Casual Game Blogs

Grey Alien Games: 5th Jewel Match Game comes to Steam

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:15:31 +0000

We are delighted to have been able to bring five of Suricate Software’s solitaire games to Steam.

The latest of these is Jewel Match Solitaire 2 Collector’s Edition, which includes 320 Solitaire Levels and 18 replayable Bonus Solitaire games:

Klondike, Freecell, Spider, Lady Palk, Ali Baba, Baker’s Dozen, Acme, Trusty Twelve, Giant, Lanes, Raglan, Twenty, Scarab, Spanish Patience, Diplomat, Double Line, Nestor, and Thieves of Egypt.

The original Jewel Match

We first teamed up with Suricate in July 2018 to bring the original Jewel Match Solitaire to Steam.

We were pleased with the response and agreed to work with Suricate to get more of their solitaire games to fans on Steam.

The next title, Jewel Match Twilight Solitaire, was launched in September. With its dark, spooky theme we thought it would be just the thing for Halloween.

Keeping the seasonal theme going, we had Jewel Match Solitaire Winterscapes out on Steam in time for the winter holidays in 2018. Fans particularly liked the beautiful, animated snowy backgrounds.

Love is in the air

February 2019 saw us launch Jewel Match Solitaire L’Amour or Valentine’s Day, for romantic solitaire fans.

We think that for solitaire fans, there’s a lot to love about the Jewel Match games. We hope to be able to bring more of them to Steam in the future!

Casual Gamer Chick: No Episode This Week

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 05:00:33 +0000

No episode this week. There will be more podcast goodness next week.

Casual Game Guides: Farm Tribe: Dragon Island

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 21:19:00 +0000

Farm Tribe Dragon Island will whisk you away on the back of a tornado to a new land desperate for your farming expertise. You better plant quickly, the natives of this new land are starving and are relying on you to not only feed them but save them from a dangerous menace.

» Farm Tribe: Dragon Island Walkthrough & Forum

» Farm Tribe: Dragon Island Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 535: Short Ep

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 17:52:25 +0000

This week’s episode is kind of short because there’s really nothing big to discuss. There is news, however, which includes:

Wavesplitter to be blocked on PC and Xbox One in Destiny 2
Borderlands 3 cross-platform multiplayer “is something we’re looking at closely” according to 2K
Enter the Gungeon adds dog petting after being called out on Twitter
A real-life political lobbyist has been banned from EVE Online for corruption

Let us know what you think.

This week’s episode is kind of short because there’s really nothing big to discuss. There is news, however, which includes: Wavesplitter to be blocked on PC and Xbox One in Destiny 2 Borderlands 3 cross-platform multiplayer “is something we’re looking at closely” according to 2K Enter the Gungeon adds dog petting after being called out on Twitter A real-life political lobbyist has been banned from EVE Online for corruption Let us know what you think.

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 534: Epic Exclusive

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:15:26 +0000

There was a lot of shocking news in the past week — unfortunately, Jonah was at PAX East, so last week’s episode ended up not being published. But there’s still more news this week.

The news includes:

Borderlands 3 might be an Epic Store exclusive
Videogame news subreddit closes for 24 hours to protest bigotry
John and Brenda Romero working with Paradox on new strategy IP
Sony unveils PSN refund policy

Let us know what you think.

There was a lot of shocking news in the past week — unfortunately, Jonah was at PAX East, so last week’s episode ended up not being published. But there’s still more news this week. The news includes: Borderlands 3 might be an Epic Store exclusive Videogame news subreddit closes for 24 hours to protest bigotry John and Brenda Romero working with Paradox on new strategy IP Sony unveils PSN refund policy Let us know what you think.

Casual Game Guides: Viking Sisters

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 20:43:00 +0000

Viking Sisters switches the narrative on us and finally shines the spotlight on the ladies of the viking age Helga and her sister Brunhilda. After an evil sorceress turns the viking men into stone statues, it's up to the girls to save them. Can you help the Viking Sisters, with the aid of the goddess Freya, save the day and destroy the evil sorceress?

» Viking Sisters Walkthrough & Forum

» Viking Sisters Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: Jewel Match Solitaire 2 Collector’s Edition coming to Steam

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:58:37 +0000

Jewel Match Solitaire 2 Collector’s Edition by Suricate Software is coming to Steam for PC.

UK-based Grey Alien Games will publish the game on behalf of Suricate Software, a European game developer behind numerous classic casual titles. This follows a similar agreement to bring Suricate’s other Jewel Match Solitaire titles to Steam over the past year.

The new game features 320 levels, with 18 additional Solitaire variants such as Klondike and Freecell. Players will be able to build 8 beautiful castles and search every last level for gems and coins to buy new upgrades and power-ups.

Grey Alien Games has several of its own titles on Steam, including Regency Solitaire and solitaire-driven RPG, Shadowhand.

Jewel Match Solitaire 2 Collector’s Edition is due to launch on 18 April, 2019.

For more details or to wishlist, please visit the Steam store page, here:

Grey Alien Games: Grey Alien Games launches a Patreon

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 14:53:04 +0000

Grey Alien Games has launched a Patreon account as a new way to connect with supporters and fans.

You can find the new Patreon here.

In addition to offering fans the chance to be the first to check out our latest artwork and music, and beta test upcoming games, we also intend to add content that will help other indie developers.

We aim to use Patreon as a platform to post insightful, data-filled blogs on topics covering game design and business strategy.

Does this sound like you? If so, we’d love it if you became a Patron.

Casual Game Guides: Fabulous: Angela's True Colors

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 19:41:00 +0000

Angela is at it again in and this time the stakes are higher than ever as her friends have put up their savings to fund her dreams of becoming a true fashion star. Can Angela overcome her insecurities and be true to herself in a plastic world of cutthroat fashion critics? Find out in this new Fabulous Angela game!

» Fabulous: Angela's True Colors Walkthrough & Forum

» Fabulous: Angela's True Colors Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Game Guides: Elven Legend 7: The New Generation

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 19:09:00 +0000

Elven Legend 7: The New Generation is a fantasy based time management game that follows the story of Princess Sonja, a young elf princess about to embark on her very first adventure. Help her as she learns the hard way that not every stranger offering her aid is the trustworthy sort.

» Elven Legend 7: The New Generation Walkthrough & Forum

» Elven Legend 7: The New Generation Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 533: Muffled Audio

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 05:00:13 +0000

TJ’s mic is a strangely muffled this week, while the group anxiously await the release of the upcoming title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

This week’s news includes:

Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch, with Xbox Live support coming
The Outer Worlds and Control will launch on the Epic Store, not Steam
Cadence of Hyrule coming this Spring to Switch
Oculus Rift S promises higher resolutions for PC gaming without external sensors

Let us know what you think.

TJ’s mic is a strangely muffled this week, while the group anxiously await the release of the upcoming title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This week’s news includes: Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch, with Xbox Live support coming The Outer Worlds and Control will launch on the Epic Store, not Steam Cadence of Hyrule coming this Spring to Switch Oculus Rift S promises higher resolutions for PC gaming without external sensors Let us know what you think.

