Platform: Flash — Fans of Metroidvania style games, rejoice, and put on your virtual sneakers! SubMu entertainment's latest release, Blockstachio, incorporates quirky, blocky graphics, and a soundtrack that solidly consolidates retro bleeps and bangs over the top of the heroic theme music that will drive you towards your goal, while also packing enough platform action to keep you happily satisfied, while running and jumping your way through each level, in your pursuit to save the world. The world needs saving, and it is up to you and your cubic hero to do it. Are you up to the challenge? Tagged as: action, adventure, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, metroidvania, platform, rating-g, retro, submu, windows

Platform: Flash — You might not be ready for this Jelly Escape, a puzzle-platformer by Taw Studio. Games about anthropomorphic blobs making their way through dangerous obstacle-laden settings are nothing new, and this one is hit by a bit of CPU lag. With a fluid progression of 50+ levels, a comprehensive checkpoint system that allows the game to be challenging without ever feeling too tough, and a hilariously whimsical sense of humor, though, it's worth checking out. Tagged as: browser, cpuintensive, flash, free, game, linux, mac, pixelart, platform, puzzle, rating-g, retro, tawstudio, windows

Platform: Mac — Dinos in Space is, apart from being a very cool thing to draw in your notebook while ignoring the math lecture going on in your class, a cerebral flow-based logic puzzle game from John Saba. Using arrows, switches and teleporters, your goal is to send dinosaurs from their dispensers into the appropriately colored satellite elsewhere on the grid. Sure, it sounds simple on the surface, but get your head wrapped in this game, and when you take a break, you'll still be solving puzzles in your brain. Tagged as: demo, download, game, indie, jsaba, logic, mac, programming, puzzle, rating-g, retro, windows

Ta da.

Welcome to my new company, Happion Laboratories. It's atomic!

And yeah, basically right now it's just a URL and a dream. Guy Kawasaki wrote once that when you're creating a new company, the first thing you should do is make business cards. But he wrote that years ago. I think in this day and age, he'd probably say the first thing you should do is create a website.

I almost created a brand new website but then I thought - Wait a minute. I've already got a website with a page rank of 5 that gets hundreds of hits a day. Why would I want to start over?

So - GameDevBlog is now the official Game Development Weblog of Happion Laboratories. Thoughts and opinions voiced here are the thoughts and opinions of Happion Labs. 

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

I'm borrowing a trick from my wife's Etsy friends. You can win a Rhodium badge for sixty second shooter (and the 500,000 points of energy that go along with that.) I'll be giving away ten badges to randomly selected entrants. Each of the things you do on this list earn you an entry into the contest:

• Join our mailing list
• Publicly subscribe on your feed reader
• Like HappionLabs on Facebook 
• Follow @HappionLabs on Twitter 
• Retweet this announcement
• Share the announcement on G+

And then, comment on this post (funny comments can earn BONUS ENTRIES) to tell me what you did. If ten or fewer people comment, you all win!

Deadline to enter is 11:59 PM PST May 23rd - the giveaway ends right before the #BecauseWeMay promotion starts.

[Random side note:

I'm not going to make a G+ fan page, but you can always add me (Jamie Fristrom) to your circles on G+. (Not part of the contest.)]

Expect happy things. The future begins tomorrow.

Platform: Flash — This little red block monster's father doesn't want to play with him, but maybe you can change that in this eye-infested tumble drop physics game. Made with the Box2D physics engine, you get a cutesy puzzle game backed by reliable and well-tested physics that won't waste your precious free time. Click away as few mean monster blocks as possible to reunite a playful son and his tired dad for high scores and star ratings. The adorable music and a squealing son will put a smile on your face, guaranteed! Tagged as: almagames, box2d, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, physics, puzzle, rating-g, stacking, tumbledrop, windows

Platform: Flash — Why does negligent parenting get such a bad rap? If it wasn't for bum parents, we'd never have this lovely launch game, Billy The Pilot, from Erik Sombroek, about a little boy who just wants to fly, and who has a mom and dad that don't seem to mind their little boy building a launchpad in the backyard, right in the path of the family flower bed. The backgrounds and animations in Billy the Pilot are impossibly cute and the upgrades a lot of fun, especially the ability to build a pet dragon! But the gameplay is repetitive and the in-flight controls are clunky. It also isn't very hard. Really, Billy the Pilot is just an excuse to explore a beautifully drawn and colorful Never Never Land where kids are kings and parents nowhere to be found...as it should be. Tagged as: arcade, browser, esombroek, flash, free, game, launch, linux, mac, rating-g, upgrades, windows

