’ve begun working on the next iteration of Quicksilver.  We are developing it specifically for MocoSpace at this time building it to be easy to play with an intuitive system and menu system for easy navigation.  We are really excited to be able to return to one of the games we’re passionate about.

We are also excited about building it up over time into something even more unique and accessible through mobile and desktop web as well allowing easy access from anywhere

That was an age ago though and today, iOS is no longer an undisputed champion and seeing the new things coming from everyone, iOS was starting to look like it’s falling behind the curb.  The iPhone 5 was not  really appealing to me for several reasons.  the first was the new screen shape.  frankly I had no interest in reworking my old games to support the new and other than that offered no real new hardware to need to test with.  Additionally I’m disappointed with the new “lighting” cable.  So I figured my iPhone 4s is doing just fine overall, so maybe it’s time to look at all the other cool phones coming out and see what they have going on.  The other big reason that drove me to be willing to turn my back on Apple is their terrible map app.  While it’s amazing to ask siri to find / direct me to some place, it’s mind boggling that even today it’s unreliable.  Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave right now with such an epic failure.  I don’t mind it had a rough launch but the fact that it hasn’t been fixed by now is terribly disappointing.

I have two lines with my AT&T account and both were due for an upgrade.  So my first upgrade was to get a Lumia 920.  It looked like an interesting new OS and having Windows 8 experience with the Samsung Slate I won from the initial Windows 8 App store launch, I thought I’d see what the phone version of it was like.  I was also very impressed with the support I had received from Microsoft with the launch of Windows 8.  Microsoft should be commended for their efforts and I hope that they paid off because at least for me, it left a very good impression and I intend to continue to support Windows 8 whenever possible.  However, when I tried to make the Lumia my actual phone, I realized very quickly that while I really liked the OS, it lacked too many things I took for granted.  All of those things pretty much revolved around Siri.  Voice command in my day to day life has just become too important to compromise.  I could live with less games and apps although the lack of Dropbox was a hard pill to swallow.  I’m sure it will come out in time, but I wasn’t here to wait.  The Lumia was a great device though overall, but me being an Mac user at this time and my reliance on full featured voice command required this device to be a test device that sits in my drawer.

Then I decided to take a stab at Android with my other line.  I started with the HTC One.  I liked the metal design better and I have a soft spot for HTC having been makers of my earlier windows mobile phones, even in spite of the disappointment I had with the EVO.  Android has come a long way since my HTC Evo.  I found that many apps I had assumed were iOS only were right there on google play.  This was great to see.  I loved that google maps was integrated (something i actually really enjoyed even with the old EVO, but even better today) fully.  Now with with the HTC One I did a fair amount of bumbling.  I’m sure I didn’t do everything right but overall i found myself looking over at the Galaxy S4 and wondering if it might be a better device.  The reviews were pretty much an even split saying they were essentially two sides of the same coin..  power.. graphics.. etc..  regardless the big things I didn’t like with the HTC One is that it could only be turned on by touching the on button on top of it..  a big phone with my not so long fingers often felt awkward to do with one hand.  It also got very warm when using it much.  Lastly I thought about things missing like removable battery and lack of an MicroSD slot.  So I decided to take a chance and exchange it.

Right away  I could tell this (for me) was a clear winner and not a close tie.  The physical home button would turn the device on (no such button on the One) meaning my short fingers would not be so stressed.  I also enjoyed the widgets more than HTC’s more straight forward iOS feeling icon system.  I never found out how too do voice command with a button till after I had exchanged it, nor had I found how to do split screen.  That is something I found android also was prone too.. having too many features and abilities that you have to discover or stumble on.  Sometimes there is something to be said about simplicity.  Also anything I ever thought about iOS being confusing has been given grand perspective after using Android.  The biggest problem for me for both though was the basics.  Contacts, Calendar and Reminders.  These are things that of course android can do, but not in a way that worked well with iOS.  I tried wunderlist, but since it’s not voice supported that’s not really useful.  I could never really figure out where my tasks were being saved.  they were not showing up in my Gmail account so where did they go?  I could ask the phone to show me them, but that’s no good really.  Then the last big issue was the memory.  I got the 16gb s4 because i didn’t want to pay $50 for 32gb.  I had a 16gb MicroSD card which was intended for music and pictures, but i ran into trouble getting all of my music over there was was another sore point.  There was space for what it wouldn’t allow me to move over, so this too was just not cool in my book.  However I think that this one more than the HTC One at least had me think twice before reverting back to my iPhone.  Maybe if it were brought down to the size of the iPhone 4s making one hand operation much easier, I might have even stuck it out.