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 532: Devil May Care

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 05:00:14 +0000

This week’s episode takes a look at the excitement caused by Devil May Cry 5, as well as some more discussion about upcoming games.

The news includes:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC might have just been leaked by Microsoft
Microsoft’s ‘Xbox One S All-Digital Edition’ leaked
Government official wonders how Steam can ‘get away with this kind of stupidity’ after rape game is removed
Rainbow Six Siege‘s next operator will be invisible to cameras, leak suggests

Let us know what you think.

This week’s episode takes a look at the excitement caused by Devil May Cry 5, as well as some more discussion about upcoming games. The news includes: Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC might have just been leaked by Microsoft Microsoft’s ‘Xbox One S All-Digital Edition’ leaked Government official wonders how Steam can ‘get away with this kind of stupidity’ after rape game is removed Rainbow Six Siege‘s next operator will be invisible to cameras, leak suggests Let us know what you think.

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 531: Is Bethesda Evil?

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 05:00:30 +0000

This podcast was also delayed in publication due to real-life issues, but there’s a lot of banter involved, including a discussion of Bethesda’s missteps and the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI, whatever it is.

Report: Xbox Game Pass not happening on Nintendo Switch anytime soon
Resident Evil 2 remake was nearly first-person
Kingdom Hearts director says Marvel and Star Wars would be tricky to add

Let us know what you think.

This podcast was also delayed in publication due to real-life issues, but there’s a lot of banter involved, including a discussion of Bethesda’s missteps and the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI, whatever it is. Report: Xbox Game Pass not happening on Nintendo Switch anytime soon Resident Evil 2 remake was nearly first-person Kingdom Hearts director says Marvel and Star Wars would be tricky to add Let us know what you think.

Casual Game Guides: Incredible Dracula: The Ice Kingdom

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 21:35:00 +0000

Incredible Dracula: The Ice Kingdom is an exciting resource management / time management game that does not disappoint! Get ready to command your zombie workers and face the perilous Ice Queen as she attempts to cast the world in a never-ending winter.

» Incredible Dracula: The Ice Kingdom Walkthrough & Forum

» Incredible Dracula: The Ice Kingdom Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 530: Pokemons With Swords and Shields

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:00:08 +0000

This week’s episode was delayed in publication thanks to real life intruding on the videogame podcast.

The week’s news items include:

Pokémon Sword and Shield starters revealed
Stardew Valley gets esports tournament
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be revealed in April
Funcom is working on a Dune MMO, and two more Dune games

All that and listener feedback.

This week’s episode was delayed in publication thanks to real life intruding on the videogame podcast. The week’s news items include: Pokémon Sword and Shield starters revealed Stardew Valley gets esports tournament Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be revealed in April Funcom is working on a Dune MMO, and two more Dune games All that and listener feedback.

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 529: Crossplatforming

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 15:47:09 +0000

This week’s news includes:

Paradox Introduces multiplatform modding on Xbox One and PC
Red Dead Online gets competitive fishing, gold armor gunfight in next update
The developer of Furi is making a co-op RPG
Rocket League gets cross-platform parties

There’s Listener Feedback as well.

Things are starting to get interesting in the videogame industry, as Microsoft is starting to make Live available on other platforms, including the Switch. TJ on the other hand is getting more and more into Apex Legends. This week’s news includes: Paradox Introduces multiplatform modding on Xbox One and PC Red Dead Online gets competitive fishing, gold armor gunfight in next update The developer of Furi is making a co-op RPG Rocket League gets cross-platform parties There’s Listener Feedback as well.

Casual Game Guides: Kingdom Chronicles 2

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 20:29:00 +0000

Kingdom Chronicles 2, the long awaited sequel to the original exciting time management strategy game, has finally arrived and we can’t stop playing it! Get ready for a fun weekend filled with hoarding resources, reparing roads, and throttling orcs.

» Kingdom Chronicles 2 Walkthrough & Forum

» Kingdom Chronicles 2 Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 528: Back From Disaster

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 05:00:58 +0000

Otherwise, this week’s news includes:

Activision-Blizzard lays off 800 employees
World War Z gets an April release date
Dragon Quest Builders 2 comes to Switch, PS4 this summer
Chucklefish boss says Sony is responsible for lack of PS4 crossplay

The Question of the Week is “Which game would you love to see remade?”

Jonah’s desktop PC finally died completely from irretrievable hardware failure, and this episode was recorded clumsily on his cellphone. Meanwhile, TJ has been enjoying Apex Legends enormously, and gives it a rave review. Otherwise, this week’s news includes: Activision-Blizzard lays off 800 employees World War Z gets an April release date Dragon Quest Builders 2 comes to Switch, PS4 this summer Chucklefish boss says Sony is responsible for lack of PS4 crossplay The Question of the Week is “Which game would you love to see remade?”

Grey Alien Games: Cast of characters

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 13:47:26 +0000

I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the characters that have appeared in our games over recent years and how we’ve used them.

Spooky Bonus

Spooky Bonus was our successful match-3 game that came out in 2013 on casual portals (and later on Steam). There wasn’t a great deal of character interaction in this game, but it did feature this shopkeeper character, who pops up in dialogs.

Regency Solitaire

Our next game, Regency Solitaire had a visual novel element with slide-on characters and a protagonist that you can gradually ‘upgrade’ in terms of her costume and jewellery. We put a lot of effort into researching historical clothing, hairstyles and so on for this game.

Shadowhand

We took the customisable character to a new level with Shadowhand in 2017. Our main character had a wide selection of clothing and weapon items, all of which affected gameplay. To make things more complicated, our character also had several different fight stances. This meant hundreds of pieces of art, and a lot of art direction.

For all of these games we outsourced our art to RetroStyle Games. We think they did a really good job.

Ancient Enemy

For our latest project, Ancient Enemy, we have some new collaborators and have changed up the art style to suit the tone of the game. Our character artist is the talented Jen Pattison, and we have also had bold UI artwork from Dan Emmerson.

This style is something of a departure from our previous games, and we think it works…

Tell us what you think!

Casual Game Guides: New Yankee 7: Deer Hunters

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 21:03:00 +0000

Hold onto your hats as we get ready for another exciting chapter in the New Yankee franchise. New Yankee 7: Deer Hunters lives up to the our expectations and delivers another fast-paced time management game that's sure to claim many hours of your foreseeable future.

» New Yankee 7: Deer Hunters Walkthrough & Forum

» New Yankee 7: Deer Hunters Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 527: Technical Issues

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 23:00:40 +0000

This week’s episode has minor audio issues, but otherwise is okay. Most of the talk is about the Resident Evil 2 remake, and how it’s taken over the world. The crew also discuss the latest Gathering Storm civ, Phoenicia.

The news of the week includes:

Capcom shipped 3 million units of Resident Evil 2
Valve calls exclusive Metro Exodus deal with Epic “unfair” to Steam customers
American McGee confirmed to be working on Alice 3 story, art and design
Fallout 76 Survival Mode – PVP Beta starting in March

Let us know what kind of game you want to see remade.