Platform: Mac — Lexcavator is a wonderfully chirpy word-based puzzle game by Adam Parrish that combines elements of Dig Dug with spelling games like Bookworm. Your goal is to bash away at the letter tiles by spelling out words, clearing the way so the protagonist can hop further down the level. It requires a lot of careful thinking to prevent capturing yourself in a corner, so enter only if your vocabulary and tactical skills are up for a challenge! Tagged as: aparrish, download, free, game, hybrid, indie, linux, mac, mining, puzzle, rating-g, windows, word

Platform: Windows — Ever wanted to do something, found out how unbelievably overwhelming the task would be, then decided it'd be a better idea to stay home and have a sandwich? Our hapless knightly protagonist in Climb to the Top of the Castle knows that feeling all too well, only in his case, sandwiches probably haven't been invented yet, and he's got a king breathing down his neck pretty much forcing him to haul his armored rear to the top of the castle and save the princess. Did we say "castle"? Because really, it's pretty much a mountain! Tagged as: action, arcade, demo, download, free, game, indie, platform, rating-y, retro, twobrosgames, windows

Platform: Windows — It is up to a green cosmic wanderer with a chain grapple arm to rescue some grounded birds from certain destruction in this retro adventure grapple game. Ladd Spencer (think classic grapple game...) may have had it rough, but the Chain Champ here has to swing over boiling lava pits, dodge pitfalls, and focus on collapsing grapple surfaces. A quick casual game packed with loads of gameplay, chiptune sound effects, and helpless birds to keep you swinging during a lazy afternoon. Tagged as: action, adventure, download, free, game, grappling, indie, physics, pixelart, platform, rating-g, ssmith, tluke, windows

A summary of the past year or so:

At Torpex, we were chasing a project and funding for a pretty cool game of Richard Garfield's that ended up not happening in the end. After being led on by a publisher for months they changed their minds, claimed that they thought our proposed budget was for a different number of skus and no longer wanted to pursue it.

So we put Torpex on mothballs and I started looking for a working-for-the-man type job, but then put the jobhunt on hold for two reasons:

* Chrome Native Client! New technology sometimes brings new opportunities. It did with Schizoid and XNA. I wanted to jump on that in case it became something big.

* My youngest daughter isn't even in preschool yet, so it would be nice for me to spend more time with her during her 'formative years' - not to mention my wife could use all the help around the house she could get.

So I became a "Game Dev Dad" again. In the early days of Torpex I was in a similar situation - working from home, spending a lot of time with my other daughter (who wasn't in preschool at that time). 

This time there wre some differences though. Back then I was under the illusion that what I was doing was almost guaranteed to pay for itself in the long run, once we started selling Schizoid on Xbox Live Arcade. So I kept the door to my office closed and my daughter (mostly) understood she wasn't to bother dad while he was working. Schizoid did great by indie game standards, but below average by Xbox Live Arcade standards of the time, and that meant it didn't make enough money to pay the team much.

This time, I didn't have illusions. sixty second shooter was probably going to not pay for the time I put into it. It would be fun to make, but it would be a worse investment than a lottery ticket.

So - going into this knowing that it probably wouldn't help support the family - I knew it wasn't fair to lock myself in my office while Cathy did all the stay-at-home-parenting. This time it had to be more of a fifty-fifty split. Now I'm just as much 'stay-at-home-dad' as 'game developer'.

On the one hand, I realize I'm very lucky to be able to do this. Most guys have to work just to pay the bills and don't get to spend as much time with their kids as they would like. How incredibly fortunate for me that I made enough money with Treyarch and Spider-Man that I can do this (for a little while longer, anyway.)

On the other hand - it does chafe. You've heard adages like "nobody wishes on their death beds that they spent more time at the office" or "nobody wishes on their death beds that they spent less time playing frisbee with the kids". I could very well find myself wishing on my death bed that I made more games. And I realize I'm doing a Good Thing when I play *The Ladybug Game* again with my youngest daughter but it's almost agonizing. It's sacrificing "Type 1" happiness (pleasure in the moment) for "Type 3" happiness (the satisfaction of doing the right thing.) The "Type 2" happiness comes and goes. [For more talk about these types of happiness, check out 'Happines: The Science Behind Your Smile' by Daniel Nettle - a book I really liked.]

On the gripping hand - I have to choose my family over making games. Just have to.