So after numerous trips to the AT&T store I am back to my iPhone 4s with a couple of new toys in my drawer to develop with.  I’m sure that at some point, my iPhone 4s will die and maybe it will be an iPhone 6.  Everything just works and this is really what it comes down too.  Apple does feel a little behind the times in terms of whistles and bells, but I have also come to be reminded how important it is to just have things be integrated even at the expense of the latest technological novelty.  I’ll just have to remember not to ask Siri to take me anywhere..  Google Maps it is.

So I’ve now come up with a system that offers a more “forgiving” and yet more brutal layer to the game.  You can now cut yourself and bleed like a stuck pig for a few seconds.  You also black out for a moment, but this moment becomes longer as you lose blood and deal with more pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4gXUPZAusQ

It’s still needing some tweaking, but overall I’m very happy with the performance and feel of the effect.  I have to first get a really solid first stage working that allows me to build out all of the possibilities the game and then from there I can rapidly develop all of the levels.  It’s one of the things I’ve loved with working with GameSalad.

The main thing right now holding me up is not having all of the art.  This simply takes time to assemble and Mariah and Anthony are both doing awesome work.  I hope to have a new gameshow storyboard or even in-game example of it.  It’s going to be KING!

Also this build includes some of my attempts at creating an old TV feel.. this needs a LOT more work, but the intent is to make the game feel like you’re watching an old VHS copy of a TV show.. with tracking popups and tape effects..  Below should show the video embedded here, but for some reason it seems that my embed code from youtube isn’t showing the video itself for some reason. ah technology..

Razor bleed test

I still have tremendous respect for Construct 2 and I suspect its going to be in use for future web games that we have been discussing.  However, for the time being, I have more experience with GameSalad, I’m at this point a heavy Mac user (Construct 2 is windows only) and given our tight deadline, it’s going to be the best way for us to bring the experience to the public the fastest and most effective way to explore some fun new ideas along the way.

On the other hand Construct 2 has some really awesome possibilities, however it seems that it also has many more pitfalls than what i’m used to experiencing with GameSalad.  I’ve recently bought a personal license because I find it’s open ended capability combined with a “code free” approach to game making exciting.  It has a greater reach with more capabilities but laced with uncertainty.

I’m currently working on Finger King and while I have a solid prototype of it in GameSalad, I would like to use it as my attempt to see how the same game would be made in C2 in order for me to access more free to play options beyond iOS.  How I go about doing this though is so riddled with questions that I could see making any clear cut ETA for finishing the game going out the window.  We are currently looking at a potential publisher deal in August which means we have to really get this game moving forward and minimize wheel spinning…

I’m super excited to be meeting this week with the creator of Soda Drinker Pro Will Brierly who’s been kind enough to offer me some one on one mentorship with C2.  I believe this will be a huge help in help me better understand C2.

Also regarding C2 vs. GameSalad, I see both having awesome value in their respective strengths.  We have been talking about making some simple html5 games for web and C2 at it’s simplest form would be tremendous for making those kind of games being able to use web sockets..   while GameSalad offers some really awesome tools for rapid prototyping at it’s most basic use.

If you are a fan of indie games, this is THE event of the year in the Boston / New England area.

While we’re making this event free, the space we need to hold this event is not.  We have started a kickstarter which you can check out and hopefully donate too!  Even if you don’t live in the area, we offer some awesome swag as well as our own Indie Game Bundle of local quality games.  You can find the kickstarter here

We also have an amazing range of media partners from print to internet to radio to tv so if you’re interested in doing a sponsorship we are offering a tremendous value cash sponsors to get their product/services/logo in front of millions of people.  We already have a number of great sponsors such as Microsoft, Adobe and much more!  Please consider supporting this non-profit all-volunteer regional event.

That said, GameSalad is still a joy to work with and I’m sad to have to make a choice like this and i hope that perhaps eventually GameSalad will catch up to where I need them to be because I’d switch back in a heartbeat.

I look forward to exploring Construct 2 with the team and to see if this will offer the greater flexibility we need with our future games.  I will report back on our findings in future posts.

That’s right in Finger King you must move your finger through obstacle courses of razor blades, fire, liquid nitrogen and many other finger severing / dissolving dangers.

We’re excited about this new project.  We won an honorable mention in the recent MassDiGI game challenge as well as great feedback from PAX East events we attended. Currently we are planning on publishing to iOS, Android, Windows 8 and OSX.

Become THE FINGER KING!

An prototype if the video can be seen here