This week’s episode has minor audio issues, but otherwise is okay. Most of the talk is about the Resident Evil 2 remake, and how it’s taken over the world. The crew also discuss the latest Gathering Storm civ, Phoenicia. The news of the week includes: Capcom shipped 3 million units of Resident Evil 2 Valve calls exclusive Metro Exodus deal with Epic “unfair” to Steam customers American McGee confirmed to be working on Alice 3 story, art and design Fallout 76 Survival Mode – PVP Beta starting in March Let us know what kind of game you want to see remade.

Grey Alien Games: Grey Alien Games and Suricate Software bring Jewel Match Solitaire L’Amour to Steam

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:08:12 +0000

Jewel Match Solitaire L’Amour by Suricate Software is coming to Steam for PC. UK-based Grey Alien Games will publish the game on behalf of Suricate Software, a European game developer behind numerous classic casual titles. This follows a similar agreement to bring Suricate’s other Jewel Match Solitaire titles to Steam last year.

Jewel Match Twilight Solitaire L’Amour includes 200 solitaire levels, five beautiful scenes to build and multiple card decks. Players will can enjy tons of gameplay variations and power-ups, along with 50 replayable bonus mahjong levels.

Jake Birkett, owner of Grey Alien Games said: “We are delighted to publish Suricate Software’s romantic themed game on Steam. Jewel Match Solitaire L’Amour is a truly charming game and we think it’s just right for Valentine’s Day.”

Grey Alien Games has several of its own titles on Steam, including Regency Solitaire and solitaire-driven RPG, Shadowhand.

Jewel Match Solitaire L’Amour is due to launch on 14 February, 2019.

For more details or to wishlist, please visit the Steam store page, here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1009700/Jewel_Match_Solitaire_LAmour/

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 526: New York State of Mind

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:00:59 +0000

The news includes:

“Exciting Halo: The Master Chief Collection news” teased for SXSW 2019
EA cancels open-world Star Wars game
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is getting turn-based combat later this week

Let us know what you think.

This week’s episode of Gaming Podcast features the first news of 2019 for the podcast, and there’s some juicy items to discuss. There’s no Gaming Flashback, but there is more discussion of the latest Civilization VI: Gathering Storm civs to be discussed. The news includes: “Exciting Halo: The Master Chief Collection news” teased for SXSW 2019 EA cancels open-world Star Wars game Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is getting turn-based combat later this week Let us know what you think.

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 525: Best Games of 2018 – A Rambling Recap

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 00:19:17 +0000

This week’s episode has no news, despite the beginning of 2019 having some earth-shattering news items, which will be discussed next week, probably.

Instead, Jonah, TJ and Scott talk about their favorite games of 2018. Let us know which game was your favorite last year.

This week’s episode has no news, despite the beginning of 2019 having some earth-shattering news items, which will be discussed next week, probably. Instead, Jonah, TJ and Scott talk about their favorite games of 2018. Let us know which game was your favorite last year.

Casual Game Guides: Next Stop 3 Walkthrough

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 23:01:00 +0000

Our Next Stop 3 Walkthrough is ready to whisk you away on an adventure that will test your skill and speed. Margret and friends have a new venture that you are helping to bring to life. Help her restore the withering infrastructure and railways as she speeds towards building a life that only dreams are made of. Complete your task and aquire your resources with ease and agility as you follow along using our vibrantly illustrated screenshots and easy to follow instructions. 50 levels of fun filled adventure are yours for the taking! We hope you enjoy our Next Stop 3 Walkthrough!

» Next Stop 3 Walkthrough & Forum

» Next Stop 3 Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: My 2018 Indie Game Picks (PC)

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 16:41:03 +0000

Each year I put the most interesting and fun PC games I playd in a folder. Most of them are indie(ish)

Here are my 2018 picks (note that they may not have been new in 2018):

I got very addicted to Kingdom (and it looks great). I thought Intro the Breach and Slay the Spire were very clever. I played a bunch of shoot ’em ups for fun. Some card and turn-based combat games for research (many did not make it onto this list). And I played a bunch of other weird things, some of which were great!

What were your 2018 picks?

Grey Alien Games: My 2013-2016 Indie Game Picks (PC)

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 16:34:45 +0000

Every year I put PC games that were fun and/or interesting into a special folder. Most of then are indie games but an occasional AAA game creeps in sometimes.

The games weren’t necessarily new that year but that was just when I happened to play them.

Anyway, here are my lists from 2013-2016. Do you remember playing some of these?

2013

My favourite game was FTL. I got super-addicted to it and managed to beat it eventually.

2014

Steamworld Dig is a fantastic game and the newer Steamworld Dig 2 is even better. Also Crypt of the Necrodancer was great.

2015

Darkest Dungeon was fantastic, and hard, and it made an impression on me. Shovel Knight was also really great, and so were many of the other games I played that year.

2016

Legend of Grimrock 2 was my favourite. I’ve been a fan of Dungeon Master style games ever since the Amiga.

Grey Alien Games: 2018 Review and 2019 Goals

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 14:40:17 +0000

Right then, it’s that time of year when I review last year’s goals and come up with some new goals for 2019.

Summary

It was a strange year because at the start I felt burned out after releasing Shadowhand and took a couple of months off development whilst I recovered.

During this time I applied to the UK Games Fund for Ancient Enemy and went to a few conferences such as Games Forum London, Casual Connect (London), and GDC (where I spent most of the time at the first “IchiroCon”, which was epic.) Those conferences yielded some good contacts and information, and resulted in me publishing some Jewel Match Solitaire games on Steam for a German developer associate I met with at Casual Connect.

Then I did a few updates to Shadowhand and began working on a casual port of the game with no combat (only puzzle levels), a modified story, and a less complex RPG system. I didn’t actually ship the casual version before starting work on Ancient Enemy (more on this in the Mistakes section below).

Helen and I also did some planning for a new game which we’ll announce soon. We hope the news will make a lot of people happy.

I also spoke at a conference in Latvia, where I made a good contact (more in this in a blog post soon!) Then I spoke at Develop in Brighton, and later in the year I got invited to speak in Dublin, Ireland. I also made a bunch of interesting data-filled blog posts this year and a video called “You are spending too long on your game“, which got shared widely.

During the summer I found out that we weren’t successful with getting funding from the UK Games Fund and I tweeted that I needed some money to make my next game and prompty got 5 funding offers! That was pretty amazing and we ended up getting some financial support from Bithell Games, which is great. Around that time I also received a chunk of money from Video Game Tax Relief which I put towards Ancient Enemy development.

So at the start of August I began work on Ancient Enemy (wishlist it!) and worked on that for the remainder of the year. We’ve got an all-star team working on this including Jim Rossignol (writer/designer), Jen Pattison (artist), Dan Emmerson (artist), and we’re just about to bring a well-known indie on board, which I’ll announce soon! We’ve probably got about 3 more months to go if all goes to plan because it’s supposed to be a short project utilising the existing (modified) Shadowhand engine.

In September I flew to Boston for an “Ichirocon” and had a really great time. Hoping there will be one in 2019.