But now that I'm developing less and parenting more, I seem to be finding that I'm even less than half as productive than I used to be. The interruptions come more frequently; the flow states last for less time. The overhead of checking e-mail and generally getting down to business is the same size, so the time spent actually making games is cut away. (That's why, a while ago, I asked: "How do stay-at-home dad's get any coding done?")

And our youngest would still feel ignored and get upset and throw tantrums in the middle of the day. Now - how can that be? She's got two parents at home now, how could she possibly be lacking in attention?

Turns out that both my wife and I were multi-tasking. I was trying to make games and be a dad at the same time; she was trying to run her Etsy shop and be a mom at the same time. We'd leave our two year old daughter to her own devices and try to get stuff done on our computers - and she'd go back and forth between us, trying to grab our attention. Nobody wins.

(And there are plenty of studies that show how bad multitasking is. Studies have shown that it gives you the illusion of being awesome when in actuality it destroys your productivity - and Joel Spolsky has pointed out that when you're task switching, even if you do it perfectly efficiently, it means your deliverables come in late. Others call it being 'randomized'.)

I've said before that being productive is like dieting.

• Counting calories == writing down how many minutes you spend each day doing what.
• Keep tempting foods out of the house == unplug your internet or use blocking programs like 'stay focused' / close the door / turn off your cellphone
• Automation - eat the same thing every day == have specific times of the day where you're officially working

So our solution is to automate. We've been trying it this week - we have shifts - we officially set aside time to work and time to pay attention to our daughter. One does the 'parenting' while the other does the 'working'. And we're still fifty-fifty.

And so far it's been working great! We're No Angels is almost at the point where I won't be embarrassed to show it to people (too bad Comics vs Games and the Indiecade submission date already came and went) and I've gotten some business stuff set up for my upcoming kickstart efforts. Announcement coming real soon!

So - for those of you in the same situation as me - trying to do some involved creative or technical work from home and balancing that with family - I highly recommend: 'eschew multitasking! Have official hours of the day where you do specific kinds of tasks!'

That said, I have to admit I'm a bit leery about posting this - I'm worried that it's TMI or that people won't take me seriously as a game developer when they hear I pay more attention to my wife and kids than to my games.

And I worry if it'll hurt my upcoming kickstarter - will people ask: "Hey, are you going to make this game or are you going to only work on it part-time while mostly you're a dad?" The answer is: depends on how much money we raise, honestly. If we raise the minimum, we'll be working on it part-time. If we raise more, then I'll be able to say to my wife, "Hey, we're really paying the bills with this thing! I think it has to take priority over your Etsy shop - can you spend more time being a dedicated mom so I can work on the game full-time?" (Likewise with our artist whom I'll name later - if we raise the minimum I'll only be able to afford to pay him part-time; if we raise more he can quit his day job.)

So, yeah, worried. But there it is, cards on the table. Probably more about me than you ever wanted to know.

Platform: Flash — Never trust blobby pink monstrosities! In this sequel to Nitrome's 2009 action platformer, guide your furry miner with speed but caution through crumbling caverns full of paths that fall away just as suddenly as they fly up before you. Packed full of new beasts, obstacles, power-ups, and now checkpoints, it's a difficult but worthy sequel. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, jumpandrun, linux, mac, nitrome, rating-g, windows

Platform: iOS, Flash — An old idiom is brought back to life in the physics puzzle gaming scene in Eliot Pace's sequel to Pigs Can Fly. Manipulate multiple objects using time-and-space distorting colored potions so a little pig can get some wings. With a re-imagined look, more depth to the puzzles, and the same physics gameplay, this oinker has learned a few new tricks that are a welcome sight. This porker is as lazy as pigs get so it could use all the help it could get. Tagged as: browser, epace, flash, free, game, ios, iphone, linux, mac, mobile, physics, platform, puzzle, rating-g, windows

Platform: Flash — In Sergio Alonso's shiny new bullet hell shooter, Boss Slayer, Ten alien starships have entered the solar system and you have 12 days to destroy these bad boys before they make their final approach to Earth. The game features an array of upgrades, of which each has a clear, immediate effect and it can be a lot of fun to watch your weak little ship transform so quickly into a beefy alien antagonizer. Boss Slayer isn't an innovative game by any means, but it understands the genre perfectly and serves up a smooth, streamlined gameplay experience. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, bullethell, flash, free, game, linux, mac, rating-y, salonso, scifi, shooter, space, upgrades, vertical, windows

