Acetio | Blogma

Part 2 of the Simeon Meade series.

This game has gotten better reviews, but much less play than the previous one.

It is longer and easier than the first. Most said the first was too hard, and many are saying this is too easy, although that could just be bragging.

Theories:
- Only those who liked the first one (less than 50% on average) played the second
- Exposure matters and so far this has been a much more controlled release
- Having the walkthrough available right away may have backfired since some players seem to play solely in order to provide hints to others.

GamePoetry.com had a 4K contest where all games entered had to be under 4 kilobytes (4,096 bytes). This is similar in style to the old Atari 2600 games, and it sounded like a fun idea.

Here is my entry: Gompers

The mechanic is similar to the Gladiator game I made a few years ago.

Gameplay:
- You play a golden mermaid who is fighting off incoming cruise ships
- The character follows the cursor, the ships follow your character
- Clicking the mouse launches a harpoon. If the harpoon hits a ship while in flight, it damages the ship
- You have a finite number of harpoons. You have to retrieve your spent harpoons in order to use them again
- If you collide with a ship, the ship capsizes, and you lose 10% of your life
- Obstacles slow you down, and slow down the ships. Obstacles include: capsized ships and your seaweed net in the center of the screen
- Each level spawns ships, the number of which is equal to the level number (3 ships in level 3)
- Each level the ships get a little bigger, a little faster, and a little stronger (can handle more harpoon strikes)
- Each level you get one additional harpoon. If your health is below 100%, you get a 10% boost in health each level.
- The first few levels are intended to get the player familiar with the mechanics, later on the strategy involves trapping the oncoming ships amongst the seaweed and capsized ships

Candy Hop is my new game, published via Kongregate.

The theme is you are in a candy store, trying to fill your box of candy by bouncing each piece in, collecting chocolate hearts along the way. There are two modes: Action, which has a timed release of candy and encourages the player to react to the falling candy, similar to the classic Breakout; and Puzzle, which has no timer and is more similar to those games where you have to create a wacky device (eg. Color Infection). There is a high scores table on Kongregate. It's satisfying to see the high scores, since it means people are playing it all the way through, not giving up after a few levels.

The game idea is from Jig Easy, Sam, a contest entry for the JayIsGames 4th Casual Game Design Competition that I worked on with Joe Versoza, which itself was first inspired by a "toy" I submitted to Carnegie Mellon's Experimental Gameplay Project called Bagatelle.

The idea was to have a modifiable pinball machine, the key component being bumpers that accelerated the ball, as opposed to simple pegs as you would find in a pachinko game.

The Valentine's Day theme was a bit forced, but gave some guidance in terms of design choices. If this does well I may create sequels for other holidays (shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, eggs for Easter, etc.), but the ultimate implementation of the idea will probably be a kind of virtual foosball I have envisioned.

The initial title of the game was "Be My Rubber Valentine", which I thought would catch people's attention - but it turned out to be an inappropriate choice, simply because it would be more likely to turn off the potential audience who would probably enjoy the game.

My new game is on Kongregate and on NewGrounds and I'm hosting it here

"In the Spring of 1926 you are trapped in Ireland’s Kilmainham Gaol, taking the fall for Simeon Meade’s plot to sell surplus American ordnance to the new German government. But Simeon is grateful, and is helping you escape…"

It's the first of a 3-part sequel to my Obion series. This time, instead of chasing the members of the Talos organization, you are a young recruit, working for Meade and Talos. You are enamored by the cult of his personality and don't yet have much idea what he and his cronies actually do. (yet)

It's pretty hard, and pretty short. What I learned from the last go-around was that the graphics matter and people are tired of the same old things they've seen before, unless you have a really fresh take on it. So I made sure that the puzzles were unique (except for one) and focused on the atmosphere.

(latest revision: 2008/12/18)

A simple puzzle game. Drag and drop pieces of wick to connect the flame at the bottom of the kinara (candle-holder) to the tops of the seven candles. You cannot drop wicks on the nine kinte circles. You win when all seven candles are lit.

This puzzle appeared in an earlier game of mine. I intend to improve the recursion (when checking to see which wicks are "live") and add additional levels at some point.

Shockwave Games
Ant Hill!
Help the ants dig for gold!

Ant Hill Music!
Make music while helping the ants dig for gold!

Icebreaker
Race through the icebergs!

Icebreaker II

(latest revision: 2008/03/17)

In this adventure/puzzle, guide Grady the robot to build a robot by finding the three components and returning them to the frame. You need upgrades to move (wheel, wing, fin, etc.) but can only hold three at a time, so you need to think about which you hold at any time.

(latest revision: 2007/10/1)

This was an entry for JayIsGames Casual Game Design Competition #4.

(latest revision: 1.3 2007/8/17)

This was an entry for JayIsGames Casual Game Design Competition #3 I created with Joe Versoza.

Frog and Vine (latest revision: 2007/4/9)

Jay, of JayIsGames had a game design competition and I entered with this one.