In terms of revenue, this is what 2018 looks like. Basically 2017 was a poor year because we didn’t release anything until December. So 2018 was a definite improvement (+50%), though not as good as some past years. With the release of Ancient Enemy in 2019, and some other projects I’ve got in the works, I hope that 2019 can be a great year.

Currently I’m feeling very positive, despite my Steam revenue dropping due to discovery algorithm changes in October 2018. I’m productive and getting good work done, and I’ve spent the year trying to make optimised decisions by applying the 80/20 rule where possible (look it up). I want to keep improving that way of thinking during 2019.

2018 Work Goals

1) Shadowhand hits $150K gross on Steam. (FAILED: Got pretty close though, so I’ll award half a point. After the launch sales slowed down quicker than I hoped.)
2) I secure some funding for a new game. (SUCCESS! For Ancient Enemy. See the summary above.)
3) I ship a new game. Most likely reusing either Regency or Shadowhand engine. (FAILED: I worked on two, but didn’t ship either yet! Not going to award any points as you can’t half ship a game, well maybe you can.)
4) I stay in business until the end of 2018. (SUCCESS! I’m still here and revenue was up from 2017.)

Success rate = 2.5/4 = 62.5%. Not bad (and better than last year). If I’d got my act together I could have shipped Shadowhand Solitaire and scored 3.5/4 or started work on Ancient Enemy sooner.

Stretch goals:
1) Shadowhand hits $250K gross on Steam and other channels. (FAILED: Sadly not close. We’d hoped to get Shadowhand in a humble bundle/monthly, but got rejected! Also I really needed to release the casual version to help hit this goal, which I didn’t.)
2) I ship a second game. (FAILED: Didn’t even ship a first game, ho hum.)

2018 Personal Goals

1) Get my fitness and health back to previous levels. (SUCCESS! I did a lot of walking in the first half of the year and managed to lose 6kg (which I mostly put back on in the run up to Christmas) and my SI joint gradually got better and now I rarely get any trouble from it. Really pleased about this because the pain was dragging me down for over 18 months!)
2) Have a “staycation” with my wife. (SUCCESS! We needed this because Christmas 2017 wasn’t very relaxing due to the usual family stuff and because we’d just shipped a game. We had planned to tidy up the attic during our staycation but we didn’t even get round to that, which is fine.)
3) Go on a vacation with my wife and kids. Maybe to Austria as we have friends there with a flat we can stay in. (SUCCESS! We totally did this and stayed in our friends’ fancy apartment in the middle of Graz and also in a cabin by a lake in the mountains.)
4) Get back into playing guitar. (FAILED: I played a bit here and there but never re-developed my finger calluses properly.)
5) Make at least 6 pieces of art. (SUCCESS! I only made 2 digital paintings, but I did some pixel art and some mockup art for Ancient Enemy which I’m including in these 6 pieces. You can see some of them here.)
6) Do a gamejam. (SUCCESS! Right at the end of the year I used Pico-8 for the first time to make a game called CyberJam. It’s not really finished but it’s pretty cool and I’m pleased with it. I’d like to spend a bit more time on it so I can release it to the public.)

Success rate = 5/6 = 83%. This is a great score, much better than last year. I think these were reasonable goals and I made sure I did them.

Stretch Goals:
1) Pay our joint account back some of the money we have loaned my company in recent years. I’ll put a figure of £5000 on this. (FAILED: Sadly Shadowhand didn’t make enough money for this to happen and as I didn’t release any other games, this wasn’t possible. In fact we ended up lending the company some more money.)
2) Make another mortgage lump sum overpayment at some point in the year. Minimum £1000. (SUCCESS! Yes we did exactly that ha. It’s not much but it’s something.)

Bonus Points

– Early in the year Cliff Harris said I should blog more often. And so I wrote a bunch of informative blog posts that got widely shared and were a factor in me doing talks and getting funding for Ancient Enemy. I even turned down two international talks because I was too busy with work and didn’t want to travel. People even mentioned my blog posts in their GDC talks and articles. So I think I got a good visiblity boost within the industry this year and I also had a fun year networking.
– I wasn’t expecting to turn into a “publisher” but it’s worked out pretty well. So far I’ve published three Jewel Match Soltaire games on Steam and there are more coming in 2019. It’s bonus money and helps with my branding as a card game developer.
– I got contacted by a developer rep from a well-known console manufacturer and now plans are afoot for something interesting…(more on this soon)
– I went to a couple of great Aikido courses. My Aikido has been changing in the last few years as I gain more understanding of different principles from different teachers.
– I had nice a Christmas break at home and I played tons of games.
– I lost some weight, which wasn’t a goal I’d set, but I just did it anyway. I’ve also been using my standing desk a lot and my legs and back feel stronger.

Mistakes
– I didn’t get going fast enough with new projects after shipping Shadowhand. To be fair this was because of burnout and it happens to me pretty much every time I ship something but it was quite powerful this time.
– I didn’t ship Shadowhand Solitaire in the summer. I only needed a few more weeks to finish it and if I had shipped it then by now I would be receiving income from it, which would have been REALLY useful. This is because I didn’t want to delay working on Ancient Enemy after I got the funding and the team together. I’ll probably go back to this after Ancient Enemy ships, but the casual markets have declined further in 2018 and it is really starting to look like a non-viable earner.
– Early in the year I had a meeting with a large mobile game dev company and I had the possibility of making a deal with them about a certain IP we own. However, I just couldn’t work out a deal that I was happy with. This was during my burnout period and thinking back on it, maybe I should have persisted more and tried diferent approaches. However, the rest of the year has worked out anyway and I’m happy with what I’m doing now.
– I put the weight I lost back on in the run up to Christmas. To be honest I was just enjoying myself eating food and feeling that “hibernation” vibe. But it’s OK as my BMI is still in the normal range.
– I wish I’d done more art and music and spent more time with my youngest son who is 15 now (though we did get into watching Brooklyn 99 together, which is great).

2019 Work Goals

1) Grey Alien Games’ revenue is over $100K. This is reasonable based on past years but a lot depends on the timing and success of my upcoming projects.
2) I ship Ancient Enemy before June 2019.
3) I ship secret project 1 in Q2.
4) I ship secret project 2 in 2019 and it is at least part-funded by Kickstarter/an investor/grant.
5) I stay in business until the end of 2019.

I’m breaking my usual rule of only working on one project at time in 2019 but I’m aiming to work with other reliable people to get stuff done so that I’m no longer the bottleneck in my business. That should also free me up to do more biz dev, which has been succesful this year, in order to create more opportunities.

Stretch Goals:
1) Ancient Enemy breaks even. Whilst I’ll do everything I can to make this happen, it’s mostly out of my control due to market forces, so I won’t make it an official goal.
2) I start work on a new game (preferably our own IP.) Self-funded if I have enough $, otherwise externally funded.