Platform: Flash — You know what's cool? Beatboxing. You know what's cooler? When you get to conduct a squad of digital human beatboxers right in your browser. So Far So Good serves up a simple but slick and stylish webtoy where musical creativity is just a drag and drop away. Warning; may make you irresistibly cooler by association. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, interactiveart, linux, mac, music, rating-g, sofarsogood, webtoy, windows

Platform: Unity — Is your trigger-finger ready for a challenge? Then load up the beautiful but deadly Ludum Dare competition entry Kumiho. Pilot a ship with the ability to teleport against hordes of semi-organic monstrosities transformed by a vengeful Goddess. With striking visuals and simple but high-difficulty gameplay, it's a lovely little diversion if your reflexes are up to the task. Tagged as: action, arcade, botogames, browser, bullethell, cneofotisou, fjutte, free, game, highdifficulty, ludumdare, mac, rating-g, shooter, unity, windows

Games featured this week: Tex Murphy - Project Fedora; Drunken Robot Pornography; McPixel; Dreadline; The Adventures of Shuggy; Farm Fortress; MacGuffin's Curse — Time-travelling monsters? Towering robot centerfolds? Post-apocalyptic P.I.s? Game developers are a crazy bunch, and that's exactly the way we love them! This week's Link Dump Friday features a whole mess of exciting upcoming titles, as well as a BEAST of a giveaway, and two opposing views on the concept of games using free-to-play models. Tagged as: blog, linkdump, news, previews

sixty second shooter is totally going to be in the upcoming #BecauseWeMay promotion.

BecauseWeMay.com.

So they've chosen to use Unity to power Wasteland 2. Their announcement actually has a sort of defensive air about it - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/228226 - like they're expecting people to complain. Me, I think Unity is the obvious choice - if I was on the project it would be my first choice too.

But for a somewhat ineffable reason: happy workers are more productive. Working with Unity is such a pleasure it makes me happy just to use it. I get to code in C#, for one thing. And if I want to know how to do something I don't know how to do, usually a quick google search such as "Unity environment maps" gets me the answer I'm looking for and bam! I can make it happen. And it's not lacking in power - I've done tests where I've had hundreds of flocking AI's running at 60.

Platform: Mac — There's nothing ordinary about this adventure hybrid from Artifex Mundi, creators of Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek. Sure you get the familiar tale of undead pirates cursed by stolen gold, but you also get an amazingly ambitious production with attention to every detail. You can finish the entire game without playing a single hidden object scene if you wish; just opt for mahjong, instead (or do both!) Gorgeous scenes, well-designed puzzles and expert storytelling are just a few of the top notch features that make Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart an experience not to be missed. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, artifexmundi, casual, collectorsedition, demo, download, game, hiddenobject, hybrid, mac, mahjong, puzzle, rating-y, windows

Platform: Flash — Aimed more at kids than adults but equally enjoyable by both for its charm, this sweet little adventure platformer tells the story of a teddy bear who gets lost and strikes out to find a way back home to the little girl who dropped him. Light on challenge but big on style and cuteness, it's just the right size for new gamers to try on, and just the right tone for old gamers to relax with. Tagged as: adventure, browser, flash, free, game, gsmith, jimp, kidoriented, linux, mac, platform, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, win

Getting ready for some soccer action? The real soccer fun starts June 8th 2012, but for those that can’t wait, and for those that prefer to play on their own instead of watching someone else play, we prepared Soccer Cup Solitaire. Now you can play it online!

It loads fast and is easy to play. Pick to similar cards to take them off the table (for example King of Hearts and King of Diamonds). Collect points to score goals. And lead your team to winning the match!

Play Soccer Cup Solitaire online now

We have also high quality version available for PC, Mac and Linux. You can read more about Soccer Cup Solitaire on our website. High quality version features great rock music and sport commentators.

Platform: iOS, Android, Flash — In FazeCat's everything-but-the-kitchen sink defense game, Paladog, Critterland has been invaded by zombies, witches, skeletons, and just about every evil little thing you can imagine, including television sets! It's up to you to fight them off, but are you dog enough to take them on over a whopping 120 levels, including special mini-games. Paladog is a big, cuddly, newspaper-fetching machine, that brings back the Sunday paper, but slobbers all over the funnies... and you love it anyway. Tagged as: android, browser, defense, fazecat, flash, free, game, ios, iphone, linux, mac, magic, mobile, rating-y, strategy, upgrades, windows, zombies

Platform: Flash — Like your mini-golfing streamlined and mellow? This slick physics puzzle by Jayc Santos might be the offer. Serving up creative bumpers and boosters you place yourself, and your average golfing traps like water and mines, it's a mellow experience you'll definitely want to take a swing at. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, golf, jsantos, linux, mac, physics, puttbase, puzzle, rating-g, skill, windows