2019 Personal Goals

1) Get my weight down to 65Kg (its 67kg right now, so this isn’t too hard) and maintain that to the end of the year.
2) Go on 10 nice walks/daytrips/long weekends with my wife.
3) Help my eldest son to pass his Aikido black belt.
4) Have a week long staycation, probably after Ancient Enemy ships and the dust settles, but maybe before if I need it.
5) Go on a week long vacation with my wife to Wales or Scotland, or maybe Ireland, and look at castles and standing stones.
6) Spend more time with my youngest son (playing games, watching TV, cinema etc). This should probably more specific, but I’m going to go with gut feel on this by the end of the year.
7) Finish my Cyberjam game in pico-8.

That’s more goals than last year and I’ve missed off things like make art and music, but I’ll probably do some of that as well anyway and I don’t want to make the goals list too long.

Stretch Goals (these are almost the same as last year):
1) Pay our joint account back some of the money we have loaned my company in recent years. I’ll put a figure of £10000 on this.
2) Make another mortgage lump sum overpayment at some point in the year. Minimum £2000.

Grey Alien Games: 2018 Artwork

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 17:28:01 +0000

I only did two proper digital paintings in 2018 but I think they turned out well.

This is a ruined church in Dorset that sits inside an ancient circular earthwork.

And this is a ruined barn close to where we live that I took a photo of during the very dry summer we just had.

I also did a bunch of mockup art for our new game Ancient Enemy like the logo below which became a reference for the final logo.

You can wishlist Ancient Enemy on Steam here.

Earlier in the year I dabbled with some pixel art but never did any more until the end of the year when I did a gamejam using Pico-8! This game is called “Cyberjam” and is inspired by Cybernoid and has some basic animated enemies and explosions. I’ll probably make a separate post about it soon.

Anyway, I aim to make some more art in 2019 because I enjoy it and I think I’m improving.

Casual Game Guides: 12 Labours of Hercules VIII: How I Met Megara

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 13:31:00 +0000

12 Labours of Hercules VIII: How I Met Megara is a fast paced time management game and the newest addition to the 12 Labours Franchise. Join Hercules as he journeys to Egypt to rescue Megara's sister and her cat.

» 12 Labours of Hercules VIII: How I Met Megara Walkthrough & Forum

» 12 Labours of Hercules VIII: How I Met Megara Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Game Guides: Dr. Cares: Family Practice Review

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:07:00 +0000

Dr Cares: Family Practice is an adorable time management game that will please any animal lover as you practice your vet skills and rescue kittens, puppies, ponies, and even dolphins!

» Dr. Cares: Family Practice Walkthrough & Forum

» Dr. Cares: Family Practice Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: Ancient Enemy Dev diary #3: How to create dynamic poses in your game

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:30:21 +0000

We’ve been having a lively discussion today about character poses in games so we thought we’d share some of our experiences. You may find this instructive, or amusing, or both!

Slightly batty

In our previous game Shadowhand, we went to a lot of trouble to get aspects of the stances as accurate and lifelike as we could. The types of thing we looked at were angles of limbs in active poses, hand grips on weapons, and scale.

On our Watermill level, we have a Washerwoman character who battles the protagonist with a laundry bat. This was a kind of wooden paddle used in that time period (1770s) to beat and agitate laundry in large vats of water – thankfully most of us have washing machines that do this job today!

To get the pose and hand grip right, Helen posed with a cricket bat and we sent the images, along with detailed costume and character art references, to our artists at Retrostyle Games. The final character poses are below.

Developers are willing to go to great lengths to make games!

Ancient Enemy

Our artist Jen is doing a great job on our fight stances for our next game, Ancient Enemy.

Here are some of the poses she has come up with so far:

Dynamic poses present some challenges but we think they really add a lot to the game!

Don’t forget you can wishlist Ancient Enemy Here:

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 524: Goodbye, 2018!

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 05:00:28 +0000

This is the last podcast of 2018, and the next episode will be our Games of the Year announcement. Until then, we snark at Pewdiepie, and check some of the news ending the year.

This week’s news includes:

Steam Xbox One cross-play tools hinted
Americans can get Assassin’s Creed Odyssey free from Google
Discord Store to offer developers 90 percent of game revenues
Inca announced for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm

Let us know what your Game of the Year is.

This is the last podcast of 2018, and the next episode will be our Games of the Year announcement. Until then, we snark at Pewdiepie, and check some of the news ending the year. This week’s news includes: Steam Xbox One cross-play tools hinted Americans can get Assassin’s Creed Odyssey free from Google Discord Store to offer developers 90 percent of game revenues Inca announced for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm Let us know what your Game of the Year is.

Grey Alien Games: A Christmas Wish(list): Ancient Enemy gets a Steam page

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:56:39 +0000

PRESS RELEASE

Bridport, UK, 18 December 2018 – Grey Alien Games, the independent development team behind Regency Solitaire, and Shadowhand, has today unveiled their forthcoming tactical card game, Ancient Enemy, on the popular PC gaming sales portal, Steam.

Conveniently, those choosing to wishlist the game via this page will be notified on release, and sales thereafter! Here’s the all-important link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/993790/Ancient_Enemy/

So what’s Ancient Enemy?

Let us explain…

Awakening from centuries of slumber, a fallen mage returns to battle twisted folkloric foe across sprawling, ghostly landscapes. His ultimate destination: the nameless antagonist, a dread nemesis waiting patiently in the dark fastness of a monstrous citadel, his Ancient Enemy.

An unusual, strategic RPG card game, Ancient Enemy is launching on Steam for PC & Mac next year. You’ll embark upon a quest inspired by British mythology and the Mabinogion, so expect card battling, visceral fights, mixed with bleak and evocative folklore! Loot the fallen to fill your hero’s RPG-style inventory with collectible cards, capture strongholds and gather talented henchmen. Only powerful magic and iron determination will enable revenge upon your ultimate foe.

A collaboration between Grey Alien Games and Big Robot’s Jim Rossignol, and featuring art by Jen Pattison, this is a project that brings together indie development talent from across the UK. “This is a long-overdue collaboration between myself and Jake,” said Rossignol, “and it’s fantastic to be working with Jen, whose art I have admired for years. We’re all having a lovely time.” Additionally, Ancient Enemy is supported by Bithell Games.

“I’m incredibly excited to play Ancient Enemy. One of the coolest things about selling games is using some of that cash to support other people’s visions,” said Mike Bithell of Bithell Games (Thomas Was Alone, Subsurface Circular). “Like Regency Solitaire and Shadowhand, I’m sure this award-winning team’s latest game will blow us away.”

Features:

– Card-driven, turn-based battles. The new, faster, turn-based combat puts the focus on the player’s choices.
– Strategic challenge. Play your cards wisely. Your enemy’s next move is revealed, and you must respond accordingly.
– Legend! Draw power from the stone circles, drive back the blight. Crack open the secrets of the dark land, and see the myths spill out!
– Painterly production. Jen Pattison’s exquisite painted style brings Ancient Enemy to life with expert vision.

Contact:

Jim Rossignol: jim.rossignol@gmail.com
Website: http://www.ancientenemygame.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AncientEnemyGame/

Jim Rossignol is a writer and developer. He co-founded Rock, Paper, Shotgun in 2010, and then the micro-studio Big Robot – best known for the smash-hit survival epic, Sir, You Are Being Hunted – in 2010.

Grey Alien Games, based in Dorset, UK is an indie game company run by husband-and-wife team, Jake Birkett and Helen Carmichael, and has shipped more than ten commercial games over the past decade, including Spooky Bonus, Regency Solitaire and Shadowhand.

Jen Pattison is an illustrator & concept artist working in games, TV and film. Her game projects include GAP Project, Steam Marines 2, Quest for Infamy, Roehm to Ruin, Order of the Thorne, and Serena, and she has worked with clients including Disney, Twitch, and Komixx.

Note to editors: a downloadable press kit with additional images can be accessed HERE.

[ENDS]

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 523: Valve Running Out of Steam

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 02:43:14 +0000

Valve continues to have problems in the wake of Epic (and now Discord) giving developers more of the earnings pie, as the year draws to a close. Meanwhile, T.J. explains his gamertag.

This week’s episode includes the following news items:

Developers do not believe Steam is worth it anymore
Canada announced for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
Studio Wildcard’s Atlas is delayed by a week
Rainbow Six Siege chat filter and toxicity update

Let us know what your favorite game of 2018 was.

Valve continues to have problems in the wake of Epic (and now Discord) giving developers more of the earnings pie, as the year draws to a close. Meanwhile, T.J. explains his gamertag. This week’s episode includes the following news items: Developers do not believe Steam is worth it anymore Canada announced for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm Studio Wildcard’s Atlas is delayed by a week Rainbow Six Siege chat filter and toxicity update Let us know what your favorite game of 2018 was.

Casual Game Guides: Christmas Stories: Alice's Adventures

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 20:03:00 +0000

Christmas Stories: Alice’s Adventures is a charming holiday waltz through the imagination with gameplay that is suited for all ages. Join The Cheshire Cat, The White Rabbit, and other Wonderland characters as you race to save Christmas once again.

» Christmas Stories: Alice's Adventures Walkthrough & Forum

» Christmas Stories: Alice's Adventures Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: Grey Alien Games and Suricate Software bring Jewel Match Solitaire Winterscapes to Steam

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 16:11:23 +0000

Jewel Match Solitaire Winterscapes by Suricate Software is coming to Steam for PC. UK-based Grey Alien Games will publish the game on behalf of Suricate Software, a European game developer behind numerous classic casual titles. This follows a similar agreement to bring Suricate’s other Jewel Match Solitaire titles to Steam earlier this year.

Jewel Match Twilight Solitaire Winterscapes includes 200 solitaire levels, 12 additional Solitaire variants like Yukon or Emperor, five beautiful winter scenes to build and multiple card decks. Players will be able to choose between three different play modes, unlock stunning desktop wallpapers and enjoy a beautiful holiday soundtrack.

Jake Birkett, owner of Grey Alien Games said: “We are delighted to publish Suricate Software’s holiday themed game on Steam. The wintery locations and engaging gameplay will keep everyone entertained on days when you just want to hunker down beside a cosy fire.”

Grey Alien Games has several of its own titles on Steam, including Regency Solitaire and solitaire-driven RPG, Shadowhand.

Jewel Match Solitaire Winterscapes is due to launch on 21st December, 2018.

For more details or to wishlist, please visit the Steam store page, here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/993780/Jewel_Match_Solitaire_Winterscapes/

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 522: Civving Up

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 08:38:45 +0000

This week’s news items include:

Rumor: Starfield in trouble
Epic launching Steam rival
Maori announced as second civ for Gathering Storm

Let us know what you think.

This week’s episode is full of industry news in the wake of The Game Awards. There wasn’t many news items but there was plenty to talk about with the Awards, especially with this week’s Gaming Flashback, Unlimited Adventures. This week’s news items include: Rumor: Starfield in trouble Epic launching Steam rival Maori announced as second civ for Gathering Storm Let us know what you think.

Casual Game Guides: Lost Artifacts: Time Machine

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 16:03:00 +0000

Lost Artifacts: Time Machine is a super fun play and a refreshing take on the time management / resource management genre that will have you quickly restarting levels as you apply new strategies to boards in order to win your coveted 3-star rating.

» Lost Artifacts: Time Machine Walkthrough & Forum

» Lost Artifacts: Time Machine Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: Steam’s discovery algorithm killed my sales

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 13:31:23 +0000

Firstly I want to be clear that I have had some measure of success on Steam and I’ve enjoyed going to Steam Dev Days and other events and talking to their reps who seem to be genuinely interested supporting indie developers. So this blog post is not about me hating on Steam, rather it’s to discuss a recent issue that has impacted my sales and the sales of many other indies too.

Here’s a huge Steamworks forum post about the issue (you have to be logged on as a developer to read it).

The October Discovery Bug

In early October Valve changed something in their discovery algorithm and introduced a bad bug which meant that Steam was only recommending some big name games instead of relevant games, oops!

Ongoing Discovery Issues

Valve fixed the October discovery bug quickly (within a week I think) but since then many indies have seen a big dip in their traffic from “Other Product Pages” and “Home Page”. Other product pages includes a sub-category of “Discovery Queue” and traffic from that source appears to have decreased significantly for me if I compare before and after the October bug.

Here’s a good week (click to enlarge the image):

And here’s a bad week (click to enlarge the image):

You can see that Other Product Pages has gone from being my top traffic source with 305 visits to a mediocre traffic source with only 91 visits.

This effect can also be seen on the traffic graphs in Steamworks (click image below to enlarge it). The orange line is “Other Product Pages”. I ran a weeklong sale at the start of Oct but straight after the sale finished the traffic from other product pages dropped and stayed low. The other two peaks are the Steam Halloween and Thanksgiving sales.

I can see the same drop in traffic for two of my other games and some devs have showed me charts with an even more severe drop.

Impact on Sales

I compared full price sales before and after the October bug (being careful to avoid weeklong sales and Steam sales) and my total units sold have halved. Revenue has dipped even more because our most expensive game has dropped to 36% of previous unit sales.

I’m not sure if this issue also affects traffic during a) discount sales and b) game launches because those are a lot harder to analyse like for like, but based on some data I’ve seen from other developers I’m suspicious that those things may also be impacted.

Has this issue affected all indies?

I’ve heard in private that some games are either not affected by this issue or have actually benefited from it with increased traffic! It stands to reason that if many devs are losing traffic, then that traffic must be going elsewhere. That said, a huge number of smaller indies have been hit hard by this issue, harder than me, with traffic and sales dropping to near zero in many cases.

Have I told Valve about it?

Like many indies who added games to Steam since Steam Greenlight I don’t have an official rep. However I did email a couple of reps who I got business cards from and they said they would look into it, but I haven’t heard from them since then.

Admittedly I should chase them up but I was waiting to see if the problem resolved itself, but it’s been ongoing for two months now. Other indies I know have emailed their reps but I haven’t heard anything positive yet.

Here’s the data I sent to Valve (click to enlarge) along with screenshots of the traffic graphs.