Platform: Flash — Ever since Pac-Man first escaped off the right side of the screen to magically appear on the left, players have had a certain thing for games that skew traditional notions of spatiality. The Village Blacksmith offers another wonderful take on this kind of teleportation in Recursion, a cool little retro puzzle platformer. The series of single screen levels progresses nicely, even if the jumps require a bit too much precision. Still, Recursion worth playing over and over again. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, pixelart, platform, puzzle, rating-g, retro, simpleidea, thevillageblacksmith, windows

Platform: Flash — A bite-sized escape puzzler from Dghgbakufu that drops you in the middle of a cross-shaped five-room dungeon and dares you to solve its puzzles and escape to the surface. Bakufu shies away from the complicated clichés like using screwdrivers to pry open panels and finding power cords to plug in computers. All the keys and doors are symbol-coded, and there's no pixel-hunting, either; what little challenge this developer's games contain lies in deciphering the simple yet clever little clues to open the safes, which is fine for someone wanting a quick and easy escape but not so much for a challenge-seeker. Tagged as: browser, dghgbakufu, escape, flash, free, game, japanese, linux, mac, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, windows

Platform: Flash — In the mood for some good, old-fashioned, retro arcade fun, without the need of a roll of quarters? Brandon Williamson's Forget-Me-Not, which was originally a popular mobile game, is now ported over to your browser! It takes the classic concept of Pac-Man, and adds a shooter to it. Quickly addictive, and perfectly frustrating, Forget-Me-Not is old-school fun at its finest. Tagged as: arcade, browser, bwilliamson, flash, free, game, highdifficulty, linux, mac, mobile, rating-g, retro, shooter, windows

Platform: Flash — Having a mellow spell and want a game that won't zap your brain? Conjure up a bit of amusement in this charming little puzzle platform game by Aizat Haibulin. Using your sparkly wand, strategically place dummies to overcome the obstacles and baddies standing between you and the magic door. Don't let the name fool you: nothing overly complicated or intricate here. It's just the right amount of cute design and mild challenge to suit your fancy. Tagged as: ahaibulin, browser, flash, free, game, kidfriendly, linux, mac, platform, puzzle, rating-y, windows

In Habitually Living on Purpose, I mentioned how I am focusing on habits this year in an attempt to live according to my Life on Purpose statement: My Life on Purpose is a joyful life of freedom, continuous learning, encouraged and supported creativity, insatiable curiosity, and prolific creation, driven by passion and a desire for excellence, powered by a healthy body and soul.

Last time, I wrote about working on habits to help me work on the “powered by a healthy body” aspect of my purpose statement. Today, I’ll focus on the “continuous learning” part.

I once read that you should commit to learning at least one new thing each day. I decided to make it a real habit.

Now, each day we learn all sorts of trivia and minutia, and we live in a fascinating world where we could learn a hundred things a day about how an antenna works or how dogs evolved to recognize the gaze of humans while wolves haven’t or that animals can grieve.

But that seems too easy. I could just click links posted on Twitter all day, but I’m not really learning anything useful, am I? Not unless I become a TV repairman or an animal whisperer.

It didn’t quite work out for me.

These bits of trivia and data are cool, and they probably help me with being creative in ways I don’t see yet, but I’m more interested in learning something personally useful. Learning when chess was invented doesn’t count, but learning how to do the Alekhine’s Defense in a chess game would.

On February 29th, I started writing “Yesterday’s lesson” posts on my Google+ account. That first post was about human proportions, since I was getting back into doodling.

And somehow, without fail, I have posted a new lesson each day. Sometimes the lessons are based on my work learning JavaScript through the Codecademy. Sometimes the lessons come from books I’m reading. Sometimes they come from observations I’ve made during game development.

So it is safe to say that I’ve instilled this habit of posting what I have learned from the previous day. What’s interesting is that the habit isn’t directly related to learning. It’s merely reporting, which is less about learning and more about accountability. So shouldn’t I have a habit that gets me to specifically learn something new as well?

I thought I needed to do so at first. I would try to set aside an hour to learn JavaScript each day, for instance. I basically blocked out some learning time, but on days when I had to drastically change my schedule due to an emergency or one-off errands that were urgent, what then?