Theories

Fellow indie dev Danny Day has suggested that the discovery algorithm may have a historical data component to it and after the initial October bug the historical data got trashed and so the algorithm is not giving the same results as before.

October/November is also AAA release season and includes two Steam sales so it’s possible that our sales are impacted slightly, but that doesn’t explain the sudden huge drop off in discovery traffic that many indies are seeing.

Another possibility is just that Valve changed the algorithm to highlight different games and some devs have benefited and others have not.

It’s even possible that Valve shifted some kind of slider from “show a variety of indie games” further towards “show popular games that earn more money”. They are a corporation after all and corporations like to make money and they don’t have any real obligation to help out smaller indie teams. This particular point seems evident when taking into account the recent news that games grossing over $10M will receive a greater share of the revenue but struggling indies will not.

Also I’ve heard Valve say multiple times that they put the customer first (understandably) and so they probably believe whatever changes they make improve the experience for customers.

But I must stress that the above points are just theories, we haven’t heard anything official from Valve yet.

Selling Direct and Itch.io

So, should I double down on selling direct or use itch.io?

Well I’ve been selling direct since 2006, but sadly my direct sales are about 1% of my total revenue. I need distributors like Steam to survive. I wish it wasn’t that way, but it is.

Btw, you can buy all my games direct from me here. I get 100% of the revenue minus a small processing fee, so it’s amazing and the best way you can support indies is to buy direct.

The second best way is to buy through itch.io because they only take a small fee (in fact developers can set it at a rate they think is fair). I haven’t put my games on itch.io yet because I’ve heard that sales on there are very low and I’ve been busy with potentially higher value tasks. However, I will try out Regency Solitaire on there soon and see how it gets on as I’d like to support the platform now more than ever.

More discussion

Check out these Twitter threads for more discussion with other devs who have also shared their data.

Conclusion

In the past I have felt positive about Steam, but these discovery changes and the recent revenue share changes that are only relevant to hugely successful games don’t make me feel particularly positive about the future of selling games on Steam. In fact I’d go as far as to say I’m worried.

Making indie games is my full time job and I’d really like it to continue for many years. I’ve had to adapt a lot over the years and it feels like another phase of adaption is fast approaching…

Grey Alien Games: AdventureX game design talk

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 15:28:47 +0000

Helen recently gave a talk on game design at AdventureX in London on Interweaving story and mechanics in Shadowhand.

It’s now available to watch on YouTube.

Here’s the outline: Using mechanics that don’t fit the world and story can frustrate players, or break their immersion. Mechanics and story must work in harmony. In this design session, Helen Carmichael (Grey Alien Games) shares how story fed into game mechanics in RPG card game Shadowhand, and how mechanics also sometimes inspired a better story.

AdventureX is the only convention dedicated to narrative-driven games. AdventureX 2018 was run in partnership with the British Library as part of International Games Week.

Casual Game Guides: Mystery Case Files: The Countess

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 16:36:00 +0000

Mystery Case Files: The Countess is the newest addition to the much-lauded Mystery Case Files Franchise and will put you in the direct path of the terrifying power of the Lady in Black. Get ready for a creepy adventure that will put your Master Detective Skills to the test in this new MCF game.

» Mystery Case Files: The Countess Walkthrough & Forum

» Mystery Case Files: The Countess Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Gamer Chick: Episode 521: Power Outage

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 06:22:38 +0000

Last week’s podcast couldn’t be uploaded thanks to some good old-fashioned California power outages. This week’s episode is full of snark — enjoy.

The news items include:

PlayStation Classic using PAL versions for several games regardless of region
Bethesda apologizes about Fallout 76 launch
Fortnite surpasses 200 million players
No Man’s Sky Visions update improves diversity

Let us know what you think.

Last week’s podcast couldn’t be uploaded thanks to some good old-fashioned California power outages. This week’s episode is full of snark — enjoy. The news items include: PlayStation Classic using PAL versions for several games regardless of region Bethesda apologizes about Fallout 76 launch Fortnite surpasses 200 million players No Man’s Sky Visions update improves diversity Let us know what you think.

Casual Game Guides: Viking Brothers 5

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 16:52:00 +0000

Viking Brothers 5 brings us back to the world of the Norsemen in this always entertaining and well-designed time management game franchise. Join Everand and Boromir as they once again must face the trials of the gods in order to save the world from a lurking evil.

» Viking Brothers 5 Walkthrough & Forum

» Viking Brothers 5 Free Trial & Related Games

Casual Game Guides: Next Stop 3

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:21:00 +0000

Next Stop 3 is a return to a fun and entertaining franchise that challenges you to restore an aging railroad system along with the fearless Margaret and her tireless crew of railway workers. Do you have what it takes to beat the clock and get the edge on your competition? Found out in Next Stop 3!

» Next Stop 3 Walkthrough & Forum

» Next Stop 3 Free Trial & Related Games

GBGames: Fixed SDL2 Android App Issue When Suspending and Resuming

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 19:04:29 +0000

Months ago, I needed to update the SDL2 libraries I was using in order to gain access to a new piece of functionality in SDL2 that lets me load SVG vector graphic file and create textures out of them. But then I found a problem was introduced. The app would hang whenever I would leave it to look at a different app. I posted about it on the libSDL Discourse site, but I did not receive a response. I finally had a chance to investigate this issue and I think I have solved it.

When an SDL2-based Android app needs to suspend and resume, there are events that need to be handled immediately, before your main event loop: SDL_APP_WILLENTERBACKGROUND and SDL_APP_DIDENTERFOREGROUND.

So you create an event filter, register it with SDL_SetEventFilter(), and it is here that you need to handle things like music. If your app enters the background, but music is still playing, the app will crash. So, in your event filter, you would have code that looks something like the following:

int EventHandler::eventFilter(void * userData, SDL_Event * event)
{
    int whatToDoWithThisEvent(ADD_TO_QUEUE);

    IHardwareLayer * hardwareLayer = static_cast<IHardwareLayer *>(userData);
    if (hardwareLayer != 0) 
    { 
        switch(event->type)
        {
            case SDL_APP_WILLENTERBACKGROUND:
                {
                    hardwareLayer->pauseMusic();
                    whatToDoWithThisEvent = DO_NOT_ADD_TO_QUEUE;
                }
                break;

            case SDL_APP_DIDENTERFOREGROUND:
                { 
                    hardwareLayer->resumeMusic();
                    whatToDoWithThisEvent = DO_NOT_ADD_TO_QUEUE;
                }
                break;
        }
    }

    return whatToDoWithThisEvent;
}

In my case, I have a wrapper around SDL that I call IHardwareLayer, and it will delegate the calls to SDL as well as do some other useful things.

The above code worked fine. Before I added this event filtering, my music-playing Android app would become unresponsive whenever the app would get suspended. With SDL2 and SDL2_mixer, the music plays on a separate thread, but most of the time you don’t need to know about it. In this case, however, you need to stop the music before your app gets suspended in order to prevent it from trying to play music in a bad state.

Ok, great! But then I updated my libraries in order to handle the ability to load SVGs, and the above code started failing. Except suspending worked just fine. It was the resume functionality that was broken now. How bizarre!

So the symptom is that when the app is suspended, everything is fine, but bringing the app back to the foreground would cause it to become unresponsive.

By adding logs and using adb logcat, I could trace the code all the way until it called Mix_ResumeMusic(), and it never returned from the call. What gives?

After trying a number of different approaches, including updating SDL2_mixer to the latest release, I finally tried to resume the music in the main event loop.
I presume the issue has to do with threading, as I learned I couldn’t call functions that would let me query the pause state of the music in the event filter without the app becoming unresponsive.

The way the event filter works, it gets called before your main event loop, giving you a chance to handle an event beforehand. You can, of course, ignore an event, and in my code above, the default return value ADD_TO_QUEUE is an int that has a value of 1, which has the effect of allowing the event to get handled later in my main event loop when I call SDL_PollEvent().

So I changed the above code so that it no longer tries to resume music and it no longer returns DO_NOT_ADD_TO_QUEUE (otherwise known as the return value of 0) when the filter receives the event SDL_APP_DIDENTERFOREGROUND. Then I added the following code to my main event loop, which is in my HardwareLayer wrapper class:

SDL_Event event;
while (1 == SDL_PollEvent(&event))
{
    switch (event.type)
    {
        case SDL_APP_DIDENTERFOREGROUND:
            {
                resumeMusic(); 
            }
            break;

...

So now I pause the music when handling the SDL_APP_WILLENTERBACKGROUND event in the event filter, and I resume music once my app is up and running the main event loop again. No more crashes or unresponsive app!

I am a bit bothered by the lack of symmetry in terms of how to handle suspending and resuming an app, but software development is often about compromise. B-)

Grey Alien Games: Did the last game you shipped cover its costs?

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 19:34:25 +0000

I recently ran a poll on Twitter asking game devs if their last game covered its costs including a nominal salary for themselves, and you can see the results in the above image. You might want to click on the link and read the Twitter thread because there were some interesting replies.

I then asked a follow up question to find out what people thought the main reason was that they didn’t make a profit, with examples such as:
- Spent too much
- Spent too long
- Platform crowded
- No one wanted game
- Game was bad
- Marketing failed

Flaws in the poll

The poll was just meant to be a casual poll for fun and so it may be flawed in the following ways, so please take it with a pinch of salt:
1) I should have added a “Just show me the results” option so that people didn’t pick something random just to see the results.
2) I could have requested that only full-time devs answer because many hobbyists answered and I suspect the results are likely to be different for hobbyists due to their potentially low costs. Still, the combined result is interesting.
3) I’m suspicious that many devs don’t really calculate their costs properly including a nominal salary for themselves and so may have chosen “break even” or “profit” when that’s not really true.
4) No time scales were specified such as launch month, or first year, or lifetime etc. I personally know that over many years a game can move from a loss into a decent profit.

Observations

Despite the possible flaws in the poll, it looks like just over a third (38%) of devs broke even or made a profit. This is actually WAY higher than I was expecting because – based on various discussions I’ve had with people over the years – I had a figure in mind of maybe 10% making a profit, and then only a much smaller percentage making a significant profit. Though admittedly the figure of 10% I had in mind was for full-time devs, so it’s possible that hobbyists are skewing the poll towards profit, or just that I was too pessimistic!

New indie devs might find the results shocking (62% of games making a loss) but I actually found them to be positive because I believe that I can make games that break even or make a profit in the future as I’ve done it many times before. Although my last game, Shadowhand, is the one that has made the biggest loss so far, simply because it took too long to make and therefore my nominal salary is huge. My current game, Ancient Enemy has a much more ambitious schedule and lower budget in an effort to break even sooner. We’ll find out if that worked in early 2019!

I also suspect that ongoing overcrowding of the market will contribute towards more games making a loss in the coming years unless more devs switch to lower budgets, faster dev cycles and maybe even higher prices! The race to the bottom of indie game prices has been a big concern of mine for years ever since I saw it happen to the casual download market in the late 2000s.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the poll. Let me know what you’d have chosen in the comments.

Grey Alien Games: Ancient Enemy Dev Diary #2

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 15:59:22 +0000

We are really delighted to be working with artist Jen Pattison on Ancient Enemy. This week in our dev diary Jen shares a bit about the art development and progress:

A world in tatters
The overall visual design of the characters in Ancient Enemy is intended to follow the theme of the story that the world has seen a lot of conflict and everyone has mostly been left in tatters as a result, one way or another.

That manifests in scruffy or damaged clothes; armour rusted, bloomed, or falling off; fungal growths; and in some cases people just being stitched back together to join the fight again.

Here are a couple of poses for an enemy bandit character:

All the human characters are not quite human anymore, and the bandits are maybe the simplest expression of that by not having faces, just empty dark hoods like wraiths, but otherwise displaying the physically fit body type you might expect from their lifestyle.

Warped nature
The Boarstool, on the other hand, is an example of warped nature, partly grown over and partly altered in fundamentals to be somewhere in the middle of plant and animal.

We did a few iterations to get him a bit meaner and a bit more gross along the way, altering his expression and giving him a rotting leg.

I also tried out a number of palette options for him, as some colours that could read as toxic/poisonous were also quite friendly/cute fantasy in tone.

Ultimately we decided to have different colours of Boarstool in different areas of the game to add to the variety and to fit in with the mood of the zones where they appear.

The aim for the characters’ stances was to create something dynamic and illustrative, within the limitations of the card based UI, which has taken a lot of back and forth to get right but it’s the sort of thing that’s very satisfying to work on as a team when it all finally comes together.

Casual Game Guides: Roman Adventure: Britons - Season One

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:28:00 +0000

Roman Adventures: Britons – Season One takes you on a fantastic resource management game that will delight any fan of the genre. With plenty of buildings, workers, and tasks to manage, you’ll have your hands full achieving expert times.

» Roman Adventure: Britons - Season One Walkthrough & Forum

» Roman Adventure: Britons - Season One Free Trial & Related Games

Grey Alien Games: Ancient Enemy Dev Diary #1

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:49:21 +0000

It’s been less than a month since we announced Ancient Enemy, and we’ve been making good progress.

Jen has been finalizing the main character’s various fighting stances. First she drew some sketches, which we tested in-game, and then she spent a while painting them.

Jake plugged them in to the game and made videos of them animating so that the team could check them out and suggest improvements.

Since the announcement we brought Dan Emmerson on board. He made the game logo, which we really loved, so we asked him to design the playing cards, collectible cards and user interface in a similar style to the logo. We hope to have some screenshots we can share next week.

Jim has been working closely with Jen and Dan on art direction and has generated a draft map screen.

Jake has been working on detailed art lists for Dan and producer stuff like updating the schedule and making sure everyone is fully aware of the budget and time constraints. He has also been coding a map node system, which allows us to have non-linear mini maps for each main map location. We’re also going to use this code for a skill tree system later on.

Jake is now finalizing a list of collectible cards that the game will have so that we can code these and make art for them. And Jen is working on some awesome enemies that will take several weeks, we will post some of these soon…