What I found was that as nice as the blocked off time was, I didn’t really need it as much. Because I know I’ll be writing a “Yesterday’s lesson” the next day, I find myself motivated to make an effort to find something to learn if I haven’t done so in the normal course of the day. There were a few days where I couldn’t easily remember what I had learned the previous day, but I made myself write a post anyway, which sometimes meant searching through my browser history to jog my memory. You could argue that I must not have really learned it, but there’s a difference between learning a lesson and being able to recall the learning. B-) Still, apparently the pain of sitting there unsure of what to post seems to have gotten me to subconsciously seek out specific things to write about for the next day.

If I need to do research for some work I’m doing, I realized that I already had something to report. For instance, I learned how to create custom star badge for an ad I was making for ISVCon. This past weekend I had my bachelor party, and I realized that I didn’t spend part of the day reading or working, yet I learned that Jameson and serrano peppers are not a fun combination for your mouth.

Sometimes I’d stay up a little later reading before going to sleep. Reporting what I learned the next morning then becomes a review, which helps me remember the salient points instead of mindlessly consuming content. Recently in lieu of watching old episodes of “Star Trek” on Netflix during lunch, I find myself listening to audiobooks such as The E-Myth Revisited, and I recently found a very similar lesson about how vital the right metrics are for a business between it and The Lean Startup.

So it is interesting that unlike exercising, in which the habit is directly related to the benefit, in this case, the habit I formed was indirectly encouraging me to continuously learn. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have anything to report, and even though no one else is really expecting me to do so, I would feel like I was letting someone down if I missed a day. Well, in reality, I would be letting myself down. I’m just being more public with my self-accountability.

There are ways I’d like to improve this habit. For now, it feels too haphazard, as if the learning isn’t focused enough. One day I learn something code-related, and the next I learn something about business, but there’s no connection between the two. If I really wanted to learn Italian, for instance, I’d dedicate time every day to it. I wouldn’t space it out over the course of a year.

Recently I read Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, and now I’m reading Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. When I’m finished with that book, I would like to follow it up with another book on creativity. Or a documentary on creativity. Or something related to the same subject until I feel I’ve sprinted enough with it before exploring a different subject.

In any case, I’m pleased with this habit so far. In pursuing continuous learning, I now feel like I more easily recognize the opportunity for a lesson when it appears. And who knows? Maybe I’ll finally figure out how to be a Cat Whisperer one day.

Living on Purpose: Continuous Learning is a post from: GBGames - Thoughts on Indie Game Development

Earlier, I drew this as a joke (and shared in twitter)… but it’s not funny.

It’s so easy to get into mindset of doing “just one more change”, “just one more thing”. And that prevents game from getting done. The last playtests I did, made me think that I need to change one card. Gameplay already worked just fine, but somehow I didn’t like how the one card worked, so decided to change it.

That’s it, I say to myself. But this small change means I gotta go through more testing to ensure things are balanced.

I’m already proud of what I’ve done, and even though I keep getting more ideas for more items, more specialties and more everything… I decided to do folder called “expansion” and put the ideas on that folder. When I get new ideas, I know where they go.

That way I feel that my ideas are waiting there, not gone in vain – but also that I get sensible progress.

And, finally I can start say that this card game of mine – it’s near the finish line. I have bunch of tasks on my list. Cannot wait to get them done.

What about you – are you feature creep? Where do you draw the line between “polishing” and “creep”?

Games featured this week: Phit; Robot Unicorn Attack; BowMaster Prelude; Craziest; Kavalmaja — Everyone knows games can be hard to put down, but some titles are trickier than most to pull yourself away from. From magical robotic equine action to fiendishly simple block puzzles and even medieval archer madness, here's a collection of some of the most addictive little games around that can keep you up into the wee hours. Tagged as: blog, browser, thevault

Platform: iOS — Explore deeply layered fantasy landscapes, encounter boss battles and intriguing characters, discover treasure chests and secret coves, upgrade armor and weapons, level up and and everything else you'd want to find in an epic RPG platforming adventure. The on screen controls make your journey all the more enjoyable for a classic gaming feel. Any nostalgic cravings you had for your favorite games of old will be satisfied as you are the hero and your quest is great. Keep that sword handy and your magic prepped; who knows what danger lurks beyond those gates? You'll soon find out! Tagged as: action, adventure, game, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, platform, rating-y, rpg, touchfoo

Platform: iOS, Android — A Long Way Home is an arcade physics puzzle game from Jonathan Mulcahy. Stranded 100 light years from Earth, you play an astronaut whose only companion is a wrist-mounted computer who offers bits of advice. Using a sharp eye and impeccable timing, trot around asteroids and planets and jump from their surface across the screen, the goal being to collect dark matter so you can open successive worm holes that get you closer to home. Along the way, you'll encounter exploding asteroids, comets, teleporting dark matter, and more. Not exactly a leisurely walk in space. Tagged as: android, arcade, game, ios, ipad, iphone, jmulcahy, kindle, nook, rating-g, space, tablet

Platform: iOS, Android — Oh no! The king of the realm needs you to save the princess from the evil clutches of the Dark Knight! Go figure, right? Wind-up Knight is a mobile run and jump adventure very similar to Canabalt HD except you get a fancy sword and armor to fight enemies while dodging traps to make your way to the princess. Convenient items in adventuring, yes, but it won't save you when the Dark Knight starts getting really serious about stopping you. A knight's mettle will never be more tested and neither shall your timing skills as pits, enemies, and environmental dangers stand in your way. Tagged as: action, adventure, android, arcade, game, highdifficulty, ios, ipad, iphone, jumpandrun, kindle, mobile, platform, rating-y, robotinvaders, simpleidea, skill, tablet, timing

Platform: iOS — Everybody wants to rule the world, and zombies are no exception. In Brainsss, a wild sort of mobile game by Lonely Few, you get to help the zombies start their plot for world domination. Part strategy, part action, part brains, you must lead and grow your zombie horde to complete the goal for each level. Humans just don't get it. Life is so much simpler if all you need are brainsss. Tagged as: action, game, ios, ipad, iphone, lonelyfew, mobile, rating-y, strategy, tablet, zombies

Platform: iOS, Android — Looking for a logic puzzle game that is tested and designed with cognitive physiology research AND is still fun to play? The boys over at Handy Games in Germany bring you infeCCt, a nice casual undertaking that gets you covering tiles with vines. The game will bend your mind to its limits with tons of impressively designed levels, extra obstacles and tiles for an added challenge, and online scoring system to compare your problem solving skills with others. Tagged as: android, askulteti, demo, game, handygames, ios, ipad, iphone, kindle, logic, mobile, nook, puzzle, rating-g, simpleidea, tablet

Platform: iPad, Android — FlipPix Art is a series of picross logic puzzles created by GabySoft for mobile markets, including Android tablets, iPad, and NOOK Color/Tablet. The games are designed for ease of use while on the go, employing a rather unusual control mechanism that, surprisingly, makes mobile picross easier and less error-prone. On top of that, each of the games in the series features a different visual theme along with a large number of puzzles, making it one of the best ways to get a picross fix while on the go. Tagged as: android, gabysoft, game, ios, ipad, kindle, logic, mobile, nook, picross, puzzle, rating-g, tablet

Platform: iOS, Android — Though it's a scary (if distant) thought in real life, being stranded on an island where you have to fight for survival isn't high on anyone's to-do list. Place it in a casual game, though, and we're tripping over ourselves to start the download. Sahmon Games' simulation series The Island: Castaway has been perplexing players for a few years now with its superb blend of quest-based item hunting and character managing, spawning The Island: Castaway 2 not long after the original was released. Now there's the mobile version of The Island: Castaway, and it manages to bring every pixel of entertainment from its PC cousins to the portable touch screen. Be prepared for the addiction to begin all over again! Tagged as: adventure, android, demo, game, ios, ipad, iphone, islandcastaway, kindle, mobile, nook, rating-y, rpg, sahmongames, simulation, tablet

Platform: iOS, Android — When a vast series of subterranean pipes appears beneath Bikini Bottom, it's SpongeBob and crew to the rescue!... sort of! After a blinding flash of light, all our sea-dwelling swashbucklers have turned to marbles, and they need your help drawing paths to safety and helping them to manipulate switches and other machinery. Who's behind this fiendish development? Play this gorgeous mobile physics puzzler and find out! Tagged as: achievements, android, demo, game, gildedskull, ios, ipad, iphone, mobile, nickleodeon, nook, physics, pinball, puzzle, rating-g, tablet

Games featured this week: Machinarium; Amazing Alex; Death Worm; Off the Leash — Dogs and worms dominate the latest edition of Mobile Monday, an entirely unintended coincidence, we assure you! To balance out the slight "ew" factor, have a taste of a cute robot and a new game from the creators of Angry Birds. That should balance things out nicely! Tagged as: blog, mobile, mobile-monday, news, previews



Platform: Flash — In the mood for cracking some codes and breaking open a few boxes but short on time? This escape-the-room game from Tateita is just the right size for a quick fix. A sparse, five-walled room and several locks are all that stand between you and the open door. While its brevity might disappoint, Box 19's puzzles are sure to please. Tagged as: browser, escape, flash, free, game, japanese, linux, mac, puzzle, rating-g, tateita, windows

Platform: Mac — It's been said that people create because they're not satisfied with the way things are; they feel that the world needs more of 'them'. Well, if Dark Scavenger is any indication of what Psydra Games 'is', then I am eager to have more! In the team's darkly-humored point-and-click adventure game, you are an alien who has to forage through a planet looking for a source of energy to power your failing ship. With combat and mystery at every turn, this game will have you humorously pointing and clicking your way through the storyline. Tagged as: adventure, demo, download, game, indie, mac, pointandclick, psydragames, rating-o, retro, windows

Platform: Flash — Natural disasters are at your fingertips in this simple but clever little physics puzzle from Anton Koshechkin. Unleash hurricanes, comets, bees, and more in order to destroy eggs housed in protective structures. It's weird, funny, and just the right dose of egg carnage to see you through the day. Tagged as: akoshechkin, browser, flash, free, game, linux, mac, physics, puzzle, rating-y, windows

Platform: Mac, Unity — Across the universe, no matter the time period or location, delivering the mail is a rough job. Take the poor sap in charge of the space-based mail delivery station Meteor Mail, for example. (It's you, by the way.) That lonely technician has to fire packages from one end, then tweak the exact position of gravity orbs to thread each delivery through worm holes, asteroids, roving pirates, and other obstacles. But, if it were easy, we wouldn't have the delightfully challenging puzzle game that is Meteor Mail, so from adversity comes entertainment! Tagged as: demo, download, game, indie, mac, puzzle, rating-g, space, squirreltechenterprises, unity, windows

Platform: Windows — Alan Wake is a bestselling author who hasn't written a word in two years. The pressure from his fans and agent are getting to him, and a quiet vacation in the sleepy mountain town of Bright Falls should be just what he needs to relax... right up until he wakes up confused and disoriented in the woods late at night, attacked by living shadows. With his wife missing and nobody willing to believe him, Alan must unravel the mysteries of the town and his own haunted psyche in this frightening, atmospheric action adventure from Remedy. Tagged as: action, adventure, affiliate, download, game, gog, horror, mystery, rating-o, remedy, windows

Platform: Windows — Miley's got dreams of being a comedic superstar, and the first step is to follow in the footsteps of Cherry Tree High's greatest and start a comedy club. The only problem is the student council insists she needs a minimum of three more members, and she only has a month to find them! Are her ambitions on the rocks, or can she hunt down and convince a bunch of unlikely recruits to join her? A gorgeous, energetic, and light-hearted game that blends adventure with visual novel and simulation elements. Tagged as: 773, adventure, capcom, download, game, humor, indie, narrative, nyumedia, rating-y, visualnovel, windows

Platform: Windows — If you grew up in an age where dithering was a a common graphical trick to get around color limitations and were excited when CGA was succeeded by EGA which gave way to VGA, just seeing a screenshot of You Have to Win the Game will turn you mad with nostalgia. The exploration platformer from Pirate Hearts shares a lot of design elements with Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV, Lyle in Cube Sector, and Celestial Mechanica, though its main trick is emulating the computing environment of a decades-old PC. But even if you don't get excited by 16-color CRT monitors, You Have to Win the Game is a thoroughly enjoyable ride! Tagged as: action, download, exploration, free, game, indie, kpittman, piratehearts, platform, rating-g, retro, windows

Platform: Windows — Become a mare of action in this crazy but colourful homage to the classic bullet-hell shooter series. Playing as Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, blast your way through fields of bizarre enemies, mini-bosses, and more with frantic action you'll need to be at least 20% cooler than most to pull off. This free download might be simple, but it's an excellent source of shooter gameplay to make you feel like a boss and get your heart pounding. Tagged as: action, arcade, bullethell, download, free, game, giest118, highdifficulty, indie, mylittlepony, rating-g, shooter, windows

Platform: Windows — And Then There Were None... an old English detective book that has been adapted for the stage, silver screen, and radio has given inspiration to an indie platformer game. As you quest through the blanketing snow and eerie white noise, the game follows a man known only as Hughes as he tries to defend himself from a roaming serial killer. Tensions rise and fear sets in as danger lurks around every corner, tunnel, and platform. Your only glimmer of solace is the voice emanating from a radio, leading you along and aiding you in your struggle until... it's too late. Tagged as: adventure, digitalsynthesis, download, free, game, gamemaker, indie, platform, rating-o, saintheiser, windows